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2 episodes with berkeley city council
2 episodes with berkeley city council
2 episodes with berkeley city council
2 episodes with berkeley city council
Today on the show: Miguel Gavilan Molina speaks with radical educator, Nolan Cabrera. Also, risking your life for a photograph? We find out what's it like to photograph the extreme right. Also using false claims of Antisemitism to justify the deportation of a Palestinian with a green card. And a report back from Code Pink San Francisco, which took it's anti genocide campaign to the Berkeley City Council this week The post What Is It Like To Risk Your Life Photographing The Extreme Right? appeared first on KPFA.
00:08 — Rami Almeghari, reporter for Pacifica Evening News, KPFA. 00:16 — Sophie Hahn, councilmember representing Berkeley district 5, which is north Berkeley and a chunk of the hills. 00:33 — Kate Harrison served on the Berkeley City Council representing District 4, or downtown, until earlier this year, when she quit. 00:45 — Adena Ishii serves on the reparations task force for Berkeley's school district. The post Live from Gaza; Plus, Berkeley Mayoral Candidate Interviews appeared first on KPFA.
Nearly 500 Californians are in Chicago this week for the Democratic National Convention, where Democrats will rally around Vice President Kamala Harris as their party's nominee for president. One of them is Igor Tregub, a newly elected member of the Berkeley City Council and chair of the Alameda County Democratic Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What were you doing at 22? Cecilia Lunaparra, a senior at UC Berkeley, was just elected to the Berkeley City Council at that age, making her the youngest and first undergraduate to hold the office. She's not new to activism and making a difference in her community, and thinks that the young people protesting on campus today may be at the forefront of a new revolution.238
This is the State of California, Doug Sovern is off today. Berkeley is making history by being the first city in California to allow residents to sell their accessory dwelling units, otherwise known as ADU's, as condominiums within the next year. These days, owning a home is becoming more out of reach for Californians due to sky-high costs, but the bill authored by Assembly Member Phil Ting of San Francisco aims to make home ownership more attainable in one of the Bay Area's most costly markets. For a closer look, KCBS Radio's Bret Burkhart and Patti Reising were joined by Berkeley City Council member Rashi Kesarwani. She is the one who led the city to adopt the bill.
After years of struggle, Indigenous activists and allies rejoiced last week, as the Berkeley City Council announced a global settlement to purchase West Berkeley's historic Ohlone Shellmound village site and pass title of the land to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust. The 2.2-acre parcel is the last undeveloped portion of the first human settlement in the Bay Area where, more than 5,000 years ago, ancestors of today's Ohlone people created a unique way of life at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. It is believed this deal will be the largest and most expensive urban #LandBack victory in California history — and perhaps in U.S. history. On this episode of Terra Verde, Fiona McLeod speaks with Corrina Gould, Chairperson of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation, and co-founder of the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, about what it took to secure this historic victory, and what's next for the West Berkeley Shellmound village site. The post West Berkeley Shellmound Returns to Lisjan Nation in Historic #LandBack Victory appeared first on KPFA.
lovethylawyer.comBen Bartletthttps://www.ben2024.vote/ “Everyone deserves to feel safe. Every family deserves a home. Every person deserves to age with dignity. Everyone is welcome and included.”These principles guide my life and have led me to public service. My story is that of delivering results for our community, imagining a better tomorrow, and seeing it through.I'm Ben Bartlett. I'm an environmental attorney, husband, and father, and for the past seven years, I've served as a Berkeley City Councilmember. My track record speaks for itself: I've authored landmark legislation creating more than 1,000 affordable homes, expanding paid family leave, and establishing a comprehensive wildfire prevention plan. My office created a groundbreaking civilian response team for mental health crises, enabling law enforcement to focus on solving and preventing serious crimes. My leadership secured a $1,000,000 grant for public safety. I'll make sure Alameda County gets every dollar available from the state and federal government to address our most pressing challenges.While the rest of Alameda County saw a 22% increase in homelessness, Berkeley saw a 5% decrease. As a father, I'm committed to ending child homelessness in Alameda County.I'm running for Alameda County Supervisor, because all that I've learned and accomplished has prepared me for this moment – to work for you. So vote for me, Ben Bartlett, for Alameda County Supervisor. I'm ready to be your advocate and champion, and I ask for your vote by March 5th.-Ben BartlettPlease subscribe and listen. Then tell us who you want to hear and what areas of interest you'd like us to cover. Louis Goodman www.louisgoodman.comhttps://www.lovethylawyer.com/510.582.9090Music: Joel Katz, Seaside Recording, MauiTech: Bryan Matheson, Skyline Studios, OaklandAudiograms: Paul Roberts louis@lovethylawyer.com
Nick Feldman arrested in a 2009 protest with a sign “Feel the Power of the Disability Vote.”. Photo by Steve Rhodes, courtesy of Disability Rights California and UDWA The weather's getting colder, November's drawing near, and you know by your full mailbox the SPOOOOOOOOKY season is here! Today, the Pushing Limits crew sketches some state and local issues with a LEETLE Federal spice, and tell you which measures are naughty and which nice. Our web site has goodies to make you more wise, and inoculate you against tricks and the evil surprise. Konstantine Anthony Konstantine Anthony, Chair of the California Democratic Party's Disabilities Caucus, is soon to be Mayor of Berbank and the first openly autistic mayor in the US. He'll walk us through state propositions of interest to people with disabilities. Eddie Ytuarte will talk about local housing measures in Alameda County. Sheela Gunn-Cushman hosts, and will tell you why you are seeing one Federal Senate seat TWICE on your ballot, and why you may not be in the district you thought you were in. (Yes, the lines HAVE moved!) Mark Romoser and Josh Elwood contributed production help to this program. Resources Affordable Housing on East Bay Ballots Recommendations from East Bay Housing Organizations Voter Guide has got you covered. Over on their YouTube channel, you can watch their Endorsed Ballot Measures Forum as well as candidate forums with candidates for Alameda County District 3 Supervisor and Oakland Mayor. Check out their Elections Hub for voter information and information about how to get involved. Say yes to affordable housing: YES Berkeley Measure L YES Berkeley Measure M YES Berkeley Measure N YES Oakland Measure Q YES Oakland Measure U YES Oakland Measure V Oakland Ballot Measures Measure Q – Article 34 Authorization. Preapproves the construction or acquisition of 13,000 affordable homes. Measure U – Infrastructure Bond. An $850M infrastructure bond which includes $350M for affordable housing. Measure V – Just Cause Expansion. Further extends eviction protections to residents of RVs, school aged children and teachers, and more. Berkeley Ballot Measures Measure L – Infrastructure Bond. A $650 million dollar bond, which includes $200 million for affordable housing. Measure M – Vacancy Tax. Taxes property owners who keep non-exempt homes vacant for more than six months in a year. Measure N – Article 34 Authorization. Preapproves the construction or acquisition of 3,000 low-rent homes. How to Help Commit just thirty minutes this month or ten hours a week. 1) Table for Oakland's Measure U. Hosted by Safe Street Advocates at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market on Saturdays and the Temescal Farmers Market on Sundays. Shifts are 9 AM–2 PM. Sign Up to Table 2) Lawn Sign for Oakland Measure U. Don't have any time, but still want to help out? Email angelina@ebho.org to have a free lawn sign for Measure U delivered to your doorstep. 3) Canvass for Oakland Measures Q & V. Hosted by Care 4 Community Action. Shifts are held at 10 AM on Saturdays and Sundays and 5:30 PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sign Up to Canvass 4) Phone Bank for Berkeley Measure L. Co-hosted by EBHO on Thursdays from 6-8 PM at Campaign HQ, 2026 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. Email Angelina at angelina@ebho.org to sign up! 5) Volunteer for Measure M. The Measure M campaign is offering several ways to get involved including canvassing, voter outreach, and delivering yard signs. Sign Up to Volunteer Call & Text for Measure M Every Wednesday Night for calls and texting at 2025 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley. More Information. Hear from the Candidates Watch the Alameda County District 3 Forum Watch the Oakland Mayoral Forum What do your candidates say about affordable housing? Click here to read what candidates for Alameda County District 3 Supervisor, Oakland Mayor, Oakland City Council, Berkeley City Council, San Leandro Mayor, and San Leandro City Council give as their positions on housing and homelessness. Urban Habitat Voters Guide This guide overlaps with some of the advice above, as you would imagine, but it covers other issues and races as well. It even has a recommendation for Healdsburg voters way up in the North Bay. How Pete's Voting Community Activist Pete Woiwode: “How Pete's Voting” Pete has opinions on a ton of local ballot measures and city council races and much, much more. You may not agree with him on everything but his frank, concise voting guide is well worth some attention. The post Vote for Your LIfe -Pushing Limits – October 21, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.
