It’s hard to find an organizer in Berkeley’s District 7 who doesn’t know Cecilia Lunaparra. I first met her as a new Berkeley student over a Zoom call. She introduced herself as someone who focuses on local politics because “that’s where the change happens” before expressing frustration at the roadblocks council members were putting up to prevent the passage of what would become Measure M, Berkeley’s vacancy tax. Others have met her preparing food for mutual aid in People’s Park, rallying with striking UAW student workers, or fighting for a pedestrianized Telegraph Avenue. Many have come to consider her a friend.
Central to Cecilia’s organizing philosophy is enfranchising the disenfranchised, and in Berkeley, where students make up nearly a third of the population, student voices are woefully underrepresented. Cecilia has been essential to the fight to change that.
To be a student is to be a renter, and to be a renter is to be a victim of our city’s housing crisis. Cecilia recognizes the intersectionality of being a student in Berkeley, when 10% of UC Berkeley students have experienced homelessness, and one-third of students have considered leaving due to rent prices. She has consistently fought for affordable housing and tenant rights, not just for students but for everyone in Berkeley, because if students are facing homelessness and displacement, our neighbors are, too.
Cecilia spent years organizing coalitions of student organizations to upzone Southside, end exclusionary zoning and for the passage of funding proposals for desperately needed affordable housing. Cecilia’s chief role has been revitalizing student organizing after the pandemic as someone who can unite diverse groups, Democratic Party organizations, DSA organizers, ASUC Senators, transit advocates and others around joint goals, where our collective voices multiply our impact.
For many of us, being a student also means being a worker. In part, due to exorbitant housing costs, thousands of students work while studying at Berkeley. Cecilia was a key advocate for the passage of the Fair Workweek Ordinance, which gave workers predictability pay and disallowed schemes that would prevent existing employees from qualifying for healthcare benefits. Cecilia showed up for workers in policy committee and council meetings and successfully got exemptions for student and healthcare workers struck from the ordinance. When UAW student workers went on strike, Cecilia was a leader in creating the student coalition of over a dozen campus organizations in solidarity with striking workers, which rallied thousands of students behind a fair contract.
Cecilia’s platform emphasizes these pro-tenant and pro-worker values, calling for stronger police accountability mechanisms, the passage of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, a pedestrianized Telegraph Avenue and the end of exclusionary zoning. Cecilia has the experience, both as an advocate and as chair of the Berkeley Environment and Climate Commission, to mobilize students for real representation on our council.
District 7 is the only council district in Berkeley where students make up most of the voting-age population; it is one of a few dwindling institutional mechanisms for student representation in our city. Students understand this, and that’s why they overwhelmingly support Cecilia for council. My organization, the Cal Berkeley Democrats, endorsed her unanimously, joining two other student organizations, Telegraph for People and Cal YDSA, and the ASUC executive board (excluding those not permitted to endorse) in supporting her bid to represent District 7. At the time of writing, no other candidate has received an endorsement from any on-campus student political organizations or ASUC executive board members.
I encourage everyone going to the polls on April 16 to vote for Cecilia for City Council.
Learn more about Cecilia’s campaign on her website: ceciliaforberkeley.com
Avery Arbaugh is president of the Cal Berkeley Democrats and a labor commissioner for the city of Berkeley.
