City Budget, Vaccines, Housing, and More Berkeley News

Housing for All

Berkeley Way is the largest affordable housing development in the city's history and one of several affordable housing developments currently under construction throughout Berkeley.

May is Affordable Housing Month, a month-long series of events to highlight the importance of developing and preserving affordable housing in creating healthy, safe, vibrant, and diverse communities. This year’s recognition is especially important with the economic fallout of COVID-19 placing an unprecedented number of tenants at risk of eviction, or significant rental debt, and threatens the stability of non-profit and small-scale housing providers to provide stable affordable housing.

Over the past five years, the City Council has passed numerous policies and funded multiple housing projects aimed at making Berkeley more affordable and accessible. This includes 2016’s Measure U1 and 2018’s Measure O, approved by Berkeley voters, which have generated millions of dollars in rental assistance and legal services for tenants at risk of displacement and the production and preservation of affordable housing, including Berkeley Way, the largest affordable housing development in the City’s history, and Jordan Court, a senior housing project that is the first affordable housing development in North Berkeley in decades. A community based planning process is underway for housing at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, with the goal of building hundreds of below market rate housing units next to transit.

My office will be launching the “Housing For All” campaign to educate and inform the public on the bigger picture by highlighting the work being done to make Berkeley a place we can all call home. Stay tuned for more details.

Vaccination Update and Opportunities

As of Saturday, May 22, 63% of Berkeley residents aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated. Pfizer vaccines are available to anyone aged 12 and older and Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are available to anyone aged 18 and older.

Getting a vaccine is now easier than ever. Drop-in COVID vaccinations are available Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm at Berkeley Public Health's mass vaccination site in Albany and at pop-up clinics across the city. Drop-in vaccines or same day appointments may also be available at local pharmacies or through your healthcare provider. To find a location and book an appointment, visit the City’s vaccine page. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian or have written permission.

This week there are three vaccine clinics available:

5/24-5/26, 11am - 6:30pm: Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby St (enter on Ward St)
Pfizer (aged 12 and older)
Reserve a spot here
5/25, 9am-3pm: Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave
Pfizer (aged 12 and older), Johnson & Johnson (aged 18 and older)
Reserve a spot here
5/25-5/29, 9am-5pm: Golden Gate Fields Parking Lot, 1 Buchanan St, Albany
Pfizer (aged 12 and older), Moderna (aged 18 and older)
Reserve a spot here

To get the latest updates on COVID-19, watch the COVID-19 Town Hall that took place last Monday, or read the summary here.

Thank you to our community for your commitment to science and helping us flatten the curve. If you have not already been vaccinated, please sign up today to get your shot and do your part to help us fight COVID-19.

FY 2022 Budget Process Underway

This Tuesday, the City Council will be launching the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget process with the City Manager presenting her proposed budget for the next year and the City Council holding its first budget public hearing. This will kick off a month-long process to meet the City Charter deadline to craft a balanced budget for the next year. Normally the City adopts a two-year budget, but due to the uncertainty around the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic and new federal resources through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the City has decided to adopt a one-year budget for the period beginning June 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

As the City Council will be discussing and developing the budget for the next year, it is seeking public input on priorities and programs. Below is a list of upcoming meetings. Click the date to visit the agenda for that meeting (or where it will be posted closer to the date).

May 25th, 6pm: Presentation of proposed budget and first public hearing
May 27th, 10am: Budget & Finance Policy Committee
June 1st, 6pm: Second Public Hearing
June 10th, 10am: Budget & Finance Policy Committee
June 15th, 6pm: Council discussion on recommendations
June 24th, 10am: Budget & Finance Policy Committee
June 29th, 6pm: Adoption of Budget

The Mayor’s Office will be hosting a Budget Town Hall on June 8th at 5:30pm. The town hall will feature a “Budget 101” session from the City Manager’s Office to provide an overview of how the City’s budget functions, an overview of key budget issues and priorities, and a Q&A segment where we answer your budget related questions. The live stream will be posted on the Mayor’s website. You can submit your questions here.

It is often said that our city budget is a reflection of our community’s values. As such as we start this process I want to articulate my key priorities.

COVID-19 response & recovery: First and foremost, we need to continue our efforts to vaccinate our population and contain COVID cases, in addition to addressing the economic impacts of the pandemic through rental, arts and small business assistance.

Fiscal Health: Replenish our General Fund Reserve which was used to balance last year’s $40 Million dollar deficit, and put aside funding to our Section 115 Pension Trust.