Rigel Robinson is a member of the Berkeley City Council, representing District 7 (encompassing UC Berkeley).As the region is growing, as the state is growing, we should be educating more Californians. I believe that educating more young people is a good thing—full stop. [...] I think this whole situation boils down to a prioritization of two things: The comfort of our longtime residents versus the basic needs of our new residents.Notes and references from this episode: @RigelRobinson - Rigel Robinson on Twitter California Environmental Quality Act - WikipediaSave Berkeley's Neighborhoods v. Regents of the University of California - Lawsuit “UC Berkeley must cut new enrollment by 3K students after high court ruling,” by Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside“NIMBYism Reaches Its Apotheosis,” by Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic“UC Berkeley declines group's offer to admit 1K more students,” by Associated Press“Governor Newsom: Veto SB118,” by Phil Bokovoy, The Berkeley Daily Planet“Newsom signs bill saving UC Berkeley from enrollment cuts this fall,” by Michael Burke, EdSource“UC Berkeley will more than double what it pays the city under new settlement agreement,” by Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside =====Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdaleTheme music: Sounds SupremeTwitter: @WhatCaliforniaSubstack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.comSupport What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.comPlease subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
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This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on May 26 at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly as part of A Conference on Housing Policy. After years of debate and fierce opposition from neighborhood associations, the support for single-family zoning is waning. Housing advocates like Sen. Scott Wiener have introduced legislation to encourage multi-family building statewide, and in February, the Sacramento City Council took the first steps toward allowing duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes to be built anywhere in the city. The Berkeley City Council soon followed suit. If these zoning changes become widespread throughout the state, how will they impact the cost and availability of housing, and will they bring gentrification with them? Panelists: Lori Droste, Berkeley City Council; Dan Dunmoyer, California Building Industry Association; Shajuti Hossain, Public Advocates; Isaiah Madison, Livable California Moderated by Erin Baldassari, KQED
Missouri native Rigel Robinson started at UC Berkeley in 2014 as an eager student, ready to learn and to fall in love with the city he'd call home. Four years later, just as he was about to graduate, folks started clamoring for him to run for office. He jumped in the fight, won, and throughout his first term, has already pushed forward necessary reform on policing and housing that is broadening what is possible for municipal government. You're going to love his passion, his intellect, and the contagious love he has for his city. Follow Rigel on all social media platforms - @RigelRobinson. Produced by Dear Media.
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
For the final session of the semester, we offer a discussion of very local politics in the most famous (infamous?) small city in America. Everyone knows of Berkeley, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about it, especially if they don’t actually live here. So we talk with a former UC Berkeley student who is now a member of the Berkeley City Council and think about our small town and what it is like to serve in public office. Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson was elected to represent District 7 on November 6th, 2018. Elected at 22, Robinson is the youngest person to ever serve on the Berkeley City Council. Prior to his election, Robinson was a leader in student efforts to support development of more affordable housing and student housing, divest the University of California from the Dakota Access Pipeline, oust a UC Regent accused of sexual harassment, and secure additional state funding for the UC and the first tuition decrease in 20 years. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36296]
Cheryl Davila is an elected member of the Berkeley City Council. Councilmember Davila is currently up for reelection and this conversation provides an intimate window into the experience of an elected representative who is working at the local level to address global and national issues while also communicating directly with the people she represents, who are also neighbors, family and friends.In this conversation we talk about her experience as a passionate yet common citizen coming into politics an outsider, and the tension between being a voice for her people and the pressure to play political games. We talk about her vision for laying the foundations for an economic and cultural recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, while also addressing racial justice, climate change, demilitarizing the police and addressing homelessness. We talk about the need of all legislators to make difficult short term choices that also support long term change.While so much of the United States is paying attention to national politics, it is actually the local politicians like Councilmember Davila that are making the decisions that affect our day to day lives.Wherever you are, I hope that this conversation inspires you to reflect deeply on the importance of local politics during this election season. I hope it helps you remember that politics is made up of people like you and me. Your voice matters. So speak up, talk to your representatives and please vote.Here is Councilmember Davila’s Official Site.Here is Councilmember Davila’s Campaign Site.Visit Cheryl on Facebook @CouncilmemberCherylDavila and Instagram @cheryldavila.voteMore Info at: fractalfriends.us/fractalfriends/cheryl-davilaMusic: "Remember Me" by the thrThrive ChoirWatch the video here.
The Berkeley City Council approved a motion this week on the issue of police reform, bringing some of the most radical changes to policing in the state. A proposal by Councilmember Rigel Robinson will create “BerkDot,” a new Department of Transportation with unarmed officials who will conduct parking and traffic enforcement. The motion also includes a pledge to cut the police budget by 50 percent and to develop a Specialized Care Unit - a “network of crisis responders” for calls concerning homelessness and mental health. In this segment, we’ll talk with Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín about the motion.
Art displaying solidarity between Indigenous & Black activists, from Instagram post by @99rootz On this show: 0:08 – 5.4 million people in the U.S. lost their health insurance coverage during Covid-19, and premiums are expected to skyrocket next year, including in the marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act. We speak with Stan Dorn (@standorn), director of the National Center for Coverage Innovation at Families USA. 0:34 – CA Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced statewide closures of all bars, and indoor dining, movies, cardrooms and more. The state's re-closing as hospitalizations have surged due to Covid-19 — are Newsom's actions enough, and do they come too late? Art Reingold, the Division Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, joins us. 0:45 – The Washington, D.C. NFL team has dropped a vicious anti-Indigenous racial slur from its name, after years of organizing and legal action by Indigenous organizers and tribal nations as well as court cases. But Jacqueline Keeler (@jfkeeler) says this moment is only possible because of the reckoning caused by the Black activists organizing after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Keeler is a writer and activist of Diné and Ihanktonwan Dakota heritage, co-founder of Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, and editor in chief of Pollen Nation Magazine. 1:08 – Martinez held a peaceful 2,000-person-strong march for Black lives on Sunday, despite threats of racist counterprotesters and over the objections of the mayor and the police department. Sevgi Fernandez founded Together We Stand, an organization dedicated to dismantling racism, discrimination and police brutality, and organized Sunday's protest in Martinez — she joins us to talk about what happened. 1:34 – Berkeley High students on Monday held a ten-hour campout at the city police department building to demand the police department be defunded by at least 50%. We air voices of those students and talk with Cheryl Davila, Berkeley City Councilmember for District 2, who has an item before the city council today to substantially defund the police. Davila also shares her own experience with traffic stops in Berkeley — activists say traffic stops are often racially motivated and lead to deadly police encounters between officers and Black and Brown residents. Another measure before Berkeley City Council today would take police out of traffic stops. The public can find the agenda and information about participating in the meeting here. 1:49 – What is it like to bike while Black in Berkeley? Reporter Danielle Kaye spoke with Black Berkeley residents who have been policed. The post How Indigenous and Black organizing pushed Washington's NFL team to drop its racist slur name; Newsom re-closes businesses across California; Meet the Berkeley councilwoman trying to defund police appeared first on KPFA.
