Bridges not Walls: Aidan Hill — Position Paper for 2020 General Election to BridgeUSA
Introduction:
As a candidate for Berkeley Mayor, I have a strong platform on homelessness, police reform, and environmental protections. As such, I encourage all Berkeley voting residents to vote for Aidan Hill (they/them) as Berkeley Mayor this 2020 election. Before I came to UC Berkeley as a political science student in 2016, I attended Riverside City College From 2011 to 2015 where I received an associates degree in Communications Studies with departmental distinction. While I learned about interpersonal and administrative development, I influenced legislators such as U.S. Congress-member Mark Takano by advocating for financial flexibility as a Youth Commissioner, which they later proposed into federal law March 2017. As a first-generation student of UC Berkeley, I joined the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) advocating for prohibiting single-use plastic bags and traveled across California, influencing lawmakers, and educating the public regarding the plastic bag ban. When smog from the Paradise Fires covered Berkeley I redirected campaign funds to disaster preparedness responses including providing masks for the Southside community, I focused on People’s Park, a 2.8 acre temporary refuge space which was the only open space in my district large enough to protect our residents. In 2019, I was appointed to the Homeless Commission, becoming the Vice Chair and in that capacity I urged the city to prioritize Measure O and P sums of money to provide better access to food, water, trash removal, and community partnerships through the People’s First Sanctuary Encampment Model passed by the Commission. What distinguishes me from other candidates is that I am deeply rooted in my community holding empathy for all residents regardless of their income level or how they relate to the city. I have sound judgement when it comes to strategic planning and creative thinking towards residential needs and business opportunities. Because of my intersectionality of being black-hispanic, a trans person, a student, and formerly homeless, I uniquely positioned myself to understand and address different aspects of the affordable housing crisis while having the creativity to imagine new ways of ensuring holistic wellness for our greater Bay Area Community. I recognize I benefit from the forced displacement and genocide against the Ohlone people of this land and I support community land trusts and public partnerships to restore indigenous land rights and transform Berkeley into a welcoming city.
Homelessness:
As vice-chair of the city of Berkeley Homeless Commission I consulted with homeless encampments across Berkeley to develop a Peoples’ First Sanctuary Encampment Model. The model is designed to support unhoused people taking part in decisions about long-term and short-term solutions to their situations. All people sheltering themselves within a city-sanctioned encampment will be served by a public authority that provides clean water, sanitation, accessible toilets and trash removal services for the sanctioned encampment. Likewise, in this model, authorities would be prohibited from forcing safe havens to accept residents without the collective consent of its existing membership. Too many voices are left out of the decision making process. Residents should feel empowered to design the neighborhoods they call home. As a city, Berkeley must begin to look at both environmental and social costs to development including low-income housing, homeless services, and no cost childcare. As Mayor, I will greatly enforce local affordable housing quotas as well as support resident-controlled community renovation programs to create, not destroy, low and moderate-income housing units. Homeless people “should” be given homes, and if the city cannot provide adequate shelter it is a right for people to shelter themselves. We must repeal all laws that criminalize any facet of homelessness or helping unhoused people to obtain food, temporary shelter, or safety. Strictly enforce all laws designed to provide services for unhoused people, including their perspectives in the auditing process, and guidelines regarding shelter during inclement weather. It is abominable and the criminalization of homeless people. Freedom from surveillance, freedom from confiscation of property, and privacy rights must be established by the City of Berkeley. We must ban the collective punishment or wrongful punishment of people who have not committed or conspired to commit a crime. Likewise, I support a repeal of anti-sleeping laws, especially in areas which don’t have adequate open space, shelter and sleeping areas for unhoused people. Together, our city must recognize that housing is a fundamental human right and that all persons whether residing in or visiting the city of Berkeley deserve access to clothing, temporary storage, clean water and open space and freedom from unsheltered living conditions. Evicting RV residents in Berkeley is a violation of human rights and is a form of cruel and inhumane treatment simply for being poor. Likewise, I would reallocate monies from the Pathways Project due to its lack of ADA compliances and it is in a district far from the city’s center, across railroad tracks. It is not accessible and it is very expensive compared to the degree of homelessness in our city. As Mayor, I will draft a budget allocating funds towards public health centers and re-entry programs to include treatments for substance abuse, mental health services, public housing units and affordable housing subsidies, vocational training and education, and employment assistance. I support local funding for the department of rehabilitation services and the Ed Roberts campus in Berkeley. Reject the privatization of government provided social services. Provide social support to all residents of Berkeley, including immigrants such as benefits without time limits. Strengthen and increase funding of mental health first responders, street team service providers, and drug rehabilitation centers. I will increase funding for housing vouchers and strengthen prohibitions of discrimination based on source of income. Use vacant housing even if kept off the market by speculators or landlords delinquent in taxes to shelter unhoused people. The City of Berkeley can develop policies creating renters protections, social safety-nets, and work exemptions to remedy and prevent homelessness as well as the displacement of very low-income residents.
