Here’s some really good news about some students at Berkeley High School !
Congratulations to Berkeley High Jazz “Combo C” on their being named the top High School combo in the country, by DownBeat magazine.
But, here’s some really bad news: Alta Bates will close, maybe sooner than you thought.
Health care is on the minds of people all over this country, and Berkeley is no exception. We’ve seen Berkeley’s two long-time hospitals, Herrick and Alta Bates merge, and then they were purchased by Sutter Health. By 2000, the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center was created that included three “campuses” — Herrick and Alta Bates in Berkeley and Summit Pavilion in Oakland.
Today, Sacramento based, Sutter Health, is a not-for-profit business that is a major player in California health care facilities, owning 24 medical care facilities in Northern California. After months of rumors, there now seems to be no question, Sutter will move acute medical services, including emergency care, from Alta Bates in Berkeley to Summit in Oakland, and make the Alta Bates campus a “hub” of outpatient care, whatever that means.
Summit mostly attributes this major move to Senate Bill 1953 which requires all hospitals (not outpatient facilities) in California to meet strict new earthquake standards by January 1, 2030.
However, when rumors of the closure of Alta Bates surfaced in March-April of 2015, Alta Bates officials stated that the hospital had been running large operating deficits (tens of millions of dollars) over several years and that some medical programs had been moved to Summit. That facility is large enough to absorb such consolidation and is also compliant with SB 1953. They denied that any decision about Alta Bates closure had been made, and gave assurances that there were no plans to relocate the cancer and behavioral health services located at the Herrick site. Later in October 2015, Sutter Health CEO Chuck Prosper was quoted in an East Bay Times article that the impending closure of Alta Bates was indeed based on more than the earthquake retrofit requirement : “Operating two full service hospitals less than three miles apart is inefficient.” And further, “Ultimately our goal is to reuse the Alta Bates site in its permitted capacity” without further explanation.
In 2015, Sutter announced the opening of a new urgent care clinic at the Herrick site. Readers need to understand that urgent care is one step below emergency room services. It is generally described as being for illnesses and injuries that require immediate attention but are not life-threatening or serious enough to require emergency room services. Hours are limited. Today, Herrick Urgent Care is operated by LifeLong Medical Care, a long-time Berkeley non-profit health organization. It generally closes around 6pm and is not open on Sundays or holidays.
In March 2016, an alarmed City Council referred the possibility of Alta Bates closure to the Fire and Disaster Preparedness and Community Health Commissions. The Community Health Commission met on April 28, 2016 and formed a subcommittee to “explore any and all possible alternatives in order to continue to provide acute care services in Berkeley and to consider impacts on Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and West County.”
At the April 30, 2016 BNC General Meeting, Lucy Smallsreed, President, Bateman Neighborhood Association, reported that the rumored closure of Alta Bates Hospital by June 1, 2030 is real. Ms. Smallsreed spoke to Stacey Wells, Sutter Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, and asked her directly about the rumored closure. Ms. Wells’ stated that her position as liaison between the neighborhood and hospital would be eliminated and not replaced as the Hospital has decided to close rather than retrofit the building.
City reports indicate that the Berkeley Fire Department and paramedics transported more than 5,000 patients to Alta Bates in the last year, over 1,500 of which were students so drunk, they required emergency care and observation. To transport patients to Summit instead of Alta Bates adds 24 minutes to these calls. An Alta Bates official was quoted in the June KQED News that the closure was needed because the “existing facility would need to be closed and demolished to make room for a replacement which would result in loss of care to the community for a decade” and further the “plan is to make Alta Bates a hub for outpatient service.”
With the recent closure of Doctors Hospital in San Pablo, Alta Bates is the only full acute care hospital with an emergency room in the Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, and Richmond area. There is no question that emergency medical services are essential, and that extra minutes will cost lives. Again readers need to understand the levels of medical services available. First there is urgent care, one step above that is emergency care, and one step above that is trauma center care. The only trauma center in Alameda County is located in Highland Hospital, Oakland. The only trauma center in Contra Costa County is John Muir Hospital located in Walnut Creek. Emergency services play a vital role in life-threatening situations by providing immediate acute care hospital services for some, or stabilizing a person needing transfer to a trauma center.
