November 2016 Election Endorsements

You can REGISTER TO VOTE IN CALIFORNIA until October 24, 2016.

Your vote counts the most on the local level, so let’s get the Federal & State level races out of the way first:

President and Vice-President - Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka
I’m a Green in a deep Blue state that Hillary Clinton will easily win- plus every Green vote for President pushes us closer to 5% of the national vote, which would give the 2020 Green candidate federal FEC funding!
U.S. Senate – Kamala Harris
U.S. House of Representatives
District 13 – Barbara Lee
State Senate, District 9 - Sandre Swanson
State Assembly, District 15 - Tony Thurmond

State Propositions:

62 - End the Death Penalty – YES!
66 - Speed Up the Death Penalty – NO!
I’ve always been a strong supporter of abolishing the death penalty. 62 substitutes life without parole and ensures that no innocent person is executed in our state anymore. 66 “speeds up” what’s already a broken & discriminatory part of the criminal justice system; a sure-fire way to make sure that we execute innocent people. YES on 62, NO on 66!

65 - Carry-Out Bags Measure from the Plastics Industry - No
67 - Uphold the Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags - Yes
Another one where big business tries to confuse the voter in order to continue screwing up our world. NO on 65, YES on 67!

63 - Firearms, Ammunition Sales – Yes
I own a gun & am in favor of this. Every 4 years I have to pass a background check that says that I’m not a domestic abuser or otherwise legally unable to carry a gun.

64 - Marijuana Legalization - Yes
Way overdue, this taxes pot at both the grower and the retailer levels & allows local cities & counties to further regulate, tax, and/or ban recreational marijuana. It funnels funds into research & is flexible enough to be changed by the legislature when necessary.

52 - State Fees on Hospitals, Federal Medi-Cal Matching Funds - Yes
53 - Revenue Bonds Requiring Statewide Voter Approval - No
54 - Legislature and Legislation, Allows Time to Read Bills - Yes
55 - Tax Extension on the Rich, for Education and Healthcare - Yes
56 - Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare, Tobacco Use Prevention, Research - Yes
57 - Sentencing for Non-violent Crimes and Juvenile Criminal Proceedings - Yes
58 - Allows Bilingual Education - Yes
59 - Campaign Finance, Repeal Citizens United - Yes
60 - Adult Films, Condoms - No
61 - State Prescription Drug Purchases, Pricing Standards - Yes

Now to some of the key local campaigns!

First off, there are a host of local cities trying to strengthen or institute rent control for the 1st time in many years. This is a by-product of the awful affordability crisis we’re neck-deep in.

City of Alameda:
Measure L1 - NO
Measure M1 - YES

Measure L1
City Council’s Rent Control Measure- allows “no cause” evictions (evictions of ANY tenant, even if they haven’t done anything to violate their lease), restricts rent increases to 5% annually unless tenant & landlord agree to a higher increase, and- most crucially- can be rescinded by a majority vote of any future City Council.
Measure M1
Alameda Renters Coalition’s Rent Control Measure - forbids “no cause” evictions (so evictions are only for tenants who violate their lease, called “just cause” in other cities), restricts rent increases to Consumer Price Index, & mandates an elected Rent Board. Crucially, it’s a charter amendment, which means that it can only be rescinded by a vote of the people. This is what strong rent control cities like Berkeley have, which has protected it from the whim of elected officials.

City of Richmond:
Measure L - YES
Establishes an appointed Rent Board that will allow annual rent increases at 100% of the Consumer Price Index, establishes a way for tenants & landlords to petition for higher or lower rents, and establishes "just cause" evictions.

City of Oakland:
Oakland Measure JJ - YES
Just Cause Eviction and Rent Law Amendment
Makes Oakland’s rent control system more proactive & expands “just cause” eviction to thousands more units. Instead of the current situation, where a tenant must suspect that s/he is being overcharged, a landlord who wishes to raise rent more than the CPI in a year must request permission to do that from Oakland’s appointed Rent Board.

City of Berkeley:
Measure AA - Berkeley Rent Board Ordinance – YES
We (the Berkeley Rent Board) worked with the Berkeley Property Owners Association (BPOA) on this measure and the City Council placed it on the ballot on our behalf. It makes landlords who want to move into a unit wait until after the school year if there’s a child currently living there, lessening educational disruption. It also raises the financial assistance landlords have to offer tenants they evict for “no fault” causes from its original 1980s level to levels comparable to other local cities and includes a consumer-price index increase so any future hikes in this amount will follow inflation.

Alameda County:
BART, District 3 - Rebecca Saltzman
BART, District 7 - Lateefah Simon. Don’t vote for Mallett- he’s anti-labor.

County-wide Measures:
A1 - Alameda County Housing Bond – YES! We need affordable housing around the county. In this affordability emergency, please support this!
C1 - A.C. Transit Parcel Tax Extension – Yes
RR - BART Infrastructure Bond – Yes

Now on to Berkeley:

We have Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting) for Mayor & City Council races with more than 2 candidates. This means you can rank 1, 2, or 3 choices- you don’t have to fill all 3 slots. It means you can vote both strategically (“lesser evil voting”) AND for who you’d like to see win. Plus, by offering multiple choices to voters up front, it functions as a run-off election without the extra expense & depressed voter turnout of actual run-off elections.

If no one breaks 50% in the 1st round, then the least successful candidate is eliminated and anyone who voted for them 1st has their 2nd choice candidate get their vote. It continues eliminating the least successful candidate until someone gets a majority of votes.

Below I’ve listed my personal ranked choices.

