On May 9^th, Treasury Secretary Bessent told Congress the debt ceiling must be increased by mid-July. Congress has been focused on Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill,” an omnibus bill including everything Trump wants plus a debt ceiling increase. This past week the “big, beautiful budget bill” took a halting step forward. Congress is in session until August 1^st, when legislators go on vacation for a month. Before August 1, Congress must increase the debt ceiling or the US will fall off a cliff. 

Trump’s omnibus budget bill contains items such as more money for the Defense and Homeland Security Departments. However, the primary focus is making the “Trump tax cuts” permanent. The early estimate of the cost of these tax cuts is $5 trillion. ( https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/10/republicans-partial-tax-plan-estimated-to-cost-5-trillion-00340347 ) 

Theoretically, congressional Republicans have enough votes to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill;” they have a three-vote margin in both the House and Senate. (Most observers assume that all Democratic members of Congress will vote against the Trump tax cuts.) Because the ‘big, beautiful budget bill” is categorized as a “budget reconciliation” measure, it only needs a majority vote to pass the House and Senate. 

While Republicans have enough votes to pass the bill, there’s a wing of their caucus that demands the bill be deficit neutral. Therefore, Republicans need to find ways to offset the $5 trillion. One suggestion involves cuts to social-safety-net programs such as Medicaid. While there is a possibility that Republicans will pass Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill” by the end of July, some have likened this to solving a Rubik’s cube in committee. 

This week, the “big, beautiful budget bill” was blocked in the House Budget Committee by very conservative Republican congressmen who held out for more cuts to social services, such as Medicaid. On May 18^th they were appeased by House Speaker Johnson and, therefore, let the bill move out of committee (at midnight). It’s not clear how they were appeased, which makes the bill’s next move – to the House Rules Committee – complicated because aspects of the bill need to be rewritten (and the fiscal impact must be resized by the Congressional Budget Office.) Speaking for Budget Committee Democrats, Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, demanded that lawmakers be able to view “what side agreements have been reached” before casting their vote. “Making sure all the members know transparently just what the heck is in this thing,” Mr. Boyle said, “because obviously it’s changing back in that back room by the minute.” ( https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/politics/house-republicans-budget-vote-trump-agenda.html ) The House Rules committee meets at 1am (EST) on May 21. 

The “big, beautiful budget bill” limped forward, its contents and cost uncertain. At issue is what size of deficit increase Republicans are willing to swallow – because it’s certain that the “big, beautiful budget bill” will increase the deficit by at least $3 trillion. (The tax cuts and new spending will not be totally offset by hits to social services.) There are four ancillary issues: 1.The form of cuts to Medicaid. 2. Deletion of tax cuts for clean energy. 3. The size of the deduction for State and Local taxes. 4, The size of the tax rate for the top bracket. 

What’s going to happen? Given that House Republicans are scheduling critical budget reviews in the middle of the night, it seems certain that they intend to force the House to vote on a “dirty” bill: a bill where most of the legislators have not had time to thoughtfully consider the final bill language and where the financial implications are opaque. This sounds like a “big, beautiful budget bill” that adds trillions to the national debt and harms the poorest citizens. 

 

The crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic proportions. On May 22, Israeli military forces escalated their offensive, killing at least hundreds of Palestinians and displacing thousands more following renewed evacuation orders. Even hospitals are not spared — Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that Israel bombed fuel tanks and power generators at the Indonesian Hospital and surrounded Al-Awda Hospital. Of Gaza’s 38 hospitals, only 19 remain partially functional. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The news coming out of Gaza is horrific. Israeli bombing continues even as pictures show a landscape that is already rubble. Starvation sets in as Israel blocks the delivery of food. World Central Kitchen reports their last food delivery in early March.



There are more child amputees in Gaza than anywhere else in the world because Israel has bombed the hospitals and blocked the delivery of the medicines and equipment that in any other setting would be used to save these children’s arms and legs. Physicians, nurses, medics, ambulance drivers are targeted, imprisoned, bombed and killed.



Netanyahu called for the complete annihilation of the Palestinians in his October 28, 2023 speech, but that was not the first time such statements and actions have been taken. The dispossession of Palestinians of their land and erasure of their culture and history started decades ago as Rashid Khalidi writes in The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 – 2017. Khaldi is not alone in chronicling the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.



And we, our country, the United States furnishes the bombs, armaments, and financing to Israel for mass murder of Palestinians under the banner of Israel has a right to defend itself.



Twisting the lessons of the Holocaust of “never again” into kill first or be killed has not brought peace. Nor has the nation state of Israel that privileges only Jewish citizens with full rights brought safety. 

 

These recent books lay out for us to question our thinking and actions, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinhart and The World After Gaza: A History by Pankaj Mishra. 

 

It is in this context that the new mayor Adena Ishii scheduled the meeting on April 28, 2025 for the Berkeley City Council to consider the Ceasefire Resolution passed by the Peace and Justice Commission September 30, 2024. 

 

The originally scheduled commission meeting on September 3, 2024 on a ceasefire resolution was cancelled by the City due to a posting error while councilmembers scrambled to remove and replace existing commissioners and fill empty slots with appointees that could be expected to block the passage of a ceasefire resolution. 

 

It was that night September 3 in a quickly assembled rally that I heard Dr. Feroze Sidwa in person for the second time talk about providing medical care as trauma surgeon to the people of Gaza. 

 

I was at that September 30 meeting in the North Berkeley Senior Center packed shoulder to shoulder in standing room only around the full chairs. After an evening of moving public testimony, the ceasefire resolution squeaked by in an 8 to 7 vote. 

 

There really isn’t a good word for how I feel about the outcome of the Berkeley City Council meeting on the Ceasefire Resolution that ends with a resolution that “hopes” for peace and never mentions ceasefire. Days before the meeting started, I stated minds were made up as the members of the council had already picked their sides through their commission appointees and yet when it happened the words I might choose disheartened, depressed, disappointed, sorrowful all seem inadequate. 

 

One person emailed me as being furious. A range of anger doesn’t fit either though I have little patience for those who choose “profound intentional ignorance”.  

 

Another asked why I even care, after all does it even matter what Berkeley does? To that I responded Berkeley has a special place in the mind of the world as a beacon of progressive thinking and action. Of course, Berkeley has failed to live up to that image for quite some time though many still cling to it declaring Berkeley is the only place to live. 

 

We waited seven months to hear the Berkeley City Council weigh in on the resolution passed by the Peace and Justice Commission. When the day arrived, April 28, 2025 there were three resolutions to consider. 

 

• Peace and Justice Commission Resolution with introductory cover letter: bit.ly/3Z4z8U7
• Mayor Adena Ishii and Councilmember Ben Bartlett Resolution: bit.ly/43iqYIX
• Councilmember Terry Taplin Resolution: bit.ly/3S2QNaO

(If you have trouble reading the final language of Taplin Resolution it is at the bottom of this Activist’s Diary.) 

 

I had planned to attend in person, but when I arrived the gate outside the patio to the B.U.S.D. Board Room the gate was closed, the room was already full. Rather than joining the crowd outside and wait for a chance to get in the room, I turned around and walked home to connect on zoom which is really my preferred way to attend city council. 

 

The meeting started at 5:04 pm with the first speaker at 5:38 pm following a council motion to limit public comment to three hours. At 8:38 pm Councilmember Lunaparra made a motion to add another hour for speakers. In the 7, 1, 1 vote to extend public comment Taplin voted no and Humbert abstained. The rest of the council and mayor voted yes. Public comment continued with the last public speaker finishing at 11:04 pm. 

 

Though 197 speakers are listed in the meeting annotated agenda, through reading the transcript there were an actual 129 speakers. Some people stepped up to the microphone to cede their one minute while others just raised their hand to give a speaker extra time to reach the maximum four-minute limit. 

 

The public who wrote and spoke against passing the Peace and Justice Commission Resolution (PJC) and pushed a vote to reject everything or to pass the Taplin resolution would like us to believe they were in the majority. 

 

Speaker 23 identifying as a parent of a B.U.S.D (Berkeley Unified School District) student went so far as to use the Republican trope that people were bused in and calling in from out of state to account for the full room and line of callers on zoom. 

 

In my walk over, I didn’t see any of the buses that speaker 23 claimed were used to deliver out of area “anti-Semites” to the meeting. What I did see in the crowd were many familiar local faces. There might have been a few who took the local AC Transit bus, but as much as Berkeley and climate activists are trying to increase public transit ridership, most of us walk, bicycle, scooter or drive. 

 

Maybe it was the two out of towners from Richmond, California that caught Speaker 23’s attention, current Mayor Eduardo Martinez (speaker 31) and former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin (speaker 57). They spoke to the City of Richmond passing the first ceasefire resolution in the nation on October 24, 2023, a resolution McLaughlin stated she co-authored. 

 

Or maybe 23 was anticipating Dr. Feroze Sidwa speaker 88 the humanitarian trauma and critical care surgeon from Stockton, California who has worked extensively in Palestine and also Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso. Dr. Sidwa is the kind of person who gives his medical skills courageously and was able to provide firsthand accounts in his zoom call at 9:30 pm as a trauma surgeon in Gaza. https://www.ferozesidhwa.org/ 

 

Ninety-five people spoke in support of PJC with many emphasizing an arms embargo. Thirty spoke against the PJC with a mix of supporting the Taplin resolution or requesting no action. There were four who spoke with no decipherable recommendation. 

 

I read all the communication letters using the dates from April 24 the date the meeting was posted through April 28, the three resolutions and then studied it all again. 

 

There were some who sent more than one email. Only one person wrote in support of the resolution by Mayor Ishii and Councilmember Bartlett. Fifty-four emails requested no action and fifty-two emails supported the Taplin resolution. Ninety-eight emails with a total of 289 listed signers supported the Peace and Justice Ceasefire Resolution. 

 

The organizations supporting PJC were the Friends of Adeline, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, UC Nikkei Student Union, Japanese American Community and Japanese American Families for Justice. Several letters were from members of SEIU 1021 whose Executive Board voted for a ceasefire on November 6, 2023. 

 

Maybe speaker 23 was confused by hearing from Jewish Voice for Peace thinking that speaker was from out of state. Jewish Voice for Peace was originally organized right here in Berkeley and speaker 9 representing Jewish Voice for Peace is my neighbor in the Berkeley flats. 

 

The Jewish Coalition of Berkeley supported the Taplin Resolution. 

