Opinion

So, what’s up in Berkeley? An endlessly interesting question to some, deadly dull to others. And as in many big towns which like to think of themselves as small cities, it’s been harder and harder to find out in recent years, even if you care.

In the first place, there’s the two Berkeley problem. For a sizeable number of residents, Berkeley is just a more PC Piedmont: comfortable view homes, an easy car commute to pleasant white collar jobs on the UC campus or in San Francisco, okay city services. Getting anywhere—shopping, movies, whatever—is just about impossible without an automobile, and once you’re in the car, you might as well go to El Cerrito Plaza or Emeryville or Walnut Creek if you need anything. For concerned parents, there’s a choice of driving the kids to not-so-bad public schools or to interesting added-value private schools where the little darlings can learn French, creative sharing, Hebrew, music…whatever you think might improve them the most.

In this Berkeley, no one's trying to build an enormous apartment development to loom over your block, and if the occasional passing car threatens to disturb your peace, you might be able to persuade the city to gift you with a few bumps in the road. That’s about all you need from the city, unless a neighbor’s new gable invades your view, necessitating a complaint. Your house is worth a lot, even with the recession, so your tax bill is substantial, and if you’re that kind of person you might gripe about that.

The other Berkeley is the one that allows upscale and uphill Berkeley to feel PC. These are the people who inhabit the area which has the “more density” bulls-eye painted on it, the place where the 16,000 households that the Association of Bay Area Government and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission want to add to Berkeley over the next 25 years would surely be located. The residents of this other Berkeley, on average, have lower property values, less income and more melanin than their fellow citizens, and they certainly have more to worry about. Instead of winding lanes, they’re apt to live on or next to transit corridors. They can—and often must—walk or bike to stores.
These are the Berkeleyans who really need to know what’s going on, in the classic phrase, “before it lands on them.” When the Mayor and the City Council are confronted, to their evident distaste. with a noisy crowd, many members of the vocal group come from what might be called “high impact” Berkeley. Most residents of “low impact” Berkeley hate going to council meetings in person, and luckily for them life is good and they don’t need to. -more-

Republicans Again; “The General Welfare” and Other Meaningless Abstractions; Federal Budget; The Budget; Sunday Morning Funnies; The Truth; A Sad Case; Needy; Priorities; Unions; Bees; Republicans Again -more-

On the evening of Thursday, April 14, I witnessed yet another example of the outrageous incompetence and/or corruption of some of our City agencies, in this case, the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

The occasion of the meeting was the potential approval of the proposed demolition of the South and West Branch Libraries so that new Libraries could be constructed, and the potential approval of the Use Permits for said construction. What’s wrong with that, you ask? What’s wrong is that Measure FF, which was passed in 2008 and provides the funding for alterations to the libraries, mandated the RENOVATION of the existing Library structures – not demolition. The exact wording of the Measure was:

“Shall the City of Berkeley issue general obligation bonds not exceeding $26,000,000 to renovate, expand, and make seismic and access improvements at four neighborhood branch libraries, but not the Central Library, with annual reporting by the Library Board to the City Council?

There was not a word in the Measure about demolition, and yet somehow, the members of the Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) took it upon themselves to ignore the wording of the Measure and the members of the public who pointed out the wording of the Measure ­– and instead to do what they damn well pleased, which was to renovate the North Branch and Claremont libraries, while demolishing the two flatland libraries. It is hard to believe that this is legal. -more-

California is being looked at as the rare alternative to Tea-Party rule these days. Jerry Brown’s direct style and transparent budget strategy as governor have led to a waning in people’s longtime pessimism about state government. Yet, with the extreme policies of other new governors dominating the news -- and with Meg Whitman remaining in the public eye-- one must wonder how it would have been if California had voted the other way in 2010. It was certainly significant that voters went to the polls and beat back Whitman's $178 million candidacy. This is further relevant because in California elections one can always expect that well-moneyed novices will throw their hat into the ring. -more-

This is an informational article on why you should not pull fire alarms if there is not an emergency. -more-