Columns
A Berkeley Activist's Diary
“Life is lived looking forward and understood looking backward,” Reverend James Reynold Anderson.
Tuesday evening was the Berkeley City Council’s meeting, and this is where history gives insight to the action taken by Mayor Arreguin.
On November 12, 2019, the city council passed the Bird Safe Berkeley Requirements Ordinance as a referral to the Planning Commission and the City Manager to consider-and that is where it has been sitting for sixteen months, sixteen months of inaction while construction of multi-story mixed-use buildings continues at a feverish pace, buildings that need bird-safe glass to protect a bird population in decline. Consider this; North America has lost 2.9 billion birds since 1970. Birds crashing into glass causes the death of an estimated 600 million birds annually nationwide.
The work to get the Bird Safe Ordinance into the November 12, 2019 council agenda began with a presentation by the Audubon Society February 14, 2019 at the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC). This was followed with five months of committee work at CEAC to develop the Bird Safe Berkeley Ordinance. The proposed ordinance was passed by CEAC June 13, 2019 and sent to council to sit another five months before making it into the council November 12, 2019 agenda.
The council can pound their chests for being progressive by passing the Bird Safe Berkeley Ordinance. But did they really do anything by making a referral that lets it languish out of sight at the Planning Commission never to be enacted? The Bird Safe Berkeley Ordinance is listed second from the bottom in the commission workplan for 2021 and 2022. It is not ranked (no priority) under miscellaneous. Berkeley is far behind neighboring cities which passed bird-safe ordinances years ago.
The Bird Safe Ordinance’s history provides insight into the maneuver to kill the resolution to Recognize the Rights of Nature, item 31 in the March 30, 2021 council agenda.
The Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment and Sustainability Committee (FITES) recommended passing the Rights of Nature resolution with a minor word change to place the responsibility on the city instead of the residents.
Mayor Arreguin had already boxed himself in by stating his opposition to the Rights of Nature on March 15 at the Agenda Committee. There was a positive FITES recommendation and too much public response to outright kill the Rights of Nature resolution. Leaving the Rights of Nature Resolution in the action calendar to be discussed and voted on by the full council would risk its passage. Arreguin needed another path and this is where the lessons from attending past city meetings comes into play.
Arreguin declared his support for the Rights of Nature at the March 30th Council meeting and then asked of the full council if there were any objections to moving item 31 to the consent calendar as a referral to the Peace and Justice Commission. Not a peep was heard.
The Peace and Justice Commission is an odd referral. The mission statement of the commission is: Advises the Council and the School Board on issues of peace and social justice. Creates citizen awareness and develops educational programs. Igor Tregub, the mayor’s appointee, is the chair of the Peace and Justice Commission. Tregub was the chair of the Joint Subcommittee for the Implementation of State Housing Laws which met from April 17, 2018 until July 22, 2020 and was unable to reach agreement on objective standards.
It certainly looks suspect that the mayor would refer The Rights of Nature to the Peace and Justice Commission, where he had a loyal appointee as chair, rather than to CEAC, with this mission: Develops a plan, prioritizes strategies and makes recommendations for environmental protection, hazardous materials and reduction, with outreach to and education of the public, small businesses and industry. Of course, leaving the resolution in the Council’s Action calendar for a vote would tell the public where every council member stood.
Councilmember Harrison asked after the consent calendar was passed when the Peace and Justice Commission might resume meeting again. City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley responded that the staff person for the Peace and Justice Commission was assigned to the COVID-19 emergency and she didn’t have a replacement to support the commission. She didn’t know when it would be possible for the Peace and Justice Commission to meet again.
If you are wondering why The Rights of Nature is important, and just why there appears to be a choreographed effort to kill it, look no further than the massive movement to deregulate zoning (aka zoning reform or upzoning). There’s a lot of money sliding around to gobble up land for development by greasing campaign wheels and selling an ideology to vulnerable
30-somethings who see a secure future out of reach or slipping away.
Passing the resolution to recognize the Rights of Nature would give standing to the place of urban habitat in sustaining and supporting the environment. The Rights of Nature would support leaving space for birds, pollinators, plants, and maybe a little patch of green for us too. Nature doesn’t fit with the big money to be made with lot line to lot line covered in concrete.
There will be more. I’m working on a date and will arrange to cover the cost for a virtual screening of the film, Invisible Hand- Rights of Nature Documentary so it will be free to attendees.
There are a few other meetings to be mentioned.
The week started with attending Part 3 of the Equity Summit Series, Learning from Our Elders: Listening and Honoring the Past to Guide the Future. The host was former District 2 Councilmember Cheryl Davila in collaboration with the Friends of Adeline. As I heard descriptions of what South Berkeley used to be, I thought about the book I recently finished, The Devil You Know, A Black Power Manifesto by Charles M. Blow.
Berkeley was, as I am told, at one time at least 25% Black. It is now maybe 7% Black. The Black population as a whole in the US is around 13.4% Black. Whether people leave or stay in a neighborhood is complicated, but one thing is for certain. South and West Berkeley, the formerly redlined neighborhoods, are already well into gentrification. It was interesting and sad at the same time to hear the stories of the loss of a cohesive Black neighborhood.
Moving on, the Council Public Safety Committee met Monday morning with one agenda item, Adopt an Ordinance…Regulating Police Acquisition and Use of Controlled Equipment. The Berkeley Police Department (BPD) is continually complaining about the burden of reporting and the committee council members seem to have limited grasp of the difference between reporting use of force and reporting the use of controlled equipment. One would think with all the money the City spends on computer software somewhere along the line someone would have created a program that even BPD would find which would make reporting easier. I always feel leaving any of these meetings with BPD that the action of reporting isn’t the issue, it is the requirement to do so.
The Monday afternoon Agenda Committee was also just one item, Officeholder Accounts. Officeholder accounts were a real surprise as I didn’t know that our Councilmembers and Mayor can have accounts consisting of public donations to use for “office expenses” and donations to nonprofit organizations. Of course, I wouldn’t be in the loop on the officeholder accounts since I personally do not have much discretionary income to throw around.
The Fair Campaign Practices Commission recommended in February 2020 to eliminate Officeholder Accounts, but Councilmember Sophie Hahn proposed that the officeholder accounts should be allowed and offered a proposal for regulations. As the meeting progressed Councilmember Wengraf starting asking questions, really questioning if officeholder accounts were needed and how such an account could advantage certain electeds.
Arreguin was quite clear in support of the accounts, and revealed what he thought of Wengraf asking questions when at 34.21 minutes into the meeting he stated that “ultimately two members constitutes a majority of the committee…” In other words, with the mayor and Hahn in agreement, he didn’t need Wengraf.
Wednesday evening was the South Berkeley Community Safety Town Hall organized by Councilmember Terry Taplin. When I met up with my walk partner on Friday to share what I had learned, I came up empty. I couldn’t say that I had really learned anything. The interim Police Chief promised statistics, but I didn’t hear any. There just didn’t feel like there was anything solid,even though it was well intended, well attended and included Mayor Arreguin and Councilmembers Ben Bartlett from District 3, Dan Kalb from Oakland and John Bauters from Emeryville.
I like to finish with what I am reading. A book review would add too much to this already lengthy diary. This week I finished Once I was You A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America by Maria Hinojosa and The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy by Chris Murphy. I am just getting into Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Chris Hayes. It is our book club choice for April.
