News

Posted 1/21—Berkeley Design Review Committee members gave a qualified thumbs up Thursday night to plans for a controversial and long-delayed condominium project on University Avenue. -more-

Posted 1/20—Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday, Jan. 3, 8:30 a.m., 4°F. It’s hard to believe we actually get votes and elect presidents this way—standing on street corners waving signs and yelling, driving miles and walking miles and missing three dozen people, talking to a dozen more who aren’t even slightly interested just so we can talk to one or two people who might possibly, with a lot more coaxing and contact, be persuaded to vote our way. -more-

Posted 1/19—While Albany is preparing to take an aggressive stand in opposition to aerial spaying intended to eradicate the light brown apple moth—epiphyas postvitattana—Berkeley has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. -more-

Faced with some two dozen irate small business owners, the Berkeley City Council reversed itself Tuesday, backing away from a December decision to charge bars, restaurants and liquor stores $467 each year to inspect for -more-

The mayors of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, along with the UC Berkeley chancellor and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, met under the TV cameras’ glare in early December to unveil the East Bay Green Corridor Part-nership. -more-

Berkeley city officials turned thumbs down on a request by UC Berkeley officials to build yet another fence surrounding the tree-sitters encamped near Memorial Stadium. -more-

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums flipped the script in his first State of the City address Monday night—as the hip-hoppers like to say—focusing on policy recommendations for the coming year rather than on listing accomplishments for the old, and largely abandoning the rhetorical flourishes for which he is best known, replacing them with a more sober and businesslike recitation of details. -more-

Brandishing posters, placards and signs at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday, more than 30 Berkeley High School teachers urged board members to construct the new classrooms approved for the high school by August. -more-

Rebuilding Berkeley’s therapeutic warm pool hit troubled waters Tuesday, when a City Council majority balked at expressing its intent to place a bond measure for the pool on the November ballot without first having details on operational costs. -more-

Last month, Berkeley lost one of the individuals who make Berkeley Berkeley. Robert “Bob” (to some) Kinzie Ewing passed on to the great atheistic beyond. He was 75. A Berkeley resident since 1957, Robert spent a quarter century among the “old men” at Peet’s on Vine and on “The Bench” at Fat Apples debating the Constitution, the press and human rights. -more-

Posted 1/17—Brandishing posters, placards and signs at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday, more than 30 Berkeley High School teachers urged board members to construct the new classrooms approved for the high school by August. -more-

Posted 1/16/08—For many years the Bay Area-based Sunset Magazine, self-described “magazine of Western living,” has been sponsoring “idea houses” in partnership with builders and manufacturers. -more-

Posted 1/16/08—Faced with some two dozen upset small business owners, the Berkeley City Council reversed itself Tuesday, backing away from a December decision to charge bars, restaurants and liquor stores $467 each year to inspect for substandard conditions such as graffiti, sidewalk drinking, sales to minors and the like. -more-

Between November and April each year, as California newts migrate in large numbers across South Park Drive in Tilden Park, the road is closed to motor vehicles. As if on cue, these small brown and orange amphibians emerge from their summer homes and strut clumsily along the roadway. -more-

The corridor that stretches from Oakland to Richmond could become a vibrant, green version of Silicon Valley, attracting venture capital and federal dollars to support green industry and green jobs. -more-

Is Berkeley going dry? Dorothee Mitrani-Bell said there’s cause for concern in light of rising city regulatory and financial pressures. -more-

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) pollutes San Francisco Bay with illegal levels of metals and nitrogen compounds, charge environmentalists who have filed notice of their intention to sue. -more-

Troubled Oakland homeowners packed the floor and gallery of the Oakland City Council chambers Saturday morning to gather information from city, state, and national officials and private home counseling organizations on how to keep their dwellings from going into foreclosure. -more-

An unidentified gunman shot and killed a young Berkeley man early Saturday as he arrived outside the San Rafael club where a friend was celebrating her birthday. -more-

Bus drivers and mechanics from AC Transit’s Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 will hold a strike authorization vote on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the first public indication of problems in contract negotiations between the 1,400 member local and the East Bay’s public bus agency. -more-

For women of a certain age, and residents of the Bay Area, “doing Fourth Street” is a favorite activity—almost a monthly ritual. -more-

Snowy egrets and coal-black cormorants roosting in trees—in Oakland? Hansel and Gretel along with the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, brought to life with a Magic Key—in Oakland? A Daimyo Oak Bonsai, in cultivation since Abraham Lincoln’s term as President—in Oakland? Venetian gondolas gliding across sparkling waters under fairy lights—in Oakland? Discover these wonders and more, in Oakland’s Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt. -more-

I have always enjoyed walking, so when I moved to Berkeley in 2004, I set out on foot right away to get to know my new home. -more-

One of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to start using Berkeley’s extensive network of pedestrian footpaths, ramps and stairways. They connect our hilly neighborhoods to commercial areas, Tilden Park, and public transportation and offer endless opportunities for leisurely hikes, scenic rambles, and fitness walks. -more-

How better to celebrate the new year than with a trip to the coast, not all the way to the Pacific, but just a few miles from home in the town of Alameda? With beaches, lawned picnic and playing areas and a scene-setting visitor center, it would be a challenge not to enjoy a day at Crown Memorial State Beach and Crab Cove! -more-

After spending the 1970s in North Beach and the 1980s in Berkeley, I moved into a house overlooking Mountain View Cemetery at the east end of Piedmont Avenue in North Oakland. -more-