On July 11, New York City's Emergency Management office released a Public Service Announcement pretended to share important steps New Yorkers could take to survive a nuclear attack. Here's the PSA: -more-
Councilmember Hahn had hoped to move the Fair Work Week ordinance out of the City Council Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee on Monday, but it was stalled once again. With Council summer recess starting on July 27th, it is unlikely that anything will happen before the fall. Councilmember Kesarwani is probably hoping it can be stalled until after the November election so it can be one more thing to skate around. She can stand with businesses without coming out against employees. We still don’t know if anyone will be running against her in the November 8th election.
Hahn is on the right (correct) side of the issue along with Councilmember Harrison and the Commission on Labor. Hahn described the current situation as “employees are bearing 100% of the burden of last minute changes and those changes mostly come from changes beyond the employers’ control, the pandemic being just one of many things … the question here is who bears the cost … right now employees bear the whole cost and if I had to pick between who is in a better position of who is able to bear the cost, I think the employers are in a better position…”
What is the Fair Work Week about? It is paying a shift cancellation fee – one hour of pay—and a four hours if called in to work and sent home.
Who is resisting? The Chamber of Commerce, businesses and the City of Berkeley administration. The Directors reporting to the City Manager are showing up at meetings throwing in road blocks to the Fair Work Week ordinance. Scott Ferris, Director of Recreation, Parks and Waterfront, expressed his concern that offering shifts to existing recreation part-time employees could force having to fill a position with an unqualified person.
Wednesday, July 20, at 7 pm the Fair Work Week ordinance is on the agenda at the Commission on Labor
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Last Thursday and Friday there were seven IKE Phase II Location Community Meetings, three in person and four via zoom. In case you missed them, no announcement was posted by the City on the City website. Councilmember Hahn did send an announcement to her email list and that is how most of us learned of the meetings.
If you never heard of an IKE (Interactive Kiosk Experience) kiosk, you can see the oversize 8-foot tall digital advertising billboard thing by the curb in front of Pegasus Books on Shattuck.
The City Council voted in 2018 to install up to 31 of these “things” called IKE kiosks in commercial areas around the city and authorized a 15-year contract with the agreement that no IKE kiosks can be removed in the first two years. After two years, one kiosk can be removed or two relocated per year with a signature of 30 residents and businesses within 1000 feet and the designation of two other sites in proximity.
Denny Abrams (the developer of the extremely successful 4th Street shopping district) didn’t take to kindly to an installation of an IKE kiosk on 4th Street. Abrams said there was nothing on the IKE kiosk that couldn’t be found on our smart phones. He described the kiosks as intrusive, and a blight to any retail location that would negatively impact the value of the retail space in proximity. He said they had no place on 4th Street; none of the businesses there wanted them. Abrams reminded Kieron Slaughter(Chief Community Development Officer of the City of Berkeley Office of Economic Development and host of the meeting) multiple times that 4th Street is the most successful retail corridor in Berkeley and 4th Street doesn’t want and doesn’t need IKE. Several other business owners at the 2 pm Friday meeting joined in with their objections.
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In the nineteen nineties, working from home with your computer, aphone, and home office, was called "telecommute" and my father did this often. He was probably good enough at what he did and had put in enough years such that he merited the privilege. Today, everyone does it, and it is also a convenient way of outsourcing to other countries or perhaps to the Philippines. Communications have advanced to the point where, when the phone rings, or when an electronic message of any type shows up, you don't know with whom you're dealing or where they are.
Working from home has amazing advantages for many people. As someone who writes, my work from home is really a fit for me. The trend is taking off and it was really spurred by the pandemic. It is not new, but many people have discovered it for the first time, due to the pandemic, and many of those may greatly prefer it now that they've done it for a while. Work from home is but one of the advantages to human beings brought about by the age of information technology. Work from home is especially ideal if you have health problems or a disability, either of which could detract from the conventional commuting to work method.
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“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun,” said Trump after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead and many wounded. “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun,” Trump said again; federal health officials made sure no government experts contradicted him. Now anytime there is gun violence, especially a mass shooting, the mantra adopted by opponents of gun control, unfairly point the finger at mental illness, not guns, as the cause,
This is unfair to those suffering from mental illness as research shows that of all the violence that occurs in the United States, 96% is due to risk factors other than mental illness. In fact, people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators of violence.
