El Cerrito
Residents are no longer allowed to comment on Zoom during El Cerrito City Council meetings, after an ugly incident last month in which a group spewing hate speech took over the public comment session. El Cerrito Mayor Pro Tem Tessa Rudnick, who is Jewish, described the hateful rhetoric that erupted during the session in an opinion piece in The Jewish News of Northern California, noting that it included a depiction of pedophilia and remarks denying the Holocaust. She said a…
Claudia Vela studies at the El Cerrito Library every morning. The 38-year-old graphic design student at Berkeley City College has a 1-year-old son — the library gives her a quiet place to get her work done. But Vela wishes the library, which opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, opened earlier. “I get a lot more done here,” she said. Vela may get her wish under the Contra Costa County Library’s plan to keep libraries open for 56 hours…