On May 26, 2016, the Community Health Commission met to discuss the closure that is now rumored to occur within the next three to five years. The Commission’s subcommittee recommendation is as follows:
“That the City Council convene a regional coalition to exert pressure on Sutter to restore full services at Alta Bates Hospital including emergency medical services.”
The City Council is expected to consider this matter at their meeting of September 13, 2016.
Cafe Mokka will close and Starbucks irritates the neighbors
The backstory can be found in BNC eNEWS, Issues #1, 2, 4, and 7. Hundreds of Berkeley residents and businesses united in opposition to the opening of a Starbucks at the corner of Ashby and Telegraph Avenues (3001 Telegraph Avenue) in 2,063 sq ft of space, operating from 5:30 am to 9 pm, seven days a week, with no parking spaces for customers. The Council held a public hearing on the matter on March 11, 2014 and denied the permits (see BNC Issue #9). During the public hearing, after repeated probing by Council Members Capitelli and Wozniak, it came to light that Starbucks could open up as a matter of right without obtaining any zoning permits whatsoever, if they occupied 1500 or under square feet, and operated from 7 am to 12 am.
The Council denied the permits and guess what? Not long after, Starbucks revised its plans, reduced the amount of space it wanted by 563 sq ft and opened with stated hours of 7 am to 7 pm, seven days a week. On June 6, 2014, the City issued a building permit to Wells Construction of Roseville, CA.
There are five Starbucks in Berkeley (Shattuck and Rose Safeway, two downtown — Oxford and Center and Shattuck Plaza), Solano and Colusa, and this one at Telegraph and Ashby). The Telegraph and Ashby location, however, is the only one that has nearby residential neighbors. BNC is now hearing that those neighbors are being disturbed when Starbucks opens “at times” at 5:30 am and when it receives very early morning deliveries.
Down the street from Starbucks, the beloved mom and pop local business, operated by Berkeley residents, Cafe Mokka, will close in June. The reasons given — rent increases and rising labor costs. Cafe Mokka will be replaced by another cafe, #Poke, which features poke (different kinds of raw fish and spices) served with rice.
Sunshine/construction woes continue at 2135 Roosevelt Avenue unabated by a malfunctioning City bureaucracy:
The backstory of what happened at 2135 Roosevelt Avenue can be found in eNews issue #13.
After the City Council dismissed the appeal and approved the project, construction started around June 2015, continuing Monday through Friday, but usually with quiet on the weekends. Then one Sunday, April 10, 2016, at 8:00 am, neighbors were jolted out of bed by loud construction-related banging that continued over the next seven hours. Neighbors gathered in a group outside of the house, and one (not the ones that had appealed the project) having had no success in restoring quiet in spite of saying the City did not allow construction on Sundays, called the police in the early afternoon. Words were exchanged and a photo was taken of a worker, wearing a t-shirt with “A1 Drywall” displayed on it, making a rude gesture to a neighbor who had asked the workers to stop work and noise-making because it was Sunday.
Since there had been no response from the police and not wanting a repeat of Sunday construction, neighbors made a number of calls to the City the following week. The Planning Department and Building Departments were called repeatedly. Finally, after persistence, they were told to contact the City’s Department of Environmental Health which they did several times before they were finally informed in writing that the project falls into the general guidelines of construction noise standards for the City which allows work from 9:00 am until 8 pm on weekends.
This, in spite of the fact that on page 13 of Administrative Use Permit 2014-0032, issued by the Planning Department, effective March 25, 2015, item #13. During Construction states:
“Construction activity shall be limited to between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and between 9:00 a.m.to noon on Saturday. No construction-related activity shall occur on Sunday or on any Federal Holiday.”
