Our Values & Accomplishments

Justice & Fairness for All

• George Floyd Community Safety Act - Reallocate Police Funds to Community Healthcare Workers

• BerkDOT - Move Traffic Enforcement Away From Police

• Police Body Cameras, Ban on Facial Recognition and Decriminalizing Fines

Housing is a Human Right

• Tenant Protection Ordinance & Eviction Defense

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• Missing Middle Housing

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• Streamlined ADUs and Approved Hundreds of Affordable Homes

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• Prefabricated “Step-Up” Housing for the Homeless

Investing in Our Community

• Largest Pedestrian and Bike Safety Investment in a Generation 

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• Microbond Community Finance 

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• African American Holistic Resource Center

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• Restored Funding for South Berkeley Non-Profits

Protecting Families

• Berkeley Relief Fund for Small Businesses and Tenants

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• Paid Family Leave & Medical Debt Relief

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• Divesting from Trump’s Border Wall and ICE 

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• Protective Gear for Essential Workers & Alta Bates ICU Nurses

Legislative Wins! 

COVID-19

Ensuring that employees, small businesses, and renters have the protections and programs in place to provide stability and assurance to our communities.

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• Small Business Support

• Tenant Support

• Protecting Essential Workers

Health

Promoting health through community-led initiatives. Ensuring that healthcare is a human right and that access to healthcare is affordable and equitable.

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• African American Holistic Resource Center

• Health Equity and Innovation Zone

• COVID-19 Contact Tracing Protocol

• Medical Debt Relief

Public Safety

Increasing public safety through accountability. Ben is committed to addressing the inequities in our current criminal justice system and keeping all of our community safe.

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• George Floyd Community Safety Act - Reallocate Police Funds to Community Healthcare Workers

• BerkDOT - Move Traffic Enforcement Away from the Police

• Funding Body Cameras

• Decriminalizing Fines and Fees

• Review of Police Use of Force

• Police Review Commission Charter Amendment - Strengthening Civilian Oversight of the Police Department

• Racial Equity in Policing

Environment

Protecting our environment through next generation initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and address climate injustice.

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• Disaster Preparedness Fire Plan

• EV Support

• Natural Gas Ban

• Ban on Toxic Paper Receipts

• Residential Wind Power

• Single Use Disposable & Plastic Straw Ban

• Climate Mitigation Policy

Housing Justice

Building the future of Berkeley through affordable housing infrastructure and promoting stronger protections for tenants.

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• Step Up Housing & Homeless Housing 

• U1 Funds for Predevelopment Funds for Affordable Housing on Ashby

• Missing Middle Housing

• Tenant Protection Ordinance

• Eviction Defense

• Youth Homeless Policy

• Support for Homeless Students

• Church Affordable Housing

• Open Doors Initiative First-time Homebuyer Program 

• By Right Affordable Housing

• Ron Dellums Fair Chance Housing

• Streamlining ADU's

• Junior ADU's

• Below Market ADU's

• Funding for Tiny House Village

• Senior Housing

• Section 8 Support

• Incentivizing Housing at Vacant Buildings

Community

Empowering our community through critical investments in our healthcare workers, community services, and public spaces.

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• Personal Protective Equipment to Essential Workers & Alta Bates

• Protecting Seniors from Conservatorship and Receivership & Saving Mr. Powell's Home

• Food to Seniors

• Saving Trees in Traffic Circles

• Re-naming Tarea Hall Pittman

• Renaming Senior Center after Henry Ramsey

• Protecting the Flea Market

• Food Justice

Families & Women

Standing up for women by addressing systemic inequities and building programs to empower our new generation of families.

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• Summer Learning Loss

• Paid Family Leave

• Banning Prior Salary History

• School Supplies for Low Income Students

Neighborhood Equity

Promoting equity through responsible safety measures and a call for property tax fairness.

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• Property Tax Fairness and Equity

• Street Spending to Promote Pedestrian Safety

• Bike Lanes on Adeline

• Restored Funding for South Berkeley Non-Profits

• Vision Zero Initiative

• Green Space Equity

• Adeline Corridor Community Benefits District

Labor

Defending workers by supporting enhanced protections and investing in the next generation of infrastructure improvements.

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• Dynamex

• Local Construction Worker

• Worker Co-ops Funding

Immigrants

Standing up for our immigrant communities while further enhancing our initiatives that ensure all individuals are welcome in our City.

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• Divesting from Border Wall

• Divesting from Ice Contractors

• Immigrant Voting Rights

Economic Justice

Creating economic opportunity for the people of Berkeley​ through racial equity and progressive policies.

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• Paid Family Leave

• BenDex - Racial Equity in City Contracting

• Anti-Displacement Public Advocate

• Cannabis Sanctuary City

• Cannabis Racial Equity Policy

• Micro Bond Community Finance

• Public Bank Support

• Progressive Opportunity Zone Framework

The Agenda Moving Forward

Future

• COVID-19 Readiness

  • To prepare for the aftermath of the pandemic, I will deeply engage with our communities and deploy city fiscal resources to support those most impacted by the pandemic. As your City Councilmember, I will: 

    • Build commercial partnerships with struggling local businesses

    • Create a certification program for businesses 

    • Provide business districts with greater cleaning and mental health services

    • Collaborate with mortgage holders and property owners to support commercial tenants

• Racial Equity

  • Let's build upon our successes from the last four years and achieve historical redress. We need to advance further racial and neighborhood reparative policies to compensate for our communities' injustices. Let's make the George Floyd Act, the reallocation of police funding to specialized health care professionals, and transfer traffic enforcement from police to the transportation department. ​

• Berkeley Green New Deal

  • We have to implement a Local Green New Deal that will strengthen our local businesses and empower our workers and create our City's green infrastructure for a brighter environmental future.  I will continue to push the City to fund more fire and disaster preparedness programs for a sustainable Berkeley.​

• Affordable Housing Boom

  • Adeline Corridor 50% Affordable

  • Ashby BART Affordable Housing

  • From securing millions of dollars in funding to creating cost-effective construction models, we have the ingredients to produce truly affordable housing at the Adeline Corridor, Ashby BART station, and all of Berkeley. Now, it’s time to transform our plans into reality.​

• Economic Recovery​

  • We must create opportunities to move forward by supporting small businesses and creating local jobs around the Adeline Corridor development. I will also advance racial equity in city contracting processes and connect all communities to economic prosperity. ​

• Universal Basic Income Pilot

  • In this moment of intense economic deprivation, I protect our communities from falling into poverty by leveraging private funds and providing financial support for the most at-risk families in Berkeley.​

• Universal Healthy Streets

  • Our office championed the largest pedestrian and bike safety investment in the last four years. We will expand our work by leveraging funding, promoting additional safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and incorporating Vision Zero design standards across the entire city.