 

Of the many letters it was Tarek Milleron’s numbered 154 that I went back to, to reread again. 

 

Milleron started with a quote from the op-ed by Daniel Blatman that appeared in Haaretz on April 28, 2025, “I have been engaged in researching the Holocaust for about 40 years. I have read countless testimonies about the worst genocide against the Jewish people and other victims. I had never imagined in my most horrific nightmares the reality in which I would read testimonies about mass murder carried out by the Jewish state, which in their chilling resemblance remind me of testimonies in the Yad Vashem archives.” 

 

Jonathan Mintzer speaker 43 from the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) requested that council avoid adopting any resolution. Mintzer stated that JCRC represented seventy synagogues in the region with five in Berkeley. 

 

JCRC is the organization that sponsors Bay Area Israel seminars with trips to Israel for “rising stars in government and civic leadership” with such notable former seminar travelers as Governor Newsom, VP Kamala Harris and San Francisco former mayor London Breed. https://jcrc.org/blog/israel-seminars/ 

 

The sponsored trips to Israel appear to have been a good investment for Israel. Harris denied to grant a speaking spot for Palestinian American at the Democratic Convention in August 2024. We know how that turned out for us as pro-Palestinian activists pulled their endorsements. 

 

Locals Jesse Arreguin (May 2022), Jenny Wong (March 2023) and Sophie Hahn (March 2023) were also travelers on JCRC seminar trips to Israel though Hahn paid her own way.  

 

The ceasefire resolution never made it onto the city council agenda while Arreguin and Hahn sat on the three-member Council Agenda Committee. 

 

When public comment ended each councilmember spoke. 

 

Humbert was the first to speak (over many interruptions) stating his opposition to the Peace and Justice Commission Resolution and his support for Taplin’s resolution which focused on Berkeley. 

 

Blackaby followed with thanking everyone, being moved by the comments and ending with supporting the Taplin resolution. 

 

O’Keefe read from her prepared comments that when she was in high school she was confused and bothered by Berkeley weighing in on international affairs and that Berkeley should focus on local affairs and she would be supporting the Taplin resolution. 

 

Taplin thanked the Jewish community and others in his district and called “these symbolic international resolutions, “at best and worst a wasteful distraction” triggering trauma and that six hours of vitriol failed to convince him otherwise. He went on with, “no one is going to threaten or force me into regurgitating language on command in pursuit of a political agenda that has nothing to do with local governance”. 

 

Taplin’s tone and comments struck me as sounding angry and like a bully. 

 

Tregub spoke to being a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, being deeply moved and saying that no resolution is perfect. Tregub stated support to both the mayor’s and Taplin’s resolutions. 

 

Lunaparra in reading her prepared statement challenged the sentiment that this issue is outside the purview of Berkeley by citing our tax dollars fund the genocide, that we cannot distance ourselves from the consequences, that inaction fans the flames of hatred and resentment, that Jewish and Palestinian constituents have been pleading for action, that Berkeley City Council voted unanimously in June 2022 (Taplin was elected in 2020) for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine, that failure to act has led to a fractured community and that even though our fascist federal government will not change, the purpose of the resolution is to show the community and our neighbors we are standing up for what is right. 

 

Lunaparra closed with reading the letter calling for a ceasefire from the father of hostage Nimrod Cohen. 

 

Kesarwani spoke to acknowledging the profound suffering in Gaza, unimaginable loss, shattered dreams, the fundamental right to safety and security cruelly denied, deep seeded fears of the Israelis and her support for both the mayor’s and Taplin’s resolutions. 

 

Then the meeting moved to a back and forth between Taplin and Ishii with neither wanting to make the first move for a motion. Ishii called for a five-minute recess. On return Lunaparra moved Taplin’s resolution for the purpose of discussion which made it the main motion. Ishii then made a motion for her resolution which would make it the substitute motion. The substitute motion is always voted on first. 

 

Taplin picked up commenting again at 11:39 pm this time to rewrite the mayor’s resolution by inserting expansive language that he had not included in his own resolution, an action that contradicted his earlier comments that engaging in a resolution was a wasteful distraction. 

 

Ishii declined the amendments saying it was too much to consider from the dais. 

 

Kesarwani said she supported the amendments in that they made it a stronger resolution. 

 

Again, Ishii declined. 

 

The vote was called for the mayor’s resolution. It lost. Bartlett, Tregub, Lunaparra and Ishii voted yes. Blackaby voted no. Kesarwani who had previously stated support abstained along with Taplin, O’Keefe, and Humbert. 

 

The vote then went to the main motion Taplin’s resolution. It passed in a 7,1,1 vote. Mayor Ishii and councilmembers Kesarwani, Taplin, Tregub, O’Keefe, Blackaby, and Humbert voted for it. Councilmember Lunaparra voted no and Councilmember Bartlett abstained. 

 

I heard some day after quarterbacking that Ishii should have allowed discussion of the Taplin amendments to hold the five votes. With only 16 minutes left extending the meeting past midnight to complete a discussion would have been a very hard sell. Would it have worked? I’m not so sure. Or was Taplin’s tactic to run the clock and fill JCRC’s request to leave with nothing? 

 

Taplin’s Resolution: “Reaffirming Berkeley’s Commitment to Peace, at Home and Abroad” 

 

WHEREAS, the City of Berkeley sees all human life as precious and recognizes the importance of peace and security for all communities in our city, our state, our nation, and our world, regardless of national, ethnic, or religious affiliations; and 

 

WHEREAS, members of the Berkeley community have been deeply affected by the suffering and loss of innocent life resulting from the ongoing war in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, with many carrying direct ties to the conflict, driving fear for loved ones and profound personal losses; and 

 

WHEREAS, this conflict abroad is driving hate at home, and the City Council has heard from individual Berkeley residents and groups who have been targeted, insulted, and threatened, and who fear for their family’s safety, sense of belonging, and well-being here in Berkeley and in Berkeley schools; and 

 

WHEREAS, Berkeley Police Department’s 2023 and 2024 Annual Reports showed a local spike in hate following October 7th, 2023, including significant increases in the rate of anti-Jewish hate crimes and hate incidents, and an increase in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes; and 

 

WHEREAS, Berkeley has long been a bastion of tolerance and a beacon of hope and acceptance for people of all backgrounds, and these hateful incidents run counter to our community’s values; and 

 

WHEREAS, the City Council of Berkeley acknowledges that residents of Berkeley have strong and often divergent opinions about the war in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy; and 

 

WHEREAS, it is the responsibility of the Berkeley City Council and elected officials to combat hate and provide moral leadership in our city; 

 

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Berkeley City Council and the Mayor of Berkeley grieve the terrible loss of life and empathize with community members whose families are impacted by the conflict and share their hope for a just and enduring peace that allows Israelis, Palestinians, and all residents of the region to live side-by-side with dignity, security, human rights, civil rights, and self-determination; and 

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Berkeley values its Arab, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim and Palestinian residents and condemns the rise of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate locally and across the country; and 

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Berkeley reaffirms its commitment to being a safe and welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities, and pledges to work with community leaders and first responders to keep every member of our community safe. 

 

In the April 24 Activist’s Diary on the Ceasefire Resolution I wrote I would be attending the conversation between Rabbi David Cooper and Peter Beinhart on Beinhart’s new book Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. 

 

Rabbi Cooper was deeply familiar with Beinhart’s work and early on went straight to asking Beinhart how he had changed from his earlier writing to this latest book. The conversation was much different than I expected. https://youtu.be/H1aNrLLO2fQ 

 

 

When you conquer a significant fear, you have an attainment that will serve you innumerable times, for years and decades to come. It is hard to describe the good feeling of liberation I have had, at times when I wasn't afraid of something anymore. It is a learned ability. There is the ability to know how to meditate well enough that you can conquer a specific fear. And there is the "fearlessness" itself, where a situation is abruptly much more comfortable. 

"Lion's Roar" is a Buddhist magazine that discriminates against people with mental illnesses. Their assumption is that only a "normal" person, or especially a person in the psychotherapy profession, is good enough to gain meditative attainment and write about it. This is a slap in the face. A "slap in the face" is still a slap, even when done by a person ascribing or claiming to ascribe to Buddhism. 

A Buddhist response to being slapped is probably that we will just walk away. I can do that. That doesn't stop me from speaking up. 

A mentally ill person, including one who takes medication for their condition, is capable of meditation and of attainment. You should not be dissuaded from your efforts to better your life via mindfulness, and this is so whether or not organized meditation practitioners reject you. 

Conquering a fear is a tall order. There are some fears I have lived with for years, and I haven't found a good method for immunity. In conquering a fear, it should be seen as a separate issue from the reality that might be linked to the fear. If something presents a danger, the hazard doesn't disappear just because you are not afraid. And sometimes having a fear indicates that you are engaged to the reality, to a reality that could bite you in the ass. 

Thus, conquering a fear doesn't rectify the situation the fear is about. And that is a very important thing to remember. It affects the rational decision of whether it makes sense to get rid of the fear, or if it makes more sense to follow the fear and fix the problem. 

A mentally ill person on medication can practice mindfulness and may be able to conquer some of their fears. Medication isn't necessarily a hindrance to mindfulness. Sometimes medication can help resolve a brain malfunction that keeps you stuck. 

The submission guidelines of Lion's Roar maintain they will have a progressive approach to "gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and physical challenges." The implication is where someone who has a mental disability is outside of the circle. It is possible that many practicing Buddhists ascribe to this ignorance. It doesn't have to stop a mentally ill person from bettering ourselves with mindfulness. And if we can practice non-resentment of this erroneous stance, it would be in the spirit of great Buddhist teachers, whether they know it or not. Whether they are living or dead. 

I believe in practice. I believe in good. I believe in do no harm. I don't have to believe I am the person someone says I am. There is too much discrimination and misinformation about mentally ill people. 

Conquering a fear is a separate theme from dealing with human prejudice and ignorance. Yet someone else's ignorance should not stop us from practicing so that we will be able to conquer a fear. 

Because of the nature of psych medication, the types of meditation and the specific practices will probably be different for a mentally ill person. Medication addresses problems, and in the process of that it introduces other problems. I can't tell you much more than that, except to say it will be more challenging to be mindful if you take meds. That's not advice to stop your meds. It should serve as advice to be very patient with yourself. 

Short of being able to study under a master familiar with the problems of mental illness, and while such a master might not even exist, reading on the subject and doing what you reasonably can, should probably be okay. 

