Planning Chair: Sutter Hospital Unacceptable -Too Many Cars and Destruction of Bike Boulevard

Planning Commission Chair Calls Sutter Proposal "Car Focused" and a "Broken Promise" to the People of Emeryville

New Citizen Activist Group 'Neighbors United' Forms to Push Back

Planning Commission Chairman Jordan Wax told representatives from Sutter Health Hospital last Wednesday their planned construction of a billion dollar hospital on 53rd Street that requires the destruction of Emeryville’s Horton Street Bike Boulevard would constitute “breaking a promise” to his constituents and people in the greater East Bay region.  Two other Commissioners joined with Chair Wax expressing dismay over the Sutter announcement of the destruction of the bike boulevard, a three vote majority that sends a strong message to the hospital giant they may have to negotiate to get their proposal approved by Emeryville’s planers. 

Nearly all Commissioners expressed some concerns over the proposed 330 foot tall hospital project but Mr Wax, who called the whole project flawed and “car focused”, leveled the hardest criticisms against Sutter.  Sutter will have to issue an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that would cite the destruction of the bike boulevard as an unmitigated and significant impact and get City Council approval to proceed. The Council can override a Planning Commission rejection based on the destruction of the bike boulevard but it would require a Statement of Overriding Concern that provides compelling reasons in the form of findings in the public interest, not just a disagreement.

Emeryville Planning Commission Chair Jordan Wax
The Sutter proposal is "car focused" and its required
destruction of the Horton Street Bike Boulevard is "breaking 
a promise" with the people of Emeryville.

 

Horton Street is required to be a quiet street according to Emeryville's Active Transportation Plan with no more than 3000 vehicle trips per day.  The last time the City of Emeryville measured the traffic volume on Horton Street was 2019 when 4127 vehicle trips per day were recorded.  The Sutter project will place far too many vehicles on Horton for bike boulevard compatibility and for this project to go forward as planned would require the ATP to be amended, removing the Horton Street Bike Boulevard from the City's bike boulevard network.  Horton Street is currently used by a great number of regional bicyclists and the only other planned north/south bike passage in town is Shellmound Street, a non contiguous corridor that doesn't connect with Emeryville's Greenway as Horton Street does.  As such, the loss of Horton Street for safe bike transportation would represent a region-wide loss for bicyclists. 

The public Planning Commission meeting netted many concerned comments from members of the public and also the announcement of a newly formed activist group, 'Neighbors United' born out of frustration with the Sutter project. Two Neighbors United members, both founding members of the former Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), a powerful citizen activist group, spoke out expressing concern for the demise of the bike boulevard and other problems associated with the development.  The formation of a new grassroots RULE type group could spell trouble for Sutter as they seek their City approvals.  

Sutter hosted an earlier public meeting where they hinted that the Horton Street Bike Boulevard diverter at 53rd Street might have to be destroyed and they notified the attendees Sutter would make themselves available to the community to answer questions from the community in the days and weeks ahead promising accountability, transparency and partnership with the Emeryville Community.  They expressed desires to be good [corporate] neighbors.  However, it should be known Sutter has reneged on that promise, refusing to answer repeated calls and emails from the Tattler.  

The proposed Sutter Health center will feature a 200 bed, 330 foot tall hospital with accompanying administration and parking structures totaling 1.3 million square feet and will present “traffic gridlock” as Neighbors United presented it, generating thousands of daily car trips as well as heliport noise and risks from all the low altitude helicopter flights to and from the proposed rooftop helipad.

The Horton Diverter at 53rd Street
After more than ten years of planning in response to too many cars on the bike boulevard
the street was closed to through traffic last year.  The diverter is required by the City's Active Transportation Plan.  
The reason cited for the diverter is bike safety.  The City of Emeryville concern for bike safety will be removed if the diverter is removed by Sutter.

Private Business Advocacy Organization to Receive Emeryville Taxpayer Public Money (Again)

 Corruption Journal:

Gift of Taxpayer Money Going to the Private Chamber of Commerce (Again)

If the Recent Past is a Guide, the $30,663 is Just the Camel's Nose Under the Tent

Former Mayor Assured Residents This Day Would Never Come

New Council Is Nonplused: 'What Could Go Wrong?'

At the May 19th city council meeting, the Emeryville council politicians unanimously agreed to issue a government check in the amount of $30,663 to the Emeryville Commerce Connection (ECC), a replacement organization to the former Chamber of Commerce, in order to promote dues paying restaurants in town; the money representing a public to private exchange former City Councilman John Bauters notably said was never going to happen again.   The controversial taxpayer payment to the private and exclusive ECC organization funds a ‘Restaurant Week’ event in Emeryville this October.  By way of transparency, the private organization says they will show the City how they spent taxpayer's money at a later date. 

The private ECC organization taking public money was debated in 2024 when the organization was newly forming amid assurances from then Councilman Bauters who offered that the group would never get any public money like the private Chamber of Commerce did before them.  Mr Bauters used his argument as a way to take away from Councilman Kalimah Priforce’s publicly made concerns about possible conflicts of interest if the group ever was in a position to take public money.  It is ironic that Mr Priforce, who has now two years later voted with his colleagues to give a tranche of public money to ECC, is receiving push back from his colleagues for again expressing worry about possible conflicts of interest he made before the vote.  In that vein, Mr Priforce expressed reservations about the private ECC receiving taxpayer money at both the 2024 meeting and also at the May 19th meeting, even though he ended up voting with his colleagues to fund the ECC in the end.  