Public Safety: Fund fire prevention work such as vegetation management, clearing paths, Safe Passages and an emergency warning system. Fund expanded bike patrols in high crime areas and expanded hours for mental health crisis response. Support Violence Prevention efforts and leverage new state Violence Intervention Prevention (VIP) funding. Continue the public safety reimagining process and fund the creation of a Specialized Care Unit pilot. Increase funding for traffic calming and fund Vision Zero projects throughout Berkeley to improve pedestrian/bike safety.

Homelessness Response: Continue existing emergency shelter and social services. Launch the outdoor shelter at 742 Grayson Street, provide safe parking for vehicles, fund one or more Homekey projects, expand sanitation and public health, support trash pick up around encampments, and fund rental subsidies to get people off the street.

Infrastructure: Invest in fixing our roads, and other public buildings and facilities including at our Waterfront. Our local dollars can be leveraged with future funding through the proposed American Jobs Plan.

I look forward to hearing the questions, ideas and priorities of Berkeley residents are we craft our budget.

Reimagining Public Safety Survey

Help us develop a new model of public safety that reflects the needs of our community by completing an online survey to inform a plan for restructuring the City of Berkeley's approach to violence prevention, crisis intervention, policing, and community safety. Complete the survey online in English or Spanish by June 15. All responses are anonymous.

This survey is part of a larger effort to create a public safety paradigm in Berkeley that aims to continue Police Department work on violent and criminal matters while redirecting some funding currently spent on policing to violence prevention and diversion programs, including those targeted on domestic violence, youth outreach, mental health, crisis response, substance abuse, housing and homeless services, and restorative justice.

This work is being guided by a task force of community stakeholders and supported by consultants from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. Components of the Reimagining Public Safety initiative, passed as an omnibus package by the City Council in the summer of 2020, include:

a pilot program to reassign non-criminal police service calls to a team consisting of trained crisis-response workers (Specialized Care Unit)
creating a Department of Transportation to ensure a racial justice lens in enforcing parking regulations and traffic laws and in the development of transportation policy, programs and infrastructure
audits of 9-1-1 calls and the Police Department budget

Input Wanted on the Future of Berkeley's Pier

As part of the year-long public process for the Berkeley Pier / Ferry Feasibility Project, the City is asking residents to provide more detailed public feedback on the project using an online questionnaire.

In January 2021 staff received 979 responses to the initial questionnaire which will be used to guide the process and plans. This new questionnaire goes into more detail about modes of transportation, destinations, amenities and use of the Pier / Ferry, will take approximately five minutes and is accessible through May 31, 2021. The project team will assemble the results and share them at the second Community Meeting in late June 2021.

African Americans in Berkeley Exhibit at Berkeley Historical Society

The Berkeley Historical Society is hosting the second exhibit in a series curated by Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson and Harvey Smith highlighting historical figures and establishments in Berkeley’s Black community during the years 1940-2000. Through detailed maps and photographs, this year’s exhibit focuses on businesses, politics, education, social organizations, and religious institutions, honoring and uplifting the community’s experiences, contributions, and legacies. The once thriving Black business corridor along Sacramento Street and other locations will be made visible again through a map and photographs in the gallery and a digital map in the virtual gallery online. The African Americans in Berkeley’s History and Legacy advisory board includes Black Berkeleyans who provide living history and personal connections; curatorial assistants from local colleges and Berkeley High School; and an East Bay-raised lead researcher whose graduate studies project focused on the historical Sacramento Street business district.

The exhibit is open both in-person and online now through October 16th, 2021.

Free Fiber Internet Partnership Program for BUSD Students

The Berkeley Unified School District has partnered with Sonic to provide free fiber internet to all BUSD student households for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year. Households with at least one BUSD Pre K-12 student are eligible for the free Sonic Fiber internet service and equipment through July 1, 2021. Sonic Fiber service may not be available in all areas. No contract is required. Offer is available to qualifying new Sonic Fiber Internet customers in eligible service areas that meet criteria as outlined above. Offer is only applicable to new households and not applicable to current Sonic Members or recent Sonic Members (in the past 90 days). To sign up, see if you qualify, and get additional details, click here.

Southside AC Transit Improvement Projects

AC Transit is working on two projects in the Southside neighborhood that will provide significant investments to the City’s road and transit network. The Dana Complete Street Pilot Project will construct a bus passenger boarding island, a two-way protected bikeway, and traffic signal improvements on Dana Street from Bancroft Way to Dwight Way. The project will improve bus reliability, as well as pedestrian and bicycle safety. Additionally, Telegraph Avenue is being pursued to enhance reliability and reduce travel time by improving traffic signals and upgrading or relocating bus stops along Telegraph Avenue north of 51st Street. The Project intends to enhance transit operations along the corridor and service quality for bus lines 6 and 800, bringing them in closer alignment to the improvements recommended in AC Transit’s Major Corridors Study.

Two community meetings are coming up to discuss these projects.