Police Accountability
As mayor I will continue to advocate to prohibit the Berkeley Police Department from collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. I propose a moratorium on prison sentencing for nonviolent crimes and the release of non-violent prisoners above the retirement age to community based programs and facilities. Under my leadership, I will encourage the city to reject the Patriot Act, the Selective Service System, Homeland Security resources and funding, and governmental drone usage invading the privacy of Berkeleyans. I call for all police officers to be subject to background checks regarding domestic violence, excessive use of force, and hate-group affiliations. The city must remove all police units residing near or within Day Cares and Berkeley Schools. The movement to defund the police is a direct response to the corruption, unprovoked violence, and murder of people for existing. Defunding the police means freezing funding and reallocating existing funds away from police pensions, wages, and overtime pay. Funding instead could prioritize specialized care including social workers, medical response teams, mental health and physical conflict resolution specialists and services to provide help regarding addiction and homelessness. I favor defunding the police with at least a 50% budget cut. We must direct existing budgets to assist local response departments in sensitivity, cultural, and ethnicity training, de-escalation and non- violent tactical responses, personal protective and sanitizing equipment, and improving department reporting and accountability practices. As Mayor, I will advocate to maximize restrictions on police use of force, weapons and restraining techniques such as pepper spray, stun belts, tasers, “hooding” and choke holds, restricting police use of guns and all forms of control weapons. The First Amendment rights of prisoners must not be revoked including the right to talk to journalists, write letters, publish their own writings, and become legal experts on their own cases. There are a number of technologies and instances where people’s privacy is invaded in our city. Automatic license plate readers allow surveillance on residents without cause and city issued cell phones allow police officers to access these technologies. Police are able to view and tap into bluetooth technologies as well as use environmental sensors to track movements of pedestrians. Likewise the use of language regarding emergencies is too flexible for departments to acquire surveillance technology without legislative, the Police Accountability Board, or community driven permission. I support a ban on all police units from residing within or Parked upon Berkeley School properties. I Support the Police Review Commission to identify and document officer involvement regarding unreasonable use of force, tackling and beating, non-consensual sexual acts including on fellow officers, all who had disciplinary action, officer witnesses who did not protest or attempt to stop violent and or non- consensual acts, and those who engage in entrapment regarding sex work or pushing drugs. Support the Police Review Commission to report any and all police officers who accept bribes and gifts, steal drugs, and push drugs. Restrict police use of guns and all forms of control weapons. Likewise, as Mayor, I will implement restrictions on police use of weapons and restraining techniques such as pepper spray, stun belts, tasers, and choke holds.
Environmental Protections
As Mayor of Berkeley, I will prioritize planning and development to address climate change through resilience and adaptation strategies. During my time in office, I hope to develop a moratorium on deforestation while rehabilitating parks and waterfronts. I will support a renewable economy based upon accessibility, urban design, public utilities including water infrastructure and a focus on low-carbon transportation such as bicycle safety. Berkeley must maintain authority to improve the health and safety of all residents in our city by protecting the environment, and preserving our natural resources. We can invest in research in sustainable, nontoxic materials, closed-loop cycles that eliminate waste and pollution, as well as organic agriculture, permaculture, and sustainable forestry. Measure G states the City of Berkeley [will] have a goal of 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and advise the Mayor to work with the community to develop a plan for Council adoption…which sets a ten year emissions reduction target” by 2016. However, this is no longer a realistic target due to the compound effects of climate change we have seen in the last 2 years. The City, if it wishes to adapt and mitigate the worst effects of climate change MUST achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 with a MAXIMUM deadline of 2030 according to the intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Likewise, the United Nations’ most recent Emissions Gap Report states, “global greenhouse gas emissions must begin falling by 7.6 percent each year beginning 2020.” Because we have, as a city, not dramatically reduced GHG reductions this year, your decision for Mayor this next year will have an existential role to play if we wish to protect our city in this lifetime. I am the only Mayoral candidate that will set realistic and practical goals to achieve this target. I believe with my knowledge of the international political system, accessing the research as a student of the University of California Berkeley, my leadership will develop and implement a climate equity plan towards total carbon neutrality within the next four years. As such I will introduce maximum restrictions on developing on Berkeley open spaces and public parks in accordance with the “Berkeley Public Parks and Open Space Preservation Ordinance” (measure L). Our city’s residents must have easily accessible carbon buffers to prevent the worst effects of smog, heat exposure, and water contamination. The city needs to implement direct investments to create, rehabilitate, and maintain all public open spaces in all communities. Likewise, we need to preserve, protect, and restore streams, rivers, lakes, bays, wetlands, the ocean, and groundwater aquifers and simultaneously protect our flora and fauna. The primary component of my work is based around preserving People’s Park from development because it is the only open space available for the District #7 Berkeley community with 4 buildings dedicated to student housing and at least 1 building dedicated to low-income housing surrounding it. Without this place, not only are we especially at risk for climate disasters but we will lose the available oxygen buffer that provides our clean air. At this Park, I have worked dramatically to re-establish a thriving community garden in partnership with 4 other community gardens across our city. I am also a volunteer with East Bay Food Not Bombs and provide free meals to students, low-income people, and unhoused people once a week. Earlier in my political development, I organized trash clean ups with the California Public Interest Research Group and hosted three town halls in Oakland, Santa Monica and Monterey to support the California Ban on Single Use Plastics as well as conservation measures to protect our wildlife. I am a strong environmental activist and did a tree sit to protect residential trees from being cut down by UC Berkeley without permits (August 26th). Protecting the environment for future generations is the most important thing to me. I believe that green open space is a right for all citizens and an essential resource for disaster preparedness. During my time in office, I hope to rehabilitate parks and waterfronts and support a renewable energy based economy with a focus on low-carbon transportation, energy efficient buildings, and zero waste practices. I will support water maintenance and climate resilient infrastructure to protect residents and their properties in wildfire and flood risk areas.
Summary:
As a candidate for Mayor of Berkeley this 2020 Election, I encourage all voting Berkeley residents to vote for me, Aidan Hill, as your Berkeley Mayor this 2020 Election. for the Berkeley City Council to adopt the Berkeley Police Accountability and Reform Platform in order to support community oversight of police, engage trained mental-health first responders and secure privacy as a human right for the Berkeley community in 2018 onward. I dream of becoming the first trans public office holder with a Gender Marker “X” in the history of the United States of America and I look forward to developing a public image of Berkeley based on inclusivity, accessibility, and forward thinking with you. More information about our campaign can be found on our website: http://hill.vote or on Social media @VoteAHill (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Medium and Youtube). I look forward to speaking with you all. Thank you.
