Neighbors for Jason Overman | Berkeley City Council, District 8

It’s deeply concerning to me that the incumbent’s idea of improving town-gown relations is his unapologetic support for last year’s secret, backroom settlement deal with UC’s high paid administrators.

This deal epitomized all that’s wrong about our relationship with UC Berkeley. Rather than successfully urging the university to hear input from the community regarding development issues and issues regarding how they compensate the city for their utility usage, this settlement shut us all out of the process.

I’d bring everyone back to the table and push for an open, transparent and public process that hears all our community’s voices.

The secrecy that my opponent is proud of is exactly what I would make illegal.

We need to foster a good working relationship with the university, not allow attorneys to keep the community away from the negotiating table.

As a community, one of our most pressing concerns is reducing traffic. I’ll pressure the university—as well as other major employers—to provide a free Ecopass for employees. This could begin with free AC Transit service, and eventually free BART for staff and students.

This would have an incredibly positive impact on traffic reduction in our neighborhoods.

A critical concern from the community has also been trash that lies around all summer in our neighborhoods from students moving at the end of spring. The easiest tendency is to point fingers; but neighbors are justified in their frustration, and students aren’t the problem.

I’d push the university to provide free, temporary dumpsters to critical locations where students live in our district during move-out season. Students can get rid of what they no longer need, and those are around during summer aren’t stuck with trash on the sidewalks.