Obviously you all have never lived there. I have and can tell you that Berkeley is one weird ass place. The City Council is totally loonie like I said earlier.

Here is an excellent article from San Fran that pretty much describes how warped their sense of thinking is.

They are out of money yet freeze homeless peoples stuff, the city workers pick up off the streets.

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Berkeley tolerates its homeless people, and takes good care of their stuff when they abandon it in shopping carts.

Not only does the city pack carts and other belongings into a huge container in case folks want it back -- it also deep-freezes them for as long as 90 days.

About a year ago, Berkeley bought a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide refrigerated container for $8,200 after public works officials complained about vermin infesting carts stored at the city´s outdoor corporation yard.

The city signed a five-year, $61,500 lease with Caltrans for land under the University Avenue overpass at Interstate 80 to put the container on, and ran power to the unit.

Deputy City Attorney Matthew Orebic said the city is heeding state law that requires storage of lost goods. He said it is not clear, however, that that law applies to unattended shopping carts because they may not be lost.

"We just do that to be safe and fair, to make sure that there´s no argument that we´ve violated any laws and to be fair to the person,´´ Orebic said. "What if you´ve got your medication in there?´´

San Francisco and UC Berkeley also store homeless people´s belongings as a result of lawsuits filed by homeless advocates, but they don´t freeze them.

Critics say Berkeley´s freezer program is an example of good intentions run amok. The city, which faces a $7.5 million deficit, should treat abandoned shopping carts as stolen property instead of worrying so much about the contents, they say.

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[link to sfgate.com]