The City of Berkeley City Council passed an ordinance that would impose a 25-cent disposable cup fee for any person who purchases a disposable cup at a restaurant. The fee goes to the restaurant, the city does not collect any money from the fee. Do you think this is a good ordinance?
Some very interesting e-mails came in and Joe gives them the proper attention. The U.S, Open is on and the staff wondered what some of the country's most exclusive clubs are. The Berkeley City Council calls for a Global Climate Emergency. What do they want done?
TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:You're listening to method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM. I'm your host, Stalin Huizar. And today we have with us Gus Newport, former mayor of Berkeley. Hey guys, how's it going? Fine, thank you. Good to be here. Uh, thanks for coming into the studio. Uh, and Gus is going to be with us today [00:00:30] talking about his illustrious career. He's had so many different amazing, um, experiences and achievements, a civil rights leader, uh, a beacon of the left. He's been involved in so many different things. So I wanna ask you about a few of the different experiences you've had, guests you can educate us. So first I want to start in Boston. Um, and with the Dudley Street project, it was already on the Speaker 2:way when I got there, I was a mirror of Berkeley for two terms, eight years and decided I didn't need any more. [00:01:00] I was invited to University of Massachusetts at Boston as the first senior fellow in the William in North Trotter Institute. I taught a class, um, alternative economics and public policy and people from the Dudley Street project started monitoring my class. Then I was asked to speak on several panels. It turned out, it started with a couple of guys, one in architect and one on news reporter who had discovered [00:01:30] that the poverty money that was being sent to Boston was being spent downtown to build up different areas around city hall and whatever else and wasn't getting to this part of Roxbury, whether it was real poverty, a lot of vacant lots and whatever else more is than the poverty money. What was that? It was CDB. Speaker 2:Junk is different kinds of money that came based on poverty, statistics in indexes and whatever else to upgrade, say the quality of houses, bring [00:02:00] jobs, uh, just beautified the place and whatever else that was, that was kind of money that was available to cities during that time. It had since the 60s going back to the Johnson era. So these guys put his initiative on the ballot, uh, for Roxbury to CC'd from the rest of Boston. And that blew the minds of the city. I first read about it in England, you know, through the Herald Tribune when I was over there visiting and they invited me to be on some of their early panels and things. So [00:02:30] because of what we'd done at w shoot and how East Palo Alto got formed when they're separated from Palo Alto down here. So it really was a shock to the city. And, um, they began working, engaging people, working with MIT, with department of Urban Studies and planning, gathering data and whatever else. Speaker 2:So it was a lot of vacant lots, a with a whole lot of debris on them because developers, what we [00:03:00] called the environmental racism in those days, we just dumped their debris because they didn't, didn't have to pay the tipping fees and all that, and there was no political might in these areas. So, uh, what kind of, uh, people lived in Roxbury at the time? Mainly black people from, uh, Cape Verde keep people from Haiti. Uh, some people from the Caribbean, et Cetera was like, as I recall, 30% black, [00:03:30] something like 27% Cape Verdean, another 15, 20% Latino and 10% white. And, uh, but, and this thing Hank thing happened after they started engaging and got organized, they decided they wanted to create an organization that would help turn around the city and they decided that the makeup of the boards, that community residents should control 50 plus percent of it and [00:04:00] they gave four seats to each ethnic group, didn't take it out of balance because of the numbers and the academics in Boston, which has more cows, colleges, university and place that blew their mind. Speaker 2:They said, my God, we didn't ever thought about that, but the people said we want to focus on the issues and not on each other. And so they came up with this study sheet organization that was an organization to create advocacy, planning and organizing. And because of the law in the state of Massachusetts, very sellable [00:04:30] Muse that a nonprofit can get eminent domain and 30 under certain circumstances, they said, we want to create our own master plan. And out of that master plan, they were given eminent domain authority to this day is the only nonprofit in the United States of America that was able to get that power. That's amazing. To guesthouse a little bit about, for people who don't know a lot about community development, what is a master plan or what is the purpose and function of a master plan? A master plan is to get all the data to look at the poverty index is to look at a [00:05:00] lack of jobs, crime, et Cetera, and things like that. Speaker 2:Look at the gaps, uh, take this data and create gis maps and whatever else so that you can educate everybody from people in the community to bankers to academics. We were very lucky because MIT assisted us, Tufts assisted us, Umass Boston, so we got a lot of help and they would send students to walk the streets with us to go door to door to get data so that we can create the agendas from that or whatever [00:05:30] else. But in communities like this, 70% has a household as single women and 70%. Right. And that that, that, that happens until this day. And they're shy about asking questions because they think they're not educated. They don't know. They come to find out that the questions they had were all similar. Everybody was concerned about the same thing. So this was an empowering sort of fact. We early on got a professional facilitation organization to come and teach facilitation skills to parents, [00:06:00] to young people, the small businesses, and to nonprofits so each could have a discussion and create an integrated sort of plan that became the master plan. Speaker 2:We asked the people, because most of them, their lives aren't stable because rental housing, you know, kept moving and going up. Just like we got today, almost the median cost for housing in Boston back in the eighties and those days is between 500,000 and million dollars. [00:06:30] Home-Ownership rents kept going, sky high, et Cetera, whatever else. So when you asked finally people within the master plan, what kind of housing do you want? We want affordable home ownership, if that's possible, to stabilize their lives. We willing to keep moving from place to place. And that's how we looked at the land trust. We went to the land trust. The first community land trusts in the U s was founded in southwest Georgia called new communities. And they got the idea by a group of people, including Slater, king, Martin Luther King's uncle Andy Young, [00:07:00] a guy named Dan Gel, nick who was on the Berkeley City Council from New York, but Jewish lawyer and whatever else. Speaker 2:And they had a meeting and we said a group of people to Israel to look at a plan for community land trust to create affordable home ownership into perpetuity for people who were farmers and whatever. And that's where we got the original. I do that there, the idea of preceded Israel and India, Mahatma Gandhi creating this kind of playing for people who are victims of the caste system. So we then brought [00:07:30] that over and we were able to get the banks to go along with it because we had the data, whatever else. And the banks created a community development corporation for affordable housing and one for small business. And because we challenged them. So that's when the community reinvestment that came on board. They put 50% community people on the boards and every bank put up between 500,000 a million dollars into that pot. And that's how we're able to turn this whole place around. We started out taking those vacant garden, fifth 15 acres of [00:08:00] 30 were owned by the city. They taken through tax arrears. The plan was so good, they conveyed those acres to us and we got them to mitigate the taxes. Then we use that as collateral to get a $2 million program related investment from the Ford Foundation to purchase the other 15 and all of that became collateral with other kinds of subsidies and whatever. So this is housing built into perpetuity for people with limited incomes that Speaker 1:yeah, and it's, it's so uh, it's such an interesting story, especially in today's time or we're struggling [00:08:30] with the concepts of affordable housing and the, the mayor's race here in Berkeley is kind of centered on that topic, but all throughout the bay area, it's a big deal. And what I think is so fascinating about kind of the innovations in your career, Gus, is your ability to kind of help ground up movements like this. This is very much the story of Delancey street project seems to be this facilitation of a budge, a bunch of the local neighborhood people and being able to take of their own kind of a future through the acquisition [00:09:00] of real estate and the building of this thing. For people who don't know what a community land trust is, can you explain to us kind of what does that mean? Speaker 2:Just as a nonprofit organization, which has the board, the land is taken into perpetuity by a plan to build, could be affordable homeownership, could be some co-op, it could be farms, it could be a variety of things based on what people think they most need. But that land, like I said, it's kept in the perpetuity, [00:09:30] which is 99 years to be utilized for something like that. So then private for profit developers can come in and just take it, uh, push people out or whatever else. If somebody who owns a home in Atlanta trust gets on their feet and generates better income when they sell it, they can't take out any more than 25% profit