At the second annual State of the City Address on Wednesday, Mayor Adena Ishii reflected on the city of Berkeley\u2019s business revival efforts, housing and the city\u2019s relationship with UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n
In attendance were city council members, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons and former Berkeley Mayor and state Sen. Jesse Arregu\u00edn, among others. The crowd of more than 100 people showered Ishii with standing ovations before and after her speech.<\/p>\n
Lyons and Ishii praised connection between the city and campus, with Ishii calling the relationship between UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley \u201cthe best it\u2019s ever been.\u201d They both pointed to collaborations such as the Long Range Development Plan, a campus growth strategy that Ishii claimed brings the city $4 million annually.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship, much to the credit of my predecessor Carol Christ, between the city and the university is at an absolute high,\u201d Lyons told The Daily Californian. \u201cI know the mayor well on a personal level, and I just want to support her and the city as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishii also stressed the importance of startups to the city of Berkeley\u2019s economy, highlighting the retention of Berkeley-founded companies through the city\u2019s Office of Economic Development, or OED. She touted the city as home to about 370 \u201cinnovation companies,\u201d emphasizing that many come out of campus and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.<\/p>\n
Ishii emphasized the importance of creating livable and vibrant communities in the city that encourage companies and graduates to stay and grow in Berkeley, rather than move to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Six hundred businesses have opened in Berkeley over the past year, according to Ishii. Additionally, she highlighted steps her office is taking to make it easier to do business, such as pushing for faster permitting timelines and contributing $10,000 to the city\u2019s Business Damage Mitigation Fund.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Daily Cal, District 4 Councilmember Igor Tregub highlighted similar growth in Downtown Berkeley, pointing to vacancy rates dropping below 10% for the first time since the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the community organizer in me, but I love knocking on doors and speaking directly with people,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cDuring these visits, I have one-on-one conversations with business owners, managers and employees about what they need, share resources available through OED and make sure they know that my office is here to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishii said her push to make Berkeley probusiness is necessary for fixing the city\u2019s $30 million budget deficit, arguing that new sources of revenue are necessary and that the city \u201ccan\u2019t just keep making cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arregu\u00edn also mentioned the city\u2019s budget deficit and advocated for measures U and V, which voters will decide on in November. Measure U would authorize the city to issue up to $300 million in bonds for infrastructure through a property tax. Measure V would add a 0.5% sales tax, raising Berkeley\u2019s total sales tax to 10.75%.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I learned as a mayor, there\u2019s only so much you can get done here,\u201d Arregu\u00edn told the Daily Cal. \u201cYou need strong partners, the county and the state. (I\u2019m) really excited to support (Ishii\u2019s) work and the work of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Housing was another key issue that Ishii talked about, arguing that \u201chousing is the solution to homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed to the city\u2019s Middle Housing ordinance, which allows housing units that reach up to three stories and eight units to be built in all mainly residential neighborhoods, aside from fire hazard areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe each have a role in shaping Berkeley today and into the future because Berkeley has never been a city that waits for someone else to define us,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cWe have always been willing to try something different, to challenge convention, to ask whether there is a better way. That spirit is what built Berkeley\u2019s reputation in the first place. Now, we have an opportunity to raise the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the second annual State of the City Address on Wednesday, Mayor Adena Ishii reflected on the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7983,764,186838,32160,35168,14328,74343,28116,186836,49130,88998,33479,143,145,144,186837,52369,101,5532,23221,149],"class_list":["post-475363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-adena-ishii","tag-berkeley","tag-business-damage-mitigation-fund","tag-carol-christ","tag-district-4","tag-igor-tregub","tag-jesse-arregun","tag-lawrence-berkeley-national-laboratory","tag-long-range-development-plan","tag-measure-u","tag-measure-v","tag-middle-housing","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-office-of-economic-development","tag-rich-lyons","tag-san-francisco","tag-state-of-the-city-address","tag-the-daily-californian","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475363","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=475363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}