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I can’t ever remember City Council canceling an entire week of meetings for Chinese New Year, but that is what happened this last week.

As promised last week, I watched the January 27^th video of the Council worksession on TOPA (Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act) which ran the same time as the meetings on redistricting, housing elements, and four others. Mayor Arreguin gave his presentation and then opened public comment.

About halfway in to public comment I lost count of the “for and against.” At that point it was 19 in support and 23 opposed to TOPA. One speaker described supporting TOPA as wishful thinking about what might happen. Each iteration of TOPA carries more exemptions and a heavier footprint of property owners and qualified nonprofits which can become the owners in the TOPA buy, not the tenants.

The first councilmember to speak after public comment was Kesarwani, who expressed her opposition to TOPA. She said she would support requiring a presale notification to tenants. Notification details weren’t spelled out, but something to counter what happens now, when the first notification to tenants of a building for sale is the planting of a sale sign in front, or even that a sale has already happened and a new owner is taking over. 

I expect by the time TOPA is done very few situations will qualify, but we shall see as the rewriting continues. As it stands, now counting the council votes from meeting comments, Councilmembers Kesarwani and Droste are opposed to TOPA. Councilmember Wengraf has reservations and was opposed to the qualified nonprofit becoming the owners of a building and not the tenants. Arreguin will have support from Councilmembers Hahn, Harrison and Robinson. Councilmembers Bartlett and Taplin are a toss-up. The concern there is how property is passed/sold in the Black community to extended family members to build wealth. (Whites have built wealth through property ownership for generations). Droste expressed concerns around non-conforming families not qualifying for exemptions. 

This all segues into the presentation by Commissioner Anthony Carrasco at the Wednesday evening Homeless Panel of Experts Commission from the report by A.Carrasco, D.Jones and T.Song on ending family homelessness. Drilling down to the cause of homelessness Carrasco pointed to, it is a mismatch between income and the cost of housing. He continued that real estate speculation, especially foreign real estate speculators with all-cash transactions, outbids local home buyers and drives up housing costs. Most startling in the report is the increase in speculative buying with the target of detached single-family houses and townhouses. 

In TOPA, a single-family home rental is exempted if the owner has only one rental in Berkeley, which gives property owners that have multiple holdings in other cities a pass unless they are listed as a LLC on that Berkeley property. 

The report also proposes a tiered transfer tax, with raising the transfer tax on properties of over $2,000,000 to 5%.You can read the report’s pages 6-18 at https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Clerk/Level_3_-_Commissions/Full%20Agenda%20Package%20and%20Supplemental%20Materials%20-%202.2.22.pdf 

There has long been a push in Berkeley for 24/7 mental health crisis intervention unit. The other Wednesday evening the Homeless Panel of Experts Commission presentation was by Holly Harris, Program Manager Deschutes County (Oregon) Stabilization Center. What was interesting is that Deschutes County is operating a 24/7 mental health crisis center providing up to 23 hours of care for an individual. The average stay is 10 hours. Ms. Harris described a positive relationship with law enforcement where the sheriff actually asked for such a service. That is such a different tone from what I hear from Berkeley Police Department leadership, but maybe there will be a different stance at the scheduled March 15 council worksession on homelessness and mental health services. 

It is a shame the presentation by Ms. Harris was not recorded. I did find a recording that was made when the Deschutes County Stabilization Center was just opening in June 2020 before it was 24/7. The interview still gives you a picture of services at the center in Bend Oregon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXTst3Zrtw. At the time of the interview they were gearing up hiring and waiting for an announcement of grant monies (that did arrive) for operation of 24/7 services. 

Thursday afternoon was WETA’s (Water Emergency Transport Authority) first “hybrid” meeting so it was harder to keep track of who was talking, but the message is the same as at previous meetings: Ridership is down. The most notable statement from the WETA meeting was from the Board Chair, “We’re going to need more financial support from the public.” Staff stated when asked that projections of ridership for new services use pre-pandemic numbers. Careful listening makes one wonder how useful those projections are for the future. There was talk of needing to inspire workers to go back to the office [to generate commuter riders]. Board member Moyer said companies are not mandating return to the office because it will increase resignations. The plan for the Berkeley Ferry service is scheduled for presentation at the March WETA meeting. 

Maybe we will all end up loving the pier and ferry when it arrives and even use it once in a while, but according to WETA Board meetings we should expect to empty our pockets, pocketbooks and wallets to have it. 

I’ve started to catch up on my book reading. All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles, 2021 is definitely a favorite, describing the resilience and perseverance of Black women. This review has a picture of Ashley’s Sack. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/06/tiya-miles-new-book-explores-enslaved-family-history/ 

As I read the history of slavery through the eyes of Black women, I thought a lot about the present book banning in school libraries, classroom instruction and lectures on race, racism, slavery and genocide in other parts of our country. Of course, the current run to censorship doesn’t stop there. 

This country has always been about a mythical past and White supremacy runs right through it. 

And then, I heard about this, “A Tale of Two Theaters” in the journal Alta. “…the Black Repertory Group struggles and Berkeley Repertory Theatre thrives…” https://www.altaonline.com/culture/a38403159/black-repertory-ishmael-reed/ I am not surprised about the Berkeley Repertory Theatre gaining special funding and privilege. I’ve seen it through attending city meetings and heard complaints about arts funding going to the Berkeley Rep at the expense of other arts in the Berkeley community. But, a crowbar break-in to the Black Repertory Group Theatre by the city? Someone couldn’t have made a phone call? What happened and is happening to the Black Repertory Group requires more than some choreographed explanation/excuse that is likely to be served up to us. And, this brings us back to equity and what the values of this city of ours are anyway. 

There is another book I finished this week that ties into Berkeley business Walking with the Devil: The Police Code of Silence 3^rd Edition by Michael W. Quinn, 2016. The National Institutes of Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) draft report includes recommendations for training officers in intervening when another officer uses excessive force or engages in other unsavory, unethical or illegal behavior. Both the NICJR report and this book fail in addressing the role of leadership within police departments. 

Another among the many NICJR report recommendations is creating a “Progressive Police Academy built on adult learning concepts and focused on helping recruits develop the psychological skills and values necessary to perform their complex and stressful jobs in a manner that reflects the guardian mentality.” The report continues by characterizing the police academies where most Berkeley police receive training, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Academy Training Center, Sacramento Police Academy, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Justice Training Center, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Academy Training Center, as “…paramilitary in structure, potentially instilling the warrior mentality…” not guardian mentality. 

NICJR held a community meeting this week. After a very brief introduction, they sent us into zoom breakout groups and used a “sticker” program to submit comments instead of discussion. Then the meeting abruptly ended 30 minutes early at 1 ½ hours. I wondered, is this all the NICJR consultants hired with $300,000 of city money have to offer? I am anxious to see the task force final report. 

Reimagining Public Safety is supposed to come to us on March 10 according to NICJR and the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, though nothing has appeared on any council schedule. Each group is preparing its own report, and the task force will be reviewing their draft this coming Thursday, February 10 at 6 pm.