Former Mayor John Bauters
'The new chamber of commerce, the 
Emeryville Commerce Connection, is a private
organization that will never receive public money
like the old chamber of commerce did.' 
Until on May 19th they did.

In the intervening two years, the tax exempt A 501(c)(6) organization ECC has made something of a name for itself for its opacity, drawing out the line of questions from Mr Priforce who told Mary Lou Thiercof, the organization's CEO he was not comfortable giving public money to the secretive group.  As a condition of his support, Councilman Priforce asked the CEO if she could reveal who sits on the Board of Directors, noting that information is not on the ECC website.  In response, Ms Thiercof assured the Councilman she would email him the list of Board members privately.  Notably, the other City Council members expressed no concerns about a secret Board of Directors for the organization they were about to give public money to. 

Finally delivering his YES vote to the ECC (with reservations), Council member Priforce said he thought Restaurant Week delivered good value for the City's brand and he doubted the City's public Economic Development Advocacy Committee’s (EDAC) capacity to pull that off effectively.

Perhaps sensing this day would come and recognizing the checkered past of the former Chamber of Commerce and all their gifts of public money bestowed on them by the City Council, former Mayor John Bauters notably told his colleagues on March 19th, 2024 that the ECC would not ever get any public money from Emeryville.  Pushing back against a questioning Councilman Priforce, who even then was concerned about possible conflicts of interest from the newly formed ECC that might arise as a result of them taking public money, Mr Bauters issued a strong rebuke to Mr Priforce.  Mr Bauters assured everyone that the ECC is not getting any public money and they won’t in the future.  He lectured his colleague Priforce,  “Chambers [of commerce] aren’t supposed to be run by the City.  A group of business owners and residents came together [to form ECC] and there’s no City money in that….zero dollars.  So there’s no conflict.”  Bauters pointedly took issue with the Priforce concerns, “There’s nothing wrong with a group of private individuals or businesses choosing to associate and work together [as long as they don’t take public money]” said Mr Bauters (brackets added by the Tattler).  

The private recipient of Emeryville taxpayer's money
is not transparent. 
Membership in the secretive organization at first was
by invitation only.  Now membership can be taken away
based on 'team player' unquantified capriciousness.   
  

It is interesting that Councilman Priforce who was prescient in his concerns about possible conflict of interest by ECC in 2024, now two years later is still being reprimanded by his colleagues for raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest when it is no longer a possibility that ECC will get public money but now a reality. 

As the ECC announced its formation in 2024, CEO Thiercof assured the Council the organization, like the Chamber of Commerce before, would be “open to all Emeryville businesses”, a claim that has since been quietly retracted.  After at first allowing membership to businesses by invitation only, the ECC now says membership is not granted to all, businesses can be permanently excommunicated if they offer any public criticism of the ECC, Ms Thiercof told the Tattler, “a lifetime ban will result”.  Notably, businesses that are represented by the City of Emeryville’s own public Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC), namely every business in Emeryville, are free to criticize the workings of the committee or even the City Council in any way they see fit.  That illustrating a primary difference between the private sector and the public sector.

Council member Priforce noted the ECC grew out of the EDAC and that committee, still extant, is publicly accountable and transparent, its meetings open to the public.  The new private and secret ECC business support organization getting public money is a source of concern for Council member Priforce who stands alone in his concern.  The other four Council members did not question Ms Thiercof about receiving public money in 2024 or on May 19th.

Emeryville Commerce Connection CEO
 Mary Lou Thiercof 
She told the City Council
ECC is open to "all Emeryville businesses "
but later she quantified that, closing the organization
to some Emeryville small businesses.
 ECC is taking public money regardless. She warned 
noncompliant business members will face a 
"life time ban" if they criticize the ECC.

The $30,663 given to the private ECC has been taken out of the City’s Economic Development Fund that the EDAC uses and so this gift demonstrably comes at the expense of public accountability.

Gifts of public money to private organizations can sometimes turn bad, commonly morphing into ongoing support after starting with a well meaning one time gift.   Notably, the former Chamber of Commerce started as an independent self sustaining organization but after receiving public money for specific projects, morphed into unconditional and ongoing free rent of a large City rented office space and a monthly stipend of $45,000 per year for its periodical newsletter called the Emeryville Connection that was printed and sent to every Emeryville residence.  Infamously, the Chamber’s newsletter was highly partisan, to the point that they even told Emeryville voters who to vote for in Council races….audaciously all done with taxpayer money.  That violation of public trust was illegal and after the Tattler reported on it, the City Council stopped giving taxpayer money to the Chamber for the Emeryville Connection.  Eventually City Hall stopped the free rent too, ultimately causing the Chamber to file for bankruptcy.  

Before forwarding the money to ECC, City Council members David Mourra, Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep Kaur all praised the private membership organization, Mr Mourra stating, “I can’t think of a better organization to invest this [public] money into”.

 The Emeryville Commerce Connection posts that their goal is to “bring [certain favored] people together” on their website (Tattler added brackets).  They indicated they would let the Council know how they spent the public money at some later date.

