Two-term mayor, 15-year councilmember Shirley Dean took out preliminary papers to run for Berkeley mayor today (Tuesday). -more-
Environmental activists have filed two lawsuits that seek to block construction of two major facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). -more-
Tall buildings aren’t economically feasible for downtown Berkeley under the proposed new Downtown Area Plan, at least given the current state of the market, according to a city-funded study. -more-
Berkeley Unified School District families in need will qualify for a free summer meal program, according to an announcement by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today (Monday). -more-
Literature and notes on how to assume a new identity were found in the car, abandoned on a Berkeley street, of missing Rice University student Matthew Wilson, Berkeley police said last week. -more-
At a special closed-door session at 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Berkeley City Council, on the advice of its attorney, could vote to go to court to stop a proposed ballot measure that would “require voter approval before dedicating Berkeley streets or lanes for transit-only or HOV/bus-only use.” -more-
Berkeley’s dwindling tree-sitter population notched up by one Sunday night just days after numbers had dwindled by four. -more-
After debating for months which tax measures to place before the voters in November, the City Council is likely to take action onTuesday night. -more-
Although some members of Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission expressed concern about fencing the historic Sutcliff Picnic Rock in North Berkeley, there appears little they can do to prevent it. -more-
UC Berkeley has picked four companies to bid on the new Berkeley Art Museum, the structure that is likely to become the architecturally most striking and controversial feature of the city center. -more-
Amanda Tierney, 21, better known as Dumpster Muffin, was among the three tree sitters to leave their perches at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Grove on Wednesday. After the intervention of her doctor, paramedics took her to Highland Hospital. -more-
More than 60 people came to the open session before the Berkeley City Council’s closed meeting Monday to urge the council to “do what’s right” by standing up to UC Berkeley and appealing the judge’s final decision in the lawsuit on the sports training/stadium issue if it goes against the city. -more-
It’s been a week of tense confrontations between UC Berkeley and the tree-sitters occupying the grove where the university wants to build its showcase high-tech gym. -more-
For UC Berkeley officials, money may or may not be the root of all evil, but it’s at the root of their opposition to the ongoing tree-sit outside Memorial Stadium. -more-
A tree-sitter collapsed moments after climbing down from her perch at the UC Berkeley oak grove, and campus police initially refused to allow a doctor in to examine the ailing woman, known as Dumpster Muffin. -more-
UC Berkeley officials believe they’ve side-stepped a judge’s ruling adroitly enough to have removed the last roadblocks to building the Memorial Stadium gym. -more-
The Berkeley Board of Education picked “Curvy Derby” as its preferred option for the Berkeley Unified School District’s East Campus field last week, but acknowledged that the district lacks the funds necessary to build it. -more-
It was déjà vu all over again for supermarket chain Safeway when it unveiled plans to remodel its north Shattuck Avenue store at the Hillside Club last week. -more-
Cody’s Books was taken off life support June 20, taking its place in the beloved bookstore graveyard next to A Clean Well-Lighted Place, Avenue Books, Mama Bear’s, A Woman’s Place Bookstore and others. -more-
A superior court judge last week reaffirmed the rights of four Code Pink women to demonstrate at the downtown Berkeley Marine Recruiting Station, according to Zanne Joi of Code Pink. -more-
A report from city officials says the Berkeley Thai Temple repeatedly violated its zoning permit by selling food to the public during religious events on Sundays. -more-
In this photo are the remains of one of some 200 trees removed by the City of Oakland from the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center parking lot, the 12th Street median between the convention center and Lake Merritt and the Lake Merritt Channel. In the background is the Kaiser Convention Center, which the Oakland City Council closed a year ago in a cost-cutting measure. The tree removal, which took place in mid-June, is part of the multimillion dollar Measure DD renovation of the eastern Lake Merritt grounds that will eventually result in a shrinking of the 12th Street-14th Street corridor from 12 lanes to six, the creation of a four-acre park, and the connection of Lake Merritt with the convention center grounds by a pedestrian walkway bridge. Last October, an Alameda County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Lake which had challenged the City of Oakland’s procedures in condemning the trees. -more-
Declaring that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) “looks to me like a huge development scheme,” Berkeley Planning Commissioner Patti Dacey said last week she couldn’t cast a vote without more information about its potential impacts. -more-
