Congratulations on a terrific mailer.

First of all, congratulations on keeping your finger prints completely off of it. I am sure no one connects you to the East Bay Health…Affordable Housing, etc.PAC.

Second, the artwork is great, just enough shading on the dark pages that recipients will know Jovanka is Black.

And all the great hit facts that are here to read, way too late to give Jovanka time for rebuttal. I live in Berkeley and I know our leaders would NEVER allow a meeting to “stretch past midnight.” Really bad!

I hope you don’t mind if I send this in to the Lee Atwater Foundation for its annual Willie Horton Award for best campaign ad.

---

Editor's Note: We believe that the author intends this letter to be satire. -more-

The Jovanka Beckles for AD 15 campaign urges East Bay progressives to rally with Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Jovanka at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 27, 2018 at the Berkeley Community Theater (on the grounds of Berkeley High School). -more-

In her October 17 op-ed urging a Yes vote on Berkeley’s Measure Q, Debbie Sanderson writes: “Because the rents [in Accessory Dwelling Units, a.k.a. granny flats] are typically low, California now allows cities to count ADUs toward their low-income housing construction requirements.”

It’s true that, since 2003, the state has allowed cities to count ADUs toward low-income housing. But where’s the evidence that ADU rents are usually low?

A new study authored by University of Massachusetts Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Professor Darrel Ramsey-Musolf, “Accessory Dwelling Units as Low-Income Housing: California’s Faustian Bargain,” says no such evidence exists.

Published in Urban Science on September 5, the study examined a random sample of 57 low-, moderate- and high-income California cities. The researchers counted 750 potential ADUs as low-income housing. They found that “[even] though 759 were constructed, no units were identified as available low-income housing. In addition, none of the cities’ zoning codes enforced low-income occupancy.”

In summary: -more-

Please cast a NO vote on Measure FF. A NO on Measure FF will stop funding of millions of dollars to clear-cut hundreds of thousands of healthy trees and turn these fire-abating trees into dried, flammable kindling in the East Bay Hills. David Maloney, Fire Prevention Chief, Oakland Army Base, “Dried grass provides the most flammable ground fuel,” and, “There‘s no if’s, and’s, or but’s… every single tree is a wildfire mitigation factor…. Trees block wind, drip fog onto grasses, and block sun so grasses stay moist.” -more-

Those of us who attended the “emergency” City meeting on traffic circles some weeks ago signed up to be on the mailing list for future meetings. As one of the attendees who requested notification, I did not receive the mailing. Unfortunately, Lack of notification from City staff seems to be all too typical but thanks to friends and word of mouth a notice was forwarded to me. Here is what it said:

Dear Community Member,

You are invited to participate in a Public Works community meeting regarding Traffic Circle Landscaping on October 23rd from 6:00pm to 7:30 pm at the Frances Albrier Community Center at 2800 Park Street. The primary purpose of this meeting is to provide an opportunity for the community to help inform the vision and maintenance plan for landscaping in all City traffic circles.

Agenda:

6:00 to 6:15 Welcome

6:15 to 6:30 Public Works Overview of Traffic Circles including history, safety, future signage, future landscaping, volunteer opportunities.

6:30 to 7:30 Traffic Circle Workshop to identify Traffic Circles for pilot testing drought tolerant decorative plantings and determine next steps for ongoing community involvement.

Sincerely, Joy Brown, Senior Managment Analyst, Public Works Department, City of Berkeley

-more-

We are frequently negligent, often clumsy, always self-centered. When something bad occurs due to our negligence we rarely admit responsibility. When someone gets hurt, only a fool accepts any blame. Within sight of the incident is a billboard: "Injured? Call 1-800-xxx-xxxx!"

From 1994 or earlier, Liebeck v. McDonald's (the "scalded crotch lady" case) we saw we can turn injury into millions. Since 1994 no American can buy a coffee in the U.S. without a java jacket and a lid. The favorite targets of opportunistic lawsuits: local governments and school districts. They are rained upon by such suits. Why not? "I want to be a millionaire!"