---

gggggggggggggggggg 

Jack Bragen lives and writes in the East Bay.

Berkeley High Kiosks
Berkeley High School is rightly proud of its grads. So proud, in fact, that it has adorned a dozen-or-so sidewalk kiosks with paintings of Yellowjackets who went on to become cultural celebs.  

Take, for example, the four portraits on a kiosk in front of the BHS Visitors Entrance at the corner of Allston Way and Milvia, which pays homage to poet-playwright Chinaka Hodges, musician-composer Joshua Redman, Andy Sandberg and his two Lonely Island buds, and Grateful Dead bass guitarist Phil Lesh (Class of 1957). 

But there's been s challenge to the fourth tribute. A few years back, some disaffected Berkeley Deadhead with a beef defaced Lesh's image and scrubbed off the band's name. The defiled artwork was covered over some time ago. But that wasn't the end of the kiosk clash. After Lesh's passing in October 2024, some anonymous Dead fan returned to the site and attached a color photo of the musician in his prime, wielding his guitar above a bold, hand-scrawled message that reads: "Thanks Phil." 

Kid Me Not
The United States is the only country in the world that permits kids under 18 to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The partial good news is that 28 of America's 50 states have banned juvenile life sentences without parole. Lifetime sentences for children is a practice banned by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The wholly bad news: the CRC has been signed and adopted by every nation on Earth—with the sole exception of the United States.  

Democracy Now! Wow!
A recent edition of NBC Nightly News began with Lester Holt delivering an 8-minute report from St. Peter's Square. The entire Nightly News episode included only ten news stories. (And that's If you count the "feel-good closer" at the end of the broadcast. It provided a useful content comparison of corporate and noncommercial news models. 

It was a good reminder of the difference between news supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the commercial interruptions of for-profit, commercial-laden corporate broadcasters. 

On Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman used the same amount of time to report on 23 news stories, many referencing breaking political news, Goodman also covered the Vatican's gathering of the cardinals but, unlike Holt, used it to close out the program — and allotted it a mere seventeen seconds of air times. 

Fashion Plates
A few personalized license plates spotted about town:
GOLEM5
BWULF
BLKBRD2
JAAMINI
GR NMUME
SPACEK 

Bumper Snickers: The Tesla Edition
I Bought This Before I Learned Elon Was Crazy
Vintage Tesla: Pre-madness Edition
Bought This Before the Plot Twist
Bought Years Before He Threw that Salute
Make This Car Less Embarrassing Again
Here For Zero Emissions. Not Elon
Make This Car Less Embarrassing Again
I Know He's a Jerk But I Haven't Bought Gas in Years 

Penn Pens a Warning that Trump Could Murder the Planet 

Posted by Media Alliance on Facebook. A quote from the actor/activist Sean Penn: 

“I do think it’s a reasonable theory that Donald Trump is not unlike the spouse of someone who leaves him, perhaps for another, who then murders their former partner because if they can’t have her, nobody can. I think Donald Trump and his solipsism may have that relationship with the world and that this destruction is in part a power play, and also a literal intention of his final out.” 

America the Battleful (Oh Beautiful for Endless Wars) 

Waging wars to enrich millionaires and calling for wars against workers' wages is a crime. Here's one jarring response to the current state of foreign affairs—from Prof. Don Smith's Progressive Memes collection of protest videos: 

 

WarStrike
How maddeningly sad that the US-assisted mass murder in Palestine has also expanded to claim the lives of civilians in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. 

Could we Yanks explore the invocation of a War Strike, with millions of Americans refusing to pay taxes to support criminal acts committed in violation of international law? Could we take our appeal to the International Court of Justice? Could Trump find enough third-world jails to house millions of tax-refusing Americans? 

 

Worth Noting: 

The most important meeting of the week is the EMBER Community Workshop on ZOOM on Thursday from 6 – 7:30 pm. For program information and to RSVP to receive the ZOOM link or to RSVP for the in person Tuesday, May 27 from 6 – 7:30 pm go to Berkeley Fire Safe website 

https://www.berkeleyfiresafe.org 

And, go to the Fire Safe website for details on the EMBER program and resources. 

 

The May 20 City Council agenda is available for comment and posted at the bottom of the calendar. 

 

• Monday, May 12, 2025
  • At 2 pm the 3 x 3 Committee meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 6 pm is the Mental Health Services Act Community Meeting in person.
  • At 6:30 pm the Youth Commission meets in person.
• Tuesday, May 13, 2025
  • At 4 pm City Council meets in closed session. The previously scheduled presentation on the Fire Department Evacuation Study is cancelled with no new date announced yet.
  • From 5 – 7:30 pm is the in person Mental Health Awareness Month Event.
• Wednesday, May 14, 2025
  • At 1 pm is the Mental Health Services Act community meeting on zoom.
  • At 5 pm the Commission on Disability meets in person with street design on the agenda.
  • At 5 pm is the in person Bike Share Expansion Community Meeting.
  • At 5:30 pm is the Free Gardening and Cooking Class.
  • At 7 pm the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Commission meets in person.
• Thursday, May 15, 2025
  • At 10 am the Budget Committee meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 1 pm the 4 x 6 Committee, City/UC/Student Relations meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 5:30 pm the Zero Waste Commission meets in person.
  • From 6 – 7:30 pm is the Zoom Workshop on EMBER Community Program.
  • At 6 pm is the CERT Unit 2 training.
  • At 6:15 pm the Transportation and Infrastructure Commission meets in person.
  • At 6:30 pm the Design Review Committee (DRC) meets in person
  • At 6:30 pm the Fair Campaign Practices/Open Government Commission meets in the hybrid format.
  • At 7 pm the Rent Board meets in the hybrid format.
• Friday, May 16, 2025
  • At 12 pm in the Waterfront Walk and Talk.
  • At 2:30 pm the Civic Arts Commission Grants Subcommittee meets on Zoom.
  • From 5 – 6 pm is the Stop the Coup Rally.
• Saturday, May 17, 2025
  • From 9 – 11 am is the 3^rd Saturday Shoreline Cleanup.
  • At 9 am is CERT training Unit 2.
  • From 12 – 1:30 pm is Stop the DOGE Destruction Rally.

 

Check City website for meetings posted on short notice https://berkeleyca.gov 

May 6, 2025 City Council agenda is available for comment. 

If you are unable to attend a meeting in person and/or it is not offered in the hybrid or an accessible format, TO REQUEST A DISABILITY RELATED ACCOMMODATION(S) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEETING, including auxiliary aids or services, please contact the Disability Services specialist at 510-981-6418 (V) or 510-981-6347 at least 3 days before the meeting (the sooner the better). Thomas Gregory is the ADA Program Coordinator. 

There is no guarantee that if we attend rallies, stand up to be counted, resist the authoritarian takeover of this country in every nonviolent way we can, we will win, but if we stay home and don't resist we are guaranteed to lose. Use the websites to look for more rallies and actions. 

• Check Indivisible East Bay for events and rallies - https://indivisibleeb.org/
• Check 50501 Fifty Protests Fifty States One Movement - https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events
• Check 5Calls.org for pending legislation and government appointments https://5calls.org
• Check https://www.activateamerica.vote for outreach to voters, phone banking, postcards,

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS 

 

Sunday, May 11, 2025 – Mother’s Day no meetings 

 

Monday, May 12, 2025 

 

3 x 3 Committee at 2 pm 

Members: Kesarwani, Bartlett, Humbert and 3 members from Berkeley Housing Authority 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 1st Floor – Cypress Room 

ZOOM: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1609107322?pwd=BammWgiAYyjkrzpmObLcwyUvQzbQ4g.1 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171  

Meeting ID: 160 910 7322 

AGENDA: 6. North Berkeley BART Update, 7. Discussion: Timeline and Next Steps for Establishing PBV Framework for Future Projects, 8. Discussion: Federal Funding Update a. Supporting residents in response to federal funding and regulation changes, b. other changes. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/3x3-committee 

 

YOUTH COMMISSION at 6:30 pm 

In-Person: at 1730 Oregon, Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Services Center 

AGENDA: 8. Guest Speaker Nina Goldman presentation on Youth Voter Registration, 9. Discussion Youth Voter Registration. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/youth-commission 

 

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT (MHSA) COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING at 6 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Gooseberry Room 

AGENDA: Share information and elicit input on proposed MHSA FY 2026 annual update, Proposition 1 and mental health needs in Berkeley. Use link for more information 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/mental-health-services-act-mhsa-community-input-meetings-north-berkeley 

 

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 

 

CITY COUNCIL Closed Session at 4 pm 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 6^th Floor, Redwood Room 

ZOOM: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1614066505 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 161 406 6505 

AGENDA: 1. Conference with Labor Negotiators, employee organizations: Berkeley Fire Fighters Association Local 1227 I.A.F.F., Berkeley Chief Fire Officers Association Local 1227 I.A.F.F., Berkeley Fire EMS Professionals Association, Berkeley Police Association, SEIU 1021 Community Services and Part-Time Recreation Activity Leaders, SEIU 1021 Maintenance and Clerical, IBEW Local 1245, Public Employee Union Local 1, Unrepresented Employees, 2. Conference with Real Property Negotiators 200 Marina Blvd, 3. Conference with Real Property Negotiators 235 University, 4. Conference with Real Property Negotiators 199 Seawall, 5. Conference with Legal Counsel pending litigations a. Welch v. City Case No. 23CV048497, b. Leon v. City Case No. 24CV069677. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/city-council-closed-meeting-eagenda-may-13-2025 

 

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH EVENT from 5 – 7:30 pm 

Location: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center 

Use link for details and to register 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/mental-health-awareness-month-event 

 

Wednesday, May 14, 2025  

 

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT (MHSA) COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING from 1 – 2:30 pm 

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8446733966?pwd=OGp3Tm5LQTc5TGdhb2tYW11KcDVhdz09&omn=88557423950 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171 

Meeting ID: 844 673 3966 Password: 081337 

AGENDA: Share information and elicit input on proposed MHSA FY 2026 annual update, Proposition 1 and mental health needs in Berkeley. Use link for more information 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/mental-health-services-act-mhsa-community-input-meetings-north-berkeley 

 

COMMISSION on DISABILITY at 5 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Aspen Room 

AGENDA: 7. Presentation Traffic and Parking Design by Larry Yee, Discussion/Action Items: 8. Edited Active Icon recommendation to Council, 9. Accessibility language prior to and needs at City meetings/events, 10. Recommendation for FF, 11. Work Plan Development. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/commission-disability 

