Although I’ve lived in the Bay Area for years, I’d thought today’s pressures to build lots of housing at any cost were unprecedented. I also thought our region’s spectacular parkland and green space just somehow “happened,” through wisdom and consensus.

Wrong on both counts, as I learned by watching Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto’s jaw-dropping and inspiring 2019 PBS documentary Rebels with a Cause. Produced for the North Bay’s KRCB, it’s currently free online here, where it’s well worth an hour’s viewing.

Spanning the 1960s through the early ‘70s, the film shows how visionary activists, legislators, lawyers, and meeting-crashers fought and won hard battles to preserve the Marin County parkland and agricultural open space we now enjoy – along with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) that rings San Francisco’s coastline and the Marin Headlands.

The jaw-dropping parts cover our region’s alternative future – one we wouldn’t want to live in. To flesh this out, I’ve added some details from 2014’s Bay Area: What Might Have Been website (archived here), from other online sources, and from a conversation with Greenbelt Alliance’s former executive director, Larry Orman. -more-

Thirty years ago January 9th, 1992, my phone rang early in the morning. A male voice said the next morning I had to be in Oakland Superior Court giving me a room number and a time. I thanked the voice for letting me know. I put down the phone, baffled. It rang again a few seconds later. My fellow activist David Nadel said, “did you just get a strange phone call?” I said yes. He said Bob Sparks had gotten the same call. We arranged to carpool to the Oakland Superior Court in his pale green pickup.

I’m not sure how, but when we arrived together the next morning we had a full complement of the very best civil rights lawyers there to help. Osha Neumann, Jim Chanin, David Beauvais, and Dennis Cunningham were all there flipping through pages they were seeing for the first time of whatever was going on. David, Bob, and I had worked hard to speak up for People's Park, but were part of a huge movement and had no clue what this was about.

David and I had no criminal history. I’m not sure about Bob Sparks, who had worked for years as a housing activist trying to challenge Berkeley’s nascent “just house the rich” policy which worked so well for the wealthy and the politicians. We all knew each other in a peripheral way. But this was not a club I belonged to, or an organization I had joined. We were just swept up together in this civil suit along with someone else I had never met before named Michael Lee.

Our lawyers flipped furiously through the pages and at one point Jim Chanin said David and I should leave, that we had not been served, and until we were served we should leave so that the unexpected convention of lawyers assembled could have a bit more time to research what we were being charged with and what was going on. -more-

Israel is rapidly descending into a pariah state following its appalling crimes against indigenous Palestinians. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, reports Israel killed 313 Palestinians last Year including 313 minors, demolished 300 residential structures and imprisoned scores of Palestinians without trial. It was the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2014. -more-

The return to city meetings from the winter break was slow with a mostly quiet week. The secretary for the Public Works Commission did not get the agenda posted or at least functionally posted to meet the 72-hour notice requirement. The Public Works Commission meeting was canceled and rescheduled for this coming week and the agenda is still not posted. In fact, the agenda for the Public Works Commission has always been held to the last minute for all the years I have been pulling together the Activist’s Calendar. -more-

An inherent political corruption in our system

The brand name emblazoned on our system of governance is “the republic." It is a system of periodic elections for legislators and top administrators who, once elected, are said to represent their electorate. There have been times when the elected have actually represented the people who elected them. But not many.

Why is that failure so familiar? Why is it so normal to see elected representatives go their own way, regardless of the needs to their constituents? Sometimes, there is real corruption, involving back room deals and money changing hands. But most often, the failure is owing to a mythological structure called “representationism.” It requires that people see what officials do as "representing" the people, though they clearly do not. It is an ideological disguise that hides the ethical pollution (rather than corruption) to which political proposals or actions fall prey. The notion of ethical "pollution" signifies that each enactment includes counteractions that neutralize it. That happens, for instance, when proposals get bogged down in procedures, so that the means prevent themselves from arriving at their proposed ends. -more-

Rich countries continue trying to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating a majority of their populations only to find new strains of the virus mutating in unprotected poorer countries. -more-

