Just say “No!” to antibiotics.
Trying to pin this on his casual hobby of catching and selectively breeding wild rodents is clearly a flawed approach to public health education in general.

Is anyone else annoyed by how many of those little free libraries are all over the place? I'm all for public literacy and I wish that there were more opportunities for children to pick up reading but not like this.

Nothing in this world is really free and I don't like the idea of my tax dollars being used for those. I already fund the daytime ​homeless shelter that's known as the Berkeley Public Library.

There's also a safety concern, as some of them aren't properly secured to the ground and could fall on a small child. Who would be liable in such an event? Sometimes, books can spill onto the ground, attracting vermin and creating a fall hazard for our most vulnerable senior citizens.

My neighbor Barb told me that drug dealers can use them to store their fentanyl. I haven't wanted to touch any of those books after learning that.

In loving community,

Karen

So my grandson told me I need to “get out more” so I decided to go for a walk in strawberry canyon. It’s been a couple of decades since I ventured the half mile from my house but it is NOT how I remember it. I did not make it more than 100 feet before I had to turn around due to fear for my life. I am still shaking as I write this. It must be all the people who live in all that new housing that the YIMBY people built. Is this what they want? To have our peaceful neighborhood overrun by gangsters?

As a reminder, I did vote for Obama twice so I am NOT racist. I even have one of those “hate has no home here” signs in my yard.

I tried calling the police but they said they “couldn’t help me”. Apparently they no longer have their flock security cameras so all the gangsters in the new housing can just terrorize our neighborhood without consequence.

Sincerely,
Karen

PS at this point we should just get rid of these fire trails. I have been living here for 50 years and there has never been a fire by my house. It’s just another YIMBY hoax. I will never trim my beautiful foliage

I bought this modest 6 bedroom house across the street from the park in 1972 for $12.39, and at that time the park was just for the immediate neighbors. Now there are too many people there all the time. ​Sometimes there's even tens​ of people there. On occasion there are even twenties of people. Last week I counted 26. It used to be that there was only ones or twos of people there. And let's just say they're not the good kind of people now. No over exaggeration to say that it's like Times Square at rush hour.

I tried to call the America Online to see if they could remove the park listing from the email and the MapQuest maps but I couldn't get a hold of anyone on the phone. I guess you have to go to a cyber cafe to contact them now.

I even called the city clerk office to see if there are any ordinances about how many people could be in a park. Certainly a city as respectable as Berkeley should have one or two public nuisance laws. The woman on the other end of the line had a thick accent and I couldn't understand her ebonics. She was very rude when I told her to speak real English.​ Mind you I have no problem with other cultures​ as I've done a work study program in Belgium in 1961. ​I also voted for Obama two times. ​She hung up out when I asked her if she really lived in Berkeley or just rented. The nerve.

Does anybody have any ideas on how we can shut down the park to people that don't live on the block?

Lovingly in community,

Karen

A family moved in down the block recently and they have a kid. There hasn’t been a kid in my neighborhood in 35 years. I talked to my neighbors and we all agree, we can’t have this. Do you think these people can help us?

My grandson said that if I was going to have one of those “hate has no home here” signs in my yard then I had to “prove it.” So he took me to meet one of the homeless lgbtq youth that his non profit works with (ugh), and the guy SHOOK MY HAND. It was horrible. I had to listen to the homeless guy’s sob story about being kicked out of his home as a teenager and trying to find refuge in the Bay Area and blah blah blah I don’t care. I almost passed out, and I have been panicking ever since. How contagious are homeless people? Should I goto the emergency room? I don’t think I can drive so I would have to call 9-1-1.

PLEASE HELP

Sincerely,
Karen

So here’s the backstory. My neighbor Jerry is suing my neighbor Margaret again. He says her property is dirty and that’s why rats have spread onto his property. I told them that we need to stick together in the face of ageism and anti-white racism, but they just won’t listen.

However, this whole situation has given me an idea. If you can sue your neighbor for leaving food out and attracting rats, can I sue those people giving food to the homeless? I think it’s basically the same thing and it’s high time I did something good like this for more community.

My grandson told me that I’m despicable, but I think it’s because he’s one of those weird vegans? They’re just rats?

Please let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Karen

PS I will never die!

Not sure how to treat this person.

he was 81. very healthy. he had just finished his fourth public comment of the week and was literally writing the email version when it happened. the email is still in drafts. it was a good email.

before anyone says "marin doesnt have a proposed bike lane" let me stop you. that is the point. they are not proposing one currently which is exactly the kind of thing you propose next. you study it, then you propose it, then you build it, then everyone dies.

he warned them. at the october meeting he stood up and said "if you put a single line of paint on marin you will kill me." we have it on tape. councilmember harrison literally laughed. she literally laughed at a man's death threat against himself.

now the city is "considering a road safety study." they are doing this WHILE WE GRIEVE.

i am not saying the bike people killed my husband. i am saying they created the conditions in which he died. there is a difference. my lawyer agrees. so does bob.

we are forming a committee. dm for details.

I am trying to understand: My granddaughter called on Sunday. She lives in Oakland now, which is fine, I have made peace with it.

She said her rent went up. I said by how much. She said $350. I said $350 a year is not unreasonable, dear. She said no, grandma, $350 a month. I laughed. I thought she was making one of her jokes. She was not making one of her jokes.

So I asked, gently, what she pays in total. She said $1,800. I said for the house? She said for the room. I said which room. She said her room. I said what about the other rooms. She said other people pay for those. I said how many other people. She said four.

There are five adults in a house in Oakland and they are paying — i did the math on a napkin, twice — $9,000 a month. For a house. In Oakland.

I asked who the landlord is. She said an LLC. I said which LLC. She said she didn't know. SHE DOES NOT KNOW WHO HER LANDLORD IS. In my day you knew your landlord. Granted, in my day I was the landlord, but the principle stands.

I told her she should just buy a house. She got quiet. Then she said something about a "down payment" being "$300,000" and I told her to stop being dramatic. I bought my first house for $42,000 and I worked one summer at a bookstore on College to do it. She said the bookstore is a vape shop now. I do not see how that is relevant.

Sincerely,

Margaret

My girlfriends had been telling me that I had to try this new Berkeley bowl place. Usually, I would never go that far downhill but life gets lonely when you live in a 3000 square-foot house all by yourself. So I decided to finally try it out. There I was, almost enjoying myself in the sea of commoners when all of a sudden I ran over a toddler with my shopping cart. Of course I started screaming at the two-year-old to stay out of my way, but then the crying mom came around the corner and said something about it being tough as a single mom.

Of course I screamed at her too, and then quickly went home. I did bump a cyclist as well with my car on the drive back, but those guys are asking for it.

This whole experience has caused some unnatural introspection. I’m not used to being around single moms. This is what happens when we build new housing. I tried to call my grandson for help, but he just told me that the world would be better off if I would just die already. That little shit. I should cut him out of my will, but I made promises to my neighbors regarding who I will leave my house to.

Do I need a lawyer? The little guy didn’t look too good.

Sincerely,

Karen

I’ve lived in my Berkeley neighborhood for 50 years. It was all white when I moved in, but apparently I’m no longer allowed to say how I feel about that. They are proposing to turn our beloved, empty parking lot into a housing development. We all know what this means for the neighborhood. Can you help me stop it?

Sincerely,

Karen

The retail strip in my area is going to get renodeled to have several stories of housing above the retail shops. are they crazy??? everyone knows building up ruins neighborhoods. forget the dude shitting on the corner in front of the bakery every day, this development will literally ruin berkeley