Mayor – #1- Jesse Arreguin #2- Kriss Worthington. Don’t vote for Capitelli.
I’ve worked closely with Arreguin, Capitelli, & Worthington on various legislation. All 3 are intelligent & driven, but while Capitelli is a close ally of outgoing Mayor Bates & the “Bates Machine”, Arreguin has been a pragmatic progressive voice on the Council since replacing the late Dona Spring in 2008. Worthington is a common sense progressive activist who’s weathered a lot of City Council storms over the past 20 years. That said, this race is really between Arreguin & Capitelli, so I’ll concentrate on those 2 in this writeup.

Arreguin recognized the affordable housing crisis as the emergency it has been for the last decade LONG before Mayor Bates & Capitelli. Arreguin’s position (and mine) has been that it is almost criminally negligent that the city’s newest construction has been- for the most part- luxury & market rate housing with mere pittances paid into our affordable housing fund. Instead of maximizing the amount that developers have to pay, Capitelli discounted their fee from $28,000 to $20,000 in order to “encourage” them to build. The Council *just* raised the fee from $20,000 to $34,000 under intense public pressure, but under an Arreguin administration such a discount wouldn’t happen again. Under a Capitelli administration I’m not so sure.

I am 100% positive that Mayor Arreguin will work with the Council & the staff to strongly encourage a mix of various levels of affordable family-sized housing, with market rate being the exception rather than the rule. Considering that even uniformed personnel (police & fire) & Berkeley teachers cannot afford to rent or buy in Berkeley (let alone service workers and minimum wage earners), development must include options for many different economic levels. Berkeley’s African-American
has dropped from 20% to 8% over the past 20 years, while rents have skyrocketed 60% over the past 6 years. A vote for Arreguin is a vote for cultural, community, and economic diversity!

Rent Board – Christina Murphy, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, Leah Simon-Weisberg
and Igor Tregub are the CALI SLATE! (Christina-Alejandro-Leah-Igor)
Vote for all 4!
I’m really impressed with Christina Murphy’s drive and activism and Leah Simon-Weisberg’s knowledge & legal expertise and look forward to working with them on the Rent Board. I’ve worked closely with both Alejandro Soto-Vigil (he’s an incumbent) & Igor Tregub (he’s a former Rent Board member) and expect to welcome both back to the Board next month!

There are 2 BPOA-funded candidates running against them- one an incumbent. I urge everyone to vote the CALI slate instead!

City Council, District 3 – #1- Ben Bartlett. Don’t vote for Matthews.

City Council, District 5 – #1- Sophie Hahn. Don’t vote for Murphy.
Both Hahn & Murphy have land use experience, but Hahn is a close ally of Jesse Arreguin and would use her 7 years of Zoning Board experience to augment his efforts to expand affordability for all of Berkeley.

City Council, District 6 – #1- Fred Dodsworth. Don’t vote for Wengraf.


Berkeley Measures:

U1 - Berkeley Rental Unit Business License Tax, City Sponsored - YES!
DD - Berkeley Rental Unit Business License Tax, Big Landlord Initiative – NO!
U1 was put on the ballot UNANIMOUSLY by the Berkeley City Council in order to raise much needed funds for non-profit affordable housing & homeless services. Sensing that they couldn’t win by just opposing U1, the BPOA paid signature gatherers $60,000 to put DD on the ballot to confuse things. If you live in Berkeley, you’ve received many full color mailings from DD. Check out the donors printed at the bottom of each mailing- they’re all huge landlords and their LLCs.

It’s big money trying to muddy the waters. U1 would increase the existing tax on rents less than 2% from the current 1.08%. This sliver of skyrocketing rents that they don’t want to give back to the community would mean between $3 million & $5 million PER YEAR for affordable housing and homeless prevention services with U1. DD only raises the tax 4/10ths of a percent to 1.5% and raises $1.4 million/year.

I could talk a lot about U1 & why it’s good and why DD is bad, but here is a comparison of the 2 measures.
More information here.

W1 - Berkeley Citizens Redistricting Commission – Yes
Depoliticizes the redistricting of City Council districts.

X1 - Berkeley Public Campaign Financing – Yes
This common sense measure will allow candidates with a wide range of support to run and stay competitive with well-off politically-connected insiders. As a candidate who has raised tens of thousands of dollars over 4 campaigns (3 of which were successful), I 100% endorse this. I’d rather be campaigning than fundraising.

BB - Berkeley Minimum Wage - City Sponsored - No
CC - Berkeley Minimum Wage – Labor-backed Citizens’ Initiative – No
After the original version of CC was scuttled in part by Capitelli & the competing BB was placed on the ballot, both sides in the $15/hour minimum wage debate came to an agreement in August that split the difference on when the $15/hour minimum wage goes into effect. The City Council passed an ordinance mandating $15/hour in 2018. BB’s $15 happens in 2019 while CC’s happens in 2017. The 2 campaigns put joint “Please Vote NO on BB & CC” arguments in the ballot book.

E1 - Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 – Yes
T1 - Berkeley Infrastructure and Facilities Bond – Yes
V1 - Berkeley GANN Appropriation Limit Override– Yes
Y1 - Berkeley Youth Voting – Yes
Z1 - Berkeley Low Income Housing Authorization – Yes


Here are some resources that I found very useful in making these recommendations. Dig in and vote smart!
Green Party of Alameda County
East Bay Express
SEIU California

Dean Dean the Sex Machine needs our help!

