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 stand against broad upzoning throughout these commercial corridors. Preserving the seven-story threshold exclusively for inclusionary projects ensures the delivery of mixed-income housing. Conversely, allowing developers to opt out of building affordable units by paying in-lieu fees undercuts the argument that new market-rate construction helps stabilize housing costs. While specific site dimensions or unique project types may justify tailored exemptions, our chief priority should be developing innovative financial tools to advance genuinely inclusionary housing.

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?

To start, municipal leaders must establish a clear framework that tracks plan revisions against public input. Lacking such transparency, residents cannot assess whether their voices truly shape policy outcomes. I fully support revisiting the SPASP recommendations; nevertheless, revitalizing San Pablo Avenue through robust commercial investment remains vital. Consequently, we ought to expedite this evaluation to advance meaningful development without unnecessary delay.

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 do not believe it is necessary to rezone commercial streets specifically for high-density housing to meet our municipal housing goals. In alignment with numerous traditional San Francisco neighborhoods, three to four stories represents an ideal height limit. Mandatory active ground-floor retail is essential throughout primary commercial hubs, whereas ground-level residential uses should remain permissible elsewhere.

Unlocking single-family lots offers a compelling path toward expanding housing capacity, whether by fostering co-living / co-op spaces, converting structures into duplexes, adapting basements and attics, or constructing accessory dwelling units. Achieving this vision requires a comprehensive modernization of our municipal permitting and building frameworks to eliminate regulatory friction.

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?

Regarding major construction projects, macroeconomic pressures—specifically heightened borrowing costs and climbing supply prices—prevent market dynamics from supplying these outcomes independently. Consequently, local governments must aggressively pioneer novel public funding strategies and collaborative development alliances to guarantee project viability.

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

I remain firmly opposed to such exemptions; nevertheless, we must establish a dedicated municipal task force to systematically address the administrative and operational hurdles hampering the construction and ongoing management of these inclusionary properties.

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?

Municipal development across Berkeley has long encountered severe resistance and persistent delays. The newly passed middle housing measure appears to function as an overcorrection that imposes overly broad mandates. Community consultation remains vital when altering residential scale; nevertheless, legacy review procedures proved excessively restrictive and convoluted. Enacting such dramatic density targets puts the cart before the horse, particularly given our municipal infrastructure limitations. Although incremental policy refinements were certainly warranted, this current legislative framework represents an unwarranted overreach.

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?

Architectural legacy encapsulates the distinct cultural identity of our broader community. My own residence serves as a contributing asset within the Panoramic Hill historic district on the National Register. Living here instills a profound sense of stewardship rather than simple ownership, as the property actively reflects our local heritage to every passerby. Consequently, I strongly advocate for expanded municipal protections to safeguard and continuously enhance Berkeley's rich artistic, historic, and architectural fabric.

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.

I fully support this measure; in fact, we ought to go further by mandating a comprehensive reevaluation of the full Berkeley 2026 Bicycle Plan. Specifically, we should incorporate a dedicated section for commercial corridors that establishes thorough analytical standards and mitigation criteria tailored to small business hubs. Additionally, this assessment must examine past expenditures from Measure FF to evaluate its cumulative outcomes, ensuring future infrastructure investments are deployed with maximum fiscal responsibility and strategic precision. Furthermore, we must address the inefficient pattern wherein costly new bicycle and bus infrastructure is installed only to be torn up or destroyed by major development projects shortly thereafter, resulting in severe resource waste and repeated disruption to public space.

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?

Deteriorated road surfaces pose acute safety hazards while compounding broader environmental harms, including accelerated tire degradation, diminished vehicular fuel efficiency, and heightened resource consumption. I strongly advocate for immediately repaving both primary commercial corridors and designated bicycle boulevards, ensuring these thoroughfares meet the highest civic standards without incurring the elevated expenses driven by further delay.

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?

A truly livable municipality contrasts sharply with modern urban trends. Genuine livability synthesizes inspiring architectural design, rich cultural expression, accessible green spaces, and vibrant commercial hubs that foster authentic human connection. In downtown, we want to see a thriving central core dedicated to employment, civic life, live performance, arts, and commerce. Surrounding residential areas should maintain a human-scaled footprint—ideally capped at three to four stories, a height where someone on an upper floor can easily call out or talk to people on the street. Integrating single-family residences with gentle infill like duplexes, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units preserves essential setbacks and generous canopy coverage.

Dedicated bicycle and pedestrian boulevards, should connect residential neighborhoods directly to academic institutions and local merchant districts, while specialized recreational corridors through the hills enhance regional transit appeals. Crucially, we should seek creative solutions to get cars off the street—such as constructing dedicated parking structures in commercial hubs and providing perks for developments that incorporate off-street parking—thereby enabling local businesses to expand their footprints into the public domain.

Furthermore, civic health demands dignified, compassionate solutions for unhoused populations that maintain public order, robust educational systems that uplift every student, and proactive equity initiatives to safeguard socioeconomic diversity against displacement. Fostering a collaborative partnership with the university alongside meticulous public maintenance instills widespread community pride. By upholding our historical legacy of activism and stewardship, we ensure that Berkeley remains an exemplary, compassionate, and enduring civic home.