Page One

Once again there is a lot to cover as I pull the last two weeks on the local scene together. To ease the posting and reading here is Part I. Part 2 will follow on what is coming to us in more proposed zoning changes (housing).

The Tuesday 4 pm City Council Special Meeting on Legislative Systems Redesign was enough to make even attentive eyes glaze over. The mayor and Councilmember Hahn made the point at the meeting that Hahn’s proposal started on page 43 of the 138-page packet.

The meeting was nine minutes shy of two hours, started 42 minutes late and no action was taken. Most glaring in all this foolishness comes on page 95 of the 138-page packet, with the header “state or federal model” which appeared to be the basis for the layers of process.

It evidently did not occur to the team engrossed in the systems redesign (several of whom have left employment with the city of Berkeley) that the state legislative system has 40 state senators and 80 assembly members, and covers around 39,000,000 residents or that the federal system has 100 senators, 435 house members and covers 332,000,000 residents.

Berkeley has a mayor and eight councilmembers for the 123,562 of us living on the 10.5 square miles we call Berkeley. Without UC Berkeley students who now number over 40,000, Berkeley’s population would be well under 100,000.

It is not that what the city manager, city employees and city council do is unimportant, since it can be said that council actions can have a big impact on our daily life. Nor is it that committees aren’t useful, as there are occasions when committees are extremely useful in refining legislation. Nor is it that I am steadfastly opposed to committees in total. But I attend City Council Policy Committee meetings and watch the mayor and councilmembers in action. I have come to the conclusion that to create a complicated system for the few of the nine who actually submit major legislation seems a bit over the top.  

I have not spoken with Councilmember Harrison, but I do wonder what all of this process would have done to the natural gas ban that Mayor Arreguin uses to declare himself an environmental leader, when it was Harrison who initiated the natural gas ban and did all the work. I have never seen any other piece of legislation or any other member of council including the mayor to put together so skillfully and powerfully legislation with scientists, industry leaders and dozens of members of the public all in support. 

We can expect the mayor, the councilmembers and the city manager to come out in strong defense of all the layers of review and process in the redesign. But the more I watch the city, the more I think we were better off before the councilmembers began dismantling the commissions and expanding themselves into committees.  

Looking through the documents one last time, the standardized form for submitting legislation is good, but I am not convinced that all this process and committee meetings will be anything more than a detour on getting things done. 

The City Council regular meeting followed the systems redesign. Members of the Chess Club were present, again asking the City to drop the fines to the property owner at the corner of Telegraph and Haste (originally the famous Cody’s books). Speakers pointed out a large number of the players were Black and there were chess players who are unhoused. The obvious implication was that the City action of fines to end the Chess Club smacked of classism and racism. 

Councilmember Robinson with co-sponsor Mark Humbert added an urgent action item to the agenda to open the Dwight Triangle for the Chess Club. This is the tiny spot currently surrounded by fencing at the intersection of Telegraph and Dwight, bounded by steady traffic on all sides.  

The Chess Club responded the Dwight Triangle is a heavy vehicle traffic site, is not a solution and certainly not suitable for children who also play chess with the club.  

What the members of the Chess Club have been saying about why they loved the club appears to define exactly why the City piled on fines to close it. Playing chess on the large private plaza in public view brought an unlikely diverse group of people together whose paths would never cross without this experience. And the presence of such a diverse group in public view conflicted with a vision for upscaling the area. 

Dee Williams-Ridley, City Manager, reported to council 52 homeless encampments were closed, there were 26 deep cleanings and 11 RV encampments were closed.  

As reported in the October 7 Activist’s Diary Part 2, Peter Radu, Assistant to the City Manager, stated at the Homeless Services Panel of Experts (HSPE) meeting in his introduction to the Development of Good Neighbor Guidelines and Encampment Policy, “unsheltered homelessness is our new normal.”  

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Sabyl Landrum, an attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center, shared at the follow-up HSPE subcommittee meeting on that policy, that temporary housing amounts to fourteen days. Landrum added that one client recently was able to extend the temporary housing for another fourteen days, but then it will end.  

It is not a very satisfactory picture, if temporary housing means that a homeless person must give up their tent and what little security they might grasp by being in an encampment with others to get a short reprieve of two weeks before being pushed back out on the street again.  

What I am waiting to hear from the City of Berkeley is how long people are housed before they are back on the street. How many homeless people are still housed one month after an encampment is closed, and how many who are offered “permanent” housing are still housed one and two years later, even six months later? How much of what happens in closing encampments results in churning the same people over and over? These are the unanswered questions. 

The last time I recall a report given to City Council and the public with dollar amounts on placement of unhoused persons in permanent housing, council was still meeting in the Maudelle Shirek Building (old city hall). What was so striking in that old report was the average income of the homeless person was around $900/month. The permanent housing started with subsidies which were reduced on a step-down schedule until all subsidies were withdrawn under the assumption, that somehow the former homeless person would be able to come up with the difference.  

There have been reports since those days with numbers of encampments closed and point in time homeless counts, but that doesn’t get to what is the actual success of the programs. The cheapest studio apartment in Berkeley I could find on the internet was $1300/month. The average price for a studio apartment in Berkeley is around $2400. 