My old friend Dean DuPont needs our help. Many of you late 80s/early 90s Gilman people may remember him after he moved up here from San Diego- he had a black derby with the Descendents Milo Goes To College cover drawn on the back. He lived in the office @ Gilman for a while, including the, um, legendary time when Motorhead the security guy lived in the sound loft. (Oh, the stories we can tell, huh?)

Anyway, he's been married to Kym for a few years and they've been happily living in Northern California since the mid-2000s. She's been diagnosed with Stage 1 uterine cancer so they're fundraising to put a down payment on removing her uterus ASAP.

To be clear: the SOONER its removed, the better the chances that all cancerous cells are excised and she'll be a cancer survivor. The hospital wants a $10,000 payment to make it happen. I gave. Please do the same.

- Jesse

Election results for local & state elections!

I will have a race-by-race recap of November's election with a comparison of my endorsements and the actual results.

This will be uploaded in the next couple of days, thanks!

All Sinners Day DJ night at the Night Light!

This Thursday, it's a last minute DJ set with yours truly at the Night Light in downtown Oakland!

Celebrate All Saint's Day with your fellow sinners as Jesse Luscious spins punk, power pop, rock, and whatever else barrels down the track!

Are you on facebook? Then join the DJ Jesse Luscious group and reply to Thursday's event page!

November 2012 Endorsements!

Here are my local & state recommendations for the November 6th election. If you're an absentee/vote-by-mail voter, ballots are being sent out starting Tuesday Oct 9.

More resources are listed at the end of this post. Please leave comments!

A quick shout-out to Albany: The Occupy The Farm movement this year injected a lot more energy to the campaigns & a lot more attention to development issues. Now a couple of Greens are running strong campaigns for City Council (Sheri Spellwoman) and School Board (Byron Barrett). Check the Albany Patch & Green Voter Guide links below for more info about the other candidates in those races.

The biggest Berkeley news is that Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting) is here for the City Council & Mayor's races, changing the dynamics of many campaigns. This means that you can vote for more than 1 person for a seat and rank them in order of preference.

Some candidates running for the same seat are banding together, saying rank us 1 & 2 and do not rank the 3rd candidate.

A key point is that you do NOT have to rank more than 1 candidate, although you can rank as many as 3 candidates. My advice is that if there's someone on the ballot who you don't want to win, don't rank them at all.

The major political controversies this year in Berkeley are development & whether to further penalize the homeless.

The Council majority is generally in favor of increased development at the expense of existing community/city plans which push a more balanced approach to our city's evolution. This is exactly what Measure T is all about. It endangers the current, astonishing diversity of West Berkeley's business, artistic, and non-profits in favor of developer get-rich schemes.

The same goes for the atrocious Measure S- the "Sit/Lie" measure that bans sitting or lying on the sidewalk by the homeless. All of the street behavior that stinks- public drunkeness, disorderly conduct, blocking the sidewalk- is already illegal. Duplicating existing law will not convince the Berkeley Police to enforce laws they already give a low priority. The necessary substance abuse services, housing assistance, and shelter services exist in whole or in part to help our homeless neighbors. Measure S merely saddles the homeless with a misdemeanor fine that they probably won't be able to pay.

Measure S is a political football taking up all of the air in the room while other Measures with imminent real-world effects like Measure R (redistricting/gerrymandering) and Measure T (eviscerating the West Berkeley Plan) sneak by.


Berkeley races: 

Rent Stabilization Board: Igor Tregub, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, Judy Shelton, and Asa Dodsworth.
This is the progressive slate chosen by 200 community members at the Berkeley Tenant Convention in July. These are my allies on the Berkeley Rent Board and I urge you to support all 4.

City Council District 3: Max Anderson, no others. He's rock solid.

City Council District 5: Sophie Hahn, no others.
For the 2nd election in a row, I'm supporting Sophie. Incumbent Laurie Capitelli & I ran for this open seat in 2004 (he won) and since then I've worked with him & other City Council members on disaster preparedness issues. The key reason I'm endorsing Sophie is the role that District 5's seat plays in city-wide development issues. Laurie, a self-described "small scale developer" and Sales Manager of Red Oak Realty, is firmly allied with Mayor Tom Bates pro-development majority. Right now, that majority wavers between 6-3 and 5-4 depending on the issue. Sophie is skeptical about the "Develop Now!" approach of the Council majority and is firmly against Measure T.

City Council District 6: don’t vote for Susan Wengraf. Write in Phoebe Sorgen.

Mayor: For 1st and 2nd choice, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi and Kriss Worthington.
Kahlil is an energetic Green who is running a coalition campaign with Kriss and Jacqueline McCormick against Mayor Bates. I'm not supporting Jacqueline because she's too fiscally conservative for me & she's against the Warm Pool measure (O & N).

Berkeley Unified School Board: Judy Appel & Beatriz Leyva-Cutler

Berkeley Measures:

Measure N — Pools bond. Yes 
This and Measure O are companion measures- both must pass by 2/3rds in order to go into effect. This replaces the Warm Pool, which is key for the disabled, elderly, and people in physical therapy. It also reopens Willard Pool and fixes the other 2 public pools.

Measure O — Pool special tax. Funds Measure N. Yes
Provides dedicated ongoing funding for maintenance & operation of the pools. This means little or no general funds will be needed for the life of these facilities.

Measure P — Reauthorize taxes (Gann override). Yes. This continues existing taxes for libraries, emergency medical services, parks, and emergency services for the disabled. (Easy Does It, the non-profit I used to run, administers this last item for the city)

Measure Q — Modernize utility users tax. Yes.

