Every high school student and every adult needs to understand two facts: -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This morning’s New York Times had an opinion piece by Serge Schmemann on its front page rehashing the ongoing speculation about what’s being called the “Havana Syndrome”, a mysterious collection of unpleasant symptoms which has afflicted U.S. diplomatic staff in embassies around the world, starting first in Havana in 2016. As it happens, the Planet’s longstanding “On Mental Health” columnist had just forwarded to me a piece he wrote which appeared in Street Spirit in July of 2007. Let’s say it’s at least a surprising coincidence—but have the muckety-mucks in Washington who are supposed to be investigating the Havana Syndrome ever heard of this? -more-

From Streets to Ballot Box: Berkeley Politics in the 1970s, Selections from the David Mundstock Collection
November 6, 2021 - April 9, 2022

The public is invited to two events this weekend, one in person and one online:
Saturday, November 6, 2 to 4 pm: See the exhibit on its opening day and meet and congratulate the curators: Jeanine Castello-Lin, Lincoln Cushing, William Roberts, Tama Spencer, Tonya Staros, and Charles Wollenberg.
Sunday, November 7, 3 to 4:30 pm: Panel presentation by Shirley Dean, Loni Hancock, Gus Newport, and Marty Schiffenbauer. (Please sign up with a donation of any amount on Eventbrite.)
-more-

"Almost sacred," was one California Historic Resources Commissioner's reflection on the 6-0-0 affirmative vote to recommend the eligibility of People's Park for federal recognition on Friday, October 29th, 2021. Another commissioner expressed concern about the University of California's leadership given their inability to recognize the Park's obvious cultural significance, while another reminisced about where they were and how old they were when the headlines around the world when the national guard was sent to Berkeley and CS gas wafted across the campus. -more-

“The United State foreign policy is being articulated with emphasis on diplomacy including gaining international support to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.This is different than the previous administration. -more-

I have been following many of your opinion pieces on homelessness and particularly liked your latest. Something must be done to stop the way the unhoused are cruelly treated and often abandoned. -more-

As an appeals court in London is deciding whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a sham political trial, a punitive attempt by the British government to try and punish Assange on behalf of the United States. -more-

The California State Historical Resources Commission voted unanimously on Friday to recommend that Berkeley’s People’s Park be listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The nomination now moves to the Keeper of the Register for final approval within the next 45 days.

Harvey Smith, President of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) said, “We were very happy that the commissioners understood the important historical and cultural legacy of the Park and acknowledged the loss of life during the struggle for the Park. The commission recognized the park's importance in the great social and political movements of the 1960s and Berkeley's extraordinary role in the history of that decade."

Last month the UC Regents approved a plan to build a massively out of scale and out of context 12 story student dormitory. Several historic preservation experts submitted comments that the project would seriously degrade the Park’s historic and cultural values and the cultural values of the surrounding historic environment, which includes famous buildings by Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan and Walter Ratcliff. The adjacent Anna Head School was Berkeley’s very first brown shingle structure, and it would be overshadowed by the project -more-

Paranoid thoughts are sometimes correct, and you can not always assume that the world is friendly. In fact, there are threats, there are threatening people, and people, deep down, are not always good. If the mental health treatment system teaches that we should always trust people, this is only for purposes of making us manageable. If we are to survive and prosper, we must be able to handle some amount of the nitty gritty of life. This means that we cannot always be naive.

It is not a safe bet that people are always telling you the truth. And liars are often very good at what they do. This includes pathological liars. They can get you to believe all kinds of things that aren't accurate.

People who work in law enforcement lie for purposes of gaining evidence against you. And if they can get a confession under the guise that you won't be in trouble if you tell them everything, then it is only appropriate that you get locked up because you are a dummy.

However, there is a reason that the word "paranoid" exists. That's where we've gone a bit too far in the instinct to protect ourselves from a perceived or imagined threat. When the perception of threat is always in charge, the accuracy of our thoughts will be less. If we can learn to be more conscious of our thoughts, perhaps with no particular rule of how and what to think, we will be better off. -more-

On October 27, 2021, Israel approved about 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a day after the United States issued its strongest rebuke yet of such construction. These are the first settlements approved under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu in June. -more-

Tell the Great Pumpkin It's Time to Squash Louis DeJoy

I recently waited five weeks for a birthday gift to travel from VA to CA and—in the end—the USPS lost it. They promised an "investigation" that would take "60 days."