based on improvements they made. And whatever else at the house itself. They, the houses. Yeah. Right. They land is owned by the nonprofit organization. Speaker 1:[00:10:00] So it's a, it's a way to kind of create some shared ownership over us. And this was a big, you said it's uh, how big was the geographic? Speaker 2:It was 30 acres in the beginning, but it was sort of in the same area, sort of a blanket approach. It grew because other people, including people who even owned their own homes and wanted to move into it and the city came in as Dudley street to do this and all the other neighborhoods, even in a city as great [00:10:30] and as well, highly educated as Boston. And of course, you know, the financial analysis and all that stuff was actually finalized in the Kubota system in Israel and whatever else. So we had the knowledge of how to do that. And then we also had an institute for community economics, which is a national community land trust organization, which created community development. The suits that made there were banking funds available at lower income. I ended up directing ice [00:11:00] instead for community economics use after I, I ran Dudley Street. Speaker 1:Right. So I'm now 30 years later. What's the, what's kind of the epilogue of dead tissue is such an amazing project and has created, um, a lot of interest in community land trust. But how is it, what's, what's happened? The federal government a few years ago here to know Speaker 2:a program called prime neighborhoods or something like that. Dudley Street scored number one in the country. And for [00:11:30] that they get like I think 5 million a year for five years. And they were able to create their own charter schools based on planning with the community for what they wanted to see in their schools. An example of how to upgrade this cause they were able to get the best teachers in the school. They noticed that the, uh, the, uh, one, the schools, the schools for, for, for young kids, these kids were always coming home with scratches on their legs and whatever else. But, but, [00:12:00] but, but the school yard was made a CMN community convinced them to dig, get up and put sand in there. And after a while they had no more scars. So it's just common sense thinking which government school this and everybody else often doesn't think of, you know, always trying to cut corners and think they have such brilliant thing, but they're not focused on people all. Speaker 2:We had a lot of young kids who were in our, our junior group gets scholarships to Dartmouth and places like that [00:12:30] and they came back and continued to work in the area and whatever else and people began talking about that. My God, how did you help them do that? We were able to get them scholarships. That was just when student loans were starting to come online. And you know, as you young students, no student loans, it's just, it's criminal. I mean when I taught a graduate course, they, my teeth, I couldn't believe some of these young people coming out of college with student loans of 200,300 $400,000. It was just [00:13:00] terrible. So from a movement standpoint, those are the kinds of things you've got to focus on. And we're talking to Gus Newport is former mayor of Berkeley and has done so many different things. It's hard to explain them all, but we're talking about one of his major accomplishments is facilitating the devotees street project in Boston and community land trust. Speaker 2:That is still going strong to this day. One of the questions I have for you guys, kind of closing up that chapter is the governance structure. You talked about, which is really innovative of having community members who are kind of at the controls of a nonprofit [00:13:30] that owns a bunch of land. How, how did you guys set up the, a sustainable structure to keep it that way? Well, like I said, 50 plus one 51% of the all had to be community residents, but also you also had board seats for small businesses, for representatives of churches, for some nonprofits and a couple of seats. Even for elected officials though, we never filled those. Uh, and so everybody felt that [00:14:00] they had a role and you could have OK. And also the land that was conveyed to us from the city. We have, we call it four by four committee for the board representative, the four representatives from the city. Speaker 2:So we make common decisions on how to disperse that land at what time, you know, and whatever else. So it was a learning situation for everybody. So it's the way that the actual nonprofit is structured is that that structure has kept that authenticity of yes representation all these years, 30 years later. And that was written as we [00:14:30] learn new things. We would have amended from time to time, things that were more creative and more beneficial. But that's it. It's a constant analysis and learning thing. And today, do you know like the community land trust model, which is so successful in this instance? Are there a lot of other ones in the country today? There's about 400. I just came back from a conference in Park City, Utah, um, a month or so ago and it was very, very, very pleasant. A lot of people participating in such a, [00:15:00] um, we had a little bit concerns because the name of the national organization now is grounded, used to be grounded community solutions. The name got changed, the grounded solutions. And that's because three of the sponsors is Fannie may know wells Fargo and Citibank. So I'm going to go in back and challenge that. And I think with the likes of Wells Fargo and them, they ought to be glad to get whatever they can to clean up Speaker 1:their own. Yeah, we were talking to Gus Newport, former mayor Berkeley's his method to the madness on [00:15:30] KLX Berkeley 90.7 FM and Gus, let's, let's rewind a little bit in terms of, uh, your timeline of your career and talk about the time when you were elected mayor originally at Berkeley and kind of how that story came about because that was another kind of innovative time and, and uh, political, uh, environment that I think, uh, is very interesting story to tell, especially with this political season we're in right now. Speaker 2:Well, I first came to Berkeley in 1968 I was working with an organization [00:16:00] called you guys as research and Development Corporation in New York that was working with the Department of Labor on the new jobs programs and whatever else. I was sent both to Puerto Rico to do some jobs development programs as well as out here to California. And then I worked in Puerto Rico from 1971 to 74, the Department of Labor. And um, a friend of mine was running [00:16:30] federally funded programs and things for the city of Berkeley and invited me out to help them with some assistant youth develop jobs and other kinds of things. And I did a wage compatibility survey for nonprofit organizations in both Berkeley and Oakland to look at the compatibility of wages they were receiving and whatever else. And then I was put on the Planning Commission, the Police Review Commission, [00:17:00] and I was then hired back to the city, including the, I forgot what it was, another department. But I had to engage the laws of the nonprofit and community organizations. I work with BCA to reorganize their whole status. And we wrote a manifesto saying what all services city government should provide, whatever. And [00:17:30] uh, Speaker 3:yeah, Speaker 2:Berkeley's first black mayor, Wharton wide. There was an office when I got here, Berkeley had determined that it was going to take over PG and e and who have a Master Police Review Commission and Warren, why'd you move the middle and didn't do these things? So that was the first black man, right? So Ron Dellums and John George and BCA and other people asked me would I consider running PCA [00:18:00] was Berkeley to discuss this action. I still had to compete against somebody that was already a BCA member on city council. John Denton, who was a white lawyer. And we went through several weeks. You had to get two thirds of the vote before you could be the candidate. Um, I was nominated and it was funny thing because you know, Berkeley probably gets more credit [00:18:30] for being progressive city than it is. I mean, Berkeley is a good community with a population. 50% of the people had undergraduate degrees and 25% graduate degrees. Speaker 2:And there were a lot of what I call single issue liberals. They pulled on me cause they wanted somebody that was going against Warren. Why? Then of course I was also known having been a close friend of Malcolm x cause [00:19:00] I was trailing knock four days before he was assassinated and when he moved from the nation of Islam to the organization and for American unity, I was one of the founding members. So I was fairly well known for some of those things. That's why we're doing this documentary now because the country does not yet know how Malcolm and Martin Luther King will come close together and Ma Malcolm had given up violence and was moving to the civil rights movement and he and Martin Luther King were about to go before [00:19:30] the United Nations to file a suit against American hegemony, imperialism and colonialism. And one of the things we're getting this documentary is we've got a tape overhearing Jagger, Hoover, FBI saying these are the two most dangerous men in the world. Speaker 2:35 days after he made that statement, Malcolm was dead. Of course Martin Luther King got killed actually a year after he gave the speech to break the silence, you know, against the Vietnam War. So all those things, civil rights [00:20:00] and whatever else. Also teach you how to engage community development. Because when I was with the civil rights movement, I wrote the first concentrated employment training grants with department labor for Rochester, New York, my hometown and I and a guy named Bob Turner, Phd from Kansas State and a road scholar went to several cities, including Philadelphia to the, the Jewish economic vocational training and other kinds of places to look in job development and all these kinds of things. [00:20:30] So you know, you're not even thinking what are