An amaryllis survives amid the desolation created by UC Berkeley's destruction of the People's Park landscape, next to the barrier protesters have constructed out of debris from fallen trees and demolished fencing.
Yesterday, August 4, in a lawsuit brought by Make UC A Good Neighbor and the Peoples Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) challenging UC’s approval of housing to be built in People’s Park, the California Court of Appeal issued a temporary stay enjoining UC Berkeley from all construction, further demolition, tree cutting and landscape alteration at People’s Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The stay does not extend to landscape alterations necessary for public health and safety or to the erection of a security fence.
UC moved into the park at 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning so it could cut down numerous trees after the Alameda County Superior Court ruled against the lawsuit and before the Court of Appeal could issue today’s temporary stay.
“We are gratified that the Court of Appeal recognized that UC should not go forward until the court has the opportunity to review our case more fully,” said Harvey Smith, President of PPHDAG. "UC took advantage of the legal system in order to destroy as much of the park as it could. We are hopeful that the court will overturn the lower court decision and lead to the restoration of the park. Why should the university keep a parking lot and destroy a park? In the era of extreme climate change this is unconscionable”
The lawsuit contends that UC failed to consider readily available alternative locations for the proposed housing that would not require destruction of a national historic site, in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Both community organizations and many others are supportive of UC building more student housing, but have pointed out that the university has identified numerous alternative sites that are more appropriate, particularly the earthquake unsafe Ellsworth Parking Structure located just over a block from People’s Park.
Smith also noted, “UCLA now guarantees housing for all undergraduates through its program to build housing on all its parking lots.”
PPHDAG’s projected vision for People’s Park includes improved maintenance of the neglected park making it the equal of any park in the city or on the campus. Obviously trees will have to be replanted, but the park can live on to honor the cultural, political, environmental and architectural history of the park and the Telegraph Avenue corridor.
An amaryllis survives amid the desolation created by UC Berkeley's destruction of the People's Park landscape, next to the barrier protesters have constructed out of debris from fallen trees and demolished fencing.
Opponents of the University of California at Berkeley's plan to build housing at People's Park have filed an appeal to a judge's ruling this week that gave the university permission and led to arguably violent protests Wednesday, arrests and injured law enforcement officers.
Opponents of the plans for the park are also seeking to keep the university from continuing work as the appeal moves through the courts. Meanwhile, the university is assessing its next move.
Wednesday's protests were unexpected and unanticipated, UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Thursday. He said that it is going to take more than a few hours to assess the right move for the university.
"We need to get it right," he said.
The protests Wednesday led to seven arrests and two injured law enforcement officers, UC officials said.
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said Thursday he is not considering asking for the state National Guard, which was called following a protest soon after the park was established in 1969.
Arreguin was concerned that protests could threaten the safety of city residents and property. Only police from the University of California and California State University systems as well as the California Highway Patrol were at the park Wednesday, Mogulof said.
UC Berkeley acquired the land known as People's Park in 1968, but abandoned plans for it due to a lack of money.
Students and residents established a park there in April 1969. The following month, after the university's decision to build a sports field there, then-Berkeley Mayor Wallace Johnson and then-Gov. Ronald Reagan sent police to destroy the park and put up a fence.
Three thousand people protested on May 15 that year before police shot protesters, killing bystander James Rector. Wednesday's protest is typical of the history behind the 2.8-acre park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
It was the site of 1960s and 70s-era protests as UC Berkeley tried to build a sports field then a soccer field and parking lot and again a parking lot on the land.
Wednesday's work was to prepare the site for a $312 million project to bring housing to the storied land. The plan includes more than 1,100 below-market apartments for undergraduate students, and perhaps some housing for extremely low-income and formerly homeless people.
Fencing went up early Wednesday morning and by late morning protesters were clashing with law enforcement.
By early afternoon, university officials halted the work, saying it was for the safety of workers.
"Due to the destruction of construction materials, unlawful protest activity, and violence on the part of some protesters," the university halted work at People's Park, UC Berkeley officials said Wednesday.
Wednesday's UC activity felling most of the park's trees, including two of the three recognized as "heritage trees". On Wednesday protesters, many of them students, collected fallen trees and segments of temporary fencing and arranged them as a barrier on the perimeter of the park area.
City of Berkeley officials who asked not to be named reported rumors of Molotov Cocktails but said they didn't believe them. This afternoon, a Berkeley Fire Department engine was observed circling Park borders.
The judge's ruling earlier in the week follows a legal challenge by the People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group and Make UC A Good Neighbor, two citizen groups.
The groups hoped to hear Thursday whether the court grants them a stay.
The legal challenge by the groups seek to force the university to preserve People's Park and build housing elsewhere. The park's official historic status in no way prevents the university from building housing at the park, Mogulof said.
Harvey Smith, president of the People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group, has argued that an alternative site exists about a block away at a seismically unsafe parking structure at Channing Way and Ellsworth Street.
But Mogulof said while that is true, the university has designated that site for housing, too, because of the severe and urgent need for student housing at UC Berkeley.
I applaud Mayor Arreguín’s leadership in standing on the side of fundamental human rights and civilian control of the police.
I’m deeply concerned that the Berkeley City Manager, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and UC are asking us to undermine the fundamental principle of mutual aid: that each city’s elected officials decide on their own terms the equipment and policies deployed.
Our generous city has and will continue to show up on the front lines of wildfires and public safety emergencies across the Bay Area and state. What we will not do is sacrifice our values and democratic decision-making process to a sheriff who shirks his responsibility to protect, invited the Oath Keepers militia to an Urban Shield community preparedness event, and who ultimately lost the confidence of Alameda County voters.
In the event that the Sheriff and University of California refuse law enforcement aid on our terms, UC and AC Sheriff have access to vast state law enforcement resources. We will not allow bad faith actors to manufacture crises where there are none.
I call on all city leaders and residents to follow Mayor Arreguín’s leadership in deescalating the situation, continuing to respect the rights of peaceful protesters and neighbors, and allowing the park construction proceedings to be resolved peacefully through the courts and democratic processes.
At 10 o'clock this morning, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin announced that he has cancelled tonight's special meeting of the Berkeley City Council, which was announced last night at eight P.M. He tweeted this:
"I’m canceling the meeting. Our policy stands and shame on the Sheriff for threatening to not provide emergency support to Berkeley."
Berkeley's city code, 2.04.020, indicates that Arreguin must have called the original Special Meeting:
"Special meetings of the council may be held at any time upon the call of the Mayor or any five members of the council."
Nothing in the code authorizes the city manager to call meetings.
it has come to my attention that you could consider suspending the city’s policy against the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess. The irresponsibility of putting an action like that in place during a time when the council can not act and respond to the situation is extremely irresponsible if not criminal.
I can only imagine you are considering it under the pressure of your UC controllers to encourage them forward in their attack on People’s Park and the People of Berkeley.
The folly of the plan to try to build on People’s Park is evident. It has been an immoral and blatantly classist and racist assault against one of the few refuges in the city in which all people are served. The response of the people should not be a surprise to you. Building on People’s Park is a direct attack against a lot of people, some with nothing to lose. If UC or Berkeley truly wants housing, you will build it elsewhere. There is no scenario where putting a dorm on People’s Park could possibly go smoothly.
Now it’s in your hands. Do you want your legacy to be a bloodbath for this folly? UC creates the problem of scarce housing by admitting unsustainable numbers of students and then pretends to solve the problem they created. Well I’ll let you in on a little secret. People’s Park is a tar baby. The more you attack it the more stuck you will be covered in the tar of the evil of attacking the poor, the environment and our hopes and dreams.
