Berkeley City Council and Conflicts of Interest?

The City of Berkeley has resurrected plans to site a coffers-draining bike track on Hopkins Street despite widespread objections. Why?

The case against the Hopkins Street plan is put forth by the all-volunteer grassroots advocacy group, Friends of Hopkins Street. The case for it is supported by Walk Bike Berkeley. But these two groups are not evenly balanced contenders. While Friends of Hopkins rose in response to a specific perceived threat, Walk Bike Berkeley has a larger agenda, and one supported by larger entities.

Although Walk Bike Berkeley is a self-characterized all-volunteer grassroots group, it is supported, financially and institutionally, by the larger trans-Berkeley organization, Bike East Bay. Bike East Bay gets its funding from a number of different individual, family, and corporate sources. One of those corporate sources is Alta Planning and Design, a consulting firm that designs public spaces to promote biking and walking --and which has had major influence over projects in Berkeley.

Moreover, the City of Berkeley itself funds Bike East Bay through grants and contracts. Its 2021 Annual Report lists Berkeley as a premium $10,000+ top-tier donor and institutional partner.

Is it discomfiting that the City of Berkeley gives funds to a lobbying group, Bike East Bay, (a group outside the bailiwick it is meant to serve, i.e. Berkeley) and then comes under the influence of that group as that group influences the Mayor and City Council through what could be described as a "fronting" entity, Walk Bike Berkeley – whose funding comes in notable part from a corporation whose business it is to build transportation projects?

The aura of conflicts of interest is stunning.

Maybe such arrangements are technically legal? But even if so, they function as a closed loop of insular decision making where interest groups run the show and in so doing, snuff out any effectiveness of earnest civic participation by voters. Is this a new form of cronyism – Cronyism Lite? Certainly, it is not an arrangement that prioritizes serving Berkeleyans who, unfamiliar with back-room politics, cleave to a belief that the civic leaders for whom they vote will listen to them and take heed.

In the best-case scenario, Berkeley’s governing public servants are unaware of the transparency, accountability, and public trust eroding strains under which they operate and, once recognized, will strive to disentangle themselves from them. Disencumbering themselves from their threat to the Hopkins Street community is a good place to begin.

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* To make your voice heard, you can attend the City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 28, at the School District Board Room, 1231 Addison St., at 6:00 p.m. You can also attend by zoom

* For news and updates join SaveHopkins.org