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| Chancellor Dirks broke the news last night that the Berkeley Global Campus project in Richmond has been suspended. With 73 days to go in this City Council election season, this shocking turn of events should become a cautionary tale about what might happen in Richmond if the RPA wins even a single additional seat and takes full control of the City of Richmond.
The RPA and their allied organizations have made it a political priority to use the Richmond Global campus project to shake down UC Berkeley like an almond tree, but it has finally backfired. In the E-FORUM I wrote on April 24, 2015, “The Ambush of UC Berkeley in Richmond,” I cautioned:
I don’t have any problem with a community benefits agreement, and in fact, I even voted for a City Council resolution supporting an eventual agreement, but I do not believe the tactics and misinformation being used by ACCE, CCISCO, AFSCME, the Haas Institute and others are appropriate or productive. The University of California is not Chevron, and it is not a profit-driven wealthy real estate developer. We have no regulatory power over the University of California, and they need no permits or entitlements from the City of Richmond. They are, like us, a public agency. Our relationship with the University calls for collaboration, not confrontation.
Richmond, with its sympathetic and super-progressive majority City Council is increasingly being used as a laboratory for social activists, many from outside Richmond, to use Richmond as a venue to implement initiatives they are unable to move forward elsewhere, even though the underlying justification may be much greater elsewhere.
Chancellor Dirks has been the most enthusiastic supporter of the Richmond Global Campus, and he hoped to have its establishment as a key accomplishment of his administration, but he is now a lame duck, and his support has been fatally eroded by events largely triggered by those who most would most benefit.
Earlier this year, the RPA and ACCE (both represented by City Council candidate Marvin Willis) railed against UC Berkeley, and by inference, Chancellor Dirks, in a rally preceding the fateful working group meeting. The RPA is unbelievably skilled in their ability to turn a positive into a negative. Note McLaughlin’s statement, “ Richmond… will not allow residents to suffer from the campus’s arrival.” Suffer from the campus’s arrival? Well, we won’t have to worry about suffering any more, as ACCE and the RPA have put us out of our prospective misery.
The new campus is) something that can literally make Richmond or break Richmond,” Willis said.
According to Willis, the only way to ensure that Richmond residents benefit from the campus is if the campus commits to community improvements that the Richmond Bay Community Working Group has approved. He said that UC Berkeley has responded only when community members unite and put pressure on decision makers.
Gayle McLaughlin, a Richmond City Council member and former Richmond mayor, said at the rally that Richmond is prepared to stand up for “what we believe in” and will not allow residents to suffer from the campus’s arrival.
“We welcome them, but we welcome them to do the right thing for our community,” McLaughlin said."
Last year, the RPA, ACCE and others took their protests to the Chancellor’s residence, pounding on the fr
ont door and vandalizing property. The fence that was later completed to provide a measure of privacy for the chancellor when he is home became part of a rallying cry for his dismissal “The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a security fence built around the chancellor’s campus residence had ballooned into a $700,000 project,” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/us/nicholas-dirks-resigns-as-chancellor-of-university-of-california-berkeley.html?_r=0). Also see:
· http://www.dailycal.org/2015/09/04/in-defense-of-the-chancellors-fence/
· http://www.dailycal.org/2016/05/26/fence-around-chancellors-residence-completed-2-5-times-original-budget/
· https://www.google.com/#q=dirks+fence
The Global campus concept has been increasingly fragile as interest groups fight for pieces of the inadequate UC Budget. Students are angry about tuition increases. Staff and faculty want raises. ACCE and the RPA want housing, jobs and other benefits for Richmond. There wasn’t enough to go around, and guess who ended up on the short end? We did.
The problem with organizations like the RPA and ACCE is that they understand only one way of achieving objectives – protests and vitriol. In delicate situations like the Global Campus, collaboration and diplomacy would have been more effective than ham handedness. Instead of playing a major role in crippling Chancellor Dirks, they should have been among his most ardent supporters. Instead of pounding on his door in the middle of the night, they should have been singing his praises and giving him awards for his vision.
Surprisingly, the RPA has also let their principles obstruct other opportunities. When the $90 million Chevron Environmental and Community Benefits Agreement was being negotiated, the RPA refused to participate in negotiations with Chevron on principle and then voted against it. If they had controlled the City Council at that time, we would not have $90 million to fund the Richmond Promise and millions of dollars of environmental programs.
Opportunities for both UC Berkeley and Richmond remain at the Richmond Field Station, but if they are to be nurtured, they beg for collaboration and cooperation rather than conflict. We need City Council members who know how to get things done rather than attacking every opportunity as an enemy to be vanquished.
Below are several media articles describing recent events.’
Tom Butt
Richmond rally Thursday demands community benefits agreement for Berkeley Global Campus
http://www.dailycal.org/2016/03/18/richmond-rally-thursday-demands-community-benefits-agreement-berkeley-global-campus/
By Hannah Lewis | Staff
Last Updated March 28, 2016
Comment3
RICHMOND — About 70 protesters rallied Thursday, calling for a legally binding community benefits agreement to ensure that the Berkeley Global Campus lifts the community rather than displaces residents upon its construction.
