Dozens of lecturers, supporters and students on Wednesday afternoon in Berkeley celebrated a historic win for University of California lecturers in terms of pay and benefits from the university.

They chanted, sang and spoke on the steps of the student union at the flagship University of California at Berkeley beginning at about noon.

"When we fight, we win," the lecturers chanted to start the rally.

"Whose university? Our university." they said.

Following two and a half years of bargaining, the union representing 6,500 lecturers and librarians struck a tentative agreement with UC early Wednesday morning, averting a two-day strike that would have started Wednesday. -more-

The Berkeley Police Department is in search of a missing at-risk person, the department announced on Wednesday evening. 25-year-old Isaiah Lottie was last seen in the 2100 block of Ashby Avenue at 2:30 p.m. He's described as a 5-foot-6-inch, 150 pound African American man with a short black mohawk. He was last seen wearing a black and orange hat and a burnt orange hoodie with Looney Tunes characters on it. Police urge anyone with more information on his location to call 911 or contact the police department. -more-

A Diary is supposed to just flow, but I find this week I keep starting over to describe what happened at the three meetings of consequence I did attend and being thankful that the Veterans Holiday meant the last city meetings ended on Wednesday.

The commissions are still trying to figure out what to do with their unfinished work and what the loss of their expertise will mean as commissions are merged, commissioners are dumped, and expertise is lost, and wondering how those who remain will take on new responsibilities in areas in which they have little to no experience or knowledge. Cutting the commissions in half also means cutting half of the commissioners. Some commissioners at every meeting where the mergers enter the discussion express their surprise and dismay that their councilmembers did not seek their input and show no interest in hearing it. -more-

Beset by complaints that Facebook's social media platforms were creating mass anxiety among teenagers wracked by woes of loneliness, self-doubt, and body-shaming—by dispensing socially destablizing lies, medical untruths, political slanders, disturbing rumors, and fake news—a besotted Mark Zuckerberg attempted to quiet the uproar with a diverting announcement: Facebook was adopting a new corporate identity. Henceforth, the tech behemoth is to be known as "Meta"—short for "Metaverse." -more-

Karmic Strips

I recently clicked off a letter to the Chronicle to compliment the paper for Peter Hartlaub's online explanation of how the paper's Green Section was turned orange to commemorate the career of Giant's pitcher Buster Posey.

Now I have a related query concerning a chromatic quirk involving a Chron cartoon. Specifically: What happened to the Bumstead's blue blanket in the November 4 edition of the comic strip Blondie?

All's well in the first of the three panels where Dagwood and Blondie appear comfortably relaxing in bed but, in the second panel, the colors on their blue bedsheet suddenly start to run—actually they appear to leap! —leaving the bedcover a colorless white while streaks of blue splatter across the adjacent comics — and even over the first column on a facing newspage.

In Sherman's Lagoon (the strip above Blondie), Sherman the Shark suddenly develops stripes. In Peanuts (the strip below), the pale blue sky and iced-over skating pond are suddenly drained of color.

I checked other copies of the Nov. 4 issue in the public library and found the same weird smears. It looks like some kind of rare chemical accident damaged the blue color plate in the Chronicle's printing plant in Fremont.

In his online Posey piece, Hartlaub noted that the Chron's rare, orange-hued tribute to Buster had already become a prized on-line collectors' item. This left me to wonder if this comic-page sheet—and the rare smears that adorn it—might someday become a collectible like the "oranged" Posey edition of the Chronicle's Green Pages. -more-

Exciting news! In this Climate Emergency Report I’m going to explain how the City Council can invest in the Marina to achieve the dream of a commuter ferry and long term robust infrastructure. [ Editor’s note: Sarcasm alert! This is the first of several sarcastic observations to be found in this piece. Watch for it. Don't get fooled!]

But first, let’s look at why this comes up.

The only action item of note this week comes from the Parks and Waterfront commission, chaired by former District 8 City Council member Gordon Wozniak.

The commission proposes, in short, empty and annoying budget shenanigans. Namely, they propose that revenues from certain voter approved general taxes be placed in a “special fund” reserved for maintenance of the Marina and provision of Marina operations. -more-

Worth Noting:

Berkeley Redistricting Submission Deadline November 15, 2021. The City Council Districts must be redrawn to adjust for growing and shifting population. You can submit your own proposal for consideration https://www.cityofberkeley.info/redistricting/ The deadline time on Monday is not posted – assume it to be 5 pm for paper and email.



