Public Comment

From the No on Measure R (.org) campaign. (The only name attached to the site is Eric Panzer, but it's publicized by mass email from John Caner, president of the Downtown Berkeley Association, a public-private entity financed by taxes on Berkeley downtown property owners and controlled by them in proportion to their monetary contribution.):

“The backers of the new Measure R refer to it by their campaign slogan, ‘Berkeley's Green Downtown & Public Commons Initiative.’ Since this anti-growth initiative will actually undermine Berkeley's green policies in protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gases, the initiative's slogan represents a well-known type of political subterfuge called ‘greenwashing,’ which is disinformation designed to project an environmentally friendly public image.”

Greenwashing is, per its Wikipedia page, “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.” The Downtown Plan was passed by the Council with a Green Pathway component that provided developers with a rapid approval process in exchange for agreeing to follow green building standards and increase the amount of affordable housing they provide. No downtown development has chosen to take the Green Pathway in the history of the Plan, which means that the Green Pathway element has proven to be textbook greenwashing, as opponents claimed when it was enacted. Measure R softens the requirements of the Green Pathway, but makes them mandatory.