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In the Footsteps of Sonny Barger
The recent news of the death of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger triggered a distant memory.
When I stood trial for the Free Speech Movement occupation of Sproul Hall in 1964, I was among those who refused probation—because it would have required that we not engage in political protests for a set period of time.
That precondition was clearly a denial of First Amendment rights, so myself and others opted to do time at Alameda County's Santa Rita prison. In my case, that meant I'd spend 25 days in jail but would emerge with the freedom to continue to demonstrate and agitate.
During my stretch at Santa Rita, I was assigned to work on an agricultural chain-gang—hoeing a field of sugar beets under a blazing, ear-burning sun and under the watchful glare of several deputies armed with shotguns.
We usually were trucked to the field in a small bus but sometimes, I'd find myself bouncing down a road in the back of a pick-up truck. On one of these jaunts, I decided to stand up in the open bed of the vehicle while leaning forward on the roof of the cab to steady myself.
That's when I happened to look down and notice a number of messages scratched on the vehicle's roof over the years. The most prominent message read: "Sonny Barger was here."
Where Do the Warmongers Frolic?
David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEOND War, recently authored a timely article titled: "The Hard Work of Creating a Last Resort War on Iran." It began with the following riddle:
"Where do all the Lockheed Martin executives vacation?"
The answer: "At the Last Resort!"
I couldn't resist replying with a related riddle.
Q: "How do you get to the Last Resort"?
A: "You make a hard right on the Lost Causeway."
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Way back in the Before the Before Times, when residents of cities were sometimes called citizens and sometimes called burghers and sometimes even The Voters, many of them got their news about what was going on from what was called “newspapers”. There was a longish era of daily papers supported by readers and advertisers and a shorter era of “underground” newspapers, most of them cheaply printed free weeklies supported (kinda sorta) by ads. Now local news coverage, such as it is, is mostly provided in digital form, sometimes as offshoots of the remaining newspapers and sometimes as social media.
A recent AP article quoted a Northwestern University paper reporting that newspapers in the U.S. are dying at the rate of two a week. At the end of May there were 6,377 newspapers, down from 8,891 in 2005. About 75,000 journalists worked in newspapers in 2006, and now that’s down to 31,000, the report said.
As one of those once-upon-a-time journalists I remember a slogan that might have come from somewhere I might have worked in the Before Before: We’ll tell you what’s coming down before it lands on you.
Yeah, sure. These days, it’s much likelier that you find out what’s happening because it landed on you.
John Geluardi, who once for a while covered Berkeley for the in-print Daily Planet, used to talk about the Berkeley Two Hundred, the few locals who actually knew what was going on and tried to do something about it.
Most of the time, then and now, many if not most Berkeleyans prided themselves on getting most of their information from the New York Times and NPR. And therefore most of them proudly knew nothing about what was going on in Berkeley.
Even when several print weeklies were at their lively best in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the smug citizenry, here and elsewhere, made fun of them. Berkeleyans have always wanted to believe like Candide that This is the Best of All Possible Worlds.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian, where I worked for a hot ‘80s minute, inveighed tirelessly for years against the Manhattanization of San Francisco and the perfidy of PG&E, for which they were roundly derided by the corporate press. Yet today’s pre-shrunk Hearst Chronicle has relegated local news from all over the Bay Area to a second section which contains pseudo front pages which are relics of three sections which no longer exist. The skinny paper seldom bothers with house editorials any longer.
Tuesday featured an op-ed in the former editorial space discussing why workers don’t want to work in downtown offices anymore. What the writer doesn’t mention is that The City is increasingly dominated by dark grey wind tunnels devoid of sunlight. The former office workers much prefer to work at home in the ‘burbs, where they can sometimes even work in, yes, their Back Yards.
It's the Manhattanization, stupid. Downtown SF is fully Manhattanized—it’s all over now. Bruce Brugman, founder of the San Francisco Guardian, was right.
(Let’s not even talk about everything that’s also wrong with PG&E—it’s just too obvious, and too depressing.)
You can still learn a bit by occasionally reading what’s left of the metropolitan print daily, though it’s a mere shadow of its former self.
Wednesday’s Chronicle front page featured a uniquely stupid article wondering why nobody seems to be using the SB 9 legislation, a Sacramento special from Scott Wiener and our own Nancy Skinner and Buffy Wicks. This legislation lets property owners split single family lots to build four houses on two lots. It’s worth reading, and especially the 200+ comments it drew, several of them intelligent:
Despite uproar, few seek to use California’s new housing-density law. What’s stopping them?
