Here’s the new normal. It is called hype. Right now, it takes the form of words about an alleged housing crisis. We hear it from "experts" or politicians or corporate lawyers. They speak about “housing needs,” up-zoning single family neighborhoods, and “build build build.”

In the midst of a glut of market rate housing, and hundreds of old housing unit shuttered and empty, to what do these rhetorical expression refer? When these experts use the word "housing," it no longer means "lodging," or "commodity" (as in a rental market). Now, a housing unit exists as an "asset" for distant uncaring real estate financial corporations. Those corporations trade in securities on securities markets, and make their money on an increase in securities prices. When the corporation’s asset value rises, their securities gain in price.

Rented or not, maintained or not, housing now functions as corporate asset. The intermediary form of ownership, between real people and those distant corporations, are the LLC ownerships. They are the purveyor of housing assets to the financial economy. So when a government agency speaks of “9000 units to be built,” forget about that referring to lodging or homes. Think about the capital gains involved.

Today, many housing units are arbitrarily shuttered and vacant. And there are shills crying “housing shortage” in City Council chambers. Today, these shills advocate building more and more market rate housing, to beef up the market rate glut that empty apartments represent (huge apartment buildings stand partially empty because not even the technocrat class can afford the rent). Today, the up-zoning campaigns aim at allowing construction in single family areas. Their hype is that neighborhood racial exclusionism was a result of zoning, and not of bank policy and economic discrimination. They will say anything to enhance building housing. If only it was for the people. -more-

The Berkeley Public Library Board of Library Trustees will be voting this Wednesday, May 26^th on the FY 2022 tax rate for funding the provision of Library Services. The proposed rate is $0.2402 per sq ft for dwelling units and $0.3632 per sq ft for industrial, commercial and institutional buildings. I calculated that I pay about $270 for library services. With reading at least a book a week and sometimes two, I’m already seeing the return on investment in our local libraries. Out of the 27 books I’ve read since January 1, twenty-five were from the library. -more-

After four failures to cobble together a coalition government and facing serious charges of corruption, Prime Minister Netanyahu orchestrated a crisis to stay in power. He ordered police to attack Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque ((one of the holiest sites in Islam) during Ramadan. He then gave a green light to Israeli settler terrorists to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a heavily Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. -more-

Some have been inquiring about subscribing to the Berkeley Daily Planet. I guess it's time to explain what that means. The answer is "not much". Anyone can read the Planet, all of it, simply by going to berkeleydailyplanet.com. This will get you to the front page of the current issue, which also offers access to previous issues and the ability to do a Google search of past issues for specific authors, topics or key words. New articles are posted throughout the week, and they can be seen as soon as they're online using the "Next Issue" button on the front page. Approximately weekly I press a button which makes the Next Issue the Current Issue. This is called "publishing", and is not as complicated as it sounds.

So what's getting a "subscription"? That's nothing more than signing up to get an email from me with links to headlines of all the new articles soon after the New Issue is published and becomes the Current Issue. To get your email address on that list, just write to subscribe@berkeleydailyplanet.com, preferably with the word SUBSCRIBE as the subject. This is the easiest way to read the Planet. Sometimes emails come more than once a week if new articles come in.

There's no charge for any of this, and worth every penny you pay for it. -more-

One year ago, as it became clear the United States was in the throes of a devastating pandemic, we lost 21 million jobs. Now we're recovering from Covid-19 but workers aren't rushing back to full employment at the pace economists expected. What's happening? -more-

A psychotic, bipolar or depressive episode will bring us exceedingly far out of our comfort zones, to the point where we wonder if we will ever be comfortable again. These acute episodes of mental illness create extreme levels of internally generated suffering, which other people may not be able to see. Or they may be able to perceive that we are in pain but may be unable to see the cause. When we emerge from such extremes, it is a huge relief to feel within a normal range of emotions.

When in treatment, a person with mental illness will almost always have low level residual symptoms, many of which create moderate, internally generated suffering. And it is natural for most people to crave comfort at least some of the time. This predicament for some mentally ill people makes them prone to addiction to illicit substances. Marijuana, nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, and hard drugs are all temptations. So is an eating disorder, in which people are hooked on sugary or fatty foods, or in which they avoid food entirely.

But to get back on track, I'm not so much talking today about addiction. I'm speaking of the clinging to that which is comfortable. When medicated, the central nervous system is stuck at low levels of energy. Therefore, we do not have as much "get up and go", and it is awfully hard to tolerate a challenging situation, since this entails pushing limits. -more-

The latest conflict between Israel and Hamas started on May 10 and ended with a cease-fire eleven days later. Will the cease-fire hold? Maybe. The pundits say “maybe” pointing to the 2014 conflict between the two where it took nine truces before that conflict finally ended after 51 days. Signs are that this cease-fire may hold. Unlike the 2014 truce, citizens celebrated in Gaza streets indicating a general acceptance of the cease-fire. -more-

The Generous Gents at Joe's

There's a long-standing rule in the retail world that warns: "If you break it, you bought it." That wasn't the case at the Berkeley Trader Joe's earlier this week when I was bagging my groceries on a counter and a wine bottle inside my paper shopping bag toppled—causing the entire contents to spill to the ground with a resounding "Ker-splush!"

Within seconds, TJ's mop-armed First Responders appeared to deal with the wreckage—a wine-soaked bag filled with frozen meals, milk cartons, and shards of broken glass. One TJer stepped up to hand me a complimentary wine-proof grocery bag followed by another employee who appeared and presented me with a replacement bottle of wine. (Apparently, he checked the label on the shattered remains of the bottle and quickly managed to find a match inside the store.)

It's time to update the old "You broke it; you bought it" rule. At Trader Joe's, the rule is redemptive rather than punitive: "You broke it; we brought it."

However, as I told one of the mop-up crew: "Just be careful you don't wind up rewarding clumsiness." -more-

Worth Noting:

The Tuesday evening May 25^th City Council Agenda is very long with 35 consent items. You can either use the link to scan through the agenda or go to the end of the weekly calendar for the agenda. The agenda in this post includes a table of the proposed commission reorganization and descriptive terms of agenda item content. The June 1 council agenda is available for comment and is included after the June 25 Agenda.



Tuesday – City Council at 6 pm – Item #38 is the first budget hearing for fiscal year 2022. Item 41 is the Reorganization of Commissions. Mayor Arreguin said at the Agenda committee the commission reorganization will be rescheduled to June 15. Be prepared to with comments.

Thursday – Budget and Finance Committee at 10 am – Item 2 is the Fire Dept and Police Dept Budget Discussion. Thursday evening Mental Health Commission at 2 pm – Item 3 is the update on the Special Care Unit. -more-