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Like many of you, I came to Berkeley to be a student at the University of California and I liked so many things about the city that I have lived here ever since. My wife Marilyn and I raised both of our children here, and Sarah and Matt went through the Berkeley schools. I graduated in 1967 with a degree in political science and began teaching social studies. I chose to teach high school because I wanted to help people understand the forces, policies, and even mythologies that shape the lives of ordinary people not only in this country but all over the world, and because I wanted to help give young people some of the tools they could use to change those conditions and to create better and fairer conditions for themselves and others. Although I changed careers in 1978, those values are still fundamentally important to me. They are the reasons I became active in city government 25 years ago, and they are the reasons why I’m running for City Council in District 5.  

Serving on the City Council would be an extension of the things I’ve been doing for the past 25 years. As a private citizen, I co-founded ROOF, a non-profit fund that has raised more than $300,000 over the past decade to support Berkeley public schools, housing, and other non-profits. I helped found Ecohouse, Berkeley’s demonstration project in ecological living, and I was a co-founder of the Elmwood Theater Foundation, which raised more than $400,000 to preserve the College Avenue landmark. I’ve also served on the board of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation for 15 years, including two years as president, overseeing more than $8 million in fundraising for our schools.  

Within city government, I’ve served on the Planning Commission and the Zoning Adjustments Board, chairing both bodies at different times. I also served as chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Development and the Permit Process. The task force accommodated a wide variety of interests and managed to send a comprehensive set of recommendations supported not only by the members of the task force but also by many of the neighborhood activists who participated in the process.  

I want Berkeley to continue to be a city that preserves its rich heritage, its architecture, and its cultural and economic diversity; that continues to celebrate and defend the intellectual nature of Berkeley; and that supports and nurtures our neighborhoods and the small commercial districts that help define our community. At the same time, no city is static. We need to maintain the best of what we have built and developed, but we also need to adapt to the future.  

We need to revitalize our sales tax base and commercial property tax base. We need to continue to make our city more receptive to suitable businesses. It shouldn’t take 11 months to open a bakery on Solano Avenue or seven months to rent a warehouse in West Berkeley.  

We need to work harder to revitalize the downtown. As part of that process, I support the building of the museum, hotel, and conference center project planned by UC for the Shattuck block between Center and Addison provided that the museums remain an integral part of the project and that the buildings are designed to be architecturally significant. 

We need to re-examine the problem of homelessness in Berkeley. In particular, we need to pay careful attention to the comprehensive solution to homelessness that San Francisco is undertaking and to determine if that is a model that could work for Berkeley. 

We should continue the public discussion about the size, scale, and design of new buildings. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that the recent increase in rental units has helped lower rents in Berkeley.  

I believe I will be an effective councilmember. For the past five years, I’ve managed with my partners a substantial business with over 100 persons. I know budgeting; I know that organizations must live within their budgets; and I know how to make that happen. The successes I’ve had in both my business and civic lives have come from negotiating solutions among individuals and groups who have very specific interests at stake and who have felt strongly about their interests and values.  

The people of Berkeley have very high expectations for our city. We want quality schools; a healthy, vibrant public library system; responsive, highly competent health care, and reliable public safety services. But we also have limited resources, and we need to make careful decisions. I believe that I can continue to help build consensus in making those decisions and to help find solutions that work for all of the different segments of our community. I hope to do so as the City Councilmember for District 5.  

—Laurie Capitelli  

District 5 City Council candidate›