Maybe with enough money, force, police, overtime, added expenditures, fences and ill will the University can cram in something. But it will never rest peacefully there. I suggest you don’t commit to protracted war on the poor of your city. You can not win. You will create more poverty and pain and devastation that will continue to ripple out. There is a righteous stand to take here. Gus Newport did the right thing when he refused to allow the City of Berkeley Police Department be the ground troops for UC’s bad plan in 1979. The City has prohibited attacking peaceful protesters with chemical weapons for a reason. It is immoral.
History will remember the decisions you make. Peace can be made. A dorm can be built on the Parking Lot of Ellsworth and Channing. But it will take legislators of conscience and intelligence to take leadership and bring our town back to peace.
Please do not put swords into the wannabe overlord’s arsenal to slaughter your city while you are on vacation. Please do the right thing. People’s lives are at stake and you must be responsible now. Thank you,
AGENDA: 1. City Manager - Discussion and possible action regarding the temporary suspension of the June 9, 2020 policy prohibiting the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess
University of California at Berkeley halted construction Wednesday on housing at historic People's Park following a protest the university said threatened the safety of workers.
Following a judge's decision Friday that became final this week, UC Berkeley fenced off the park early Wednesday morning to prepare to build $312 million of student housing and supportive housing for formerly homeless people.
The 2.8-acre People's Park is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the site of protests in the 1960s and 70s as the university tried to build a sports field, then a soccer field and parking lot, and again a parking lot on the land. The protests led to a shooting in which police killed a protester in 1969, and then-Gov. Ronald Reagan called out the National Guard.
"Due to the destruction of construction materials, unlawful protest activity, and violence on the part of some protesters," university officials said they halted work started Wednesday.
"The campus will, in the days ahead, assess the situation in order to determine how best to proceed with construction of this urgently needed student housing project," UC Berkeley spokesperson Kyle Gibson said.
On Wednesday afternoon, a group opposed to the construction of housing at the park was seeking a court stay of demolition against the university.
Harvey Smith, president of People's Park Historic District Advocacy Group, said the university exaggerates things. He was skeptical that protesters were violent.
University officials said police have been withdrawn from the site to avoid continued confrontation with protesters. Police arrested some of the protesters Wednesday, but the exact number was unavailable.
Protesters in the 60s and 70s also stopped the university's plans. The university owns the park land, which is just south of the campus core.
"We recognize this as a historic place," university spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Wednesday morning, and UC Berkeley has plans for memorializing it.
He said how exactly the university will remember the park's history has not been determined. He said the university wants to get input from residents and students.
The park's historic status does not prevent the university from building housing there, and workers felled trees Wednesday morning to make room for the buildings.
Opponents of the plan said an alternative site exists about a block away at Channing Way and Ellsworth Street. That is the site of a parking structure that is seismically unsafe, Smith said.
But Mogulof said while that is true, the university has designated that site for housing, too, because of the severe and urgent need for student housing at UC Berkeley.
No information on the court appeal was available from the opponents early Wednesday afternoon.
University officials were hoping to start construction of housing this summer.
Moni T. Law, J.D., UC Berkeley, 1982, USF Law, 1986
Wednesday August 03, 2022 - 10:02:00 AM
Please note this sad update- the university is making moves to fence off People’s Park.
Please pray for the nonviolent resisters prepared to put themselves on the line for many reasons: this vital open space is critical to fight this climate emergency, emotional health is shown to improve with open green spaces, and this seized and stolen Ohlone land needs to be left alone, not bulldozed and cemented. There are many other UC owned parcels to build upon that are not on the National Historic Register as the Site where the Anti-War and Free Speech Movements gained world wide attention and significance.
Send prayers, songs, people, money for the legal fund to stop this travesty. I read the EIR that is fatally flawed, deficient, lacking in review of significant adverse cultural and environmental effects. UC should build on the numerous parcels of cement, garages or old buildings that they own and have identified for student housing - not a historic park that is the last open space in South Berkeley where diverse groups of people gather for concerts, art festivals and teach-ins, or to lay on the grass and look at the sky or listen to birds during study or work breaks. .. or dance to live music.
It is a foolhardy move during a climate emergency for my alma mater to destroy a treasured, unique historic park that cannot be replaced once destroyed. Student dorms are needed but there are six or more available UC locations to achieve that goal and need. Please leave the park for students and the entire world to enjoy for decades to come- People’s Park for ALL the people.
Thank you. Spread the word. Write Rep. Barbara Lee, Chancellor Christ, the Regents, local and national media. As Ms. Ritchey Smith always says: ‘Make some noise!’ Elder Park veteran Michael Delacour told me that it helps to be creative in bringing attention to the cause.
People's Park in Berkeley was closed early Wednesday morning to prepare for the construction of housing following a judge's final ruling on the matter, advocates for maintaining the entire park as open space and University of California at Berkeley officials said.
The park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by UC Berkeley, was being fenced off just after 3 a.m. and staffed by security, estimated by community observers as at least 100 officers..
Community advocates opposed to the plan for housing are planning to file an appeal Wednesday morning and pursue another stay of demolition.
"We're pleased with the judge's decision," UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Friday following the judge's tentative ruling.
He had the same sentiments Wednesday. University officials are looking forward to "starting construction this summer," Mogulof said.
The university plans to build student housing and supportive housing for homeless people.
Dr. Herbert M Allen MD, Peck Allmond, Dr. Richard Oken MD
Sunday July 31, 2022 - 06:23:00 PM
Bayard Allmond, a behavioral pediatrician and family therapist, died of cancer on July 18, 2022, in the Berkeley home where he and his family began living in 1969. He was 87. Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, he attended public schools there which his family strongly believed in. He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
He trained in general and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Rochester, joined the faculty there, and later the faculty at the University of California San Francisco. During a two-year stint with the US Public Health Service in the mid-‘60’s, Bayard moved the family to Atlanta and worked for the Center for Disease Control. The CDC was combating an outbreak of polio in gorillas at the Yerkes Primate Center, and Bayard was involved in researching whether they could be vaccinated for it - they could. He then went on to administer the vaccines to the gorillas. Although very different from the rest of his life’s path as a behavioral pediatrician, he loved this experience.
At UCSF, he was mentored by Helen Gofman, MD, and Wilma Buckman, MSW, with whom he eventually co-wrote “The Family Is the Patient” (1979), a cornerstone work in the foundation of behavioral pediatrics. At UCSF he in turn mentored many dozens of pediatricians-in-training and was the director of Helen and Wilma’s groundbreaking Child Study Unit for several years before creating a private practice in family therapy at his home. His patients were the focus of his life, and his practice was his life’s work.
Bayard was preceded in death by his parents, Edna Pierson Allmond and Bayard W Allmond, Sr, and by a brother, Charles M Allmond. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Nancy Webster Allmond; by their two sons, Walton Bayard Allmond of Taos, NM, and John Peckworth Allmond (Peck) of Brooklyn, NY; and by Peck’s wife, Ina Paris, of Brooklyn.
Bayard’s interests were many. He had a lifelong love of the Delaware shore. He was inexplicably fond of six (consecutive) Siamese cats. He loved classic cinema - his favorite probably being the Jimmy Stewart comedy/drama “Harvey” - and had an encyclopedic knowledge of old movies that was un-stumpable. A talented player of the Great American Songbook on piano, he was also an enthusiast of jazz and Irish traditional music. A fascination with genealogy and history inspired him to research and map the Allmond and Webster family trees. He was an expert gardener, painstakingly nurturing his home’s 1908 garden and keeping it original, and volunteering in the gardens on Alcatraz Island. He even took UC Berkeley extension courses and became certified in Landscape Design. A dedicated preservationist, he bought and restored a 1790 Methodist meeting house in Lewes, DE, earning it “historic landmark” status (with then-senator Joe Biden signing the designation approval), and volunteering for years at the historic 1882 Cohen-Bray house in Oakland. He supported many progressive and environmental causes: Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Sierra Cub, Nature Conservancy, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association; and cultural institutions such as California Jazz Conservatory and Berkeley Repertory Theater. He assumed the mantle of family chef and baker in the early ‘90s, experimented assiduously, and got darn good at cooking and baking.
