Category Archives: UC

The Selling of the City in 2005

This is an article from our October-November 2005 newsletter which discusses how our present mayor and the Council sold the City to UC. If you’ve ever wondered why Berkeleyans pay such high City taxes, a good part of the reason is because UC doesn’t.

2005 Newsletter Article

The article refers to the Settlement with UC. This is the 2005 Settlement of the lawsuit by the City against the Environmental Impact Report for UC’s Long Range Development Plan (2020 LRDP):

City-UC LRDP Settlement Continue reading

A Little Bit of Berkeley History

Unfortunately, CNA ceased operations in 2015. No further comments are being accepted, but we will maintain the website, and we’re converting all the old editions of our newsletter to text-searchable pdf files. The first 10 issues, from 1975 and 1976, are available at this link:

Newsletter Archive

We plan to add all our old issues, to allow viewers to follow 40 years of Berkeley’s history. Thank you for your support.

Who pays?

We’re sure we come across very negatively in our attitude to developers and UC. However, there is no question that the Council majority gives extremely favorable treatment to both these interests. Developers aren’t required to pay the full cost to the City of the services they use – inquiries to the Planning Department have revealed that the Department doesn’t even know the impact of large new projects on the Sewage Treatment plant, or on Emergency Services. As for UC, if it buys a property, it takes it off the Property Tax Roll, so UC pays nothing to the City. Continue reading

UC’s Helios Project

Eight years ago, UC Berkeley made a controversial deal with the British oil company, BP: UC would receive $350 million to create the Energy Biosciences Institute, which was eventually built between Hearst and Berkeley Way.

Now, BP is exercising its contract option to cut back sharply on funding. That means the elimination of up to 20 current post-doctorate positions, and the layoff of more than half the support staff. Continue reading

The Aftermath of the Big Soccer Game

cal scip, sahpc north end 1  On July 26th, the California Memorial Stadium hosted its first international soccer game, which caused considerable disruption in the City. Frankly, the stadium’s design and location isn’t suited to such events. Even the playing surface had to be changed, from Astroturf to grass. As compensation, a City ordinance allows it to collect a tax of 10% of the gross revenues of any professional sporting event within its boundaries, and the courts have ruled that this applies to the University, because such events are not part of its core mission. Continue reading