Measure R — Redistricting. No.
Right now Council districts are pretty static. This would allow for the City Council to radically redraw the districts every 10 years- no matter whether you like the current Council majority or not, what about the majority in a decade? Or the decade after that? It opens the door to local gerrymandering to protect incumbents. Can you imagine the political chaos in Berkeley if every decade led to radically different Council districts?

Measure S — Sit-lie ordinance. No.
This duplicates existing laws and would be applied only to those who "look" homeless, not people sitting in the median on North Shattuck eating pizza. That's called discrimination.

Measure T — West Berkeley Project. No.
West Berkeley's a vibrant, exciting, economically & socially diverse part of the city. Big-time developers have wanted to increase their profits in West Berkeley forever and this is their latest best hope.

Measure U — Sunshine Ordinance. No.
I'm directly affected as a member of the Rent Board, and while I love a lot of the things in this, it puts too many restrictions on open meetings. For instance, the Rent Board could not receive oral reports from staff, slowing down our response time to & increasing already heavy staff workloads. This is a tough call for me.

Measure V — Biennial Financial Reports, if not submitted, no tax increases (FACTS initiative). Yes.

State Propositions:

Proposition 30 Jerry Brown's Tax Increase for Schools - Yes

Proposition 31 Two-Year Budget Cycle- No.
This restricts the state's budget flexibility.

Proposition 32 Ban on corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates - No
It's another attempt by corporations to obstruct unions to give to campaigns by prohibiting payroll deductions for political purposes by either unions or corporations. Of course, the vast majority of corporate donations do not come from payroll deductions, while the opposite is true of unions, imagine that!

Proposition 33 Car Insurance- No.
An Insurance magnate put this on the ballot again- it does not benefit consumers.

Proposition 34 "End the Death Penalty"- YES!

Proposition 35 Prohibition on Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery- No.
Devil's in the details, like expanding the definition of a trafficker &requiring all registered sex offenders to turn over their internet passwords for life to the state.

Proposition 36 Reform "Three Strikes" Law- YES!
Requires the 3rd Strike to be "violent and serious."

Proposition 37 Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food- Yes.

Proposition 38 Molly Munger's State Income Tax Increase- No. Vote Yes on 30 instead.

Proposition 39 Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses- Yes.
Fixes loopholes that will make CA $500 million in 2013 & $1 billion in 2014 & 2015.

Proposition 40 State Senate Redistricting Plan- Yes to oppose the legislature's redistricting plan.
Sacramento politicians are still pissed off that they can't gerrymander anymore. We voters removed that power to a non-partisan commission a few years ago.

More Resources:

City & County races:
Albany Patch
Berkeley Voters Edge
Berkeley Daily Planet

Local & State races:
SF Bay Guardian
Green Voter Guide

This Sunday!
Green Sunday: 4-Person Panel on the State Propositions
The Green Party of Alameda County invites you to a Green Sunday discussion about the November 6 general election, featuring a 4-person panel. The discussion will focus primarily on the state propositions.

Sunday Oct 14 5 to 6:30 pm Niebyl-Proctor Library 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland wheelchair accessible

You can also get a bundle or two of the Voter Guides to distribute in your neighborhood, workplace, etc. Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are held on the 2nd Sunday of each month.

Songs The Clash Taught Us

Here's yesterday's special, "Songs The Clash Taught Us", for a limited time!

Friday, December 30 from 6 - 9 pm- Jesse Luscious spins covers of Clash tunes, covers of songs the Clash covered, and features the original versions of some of the many songs the Clash covered as done by the original artists!

Songs The Clash Taught Us download (247 MB 6-9pm)
Songs The Clash Taught Us Playlist

Strummer Show 2011!

image from Strummerville

Last Friday 12/23/11 was my 10th annual celebration of Joe Strummer on KALX, 1 day after the 9th anniversary of his death on 12/22/02. The show ran from 3pm to 9pm and is available as 2 3 hour mp3s below. No repeats!

Jesse Luscious was on the air in 2002 when the news of Strummer's death became known, and immediately began what's now an annual celebration of his music, from the 101ers to the Clash to the Latino Rockabilly War to the Mescaleros, with some surprising stops along the way (Janie Jones & the Lash, Ellen Foley, & the Pogues, to name just a few).

SPECIAL THANKS TO KALX DJS ZAIN, THE BERKSTER, CUPPA JOE & RUBBERBAND GIRL for their help!

The show will be available for a limited time only at the links below!
10th Annual Strummer show download part 1 (166MB mp3 3-6pm)
10th Annual Strummer show download part 2 (164MB mp3 6-9pm)
10th Annual Strummer show Playlist


====> Tomorrow, December 30th, from 6-9pm will be a special program Songs The Clash Taught Us. I'll be spinning covers of Clash tunes, covers of songs the Clash covered, and featuring the original versions of some of the many songs the Clash covered as done by the original artists!


Don't forget to tune in to KALX every day at 90.7 FM or on-line! The weekly Jesse Luscious program is Wednesday 6-9am (Pacific).

Strummer Show & Clash City Covers shows now on-line!

For a limited time you can download this year's Strummer show, and as a bonus, the Clash City Covers show too!

It's all free!

CLASH CITY COVERS:
Jesse Luscious spins 3 hours of Clash & Joe Strummer covers, mixed in with covers of songs the Clash covered, and a special segment, "Songs The Clash Taught Us"!

"Songs The Clash Taught Us" will be some of the original tunes covered by the Clash, like Junior Murvin's "Police & Thieves" & Vince Taylor's "Brand New Cadillac."

SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE KALX DJS, without their help it would've been a VERY short show!
Mack, Cuppa Joe, Citizen Zain, Madame X, & Rubberband Girl!

Clash City Covers mp3 download (247MB, 3 hours)
Clash City Covers playlist

9TH ANNUAL STRUMMER SHOW:
It's the 9th Annual Strummer Show celebrating the music of Joe Strummer and his bandmates in The Clash around the 8th anniversary of his death on December 22, 2002.

Jesse Luscious was on the air in 2002 when the news of Strummer's death became known, and immediately began what's now an annual celebration of his music, from the 101ers to the Clash to the Latino Rockabilly War to the Mescaleros, with some surprising stops along the way (Janie Jones & the Lash, Ellen Foley, & the Pogues, to name just a few).

SPECIAL THANKS TO KALX DJS CUPPA JOE & RUBBERBAND GIRL for their help!

9th Annual Strummer Show mp3 download part 1 (249MB, 3 hours)
9th Annual Strummer Show mp3 download part 2 (243 MB, 3 hours)
9th Annual Strummer Show playlist



Don't forget to tune in to KALX every day at 90.7 FM or on-line! The weekly Jesse Luscious program is Wednesday 6-9am (Pacific).

NYC coverage of Berkeley Rent Board!

From NYC's Tenant/Inquilo newsletter (from the Metropolitan Council on Housing, or Met Council) comes this write-up of our Rent Board campaign!

Berkeley Elects Pro-Tenant Rent Board

What happens when a city elects its rent guidelines board?

In Berkeley, California, it means that a pro-tenant slate won all six seats on the city’s Rent Stabilization Board this month, easily outrunning their three rivals.
The six—five incumbents and one new member—were nominated at the Berkeley Tenants Convention, a gathering of more than 100 people in late July, after 12 potential candidates had been interviewed by a coalition of local liberal and leftist groups. They each garnered more than 10,700 votes; their top rival got about 6,800.

“The point of the slate is unity among tenants and tenant-friendly property owners,” says Jesse Townley, a punk-rock record-company manager who was the top vote-getter. The slate included two tenants, one homeowner, and three small landlords.
This coalition, says Townley, was needed to overcome “the super-anti-rent-control property owners, organized by the Berkeley Property Owners Association.” When the BPOA’s pro-landlord slates won a majority for a few years in the mid-1990s, he says, “rents went up 45 percent during that time under rent control. They basically did everything they could to raise rents as much as they could while staying within the letter of the law.”

The main opposition candidate, George Perezvelez, “ran as neither pro-tenant nor pro-landlord, whatever that means,” says Townley. Perezvelez was endorsed by Mayor Tom Bates and six members of the City Council. Tenant activists believe he was encouraged to run “to drive a wedge into the slate process,” Townley adds.
California law bans cities from limiting rents on vacant apartments, but it lets them reregulate the new tenant’s rent. As Berkeley, a city of 100,000 that’s home to the University of California’s flagship campus, has gentrified significantly, market rents are dramatically higher than regulated rents. However, city residents voted in 2004 to limit annual rent increases to 65 percent of the increase in the federal consumer price index for the San Francisco Bay Area. Thus, the maximum increase for tenants renewing their leases in 2011 will be 0.7 percent.

The board also adjudicates landlord-tenant disputes and works on code enforcement, such as requiring buildings to be earthquake-proofed.
— Steven Wishnia

(Steve Wishnia is a founding member of 1980s NYC art-punk band The False Prophets)

Election results!

Thanks to you all, I was reelected to the Berkeley Rent Board, along with my 5 fellow candidates on the Progressive Slate. As of tonight the totals (which are pretty much final) are:

Jesse Townley 12,632
Pam Webster 11,660
Dave Blake 11,432
Lisa Stephens 11,037
Kathy Harr 11,005
Asa Dodsworth 10,772

As for the rest of my election suggestions, it was a mixed bag. On the local level almost everything passed, but I was much less accurate at the state level. (Although Alameda County hewed closer to my suggestions than the state- not surprising considering our Bay Area bubble!)

Here's a quick list of who I endorsed, followed by the winner in CAPS.

City Auditor – Ann Marie Hogan HOGAN
City Council District 1 - Linda Maio MAIO
City Council District 4 – Jesse Arreguin ARREGUIN
City Council District 7- Kriss Worthington WORTHINGTON
City Council District 8 - Jacquelyn McCormick, Stewart Jones WOZNIAK

Berkeley Measures:
Measures H & I (schools)- Yes YES
Measure R (downtown)- No YES (don't worry, it'll be back, sigh...)
Measure S (tax on marijuana sales)- Yes YES
Measure T (medical marijuana zoning)- Yes YES

Alameda County:
Superior Court Judge, Seat 9- Victoria Kolakowski KOLAKOWSKI
EBMUD, Ward 4- Andy Katz KATZ
Measure F - $10 Vehicle Fee - Yes YES

State Propositions:
19 - Legalize Marijuana - Yes NO (booooo!)
20 - Congressional Redistricting - Yes YES
21 - Vehicle Fee for Parks - Yes NO (smacks forehead)
22 - Local Government and Transportation Funds - Yes YES
23 - Gutting of Greenhouse Gas Laws - No NO
24 - Repeals Business Tax Loopholes - Yes NO (smacks forehead)
25 - Approval of State Budget by Majority Vote - Yes YES
26 - Extends 2/3 Vote Requirement to All Revenue Items - No YES (this'll be a treat in the next few years!)
27 - Returns Redistricting to the State Legislature - No NO

Jesse's November election picks!