It doesn't take an investigation to see what's wrong here—it's Postmonster General Louis DeJoy. Let's give Trump's Postmaster General the boot. Cancel him! Stamp him out! And, if you feel like sending a message to the White House, here's an Action Network link that will insure your message gets delivered while saving you postage. -more-

The majority of the Berkeley City Council and the Planning Commission have approved countless new market-rate residential development projects over the past ten years, but these have included only a tiny fraction of units designated for below median income. -more-

Noting:

Monday the Council Public Safety meeting is at 10:30 am and includes discriminatory reports, ALPR and restoring red light cameras. Agenda Committee planning for 11-16-21 council meeting is at 2:30. Peace of Justice at 7 pm has Rights of Nature on the agenda (council killed the referral last Tuesday). Kesarwani and Saltzman at North Berkeley BART at 5:30 – 6:30 pm.

Tuesday Council meets in closed session at 4 pm on the Leonard Powell lawsuit in superiorcourt. PAB Subcommittee on regulations meets at 6:30 pm.

Wednesday the Council Budget Committee meets at 10 am. BOLT is at 6:30 pm. The Disability Commission meets at 6 pm with full agenda on accessible housing, Leonard Powell displacement, elevator ordinance. The Independent Redistricting meets at 6 pm – there is still time to submit your proposal for the new council district boundaries deadline November 15. The Planning Commission public hearing on the BART Station Housing Projects is at 7 pm – this looks to be the final meeting on zoning amendments and EIR.

Thursday the Land Use Committee takes up streamlining ADU permitting and toxic remediation. LPC meets at 7 pm. Public Works has not published the links or agenda – deadline for posting is Monday. WETA meets at 1 pm with item 9 on the agenda is the Berkeley Pier/Fair study and Ferry Service Business Plan Update.



The November 9 council agenda is posted at the bottom and available for comment. Note items moved to November 9 from last council meeting which ran until after midnight: 20. Objective standards, density, design, shadows (with an absence of residential neighborhood solar protections), 21. Marina hotel tax (will tax go to the Marina or general fund), 22. Officeholder accounts and 23. free Sunday AC transit are on the agenda under ACTION. -more-

One of the side benefits of the changes forced by the pandemic is that an international conference planned to take place in London could be watched live from home. I finished the week with attending the international virtual conference Half-Earth Day.

The Half-Earth Project® started with Edward O. Wilson and his premise that to save the bulk of biodiversity including ourselves, we need to conserve half the land and sea. https://www.half-earthproject.org/

Conserving half the earth for biodiversity is a laudable goal, one that sadly I don’t see going very far. For heaven’s sake we can’t even get developers to come to ZAB (Zoning Adjustment Board) and DRC (Design Review Committee) with a landscape plan that is predominantly locally native plants, or to install bird safe glass, or to stop planning patios with methane-burning firepits.

Calling methane “natural gas” doesn’t make it any less toxic to the environment or to your kitchen for that matter. And, all those projects in the works before the implementation of the natural gas ban in new construction passed by city council on July 23, 2019, can still do what they wish. ZAB (Zoning Adjustment Board) and DRC (Design Review Committee) can only request.

As for bird safe glass, nothing has changed since I last wrote. The bird safe glass ordinance passed by council on November 12, 2019, was referred to the Planning Commission where the ordinance languishes, second from the bottom of a long to-do list with no priority, awaiting Planning Commission approval. That is, before the ordinance takes a tour through the city manager’s office, and then it can be implemented.

I confess to being a bit cranky at DRC Thursday evening, when I started my first public comment with: Why do we, month after month, have to speak to the same issues, choosing native plants and bird safe glass? The two projects before DRC for final review Thursday evening have been in the works since 2016 and 2018. Speakers representing both projects, 2902 Adeline and 1951 Shattuck, insisted the fire pits were a desired amenity to keep. Cody Fornari, the developer and CEO of Realtex for 2902 Adeline, did not express even a whiff of interest in bird safe glass. -more-

Worth Noting: A full week ahead. Commissioners are still working through aa will happen to priorities with the merging of commissions.

Monday – The Civic Arts Policy Subcommittee meets at 10 am, The Agenda and Rules committee is at 2:30 pm and reviews the council agenda for November 9. Zero Waste and Children, Youth and Recreation both meet at 7 pm.

Tuesday – Council closed session at 4 pm with the Council regular meeting at 6 pm.

