Public Comment

It is October 24, 2020 and Berkeley along with a large swath of northern California is under another red flag warning with power shutoffs looming for those living in the highest risk areas. What a difference it would mean if the mixed-use projects (apartment buildings with a restaurant or commercial space on the first floor) in Berkeley were built like Soleil Lofts in Herriman, Utah. https://archive.curbed.com/2019/8/27/20835206/apartment-solar-salt-lake-city-loft 

It sounds like a futuristic fantasy, an apartment complex covered with solar and filled with storage batteries to make the complex a virtual power plant. Of course, there are the reasonably priced units and appealing amenities. It is an interesting project to watch and study and a stark contrast to Berkeley which can’t seem to even process an ordinance to require bird safe glass in new construction. 

The plus side of Zoom is the possibility of tuning into meetings that would otherwise be impossible to track. The downside of attending is to see how work is batted back and forth between council, policy committees, and the handful of commissions and quasi-legislative bodies that are allowed to meet during the pandemic. This week of Zoom brought some unexpected surprises, and I expect that by revealing them I will be off at least one invite list. 

As mentioned in the Activist’s Calendar not everyone is excited by the new Civic Center Plan. Former Mayors Tom Bates and Loni Hancock joined the Civic Arts Commission subcommittee meeting on Civic Center Visioning Friday morning. While some of us thought Tom and Loni (domestic partners as well as political allies) were actually retired from city business, it was evident that they are still quite active. Tom and Loni opined that they didn’t think the new city council chambers should be built in Civic Center Park. Their suggestion was that the new council chambers could possibly be built behind the post office. It seems there is a group that has been meeting with Downtown Business Association Executive Director John Caner to come up with alternative plans. The Civic Arts Commission members have their eye on including a visual arts center, since so much emphasis has been placed on performance arts. 

It is all very interesting that while segments of Berkeley are thinking about grandiose plans to gentrify Civic Center Park in the model of San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, the remaining small activist Black community in South Berkeley is struggling for attention for an African American Holistic Center. The international consultants, Gehl, seem to have secured their jobs through mission creep and an enthusiastic council dreaming of new digs instead of sharing underutilized space with BUSD. The payment to Gehl is at this point only $76,000 over the initial allocation of $300,000, but we can expect that to continue to grow. Should we be surprised that a proposal to assess the seismically unsafe old city hall in order to develop a plan to retrofit it so council could return is turning into the push and pull of Berkeley’s power brokers looking for their piece of the action? It should be interesting. All of this swirls in the middle of a pandemic that is gaining steam with super spreader rallies across the country and increasing business closures. 

Berkeley for the present has avoided rampant spread of COVID-19 infections. The 90-page report from the City to be presented at the Council meeting on Tuesday on the response to COVID-19 is sort of interesting in what I couldn’t find, any section on communication and coordination with Alta Bates Sutter Hospital. For all the City’s chest thumping about keeping a hospital in Berkeley, it seems that should have been there, but maybe I just missed it as I was rushing through the last pages to finish my weekly summary of city meetings in hopes of getting some sleep before sunrise.