That being said, these people are reeeaaaallly causing me greif. At this point, I don’t care how much of a faceless steamroller the university is, I think the City of Berkeley, the frankly stupid (why buy a house next to a stadium if that’s a problem for you?) NIMBY’s on the hill, and these rediculous tree people need a good solid kick in the pants, and I am cheering the university on in meting out said kicking. Cal football brings so much money into the local area, and believe it or not by association makes our academic reputation shine a bit brighter, too (not all of that money goes to sports, neither will every facit of this project).

As a Cal grad, I hope and pray that this project goes through and isn’t stalled/ruined by these horrible obstructionists who don’t realize the only good thing about the place they are living/working in/tree-hugging is the university. Without it Berkeley would be a slummy crime ridden suburb of Oakland that people drive through with their windows up and doors locked.

Trust me, a big counter protest is just going to make the nutcases come out of the woodworks. There are plenty in the woodworks in Berkeley so there will be no shortage if we put up a big stink.

We’ve already got the EIR approval from the UC Regents, all that can stop us now is a judge blocking the project. The less controversy he hears the less likely he is to block it.

Let the 5 screwballs in the trees freeze while getting soaked up there wasting the next half year of their life while no one is watching.

If you have the time, maybe you can turn this post into a petition on ipetitions.com, get some signatures and send it over to the city. I would be more than happy to add my name. Go Bears, Beat Berkeley City Council.

Great post. Reminds me of story from when I was a student at Berkeley over 10 years ago. After finals, my roommates and I wanted to throw a little party to blow off some steam and have some fun. We lived on southside, on Derby street near Andronico’s. Before said party, we walked around to all of our neighbors and said we were going to have a party and if they had any problems with noise, etc they should come knock on our door and let us know personally and we would handle it. Every house we went to responded kindly and respectfully. They appreciated that we took the time out to come and let them know what was going on. All, that is, except one: a middle-aged gentleman with a sour disposition. When we went to his door to explain about the party, his immediate reply was to inform us that upon hearing ANY noise whatsoever, he would call the police. He was sick and tired of unruly college kids ruining his life and it was high time he did something about it.

Fast forward to the party. Of course, there was noise. And our friend complained to the police. When the police came to the door, I spoke with them and told people to leave. But I wasn’t doing it fast enough for our friend’s taste: he decided to slap a citizen’s arrest on me and my roommates for disturbing the peace. Though they disagreed, there was nothing the policemen could do. The had to issue me a summons.

To cut to the chase, the Berkeley DA dropped the case and sent it to the Berkeley Dispute Resoultion service. My roommates and I met with our friend across the street at our scheduled appointment in front of a trained mediator. We told our side of the story, said how we were sorry, that we ended the party and that we’d rather settle this like men over a cup of coffee at our house. When it was his turn to speak, out friend from across the street when into a tirad about how the city of Berkeley has been taken hostage by the University and homeowners like him have no rights and no protections from the yearly onslaught of hedonistic college students. It was unbeliveable. Nevermind that this fellow chose to purchase a home 6 BLOCKS FROM A UNIVERSITY WITH OVER 30 THOUSAND STUDENTS!!!

The moral of my longwinded story is that some Berkeley citizens just hate the university. What they fail to realize that thier precious homes and city would be nothing without the University. Berkeley would not be Berkeley without the University. These simple minded NIMBYs will never learn.

Sorry for rambling.

I see these conflicts as power struggles rather than legitimate discourse about how to make progress. People who oppose this project are motivated by exerting power. It’s not about trees, traffic or earthquakes. As you have articulated, these arguments are not valid.

The city will sue the university and lose. At the next election, the incumbents will tell voters how they have fought to protect them from the evil University. Most probably, they will get re-elected.

It’s about power, not logic.