Posted Thurs., Jan. 24—Full implementation of AC Transit District’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line ran into a potential chokepoint Wednesday night when dismayed district board members learned that the planned bus-only lanes may not be possible in a 1,000-yard stretch in the heart of Oakland. -more-

Posted Wed., Jan. 23—The little town of Albany stood up Tuesday night, first to the University of California and then to the California Food and Drug Administration and the CFDA partner, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. -more-

Berkeley’s official design review panel gave a scathing review to developer Ali Kashani’s five-story condo complex planned for a corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections. -more-

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-

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-

Oakland teachers fired the first shot in the upcoming Oakland Unified School District contract negotiations, with more than 100 representatives braving chilly afternoon temperatures last Thursday to present their contract proposals at a press conference in front of Castlemont High School in East Oakland. -more-

Berkeley Public Works officials told the Aquatic Park subcommittee that they expect to turn in a revised dredging work plan for the Aquatic Park lagoon to the Regional Water Quality Control Board this week. -more-

The National Register of Historic Places granted the Berkeley High campus the status of a historic district, the National Park Service announced last week. -more-

More than two months after HazMat experts replaced local volunteers to clean up the gunk left over from the Cosco Busan oil spill, city officials declared the Berkeley shoreline reopened Wednesday. -more-

Berkeley Planning Commissioners begin their review of the proposed Downtown Area Plan Wednesday, when DAPAC Chair Will Travis formally presents the document for their critique. -more-

AC Transit bus drivers and mechanics voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a strike in the event ongoing contract negotiations break down, but no strike appears imminent. -more-

The San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved the 55 Laguna mixed-use project last week. It proposes to develop the historic UC Berkeley Extension site for private use. -more-

The Berkeley Democratic Club could not agree on a presidential candidate to endorse at its meeting on Thursday night. The vote was: Obama 15, Clinton 13, Edwards, 4 No endorsement, 2. -more-

California voters who have not registered with any party can vote in next month’s Democratic presidential primary if they request a ballot from their local Registrar of Voters office. -more-

This is hard. To write about a dear friend’s passing before her absence has fully sunk in is quite a challenging task. What I can easily write about is what I know about Rae; who she was and what she meant to me and so many others in the arts community. -more-

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), in which voters are allowed to rank their second and third choices in a multi-candidate election rather than waiting for a possible runoff between the top two vote-getters, will almost certainly not be held in Oakland and San Leandro June municipal elections in 2008 as was anticipated. -more-

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) on Thursday will hear a project proposed for 1923 9th St. and 1920 10th St. involving the demolition of five rent-controlled units to allow construction of a 15-story condominium project. -more-

Christopher Rodriguez, a 10-year-old Oakland boy who likely will be partially paralyzed for the rest of his life after being struck by a stray bullet while taking a piano lesson, “has a rough road in the future,” Dr. Jacob Neufeld said last week. -more-

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-

The “What Were They Thinking?” award for this week goes to whoever put together the elaborate plan for inspecting every establishment in Berkeley which sells alcohol, to be paid for by a flat fee that would have been the same for all sellers, from the little deli that sells an occasional six-pack of beer to the big grocery and liquor stores that sell hard liquor by the case. It’s not that alcohol isn’t associated with problems for some users, but the city’s plan was primarily a solution in search of a problem. And the award shouldn’t go only to the bureaucrats who put it together—the elected councilmembers who passed the measure at first reading and were geared up to finalize it last week before restaurateurs rallied to protest deserve part of the credit (or blame) too. -more-

Let’s build our dream candidate, shall we? Experienced, smart, African-American, from an immigrant family though born in the U.S.A., and female.....wouldn’t we all be proud to support that person, don’t we wish she were running this year? Well, folks, I’ve been there, done that, in 1972, no less. I was one of the core group (non-hierarchical, of course) who ran the Michigan primary campaign for Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and it was a huge success: We got 5 percent of the vote. It was an enormously satisfying experience, right up until Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide vote. It’s all been downhill since then. -more-

PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT -more-

We—all 6.6 billion of us humans—live on the surface of a ball which we call planet earth. We have some theories and some evidence as to how land masses and oceans formed over millennia. The land masses were fixed, for the most part, until recently when the waters start to rise and encroach on bordering populations. We are in this together, so what should our response be? What should be our guide? -more-

Almost everything I know I learned from sitting in front of the television watching old movies. -more-

As I once again encounter the god-damned Jesus freaks holding forth at the corner of Telegraph and Haste, and wonder what should be done about them, the answer seems clear: put up with their crap. My reasoning follows. -more-

Beyond all the bloviating, bombast that we have been subjected to in the last few months, (and will continue to be bombarded with for the foreseeable future) there are several questions we voters should be asking ourselves amidst this egomaniacal cacophony, otherwise known as politics. -more-

