Public Comment

Between my former lives as a plein air painter and a home health nurse in the inner city of Los Angeles, I am geared to taking in as much of my surroundings as possible. Last week I wrote about asphalt in tree wells in front of BODYROX. It is always a benefit to pay attention and this time it was a benefit to be wrong as that lead to an extended email exchange with Scott Ferris, Director of Recreation, Parks and Waterfront. It turns out the product around the trees only looks like asphalt and is instead a product that is flexible and porous protecting tree roots and letting water run through. 

Ferris didn’t say which of the two manufacturers Rubberway https://sustainablesurfacing.com/pervious-pavement or Flexi-pave https://apaicorp.com/kbi.htm Berkeley is using, but the product used at 3120 Eton in 2017 to save a majestic Redwood from having its roots cut to replace damaged concrete is a much closer blend in color to a concrete sidewalk (see photo in google maps https://goo.gl/maps/H9G3E1zg6J7iDt7VA). It has a nice cushy feel when walking on it.  

I’ve already emailed all the information Ferris sent to me to the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) and the Design Review Committee (DRC). Charles Kahn, architect, on ZAB and DRC emailed he is sharing the information with his group. These products have a lot of potential. According to the websites there’s a long list of benefits over asphalt. The most pressing need is to reduce runoff so that when we do get rain it soaks into the ground. Rubberway and Flexi-Pav do just that, let the rain water soak through and filter it too. But they are not just a permeable surface for sidewalks, paths, parking lots and roadways, they are durable, non-toxic, divert tires from landfill and more. Seattle and Washington DC are two cities Ferris named that are using these products. 

We still need to change our thinking about trees so that what we plant will support local ecosystems and provide the shade we need from large canopies to reduce the heat island effect. 

The Community for a Cultural Civic Center (CCCC) met twice during the week. Councilmember Hahn attended the Monday noon meeting to pump votes and volunteers for yes on Measure L. According to the Yes on L card dropped on my doorstep, Hahn donated $5,000.00 to the Yes on L campaign as did Gordon Wozniak. Jesse Arreguin and Raymond Yep each donated $1,000.00. John Caner emphasized that community members of CCCC represent a variety of opinions. I stand in strong opposition to Measure L. 

At the meeting on Wednesday Susi Marzuola from Siegel & Strain gave a presentation from current meetings the consultants from Siegel & Strain have been having with the City. The presentation will be given at a “multi-commission” (Civic Arts, Landmarks and Public Works, now combined with Transportation) meeting at 11 am on Thursday, September 29--a meeting that has yet to appear on the City website. The zoom link sent by CCCC for that 11 am meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81499570453?pwd=Qk9tU3BFbml2bFg0TWlmVGVTeHJGZz09.  

Marzuola talked through a long list of slides and presented two considerations for construction of a new 270 seat new city council chamber at either behind the Maudelle Shirek Building (old city hall) or in the Civic Center Park at the location of the parking lot connected to 2180 Milvia. CCCC strongly opposed building new city council chambers in the Civic Center Park months ago. 

The external seismic buttressing to the Veterans’ Building, which would have added 8000 square feet of usable “back stage” space, making the Veterans Building incredibly versatile as a performance center, was also rejected, in favor of instead upgrading the Maudelle Shirek building to the seismic standard of IO, Immediate Occupancy, the standard used for hospitals and like buildings. The CCCC recommended seismic bracing to just below IO to BPON+ a standard at lower cost which would leave the Maudelle Shirek and Veterans’ buildings standing and repairable.  

New Council Chambers for 270 is an interesting number. Prior to the pandemic the city council was meeting at 1231 Addison Street in the Berkeley Unified School District Board Room, which was remodeled to be used jointly by BUSD and City Council. It has seating for 240 members of the public. Most city council meetings have had well under 100 attendees, frequently even fewer than 50. When there are contentious items on the agenda, as there was at least once during the pandemic, attendance on Zoom swelled to more than 350. 

The pandemic and Zoom have really changed how we attend meetings. It is nice to see people in public, meet new people, reconnect, but the convenience of being able to walk over to a computer or carry a device around at home to watch a meeting instead of being trapped in a room all evening for one or two agenda items is the answer many want. Certainly, parents with young kids or really anyone with caregiving responsibilities appreciate being able to tune in for the agenda items that matter to them and still put their kids to bed on time on school nights and not have to pay for a babysitter. 

Attending The Color of Water: A Policy Discussion, a meeting hosted by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, was a reminder of why I prefer Zoom. I spent 55 minutes in transit (driving and parking) for a four-hour meeting that had almost no new information that could have just as easily with less environmental impact been provided 100% via zoom. Just the plastic bags, throw away cups and plates should make anyone cringe with the waste of it all. And, though city council meetings do not provide food or beverages for the public, long meetings do provide meals for council and staff and the rest of us need to bring rations to make it through the usual long evenings. 

It looks like the Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Measure L got it right, “Future Councils will have the freedom to spend much of this money on vanity projects like new Council chambers as has been proposed!” Vincent Casalaina, who opposes Measure L described it this way, “This is money looking for projects, not projects looking for money.” 

Every voter should read the East Bay Times editorial from September 3, 2022 regarding Oakland’s Measure U as it could just as easily have been written about Berkeley’s Measure L. 