Bayard loved his wife, his sons, his daughter in law, and his sixth Siamese, Bernie. Nancy, Ina and Peck did heroic work as his caretakers during the last sixteen months of his life and felt blessed to have that time with him. He is beloved and remembered by them; by friends from as far back as first grade; by former patients, students, and colleagues; and by Allmond and Pierson relatives across the nation. Donations can be made in his name to any of the organizations mentioned above.
At 8:02 p.m. tonight I received an email from Berkeley’s Deputy City Clerk Rose Thomsen announcing a special city council meeting almost exactly 24 hours later, at 8:15 tomorrow night. Attached was an agenda with only one action item:
“Discussion and possible action regarding the temporary suspension of the June 9, 2020 policy prohibiting the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray for the duration of the City Council recess.
From: City Manager
Recommendation: Adopt a motion to temporarily suspend the June 9, 2020 policy prohibiting the use of tear gas, smoke and pepper spray, and affirming compliance with Penal Code Section 13652 (AB 48) for the duration of the City Council summer recess.
Financial Implications: None.”
Remember, June 9,2020, was a week after the death of George Floyd, and the Berkeley City Council passed this policy in reaction to the protests that followed.
The code section referenced pertains to the circumstances under which “Use of kinetic energy projectiles and chemical agents” is permitted..
In other words, while the council is on summer recess the city manager wants to be allowed to order up rubber bullets, tear gas, smoke bombs, pepper spray—all the usual suspects in the crowd control universe.
And why, do we think, this request suddenly materialized, out of thin air?
It just might have something to do with Chancellor Carol Christ’s longtime plan to demolish Berkeley’s newest national historic landmark, People’s Park, the minute my old buddy Frank Roesch The Judge gave her the All Clear, preferably during the students’ summer vacation.
Which plan, of course, the City Manager and The Mayor knew nothing about until today. And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Today there was another Special Meeting, approximately 9 to 5, jammed with undigested proposals which needed to get on the November ballot. Some attendees protested, justifiably, that 24 hour notice was not enough public notice for such important topics. After a couple of speakers complained, Mayor Arreguin self-righteously consulted the city attorney about why there had not been the usual 48 hour notice as the Brown Act requires, and the answer is that this meeting was …. Special…..
The agenda for tomorrow’s Special Meeting was announced 24 hours and 13 seconds in advance. This makes it very difficult for all those troublesome citizens, the BLM crowd that irritates Arreguin and his gang so much, to muster any meaningful opposition.
“Financial Implications: None”?
If the City of Berkeley once again uses militaristic weapons on protesters, as in the past?
I predicted in one of my many previous Activist’s Calendars that Mayor Arreguin wouldn't get the job done on July 26,and indeed council is meeting again this coming Wednesday morning, August 3, at 9 am. And not getting the job done meant that those of us dedicated to sit through until the end had a council marathon day, starting at 3 pm and running until 11 pm.
It is unknown just exactly when the mayor decided to stiff the 4 x 4 Committee of Council and Rent Board Members , but it most certainly happened well in advance of July 26th. Arreguin scheduled a special meeting on ballot measures for 3 pm on July 26th, but left the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance on the Council regular meeting agenda at 6 pm as the second to last item—a strategy to kill it.
Here is how the maneuver played out.
As you read through the steps, be aware that Arreguin is a member of the 4 x 4 Committee and voted for the measure he decided to tank. The 4 x 4 Committee consists of four Councilmembers and four Rent Board Members, with the mission to work collaboratively on housing issues of mutual concern. The four council members are Arreguin, Taplin, Harrison and Robinson, and the four rent board members are Simon-Weisberg, Alpert, Johnson and Kelley.
By leaving the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance on the regular evening agenda, instead of moving to take it up with the other ballot measures at the 3 pm special meeting, Arreguin could run out the clock, using the hard stop at 11 pm to kill the ballot measure without so much as even bringing it up for discussion. let alone a vote.
It was a plan that a friend and I missed as we were texting earlier in the evening, groaning about how Councilmember Kesarwani was allowed to blather on and on when there were still items on the agenda for action, and not a peep from Arreguin to bring the meeting discussion under control.
It was getting close to the goal of running out the clock, but not quite there, when Arreguin skipped over the ballot measure and pulled Hahn’s item on the City website out of order to finish the job. Hahn can always be counted on to talk endlessly. Arreguin used the excuse that Hahn was going to travel the next day.
At 10:58 pm, when it was obvious the clock was about to run out without action on the ballot measure, it was Robinson, not Arreguin, who asked for a vote to extend the meeting to 11:45 pm. Kesarwani, Taplin, Wengraf and Droste all voted against extending the meeting. A super majority is required to extend the meeting, so with four “no” votes in the bag and Arreguin with the last vote in the roll call, he could vote for the extension, giving the appearance of wanting to take up the ballot measure for action without any actual risk of having to follow through.
Agenda items that are not addressed automatically go to the Agenda Committee for rescheduling. The Agenda Committee won’t meet again until the last week of August to plan the September 13 council meeting. Ballot measures have deadlines that must be met to be included in the November 8 election which means that pushing off the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance Ballot measure until September kills it.
All this, to avoid sending a ballot measure to the voters that contained eviction protections for tenants in “Golden duplexes” (one unit of two in a duplex owner-occupied as a principal residence) and to add an equal number of rent controlled units in new construction when that construction project demolished existing rent-controlled units.
You might be asking why go through all this to block a measure that offered protections to tenants? Berkeley is 57% renters, and this ballot measure, which the Chamber of Commerce, the real estate industry and Golden duplex owners gathered to protest at the July 12, 2022 council meeting, would very likely pass. and therefore must be kept out of the hands of the voters.
Evidently Arreguin decided he needed a way out to keep the real estate industry happy, and what better way to kill the Ballot Measure Amending the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance than by running out the clock after most of the City had given up for the evening and gone to bed? You probably wouldn’t know what happened unless I took the time to write about it.
Back in the day during the “Tax the Rich” rallies, we used to talk about politics, candidates for office and the difficulty of sorting through all the BS to figure out who actually had values, a moral core that wasn’t hollowed out with ambition. We never did have an answer, but following behavior is a good clue.
The Police Equipment and Community Impact Statement was moved earlier in the evening to be considered in September. And, the parcel tax to fix the roads and sidewalks was killed in the 3 pm meeting in favor of having one big General Obligation Bond ballot initiative to send to the voters
As for the City website, it is a mess, with no action taken before the council meeting abruptly ended. The city manager, Dee Williams-Ridley compared the complaints about the new city website to objections to a new business logo. This kind of trivialization of links that are broken and documents that are lost into the ether is not like seeing a different picture (a logo) associated with a business. Endless searches in Records Online to find documents that used to be a couple of keystrokes away is not somehow the same as a new logo for a familiar business. Such a comment demonstrates a complete disregard for legislative staff and the public; an unfitness for doing the job, for which this city council awarded this city manager a 28.11% raise of $84,732 more than her previous salary. This also demonstrates the unfitness of Mayor Arreguin, who proposed that enormous raise for the Berkeley City Manager, the manager of the smallest city in land mass and 11th in population among thirteen city and county administrators surveyed.
I took a break and watched the PBS Frontline special Facing Eviction. Emily Benfer from the Eviction Lab described eviction this way, “Housing is foundational to resiliency the same way education and employment are, but if you knock out that one pillar, your housing, your home, then you can’t access any of the others.”
