Extra

I’m back from “unmasked” land where even though the drought is spreading into the north Midwest, the grass is still green and the crops look healthy in the fields. The air was a different story as the Canadian fires covered Minnesota in a blanket of heavy smoke with the air quality index passing 150 into the very unhealthy zone. And yes, it was a lovely wedding. 

There is so much more to cover than wondering which side of the miracle I will land, coming through a large gathering of the vaccinated and endless partying with no one turning up COVID positive or coming up COVID positive as a breakthrough infection with absolutely no symptoms. The answer came today, COVID negative. 

While rumors are still swirling that COVID started in a Chinese lab, it might be of interest that this week’s SF Chronicle “Earthweek: a diary of a planet” reports that coronavirus antibodies were found in wild free-range deer. The USDA study and published summary “Questions and Answers: Results of Study on SARS-CoV-2 in White-Tailed Deer.” carry special meaning for me after reading Spillover by David Quammen and The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (two books I highly recommend). https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/one_health/downloads/qa-covid-white-tailed-deer-study.pdf 

As for COVID the day I flew to Minnesota I had to change planes in Dallas where the daily tally of new cases was pushing 12,000. The airport was packed, social distancing was a fantasy, at least 50% had no mask or wore their mask as a chin diaper, there were no quiet corners and I found myself surrounded by people who were coughing. When asked about my trip, I answered with, “If Texas wants to secede, let them go” If you decide to fly anywhere, expect delays and the delta variant to be floating nearby. 

It is terrific that we reached 50% of the US as fully vaccinated. That leaves the unvaccinated somewhere around 160,000,000 including children under 12 and my sister’s brother-in-law, Tom. 

Tom cozied up to me after the wedding. When I asked about his vaccine status, he threw out the “I don’t want to put anything extra into my body.” I’ve known Tom for nearly 60 years so I took the liberty of telling him not being vaccinated was just stupid, followed with he was watching too much Fox and didn’t he know that the vaccine makes you magnetic (I’m still waiting) and you’ll be injected with a chip (we are already tracked everywhere). I couldn’t remember the other conspiracies that fill the media so I stopped there. 

The justification of declining vaccination as something extra isn’t a belief limited to the uneducated. It is also soaked up by the highly educated like Tom who has a string of advanced degrees to follow his name. A momentary conversation or reason doesn’t shake these beliefs. They also apply to the toxic stuff we quite willingly put into our mouths and pass into our bodies. 

I heard more talking points from my airplane neighbor Gene during the 3 ½ hour Minnesota Phoenix leg of the journey home. Gene said he did get vaccinated, but as might be expected in a lengthy conversation between an Arizona owner of a business that manufactures diesel engine parts and this Berkeley activist, we were on different sides of nearly every issue. He declared climate change was just weather and invoked the mantra of individual choices. I did achieve agreement that individual actions do have public ramifications by using the example of drunk driving. 

Then I happened to ask Gene what he liked to read and recommended The Fifth Risk and Premonition by Michael Lewis. Gene hadn’t read Lewis’s last two books yet, but listens to his podcasts and declared Lewis as his favorite author. Lewis is for me like art: the more art I see the more artists and artworks I love. The more books I read, the longer my list of favorite authors grows. Michael Lewis is on that favorites list. 

Today we could see the IPCC’s landmark report. Here is a peek from Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at University College London: 

“What we need to keep in mind is that we all live in places that have built up over decades and centuries to cope well with a given climate. The really, really scary thing about the climate crisis is that every single achievement of every human society on Earth occurred under a climate that no longer exists…The pressure is on for world leaders to agree on both detailed and achievable plans to cut emissions now, and plans to adapt to climate impacts, when they meet in Glasgow in November.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/08/worlds-climate-scientists-to-issue-stark-warning-over-global-heating-threat 

On to Berkeley city meetings and how not to get things done. 

Did I miss something while I was out of town for five days? Mendocino is running out of water. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/07/california-drought-water-mendocino-tourism The Oroville Dam is shut down, because the water levels are too low to drive the six-turbine Edward Hyatt Power Plant, the Bay Area is in exceptional drought and the entire area is not under mandatory water rationing. The July 28^th Water and Drought community meeting was more of the usual with little new insight, no rationing requirements and only modest actions. 

As for Council, 3 ½ years and still nothing? Item 28 on the July 27^, 2021 City Council agenda, Objective Standards Recommendations for Density, Design and Shadows from the Joint Subcommittee for the Implementation of State Housing Laws (JSISHL) was punted again, this time to September 14^, 2021. 

It was January 23, 2018 when the Mayor Arreguin’s resolution to create the JSISHL subcommittee was passed. The subcommittee of council appointees convened from April 17, 2018 to July 22, 2020. Attention to the environment and climate in developing standards failed as only one member, Thomas Lord, supported this as a priority. With no real agreement reached on objective standards, the July 22, 2020 report landed back on the council agenda March 23, 2021. Arreguin responded that night with: 

“…I do feel that this needs a lot more development, so I would like to bring forward some additional research and ideas that my office has been working on before we send something to the Planning Commission, so my recommendation was that we move item 17 to the consent calendar for the purposes of sending it to the Agenda and Rules Committee while I’m working on trying to bring forward a proposal. I think that the subcommittee’s recommendations were a good start, but were incomplete…” 

Arreguin’s ideas never materialized at least not publicly. July 27, 2021 ended with the usual, hire a consultant to deliver the desired results, especially when the appointed subcommittee didn’t do the job for you. With this like so much else under Mayor Arreguin’s tenure, one has to wonder if it will ever get done and who profits in the meantime. The table is the staff projected timeline. 

On August 4, 2021 at the Commission on Disability, the July fire false alarm at the Amistad House was brought forward through public comment. Elevators in multi-floor buildings are programmed everywhere to shut down when a fire alarm is activated leaving anyone who is disabled and unable to navigate stairs stuck waiting until help arrives to carry them out. There needs to be a better solution. Those who were wheelchair and assistive device dependent thought they were trapped in a burning building until news of the false alarm reached them. 

The new Best Western on the corner of Sacramento and University planned two hotel rooms on the ground floor, but put one of the rooms for a disabled person on the 2^nd floor and the other on the 3^rd floor. While I brought up the foolishness of this planning, ZAB declined to request a change which was perfectly possible. I have long advocated unsuccessfully for disabled units on the ground floor of buildings instead of vacant commercial. While any able-bodied person can suffer from a disabling accident or develop a disabling disease, it is long past time to change planning thinking on place making for the disabled living and visiting the Berkeley community. 

This is long already and ends with one more request: PLEASE go to the Activist’s Calendar and sign up for the Wildfire Workshop and watch the videos. 

Reading recommendations: I have two more besides The Fifth Risk and Premonition. If you are looking for a novel to buoy you through travel delays and hours in transit, Stacy Abrams, the politician, the founder of Fair Fight Action, writes novels in her spare time. While Justice Sleeps (e-book available thru the Berkeley library) is just the kind of fantastical story that is perfect for mindless diversion on a travel day fraught with delays. 

The more important read is: Anne Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism published in 2020. Applebaum writes of people she knows, colleagues, who are embracing authoritarianism. This book couldn’t be more prescient as news of Tucker Carlson’s week in Hungary and admiration for Viktor Orban fills the air waves. The entirety of Carlson’s visit encircles rejection of America’s racial diversity and multicultural democracy.