The old Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and their corrupt receipt of public money is HERE,  HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Former RULE Member Announces Sutter Emeryville Hospital Complex Is Ill-Suited For Proposed Site

 Letter to the Tattler: City Council Should Reconsider Approval of the Sutter Hospital Proposal at Hollis Street Site

The Tattler offers citizens with news worthy stories about Emeryville to submit letters for publication for the 'Letters to the Tattler' feature.

Judith Timmel, a 34 year Emeryville resident and co-founder of the former resident activist group Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), opines about the proposed billion dollar Sutter Health 325 bed hospital proposed for a 12 acre site on Hollis Street (at 53rd).  Sutter recently purchased the former bio-tech site by use of a City Council initiated change to Emeryville’s charter.  The hospital and its administration complex will host the tallest building in Emeryville if Sutter completes its build out.  The “temporary infusion of cash into our city coffers” that Ms Timmel refers to is the $11 million one time real estate transfer tax the City imposed upon the sale. 

To the City Council members-

 I attended the meeting Sutter recently held regarding their proposed project.  I have to say I was shocked and dismayed to find that the city council members had given a preliminary approval to this totally unacceptable development in our neighborhood.  What I appreciate about my neighborhood is livability and small-scale development which fosters community and a sense of safety.  This project is totally outside of any precepts in the General Plan and the hopes I have for our community that I thought that you all shared.

The looming presence of a huge tower would destroy our sunlight, our sense of neighborhood and aesthetics that we now enjoy.  The ambulances, shuttles and helicopters, not to mention the 4 years of construction noise, would destroy our peace and quiet, seriously disrupt our streets and destroy our bike boulevard.  Students going to and from school on 53rd St would be endangered and residents become even more inconvenienced by the increased traffic.  The streets surrounding the proposed project are not meant for this level of traffic and would become over-burdened.

It seems you have been swayed by the temporary infusion of cash into our city coffers.  I submit that this gain is short-lived and short-sighted.  What will be gained by the city after the project’s completion? Sutter’s non-profit status renders them exempt from many taxes.

I support Sutter’s taking over and re-purposing the existing buildings for medical uses. I would support a small-scale building on the vacant property.  What I will not support is a huge hulking monstrosity wedged into an inappropriate space in an incongruous neighborhood.

Alternative location for this hospital? Why not Site B?  Could a trade be made? As long as the height is reduced, and it could be with a larger footprint, it seems a more accessible and less disruptive location.

I urge you to reconsider, and I will be spending considerable time and energy to inform the residents of Emeryville of this impending disruption in their lives.

Respectfully submitted, 

Judith T, resident

Sutter hospital site at Hollis and 53rd Street looking northwest.

Iran War: Council Violates Its Own Sanction Against International Proclamations

City Council Breaks Pledge Against Passing Resolutions Addressing International Problems

Council’s Record: 

Ukraine War is Not Acceptable

Gaza Genocide is Acceptable 

Iran War is Not Acceptable

Breaking News

Tonight, the City Council attended to business they have in the Middle East by a condemnation of President Trump’s war in Iran in the form of an official City of Emeryville resolution.  The unanimous decision tonight was a remarkable and newsworthy event after the same council majority said in December 2023 that international proclamations such as this are outside the scope of the Emeryville City Council's work.  Now these same council members, without explanation, have voted for a City of Emeryville international proclamation.

As remarkable as it is, tonight’s 180 degree council turn around is even more confounding; before their refusal to vote on the Israel/Gaza war (because the proposal was an “international proclamation”) the Council voted unanimously for an earlier international proclamation, the Russia/Ukraine war.  Got that? 

Here’s a step by step synopsis of the wild pendulum swing:

1)   May 16, 2023: The Emeryville City Council unanimously said YES to a resolution condemning the Russian war against Ukraine, an international proclamation.

2)   December 5, 2023: The Council Majority said NO to a single council member’s proposal for Council support for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel war against Gaza.  The council majority said NO because it would be an out-of-bounds “international proclamation”.

3)   May 19, 2026 (tonight): The council unanimously said YES to a resolution condemning the US war against Iran, another international proclamation.

Emeryville citizens would be forgiven their confusion given the council majority’s ambiguous lack of cogency on this score.  These three points, taken up by the same politicians, beg explanation.  But they’re not talking, except for the council member that supported all three resolutions, Kalimah Priforce, who stated simply, “Human lives matter and any time we have an opportunity to recognize the sanctity of human life we should take it.”  

Former Emeryville Mayor John Bauters brought the Russia/Ukraine war proclamation to the council while council member Priforce brought both the Israel/Gaza war ceasefire proclamation and tonight’s US/Iran war proclamation to the council.  The vote for the Russia/Ukraine proclamation was 5-0 in favor, the Israel/Gaza ceasefire proclamation proposal failed 1-4 (Mourra, Kaur and Welch dissenting) and the US/Iran war proclamation passed 5-0.

Council members who voted against the US/Gaza ceasefire proposal publicly explained they could not vote for it because it was “international” and therefore not in the scope of work to be performed by the Emeryville City Council.  Council member David Mourra was especially forceful in his explanation as to why he appeared to be a hypocrite for his reversal.  He told the Tattler it was a “mistake” in retrospect for the Emeryville City Council to meddle in the Russia/Ukraine war and that he would not make that mistake again.  That is why he said he voted against council member Priforce’s proposal to have a proclamation in favor of an Israel/Gaza ceasefire. 

