The Editor's Back Fence

I'm not sorry to say Mike and I won't be in town on June 25 to attend the next discussion of what might constitute significant community benefits for buildings which benefit from up-zoning. We've been following the discussion to a certain extent online, and it's apparent that what we have is a rush to judgment in a city that's already being judged harshly around the world for the tragic consequences of previous hasty construction and inadequate oversight. The Irish and British papers we've been seeing have expressed their shock and horror that something like this could happen in a supposedly progressive city in a developed first world country. Until we have a clear analysis of what went wrong we can't figure out how to avoid something similar in the future. It's apparent that all is not right in Berkeley's construction industry--now we need to figure out what the problems are and how to solve them. Expediting the addition of even bigger buildings to a city already not coping adequately with those now in use is a recipe for disaster. The mayor should cancel the hastily scheduled special council meeting on June 25 and schedule instead a different special meeting at a time and in a place that all interested citizens can attend, with an announced agenda of inquiring into the Library Gardens tragedy and how we can avoid a repetition.