Rally members gathered outside of Richmond City Hall, demanding that the campus provide high-quality union jobs, affordable housing and rental stability, youth and education support and opportunities for local businesses.
Organized by the Raise Up Richmond coalition and attended by community activists, the rally was the most recent event in a series that began about two years ago, when residents first began fighting for future opportunities to be offered by the new campus.
At 5.4 million square feet, the new campus will be the largest development in Richmond since World War II, with more than 10,000 estimated daily visitors after construction concludes. The project is set to be built over a 40-year period and to cost about $1 billion, according to a Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society report preface by director John Powell.
Among the poorest communities in California with high crime rates, Richmond has undergone a “slow transforming metamorphosis,” said Melvin Willis, community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which helped organize the rally. Willis noted that the new campus is critical for potential poverty and crime alleviation in the city.
“(The new campus is) something that can literally make Richmond or break Richmond,” Willis said.
According to Willis, the only way to ensure that Richmond residents benefit from the campus is if the campus commits to community improvements that the Richmond Bay Community Working Group has approved. He said that UC Berkeley has responded only when community members unite and put pressure on decision makers.
Gayle McLaughlin, a Richmond City Council member and former Richmond mayor, said at the rally that Richmond is prepared to stand up for “what we believe in” and will not allow residents to suffer from the campus’s arrival.
“We welcome them, but we welcome them to do the right thing for our community,” McLaughlin said.
Richmond renter Sasha Graham said she and other organizers are doing their best “to put a cap on this situation” so residents aren’t displaced when the campus’s presence and the influx of faculty and students increases housing prices.
Another concern is that the campus will outsource jobs away from local residents or offer locals contract jobs with marginal living wages or benefits. Rafael Reyes, who is subcontracted by the university as a janitor, said that the jobs created by the campus in Richmond need to be union jobs, as subcontracted workers can be exploited with lower pay and meager benefits.
The prospects of unionized jobs seem favorable, though, as 69 previously subcontracted workers were insourced as official UC employees Friday.
Richmond organizers are also calling on the campus to provide $3 million per year in funds for educational resources and support for youth. Willis said he hopes this will give youth a “new way to look at their own education.”
With cheers of “raise up Richmond” mounting, rally attendees said they were hopeful that demands would be met.
“We are now calling on Chancellor (Dirks) to move forward on recommendations,” Willis said.
The Richmond Bay Community Working Group will present recommendations for legally binding community benefits to campus officials next month.
Contact Hannah Lewis at hlewis@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @hlewis_dc.
Richmond: UC Berkeley Global Campus suspended due to lack of funds
By Karina Ioffee, kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 08/26/2016 05:05:43 AM PDT
Updated: 08/26/2016 05:06:26 AM PDT
RICHMOND -- The proposed Berkeley Global Campus has been suspended indefinitely due to UC Berkeley's budget deficit, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced Thursday night.
The announcement was made during a closed door meeting between the chancellor and a group of Richmond city officials, residents and community activists.
Dirks, who last week announced that he was stepping down from his role as chancellor of the University of California's flagship campus, blamed the school's significant budgetary challenges, but pledged to continue to explore other options for the site that "reflect new priorities for the campus around enrollment growth and housing in the near future."
File photo: UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, left. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group archives)
"The campus is also committed to continue working closely with the city of Richmond ... and existing partnerships in workforce training, procurement, and education," the school said in a statement released Thursday night.
The news was revealed during a meeting between Dirks and the Berkeley Global Campus Working Group, formed several years ago to press UC Berkeley to hire local workers and build housing for Richmond residents as part of its community benefits agreement.
Dirks also promised that Berkeley would look at other options for a development, such as inviting an anchor tenant like Google to the site, said Donnell Jones, an organizer for the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO) who attended Thursday's meeting.
When it was announced two years, the Berkeley Global Campus, in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, was presented as a world-class research facility that would bring together academic institutions, the private sector and community partners to research complex global challenges. Richmond residents had long looked to the campus as a way to bring a major injection of jobs, housing and funds into the city, in what was often described as the largest infrastructure project Richmond would have since the Kaiser shipyards."
Check back for more details.
Contact Karina Ioffee at 510-262-2726
Lack of funds suspends Berkeley Global Campus project
Aug 26, 2016
On Thursday, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced that the proposed Berkeley Global Campus has been suspended indefinitely due to UC Berkeley’s budget deficit, according to the East Bay Times and Daily Californian.
Dirks made the announcement during a meeting with a group of Richmond community representatives at UC Berkeley. The meeting was initially intended to be a discussion on how the local community might benefit from the $3 billion international research facility, which was set to be located on a 130-acre property in Richmond Bay.
But Dirks, who recently announced he was stepping down amid criticism over UC Berkeley’s finances, said the budgetary problems meant an indefinite suspension of the Berkeley Global Campus plans.
“We realized we had a great idea but weren’t sure how we were going to get the funding,” Dirks said at Thursday’s meeting, according to the Daily Californian.
Dirks also reportedly said the school would “explore other options” for the Richmond Bay site, including projects that would promote increased enrollment at UC Berkeley and housing, or even inviting an anchor tenant like Google to move in, according to the Times. |
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