Dear Planning Commissioners, City Council members, and Mayor Arreguin,

It is a total outrage to me that, what is in essence public land, BART is a private entity only as a fiction, is not used to house those who work in Berkeley as teachers, artists, non-profit staff, healthcare workers, and all those thousands who work for low wages that provide various essential services to the residents on Berkeley.

When BART razed 500 homes to underground the tracks for the train they didn't keep their promise to replace the housing. The City and the State at that time didn't have the foresight - or more likely - the civic concern for all those moderate income folks, many of whom were people of color, who had to find housing elsewhere. Now 50 years later BART is seeking to recoup their legacy of bad faith with even more bad faith and erect an ugly wall of housing for higher income tenants.

For city officials, many of whom live in single family housing, to continue on this track of neglect for those who need below market housing indicates to me that they are not fit for public office.

To better understand the opinions and feelings of the Southside community regarding the future of People’s Park and Willard/Ho Chi Minh Park, People’s Park Council will convene on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at 7 p.m. at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 2236 Parker Street.  

The hope is that in an open and respectful conversation between People’s Park and Willard Park supporters and the community, we can envision better uses of those green open public spaces than are currently planned by UC Berkeley and the City of Berkeley. 

If you would like to further this effort to expand community cohesion and instill prospects for wider and more inclusive use of these parks, we invite you to attend.

During the past month the world has been horrified by the devastation in Ukraine and inspired by the courage of its people. Recently, the tide seems to have turned in Ukraine’s favor after giving the Russian troops a bloody nose. Interestingly, the Putin government has scaled back from Kyiv, the capital, to what Moscow calls the contested region of Domas. 

This would be a good time for the Biden administration to reach out and offer Putin the framework for a peace agreement. If Putin snubs the offer, the US and other NATO allies should accelerate shipments of new arms to further shift the balance of power in Ukraine’s favor. Biden must stress it is not NATO’s intention to kill more Russians, they are only unwitting pawns in Putin’s geopolitical power play. Biden should refrain hurling insults at Putin least they boomerang back on Biden’s support for ongoing weapons sales to Saudi Arabia who are committing unspeakable war crimes in Yemen, blowing up innocent men, women and children and starving the general population. Finally, Biden’s call for regime change in Russia and then have his administrative desperately walk back his careless comments, makes it exceedingly more difficult to reach a cease fire agreement and only reinforces his reputation as a “gaffe machine”.

The media says all the Democrats will hold together to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, but I’ll breathe easier after the full Senate vote is over. The Republicans stooped to a new level of ugliness this week with lots of grandstanding which has been described as a test for which issues(really attacks and outrage) will work best at getting out their base to vote.

At the bottom of much of this is race: racism and resentment that a Black woman could be superbly qualified, obviously better qualified than the pathetic show of Republican inquisitors vying for soundbites. But what is the cost of this ginned-up outrage, not just to Ketanji Brown Jackson, but to the country?

Barbara F. Walter, in her book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them, tells us generating outrage is not benign and social media is an accelerant in creating instability. She notes the global shift away from democracy has tracked with the expansion of the internet and social media. Social media platforms have opened up unmitigated, unregulated pathways to spread misinformation (erroneous), disinformation (deliberately misleading), conspiracy theories, trolls, bots, and demagogues, and to give anti-democratic agents a place to gain traction.

The social media platforms’ business model to make money is to keep people engaged, and what gets the most likes and engagement is fear over calm, falsehood over truth, outrage over empathy and the more incendiary the more traction. 

The top article on the Sunday print edition of the Chronicle was “Foreign spammers fuel U.S. discord”. It was about how fake Facebook accounts sell gear (merchandise, or “merch”) which leads followers to believe they are in a larger movement. Social media not only draws people down into outlandish disinformation silos through recommendation engines, it connects them, reinforcing beliefs in conspiracies and fanatical ideologies. QAnon continues, and now we’re learning Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, believes in this stuff. 

Anocracy was a word I had never heard before I picked up Walter’s book. She has been studying civil wars since 1990 and joined the Political Instability Task Force (founded in 1994) in 2017. 

An anocracy is a country that is neither a full democracy or a full autocracy. It is anocracies that are at risk of civil war. 

It was recognizing the risks in her own country, our country, the United States, that we are an anocracy that is the driver of the book. It isn’t just the slide from full democracy, i.e. voter suppression, gerrymandering, expansion of executive power, and corruption, that tips the scale; add factionalism. Factionalism happens when groups organize around race, ethnicity or religion. The most dangerous factions are once dominant groups that are facing decline in status and super factions, groups organized around race or ethnicity and religion. 

Walter draws from research the actions that pull countries away from sliding into civil war. She ends the book with recommendations including taking away the social media bullhorn through regulation. 

There are some of her recommendations that stalled and sank in the Senate: voting rights, election integrity, ending gerrymandering, improving public services and government effectiveness. She favors getting rid of the electoral college and demonstrating good government through expanding social services, investing in safety nets, affordable housing, public schools, parks, recreation, the arts and health care. Improving living conditions takes away grievances that give extremists air to grow and expand their reach, as does equal and impartial application of the rule of law. 

All this brings framing and reflection to the week. I suggest reading the entire book. The recommendations of how to stop civil wars from happening lose importance and impact without understanding and seeing the warning signs along the way, and that is what starting at the beginning of the book and reading it all the way through will give you. 

**************** 

In Berkeley this week there is concern that Councilmember Taplin’s City Council agenda item, Community Policing: Flex Team for Problem-Oriented Policing Under the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) Model and other applicable community engagement models, will turn into the old drug war crime suppression unit, saturation policing. Stop-and-frisk was determined to violate the 4^th Amendment to the Constitution in 2013, but the association with those tactics seems to be a better description of concerns over SARA. 

This coupled with the Auditor’s Report on police overtime, the City Manager’s intention to expand the police force to 181 officers, the police chief saying illegally parked cars in fire zones can’t be ticketed without expanding the parking enforcement budget and Edward Opton’s comments to the Mental Health Commission on Thursday evening leave much to question regarding the direction Berkeley is headed. 

Edward Opton noted in his report to the Mental Health Commission as a member of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force that the Berkeley Police were well represented (the attendees we couldn’t see on zoom) at every meeting. And there was never any expression of a desire or willingness or need for change from the Berkeley Police Department. 

In follow-up to the presentations on March 10^th from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, city staff are coming back with their analysis and proposals on April 14^th according to Lisa Warhuus, Director of Health, Housing and Community Services. She will be presenting al plan for a Special Care Unit that evening. 

It is spring and that means budgets. Where will the money be allocated for the next budget cycle? Will it go to more policing or to services? The recent shootings in District 2 would lead the vote for policing. Reimagining Public Safety Task Force has made recommendations for services, and so would I. 

The March 22^nd City Council 4 pm special meeting was on the Implementation of the Redistricting Plan for City Council District Boundaries. While partisan gerrymandering is alive and well in other parts of the country, California uses independent redistricting commissions. Carol Marasavic chose to draw attention to the comment from the Independent Redistricting Commission Chair Elisabeth Watson, “…we did not rely on consultants to review public input or provide guidance…” and Carol followed with “…we don’t need to pay costly consultants all the time to go into a protracted process in order to achieve results…” 

We do have a lot of talent in Berkeley and not everything should result in another contract with consultants, but Ben Bartlett’s $350,000 budget referral which passed on consent for a consultant to Facilitate a Community Process to Design and implement a Local Reparations Plan does need expertise. Leadership matters and recent consultant choices would suggest there needs to be a better selection process. 

A presentation on Neighborhood Electrification & Gas Pruning (identifying small neighborhood blocks to electrify and prune/remove the gas line) prompted Thomas Lord to comment at the Energy Commission. 

Of all the things that were said this week, it was his words summarizing the challenge before us to cut our dependence on fossil fuels that keeps coming back to me. 

He said quite simply that if we are going to get off fossil fuels in our buildings by 2045 (the goal set by the California Public Utilities Commission and Governor Newsom), we need to electrify 4 to 5 units every single workday starting right now. He based his calculations for the number of units to electrify daily in Berkeley on 30,000 (rough estimate from PG&E and Councilmember Kate Harrison’s office) and a six-day work week. 

While the task before Berkeley sounds insurmountable, Ithaca, New York, with about a quarter of the population of Berkeley, voted on November 3, 2021 to decarbonize (electrify) every single building in their city by 2030. Their count is 6000 buildings. 

There was a lot of bloviating at the March 15^th Council meeting about how we don’t need to protect rooftop solar because Berkeley is getting 100% renewable energy from EBCE. Ben Paulos, Chair of the Energy Commission, followed up this week as he (proudly) told the commissioners of his comments at City Council on rooftop solar being of marginal benefit, saying it is much more important to build housing. Thatl prompted my comment that for the very first time I was glad to see the merging of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) and the Energy Commission into the Climate and Energy Commission. 

There was another conversation this week that stuck with me. On Friday at demonstration supporting Ukraine in Civic Center Park, I ran into Kathy Dervin, Co-Chair of 350 Bay Area Legislative Committee. We spoke briefly about the state of affairs in Berkeley, really the sad state. The word she used that stuck, what the city should be and isn’t, is “transformative”. 

Transformative is what doesn’t fit in with what Ben Paulos and Matthew Lewis (the YIMBY Matthew Lewis) and others have claimed: that rooftop solar and building housing are incompatible. That 100% renewable has to come from somewhere. I challenge the dogma that the only way to have solar is to cover open space with solar farms, acres of solar panels at some distant location collecting energy to be distributed into the grid. 