Wednesday – The 4 x 4 Committee meets at 3 pm. The Energy Commission and Reimagining Task Force meet at 5 pm. The Civic Arts Commission and the Housing Element Workshop on adding 8,934 residential units meet at 6 pm. The Pier-Ferry Workshop #3 is at 6:30 pm. The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission and Police Accountability Board meet at 7 pm.

Thursday – The Hopkins Corridor Traffic Study is at 6 pm. The Willard Park Clubhouse Community meeting is at 6:30 pm. The Mental Health Commission and Zoning Adjustment Board meet at 7 pm.

Saturday relax – Roller Skate BOOgie 11 am – 4 pm.

October 28 – November 14, 2021 Citywide Public Survey on housing www.surveymonkey.com/r/berkeleyhousing -more-

On Tuesday Oct. 26, 2021 Council will be taking up the issue of solar protection for existing properties. Please send them an email in support of item 36. -more-

In the first eight months of the George W. Bush administration, Powell lost bruising battles with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other neocons, who were really running the administration. Powell was chosen to deliver false claims of overseas threats because his international gravitas and respect. -more-

How Do You Know When Waste Is "Excessive"?

On October 25, the Chronicle reported that 23 members of Congress had signed on to Rep. Zoe Lofgren's letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding the closure of three notorious ICE detention facilities in California. "For years, under multiple administrations, these facilities have been operating in a substandard manner resulting in repeated violations … and excessive waste of federal funds."

Did you notice the critical adjective "excessive"? Apparently the assumption is that a good deal of federal funds will always be wasted but sometimes the corruption is so egregious you need to append the qualifier "excessive."

Toward the end of the article, Chronicle reporter Deepa Fernandez provides this illumination: "The letter also accuses the federal government of wasting $1.34 million a day on unused detention beds."

That means we're paying an annual cost of $489 million for "empty beds." I'd say that's a pretty good example of "excessive. -more-

We’re going to change the lighting in this room. It’s time to make it darker, to reflect the long dark night ahead.

Even someone as old as I am has a good chance of living long enough to see most of old Boston slip into the sea as Greenland empties itself of ice.

Before we see 2030 we will sail quickly and quietly past a committed 1.5°C global average temperature increase relative to pre-industrial society. Will make 2°C by morning. Your children will die of this.

The Conference of Parties at the U.N., the world climate meeting at which Joe Jim-Crow Biden’s delegates will smile and glad-hand while announcing their intention to do nothing and thereby slaughter billions is happening soon. I can not find a climate scientist who doesn’t believe this meeting is the last hope for political solutions – and that it will fail. -more-

On Monday, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I opened my email to see this note from James McFadden:

"This 'Berkeley Together' effort seems more like an attempt to divide Berkeley -- perhaps they should be renamed 'Berkeley Divided.' The most privileged are organizing to get an exemption from development -- assuming loss of local zoning control is ok as long as it doesn't impact them. It looks like the hill people are throwing the flats under the development bus rather than forming a united front to fight this developer grab of power and neoliberal deregulation/disempowerment of cities."

There was a time when I might have felt the same knee jerk reaction, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how climate change and climate catastrophes are going to change where and how we live. This morning my first podcast of the day was “The Daily” from the New York Times “Which towns are worth saving” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/podcasts/the-daily/climate-crisis-resilience.html We might extend that to which parts of towns should be abandoned and when is retreat the best choice?

My niece and I talked not so long ago about how we are going to see climate refugees from within our own country as parts of the US become uninhabitable. How many times should an area be rebuilt? Or, should there even be expansion in cities like Phoenix with a future like 118° on June 17^th? Homeowners in the hills are finding it ever more difficult to secure fire insurance. When the hills burn again as they likely will despite our efforts to prevent such an event, should they be rebuilt? At the very least should we be putting more people in an area where they may be trapped, unable to evacuate as in the Berkeley Oakland Hills fire in 1991 where 25 people died? The opposite side of the city will be impacted by sea level rise, with a best case scenario now 10 feet, not 6 feet.

