Posted on 02/06/2005 3:00:56 PM PST by Citizen James
When the Greenlining Institute made its foray into Berkeley politics last year it was seeking to add to the city’s storied tradition as a national springboard for political innovation. Since the city made waves in 1979 by divesting from South Africa, revolutionaries with a dollar and a dream have determined that if they can’t make it in Berkeley, they probably won’t make it anywhere else.
“Things get started in Berkeley. It’s an activist town,” said Robyn Few, director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, which saw voters trounce its proposal to decriminalize prostitution in November.
Other political drives have been more successful. Environmentalists, led by Berkeley allies, convinced the City Council to ban Styrofoam in 1988, and in recent years, to power its sanitation fleet on biodiesel.
Last March, the San Francisco-based Center For Law and Democracy initiated a successful ballot measure, making Berkeley one of the first cities in the country to approve instant run-off voting.
Yet the recent record for backers of political innovations suggests they might want to relocate. In November, measures to make Berkeley the first city to publicly finance city elections, decriminalize prostitution and guarantee the distribution of marijuana in the case of a federal crackdown all went down in defeat.
Two year’s earlier, voters by a margin of greater than 2-1 defeated an initiative, proposed by former Berkeley resident Rick Young and backed by Global Exchange, that would have barred brewed coffee that wasn’t fair trade, shade grown or organic.
Still Councilmember Kriss Worthington thinks Berkeley is a place where new ideas can flourish. “When there is a consensus among progressives then we get things done,” he said.
Worthington said that consensus existed for instant run off voting, but not for other initiatives like prostitution, which had more support from libertarians than liberals.
Worthington said he was considering floating two initiatives in future elections: one to implement a Berkeley minimum wage, and the other to allow non-citizen parents of Berkeley school students to vote for school board.
Last year’s vanquished are also not yet conceding defeat. Few said she expected to take her initiative to San Francisco and maybe to Oakland, while Dan Newman, who worked with the Greenlining Institute on the campaign finance reform measure, might try his luck a second time with Berkeley voters.
“We’re just going to have to do a better job of educating voters about this great system,” he said.º
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism. Karl Marx
If I hear the word "progressive" one more time, I'm liable to spontaneously combust...
Just another word for "Useful Idiot" of the communists.
Notice the "progressives" do not use the socialist tag.
Do they think they can fool all the people all the time?
They do. They think we're all stupid. Progressive = If I'm going to hell, I'm going to take as many as I can with me.
Yes, I believe they do.
Yes, they do...
This Berzerkely area sounds like a made-in-heaven place to launch my new franchise venture, "Mad Cow Burgers"
There seems to be a consensus..they do.
..We shall not slumber while they toil.
"and guarantee the distribution of marijuana in the case of a federal crackdown all went down in defeat. "
That's where these ideas come from...
Dude. Let's see if we can legalize prostitution.
Ha, ha, ha, Yeah, dude. That would be totally awesome.
Eternal vigilance. They would wipe out America tomorrow if they could...
Berkley Daily Planet-- Look up in the sky!...
Ah, that ubiquitous education for stupid voters.
Whatever planet they are talking about, it isn't ours.
Do a google and read whatall they had to say about CA's prop 209 leading on up to the vote on it. And then there's a kerfuffle with Greenlining, and (I think it was) American West Bank of Marin County. Greenlining had to apologize and scuttle away. Greenlining is not the honorable Institute of "springboard politics". Greenlining shared office space with some very far left wing groups in SF. Greenlining just changes it "face" as old and new players in the socialist movements gets shuffled about.
I wonder what's it's like to be a cop in that town.
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