To be precise and so readers understand, we state again: council members Sukhdeep Kaur, Courtney Welch, John Bauters and David Mourra, with their own public statements and actions, have all made it clear they are against the council taking a stand in international politics with international proclamations but they are also in favor of doing exactly that.

The Tattler will attempt to get the four council members who’s voting record has been in direct contradiction with their earlier votes and we will report what they say.

Emeryville's City Council cares about the welfare
of this Ukrainian child.

....but not this child from Gaza.

The City Council wants everyone to know they 
care about this Iranian child.

Emeryville Went The YIMBY Way: Now It Has The Most Expensive Rent In The East Bay

 The More Apartments We Build, The More Expensive It Is To Rent Here

City Council's YIMBY Gambit Failure

Building More Was Supposed To Bring Cheaper Rent

What Happened?

News Analysis

Rising apartment rents in Emeryville have eclipsed neighboring cities, leaving our city the most expensive place to rent in the East Bay amid an unprecedented apartment building binge and calling into question a long standing ‘supply and demand’ master narrative that has seized the housing policy debate here.  According to real estate brokerage and consumer search platforms, rents in Emeryville, formerly middle income affordable, are now shown to be pulling ahead of Piedmont and Walnut Creek, despite having built more new apartment units per capita than any other city in the East Bay; an overturning of overly simplistic supply side economic theory pushed by YIMBY.

In 2024, Emeryville emerged as the top East Bay most expensive city for one-bedroom apartment rentals, with average prices now peaking around $2,790, a 16.3% increase. Emeryville's significant rent growth and apartment building growth made it a standout, often surpassing the most expensive spots in other parts of the Bay Area.  The more Emeryville builds, the more expensive Emeryville becomes as it turns out, in spite of publicly proclaimed YIMBY and Council majority countering dogma. 
 

Similar to President Ronald Reagan’s oft cited claim that wealth will “trickle down” to the middle class as a reason for why rich people’s taxes must be cut, America’s middle class was left waiting for the wealth to trickle down, just as residents here are waiting for Emeryville’s rents to fall amid the ongoing housing boom driven by a didactic YIMBY and schoolmarmish Council majority.

Sky High Rent Increases Despite Unprecedented Housing Boom
According to the search platform Zumper, to which the City of Emeryville defers, on April 1st, an average one bedroom unit in Emeryville rents for $2725 ($2682 according to Apartment finder.com and $3021 at Rent cafe.com).  In Walnut Creek, a one bedroom unit can be had for $2599, while Oakland, Berkeley and Fremont average is $1995, $2295, and $2377 respectively.

All the increasing rent costs in Emeryville have occurred concurrently with a massive housing boom, like no other East Bay city has experienced.  Data shows Emeryville increased its housing stock between 2020 and 2024, with more than 600 new housing units added, making our town one of the fasted growing cities in California according to the SF Chronicle.  At the same time, the Chronicle called Emeryville's City Council "One of the most YIMBY city councils in California".   For decades, Emeryville has beaten the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) recommended housing numbers - something no other East Bay city has done.  All this growth was supposed to drive down rents said YIMBY and their Emeryville City Council sycophants.

YIMBY California is a Sacramento based municipal housing policy lobbying group supported by State Senator Scott Wiener and funded by real estate investment trust corporations and developers.  YIMBY has long advocated for removing local municipalities' ability to set their own public housing policy, deferring instead to YIMBY's laissez faire deregulation model.  YIMBY has praised Emeryville for singularly following their directives, citing former Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters as well as current Council member Courtney Welch and Planning Commissioner Dianne Martinez as especially helpful to their cause.  

The dichotomy between Emeryville’s unprecedented multi-year housing boom and rapidly rising rent prices here should offer a reality gob smack to the City Council majority and other YIMBY apologists.  So far, there has not been any acknowledgement from any pro-YIMBY forces of this inconvenient high building/high rent dichotomy.  Indeed, that stubbornness to accept basic facts and indisputable numbers betrays an increasing zealotry among the Council majority. 

Further, in their rush to support YIMBY, the City Council majority have precluded any chance to get popular parts of Emeryville’s General Plan implemented.  For instance, developers with approved housing projects are supposed to materially help support the building of new parks but the Council majority has stopped even asking them (at YIMBY’s insistance).  Because park acreage is supposed to be based on the number of residents in Emeryville, new housing projects are the mechanism that drives the need for new parks as well as the money for the building of new parks.  However, with YIMBY in charge, every year, Emeryville falls farther behind on the park goals stipulated by the General Plan.  Emeryville is now the worst, most under served city in the East Bay for parks.

Emeryville elected officials should be the kind of people to be able to pivot once it becomes clear their ideas aren’t working.  Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of Council (majority).  It appears these four Council members of ours have been captured ideologically by the materially driven YIMBY.  The people of Emeryville deserve rational public policy that serves them, not real estate trust corporations and developers who seek to double down on their private profit housing policy.  

We reached out to Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur, Vice Mayor Matthew Solomon, Council members David Mourra and Courtney Welch as well as City Manager LaTonya Bellow for this story but none responded.  Council member Kalimah Priforce is a fan of local housing control and the sole YIMBY critic among the Council members.

