{"id":21315,"date":"2025-10-24T13:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/21315\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T13:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:05:06","slug":"mayor-ishii-defiant-hopeful-in-state-of-the-city-address-city-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/21315\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Ishii defiant, hopeful in State of the City Address | City Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the announcement of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, agents\u2019 imminent arrival in the Bay Area, Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii began her first State of the City Address Wednesday night to include a warning: She believes that President Donald Trump intends to send the National Guard to Berkeley in order to make an example out of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ishii expressed resistance toward increased federal presence while attempting to reassure Berkeley\u2019s immigrant communities that the city was on their side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment we\u2019ve been preparing for as a city has arrived,\u201d Ishii said in her speech. \u201cI never expected that during my first year as mayor that Berkeley would be called upon to help protect the very ideas of democracy and the rule of law in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

While defiant, she encouraged those who chose to protest to do it peacefully and with intention, stressing that it was important for residents to take care of each other in this moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ishii used this moment in the speech to highlight the work her office and the Berkeley City Council have done to support immigrant communities, including codification of Berkeley\u2019s sanctuary city status<\/a> in the city charter and her partnership with local nonprofit East Bay Sanctuary Covenant to host \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d workshops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also attempted to reassure parents that it was still safe to send their kids to school, noting that Berkeley Unified School District has strong policies in place to protect immigrant students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emeryville Mayor David Mourra was in attendance. Mourra said he has been in communication with Ishii and other Bay Area mayors in an effort to coordinate a response to the CBP\u2019s arrival. Mourra said he was grateful to receive guidance from state officials such as Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Mia Bonta, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CBP deployment in the Bay Area is completely unnecessary and a distraction from the real issues of governance that our cities need to be focusing on like policing, public works and balancing our budgets,\u201d Mourra said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rub\u00e9n Lizardo, the director of local government and community relations for the Office of the Chancellor at UC Berkeley, was highlighted in his capacity as a member of the city\u2019s Sanctuary City Task Force. Lizardo said he felt the mayor\u2019s speech was \u201cvery inspirational\u201d and Ishii was \u201cthe mayor for our times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ishii rotated between the city\u2019s accomplishments and continued challenges of her first year in office, highlighting the city\u2019s progress on houselessness, affordable housing, infrastructure developments and fire prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ishii thanked voters for passing several ballot measures that have contributed funding to local projects such as Measure O, a bond measure which has supported the construction of low income housing, Measure FF, which has supported the construction of safer pedestrian and bike corridors and Measure T1, which has supported infrastructure improvements such as the re-opened Willard Park Community Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese measures that you all vote for, they really matter,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cI want Berkeley to be a city that lives up to its values \u2026 whose built environment fills its peoples with civic pride.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The speech then turned toward the city\u2019s $28 million budget deficit<\/a>. Ishii conceded that there will be \u201cdecisions\u201d to make, but she remained committed to a fiscally responsible budget that is centered on Berkeley values in order to meet the needs of residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor pivoted to the economy, highlighting her time walking all five business districts to speak with owners and employees about their concerns and how her office can help support them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing complex issues, and sometimes it really starts with showing up,\u201d Ishii said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the speech concluded, Ishii\u2019s attention turned back to the national issues at play, stressing that she believes communities are living through one of the most challenging times in our history.<\/p>\n

She closed the address with a statement of hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy is made up of two Greek words: \u201cdemos,\u201d the people, and \u201ckratos,\u201d rule \u2014 the people rule,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cAll of us as a community, standing together, is what will save our democracy \u2026 do not give up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the announcement of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, agents\u2019 imminent arrival in the Bay Area,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7981,17347,6765,4025,16589,17351,143,145,144,2803,17350,17349,17352,12956,17348,149],"class_list":["post-21315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-city-council","tag-berkeley-mayor-adena-ishii","tag-berkeley-unified-school-district","tag-cbp","tag-east-bay-sanctuary-covenant","tag-emeryville-mayor-david-mourra","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-rubn-lizardo","tag-sanctuary-city","tag-sanctuary-city-task-force","tag-state-of-the-city","tag-u-s-customs-and-border-patrol","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315","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=21315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}