Public Comment

At a recent Zoning Adjustment Board meeting, Suzie Bluestone asked the fifty-plus attendees a question: “Is there anyone in favor of this development who is on their own time and is not being paid by wealthy development money?”

The January 8 meeting at which she spoke was devoted exclusively to public comment on the “benefits” of the proposed 18-story 2211 Harold Way development in downtown Berkeley, a development that:

• Would be crammed into an already-dense area, just across the street from the Berkeley Main Library and its attached Library Gardens Apartments;
• Would demolish the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas, a great cultural and economic asset to Berkeley (sixty percent of its customers come from out of town);
• Would destroy retail establishments both at the building site and in the surrounding area, where theater customers generate a significant amount of business;
• Would cast massive shadows on the Library Gardens Apartments and Berkeley High School;
• Would create yet more outlandishly expensive housing for upper-middle-class techies streaming in from San Francisco –

and also more vacation homes and AirB&B rentals, as is happening in San Francisco;

• Would blight the famous Bay view from the Campanile; and
• Would make already-scarce parking in that area almost impossible.

Given these impacts, are YOU in favor of the Harold Way project? Right. Neither were any of the ZAB attendees – except, of course, for the Mark Rhoades contingent, who stands to make loads of money off it. 

Not surprisingly, the detriments bulleted above don’t even exist for Rhoades, or for the City Council who are responsible for the project’s inception. What the latter focus on is that this unreasonably tall, out-of-scale building will help fulfill the 2012 Measure R plan. Never mind that it is increasingly clear that when voting for this Council-driven blueprint, Berkeley citizens had no idea they were voting for an 18-story building in the heart of downtown. 

Undaunted by its citizens’ dismay, the Council trumpets Measure R as the will of the people, and thus their mandate to cram huge building after huge building down our throats, no matter how ugly, out of character, or unnecessary they are. 

More, the Council and Planning Department maintain, notwithstanding the economic and cultural disruption the Harold Way project would inflict, that this development is good for the City. Yet there are signs that the Council-appointed ZAB has its doubts. oHoHTo paraphrase Zoning Commissioner Sophie Hahn’s remarks during the November ZAB discussion of the Harold Way Project, there’s probably a place for this building somewhere; just not here. 

But the person who said it best is former mayor Shirley Dean, who, at the January 8 meeting, got right to the heart of the matter when she looked at the commissioners, from Denise Pinkston on the left to Steven Donaldson on the right, and simply said, “This building is too damn big.” 

So what are we going to do about this? You can be sure that unless Councilmembers fear for their political futures, they will approve this project. Well, if it’s fear that’s needed, let’s give it to them. Flood the Council and ZAB meetings, or write to them – preferably, both – and:  

1. Tell them we won’t accept an 18-story building in downtown Berkeley.
2. Tell them that, whatever they DO build at Harold Way, to respect our culture by preserving the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas, and to minimize the displacement and disruption of other businesses that the new building will create.
3. Tell them that we, the citizens of Berkeley, refuse the top-down imposition of development projects all over the City that are turning Berkeley into a suburb of San Francisco. And,
4. Tell them that we will vote them out of office if they go through with a high-rise at Harold Way.

For more information on this, see our Facebook page or contact Judy Shelton.