Emeryville is one of the fastest growing cities in California: HERE

Emeryville's City Council the most YIMBY controlled city council in California: HERE

Emeryville is the 6th most expensive place to live in the Bay Area. Source: Zumper.com

Emeryville has the fastest growing rent in the Bay Area. Source: Zumper.com

Emeryville is now the most expensive place to rent in the East Bay. Source: Zumper.com

City of Emeryville Removed a Community Food Table the Day Before a New State Law Would Have Protected It

Racing the Clock, Emeryville Stopped a Community Food Pantry Just Before SB 634 Became Law

 State of California's Priorities VS Emeryville's Priorities

State Interested in Alleviating Hunger

Emeryville Interested in Maintaining Order

In December, sandwiched between the federal government’s restoration of full SNAP benefits and a new California law protecting the rights of  “good Samaritans" to help feed hungry people, the City of Emeryville moved quickly to remove a community free food table in a rapidly closing window of opportunity to legally stop ordinary citizens from assisting hungry neighbors the Tattler has learned.  The former food table, located at the corner of Horton Street and Sherwin Avenue was removed on the order of John Kennedy, Emeryville’s City Attorney on December 31st 2025 because it was violating the City’s encroachment ordinance, he said.  

Emeryville City Attorney
John Kennedy
He used his $307,000 salary to make
sure homeless people in Emeryville can't 
get access to community donated food.
'We don't see hungry people', his ruling said. 
More important than hunger, Emeryville's
encroachment ordinance is paramount
and must be obeyed.

  

The Tattler food table was set up in November in response to a growing crisis of hunger in the Emeryville community just before the federal government stopped payments through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).   As such, the community was offered an ongoing and convenient place for community members to drop off food for hungry neighbors in need.  However, where many neighbors saw positive attributes of vital community engagement and a rallying around community values, the City of Emeryville and its attorney saw only a violation of its byzantine encroachment ordinance.  

Hunger is still an existential problem in the community even after SNAP benefits have been restored.

The City moved quickly and validated the removal of the food table by initiating a legally required 10 day warning sent to the Tattler on December 21st, 2025, invoking Title 7, Chapter 2 of the Emeryville Municipal Code (the encroachment section) as a legal basis for removing the food table.  That set up a December 31st removal, the day before the State of California  took away the City's legal basis on January 1st, 2026, albeit one day too late to help feed the hungry in the community here in Emeryville.   Victims of this legal technicality, hungry people in Emeryville, have since gone without food assistance from the Tattler community food table because of the City Attorney's quick action removing it. 

Emeryville City Manager
LaTonya Bellow
Community free food tables will not 
be allowed in Emeryville.
Order must be maintained she says.

It is presumed Mr Kennedy did not like the optics of the City of Emeryville removing a food pantry table at the same time President Trump was removing SNAP benefits to all Americans.  By the time a federal judge got SNAP fully restored, Mr Kennedy was left with less than a week to initiate the community food table removal.  The City Attorney refused to comment for this Tattler story but it is clear he had a removal agenda and he was working to beat Sacramento’s clock.

President Trump ordered the federal government to stop all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) payments to hungry Americans in early November of 2025 just as the Tattler set up the Community Free Food Table.  A federal court then ordered the federal food assistance program reinstated on November 6th, a Thursday, setting up a race in Mr Kennedy’s mind, to get rid of the Tattler food table with California's SB 634 breathing down his neck.   The City Attorney got the Emeryville food table removed just under the wire.  

People who claim Emeryville’s City Attorney is overpaid at $307,000 per year (plus benefits), need only to look at this case showing his talent in recognizing the significance of and acting with alacrity upon intersecting legal time constraints in order to stop homeless people in the community from getting food.  Had Mr Kennedy not acted quickly and adroitly, homeless people could still be receiving community donated food at the food table.

Berkeley's Private Free Food Table
on McGee Avenue at Oregon Street
For 10 years, the City of Berkeley has said this
food table is OK, 10 years before SB 634
made it legal in every California city.  The City
of Berkeley  has a long record  of
caring about hunger in the community.

Fans of the former Emeryville Tattler Community Free Food Table have noted only Emeryville forbids community food tables (despite SB 634); Oakland and Berkeley have allowed food tables on public property even before the new State law kicked in.  The city attorneys in those two cities had come to the conclusion that their local encroachment ordinances should not trump hungry community members’ ability from getting food.   In Berkeley, city hall publicly condoned grassroots private community food tables set up on public property, including a table located on McGee Avenue that has facilitated free food for more than ten years.  Emeryville is different from Berkeley and Oakland when it comes to community members taking their own initiative in helping with hunger in the community.  Here, order is the coin of the realm, hunger taking a backseat. 

Emeryville's Mayor, Sukhdeep Kaur, the Vice Mayor, Matthew Solomon, the City Attorney, John Kennedy and the City Manager, LaTanya Bellow, were all reached out to for this story but none responded. 

The text of the relevant part of section two of California SB 634 is as following:

53069.44. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a local jurisdiction shall not adopt a local ordinance, or enforce an existing ordinance, that prohibits a person or organization from providing support services, including legal services or medical care, to a person who is homeless or assisting a person who is homeless with any act related to basic survival.

(b) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) (A) “Act related to basic survival” includes, but is not limited to, assisting with or providing items to assist with any of the following:

(i) Eating and drinking, including provision of food and water.

(ii) Sleeping, including provision of blankets and pillows.

(iii) Protecting oneself from the elements.

(iv) Other activities and items necessary for immediate personal health and hygiene.

The full text of California SB 634 can be read HERE.

The Tattler set up the food table HERE.