What indeed? As many commenters pointed out, there was never any uproar from single family homeowners demanding the right to build second houses in their own backyards. The reporter on this story transparently got most of his information from the well-oiled and developer funded YIMBY PR apparatus, with apparently no attempt to talk to organizers of ongoing attempts to return planning control to local governments. One commenter found 6 factual errors in the short article.
My online viewing of this piece was accompanied by an ad for a pre-fab cottage you could buy for your back yard. I wonder how many of these were purchased by readers?
And yet, most residents of all those California cities which have been stripped of their power to regulate local development have no idea yet that this has happened. Certainly Berkeleyans, except for the 200, have been Shocked, Shocked when a neighbor’s bungalow has been bought by a speculator to be torn down for a multiplex.
When this happened on a residential block in the north campus area, even neighbors considered well-informed on national topics (i.e. Prof. Robert Reich and his wife) seemed to be surprised. Why did I know about the dramatic changes to local regulatory powers which have been taking place in Sacramento and they didn’t?
This week I watched the open online meeting of Berkeley Neighborhoods Council and I talked with several people who have been trying to get the word out on local topics they considered crucial. A common theme is puzzlement about the disconnect between what local voters seem to want and what their electeds do for them.
One person pointed out that on the national level that there’s strong support in polls for tighter gun regulations and strong opposition to abortion bans, and yet elected officials consistently vote in the opposite direction.
Here in Berkeley I’m reasonably sure that no one has voted, per a sarcastic Chronicle commenter, like this:
" ‘Gee, I'd like to look out of my living room window and see a window with someone looking back at me and a wall of painted shingles where the apple tree used to be!’ said no homeowner ever.”
But that’s what Berkeley’s mayor and his newly-minted councilmember majority seem to have in mind for them. Jesse Arreguin was first elected with the support of the progressive coalition that also supported Kate Harrison, Sophie Hahn, Ben Bartlett and Cheryl Davila, but he worked to dump Davila in the next election. Recently he’s been voting on land use questions with the councilmembers who are obvious YIMBY pawns: Taplin, Droste and Kasarwani, with the frequent cooperation of longtime “moderate” Susan Wengraf.
There’s a bunch of issues that the Berkeley 200 know about now, but is there any way to get the memo to the rest of us?
A few examples of what some know, but many don’t:
Worth Noting:
The July 19th Council worksession was cancelled. The Regular Council 6 pm meeting agenda for the July 26th meeting is available for comment go to the end of this post or use this link: https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas The planned July 26th 4 pm special meeting on ballot initiatives for the November election is not posted yet. Stay tuned.
Check the new city website for late postings https://berkeleyca.gov/ but don’t count on the City to publish all the Berkeley City meetings that are important.
Tuesday the Land Use Committee scheduled a special meeting at 4 pm on changing zoning to allow Research and Development (R&D) in commercial districts.
Wednesday the Commission on Aging at 1 pm includes TOPA. FITES at 2:30 pm takes up GHG limits and autonomous vehicles. In the evening the Commission on Labor at 7 pm includes Fair Work Week and union action and unionizing effort at REI.
Thursday the same evening as the prime time January 6th hearing the Design Review Committee meets at 7 pm with only one agenda item, the final design review of 2440 Shattuck. Bird safe glass is still an issue.
Meetings Cancelled: Fair Campaign Practices Commission and Open government Commission, Human Welfare and Community Action Commission
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New: A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY: Week Ending July 17 Kelly Hammargren 07-20-2022
A BERKELEY ACTIVIST'S DIARY, Week Ending July 10 Kelly Hammargren 07-17-2022
ON MENTAL WELLNESS: App-Based Services and Technology Potentially a Staple for Disabled People Jack Bragen 07-17-2022
ECLECTIC RANT:Don’t Blame the Mentally Ill for Gun Violence Ralph E. Stone 07-17-2022
SMITHEREENS: Reflections on Bits & Pieces:SMITHERMATAZ Gar Smith 07-17-2022
Atomic Lies: New York's Bizarre "Nuclear Preparedness" PSA Gar Smith 07-17-2022
The Berkeley Activist's Calendar: July 17-24 Kelly Hammargren, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition 07-17-2022
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The bit old October Issue
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