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Diane Tokugawa

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Jun 1, 2026, 11:30:31 PM (3 days ago) Jun 1
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Diane

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Subject: District 5 June Newsletter
Date: June 1, 2026 at 5:13:30 PM PDT

 
Hello Diane,

Happy Summer! The beginning of June brings with it an end to the school year. As a teacher, this time carries a familiar sense of exhaustion and pride that comes with watching students cross the finish line after months of hard work. Having finished finals, students can now fully lean into the excitement of summer.  I myself will also try to find some time to relax, though as you will see in the newsletter below, there is still plenty on my plate this summer.  

The biggest item for me and the rest of City leadership is finalizing our budget for the coming fiscal years – and as many of you know, this year’s conversations have been especially difficult. Like many cities, we are facing real constraints and tough decisions about preserving essential services while planning responsibly for the future. These discussions aren’t easy because every line item represents people, the programs they rely on, and priorities that matter to us. 

Despite the challenging moments, I remain grateful for a community that stays engaged, thoughtful, and committed to one another. The end of the school year always reminds me that progress is incremental, and it is built day by day through persistence, collaboration, and care. That perspective carries over to my work on Council, and I look forward to continuing our conversations in the weeks and months ahead. 

Warmly, 
In this issue: 

  • Taste of North Berkeley
  • Fire Station 4
  • Council Recap
  • Planning Commission Recommendation
  • Juneteenth
  • Make Music Day
  • Library Events
  • City Events

Taste of North Berkeley

Earlier this month, I attended the Taste of North Berkeley with my husband Tim, my Chief of Staff Aleks, and Amy from the District 4 Office. We had a great time chatting with merchants and sampling all the wonderful flavors of North Shattuck. Thank you to everyone who participated and to the North Shattuck Association for putting on another great event that showcases the diversity and excellence of Shattuck’s restaurants and businesses. 

Fire Station 4 

Photo Credit: Berkeley Scanner
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve received many emails and calls from residents concerned about the proposal to close Fire Station 4, located at the intersection of Marin and the Alameda. Like almost everyone who reached out, I am deeply opposed to this possibility and remain committed to keeping Fire Station 4 open. 

The decision to target Station 4 for possible closure was based on its relative call volume compared to other engine companies (1,538 in calendar year 2025), not because its services are less critical to community safety. The only station with fewer total calls is Station 7 at Shasta Road and Grizzly Peak Boulevard; however, closure of that station would severely isolate a geographically constrained and wildfire-prone area of the City and create an even greater operational risk than the closure of Station 4. 

The current proposed budget uses one-time funds to keep the station open until the outcome of the proposed Sales Tax Measure is determined this fall. The proposal would raise Berkeley’s sales tax by .5%, bringing it on par with neighboring cities like Oakland, Emeryville, Hayward, Alameda, and Albany. It would also provide enough sustained funding to allow us to retain the firefighter positions at Station 4 long term, preventing its closure. I want to be clear that Station 4 will *not* close as a result of the upcoming vote. It will definitely remain open for the coming fiscal year.

However, if the sales tax fails to pass, and closure of Station 4 remains in the FY 28 budget proposal presented next summer, I will not support it. I will not cast a vote for a proposal that causes Station 4 to close. 

My number one wish is that it doesn’t come to that. For now, the most important thing we can do to protect our essential emergency services is to ensure the passage of the sales tax measure, which will appear on the November 2026 ballot. 

Item Spot Light: Funding the Solano Stroll

The Solano Stroll has been a beloved community tradition in North Berkeley for the last 50 years. Each year, the Stroll brings together hundreds of local nonprofits, restaurants, performers, and other businesses in both Berkeley and Albany. In previous years, the City of Berkeley, alongside the City of Albany, has provided the stroll with necessary services including police, fire, and public works to support the event free of cost. Due to the City’s ongoing structural deficit, the City is no longer able to provide these services free of charge; the expenses must be budgeted for. 

Given the budget cuts the City is facing, ensuring the Solano Stroll gets the funding it needs will be an uphill battle. You can read my full item here and a recent Berkeley Scanner article detailing our efforts to keep the event alive here. 

If you are just as invested in keeping the Stroll alive, please email the Berkeley City Council at cou...@berkeleyca.gov to express your support. You can also email the members of the Budget and Finance Committee which include Mayor Adena Ishii (ma...@berkeleyca.gov), Councilmember Brent Blackaby (bbla...@berkeleyca.gov), and Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani (rkesa...@berkeleyca.gov). 

Council Recap

First Budget Hearing 

On May 19, the City Council held its first public hearing on the proposed FY27/28 Biennial Budget. As you may know, the City is facing a significant structural deficit of nearly $30 million. Many of you have expressed curiosity about how we got here as a City.

Between FY17 and FY 26, the City’s costs grew faster than its revenues – average growth 8% vs. 6.5%, respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic further shifted the city’s economic landscape, and the city used temporary, one-time measures to balance the budget, including COVID-19 relief funding, Property Transfer Tax proceeds, hiring freezes, project deferrals, and the use of fund balance and reserves. However, these approaches never addressed the underlying structural deficit. Although budgets were technically balanced, expenses continued to outpace revenues.

Unfortunately, to present a truly balanced budget, we have to make reductions across all City Departments. These cuts are not being made lightly. Maintaining a structurally balanced budget is critical to ensuring the City can continue providing reliable services to our community. 