I always believed a thoughtful populace like that of Berkeley would see through some banalities of American culture. But maybe time has dulled our eyes. A couple years ago a driver hit and seriously injured a pedestrian on Ellsworth. They and their law firm declared that neither driver nor pedestrian were at fault. A tree was at fault. Hence the owner of the tree - the City of Berkeley - is at fault. (Note that the tree did not fall upon anyone. It just passively did what trees do.) A judge endorsed their thinking. Our city agreed to pay $2.1 million to these two and their attorney, Lamb and Frischer. Moreover, as apparent penitence, the city agreed to cut down all the trees in all the traffic circles in Berkeley. Both staff and elected council regard this as normal. -more-

Subsidizing corporate interests to influence campaigns; collusion between candidates at public expense

This is the first election in Berkeley with public financing of campaigns. If candidates limit their contributions to $50 (instead of $250), Berkeley will provide $6 in matching funds (using taxpayer dollars) for each $1 dollar contributed up to a total campaign cost of $40,000 for a City Council race.[1]

How is this working so far in Berkeley? We now have a first look after the candidates for Berkeley’s four City council races filed their Form 460 with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). The good news is that the vast majority of reported campaign expenditures are for valid costs such as voter software, campaign signs, mailers, and the obligatory bagels and pizza for volunteers. The bad news is the lack of safeguards in the program has encouraged wasteful and/or self-serving expenditures, has not taken the effect of big money out of politics, and has allowed candidates to gang up on a candidate. The following focuses on District 4.

Party at Magofna’s

The use of public campaign funds should serve as a budget on training wheels for a candidate. How they manage $40,000 of the public’s money is an indication of how they’ll manage Berkeley’s $300 million budget. The honor of the most self-indulgent use of campaign funds clearly goes to Greg Magofna. His “campaign kickoff” luncheon cost the public $1,491.59[2], four times more than the next candidate, and 100 times the $14.25 for “Pasta and chips for fundraising events” Alfred Twu reported in District 8.[3] To this add $483.58 to buy a “personal printer and toner supplies”[4], just under the $500 limit for capital expenditures.[5] Even if he doesn’t get any votes, Greg will get to keep the printer. No wonder Greg is being quoted in Berkeleyside as being “grateful for the public matching funds.”[6] -more-

HERE YE, HERE YE! A park will be built this Sunday between Dwight Way and Haste. The land is owned by the University, which tore down a lot of beautiful houses in order to build a swamp.

That was how People's Park began—with a small announcement on page 2 of the Berkeley Barb.

"We want the part to be a cultural, political freak-out and rap center for the Western world," the article proclaimed. It was signed: "Robin Hood's Park Commissioner." [aka local Yippie activist Stew Albert.]

What could be more innocent than a public park? And, given the volatile, vanguard habits of the Berkeley community, what could be more revolutionary?

We took barren land, scraped off the trash, turned it green with banners of rolled sod, saplings and lots of happy sweat. They hit us with everything they had—Highway Patrol, County Sheriffs, National Guard, batons, teargas, shotguns, and martial law. For the sake of a park, blood was ripped from flesh and Berkeley became an Occupied Town.

"If they want a bloodbath," Governor [Ronald Reagan) said, "Let's get on with it."

-- Gar Smith, The Berkeley Barb, April 26, 1979

[See the full article and thousands of other stories, photos, and illustrations archived at www.berkeleybarb.net and www.berkeleybarb.org.] -more-

Last week I got an email from a friend in Contra Costa County who doesn’t usually read the Daily Planet:

“We've been getting negative ads about Beckles in the mail. I don't know if you've gotten them but they are playing with racism (implying that Beckles is crazy and badly behaved, etc). The tactic only serves to make mainstream democrats look bad (would Obama approve of them?), and could alienate progressives still further. Does Wicks approve of these mailers? I find it all very disturbing...”

My somewhat snarky response: You should read the Berkeley Daily Planet.

But really, I also find it very disturbing. In last week’s editorial, I reprinted Wicks’ email address from her website, prompting reader Chris Adams to send her this sarcastic letter with a copy to us:

Dear Buffy Wicks,

Congratulations on a terrific mailer.

First of all, congratulations on keeping your finger prints completely off of it. I am sure no one connects you to the East Bay Health…Affordable Housing, etc.PAC.

Second, the artwork is great, just enough shading on the dark pages that recipients will know Jovanka is Black.

And all the great hit facts that are here to read, way too late to give Jovanka time for rebuttal. I live in Berkeley and I know our leaders would NEVER allow a meeting to “stretch past midnight.” Really bad!