We are already covering what feels like every foot of space in Berkeley with buildings. Why are we not wrapping those very same buildings with solar cells? 

Transformative are the developers who are doing just that. There is a 15-story net-zero energy high-rise under construction in Seattle with rainwater capture, reclaimed graywater and 27 out of 112 units affordable. Solar energy isn’t new. What is old is not being able to see how to incorporate solar energy into new construction so we can cover open space with forests and habitat and all the other things we need for survival of the planet. There is a lot that can be done if we look beyond city borders for innovation. https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/blog/seattle-breaks-ground-on-net-zero-high-rise 

The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission discussion of removal of eucalyptus on 98 private properties using public FF Funds continued this week without resolution. 

Saturday was the dedication of Brickyard Cove at McLaughlin Eastshore Park. The sun was shining and the views of the bay were spectacular. Former Mayor Shirley Dean was in the audience, my historian of choice. Did the speakers (Elizabeth Echols – elected member to East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors, State Senator Nancy Skinner, Mayor and former Assemblyman Tom Bates, Loni Hancock former Mayor and State Senator, Mayor Arreguin) get the history of the shoreline parks movement right? Partly was the answer! When Tom Bates was in the State Assembly he did secure the funding to purchase the land, but two people who pursued with vigor the movement for shoreline parks and founded Urban Care were never mentioned, Rosalind and Albert Lapawsky. 

It is because of unrelenting activism to save the bay from being filled and the shoreline covered with a shopping center, we are able to feel the bay breezes, walk the new trails and watch the meadow larks flutter over open space. Brickyard Cove is the land that was once a Berkeley City dump. Norman La Force captures the history in “Creating the Eastshore State Park an Activist History”. https://eastshorepark.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CESP_history.pdf 

The last speaker Robert Cheasty, Executive Director for Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) wasn’t staying close enough to the microphone, so I lost about half of what he said, though I know as a Board Member of CESP it included adding Point Molate to the shoreline parks. 

The media says all the Democrats will hold together to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, but I’ll breathe easier after the full Senate vote is over. The Republicans stooped to a new level of ugliness this week with lots of grandstanding which has been described as a test for which issues(really attacks and outrage) will work best at getting out their base to vote. 

At the bottom of much of this is race: racism and resentment that a Black woman could be superbly qualified, obviously better qualified than the pathetic show of Republican inquisitors vying for soundbites. But what is the cost of this ginned-up outrage, not just to Ketanji Brown Jackson, but to the country? 

Barbara F. Walter, in her book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them, tells us generating outrage is not benign and social media is an accelerant in creating instability. She notes the global shift away from democracy has tracked with the expansion of the internet and social media. Social media platforms have opened up unmitigated, unregulated pathways to spread misinformation (erroneous), disinformation (deliberately misleading), conspiracy theories, trolls, bots, and demagogues, and to give anti-democratic agents a place to gain traction. 

The social media platforms’ business model to make money is to keep people engaged, and what gets the most likes and engagement is fear over calm, falsehood over truth, outrage over empathy and the more incendiary the more traction. 

The top article on the Sunday print edition of the Chronicle was “Foreign spammers fuel U.S. discord”. It was about how fake Facebook accounts sell gear (merchandise, or “merch”) which leads followers to believe they are in a larger movement. Social media not only draws people down into outlandish disinformation silos through recommendation engines, it connects them, reinforcing beliefs in conspiracies and fanatical ideologies. QAnon continues, and now we’re learning Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, believes in this stuff. 

Anocracy was a word I had never heard before I picked up Walter’s book. She has been studying civil wars since 1990 and joined the Political Instability Task Force (founded in 1994) in 2017. 

An anocracy is a country that is neither a full democracy or a full autocracy. It is anocracies that are at risk of civil war. 

It was recognizing the risks in her own country, our country, the United States, that we are an anocracy that is the driver of the book. It isn’t just the slide from full democracy, i.e. voter suppression, gerrymandering, expansion of executive power, and corruption, that tips the scale; add factionalism. Factionalism happens when groups organize around race, ethnicity or religion. The most dangerous factions are once dominant groups that are facing decline in status and super factions, groups organized around race or ethnicity and religion. 

Walter draws from research the actions that pull countries away from sliding into civil war. She ends the book with recommendations including taking away the social media bullhorn through regulation. 

There are some of her recommendations that stalled and sank in the Senate: voting rights, election integrity, ending gerrymandering, improving public services and government effectiveness. She favors getting rid of the electoral college and demonstrating good government through expanding social services, investing in safety nets, affordable housing, public schools, parks, recreation, the arts and health care. Improving living conditions takes away grievances that give extremists air to grow and expand their reach, as does equal and impartial application of the rule of law. 

All this brings framing and reflection to the week. I suggest reading the entire book. The recommendations of how to stop civil wars from happening lose importance and impact without understanding and seeing the warning signs along the way, and that is what starting at the beginning of the book and reading it all the way through will give you. 

**************** 

In Berkeley this week there is concern that Councilmember Taplin’s City Council agenda item, Community Policing: Flex Team for Problem-Oriented Policing Under the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) Model and other applicable community engagement models, will turn into the old drug war crime suppression unit, saturation policing. Stop-and-frisk was determined to violate the 4^th Amendment to the Constitution in 2013, but the association with those tactics seems to be a better description of concerns over SARA. 

This coupled with the Auditor’s Report on police overtime, the City Manager’s intention to expand the police force to 181 officers, the police chief saying illegally parked cars in fire zones can’t be ticketed without expanding the parking enforcement budget and Edward Opton’s comments to the Mental Health Commission on Thursday evening leave much to question regarding the direction Berkeley is headed. 

Edward Opton noted in his report to the Mental Health Commission as a member of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force that the Berkeley Police were well represented (the attendees we couldn’t see on zoom) at every meeting. And there was never any expression of a desire or willingness or need for change from the Berkeley Police Department. 

In follow-up to the presentations on March 10^th from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, city staff are coming back with their analysis and proposals on April 14^th according to Lisa Warhuus, Director of Health, Housing and Community Services. She will be presenting al plan for a Special Care Unit that evening. 

It is spring and that means budgets. Where will the money be allocated for the next budget cycle? Will it go to more policing or to services? The recent shootings in District 2 would lead the vote for policing. Reimagining Public Safety Task Force has made recommendations for services, and so would I. 

The March 22^nd City Council 4 pm special meeting was on the Implementation of the Redistricting Plan for City Council District Boundaries. While partisan gerrymandering is alive and well in other parts of the country, California uses independent redistricting commissions. Carol Marasavic chose to draw attention to the comment from the Independent Redistricting Commission Chair Elisabeth Watson, “…we did not rely on consultants to review public input or provide guidance…” and Carol followed with “…we don’t need to pay costly consultants all the time to go into a protracted process in order to achieve results…” 

We do have a lot of talent in Berkeley and not everything should result in another contract with consultants, but Ben Bartlett’s $350,000 budget referral which passed on consent for a consultant to Facilitate a Community Process to Design and implement a Local Reparations Plan does need expertise. Leadership matters and recent consultant choices would suggest there needs to be a better selection process. 

A presentation on Neighborhood Electrification & Gas Pruning (identifying small neighborhood blocks to electrify and prune/remove the gas line) prompted Thomas Lord to comment at the Energy Commission. 

Of all the things that were said this week, it was his words summarizing the challenge before us to cut our dependence on fossil fuels that keeps coming back to me. 

He said quite simply that if we are going to get off fossil fuels in our buildings by 2045 (the goal set by the California Public Utilities Commission and Governor Newsom), we need to electrify 4 to 5 units every single workday starting right now. He based his calculations for the number of units to electrify daily in Berkeley on 30,000 (rough estimate from PG&E and Councilmember Kate Harrison’s office) and a six-day work week. 

While the task before Berkeley sounds insurmountable, Ithaca, New York, with about a quarter of the population of Berkeley, voted on November 3, 2021 to decarbonize (electrify) every single building in their city by 2030. Their count is 6000 buildings. 

There was a lot of bloviating at the March 15^th Council meeting about how we don’t need to protect rooftop solar because Berkeley is getting 100% renewable energy from EBCE. Ben Paulos, Chair of the Energy Commission, followed up this week as he (proudly) told the commissioners of his comments at City Council on rooftop solar being of marginal benefit, saying it is much more important to build housing. Thatl prompted my comment that for the very first time I was glad to see the merging of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) and the Energy Commission into the Climate and Energy Commission. 

There was another conversation this week that stuck with me. On Friday at demonstration supporting Ukraine in Civic Center Park, I ran into Kathy Dervin, Co-Chair of 350 Bay Area Legislative Committee. We spoke briefly about the state of affairs in Berkeley, really the sad state. The word she used that stuck, what the city should be and isn’t, is “transformative”. 

Transformative is what doesn’t fit in with what Ben Paulos and Matthew Lewis (the YIMBY Matthew Lewis) and others have claimed: that rooftop solar and building housing are incompatible. That 100% renewable has to come from somewhere. I challenge the dogma that the only way to have solar is to cover open space with solar farms, acres of solar panels at some distant location collecting energy to be distributed into the grid. 

We are already covering what feels like every foot of space in Berkeley with buildings. Why are we not wrapping those very same buildings with solar cells? 

Transformative are the developers who are doing just that. There is a 15-story net-zero energy high-rise under construction in Seattle with rainwater capture, reclaimed graywater and 27 out of 112 units affordable. Solar energy isn’t new. What is old is not being able to see how to incorporate solar energy into new construction so we can cover open space with forests and habitat and all the other things we need for survival of the planet. There is a lot that can be done if we look beyond city borders for innovation. https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/blog/seattle-breaks-ground-on-net-zero-high-rise 

The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission discussion of removal of eucalyptus on 98 private properties using public FF Funds continued this week without resolution. 