 

PARKS, RECREATION and WATERFRONT COMMISSION at 7 pm 

In-Person: at 2800 Park, Frances Albrier Community Center 

AGENDA: no posted as of 5/9/2025 at 9:17 pm check later 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/parks-recreation-and-waterfront-commission 

 

BIKE SHARE EXPANSION COMMUNITY MEETING from 5 – 7 pm 

Location: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center 

Use link for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/bike-share-expansion-community-meeting 

 

FREE GARDENING and COOKING CLASS SERIES from 5:30 pm 

Location: at 1640 Stuart 

Use link for details and to register 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/free-gardening-and-cooking-class-series-6 

 

Thursday, May 15, 2025 

 

EMBER COMMUNITY WORKSHOP from 6 – 7:30 pm 

ZOOM: to register for zoom link go to website at the bottom of the EMBER page. 

https://www.berkeleyfiresafe.org 

 

BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE at 10 am 

Members: Ishii, Kesarwani, Blackaby, Alternate: Tregub 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 1st Floor, Cypress Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1606748374 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free)  

Meeting ID: 160 674 8374 

AGENDA: 2. Taplin, co-sponsors Blackaby, Humbert, Ishii – Fire Facility Revenue Measures, refer to CM the assessment of potential 2026 revenue ballot measures to support capital improvments to fire department facilities, 3. Oyekanmi, Finance - FY 2026 Mid-Biennial Budget Update, 3. Ferris, Parks – Presentation Marina Fund FY 2026 Updated Budget and 5-year forecast. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-budget-finance 

 

CITY/UC/STUDENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE at 1 pm 

Members: Tregub, Blackaby, Lunaparra, Humbert, Alternate: Ishii 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2465 Bancroft, 5^th Floor, Bayview Room 

ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84408246418?pwd=LD8VjksrPfoDziKvOdgq9yilNB1tg0.1 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128  

Meeting ID: 844 0824 6418 Passcode: 040597 

AGENDA: 4. North Building at the Berkeley Innovation Zone – Presentation from Campus Capital Strategies, 5. Campus and City coordinated response to federal Immigrants and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 7. Discussion and possible recommendation on Complete Street treatments around campus, 8. Use of LRDP Settlement Funds. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/cityucstudent-relations-committee 

 

COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (CERT) Unit 2: CERT Organization at 6 pm 

In-Person: at 997 Cedar, Fire Department Training Facility 

Use link to register and for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/community-emergency-response-team-cert-unit-2-cert-organization-May-15-2025 

 

DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE at 6:30 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Gooseberry Room 

AGENDA: A. 2109 Virginia at Shattuck – DRCP2024-007 – Preliminary Design Review – to demolish a 2-story commercial building and construct an approximately 89-foot, 8-story, mixed-use building (113,000 sq ft) with 110 units including 9 very low income units and 9 moderate-income Density-Bonus qualifying units, 690 sq ft of commercial space, and 103 parking spots on a split-zoned lot. 

B. UC Berkeley Innovation Zone North Building – Informational Item – Proposed project would include labs, offices, and other collaboration spaces and be a hub for research and start-ups in the areas of life and climate sciences and their related fields 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/design-review-committee 

 

FAIR CAMPAIGN PRACTICES COMMISSION (FCPC) / OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMISSION (OGC) at 6:30 pm 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 1st Floor, Cypress Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1614055306 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833  

Meeting ID: 161 405 5306 

AGENDA: FCPC: 8. Report from Negotiating Subcommittee: Yes on Measure CC / No on Measure BB, 9. Public financing matching funds disbursement process, 10. Report and discussion from subcommittee on review and possible revision of Procedures for the FCPC, OGC: 12. Publicizing commission work and vacancies, 13. Referral of non-filing quarterly lobbying reports: Yuri Sadiki-Torres, 14. Lobbyist Registration Act processes and administration, 15. Council Rules of Procedure and Order, 16. Progress in providing remote access to Commission and Board meetings. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/fair-campaign-practices-commission 

 

TRANSPORTATION and INFRASTRUCTURE COMMISSION at 6:15 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center, Aspen Room 

AGENDA: B. Discussion/Action Items: 1. 6:45 pm - Mechanical Street Sweeping Opt-in Request 2900 block of Regent Street – Action requested (between Webster and Russell – will require alternate side of the street parking regulations, 2. 7:45 pm - Informational Presentation on UC Berkeley’s Innovation Zone. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/transportation-and-infrastructure-commission 

 

ZERO WASTE COMMISSION at 5:30 pm 

In-Person: at 1326 Allston Way, Corporation Yard, Ratcliff Building, Willow Room 

AGENDA: Discussion and Action Items: 6:15 pm 1. Presentation by Californians Against Waste (CAW), Legislative Associate Krystal Raynes, 6:45 pm 2. Presentation on Plastics by Commissioner Curtis, 7:00 pm 3. 2026 Work Plan, 7:15 4. Report outs from the Special events Subcommittee and Green Building Subcommittee. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/zero-waste-commission 

 

BERKELEY RENT STABILIZATION BOARD at 7 pm 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison, School District Board Room 

ZOOM: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82673809589?pwd=AghQhOkOTSC3kI2hDsqIxgiso6kYXh.1 

Teleconference: 1-669-444-9171  

Meeting ID: 826 7380 9589 Passcode: 244637 

AGENDA: 6. Consent items Ministerial Waivers, 7. Action Items: a. (1) Measure BB Fee structure on non-profit affordable housing, (2) New Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)-Condo Conversion rules chapter in Title 21, b. Special Presentation legislative Update. 

https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/elected-rent-board/rent-board-meetings 

 

Friday, May 16, 2025 

 

WATERFRONT WALK and TALK at 12 pm 

Location: at 124 University 

Use link for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/waterfront-walk-and-talk 

 

CIVIC ARTS COMMISSION Grants Subcommittee at 2:30 pm 

ZOOM: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1601342343 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252  

Meeting ID: 160 134 2343 

AGENDA: 5. a) FY 2026 Grants Subcommittee Workplan. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/civic-arts-commission 

 

ONGOING STOP the COUP PROTEST from 5 – 6 pm 

Location: at College and Ashby, Berkeley 

Focus: Rally every Friday Stop the Coup Protest, Music 

https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event 

 

Saturday, May 17, 2025  

 

3^rd SATURDAY SHORELINE CLEANUP from 9 - 11 am 

Location: at 160 University 

Use link for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/3rd-saturday-shoreline-cleanup-may 

 

COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (CERT) Unit 2: CERT Organization at 9 am 

In-Person: at 997 Cedar, Fire Department Training Facility 

Use link to register and for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/community-emergency-response-team-cert-unit-2-cert-organization-05-17-2025 

 

PUBLIC WORKS WEEK CELEBRATION from 10 am – 2 pm 

Location: at 1260 Allston, Strawberry Creek Park 

Use link for details 

https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/public-works-week-celebration 

 

STOP the DOGE DESTRUCTION from 12 – 1:30 pm 

Location: at 1731 Fourth Street, between Virginia and Delaware, outside Tesla Showroom 

Focus: Every Saturday, Stop Doge Destruction 

https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event 

 

Sunday, May 18, 2025 – no city meetings, events found 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

++++++ CITY COUNCIL AGENDA for Tuesday, May 20, 2025+++++++++++ 

 

CITY COUNCIL Regular 6 pm Meeting on ??? 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison, School District Board Room 

ZOOM: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1615868875 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 161 586 8875 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/council-committees/policy-committee-agenda-rules 

 

FINAL AGENDA for City Council Regular 6 pm Meeting on May 20. 2025 

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

CEREMONIAL MATTERS: PLEDGE of ALLEGIANCE 

CITY MANAGER COMMENTS 

PUBLIC COMMENTS on NON-AGENDA MATTERS 

PUBLIC COMMENT by EMPLOYEE UNIONS 

 

AGENDA on CONSENT: 

1. Blackaby – 2^nd reading – Adding qualifying skillset for appointment, a. background in ADA compliance and the accessible infrastructure challenges that seniors and disabled face.
2. Friedrichsen, Budget Manager – Amendment FY 2025 Annual Appropriations Ordinance adjustments $78,091,135 (gross) and $58,150,646 (net)
3. Numainville, City Clerk – Minutes 4/14/2025, 4/15/2025, 4/22/2025, 4/25/2025, 4/28/2025, 4/29/2025
4. White, CM Office - Contract $108,000 with Townsend Public Affairs, Inc for Legislative and Funding Advocacy Strategy from 7/1/2025 – 6/30, 2027
5. White, CM Office – Appointment of Director of Human Resources Janelle Rodrigues effective 6/9/2025 annual salary of $240,000
6. Oyekanmi, Finance – Formal Bid Solicitations total $7,436,690.18, Installation of manual generator transfer switch $75,000, South Cove ADA Gangway Float $121,690.18, Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex Community Facility, Pickleball Courts and U8 Soccer Field $6,075,000, Installation of Above Ground Storage Tank and Removal of Underground Storage Tanks $865,000, and Public Art Coordination services $300,000
7. Gilman, HHCS – Amend Contract No. 32300104 – add $250,000 total $1,000,000 with The Village of Love for Telegraph Neighborhood Sacred Rest Drop-In-Center and extend to 5/31/2026
8. Gilman, HHCS – Grant Application for award up to $5,400,000 California Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities in connection with proposed North Berkeley BART Affordable Housing project
9. Gilman, HHCS – Revenue Grant Agreements for FY 2026 from State of California and Alameda County $33,688 TB prevention and control, $32,080 for Public Health Infrastructure
10. Walker, HR – Adopt Resolution establishing the Unrepresented Job Class Specification and Pay Scale of Fire Mechanic Lead hourly pay $51.0771 - $54.1740
11. Walker, HR – Revise the Personnel Rules and Regulations to Add Section 9.02.1 Promotion – Salary Step Placement
12. Walker, HR – Revise SEIU-MC MOU Section 17.13 Special Class Commercial Driver’s License Premium to Add 5% for Out-of-Class Lists
13. Walker, HR - Revise Unrepresented Manual Section 13.19 to Add 5% Differential to Program Manager 1 Assigned to City Manager’s Office
14. Fong, IT - Amend Contract No. 10789 add $300,000 total $1,270,778.14 for network support of hardware, installation and professional services term 7/1/2017 – 6/30/2026
15. Fong, IT – Amend Contract No. 084534-1 add $191,136 total $1,010,472.20 and extend from 9/30/2010 to 6/30/2026
16. Fong, It – Purchase Order $900,000with Protiviti Government Services Inc (Protiviti) Using General Services Administration to purchase vehicle GS-35F-0280X thru 6/30/2026
17. Ferris, Parks - Purchase Order $150,000 for Operation Pride for tennis programs and tournaments thru 6/30/2026
18. Ferris, Parks Purchase Order $270,000 for Samuel Kidane dba Life Long Tennis Academy to provide youth and adult tennis services
19. Ferris, Parks – Amend Contract add $60,000 total $616,953 with Baldoni Construction Services, Inc for Echo Lake Camp Accessibility Upgrades
20. Louis, Police – Amend Contract No. 32400003 add $280,000 total $580,000 with Cooke & Associates Background Investigations for background investigation for public safety personnel for Police and Fire Departments
21. Louis, Police – 2024 Police Equipment and Community Safety Annual Report
22. Davis, Public Works – Contract $147,096 includes $13,372 contingency with Shaw Integrated and Turf Solutions inc, for Civic Center Building 2^nd floor carpet replacement
23. Davis, Public works – Amend Contract No. 831C add $25,000 total $235,743 with RouteSmart Technologies, Inc. Software Maintenance
24. Davis, Public Works – Declaration of Intent – FY 2026 Street Lighting assessment
25. Environment and Climate Commission – Recommendation to Authorize the CM to evaluate and develop amendments to the 2025 Energy and CALGreen Codes and/or other ordinances to accelerate Building decarbonization
26. Taplin, co-sponsors Kesarwani, Humbert, Blackaby – Letter in Support of CA SB 692 Relating to Vehicles and Homelessness. Bill allows city, county to adopt an ordinance for removal of vehicles formerly used as shelter and modifies current 10-day notice of intent, read bill at https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB692/id/3207717
27. Tregub, co-sponsors Ishii, Bartlett – Resolution recognizing the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) community CA AB 91 mandates creation of MENA groups in official demographic data starting 1/1/2027 read bill at https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB91/id/3040032
28. Tregub, co-sponsors Ishii, Kesarwani, Lunaparra – Relinquishment of Funds for 2025 Asian Cultural Festival
29. O’Keefe, co-sponsors Ishii, Blackaby, Lunaparra – Alternative Housing Options for People Experiencing Homelessness