The Thursday presentations at the Mental Health Commission: Achieving an Adequate Standard of Living for People with Serious Mental Illness and/or Substance Use Issues and Disorders, really dove into the impacts of homeless camp sweeps, especially for people experiencing homelessness. It’s not just the few sentimental items that get tossed with the sweeps, the very documents the homeless need to get assistance end up in the belongings carted away by the City as trash. Medications are lost too. Most important, sweeps break the contact, the link, case managers have with the homeless person.
Sweeps are a major setback for caseworkers and the homeless. It is probably difficult, more like impossible,l for those of us reading this Diary in comfort to think of encampments that are seen as squalor as home and community for anyone, but when the most important pillar of resiliency, housing, is pulled away, even what we may consider trash becomes precious for someone who has nothing.
Margaret Fine described sweeps as a “horrible thing.” Andrea Pritchett gave three solid suggestions: 1) provide cell phones so the homeless could maintain contact with the case workers who were trying to help them, 2) provide staff with tablets so they could instantly update records when in the field and 3) council to identify safe/safer encampment locations where service providers can regularly provide services.
The Ballot Initiative to Tax Vacant Residential Units should come back on Wednesday. This time I hope council can see clear to pass it so we as voters can decide in November. There is an apartment building near me that has been vacant for decades. This city that likes to call itself progressive should be doing everything possible to get these older buildings back on the market as available housing. They certainly will be cheaper than $3397 for a 461 sq ft studio at THE BLAKE. https://www.blakeatberkeley.com/floorplans/a4
And all that we can do to stabilize the most important pillar of resiliency ought to be on the top of the list. It certainly wasn’t last Tuesday evening at 11 pm.
Nicole Kurian, Legislative Director, Californians Against Waste, gave an update for the Zero Waste Commission of bills to watch. SB 1046 regulates the pre-checkout bags (the plastic bags used for fruit, vegies, bulk goods, etc, AB 2046 reduces packaging in all those online orders delivered to our doors and SB 1013 requires a redemption payment for every beverage container. They all sound good, but like all bills at the end of the session, we shall see what passes.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Commission grant application turned out to be for the Marina, and it didn’t require a vote from the newly blended commission of what used to be the separate Transportation Commission and the Public Works Commission. The application only required a presentation, not approval by the commission.
This is a sorry state of affairs. The least functional side of these two commissions is now in charge. The Public Works Commission turned out incredible work and analysis. The few times I tuned into the Transportation Commission, I was struck by the capacity of the commission to be at the same time dysfunctional and oblivious to the fact that not everyone is going to bicycle everywhere. Some of us like our intact bodies, and others of us can’t bicycle for a wide variety of reasons.
I like listening to the Thom Hartmann podcasts. In a normal week there is usually a one-hour segment with someone from Congress taking questions from callers. The slot is often filled with Mark Pocan from Wisconsin or Ro Khanna from Silicon Valley. It’s always interesting, and then there are the callers from all over the country making comments on the politics and the discussions of the day. Most often when I listen to the people calling in, I think, “you need to read more books.” It is why I like to finish my Diary with what I just finished reading including the audiobooks read to me.
Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell by Tim Miller, just released in June, is the kind of book with enough substance, but not too heavy to play while doing mindless tasks or to fill time while travelling. All of the five libraries I use have it and San Francisco just added 31 copies of the audiobook. As the title suggests it is entertaining, but the underlying questions of why people stuck with Trump and then ran back to him are answered with proximity to power, job, money, ambition and being in the club or really the cult.
The book I read with substance which drove me to take pages of notes in my reading journal is One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin M. Kruse, published in 2015.
This book is absolutely fascinating as Kruse pulls together how the invention of a Christian America took hold in the 1930s and 1940s with James W. Fifield, the minister for the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles, leading the charge, catering to the LA millionaires. Fifield started the College of Life, radio programs and speaker series to send the message that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. His messaging success covered his generous salary, butler, cook and chauffer.
Fifield placed an ad in the LA times decrying the New Deal with the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, Norman Vincent Peale, California Institute of Technology, UC, Stanford, U of Florida and the Princeton Theological Seminary all jumping on the bandwagon. Hollywood joined in with Cecile B. DeMille, Disney and others promoting the selective religious message.
President Eisenhower and Evangelist Abraham Vereide started the national prayer breakfast in 1953 which continues to this day. Evangelist Billy Graham hovered through several administrations. Falwell, Robertson and others followed threading religiosity through our government. And, J. Walter Thompson the Madison Avenue ad agency, was an early promoter of the new rituals.
The mythology of the United States founded as a Christian Nation was meticulously debunked in the Supreme Court decision of Engel v. Vitale on school prayer, June 25, 1962, in the opinion by Justice Hugo L. Black. But that meticulous historical opinion from sixty years ago blocking prayer in schools did not stop the Christian Nation myth nor did it stop the recent opinion from Justice Gorsuch in the 6 to 3 decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, on June 27, 2022 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school coach leading post-game school prayers at the 50 yard line.
Christian Nationalism has taken root, and the tentacles are visible in the January 6th Insurrection, the Trump cult, the Tucker Carlson show, the Supreme Court decisions and the adulation of Viktor Orban for starters.
Next in my stack is the Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart.
For the last several years, the City rent board has made it a top priority to extend a rent control concept called “Just Cause” to certain owner-occupied homes, basically all those where State law does not preclude regulation.. I will seek in this op-ed to describe how “Just Cause” works, and the implications for owner occupied properties.
This year the rent board placed a draft ballot summary before City Council that somewhat mysteriously promises to “provide eviction protection.” While “eviction protection” sounds great, I oppose the proposed ballot measure's approach deeply, and wish to illustrate several potential unintended consequences. In short the measure proposes “lifetime leases” for certain owner-occupied properties. On balance I will argue this is bad for owners, bad for renters, bad for those currently unable to afford to rent or buy, and bad for future ADU or small time owned rental housing production. Imposing lifetime leases on owner occupants will fundamentally alter the incentives of such rentals, to the overall detriment of what’s now a vibrant source of interesting, inclusive, and diverse housing.
I have first-hand experience with how this affects homeowners.
In 1997, my parents had a three-month gap where my old bedroom, occasionally used as a guest room, would be empty. Usually, when the room was available, they posted in the UC Berkeley housing office, offering month-to-month student rentals. An older alum answered the ad, agreeing to a three-month stay. As they later learned: because the room had a hot plate, it was protected under “Just Cause,” and the renter stayed for 25 years.
My parents not only lost their guest bedroom and a measure of privacy for decades, but they also lost their age-in-place plan, which had been to move into the smaller guest area and rent the rest. When the time came, the renter would not budge under any reasonable circumstances.
Later, when my mom was deeply ill with cancer, there was no way to relocate her to the ground floor or build a wheelchair ramp. And while the renter never exceeded a threshold of illegality, he became difficult to live with and slept late each morning. He complained bitterly – calling or thumping on the ceiling with a broomstick – if it was too noisy too early for his liking.
Under “Just Cause,” the renter retained possession despite being years in arrears on rent, and despite multiple rent board negotiated opportunities to transfer to subsidized senior housing. Under “Just Cause” the renter retained possession for a year and a half after a series of falls and a broken neck landed him in a nursing facility and unable to return (he remains in a low-income nursing facility as of this writing). The tenancy was finally released in a settlement years after the death of my parents, having caused tremendous stress and hassle for all involved, including the renter.
Had my parents had any clue they were signing away rights to the guest bedroom for the remainder of their lives, they would never have listed the room for rent. Never. Owner needs change from time to time, and a lifetime is too long to wait.
The rent board’s proposed “Just Cause” expansions over the last few years may be well-intentioned but in the end have real equity problems. Much like deed restrictions from years ago which favored directly or indirectly a non-diverse community, the just cause expansion won’t be felt equally across the income spectrum. Fiscally stable owner-occupants are more likely to forgo renting their extra space units, and the less well-off will be forced to accept whatever terms are in force. It takes an opposite approach to Measure Q and MM both of which went the other direction on the exact same issue.