Saturday was the dedication of Brickyard Cove at McLaughlin Eastshore Park. The sun was shining and the views of the bay were spectacular. Former Mayor Shirley Dean was in the audience, my historian of choice. Did the speakers (Elizabeth Echols – elected member to East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors, State Senator Nancy Skinner, Mayor and former Assemblyman Tom Bates, Loni Hancock former Mayor and State Senator, Mayor Arreguin) get the history of the shoreline parks movement right? Partly was the answer! When Tom Bates was in the State Assembly he did secure the funding to purchase the land, but two people who pursued with vigor the movement for shoreline parks and founded Urban Care were never mentioned, Rosalind and Albert Lapawsky. 

It is because of unrelenting activism to save the bay from being filled and the shoreline covered with a shopping center, we are able to feel the bay breezes, walk the new trails and watch the meadow larks flutter over open space. Brickyard Cove is the land that was once a Berkeley City dump. Norman La Force captures the history in “Creating the Eastshore State Park an Activist History”. https://eastshorepark.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CESP_history.pdf 

The last speaker Robert Cheasty, Executive Director for Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) wasn’t staying close enough to the microphone, so I lost about half of what he said, though I know as a Board Member of CESP it included adding Point Molate to the shoreline parks. 

The media says all the Democrats will hold together to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, but I’ll breathe easier after the full Senate vote is over. The Republicans stooped to a new level of ugliness this week with lots of grandstanding which has been described as a test for which issues(really attacks and outrage) will work best at getting out their base to vote. 

At the bottom of much of this is race: racism and resentment that a Black woman could be superbly qualified, obviously better qualified than the pathetic show of Republican inquisitors vying for soundbites. But what is the cost of this ginned-up outrage, not just to Ketanji Brown Jackson, but to the country? 

Barbara F. Walter, in her book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them, tells us generating outrage is not benign and social media is an accelerant in creating instability. She notes the global shift away from democracy has tracked with the expansion of the internet and social media. Social media platforms have opened up unmitigated, unregulated pathways to spread misinformation (erroneous), disinformation (deliberately misleading), conspiracy theories, trolls, bots, and demagogues, and to give anti-democratic agents a place to gain traction. 

The social media platforms’ business model to make money is to keep people engaged, and what gets the most likes and engagement is fear over calm, falsehood over truth, outrage over empathy and the more incendiary the more traction. 

The top article on the Sunday print edition of the Chronicle was “Foreign spammers fuel U.S. discord”. It was about how fake Facebook accounts sell gear (merchandise, or “merch”) which leads followers to believe they are in a larger movement. Social media not only draws people down into outlandish disinformation silos through recommendation engines, it connects them, reinforcing beliefs in conspiracies and fanatical ideologies. QAnon continues, and now we’re learning Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, believes in this stuff. 

Anocracy was a word I had never heard before I picked up Walter’s book. She has been studying civil wars since 1990 and joined the Political Instability Task Force (founded in 1994) in 2017. 

An anocracy is a country that is neither a full democracy or a full autocracy. It is anocracies that are at risk of civil war. 

It was recognizing the risks in her own country, our country, the United States, that we are an anocracy that is the driver of the book. It isn’t just the slide from full democracy, i.e. voter suppression, gerrymandering, expansion of executive power, and corruption, that tips the scale; add factionalism. Factionalism happens when groups organize around race, ethnicity or religion. The most dangerous factions are once dominant groups that are facing decline in status and super factions, groups organized around race or ethnicity and religion. 

Walter draws from research the actions that pull countries away from sliding into civil war. She ends the book with recommendations including taking away the social media bullhorn through regulation. 

There are some of her recommendations that stalled and sank in the Senate: voting rights, election integrity, ending gerrymandering, improving public services and government effectiveness. She favors getting rid of the electoral college and demonstrating good government through expanding social services, investing in safety nets, affordable housing, public schools, parks, recreation, the arts and health care. Improving living conditions takes away grievances that give extremists air to grow and expand their reach, as does equal and impartial application of the rule of law. 

All this brings framing and reflection to the week. I suggest reading the entire book. The recommendations of how to stop civil wars from happening lose importance and impact without understanding and seeing the warning signs along the way, and that is what starting at the beginning of the book and reading it all the way through will give you. 

**************** 

In Berkeley this week there is concern that Councilmember Taplin’s City Council agenda item, Community Policing: Flex Team for Problem-Oriented Policing Under the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) Model and other applicable community engagement models, will turn into the old drug war crime suppression unit, saturation policing. Stop-and-frisk was determined to violate the 4^th Amendment to the Constitution in 2013, but the association with those tactics seems to be a better description of concerns over SARA. 

This coupled with the Auditor’s Report on police overtime, the City Manager’s intention to expand the police force to 181 officers, the police chief saying illegally parked cars in fire zones can’t be ticketed without expanding the parking enforcement budget and Edward Opton’s comments to the Mental Health Commission on Thursday evening leave much to question regarding the direction Berkeley is headed. 

Edward Opton noted in his report to the Mental Health Commission as a member of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force that the Berkeley Police were well represented (the attendees we couldn’t see on zoom) at every meeting. And there was never any expression of a desire or willingness or need for change from the Berkeley Police Department. 

In follow-up to the presentations on March 10^th from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, city staff are coming back with their analysis and proposals on April 14^th according to Lisa Warhuus, Director of Health, Housing and Community Services. She will be presenting al plan for a Special Care Unit that evening. 

It is spring and that means budgets. Where will the money be allocated for the next budget cycle? Will it go to more policing or to services? The recent shootings in District 2 would lead the vote for policing. Reimagining Public Safety Task Force has made recommendations for services, and so would I. 

The March 22^nd City Council 4 pm special meeting was on the Implementation of the Redistricting Plan for City Council District Boundaries. While partisan gerrymandering is alive and well in other parts of the country, California uses independent redistricting commissions. Carol Marasavic chose to draw attention to the comment from the Independent Redistricting Commission Chair Elisabeth Watson, “…we did not rely on consultants to review public input or provide guidance…” and Carol followed with “…we don’t need to pay costly consultants all the time to go into a protracted process in order to achieve results…” 

We do have a lot of talent in Berkeley and not everything should result in another contract with consultants, but Ben Bartlett’s $350,000 budget referral which passed on consent for a consultant to Facilitate a Community Process to Design and implement a Local Reparations Plan does need expertise. Leadership matters and recent consultant choices would suggest there needs to be a better selection process. 

A presentation on Neighborhood Electrification & Gas Pruning (identifying small neighborhood blocks to electrify and prune/remove the gas line) prompted Thomas Lord to comment at the Energy Commission. 

Of all the things that were said this week, it was his words summarizing the challenge before us to cut our dependence on fossil fuels that keeps coming back to me. 

He said quite simply that if we are going to get off fossil fuels in our buildings by 2045 (the goal set by the California Public Utilities Commission and Governor Newsom), we need to electrify 4 to 5 units every single workday starting right now. He based his calculations for the number of units to electrify daily in Berkeley on 30,000 (rough estimate from PG&E and Councilmember Kate Harrison’s office) and a six-day work week. 

While the task before Berkeley sounds insurmountable, Ithaca, New York, with about a quarter of the population of Berkeley, voted on November 3, 2021 to decarbonize (electrify) every single building in their city by 2030. Their count is 6000 buildings. 

There was a lot of bloviating at the March 15^th Council meeting about how we don’t need to protect rooftop solar because Berkeley is getting 100% renewable energy from EBCE. Ben Paulos, Chair of the Energy Commission, followed up this week as he (proudly) told the commissioners of his comments at City Council on rooftop solar being of marginal benefit, saying it is much more important to build housing. Thatl prompted my comment that for the very first time I was glad to see the merging of the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) and the Energy Commission into the Climate and Energy Commission. 

There was another conversation this week that stuck with me. On Friday at demonstration supporting Ukraine in Civic Center Park, I ran into Kathy Dervin, Co-Chair of 350 Bay Area Legislative Committee. We spoke briefly about the state of affairs in Berkeley, really the sad state. The word she used that stuck, what the city should be and isn’t, is “transformative”. 

Transformative is what doesn’t fit in with what Ben Paulos and Matthew Lewis (the YIMBY Matthew Lewis) and others have claimed: that rooftop solar and building housing are incompatible. That 100% renewable has to come from somewhere. I challenge the dogma that the only way to have solar is to cover open space with solar farms, acres of solar panels at some distant location collecting energy to be distributed into the grid. 

We are already covering what feels like every foot of space in Berkeley with buildings. Why are we not wrapping those very same buildings with solar cells? 

Transformative are the developers who are doing just that. There is a 15-story net-zero energy high-rise under construction in Seattle with rainwater capture, reclaimed graywater and 27 out of 112 units affordable. Solar energy isn’t new. What is old is not being able to see how to incorporate solar energy into new construction so we can cover open space with forests and habitat and all the other things we need for survival of the planet. There is a lot that can be done if we look beyond city borders for innovation. https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/blog/seattle-breaks-ground-on-net-zero-high-rise 

The Disaster and Fire Safety Commission discussion of removal of eucalyptus on 98 private properties using public FF Funds continued this week without resolution. 

