News & Updates

November 29, 2023

City Council meeting – Tuesday November 28  6 p.m.
Council met to take action on the proposed 5-year paving plan. In April 2023, when City Council indefinitely delayed action on the Hopkins Corridor Project, it inadvertently put the scheduled repaving of Hopkins in limbo, where it still remains. We attempted to get it reinstated to the paving plan, but it was clear from minutes into the debate that we didn’t have a chance because most of the members only cared about making certain Hopkins didn’t get repaved without a cycle track. 

The vote was either 6-3 or 5-4, with CMs Hahn, Wengraf, and Bartlett, and maybe/maybe not the mayor, voting to get Hopkins paved. Berkeleyside reported that he supported the measure, but a bunch of us think we heard him vote No. 

April 3, 2023

4/18 Council Meeting Cancelled
The 4/18 council meeting has been cancelled, with no new date given. The cancellation was requested by the city manager for the following reasons:

1. The Transportation Division is too short staffed to do the work necessary
2. Need to restore confidence and integrity in the work product
3. The project does not currently meet the Fire Department related statutory or best practices requirements

Read the letter to City Council, as well as CM Hahn’s comments from her newsletter. Money allocated for this project will be reallocated throughout the city. We don’t yet know if that means the street will be repaved now or not.

March 14, 2023

Report on City Council Meeting
Council addressed the issue of limiting public comments at meetings and unanimously decided that it would not move the period for all comments to the beginning of the agenda, before items had even been introduced and before council had explained them. Instead, a compromise was reached to allow anyone who wanted to speak early to do so, but all those who wanted to speak when an action item was actually being considered could do so at that time. You can read the Berkeleyside article for more information.

February 28, 2023

Report on City Council Meeting
The City Council moved discussion of the proposed limits to public comments at its meetings to March 14. In an ultimate twist of irony, it had put a controversial discussion about making people wait and wait to comment on an item at the very end of a jam packed agenda, causing people to have to wait and wait to comment. We will need to make certain they don’t use circular logic to support the proposed limits when the measure comes back to the council on March 14, where it will be moved to the first spot on the list of Action Items. The entire debacle would have been avoided if they had not tried to squeeze a controversial, but non-time sensitive measure onto the agenda in the first place.

January 25, 2023

Report on Fire Commission Meeting
Berkeley’s Disaster and Fire Safety Commission met to consider a proposal from Commissioner (and former Berkeley Mayor) Shirley Dean that the Commission request the City to slow down its planning on Hopkins Street, and other Transportation and Infrastructure projects, that potentially impact both evacuation and emergency vehicle response. There was much discussion that the process of considering these vital considerations is broken in Berkeley and that there is a need for better communication between city staff and departments. The Commission voted to approve Dean’s proposal with five in favor and two abstentions.

January 19, 2023

Report on Transportation & Infrastructure Commission Meeting 
Berkeley’s January 19 Transportation & Infrastructure Commission Meeting was chaired by Karen Parolek, a co-founder and member of the Coordinating Committee of WalkBikeBerkeley. Additionally, commissioners Barnali Ghosh and Liza Lutzker are also listed as coordinating committee members of Walk Bike Berkeley. So when the Commission took up the Hopkins Corridor plan at their meeting Thursday night, we knew the outcome was predetermined. They made a pretense of considering all three “options” (of continuing the Class IV Cycle track from the intersection to Gilman with a) Acton, b) Peralta, or c) Kains (essentially, San Pablo Blvd) before voting 7-2 to recommend to Council adoption of the full cycle track to San Pablo (with commissioners Raffanti and Nesbitt opposed).

However, like all Commission “actions,” it is only a recommendation and the City Council will ultimately decide whether to follow the Commission’s recommendation, reject it, or alter it. There are plenty of examples of Berkeley’s City Council making substantive changes to Commission recommendations. So for those of you who are new to this, and who might have been discouraged by Thursday’s outcome, DON’T BE. 

We made a GREAT showing….with spoken comments in opposition to the plan easily outnumbering comments in favor by a two to one margin.

January 18, 2023

Report on Commission on Aging Meeting
On January 18th, the Commission on Aging met by Zoom and spent a significant amount of its time discussing the Hopkins Corridor plan and reviewing a draft of a letter strongly condemning the plan’s lack of consideration for the needs of our senior community, the fastest growing population demographic in Berkeley. Thank you to those of you who joined the meeting and spoke up. The Commission voted to send the letter, with minimal changes, and register its formal opposition to the plan. A win!

If you have a few minutes, please take a moment to write a brief email to the Commission thanking them for taking a strong position in support of our community! Send email correspondence to commission secretary at email address rcastrillon@cityofberkeley.info, with “Please share with Commission on Aging commissioners” as the first line of the email.

Report on Commission on Disability Meeting
Also on January 18, the Commission on Disability met and discussed the Hopkins Corridor Plan. Overall, there were concerns expressed over the plan’s lack of consideration for the needs of our disabled community, and this discussion resulted in the drafting of a letter to the Council raising these concerns and asking for them to be addressed before the Commission could consider endorsing the plan.

Commissioners discussed the fact that, for some members of the disability community, Class IV Two-Way Cycle Tracks can be helpful in allowing them to more safely navigate the urban environment, while for others these types of facilities present new and significant hazards. We are in active conversation with various stakeholders in the disability community (including commission members) to find common ground.