Councilmember Brent Blackaby

Calling All East Bay Landscaping Professionals! 🔥🌿

Interested in helping your clients create safer, more fire-resilient properties?

Join UC Cooperative Extension and partners for a FREE three-part virtual webinar series focused on fire-smart landscaping and defensible space in the East Bay.

📅 June 9 | 4:00–6:00 PM

Preparing the East Bay for Wildfire with Fire-Smart Landscaping

📅 June 16 | 4:00–5:30 PM

Networking Session for East Bay Fire-Smart Landscaping Professionals

📅 June 23 | 4:00–5:30 PM

Navigating East Bay Fire-Smart Landscaping Challenges

Whether you’re a landscaper, arborist, gardener, or other outdoor professional serving fire-prone communities, these sessions offer valuable insights, networking opportunities, and practical strategies.

🔗 Register for one or all sessions:

https://bit.ly/EastBayFireSmartWebinars

Make sure to remember to vote today! Drop off your ballot — don’t mail it — to make sure it’s counted. Vote!!

RSVP for this Thursday evening's District 6 wildfire safety Zoom webinar:

https://tinyurl.com/Community-Wildfire-Webinar

Join leaders from the Berkeley Fire Department, regional partners, your neighbors, and me to get the latest updates on wildfire preparedness in our community -- and get your questions answered.

📅 Thursday, May 21
⏰ 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Topics will include:

🔥 Evacuation information
🔥 Home hardening & wildfire safety resources
🔥 Updates from PG&E & East Bay Regional Parks
🔥 EMBER program updates
🔥 Fire Station 4 & City budget updates
🔥 Home insurance information
🔥 Community Q&A

Prepared communities are safer communities, so we hope you can join us.

RSVP here:
https://tinyurl.com/Community-Wildfire-Webinar

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Community Wildfire Safety . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join Councilmember Blackaby and members of the Berkeley Fire Department for a 60-minute presentation covering a wide range of fire safety topics, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Topics will include evacuation updates and emergency notifications, wildfire prevention efforts by PG&E and EBRPD, updates....

🚨 District 6 Wildfire Safety Webinar 🚨

Join our office and the Berkeley Fire Department for an important community conversation on wildfire preparedness in Berkeley.

📅 Thursday, May 21
⏰ 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Topics will include:
🔥 Evacuation information
🔥 Home hardening & wildfire safety resources
🔥 Updates from PG&E & East Bay Regional Parks
🔥 EMBER program updates
🔥 Fire Station 4 & City budget updates
🔥 Home insurance information
🔥 Community Q&A

Prepared communities are safer communities, so we hope you can join us.

To register please use the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/Community-Wildfire-Webinar

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Community Wildfire Safety . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join Councilmember Blackaby and members of the Berkeley Fire Department for a 60-minute presentation covering a wide range of fire safety topics, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Topics will include evacuation updates and emergency notifications, wildfire prevention efforts by PG&E and EBRPD, updates....

Thanks to Phillip Denny, the Big Ideas Contest, and the tremendous UC Berkeley students who shared the wildfire safety ideas they came up with in the recent Civic Innovation Challenge. I was inspired by their enthusiasm and fresh perspectives about how to keep up Berkeley’s momentum around wildfire resiliency and successfully engage with more neighbors on this important work. Thanks also to our Berkeley Fire Department and Office for Economic Development for their leadership.

Thursday night, the City Council voted to ask the City Manager and Police Department to issue an RFP to evaluate more surveillance technology vendors before we move forward, while continuing our license plate reader program through the review period.

This technology is important for Berkeley. It has worked to help BPD make more than 83 arrests in 161 different cases, including home invasion robberies, stolen vehicles, and sexual assault cases right here in the Berkeley Hills. These are real victims who found justice because officers had these tools — and in some cases, crimes were stopped before more harm could occur.

But equally important is making sure that we get this decision right and build the public trust that we need in the technology our city uses.

I have full confidence in Chief Louis and the professionalism of our officers in uniform and the BPD staff. We should be equally sure that the tools that we license meet these same superior standards of performance.

I believe it’s more important to get it right than to get it fast.

If you have feedback, please let me know in the comments.

Berkeley rejects police surveillance expansion, will keep Flock plate readers The City Council abandoned a $2 million proposal with Flock Safety for cameras, drones and software and will seek other bidders for the tech.

Berkeley’s new got rave reviews from our household. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Working to keep our hills safer and more resilient.

I joined PG&E on April 13 for a UUD-48 construction update, an important project that will move overhead utility lines underground for 178 homes in District 6. This effort helps reduce wildfire risk and improve service reliability for our community.

Completion is anticipated in spring 2027.

🔗 Learn more: “https://tinyurl.com/CityofBerkeleyUUD-48 “

Even in the wind and rain, more than 350 volunteers turned out in force to clear vegetation and create more defensible space across 20 sites in the Berkeley Hills.

Thanks to Berkeley Firewise Communities leader Michel Thouati for organizing us alongside HelpBerkeley, Mayor Adena Ishii - City of Berkeley and her BerkeleyCorps initiative, student volunteers from UC Berkeley and Diablo Valley College, and 90 households in the Grizzly Peak Mitigation Area.

Truly an example of community coming together to make a difference (which we’ll certainly appreciate come fire season)!