The City of Emeryville took away the Tattler Community Free Food Table HERE and HERE.

The Western Center on Law and Poverty story on SB 634 can be read HERE.

The Tattler Community Free Food Table on Horton Street
before it was shut down by the City of Emeryville.
The City of Emeryville said the problem was the table violated
its encroachment ordinance. 
The City says what's more important than feeding hungry 
community members is assuring the City's encroachment law
is followed to the T.  The State of California disagrees.

Emeryville Small Business Owner Says City Should Help Small Business Owners

 Letter to the Tattler: My Emeryville Small Business Is Under Attack

Emeryville Resident and Small Business Owner, Empress

Small Business in Emeryville Should Be Encouraged

What's Happening Here is Discouragement

The Tattler offers citizens with news worthy stories about Emeryville to submit letters for publication for the 'Letters to the Tattler' feature.

I run a small, street-facing live-work business on Sherwin Avenue at The Emery, on the historic grounds of the former Sherwin-Williams site, where I craft and sell artisan cookies through my company, Choc’late Mama Cookie Co. What I’ve built is more than a cookie business. It’s a community-centered space rooted in culture, wellness, and connection. It’s also exactly the kind of neighborhood-serving storefront the City of Emeryville envisioned when approving this mixed-use development: active, locally owned, and engaged with the public sidewalk.

But since October, my ability to operate has been under coordinated attack.

A neighboring resident, Emeryville Housing Committee member James Brooks Jessup, who occupies an adjacent live-work unit, has led an effort to challenge the legitimacy of my business. He and a group of aligned neighbors have repeatedly claimed, falsely, that I am operating an illegal restaurant rather than a permitted retail cookie business. These claims have been submitted to the City, Alameda County, and property management, triggering investigations and enforcement actions.

The truth is straightforward: I have the permits required to operate my business. The City has confirmed this. And yet, a pattern has emerged where complaint-driven enforcement continues to escalate, regardless of verified compliance.

Through documents obtained via the California Public Records Act, I have uncovered what appears to be a coordinated campaign of complaints, surveillance, and targeted reporting. The result has been an environment of ongoing scrutiny and intimidation, one that no small business owner should have to endure simply for operating within the bounds of the law.

At the center of the current dispute is an attempt by Alameda County to reclassify my business under a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permit. This designation is intended for home-based food businesses not street-facing, mixed-use storefronts like mine. Applying it to my business would impose a cap of just 90 sales per week, effectively making it impossible to sustain operations or grow.

I declined this misclassification and requested a designation that accurately reflects my live-work storefront model. At present, no such classification exists.

This is not just about my business. It reveals a larger systemic failure: outdated regulatory frameworks are being used to govern modern, hybrid business models; enforcement is being driven by complaints rather than facts; and there are no meaningful protections in place for small business owners facing bad-faith reporting.

Despite bringing these concerns forward, I have received little support from the City of Emeryville and no support from property management at The Emery. In fact, I was forced to remove my signage and outdoor seating from the patio outside my unit that is clearly designed for such use. With the exception of Councilmember Kalimah Priforce, there has been no meaningful intervention to address the harm being caused or to protect my ability to operate as intended within this development.

What’s at stake is more than one business. If I am forced out, it is likely that my unit will revert to residential-only use, leaving a dark storefront where there was once community engagement. That outcome would directly contradict the City’s stated vision for The Emery as a vibrant, activated neighborhood with locally serving retail at its core.

Instead, I now face housing insecurity, loss of income, and the erosion of a business I have spent years building while the systems meant to support small entrepreneurs remain silent or ineffective.

When I moved into The Emery, I was told these storefronts were meant for businesses like mine locally rooted, community-driven, and accessible to the public. That is exactly what Choc’late Mama Cookie Co. represents.

The question now is whether Emeryville will honor that promise.

BIO: A single-mother and lifelong native of 94608, Empress founded Choc’late Mama Cookie Co., now the only Afro-Indigenous woman-led cookie café and community hub in Emeryville.  For over a decade, her work has used culinary art and hospitality as both nourishment and medicine, intentionally creating spaces that cultivate connection across the Bay Area and beyond.

This moment is about more than cookies, she says.  It’s about who gets to exist, create, and thrive in spaces that claim to support small, local business, and what happens when that support is tested.  

Choc'late Mama Cookies' mailing address is 4310 Hubbard Street but pedestrian access is on Sherwin Avenue between Hubbard and Horton streets.  Phone: (510) 846-1229

Follow @chocolatemamacookies on Instagram to witness the community, culture, and consistency behind her work.

2020-2026: Emeryville Police Make Biking More Dangerous By Choosing Drivers Over Bikers

EPD Refuses to Ticket Bike Lane Blockers

Likelihood of Getting a Ticket Keeps Dropping in Emeryville

Bicycling Twice As Dangerous in Emeryville As Before

The City of Emeryville Police Department is forgiving motorists who park and block bike lanes in 2026 at twice the rate as they did in 2020 internal documents show, a public policy consequence that counters general pro-bike safety claims from the City.  Documents obtained through public records requests reveal a growing police tolerance at EPD for vehicles that illegally block bike lanes and put bicyclists in danger in Emeryville, the Tattler has found.

Illegal Bike Lane Blockage on Hollis Street
Putting up traffic cones doesn't make it OK.
Parking on sidewalk is also illegal.
EPD received a complaint but refused to
ticket this vehicle after a biker was nearly hit,
swerving around this blockage.