Saturday was the dedication of Brickyard Cove at McLaughlin Eastshore Park. The sun was shining and the views of the bay were spectacular. Former Mayor Shirley Dean was in the audience, my historian of choice. Did the speakers (Elizabeth Echols – elected member to East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors, State Senator Nancy Skinner, Mayor and former Assemblyman Tom Bates, Loni Hancock former Mayor and State Senator, Mayor Arreguin) get the history of the shoreline parks movement right? Partly was the answer! When Tom Bates was in the State Assembly he did secure the funding to purchase the land, but two people who pursued with vigor the movement for shoreline parks and founded Urban Care were never mentioned, Rosalind and Albert Lapawsky. 

It is because of unrelenting activism to save the bay from being filled and the shoreline covered with a shopping center, we are able to feel the bay breezes, walk the new trails and watch the meadow larks flutter over open space. Brickyard Cove is the land that was once a Berkeley City dump. Norman La Force captures the history in “Creating the Eastshore State Park an Activist History”. https://eastshorepark.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CESP_history.pdf 

The last speaker Robert Cheasty, Executive Director for Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) wasn’t staying close enough to the microphone, so I lost about half of what he said, though I know as a Board Member of CESP it included adding Point Molate to the shoreline parks. 

Slack Facts

On March 21, the Chronicle reported on a fire that engulfed several structures at the Tiny House enclave near Oakland's Lake Merritt. The Chronicle's coverage included a sentence that announced: "the cause is presumed to be undetermined." Which, I suppose, is another way of saying, "I'm guessing we just don't know."

Is Reich Running for Real?

My daily email flood is forever clotted with surveys—"Support this?" "Back that?" "Sign on?" (All leading to: "Donate here!") But one recent e-missive from "Equality Democrats" caught my eye. The message read: "Should Robert Reich run for office? Yes, No, Unsure."

The announcement praised former Clinton-era Labor Secretary and current UCB Prof. Reich for "fighting on the frontlines of progressive issues for DECADES" and claimed that "some experts are floating the idea of Robert Reich running for office! They're saying he can REALLY win!"

The only thing they aren't saying (if this email is to be believed) is what office he might be running for. California already has a strong senate team. But, say if Dianne Feinstein were to retire—would Reich rise to the occasion?

Near as I can tell, UC's most progressive professor/activist/polemicist/cartoonist has only run for public office once, in 2002, when he vied to become the Democratic governor of Massachusetts. (The party eventually chose former Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon P. O'Brien to run for the office and she eventually lost to Republican Mitt Romney.) 

Reparations Preparations 

Calls have come from around the world demanding that Vladimir Putin's government be required to pay reparations for the wanton murder of innocent Ukranians and the wholesale destruction of civilian dwellings and infrastructure that has turned the country's cities into wastelands of smoldering rubble. 

Activist/writer Nicolas J.S. Davis offers a further suggestion:
"Maybe a call for reparations to Ukraine should include a commitment by the US to pay:
• the reparations to Nicaragua that were ordered by the International Court of Justice in 1986,
• the $3 billion that Nixon promised to Vietnam (plus adjustment for 50 years of inflation), and
• proportionate reparations to Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Lebanon, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Palestine, Yemen and other countries the United States and its allies have attacked with American weapons, killed thousands (or millions in some cases) of their people and destroyed their civilian infrastructure.
If we can spend $800 billion-per-year to fund all this destruction, how much would be appropriate to spend on repairing the damage?
Maybe we could ask the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Congressional Research Service and the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General to look into this." 

Russia's War Crimes: The US Paved the Way 

Hospitals bombed. Civilian apartments destroyed. Residents forced to flee their homes. This is what Russia's invasion has brought to Ukraine. But this also is a summation of the horrific damage inflicted by NATO during the 1999 Kosovo War. 

On March 24, 1999, US/NATO forces began bombing Yugoslavia in a campaign that lasted 78 days—nearly three months. 

During this siege, NATO missiles and airstrikes destroyed 25,000 homes, 300 miles of roads, 400 miles of railways, 14 airports, 19 hospitals, 19 kindergartens, 69 schools, 176 cultural monuments, and 44 bridges. 

The Centre for Humanitarian Law in Belgrade estimated around 9,401 people were killed or disappeared during NATO's bombing of Kosovo. Other estimates concluded the NATO bombardment injured as many as 25,000. 

And it was an "atomic war," as well, since NATO's use of depleted uranium ordnance left entire neighborhoods contaminated with radioactive rubble. 

Here's a related video (apologies if it starts off with an unsolicited ad): 

Don't Be Fueled: Toyota's Not as Green as It Seems 

"The world's biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home," UN Secretary-General António Guterres, recently remarked. Guterres' comment was prompted by the release of the latest UN Climate Report, which Guterres characterized as "an atlas of human suffering." 

In response, the European Union has announced plans to stop making gas-powered cars by 2035. But, according to SumOfUs.org, "those plans may never become law, if Toyota and their Brussels lobbyists have their way."  

Yep, Toyota, the ubiquitous Japanese automaker, has tarnished its green reputation. According to the New York Times and The Guardian, Toyota is gunning its engines to block essential clean-climate laws. 

"Toyota is one of the world’s top lobbyists against laws to protect us all from catastrophic climate breakdown," SumOfUs sums up. "Only oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron are doing more lobbying harm!" 

The good news? "Toyota bosses hate it when news about their lobbying gets out," says SumOfUs, citing Toyota's decision to halt its lawsuit to block climate action after a major public outcry in California. So hop on board and tell Toyota to stop lobbying for fossil fuels, and go green for real. https://actions.sumofus.org/a/toyota-polluta 

The Most Effective Planet-saving Options 

Recycling, composting, electric cars are seen as effective option to address climate change. When it comes to cutting gigatons of CO2, composting is twice as effective as recycling paper while driving an electric auto is nearly twice as effective as recycling mountains of ocean-choking plastics. But these four options fall way short of three other eco-options. Switching to a meatless, plant-rich diet would be 8 times more beneficial than driving a Tesla. But there are two more "lifestyle choices" that are even more effective: reducing food waste and promoting family planning and assuring the education of young girls. While tooling around in Teslas can save about 8 gigatons of CO2, each of these two overlooked alternatives can save more than 80 gigatons of the industrialized world's planet-cooking gases. 

The figures come from Population Connection, a DC-based group that is concerned about the eco-impact of more than 30 million unintended births each year (1.3 million of those unplanned births occur in the US alone). That means that nearly 38 percent of the 80 million babies born each year, are "unplanned," which often means they will face lives of abandonment and poverty. Population Connection is promoting passage of the Global HER Act (Health, Empowerment, and Rights) to counter a Global Gag Rule that would terminate US foreign aid to any countries that offered safe, legal abortions. 

Savant of the People 

Barbara Garson, the multi-talented author of All the Livelong Day and Macbird (an anti-war play from the 60s that skewered the presidency of Lyndon Johnson), recently posted an appreciation in The Nation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's now-famous TV comedy series, in which she writes: "Servant of the People is among the world’s great satires, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who both writes and acts, is the most appealing 'little guy' since Charlie Chaplin." 

Here's the trailer for a show that ran for several years and proved prophetic when the actor/comedian followed in the footsteps of his fictitious creation and found himself in the seat of power dealing with oligarchic corruption and foreign aggression. Servant is nothing like The Office. It's more like a Hollywood blockbuster, complete with massive sets, exotic locations, sleazy villains, frantic fist-fights, blazing guns, and even a wild car-chase or two. 

Postscript from The Nation: "On the day this article went to press, Servant of the People returned to Netflix. You can watch the first season here." 

A Scotch Tape Recording 

And here's a weird little tribute to "Servant of the People." Flying under the YouTube title, "We dubbed a clip from Servant of the People," a fan in Scotland took a favorite scene from Zelenskyy's episodic satirathon and dubbed it in Scottish-accented English. Adding to the weirdness: the fan's voice-over employs the same hyper-amped voice for all the characters. 

The Right to Protest 

With all the tragic images spilling out of Ukraine since the Russian invasion stalled and turned into a siege of bombs and missiles, it was encouraging to see the photos and videos of people in Russia spilling into parks and plazas in 21 Russian cities to protest Putin's war crimes. The protests were consequential, with Reuters and The Guardian reporting a crack-down by Russian police that (as of March 6) had resulted in the arrest and detention of 4,300 anti-war protestors. (On March 7, NPR upped those figures to report that "more than 13,000 Russians in 147 cities have been detained at anti-war rallies since Russia first invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24." 

Fortunately, we live in a "free and open" society that respects the First Amendments guarantees of free speech and public assembly! 

Opps! Not so fast! A recent email from the folks at Nuclear Resister, takes us back to George W. Bush's 2003 US invasion of Iraq (which prompted demonstrations around the world) and notes: "For the record, in the USA alone, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of from November 2002 through mid-April 2003…, [there were] more than 7,500 anti-war arrests in 300-plus actions in 115 cities in 35 states." 

GOP Harassment Highs Rise to New Lows 

Lawrence of Berkeley has kindly shared a 5-minute video from Thom Hartmann who reports that pro-Trump Election Subversion Forces are already on the sidewalks bearing arms and cameras to knock on doors and take photos of minority voters while demanding to know how they plan to vote. The NAACP, the League of Women Voters and others have sued claiming this "Voters Intimidation Campaign" violates both the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan of 1871. 

"Breaking Wind": A Ghastly Connection 

In early March, Inside Climate News published a report with the following headline: "NC Hurricanes Linked to Gastrointestinal Illness in Marginalized Groups." 

The first thought that occurred to me was: could this be an extreme case of "breaking wind"? And, if so, what was making the stomach-stress so intense that it could be linked to the release of hurricane-force gastrointestinal petards? 

