Mayoral Script

Intro by Host Jason Meggs: Hello I’m Jason Meggs and thank you for tuning in to our 2008 election forum on Land Use, Transportation and the Environment for Berkeley mayoral candidates. The election is taking place on November 4 and we hope you will all help get out the vote. Among the most important issues that city councilmembers have to address are those related to land use, transportation and the environment. This is particularly true in the context of global climate change, something that all the sponsors or this forum are concerned about.

This forum is being sponsored by a variety of environmental and community groups that are active in Berkeley and the East Bay. These are the Sierra Club, The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition, Walk & Roll Berkeley, Friends of BRT, Livable Berkeley, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Urban Habitat, Bay Localize, the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Aquatic Park Egret, Kyoto USA, Ecocity Builders, and Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza.

And now I’d like to turn it over to our moderator Helen Burke, a former East Bay MUD director, a former Berkeley Planning Commission chair and an active member of the Sierra Club. Helen…

Intro by Moderator Helen Burke: Thank you Jason. For this forum, we are pleased to have the two candidates for mayor whose names will appear on the November ballot. Those candidates are incumbent mayor Tom Bates and former Mayor Shirley Dean.

Members of the various groups that are sponsoring this forum will be asking the two candidates a variety of questions. Each candidate will have equal time to respond to each question; in most cases they will have a minute. With each question, we will start with a different candidate

Candidates, please keep an eye on our timekeeper who will be using flashcards to let you know when your allotted time is up. For 15 seconds remaining, she has a yellow card; and when your time is up, a red card.

Question #1

Helen Burke, Moderator: Here to ask our first question is Andy Katz. Andy is an East Bay MUD director and a member of the Sierra Club California Executive Committee. Andy…

Andy Katz: To start off today’s forum, we would like you to please introduce yourself, tell us briefly why you are running, and tell us, if you are elected, what your priorities will be with respect to land use, transportation and addressing global climate change.

Helen Burke, Moderator: For this first question, you will have up to two minutes and we will begin with ________

Question #1 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #2

Helen Burke, Moderator: For our next question, we turn to Tom Kelly of Kyoto USA.

Tom Kelly: Kyoto USA is an all volunteer, grassroots organization that encourages U.S. cities and their residents to reduce the global warming greenhouse gas emissions for which they are responsible. The City has just released the second draft of its climate action plan. The Plan is the result of Measure G, approved by Berkeley voters in 2006, which establishes a goal of reducing Berkeley’s emissions by 80% by the year 2050. What measures described in the Plan would be your top priority and why?

Helen Burke Moderator: This time we’ll start with_____; candidates have up to a minute. ______

Question #2 Answers; one minute allowed per candidate

Question #3

Helen Burke, Moderator: Energy is the subject of our next question by Kirsten Schwind of Bay Localize.

Kirsten Schwind: Bay Localize is working to build a more self-reliant, sustainable, and socially just Bay Area. We work to catalyze a shift from a globalized, fossil fuel-based economy that enriches a few and weakens most, to a localized green economy that strengthens all Bay Area communities. We seek to build a cooperative, inclusive movement toward regional self-reliance.

Our question is: As global climate change worsens and energy bills rise, cities and counties have powerful options under state law to develop local, affordable, clean energy. One of the strongest tools is known as Community Choice Energy, in which a city can become a buyers' coop for electricity. In this public/private partnership, a city can contract for higher levels of renewable power, boost energy efficiency, and use low-cost financing to build our own renewable energy generation.

Candidates: As other cities and counties - notably Marin and San Francisco - forge ahead with Community Choice Energy, will you support it in Berkeley?

Helen Burke, Moderator: let’s begin with ________

Question # 3 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #4

Helen Burke, Moderator: Our next question, also related to energy, was submitted by Aaron Lehmer of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Aaron Lemur: The Ella Baker Center is a strategy and action center working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Based in Oakland, we promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration and policies that create pathways out of poverty into the growing green economy.

Our question is about the innovative Berkeley FIRST program.Berkeley FIRST will provide much-needed assistance to property owners by helping them pay the up-front costs of installing solar energy systems on their homes and businesses. However, we are concerned that this program does not address the need to reduce energy consumption and may not sufficiently benefit low-income residents.

Would you support expanding the program to include energy efficiency retrofits and measures to ensure access for low-income households? If yes, how would you propose to do so?

Helen Burke Moderator: We’ll begin with_____________

Question #4 answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #5

Helen Burke, Moderator: With transportation responsible for 46% of Berkeley’s greenhouse gas emissions, we will now have a series of questions related to transportation. The first of these will be posed by Andy Katz of the Sierra Club Bay Chapter’s Transportation Committee.

