Features

To the great disappointment of those who had hoped to save the 53-year-old Bevatron building housing a particle accelerator, the Berkeley City Council voted 7-to-2 at its Tuesday night meeting to uphold the Landmarks Preservation Commission decision to require that the science practiced in the structure be memorialized, but that there be no requirement to preserve the structure itself. 

Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring voted in opposition. 

The University of California, which manages the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—of which the Bevatron is a part—has stated that it plans to demolish the structure at 1 Cyclotron Rd. some time between 2008 and 2012. 

The building is under consideration for eligibility on the Register of Historic Places and should not be demolished, appellant Pam Sihvola told the council.  

“It should remain intact in its entirety,” Sihvola said. Appellants Sihvola and L.A. Wood said they are also concerned with the large amount of debris—including hazardous materials—that would have to be trucked through Berkeley during demolition. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said he had worked at the Bevatron and contended that what should be memorialized was the science. “There are other ways to honor the Bevatron than to keep a deteriorating old building,” he said. 

On the Ledge 

Berkeley High students sit on the ledge outside the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building at Milvia Street and Allston Way, smoking, playing loud music and generally disturbing people inside the building, Police Chief Doug Hambleton told the council. 

That’s the reasoning behind the $250 ticket given one student for “loitering and disorderly conduct.” The student’s mother came to the council meeting to strenuously object both to the ticket—sitting on the ledge is not disorderly conduct, she said—and to the exaggerated sum required to pay the fine. 

“When I first saw students on the ledge, I thought it was an ideal place to sit,” said Councilmember Betty Olds, who later said she understood the need to keep the young people from disturbing city workers. “But such a high fine seems unfair.” 

The council voted 7-1, with Worthington in opposition, to refer the question to the city manager in order to see if the fine can be lowered and to have the Parks and Recreation Commission look to see whether benches can be installed in the area. 

Race  

Members of the Peace and Justice Commission came to the council to lobby for approval of an item, asking the city to comply with the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, by polling department heads on the question. 

“We have enormous levels of racism right here in Berkeley,” said Worthington, who brought the item to the council. Worthington said it is manifested, in part, in who gets contracts and who gets hired. Part of the reason for collecting the data is to identify problem areas, Worthington said. 

The item will be back before the council Feb. 27, with greater precision on what kinds of information should be collected. 

Reducing Greenhouse Gases 

A number of items were passed on the consent calendar, which means they were passed without discussion. (Worthington abstained on all the items, protesting that he wanted to hear from the public on the items before he decided which among them he wanted to remove for discussion and possible action.) 

A measure to give Sustainable Berkeley, a non-profit corporation, $100,000 to write an emissions reduction plan was passed on the consent calendar in concept, with councilmembers Spring and Worthington abstaining. 

Although a press statement released by the mayor’s office said that the item gives the funds to Sustainable Berkeley to write the emissions reduction plan, Mayor Tom Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries said the funds would not be allocated until the council approves them in its 2007-2008 budget.  

Included in the council packet was a letter from Transportation Commissioner Rob Wrenn, calling for a person who is an expert in transportation matters to sit on the Sustainable Berkeley steering committee. The council did not address the question. 

The council also approved on consent: 

• The designation of Feb. 7 as National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day; 

• Designating Berkeley as a “pro-choice” city, joining a campaign initiated by West Hollywood as a campaign for greater access to abortion, reproductive health care and other services.