Berkeley’s proposed new wireless-antenna ordinance, now in its 15th revision, still faces stiff opposition in a game in which one side holds almost all the cards. -more-
UC Berkeley is moving forward with plans to build a 479-bed, $75 million student housing project across the street from People’s Park. -more-
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums sought to put an end to the City Hall phase of the Deborah Edgerly controversy this week, firing the Oakland city administrator in a terse letter delivered late Tuesday. -more-
After searching for almost six years for a new animal shelter site—one large enough for the animals and where barking dogs won’t raise the ire of sleeping neighbors—it looks like the city has found the right location. -more-
Jim Keene, city manager in Berkeley from 1996 to 2000, has a new gig: On Sept. 2 he’ll become city manager of Palo Alto, with a yearly salary of $240,000. -more-
Looking only at candidates for office who have taken out preliminary papers, it appears as if the rent board is the most contested race—actually, it is the only contested race—to date. -more-
The AC Transit Board of Directors temporarily put the brakes on the district’s recent push to transform a large portion of its fleet into buses made by Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool, rejecting a request by District Manager Rick Fernandez to replace 30 retiring 60-foot buses made by New Flyer with 19 new buses made by Van Hool. -more-
Oakland architect and public transit advocate Joyce Roy announced plans last week to run against AC Transit Board President Chris Peeples for Peeples’ at-large board seat in the November election, setting up a probable electoral clash over the transit district’s controversial Van Hool bus policy. -more-
Last week brought both good and bad news for the 235 newly unionized reporters and editors of the Bay Area News Group-East Bay. -more-
The Berkeley Community Media (BCM) reached an agreement with the Berkeley Unified School District last week, which allows it shared access to classroom space for its studio. -more-
Only a handful of employees remain on Berkeley Unified School District’s list of classified personnel who have active layoff notices due to the proposed education budget cuts, according to district officials. -more-
Service workers at University of California campuses all over the state—including around 1,200 at UC Berkeley—are preparing for a five-day walkout. -more-
Nathaniel Freeman, charged with murdering 33-year-old Maceo Smith on Durant Avenue in May, did not enter a plea as he was scheduled to do at the Alameda County Superior Court Friday. -more-
Plans to renovate Aquatic Park have environmentalists and some members of the Parks Commission’s Aquatic Park Subcommittee concerned about the city’s motives and the plan’s potential ramifications. -more-
The Berkeley City Council asked the Public Works department last week to retest the piles of sludge that have been lying next to the Aquatic Park lagoon for the last eight months and explore options for its reuse, citing expenses for its removal as prohibitive. -more-
The approach of July 4 always moves me to ruminations on the nature and function of government. Reading the Declaration of Independence is a feature of the best holiday picnics—so much easier these days when printable copies can easily be retrieved from the Web. As always, when I download the DofA and actually read it, I’m struck by what a radical document it is, and by the annoying and alarming parallels between the bad behavior of the 18th century Brits and that of the various governments we have to contend with these days. -more-
Berkeley City Council members seem to think that there’s an infinite demand for brand new condo bunkers, despite numerous warnings over the years about the housing bubble. -more-
Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way has appealed the recent Superior Court decision denying our petition challenging the Berkeley City Council’s approval of the Trader Joe’s project at the corner of University and MLK. Although demolition is underway and construction will begin this summer, we believe that the council ignored and flouted City zoning law, CEQA, and state density bonus law in their eagerness to approve a ‘popular’ project. -more-
After they made hundreds of people sick on the Central Coast, and nearly killed at least two children, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Secretary A. G. Kawamura of the CDFA are changing tactics and no longer aerial spraying highly populated cities with untested pesticides. For that, residents of Northern and Central California are grateful. -more-
The protesters occupying a grove of trees on the UC campus represent a total disgrace to the liberal and progressive movement. Biting people and dumping feces on them is not what Ghandi advocated. Martin Luther King, Jr. is rolling over in his grave. -more-
At this juncture, with the lawsuit against the university pending, it is a good time to remind everyone as to exactly why such worldwide support exists for the preservation of the oak grove near Memorial Stadium, and why the city must continue the lawsuit against the university. This irreplaceable ecological treasure must be saved. -more-