Andy Katz: In 2005, the City staff and the Transportation Commission proposed creation of a new transportation services fee. Many cities in California, including San Francisco, require developers to pay such fees. The required nexus study for the fee was completed by the same consultants who put together Palo Alto’s transportation fee. Developers would be required to pay a fee to cover the costs of dealing with new auto traffic generated by new development. The fee would pay for trip reduction efforts. Since 2005, the proposed fee has been in bureaucratic limbo and has not gone to the City Council for approval. Do you support establishing a transportation services fee?

And what other funding sources do you think the city could use to support programs aimed at reducing transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging walking, bicycling and transit use?

Helen Burke, Moderator: we’ll start this time with_______

Question # 5 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #6

Moderator: And now we have Wendy Alfsen of Walk & Roll Berkeley with a question about an innovative transit subsidy program called Eco Pass. Wendy…

Wendy Alfsen : With Eco Pass, employers pay transit agencies a relatively modest sum per employee so that every employee has a bus pass allowing them to ride for free. In most cases, employers don’t charge employees for the passes. The City of Berkeley has an Eco Pass program for its employees. Some cities, including Boulder, Colorado and Ann Arbor, Michigan, have Eco Pass programs for people who work in their downtowns. This encourages transit use and reduces employee demand for parking downtown leaving more parking for customers of local businesses. When Donald Shoup, an acknowledged parking pricing expert visited Berkeley, he said that Berkeley needed to raise its parking rates in downtown to free up on-street parking and suggested that the City should use some of the increased parking revenue to help fund an Eco-Pass program for downtown business employees. Do you support establishing a downtown Eco-Pass program to encourage downtown employees to use transit? Would you support using parking revenues to cover some of the cost of such a program as Shoup suggested?

Helen Burke Moderator: We’ll begin with ___________

Question #6 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #7

Wendy: Walk & Roll Berkeley has been working for eight years to increase pedestrian safety and promote walking in Berkeley. A big priority for us is the Pedestrian Plan. Will you support adoption and implementation of Berkeley’s Pedestrian Plan? Will you vote to allocate funds for its implementation at least equal to the City’s bicycle account?

Helen Burke, Moderator: This time, it’s _________ turn to start.

Question #7 answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question #8

Helen Burke, Moderator: If walking is one mode of getting around, riding a bicycle is another mode that’s good for the environment and good exercise too. Our next question will be asked by Sarah Syed of the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition.

Sarah Syed of BFBC: The mission of BFBC is to make Berkeley a more bicycle-friendly city. We want to help make bicycling so safe, convenient, and pleasant that it becomes a preferred way of getting around town.

Berkeley was a national leader in 2000 with the adoption of the Bicycle Plan, which detailed a network of bicycle priority streets.

However, throughout this decade, little progress on the network has been made. Berkeley is falling behind. Many people do not feel safe cycling on local streets, and bicycle theft remains a large deterrent.

Bicycle improvements can be very inexpensive, yet they do require significant planning and tradeoffs between other road users, such as decreasing parking or auto lanes, or changing a traffic signal to give priority to a bicycle route. We do not currently have one full time employee (FTE) working on bicycle issues, when many cities have multiple staff, including bicycle engineers and planners.

Cities with the highest rates of cycling have addressed these challenges, restoring miles of streets to non-motorized use with bold leadership to address environmental and equity goals. Cities have seen great increases in cycling when the true costs of driving are paid by motorists, so travelers have a price incentive to try other modes.

Question:

Do you support the City mobilizing to update and implement the Bicycle Plan and make Berkeley a place where residents of all ages and abilities find cycling safe, comfortable, and convenient? How will you react when faced with tough choices such as should the city prioritize bicycle lanes over auto travel lanes?

Helen Burke, Moderator: This time we’ll start with___________

Question #8 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Helen Burke, Moderator: You have one minute. We’ll start this time with _______

Question #9 Answers:one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 10

Helen Burke Moderator: Besides improving conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists, our sponsoring groups also want to improve transit. Our next two questions concern Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT for short, and come from Joel Ramos of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition and from Len Conly of Friends of BRT We’ll also show a short video excerpt that illustrates how BRT will work. We’ll begin with Joel.

Joel:The Transportation and Land Use Coalition or TALC is a partnership of 110 groups working for a sustainable and socially just Bay Area. Bus Rapid Transit (or BRT) is part of TALC's program for a comprehensive and integrated regional transportation plan. As proposed by AC Transit, the Bus Rapid Transit BRT service would start on Shattuck in downtown Berkeley, and run to downtown Oakland via Telegraph Avenue and then on to San Leandro.

