A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY, week ending March 31
When I started writing the Activist’s Diary in October 2020, I was already watching the slow erosion of Berkeley as a city turning away from its former progressive leadership, but I did not expect to see Richmond moving into the leadership role as the first city in the nation to calli for a ceasefire in Gaza, followed by cities around the country including Bay Area neighbors Oakland, San Francisco, and Albany while the Berkeley City Council dug in in opposition to a ceasefire, that I did not expect.
As I close up this Diary, the news arrived of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killing seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen. The convoy was struck by missiles despite being in vehicles clearly marked as World Central Kitchen and despite the fac that the World Central Kitchen had coordinated their route in advance with the Israeli military.
An early report described survivors of the first vehicle hit by a missile moving to the second vehicle, which the IDF then struck with another missile. Survivors of the second strike moved to the third vehicle, which the IDF struck with yet another missile, ending the lives of all seven. Whatever the sequence, there were multiple drone missile strikes.
Whether President Biden’s declaration of outrage and call for an immediate ceasefire means anything, we shall see. Thus far words of restraint have been followed with arming Israel unconditionally. Last week Biden approved the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel, a package with more than 1800 MK-84 2,000 pound bombs and 25 F-35 fighter jets.
Biden had to cancel his Tuesday, April 2, 2024 planned iftar (the evening dinner when Muslims break their Ramadan fast) with Muslim leaders when they rejected his invitation. The substituted meeting on policy fared poorly as Muslim Americans expressed their outrage. You can hear from the physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad who walked out of the meeting with Biden in the interview on Democracy Now on April 4. Ahmad said at six months into this war, he was quite surprised to be the first person who had worked in Gaza to speak directly with Biden. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/4/dr_thaer_ahmad_biden_gaza_israel
The murder of the seven aid workers has served a purpose (or was it “the” purpose.) Their intentional, deliberate deaths shut down the delivery of food by the World Central Kitchen to starving Palestinians as famine sets in. The killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers is not an isolated event. The number of humanitarian aid workers killed by Israel is over 200. The deaths of doctors, nurses, health care workers are estimated at over 450. https://time.com/6963079/world-central-kitchen-relief-workers-gaza-israel/
This is the Israel of 2024.
These murders can’t be explained away as a mistake, unintentional damage in the fog of war. Instead Israel has so successfully used the guilt and the trauma of the Holocaust and October 7 to justify the brutality of its actions that there was no reason to expect anything other than more targeted killings would slide by to be dismissed and forgotten. Any public outrage would be smoothed over. President Biden would make a remark or two, John Kirby, the State Department, the press secretary would march out, defend Israel and Israel would just move on with its targeted killings and genocidal campaign.
Any public display, any member of the public, Palestinian Americans, organizations supporting Palestine, organizations for peace who criticize Israel are painted as anti-Semitic.
What does this have to do with Berkeley?
Airman Aaron Bushnell’s posted message on his Facebook page before his self-immolation was, "Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”
The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now." https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/youre-doing-it-right-now-aaron-bushnell-and-legal-pluralism
The city is divided. The country is divided. Some of us can’t turn away from the horror. It is defining family relationships, friendships, who we associate with, even where we do business. For an increasing number of us, where we stand and how strongly we stand impacts how we voted in the primary or will vote in November and how district residents will vote in the special elections for council seats in District 7 on April 16 and District 4 on May 28.
Biden could lose the November election if he doesn’t change course quickly.
City Council and Elections:
At the March 26 City Council meeting, the count for speakers on non-agenda items was thirteen calling for a ceasefire, four opposing any council action on a ceasefire resolution and three speakers on other subjects. There were the usual bursts of chanting for a ceasefire which were quickly silenced for viewers on Zoom, while directives from Arreguin for attendees to restrain themselves could be heard.
While there may be a larger percentage of people in Berkeley calling for a ceasefire, nationally the March Gallup Poll found 55% of Americans solidly disapprove of Israeli military action. https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx
Mayor Arreguin and councilmembers Hahn and Wengraf have all stated publicly their opposition to a ceasefire resolution in the Israel Hamas War and as of this writing there is no indication that anything will sway their stance.
Wengraf is resigning at the end of her current term, but Arreguin and Hahn are both running for higher office. Jovanka Beckles will be running against Arreguin for State Senate.
In the primary, Beckles was not my first or even second choice, but when she speaks of her history with the Richmond City Council, that has to be taken in a new light. She will have my enthusiastic vote. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LKfwqhLdY4
Hahn is running for mayor. There are other choices.
