Despite concerns voiced by more than two dozen neighbors at a special public meeting Monday, April 27, the Zoning Adjustments Board gave Berkeley Bowl the green light to open a new store in West Berkeley without previously required traffic changes. -more-

Sunday’s 40th anniversary celebration of People’s Park reflected Berkeley in all its passionate quirkiness. More than 1,000 people joined the party, from old- timers who remember the riots when it all started, to students for whom it is all ancient history—and everyone in between. -more-

Aretha Franklin’s hat. Three little words that stirred up a lot of excitement for avid hat buyers in Berkeley last week. -more-

Sunday around 3 p.m., I find myself in People’s Park, at the 40th anniversary celebration, in front of a crowd of at least 500 what, back in the day, we called hippies and freaks, letting their freak flags fly. -more-

Berkeley High School announced Friday it will not charge for each student’s first two tickets to this year’s graduation ceremony at the Greek Theater. -more-

The long knives are starting to come out for West Berkeley, now that Downtown has been carved up. Two harbingers this week: There was a special meeting on Monday of the Zoning Adjustment board which gave the new West Berkeley Bowl carte blanche to open even though the conditions on its use permit which called for changes to mitigate the project’s dire impacts on traffic have never been carried out. And there was another special meeting on Tuesday, so special that some engaged neighborhood stakeholders didn’t even hear about it until the last minute, a “workshop” for the City Council wearing both of its hats (Redevelopment is the other one) to discuss speeding up proposed zoning and traffic changes to the area covered by the West Berkeley Plan. -more-