Columns

The week of December 13 City meetings started with the Council Budget and Finance Committee review of financial reports and Mayor Arreguin’s proposed annual appropriations, which include a $5 million additional allocation to the Police Department overtime budget. Hearing about this figure, I couldn’t stop thinking about the incident I wrote about last week, seeing 10 uniformed officers, 5 patrol cars and 5 meter-maid traffic vehicles all hanging out at McGee and Hearst with an empty dented meter-maid vehicle by the light post. I wondered: Is there nothing else to do in a city of over 100,000? My walk partner said it out loud.

Councilmember Kate Harrison suggested an allocation of $2.5 million and holding $1 million in reserve pending review of police overtime staffing at the end of the next quarter. The final proposal passed at Council on Tuesday evening was $3.5 million to police overtime and $1 million in reserve, as submitted by Teresa Berkeley-Simmons, Budget Manager.

This week was a lesson in how just a couple of words can dramatically change accountability, both as regards policing policy and to remove protections to preserve manufacturing space in West Berkeley.

Police Chief Greenwood sought an amendment to the Use of Force Policy passed by City Council on July 23, 2020, inserting the words “strive to” so the Use of Force Standard would read, “…officers shall strive to use the minimum amount of force…” The Police Review Commission (PRC) had rejected this insertion, determining it would water down the use of force policy to a semblance of effort, making it difficult to hold a police officer accountable for excessive use of force.

On Tuesday evening, after much discussion that pushed the Council meeting until 12:30 a.m., the final solution adopted by Council to 300.1.2 Use of Force Standard substituted “a” for “the” and added “within a range” in the definition of “minimal” amount of force. The final wording, “…In all cases where physical force is used, officers shall use a minimum amount of force…”

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At the Planning Commission on Wednesday evening, Item 10, Business Support Zoning Amendment Referrals-Research and Development, did not look like much, a change of adding a word here and there, expanding the definition of what qualified as Research and Development, until Rick Auerbach, a longtime activist on behalf of West Berkeley’s artists and industries, spoke about the West Berkeley Plan. 

West Berkeley is the area where the Plan provides land use protections to support light industry, artisans, manufacturing and labs. The change in the definition would unravel protections for these uses. 

Commissioner Ben Beach asked for continued discussion with impacted stakeholders, balancing existing policy goals, rather than open season on displacement of businesses that we have been trying to protect. He was joined by Commissioner Robb Kapla who asked why we should try to expand R&D in the protected area. Why not have R&D which is office work in offices? 

Protected uses in West Berkeley provide the kind of jobs which are often filled by high school graduates and persons of color. When it was clear that representation for the West Berkeley Plan was not contacted, a statement from the Commission secretary about the email list was offered as cover for the absence of contact with West Berkeley advocates and impacted industries. 

It was Jordon Klein, formerly with the Office of Economic Development, but now Acting Director of Planning, who unintentionally clarified the intent of the R&D amendment by adding technology to the definition. It was pointed out that instead of renting space at 50 cents to $1.50/sq ft for light manufacturing/protected uses, by expanding the definition and moving in technology the same space could be leased for $6.00/sq ft. 

When Planning Commission members asked more pressing questions, such as why tech work which is basically office couldn’t be in other locations like the downtown, Jordan Klein said he was calling in the cavalry, and brought in planner Steven Buckley to the rescue. 

No decisions were made, and it was left with staff to meet with Mr. Auerbach (who had been left off the contact list). City staff were asked to review the impacts of changing the definition, to consider whether there was a site with long term non-use and to look at other spaces for offices for technology. 

The question here is, will Berkeley sell out to the big developers or retain its values by keeping an area for industry, manufacturing, artisans and the people who fill those jobs? There is lots of vacant space in the downtown, ground floors in mixed use buildings, that could benefit from tech workers needing office space rather than unraveling the protections which were established for West Berkeley. 

Maybe there should be a change in thinking about what makes the city “vibrant.” It certainly isn’t store front commercial space that sits empty. 

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The Community for a Cultural Civic Center (CCCC) continues to move along and is using berkeleycccc@googlegroups.com. Thanks to John Caner and conversations with Tipping Structural Engineers and the City, it looks like with a little fund raising, the seismic evaluation of the historic structures that wasn’t included in the report from Gehl could finally get done. 

Three sub-groups are forming. Liza Bullwinkel, the Chair of the Civic Arts Commission, reported that the Commission has a subcommittee, Civic Arts Visioning, which can work on uses of the Veterans’ and Maudelle Shirek Old City Hall buildings: 

(https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CivicArtsCommissionHomepage/ ) 

Deb Durant and Erin Diehm will co-lead the park planning group. The Park sub-committee formed a google group: 

( cccc-green-group@googlegroups.com) 

Deb Durant is the contact for the Turtle Island Fountain Monument (https://turtleislandfountain.org) 

Ann Harlow (annharlow@pacbell.net) offered to be the contact for fund raising and the CCCC accepted the suggestion to use Berkeley Partners for Parks as a fiscal agent. 

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We can’t seem to get anywhere on moving the Bird Safe Berkeley Requirements through the Planning Commission, and while some of the developers are becoming more receptive to native plants, dark sky and downward lighting it will take more than good will to make the changes that the Design Review Committee can only suggest and recommend. We need the Bird Safe ordinance passed. 

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The news on the spread of the pandemic is all bad. It will take months for everyone to get vaccinated. If people behave as badly over the coming holidays as they did over Thanksgiving nurses like me who haven’t worked in an ICU for 45 years might get called up. In California we’ve gone from under 9000 new cases per day a week before Thanksgiving to over 63,000 new cases on Wednesday. The number of deaths are climbing and that number will continue to get higher as ICU beds become out of reach. If you get hospitalized and I get called up, don’t expect kind words. I have a mouth like a sailor. My sympathies are with the farm workers, grocery store staff, nurses, doctors, hospital housekeepers. 

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If you need some suggestions on reading while staying at home, I definitely recommend It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens on the Republican party and Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. Disloyal by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, is on the Berkeley Library lucky day shelf. 

I am looking forward to no city meetings and have a stack of reading to catch up on. The Secret Life of Groceries was on the lucky day shelf and I expect that will be an important partner to the presentation by Nilang Gor on Vision 2025 for Sustainable Food Policies at the Health, Life Enrichment, Equity and Community Committee on Monday. I could use some help on putting the meeting audio with the presentation visual. We’re killing ourselves and the planet with a meat-based diet. 

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The Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the BART station developments is still hearing from community members who don’t want mid-range-high apartments in a single story and 2-story neighborhood. It is unlikely they will get their wish, but planning is moving along and there will be more community meetings in the new year. Parking for BART users who live in the hills is another issue to watch. 

Enough for one sitting.