Pottersville or Bedford Falls

Berkeley, California and cities all over the country are blocking out the working class, the middle class and the poor. The result will be rich enclaves filled with fancy and/or hip restaurants. Berkeley won't have any good movie theaters but the idiots on our city council believe movies are a dying industry. So the new rich folks who might live in luxury highrises in downtown Berkeley will hang out in bars, spend money in restaurants . . and, the fairy tale goes, they will not drive cars.

Pottersville, the sadly craven city that was the result of what might have happened if George Bailey, the hero in It's a Wonderful Life had never been born, will be more like Berkeley.

I live downtown. With my windows open, I am often awakened by clusteres of loud drunks staggering around town. With no movies to go to, the rich new residents will only have bars to go to.

And don't forget that with the demolition of the Shattuck Cinemas, bars and restaurants will lose a ton of business.

I bet many downtown businesses will go out of business as several high rises are built all at once, with loud construction noise, disruptive construction traffic in an already traffic stressed downtown.

We might not have prostitutes street walking as we see in Pottersville in It's a Wonderful Life but we'll have rich drunks, rich foodies with nothing to do but drink and eat because the Harold Way project is going to demolish the only venue in the east bay for art films and documentaries, demolish the economic engine of downtown.

Great planning, eh? Pottersville, coming to a town or city near you.