Benicia is alive with citizen opposition to Trump’s chaoic and illegal authoritarian takeover threat
April in Benicia is a month of flowering trees, the start of Farmers Market and crowds at the 9th Street beach. This year it’s also the genesis of two, count ’em, TWO citizen protests! We are aware, and we care, and we will not be silent!
Thursdays at 5pm…
Longtime Benicia organizer-activist Susan Street put out a call for Thursday night vigils, starting on April 3. A good crowd has gathered each Thursday since at the Gazebo in City Park, First & Military Streets. Here’s from her announcement:
VIGIL FOR DEMOCRACY
Every Thursday, 5-6:30 p.m. On the sidewalk by the Gazebo
[map / directions]Come whenever you can, stay as long or as briefly as you can. Bring your signs, bells, kazoos, noisemakers. Invite ten people to join us.
Stay on the sidewalk. Don’t block anyone attempting to walk through. Ignore any harassment.
Sundays at noon…
Benician Heather Pierini put out a similar call in late March to protest the cuts made by DOGE and the current administration. Friends and neighbors gather near the Gazebo on Sundays, 12 – 1PM. Initially this was to take place every second Sunday, but soon that was changed – now it’s EVERY Sunday. Here’s from the FB page:
No, no, Bad DOGE Every Sunday at 12 PM – 1 PM
City Park, Benicia
By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, April 6, 2025
The waves of national bad news just keep on coming. But there are certain islands of sanity and hope in our political seas.
Some of it started on April 1 – no fooling! In Wisconsin, Democrat Susan Crawford beat her conservative opponent for the swing seat on the state’s Supreme Court by 10 points, despite Elon Musk and his minions pouring over $21 million into trying to defeat her. Also consider that day’s congressional special election results in Florida: In two deep Red districts, the Republican margin of victory collapsed compared to November – from over 30 percent to less than half of that.
Then there’s the island of waterside sanity and beauty otherwise known as Benicia. Capping a struggle that stretches back nearly a decade and most recently entailed eighteen months of arduous efforts by Council Members Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott and Fire Chief Josh Chadwick, on April 1 the City Council unanimously approved an industrial safety ordinance (ISO).
By seeking greater accountability and transparency from the Valero Refinery and other local facilities handling hazardous materials, the ISO helps protect the health and safety of our kids, our seniors and all of us. It also ends Benicia’s odd situation as the only Bay Area refinery-hosting community that lacked such an ordinance.
The April 1 Council meeting featured dozens of ISO supporters in attendance and salient points highlighted by several of them. For instance, a Benicia-based doctor/medical professor noted the relatively high cancer and childhood asthma rates in Benicia and refinery-hosting communities elsewhere. He was careful to avoid blaming Valero in the absence of conclusive data, but voiced hope that an effective ISO could help protect Benicians’ health.
In addition, Birdseye passionately and persuasively pushed back on Mayor Steve Young’s suggestion that the Fire Chief’s examination of potential ISO fees for Valero and other covered facilities focus on recovering just 85 percent of costs. For his part, Scott eloquently articulated the reality that, even with the passage of the ISO, the fight isn’t necessarily over.
But for now, our small city’s struggle for an ISO – a fight that it once seemed we could not win – provides an invaluable lesson: Yes We Can.
So thanks to Birdseye, Scott, Young and in fact the entire Council for that unanimous pro-ISO vote. And thanks to current and former Valero employees, even if we disagree with them, for being good friends and neighbors; once again, the ISO fight is not with you, but with the Texas-based oil giant.
But speaking of that fight…
What is Valero Afraid of?
Over the past decade or so, Valero has dumped millions of dollars into political action committees and public relations efforts seeking to defeat City Council candidates who might support an ISO or otherwise stymy that kind of City oversight. Ironically, that same money could have instead more constructively covered years of the refinery’s costs for abiding by an ISO, had one been adopted earlier.
Most recently, and to put the point mildly, Valero failed to constructively engage with the City’s efforts to seek its cooperation in crafting the ordinance. And it reportedly may pursue a lawsuit seeking to block the new law.
Why such strong opposition to such a modest measure?
After all, the ISO simply seeks to ensure that the City has the necessary information about Valero’s (and other covered facilities’) operations, incidents, violations and accidents, in order to help protect Benicians’ health and safety. This would be a distinct departure from the recent 15-year period during which the refinery spewed toxic emissions hundreds of times the legal limits into our air without notifying us.
