It’s not just the special interest money—over $300,000 so far-- it’s the whoppers. The Yes on L campaign has filled our newspapers and mailboxes with a series of false claims. The latest was in a letter from the mayor, printed in the November 3, 2022, East Bay Times, claiming “Measure L expenditures would be guided by existing city plans developed with years of community input.” Uh, no. The most recent adopted plan, the 2014 Resilience Strategy, promised to prepare plans. It promised the city would develop “… a next-phase, comprehensive Stormwater Master Plan.” That plan was to be collaborative and identify and prioritize projects that would help the streets, flooding, and deliver cleaner runoff. The Strategy also promised to develop “a robust wildfire evacuation control plan for the Berkeley Hills. “ With Measures GG and FF, and the clean water fee that voters have approved, the City had the money to develop those plans. When it put a $100 million bond on the ballot in 2016, Measure T1, the council further directed the staff to “develop program plans to address …infrastructure needs beyond the $100 million … bond…[that] identify the priority of improvements…” None of those plans have been completed. The marina? Bogged down in controversy over commercializing Cesar Chavez Park. At least two years behind schedule. -more-

Above all, remember these three important truths:

(1) We essentially live in a one-party state; a one-party county; and a one-party city.

(2) All are part of the Big Democratic Party Corporate Machine — the BDPCM.

(3) If you live in a one-party government such as ours, there’s no way you have anything like real democracy — because it’s literally impossible under such conditions.

If you doubt that we do live in a one-party city, just look at all of the election flyers, brochures, and mailers you’ve been receiving. You’ll see that all of the Democratic candidates just keep endorsing each other! It’s a closed circle.

What we have in Berkeley is a system of patronage, very similar to Tammany Hall, the powerful corrupt political machine that essentially ran New York City throughout much of the 19th Century.

(Look it up — it’s fun to notice all the parallels between New York City in the 1800s and Berkeley today!) -more-

On Thursday night, Council will consider adding 540 “No Right Turn on Red” signs at every intersection in Berkeley with a traffic light (Item 27: Budget Referral: No Right on Red Signs).

The stated goal of this item is to decrease carbon emissions by de-prioritizing cars and incentivizing cycling.

While I applaud the authors of this item, Councilmember Taplin and Councilmember Wengraf, for addressing pedestrian and bike safety, this item may result in unintended consequences. -more-

A row of suitcases on an otherwise bare stage,that clouds of steam soon reveal to be a railway platform. Travellers in bulky overcoats grab their suitcases and fall into line. This will become a recurring image, in a show about many kinds of exile. When projected signs; ( "Warsaw'", "1902’) and plaintive klezmer music tell us these migrants are Jews in 20th c. Europe, it is impossible not to think of later trains, rolling to Dachau and Auschwitz. But the music turns gay and the line beomes a whirling dance--the migrants become a troupe of travelling actors, and a rush of joy and energy onstage disperses dark thoughts. If Yiddish theater was often as electric as Paula Vogel imagines it in INDECENT then I wish I'd been born a generation sooner, and not so far from New York. -more-

Halloweened Homes

Halloween is believed to have begun some 2,000 years ago with the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Trick-or-treating was added to the mix in the 18^th century. The practice of granting spiritual protection in exchange for gifts caught on with some Christians in ha tradition known as "belsnikling."

Today, many local homeowners deserve a prize simply for the effort they put into decorating their front yards for the Halloday. Here are two Halloween haunts worth checking out: One at 1017 Colusa Avenue and another at 1371 Dwight Way—at the northeast corner of Dwight and Valley (best known, on most days, as the site of Whitney's sidewalk cookie mart).

The second involves a mini-haunted house in the driveway that you can enter and explore—if you dare. -more-

Yes, it’s election time. And yes, many publications enjoy assuming they have a bully pulpit and telling their readers how to vote. The days of the resolutely independent editorial staff are over, if they ever existed. Today’s “news outlets” are even more dependent on real estate and developer money than they ever were, and their copy reflects this.

Certainly today’s San Francisco Hearst-owned print outlet is about like the old Examiner under W.R. Hearst, still leading with bleeding and boosting building everything everywhere—the only difference is that at least the Hearst family supported beautiful buildings, whereas today the local Hearst outlet tries to convince readers to love the Big Ugly Boxes which developers claim are the only buildings which “pencil out”, i.e. produce generous profit margins.

Currently the pages of dailies, not just here but everywhere, are full of speculation about why the downtown boom, initially office towers, is turning into a bust. It’s simple, folks. Just as Bruce Brugman, my first real editor, claimed, it’s the Manhattanization, Stupid. Tell me why anyone would choose to spend their days in what was once called the cool grey city of love, which is now the cold dank canyons of commerce. Berkeley, or at least the old Berkeley of vegi gardens and tree-lined backyards, is much more pleasant. As are, for example, Vallejo and Oakland and expensive Orinda and yes, even Tracy. And the pandemic has taught us that many can work there instead of in The City.

The working folks that I know who do the long commute in from Tracy and Stockton don’t just live there for the lower rent. It’s also the backyard barbecues on the weekends, which, sorry, they can’t enjoy in the stack’um and pack’um apartment houses which have been lining developers’ pockets in the Bay Area.

But this is all a rant you’ve heard from me before. You can hear similar diatribes on 48hills.org with a San Francisco focus. Since most of legislation which enables the bad stuff emanates from Sacramento, we can’t do much about it. It’s authored by Scott Wiener, yes, but also by Nancy Skinner and especially Buffy Wicks. Those two are our fault.

Lately I’ve been getting emails asking if the Planet is making any election endorsements. Or, flatteringly, if I’m the author of any of the excellent essays which have appeared in our ELECTION category. No,Virginia, I am not Isabel Gaston or Justin Lee or Margot Smith or Abe Cinque or Jim McGrath or any of the other esteemed parties who have contributed their opinions here. Some of these I know and like, and others I don’t know, but everyone is welcome to express themselves.

If you'd like to read all of these fine essays, click on the Search the Planet tab above, which will produce a Google-generated form. Type in the word ELECTION ( yes, all caps) and you'll see a list of election-related pieces. Most of them make good points; they don't all agree.

In District 8, where I live, I will be happy to vote against the candidate endorsed by the Yimby incumbent, so I'll be voting for Mari Mendonca, a lifetime local activist. If I lived in District 1 I’d vote against the thoroughly Yimbyfied incumbent there, ranking the other two fine candidates 1 and 2. That’s as far as I’m ready to go today.

I still haven’t made up my mind about most of what’s on the ballot. If and when I do, I might let you know. -more-