What Just Cause means in this context is a lifetime lease. Berkeley Municipal Code 13.76.130 explains valid end of tenancy reasons and states “except the obligation to surrender possession on proper notice as required by law.” Unpacking that legal sentence “surrender possession” is to leave a rental. And “notice” means things like the end of the lease, or 60 day notice. In short it means a tenant who wants to stay can ignore any time limits in their lease, potentially for the rest of their life. And according to case law in San Francisco, that right to stay extends to certain children of the original renter.
Rent control advocates have argued that every rental should be covered by the same rules. This sentiment may appear equitable at first but is absolutely tone deaf to the unique circumstances of regulating owner-present properties. It treats owner-landlords like operators of for profit apartment towers, when the true incentives are almost always quite different. Time limits matter much more to owner-occupants, and owner-occupants may not be interested in (or able to) commit to serve a rental property for the lifetime of a tenant.
I urge the city to change gears, simplify the rules and ensure all one- two- and three-unit owner-occupied properties are “at will” tenancies with either party able to give notice. We should then ensure that every renter knows and every owner understands which rent rules apply, to reduce the number of tragic misunderstandings. The goal is to prevent tenants who would be harmed by an owner change from only finding out about it at a moment of crisis. Extending the existing City Rental Housing Safety Program process would do fine with help from the city to get owners to file the form reliably. And, perhaps, operate a new city referral program to help counsel and prepare lower income tenants who may be forced out by a future change at an owner-occupied property.
Every renter who willingly and freely and reasonably chooses an “at will” tenancy frees up “just cause” housing for others. There’s literally no problem to fix. An owner-occupied rent relationship is great for some, but not for all tenants and tenancies -- let’s not try to paint every situation with the same brush.
As a side benefit, this will make it far easier to convince owners to take a chance on someone with a challenging background, if the long term relationship is by mutual consent.
Changing course could bring significant numbers of brand new units to renters, if owners with extra space in their main homes feel comfortable enough to build Junior ADU units (these can only be built within the actual main home structure). It could open up large homes with a backyard ADU but plenty of space in the basement. And finally this approach could open up fixed term rentals of duplex properties where the owner occupant has recently died (those homes often sit vacant, because under existing rules they are too risky to rent out). There are plenty of rental spaces that open up, if term or “at will” leases are allowed in appropriate circumstances.
The Berkeley City Council will next debate this topic at their meeting August 3rd 2022 . The proposed ordinance is summarized in the image.
Bryce Nesbitt grew up in the aforementioned Berkeley bedroom, and is now a permit consultant directly helping owners navigate ADU and unpermitted addition rules. He helps low income owners build Junior ADUs to help keep them in their homes. His current volunteer projects involve collecting RV waste to keep it out of the storm drains, and saving nationally listed Toverii Tuppa Hall from destruction. Bryce recently chaired the Public Works Commission, but writes here as an individual.
The lot in life of people with chronic mental disease is not enviable. Society doesn't offer us anything any good. We are segregated into treatment venues in the mental health treatment system, where we have lives of restriction and being 'supervised.' We are credited with lack of basic insight across the board. If we are in the category of 'client', in the perceptions of the mental health counselors, who assume too much, this means to them that we lack basic intelligence. Consequently, condescension is the norm.
Lunches at a treatment venue are an example of unequal treatment. At mealtime, we are bribed with sugary, fatty junk food such as Chinese takeout or pizza followed by cake--and we eat alongside counselors who have their politically correct salads with kidney beans, kale, brown rice, and tofu. This example of different meals encapsulates classism.
Transportation is unequal. We are shuttled around in vans to get to and from our treatment venues. If we fail to board the van on time, we're stranded. Then what?
If we have an ambition of doing something intelligent, we are best off keeping it to ourselves when possible. Otherwise, counselors will have methods of interfering with our thought processes about such ambitions, and this could in the guise of being encouraging. Or it could be in the rationale of keeping our thoughts connected to reality as they perceive it. Counselors may feel obliged to keep us 'grounded' and 'connected' to reality'--thus it falls upon them to impart to us we can't, because in their minds, we're too inferior.
A psychiatric diagnosis is a life sentence to poverty, suffering and humiliation. This is not to say that counselors are necessarily unkind. However, piggybacked onto the kindness--and likely good intentions--ride discriminatory assumptions. These assumptions are imparted in training of counselors and reinforced by professional peers.
We are expected to take medications that interfere with the necessary processes of our bodies and minds. Medications are no fun to take. They induce physical and mental suffering. They restrict our capabilities. Antipsychotics, because they slow parts of the brain, and shut down other parts of the brain, make us incapable of doing many of the things that most people assume anyone can do.
Mentally ill people develop chronic health problems at a young age. Yet, alarming weight gain does not sound the alarms of treating professionals--it is normalized. Dying young is normalized. Incarceration is normalized. None of this should be normalized.
We are not afforded basic dignity. We are cutified, infantilized, and treated and perceived as dumb. There is no open-mindedness that we might not be dumb. Our serious life and death issues, that could kill us, are made to seem unimportant. In therapy we are rendered psychologically and interpersonally impotent.
We do not have much chance at establishing a professional career. Our chances depend on getting an education when young enough to do so. When we get older, multiple factors take effect that will impair our efforts. Efforts, no matter how valiant, in my experience, are repeatedly stymied.
Our perspectives are not validated. When we say something that to us has some level of meaning, it isn't taken as we intend, rather, it is often dismissed as the rambling of a psychotic person.
We can barely, if at all, survive on the measly government benefits we get. We cannot own very much, or the government will take it. If we have children, the government will take them.
Medication to treat psychosis introduces other impairment. Antipsychotics make it hard to do anything. It is a challenge to maintain oral hygiene, to shave my face, to wash my clothes, and to get in the car and drive across town or to another town. I can only handle a few things in a day. I don't try to do more than that. I'm not a masochist and I refuse to do damage to myself based on a so-called 'work ethic.'
(It has been a source of relief to acknowledge that decades of being medicated, repeated setbacks, repeated trauma, and age, influence my current capabilities--and therefore to acknowledge and accept that I can't always get much done.)
I am not spiritually enlightened. But who is? Sometimes I am immune to things that make other people upset. But sometimes I'm bent out of shape by things that wouldn't bother most people.
In the mentally ill package, far too much is expected of us, and it is beyond reason. And far too little is offered.
PART Two: The Bright Side:
If we follow instructions to be medication 'compliant', and if we work to better ourselves and better our circumstances, we could make a lot of progress. Any sustainable progress will entail constant work, and this progress will be measurable in small increments. And we may have to produce threefold the effort to get similar results achieved by the neuro typical. Yet, if we work to better ourselves and our circumstances, this is inherently respectable, whether people acknowledge it or not.
Depending on age of onset, we may not have gone to college. Not having college is a very big problem, because to get hired at anything good, the minimum is a BA degree. Other than that, there are trade schools where we could get a certificate. Trade school is a more practicable and less difficult choice for many. I went to trade school for electronics in the mid nineteen eighties, and it was hard work, but not at the level college would have been.
We should not allow ourselves to be dissuaded and discouraged by the skeptical. We should not openly share our ambitions unless we feel fully secure that discouraging talk won't affect us.
Psychiatric disability is not different from other disabilities. We can work around the limitations. If there are some things that are just too hard, we should not try to do them.
Yet, unless we really want to, we don't need to have a career. Having a 'fabulous career' is not a match for all people. Some people need a break and need to simply enjoy life to the extent they can.
On the other hand, a wallet full of cash, that we earned, can do a lot for our outlook on life. Mental illness, despite what many people may think, is not insurmountable.
