Berkeley City Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra presented a \u201cState of the City\u201d address to the ASUC Senate on Wednesday, where she announced that the city will likely propose a contract with Flock Safety to the Berkeley City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Multiple lawsuits allege that California cities are sharing Flock license plate reader data with federal immigration authorities and violating California law.<\/p>\n
Lunaparra also focused heavily on transportation and infrastructure initiatives, discussing how the council is planning a potential car-free section of Telegraph Avenueand highlighting the completion of upgrades to Southside streets and sidewalks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lunaparra emphasized how Berkeley was the \u201cfirst in the region\u201d to comply with curb painting requirements for pedestrian safety. She also mentioned that city officials are considering higher fees for scooter companies to help cover infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Lunaparra noted that public safety policy remains an active area of debate for the council. According to Lunaparra, several council members are considering changes to yearslong reforms, such as rescinding restrictions upon the Berkeley Police Department\u2019s use of canines and helicopters, reconsidering the city\u2019s tear gas ban and rescinding pepper spray reporting requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lunaparra also addressed questions about the redevelopment of People\u2019s Park. She noted that UC Berkeley had previously been committed to providing at least 100 units of permanent supportive housing as part of the development,but has since designated some units as affordable housing instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cPermanent supportive housing is directly for formerly unhoused people, versus affordable housing is for low income people generally,\u201d Lunaparra said. \u201cThey\u2019re both important, but permanent supportive housing is much more rare and expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shifting to wildfire preparedness, Lunaparra cited that only 5% of surveyed students felt well-informed about evacuation procedures. She added that the city is working with emergency services and Berkeley landlords to improve the communication of emergency procedures, but that evacuating large numbers of students without access to cars remains an ongoing logistical challenge.<\/p>\n
Lunaparra also raised concerns about the city\u2019s projected $27 million budget deficit. According to Lunaparra, the city is considering a sales tax increase to try and generate more revenue. Even with this increase, the city will still have to make cuts to spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police and fire departments take up so much of our budget and a lot of it goes to overtime,\u201d Lunaparra said. \u201cI think that they\u2019ll be hit the hardest, but that is a political fight that is to be determined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lunaparra said she hopes to make this address a recurring semesterly event to promote communication between her and the ASUC, given that her constituents are primarily students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many senators, and it\u2019s very difficult to communicate with each of them,\u201d Lunaparra said. \u201cSo I thought it\u2019d be a cool idea to introduce some of the high level issues that we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley City Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra presented a \u201cState of the City\u201d address to the ASUC Senate on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26927,7872,13775,1610,28555,143,145,144,11650,12956,13774],"class_list":{"0":"post-196470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-asuc","9":"tag-berkeley-police-department","10":"tag-cecilia-lunaparra","11":"tag-city-council","12":"tag-flock-safety","13":"tag-oakland","14":"tag-oakland-headlines","15":"tag-oakland-news","16":"tag-peoples-park","17":"tag-state-of-the-city","18":"tag-telegraph-avenue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}