Berkeley:
Berkeley Rent Board- Progressive Slate:
Dave Blake, Asa Dodsworth, Katherine Harr, Lisa Stephens, Jesse Townley, Pam Webster
(remember, vote for the candidates whose last letters of our last names spell SHERRY!)

City Council races are ranked choice voting this year, which means you can rank up to 3 people in order of preference for the seat. You can choose 1, 2, or 3 names. I've listed who I would rank (not in all races), in descending order (choice #1, choice #2, choice #3).

City Auditor – Ann Marie Hogan
City Council District 1 - Linda Maio, Jasper Kingeter
City Council District 4 – Jesse Arreguin only
City Council District 7- Kriss Worthington only


City Council District 8 - Jacquelyn McCormick, Stewart Jones

Measures H & I- YES- these reauthorize existing property taxes that support Berkeley schools.

Measure R - NO- this is kind of a waste of time. It's not an actual plan, just a guide for the City Council. There was a 5 year Downtown planning process that had mostly things that everyone liked. Drama ensued. Instead of putting forward the detailed compromise put together by this 5-year planning process, a majority of the City Council put this nice-sounding ballot measure up instead. Send a message that they should either send the full plan to us OR find some courage & vote to approve it or another plan themselves, which they can do.
Not only that, but $25,000 of the $32,000 raised so far has come from one major downtown property owner, Equity Residential, founded & run by by zillionaire investor Sam Zell. If this measure had major green credibility, the lion's share of its money wouldn't come from a slash-and-burn investor like Zell & other major downtown property owners like Lakireddy Bali Reddy. Yes, THAT Lakireddi.
More on Zell:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/business/media/06tribune.html
More on Reddy (this IS an incredibly biased site, but even so the facts pretty much conform to this site's retelling of the incredibly tragic saga):
http://www.wassusa.com/
No matter what happens, this will come back to voters in one form or another.

Measure S - YES Tax on Cannabis Businesses- legalize it, tax it, help pay for services with it!
Measure T- YES Medical Cannabis Ordinance Amendments- cleans up & clarifies existing zoning language & treats dispensaries like other legal businesses.

Alameda County:
Superior Court Judge, Seat 9- Victoria Kolakowski
EBMUD, Ward 4- Andy Katz

Measure F - County $10 Vehicle Registration Fee - Yes. The state's been stealing- er, appropriating- money from the counties, who've in turn appropriated money from the cities. This is a start to ending that vicious cycle (but only a start).

State Propositions:
19 - Legalize Marijuana - Yes. Legalize it, tax it, regulate it, make $$$ off of it, just like we've done with the much more dangerous and deadly drug called alcohol.
20 - Congressional Redistricting - Yes. Makes the non-partisan commission that redistricts state legislature seats also responsible for redistricting House of Representatives seats. The reason I supported the 2008 prop that created this commission (and won, barely) is the then-current gerrymandering & creation of "safe seats" in the dysfunctional state legislature has inherently undemocratic results.
21 - Vehicle Fee for Parks - Yes. The state's been stealing- er, appropriating- money from the counties, who've in turn appropriated money from the cities, all of whom promise to pay it back with interest (with what money?). This is a start to ending that vicious cycle (but only a start), and the funds stay within the park & wildlife conservation systems.
22 - Local Government and Transportation Funds - Yes. This says that the state cannot steal- er, borrow- money designated for counties & cities in order to balance the state budget. This is a big step forward in stopping the vicious cycle mentioned in Prop 21 & Measure F.
23 - Gutting of Greenhouse Gas Laws - No. Hole in sand, meet head.
24 - Repeals Business Tax Loopholes - Yes.
25 - Approval of State Budget by Majority Vote - Yes. Holy moly, our state budget process is an annual embarrassment and a major impediment to getting incredibly necessary work done at the state level.
26 - Extends 2/3 Vote Requirement to All Revenue Items - No. This would make the current situation even worse.
27 - Returns Redistricting to the State Legislature - No. The whole point of removing redistricting from the legislature is because it was corrupted by both parties gerrymandering ridiculous "safe" districts.

Statewide and Congressional races:
First: Why are the 2 major party candidates excluding Green party Governor candidate Laura Wells from the debates and having her arrested when she tries to enter the hall? It's business as usual from the 2 parties that have a stranglehold on US politics.

Second: Meg Whitman & Carly Fiorina are disasters-in-waiting and I shudder to think what harm they'll do to California. These are excellent examples of why Ranked-Choice Voting is great- vote your heart and vote strategically at the same time- unfortunately that's not available state-wide (yet).

Third: Last election's horrendous Proposition 14 excludes all but the top 2 vote-getters in November elections, meaning future state elections will be all Dem-Dem, Dem-Rep, or Rep-Rep. No Green, no Libertarian, no Peace & Freedom- no way to express dissatisfaction with the 2 major parties.
http://nader.org/index.php?/archives/2201-California-Enshrines-the-Duopoly.html#extended

Even so, you all are on your own for these races- while I'm a proud Green Party member since 1992, the state-wide Green races strike me as quixotic and a huge drain of energy and resources. I'd rather see the excellent Green candidate Laura Wells become a Green mayor (like Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond who's up for reelection, hint hint!) and move up into state-wide office that way. Real political power as a party comes from having... real power. Local race by local race, we and other 3rd parties ought to be battering down the barred doors of the 2 major parties until they cannot refuse us entrance anymore because we are already inside due to voter support.

I'm torn on whether to recommend the excellent Green candidates for these races (Governor, US Senate, US House, State Legislature, etc) or to recommend the mainstream Democrats running against creeps like Whitman & Fiorina.

