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The Berkeley Voter Quiz

Measure U: T1 Again?

Berkeley is asking voters for $300 million. This series builds the argument step by step, from the bargain the 2016 voter was offered to what a checkable bond would have looked like.

Short on time

Measure U: Haven’t We Done This Before?

Berkeley is asking voters to approve its largest infrastructure bond ever. What exactly does Measure U bind Berkeley to deliver? It’s a $300 million question worth answering before you vote.

Take the short version — one sitting

The 6-part investigation

Written to be read in order, though each stands on its own.

1
What Did You Vote For?
The relevant baseline is the bargain presented to the voter in November 2016, before staff, commissions, and Council began constructing and revising project lists. Berkeley promised a “robust” public process the last time it asked for $100 million. Does that word come with any practical force?
Available now   7 questions · 7 points
2
What Happened After Yes?
The T1 project portfolio did not merely evolve around the edges. Publicly prioritized physical projects lost construction funding, were materially changed, or were displaced by later priorities. What happened to the projects Berkeley used to sell its last infrastructure bond? The amount of drift may surprise you.
Available now   7 questions · 7 points
3
“Robust”: We’ve Been Down This Bumpy Road Before
Berkeley is reusing a word that sounded reassuring under T1 but supplied no measurable accountability standard. Measure U promises a “robust” public process. So did T1. Worth five minutes to find out what that promise is actually worth.
Available now   7 questions · 7 points
4
Who Pays the Staff?
Bonds can reasonably pay for temporary staff needed to deliver extra projects. But if the work persists after the bond, voters should know the appropriate recurring operating source that will carry it. How much of Measure U's $300 million expands staff capacity to deliver? The City's framework has an answer, and it's concerning.
Available now   7 questions · 7 points
5
Measure U: Did Berkeley Learn from T1?
Measure U is not a fresh governance model. It is a larger authorization built on substantially the same architecture that allowed T1’s voter-facing priorities to remain mutable. Did Berkeley fix what went wrong with T1 before asking for three times as much? Five questions against the City's own documents.
Available now   5 questions · 5 points
6
Could Berkeley Have Written a Better Bond?
The choice is not “Measure U or no infrastructure.” Berkeley could preserve flexibility while making material changes measurable, visible, and auditable. Could a bond stay flexible and still be checkable? Berkeley has had a ten-year live experiment in T1 to learn from. See what Measure U did with it.
Available now   7 questions · 7 points

Every answer links to the primary record it comes from — a City audit, staff report, ballot filing or Council transcript. Questions are drawn from the project's canonical question bank and are not published until the quotes, dates and amounts in them have been checked against those records.

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