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Berkeley residents will get two chances next week to hear about relationships with the University of California, and the direction of the presentations could probably not be further apart. 

On Monday, a panel of outspoken critics of the present state of University/Berkeley relations will present their views at a free public forum on “Between Reality and Wishful Thinking: The University as a Neighbor” at the Multi-Purpose room of the Berkeley Alternative High School. The forum will be held from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 

On Tuesday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a UC City Lunch ($60 for non-members, somewhat less for chamber members) featuring presentations by Mayor Tom Bates and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. 

The meetings come in the wake of a string of contentious reactions to UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan, which will have significant effects on city residents in general and downtown development in particular. 

The City of Berkeley first sued the university over the plan, then reached an agreement with the university which led to the city’s dropping of the lawsuit. In turn, a group of Berkeley residents then sued city officials over the city-university agreement, saying that the city had given away too much of its development authority. 

Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries said that representatives of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce contacted both the mayor and the chancellor “some time ago,” asking them to appear jointly at the luncheon to “talk about the traditional issues of the town-gown relationship.” 

DeVries said both the mayor and the chancellor will make presentations on such topics as the Berkeley-UC partnership, economic development in Berkeley, and the downtown planning process. He said while he was not sure of the format, he expected that there would be time available for comments and questions from the floor. 

The day before, it will be the critics’ turn. 

“We’re trying to open up a community-based dialogue between the city and the university,” explained Berkeley activist and Daily Planet contributor Zelda Bronstein, one of the organizers of the Berkeley Alternative High forum. “And by the city, we don’t simply mean the government. We’re talking about the people who live and work in Berkeley as well.” 

Panelists at the Alternative High event include Wendy Alfsen, a university neighbor; Jesse Arreguin, UC student and affordable housing advocate; Andy Katz, chair of the city Zoning Adjustments Board and a planning graduate student at UC Berkeley; Dean Metzger, a member of ZAB; Anne Wagley, a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the UC-city agreement over the university’s Long Range Development Plan; Rob Wrenn, a member of city planning and transportation commissions; and Bronstein. Panelists will make five-minute presentations apiece, to be followed by a general discussion. 

Bronstein said that while there have been many public hearings, scoping sessions, and other formal presentations about city/university relations, “this is the first time in my memory that we have planned an open discussion on the subject.” 

She said that while she expected many of the speakers to talk about the events surrounding the university’s development plan, the forum was also intended to encompass “a larger, broader picture. Obviously, there’s not enough time in one evening to cover all of this issue. What we’re looking at is an invitation to begin a larger discussion.” 

Anne Wagley, who is an employee of the Daily Planet, said that the forum is designed to bring the issue of the impact of the university to a wider Berkeley audience. 

“People who live near the university are immediately impacted by any university development, and they are very aware of the implications,” Wagley said. “But the UC expansion which is projected in the new Long Range Development Plan is going to have implications for the entire city in ways that citizens haven’t seen before. We want to help people understand the full impact.”