Seven years after Jerry Brown was elected mayor of Oakland in part on a promise that his “10K Initiative” would lead to a retail revival in the city’s downtown, the area where the housing component has been most successful has yet to see the promised commercial development. -more-
Should Berkeley charge developers a fee to help alleviate traffic generated by their projects? And, if so, how much? -more-
City employees are driving less and using more alternative forms of transportation, according to a survey unveiled at Thursday night’s Transportation Commission meeting. -more-
Mark Treeker, an organizer with the organization The World Can’t Wait, led a mock detainee through Sproul Plaza Monday afternoon. Participants rallied against Boalt Hall Professor John Yoo’s role in drafting U.S. legal memos that the group says led to torture in places such as Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. -more-
City Councilmembers will face a relatively light agenda when they meet tonight (Tuesday), including a proposed revision to Berkeley’s “by-right” home addition ordinance and two competing resolutions on the demolition of a UC Berkeley landmark. -more-
Berkeley planning commissioners will get their first chance Wednesday to ponder rezoning West Berkeley to attract car dealerships. -more-
Ignacio Chapela, the UC Berkeley professor whose tenure battle came to symbolize the movement to protect scientific research from corporate interests, withdrew his lawsuit against the school last week, but promised to continue to “expose a deeply damaging miscarriage of the university’s mandate.” -more-
In response to accreditation warning letters sent out by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) earlier this year, the Peralta Community Colleges District and its four member institutions released mandated reports last week outlining progress made in addressing WASC’s criticisms. -more-
A month ago, for the first time in 40 years, Barbara Morita walked into a church in El Cerrito and sat quietly in a pew. -more-
In his Oct. 14 New York Times column, “Questions of Character,” Paul Krugman lamented the media’s failure to discern the true character of President Bush. Krugman observed that in 2000 the press portrayed George as an “honest, likable guy” and in 2004 as “a strong effective leader.” -more-
In Tony Mirosevich’s non-fiction class at San Francisco State University, we are constantly asked to explore the soft, wavy lines between truth and fiction, between what is real and what is not real. For a recent assignment we were instructed to write about a personal memory and combine it with someone else’s memory of the same event, or write our remembrance of a singular occurrence at several junctures in our lives, filtered through time, emotion, and experience. -more-
We all know that street crime is a problem in Berkeley. While we may differ as to its causes, we all understand that the economic transformation currently underway in South Berkeley is a huge contributor to that problem. Economic dislocation and gentrification are the realities of South Berkeley. In many neighborhoods, economic “gaps” between residents contribute to generate tension and suspicion. Newly arrived, white neighbors are offen are offended by the conditions they find in these neighborhoods. Working closely with police to identify “suspicious” people and “drug dealers,” neighborhood groups are finding “creative ways” to “combat” drug dealers. Apparently, this includes holding an 75-year-old woman responsible for “allowing” drug activity in her neighborhood. -more-
Smart students! Nobel prizes! Touchdowns! Is this what the “blue and gold” means to you? If so, you may not realize that along with the good comes a dark side that dominates the lives of those who live near UC. If gold reflects the prestige and glamor of UC Berkeley, then blue represents the bruised and distressed Berkeleyans who underwrite that glamor. -more-
Josiah Royce (1855-1916) was born at 207 Mill St. in Grass Valley, high in the Sierra gold country, and spent the first 10 years of his life there. He remembered the town as full of weather-beaten old shacks and rusting machinery. Years later his wife described it as “a place that was nothing in a situation that was nowhere.” -more-
Modern Italian theater began in the 16th century with the first commedia dell’arte troupes. Drawing upon a vast reservoir of fools from every village and town in Italy, they created the well-known masked characters of the lovers Pierrot and Columbine, the old dotard Pantaloon and his constant antagonist the ridiculous Doctor, the intriguer Brighella, the braggart Captain, cowardly Scaramouch, Punchinello, source of the English Punch, and, the most famous clown of all, Harlequin. -more-
I don’t usually do advocacy; sitting back and watching things go to hell is more my style. But with Halloween approaching, it seems like an auspicious time to make a pitch for the barn owls of Berkeley. -more-
You come upon them almost as a pleasant surprise from out of the past, like an explorer finding a shining obelisk poking out of a sea of Egyptian sand. -more-
A Planning Commission majority, against the outspoken wishes of Chair Harry Pollack, Wednesday night elected the panel’s three representatives to the panel that will create a new plan for an enlarged downtown district. -more-
The Berkeley City Council Tuesday began tackling a dirty problem that could cost property owners up to $4,500. -more-
Faced with growing neighborhood complaints, West Berkeley’s Pacific Steel Casting Company announced Tuesday that it plans to install a carbon filter designed to eliminate the burning rubber smell wafting from its factory. -more-
For progressive activists, living in the East Bay has the defect of its virtues. It’s gratifying to reside among politically like-minded others but frustrating to find oneself mostly preaching to the choir about matters of state, national and global concern. (Local affairs are not nearly so consensual, as readers of the Daily Planet are acutely aware.) For that reason, many locals went far afield during last year’s presidential campaign. Since last fall, the missionary impulse has faded in most left-liberal quarters. But at the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club (WDRC), tapping new constituencies has remained a high priority, leading to some novel political initiatives. -more-
On a six-to-three vote, city councilmembers Tuesday approved proposed amendments to Berkeley’s condominium conversion ordinance, preparing the ground for a final vote next Tuesday. -more-
Berkeley veterans are promising to press forward with the city’s annual Veteran’s Day commemoration without the support of one of Berkeley’s most famous veterans. -more-
Although employment of local workers in the multimillion dollar Vista College construction project in Berkeley has jumped dramatically since a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) was put in place, Peralta College district trustees said they were disappointed that more has not been done to include both local workers and minority contractors in the project. -more-
Berkeley landlords can tack an additional seven-tenths of one percent onto the rents they charge tenants, the annual general adjustment rate approved Tuesday by the Rent Stabilization Board. -more-
Four years removed from nearly being taken over by the county, the Berkeley Unified School District received welcomed news from Standard & Poor’s. -more-
Once again, the Berkeley Police Department’s public information officers failed to respond to calls from the Daily Planet, this despite an e-mail sent to all regional media promising that Officer Steve Ergo would respond to all calls placed by the media between 4 and 5 p.m. Thursday. -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.