There is barely a trace left of the Ceasefire – Free Palestine mural by Berkeley High School Students which was listed as anticipated litigation under agenda item 2 in the 4 pm March 26 closed session. The mural was painted with water soluble tempera, so if you didn’t make the trip to Allston at MLK it is gone now. The rain washed it away.
At the evening meeting, Arreguin announced no action was taken in the closed session.
In the April 16 special District 7 election, Cecilia Lunapara is for a ceasefire. https://www.ceciliaforberkeley.com/about and James Chang is opposed to a ceasefire. https://vote4chang.com/
I live in District 4 which will be a rank choice special election on May 28. I am voting Soli Alpert as #1 and Elana Auerbach as #2. Both candidates received my endorsement and have the characteristic that is all too rare in candidates for office and elected officials, what I label personal integrity.
Soli is my first choice as besides personal integrity, solid values, he has years of experience as a city council legislative assistant. Soli can step right into the role as a councilmember. https://www.soli.vote/about
What Elana lacks in inside experience, she makes up for in heart. When she speaks at city council she is consistently well informed. If elected she can fill her inside experience gap with who she hires as her legislative assistant. She will be in my slot two in rank choice. https://www.elana4berkeley.com/
Elana Auerbach, who is Jewish, is so clear that being anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic. Soli Alpert, who is Jewish, with other Rent Board members led off the reading of the Berkeley Rent Board ceasefire resolution, which passed with one objection, from board member Stefan Elgstrand who works in Arreguin’s office.
Council agenda item 21 from Wengraf with co-sponsors Arreguin, Hahn and Taplin honors May 5 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Item 22 was for councilmembers to make contributions to the virtual Remembrance Day program. There were eight speakers who thanked council for the proclamation with several who shared personal stories from the Holocaust.
There were seven who expanded on item 21 to speak to the genocide of Palestinians.
Berkeley recognizes the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and Apartheid.
While waiting for my turn to speak, I looked up the estimated killings of the indigenous peoples in the settler colonization of the Americas. Strangely that genocide did not make the Wikipedia genocide list, though estimates in other sources were up to 55 million lives lost in the genocide of indigenous peoples of North America.
The Land Acknowledgement read at city meetings recognizes that Berkeley is built on unceded land, but there is no acknowledgement in the statement that councilmember Hahn brought to council of the genocide that preceded it and the ethnic cleansing that continued for decades.
Steven Salaita connects the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the American indigenous people and the Palestinians in his book Inter / Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine.
Hahn tried to move agenda item 24b from action to consent. 24b was the option which keeps the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission and Peace and Justice Commission separate as two distinct commissions. Councilmember Humbert objected.
Humbert replaced former councilmember Droste who authored the grand merging of commissions plan as a cost saving measure.
In the discussion Hahn, who I have described previously as enthusiastically taking up the merger of commissions, admitted on Tuesday evening some of these mergers have not worked out well, hpointing to the merger of the Public Works Commission and the Transportation Commission into the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission. The City lost the expertise of the Public Works commissioners. Other mergers have since been rejected.
The Human Welfare and Community Action Commission already has a full assignment of work and important responsibilities as the Tripartite Board to review Community Service Block Grants (CSBG). Without a fully functional Human Welfare and Community Action Commission, Berkeley faces being disqualified as an eligible entity for the receipt and administration of the CSBG. Berkeley is on notice for noncompliance with federal law from the State of California Department of Community Services and Development. (Described in detail in March 14 Activist’s Diary) https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2024-03-10/article/50631?headline=A-BERKELEY-ACTIVIST-S-DIARY-week-ending-March-14--Kelly-Hammargren
The motion to keep the two commissions separate and to reduce the number of Human Welfare and Community Action commissioners to nine passed with six votes, Arreguin, Taplin, Bartlett, Hahn, Wengraf and Humbert. Kesarwani voted no. The live captioner on closed captioning and in the captioner’s record recorded Humbert’s vote on item 24b as no. The annotated agenda records Humbert’s vote as yes and the video confirms his yes vote.
The commission seats are usually filled by each councilmember appointing their own commissioner independently. This resulted in a heavily bicyclist weighted Transportation and Infrastructure Commission and a loss of commissioners knowledgeable in public works and infrastructure.
