Election Section

Commentary: Berkeley is Once Again a Progressive Leader By TOM BATES

Tuesday July 12, 2005

The new fiscal year is a good time to look back on the last two and a half years and reflect on where we are in Berkeley and on what we have accomplished together. 

I took office at a time when the city was facing the worst budget crisis in our history with rising costs, flat revenues, and major reductions in state and federal funding. In just the past two and a half years, we cut $20 million out of our budget, eliminated over 10 percent of our workforce and reduced support to many of our community-serving programs.  

In spite of this immense challenge, we found new ways to innovate. We turned many of those challenges into opportunities to reclaim Berkeley’s leadership on environmental, housing and youth policy.  

Without question, Berkeley has regained its position as a world environmental leader. In fact, Berkeley was recently named the third most sustainable city in the country. I am proud of that ranking—as well as the fact that we are using our environmental policies to save money and build our economic base. 

The City Council adopted the Kyoto Protocol, required all city buildings to be built to a high green (LEED-silver) standards, enacted the precautionary principals to ensure the healthiest public policy options are chosen, and is joining the Chicago Climate Exchange to reduce green house gas emissions.  

There are more than 200 “green businesses” and 75 green buildings in Berkeley, making this a national center for sustainable business. The city has fostered this growth by creating the Mayor’s Sustainable Business Working Group and developing an action plan to build on our green businesses success. The city recently adopted a plan to achieve “zero waste” by the year 2020—helping the environment and giving a boost to the businesses that have sprung up to make use of the recycled and reused materials. 

Berkeley is also at the forefront of the clean energy revolution. We recently formed an innovative privately financed $100 million clean energy fund partnership with the City of Oakland. The city has helped provide thousands of small businesses and private homes with free-energy efficiency retrofits. We have taken the lead in moving towards public power through a community choice aggregation joint partnership with several Bay Area cities. These programs are making Berkeley a more competitive place for sustainable businesses to locate. 

The City of Berkeley also brought City CarShare to local government, replacing 15 of its fleet cars with four hybrids that are available to the public through City CarShare on evenings and weekends. The innovative program will save the City $400,000 in the first year, reduce emissions, and reduce the need for parking spaces. Earlier this year, it was named one of the 12 most innovative city programs in the country by Harvard University.  

We are also working to expand open space and sports fields. Berkeley is leading a Joint Powers Authority with five neighboring cities, in cooperation with the East Bay Regional Parks District and State Parks Department, to oversee a $6 million dollar 17-acre sports field complex to give young people and adults a place to play ball. 

On the housing front, Berkeley used its housing trust fund to build more affordable and workforce housing than at any time in our history. Two affordable housing developments are under construction and three additional projects are in the pipeline—adding nearly 300 new units for low-income seniors, disabled, and working families to our housing stock. We are ensuring that people who work in Berkeley will still be able to live here. 

Perhaps most importantly, we have marshaled our resources to protect our young people. We have saved programs for Berkeley’s youth from debilitating cutbacks, allocating $600,000 annually from its the general fund to subsidize childcare for low-income families and $7 million for youth programs. This commitment to young people earned Berkeley statewide recognition from the California Wellness Foundation as the number one Teen Healthy City in California. 

This summer, we expanded an innovative partnership called Project BUILD (Berkeley United in Literacy Development) to bring summer literacy, nutrition and physical activity to hundreds of preschool and school age children in South and West Berkeley—where the greatest health and academic disparities exist. Now in its second year, the partnership includes the UC Cal Corps Public Service Center, the city’s recreation centers, libraries senior and public health programs, UC Berkeley schools of Education and Public Health, and BUSD and is funded by local businesses.  

This year approximately 40 employees volunteered with Berkeley’s “at risk” youth as a result of the City Council-adopted initiative called Berkeley Champions for Kids —a multi-pronged program that encourages Berkeley adults to mentor and volunteer with Berkeley’s young people. Included in Berkeley Champions for Kids are also opportunities for city employees to donate to local youth-serving programs through a voluntary payroll deduction program. 

I’m very proud of our city’s progressive record while swimming up stream against federal and state cut backs and a weak economy. We still have a lot to do, but Berkeley is once again setting the pace.  

 

Tom Bates is the mayor of Berkeley.