Editorials

Don’t you wish you were in France right now? If you were, however, what you’d find is that many shops and even tourist sights that you might want to visit have locked the door and posted signs: “Fermé pour les vacances” (Closed for vacation.) The months of July and August are dedicated to the lengthy vacations that a lot of French workers are entitled to. That’s a civilized custom, now alas somewhat on the decline.

This custom is also traditionally observed in Berkeley—the City Council takes off mid-July and won’t be seen until mid-September. Many are happy to see them go, though not their pet developers lusting after new permits.

Builders are eager to Get On With It without a break: constructing those Cash Register Multiples that are once again in vogue in Berkeley­ and throughout the Bay Area, luxury apartment blocks poised to swell to enormous heights and produce enormous profits.

Dig We Must, utility companies used to say in Manhattan during the regime of mega-builder Robert Moses (not the civil rights hero). Now, right here in Berkeley, those out-of-town money men who are eagerly engaged in strip-mining downtown Berkeley for profit are saying Build We Must.

While the City Council is away at play, the commissions which are supposed to watchdog land use in this city have been hornswoggled into staying around to fast-track the Council Majority’s pet project, the Residences at Berkeley Plaza (RatBP) at 2211 Harold Way at Shattuck, to be built on the landmarked site of the Shattuck Hotel and the Shattuck Cinemas.

Mayor Tom Bates has already said (on the TV news, no less) that he supports the plan to build about 300 luxury units on that block , despite the fact that the project has yet to come before him at council meetings. That’s why he’s able to take long vacations abroad every summer, including this one—his minions know the drill and will carry on regardless.

The worker bees at the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Zoning Adjustments Board are still buzzing around the honey. What exactly are they in town to do? That, dear reader, is the $64 million question. I wish I could tell you the answer—I’ve tried, but I still don’t know what the script is supposed to be. You'll have to find out for yourself by going to the LPC meeting on Thursday. 

I sat down this morning fully prepared to figure exactly what the LPC will be up to next Thursday. With some difficulty I found the agenda for their announced August 13 special meeting on the city’s gosh-awful web site. Don’t look for it on the semi-official community calendar, because, as of this writing, it’s not there. It is, however, eventually findable using a text search. 

To make it easy, you can click here to see it if you’re a glutton for punishment. 

And what are the commissioners being asked to do? Buried deep in pages of miscellaneous links is the staff report prepared for this special meeting, which appears to have been scheduled just for the purpose of koshering this very special project. Nine Berkeleyans are staying in town just make Mark Rhoades (the fixer for the land owner) happy. 

Click here to download the report yourself. 

This is where I started to get lost, right at the top of the report: 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is being asked, among other things, to approve permits to allow service of distilled spirits, beer and wine, and to permit amplified live entertainment, all at what seems to be an on-site restaurant. Just exactly how is the LPC qualified to issue liquor licenses? 

And that’s just the beginning. The rest of the document is dauntingly over-stuffed with data and drawing, most irrelevant and meaningless. I talked to a good number of knowledgeable people—a former councilmember, a retired City of Oakland planner, a high-level campaign consultant and several others, and while they’d all looked at the packet, none of them could explain exactly what the council was supposed to do on Thursday. 

I did manage to flip through the whole packet, but I seriously doubt that the Landmarks Preservation Commissioners have managed to read and consider any significant percentage of it. Someone with a lot more nerve than me might use the audience question period to ask each one individually if they’ve read everything in the packet. I bet it would be hard to get a straight answer from all of them. 

At least one of the commissioners might have had trouble plowing through it all since she was just recently appointed by the Mayor, after he axed his previous appointee for admitting that as a preservationist she had doubts about this project since it requires demolition on a designated historic site. But the new commissioner can probably guess how she’s supposed to vote if she’s going to keep her seat, so she needn’t bother to do all that reading. 

A couple of meetings back several of her fellow commissioners said at some length that they supported the project because it contained housing units—even before they’d reviewed the evidence. One of them opined that it would bring culture to Berkeley since it would attract rich people, and we all know rich folks have culture. 

It’s hard to imagine that the project will get an unbiased informed de novo review under the circumstances next Thursday. But I hope to be proven wrong. 

And then there’s the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). CEQA reports (Environment Impact Reports) are supposed to inform decision-makers about how a proposed project will affect the environment. 

Urban legends say Environment Impact Reports are evaluated by the pound, not by the logic of their arguments. This one’s big all right, but the authors (in a contract firm which has another big contract with the city for another task) managed to miss Berkeley High, right next door, altogether. The Berkeley Unified School District has asked that this be remedied, but nothing has happened so far, and most likely nothing ever will. 

At their last meeting the Zoning Adjustment Board voted (furtively) to certify that the Final EIR was adequate for its purposes. The public can still appeal this vote to the City Council—but here’s Catch 22: the appeal can’t be filed until the planning department issues a Notice of Decision about ZAB’s action. Which they haven’t yet done and won’t do until it’s convenient for them. 

How can the LPC rely on an EIR which could still be overturned either by the City Council or in court if opponents wanted to appeal? And even if it were perfect, it’s pounds and pounds of paper to parse. 

I just don’t believe that commissioners can say in good faith that they’ve read it all and are prepared to make the best decision. They are human beings, after all, and this is an inhuman task. 

What’s most discouraging about the way downtown Berkeley is being carved up for greedy speculators like Rhoades and allies is that the voice of the people no longer seems to count. Proponents have fat wallets, and are willing to spend spend spend to hire consultants of all stripes to make their mess of pottage look tasty. Opponents must rely on unpaid volunteers and the small number of attorneys who are willing to work cheaply for the public good. 

The RatBP project is a cynical evasion of the intent of the Downtown Plan which many citizens labored for years to produce. Yes, the plan anticipated a few tall building scattered around the historic Downtown. No, it did not anticipate demolition of historic structures, popular theaters and educational facilities in order to make room for these new tall structures. It did not anticipate three bulky buildings disguised as one to dominate almost a whole city block. 

It’s rumored that the only thing that impresses decision-makers in Berkeley is the sheer number of speakers who turn out at meetings. Let’s hope that this is true, because if it’s not we must believe that campaign contributions and consultant expenditures are the true source of power in this city. Of course, there are always lawsuits, but they are a poor alternative to getting it right the first time, costly to both appellants and taxpayers. 

If you haven’t turned out for these events before, this is your big chance to be part of the growing movement to take back Berkeley from the power elite, to preserve it as the beautiful and diverse city we’re proud to live in. 

I must say that, win or lose, it’s been an inspiring experience to be one of the increasing number of passionate and well-informed Berkeleyans who do show up for these civic struggles. The people you meet there are the kind of people you’d like to know. Many of them are also active in other good causes—quite a few are veterans of the Tony Thurmond campaign. 

It’s much better than staying home surfing the Net and whining about the state of the world. Think of it as part of the entertainment budget if nothing else. It can be fun. 

See for yourself what’s going on, and do speak truth to power if the spirit moves you: 

Event: Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission 

Date: Thursday, August 13, 2015
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Avenue