you learning what you're taking in, you're just on the run. So then you show up in Berkeley with that and you have a chance to be here. I want to ask you about that perfectly citizen actions that manifest that which was very famous. And you talk about Berkeley and I maybe having a um, Speaker 1:reputation that maybe it proceeds itself in terms of, or being a little bit more progressive than it is. But that document was very left wing, Speaker 2:right? It was. It wasn't, of course, [00:21:00] I'm not suggested. Berkeley wasn't very progressive. I'm because of cause the free speech Boohoo was founded here. Sure. About the same time as the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement and the antiwar movement. Yeah. And of course, so there was, there was, there was a lot of transition but, Speaker 1:and you were becoming mayor after a lot of those things were kind of transitioning into the 80s and a different timeline. But can you speak to a couple of the maybe revolutionary planks in that manifesto that Berkeley citizens [00:21:30] action and you as a leader kind of came to power on? Speaker 2:Well, for instance, we were the first city to divest that was on the ballot when I ran divest from South Africa in Africa. We were the first city to past domestic benefits, benefits for gay couples and stuff. What year was that? That would have been 1981 1982 and that's because there was a day, there was [00:22:00] a gay faction within the Po politics of Berkeley. And I don't know if you know the name Holly near [inaudible] who was one of the new song singers who was very close to Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda mentored her. She was a play in New York called hair, I believe it was. And Holly had her own recording company. She was gay. I was the first man on the board. Uh, going back to Tom Hayden [00:22:30] just dying. And we also work with him. And Jane Fonda actually did a fundraiser for me when I ran for mayor the first time in the day that I reported to my office. Speaker 2:When I took office, I walk in, there's all these TV cameras, Jane Fonda sitting at my desk. So it was just all these kinds of things. And there was a lot of student involvement in DCA too. We put students in. My appointed to the planning commission was a woman named Theresa Cordova who was getting her phd [00:23:00] and planning and um, she was at the Institute for Study Social Change that which was run by Troy duster who probably graduated more black and Latino PhDs than anybody. And Troy duster happens to be the grandson of Ida B. Wells. So I mean Troy was like my mentor. So I was a fellow at the Institute for Studies Change Here in Berkeley too, and he ended up the sociology department and one time. So all these things are in the mix. Speaker 1:Yeah. Well and such a fascinating story [00:23:30] in terms of the timeline, the history of what was going on. Then you got to, I think you, you very much viewed your time as mayor, as a kind of the bully pulpit to go and talk about a lot of progressive issues, not just right. Speaker 2:Very much so. For instance, getting back to the university, Harry Edwards, who's quite a spoke for us first, and you know who organized those three blacks that if raise their fists at 90 68 Olympics was on faculty and had more students attending his class. He taught [00:24:00] sports psychology and sociology, I think, and was quite ill. He had the most heavily attended Subaru who came time for him to get tenure. It was going to be a difficult thing, but, but Haman, Mike came in was the chancellor at that time and Haman said, we're going for it, but Gus, you're going to have to help us and other stuff. We did some national calling in Haman when he became chancellor, had been chair [00:24:30] of the planning school and both the law school he came to some of us with, some of the professors were progressive and said, Gus, I'm going after chancellor. He said, it's going to be difficult. They've never had a juice chancellor before. We pulled together everything we could, including national friends to assist and whatever else he became the chancellor. Speaker 1:Nice. Well it's so much, I mean, you've broken down so many barriers in your career and I, I, to [00:25:00] not end this interview without asking you about kind of where we sit today. It's 2016 and so many of the issues that you fought for in your civil rights career are still persistent today. Even though we have, we've had a black president, so we've made progress. And so I want to ask you from your seat of the wisdom and knowledge that you have, can you give us some of your, um, kind of positive thoughts about where we can take, um, our progressive society going forward [00:25:30] and kind of use a lot of the stuff that you've accomplished and consolidate those gains and go forward? Cause there's so much negativity around right now. I want to provide some positivity to people. You made a difficult, we'll use a buzz of thoughts. Um, okay. Well anyway, Speaker 2:no, I worked with Bernie Sanders and you know, the millennials were just great. I mean, uh, I was never so proud as the role [inaudible] played in movement. And a lot of them told us that after Bernie [00:26:00] didn't make it through the primary. And of course we know that there were problems in the primaries. I mean, Bernie didn't get 3 million votes that should've been to him in California, New York and other places in the Sierra delegates are a problem. Right? And, and a lot of the millennials told us they were not going to vote for Hillary because we have problems with Hillary. And with bill going back to welfare reform and NAFTA and Gatt and some things like that. And, but the old friend of mine, Jack O'Dell, who just turned [00:26:30] 93 last month was Martin Luther King's right hand man. And he wrote, um, I forget the NAACP had a, a regular paper that was created by WB Dubois freedom ways. Speaker 2:He was a co-editor. He called me from, he lives up in Vancouver, British Columbia now. And he said, brother Gus, he said, you know, I've always liked you because, [00:27:00] uh, even though you were greatly left as I was at the end, you use common sense. So I said, all right, bud, Jack, what are you getting at? He said, well, I was proud that you and Danny Glover worked for Bernie Sanders. But now the next step is the election itself. He said, remember you and I used to talk about when you got drafted in the military, when you reported to Louisiana, [00:27:30] um, Kentucky, that you weren't allowed to go and eat in certain restaurants as a black person says, yeah, remember we talked about there were places during the Jim Crow era, very close. We were people, black people were getting hung. I said, yeah, he said, we've moved past that, but if Donald Trump gets elected, we're going to go back to that. Speaker 2:He said, we may not totally agree with like Hillary, but we do at least know that she [00:28:00] won't carry us back to that and we can put our foot on her button and keep on pushing. You know, the next one we've got to go. So I said you right. So we started talking to millennials. I think looking at the polls and whatever now it looks like she's going to make it. I was sorta set back last week being in Tennessee and hearing some of these white, uh, organized people in the political move and talking about they thing's going to be violence in some of their neighborhoods or whatever else. And [00:28:30] so you have to have an analysis like Martin Luther King I always talked to about the beloved community. The beloved community basically was centered in the church. We had ministers that used to play a role out today. Speaker 2:Church doesn't play a great role in the inner city, but people shared everything. And because of segregation, blue collar, white collar, no collar, everybody lives side by side. But we're there to help one another. But I had to explain to people last week [00:29:00] that the beloved community was not an integrated community. It was a segregated community. Many of you were in the civil rights people, but you did not live in the beloved community. You lived in Peyton Dale or whatever they used to call that. Whether it was a whole lot of things going on. And that's what we got to get back to because when Mahatma Gandhi and other people were talking about nonviolence, this, that if you're going to turn around and society has to be a vision of love, Cetera, and whatever else, it's such an inspiration [00:29:30] and chair, um, at that, you know, pardon me for saying hell, can't wear it on. I buy the age, year out. We are still going so strong and a inspiration Speaker 1:to all of us. And thanks so much for coming in today guys. We'll be speaking to guests, Newport, former mayor of Berkeley. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Starting in the spring of 2015, the city of Berkeley, California, will require that warning labels featuring the following text be affixed to gas station pumps: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that consumption of energy products derived from fossil fuels contributes to climate change. To learn about how you can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, go to: www.cityofberkeley.info/fuel. The Western States Petroleum Association has threatened to file suit, claiming that the labeling program imposes "onerous restrictions" on businesses and "compels speech in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution." In this podcast, hear Myanna Dellinger and Dr. Wil Burns discuss with two Berkeley energy and community environment advisory commissioners why the city chose to require gas stations to use such labels, what the expected health-related and environmental effects will be in and beyond the San Francisco area, and why the city believes it is on a strong footing in relation to a potential lawsuit based on the requirement. Agenda of the Berkeley City Council meeting of Tuesday, November 18, 2014 . The Western States Petroleum Association has not responded to our request for the Association’s view on the matter. Should such comments be provided to us in the near future, they will be featured in an individual podcast here.