For many of us our association with the homeless is to be afraid and repulsed. That is how Cathy A. Small felt when she first saw the homeless man with his dog in the dog park. Then one day there was a dogfight and she needed help. It was the homeless man who came to rescue her. The book The Man in the Dog Park: Coming Up Close to Homelessness by Cathy A. Small with Jason Kordosky and Ross Moore is the story. Small is an anthropologist, Kordosky is a researcher and Ross Moore was the homeless man with whom she wrote the book. 

The book is only 152 pages with a lot packed in on the day to day challenges. Moore’s statement, “the high cost of being poor” in the last chapter is so apropos to the plight of the poor. There is only one copy (print edition) at the Berkeley library and no editions at any of the other five area libraries I use. It is worth buying, reading and passing on to a friend.  

The next Homeless Services Panel of Experts Subcommittee on the Development of Good Neighbor Guidelines and Encampment Policy is scheduled for Monday, October 30 at 7 pm at the Media Center. It will be offered as a hybrid meeting. Since the last subcommittee meeting was word of mouth and not posted on the City website, I will try to pick it up in the Activist’s Calendar. 

Not much else happened at the council meeting. The only action item was the status report on the city’s financial condition which centered on setting aside a portion of city funds as an emergency reserve. This was in follow-up to the City Auditor’s recommendations. 

The Rhinos Kayak Polo team who won the September 2023 USA Nationals Youth Division opened the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission meeting on Wednesday. They took up the non-agenda comment with their request for a place to store their equipment at the waterfront so their equipment didn’t have to be hauled back and forth for each practice. It would mean less dependence on parents with vehicles to haul the equipment. More kids could participate.  

Searching through old Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission Agendas, there was a communication from the Bay Area Kayak Polo Club requesting a berth fee waiver in April 2023; however, this does not appear to be the same group. There was no action on the communication.  

Commissions can’t act on non-agenda items other than to thank the public and put an item on a future agenda. In this case the commission doesn’t have control over storage areas. That would go to Scott Ferris, Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. He was present and hopefully listened.  

The Ohlone Greenway Improvement Project appeared on the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission agenda for the very first time on October 11, 2023. Ferris, who initiated the agenda item, informed the commission that the plan was to widen the bicycle/pedestrian path to fourteen feet and remove five mature trees. There were no diagrams of the project or photos of the trees to be removed. The Parks Commission after discussion with Ferris settled on opposing the removal of mature trees.  

According to the webpage on the City website the Ohlone Greenway Improvement Project has been in process since August 2022 and is listed on the City website as a transportation project. The public comment period ended August 25, 2023. The project never appeared on the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission agenda. The project never appeared on the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission agenda until October,when apparently everything has been finalized. I never saw an announcement of in-person meetings in February. It is a mystery who attended.  

Bicyclists are not the only users of the Ohlone Greenway. There were walkers and runners out there today in the rain as my walk partner and I tried to figure out from my soggy printout which trees were targeted to be cut done. Here is the link for your own investigation. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/capital-projects/ohlone-greenway-safety-improvements-project  

Commissioner Wozniak brought up for discussion a possible ballot measure for a parks tax increase. There were questions about the financing of the parks and what happens to the TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax – the add-on on your hotel/motel bill) and service taxes. Why do they go into the general fund with only a portion being reallocated to supporting the Marina? One advantage of not being a commissioner is not having to tiptoe around the truth. I could say Wozniak put forth a valiant argument for financing the Marina at the Budget Committee and the City Manager nixed it (Wozniak confirmed my comment). Nothing was voted on or finalized. This is something to watch for now.  

The Commission did finalize their Waterfront Specific Plan. The Commission is supposed to have a seat at the table at the November 2 City Council meeting on the Waterfront Specific Plan. It is rumored that the City staff/consultant version for the waterfront is undergoing yet another revision. Keep your eyes peeled. Thursday, November 2 is the planned meeting date.  

The very public Waterfront Specific Plan open house on September 23, 2023, where we could walk around the Nature Center at Shorebird Park and put our sticky notes with comments on the poster boards, hasn’t made it onto the City’s Waterfront Specific Plan website. I always feel uncomfortable with sticky notes wondering how many of those unwanted comments will fall off the boards. At least the cookies were good. https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/capital-projects/waterfront-specific-plan  

I took a rare day off from city meetings on Thursday October 12. I didn’t make it to the Budget and Finance Committee, but I did listen to the recording. Councilmember Harrison was unable to attend and was replaced by Hahn. Only one agenda item was discussed, the AAO (Annual Appropriations Ordinance) which is a fancy way of saying the mid-year budget adjustment. There are two yearly budget adjustments, one in the fall and one in the spring.  

This is when the Budget Committee finds out what didn’t get done, what budgeted money wasn’t spent, whether revenue was over or under projections and how much is available for councilmember budget requests.  

Since this was Hahn’s first time on the Budget Committee, she asked lots of questions including where the councilmember budget requests were. Not including the council budget requests in the first round is the usual dance. All the requests and priorities from the City Manager are posted in the first round. Council requests don’t appear until later. No action was taken and it will be up again on October 26th.  

Only one of the fixed cameras approved by council has been installed.  

The three meetings on housing that bookended the week were far more interesting and coming in Part 2.