Yes, the City operates under two different standards! The Planning Department says no, the Department of Environmental Health says yes under standards set forth in a document entitled Construction Noise Standards. This describes specific times during evening hours when activities using tools or equipment “used in construction, drilling, repair, alteration or demolition work” are prohibited. In that same section on prohibitions it states:
“(b) Noise restrictions at affected properties. Where technically and economically feasible, construction activities shall be conducted in such a manner that the affected properties will not exceed those listed in the following schedule.”
The “schedule” then lists the hours and noise levels that are allowable for
Mobile Equipment, on weekends and legal holidays, from 9 am to 8 pm, in residential areas, 60 dBA and,
Stationary Equipment, on weekends and legal holidays, from 9 am to 8 pm, in residential areas, 50 dBA.
“Failure to comply with the Noise Ordinance will result in issuance of a written warning, a possible citation or a potential stop work order.
No mention is made of conditions that are required as part of Use Permits!
No warnings, citations or stop work orders were issued that we have been able to discover.
Neighborhoods have long complained about violations of the City’s Noise Ordinance. Violations are overlooked, the Police Department cannot focus on noise complaints as it is understaffed and must prioritize responses to criminal activities. All of this renders enforcement of the Noise Ordinance and violations of Use Permit conditions useless. 2135 Roosevelt is a prime example. BNC would like to gather solid information of other examples and present them to the City Manager for a heart-to-heart discussion of how best to resolve these problems. We’d like you to send us this information as soon as possible so that we can have this discussion prior to entering the budget process which is currently underway. Send to bnc50@berkeleyneighborhoodscouncil.com.
Demolition of the Rose Garden Trellis is to start, and there is hope that it will be built back…
Demolition of the beloved Berkeley landmark Rose Garden Trellis is certainly bad news, but the fact that it is a ”Rehabilitation Project“ gives hope for the future.
The following news item was submitted by Isabelle Gaston, President, North East Berkeley Association (NEBA) who has been working long and hard for its restoration.
After several years of inaction, the Berkeley City Council finally approved initial funding for the Berkeley Rose Garden Trellis Rehabilitation Project on March 8, 2016. A contract with HM Construction (in the amount of $391,620) will begin the first phase of a two-phase project. In the first phase, which is set to commence this summer, the existing trellis will be torn down and a small section (the middle third) of the new trellis reconstructed.
It is anticipated that the start of the second, and much larger phase of the project, will occur in late 2017 or early 2018. This assumes that the necessary funding of more than $1,000,000 is designated in the budget to not only complete the trellis but also improve the adjacent tennis courts and pathways. According to the City Council March 8, 2016 annotated agenda, ”the completion of this project as soon as feasible is a critical priority for the Council.“
What may turn out to be an accelerated timeline for funding of the second phase of the project (estimates a year ago were for it to start in 2019) is thanks to a creative recommendation by the Parks and Waterfront Commission presented to Council on February 23, 2016, to designate surplus transfer tax funds for parks capital improvement projects at the rate of $2 million per year. (Note: there is no mention about how the original allocation of $1,050,000 for the second phase of the project from the Parks Tax, Measure F, will now be spent.)
City Council has directed the City Manager to provide an updated timeline for completion of the project in the FY 2018 budget.
BNC’s Thoughts on This Matter: BNC commends NEBA and Ms. Gaston for the work they have done on this issue.
We also think that ALL neighborhoods should send a message to the City Council that in their upcoming budget discussions, they need to create a Master List of All Specific Capital Needs in the City. The purpose of such a list is:
- identification of projects where completing immediate repairs would prevent the expenditure of much higher amounts in the future; and
- prioritizing expenditures for projects that have declined beyond preventive maintenance and need to be fixed NOW; and
- insuring that named projects (such as the Rose Garden Trellis and others) actually occurs and doesn’t get lost in the next round of budget decisions; and
- informing the public regularly of project progress who then have the opportunity to apply positive pressure to turn around the deterioration of the community’s infrastructure.
The neighborhoods must not sit by and let our precious parks and open space deteriorate to the point of no return. We mourn the loss especially of the Warm Water and Willard Pools. Even should a proposed $100 million bond measure be placed on the up-coming November ballot and approved by the voters, it is essential that the City begin integrated, strategic planning of all of its needs.