Rene Thomas Folse, JD, Ph.D. is the host for this edition which reports on the following news stories. WCAB affirms WCJ order for lien claimant to appear. WCAB rules sub-rosa film admissible despite "No Trespassing" signs. Castro Valley orthopedist arrested on 31 fraud related felonies. San Gabriel physician faces 339 years for drug trafficking. Return-to-Work supplement program pays $5,000. benefit. DWC posts revised copy service regs for public comment. JPA association speakers discuss study on quality care. Healthcare risk managers discuss administration of comp medical benefits. Berkeley City Council studies comp costs. Researchers find genetic role and treatment for post-traumatic arthritis.
Interviewed founder of Urban Adamah, a non-profit that is combining Judaism and sustainability to feed the poor of West BerkeleyTRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Okay. Speaker 2:[inaudible] [00:00:30] the great American experiment, the seemingly endless stretch of shops and stories from every corner of the earth. Speaker 3:A place where everyone is trying to carve out their precious plot of the free, if you can afford it, world. And a place that I call home, many people don't realize the San Pebble Avenue is actually a highway, California one two three to be exact, running parallel to East Bay, interstate 80 and a main link between the peoples of the East Bay, the Berkeley [00:01:00] portion of California one two three has been a hot topic over the last two years because it's part of the East Bay Green corridor and there's been many battles. And then Berkeley City Council about the zoning rights to west Berkeley [inaudible] as west Berkeley land owners sit tight waiting for resolution. One Entrepreneurial Organization is taking advantage of vacant land and creating a model for spirituality, sustainability, and a solution to the urban food desert. Today on method to the madness, we interview [00:01:30] Adam Berman, executive director of urban Altima in west Berkeley. Stay with us. [inaudible] Speaker 4:tell me a little bit about how you came to this idea. Yeah. Um, I've always been interested in the intersection of spirituality and environmental stewardship. Um, I grew up in a Jewish household, uh, outside [00:02:00] of Los Angeles, uh, and went to Jewish day school as a kid. And so as soon as I, um, reached adulthood, I started asking questions of Jewish tradition about how it relates to the natural world, um, how questions of social and environmental justice fit in with the practice of Jewish tradition and how Jewish tradition itself can be, uh, supportive of living a lifestyle that is reflective of as much of my environmental and social [00:02:30] values. Uh, and it turns out Judaism has a rich tradition, uh, that teaches us about caring for the Earth, um, about caring for others. Um, and in fact, if you look at it's 2000 year old history, most of the time Jews were agriculturalists. Speaker 4:So we were much more connected to the land than we are today. So for me, the integration of growing food sustainably and being an activists [00:03:00] and, uh, being someone who feels connected to Jewish tradition and part of Jewish community, part of the Jewish community feels like a seamless integration in my life. Um, my whole professional career the last 20 years has, uh, been spent in work that, uh, connects Jewish tradition and environmental stewardship. Um, my first job out of college was the director of a place called the Tebow learning center, uh, which teaches the connection between Judaism and [00:03:30] the environment, uh, to fifth and sixth graders on four day residential retreats. Uh, in New England. It's a hands on ecology, uh, program where they explore the woods, um, and learn about how Jewish tradition, uh, blessings, holidays, food, um, our awareness about how we treat others, um, all are supportive and uh, cultivate a kind of consciousness. Um, that's more, that helps us become more loving in [00:04:00] the world, which is how I understand Jewish tradition to serve me and human beings. And the tradition is a, uh, agrarian society. Um, and but dot. Kind of doesn't come to the forefront when you think about Judaism. So are you having to reinvent some of these things or is it just going back into the history and bringing them out into, to a modern day interpretation? Right? Speaker 4:What's consistent about Judaism over [00:04:30] time as far as I can tell, is our core values. What are these core values? Our core values are [inaudible], which means justice. Uh, our core values, our headset, which means compassion. Uh, we have a core value of off of Ahava, which means love. And in every generation, the Jewish communities challenge is to interpret or apply those values to whatever the, whatever reality is presenting itself. And the 21st century, we have a food system that, uh, [00:05:00] you know, is producing a billion people that are overweight and a billion people that are starving every year, um, that is producing food deserts in Oakland and in cities across the country. While there's abundance beyond belief just a few miles away, um, we look at that reality and say, you know, this is the place where we want to apply these values. So it also happens that Jewish tradition in terms of ritual and practice is very connected to the natural world. So that's a very interesting [00:05:30] and curious thing to investigate. But the motivation for this project is much more about applying Jewish traditions, core values to a pressing need that we see in the world right now, which is how do we grow food in ways that are sustainable in ways that respect the earth and in ways that provide healthy food to people who don't have access to it. You're listening to KALX Berkeley 90.7. This is method Speaker 3:to the madness. A 30 minute show about the [00:06:00] innovative spirit of the bay area. I'm your host, Darlene Izar, and we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director of Urban Adamah, a farm that's sprouted up on San Pablo Avenue in west Berkeley. [inaudible] Speaker 4:okay, well let's talk a little bit about the project. Yeah. So how did you come to the idea, where did it start? Give me a little bit of the timeline of it. So, uh, urban, our demise is actually the successor to, um, a project called [inaudible] on demand means earth. By the way. [00:06:30] Um, and I founded this project called [inaudible] in Connecticut in 2001 and I Dima is a leadership training program. It still exists, uh, for young adults in their 20s that integrates organic farming, Jewish learning and leadership training. Um, to date, there are about 200 alumni from this program in Connecticut at still continues. It's a, it's housed at a place called the Isabella Freedman Jewish retreat center. Uh, and alumni of the program are doing amazing work in the world, both in the Jewish [00:07:00] community and in the secular world, uh, bringing their consciousness around environmental stewardship and spirituality wherever they go. Speaker 4:Uh, in 2009, I left Isabella Freedman and the [inaudible] of my fellowship and I took the sabbatical from the world of work for about a year. Um, and you, when that year ended, um, it was really clear to me that what I wanted to do next in my life was sort of create sort of [00:07:30] Adama 2.0 sort of an enhanced version of the first project. It was clear to me that the demand was there. Uh, we had 50 or 60 applicants for 12 spaces in the program each season. Um, and the impact that the fellows were having on the world, uh, Jewish and non Jewish world was tremendous. So it was clear to me that that's where the, there was a need there. Um, and there was an impact that could be made. And then there were three and as I sat with this question of how do I create the next version of other ma, um, there were three things [00:08:00] that came to my mind, uh, that informed how I wanted the new project to be different. Speaker 4:Um, the first one was where it would be located. Um, I'd demand Connecticut is two and a half hours outside of New York City, three hours from Boston. It's an hour and a half from the closest urban area. So may be a couple of hundred people visited the farm every year. And I knew that if we could bring our Dama to an urban area, thousands of people could be touched by the experience of the farm. And the farm that we have here in, in, [00:08:30] in west Berkeley is in fact an environmental education center for the whole community. We've already had, um, over a thousand people visiting the farm in just a few months that we'd been open. So the first difference between [inaudible] and urban on Dima is the rural versus urban nature of the project. The second aspect of the project that is different and that was really important to me was the social justice aspect of it. Speaker 4:You know, in Connecticut, the fellows, the program learn how to grow food sustainably and they learn about the dysfunctional system that we're part [00:09:00] of in terms of