Furthermore, over the past year the original draft ISO was modified in ways making it more amenable to Valero, so that the planned Oversight Commission facilitating the law’s implementation and public information does not have enforcement powers. And again, every other Bay Area refinery operates under the rubric of such an ordinance. So why can’t Valero?
I hope that Texas-based Valero will see fit to forego a lawsuit against the City, and instead strive to be a good neighbor rather than in effect imposing punitive legal fees as we defend ourselves. But if it does launch litigation, I hope and expect that its current and former officials, managers and workers will be required to testify under oath about its operations, incidents, accidents and violations, not just in Benicia but across America. If it’s going to fight this common-sense measure so strenuously, we need to better understand what’s going on in the refinery to spark such ferocity and further necessitate the ISO.
I also hope that there’s no need to try to make Goliath suing David a national story, and that Benicia need not engage with other community, legal and environmental groups concerned about Valero’s violations and accidents across the country. In the absence of a lawsuit, I’d assume no one wants to pick such a fight.
As I’ve previously pointed out, even the very conservative Attorney General of Texas, one of the most oil-friendly states in the nation, saw fit to sue Valero in 2019 for years of serious, repeated violations – transgressions that had continued despite previous enforcement actions by Texas and federal authorities.
Though it would be naïve to consider the Texas AG a potential ally, even a quick perusal of the company’s track record turns up alarming Valero accidents spanning several U.S. locales. For instance, an environmental/personal injury law firm is looking into fires at twoseparate Valero Texas refineries earlier this year. Similarly, in 2021 a massive fire at its Memphis refinery spewed oil onto the ground and into a stream, as well as thousands of pounds of toxic gas into the air. There could thus be ample room for joining forces with other concerned communities if necessary.
Though I’m a lawyer, I’m neither a litigator nor PR expert. But people who understand those fields far better than I do have explained that there are strong cases to be made in courtrooms and the court of public information if necessary.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Instead of suing, be a good neighbor, Valero. That’s basically all that Benicia’s new ISO asks.
[Editorial comment: Most major news media only mention the April 5 protests in the Bay Area’s big cities. I was with a group of Benicians in Fairfield. Another group of us travelled to protest at the rally in Napa, and there was a group that carpooled to Sacramento. At least one attended the Tesla Takedown in Vallejo at around the same time as the Hands Off protests. The bodies, chants and amazing signs continue right IN BENICIA, every Thursday at 5pm, and every second Sunday at noon, both at City Park near the Gazebo. Following here below is a Mercury News report that covers some of the larger Bay Area protests. – R Straw]
The protests come as stocks took a beating this week amid President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs
Morgan Lynn, of Richmond, takes part in a Hands Off! Oakland Fights Back march and rally against President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 5, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Mercury News, by Jakob Rodgers, Stephanie Lam, and Martha Ross, Bay Area News Group, April 7, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the nation’s streets Saturday in an eruption of anger, alarm and seething discontent over President Donald Trump’s wholesale remaking of America’s economy, its government and its place in the world.
The so-called “Hands Off” rallies — stretching from the picturesque Maine hamlets to California’s coastal cities — signaled the largest organized opposition since Trump’s gutting of the federal workforce and his numerous other edicts targeting everything from diversity measures to his perceived enemies. They capped a week that saw Wall Street post its most devastating losses since the lead-up to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as Trump unveiled his most punishing round of tariffs yet in a moment he coined as “Liberation Day.”
“We are looking at a crisis,” said Nancy Latham, who helped organize a protest in Oakland with the group Indivisible East Bay, where thousands of people rallied outside City Hall before marching through downtown. “We are already in a constitutional crisis, Latham added. “If you ask me, there’s already been an authoritarian breakthrough.”
Protesters waived signs declaring “Trump is a Russian asset” and “DOGE is a criminal conspiracy.” Among them stood Morgan Lynn, 51, who donned a Statue of Liberty costume and railed against what she saw as the “pure hypocrisy and white supremacy” touted by the Trump administration. A community college teacher, she called the notion of Trump’s administration withholding funding “a form of terrorism.”
“They want to destroy us, so they can privatize everything,” Lynn said.
In San Jose, thousands of protesters poured into the downtown area carrying colorful homemade signs that read, “Dump Doge,” “Resist fascism,” and “Hands off our Future.” At a St. James Park rally, protesters banged on drums and chanted “Power to the People” and “United We Stand.”
“This is more than just a moment, this is more than just this afternoon,” said Celeste Walker, a Felton resident and member of chair of Orchard City Indivisible, a self-proclaimed “resistance” group. “We must refuse to be silent. We must declare that we see each other and that we won’t back down.”
