Bay Area
Give feedback on draft plan to reduce wildfire risks
Use a short survey to help refine a wide-ranging plan to improve how the City and community members can prepare for and respond to wildfires. The survey, which closes March 15, will ask for your priorities and actions individually, as a neighbor, and as a community. The plan covers issues including wildfire response, community preparedness, fuel management, infrastructure, ignition reduction, and home hardening.
By March 15, 2023, complete a survey to help guide how to better prepare for the threat posed by wildfires, especially in the hills.
Use a short survey to help refine a wide-ranging plan to improve how the City and community members can prepare for and respond to wildfires.
The survey, which closes March 15, will ask for your priorities and actions individually, as a neighbor, and as a community. The plan covers issues including wildfire response, community preparedness, fuel management, infrastructure, ignition reduction, and home hardening.
We will use your input to finalize our plan to protect Berkeley from wildfires. Hills neighborhoods are particularly vulnerable, where wildfires can spread quickly and uncontrollably.
The final step in the planning process will be to incorporate comments on the draft and submit it for adoption to the City of Berkeley Fire Department, CAL FIRE Santa Clara Unit, and the Berkeley City Council.
Read the draft plan and complete the survey by March 15.
DEVELOPING A COMMUNITY WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN
The draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan sets out a multi-year program with five priority strategies and an action plan with multiple projects. The draft plan includes:
- Existing natural and built conditions, firefighting resources, regulatory context, and current plans and policies
- Findings of community input from the previous three online surveys
- Prioritization of hazard reduction strategies, programs, projects, and activities drawing from the nationally recognized Fire Adapted Communities Framework
- Berkeley’s five highest priority projects, along with their roles, responsibilities, relative funding needs, and timetables
This plan is one of several disaster preparedness projects the Berkeley Fire Department is leading to better ready our community for disasters. Measure FF, a parcel tax approved by Berkeley voters in 2020, provided funding for these efforts.
Stay informed when you sign up for our email newsletter, visit the project webpage, or email us your questions and comments.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Alameda County
DA Pamela Price Stands by Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence in Oakland
Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018.
Publisher’s note: Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018. The photo was too small for readers to see where the women were and what they were doing. Here we show Price and Jones as they complete a walk in memory of Scott. For more information and to contribute, please contact Carol Jones at 510-978-5517 at morefoundation.help@gmail.com. Courtesy photo.
Bay Area
State Controller Malia Cohen Keynote Speaker at S.F. Wealth Conference
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco. The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
By Carla Thomas
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco.
The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
“Our goal is to educate Black and Brown families in the masses about financial wellness, wealth building, and how to protect and preserve wealth,” said ABWA San Francisco Chapter President LaRonda Smith.
ABWA’s mission is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support, and national recognition.
“This day is about recognizing influential women, hearing from an accomplished woman as our keynote speaker and allowing women to come together as powerful people,” said ABWA SF Chapter Vice President Velma Landers.
More than 60 attendees dined on the culinary delights of Chef Sharon Lee of The Spot catering, which included a full soul food brunch of skewered shrimp, chicken, blackened salmon, and mac and cheese.
Cohen discussed the many economic disparities women and people of color face. From pay equity to financial literacy, Cohen shared not only statistics, but was excited about a new solution in motion which entailed partnering with Californians for Financial Education.
“I want everyone to reach their full potential,” she said. “Just a few weeks ago in Sacramento, I partnered with an organization, Californians for Financial Education.
“We gathered 990 signatures and submitted it to the [California] Secretary of State to get an initiative on the ballot that guarantees personal finance courses for every public school kid in the state of California.
“Every California student deserves an equal opportunity to learn about filing taxes, interest rates, budgets, and understanding the impact of credit scores. The way we begin to do that is to teach it,” Cohen said.
By equipping students with information, Cohen hopes to close the financial wealth gap, and give everyone an opportunity to reach their full financial potential. “They have to first be equipped with the information and education is the key. Then all we need are opportunities to step into spaces and places of power.”
Cohen went on to share that in her own upbringing, she was not guided on financial principles that could jump start her finances. “Communities of color don’t have the same information and I don’t know about you, but I did not grow up listening to my parents discussing their assets, their investments, and diversifying their portfolio. This is the kind of nomenclature and language we are trying to introduce to our future generations so we can pivot from a life of poverty so we can pivot away and never return to poverty.”
Cohen urged audience members to pass the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.
“When we come together as women, uplift women, and support women, we all win. By networking and learning together, we can continue to build generational wealth,” said Landers. “Passing a powerful initiative will ensure the next generation of California students will be empowered to make more informed financial decisions, decisions that will last them a lifetime.”
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