AGENDA on ACTION: 

30. Friedrichsen, Budget Manager – Hearing #1 Proposed Budget Update and FY 2026 Proposed Budget Update
31. Klein, Planning – Appeal 2500-2512 San Pablo Landmark Application #LMIN2024-0004
32. Numainville, City Clerk – Appointment of Four Berkeley Residents to the Safe Streets Citizen Oversight Committee

 

DISPOSITION of ITEMS REMOVED from DRAFT AGENDA: 

• Referred to Budget and Finance Committee - Disaster and Fire Safety Commission – Remove pre-transfer eligibility restriction of the transfer tax rebate for wildfire hardening BMC 7.52.060
• Referred to Land Use Committee - Tregub, co-sponsors Bartlett, Taplin – Referral to 4 x 4 Committee and Rent Board Removing On-Site Exemption Loophole for Certain Multi-Family Properties that are Adjacent and/or share the same common area.
• Referred to Land Use Committee - Taplin – Resolution to form Berkeley Nightlife Council as an ad hoc committee convened by District 2 to support nighttime economic activity.

 

+++++++++++++++++++ Land Use - Work Sessions - Special Meetings +++++++++++++++ 

 

LAND USE CALENDAR 

WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS: 

UNSCHEDULED WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS 

Council Referral: Social Housing previously listed as Mixed-Income Housing (June or July) 

FUTURE INFORMATION REPORTS 

1. R

PREVIOUSLY LISTED WORKSESSIONS and SPECIAL MEETINGS REMOVED FROM LIST 

• Fire Department Standards of Coverage & Community Risk Assessment
• Dispatch Needs Assessment Presentation
• Presentation on Homelessness/Re-Housing/Thousand-Person Plan (TBD regular agenda)

Feasibility Study Follow Up Session 

 

++++ How to get on or off the Activist’s Calendar and Activist’s Diary email list ++++++++ 

 

Kelly Hammargren’s summary on what happened the preceding week is posted on the What Happened page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/what-happened.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ 

 

The Activist’s Calendar of meetings is posted on the What’s Ahead page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html 

 

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 want to receive the Activist’s Diary send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly calendar of city meetings please forward the email you received to- kellyhammargren@gmail.com -with the request to be removed from the email list. 

 

 

 

 

On a recent Saturday at the North Berkeley BART station I thought of these lines from the prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote . .

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. . .

The good-humored, almost jovial gathering there, which looked to number in the thousands, was pitched as an angry rebuke to the atrocious transgressions of Co-Presidents Trump and Musk. It was all of that, but it was more than that.

Those of us who were there have survived (quoting a later poet) the winter of our discontent and the drought of March, so now that April’s showers have awakened our roots we’re ready to go. Many of the assembled folks were remembering that they’d been there, done that, sometimes with success, sometimes not so much. They seemed indeed to be longing to go on another the pilgrimage to set the world straight, as they had done in the past.

On my phone I was in touch with three family members at the big gathering in D.C.,and more family and friends in various categories in four or five other places. Several of them had been in parents’ backpacks in earlier crusades, Moderately large crowds in major cities were reported, but even in small towns where this was the first-ever gathering like this crowds were big too.

For old-timers like me, the fine weather and many clever home-made signs sparked nostalgic memories of our conscientious youth. Living in chilly Ann Arbor as I was then, for me traveling in April on pilgrimage to protest in Washington with its cherry blossoms offered a welcome foretaste of spring.

Our first pilgrimage in Michigan was a weekly picket line around the block containing the Ann Arbor City Council meeting, towing one or two small daughters in a wagon. For us as young parents it was a pleasant experience, a chance to catch up with friends as we walked that line for a couple of summers of Monday nights. It's hard to believe now, but it took two or three years in the early 1960s, even in a liberal, educated college town like Ann Arbor, to achieve something as modest as a local ordinance barring racial discrimination in rental housing. Yes, I know, racism still exists there, here and everywhere, but at least a few of its most egregious manifestations have been banned sometimes and somewhere during my lifetime.

Stopping the Vietnam War took a lot longer. The best we could do with grass roots organizing was to raise public consciousness that there was a problem, and that alone took the better part of the mid-sixties. But that work was a necessary and effective precursor to the more dramatic protest activities that others could engage in later on which finally had some effect..

Thinking about those past pilgrimages is what reminded me of those lines from the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale, which in turn caused me to recall the best teacher I had in my years at what we then called “Cal” at the end of the 1950s. That would be Mr. Muscatine (at Cal we didn’t call English professors “Doctor” in those days) who taught the Chaucer course. He modestly described himself as “the guy they call ‘old whan that Aprille’. “

Mr. Muscatine didn’t lecture us about politics, finding plenty to say about Chaucer, but later I learned about his personal history.

Here’s Wikipedia’s account:

“Shortly after he was hired, the State of California began enforcing a state law, the Levering Act, requiring public employees to sign a loyalty oath, and more than 11,000 University of California employees signed rather than risk losing their jobs.^[4] Muscatine was one of 31 academics who refused to sign the loyalty oath, and he was fired for his refusal.^[5] Muscatine later explained his rationale in refusing to sign the loyalty oath:

‘I felt that in the first place it was a violation of the oath to the U.S. Constitution that I had already taken. And secondly it was a violation of academic freedom, which is the idea that in a free society scholars and teachers are allowed to express and believe anything that they feel to be true. As a young assistant professor, I had been insisting to the kids that you stick to your guns and you tell it the way you see it and you think for yourself and you express things for yourself and I felt that I couldn't really justify teaching students if I weren't behaving the same way. So I simply couldn't sign the oath.^[6]

“Muscatine and others who were dismissed challenged the action in court and ultimately won a landmark victory when the California Court of Appeal in April 1951 ordered the University of California to reinstate the fired academics. In its decision, the Court of Appeal wrote:

‘Any other conclusion would be to approve that which from the beginning of our government has been denounced as the most effective means by which one special brand of political or economic philosophy can entrench and perpetuate itself to the eventual exclusion of all others; the imposition of any more inclusive test would be the forerunner of tyranny and oppression. ... While this court is mindful of the fact that the action of the regents was at the outset undoubtedly motivated by a desire to protect the university from the influences of subversive elements dedicated to the overthrow of our constitutional government and the abolition of our civil liberties, we are also keenly aware that equal to the danger of subversion from without by means of force and violence is the danger of subversion from within by the gradual whittling away and the resulting disintegration of the very pillars of our freedom.^[7]’ “

Members of our family graduated from Columbia University in 1985. Their class walked out of their own graduation ceremony to protest the university’s investment in apartheid South Africa. But now that same Columbia University is caving to pressure from the Trump regime’s phony claims of antisemitism. Many more schools are on the chopping block.

Is it too much to ask today’s Columbia and its peers to honor and defend the concept of academic freedom when they are bullied over trumped-up charges by Trump/Musk, as Mr. Muscatine and 30 UC faculty colleagues did during the Red Scare of the McCarthy era?

Sadly, in that era most institutions of higher learning didn’t defend their faculty members and students any better then than some of their peers do now. But if academics – even individuals--stand up for principle they set an example for future generations.

Another example: Chandler Davis, a distinguished mathematician and lifelong activist, went to jail in 1960 because he invoked the First Amendment in his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1954 against former colleagues on the left. He lost, and served six months in federal jail when he’d exhausted his appeals.

I was inspired as an undergraduate to join my first demonstration, in San Francisco in May of 1960, by what I’d learned about Chan Davis’s fight against HUAC.

The University of Michigan publication reprinted below is a belated tribute to him. More detailed and more dramatic tributes to him from friends and admirers cano be found on the internet.

From the University of Michigan press office:

“The University of Michigan’s annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom was established by the University Senate in honor of three academics who were wrongfully dismissed by the university for refusing to cooperate in the witch-hunt led by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

“In September 2022, H. Chandler Davis, the last surviving member of the group, passed away. Davis was a man of firm political commitments, a remarkable man of great and varied talents. Born in 1924 in Ithaca, New York, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and after the war undertook a Ph.D. in mathematics at Harvard, which he completed in 1950.

