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At the 4 pm special meeting on Tuesday June 24, 2025 agenda item 4 is titled “Selected Marina Fee” Increases. This item includes a brand new waterfront parking fee of $1 per hour or $6 per day. To be clear the Berkeley City Council is poised to approve charging for parking at the three most heavily used parking lots at the marina/waterfront (South Cove East, South Cove West, J/K lots). 

The City of Berkeley administration including Scott Ferris, Director, Parks Recreation and Waterfront who submitted the fee schedule purport that this new parking fee will bring in $182,500 to the Marina fund after expenses to collect the fees. 

It should be noted that agenda item 3 being heard by Council just prior to the new marina parking fee is to increase Residential Parking Permit Fees because as of March 2025 the Residential Preferential Parking Permit Program (RPP) runs a deficit of $1,271,391. To be clear the RPP (all those neighborhood signs that limit parking without a permit) brings in $2,848,500 to the City, but it costs the City $4,119,891 to run the program costing the City over a million dollars to collect the fees, monitor and ticket owners of vehicles who exceed the parking limit. 

More important than what appears to be magical thinking that charging for parking is going to bring in an extra $182,500, the new parking fee is going to hit low-income families with small children the hardest, people on fixed incomes and people who are not vigorous enough to ride a bicycle to the waterfront and depend on a vehicle to get there. 

Never mind that 75% of us voted for Measure Y in the November 2024 election to increase the tax to property owners to fund Berkeley’s parks. 

Never mind that the City’s consultants (Kittelson & Associates) are trying to prove that there are enough open parking spaces for the riders of the planned Berkeley ferry who according to WETA’s surveys of current ferry riders are majority high income. WETA (Water Emergency Transportation Authority) will run the proposed ferry. 

Never mind that according to the citizen survey the people who fish for food at the waterfront survive on an annual income averaging around $25,000. 

Never mind that according to the consultant projections a third of the waterfront visitors/users are low income. 

When you long for the days when going to the waterfront did not bring an added cost to park, long for the days when Berkeley embraced diversity. 

The recitation of the land acknowledgement at City meetings comes up empty when we look at the proposed City action. 

Please email city council at council@berkeleyca.gov 

And show up on Tuesday, June 24 at 4 pm at 1231 Addison St. in the School District Board Room to say no. If in person doesn’t work, sign on to zoom https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1605843840