Housing Survey to plan for where to put 8934 units as required in the Housing Element: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/berkeleyhousing



Vision 2050 Survey – the City is planning for a major bond measure in 2022 on infrastructure: tinyurl.com/2050survey



Reimagining Public Safety Public Meetings – the final NICJR is available: www.berkeley-rps.org



Complete Streets Survey is for the Southside, but this has implications for the rest of the

city: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6575124/Berkeley-Southside-Survey-October-2021



Deadline to submit response to the DEIR for the Ashby and North Berkeley BART Station Housing Projects is December 1, 2021 at 5 pm https://www.cityofberkeley.info/bartplanning/ (395 pages)



MONDAY: The Agenda Committee at 2:30 pm will be reviewing the draft agenda for the November 30^th council meeting. The draft agenda can be found after the full list of city meetings. The Homeless Commission did not meet last week and is rescheduled to meet Monday at 7 pm, the same time as the last Zero Waste Commission. This is the last Zero Waste Commission meeting before being split and merged.

TUESDAY: The council budget meets at 11 am to start the review of mid-year budget requests, the AAO process. The council regular meeting is at 6 pm. The table for the proposed city manager raise is included with the meeting agenda at the end of the meeting and agenda list.

WEDNESDAY: The Mayor is having the 2021 State of the City at 6 pm – expect it to be recorded in case you miss it. There is no agenda posted for the Commission on Aging at 1 pm tho the meeting is listed on the community calendar with a zoom link. The Commission on the Status of Women and the Redistricting Commission both meet at 6 pm. Human Welfare meets at 6:30 pm. The Commission on Labor meets at 7 pm.

THURSDAY: The agendas are not posted for the Transportation Commission, The Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the Rent Board. The Land Use Committee meets at 10:30. Design Review Committee and Fair Campaign Practices Commission meet at 7 pm.

FRIDAY: Virtual climate Summit Series on uniting actions is at 9 am. -more-

I missed more meetings than I attended this week and even with one snafu I really have to thank the City Clerk’s office for their quick posting of meeting minutes and presentations, often up in just a day. I wish we could have the same kind of posting from the commissions, but those are getting further and further out, definitely not within the two-week requirement passed by the city council.

Monday morning, the council Public Safety Committee approved the budget referral for Councilmember Taplin’s Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR). Whoever is doing the documents coming out of Taplin’s office deserves recognition as the ALPR presentation is really quite good and worth the few minutes it takes to scroll through it. The other agenda items were continued. It will be interesting to listen to the pitch on resuming the Red-light program, since I heard at the McGee Spaulding Neighbors in Action meeting that these cameras actually increase accidents when drivers slam on the brakes in moving traffic to avoid a red light penalty. -more-

Lately, for obvious reasons, I’ve been thinking more and more about the collapse of great civilizations. I’ve become interested in how quickly it happens and in how this is reflected in the lives of the people.

A common theme seems to be that civilizations grow and grow, and bring relative prosperity, heightened trade over long distances, and considerable peace. They say that at the height of its powers, in the Mongol empire,“a maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head could wander safely throughout the realm”

And as this prosperity and peace grows, a new normality arises. The civilization becomes more and more specialized. The bureaucracies, the technologies, the social practices, even the military ventures and brutal oppression adapt to the empire’s sweet niche in the history of humans with ever more Roman roads and aqueducts, new Silk Road trade, railroads, and telegraphs, and transoceanic fiber optics. After their births in violence and enslavement, for a time, it almost looks like the great civilizations are making things a bit better for most people.

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre…” (W. B. Yeats)

But then comes some event for which the specialization is not prepared. The bubonic plague seems to be a popular one. Throw in a mini-ice age for the Roman empire. The industrial revolution, foundation of the British empire, unprovoked, coughed up back to back World Wars. -more-

From a 2004 Planet editorial about a fundraiser for the developers’ candidates in a Berkeley election:

Berkeley author Thacher Hurd has a book for the 4 to 8 set which, with wonderful pictures, tells the story of how Miles Possum and his band of little swamp critters are invited to play for the Alligators’ Ball. After the music stops, the alligators are hungry. “What’s for dinner?” says Miles. “Something tender! Something juicy!” says an alligator, holding a menu behind his back that features “Swamp Band Soup.” On the next page, “the alligators snapped their jaws and snapped their lips” as they drag the struggling band members ever closer to a big boiling pot.

As a Cajun might say about an Alligators’Ball, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. ” In colloquial English: “Same-old same-old.”

Last week, more than a decade later, someone sent me an emailed invitation to what’s billed as the YIMBY Gala, featuring a curated selection of Bay Area elected officials as the tender and juicy menu items du jour. -more-