Our progress, or the absence of it, is up to us. We may need to create our own sources of encouragement. Sometimes, you find a job situation that has support built into it. This is a very good thing because then we don't have to rely on other sources of encouragement to recharge. When we rely on counselors to keep us encouraged in our work, we stand the risk of having the support pulled out from under us at a time when that support is most needed.
There are areas in which we are well-advised to cooperate with treatment professionals. But we ought never let them talk us out of doing something that brings us meaning, money, status, and respect. There are careers like that, and we can always try.
If we try something and fall short, we could be in for a lot of disappointment. But that's the risk we invariably face. Declining to try to do something means we will never have tried. And this is fine if it suits you. I have met many people who’ve overcome disabilities and who can make an honest living at something. But it is not for everyone.
An activity should not always be measured by its money-earning potential or by its potential to impress people. Sitting to read a book on a Sunday afternoon is worthwhile. Drawing bizarre doodles on a piece of notebook paper is redeemable. Washing dishes, if you can get yourself to do it, is worth doing. Many things you already might do, probably have value.
Jack Bragen is author of 'Jack Bragen's 2021 Fiction Collection'.
It is a sad day for progressives when Barbara Lee votes for a 40 billion dollar Ukrainian aid supplement to the military budget and Josh Hawley votes against it.
It is tempting to be moralistic about the war in Ukraine, to view one side as all evil and the other as all good. This is to ignore the complex history of the region, both long term (for example, Crimea was part of Russia for centuries, and only in 1954 had its administrative status changed from an independent soviet socialist republic to being assigned to the Ukrainian Socialist Republic by the Ukrainian Khrushchev, and ever since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union had been agitating for a referendum about its status) and short term since the 2014 US-supported overthrow of a legitimately elected Ukrainian government less than a year before scheduled elections.
If the US aim is to defend freedom and the US from dictators, we should be invading Saudi Arabia where the 9-11 bombers came from. Instead we have Biden asking for increased oil production from the Saudi prince who chopped up a journalist who dared to criticize him. Biden and Blinken talk about the absolute sovereignty of every country and its ability to act however it likes, independent of any other country, yet this is given the lie by our involvement in the Western Hemisphere, most recently in Venezuela, in Chile, in Iran-Contra events, in the invasion of Granada,in Haiti and in support of right wing rule in Central America that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands including the archbishop of El Salvador, Saint Oscar Romero.
Note must also be taken of the outrage with which Australia and the US have greeted the announcement of China using the Solomon Islands –1200 kilometers from Australia—as a ship base, with unspecified military action being threatened. What happened to the right of any country to join any alliance it wished to join and to carry any weapons it wants to (see Cuban missile crisis)?
Sweden and Finland state that they will leave open the option of basing nuclear weapons in their country, yet we are engaged in measures short of war to prevent Iran from doing the same. Again the US comes with unclean hands and a selective imposition of international rules. Of course, progressives are all too familiar domestically with this kind of selective imposition of rules.
gThe argument for inviolability of borders was given the lie by Kosovo, however justified that parceling out may seem, and of course by the ongoing slow swallowing up of the West Bank by Israel. Putin differs only in the crudity of his methods and in that there are already Russians in the place where he is invading. Blinken, who has not seen a foreign invasion he has not supported, argues for the indivisibility of Ukraine and Crimea, yet he was one of the authors of the Biden proposal to divide Iraq into three regions. Why are US troops in Syria, uninvited by anyone other than rebels who include Al Qaeda? In short, the US also comes with unclean hands from this perspective.
It is a puzzle to determine why the US, or at least a triumphant cabal in the State Department, has maintained enmity to Russia since 1989 as if Communism has not ended. The book Not One Inch: America, Russia and the making of Post-Cold WarStalemate documents how Russia’s efforts to join a Europe-wide security arrangement, apparently so successful with the 1995 Balkan crisis when, under the auspices of Partnership for Peace, Russian forces worked alongside NATO troops, were ultimately thwarted by this State Department cabal, and by Clinton’s fear of appearing weak when challenged by Republicans (repeating a century-old pattern of overreaction by Democrats), and by his inability to control his hormonal urges.
Yes, Russia is now a dictatorship behind an electoral façade. Yet we deal with other dictatorships without the urge to paint them as devils (see list of Middle East nations recently toured by Biden). Barack Obama acknowledged that there are no vital American interests in Ukraine and that Russia has a legitimate interest in what happens there.
It is a tragic outcome of the impeachment of Trump that it became an unquestioned assumption that the US had a vital interest in Ukraine and that defense of the US starts with the defense of Ukraine. The Munich analogy used to argue for US action is the most overused analogy in US foreign affairs, used to justify domino theories and disastrous interventions from Vietnam to the Americas to the Middle East to Europe. It is as if the foreign policy establishment has learned only one piece of history, like a physician who learned only one diagnosis.
From a larger perspective it is also a puzzle why an economic rivalry with China has become so militarized, when it should remain a rivalry of economics and influence. The only ones to gain are the military-industrial complex.
So what is to be done? The worst thing possible is to prolong the conflict, to fight to the last Ukrainian. What should be done is to negotiate now. As Trump (yes, Trump, and one hopes progressives do not reflexively oppose this because Trump supports it), Kissinger (yes, the supporter of butchery in Indonesia, Chile and Vietnam; yet a close student of European relations) and Noam Chomsky agree, Ukraine will not go back to what it was before 2014.
Some elements of an agreement are clearly visible. Crimea will remain Russian (as it has for centuries except for the period 1991-2014) and more autonomy will be granted to Eastern Ukraine than in the failed Minsk agreements. There is a precedent for neutrality in the decades-long situation of Austria and for increased autonomy for a region (see Basque provinces). The US will not like it and will try to sabotage this.
What if there are no negotiations? Ukraine and Russian blood will continue to be shed – but that does not really matter for the US as it is not American blood. American military factories will boom as the economy is primed with bombs, not action against climate change. The two existential risks that the world faces will become more dire. Money will not be spent on fighting climate change but on fighting Russia and more fossil fuels will be used rather than less. The risk of a nuclear confrontation will increase as fighting continues, especially if Russia is pinned into a corner. These existential risks are why we need the Barbara Lee of 2003, not the Barbara Lee of 2022, and why we need to fight against the militarization of US foreign policy.
Berkeley's plan to install huge "tourist-friendly kiosks" on local sidewalks raised some hackles when Berkeleyans discovered the 8-foot-tall edifices not only broadcast commercial advertising on their huge screens but also (1) beamed WiFi EMFs, (2) were built to capture videos of passing pedestrians and (3) equipped to track neaby electronic devices. In response to complaints that surveillance cameras violated public privacy protections, the kiosk boosters promised the hidden cameras would be "turned off."
But now other concerns are cropping up. In addition to the physical, visual, and electromagnetic blight inherent in these hulking info-edifices, there's a new concern: pathogens!
With Covid variants and Monkeypox viruses infecting human populations around the world, these Kommercial Kiosks are now being seen as potential "super spreaders"—eye-catching gizmos designed to attract pedestrians and draw them within touching distance for extended periods of time.
The screens on the IKE company's kiosks are designed with virtual "buttons" that provide read-outs about local events and resources. Each of these screen patches needs to be activated by the touch of a human hand. The more popular these screens become, the more likely they are to become viral touchstones—vertical Petri dishes covered with collections of microbes, pathogens, and viruses.
This design flaw is a doozy. While the IKE kiosks come equipped with 24-7 cooling fans, none of them come with hand sanitizers.
Headlines from Abroad
A recent headline from Britain'sThe Economistwas both irascible and irresistible. It read: "Britain’s Tories are overwhelmingly male, pale and stale." That baleful banner came with a promising subhead: "But on social issues their views are pretty close to the wider electorate."