A unique opportunity currently exists in West Berkeley: an opportunity for public participation. You will not have read about it in the newspapers. Nor will you have heard about it on radio or TV. You will not see signs or notices posted about it. There have been no public hearings about it. In fact, most people in Berkeley are probably completely unaware of it. -more-
It is a pleasure to report that the Berkeley School Board on June 11, and the Berkeley City Council on June 24, unanimously adopted the 2020 Vision For Berkeley’s Children And Youth. These two resolutions are a commitment to partner with United In Action and our entire community, to make student academic success a community priority and further, to actively engage in eliminating any and all barriers to success. So begins an amazing journey that we should all be very proud of. -more-
Today (July 1) on KPFA evening news, local attorney John Murcko announced that he plans to file a lawsuit next week in Alameda County Superior Court against the Oakland Community Housing, Inc. (OCHI), an Oakland non-profit housing developer because they are breaking a 30-year requirement to provide housing to 500 very low-income Oakland residents at the California Hotel. -more-
Military alliances are always sold as things that produce security. In practice they tend to do the opposite. -more-
Some years ago, my brother and I and a friend were in Los Angeles at the opening of Che, the Omar Sharif movie that was considered by some to be favorable to the late Cuban revolutionary leader. L.A. had a large Cuban exile community that was not so sympathetic to Che, and so we had to walk through an angry picket line to get inside the theater. The movie itself went off without a hitch until the climactic battle scene in which Che was killed. During the gunbattle on the screen, someone inside tossed a couple of smoke bombs into the crowded seats. -more-
Some people follow soccer; I follow taxonomy. A slower game, but it has its regards. -more-
Recently I have been doing a few repairs to my back porch, which has required taking it apart in places to replace various structural members which are rotting. -more-
California is burning down. This is the real Shock and Awe. As of this writing, there are over 1,300 fires burning in the state and nearly a third of a million acres have burned. Since I’m not good with acres, I decided to convert this to square miles. At 640 acres to a square mile, this means that close to 500 square miles have burned. Again, I’m not that good with areas so I like to find something to compare this with. The city of Los Angeles is about 500 square miles. San Francisco is less than half that size. Imagine, two San Franciscos have completely burned down in this recent spate of fires. We’ve currently got over 17,000 fire personnel working on fighting these fires, over a thousand engines in the field, three hundred bull dozers cutting fire breaks and 85 helicopters (mostly dropping water on these many blazes). -more-
The Judah L. Magnes Museum will ask the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission today (Thursday) to approve a structural alteration permit to rehabilitate the landmarked Armstrong University in downtown Berkeley, where it plans to relocate in spring 2010. -more-
Virago Theatre Company has announced a July and early August series of staged readings of new plays by Bay Area playwrights, featuring professional actors, on Monday evenings at 7 p.m. in Alameda, featuring venues that include a cafe, a drawing studio and community centers, with some readings staged outdoors, followed by wine and talk-back receptions. -more-
With a musical comedy based on Shakespeare gone south, lyrics and score by Cole Porter, topical humor of the postwar (WW II) era popping up amid the iambs and a couple of gangsters thrown in when the male ingenue goes bust at craps: how could Kiss Me Kate miss? -more-
Far from the ragged, blurry, jumpy images in the popular imagination, the silent era of filmmaking was an age of discovery, innovation and supreme achievement in the new medium of cinema. Motion pictures, at first treated as a mere novelty, came into their own between 1910 and 1920, growing from brief, flickering diversions into full-scale narratives. But it was in the 1920s that cinema truly blossomed into the great art form of the 20th century. -more-
Recently I have been doing a few repairs to my back porch, which has required taking it apart in places to replace various structural members which are rotting. -more-
California is burning down. This is the real Shock and Awe. As of this writing, there are over 1,300 fires burning in the state and nearly a third of a million acres have burned. Since I’m not good with acres, I decided to convert this to square miles. At 640 acres to a square mile, this means that close to 500 square miles have burned. Again, I’m not that good with areas so I like to find something to compare this with. The city of Los Angeles is about 500 square miles. San Francisco is less than half that size. Imagine, two San Franciscos have completely burned down in this recent spate of fires. We’ve currently got over 17,000 fire personnel working on fighting these fires, over a thousand engines in the field, three hundred bull dozers cutting fire breaks and 85 helicopters (mostly dropping water on these many blazes). -more-