“The only way we’re going to get change at this point is by grassroot efforts,” added Karen Uhlin, of San Jose. “People have to make their opinions known.”
In Walnut Creek, an estimated 5,000 people gathered outside the Tesla store at Broadway Plaza to express their anger and dismay, then streamed past Nordstrom, Lululemon and the Apple store.
Jim and Cheryl Lekas, semi-retired small-business owners from Martinez, pushed Jim’s 92-year-old mother, Joyce Lekas, in a wheelchair in the march as she held up a sign saying, “Hands off my Social Security” and “Hands off our schools.”
A former physicist for the federal government, she talked about nearing the end of her life, saying: “I don’t want to leave a country under Trump to my kids and grandkids.”
In recent weeks, siloed protests in February and early March snowballed into increasingly widespread and coordinated demonstrations of disgust and anger at Trump’s administration. Last weekend, protesters swarmed Tesla dealerships across the nation — including in Walnut Creek, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Berkeley — in a bid to picket outside all of the company’s 275-plus showrooms with signs declaring “Honk if you hate Elon” and “Fight the billionaire broligarchy.”
By contrast, Saturday’s rallies inundated city centers across the nation. In many places, they appeared to be among the largest mass mobilizations since the Women’s March of 2017 after Trump’s first inauguration and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations following George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020.
“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, during a rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that included appearances by Democratic members of Congress. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives.”
“We don’t want this America, y’all,” Robinson added, according to the Associated Press. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”
The gatherings happened at cities large and small. In Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi protested alongside a few hundred people while in town for a friend’s wedding, AP reported.
The rallies came amid a particularly tumultuous week that ended with Trump introducing a flat 10% tariff on all imports while singling out about 60 countries for even harsher fees, many of which topped 40%. Investors reacted with dismay, sending the S&P 500 tumbling more than 10% in two days, while the Nasdaq finished the week more than 20% below its record high in December.
After watching his 401(K) holdings take a beating this week, Oakland resident P. David Pearson rallied several dozen seniors to the corner of Piedmont Avenue and 41st Street. The experience left the 84-year-old UC Berkeley professor of education — who voiced fears about paying his rent if the market losses continue — feeling like “a patriotic American doing what’s right for my country.”
“This was about people demonstrating their resolve to do the right thing for our country,” said Pearson, adding that his own retirement accounts have declined 25% in recent months.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Protesters voiced myriad goals for Saturday’s protests, including pressuring Democrats to more forcefully resist Trump, raising the temperature on Republicans to check their party leader’s actions and building momentum for another blue wave in 2026. Others suggested that an opposition movement was just beginning to stir.
“It’s going to take generations to clean up this mess,” said Jim Lekas, a protester in Walnut Creek, while lamenting Trump’s alienation of longstanding allies with his tariffs and his friendliness with Vladimir Putin and other autocrats. “Trump is a symbol of neo-fascism. We have a lot of work to do.”
I learned somewhat belatedly that Benicia has TWO ongoing protests, both in City Park (near the Gazebo) at the corner of First & Military Streets. I’ve posted previously about the every-Thursday protest. This other one is EVERY SECOND SUNDAY, and has been organized by Benician Heather Pierini.
If you CAN’T make it to one of the April 5 HandsOff! protests, maybe you can stop by City Park on Sunday April 6 around noon!
Background:
This is from Heather’s email:
I organized the Benicia protests starting Sunday, March 9th. My impetus was disbelief at the continued disdain for the rule of law by the Trump Administration and Elon Musk/DOGE.
I feel strongly that everyone needs to see someone standing up against these absurd policies and senseless budget cuts that only hurt our community.
Everyone who comes to the protests have their own personal point of view about why they are protesting. Generally, the major categories are Women’s Rights, support for Ukraine, support for established laws and rules of government, resisting fascism, oligarchy and, well, just all of this. After this week’s debacles, I’m sure we will see a boost in participation.
We will be meeting every second Sunday at the Benicia City Park between 12-1 PM. The next date is Sunday, April 6.
April in Benicia is a month of flowering trees, the start of Farmers Market and crowds at the 9th Street beach. This year it’s also the genesis of two, count ’em, TWO citizen protests! We are aware, and we care, and we will not be silent!
Over the past decade or so, Valero has dumped millions of dollars into political action committees and public relations efforts seeking to defeat City Council candidates who might support an ISO or otherwise stymy that kind of City oversight. Ironically, that same money could have instead more constructively covered years of the refinery’s costs for abiding by an ISO, had one been adopted earlier.
You must be logged in to post a comment.