Gruff Encounters of the Weird Kind
(1) After checking my mail at the Berkeley Main PO, I shuffled off in the direction of the Berkeley Main Library. Halfway down Harold Way, I spotted a parked car with a personalized license plate. I fixed by eyes on the plate but I couldn't decode the mix of letters and numbers, so I moved on. But I stopped after passing the rear of the car to take one last look. That's when I heard an angry shout: "You got a problem?!"
Turns out the parked car was occupied and the driver was paranoid. Also annoyed.
When I explained that I was just trying to decode his personalized plates, he proffered that the plates offered a riff on his name. He didn't volunteer his name—and I didn't ask.
(2) A few days later, while exiting the 7-11 at University and Sacramento, a shaggy panhandler walked up and greeted me with an unusual request for a handout. "I need five bucks!" he announced.
I explained that I didn't have a Lincoln in my wallet and asked if he could use a Washington. He seemed to take offense. "No!" he repeated before stomping off in a snit, "I need five dollars!"
Do Butterflies Dream of Electric Caterpillars?
The Smithsonian Institute's self-named Smithsonian magazine includes a wiggy feature on the last page of every issue. It's called "Ask Smithsonian: You've got questions; We've got experts."
The July-August edition includes a question from a reader in Pasadena who wondered: "Does the brain of a butterfly or moth retain memories from when it was a caterpillar?"
I'm not sure which is stranger: that someone came up with this question or that someone came up with an answer. An entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History cites a 2008 study that trained caterpillars to "associate the smell of ethyl acetate with a mild electrical shock."
After emerging from their cocoons, these newly-minted butterflies were found to display an aversion to the presence of ethyl acetate. Conclusion: "While adult moths and butterflies probably don't remember the details of what it was like to be a caterpillar, certain associative memories can persist into adulthood."
The Gastly Price of Gas
The Natural Resources Defense Committee is aghast that "the three biggest US oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—made a whopping $17.6 billion after taxes in just the first three months of 2022!"
Despite this prolific profiteering, the NRDC notes, Big Oil compaies "are pressuring the White House for more of our lands and waters to pillage. Multi-billion dollar energy corporations are looking to get even wealthier."
With our forests and homes going up in flames, going down in earthquakes, going under in floods, and being blown asunder by hurricanes and tornados, the NRDC suggests it might be time to "get our government out of the fossil fuel business."
Gavin Knocks DeSantis While Promoting Nukes
California's Gov. Gav drew a heap of media attention (and political speculation) after taking out full-page ads in Florida papers to diss Gov. Ron "Don't Say Gay" DeSantis—a potential presidential rival.
Author and Green Energy activist Harvey "Sluggo" Wasserman isn't on board Newsom's campaign train. In a piece for Reader Supported News, he notes that while Florida's right-wing governor recently "vetoed a bill designed to kill solar power in Florida," California's "progressive" champion is "standing by as pro-utility regulators embrace new taxes and metering restrictions set to devastate California's solar industry."
Q: Why is DeSantis pro-solar? A: There are more than 400 solar companies in "The Sunshine State."
Back in the Golden State it only gets worse since Newsom is also pushing for the continued operation of the state's last two nuclear reactors—located at the "high-cost Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which is surrounded by active earthquake faults."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has identified Diablo Canyon's Unit One reactor as one of the most dangerously embrittled nukes in the US. It's not a new problem. Back in 2018, former governor Jerry Brown ordered that both reactors be closed and decommissioned by 2024 and 2025.
Manchin Finally Opens a Door so Biden Can "Build Back Better"
Public Citizen writes: "it looks like Joe Manchin has finally agreed to stand with his fellow Democrats and support a slew of major reforms from the proposal once known as Build Back Better." Instead of a super-ambitious $3 trillion program, Manchin has whittled Biden's BBB budget down to a still sizable $433 billion.
As Public Citizen notes, while Manchin's downsized to-do list contains "some infuriating carveouts, and includes some harmful pro-fossil fuel measures" it still stands as "one of the most progressive set of reforms in recent times."
This new legislation (re-dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022) would: • Invest $369 billion in climate and energy proposals — making it the most substantial step Congress has ever taken to confront climate change. • Devote $64 billion to lower Affordable Care Act premiums for millions of Americans. • Save $288 billion on drug spending — including by giving Medicare the ability to negotiate prices for some prescription medicines. • Generate $313 billion in revenue through a 15% minimum tax on multinational corporations. • Raise another $138 billion in revenue by increasing IRS enforcement against billionaires and Big Business and by closing a tax loophole exploited by venture capitalists and private equity firms.
This didn't receive much press in the US, but back in December 16, 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution aimed at "Combating Glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and other Practices that Contribute to Fueling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance." The resolution was adopted by 130 of the UN's 193 nations. Only two countries voted against the No-to-Nazis measure—the US and Ukraine.
Prior to the vote, Nicholas Hill, a US representative to the UN stated: "the United States must once again express opposition to this resolution, a document most notable for its thinly veiled attempts to legitimize Russian disinformation campaigns denigrating neighboring nations [ read: "Ukraine"] and promoting the distorted Soviet narrative of much of contemporary European history, using the cynical guise of halting Nazi glorification."
Russia has introduced the anti-Nazi resolution every year since 2015—and the US has voted against it every time. In 2020, CounterCurrents notes, the "US envoy to the UN argued that a ban on glorifying Nazism would clash with the First Amendment protection of free speech in the U.S. Constitution.
On the latest vote, 51 countries (all US allies) abstained from voting.
Pelosi's Fund-raising Fib
July 23 email from Nancy Pelosi arrived bearing the subject line: "Asking for your input, not your money." The message invited fellow Dems to "Complete my July Priorities Survey"—consisting of a few check-off boxes followed by a request for personal comments.
Despite the "no money" promise, the last page contained five request bars for financial donations ranging from $10 to $28. Honoring the "not your money" promise, I simply hit the "Submit" bar. But, instead of registering my "input," I was sent back to the start page. Turns out, if you don't make a donation, the "survey" is nullified and you're sent back to the beginning to start over.
Since the online survey was rigged, I'll be sending my response to Pelosi's office via USPS. Here's what I wrote:
"End US support of foreign wars (Yemen, Syria). End Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and reassert Congress' Constitutional power to decide whether to declare wars. End Washington's Policy of Provocation—targeting Russia and China. Wake up from the dream of US Global Hegemony. The real threat is the common threat facing every nation on Earth—climate chaos. The Pentagon is a major source of greenhouse gases. Start closing 800 US bases in other countries. Start ending the Pentagon's costly, polluting, provocative, military exercises around the world. Dismantle NATO, Washington's ever-expanding imperial army."
Wings, Halos and Harps: The Heaven Myth
The vision of Heaven that we honor today—in movies, artwork, and endless comic strips—is populated by halo-sporting angels lounging on clouds and plucking harps. But these images do not arise from the Scriptures. They are a legacy from Medieval and Renaissance painters.
Here's how Catholic Answers responds to the question: What does Heaven look like?
"Wings and halos. Robes and harps. Sitting on clouds. Being greeted by St. Peter at the pearly gates: These are the images of heaven we get from movies, TV, and newspaper cartoons."
The Heavenly truth? Well, for starters, Catholic Answers notes: "People in heaven do not have bodies (with rare exceptions such as Jesus and Mary), but that’s a temporary state of affairs. At the end of time, we will be raised from the dead and reunited with our bodies (cf. 1 Cor. 15:16–18)….
"Of course, ordinary bodies are not able to survive for all eternity. Paul explains that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50)."
The idea that we will sprout majestic wings in the Afterlife has "absolutely no basis in Scripture or Tradition."
Neither does the idea that we will become angels. According to Catholic Answers: "Angels are created beings that are pure spirit and have no bodies … humans and angels don’t turn into each other….
"It is common to picture people in heaven wearing robes, but we have no idea what clothes (if any) we may wear."
