“we deserve to have a say in how our city is run.”
Students make up one-third of Berkeley and 95% of District 7.
MEET CECILIA
My name is Cecilia Lunaparra and I am a queer, Mexican-American woman running to represent Berkeley City Council District 7, which encompasses the UC Berkeley campus and most of the Southside neighborhood. I am a UC Berkeley senior studying Urban Studies and History, and I am strongly committed to representing our community while centering the needs of young people and our most marginalized community members.
I formerly served as the President of Cal Berkeley Democrats, the official arm of the Democratic Party on UC Berkeley’s campus, and Telegraph for People, a progressive urbanist organization working to create a pedestrian plaza on Telegraph Avenue in Southside and advocating for transit justice. I have also organized with the Cal Young Democratic Socialists of America, working to defend People’s Park, fight for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine, oppose UC Austerity, support striking workers, and more. Within these organizations, I partner with other activists and community members to give motivated students the tools and support they need to fight for progressive legislation.
As a dedicated volunteer for the Right to Housing Slate for Berkeley Rent Board, Measures L and M, and progressive city council candidates, I mobilized students to participate in local races and support left-wing candidates and policies. On behalf of Cal Berkeley Democrats and in partnership with a wide coalition of East Bay housing and tenant groups, I worked to build a broad coalition that successfully pushed the Berkeley City Council to place Measure M on the ballot. As a result, in November 2022, Berkeley voters passed one of the strongest vacancy taxes in the nation, increasing the city’s funds for affordable housing.
After many conversations with students, I led a concerted effort to reform public comment practices to prioritize equitable and accessible public comment procedures that increased public engagement instead of stifling it. I organized to defend People’s Park and keep our community safe from UCPD brutality by working with Councilmember Kate Harrison to draft a resolution affirming the City of Berkeley’s ban on tear gas, “less-lethal” munitions, LRAD devices, kettling, and other coercive and dangerous crowd control tactics. For years, I have led progressive student coalitions in Berkeley to tackle housing reform, labor rights, equitable traffic safety improvements, university austerity and strike responses, police accountability and reallocation of police funds, inequitable public comment procedures, and more. I will continue to ensure that the voices of students and all District 7 residents in the city are not only heard, but amplified, listened to, and represented.
As your Councilmember, I will direct District 7’s passion for civic engagement towards issues that affect our community and beyond—accessible transportation, the preservation of public spaces, concrete and radical environmentalism, unions and workers’ rights, equitable criminal justice, pro-union infrastructure investment, and more.
First and foremost, seeing how housing unaffordability impacts students every day, I am fundamentally committed to fighting for housing justice built through rent control, tenants’ protections, and accessibility. I will fight against exclusionary zoning practices that worsen the city’s housing crisis by stifling development. I will work with Berkeley’s elected Rent Stabilization Board to expand rent control and tenant protections and pass the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. I will fight against sweeps of unhoused people and oppose anti-homeless architecture. I will support and help stabilize the Berkeley Student Cooperatives, a crucial institution in addressing student housing scarcity, unaffordability, and predatory practices.
I hope to have your support!