Still mourning the loss of beloved friend Fred Lupke, Berkeley wheelchair advocates have started gearing up for a fight to make Berkeley streets and sidewalks safer. -more-
Indian Rock—for strangers to North Berkeley—is an ancient volcanic outcropping in a small city park just above Marin Circle. Though modest in height on the access road side, its flattish top affords splendid panoramic views over a picturesque wooded neighborhood to the Golden Gate, the “City by the Bay,” Angel Island, and Mt. Tamalpais. The Peninsula Hills stretch away to the far left, the grand terrain of Marin to the far right. -more-
The Saga of the Kent Nagano Berkeley Banners has taken on something of the quality of a 19th century German symphony, with enough tension and plot twists to keep the audience abuzz through the intermission, sincerely convinced it’s getting its money’s worth. -more-
The 7th Annual Arab Film Festival winds up its Bay Area run in Berkeley Sunday, with screenings and a closing night party at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium Film. -more-
The conservative legal foundation sponsoring a lawsuit challenging race-based desegregation in Berkeley public schools is now taking aim at the UC Berkeley student government. -more-
The union representing the 10,000 teaching assistants, readers and tutors of the University of California system announced late Thursday that they would stage a one-day walkout Friday to protest what they called unfair labor practices at the school. -more-
When Lucie Buchbinder brought the Bread Project to town last April, she joined the ranks of food visionaries who’ve made Berkeley famous for culinary innovation infused with a passion for justice. -more-
The aptly named Killer Tomatoes, a Bay Area advocacy/watchgroup, will take to the streets Friday to protest the appearance of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman at the City Club in Berkeley, where UC Berkeley’s Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy will honor her as the 2003 Alumnus of the year. -more-
Crews from the University of California were scheduled to cut down a grove of nearly 12 acres of eucalyptus trees at the head of Claremont Canyon Friday in a move campus officials said is designed to prevent wildfires in the hills. -more-
The Chief Financial Officer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was placed on administrative leave last week after a routine audit uncovered faulty bookkeeping practices. -more-
The National Labor Relations Board announced it will hold a January hearing to determine if Berkeley-based non-profit Building Opportunities for Self-sufficiency (BOSS) violated labor laws when it imposed higher health care costs on their unionized work force. -more-
A wing of the Franklin Preschool, which burned in a suspected arson last month, will need to be demolished, said Lew Jones, director of facilities for the Berkeley Unified School District. -more-
NEW ORLEANS—All my friends are so pleased these days that the state of California is out-circusing Louisiana. “Louisiana politics ain’t so bad,” they say. “Look at Arnold.” That’s when I remind them of just what a sideshow our traditional political circus can be. Or a veritable zoo, even. -more-
As someone who organized Chinese Americans to protest the treatment of Wen Ho Lee—the Los Alamos scientist accused of spying and who was later exonerated—I already see parallel patterns emerging in the arrest of Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim U.S. Army chaplain at Guantanamo Naval Base. -more-
California Democrats woke up to a nasty shock this week—the (possibly growing) possibility that Arnold Schwarzenegger could actually become the next governor of this state. In one of the most Democratic-leaning states in the nation, how could this happen? Credit California Republicans with some pretty good generalship. But also note a series of rolling Democratic Party mistakes, compounding exponentially, each one rising upon the last until it seems that only a last minute miracle can save the election. -more-
Back in 1853, just half a decade after the Gold Rush overran Spanish/Mexican California, American settlers came to the western shore of the future Berkeley and established the little settlement of Ocean View on the fringe of Jose Domingo Peralta’s land grant ranchero. -more-
Friday, Oct. 3: Ocean View anniversary event #1. 7 p.m. at Finn Hall on Tenth Street, north of Hearst. Dr. Kent Lightfoot, anthropologist, and publisher and author Malcolm Margolin, speaking about the natural character and native American life and culture of the area that became Berkeley. $10 at door, $45 for the series. -more-
Mayor Tom Bates’ Advisory Task Force On City Revenue has recommended that the mayor should support a $250 per year parcel tax increase referendum to be placed on the March 2004 ballot in order to make up for falling city revenues—the same type of bond measure called for in a recent survey of Berkeley voters. -more-