The Human Welfare and Community Action commissioners must meet specific qualifications with three distinct commissioner qualifying conditions, one third representing the poor/low income, one third either officials holding office or their representatives and the remaining members must be chosen from business, industry, labor, law enforcement, education or other major groups and interests in the community served.
As the City Council meeting approached 10:30 pm and the discussion on agenda item 23, the demolition ordinance had not even started. Mayor Arreguin was quick to blame the demonstrators for a ceasefire as the cause for the lateness of the hour and then asked for the council to agree to reschedule the demolition ordinance titled “Demolition and Dwelling Controls” to a special meeting and adjourn.
There is more to the story than the one hour for 20 non-agenda comment speakers with the clock set at one minute each. The evening 6 pm council meeting did not start until 7 pm, because the 4 pm closed session that preceded the evening meeting could not start until 5 pm. Councilmember Humbert was sick at home so there was not a quorum (five members) at the main location and everyone had to wait until councilmember Kesarwani who had given prior notification that she could not be present at 4 pm was able to arrive.
There is another twist on the demolition ordinance. With two empty council seats, Arreguin didn’t have the votes he needed.
Disaster and Fire Safety Commission:
Wednesday, the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission discussed at length the recommendation to support funding a Program Manager II position for the Fire Department and amending the definition of public safety.
The problem with limiting the definition and understanding of public safety to crime and police is that the Fire Department falls to an afterthought if considered at all.
When city departments and commissions like the Planning Department, Planning Commission and Transportation and Infrastructure Commission are making changes and recommendations on zoning and street design that impact the delivery of services by the Fire Department they seem to forget what redesigning streets means to emergency response. They also seem to forget the impact of densification on public safety services.
This is the context of former mayor and commissioner Shirley Dean’s agenda item on amending the definition of public safety. There was general agreement that the definition of public safety should be broader than the crime and police and include the services of the Fire Department though the commission continued the agenda item to next meeting to refine the definition. The part of the item meeting resistance from commissioners was to place a hold on changing zoning regulations until the Evacuation Time Study which is already in process is completed.
The Program Manager II position grew out of commissioner Wilson’s presentation on street trauma prevention at the February 28, 2024 meeting. At the end of Wilson’s presentation on street trauma featuring a bicyclist pinned under a vehicle, he shared that the bicyclist was his wife.
I lost count of the number of speakers who showed up identifying themselves as bicyclists and Transportation and Infrastructure commissioners to support the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission forming a working group to explore a recommendation to council for a street trauma prevention program.
At the March Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meeting the commissioners determined that a position that just focused on street trauma was too narrow. The Fire Department needs representation at the beginning of planning and implementation processes by city departments not the end. The final motion passed as modified to add the Fire Marshall and to broaden the scope of the position beyond Vision Zero and Street Trauma Prevention with one dissenting vote from commissioner Murphy.
Zoning Adjustment Board:
There was only one project on the Thursday Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) agenda. The project at 2136-2154 San Pablo was a 6-story, 82,824 square foot mixed use building with 122 units including 10 very low-income SB 330 density bonus qualifying units, 3 live/work units and 50 parking spaces.
This is the project that backs up to George Florence Mini Park and initiated a lively discussion at the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission on March 13.
By the time the project reached ZAB the gate between George Florence Mini Park and the project had been removed saving the pollinator garden from being trampled.
The Parks Commission submitted the recommendation that Bird-safe glass be required throughout the entire development with special attention to the west side of the building.
Because this is an SB 330 project, the developer is only required to comply with laws that were in place when the application was complete. Since the application was submitted prior to the passage of the Bird Safe Ordinance in June 2023, there was no requirement for bird safe glass.
In addition, Urban Planning Partners limited the CEQA Environmental Impact Report for the project to historic resources and hydrology and water quality essentially rejecting and ignoring that the project is in the Pacific Migratory Flyway, less than 0.6 miles from Aquatic Park where migrating birds stop and next to a mini park. This glaring omission stopped consideration of biologicals which is listed in CEQA and could have put bird glass collisions as a hazard and bird-safe glass as a mitigation requirement. Instead bird-safe glass reached only the level of a recommendation in the final motion.
Most frustrating was the absence of any indication from Isaiah Stackhouse, the representative for 2136-2154 San Pablo, designed by Tractenberg Architects, that they had even bothered to check the cost of using bird-safe glass.
I missed the Loan Administration Board, the Environment and Climate Commission, the Civic Arts Commission, the Police Accountability Board, the Community Health Commission, and the Mental Health Commission.