The Berkeley old Adult School complex on lower University Avenue (directly across from All Star Donuts, 1255 University, Berkeley 94702) sits empty, idle, deteriorating, just as it did when I arrived in Berkeley three years ago. I’ve had countless conversations with Berkeley’s homeless, frequently centering on how the old unused Adult School would make an ideal shelter complex. As it surely would. The building has miles of space for dormitories, numerous lavatories and several full-service kitchens. -more-

Ciao. I’m Don Tommaso. I’m the capo of the Kachinga Tribe, and I’m makin’ a special appeal to youse, the voters of California. When youse go to the polls on Feb. 5, please vote yes on Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97. These propositions would approve agreements that four Indian tribes have negotiated with the State of California to triple the number of Indian-run slot machines in some parts of the state. Ka-CHING! -more-

Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday, Jan. 3, 8:30 a.m., 4°F -more-

For over a year now walking has been my primary commute mode from my house on Grizzly Peak to my job (via BART) in downtown San Francisco. This has been made possible by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association’s work to build paths on the rights of way created long ago when the Berkeley Hills were originally mapped and subdivided. (See BPWA’s website at www.berkeleypaths.org for more on this excellent organization and the history of the paths of Berkeley.) -more-

CELL PHONE ANTENNAS -more-

On Thursday, Jan. 24, the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board will decide whether to allow the demolition of five sound rent-controlled housing units at 1923 Ninth St. and their replacement with condominiums. The case potentially represents a dangerous precedent in a city whose economic diversity depends on rent control, and whose single-family home prices have skyrocketed in recent years. The ZAB should follow San Francisco’s lead and only allow the demolition of sound rent-controlled housing when the units are replaced with new rent-controlled housing on-site, an outcome readily achievable at 1923 Ninth St. -more-

Appealing as Barack Obama’s politics of dialogue and inclusivity may be to the broader electorate, his non-confrontational rhetoric is troubling to some on the Left—people who are accustomed to having to do battle with corporate America for the reforms that will bring about economic and social justice. People like me. -more-

As we sail into the murky political waters of 2008, it’s useful for liberals (progressives) to remember our core beliefs. Two elemental American narratives illuminate these values: the triumphant individual and the benevolent community. -more-

Lately I’ve been channeling my old friend Mrs. Scott. She’s the neighbor who came to our rescue after Ralph had his bicycling accident 13 years ago. The day Ralph came home from the hospital, she marched through our back door and took over. She cooked and cleaned and introduced us to others in the neighborhood. She went with us to doctors’ appointments, watched over the people I hired to help with Ralph’s care, became my right (and left) arm, my best friend, my guardian angel. -more-

I don’t know how old you have to be to think of Sunset magazine and early 1960s swimming-poolside dioramas whenever you see a Cordyline australis in its other vocation, as a plain old yard or streetside tree. It’s a classic, though, to complete the post-TK look that starts with a turquoise pool, maybe kidney-shaped, and a Weber kettle. Some of us get whiffs of vinyl, chlorine, and firestarter fluid from our subconscious every time. -more-

Dispatches From the Edge is going to start off 2008 by revisiting two stories the column covered in 2007. -more-

It should come as a surprise to no one—should it?—that the issue of race resurfaced in the Democratic primary campaign as soon as that campaign dropped down I-95 from the snows of New Hampshire to the sandhills and seashores of South Carolina. However it tries to escape or pretend otherwise, the Palmetto State continues to live in the long shadow of the slaverytime plantations. -more-

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-

My Quake Resolutions... -more-

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 -more-

As the swipe of hip-hop shifts gears into salsa, solo performer Danny Hoch stalks out on stage in character, under a banner for a festival, Williamsburg “Celebrate Your Community” day, spouting long, loopy lines in thick, nasal Brooklynese, cutting his imaginary friends out where the audience sits before the Berkeley Rep Thrust Stage, doing the dozens on down through the ethnicities—then the 49 other states, working hard on California—then shouting out, “All you American crackers, out of our neighborhood!” -more-

I don’t know how old you have to be to think of Sunset magazine and early 1960s swimming-poolside dioramas whenever you see a Cordyline australis in its other vocation, as a plain old yard or streetside tree. It’s a classic, though, to complete the post-TK look that starts with a turquoise pool, maybe kidney-shaped, and a Weber kettle. Some of us get whiffs of vinyl, chlorine, and firestarter fluid from our subconscious every time. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 -more-

AFTERMATH OF WAR—IN THEIR OWN WORDS -more-

ReOrient, the annual festival of short plays about the Middle East, a production of Golden Thread, founded by Torange Yeghiazarian of Oakland, this year features performances by Berkeley favorite Julian Lopez-Morillas and Danielle Levin of Oakland. -more-

Jack Tucker of Richmond—theater critic, retired columnist for the Contra Costa Times, who the Guinness Book of Records named “Oldest Known Living Newspaper Columnist” in 2005—died Dec. 27, 93 years of age. -more-

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-

My Quake Resolutions... -more-

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 -more-