I hope you don’t mind if I send this in to the Lee Atwater Foundation for its annual Willie Horton Award for best campaign ad.

The piece my friend received was attributed to "Coalition for East Bay Health Care Access, Affordable Housing and Quality Public Schools, supporting Buffy Wicks for Assembly 2018," , an Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee whose management has been traced to a conservative Republican lawyer in Sacramento. That might have given Buffy plausible deniability, but so far she hasn’t renounced their support.

But the glossy item that came in my mail today was even more …well…depressing.

This one was clearly paid for by “Buffy Wicks for Assembly”. Banner headline: “Buffy Wicks for Assembly is endorsed by the East Bay Express...”

Now, that’s just a lie. A plain, flat lie.

Here’s what the East Bay Express’s website now says, one more time:


“15th Assembly District: No Endorsement

This was also a tough choice for us. We co-endorsed Buffy Wicks, a former Obama White House aide, in the June primary with Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb. But we've been greatly disappointed in several of her policy stances since then, particularly her decision to oppose Proposition 10, which would allow cities like Berkeley and Oakland to enact tougher rent control laws in order to reduce displacement of longtime residents who can't afford to live here. We view Prop. 10 as one of the most important issues on the ballot. We're also disappointed in her decision to accept independent expenditure help from billionaire, charter-school backers.

Lying has become the fashion in Washington, where Wicks has spent a lot of her time, but it’s still somewhat frowned on in the East Bay.

The piece also devotes a full 8x11 color page (one of four) to an equally dishonest misstatement of Jovanka Beckles’ positions, the same easily rebuttable fake facts, accompanied by authentic appearing fake footnotes to partisan op-eds on obscure web sites, one of which is the Richmond Standard, the FauxNewsSource PR mouthpiece for Chevron.

Yes, it’s disturbing all right.

I fear that Wicks will be elected to represent wealthy developers instead of East Bay citizens in the California Assembly, given the vast sums being spent by them on her behalf.

I’m going to leave last week’s editorial online below, since sadly nothing much has changed. Read it and curse if you want to.
-more-

Who’s in charge here anyway?

Someone just texted me what seems to be a copy of a mailer. It shows a picture of an unsightly makeshift tent with a superimposed title, “Berkeley CAN do Better””, plus a headshot of District 4 Councilmember Kate Harrison, captioned “Kate Harrison Pushed for City-Approved Homeless Encampments in Berkeley” and the slogan "Vote Anyone But Kate". And here’s the kicker. "paid for by the Berkeley Police Association PAC".

What? Is that the Political Action Committee of the same organization which collectively bargains with the city of Berkeley, and just got the cops a hefty pay raise?

Yes, it is. From the BPA web site: -more-

We were shocked when we read the October 10, 2018 Opinion piece on Berkeleyside.com claiming that Kate Harrison’s housing policies result in making housing less affordable We have known Kate since she was on the Housing Advisory Commission. We would never describe her in the way that this editorial did. We have continued to work with Kate on affordable housing policies once she was elected to the Council. Let us explain why we disagree.

First, the opinion piece implies that Councilmember Harrison’s position on community benefits is one of the reasons why there is not more downtown development. We have worked on and researched community benefits in many other contexts and we could not disagree more. These benefits have been carefully negotiated between the City and the development community over several years in Berkeley, following passage of the Downtown Area Plan in 2010 (Measure R). Kate has said repeatedly that she supported Measure R and was not in favor of later measures to amend it.

The concept of community benefits stems from the theory of “Land Value Recapture” which is explained in a White Paper we co-wrote: "When land is up-zoned or a plan updated to allow greater intensity of development, the value of the land generally increases. Most of this increase in value is the result of a public action (such as the approval of the downtown plan) and not the landowner’s. When understood in this light, a strong argument can be made for the public to receive a reasonable share of the increased land value, to be used for community benefits.” -more-

The Marriott Hotel chain, which is the largest in the country, is being struck by workers who earn a poverty wage. The strike has been authorized by 8,300 workers at 23 Marriott hotels. The Marriott in Oakland and San Francisco are among the striking hotels. Those who have been employed by the Hotel chain from one to four years are earning a bit under $11 an hour. Longer term employees, from five to nine years, are averaging a poverty wage of about $12 an hour. Among the severe consequences of the low wages is that many workers are being forced to hold two jobs. Appropriately, they insist that "One job is enough". -more-