I'll preface this response to your recent piece with professing ignorance. Since I haven't traveled to Israel, I lack knowledge of any actual events taking place or that have taken place. -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-

As we begin 2022, we're not lacking for challenges. There's the pandemic, climate change, economic turbulence, and political instability. A year after January 6, 2021, I had hoped that some of these challenges would disappear. That the United States would acquire "herd immunity" and the threat of coronavirus would recede. That Republicans would accept that Joe Biden was lawfully elected President and those responsible for the January 6th insurrection were traitorous criminals. Sadly all of these challenges continue. -more-

Chronic Puns

The San Francisco Chronicle got 2022 off to a snappy start with one of its classic headline puns. The January 2 edition included a page-one report on how COVID masking conflicts were exercising exercise emporiums. The headline read: "Gyms worry masks won't work out."

Fashion Plates

If Harry Potter owned a car, it would probably be a Tesla. With that in mind, I was entranced to encounter a parked Tesla sporting a license plate that read: DSAPAR8.

It took some Googling to sleuth-out the hidden message but I finally discovered that "disapparate" is a word created by J. K. Rowling to signify teleportation. According to the Wiktionary website, "in derived usage, it often means just to disappear completely"—usually with the wave of a wand. Which is pretty close to what would happen if you floored a Tesla's electron-pedal and bolted from zero to 60 mph in less than two seconds. -more-

In modern day society in the U.S., with our level of technology, medicine, and economic opportunity, government and citizens are obliged by common ethics to take care of those who could not survive on our own in the absence of economic and other help. -more-

The Republican Party's brand has become toxic as the GOP remains shackled to Donald Trump, too afraid to speak out against him for fear of alienating Trump’s base. -more-

Does psychosis take a break when you're kissing someone? Does depression take a break when you are eating a fresh, crisp, yummy apple? Does Mania take a break when you are stuffing your face with turkey or ham? Do psychotic symptoms take time off for Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Year's? --when you're playing badminton with a friend? --when you're on a hike in the hills? -more-

Worth Noting:

Monday the Agenda Committee meets at 2:30 pm to review the draft agenda for the January 25 City Council regular meeting. The 4:30 pm Council meeting is meeting to fulfill the requirement to vote on the resolution to continue virtual meetings during the pandemic emergency. The Youth Commission meets at 5 pm.

Tuesday the 4 x 4 Joint Task Force (Rent Board and Council) meets at 3 pm. The Mental Health Subcommittee on Santa Rita meets at 4 pm.

Wednesday at 5 pm will be the last meeting of CEAC before merging with the Energy Commission into the new “Climate and Environment Commission.” The Disability Commission is scheduled for 6 pm, however, the agenda could not be opened for review. The Homeless Commission and the Police Accountability Board both meet at 7 pm.

Thursday the Zoning Adjustment Board and Public works Commission meet at 7 pm. The Public Works Commission had to be rescheduled, because the agenda was not posted for the regular meeting. The Commission secretary is to post the agenda on Monday to meet the 72 hour posting requirement. There is a free 8 week quit smoking class that requires pre-registration (see links in listing). WETA meetings are listed because of the proposed pier and Berkeley Ferry Service.



The agenda for the January 18 City Council 6 pm regular meeting is available for comment and posted at the end before the list of building permits in the appeal period and council worksessions.

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Worth Noting: Council Winter Recess ends January 18, 2022

Four City meetings were found with two on Tuesday and two on Thursday. BNC meets Saturday.



Tuesday at 2:30 the Council Agenda Committee will finalize the agenda for the January 18^th regular Council meeting with two new Action items 24 and 25 on parking. Tuesday evening the Peace and Justice Commission is at 7 pm

Thursday the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force meets at 6 pm and the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets at 7 pm. The Public Works Commission usually meets the first Thursday of the month. No meeting notice is posted. Use the link to check later in the week.

Saturday, January 8^th the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council meets at 10 am. The zoom link is available.

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