A city-commissioned voter survey predicts that over six out of 10 Berkeley residents would support a bond referendum for a $250 per year average increase in city property taxes in order to maintain city services at their current levels—which may or may not be good news, depending on how and when the city eventually presents the notion to voters. -more-
Generations of Berkeley jazz fans have gone to San Francisco’s North Beach to get regular fixes of their favorite kind of music. They were not happy when one of the last real jazz venues in San Francisco—Pearl’s, at Columbus and Broadway—closed its doors in April, but they will be delighted to learn that Pearl’s has re-opened as Jazz at Pearl’s, thanks to a strong infusion of East Bay talent. -more-
Of the two constitutional amendments on the Oct. 7 ballot, the one getting the least publicity this summer and fall—Proposition 53—could end up having the more dramatic long-term effect on the state of California. -more-
Consider the local scene, circa 1926. -more-
Frederick J. Lupke, III, known to his many Berkeley friends as Fred, died Thursday, Sept. 25, as a result of injuries he received when he was struck by a car on Ashby Avenue near the South Berkeley Senior Center. -more-
The following was addressed to Berkeley City Council and the Berkeley School Board. -more-
Thanks in part to the recall election, those error-prone punch cards are well on their way out in California. The bad news is that their replacement has some voters fearing the cure may be worse than the disease. -more-
The following was an address to Berkeley City Council on Sept. 7. -more-
Ursula Sherman Village—Berkeley’s most ambitious proposed home for homeless families—is two steps closer to becoming a reality, but environmental and funding concerns are forcing an outcome somewhat different than the original design. -more-
After almost five months of organizing, Berkeley Bowl workers filed a formal request with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Friday, asking them to schedule a date for a union election. -more-
Proposition 54, the Oct. 7 ballot measure that promises to create a colorblind society, doesn’t look quite so benign to medical researchers in Berkeley and environs, who say that, author Ward Connerly’s protestations notwithstanding, the measure could do severe damage to public health programs. -more-
Prominent Bay Area advocates will debate the core Mideast conflict on the UC Berkeley campus Thursday evening under the sponsorship of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). -more-
I recently accepted an assignment to attend a Cybersalon debate entitled “Matchmakers Duke it Out Over Best Strategies.” Though I didn’t think I was the best person to attend since I’m married and haven’t been in the dating game since 1983, I was curious to learn more about this growing social phenomenon. -more-
You can always count on Berkeley to provide an alternative take on anything, so I expected nothing less from the High Holiday services I attended Friday night, put on by Kehilla Community Synagogue, one of several alternative congregations in Berkeley. -more-
A truck fire rendered a local couple homeless Monday as they were driving to work. -more-
Sorry. It will certainly look like bad taste to some if the Daily Planet allows itself a bit of a gloat over the results of the city’s likely voter survey. But we can’t resist saying, humbly but loudly if that’s possible, We Told You So. What was the first task force appointed by Mayor Bates? The one on the permitting process. And what comes in dead last on the list of voter concerns? The permitting process. And second to last: new housing, also a part of the task force’s charge. So why have almost eight months, uncounted hours of paid city staff time (and unpaid but still valuable volunteer time) been spent on (and we really hate to sound like a broken record) fixing what’s not broke? -more-
There was a small traffic jam on Gayley Road on Friday just before noon, like a miniature version of the big tie-ups when pop stars are playing the Greek Theater. I’m not sure of the cause, but it’s tempting to believe that it was because a big crossover star was on the bill at the Haas Business School. That’s crossover between academia and journalism—Paul Krugman, today’s top poster boy for intellectual types who are deeply worried that the United States is seriously, perhaps terminally, ill. Krugman, both a New York Times columnist and a Princeton economics professor, told the overflow crowd at his noon lecture that his own favorite columnist quote was from Molly Ivins: “What I hate most about the Bushies is that they make us feel like paranoid conspiracy theorists all the time.” In the audience, we roared our approval of that one. We are all getting tired of feeling paranoid, it’s true. -more-