Turns out it wasn't a case of human burps causing gale-force winds. Quite the opposite. In the aftermath of major hurricanes, North Carolina's hospital were deluged with residents complaining of "diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain." Inside Climate News noted that those suffering most from stomach distress came from "one of the soggiest parts of the state, and also [were] among the poorest and most racially diverse" members of society. 

The problem was not that these residential blocks were the "soggiest": they also tended to be the "hoggiest." In addition to living near industrial coal ash ponds, the afflicted residents were also living adjacent to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). When you peel off the sanitizing label, CAFO turns out to be another way of describing a site in which "hogs create more fecal waste each year than the state’s human population." 

And if that's not enough to make your colon cringe, researchers have recently warned of a "growing risk of infection from Vibrio, a group of pathogens that includes flesh-eating bacteria, as warming water and intensifying storm surges help the bacteria flourish and move inland." 

More evidence that climate change will mean more than a bothersome headache in the years ahead: it might also mean more time in the loo, bellyaching—literally—and up-chucking your latest meal. 

De-Pork the Politicians 

In 2020, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) publicly dismissed the dangers of the coronavirus while quietly profiting off investments in body bags. Loeffler was defeated in the polls but, as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) notes, "The corruption remains." 

Now a team of progressive politicians—including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA), along with Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ)—have crafted new legislation that would ban all members of Congress, their families, and other top government officials from buying and selling stocks. 

The clean government activists from P Street—"the progressive alternative to K Street"—and a coalition of independent, clean-government organizations have urged the House Committee on Administration to hold a hearing on the Ban Conflict Trading Act. 

According to PCCC, "A recent Insider report showed that in 2020 and 2021, dozens of lawmakers flouted even the existing—toothless—rules that require lawmakers to report stock trades." 

According to a report from UnusualWhales, five top stock-trading violators include Reps Robert Wittman (R-VA), Mark Green (R-TN), Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who purchased a bundle of Lockheed stocks just prior to Putin's "imminent" invasion and subsequently Tweeted: "war is incredibly profitable and convenient." 

The New York Times recently endorsed the "No stocks" option with an editorial that stated: "Members of Congress should not be trading stocks, ever.... The nation is experiencing a crisis of confidence that is eating away at its strength and unity. Americans have lost faith in Congress. Now is the moment to drive home this popular, common-sense reform." 

"Public outcry can get this across the finish line," says PCCC. So, naturally, there's a petition to sign. 

The final day of confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded on March 24. A vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled for April 4. Then it goes to the full Senate for a vote. Considering that Judge Jackson has extraordinary qualifications and the American Bar Association has rated her as "well qualified" -- its highest rating, she should be confirmed.

After six years of Trump on the national stage filled with spite and heartlessness, the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee did Trump “proud" in their questioning of Judge Jackson. The public hardly heard from her as senators mostly used their time to make partisan speeches, or “sound bites” for Fox News. 

Isn’t it absurd that these White, Republican Senators attempted to explain racism in America to a Black American by twisting the concepts of "critical race theory" and "woke education agenda" into pejorative concepts?  

History cannot be taught without teaching students about the history of racism and the civil rights movement. 

After watching Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), I ask voters, would you vote for any one of them for re-election or anyone Trump endorsed?

It has appeared in many places, including in a song by famous rock performer Billy Joel, "You should never argue with a crazy man." This is a superlatively apt truism, even while some may find it an amusement. It is not amusing. When you argue with a psychotic person, you could be putting human lives at risk. And if you've been through such an experience, you are not alone. It is a mistake that some law enforcers seem to have made. When they yell orders at a psychotic person, they may get other than obedience, and this may lead to escalation. 

Even if you're trying to have a gentle conversation with a person who seems lost, you should realize that you are not supremely wise enough to do away with the psychosis in another person's diseased brain. The classic mistake of many who believe themselves old and wise is that they can reason with a mentally ill person and impart rational thinking. The young man or woman who is ill needs to be in treatment. This may include medication, in some instances by force. And/or, it may include being in a safe place where the individual is monitored and where they are not exposed to the risks of living in mainstream society while lacking the ability to think clearly. 

Some mentally ill people, not all of us, but some, have the potential to become violent. This could be the result of bottoming out against total despair. Or it could be the result of complete misinterpretation of the data from the senses. 

The last time, measured against present day, that I became psychotic, was in 1996, and it was caused by medication noncompliance. When I was roaming the streets of Martinez on foot, in ninety-degree heat, two middle aged women who were walking spotted me at a distance, and they crossed the street to avoid me. At that time, it was the right thing to do. Back then most people didn't carry cellular phones, and if they'd had one, they might have phoned police. Phoning police is sometimes a risk because cops could do something wrong. This must be measured against the risk of doing nothing. 

You can't reason with a psychotic person because their brain isn't working. 

Once we are medicated, despite the apparent fact that the medication acts on all parts of the brain, the parts of the brain that are in command have shifted. There are many theories about why and how antipsychotics work. Yet, scientists still do not fully understand enough. More brain research is warranted, but funding for this is lacking. When medicated, we have the potential to respond to reasoning, imparted verbally or absorbed through our own senses and thought processes. 

How I explained Ukraine to a longtime white Canadian friend of mine all ca ught up in, 'Zelensky all good, Putin all bad':

If the U.S. was "Shoog", & Russia was "Ray-Ray", & Ukraine was "L'il Dog", and Shoog & Ray-Ray were feudin', and Shoog & Ray-Ray wanted L'il Dog to side with one of them (Shoog or Ray-Ray). This is what my friend Kinn in the 'hood woulda told L'il Dog beforehand [like I told a Ukrainian female academic way before even Covid, except of course I told her in standard U.S. English]:

Loook..., both Shoog & Ray-Ray been feudin' for a lllongggg lllonggg tihhme... Ever since anyone from around here can remember... And I know each of them want you to be ōn they side... And I know you got a right to choose which side you wanna be ōnnn... 

But listen here...: this ain't really about moral right or moral wronggg to Shoog & Ray-Ray... Certainly not to Shoog... Shoog been bangin' all ova these 'hoods since Shoog was three-quarter growwwn... He think he got a right to go evvvrywhere and bang..., and tell evvvryone what to do... 

Both Shoog & Ray-Ray are kinda crazy... You know what I meannn?... And they ain't evvva gonna stop feudin'... Even though now they both Crips [capitalists]... -- just ōn different sides of the same highway... 

Besides..., between you & me..., Ray-Ray got a point...: Why don't you just remain neutral mannn?... Hey I'm just tryna keep you aliiive!... Just 'cause you got a right to choose which side, don't mean you have to choose which side, who you side with... You gōn' get snagged-up in Shoog & Ray-Ray's bbulllshit..., and end up all shot up..., crippled... -- or ddead... Is that what you want?... 

Now I gave you my advice... But, L'il Dog..., it's up to you mannn how you wanna end up!... But one thing you oughta o' learnt in these 'hoods, mannn...: you​ ain' gōn' feel safe, if, at a minimum, you don't let yo' neighbors​​​ feel safe... And in the ennnd, the only people who always winnn... are the people sellin' us the gguns​.

Worth Noting:

City Council is on Spring Recess through April 11.

The meeting schedule for the coming week is relatively light with the Agenda Committee meeting Monday at 2:30 pm to review the draft agenda for the April 12, City Council meeting.

The Design Review Committee (Tuesday) and the Police Accountability Board (Wednesday) are both having special meetings.

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Healthy Air for All – Time for Action at 4 – 5:30 pm

Pre-register for zoom link at https://tinyurl.com/38thxwn2

Agenda: UUCB Sponsored Workshop on Climate Change, Air Pollution, who is most vulnerable and what we can do about it. Speakers Dr. Teresa Munoz and Dr. Juan Aguilera Mendoza,

Berkeley Equity Summit Series #8 at 6 pm

Videoconference: https://bit.ly/3HSXMLD

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 832 1453 3420 Passcode: 712730

AGENDA: Women’s Herstory, Celebrate and Embrace Women’s Stories

Monday, March 28, 2022

Agenda and Rules Committee at 2:30 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89884901744 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 898 8490 1744 

AGENDA: Public Comment on non-agenda and items 1 – 7. 1. Minutes, 2. Review and Approve 4/12/2022 draft agenda – use link or read full draft agenda after list of city meetings, 3. Berkeley Considers, 4. Adjournments in Memory, 5. Worksessions Schedule, 6. Referrals to Agenda Committee for Scheduling, 7. Land Use Calendar, Referred Items for Review: 8. COVID, 9. Return to In-person meetings, Unscheduled Items: 10. Discussion Regarding Design and Strengthening of Policy Committees, 11. Supporting Commissions, Guidance on Legislative Proposals. Surveillance, Technology and Acquisition Reports and ALPR (packet 500 pages) 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Policy_Committee__Agenda___Rules.aspx 

Zero Waste Commission at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/s/82587046286 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 ID: 825 8704 6286 

AGENDA: 4. Public comment non-agenda items, 6. Staff Updates Zero Waste strategic Plan, C&D Processing RFP due 3/24/2022, Mattress Recycling, Textile Recycling, Single-use foodware ordinance implementation, SB1383 Implementation, Discussion and Action: Work Plan 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Zero_Waste_Commission_Homepage.aspx 

Tuesday, March 29, 2022 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Budget and Personnel Committee Meeting at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82496867959?pwd=RUdLL21YbWh5KzNUUTFKZWVOak1HUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 824 9686 7959 Passcode: 449731 

AGENDA: 6. FY 2022/23 Budget Projections, 7. Adopt the FY 2022/23 Registration Fee for Fully Covered and Measure MM units, 8. Rent Board Commissioner CPI Stipend Increase. 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

Design Review Committee at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84219088422 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 842 1908 8422 

AGENDA: 1. 2352 Shattuck – final design review – demolish 2 existing buildings, split lot in two and construct 2 8-story mixed-use buildings with 204 units including 14 very low income units, 12,154 sq ft commercial space, 17, 012 sq ft usable open space, 90 ground level parking spaces 

2. 1201-1205 San Pablo at Harrison – continued preliminary design review – construct 6-story mixed-use building on vacant lot with 66 units including 5 very low income units, 1680 sq ft commercial space, 2514 sq ft usable open space and 17 – 28 ground-level parking spaces. 

