District 5 September Newsletter
- Support for RENAISSANCE revitalization initiative
- Support for limited police use of tear gas, smoke, and OC spray
- Support for Measure U infrastructure bond
- Support for Measure V sales tax increase to sustain services
- RENAISSANCE item for commercial district revitalization
- Resolution reinstating BPD’s use of tear gas, smoke, and OC spray
- Measure U $300 million infrastructure bond
- Measure V 0.5% sales tax increase
- Council session passing RENAISSANCE item
- Upcoming November ballot measures vote
- Community events: Burning Man and Solano Stroll
- Berkeley Fire Department evacuation planning and alerts
Email from Shoshana O'Keefe Hello Civic, As we settle into September, Council is back from recess, students are many weeks into the school year, and my two favorite Fall events - Burning Man and The Solano Stroll - are behind us. I got to attend my 12th Burning Man with my husband Tim, who is the lead builder for the Man sculpture at the center of the event (I love to brag about this). And at the Stroll, I had a wonderful time celebrating with neighbors, new and old. We had a great turnout this year and I’m overjoyed that we were able to save this wonderful tradition from a terrible end. There is truly no other event like it in Berkeley or anywhere else in the Bay Area for that matter. From the shop displays and markets, to the incredible food scene and live performances, the Solano Stroll has something for everyone. With a busy fall ahead of us, please read more for the latest. And please remember that if you need anything, my office is just an email or phone call away. Warmly, In this issue: Council Recap Ballot Measures Staying Safe During Fire Season D5 Restaurant Spotlight - Mexicana 1151 Shattuck Ave Traffic Safety Update: Walnut & Cedar AC Transit Requests Input Harrison Street Encampment Closure Rabid Bats Library Events City Events Council Recap RENAISSANCE – On our first session back, Council unanimously passed Councilmember Tregub’s RENAISSANCE item, which I was happy to assist on and cosponsor, along with CM Blackaby. I am particularly proud of coming up with the title, which stands for: Revitalizing Enterprise and Neighborhoods through Activation, Investment, Safety, Streamlining, Accessibility, Networking, Collaboration, and Equity. Beyond the amazing title, the substance of the item is worth looking at - it is designed to jumpstart revitalizing our downtown, but will hopefully benefit all our commercial districts. It asks City staff to consider additional blight mitigation measures as well as activation strategies that support our local businesses. You can read the entire item here. Resolution Reinstating BPD’s Ability to Use Tear Gas, Smoke, and OC Spray – Every time we decide to expand law enforcement’s tool belt we should be asking hard questions about necessity, permitted uses, and accountability. The vast majority of East Bay cities already allow their Police Departments to use tear gas, smoke, and OC spray under defined circumstances, and this item seeks to allow our officers to use each of these tools in very specific and well-defined situations. The greatest community concern has been around allowing the use of tear gas, which is understandably an emotional and fraught topic. I want to make it clear that this item would not allow the use of tear gas for crowd control under any circumstances and I would not support such an initiative if it were proposed. However, it can be a useful tactical tool in the event of a barricaded and armed suspect, a hostage situation, or service of a high risk warrant on a dangerous individual. These are the only situations where allowing the use of tear gas is being contemplated, and I am in favor of allowing it, as it grants a nonlethal option to bring an extremely dangerous situation under control. Allowing BPD to access these tools is not about giving police more ways to use force, but to give officers more ways to de-escalate dangerous situations safely. This item strikes a balance between giving our police more options to keep us and themselves safe while maintaining clear guardrails, and that’s why I support it. Given some technical difficulties, the item was continued to the next meeting. You can read the full item here and the supplemental here. Ballot Measures Berkeley residents will decide on 7 ballot measures this November. The City voted to place two of these measures on the ballot: Measure U and Measure V. Measure U is a $300 million infrastructure bond that would provide funding for a series of repairs and improvements around the City, including the 911 dispatch center and a sea wall at the marina. You can read more about the bond as well as proposed projects here. Measure V would increase the sales tax by 0.5% to a total of 10.75%, aligning Berkeley with neighboring cities like Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, Albany, Hayward, San Leandro, and more. This measure would move the City toward a more sustainable budget, plugging the deficit, and averting additional cuts to city services and the closure of Fire Station 4 (located in District 5). Please refer to this helpful guide in Berkeleyside to learn more! Staying Safe During Fire Season As we make our way through fire season, my office has been working closely with the Berkeley Fire Department to ensure you have the latest information and tools to stay safe in the event of an emergency. Download New Evacuation Planning Worksheets Download Berkeley’s new Evacuation Planning Worksheets. They will guide you through important decisions, including what to pack, where to go, which routes to take, and how to help children, pets, older adults, or anyone who may need assistance. Making these decisions now will help you get on the road faster in an evacuation. Extreme Fire Weather: Some Hills Residents Should Leave Early! When dangerous fire weather is expected, the National Weather Service will issue a Red Flag