Page 55 - North Berkeley News Today

Berkeley is the latest city looking at opening up exclusive neighborhoods to more housing as the region struggles with exorbitant rents and home prices and increasing homelessness.

The board of the Berkeley School District wants to build housing for teachers and staff on the parking lot of the Berkeley Adult School at 1701 San Pablo Ave. Currently, the lot is being used by Curative, which runs a COVID-19 test facility there. Photo: Pete Rosos Cornelius Smith pulls into the parking lot at Oxford Elementary at 8 a.m. He leans the driver’s seat back to get some shut-eye, two hours before his shift starts.  By day, Smith works as a school safety officer at the high school....

20 Feb 2021 Berkeley, California, is considering social justice policy for future housing in the northern California city by ending single-family-home zoning by December 2022. The San Francisco Chronicledescribed the plan as “an effort to right the wrongs of the past and address the region’s housing crisis.” The Berkeley City Council is set to vote next week on a “symbolic resolution” to end the ability of families to live in a home where only their family resides.  The policy targe...

Allowing the construction of multi-family homes in more neighborhoods will help end Berkeley's racist housing history.

Obscure Bay Area: The fairy-tale village hidden off a busy Berkeley street FacebookTwitterEmail Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE The story of how a storybook European village, complete with sloping stairways and pretty stone streets, landed in the middle of Berkeley starts with an inferno. On Sept. 17, 1923, a wildfire started in the Berkeley hills. Gusty, dry winds pushed the flames down into the city. It roared by Cals campus, through Northside and down all the way to Shattuck Avenue. By the time it ...

Berkeley may eliminate single-family zoning in neighborhoods like this one on Hillegass Avenue in The Elmwood. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel The future of Berkeley could be denser and less segregated, thanks to new proposals to scrap historically racist single-family zoning and legalize the widespread construction of fourplexes. On Feb. 23, the City Council will vote on a resolution that could start a process to eliminate “exclusionary zoning” – typically viewed as the R1 or single-family-on...

Alameda County food workers now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines Berkeley grocery store and convenience store workers are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines. On Monday, the city of Berkeley announced it was expanding eligibility for these workers, along with in-person educators and childcare workers, to make appointments at the Curative vaccination site in Albany. By Tuesday, all available appointment slots had been filled, but the city said more appointments could become available due to cancell...

Sunday February 14, 2021 - 12:41:00 PM The Berkeley Neighborhoods Council (BNC) is writing this letter because of deep concerns expressed by many Berkeley neighborhoods over the increasing threat to the well-being of residents and the unshakable hope that the year 2021 will provide the opportunity for a fresh start for cities everywhere. While these concerns include the broad spectrum of urban life issues, this letter focuses on existing land use policies, procedures and practices...

Berkeley police arrest 2 teen suspects for alleged carjacking Google Maps/Courtesy According to a Nixle alert by Berkeley Police Department, officers arrested two teenage suspects for alleged carjacking and weapons-related violations. The alert noted that the officers were able to arrest both suspects. Last Updated February 10, 2021 On Tuesday evening, Berkeley police officers arrested two suspects for alleged carjacking and several weapons-related violations. After a man parked his vehicle on...

When I was speaking across the country promoting the housing policy changes urged in my book, Generation Priced Out, I did not foresee my hometown of Berkeley ending exclusionary zoning before Seattle, Denver and other cities. To the contrary, my book discusses how Berkeley’s 1973 “Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance” became a national model for using “neighborhood character” and “public input” to stop new apartments. Through most of 2020,  Berkeley refused to end exclusionary z...