KALX DEATH MATCH TOMORROW!

Tomorrow night!

It's the 2nd KALX DEATH MATCH!

Jesse "The Liquidator" Luscious in a head-to-head musical throwdown with "The Hammer"- wait, she just cancelled- can't stand the heat? Hmm... anyway, The Liquidator will take on all comers, from 6pm- 7pm Friday May 28th on KALX streaming here & broadcast in the Bay Area at 90.7 FM!



(tune in 6-9am for the regularly scheduled Jesse Luscious program on KALX too!)

June 2010 Endorsements!

Short version:
Measure C- Yes
Prop 13- Yes
Prop 14- No
Prop 15- Yes
Prop 16- No
Prop 17- No

Superior Court Judge Office #9- Victoria S. Kolakowski
Board of Education, 1st Trustee Area- Joaquin A. Rivera
State Superintendent of Public Instruction- Larry Aceves

Contested Green Partisan races
Governor- Laura Wells
County Committee- Patti Marsh, Dave Heller, & Greg Jan


Long version:
Since this is a primary election, many of the candidates are party-specific & often unopposed. For this reason I'm only mentioning contested races & non-partisan races.

Superior Court Judge Office #9:
Victoria S. Kolakowski - She's a long-time administrative law judge who is transgendered & progressive.
Website

Board of Education, 1st Trustee Area
Joaquin A. Rivera- He's been an effective member of the Berkeley School Board for the past 12 years- the county needs more hands-on people like him.
Website

State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Larry Aceves- He's been a local Superintendent, teacher, and school principal, & is endorsed by many progressives & major newspapers.
Website

Contested Green Partisan races
Governor- Laura Wells. Of the 2 running, she has the most realistic approach to this perennially unrealistic campaign.

County Committee- 10 are running for 9 seats. All would do a good job, so I'll just highlight the 3 I've worked closely with on both Berkeley & county-wide issues: Patti Marsh, Dave Heller, & Greg Jan.

Berkeley Measure:
C- Yes!
This is a small property tax to replace the warm water pool that's being torn down, as well as renovate & fund the existing municipal pools. This replaces an earlier tax (Measure R in 2000) that was never collected. The collected tax can only be spent on the pools & will ensure a dedicated funding source in perpetuity. The warm water pool is vital for the disabled, people in physical therapy, infants, and children, and all of the pools will be brought up to the highest Green building standards.
Website

State Propositions:
13- Yes!
This gives unreinforced masonry buildings the same existing tax break for earthquake retrofitting as other types of buildings. These are generally brick buildings & susceptible to catastrophic collapse, so this incentive to retrofit is very welcome.
LA Times endorsement

14- NO!
This is a power grab by the 2 major parties & would restrict the general election to the top 2 vote-getters in the primary. For instance, if 2 Republicans are the top 2 gubernatorial candidates, then we'll have no other choices- write-in votes are also banned under this Proposition. Even more expensive state-wide campaigns will be necessary to run a successful state-wide campaign, and third parties will be shut out of the elections and be completely devastated. Less choice, more corruption, atrocious proposition.
Website

15- Yes!
It's a baby step towards public financing of elections- qualified 2014 & 2018 Secretary of State candidates would be given $ collected from increasing state fees on lobbyists.
League of Women Voters Endorsement

16- No!
One of 2 clearly corporate giveaways on the ballot, this is funded by PG&E and is an attempt to squelch the spread of non-profit public power systems (see: Alameda, Anaheim, Palo Alto, etc) which are cheaper & greener than PG&E's system. 16 is all about crushing competition to one of California's most powerful (pun intended) corporations.
Website

17- No!
The other corporate giveaway is just as ridiculous. Mercury Insurance Company is funding this law that would allow insurers to jack up rates on anyone who hasn't had car insurance at any point in the previous 5 years- even if it's because they haven't owned a car or they were overseas in the military. In addition to ensuring more profits for major corporations from us, it'll also force financially strapped drivers to drive without insurance, since public transit is not a viable option in much of the state.
Website


P.S.- I've donated money to Measure C, Proposition 15, & Joaquin Rivera.

Bye bye inline hockey - hello ice!

Last night was my last roller game for a while. Concentrating on ice & Summer BASH- yes!


Edit: Friday 5/14 My Silver B ice team gave me MVP for last season (during which we beat the #1 & the #2 teams in the playoffs before losing the finals 3-0). I was shocked & happy!

Champeen rematch

Tonight we had a rematch in the Bronze league from the championship game (a 0-0 tie we lost in a shootout)- turns out their starting goalie & a ton of their players moved up a league leaving half a team and half new players to begin from scratch. We won 5-0, but there's no doubt that as they get used to each other that they'll become, again, a team to be reckoned with.

For instance, their goalie (who was the 3rd best in the league last season behind their starting goalie & myself) was rusty- he's gonna be on top of his game in a few weeks. They also picked up at least one player who has a bullet of a shot.

West Oakland Toxic Tour coverage = award winning!

Hot damn, the Newsdesk.org project of Independent Arts & Media just won "Best Digital Media Presentation" from the Society of Professional Journalists. Congrats!

INDIANAPOLIS - The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism.

Judges chose the winners from over 1,300 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2009.

Digital Media Presentation (Independent)
"The Bay Area Toxic Tour: West Oakland," Kim Komenich, Kwan Booth, Josh Wilson, Newsdesk.org/Independent Arts & Media

Turned in my Gilman keys for a reason.