Warning. When exceptionally dangerous conditions are forecast, the Berkeley Fire Department will declare Extreme Fire Weather. If a fire starts during Extreme Fire Weather, it may spread faster than people can safely evacuate from the Berkeley hills. Residents in designated Leave Early Zones will be advised to leave before a fire starts and stay elsewhere. Get Ready Now Enter your address on the High-Risk Wildfire Evacuation Zones map to see whether you are in a Leave Early Zone, Get Ready Zone, or neither. Download Berkeley’s Evacuation Planning Worksheets to make evacuation and fire weather decisions now. Sign up for evacuation alerts at ACAlert.org and download the Genasys Protect App for real-time smartphone alerts. Learn More Review fire weather and evacuation guidance at BerkeleyCA.gov/Wildfire. Dig into Berkeley’s evacuation and fire spread research, including the science behind the recommendations, with Berkeley’s Evacuation Storymaps. Updated Extreme Fire Weather Recommendations You may notice that the guidance for your neighborhood has changed. Berkeley will now use a much higher threshold before declaring Extreme Fire Weather, and will target Leave Early recommendations more narrowly. Why did the City make these changes? Berkeley introduced Leave Early guidance in 2019 following the Camp Fire in Paradise and the 2017 North Bay fires. Those disasters showed that, under extreme conditions, wildfires can spread faster than residents can evacuate. Berkeley Fire recognized the need to identify the most dangerous weather patterns and alert residents in high-risk areas to leave before a fire starts. Narrowing the Leave Early Area Since then, Berkeley’s Evacuation Time Study and additional fire-spread modeling have helped the City better understand evacuation challenges and focus on the neighborhoods at greatest risk. The updated Leave Early recommendation now applies to the Upper Berkeley Hills and Panoramic Hill, including areas east of Piedmont Avenue. Previously, it applied more broadly across the hills, extending almost to Shattuck Avenue in North Berkeley and Claremont Avenue in South Berkeley. Raising the Forecast Threshold The City also learned from Extreme Fire Weather declarations in 2019, 2020, and 2024 that the previous forecast threshold was too easy to meet. The National Weather Service has since introduced the Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Red Flag Warning, which is reserved for forecasts with very high confidence in exceptionally dangerous fire weather (PDS Weather Occurred during: 1991 Oakland/Berkeley Hills Fire, 2025 L.A. Fires, and 2017, 2019 and 2020 North Bay fires.). Berkeley Fire is now aligning its Extreme Fire Weather declarations with this higher standard. According to National Weather Service partners, these declarations are expected to be very rare in Alameda County, occurring every 20 years on average. D5 Restaurant Spotlight - Mexicana 1511 Shattuck Ave When Noe Ignacio went on Craigslist looking for work during the pandemic, he never imagined he’d end up owning a restaurant. Today, he is the owner of Mexicana, the Mexican restaurant in Epicurious Garden on Shattuck Avenue. Noe had worked in restaurants since 1998. When the café he worked at laid off its staff in 2020, he responded to an ad looking for a cook. The person interviewing him turned out to be the building’s landlord, who was trying to keep the restaurant going after its previous owner left. The landlord eventually offered Noe the opportunity to run the restaurant. Noe initially said no, but when he was asked again a few months later, he took the chance. He now describes the landlord “like an angel” for giving him the opportunity. The first year was difficult, with Noe initially working alone because he could not afford employees. Today, he estimates that 70% of his customers are regulars, and some even make a point of remembering his birthday each July. Noe left school after ninth grade and says talking with Berkeley customers has become a kind of continuing education. “Being in Berkeley makes me smarter,” he says. Most of all, Noe loves cooking for people, getting to know them, and seeing them enjoy his food. What began as a Craigslist search for a job has become a business, a community, and a place of his own in Berkeley! Traffic Safety Update: Walnut & Cedar After many resident emails and calls about the intersection of Walnut and Cedar, Councilmember Tregub, Deputy Public Works Director Amiri, and I met with neighbors to hear their concerns. Yesterday, Deputy Director Amiri let us know their traffic engineering team has finished their assessment of Cedar and Walnut. The team put together a design and issued a work order for a series of safety enhancements including: high-visibility crosswalk markings on Cedar, yield lines with "Yield Here to Pedestrians" signs, and striped hatched areas with flexible delineators to improve visibility at the crossings. Public Works aims to get these improvements done within the next 2-3 weeks. Another major improvement the team is looking at is street lighting. What they’ve observed and discussed is that another light would improve visibility, especially at night. Our PW Engineering team is planning a solar light at the southwest corner, opposite the existing light at the northeast corner. Thanks to a small amount of available funding, the team will begin the planning and design stages this year and begin construction when more funding becomes available in FY28. Thank you to every community member who came out to discuss safety at Cedar and Walnut, as well as Councilmember Tregub and his office for their continued advocacy for increased safety measures. I also want to specifically thank Deputy Director Amiri and his team for being responsive to the needs and lived experiences of our community. We are so grateful for your service! AC Transit Requests Input With a $200 million deficit looming, AC Transit has prepared a Contingency Service