“His principal research investigations involved linear algebra and operator theory in Hilbert spaces. Additionally, he made contributions to numerical analysis, geometry and algebraic logic. He also identified the properties of the remarkable fractal known as the “Dragon Curve.”

After Harvard, Davis came to U-M as an instructor. It was at this time that he was called to testify before a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee in Lansing. Alongside him were colleagues Mark Nickerson and Clement L. Markert, and his student friends Edward Shaffer and Myron E. Sharpe. All were “unfriendly witnesses, refusing to confess” their political dissent.

Davis, unlike the others, based his refusal to answer only on the First Amendment, waiving his protection under the Fifth Amendment. Thereby he deliberately invited a citation for contempt of Congress, so as to give him standing to argue in court that the committee’s proceedings were unconstitutional.

He got the citation, all right, but he did not prevail in court. His appeals were exhausted in 1959 when the Supreme Court refused to hear his case. He was sentenced to six months in prison, which he served in 1960. While in prison, he continued his mathematics research, and in a paper published in 1963 attached the acknowledgement “Research supported in part by the Federal Prison System. Opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and are not necessarily those of the Bureau of Prisons.”

Meanwhile, he and Nickerson had been dismissed from the university. This action of U-M’s administration drew censure from the American Association of University Professors. Unable to get a permanent job in the United States, Davis moved to the University of Toronto, where he stayed until the end of his career, becoming a Canadian citizen.

He was a political activist throughout his life, embracing causes that fought against injustice and oppression. For several years he was a member of the Communist Party, but he had become disillusioned with it well before appearing before HUAC. Later in life he said he regretted his naiveté about the communist movement but not his activism, preferring to describe himself as “red-green eco-socialist.”

He came to regret his military service because of the use of nuclear bombs by the U.S. During the 1960s, he campaigned against the war in Vietnam and visited North Vietnam in 1971. He chaired the Toronto Anti-Draft Program and frequently hosted draft dodgers in his family home.

In more recent times, Davis became an active campaigner for Palestinian rights. He remained an activist to the last, giving an address from his hospital bed in July to an event organized in defense of the Russian mathematician Azat Miftakhov, a dissident who has been wrongfully imprisoned by the Russian authorities since 2019.

A committed supporter of the Academic Freedom Lectures, Davis often attended in person, or remotely when he became too ill to travel. He was committed to a positive approach and welcomed the chance to speak to the university that had wronged him.

At the 2018 lecture he said, “I haven’t always been sure of my own welcome here, but today I see a worthy collection of academics, some were administrators, the kind of higher ups to whom we address pleas for allowing free speech. I wish more had been from the other side of the scrimmage, those whose academic freedom is under threat.

Unfortunately, in today’s political climate there should be an ample supply of faculty speakers whose academic freedom is threatened, with at least a few willing to speak truth to power even when their institutional administration doesn’t.

From Politico in March of this year:

The University of Michigan — one of the leading academic bastions of diversity, equity and inclusion in the country — is shuttering the doors of its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and shutting down its model DEI program.

In an email on Thursday, the university’s leaders pointed to the court-order enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on “restoring merit-based opportunity” and ending DEI programs across the country, as well as the “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education that threatened to eliminate federal funding for universities that did not eliminate their DEI efforts.

Now the news is all about how Trump’s federal minions are exploiting genuine fear of antisemitism to force compliant administrators at many more institutions of higher learning to turn over personal details of faculty member, including signers of some open letters criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza. The University of California is getting the same kind of pressure as the University of Michigan.

Trump/Musk will have succeeded if they use threats to force our academic institutions to dance to their tune. Today when we march with signs decrying Trump and Mosk, we might want to think about past examples set by courageous academic dissidents like Charles Muscatine and Chandler Davis, who backed up their opinions with action.

This week’s good news is that – finally—Chan Davis’s alma mater is standing up to the Trump regime. Harvard has announced that it’s not ready to let the federal government succeed in what the Guardian describes as “gutting universities of what it sees as a liberal-left bias, while using antisemitism as a cudgel in an authoritarian power grab.” And at Yale (Mr. Muscatine’s alma mater), close to 900 faculty members have signed a letter urging administrators to stand tough against the threatened government takeover. It’s reported that Columbia is trying to walk back its concessions.

Here in Berkeley, many of us are graduates, faculty members or employees of the University of California. Yesterday the UCB community rallied by the Sproul steps, launching point of the Free Speech Movement. Professor Robert Reich gave a rousing speech invoking past struggles and urging solidarity among threatened schools.

UC has not—yet—announced compliance with the Trump regime. As the most prestigious public university it could set an example as Harvard has for private universities. Faculty members can follow the example of Charles Muscatine and Chan Davis.

It’s a pilgrimage everyone can join. We are gathering together again with signs and petitions and letters and even impromptu brass bands to make it clear that impacted resisters are not alone. This week, for example, there was a Thursday rally at the Oakland Social Security office and another one at the Berkeley Tesla dealer on Saturday.

The rain in April is almost past and the May weather promises to be fine for outdoor rallies. Avante!

Thanks to everyone who’s wondered what’s happened to the Planet in recent weeks. The short answer is that we’ve had a couple of family medical surprises which have occupied my time. I haven’t even been able to post the excellent Public Comment submissions which have come in as usual, let alone write anything myself. Also, I’ve been having problems with my hand which make using a computer keyboard increasingly difficult even when I have time. All in all, I want to officially announce that the Planet is on hiatus until further notice, but I’ll try to post pieces as they come in.

Sussing Trump's Selective Slander
A string of news articles and online commentaries have raised concerns about our teachers, educators, and universities presenting "a one-sided lesson on anti-Zionism." These critics have stressed the importance of "a student's right to an education free of harassment and bias." But while antisemitism and Islamophobia are rightly condemned, what about our Republican president's promotion of false tales of pet-eating foreigners and constant invocations of 'Latinophobia" and "anti-immigrantism"? 

The Ochre Ogre in the White House would have us believe that the mass murder of a civilian population is an act of "self defense." At the same time, we are told to believe that all refugees from beyond our southern border are "criminal illegal immigrants and terrorists." 

While it is wrong to link all members of the Jewish community to Bibi Netanyahu's genocidal crusade, let us pause for a moment to wonder how Trump's tirades disturb the emotional well-being of school-age children from immigrant families. 

Isn't it odd that the criticism targeting our schools and universities is not extended to the daily diatribes of our Xenophobe-in-Chief? 

Commander-in-Thief
Trunp's new budget proposal has landed with a thump on the backs of millions of hard-working and financially struggling Americans. Here's a short list of how Trumponomics is short-changing the majority of our population to sweep $168 billions of "public service" support off in the direction of the one percent of millionaires who are to be rewarded for investing heavily in Trump's reelection campaign. Here's a partial breakdown of the Trump's broke-down budget. 

• Slash education funding by $12 billion
• Cut $674 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Gut the Center for Disease Control’s budget from $9 billion to $4 billion
• Cancel $15 billion in funds already passed by Congress to fight climate change
• Strip more than $26 billion from rental assistance programs intended to keep low-income Americans from losing their homes 

• Invest $1 trillion over the next 30 years to create a stockpile of new "modernized" nuclear weapons 

• Hand over $1 trillion of the budget to support the Pentagon. 

Some of the DoD's largess would be spent on installing an orbiting infrastructure of space weapons designed to monitor the planet for signs of incoming missiles targeting the US and able to "neutralize" them as part of a Musk-minded project that Trump prefers to call the "Golden Dome." 

Just a thought, but wouldn't it make more sense to spend money on programs that wouldn't make other countries want to attack us? 

Meanwhile, the US national debt is fast approaching $37 trillion. You can track the progress of this economic Doomsday Clock by tapping on the following link: https://www.usdebtclock.org/ 

Nuke Cost Calculator
Every April, the Board of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR), calculates the impact of US nuclear weapons programs on California's economy and on its communities. For the tax-year 2024, the total cost of Nuclear Weapons Programs topped $110 billion. PSR has created an online calculator that makes it easy to see how these costs impact the state's community-level tax rates. Here's a link to the 2025 Nuclear Weapons Programs Tax Calculator. 

Made in America: US Weapons, War and Woe
"Made in America" is a Fault Lines Documentary that investigates the suffering of Lebanese civilians killed by US bombs shipped to Israel. While Israel leaders claim that its airstrikes are used to target rebel fighters, these airstrikes have killed more than 4,000 Lebanese residents, including women and children. Many victims were killed in their homes. Warning: Images and survivors' testimony are disturbing. 

 

Stablecoins: Trump's Latest Crypto-currency Grift 

According to The Intercept, "the House and Senate are racing to bring stablecoins—a crypto-currency sector few Americans have even heard of— out from the shadows." 

The $230 billion stablecoin industry stands to profit from Donald Trump’s promise to make the US the “crypto-capital of the planet.” Crypto-currency critics fear the bipartisan push could trigger a financial crash—while enriching the Trump family, which has launched a stablecoin of their own. It's not the first time Trump has dabbled in cyrpto-dolllars. As one industry observer told The Intercept following the earlier debut of the Trump meme coin: "a lot of people lost out but it didn’t matter because Trump’s platform was making fees.” 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town:
NINJA2
MINSLA
SPACEK
LUV HY
BESEEN
PATS10
DANNYE
MOREANZ
REXUSUH
KHRUSH
DNTSTP (Don't Stop?)
SCTFRE (Scot Free?)
EXPLTR (Exploiter?)
OUZEL4 (Weasel 4?) 

Bumper Snickers
Nudist on Board
Honk If You're Horney!
I Brake for Wildflowers
MILF. Man I Love Frogs
Free Punches in the Face
Fecal Sample Delivery Vehicle
All Our Plants Are Solar Powered
4 Out of 3 People Have Trouble with Fractions 

Depression Donnie
Who needs actors or movie sets when we've got AI facsimiles? (Too bad for Trump. He seems to be an AI fav.)
Mr. Newberger's AI Funnies 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HCQbpEoQZ_A?si=b0XIGlHlxQT906QI 

 

Vladimir, STOP!
Mr. Newberger's AI Funnies 

 

What Israel is doing to Palestinians in Gaza echoes the horrors Jews faced under Nazi rule—mass killing, starvation, and forced confinement. Over the past 18 months, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed—likely a vast undercount—and over 2,400 have died since Israel broke the ceasefire in mid-March. Now, Israel is calling up tens of thousands of IDF reservists with plans to “conquer territory and remain there.” The goal appears chillingly clear: eliminate all Palestinians in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, a total blockade on food and humanitarian aid continues into its third month. At least 57 people have starved to death, and more than 9,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition. Aid groups warn that Israel's proposal to control aid distribution via U.S. security contractors will “militarize” humanitarian relief. 

Airstrikes continue to rain down. In Khan Younis, newlyweds Alaa Abu Al-’Anin and Hala Zorob were killed one day after their wedding. As survivor Jehad Sarhan cried out: “Our children die of hunger every day. They are torn apart in front of our eyes.” 

While Israel escalates this atrocity, the Trump administration sends more weapons, and U.S. media and Congress remain deafeningly silent. One of Pope Francis’s popemobiles is now being converted into a mobile clinic for Gaza’s children. The world said “Never Again. Yet it is happening again and again with U.S. complicity.

Happy May Day. Get to work.

After 100 days, it’s obvious that the second coming of Donald Trump is an abysmal failure. A recent AP/NORC poll revealed that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 39%, the lowest of any president in 80 years.

Those of us who voted for Kamala Harris can take some slight solace in Trump’s failings, but the reality is that Donald Trump is in the oval office, ruining the United States of America. It’s not enough to celebrate Trump’s calamity, we need to act.

1.The economy: Candidate Trump promised to “fix” the economy. In 100 days, he has wreaked economic havoc. The US economy is sliding into recession, and Trump doesn’t seem to care. This decline is the product of Trump’s tariffs and other actions.

Of course, we can protest Trump’s misguided economic policies by joining protest marches and we can work to take back control of Congress in 2026. But the best way to change the economic outlook is to work with Democratic members of Congress to block the Trump “big, beautiful budget” and entice Congress to take back tariff power from the president.

At the end of September, the federal government runs out of money. The Republican-controlled congress is working on Trump’s new budget, Although this budget proposal contains items such as more money for the Defense and Homeland Security Departments, the issue that most Democrats are concerned about is making the “Trump tax cuts” permanent; paying for these tax cuts (that primarily benefit the rich and powerful) requires massive cuts to social-safety-net programs such as Medicaid. (Republicans need to find $2 trillion to offset the tax cuts.) 

Theoretically, congressional Republicans have enough votes to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill;” they have a three-vote margin in both the House and Senate. Most observers assume that all Democratic members of Congress will vote against the Trump tax cuts. In the Senate, six Republican Senators are “shaky” yes votes: Collins (Maine), Hawley (MO), McConnell (KY), Murkowski (AK), Paul (KY), and Tillis (NC). We should pressure these senators to vote no. 

Regarding the House, most every state has at least one Republican who is either in a swing district or has a large percentage of constituents who receive Medicaid. For example, David Valadao in California Congressional district 22 is in a swing district – Republican +1 – and 67 precent of his recipients receive Medicaid. Activists are pressuring Valadao to vote no. 

After the “big, beautiful budget” is blocked, Democrats can pressure Congress to take back tariff authority from Trump. We must block Trump’s budget. 

2.National Security: We should do everything we can to defeat the Trump budget, but we cannot ignore the threat to national security represented by the incompetents that Trump has installed in his cabinet. Foremost among these is Pete Hegseth, the most incompetent Secretary of Defense in history. There’s not a lot we can do about Hegseth except complain to our representatives and point out that Hegseth is a grave threat to national security. 

3. Immigration: One of the ironies of Trump 2.0 is the fact that he has made immigration the number one priority of his administration and yet, despite all the headlines, Trump’s results are no better than Biden’s. “Even as the number of immigration arrests is up significantly, the current pace of deportations suggests the administration will fall well short of its stated goal of 1 million deportations annually. While the government has not released official data in comprehensive fashion, based on Federal Register notices and selective information shared with news organizations it appears on track to deport roughly half a million people this year—fewer than the 685,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year (FY) 2024 under President Joe Biden.” ( https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-2-immigration-first-100-days ) 

Trump has declared a state of emergency and shut down all immigration (except for white Afrikaners). This has dramatically curtailed legal immigration. To make his deportation effort look good, Trump has begun relying on media stunts, such as transporting some targeted individuals to the US military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  

On March 15th, Trump signed an order using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as the legal basis for his deportation of alleged “Tren de Aragua” (TdA) gang members. This obscure law can be used only if there is “declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States.” Trump declared TdA as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” that is “perpetrating an invasion” of the US. Trump uses the Alien Enemies Act because he wants to deport suspected gang members with no due process.  

ICE raids are happening all over the country. As a result, there are local opportunities for action. Nonetheless, most of the immigration battle is being fought in the courts. 

4. Destruction of Federal Government: Trump’s first 100 days has been augmented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Although Trump/Musk promised that DOGE would find billions in waste, fraud, and abuse the results to date have been underwhelming. Many US households have been disrupted by DOGE activities and Musk’s image has soured. Many citizens now believe that the true function of DOGE is to enrich Trump and his billionaire friends. 

More than 100,000 federal employees accepted Trump’s initial buyout offer. Trump followed this by laying off thousands who had not completed their probationary period – the Washington Post estimated this affected 200,000 employees. Among the agencies affected are the Center for Disease Control, Energy Department, IRS, National Park Service, and the Veteran’s Administration.  

On April 26^th, Democracy Forward, a coalition of unions, non-profits, and governmental groups, filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration:  

“The case seeks a court’s intervention to stop the implementation of the President’s unlawful Executive Order 14210 (Implementing the President’s ‘‘Department of Government Efficiency’’ Workforce Optimization Initiative), which violates the Constitution’s fundamental separation of powers principles. Federal agencies were required to submit for approval Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganization Plans on April 14. Although the President’s Executive Order seeks to radically reorganize and deconstruct federal agencies through massive reductions in force, the groups make clear in the filing that only Congress has the power to change the federal government in the ways the President has directed. “  

(https://democracyforward.org/updates/massive-coalition-of-unions-non-profit-groups-and-local-governments-file-omnibus-challenge-to-unconstitutional-reorganization-of-federal-government/ ) 

This battle will be fought in the courts. 

SUMMARY: If you read this column, chances are you’re protesting Trump 2.0 in some fashion. You understand how dangerous Trump is. Your question is: What’s the most effective action I can take now? 

The answer is: take action to block Trump’s budget.

Worth Noting: 

To direct the calendar to a quick summary of city council, commission, board and community meeting key agenda items, city sponsored recreation activities will no longer be listed. Use the city website to for meetings posted on short notice, recreational activities and full meeting agendas. https://berkeleyca.gov 

 

• Tuesday, May 27, 2025
  • At 4 pm City Council meets in closed session
  • At 7 pm Congresswoman Lateefah Simon is holding a town hall in Berkeley at the Ed Roberts Campus
  • At 7 pm is the in-person meeting on the EMBER Program on proposal on new fire safety standards for the very high fire hazard severity zones.
• Wednesday, May 28, 2025
  • At 6 pm the Civic Arts Commission meets in person.
  • At 6 pm the Environment and Climate Commission meets in person.
  • At 7 pm the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets in person.
• Thursday, May 29, 2025
  • At 6 pm Congresswoman Lateefah Simon is holding a town hall in Emeryville
• Friday, May 30, 2025
  • From 4-5 pm is the El Cerrito Plaza weekly protect due process rally.
  • From 5 – 6 pm is the Ashby and College weekly stop the coup rally
• Saturday, May 31, 2025
  • From 12 – 1:30 pm is the weekly rally at Tesla on 4^th Street in Berkeley.

 

June 3, 2025 City Council agenda is available for comment. 

If you are unable to attend a meeting in person and/or it is not offered in the hybrid or an accessible format, TO REQUEST A DISABILITY RELATED ACCOMMODATION(S) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEETING, including auxiliary aids or services, please contact the Disability Services specialist at 510-981-6418 (V) or 510-981-6347 at least 3 days before the meeting (the sooner the better). Thomas Gregory is the ADA Program Coordinator. 

There is no guarantee that if we attend rallies, stand up to be counted, resist the authoritarian takeover of this country in every nonviolent way we can, we will win, but if we stay home and don't resist we are guaranteed to lose. Gene Sharp's Dictatorship to Democracy is an excellent guide. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/from-dictatorship-to-democracy-a-conceptual-framework-for-liberation/ 

There are local rallies every week. Use the websites to look for more. 

• Check Indivisible East Bay for events and rallies - https://indivisibleeb.org/
• Check 50501 Fifty Protests Fifty States One Movement - https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

BERKELEY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CIVIC EVENTS 

 

Sunday, May 25, 2025 – long Memorial Day Holiday weekend 

Monday, May 26, 2025 – Memorial Day 

 

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 

 

EMBER COMMUNITY WORKSHOP from 6 – 7:30 pm 

In-Person: at 941 The Alameda, Northbrae Community Church 

Use link for information on EMBER program, resources and to RSVP 

https://www.berkeleyfiresafe.org 

 

CONGRESSWOMAN LATEEFAH SIMON TOWN HALL at 7 pm 

Location: Ed Roberts Campus 

Use link to RSVP and receive details for attending 

Early Arrival is HIGHLY Recommended 

https://simon.house.gov/RSVP 

 

CITY COUNCIL meets in Closed Session at 4 pm 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 2180 Milvia, 6^th Floor, Redwood Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/161734609 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 161 734 6096 

AGENDA: 1. Pending Litigation a. SEIU 10121 v CoB, PERB Case No. SF-CE-1965-M, 2. Conference with Labor Negotiators, Employee Organizations: Berkeley Fire Fighters Association Local 1227 I.A.F.F., Berkeley Chief Fire Officers Association Local 1227 I.A.F.F., Berkeley Fire EMS Professionals Association, Berkeley Police Association, SEIU 1021 Community Services and Part-Time Recreation Activity Leaders, SEIU 1021 Maintenance and Clerical, IBEW Local 1245, Public Employee Union Local 1, Unrepresented Employees, 3. Public Employee Performance Evaluations a. City Manager (CM), City Attorney, c. Director of Police Accountability, 4. Pending Litigation Real Page, Inc v. CoB, et al. No. 3:25-CV-)3004-JSC (N.D. Cal.) 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 

 

CIVIC ARTS COMMISSION at 6 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Russell, Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library 

AGENDA: 7. a) Presentation Artist Showcase, b) Cube Space exhibit, c) FY 2026 work plan, d) FY 2026 Public Art Budget, f) Cultural Districts. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/civic-arts-commission 