The paragraph that says it all states, “The issue is not whether the city needs more money to fix its badly dilapidated roads. It does. The issue is that, when city leaders ask for new taxes, they need to come with clear budgets that ensure the money will be wisely spent — and data that demonstrate past tax revenues have been used efficiently.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/09/03/editorial-oakland-voters-should-reject-850-million-measure-u-bond/ 

It should come as no surprise there is a long list of elected officials endorsing Measure L, as what elected official doesn’t love money coming with an open-ended list of ideas for spending. 

Deb Durant said on Wednesday that there are huge developments on the Turtle Island Monument/Fountain planning. The whole thing may be considerably delayed. She will share next time. Previous coverage of the Turtle Island Monument in the Activist Diary covered reporting that the project consultants did not want to hear from the Ohlone/Lisjuan People the Monument is supposed to honor. 

Erin Diehm mentioned daylighting the creek in the Civic Center Park and that arrangements are still being made to schedule a presentation by Ann Riley. Marzuola was quick to brush this aside. Greening cities is a big movement, and per Diehm’s research with Riley there is a lot of grant money available for projects. Watch for announcement of a future meeting on daylighting. After I spent a morning in Strawberry Park when the park was packed, daylighting the creek sounds incredibly exciting. 

This is a week when I feel like why can’t our information devices work like a toaster: Put in the bread, turn it on, and toast. For us older folks, we remember when appliances just worked by turning them on, and when they broke, they went to the repair person for a new cord or new switch or some other little part and lasted for many more years. This week I am hearing about emails and messages getting lost, texts requiring new programs, computers breaking down. It is all at a time with the days to the November election are flying away and there are never enough waking hours to fit everything in. 

At least Tuesday’s City Council meeting ended at around 8:09 pm. 

Council moved everything to Consent except technical edits and corrections to the Zoning code. Item 16 under Action, restoring and improving access to the City of Berkeley website https://berkeleyca.gov/ , was moved to Consent, cutting off discussion of the mess that has been created for those of us who search history for past city actions. I put a specific resolution number into Records Online and got back pages and pages of documents to sift through (I stopped counting after 200) none of which had the document. I tried using the search option in the new City website which in turn spit out a list of unwanted documents, everything except what I requested. 

Item 17. for extending existing contracts for services for the poor for another year instead of requesting new proposals with new cost estimates, went to Consent without even one word of discussion. 

Even the City Auditor was relegated to Public Comment on the clock instead of giving the Audit Status Report presentation. 

So while ending early is nice, cutting off needed discussion and debate, especially discussion that points out problems for which the City Manager bears responsibility, should leave us to question just exactly why such problems are getting a pass instead of transparency. 

The 4:00 pm City Council meeting on housing was a work session with no vote taken. The council received a report on adding “middle’ housing, which is now duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, these smaller buildings in previous single-family home neighborhoods and recommendations for increasing density in the Southside area for students. The hillside fire zones are exempted from adding density with these smaller multi-unit projects. Evacuating households in the fire zone areas are already a known problem. 

Councilmember Harrison asked that housing plans include places for grocery stores instead of just more coffee shops and reminded all that the least expensive units are in the buildings we already have (older buildings). Councilmember Hahn focused on the idea that in adding all this lot coverage we need to be looking at green accessible space on the ground open to the public, not just street trees or green roofs that are not accessible at all. There needs to be accessible open green space. Both Hahn and Harrison noted the advantage of creating units inside existing buildings especially older large single-family homes. 

The last project reviewed at the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) was 2065 Kittredge. which will demolish the Shattuck Cinemas and most of the former Hinks Building.. When an attendee John D. (I didn’t get his last name) who identified himself as being from the building industry raised his hand, I expected a long dissertation on praises for the building. Instead it was a criticism that the developer is not using union labor and workers did not receive health benefits. Bill Shrader, the developer for this building and several others downtown, said he builds with an open shop and 40% to 60% are union labor. 

Charles Kahn, architect and ZAB member responded that ZAB did not have the authority to require union labor and stated, “I would be ashamed to be a developer that health insurance is not provided.” The project was passed out of ZAB to return to the Design Review Committee to reconsider the color palette, removing the west facing wall section that is black, among other things. 

In closing I wish to thank Michelle LePaule for the book recommendation for The Privatization of Everthing by Donald Cohen and Alan Mikaelian. This book is fabulous and I will never look at privatization or public private partnerships the same way again. It is a solid reminder of all the great important services provided by government especially in the areas of research, weather, public libraries, education, water, and that is just for starters. The authors lay out how privatization and the declarations of efficiency are really taking out the “service” and putting in “profit” and how the “profit” steadily drains away the service harming us all. 

The authors call the promise of privatization as being less costly and more efficient a false myth, and go through example after example.  

Cohen and Mikaelian go into detail about how privatization actually hinders innovation. Innovation means taking risks that may not pan out. Innovation grows from sharing ideas, successes and failures. In privately held companies; when sharing means that some other company, a competitor, might make the discovery or find the solution, then the privatized entity is going to keep innovations proprietary, even going so far as to require employees to sign non-disclosure contracts. This even extends to examples of charter schools prohibiting teachers from sharing successful lessons. 

There is a lot covered in The Privatization of Everything. It is definitely worth your time and the wait at the library. The library could use a couple of more copies.