The documents show only one citation was issued by EPD for 54 civilian calls about lane blocking for the seven month period ending on February 20th, versus in 2020 when one citation resulted from 27 calls over seven months ending on September 30th of that year.  These numbers show motorists looking for parking spots in Emeryville are only half as likely to get a ticket for blocking a bike lane in 2026 as they were in 2020. 

This sort of condoning of bike lane blocking has real world consequences. Bike safety groups and insurance actuaries show how bikers, crossing the solid white line and swerving out into a travel lane from a bike lane to avoid a parked vehicle to be the most dangerous legal thing a bicyclist can do.  As drivers become distracted by increasing numbers of electronic devises in the car, parked car lane swerving by bicyclists becomes even more dangerous.  According to the Nationwide Insurance Company, surveys conducted in 2024 and 2025 revealed a sharp increase in phone-related distractions. For example, 47% of drivers admitted to texting while driving, a 31% increase from three years prior.  

Many drivers in Emeryville have learned police don't ticket cars for bike lane parking.  Scientific research generally indicates that the certainty of being caught is a powerful deterrent to crime.  So while Emeryville has largely given up enforcement, many other urban areas are adopting new technologies to combat the issue as provided for by a recent California law (AB 361) that allows cities like Sacramento and San Francisco to use forward-facing cameras on parking enforcement vehicles or buses to automatically cite vehicles illegally parked in bike lanes.  Emeryville has balked at using the new law.

In 2024 when he was running for City Council,
Matthew Solomon told us he 
supported bicycling in Emeryville.  Now,
that he's in office, he doesn't care as much.

Even as the City of Emeryville has been retrenching on the enforcement of bike lane law over the last six years, the State of California has risen to the public safety challenge, raising fines considerably.  As such, Emeryville leaves quite a bit of potential revenue for the cash strapped city on the table.  The California Vehicle Code 21211 that prohibits lane blocking, allows for fines of $268 for each violation ($238 plus $30 added as a ‘process fee’).  This represents a significant increase over 2020 when the fine was only $59.  Monies received is split between municipalities and the State.

Vice Mayor Matthew Solomon, who ran for City Council in 2024 on a conspicuous bike safety platform did not respond to our queries about this story as well as EPD who also refused comment.

The 2020 Tattler story on this subject is HERE.

City Says Ordinary Citizens Have No Business in Helping Neighbors With Food Insecurity

 The City Took Away the Community Food Table,

Now They're Stopping Even Sidewalk Paint to End

Community Generosity

Children's Hopscotch Courts Will No Longer Be Permitted to Try to Stop Community Food Sharing 

News Analysis
After Emeryville’s City Attorney, John Kennedy issued an order in December to remove a grassroots community free food table, citing an arcane city code against private property on public property, City Hall quickly took away the table and they've been conducting an ongoing campaign to stamp out any and all attempts to facilitate the feeding of hungry fellow community members at the site of the former food table ever since.  By their actions in the face of growing public hunger in the community, the City of Emeryville announces strict adherence to its ‘encroachment’ code is more important than helping food insecure community members.  Most Emeryville residents are Democrats and such a strict and conservatively minded obedience to public policy not related to but impactful of public hunger, is a stance most of Emeryville probably would not condone, seeing it as unnecessarily punitive government action against a noble community impulse.  But Emeryville’s City Council, whom the City Attorney answers to, has long been more conservative than Emeryville's greater community members on the whole and this kind of mean spirited politics, much in vogue in conservative enclaves around the country, has been shown to be ubiquitous in its flowering among the elite, even here in Emeryville.  

After the table was taken by the City,
the Tattler encouraged generous 
spirited community members to
leave food directly on the sidewalk.
The City panicked and sent out workers
to do away with it.

The former food table, located at the corner of Sherwin and Horton streets became very popular during the two months it existed.  Community members were responding in droves; leaving all manner of foodstuffs including expensive and nutritionally dense ready to eat meals at the table.  Hungry neighbors were taking the food at the same pace as it was being replenished.  Community members left food and took food, gathering at the table to commune with one another and fulfilling an official objective of the City of Emeryville to build public infrastructure that encourages such interactions.  The City calls that “enlivening” of our sidewalks creating "vibrancy", a General Plan goal.

  

While the mean spirited politics taken up by Emeryville City Hall may be common throughout modern America, it is noteworthy that Emeryville's neighbors, Oakland and Berkeley have not.  Both those cities have community free food tables that have been allowed to thrive.   Berkeley is even encouraging citizens to give to tables in their neighborhoods.  Local churches have answered the call in some cases. 

City Attorney Kennedy has refused to publicly comment on why adherence to our encroachment code should take preference over community hunger, even with the knowledge that the city attorneys in Oakland and Berkeley have both erred on the side of alleviating hunger despite their own encroachment codes.  

This Public Works employee was directed to 
scrub off the sidewalk paint to stop the community
food sharing.

The progenitor of the Emeryville community food table, the Emeryville Tattler, responded to its removal with sidewalk paint; a sign in orange asking community members to leave food and pick up food directly down on the sidewalk where the table used to be.  Clearly angered by that, Mr Kennedy reacted by ordering the Public Works Department to wash off the Tattler sidewalk paint.  However, when we happened upon the Public Works worker scrubbing off the sign, he beat a hasty retreat, informing us while running away that the City Attorney had ordered the removal of the painted sign.  With the ordered removal job left unfinished, Public Works employees returned later with non-water soluble grey paint and a roller, covering over the Tattler’s free food sign.

