There is a lot to be learned from what happened in Texas this last week. While Texans are rightly angry with Ted Cruz taking off to Cancun to avoid the crisis, I’ve been thinking it would be nice to send some of our City elected officials to Cancun to sit out the rest of their terms as a damage control measure.

Land use, zoning, housing and infrastructure grabbed all the attention this week from Tuesday through Saturday. -more-

Since the city has moved to Zoom meetings, the city can do better to allow participation by using Zoom's features. The current manner of conducting meetings leaves residents with the impression that our participation is not wanted or valued. -more-

Can you imagine? There were five instances of police brutality against black people by the Berkeley police during 2020. A town of 115,000 people. Extended to the whole country, that would be in excess of 12,500 black people brutalized by government agents in that year. And that wouldn’t include Latinxs, or Asians, or Native Americans. Or white people. -more-

Contrary to the fantasy of “the shining city on the hill”, successive US administrations have delivered punishing blows to the world (Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan. . ) -more-

As promised, today we have four excellent new submissions in the "Extra" section. -more-

A month into the Biden-Harris administration, we've reached an inflection point: the conclusion of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. While there were not enough Senate votes for conviction, public sentiment turned against Trump. The outcome has consequences for Biden-Harris, Trump, and the 2022 election.

The latest ABC News/Ipsos Poll (https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/abcnews-impeachment-poll ) indicated that 58 percent of respondents felt Trump should have been convicted at the trial (84 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Independents, and 14 percent of Republicans.) 57 Senators voted for conviction, including 7 Republicans. After the trial, Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell said: "Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty... There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth."

Going forward, what can we expect? -more-

The instincts that cause human beings to survive are numerous, multifaceted, and intertwined. In my life, the survival instinct that evolution gave most people, has worked both for and against me. It has also sometimes worsened my symptoms of mental illness, and yet at other times has been grounding. -more-

Resuming a project begun under the Obama administration, following a review process, President Joe Biden will seek to close the Guantánamo Bay Detention facility, opened in January 2002 to hold people suspected of ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

A total of 780 prisoners have passed through Guantánamo, and the 40 remaining include alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants. About a quarter of the remaining prisoners are facing criminal charges in various terrorism cases, but most of the others have never been charged and are being held indefinitely. Guantánamo has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $6 billion despite finalizing only one conviction in nearly two decades.

Biden’s options are limited without help from Congress. In 2015, Congress passed, and Obama signed, with objections a National Defense Authorization Act—the annual bill that sets the budget for the Pentagon—that included provisions barring the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo to the U.S. This transfer restriction has continued in subsequent NDAAs. -more-

The Times Mocks Trump's Demise

One couldn't hope for a more fitting news item to mark the end of Donald Trump's Reign of Error than the ballyhooed demolition of his failed Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. The New York Times aimed a few more parting darts at Trump's sagging ego when they wrote off the explosive destruction of this monument to debt and mismanagement with a lede sentence that basically translated to "Meh."

Typically, the demolition of a major high-rise would draw spectacle-hungry press attention and huge crowds. Not so much this time. As Times reporter Tracey Tully wrote: "It was not the biggest or the best implosion ever. An auction for the right to detonate the dynamite. . . fizzled."

As Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small put it: "Today is truly a great day in the great city of Atlantic City."

Hopefully, the final collapse of this 39-story eyesore will serve as a metaphor for Trump's failed ambitions. In the aftermath of his attempted anti-democratic rebellion, may the all the remaining monoliths bearing his name eventually be reduced to piles of smoking rubble. -more-

Worth Noting:

Busy week ahead with 20 city meetings and 3 community meetings listed packed into four days.



Monday – At the Council Agenda and Rules Committee, 2:30 pm item 20 is a housing measure allowing ministerial approval of 76 ft (7- story) projects, projects with density bonus restricted to 100% affordable housing including households from low to moderate income (100% AMI - area median income). Percent of units allocated to levels of income is not defined in proposal

Tuesday – City Council meetings at 4 pm Fair and Impartial Policing Working Group Report and 6 pm Regular meeting item 29 eliminates single family home zoning.

Wednesday – is packed, just check the list.

Thursday - 600 Addison is a proposed commercial building (R&D) that abuts Aquatic Park. The project plans include 924 parking spaces plus a shuttle driven through Aquatic park every 15 minutes for 8 hours/day.



If you have a meeting you would like included in the summary of meetings, please send a notice to kellyhammargren@gmail.com by noon on the Friday of the preceding week. To see commentary on last weeks’ city meetings check www.berkeleydailyplanet.com after Sunday. -more-