the agriculture that we're producing in this country. Um, but it's one thing to learn about food and to eat it yourself. Uh, and it's another thing entirely to grow food sustainably and give it all away. Uh, at Urban Adema here we give 90% of the food that we grow. Uh, we give it away. Right now we're giving it to the, um, covenant, uh, the Covenant Tree Church, uh, ministry, which is next door to the farm in west Berkeley. And also to the long life, uh, community health clinic, which runs a soup kitchen, [00:09:30] um, a food bank rather, uh, on Mondays and Tuesdays every week. Um, and so we're giving it away to people in need. A Jewish tradition has this notion of it's a DACA which says that 10% of what you own doesn't actually belong to you. Speaker 4:In our case, we're doing sort of reverse to DACA and we're giving away 90% of it. And so the fellows who are growing food to give it away are also spending one day a week volunteering with local nonprofits who are working at the intersection of poverty [00:10:00] and food security. So that was sort of the second piece was the social justice piece that's being manifested both in what we're doing with the food and also how the fellows are spending their time. They're not only growing food on the site and teaching on the site, but they're also volunteering at places like city slicker farms, people's grocery, Berkeley youth alternatives, all organizations that are working at that intersection, the intersection of poverty and food issues. The third, um, way that urban undermine is different from [inaudible] is that we're really designing it to be, um, [00:10:30] uh, I, what's the word? Speaker 4:Um, uh, replicable. Uh, we're designing urban Nevada to be replicable, um, where a standardizing a curriculum where I'm being pretty meticulous with documenting everything that we do. And our hope is that we have urban on demand in other cities and coming years. Um, our farm strategy is based on finding vacant land that we can use temporarily for a minimum of two years. The entire infrastructure [00:11:00] of the farm is designed to be taken down and moved with us and there are millions of empty lots all over this country, um, that are just sitting there. Uh, and if we can figure out a relatively low cost way to grow food and create community on these vacant lots, it would be a huge gift, uh, in our opinion both to the Jewish world and to the world at large was really interesting. So, um, you're talking about, you know, low, uh, ranked for these lots that obviously this is a nonprofit, [00:11:30] right? Speaker 4:Correct. So from an economics perspective, is it all donor based or uh, yes. The, the land strategy depends on getting land donated or virtually donated. So our land in Berkeley here is being donated by Wareham Development. That's giving us a use of the land for at least two years, possibly three. Um, and our sense is that there are, you know, there doesn't have to be a lot. There has to be some, uh, landowners out there who are in between development and would love to see their land at no cost to [00:12:00] them use for a public good like this. You know, what did you be a little concerned, not to be controversial or anything, but about, um, getting of Covenant Church or these types of places, giving them a lot of food, but all of a sudden, you know, your lease runs out, you can't really predict what's gonna happen next and what happens if they, you know, they get used to the food that you're going to give them. Speaker 4:Right. Uh, it's a good point. Um, I'd like to think that we'd be able to give them a lot of warning. The food that we're giving them now is supplementing food that they're buying, uh, for their, [00:12:30] for their dinners on Saturday nights. So right now we're, we're hopefully saving them money by supplying them food that's probably also better quality than the food that they're buying. Um, and I think that we'll know at least a year in advance when we're going to have to leave this site. Um, it's also true that there's a lot of empty vacant land in west Berkeley, so if we have to move from this site and two or three years, I'm hoping that we'll find another spot in the same community. This is method to the madness. A 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the [00:13:00] bay area. You can hear this show on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM every other Friday at noon. Speaker 4:And today we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director and founder of Urban Dima, a urban farm that has sprouted up on San Pablo Avenue in west Berkeley in the last few months. Um, I was reading on your website about this, these age old Jewish traditions you mentioned. Um, so one of them will, these laws, um, I'm probably [00:13:30] not gonna pronounce it right. Bald Tasha Ball. Tasha elite. Volatize sweet. It's definitely, yeah. So that's a really interesting concept. That's really a big thing today. Can you talk a little bit about that? Huh. Um, well, the, the concept of [inaudible] comes from the book of Deuteronomy and there's actually a line in the book of Deuteronomy that says, if you are in battle against a city and there are fruit trees surrounding the walls of the city, even if you could help, [00:14:00] it could help you win the war by cutting down the trees at the entrance to the city, you're not allowed to touch the trees. Speaker 4:You gotta leave him there. And from that one line in the Torah, um, many rabbis and others have come up with, uh, an interpretation of what that would mean today. And at it, at its core and ball Tash cleats means don't destroy or interpreted by some is don't waste. So if we think in some ways that the challenge of [00:14:30] humanity in the 21st century with regards to the environment is how can we use our resources much more efficiently and much more intelligently? This notion of [inaudible], which is don't waste them, don't destroy, sort of fits right in. And if we were going to say, um, how would we make, you know, most of us aren't going around sieging cities and we don't have the question, you know, should I cut this tree down or should I? But in every moment we have the choice about whether or not we can use things efficiently. Uh, whether or not we're wasteful [00:15:00] choices that we make about our own consumption. I mean, they're, they're everywhere. Um, and so looking at those, this law ball Tash cleat is just one example of, you know, the Jewish community today, taking age old concepts and applying them to a 21st century ability and making that meaningful. Speaker 3:Yeah. Which is so innovative and interesting about your project. A, another one of these laws was Shmittah Speaker 4:should we shmita what's that one all about? Shimmy tie, [00:15:30] um, is a law that, uh, like many sort of Jewish environmental concepts come from the era when we were all farmers and Shmita um, is based in this understanding that the land doesn't belong to us. It's very native American in that sense. Um, and Shmita says that at the end of six years you have to let your land completely lie fallow. Insertive consistent with modern principles of organic farming. [00:16:00] There's something wise, uh, and the organic [inaudible] organic practices teach us about letting our land rest and having rotating crop cycles. Um, you know, Jewish tradition at came up with this idea of Shmita years ago basically saying you let the land rest because the land does not belong to you. It belongs to God. That was the traditional understanding of it. Um, it also happens that it makes the land more fertile. [00:16:30] So it's this beautiful notion where, again, old meets new, where a traditional understanding of something that has to do with how we relate to the creator of all life is ultra also a practice that helps sustain our inhabiting of the land and using it to sustain us. Speaker 3:Yeah, that's really fascinating concept about you're looking at these old traditions are I think, um, um, Michael pay, Pailin, pollen, Paul and Michael Pollan, the, uh, the [00:17:00] author has food rules, but yeah. Or, or you went around the world and looked at all these kind of traditional rules for food and tried to solicited for them on the Internet and found, uh, that a lot of those rules are even better than modern day in nutritional science. Cause they're just some, there's something to it. That's why he's lasted so long and that, yeah, and the consciousness of those peoples who follow those traditions, it's really fascinating. I'm one more la wanted to ask about was um, Speaker 4:[00:17:30] ah, man, these pronunciations, you would show it to me. Well, I think a p e a h [inaudible] [inaudible]. Yeah. So pay, ah, uh, literally means corner. And there is a law in the book of Leviticus that says, when you, uh, harvest your fields, you have to lead, leave the corner of your field for the poor. Over time that's been interpreted to also mean that 10% of what you earn and what you collect. [00:18:00] So if