Editorials

Yesterday (Thursday) I did my civic duty and took in Berkeley’s State of the City address, to which I was invited by someone in the office of Mayor Tom Bates. Admission was mediated by Eventbrite—you had to register online to get a scanable printed ticket, which was checked at the door against a printed list. Despite this complicated screening process, or maybe because of it, the Shotgun Theater (on the corner of Ashby and MLK, across from the Ashby Bart) was not quite full, and among the audience I recognized a number of people not usually known to be part of the Bates cheerleading section (e.g. Michael Delacour of People’s Park fame). Everyone, including me, was on their best behavior.

I sat next to a stalwart of the old left, now active in the Wellstone Democratic Club. He joked that he was expecting a set-up like the one in President Obama’s State of the Union address, with Biden (smiling) and Boehner (scowling) seated behind the speaker. We agreed that Bates could have had Councilmembers Capitelli and Worthington supplying the backdrop, but that didn’t happen, though there were some rows of empty seats available at the back of the stage. Capitelli didn’t even show up.

Over all, it was a polished, professional presentation, what you’d expect from a lifelong politician. Watching, all too often, Bates’s much sketchier performance when he presides over the Berkeley City Council, you might be tempted to think he’s starting to lose it, but yesterday he was at the top of his game. He wandered a bit, but he’s always done that. 

As I expected, Shotgun’s place (technically called the Ashby Stage) seems to have been chosen for this event as the kickoff of the campaign to develop what’s now being called the Adeline Corridor, including the BART parking lot. Bates pointed with pride to the three-quarters of a million dollar planning grant the city has gotten from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and reminded the audience that he’s Berkeley’s designated representative on the MTC board.  

To head off charges of gentrification, of an apparent commercial takeover of the Southwest Berkeley neighborhood where African-Americans have traditionally owned their homes and run most of the businesses and churches, progressive Councilmember Max Anderson’s name was prominently linked to the planning now underway. Two of the four councilmembers present were Anderson and Darryl Moore, the two African-Americans on the council, plus the other two progressives, Jesse Arreguin and Kriss Worthington. Notably absent were all the rest of the Mayor’s majority votes, the councilmembers from districts farther North and East—possibly because they wouldn’t play too well in South Berkeley, though in fact the audience, overwhelmingly white, didn’t look much like locals anyway. 

In theory, the planning process this time (an earlier version sank with a thud) is open to many alternatives. But there was a clear gleam in Mayor Bates’ eye as he mentioned a few options, notably some kind of big construction project on what is now the BART parking lot. He enthusiastically acknowledged the presence of BART director Rebecca Salzman while reporting that the previous BART policy that parking spaces must be replaced one-for-one has now been repealed. 

What’s in the hopper for the BART lot, did he think? Well, probably apartments, some of which might even be affordable, and “of course the Flea Market”, and maybe, just maybe, something bigger and better for the Shotgun Players, who are now housed in a building that was formerly a Black church. (This could account for the glee with which Shotgun eminence grise Patrick Dooley introduced the Mayor.)  

Nonetheless, Bates said, it wasn’t up to him to decide. “There will be honchos for that,” he said, presumably referring to the professional planners that always appear when grants like this are on the table, sort of like the seagulls attracted to school playgrounds at lunch time in Berkeley. 

The rest of the talk had roughly two themes that I can remember. One was a thoughtful exercise that was aimed at helping listeners identify their own preconceptions, the kind that could lead to unconscious racist acts. To my ear he demonstrated honest sensitivity to the concerns that have been voiced in Berkeley both about police killings of unarmed Black people elsewhere and about choices made by city employees dealing with demonstrations here. He pinned his hopes on an investigation by the Police Review Commission—we’ll have to see how well that works. 

The other major theme was development triumphs, specifically a roll call of all the building projects that had come to fruition or were soon to be launched during the 12-year Bates reign. If my memory serves, the only job Tom Bates had before he became a political pro was as a developer, and he still seems to love to participate even vicariously in Big Construction, of which there’s been plenty lately. 

He called out the hotel-in-utero which is slated to replace the Bank of America building downtown, though with the requisite disclaimers that the council might have to make decisions about it in the future, and anyhow it’s not yet a done deal. Evidently what’s contemplated is a number of floors of rooms for visitors, plus some floors of saleable condos on the top. 

The mayor used his personal situation as an illustration of who might want to buy those condos. 

He said that his own house [an early 20^th Century frame house on Ward Street in South Berkeley] was purchased for $30,000 several decades ago by his now wife State Senator Loni Hancock [and her first husband Joe Hancock.] Now, he said in some wonderment, it is probably worth about a million dollars. He envisioned a scenario whereby the house would be sold and they could move to one of those condos atop the hotel while still keeping their super-low pre-Proposition 13 property taxes. 

Of course, it’s going to be dicey trying to get one of those penthouse condos for that million bucks, isn’t it? But maybe they have other money. 

What was barely mentioned, unless I snoozed, was what could be done about Berkeley’s chronic dearth of workforce housing, not to mention low-income housing for those without steady jobs. Also not mentioned, though central to this topic, was the monster project which proposes to demolish the building which houses the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas, the Habitot children’s center, and much more of what’s now contributing to a vital downtown. 

If approved and built, that building would densely dominate a whole downtown block at 18 stories, a prospect which is starting to alarm many Berkeleyans, both cinemaphiles and others. Environmentalists point out that, as proposed, by the time it would be finished as envisioned it would not even meet the state’s latest green building standards, which will take effect by then. 

The worst case scenario is that this project will be approved, the existing block demolished, and five years of constant construction will doom other downtown businesses. No, actually the worst case would be that the financing would fall through after the project is approved, leaving nothing but a great big hole in the ground. It could happen--there are those who think the current building boom is headed for a bust sooner rather than later. 

Also not mentioned is what public Berkeley has lost during Bates’ ascendancy: for example Willard Pool, Iceland and the John Hinkel Park Clubhouse among others. The downtown Post Office is threatened. Civic treasures like the Maudelle Shirek Old City Hall and the Berkeley Rose Garden face demolition by neglect. Bates did mention, ruefully, that the streets are full of potholes and the sewers are shot—though he didn’t put it quite that bluntly. He alluded to available funds, but proffered no timetable for spending them. He pointed with pride, however, to plans in the works to fix—finally—the horrendous Gilman exit from I-80. 

Has what’s happened during Bates’s 12 years what Berkeley wants, or what Berkeley deserves? That question might be decided in November of 2016. 

It is widely assumed that Councilmember Laurie Capitelli would like to run to replace Bates in the 2016 election. That could be why Capitelli skipped this talk—all in all, this might not be the record he wants to run on.