We may find that as our electeds recoil from having to say the dreaded word “retreat” it will be the insurance companies that assess the risk and drive the response. -more-

In 2016, a number of U.S.diplomats, CIA officers, and other federal officials stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba suffered traumatic neurological injuries supposedly caused by some kind of sonic wave machine. No other employees or residents of the hotel where some of these diplomats were staying reported similar illnesses. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) suspect the cause is directed energy, possibly microwaves, presumably targeted at the embassy and their residences. This is a leading theory only and so far no suspects have been identified. The U.S. Department of State has referred to the events as "unexplained health incidents;” others have dubbed the incidents as the “Havana Syndrome.” -more-

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, launched a brutal offensive against Tigray separatists which left thousands dead and over 1 million internally displaced. Meanwhile 350,000 of the country is on the brink of starvation especially children under 5 years old. This was the grim assessment of Stanley Chitekwe, chief of nutrition UNICEF Ethiopia conflict. The United Nations says it’s the worst malnutrition crisis in a decade and it’s projected to get worse unless Ethiopia lifts its brutal blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray. -more-

From a 2004 Planet editorial about a fundraiser for the developers’ candidates in a Berkeley election:

Berkeley author Thacher Hurd has a book for the 4 to 8 set which, with wonderful pictures, tells the story of how Miles Possum and his band of little swamp critters are invited to play for the Alligators’ Ball. After the music stops, the alligators are hungry. “What’s for dinner?” says Miles. “Something tender! Something juicy!” says an alligator, holding a menu behind his back that features “Swamp Band Soup.” On the next page, “the alligators snapped their jaws and snapped their lips” as they drag the struggling band members ever closer to a big boiling pot.

As a Cajun might say about an Alligators’Ball, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. ” In colloquial English: “Same-old same-old.”

Last week, more than a decade later, someone sent me an emailed invitation to what’s billed as the YIMBY Gala, featuring a curated selection of Bay Area elected officials as the tender and juicy menu items du jour. -more-

On September 29, 2021, the Mayor of Berkeley sent out a mild call to arms for his city. It is called “The Future of Housing in Berkeley.” He calls on the city’s people to support an alleged "need" to build almost 9000 new housing units over the next 8 years. It is a tall order. The neighborhoods have been clamoring for affordable housing for years, yet their voices have been drowned out by the whispered arrogance of the developers who make their real money on market rate housing. Over the last few years, some 96% of new housing has been market rate (aka unaffordable for low income families). And still, "Sacramento" (aka California state government) has convinced this Mayor that more housing can be mandated. And he buys it.

This should be a story told in satire. But the lightness of spirit required would seem forced. If, without qualms, this Mayor accepts blithe legal assurances that the state can constitutionally impose mandates which override the autonomy of a charter city like Berkeley, 60% of whose residents are renters, is he not flirting with the truly tragic? -more-

Thank you, Mayor Jesse Arreguin. Nothing makes the case that the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group and many others propose for respecting our parks, our history, our landmarks so well as learning that the mayor who promised on his way into office that "of course he would protect People’s Park"reverse course so thoroughly that he now supports obstructing the mural on Haste Street depicting History of People’s Park with a public toilet.

It is the most perfect parallel to the University of California’s insistence that despite being California’s largest land owner and having a bucketload of alternative sites, it is somehow obligated to destroy a public park and the sightlines to over a dozen of our town’s most revered architectural jewels.

Here’s to public toilets. May a thousand public toilets bloom. But it would be difficult to find a more ridiculous place to situate a public toilet than directly in front of a mural which then could only be seen in pieces, if at all.

Those of us who successfully fought to protect the George Washington High School’s famous New Deal era Arnautoff mural can only imagine that Jesse craves the international ridicule garnered by the San Francisco school board that tried so hard to destroy that mural while ignoring the pandemic crisis for teachers and students. Our mayor may get Reaganesque political rewards for this bonehead move, but those of us who know him will all see this commode caper as a defining moment.

Thank you, Jesse, for clarifying even more succinctly than the plans to destroy an internationally renowned symbol of peace, cultural transformation, free speech, user development, and the end to all wars that the University of California’s true agenda is to re-write history in its own favor and make sure that People’s Park is just something in a book or on a plaque. Among other comic atrocities which characterize your time as mayor, the toilet caper will go down as…number one- and number two. -more-

I’ve been thinking about my cohort and me: old American white guys. We have had all the breaks. Being born male gave us a leg up on the rest of the world’s population. Being born white gave us a further boost. And being born in America was the final step in making us the chosen few. All of this was simply a matter of good fortune. We didn’t actually do anything to get such an enormous advantage over everyone else. -more-

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available.

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money.