BRT, with dedicated lanes for buses, would provide more frequent, faster, and more reliable bus service on this heavily-used bus route. City staff have calculated that it would make a significant contribution toward the City's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To illustrate how BRT would work, we will now show an excerpt of a conceptual animation of the proposed BRT system.

Show Video

Narration of Video:

I stress that this is not AC Transits's final proposal, but is just a simulation.

I'll point out a few components of BRT as we are watching: Go ahead and start the video please…

First, notice the comfortable stations and how they're a bit higher than a curb so that they are level with the floors of the buses, eliminating the need for steps and wheelchair ramps. The stations also act to calm traffic, making Telegraph safer for pedestrians.

Notice how BRT avoids traffic by traveling in the dedicated lanes. In most places we could still have mixed traffic lanes, a bike lane, and parking as well.

Here comes an ambulance using the dedicated lanes in an emergency…

Also notice BRT minimizing waiting at red lights, holding green lights as it goes approaches intersections…right turn lanes, bike lanes, parking…

Finally, on Telegraph, north of Dwight, where the Southbound BRT comes back down from Shattuck, BRT runs in the mixed traffic lanes, without a dedicated lane, preserving the street parking there. It's really up to the City to decide how AC Transit should do all of this.

The BRT then arrives at Bancroft in front of Spraul Plaza, much like the 1/1R does now, but with the station improvements, before heading downtown and coming back to Telegraph via Shattuck and Dwight.

Joel: So that's what BRT might look like, but there are still a lot of details to be worked out, and additional opportunities for people to give input. Right now, AC Transit is awaiting the City's response to the BRT Draft Environmental Impact Report. They want the City to choose what's called a "locally preferred alternative" that would spell out how BRT could be implemented in Berkeley, like where we would like dedicated lanes, left turns, right turns, bike lanes, where to keep parking. Etc. Once the City gives AC Transit it's proposal, AC could then do further study of the alternative to give us a more detailed understanding of BRT's real impacts, which would in turn provide a basis for possible mitigations or changes to the plan.

Now, opponents would prefer that the city reject altogether the idea of dedicated lanes for buses, rather than doing further analysis. But in order to make an informed decision about how to implement BRT, do you support further study of dedicated lanes for BRT in Berkeley ?

Helen Burke, Moderator: We’ll start with

Question #10 answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 11

Helen Burke, Moderator: Our second question about BRT comes from Len Conly of Friends of BRT

Len Conly: As our name implies, Friends of BRT was formed to support BRT; we hope that it can be implemented in a way that maximizes the benefits for our city. My question is about Measure KK on the November ballot. Measure KK was put on the ballot by opponents of BRT and would require an additional plan and an election before BRT could proceed. The City Attorney’s impartial analysis of KK states that a plan and election could cost the City as much as $1.2 million.

First, do you support Measure KK? And second, if it passes, what action should the City Council take? Should the Council authorize spending the necessary funds for the additional plan and the election required by KK OR should the Council tell AC Transit that the City will not support implementation of BRT in Berkeley?

Helen Burke, Moderator: Thank you Len. This time we’ll start with__________.

Question # 11 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 12

Helen Burke, Moderator: Urban Habitat has also submitted a question related to AC Transit service. Urban Habitat works to build power in low-income communities and communities of color by combining education, advocacy, research and coalition building to advance environmental, economic and social justice goals in the Bay Area. Their question: Today, AC Transit carries 226,000 on an average weekday, most of whom are very low-income and many of whom are students and seniors who have no other way of getting to where they need to go. In addition to transit-dependent riders, AC Transit (like BART and other transit agencies) has seen ridershipincreases over the past year as fuel costs have risen and concerns about

global warming intensify. Despite this growing need for increased and

improved AC Transit service, the agency faces a $20 million operating

shortfall in the coming fiscal year and similar shortfalls out into the

future. (This is due in large part to systematic underfunding of AC Transit

from local, regional, state and federal funds, as well as rising fuel costs

and the shrinking state budget.) What do you plan on doing to increase

service of AC Transit to both serve those who most depend on its service, as

well as to attract "choice" riders out of their cars?

Helen Burke, Moderator: We’ll start with___________________

Question # 12 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 13

Helen Burke, Moderator: our next question, from Alan Tobey of Livable Berkeley, deals with Berkeley’s largest property owner and employer, the University of California.

Alan Tobey: Livable Berkeley is a coalition of citizens, environmental leaders, social equity advocates, design professionals, city planners and progressive builders that has, since our formation in 2002, been promoting sustainable land use and transportation choices in Berkeley.

Our question is:

In order to reduce greenhouse gases, new city policies and actions are needed to help people live where they work, shop where they live, and reduce travel. How will you work with the University to reduce single occupant auto travel to the campus from and through Berkeley neighborhoods?