SB 330 Project - 2440 Shattuck at Haste – mixed-use project will be reviewed at the April DRC meeting 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/designreview/ 

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 

4x4 Joint Task Force Committee on Housing: Rent Board/City Council at 3 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81662879929?pwd=U2xXVlhuOUFHZEZnSmRiQXhTdVdHUT09 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 816 6287 9929 Passcode: 839026  

AGENDA: Discussion and possible action: 6. Revisions to the Demolition Ordinance, 7. Potential for adding more rent controlled units under CA Civil Code Section 1954.52(b), 8. Recommendation on Relocation Ordinance and additions to Tenant Habitability Plan Ordinance, 9. Amendments to Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance for Nov 2022 ballot. (packet 73 pages) 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Home/4x4_Committee_Homepage.aspx 

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/rent/ 

Police Accountability Board Special Meeting at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82318238840 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 823 1823 8840 

AGENDA: 3. Review Police Equipment & Community Safety Ordinance Impact Statements (agenda is one item). 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

Thursday, March 31, 2022 

Police Accountability Board Budget Proposal Subcommittee at 5 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87077154163 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 870 7715 4163 

AGENDA: 4. Review proposed budget for the Office of the Director of Police Accountability for FY 2023 and 2024 and make recommendation. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

Police Accountability Board at 7 pm 

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82281228507 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 822 8122 8507 

AGENDA: 4. Continue drafting permanent Regulations to include consideration of ideas contained in all prior agenda packets. 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=162752 

MLK Jr Youth services Renovation Project at 6:30 – 8 pm 

Videoconference: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84908648967 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-6833 ID: 849 0864 8967 Passcode: 948097 

AGENDA: meeting to discuss the MLK Jr Youth Services/Y.A.P. Center Seismic Retrofit 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/CalendarEventMain.aspx?calendarEventID=17831 

Friday, April 1, 2022 & Saturday, April 2, 2022 & Sunday, April 3, 2022  

No city meetings or events found 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

AGENDA COMMITTEE, Monday, March 28, at 2:30 pm  

Videoconference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89884901744 

Teleconference: 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (toll free) Meeting ID: 898 8490 1744 

DRAFT AGENDA APRIL 12, 2022 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/Policy_Committee__Agenda___Rules.aspx 

CONSENT: 1. 2^nd reading implementing the Independent Redistricting Commission adjusted City Council District boundaries, 2. 2^nd reading align State and Local Laws on Cannabis, 3. 2^nd reading R&D definition, 4. Resolution to continue legislative bodies to meet via videoconference, 5. Amends BMC Section 6.24.050 to allow Parking Space rental tax to be placed in the general fund instead of a special fund, 6. $710,000 Bid Solicitations, 7. Fire Dept - Purchase order $621,000 for 8 Emergency vehicle utility pickup trucks for the Berkeley Fire Dept, 8. $2,802,400 for Mental Health Services Innovations – Encampment-Based Mobile Wellness Center Project over 5 yr period starting FY2023, 9. Revenue contract $2,500,000 apply for Mental Health Student Services Oversight and Accountability Commission funding for BUSD, 10. Revenue Grant application $173,408 for FY 2023-2027 CA Dept of Public Health-Oral Health Program, 11. Adopt a Resolution to ratify pre-approved PARS Plan document and related Amendments by Interim Deputy City Manager on 12/27/2021, 12. Human resources - Re-establish Senior Engineering Inspector Classification, 13. Parks - Contract $4,468,610 with Sysco San Francisco for Food Services for Tuolumme and Echo Lake Resident Camps for 5/1/2022 – 5/1/2027 amount subject to annual budget appropriation process, 14. Donation $16,000 from friends of Lucinda Sikes for a memorial bench and picnic equipment to be placed at Codornices Park in memory of Lucinda, 15. Planning and Development - Application for Revenue Grant FEMA for Hazard Mitigation Grant amount $3,750,000 with commitment to be matched with $1,750,000, 16. BPD - Revenue Grant CA Dept of Justice Tobacco Grant $191,053 FY 2022-2025, 17. Public Works - Contract $6,084,809 with Bay Cities Paving & Grading for Street Rehabilitation rejecting Azul Works bid as non-responsive for Intersection Reconfiguration at Dwight and California, 18. Public Works - Master License agreement template for the non-exclusive installation of small cell telecommunications facilities on City owned and maintained streetlight poles in the public right-of-way 19. Energy Commission – Refer to new Climate and Environment Commission Proposed Regulations for the Use of Carryout and Pre-checkout bags, 20. Arreguin – Budget Referral $60,000 for providing essential school supplies to Berkeley families, 21. Arreguin – Support AB 1944 which amends the Brown Act to permanently enable meetings of legislative bodies to be conducted through videoconference or teleconference, 22. Arreguin – Support AB 1947 requires law enforcement agencies to adopt policies on how to identify and report Hate Crimes, 23. Taplin – Budget Referral funding of EV Charging Infrastructure for City’s Fleet of EV, 24. Taplin – Budget Referral funding West Berkeley Park Ambassadors at San Pablo Park, Strawberry Creek and Aquatic Parks, 25. Taplin – Support AB 1608 – Independent Coroner’s Offices, 26. Taplin – Native and Drought Resistant Plants and Landscaping policy update, 27. Taplin – Community Policing: Flex Team for Problem-Oriented Policing Under the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) Model and other applicable community engagement models, 28. Harrison – Budget Referral $100,000 to hire CPA to provide supplemental assistance in fulfilling budgetary obligations, 29. Arreguin, co-sponsors Wengraf, Taplin – (Council Office Budget Funds) Berkeley Public Library Foundation Dinner, 30. Hahn, co-sponsors Taplin, Arreguin – (Council Office Budget Funds) Kala Art Institute to support programs, 31. Wengraf, Hahn, co-sponsors Arreguin, Bartlett - Proclamation in Honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, 32. Wengraf, co-sponsors Arreguin, Hahn – Budget Referral $6000 annual to fund Holocaust Remembrance Day, 33. Robinson, Harrison – Budget Referral $250,000 to contribute to preliminary design Downtown BART station modernization project, 34. Robinson - (Council Office Budget Funds) Suitcase Clinic, 35. Robinson – Support AB 2050 Ellis act reform, 36. Robinson – Support SB 649 Affordable Housing Local Tenant Preference, 37. Robinson - Support AB 2147 Jaywalking Decriminalization, 38. Robinson, co-sponsors Arreguin, Harrison, Droste – Support for Support Article 34 Repeal eliminating the required city-wide vote for construction of publicly funded low-income housing projects, ACTION: 39. Auditor – Berkeley Police: Improvements Needed to Manage Overtime and Security Work for Outside Entities, 40. a. Disaster and Fire Safety Commission (DFSC) – UC Berkeley Agreement $4,300,000/year to cover cost expended by the City due to the University expansion, funding is intended to support fire and city services, DFSC recommends the City administer funds separately from the general funds and with public review under DFSC similar to FF and GG for the duration of the agreement, b. City Manager – use the general fund to administer payments, 41. a. Commission on Labor – Adopt first reading of proposed Workweek Ordinance BMC 13.110, b. City Manager – Direct Item to Health, Life Enrichment, Equity and Community Policy Committee, 42. Kesarwani – Reaffirm City commitment to transgender rights, 43. Taplin – Refer to City Manager to develop a Crisis Stabilization Center based on the Deschutes County Health services model, 

LAND USE CALENDAR: 

Public Hearings Scheduled – Land Use Appeals 

1643-47 California – new basement level and 2^nd story 4/26/2022 

Remanded to ZAB or LPC 

1205 Peralta – Conversion of an existing garage 

Notice of Decision (NOD) and Use Permits with the End of the Appeal Period 

8 Brookside – Construct 2-story addition over 14 ft in average height and 20 ft max height, add 5^th bedroom in R-1H zoning district 3/30/2022 

1635 Curtis - 187 sq ft backyard office over 12 ft in average height 4/6/2022 

2407 Dana – Establish a temporary daytime drop-in center where services and support will be provided for unhoused community members in need of a place to gather during the daytime 4/11/2022 

2451 Fifth – Establish an art/craft studio under 20,000 sq ft 4/6/2022 

1795 Fourth – 1350 sq ft addition to existing 3750 sq ft commercial building conversion from 4 tenants to 2 tenants, work is shell only, tenant improvements under separate permit 3/31/2022 

2200 Fourth – Change of use of less than 25% of existing protected manufacturing use to R&D, construction of 5113 sq ft of new R&D space, 4/6/2022 

2730 Grant – 2-story rear addition with average height of 21 ft 7 in, which horizontally and vertically extends the existing non-conforming 1 ft 8 in side setback 4/6/2022 

