As the city\u2019s November elections draw nearer, District 7 candidate Aidan Hill has accused incumbent Berkeley City Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra and her endorsed successor Syrak Micael of supporting development that Hill said has destroyed parts of Southside.<\/p>\n
In a video posted to Instagram, Hill accused Lunaparra of allowing construction near restaurant El Trompudo, alleging the work may disrupt its operations. In another, Hill accused Micael of supporting the People\u2019s Park development by voting to recommend continued funding for its permanent supportive housing component.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Cecilia Lunaparra? Why isn\u2019t she here right now?\u201d Hill asked while standing outside of El Trompudo, where construction at nearby 2449 Dwight Way has shut off part of the street and the sidewalk. \u201cShe said she was in favor of building on People\u2019s Park. She said she is in favor of destroying all of Telegraph Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The construction at 2449 Dwight Way will replace a four-story building badly damaged in a 2015 fire with an eight-story, mixed-use housing project.<\/p>\n
Eric Galindo, who co-owns El Trompudo with his father, said the restaurant\u2019s business dropped roughly 50% when construction began shortly after it opened May 15.<\/p>\n
Galindo worries that, while the apartments might bring more customers when completed, they also might cause his landlord to raise rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not making any money yet \u2014 we\u2019re losing money. We\u2019re hoping that when the students come back, that helps out,\u201d Galindo said. \u201cIt might be a good thing, but will we survive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Galindo said he had not reached out to Councilmember Lunaparra about their struggles.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Hill said they supported rebuilding the fire-damaged building but criticized how the city handled the project. Hill said officials should have better communicated with El Trompudo before construction began or offered grants to businesses affected by the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got burned down. It is a corner building. It is something that has a lot of value for the community as a whole,\u201d Hill said. \u201cI was never against the development there. What I was against was that development occurred as soon as El Trompudo opened up, so that\u2019s a coordinating issue first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill also acknowledged that some of the rhetoric in their campaign video was exaggerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hyperbolic, destroying all of Telegraph Avenue, but she has agreed to do a car-free telegraph proposal which would greatly impact the streets of Telegraph Avenue and the businesses,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
While Hill\u2019s criticism of the Dwight Way project focused on how construction is managed, their criticism of Micael centered on People\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Housing Advisory Commission voted in November 2025 to recommend that the City Council allocate more than $14 million for affordable housing at People\u2019s Park. Micael, who was appointed to the commission by Lunaparra, voted in favor of the recommendation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat vote made him an active participant in keeping the Park enclosed and destroying it as a freely accessible public space,\u201d Hill wrote in their Instagram caption.<\/p>\n
Both Micael and Lunaparra rejected Hill\u2019s characterization, saying they had opposed the development on the park from the outset.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not a vote between whether or not to build on the Park \u2014 it was a vote to ensure that the development, which had already begun, had affordable units,\u201d Micael wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
Lunaparra said her office works with residents, local businesses and city staff to minimize the impacts of development while continuing to support new housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, to answer the question \u201cwhere is Cecilia Lunaparra?\u201d: I am in City Hall with my colleagues and city staff working to create new policies and improve city processes,\u201d she wrote in an email statement. \u201cI am on the streets of Southside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill, who said People\u2019s Park had played a pivotal role during their time living in Berkeley, said they did not accept Micael\u2019s explanation that the vote simply sought to preserve affordable housing in a project that was already underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t accept that as a valid answer. It\u2019s a contradiction to me,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the city\u2019s November elections draw nearer, District 7 candidate Aidan Hill has accused incumbent Berkeley City Councilmember…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[169017,110271,13775,38812,169018,169016,169019,30538,143,145,144,11650,110273,5294],"class_list":["post-423555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2449-dwight-way","tag-aidan-hill","tag-cecilia-lunaparra","tag-district-7","tag-dwight","tag-el-trompudo","tag-eric-galindo","tag-housing-advisory-commission","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-peoples-park","tag-syrak-micael","tag-telegraph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423555","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=423555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}