Moderator: this time we’ll start with______

Question # 13 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 14

Moderator: Our next question is from Kirstin Miller of Ecocity Builders.

Kirstin: Several years ago, with support from Ecocity Builders and others, Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza was formed to advocate for creation of a pedestrian plaza on Center Street between Oxford and Shattuck in downtown. To create the plaza, that block of Center Street would be closed to traffic with provision made for deliveries and emergency vehicle access. A hotel and UC museum are planned for the block and both the City’s Hotel Task Force and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee have supported creation of a plaza on that block.

Ecocity Builders has hired renowned local landscape architect Walter Hood to create a design proposal for the plaza that would be consistent with the draft Downtown plan and he is preparing to present his proposed design to the Council later this year.

As Mayor/ As a member of the City Council, would you support the proposed plaza on Center Street? Would you make it a priority to find funding and what funding sources do you think the city could utilize?

Helen Burke, Moderator: we’ll begin with___ you have up to a minute

Question # 14 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 15

Helen Burke, Moderator: While our last question concerned an opportunity to create new open space downtown with the proposed Center Street Plaza, our next question concerns some existing open space at Aquatic Park and was submitted by Aquatic Park EGRET. Aquatic Park EGRET is the stewardship group for thetidal wetlands of Berkeley’s largest city park. Volunteers from the community help tend native coastal plantings to improve the shoreline of San Francisco Bay for wildlife habitat.

Will you work to bring Berkeley into compliance with the 1971 State Water Board order permanently prohibiting the discharge of storm water into the lagoons of Aquatic Park?

Helen Burke, Moderator: let’s being with _______

Question # 15 Answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 16

Helen Burke, Moderator: And now we have another question from Bay Localize.

Kirsten Schwind: The City of Berkeley is taking pioneering initial steps in planning for the impacts of climate change and peak oil on Berkeley residents. Global impacts we are already seeing include more expensive energy and increasingly unpredictable weather, which contribute to rising food prices. These are expected to be long-term trends. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of food in the United States increased by at least 7.5% over the past year, outpacing general inflation. Many Berkeley residents are looking ahead to strengthening our food system through local food sourcing and urban food production in conventional as well as rooftop gardens.

As mayor/a council member, how will you work to guarantee access to a healthy food supply for all Berkeley residents into the future? And what do you see as the role for local food production?

Helen Burke, Moderator: We’ll start with_____________

Question # 16 Answers: Assume 1 minute each

Question # 17

Helen Burke, Moderator: As a follow-up, we have a question specifically on Berkley's existing city food policy, this time from Mark Gorrell of the Ecology Center.

Mark Gorrell: The Ecology Center’s mission is to promote environmentally and socially responsible practices through programs that educate, demonstrate and provide direct services. We operate the city’s curbside recycling program and the farmers’ markets along with other programs and projects.

Our question is about the City’s Food and Nutrition Policy, which has been touted as a model across the planet. However according to the 2007 health status report, diet-related diseases remain the number one killers in our community, disproportionately impacting low-income people and people of color. What skills, knowledge, and experience would you bring to the Council to help move our city forward in this area? And what specific initiatives would youlead or support to advance the city’s policy?

Helen Burke, Moderator: We’ll begin with _________

Question # 17 answers: one minute allowed per candidate

Question # 18

Helen Burke, Moderator: And we have another question from the Ecology Center, this time about zero waste:

Mark Gorrell: In 2003 the Berkeley City Council passed one of the county's first Zero Waste Policies setting a goal of 75 percent waste diversion by 2010 and Zero Waste (or darn close) by 2020. The Zero Waste Commission is creating a strategic plan that includes the development of new policies (such as the plastic bags ordinance), programs (such as multi family and commercial recycling) and key infrastructure focused on the creation of a world class Zero Waste Enterprise facility. The City Council has approved a feasibility study to explore funding mechanisms for what is likely to be the largest infrastructure development project in this next term. How would you work with city staff to reach our Zero Waste Goal? What are your priorities for Zero Waste and how will you champion the investment in infrastructure required to meet our goal?

Helen Burke Moderator: This time we’ll with _________

Question # 18 Answers: Assume 1 minute per candidate

Move to Extra Questions and Audience Questions up until the there are only 2.5 minutes left.

Moderator or host: And now we are out of time. I want to thank all the candidates for participating in today’s forum. Thanks also to the sponsoring groups for their questions. And thanks to Berkeley Community Media for making this forum possible and for broadcasting it. We hope that his forum was informative for the audience and for those of you who have watching it on B-TV or on the Internet .

Closing credits with list of sponsoring groups and their Web addresses