2421 Piedmont – Remove and replace an existing 6-ft fence along the northern side lot line on top of retaining wall with combined maximum height of 9 ft 3/30/2022 

83 San Mateo – 15 sq ft addition above 14 ft in average height and 20 feet in maximum height on 7560 sq ft lot with an existing 3,457 sq ft dwelling 4/13/2022 

89 San Mateo – New rear decks above 14 ft in average height, window alterations within non-conforming setbacks 4/6/2022, 

825 Santa Barbara – Expand existing 502 sq ft garage with a non-conforming setback by 31 feet, increase average height from 6 ft 11 in to 10 ft 5 in and replace door 4/6/2022 

2145 Ward – Major Residential addition over 14 ft reconfiguration of existing 2 units, continuation of non-conforming side setback and an increase of bedrooms to 5 on lot 4/6/2022 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/planning_and_development/land_use_division/current_zoning_applications_in_appeal_period.aspx 

WORKSESSIONS: 

April 19 – Fire Department Standards of Coverage Study, BART Station Planning 

June 21 – Ballot Measure Development/Discussion (tentative) 

July 19 - open 

Unscheduled Workshops/Presentations 

Cannabis Health Considerations 

Alameda County LAFCO Presentation 

Civic Arts Grantmaking Process & Capital Grant Program 

Mid-Year Budget Report FY 2022 

Berkeley Strategic Transportation Plan Update 

Kelly Hammargren’s comments on what happened the preceding week can be found in the Berkeley Daily Planet www.berkeleydailyplanet.com under Activist’s Diary. This meeting list is also posted at https://www.sustainableberkeleycoalition.com/whats-ahead.html on the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition website. 

If you would like to receive the Activist’s Calendar as soon as it is completed send an email to kellyhammargren@gmail.com. If you wish to stop receiving the weekly summary of city meetings please forward the weekly summary you received to kellyhammargren@gmail.com.

On Sunday afternoon, March 20, Simon Rattle led the London Symphony Orchestra in a concert at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. This concert astonished me in several ways. One, it established once and for all in my mind what a great conductor is Simon Rattle. Two, it caused me to reassess works I’d heard before and had not fully appreciated. This latter issue was most illuminating in that it challenged a few strongly held opinions of mine. More on this matter later.  

Opening this concert was Hector Berlioz’s Ouverture Le Corsaire. This romantic overture opens with the cellos offering a deep, gentle introduction. However, the opening quiet mood is soon dispelled as woodwinds and strings heat up the action. Conductor Simon Rattle demonstratively elicited from his orchestra all the changes of mood, now leaning toward his concertmaster to emphasise a surge in the violin section, yet again leaning to the cellos and violas to elicit a more burnished tone. Ultimately, the main theme is announced by a trombone solo, beautifully developed here. Full of bravura passages, this Le Corsaire Overture by Berlioz was indeed a perfect vehicle to demonstrate what Simon Rattle could do with this inspired music.  

Next on the program was a contemporary work, The Spark Catchers, from Hannah Kendall (b. 1984). Based on a poem by Limn Sissay about women workers in a match factory in England in the 19th century, this is a tone poem of remarkable vivacity. An opening movement establishes the mood. Then French horns and the violin section impose their mood on the second movement. In the third movement, a high range of instruments predominates, accompanied by a glockenspiel. A final march of women match workers concludes this energetic work.  

Next on the program was the Seventh Symphony in C Major by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Now approaching 60 years of age, Sibelius found it increasingly difficult to compose. Acute depression and alcoholism added to his difficulties. Yet, somehow, his seventh and last symphony became his crowning glory. It adheres to no conventional pattern. Instead, it flows, “like a river,” insisted Sibelius, going where it needs to go by its own inner necessity. It consists, in fact, of one long, flowing movement that proceeds with varying tempos. Underlying the music is always the major theme introduced by a trombone., a theme that returns in various tempos and moods throughout this work. Conducting without a score, Simon Rattle brought out all the subtle nuances of this Sibelius symphony.  

After intermission, The London Symphony Orchestra returned to perform Bela Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite. This is a work that on previous hearings I have utterly detested. To start with, it is based on a very misogynist libretto that treats women as mere sex objects.  

Moreover, much of the music is brutish. Undoubtedly, this was intentional by Bartók. He wanted to portray the utter depredation of the post World War I situation in Europe. The opening movement of this suite, with its insistent honking of car horns evoking the urban chaos, is indeed utterly brutish. Bartók declared that this opening depicted the depraved world of several hoodluns who used a young woman to entice men into their den where they would be robbed, and, if need be, murdered. In the ensuing moments of this suite, several men are thus ensnared, though because they are penniless they are simply tossed out after falling under the spell of the erotic dances of the young woman. What was new to me in this hearing of The Miraculous Mandarin Suite was the fact that there is quite a it of refined music depicting real feelings, albeit mostly feelings of lust, as each man ensnared by the hoodlums is beguiled by the young woman’ erotic dance. The men may be naïve in their object choice. But their feelings are given their due in refined music. When the third and final man is ensnared, it is a Chinaman, the ‘miraculous mandarin’ of the work’s title. With his exotic appearance, he upsets even the young woman enlisted to ensnare men. When she dances for him, he becomes so passionately insistent that this work concludes with a frenetic chase in which the Mandarin wildly pursues the young woman.  

For the final work on the printed program for this concert, Simon Rattle conducted Maurice Ravel’s La valse. This work, coming late in Ravel’s career, marked a break from his previous impressionism. In its place, this is a waltz with attitude, indeed, with a kind of expressionistic ferocity. La Valse opens with a gentle rumble from cello and violas. Scored for two harps, this piece offers several gentle versions of a waltz theme, sometimes introduced by the cellos. However, any hint of gentleness is dispelled as the clash of cymbals introduces a loud, ferocious version of the waltz theme that ultimately leads to a frenetic conclusion.  

In the way of encores, Simon Rattle remarked that after so much turbulence, maybe the audience wanted some calm. That would be a problem, he quipped, because they’d only prepared lively, loud works. So, he offered as encore the “shortest and fastest” of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances. 

Coming on the heels of Jordi Savall’s concert on March 4 of French Baroque music from the film Tous les Matins du Monde, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra took the stage Saturday, March 12, at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church in a concert featuring more works from the court of Louis XIV at Versailles plus music by Henry Purcell and Tomaso Albinoni. Early music specialist Skip Sempé served as guest conductor for this concert, which was billed as “From Versailles to the English Court.” What struck me about Skip Sempé was his minimalist style of conducting. Often, especially when concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock engaged in solos or in extended passages wth violist Jessica Troy and cellist Phoebe Carral, Skip Sempé stood immobile at the podium. Then, when tutti passages resumed for the full ensemble, Sempé swung into motion, leading the attack with broad gestures.  

The concert opened with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Ouverture from the opera Atys. Lully, who was born in Italy and came to Paris in 1653 as a violinist and ballet dancer, pleased Louis XIV who soon gave him full control of music events at the king’s court at Versailles. Under Lully’s direction, music and dance flourished at Versailles, and the ensemble known as Les 24 Violons du Roi, actually string instruments of five different registers, set the tone for French music which then dominated Europe. The so-called ‘French Overture’ established a pattern consisting of a stately opening movement featuring ‘dotted rhythms’, in which the first note steals half of the second note’s duration. This rhythmic figure was used by composers to denote grandeur, especially the grandeur of King Louis XIV. A lively second section then ensued with various sections of the orchestra introducing motifs at staggered intervals, forming a sort of fugue.  

Following Lully’s Ouverture to Atys, Philharmonia Baroque performed a Suite from Lully’s fēte, Les plaisirs de l’Ile enchantée. then an Air des Démons from Lully’s opera Alceste, and a Passacaille from Lully’s Armide. Next, without a break, came music by English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Featured here were selections from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Rounding out the first half of this concert was Tomaso Albinoni’s Concerto for Oboe in D minor, Opus 9 #2, featuring Philharmonia’s long-time principal oboist Marc Schachman, who is retiring after a 30-year tenure with this orchestra. Perhaps not wanting to distract attention from Marc Schachman, Skip Sempé did not conduct this work but left it in the capable hands of concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock and soloist Marc Schachman. Especially noteworthy was Albinoni’s lovely Adagio, exquisitely performed by Schachman, who received tumultuous applause from an audience appreciative of his long and illustrious career with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.  

After intermission, Sempé conducted a Suite from Marin Marais’s opera Alcione, which premiered in 1806 at Paris’s Académie Royale de Musique, where Marais was permanent conductor. Next came Henry Purcell’s Ode for Queen Mary’s Birthday, written to celebrate her birthday on April 30, 1689. This piece by Purcell pays homage to the grandeur of the ‘French Overture’. Also included here was a rondo by Purcell written in the last year of the composer’s life as incidental music for the play Abdelezar. Next came a Chaconne by Marin Marais from his opera Alcione, and, finally, Henry Purcell’s Ouverture in G minor.  

François Couperin (1668-1733) was a composer at the court of Louis XIV who sought, in Les Goûts-Réunis, to unite the French and Italian styles of music. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra here performed Selections from Couperin’s Concert dans le goût théatral. To close out this concert Skip Sempé conducted a brilliant Passacaglia from Sonata No. 5 in G Major by French composer Georg Muffat (1652-1704) from his Armonico Tributo. Muffat, who studied under Lully, inherited from his master a fondness for passacaglia form, and this example shares much, including its key, with Lully’s passacaglia heard earlier from his opera Armide. Muffat’s piece featured extended passages for a trio of violin, viola, and cello, performed exquisitely here by Elizabeth Blumenstock, Jessica Troy, and Phoebe Carral. In these trio passages, Skip Sempé stood immobile, deferring to his soloists. By the way, during intermission I asked Lisa Grodin, a long-time violinist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, what it was like to perform under a minimalist conductor such as Skip Sempé. She replied that she had a long and fruitful history with Sempé going back to conservatory days and was appreciative of his minimalist conducting style. In any case, the results in this concert were splendid.

