Through the Looking Glass

by Sharon Hudson

10 May 2005

One pill makes you larger...¹

UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley have reached a tentative 20-year agreement that would resolve a major town-gown legal battle, city officials said yesterday.²

And one pill makes you small...

Under the agreement, UC Berkeley would not pay the city more than it originally offered in January, and the city would drop its February lawsuit against the university, said Councilmember Dona Spring in an interview yesterday.

And the ones that Mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all...

The agreement, which Councilmember Betty Olds said could be announced as early as next week, promises to end a conflict between the city and university that has peaked in the last few months.

Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall...

In February, the city sued the university, demanding that the university complete a more detailed environmental impact report of its plan, the 2020 Long Range Development Plan. [...] Then in March, it billed the university for $1.8 million in back parking taxes. And last month, the council voted to charge the university an estimated $2.2 million annually for sewer service.

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall...

The deal falls significantly short of the city’s previous monetary demands from the university. UC officials said in January that the city had asked in negotiations for $3 million to $5 million per year.

Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call...

Instead, the city is planning to drop both its lawsuit and the bills it has approved in favor of receiving about a fourth of that amount.

Call Alice
When she was just small.

“I think most of the community who followed this will be scratching their heads and wondering,” Spring said.

When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go...

Fred Collignon, a former council member and current UC Berkeley city and regional planning professor, said the university has a stronger hand in negotiations because it has been legally exempt from paying city taxes. “The city doesn’t have any particular leverage against the university, except that which can be generated through the state Assembly,” Collignon said.

And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low...

The City Council tentatively approved the proposal in a closed-session meeting April 25...

Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know.

Spring criticized the council for giving in to the university. She said Bates did not stand up for the city in negotiations, adding that the university did not make any major concessions on its development.

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead...

Collignon said the agreement would be good news for Berkeley as a whole because neither side could get what they want in court.

And the White Knight is talking backwards...

Spring said the council has not stood up to the mayor, and will likely put up a united front when the deal is announced.

And the Red Queen’s off her head...

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli said in February that the university is “holding all of the cards.”

Remember what the dormouse said...

“I’m likely to be the only one who will say anything negative,” [Spring] said. “All the others will be glowing about it.”

Feed your head,
feed your head,
feed your head...

Too bad the Council didn’t take the pill that made them larger...

1. Lyrics from “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane
2. News from the Daily Californian, 6 May 2005

---

This article was originally published in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

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