Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts about the Sixties

p. 238

Berkeley, CA has been dominated for a couple of decades by liberal and then radical politicians on the city council. The liberals are often dismayed to be scorned by the radicals. “Narrowly elected in November of 1986, Loni Hancock [a white-glove radical] was presiding over a City Council meeting one night at which homelessness was on the agenda and a large contingent of Berkeley’s homeless [drawn there by liberal policies that show ‘good faith’ toward anyone that’s different] were present. The new mayor had indicated soon after taking office that…she liked ‘win-win’ solutions . . . This particular meeting, however, had quickly slipped out of Hancock’s control. She tried to calm the volatile situation by reminding the homeless of Berkeley’s reputation for compassion and by uttering homilies about how the ‘heartlessness’ of the Reagan administration was responsible for the national housing problem. But the homeless kept interrupting and lecturing her about their problems as if she were just another official and not the head of a radical administration. Becoming more and more rattled, Hancock finally blurted out, ‘Look, if we can’t have order here, we’ll just end the meeting and all go home.’ One of the homeless shouted, ‘How can we do that? We don’t have a home!’ Connoisseurs of Berkeley had a classic moment to relish for years—the mayor ordering the homeless to go home.”