In the past six years, Céline Ricci has revived for Bay Area audiences Venetian Baroque operas that were long lost or neglected before she resuscitated them. Céline Ricci’s recent Ars Minerva production of Carlo Pallavicino’s 1679 opera Messalina was, as I said in opening my review, perhaps the most wild and crazy opera I’d ever seen. And that’s saying something! Yet Ars Minerva’s founder and artistic director, Céline Ricci, who staged this production of Messalina, brought off this wild and crazy opera splendidly. Somehow, she managed to hold together all the myriad convolutions of the plot of Messalina. Moreover, she also honoured the many ways this remarkable opera makes us think about important issues that are still with us today. So in the days and weeks following my review of Messalina, which appeared in the November 21, 2021 edition of Berkeley Daily Planet, I continued to think about Pallavicino’s Messalina. Here are some of my further reflections on this remarkable opera.  

In the program notes for Pallavicino’s Messalina, Céline Ricci wrote about the Roman Empress Messalina that, “Her sexuallyliberated nature was probably as free as that of the men in power around her —accepted for them but a scandal for her.” In Ricci’s staging of the opera Messalina, we first see Aura Veruni as Messalina being stripped of her elaborate dress by her would-be lover, Caio, and engaging in a heavy petting session wearing only a skintight, fleshcoloured, faux-nude leotard with a pink, tufted pubis. Surely, this audacious scene would not likely have been allowed by the strict Venetian censors of 1679. So we assume that Ricci’s aim is not to reproduce anything like what may have been the original staging but rather to highlight elements that resonate with contemporary audiences. In an email to me, Céline Ricci wrote, “In my work I try to stay close to who the characters are and present them in a contemporary or timeless setting. I am very interested in human adventure through the centuries.”  

It seems to me that the libretto for Messalina by Francesco Maria Piccioli is worthy of comparison with those of Lorenzo da Ponte for Mozart’s operas. For example, the libretto for Mozart’s Così fan tutte, the only one not based on a prior libretto or play, is full of absurd situations and pokes sardonic fun at conventional notions of love. Likewise, the libretto by Francesco Maria Piccioli for Pallavicino’s Messalina is also full of absurd situations handled with great wit and playfulness. What I especially like about Piccioli’s librettto for Messalina is the way he builds up the ambiguities about the main character as the opera progresses. In this respect, it seems to me we have to put aside most of what we think we know of the historical Messalina. The fictional character of Messalina in this opera is very hard to figure. What does she really feel and want in her relations with her husband, the Emperor Claudius (Claudio in Italian?  

The least we can say about Messalina’s portrayal in this opera is that she wants to cajole the suspicious but gullible Claudio into believing she truly loves him and resents his infidelities and his jealousy. But does she take this position simply out of self-interest in maintaining her privileges as Empress? When she states at the end of this opera that, “Faithless men, take a lesson from women on how to love,” is she simply holding up the examples of Erginda and Floralba? Or is she also perhaps brazenly touting her own example which, at least in this opera, is that of flirting outrageously, yet somehow failing, albeit inadvertently, to go all the way in sex with others? Is this statement by Messalina just another clever and manipulative way of twisting issues back onto her philandering husband? I love the way this libretto intensifies the ambiguities right up to the very end.  

This opera is a veritable whirlwind. Unlike, say, Handel’s operas, where the scenes are very long and often tedious, with so many repeats in the da capo format, in Pallavicino’s Messalina each scene is brief and makes its point succinctly, using a creative mix of recitative and arias. The speed of this opera gives us little time to dwell on the many implausibilities in the plot. In my review of Messalina, I pointed out that it explores important issues such as rampant sexuality, marital infidelity, cross-dressing, and the nature of love itself. One could add to that list the issues of jealousy, sexual violence against women, and anger management. Regarding sexual violence, at one point Claudio declares his intention to use force to have his way with Floralba if she won’t give herself willingly. There immediately ensues a scene that seems to be an attempted rape, which occurs offstage though we hear Floralba resisting Claudio and threatening to throw herself off the palace balcony. The attempted rape is foiled, however, by the intervention of Messalina. In any case, this acknowledgment in the libretto of sexual violence against women is, alas, an issue that is very much still with us, as the Me Too movement vividly testifies.  

In addition to this disturbing acknowledgment of sexual violence against women, I did find one other scene perplexing, the scene in the women’s bath. Tullio dresses as a woman, as he says, to gain entry to the women’s bath in order to confront Messalina and try to seduce her. But we don’t see him pursuing Messalina in this scene. Moreover, both Tullio and Alindo/Erginda, dressed as women, seem implausibly to have gotten jobs as bath attendants, because we see them giving Em-Claudio a manicure. This scene fell flat for me and seemed pointless. In an email to me, Céline Ricci clarified this scene as follows. “Tullio can’t actively pursue Messalina because Emperor Claudio has also unexpectedly entered the women’s bath. At one point, Messalina angrily confronts her husband and accuses him of pursuing Floralba, which chastens Claudio and further infuriates Tullio, who already thinks his wife is having an affair with Alindo. So everybody’s plans go wrong in this scene. As for the manicure, that was my doing. The libretto just says Tullio and Alindo were present in this scene. I simply gave them something to do.”  

Thus far I’ve concentrated on how Céline Ricci staged this convoluted plot to bring out the serious issues dealt with in this opera. However, I would be remiss if i failed to say a word here in appreciation of the uniform quality of the singers. Aura Veruni was wonderful as Messalina. Her soprano has a crystal-clear quality with bell-like, clarion high notes; and her acting was superb. Deborah Rosengaus’s mezzo-soprano voice adroitly handled all the coloratura in her role as Claudio. Kindra Scharich as Alindo/Erginda used her mezzzo-soprano voice to differentiate between the male character Alindo and the female Erginda. Shawnette Sulker as Floralba had some of this opera’s most beautifully lyrical melodies and her soprano voice was lovely to hear. The male singers were also uniformly excellent. Patrick Hagen’s lyr-ic tenor as Caio was rich in tonal quality. Dramatic tenor Kevin Gino as Tullio gave an impassioned performance. Baritone Zachary Gordin as Tergisto sang elegantly in the few opportunities given him in the opera. And last but by no means least was tenor Marcus Paige as Lismeno, who both sang and acted engagingly in the role of Messalina’s witty attendant. Kudos go to Céline Ricci for putting together such a wonderful cast of singers.  

There is a scene early in Messalina where Tergisto fails to recognise Erginda when he sees her dressed as the male Alindo, Then when questioned by “Alindo” about the woman he left behind in Syria, Tergisto says, “She was good-looking but not my type.” There’s irony, of course, in this verbal exchange, but there’s also pag thos when considered from Erginda’s point of view. She asks this question disguised as “Alindo,” but she hears as Erginda the callous reply by the man she loves. Then there’s also a scene where Alindo/Erginda plots with Floralba to trick Tullio into believing the woman in veils is Messalina when in fact it’s Tullio’s own wife Floralba, who unveiling herself, chides her husband for his attempt to seduce Messalina. All these trans-g ender moments and moments of mistaken identity just add to the giddy whirlwind that makes up the plot of this wild and crazy opera.  

Another issue explored in Messalina is anger management. Tullio is depicted as a realhot-head. He jumps to con- clusions almost as quickly and arbitrarily as Otello, who gets enraged over a handkerchief. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle once called Otello “a tragedy over a kleenex.” Tulliosees his wife, Floralba, hugging “Alindo,” who is actually Erginda, Floralba’s sister, and he immediately accuses her of infidelity. Then when all his various attempts to get revenge, not just against his wife but also against “all of them,” are thwarted, Tullio flies into such impotent rage that he’s ready to kill his wife. A bit later, he realises that his wife has been faithful to him all along. So in the end he’s reunited with his wife. But Tullio’s extreme emotional trajectory clearly raises the issue of the need for anger management.  

Another extreme emotional trajectory is seen in the character of Caio. He starts out by participating in a heavy petting session with Messalina, where they both sing how ardent is their desire for each other. Later, he bemoans all the impediments that block him from having sex with Messalina. By the end of the opera, Caio renounces love as the source of so many torments, and he sings, “If we did away with love the world would be a happier place.” This seems to be an over-reaction on Caio’s part to his lack of success in bedding Messalina.  

Finally, near the end of Messalina, the Alindo/Erginda character reveals she’s actually a woman by baring her breasts. At first, from my seat in the audience, I thought the breasts looked like fake breasts. But then I couldn’t be sure, given that this role is actually sung by a female mezzo-soprano, here Kindra Scharich. Of course, theatre deals with the art of illusion. Céline Ricci confirms that the breasts were indeed fake. But Alindo’s revelation that he’s actually a woman precipitates the reuniting of Erginda and Tergisto. Further, it gives Messalina yet another opportunity to chide her husband over his jealousy, saying, in effect, ‘See how foolish is your jealousy. You were jealous of a man who is actually a woman’. Even Caio now concludes that the passions should be guided by reason. Thus, Erginda’s baring of the breasts succeeds in paving the way for this wild and crazy opera’s final scene in celebration of an improbable reconciliation among all parties after so much strife and discord.