May 8th rally(Public Commons/homeless cuts)

Tomorrow at 6pm folks opposed to the mayor's Public Commons for Everyone initiative will be showing up on the front steps of 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way the old city council chambers(across from Civic Center Park). Last week at the council agenda meeting the mayor and the city manager made clear that the latter's recommendations to pass several items related to and response to the mayor's initiative will not be acted on by the city council.

It will be simply a discussion on the issue of problematic street behavior. There is word that despite this assurance there will be an attempt to pass language banning smoking within 20 feet of a store(versus the present 15 feet ban on smoking near the public street entrance of a store) which in addition to the 20 foot ban from bus stops will effectively ban smoking in the shopping area of Telegraph and much of the other commercial shopping districts.

Also still on the table are budget cuts to the Multi-Services Agency Center and the Harrison St. family shelter programs as well as to the Catholic Workers breakfast program. The plan to ban sidewalk sitting(not just long term as the mayor talked about back in March in his initiative but he later strengthened to a full ban on sidewalk sitting in commercial shopping districts) and social services to aid people getting off the streets have been put off until December.

The mayor has talked about passing a fifty cents increase in parking fees to provide funding for a street outreach worker(neither with the police department or Berkeley Mental Health admitting they both have a coercive element inherent in their interventions) who would go and tell people sidewalk sitting is now illegal and to move or a police officer and/or mobile crisis might come and cite them. This outreach person would try to get the person sitting on the street into services(whether Options Recovery or Berkeley Mental Health or a youth services site or what have you).

Now in response to my bringing up the question he also talked about funding a daytime youth drop in center for the street youth to go. Mayor Tom Bates has just recently accepted my invitation made a couple weeks ago to speak at the May is Mental Health Month event on May 19th at 2:45pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center making a brief appearance to speak to the issue of mental health housing with BOSS director boona cheema.

This event is held annually and will be between 2 and 4pm and is sponsored by the Berkeley Mental Health Commission which I am on. The three commissions that the mayor referred the initiative to-the Homeless, Mental Health and Public Welfare Commissions- have written the city council to take no action on May 8th, to have the mayor address the members of the 3 commissions probably in a joint meeting to address their serious concerns about the initiative. I will be meeting with mayoral aide Julie Sinai about the PCEI and this speaking engagement today. The meetings regarding with PCEI talked about in my previous blog with council members Linda Maio, Darryl Moore and Laurie Capitelli went well
-Michael Diehl