A quick read-through of tonight’s City Council agenda is akin to looking at a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s as if the city’s issues were poured through a fan and splattered across 2,000 pages of paper – well, 631 to be exact. Undergrounding utilities contrasts sharply with the obligatory monthly renewal of needle exchange programs. Expanding the Living Wage Ordinance compliments a “buy Berkeley” campaign, billboard removal within the city limits, meets Berkeley police undergoing American Disabilities Act trainings. As with a Pollock painting, the underlying balance comes from the contrast, the incongruity, the arbitrary limit of the canvas itself, or in this case, the limited time constraints of the council meeting and the finite patience of the council members.
-more-