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Join Mayor @JesseArreguin, the city manager, and public health officer at virtual town hall NOW #COVID19
Dee Williams-Ridley announces new testing site in Berkeley for homeless and first responders. Caltrans will start cleaning parcels by I-80 corridor soon. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/04/10/berkeley-opens-site-to-test-first-responders-homeless-individuals-for-covid-19
Mayor is sharing questions from the public (submitted beforehand). Many questions came in about enforcement, he said. Landscape work is not allowed, the city says. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/04/08/berkeleys-shelter-in-place-violations-show-recent-uptick-no-arrests-yet
City is posting enforcement info all over town, says city manager. The city manager says people are advertising online for things that are out of compliance. In terms of enforcement, this is a misdemeanor, but: "We are not trying to arrest our citizens," says Dee Williams-Ridley.
The city will also issue verbal and written warnings and COULD begin arrests — but Berkeley isn't there yet.
Over 80% of the city's construction projects have been told they must cease operations, as of Friday. There are eight non-residential projects that are allowed to continue. The city asks people to report sites that seem to be flouting rules. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/04/09/as-rules-for-building-tighten-construction-pushes-back
The city says it has about 60-70 hotel rooms in Berkeley for "our most vulnerable"; there could be up to 200 rooms but work is underway. The city has access to over 400 spaces, says Dee Williams-Ridley, in Alameda County (presumed positive).
No homeless people in Berkeley have tested positive, says Williams-Ridley, "but we don't want to wait" to get people into safer circumstances. There are an estimated 1,000+ unsheltered people in Berkeley.
Questions have come in about why the city does street sweeping. Berkeley says it's an essential service to maintain clean and safe streets, "still important and critical." The city says "we really need compliance, we need voluntary compliance."
Williams-Ridley says everyone who gets a ticket should submit them to her office so she can review them. She will consider waiving the fee. The bigger issue is about everything that goes into the storm drains, she says, and making sure the waterways are as clean as possible.
You can email her office with your ticket info and she will consider waiving your fee, she says. That email address is manager@cityofberkeley.info. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/03/19/berkeley-relaxes-parking-enforcement-rules-due-to-shelter-in-place-order
Someone wondered whether people would get taxes back from the city because services are limited. The mayor says no: "The fiscal picture … is looking very bleak," with a likely recession coming, he says.
Health officer says there may be more testing happening in Alameda County, which is why there are so many cases counted and confirmed. (It's getting close to SF's numbers.)
Dr. Lisa Hernandez says Berkeley is only sharing case numbers and deaths: "We're working to provide more information next week." She says the city can't release some of what our places to do "because we are smaller."
She says "it might be a little longer" than a week for the city to get its data up. Hernandez points people to the Alameda County dashboard, which includes Berkeley data (although it's delayed): https://ac-hcsa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/948c67558cff414dbbee1a78fcbab1c9. That data will include ethnicity in the future.
The city meets with the county 3x a week to coordinate around COVID-19 efforts.
Going back to questions around homelessness, the mayor had noted that the city has an interactive map on its website for those looking for hand-washing stations and portable toilets. Here it is: https://berkeley.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=715bb83772db4b85b64c44fc5dbce21f&extent=-122.3410,37.8350,-122.2143,37.8973
Hernandez says Berkeley is using a swabbing test to determine whether someone has the disease. It's "not the most comfortable test to have," she says (it goes way up into your nasal cavity and also in your throat).
"We don't have as many tests as we'd like to have, but we're getting more and more," she says. It's focused on high-risk individuals: essential workers; those without access to health care; and those in group settings, e.g. skilled nursing home, rehab, group home, etc.
The city has put $1M in funding into its housing retention program. People can apply at https://ebclc.org , the mayor says. The city is working on regulations around payment plans after the existing moratorium ends. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/03/27/oakland-passes-2-month-freeze-on-evictions-for-renters-and-small-business-owners
The city has raised more than $681,000 through its Berkeley Relief Fund to help businesses, nonprofits, tenants. Nearly 1,100 businesses applied for help. MORE: https://www.berkeleyside.com/2020/04/01/small-businesses-have-until-april-6-to-apply-to-berkeley-relief-fund
The mayor plans to host weekly town halls each Friday and is posting videos on his YouTube channel twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays in the evening). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgXaP2idglejM_r7Iv7my6w
One other interesting note from the town hall: Dr. Lisa Hernandez (city health officer) said Berkeley is seeing more people who are sicker, including more who are hospitalized + needing more acute care. Brighter side: Cases are "slowing down, but our curve isn’t really flat yet."
