Got its signatures.
"Berkeley officials seek to block petition drive
Berkeley may take great pride as a champion of free speech and civil rights, but an unusual campaign has been under way - led by most of the city's top elected officials - to stop residents from signing a citizen's petition.
Opposing a petition, in this case asking for a public vote on a controversial downtown development plan, might not be unusual in many cities. But in Berkeley, which promotes extensive citizen involvement in city affairs, the campaign has provoked some unusual arguments.
"Sometimes democracy can go too far," Councilwoman Susan Wengraf, one of the six council members opposing the petition, said of the proposed referendum.
State Sen. Loni Hancock, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and Mayor Tom Bates have appeared in glossy flyers urging the public: "Please don't sign the petition." There have been e-mails and, in some cases, people shadowing signature gatherers to discourage potential signers.
Wengraf and Bates said they could not recall another time in Berkeley history when so many elected officials campaigned against a citizen's petition.
At issue is the city's downtown plan, which the council approved on a 7-2 vote July 14. The plan raises height limits throughout downtown, creates two towers of up to 225 feet - 45 feet higher than anything else in the city - and aims to embody the city's green values.
The downtown plan was drawn up after a four-year process that included more than 150 public meetings. But it nonetheless provoked a petition drive seeking 5,558 valid signatures by today to force a vote that could overturn the plan.
Critics' complaints seem to boil down to two issues: affordable housing and building heights.
The council's plan calls for 20 percent of units to be affordable in new buildings. Critics wanted 25 percent.
The plan also calls for buildings taller than 85 feet to "provide significant community benefits beyond what would otherwise be required." The possibilities include more fees and more affordable housing.
But if developers prove the benefits can "discourage development," the rules can be waived.
"That's a loophole you can drive a tractor trailer through," said Patti Dacey, a planning commissioner and a leader in the referendum campaign.
Bates said the petition is the product of the two council members "who didn't get their way" while everyone else worked to get compromises. The referendum threatens to hold up the critical development of downtown for a year in the midst of a recession.
As for the unusual campaign, Bates said, "It's not stifling democracy. It's providing free speech. We have a right to express our position."
What's next
The city clerk
has 30 business days from today to certify signatures to see whether
the referendum will qualify for the ballot. The soonest it could be
voted on is June. If it passes, Mayor Tom Bates says, plan supporters
may sue."
Also covered here:
Basically, the deal is this: they spent four years getting community input.
And then ignored it to produce a developer's dream of a project instead.
We don't need high rise towers filled with million dollar condos.
We've got plenty of population density as it.
We've got apartments going begging in the last couple of gigantoid mega-projects from these same development guys.
Who, by the way, have a really lousy track record of making and breaking promises about what the final project will be.
And besides that, the petition is to have a referendum on the project put on the ballot.
Not to end the project, just to put the matter to the voters, now that the final plan has been assembled.
Now that they are finally more-or-less saying what it will be.
(Except for the doors they are leaving open, still.)
Oh, and the final laugh, if you are feeling like having one.
About our mayor and "free speech."
When he first ran for mayor, the campus paper didn't endorse him.
He discovered this when he was walking across campus on election day.
It made him mad.
So he pulled all the copies of the paper out of the kiosk and dumped them into the garbage.
Free Speech.
A difficult concept, I guess.
It isn't just that they oppose it.
And send out flyers.
They have people shadowing the petition people, accosting them and the people they are talking with.
Loudly
They call names and pick fights.
When I went to sign the petition at the Farmer's Market, some asshat -- I think a guy on the planning committee - started harassing me about it.
He ended up yelling after me that I am against poor people and must be a Republican.
Since I disagreed with him.
And signed a petition seeking citizen control of a city project.
(Oh, and he yelled at Sair too. On her birthday.)
Le Sigh.
On August 16th people gathered on the sidewalk in front of Whole Foods in Berkeley to let customers know that its founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board, John Mackey, is working to prevent public funding of health care.
In an August 11th opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (it is also
available on the Whole Foods website), Mackey wrote in a piece entitled
"The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" that the "last thing our
country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement" and that health
care for the poor should take place through "voluntary, tax-deductible
donations" rather than government funding. He goes on to ask "While all
of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people
have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food
or shelter?""
from here. - great site for Bay Area info.
Oh well, I ought to be shopping at Berkeley Bowl anyway.
Poo on him.
Well, there are the Feral Brothers:
Here he has had regular meals for about two weeks, so you can't quite make out every rib anymore.
I am allowed to come within about three feet of him in order to put down a plate of food.
And he knows his name.
I hope he is stealing more than I am seeing.
We think of him as Toby.
Our cats really don't mind them at all.
Wofie and Sisko will have nothing to do with each other, and if they meet face to face immediately start with the Cat Opera.
Sisko likes Loper.
Molly really, really - I mean really - likes Loper.
She hangs out with him in the yard.
And comes up to eat with him.
He lets her eat first, and sits and watches, doting.
Our theory is he doesn't know she's neutered, and is waiting.
The plan is to see if the Fix Our Ferals people will help trap and fix the Brothers.
(Mostly I just don't want the boys to think I had anything to do with it....)
Oh, and there is this guy too.
Nikki isn't allowed out, but he wants to come play with the big guys out back.
My own guys are all thriving, except Silmi whose years seem to be catching up with her.
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