This is a Very Good Deal. Go for it! -more-

A psychiatric condition by itself doesn't necessarily make a person "disabled." Millions of Americans suffer from depression or other conditions, and often they do not wish to see a doctor for it. Usually, they can work, interact, and function in society despite their condition. For some, the mental condition contrarily makes them do better. Depression can cause a person to try harder. Eventually the person is taking refuge within effort. This creates a workaholic who often does better in life than someone who is more balanced. The depressed, driven person may feel miserable, but they may end up with more achievements. -more-

Do you continually say to yourself or to others something that amounts to "Help, poor me"? It doesn't matter. Because if you look deeper than that, you might be able to find an area of consciousness which looks at that as though you are watching yourself as an actor or actress in a movie, and you are blissfully enjoying the show, and barely, if at all, involved in the plight of the actors, including the protagonist, you. -more-

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l If you're confused by the state of the US economy, you're not alone. Market watchers know that stocks are sending confusing signals. Some "experts" say we are in a recovery, other predict big problems. In August, consumer sentiment (https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-confidence ) hit a decade low. The unemployment rate is falling but tens of thousands of workers are leaving the labor market. What's happening?

Duh: we're in the middle of a civil war.

Thankfully, so far it's a non-shooting civil war. Nonetheless, it's a civil war marked by two vectors: one is the millions of folks who insist that the orange menace won the 2020 presidential election; they're more interested in creating chaos than a better world. The second is the millions of Americans who refuse to get vaccinated: They are leaving and aggravating the labor market. (By the way, these populations overlap.) -more-

Trader Joe's

On Friday, October 29, Afropop superstar Angélique Kidjo returned to Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall to perform a project everyone told her she couldn’t do. This project involved -more-

On a stormy Sunday, October 24, the audience at Zellerbach Hall was treated to a remarkable celebration of German lieder, or art song, performed by noted tenor Jonas Kaufmann accompanied by Helmut Deutsch on piano. Kaufmann, who is surely among the leading tenors of this moment in history, has never appeared with San Francisco Opera and recently canceled several engagements with the Metropolitan Opera, citing his desire to spend more time in his native Germany with his family. So Kaufmann’s appearance in Berkeley under the auspices of Cal Performances offered local audiences a rare opportunity to hear this great singer in a live recital setting. -more-

At San Francisco Opera, American director Matthew Ozawa sets Beethoven’s Fidelio in a modern detention facility with steel cages and elaborate surveillance equipment. The result, alas, is the most ridiculous fairy tale version of Fidelio one could imagine. Critics have long noted the wish-fulfilment fantasy element in Beethoven’s only opera, which portrays the unjust imprisonment of a political dissident, Florestan, who is miraculously rescued at the very moment he is about to be murdered by a corrupt tyrant, his rescue owing in part to the actions of his wife but also, and primarily, to the fortuitous last minute arrival of a benign government leader, who in this fairy tale production, not only saves the life of Florestan and arrests his would-be murderer but also frees all the detention facility’s prisoners. Wow! Could there ever be a more politically correct and totally unbelievable pipe dream version of Fidelio than this? -more-

Worth Noting:

Sunday is the first Berkeley Bird Festival and there are a full range of activities check.

Monday CCCC meets at 12:15 with updates on Maudelle Shirek and Veterans Building seismic and water studies. Labor Commission meets at 7 pm on Fair Work Week.

Tuesday is the Berkeley Police annual report with statistics on incidence of crime in Berkeley.

Wednesday is a full day with FITES on native plants ordinance at 2:30 pm, Rent Board Outreach Committee at 5 pm, Redistricting Commission at 6 pm, Human Welfare at 6:30 pm and Planning Commission at 7 pm on City development agreement with Bayer.

Thursday there is a demonstration on the mapping tool for drawing new council districts at 5 pm. The DRC, Rent Board and Transportation Commission all meet at 7 pm. The Fair Campaign Practices Commission and Open Government Commission meeting is cancelled.

The October 26 City Council regular meeting agenda is available for comment and posted after the list of city meetings. The October 26^th meeting includes carry over items from the October 12^th Council meeting 32. Amendments to ADU ordinance and 36. Objective Standards on Density, Design and Shadows on solar panels.

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Berkeley Bird Festival 8 am – 6 pm -more-

Berkeley audiences at First Congregational Church welcomed the venerable Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s long awaited return to live concertising on Saturday evening, October 16, 2021, after a 19-moth hiatus due to Covid 19. This evening’s program was planned under the leadership of the company’s new Music Director, Richard Eggar, replacing Nicholas McGegan, who led Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for the last 35 years. In something of a new departure, this concert did not feature the company’s signature involvement in music of the Baroque period, though it did contain one piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Instead, this concert delved into the mid-19th century Romantic period music of Robert Schumann. And it featured two of Schumann’s less familiar works, his Violin Concerto in D minor, and his Symphony No. 2 in C Major. -more-