All this City of Emeryville work is being done to try to stop community members of means from helping feed fellow community members in need.  

City workers being ordered to remove sidewalk paint begs another question beyond food sharing.  But our questions have gone unanswered.  Neither the City Manager nor the Public Works Director have answered questions about sidewalk paint applied by Emeryville children; hopscotch courts, rainbows and flowers and such.  This kind of juvenile sidewalk decoration has cropped up in the more family friendly sections of Emeryville from time to time and until now, it has always been allowed to stay; left unmolested by the City; no scrubbers or grey paint from Public Works needed.  However with the City's new aggressive zero tolerance push, it appears children's sidewalk art will no longer be allowed.

The City later rolled grey paint over the whole thing,
putting an end to hunger philanthropy in
the community once and for all.

Other Cities Allow Community Food Tables

The Tattler reached out to the owner of a community free food table on a public sidewalk in West Berkeley, a man who goes by ‘Barry’, who has used his table set up in front of his house to feed food insecure community members in his neighborhood for more than ten years.  Barry’s table is well used by the community although most of the food provided now comes from local churches, not as much from Barry himself or other neighbors anymore.  Barry told the Tattler he saw hunger in his community and just put up the table without getting permission from the City of Berkeley.  When the city heard about it, they let the table stay even though it represented (and still represents) a violation of that city’s encroachment code.  Over the years, the table has become very popular with the elderly on a fixed income and other people of limited means so common in the Bay Area.  Neighbors point with pride to Barry’s community free food table and many have made new friends around the table we were told.   

This private community free food table in West
Berkeley is on a public sidewalk and it has 
been there for more than 10 years.  The City of 
Berkeley says it violates their encroachment 
code but they see greater value in feeding
hungry community members.

 

There are other community free food tables around Berkeley as well as in Oakland that are not being harassed or shut down by their respective city halls.  

Advocates for the unhoused have praised the Berkeley  model of direct community help.  City halls outside Emeryville around the East Bay have been listening to hungry people and many are responding favorably to this grassroots food table idea.  Emeryville’s draconian response to direct citizen engagement in helping fellow citizens on the other hand, takes the form of a punitive top down model.  

With the closing down of the Tattler community grassroots hunger citizen activism, the City of Emeryville's ECAP program will be the only feeding source for hungry neighbors they say, despite the long walk many have to the City sponsored ECAP food hand out events and the infrequent schedule the City gives for the handouts.  Many food insecure people complain about the long lines at the ECAP food give aways and the dehumanizing waiting to receive help.  Some people have told the Tattler they feel embarrassed to be so visible as they wait to receive government assistance. 

We reached out to Emeryville’s Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur for this story but she refused our request for comment as did Emeryville’s City Manager, Latonya Bellow.

The Berkeley Free Food Table is Very Popular With Food Insecure
Community Members. 
It's technically illegal but local churches donate to the table and the
City of Berkeley does not try to remove it.  In fact, the city points to this
grassroots direct action by a private citizen as a
good and proper use of public space.

Children doing this has been ruled by the City Attorney in
Emeryville to be illegal and the City will dispatch a
phalanx of Public Works trucks out to stop it. 
It's OK in neighboring cities.

Super Bowl Fever? That's One Thing, Democratic Party Politics Fever is Another

The Bay Area Hosting One of the Biggest Spectacles in American Culture

Moscone Center in San Francisco is the Center of the Action

Super Bowl LX is bringing tens of thousands of visitors to the region, filling San Francisco hotels and pushing tourism outward into nearby cities like Emeryville, where proximity to downtown San Francisco, Oakland, and the South Bay makes it a convenient landing spot for visitors priced out of the city.

For a few days, football will dominate the headlines.

A big distraction for Bay Area residents.

But the Super Bowl won’t be the most consequential gathering in the Bay Area this month.

That distinction belongs to the California Democratic Party’s 2026 State Convention at Moscone Center, where elected officials, party leaders, and delegates will gather to shape endorsements and strategy heading into the next election cycle.

The convention’s official theme is “Together, we win.”
But behind the slogan lies a deeper conflict that has been building for nearly a decade inside California Democratic politics: a struggle between the party’s corporate-aligned centrist leadership and a growing populist-progressive wing increasingly skeptical that establishment Democrats can deliver on affordability, housing, and economic inequality.

The same political divide shaping the CADEM convention can be seen in miniature at Emeryville City Hall - in council proceedings, censure politics, and the isolation of a democratic-socialist voice on the council. The dynamic mirrors the leadership culture of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, chaired by Igor Tregub, where party discipline and coalition management often take precedence over ideological debate.

The question facing Democrats at this year's convention - locally and statewide: when progressives challenge the establishment, does the party include them or discipline them?

That question won’t draw the attention of the Super Bowl but in Emeryville, that question has already been answered as its lone Democratic Socialist faces a shadow censure and the Wrath of Kaur.

The story is HERE: When Procedure Becomes Punishment: The East Bay’s Censure Politics—and the National Democratic Crack-Up

Here's the State Democratic Party Candidate Endorsement Guide:

https://cadem.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2026_Statewide_Candidate_Endorsement_Guide.pdf