Retiring Councilmember Susan Wengraf worries about the future of the Berkeley Hills

Councilmember Susan Wengraf during an interview at her home with Berkeleyside. Wengraf will retire after she wraps up her fourth term representing the Berkeley Hills on the City Council this week. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

Two things caught my eye when I sat down at Councilmember Susan Wengraf’s dining room table this week.

The first was her home’s commanding view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Tamalpais, the kind of vista that has drawn people to the North Berkeley Hills for generations. The second was the panoramic photo Wengraf displays showing the aftermath of the wildfire that swept through the hills in 1923, destroying hundreds of homes — including the one that stood where she lives now.

That contrast of beauty and risk seems to be a defining feature of this part of Berkeley, which Wengraf has represented in City Hall since the early 1990s, first as a legislative aide and then for 16 years as a councilmember. She will retire when her fourth term in office ends Friday.

The formerly segregated hillside neighborhoods north of UC Berkeley remain much wealthier than the city’s flatlands, an economic divide so entrenched Kamala Harris referenced it when recounting her childhood in Berkeley during her speech at the Democratic National Convention. But there are signs the hills’ coveted status may be changing.

Deadly wildfires around California in recent years have driven home to Berkeley Hills residents that the legendary blazes of 1923 and 1991 were not flukes, but warnings of the risks those communities face in a warming climate. Insurers have taken note too, making it difficult for many residents to find affordable home insurance. Meanwhile the area faces other challenges, such as steep streets and minimal bus service that mean residents — particularly its growing population of seniors — have few options but to drive for most outings.

A long line of colleagues and constituents lauded both Wengraf and fellow outgoing Councilmember Sophie Hahn at their final City Council meeting Tuesday night as deeply knowledgeable public servants and tireless advocates for their communities.

Ahead of that meeting, Wengraf sat down with Berkeleyside for an interview about the changes she has witnessed — and driven — over her lengthy career in city politics.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

When you look back on your time at City Hall, what is the issue where you feel you made the biggest impact?

Wildfire safety education and working to organize neighborhoods — and to educate my colleagues, as well. When I first came on the council, wildfire safety was considered a unique issue to the hills. And over the years I educated my colleagues to see that, actually, it is a citywide issue.

What was your understanding of wildfire risk like when you first moved to the Berkeley Hills? 

At that time? I did not have a deep understanding of wildfire issues. It was [August] 1991 — it was pre-climate change.

This house had actually burnt down in 1923, and the mythology is that it was rebuilt while the ashes were still hot because it was only four years old and City Hall still had the plans.

Councilmember Susan Wengraf displays a panoramic photo of the devastation from the 1923 Berkeley Hills wildfire at her home. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/Catchlight

I knew the house had burnt down and had to be rebuilt. But I didn’t think of it as this kind of cloud that we now live with — this constant anxiety, especially in the summer months, but it seems like summer is getting longer and longer.

How far has this community come since then in preparing for wildfire? 

It has come a long way. I guess I do have to claim credit for some of that, because I really concentrated on educating people.

And what was happening at the same time is that the state was also becoming educated, and legislation was changing and fire codes were changing. New ideas were coming up and new technology was being used. So I would say in the last 10 years there has been tremendous growth in terms of people’s knowledge and the research and the fire science that has happened. 

We now have Firewise neighborhoods, we have a Fire Safe Council. I was instrumental in forming this East Bay Wildfire Coalition of Governments, which is from Pinole all the way down to Castro Valley, with elected officials, fire chiefs — and I brought in the university, the lab and, amazingly, East Bay Regional Parks. We’re all at the same table now.

That was never happening — it was like every jurisdiction was doing its own thing. And what we learned in the ’91 fire: our hoses and Oakland’s hydrants weren’t compatible. How crazy is that? Our radio frequencies weren’t compatible. So we learned the hard way on that one.

It’s a problem that is not going to go away, it’s probably going to get worse, and we probably need to try lots of different things. And then there’s the insurance issue that’s complicating the whole thing.

Berkeley as a whole, and the hills in particular, are aging communities — what do the seniors in this part of the city need? 

There’s a mythology about the hills — there’s a lot of mythology about the hills — one is that everybody who lives in the hills is rich. That’s not true, OK?

A lot of people that live in the hills, especially the older people, bought their houses 50 years ago and have never moved. They’re house-rich but they’re cash-poor — they’re living on social security. That’s why you’ll see so many run-down houses in the hills, because they just don’t have the money. And the tax laws don’t favor moving, so they’re kind of stuck, right? 

The transportation to the hills is very, very poor. We don’t have any bus service on the weekends, we don’t have any bus service after 7 o’clock at night, and that leaves a lot of people isolated.

I tried advocating. I wrote letters, and wrote letters, and wrote letters over the years, and AC Transit didn’t pay any attention. So I feel badly for those people who are sort of stuck in their houses.

Given the challenges residents face living here — whether it’s transportation, insurance or fire risk — is the hills’ identity as the desirable part of Berkeley changing? What does the future hold for this area?

I think the insurance crisis is definitely going to impact home ownership in the hills — I think you’re going to see prices going down in the hills, because people aren’t going to be able to get insurance for their houses.

If we have a wildfire, and if the hills burn, the character of Berkeley is going to be lost in a sense. When those houses are rebuilt, they’re not going to be rebuilt and look anything like what they looked like originally. There’s a lot of resistance to doing a lot of the [home hardening] work that we’re asking people to do because they’re so attached to the aesthetic of the brown-shingle with the wisteria — which makes Berkeley so special. And what we’re asking them to do flies in the face of the very reason they love Berkeley. 

It’s an inherent conflict and tension. I don’t know how it’s going to be resolved. Hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the insurance issue and people will be able to make their homes safe, and we’ll be able to figure out a way to be able to get people out of the hills safely in the event there’s a wildfire. But this is all an unknown.

How have you seen Berkeley’s politics change during your career? 

Although there have been differences, I think a lot of bridges have been built. I always say, “We can disagree without being disagreeable.” And I think that’s happened on the council — I think Jesse and I worked hard to make the council more amicable and more congenial, less antagonistic.

That is a pretty big change, and I think it’s a positive change.