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I still haven’t gotten the time to really do a write-up on this meeting. So this is a off-the-cuff write-up that's less in-depth than I would like to do. The sole agenda for this City Council meeting was to consider changes to the current Landmark Protection Ordinance. These changes were proposed by Mayor Tom Bates. Sentiment in the community is that the only reason to change the LPO is to make it even easier for developers to have their way in this town. There were approx. 37 speakers from the public who each had 3 min. to speak. 5 of those represented the side for changing the LPO. Of those 5, 1 was a developer/architect, 1 was a real estate attorney for developers, 1 was a developer and 2 were from the family who owns The Tile Shop (which started in Berkeley but also has 2 other locations in San Jose and LA). Speaking against were a couple individual residents such as myself, representatives of many of the neighborhood associations in Berkeley (and not just from the rich parts of town), current and former chairpersons of the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission, the editor-in-chief of the Berkeley Daily Planet, a Cal architecture student, a lawyer who works with preservation organizations, an author who has written many books on Craftsman bungalows, someone reading a statement from former mayor Shirley Dean (who had a previous engagement) and a couple Oakland residents who live just over the Berkeley border and consider Berkeley their spiritual (and economic) hometown.
I don’t trust myself to be able to accurately represent the proposal Bates is making so I direct you to http://www.berkeleyheritage.com to download the PDF yourself. I found reading it a bit of a tough slog and I’m a reasonably educated woman. It’s sad that communications from a government to its people are that impenetrable. Anyway, reading through it and other materials have convinced me that the only “compelling” reason to push this through is because developers want it. The Tile Shop folks pointed out a genuine issue with landmark (and structure of merit) designations: they can keep people from developing the properties they’ve bought the way they’d like to. According to The Tile Shop folks, they outbid a neighbor on a plot of land adjacent to their current location. They wanted to expand their warehouse, the neighbor wanted to expand his zen garden. According to The Tile Shop folks, this fellow then launched a bid to get a “shack” on the site designated as a structure of merit. Initial rulings agreed that it was a structure of merit. The Tile Shop folks felt it was just a way for this bitter neighbor to spite them. Councilmember Dona Spring pointed out later in the meeting that The Tile Shop folks had not appealed the decision to the city council as was certainly part of the process. She says that in her 13 years on the council, the council has sided against developers in such rulings only a handful of times. So she was of the opinion that The Tile Shop folks were throwing the baby out with the bathwater...that they hadn’t even availed themselves of the full city process and they were so angry about the rare case that a neighbor would abuse the landmark process that they were lobbying to weaken the ordinance in a way that would change the face of Berkeley beyond repair.
I was struck by how bored most of the councilmembers appeared. These are our representatives. I understand it’s a hard thing to sit and listen to constituents during a long meeting, esp. when not all constituents are totally well-balanced (a kind of kooky guy had spoken during the initial open speaking period where people could address things not on the night’s agenda), but it’s your job. It’s your job to listen to the citizens. And my district representative, Max Anderson, does a piss-poor job of that. I tried contacting his office on a very basic matter via both email and phone and received no reply or even acknowledgement of receipt from either him or his office. Another speaker that night said she’d had the same experience. So it’s even more important that council members perk up during one of the few forums where they actually hear from average Berkeley residents. Kriss Worthington wasn’t there until halfway through the night. Others were there but weren’t paying attention. Linda Maio was spending her time reviewing some paperwork on her desk. There were a couple times when funny things were said by a speaker that were funny regardless of what side you were on and none of the councilmembers even cracked a smile. The only councilmember who remained consistently engaged was Dona Spring. Mayor Bates was mostly glazed over except for when the lawyer who happens to take a lot of preservation cases spoke. Then he woke up and asked her a couple questions after her 3 min. were up. He was interested in finding out what her experience was with other cities and how tiered their landmark systems might be.
KPFB was there broadcasting the meeting live as usual. The reporter doing this has had a lot of opportunity to observe the council. He said people come to these meetings with their minds made up, so that’s why they’re so bored-looking on the dais. After the public comment period was over, the mayor said a lot of the comments had made him re-examine his stances on some issues but it didn’t sound like that to me, actually. In fact, he kept referring to the comment speakers as if the opinion was split 50-50 when it clearly wasn’t. It was about 32-5 against changing the LPO. Gordon Wozniak said the public has had plenty of notice about these proposed changes and asserted that the council has been working on this for 6 years. I’ve lived in Berkeley for 6 years and keep more informed than your average Berkeley citizen and I heard nothing of these proposed changes ‘til this past Monday, just as an anecdotal example.
