One of the "fun" facts that I think has explanatory powers is that the mayors of Berkley for 45 years, from '71 to 2016, were all born within a year or two of 1938. A certain cohort grew accustomed to the idea that they had always been and would always be in charge. Separate to your point of course.

This is awfully close to “that explains everything”

The only thing it can't explain is itself. How was this faction able to elect what amounted to the exact same person, 12 times in a row?

I promise you that Gus Newport and Tom Bates weren’t the same person.

Bates was modestly pro-density but had a very weak majority that mostly only supported density in the downtown area, which is why the only real accomplishment from that era was the downtown area plan

Imagine Mayor Zelda.

no wonder she's still so mad lol

I default to blaming Prop. 13. (Locked-in Silent Gen homeowners dominate elections?)

My favorite is that Berkeley went two-to-one for Hoover against Roosevelt.

I mean, there was a socialist mayor in 1911-1913 and many prewar republicans were progressive do-gooders. There’s an argument to be made that even though the parties switched, there’s been far more continuity than disruption in a small, conservative, college town.

True the parties meant different things in say 1924 than 1968…