The City maintains that the sweet spot for developers to build housing in Berkeley is 7 stories. Current zoning requires that buildings of 7 stories include on-site affordable units. Are you in favor of changing the existing zoning in the North Shattuck, Solano, San Pablo and College corridors to allow market rate 7-story buildings so they would not have to include any on-site affordable housing.

I have a long and deep track record of supporting affordable housing, have work for over two decades to ensure that we have robust inclusionary affordable housing requirements, and have, through a variety of ballot measures and policy interventions, have helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars towards the Affordable Housing Fund. I will support proposals that require the greatest number of affordable housing units possible.

City staff, along with paid consultants, spent several years formulating the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan (SPASP), engaging with community members and encouraging them to offer their vision for the transformation of San Pablo Avenue. The resulting ideas and recommendations were entirely ignored by the city council. Would you support revisiting the community’s recommendations and incorporating these into whatever final SPASP the council proposes?

I always engaged with community members on important topics, and this plan is not an exception. I ask questions of staff and whenever possible we incorporate a variety of views from community members. I look forward to doing so again ahead of the San Pablo Area Specific Plan vote.

We have already rezoned to allow a doubling of the city population. Is it necessary to rezone commercial streets specifically for high-density housing to meet our housing goals? What is the maximum number of stories, including the density bonus, you believe preserves the sense of community and human interactions that currently exists in the North Shattuck, Solano, San Pablo, and College corridors?

I have stated my broad position and continued commitment to meet with and listen to constituent perspectives on the Corridor Zoning Update and San Pablo Area Specific Plan in Questions 1 and 2 above, respectively. I will reaffirm that my north star is to try to provide the most amount of affordable housing opportunities possible so that, consistent to Berkeley’s state-mandated obligation to affirmatively further fair housing, Berkeley can be a place that we can all call home.

Council members assert that building market rate housing invariably will lower rents. Yet, as reported this April by the Emeryville Tattler, despite a massive building boom between 2020 and 2024, Emeryville has had a 16.3% year-over-year increase in one-bedroom rents, the largest in the Bay Area. Despite building a substantial amount of market rate housing, Berkeley’s rents are still far from affordable. How do you propose that Berkeley actually build affordable housing for truly low-income (non-student) residents?

From helping craft, campaigning for, and chairing the oversight bodies of Berkeley housing measures like U1 (2016), the Large Landlords Windfall Profits Tax, O (2018), a transformative $135 Affordable Housing Bond, Measure BB (2024) and, now, Measure X to strengthen the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, to fighting in the FY2026 and FY2027 budgets to preserve funding for Small Sites from being raided for other purposes (the latter effort was successful), to being the deciding vote in support of one of the strongest Demolition Ordinances in the nation (at my very first meeting after being sworn in), I have relentlessly and effectively protected current renters and preserved naturally-occurring affordable housing. I will continue to do more of that if reelected to a full term on the Berkeley City Council.

I am proud to be endorsed by a supermajority of the Berkeley Rent Board, the chair of the Berkeley Tenants Union, and the California Democratic Renters Council.

Do you support proposals allowing developers to buy their way out of the requirement to build on-site affordable units in their developments?

I strongly support on-site affordable housing and my record speaks for itself. I will always strive to maximize the amount of on-site affordable housing that could be made available for our current and future neighbors.

In July 2025, the City Council passed a version of middle housing that went far beyond the state requirements and could potentially double the population of Berkeley, which is already one of the densest cities in California. Do you favor or oppose what the City Council has passed? Should the council continue to pass bills far in excess of what the state requires?

We need to maximize the number of affordable housing options that our community members can access. I always consider options carefully, take community input seriously and suggest options to maximize affordability while respecting neighborhood context.

The City Council has limited the ability of Berkeley residents to protect and landmark buildings for their historical, artistic and architectural heritage. Do you favor or oppose the changes that were made by the council?

I did not vote for those changes.

Will you support a measure to rescind the July 2026 Council vote on Hopkins until a full complete street study, as required by the Bicycle Plan, is concluded? By necessity, it would fully consider budget costs, the possibility of paving with pedestrian improvements only, accessibility issues for all ages and abilities, alternative cycle routes such as Rose and Ada Streets, and include community input meetings.

The study approved by the Council is intended to assess the budgetary and operational feasibility of the types of safety and accessibility features contemplated in the referral approved in July 2026. I voted for and continue to support the study of alternative cycle routes.

The biggest safety hazard on Hopkins is its poor pavement condition. Will you support repaving Hopkins now, as originally proposed, with only the pedestrian and other safety improvements, since moving quickly would help avoid further deterioration and the higher costs that come with delay?

While I voted for Councilmember Blackaby’s supplemental item to study a full range of alternatives for safe bicycle access to the Hopkins Corridor and would have preferred that it passed the Council, the remaining vote on the table was to pursue a more limited study that included the paving of Hopkins. I voted for that because Hopkins urgently needs to be paved for all of the reasons mentioned in this question.

Critics of current developments have suggested that the City Council consider the concept of a “livable city” as one that honors the environment, human scale buildings, personal relationships centered around community gathering places, safety, and embraces all ages. What is your concept of a livable city?

My concept of a livable city is one that everyone can call a home and that facilitates human interaction and gathering. I was born in Ukraine and traveled extensively throughout the world early on in my life. What I came away with is that, while the built environment certainly is an important factor in helping facilitate human interaction, Berkeley’s culture is one of a kind when it comes to neighbors looking out for one another – which is why I’ve been grateful to make Berkeley my home for my entire adult life and why I work so hard to ensure that it is and continues to be a place that we can all call home.