Berkeley Mayor Sees Global Role for City as Defender of Oppressed

Mayor Eugene (Gus) Newport’s office has the usual trappings of a city official--a gavel for council meetings, commendations from civic groups and a miniature American flag.

And Newport has a few special things. Hanging on the wall is a T-shirt from the Bay Area Construction Brigade to Nicaragua, a poster espousing independence for Puerto Rico and another urging a halt to the bombing in El Salvador.

For many people the T-shirt and posters define this university city of just over 100,000.

Those who exercise control in Berkeley believe the city has a “humanitarian” obligation toward the oppressed of the world as well as an obligation to deal with local zoning ordinances and budgets.

‘Progressive Change’

“We believe in progressive change, and we will attempt that which maybe no one else will attempt,” Newport said in an interview.

Under a City Council dominated by recently elected members of the Berkeley Citizens Action Coalition, some recent moves include a ban on condominium conversions, establishing a makeshift community for homeless people on the waterfront where they live in buses and vans, and declaring Berkeley a sanctuary for Central American refugees.

Berkeley had previously established a sister-city relationship with a Salvadoran village in a zone controlled by rebel forces. In recent weeks Newport toured that zone and witnessed a rocket attack on the village. He said the rocket attack was financed by the United States.

“The American tax dollar is being used to indiscriminately bomb civilian populations, regardless of whether there are guerrillas present,” Newport said.

Administration Assailed

He assailed the Reagan Administration for financing a military budget that allows such attacks while slashing domestic spending.

Newport pointed to a $17.6-million CETA budget under the Carter Administration that allowed Berkeley to train 3,000 people. He said the city’s federal job training funds have shrunk to $500,000.

He denied the city will be forced into a legal battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service over its recently enacted sanctuary status because, according to Newport, Berkeley is not violating immigration laws.

“We would suggest they’re in violation. All the laws suggest that anyone can pursue asylum whose life is in danger based on religious or political beliefs. Refugees are within their rights to attempt to flee to a place where they can live in peace.”

He pointed out that St. Paul, Minn., Madison, Wis., and Cambridge, Mass., have since passed similar resolutions.

Unfairness Charged

Rent control is an issue where many landlords think the city, through its rent board, has been unfair. One landlord, who asked not to be identified because she has negotiations pending with the rent board, owned two buildings that she sold last year because she said she could not get a fair return on her investment.

She said that after making improvements to one of her properties, she petitioned the board for a rent increase.

“Instead of an increase, they reduced my rents,” she said, adding that she was only allowed to charge $156 for a one-bedroom apartment near the University of California campus. In another market, she says, the apartment would bring $450.

For Newport, rent control is the only way to equitably distribute a very limited housing stock.

“I used to have have single heads of households come in to my office, who may have been paying $200 a month and then some more lucrative person would come along and the landlord would evict that tenant,” he said. “Rent control happens because there is gouging.”