The next Budget hearing and final vote will be held on June 16th and the final vote will be held on June 23rd. You can find the Budget and Finance Committee materials here. You can check back to find the June 23rd meeting agenda here.

Flock Contract Update 

On May 7, the Berkeley City Council met to continue discussions regarding the Berkeley Police Department’s contract with Flock Safety. While the City voted to reject an expanded contract, I voted with the majority to approve a 12 month extension to the City’s existing Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) contract. 

ALPRs are a critical crime-fighting tool for our police department and are an important part of the larger effort to ensure the public safety of our community. In its first full year, the ALPR program contributed to at least 37 stolen vehicle recoveries, played a role in 58 arrests, and supported 121 cases. 

I was prepared to support the proposed expanded contract, albeit with some strong limitations on when drones could be deployed, but that position did not carry majority support. Instead, I joined with the majority of Council to direct the City Manager to develop a Request for Proposal or RFP process for the additionally proposed public safety technologies such as drones, investigative software, and fixed surveillance cameras. This will ensure a competitive process takes place and the City can consider vendors other than Flock for the acquisition of these public safety tools. I am very comfortable with this more measured and cautious approach and feel good about the outcome. It was most important to me that we keep our existing ALPR cameras, as they have been an enormous asset to public safety. If you’d like to better understand my thinking on this complex and nuanced issue, I invite you to read an op-ed that I co-authored with other Councilmembers here. 

CZU Update - Planning Commission Recommendation

Earlier this month, the Planning Commission voted to recommend several changes to the Corridors Zoning Update and to forward those recommendations to Council. I’m happy to announce that the Commission endorsed an overlay zoning approach, which would see more tailored zoning changes for College Ave, Solano Ave, and North Shattuck Ave.

Overlay zoning is a moderate, compromise approach to the original proposal to upzone entire commercial areas. It was developed in response to understandable fears expressed by merchants and residents that the change would create a perverse incentive to demolish the buildings that house our beloved neighborhood businesses and replace them with newly allowed taller buildings. Because only a handful of parcels have been identified by our Planning staff as appropriate for housing development, this approach limits the zoning changes to those identified parcels, leaving the majority of each corridor unaffected. 

I support this approach because it exempts almost all our small businesses while still supporting the goal of the initiative, which is to create more housing, which is desperately needed everywhere in our city. 

Please see the maps below to understand which parcels are covered by the overlay approach (labeled ‘opportunity sites’), as recommended by the Planning Commission.
North Shattuck
Solano Avenue
While this process is far from over, and the details may change as the proposal comes before Council, this recommendation is a positive step towards ensuring our City is building the housing it so desperately needs, with consideration for local businesses, residents, and community needs. 

You can find the staff presentation from the May 6 meeting here. The minutes and full results of the meeting can be found here. 

Berkeley Flea Market Grand Re-Opening Celebration

The Berkeley Flea Market returns on Saturday, June 13th! From 9:00am-5:00pm, you can enjoy live musical performances, participate in an art walk, support local vendors and merchants, and be in community with neighbors. You can find more information here. 

I look forward to seeing you there and continuing this longstanding Berkeley tradition! 

Juneteenth

Join your neighbors in celebrating the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival on Sunday, June 21, from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM at the intersection of Alcatraz and Adeline. Berkeley’s annual Juneteenth festival will feature live performances, local vendors, and family-friendly activities to celebrate Black history, culture, and community. 

Find more information about the event visit the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival website. 

Make Music

On June 21st, Berkeley will be participating for the very first time in Make Music Day. What began in France in the 1980s has spread to over 2,000 cities across 120 countries. 

Held on the same day across the globe, Make Music Day is a joyful celebration of music. Musicians of all kinds will fill parks, sidewalks, plazas, shops, and unexpected corners of Berkeley and beyond with live performances. Every performance is completely free and open to the public. 

To learn more about the event or look through our registered venues, you can visit the Make Music Berkeley website. 

Library Events

Don’t forget to check out the Berkeley Public Library’s events calendar. Our libraries host hundreds of events a month. You can check out the full list of offerings here. 

City Events


Address: Zoom Meeting
Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2026 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm


Address: 1900 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710
Date: Thursday, June 4, 2026 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm




Address: Register Online
Date: Saturday, June 6, 2026 | 11:00 am - 3:00 pm 




Address: Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar Street
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Address: Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar Street 
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2026 | 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm


Address: Strawberry Creek Park, 1260 Allston Way
Date: Friday, June 12, 2026 | 8:40 pm - 11:00 pm



Address: Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar Street
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026 | 9:00 am - 12:00 pm



Address: Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar Street 
Date: Thursday, June 18, 2026 | 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm


Address: Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 9:00 am - 11:00 am


Address: Fire Department Training Facility, 997 Cedar Street
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 9:00 am - 12:00 pm 



Address: Greg Brown Park, 1907 Harmon St
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 8:40 pm - 11:00 pm


Address: Greg Brown Park, 1907 Harmon St 
Date: Sunday, June 21, 2026 | 9:00 am - 4:00 pm





Address: 2107 Fourth St, Berkeley, CA 94710
Date: Friday, June 26 & Saturday, June 27, 2026  | 4:00pm - 7:00pm





Address: Glendale La Loma Park, 1300 Glendale Ave
Date: Friday, June 26, 2026 | 8:40 pm - 11:00 pm





Address: Grove Park, 1730 Oregon St
Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 | 10:00 am - 4:00 pm





Shoshana O'Keefe | 1320 Spruce St. | Berkeley, CA 94709 US

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