And what about St. Peter at the Pearly Gate? As CA explains: "Peter does not (so far as we know) personally approve each person’s admission to heaven."
Also, there is no singular Pearly Gate offering access to Heaven. According to Revelations 21:21, the heavenly city is described as having "twelve gates."
The Bible doesn't mention a Heaven paved with streets (there are no Porsches in Paradise) let along streets "paved with gold."
The Book of Revelations describes Heaven (aka in the Bible as "New Jerusalem") as a temple populated by worshipers carrying incense, censers, trumpets, bowls, and harps. (How you heft a harp without a corporeal body, still leaves me mystified.)
The New Testament describes Heaven as a "feast"—but not a modern Western-style wedding: according to Catholic Answers Paradise is more like "a first-century Jewish wedding feast." So you might want to drop those halos and don some yarmulkes—instead of a band of angels, the Hereafter may come with a klezmer band. Hollywood has made a number of films featuring "scenes shot in Heaven." Here's one we can dance to.
People's Park Update
Harvey Smith has some breaking news from the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group regarding the legal scramble over the future of our sacred-Sixties-battleground-turned-open-space-refuge.
"Our lawsuit was heard in Alameda County Superior Court [on July 29]. It was a consolidated hearing that combined all three challenges to UC's Long Range Development Plan/Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act.
"The stay of demolition from the court of appeal remains in effect until Judge [Frank] Roesch signs the order denying our petition. When he signs it, our lawyers will file a new appeal and file a new petition for supersedeas and a new request for a stay of demolition.
"We will continue the battle for People's Park! Support for these ongoing legal efforts is still needed." Donations to cover growing legal costs, can be sent to: http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/
Padilla and Warren Want to Tax the Rich
According to Sen. Alex Padilla (citing a 2021 ProPublica report), "hardworking American families pay approximately 14 percent of their income in federal taxes on average. Meanwhile, the 25 wealthiest Americans paid as little as 0.1 percent of the increase in their wealth from 2014 to 2018 in federal taxes. It is time for the ultra-wealthy to start paying their fair share."
The solution could be the “Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act” introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Warren's Senate Bill 510 calls for a 2% annual tax on households and trusts with a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and a 1% annual surtax on households and trusts worth more than $1 billion. S. 510 is awaiting action by the Senate Committee on Finance.
President Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” and “American Family Plan” (both incorporated into the “Build Back Better Act” [H.R. 5376] and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [Public Law 117-58]), calls for re-writing the federal tax code to raise enough revenue to repair our nation’s infrastructure and expand critical social programs. As Padilla notes: "These plans include establishing a minimum corporate tax, increasing taxes for the wealthiest Americans, closing various tax loopholes, and eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels."
Clang, Clang, Clang…
Speaking of taxing wealthy politicians, here's an inspired take on Judy Garland's "Trolley Song" from the 1944 movie, "Meet Me in St. Louis." This inspired parody (which comes to us from somewhere over the Randy Rainbow) racked up more than a million views in the first two months after it appeared online.
It is deeply disturbing to see the California CPUC choose to support profits for the investor-owned utilities PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric, rather than the future of California. The CPUC support for PG&E's plan will drive up the cost of rooftop solar to make it unavailable for middle and working class residents and force them to pay ever-increasing bills for dirty energy.
Rooftop solar is the most efficient and quickest way to clean our skies and reduce our carbon footprint. The technology is mature, it provides good jobs for all those in the business of installing rooftop solar. And because it is decentralized, it reduces the need for very expensive transmission lines required by large centralized solar projects.
Please do not sell us out to the oil corporations. We need you to serve the best interests of your constituents and protect our right to receive solar energy without interference from the big investor-owned utilities.
PG&E's extremely poor record of maintenance, which has resulted in horrendous wildfires and numerous deaths, suggests that instead of doing their bidding, and serving their stockholders, the state should be encouraging responsible non-profit municipal energy provision in California.
Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available.
You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.
Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money.
Amidst raging wildfires exacerbated by prolonged drought, and three-digit temperatures, too many Americans are treating the climate crisis with resignation bordering on acceptance. As our government seems unwilling or unable to solve this coming calamity to planet Earth, Americans have understandably moved to more immediate concerns that effect their daily lives: higher prices for groceries, housing and gasoline.
Meanwhile, we see the effects of climate change scientists predicted, such as the loss of sea ice, melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and global temperature increases from human-made greenhouse gases. Some of the effects of climate change are already irreversible. As the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses after China, the U.S. has an obligation to act now.
On July 25, 165 staffers at federal health and environmental agencies as well as 75 Congressional offices published a letter calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden to act more aggressively on climate. "Every day you do not act, the climate crisis spirals further out of control. The coming days represent our best opportunity to address the climate crisis and save countless lives with robust climate justice policy, . . .”
There Is, however, a glimmer of hope. Senator Joe Manchin (D.WV) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.NY) have agreed on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that would among other things, invest $369 billion in Energy Security and Climate Change programs over the next ten years, which would reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030. However to get to 50 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D.AZ), another holdout on her party’s domestic policy measure, must agree to vote for the proposed legislation.
If passed, the U.S. will be able to show by example progress at the next climate conference in November. But remember Sens. Manchin and Sinema have disappointed us in the past.
Passage of the Act should also help Democrats at the midterm elections.
City Council has one last meeting before summer recess Wednesday morning, August 3 at 9 am. The agenda which is not yet posted is expected to be two ballot initiatives, the General Obligation Bond of $600,000,000 to $650,000,000 and the Vacancy Tax. The Special Tax measure on Sidewalks, Traffic Improvements and 2050 Program Plan as a ballot measure is dead by unanimous council vote. Check the website on Monday (really daily) for the latest ballot measure versions and supplements. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas
Wednesday evening the Commission on Disability meets at 6 pm with the Pacific Center Presentation as item 5 after commission action items. The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets at 7 pm with a full agenda. This is wildfire season and wildfire is prominently on the agenda.
Thursday the Landmarks Commission meets at 7 pm with eight projects for review. It looks like too much to get through in one evening, but we shall see.
Tuesday, August 2, 2022 - NATIONAL NIGHT OUT
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING at 9 am
Videoconference: not posted
Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: not posted
AGENDAAction: 1. Elevator Ordinance, 2. Workplan, Discussion B.1. Inclusive Disaster Registry, 2. Accessibility of Voicemail, 3. Increasing Public Participation in Commission, 4. Berkeley Bike Plan, 5. ADA Pacific Center Presentation, 6. Data, Outreach & Access of persons with disabilities to City of Berkeley Programs and Services.
AGENDA: 3. Workplan, 4. Staff presentation Wildfire Protection Plan, 5. Community Communications about 2022 Fire season, 6. Fire Dept. Facilities Master Plan, 7. CERT training, 8. Safe Passages Program, 9. 6/28/22 Council meeting on Measures GG and FF Tax Rates, Parking enforcement in fire zones 2 & 3, 10. Berkeley Strategic Plan quarterly report on Wildfire Safety, 11. CA and Berkeley Fire Code Updates.
Notice of Decision (NOD) and Use Permits with the End of the Appeal Period
Bad news on tracking approved projects in the appeal period. Samantha Updegrave, Zoning Officer, Principal Planner wrote the listing of projects in the appeal period can only be found by looking up each project individually through permits online by address or permit number https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/Online-Building-Permits-Guide.pdf
The website with easy to find listing of projects in the appeal period was left on the “cutting room floor” another casualty of the conversion to the new City of Berkeley website.
Here is the old website link, Please ask for it to be restored.
If you would like to receive the Activist’s Calendar as soon as it is completed send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly summary of city meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com.
If you are looking for past agenda items for city council, city council committees, boards and commission and find records online unwieldy, you can use the https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website to scan old agenda. The links no longer work, but it may be the only place to start looking.