I turned in my keys Friday & resigned from the Board of Directors & as Secretary. It's the 1st time since 1989 that I haven't had keys there & I am completely unaffiliated with 924 Gilman now. I feel a huge wave of relief, although it wasn't an easy decision to make.

Short version:
Gilman's always been a half non-profit, half-tax paying entity. It's been operating as a non-profit under the umbrella of another non-profit for a couple of years, and it's finally really close to being a legally independent 501(c)3 non-profit. This means it can go out & raise funds & in-kind donations from individual donors & foundations.

Part of Gilman becoming a non-profit involves having a Board of Directors (who would probably organize fundraising efforts) and restructuring it's governance structure to accommodate this, as well as rewriting the by-laws to add some tweaks & some major changes. It has been a collective that is run by the 2xmonth collective meetings since 1986, open to all. Before this weekend's by-law changes, anyone who had attended at least one meeting in the past was allowed to vote. I believe that the new by-laws (at least the last version I saw) requires voting members to do at least 1 task a month (which is completely reasonable).

I have a lot of experience with writing by-laws for non-profits & egalitarian entities, reorganizing governance structures, and planning fundraising efforts for these types of places. Doing this for Gilman was my main reason for attending the twice-monthly collective meetings again.

The recent by-law revision that happened showed me that the super-close coordination & collaboration that these HUGE efforts require wasn't going to happen, at least not with me involved. I reached out to the main regular volunteers & asked for us to collaborate, to work together, but was mostly rebuffed.

It's kind of crazy to me that a group of regular, hard-working volunteers would shine on legitimate offers of help to lighten their already heavy load. I was always up front with what I could offer & that I was not interested in personal drama. Unfortunately personal drama created by some of the current volunteers definitely played a part in their reluctance to collaborate.

So I said, fine, here's my keys, here's my resignation, good luck.

I'm ambivalent, because while I feel strongly about Gilman's history, I am very worried by the statements & actions of some of the current volunteers. "Gilman hasn't been run as a collective for 2 years" is one that is factually wrong but fervently expressed by the current Head of Booking. No doubt the recently-passed by-law changes will move the place further in his preferred direction. (By-laws that I happily helped re-write, by the way- I don't think a place should stay sacred & unchanging, especially when a lot of the changes are good ideas)

There's a sense of "us" (the people who can give many hours a week) and "them" (the larger community, including many Gilman veterans who have previously given many hours a week for years- decades- at a time). There's a contempt for the worth of the contributions of "them," even though "they" will be some of the main targets for any successful fundraising effort.

Additionally, there are issues of volunteer retention & volunteer relations- another out-going volunteer said that they were always afraid of being yelled at by their "parents," i.e. some of the main volunteers, if they did something those main volunteers disagreed with.

This disapproval of dissent by the main regular volunteers is not healthy for a community-organized space. I ran into this myself over the past few months when I refused to leave my experience & knowledge at the door & get in line, and instead have a discussion about pros & cons of various things. Nothing I have done is any different than what I or hundreds (thousands?) of past Gilman volunteers have done over the decades. Advocate for a position, go to a vote, & win or lose a collective vote. Rinse, wash, repeat. Democracy sucks, get used to it- or change the rules.

While I will not say that donating to Gilman is a bad idea, I can't recommend it either. That sucks to write after all of these years of being a huge booster, but that's where it is.

Playoff MADNESS

Okay, non-sports people skip this.

I play in 2 ice hockey leagues- Silver B & Bronze. The teams are Sardogs & Gulag, respectively. (Silver B is the more skilled league)

These past 3-4 weeks have been playoff season @ Oakland Ice, and both teams made it to the finals with me in net.

Sardogs came in 7th (out of 8) for the season, but we went on to beat the #1 & #2 teams in the 1st 2 rounds of the playoffs in tough games. We went to the finals against the #4 team, the Cross-Czechs (made up of Czechs, Slovaks, & some north americans). They were really tough, having 4 high level players, and beat us 3-0. It wasn't for trying though, we just couldn't get through their defense to score. I'm really happy with how I played, considering the # & caliber of shots I faced (25 shots to 10 by us).

Gulag came in 2nd for the season, and we beat the Bronze league Cross-Czechs (they have 3 teams in 3 different levels @ Oakland) 4-0 in the semi-finals. The finals were last night against the #1 team, Gang Green who we've dueled with throughout the season, losing or winning by 1 goal. Their goalie & I were neck & neck for best GAA & Save % throughout the season too. I ended up squeaking out the #1 spot. It was kind of a perfect matchup- #1 & #2 teams, #1 & #2 goalies, a 1-game final.

We played to a 0-0 tie in regulation, then a 0-0 tie in overtime. Both of us were strongly tested by the opposing shooters throughout the game. Unfortunately, I blinked in the shoot-out & let one in. That was literally the game & we lost. It was the best frickin' finals I've ever been involved in, and one of the best games I've ever been a part of. A real goalie battle that was a lot of fun & a lot of work.

Sardog playoff run
Gulag playoff run

Bronze goalie stats GP shots GA GAA Save%

Jesse Townley	Gulag	22	458	33	1.50	0.928
Matthew Powers	Gang Green	16	319	23	1.44	0.928

Jack Harrison RIP

My fellow Rent Board Commissioner Jack Harrison just passed away after an illness.

He was a combination of gruff common sense & thoughtful idealism, and I learned a lot from him in the short time that I worked with him during our shared campaign for office in 2008 and during this term on the Rent Stabilization Board.

blah blah

Blah, that's exactly how I feel today. Oh well...