My impression of the meeting:
* Many representatives seem fairly bored with their constituents and some are downright unresponsive.
* Even in Berkeley, it’s the rich who hold the ear of the elected representatives. Rich neighborhoods get more attention and better services than poor neighborhoods, but even in a case like this where the neighborhoods across Berkeley were pretty united, the interests of wealthy developers were getting a hearing out of proportion to their numbers.
* People who have the privilege of being represented by Dona Spring are lucky and should be proud of the job she does. She’s engaged, interested and inquisitive.
This item will be discussed in the next city council meeting as well so read the city’s materials on the issue as well as any other 3rd party coverage you want and weigh in.
I don’t trust myself to be able to accurately represent the proposal Bates is making so I direct you to http://www.berkeleyheritage.com to download the PDF yourself. I found reading it a bit of a tough slog and I’m a reasonably educated woman. It’s sad that communications from a government to its people are that impenetrable. Anyway, reading through it and other materials have convinced me that the only “compelling” reason to push this through is because developers want it. The Tile Shop folks pointed out a genuine issue with landmark (and structure of merit) designations: they can keep people from developing the properties they’ve bought the way they’d like to. According to The Tile Shop folks, they outbid a neighbor on a plot of land adjacent to their current location. They wanted to expand their warehouse, the neighbor wanted to expand his zen garden. According to The Tile Shop folks, this fellow then launched a bid to get a “shack” on the site designated as a structure of merit. Initial rulings agreed that it was a structure of merit. The Tile Shop folks felt it was just a way for this bitter neighbor to spite them. Councilmember Dona Spring pointed out later in the meeting that The Tile Shop folks had not appealed the decision to the city council as was certainly part of the process. She says that in her 13 years on the council, the council has sided against developers in such rulings only a handful of times. So she was of the opinion that The Tile Shop folks were throwing the baby out with the bathwater...that they hadn’t even availed themselves of the full city process and they were so angry about the rare case that a neighbor would abuse the landmark process that they were lobbying to weaken the ordinance in a way that would change the face of Berkeley beyond repair.
I was struck by how bored most of the councilmembers appeared. These are our representatives. I understand it’s a hard thing to sit and listen to constituents during a long meeting, esp. when not all constituents are totally well-balanced (a kind of kooky guy had spoken during the initial open speaking period where people could address things not on the night’s agenda), but it’s your job. It’s your job to listen to the citizens. And my district representative, Max Anderson, does a piss-poor job of that. I tried contacting his office on a very basic matter via both email and phone and received no reply or even acknowledgement of receipt from either him or his office. Another speaker that night said she’d had the same experience. So it’s even more important that council members perk up during one of the few forums where they actually hear from average Berkeley residents. Kriss Worthington wasn’t there until halfway through the night. Others were there but weren’t paying attention. Linda Maio was spending her time reviewing some paperwork on her desk. There were a couple times when funny things were said by a speaker that were funny regardless of what side you were on and none of the councilmembers even cracked a smile. The only councilmember who remained consistently engaged was Dona Spring. Mayor Bates was mostly glazed over except for when the lawyer who happens to take a lot of preservation cases spoke. Then he woke up and asked her a couple questions after her 3 min. were up. He was interested in finding out what her experience was with other cities and how tiered their landmark systems might be.
KPFB was there broadcasting the meeting live as usual. The reporter doing this has had a lot of opportunity to observe the council. He said people come to these meetings with their minds made up, so that’s why they’re so bored-looking on the dais. After the public comment period was over, the mayor said a lot of the comments had made him re-examine his stances on some issues but it didn’t sound like that to me, actually. In fact, he kept referring to the comment speakers as if the opinion was split 50-50 when it clearly wasn’t. It was about 32-5 against changing the LPO. Gordon Wozniak said the public has had plenty of notice about these proposed changes and asserted that the council has been working on this for 6 years. I’ve lived in Berkeley for 6 years and keep more informed than your average Berkeley citizen and I heard nothing of these proposed changes ‘til this past Monday, just as an anecdotal example.
My impression of the meeting:
* Many representatives seem fairly bored with their constituents and some are downright unresponsive.
* Even in Berkeley, it’s the rich who hold the ear of the elected representatives. Rich neighborhoods get more attention and better services than poor neighborhoods, but even in a case like this where the neighborhoods across Berkeley were pretty united, the interests of wealthy developers were getting a hearing out of proportion to their numbers.
* People who have the privilege of being represented by Dona Spring are lucky and should be proud of the job she does. She’s engaged, interested and inquisitive.
This item will be discussed in the next city council meeting as well so read the city’s materials on the issue as well as any other 3rd party coverage you want and weigh in.
