It’s nice to be able to highlight some good news in this issue of Berkeley Speaks!
We’re very happy to report on the launch of the Specialized Care Unit, the SCU, on September 5. May this pilot project bring judgment-free, compassionate care from professionals and peers to people experiencing crisis in Berkeley.
And the engagement of an advocate for the tenants of the Harriet Tubman Terrace Apartments is another good example of how the City can take care of our own, when we have the will to do so.
It has become a cliché, but it is true that a government’s budget is a statement of its social priorities. These programs are examples of what activists have been arguing for many years: mental and behavioral healthcare, and decent housing for all, are universal human rights. We applaud the city council for funding these pathbreaking services.
But activists well know—and the City government does too—that these important programs only came about due to community demand. As Berkeley’s Health, Housing, and Community Services Department put it in their press release, the city council approved the creation of an SCU in 2020 “after many years of community advocacy, and in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, [when] a conversation emerged about reimagining public safety.”
Likewise, the community statement on the hiring of the tenant advocate for the Harriet Tubman apartments stresses this point: “After nearly two years of being misled, stonewalled, and left to live in hazardous conditions, residents…celebrate the success of their strong organizing efforts which resulted in the appointment of a paid housing advocate by the City of Berkeley.”
In this issue, we also celebrate community initiatives including the Driver Plaza-based Self-Help Hunger Program on the Berkeley-Oakland border, feeding healthy meals to all who come, two days a week, with very few outside support. Another community-based project depicts the struggle of the world’s refugees for a better life, in Mokhtar Paki’s beautiful mural in central Berkeley.
Yet the struggle continues….
Berkeley has big problems, but they are also opportunities for the community to continue pushing for real change. For example:
Early this fall, expect a proposal for TOPA (Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act) to come before the city council, along with a counter-move by some to greatly limit the number of landlords it will cover. Your voices will make a big difference.
Through the fall and probably into the winter, opponents of reimagining public safety will be gathering signatures to recall our new progressive district attorney, Pamela Price. This is part of a national sweep to fire all reformer DA’s, headed up by Ron DeSantis, who hopes to use the “war on crime” to pave his way to the White House. The community needs to pay attention to the recall campaign; we should remember what policies we endorsed by voting her into office just last November.
The disability rights lawsuit is in the judicial arena. But the City government could resolve the litigation quickly by doing the right thing and offering reasonable accommodations to members of the Disability Commission—and other commissions. The commissioners should not be forced to choose between attending in-person meetings in this continuing Covid epidemic, and opening their homes, even their bedrooms in some cases, to complete strangers, currently the City’s requirement for their hybrid participation. This issue affects everyone who wants to participate in the city’s government process.
Then there is the continuing struggle over racial disparities and profiling in policing. The outcome of the eight-month-long, third-party investigation of the Bike Team texting scandal is shocking. (See our article, “Berkeley City Administration Absolves Itself of Racial Bias in Policing.”) It’s not so much the results of the investigation; for that matter, the public is told we will never see the results! But the public information officer let slip, either by accident or intentionally, that “the police have no practice of racial bias,” nor do they have arrest quotas, both of which are illegal in California.
Let’s be clear: All you have to do to see that this claim of innocence is phony is to read the incriminating texts among Bike Team members. You can also find clear evidence of the department’s unwillingness to change in the continuing high racial disparities in police stops; in its failure since 2020 to implement a real Early Intervention System to identify troubled officers; its continuing pretext stops; the exposure of a fresh scandal involving racist and violent actions by an off-duty BPD sergeant; and its failure to cooperate with the independent Police Accountability Board, which is mandated by the 2020 city charter amendment, Measure ii.
Committed to journalism–and to social justice.
Berkeley Speaks is a newspaper; but like any other media outlet, we have our point of view. We are committed to Social Justice in all its forms.
We encourage our readers to get involved with the movement for a Berkeley that is fair, welcoming, diverse, and equitable. To us, this means that the city guarantee, to all, human rights to decent and affordable housing, quality healthcare, a great education, fair labor practices, a healthy environment, and fair and impartial treatment by all government officials including police.
We want to work with you. Please contact us to share news of social justice issues in Berkeley. We urgently need writers, graphic artists, and web developers. We need your letters to the editors.
Thanks everyone and Happy Fall!