Ignoring evidence of Khashoggi’s gruesome murder, Present Trump rushed to defend his friend, Crown Prince Mohammed (MBS). Both Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and President Trump accepted verbal assurances from MBS that he had no knowledge of the killing and would conduct a thorough investigation. Oh really? The alleged perpetrator investigates his own crime? As the president went to bat for his Saudi pals, more details have emerged that paints a grisly picture of what actually happened. Turkish findings differ significantly from Trump’s rosy narrative. Mr. Khashoggi wasn’t interrogated. He was beaten up, drugged, and dismembered by a mafia style Saudi hit squad. The message to other Saudi dissidents was stark. If you persist apposing or criticizing the autocratic Crown Prince Mohammed you will suffer a similar fate. Let us see if President Trump follows through on his promise to unleash severe consequences on those responsible for Khashoggi‘s gruesome murder. -more-

Life is temporary. A thousand years from now, excavators might dig up our remains, study them, and possibly put them in a museum. Once we are gone, that might be "it"--and our consciousness is gone. Even if you believe in an afterlife or in reincarnation, there must be a life expectancy for the soul. Souls will not last forever either. Someone who studied ghosts estimated their life expectancy to be about 700 years. -more-

The murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, spotlights the moral depravity of Donald Trump. Khashoggi was an outspoken journalist -- an exemplary member of a profession Trump deplores. Khasoggi opposed the Saudi rulers -- friends of Trump. Given this background, it's no surprise that Trump is avoiding meaningful response to Khashoggi's assassination.

In 2017, Jamal Khashoggi, perhaps the most famous journalist in the Arab world, left Saudi Arabia after being banned from publishing or appearing on television because he had criticized the Saudi rulers and Donald Trump. Khashoggi relocated to the United States and began writing for the Washington Post. On October 2nd, Khashoggi entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, and has not been seen since. There are numerous reports that he was killed by a 15-person assassination team dispatched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

To understand how this killing became a major Trump scandal, we must follow three threads. The first is the relationship between Jamal Khashoggi and his country. In 1958. Khashoggi was born into an affluent Saudi family. He went to Saudi schools and then came to the U.S., receiving his college degree at Indiana State University in 1982. Khashoggi returned to Saudi Arabia and became a journalist; during the next twenty years he traveled extensively, interviewing many Middle East luminaries including Osama bin Laden (https://www.businessinsider.com/missing-saudi-journalist-jamal-khashoggi-ties-to-osama-bin-laden-islamists-2018-10 ). -more-

Are the Democrats too smug about the midterms, relying too much on favorable polls? Some Democrats are acting like they have already won control of the House. Personally, I don’t trust polls so much these days since the 2016 presidential election where too many showed Hillary Clinton winning comfortably. Democrats shouldn’t rely on them either. -more-

As part of Cal Performances Berkeley RADICAL 2018/19 season, a special series entitled Women’s Work focuses on the cultural expression of women artists. This past week, German choreographer Sasha Waltz has come to Berkleley to revive her revolutionary 2000 staging of Körper, which premiered at Berlin’s Schaubühne Theater. Here in Berkeley, Körper received two performances at Zellerbach Hall: Saturday, October 20 at 8:00 and Sunday, October 21 at 3:00. Sasha Waltz also gave a talk on Thursday, October 18 at Stephens Hall on the UC campus. In this talk, emceed by Sabrina Klein, Sasha Waltz spoke at length about the genesis of Körper. Interestingly, this work grew out of an earlier project focused on architect Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. Before the Jewish Museum was even open to the public, Sasha Waltz was asked to produce a dance event inside the new museum. According to Sasha Waltz, what struck her most about Libeskind’s revolutionary architecture was the existence of a central void. In response to this void, Sasha Waltz created the choreography for a solo dancer, which was performed in the central void of the Jewish Museum in 1999. (The Jewish Museum in Berlin only opened to the public in 2001.) -more-

-more-

The Calendar may look a little different as it was done jointly by Adolfo Cabral and Kelly Hammargren. Adolfo who reposts the activists’ calendar to Nextdoor will give Kelly a break in November. All the starred City meetings were NOT listed in the Community Calendar - City of Berkeley -more-

CLICK HERE for a comprehensive calendar of arts and cultural events in Berkeley and beyond, today and in the future. -more-