Plan to reduce service if no new funding is identified by the end of the year. Attend the Public Hearing and let AC Transit know which routes, schedules, and connections matter most to you so the agency can make informed decisions about potential service changes. Learn more here. Harrison Street Encampment Closure On September 16, after a years-long legal battle, the City was finally able to move forward with the closure of the homeless encampment at Harrison Street. As many of you already know, the area had become a sanitation, safety, and public health crisis, with an outbreak of leptospirosis occurring earlier this year. With the exception of parked cars and RVs, as well as several individuals who need special accommodations, most people have been cleared out of the area. City staff hauled away some 15 tons of trash and Alameda County Vector Control has commenced work to address the rodent problem. I want to stress that every single person deserves a clean, safe, and welcoming space to call their own and over the years, the City made multiple attempts to offer shelter to Harrison Street residents. As the City and County struggle to keep up with the high demands on services and shelter, we do see sun on the horizon. Measure W, passed by Alameda County voters in 2020, has already generated some $810 million to address homelessness in the region. Rabid Bats The City of Berkeley Public Health Division, in partnership with the City’s Animal Control Services, Alameda County Vector Control and Public Health laboratories, and CDPH state laboratories, has confirmed 5 rabies-positive bats in residential and commercial areas in 2026 in West and North Berkeley. This represents an increase compared to the historical baseline of 0 to 2 rabies-positive bats per year in Berkeley between 2020 and 2025. Guidance for the General Public Per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, members of the public should take the following steps: Do not touch or handle bats. Never touch a live or dead bat with bare hands, and teach children never to touch a bat, alive or dead. If you are bitten or scratched by any mammal, wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water for 15 minutes and seek medical evaluation immediately. Report the bite to the Communicable Disease Prevention & Control Program at (510) 981-5292 and Alameda County Vector Control Services at (510) 567-6800. If a bat is found indoors alive or dead, do not release or dispose of it. Do not attempt to catch or touch the bat. Contact Alameda County Vector Control Services at (510) 567-6800 so the bat can be safely collected and submitted for testing. Keep pets' rabies vaccinations current. Rabies vaccination is required by law for dogs and strongly recommended for cats. If your pet has contact with a bat or other wild mammal, contact your veterinarian promptly. Bat-proof your home by sealing gaps and openings that allow bats to enter living spaces Library Events Don’t forget to check out the Berkeley Public Library’s events calendar. Our libraries host hundreds of events a month. You can check out the full list of offerings here. City Events Artist talk with Abiam Alvarez An afternoon conversation with Cube Space Gallery artist Abiam Alvarez and curator Kevin B. Chen at the Berkeley Art Center. This event is part of a City of Berkeley public art program series that brings artists and community members together for conversations about contemporary art. Address: 1275 Walnut Street, Berkeley CA 94709 Date: Saturday, September 26, 2026 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm Geek Therapy: Tools for Parents & Teens (14+) Participants will create and practice resources designed to support emotional regulation, boundaries, attention, and access to internal strengths. Venue: West Berkeley Family Wellness Center Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm Free Flu Vaccine Pop-up Clinic Address: 2107 Fourth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2026 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm 1st Saturday Nature Center Open House Venue: Shorebird Nature Center Address: 160 University Ave Berkeley CA 94710 Date: Saturday, October 3, 2026 | 10:00am - 2:00pm Free Prenatal Yoga Classes Venue: West Berkeley Family Wellness Center Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Monday, October 5, 2026 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm Free Online Quit Smoking Classes Address: Online Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm Free Pottery Painting Class Venue: West Berkeley Family Wellness Center Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm Free Nature-Inspired Family Arts & Crafts Workshop Venue: West Berkeley Family Wellness Center Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Friday, October 9, 2026 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm Free Gardening Workshop Series Help cultivate a community garden by planting edible crops and pollinator-friendly flowers while gaining hands-on experience in gardening throughout the seasons. Venue: West Berkeley Family Wellness Center Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 Date: Friday, October 9, 2026 | 1:30pm - 3:00pm 3rd Saturday Shoreline Cleanup Venue: Shorebird Nature Center Address: 160 University Ave Berkeley CA 94710 Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026 | 9:00am - 11:00am Harvest Festival Spend the day at Cedar Rose Park enjoying live entertainment, interactive activities, food contests, and community booths hosted by City departments and local organizations. The festival also features a seed swap and a variety of hands-on experiences for children and adults alike. Venue: Cedar Rose Park Address: 1300 Rose St, Berkeley, CA 94702 Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026 | 11:00am - 4:00pm sokeefe@berkeleyca.gov | (510) 981-7150 Shoshana O'Keefe | 1320 Spruce St. | Berkeley, CA 94709 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice