City of Berkeley Brief
"Traffic In Transit"
Video Public Comment

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City Brief
By Brian Caulfield, Berkeley Voice
February 16, 1995

Berkeley resident L A Wood and friends used the City Council's public comment period to present a 12-minute video at Tuesday night's meeting. Wood presented the video to the council to push for improvements at Berkeley's corporation yard, where city vehicles are stored and maintained, as well as to push for a city policy allowing citizens to present videos to the council.

Wood got around the council's restrictions on making presentations of more than three minutes by having four of his friends address the council consecutively, and using the time to present a different segment of the video.

"I think that is an innovative use of time," said Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean of Wood's tactic. Dean offered to schedule Wood to make a presentation to the council at a later date, but Wood declined.

 
corporation yard

Video presentation West Berkeley (SUDS) area traffic plan 1995

A brief history of the City of Berkeley's Corporation Yard and a proposal for a West Berkeley neighborhood traffic plan for the SUDS (Sacramento-University-Dwight Way-San Pablo area). The 1995 video premiered at a regularly-scheduled Berkeley City Council meeting during the public comment period. This was something that had never been attempted before that night or since. Although Mayor Shirley Dean did offer to schedule the video presentation at a future meeting, the group chose to proceed with the impromptu viewing.

Four residents from the neighborhood each yielded their three minutes to make this 12-minute video presentation possible. SUDS neighbors brought in a VCR and monitor and viewed it with those on the council. The council meeting’s normal TV broadcast also shared it with the Berkeley community. This action resulted in the creation of a City Council subcommittee on fueling and area traffic. Production, script and narration by L A Wood
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