 

DISASTER and FIRE SAFETY COMMISSION at 7 pm 

In-Person: at 997 Cedar 

AGENDA: 4. Measure GG/FF Budget Presentation, 5. Measure GG/FF 2026 PIG Tax Rate Adjustments (increase), 6. EMBER Ordinance & Building Codes, 9. Letter to Wicks on section 14033.5 Government Code to update Highway Design Manual to direct local governments to consult with local fire departments to ensure the improvements do not negatively impact emergency response times. 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/disaster-and-fire-safety-commission 

 

ENVIRONMENT and CLIMATE COMMISSION at 6 pm 

In-Person: at 1901 Hearst, North Berkeley Senior Center 

AGENDA: 7. Presentation on Making Solar Accessible to Everyone, 8. CA Assembly Bill 306 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB306 impacts on local building decarbonization (this bill adds-in Wildland-Urban Interface code and locks in building standards at the time of project application submittal until 10 years have passed from submittal). 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/boards-commissions/environment-and-climate-commission 

 

Thursday, May 29, 2025  

 

CONGRESSWOMAN LATEEFAH SIMON TOWN HALL at 6 pm 

Location: Emeryville Senior Center 

Use link to RSVP and receive details for attending 

Early Arrival is HIGHLY Recommended 

https://simon.house.gov/RSVP 

 

Friday, May 30, 2025 

 

ONGOING EL CERRITO PLAZA from 4 – 5 PM 

Location: at El Cerrito Plaza on San Pablo Avenue 

Focus: Every Friday Protect Due Process and Melt ICE 

Indivisible Euclid 

https://indivisibleeb.org/events/month/ 

 

ONGOING STOP the COUP PROTEST from 5 – 6 pm 

Location: at College and Ashby, Berkeley 

Focus: Rally every Friday Stop the Coup Protest, Music 

Indivisible Elmwood 

https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event 

 

Saturday, May 31, 2025 

 

STOP the DOGE DESTRUCTION from 12 – 1:30 pm 

Location: at 1731 Fourth Street, between Virginia and Delaware, outside Tesla Showroom 

Focus: Every Saturday, Stop Doge Destruction, Resist authoritarian takeover. 

https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event 

 

Sunday, June 1, 2025 – no city meetings found 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

++++++ CITY COUNCIL AGENDA for Tuesday, June 3, 2025 +++++++++++ 

 

CITY COUNCIL Regular 6 pm Meeting on June 3, 2025 

Hybrid Meeting 

In-Person: at 1231 Addison, School District Board Room 

Videoconference: https://cityofberkeley-info.zoomgov.com/j/1607877512 

Teleconference: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (toll free)  

Meeting ID: 160 787 7512 

https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/city-council/city-council-agendas 

 

FINAL AGENDA for City Council Regular 6 pm Meeting on June 3, 2025 

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

CEREMONIAL MATTERS:  

Adjournment in Memory Robert Sheppard, Berkeley Resident 

CITY MANAGER COMMENTS 

PUBLIC COMMENTS on NON-AGENDA MATTERS 

PUBLIC COMMENT by EMPLOYEE UNIONS 

 

AGENDA on CONSENT: 

1. 2^nd reading – Amendment FY 2025 Annual Appropriations Ordinance No. 7,961-N.S. adjustments $85,720,135 (gross) and $58,279,646 (net)
2. Numainville, City Clerk – Appoint new member to Police Accountability Board
3. Hollander, Economic Development – Grant Application $30,000 California Arts Council for the Civic Arts Grant Program
4. Oyekanmi, Finance – Formal Bid Solicitations $222,400, $155,000 Alameda County Coordinator, $67,400 80-84 Bolivar Drive Fence and Gate Replacement
5. Oyekanmi, Finance – Notice of Appropriations Limit for FY 2026
6. Gilman, HHCS – Appointment of Noemi C. Doohan, M.D. PhD, as Public Health Officer
7. Gilman, HHCS – Contract $325,000 with SEP Technology Consulting, LLC for Environmental Health Database Migration to Accela Cloud 6/1/2025 – 6/30/2026
8. Gilman, HHCS – Revenue Grant Agreement $120,000 Funding Support from Essential Access Health to conduct public health services
9. Fong, IT Amend Contract add $971,784 total $1,945,589 with AHEAD, Inc Using California Department of General Services Software Licensing Program for period 1/31/2023 – 6/30.2028
10. Fong, IT – Amend Contract No. 112798-1 add $600,000 total $1,149,411 with Geographic Technologies Group for Geographic Information System Professional Services from 9/14/2016 – 6/30/2027
11. Fong, IT – Amend Contract No. 32000281 add $920,000 total $2,638,633 with ConvergeOne for Avaya Administration, Maintenance and Support from 7/1/2025 – 6/30/2027
12. Fong, IT – Amend Contract No. 32400095 add $309,000 total $592,500 with Superion, LLC for AS400 Software Maintenance and Support from 7/1/2023 – 6/30/2027
13. Fong, IT – Contract $1,051,000 with CompuCom Systems for professional service through 6/30/2027
14. Ferris, Parks – Amend Contract 31900042 add $28,000 total $181,756 with CivicPlus for online recreation registration and reservation system 11/30/25 – 11/30/2026
15. Ferris, Parks – Contract $195,898 with BayGreen, Inc for mobile Pumpout and Related Services for 3years with option to renew for additional 2 years not to exceed $150,725 total $345,623
16. Ferris, Parks – Contract $200,000 with Cazadero Performing Arts Camp (CPAC) for erosion control improvements
17. Ferris, Parks – Contract $10,781,000 with 10% contingency $1,078,100 with E.F. Brett & Company, Inc for MLK Jr. Youth Services Center/Y.A.P. for seismic retrofit and renovation project at 1730 Oregon and reject bid protest of W.E. Lyons Construction Co. 2^nd lowest bidder
18. Louis, Police – Amend Contract No 32500009 add $50,000 total $100,000 with Dixon Resources Unlimited
19. Taplin, co-sponsors Ishii, Humbert, Tregub – Relinquishment of funds for Berkeley Humane 11^th Annual Pints and Paws Fundraiser
20. Tregub, co-sponsors O’Keefe, Taplin, Ishi – Relinquishment of funds to Taste of Downtown Berkeley 2025 Event
21. Tregub, co-sponsors Blackaby, Lunaparra – Resolution in Opposition to California Assembly Bill 942 Net energy metering
22. Tregub, co-sponsor – Lunaparra – Resolution opposing the removal of USPS Mailboxes at the Berkeley Main Post Office
23. Tregub, so-sponsor – Resolution is Support of Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act Legislation AB 1243 and SB 684
24. Tregub, co-sponsor Lunaparra - Oxford for all quick-build class IV bicycle facility (protected bike lane) on the east side of Oxford and Fulton between Hearst and Bancroft Way
25. Blackaby, so-sponsors Ishii, Humbert, Taplin – Relinquishment of funds for Berkeley Baby Book Project

AGENDA on ACTION: 

26. Hollander, Economic Development – Re-Establishment Berkeley Tourism Business Improvement District
27. Walker, HR – Conduct a Public Hearing regarding vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts
28. Klein, Planning – ZAB appeal 1950-1998 Shattuck at University Use Permit #ZP2023-0040

INFORMATION REPORTS: 

29. Oyekanmi, Finance - Section 115 Trust Investment Report from Inception to Period Ended 6/30/2024

DISPOSITION of ITEMS REMOVED FROM DRAFT AGENDA: 

• CM bring back on July 8 for companion report - Commission on Disability – Refer to City Attorney the requirement to include a clause in all relevant City of Berkeley Contracts that obligates vendors to supply digital content, intended for or likely to be posted to the City website to be compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Removed by CM - Klein, Planning – LPC appeal of 2138 Kittredge, Landmark Application #LMIN2024-0006
• Referred to Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation Environment and Sustainability Committee (FITES) - Submission from Commission on Disability with companion report from Public Works requesting sent to FITES a. Commission on Disability – Refer to City Attorney to include in City of Berkeley Contracts that impact public right of way a clause that obligates City Contractors to comply with Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG), b. Davis, Public Works - Companion report – send to FITES Committee
• Referred to Land Use, Housing and Economic Development Committee - a. Commission on the Status of Women – Refer to CM to direct Department of Health and Human Services to draft materials to provide homeowners vulnerable to exploitation, b. Companion Report Gilman, HHCS – Refer to Land Use Committee to study requirements for producing and distributing educational resources and assign budget and referral ranking

 

+++++++++++++++++++ Land Use - Work Sessions - Special Meetings +++++++++++++++ 

 

LAND USE CALENDAR 

• 1950-1998 Shattuck at University– (McDonald’s corner) 6/3/2025
• 2138 Kittredge (California Theater) – to be rescheduled, previously scheduled for 6/3/2025
• 2655 Shattuck 7/22/2025
• 2425 Durant – Laura Tull Property (landmark designation) 7/29/2025

WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS: 

• New date coming - June 3 (new date and time) (4:30 pm) Presentation on City’s Unfunded Liabilities
• June 26 (6 pm) Zoning Ordinance and General Plan Amendments Relating to Middle Housing
• July 8 COMPREHENSIVE Homeless Response Presentation

UNSCHEDULED WORK SESSIONS & SPECIAL MEETINGS 

• Council Referral: Social Housing previously listed as Mixed-Income Housing (June or July)

• Formerly scheduled for May 13 (6 pm) Evacuation Study and Response Times

FUTURE INFORMATION REPORTS 

1. Reimagining Public Safety Update
2. Affordable Housing Fee Feasibility Study
3. Berkeley Fire Department Annual Report

PREVIOUSLY LISTED WORKSESSIONS and SPECIAL MEETINGS REMOVED FROM LIST 

• Fire Department Standards of Coverage & Community Risk Assessment
• Dispatch Needs Assessment Presentation

• Greenhouse Gas Inventory / Climate Action Plan Update

 

++++ How to get on or off the Activist’s Calendar and Activist’s Diary email list ++++++++ 

 

Kelly Hammargren’s summary on what happened the preceding week is posted on the What Happened page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/what-happened.html and in the Berkeley Daily Planet https://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/ 

 

The Activist’s Calendar of meetings is posted on the What’s Ahead page at: https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html 

 

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 want to receive the Activist’s Diary send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly calendar of city meetings please forward the email you received to- kellyhammargren@gmail.com -with the request to be removed from the email list.