you're not a farmer, 10% of what you earn actually you have to leave for the poor. It doesn't actually belong to you. So there's this notion that in the days when we were all farmers, we don't know how big these corners were, but there were some part of the field that poor people in the town who didn't have food knew that they could go and collect. Um, and we're trying to model that actually at the urban [inaudible] farm in west Berkeley. Speaker 4:Uh, we have a tent called the Payette tent at the corner of our farm. And the idea is once we're producing enough food that on [00:18:30] one day a week we'll actually put food there and working with local social service agencies, let folks know that they can actually come and take food from the pay a corner. And it will also be a food bank as well for local people to bring cans of food and other dried goods. So it'll be a sort of a food bank that's onsite at the farm. And that's what you were referring to before is going to flipping. You're doing 90%. Exactly though, the 10% exactly. Okay, great. And what about the last one is this one will definitely not get Sar and belie a [00:19:00] m sire by allay high game. Okay. So it literally means, um, the prevention of the suffering of animals. Speaker 4:Um, and there are bunch of laws in the old testament that all have to do with how we treat animals. Um, you're not allowed to tie an ox and a donkey together if you're plowing your field because they are both have different levels of strength and it's inhumane to tie them both to the [00:19:30] same tool that's helping you plow your field. Um, you're not allowed to feed yourself before you feed your animals. Um, you're not allowed to take the egg of a mother bird. Um, if the mother bird is watching. So there's this whole list of, of Old Testament laws that collectively are called Sar by like high IEM. And we look at it today and we say, well, if we were going to take Sar by Liam seriously today, what would that mean in terms of our own treatment of animals [00:20:00] and our own consumption of animals? Speaker 4:What would it look like if we're raising chickens on our farm? What kind of space would we give them? What would we feed them? Um, if we're buying food for ourselves, what is preventing the cruelty and the suffering of animals today? Can we buy factory farm meat and say that we're following this notion of [inaudible]? So these are, this is something again, that we're struck, that we're engaging with and looking at and trying to say, how are we going to make this meaningful in the 21st century, given the reality that we're facing? [00:20:30] You're listening to KALX Berkeley, [inaudible] 90.7 FM. This is method to the madness, a 30 minute show about the innovative spirit of the bay area and I'm your host holding his arm. We expect to grow six to 7,000 pounds of food, um, this year that, you know, 90% of of which will be given away. Speaker 4:But really urban on demoss contribution, um, to the world is, it's in, is in its education and in its leadership training. Um, there are three [00:21:00] cohorts of 20 somethings that live in a house a few blocks from the farm communally and engage in a curriculum that combines, uh, urban organic farming where they're actually working on the farm, teaching on the farm to members of the community about the work that we're doing, uh, and living and engaging, uh, in, um, and, and sort of learning and approach to Jewish tradition that resonates [00:21:30] with our core values and supports them and becoming JJ agents in the world. And we have three cohorts a year, so it's 36 fellows, uh, and our hope is that they're going to go out in the world and do great things. Um, and I think that's, uh, probably our biggest contribution along with the interaction that we have with the thousands of visitors that will be coming to the farm and what they will take away from the experience. Speaker 4:And you also do camps, right? Yeah, we run out, we run a summer camp program, uh, in [00:22:00] partnership with several different, uh, bay area organizations. Uh, and we're also going to be running a program called Hebrew school on the farm in partnership with a couple of synagogues in the area. We'll be bringing their students to us regularly throughout the fall. Okay. And is there a particular, um, sect or form of Judaism that you're practicing there and there isn't? Um, we're trained denominational. Um, this summer we're running summer camps in partnership with, uh, the g the Jewish community center, uh, [00:22:30] which is, uh, I think by definition a nonreligious institution, um, and really appeals to folks who don't consider themselves, um, very traditional Jewishly. Uh, and we're also running a program with congregation Beth Israel, which is the, um, Hologic or Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. And so I think that, um, Jews and non Jews are hope, feel comfortable at urban, on Dima. Speaker 4:Uh, we will be running programs [00:23:00] hopefully in partnership with the ecology center moving forward. The don't actually have any Jewish content that are just open to the public, uh, programs that deal with urban, sustainable agriculture. Um, and we'll, our hope is also this fall, we'll be running programs for kids in the community that aren't connected to Jewish organizations who are just interested in coming to the farm and learning what the farm has to teach them. This is a method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM and we're speaking with Adam Berman, executive director of urban automa. What [00:23:30] is the vision? So if you look out five years from now and you're, this is something you created out of your brain, this show is very much about innovators and we interview innovation across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Um, and I always like to ask this Speaker 3:question because it came from your brain. Where do you see it going in five years? If you could wave a magic wand and have it be exactly what you would want it to be, what would it be? Yeah. Um, Speaker 4:my hope is that there would be urban od dima farms in many [00:24:00] communities throughout this country. Five years from now, I'd like to see us in four cities. I'd like to see, uh, the urban [inaudible] fellowship become a rite of passage for hundreds of young adults every year. And I would like to see the alumni of the fellowship out in the world planting their seeds and bringing how they interpret sat deck has said and Ahava just stick justice, compassion, and love into the world in ways that resonates with their own visions. So the first [00:24:30] circle is the circle of the fellows. The second circle in terms of the vision is what happens in the Jewish community where these farms exist. My hope is that the Jewish communities, wherever the urban [inaudible] farms exist, find joy, relevancy, meeting connection as part of their urban Adam experience. Whether or not they're sending their kids for a day long program or they're sending their kids for a three week summer program. Speaker 4:My hope is that the farms enriched Jewish communal life wherever they find themselves. And then [00:25:00] the third circle of impact is in the larger world, forget about the Jewish community. My hope is that urban ended, my farms are producing tens of thousands of pounds of food that are going to people in need wherever the cities find themselves. My hope is that urban had to, my farms are a bridge between the Jewish community and the non-Jewish can be wherever they find themselves. Our food. The land is this common language is this common resource that connects us all and for urban out of our [inaudible] farmers to be a place where people come together regardless, [00:25:30] or religion or ethnicity, to grow, food, to eat, to celebrate, to sing. That's my greatest hope for what urban Audubon can be in the world. Speaker 3:Wow. Well, hopefully we'll get there. It sounds like a, you've got the passion to make it happen. If people want to learn more about it, uh, how should they get in touch with you? Www urban onto [inaudible] dot org my email is Adam at urban adamah at demise a d a m a h. Dot. Org. I look to thank Adam for coming [00:26:00] on the show today and wish him the best of luck and Urban Altima you've been listening to. Method to the madness. 30 minutes. Share about the innovative spirit of the bay area. You can learn more about our show, a method to the madness.org have a great Friday. Everyone. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The November 7, 2006 mid term election. Hosts Ruthanne Shpiner and Doyle Saylor will interview Donna Spring, a woman with a disability who prevailed against stiff competition and big money in her re election to the Berkeley City Council. Pushing Limits will also interview Patti Nash who is blind, on her experiences voting in this and other elections. The post Pushing Limits – December 1, 2006 appeared first on KPFA.
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