Please join Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Berkeley Bowl, the Berkeley YMCA, the nonprofit David Brower Center and a majority of the Berkeley City Council and vote no on Berkeley Measure GG.
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Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a nonprofit [501(c)(3)] performing arts and education organization that operates seven buildings in downtown and West Berkeley. Six of our buildings use natural gas for heating, costume drying or hot water to maintain and operate our programs. Measure GG, which is on the November ballot in Berkeley, would have a severe negative impact on Berkeley Rep, as well as other nonprofits, small businesses and renters.
One of Berkeley Rep’s core values is sustainability, articulated as a commitment to the long-term well-being of our theatre, our community and our planet. Several years ago, Berkeley Rep adopted a Green Policy in which we seek to model responsible environmental behavior that is in harmony with our core mission. We wish to help create the framework within which the arts industry as a whole can shift toward practices that can contribute to the sustainable development of art, the earth and humankind. We seek to promote the understanding of sustainability to our staff, audiences and other arts organizations and to be a leader in environmental protection. We are committed to reducing emissions from all our organizational activities to decrease our overall carbon footprint.
Using historical data, we project that Measure GG — which would nearly triple natural gas costs for many Berkeley nonprofits and small businesses almost immediately — would initially add up to $69,000 in annual expenses that we cannot afford as we struggle to recover from the pandemic. Converting to other energy sources would require millions of dollars in capital that we do not have, if the technology and ability to retrofit our buildings even exist.
While we support building electrification, this ballot measure, with its near-immediate implementation and extreme cost, would be very harmful to our struggling organization. The pandemic’s devastating impact on nonprofit theatres like Berkeley Rep is profound. Our ticket revenue is currently well below pre-pandemic levels, and our expenses have increased by 25% to 30%. For example, we have about 8,000 season ticket holders compared to over 12,000 pre-pandemic. We have experienced cost inflation on all fronts — materials (lumber, steel, fabric), labor costs (union and non-union), interest rates and energy costs — a significant portion of which is driven by our location in the Bay Area and Berkeley and the high cost of living and doing business here.
The timing of Measure GG could not be worse, as this perfect storm has created a multi-million-dollar structural operating deficit that will take many years for Berkeley Rep to address. In the past year, there have been numerous high-profile announcements locally and nationally of emergency fundraising campaigns and theatre closures or pauses in programming, including two closures thus far in Berkeley, and we are working hard to make sure that does not happen at Berkeley Rep.
Passage of Measure GG would leave Berkeley Rep few options but to cut programming and jobs, impacting youth and adults in our community and beyond.
We hope voters will consider our troubled situation, learn more at No On GG and vote no on Measure GG. After Measure GG is defeated, Berkeley Rep looks forward to partnering with other nonprofits, small businesses, electricity grid experts, and the city to help Berkeley transition off natural gas in a way that doesn’t harm our city’s treasured nonprofits.
Tom Parrish is the managing director of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