-more-Bangkok, Thailand—You may have noticed that the neo-conservatives surrounding the Bush administration have quit crowing about the new “American Empire.” They’ve been in retreat ever since it became apparent that the Iraqi occupation was a catastrophe, a blunder so ghastly that even stalwart Republicans such as Henry Kissinger and Reagan-era National Security Agency director Lieutenant General William Odom called it “the greatest strategic disaster in United States history.” -more-
To appreciate the possibilities of a legalized sideshow in Oakland, you have to put aside the preconceptions that have been built upon the five-year history of the illegal street sideshow movement. Instead, you must go back to the way things were before the Oakland Police Department chased the sideshows out of the parking lots and into the streets. -more-
Already during 2005, millions of human beings trapped by natural disasters have been saved through the rapid response of United Nations agencies. U.N. workers have, often at great risk to themselves, physically delivered differing types of lifelines—food, medical supplies, and shelter—to victims of the tsunami in the Pacific, Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Rita here in the United States, and most recently, the devastating 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan. Were it not for the capability of the U.N. to carry out humanitarian efforts in any part of the world on a moment’s notice, the resulting loss of life and land might well have negatively impacted millions more. -more-
I fully support UC’s removal of the clothing box at People’s Park. That the free box was an effective distribution system for used clothing for the poor is an illusion. After the ambitious entrepreneurs had taken the best clothes for resale, the rest were ruined, usually within hours, by rain, dirt, and careless handling. Thus the noble experiment became, ironically, a continuing demonstration of “Darwinian” capitalism and waste—two things supporters of the free box surely decry. -more-
People’s Park, a Berkeley landmark, has a tradition of free exchange. The tradition of sharing food, sharing music, trading clothing, giving away helpful information (and yes, sometimes love) without compensation is more than 35 years old. The freebox, one of the best examples of this tradition, is simply a box into which one puts old or simply unwanted items for the next person to use, and takes whatever interests them. -more-
Laura Menard’s letter in your Oct. 18 edition about the small claims law suit against Lenora Moore contains allegations and insinuations, which require a response, tedious as the task may be. -more-
I am a resident of South Berkeley. I have been assisting Lenora Moore in presenting her defense. In the Lenora Moore case I feel that the plaintiffs have displayed a sense of privilege and entitlement. Not only are they trying to get Ms. Moore to sell her family home through the small claims court process, but they have attacked anybody that is assisting Ms. Moore in defending herself. -more-
In his Oct. 4 Daily Planet commentary, “New Owners Did Not Fire Honda Workers,” Chris Regalia is technically correct. All that is required to follow his argument and absolve the new Berkeley Honda management of responsibility for the plight of the former Jim Doten workers and the continuing picket line and demonstrations is to enter the realm where angels dance on the heads of pins. -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
The line of great jazz trumpeters, young men with a horn, begins with the legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden. You can read a brilliantly fictionalized account of his life in Michael Ondaatje’s 1976 novel Coming Through Slaughter. -more-
The United Nations Day Peace Concert Committee and the Oakland East Bay Symphony will present “A Concert for Peace and Humanity” this Sunday at the Oakland Paramount Theatre. -more-
Berkeley Arts Festival will present playwright Wajahat Ali and poets Boadiba, Karla Brundage and Tennessee Reed in a reading by New Voices from the Before Columbus Foundation this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. in downtown Berkeley. Admission is free. -more-
Just because the A’s aren’t playing in this year’s World Series doesn’t mean that there is no joy in Oakland this October. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday morning I sat down at the computer to do my duty by writing an editorial telling our (very few) clueless readers how to vote in the ridiculous special election. Before I wrote it, I checked my e-mail, and mirabile dictu, my friend Kim in Santa Cruz had already forwarded to me this excellent AlterNet piece on the very same topic. I took this as a sign from on high that I could skip my usual two hours of work, since I had nothing to add—except one thing. Here in Greater Berkeley a few of us have a tendency to think we’re so advanced we don’t need to vote anymore, and that our votes might not be counted right anyhow. This one’s different. We don’t just need to win, we need to rack up really big majorities to put Schwarzenegger in his place once and for all. Vote early and often, and tell your friends. -more-
The recent report on diversity on Berkeley’s commissions, which was sparked by Councilmember Kriss Worthington with colleagues Darryl Moore and Max Anderson as allies, will provide food for thought for a long time in the city. I’ve only seen the news accounts, but haven’t read the report myself, or even seen a tight statistical analysis of its data or methodology, so I’m not in a position to comment intelligently on its results per se. But the question of whether students in a college town should be represented on civic bodies in proportion to their numbers in the population is an interesting one which lends itself to a bit of blue-sky analysis. -more-
