Berkeley residents will not get the opportunity to view the terms of a high stakes legal settlement with the University of California, university officials said. -more-
Father George Crespin returned to the pulpit Sunday, two days after Oakland Diocese officials cleared him on charges that he sexually molested a boy more than 30 years ago. -more-
Reversing a decision by his predecessor, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has granted tenure and retroactive pay to embattled Professor Ignacio Chapela. -more-
Berkeley is poised to become the third city in the nation to require companies that do business with the city to disclose any financial ties with slavery. -more-
The controversial Seagate Building, a nine-story condo-and-commercial project planned for Center Street, has been sold and renamed The Arpeggio of Berkeley. Construction is slated to begin this fall with completion two years later. -more-
Ozzie’s, the soda fountain at the former Elmwood Pharmacy, has been granted a one-month reprieve from its scheduled June 1 closing, said operator Michael Hogan. -more-
Berkeley’s Planning Commission could act on their proposed revisions to the city’s Landmark’s Preservation Ordinance as early as Wednesday night. -more-
Plans for a new 800-acre North Oakland redevelopment district just south of the Berkeley border have been put on hold. -more-
Neighbors of Le Chateau, UC Berkeley’s most infamous student co-op, and the University Students Cooperative Association have reached a tentative settlement on the neighbor’s nuisance suit. -more-
Six months after it was initially authorized by the outgoing Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, Oakland developer Alan Dones’ proposed exclusive negotiation agreement for development of Laney College lands goes back to the board for final approval tonight (Tuesday). -more-
Almost three months after the Berkeley School Board killed a proposal to consider a regulation high school baseball field for its Derby Street properties, the proposal is back on the table. -more-
After the city tax measures went down to defeat last fall, Tom Bates started talking about “re-inventing Berkeley government.” -more-
Just after I’d written a column about our friend Leroy contacting us from the beyond, but before it was published last week, I got a phone call from his sister, Cleo. -more-
In February the City filed a lawsuit against the university over its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and its meaningless environmental impact report (EIR). The university plans to expand by 4000 full-time students (adding to Berkeley’s housing problems), 3500 faculty, staff, and visitors (adding to Berkeley’s traffic and parking problems), and 2.2 million square feet (built who-knows-where and creating who-knows-what problems). The city stated, correctly, that the LRDP/EIR “falls far short of providing adequate information, analysis, or mitigations for the tremendous burden this growth will place on our city.” -more-
So far the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) dispute between the City of Berkeley and University of California has played out with commendable respect for the involved interests. The university published its draft environmental impact report (EIR), the city and community commented on it, and the university responded as it saw fit. The city, visualizing the University’s environmental shortcomings and their economic implications, challenged UC in court—ultimately seeking a better decision through litigation or negotiation. To their credit, the two parties then engaged in negotiations to resolve the city’s concerns by consensus if possible. I praise the city for calling UC’s bluff by commencing litigation that keeps the process open, just as I praise both parties for attempting to produce a final product now and not after years in court. -more-
Terry Francke is right about the purpose of the Brown Act, as stated in its preamble: Government Code Section 54950. In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. -more-
Toy instruments have been used in classical music for their humor and novelty effect at least since Father Angerer’s nineteenth century Toy Symphony (I know, until recently everyone thought it was by Leopold Mozart). Just the other day, in 1948, experime ntalist John Cage wrote a Suite for Toy Piano. -more-
Not long ago, a very wealthy American couple visited a beautiful little village in the south of France while on vacation. They loved what they saw—everything. So captivated were they with the little town that they extended their vacation seven days, giving them time to get to know the locals, until they were all on a first-name basis. During their stay one thought kept racing through their minds: “There must be a way that more people could come here and enjoy such a place!” -more-
The new tree planted at Malcolm X School last month is an alien here, but not an invasive species nor as troublesome as, say, blue gum eucalyptus; I’d call it a perfectly respectable city tree. It’s a northern red oak, native to the eastern part of the continent, and it will pay its biological dues here in due time, when it starts bearing acorns. There might be an organism or three willing to dine on its leaves, too. -more-
The 36-year-old Berkeley man accused of shooting a Berkeley police officer Tuesday morning will remain held without bail at Santa Rita Prison, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winfred Scott ruled Thursday. -more-
Under intense public pressure, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to request that UC release it from a confidentiality agreement that has kept settlement talks over a town-gown legal dispute out of the public view. -more-
Facing the loss of 115 jobs and the threat of no raises over the next four years, BART workers Wednesday took to the stations to marshal rider support before they head back to the negotiating table. -more-
While the University of Texas and the University of California arm to fight each other for a $60 million contract to run Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear weapons research and development facility, peace advocates say the competition is misdirected and the debate should focus instead on the danger of developing weapons of mass destruction. -more-
The fate of Berkeley’s many citizen commissions remains in question after the City Council Tuesday failed to reach a consensus on reducing the number of times city commissions will be able to meet. -more-
A day before ballots went out to the Jefferson Elementary community to decide the fate of the school name, parents and teachers met at the West Berkeley school to discuss the controversial issue. -more-
BERLIN—On a calm spring day in Berlin recently, a horse with a dead-looking soldier on its back clopped across the cobblestones of a leafy neighborhood. The soldier wore a gas mask and slumped forward on the horse’s mane, or wobbled dangerously in the saddle. -more-
Upon discovering that my teenage daughter was writing an essay on William Golding’s seminal novel Lord of the Flies, I had her view the film version with me, a film that absolutely terrified me when I first saw it at about the age of 10. We watched it al ong with my 10-year-old son who couldn’t bear to watch the whole thing. “Why are they being so mean to him?” he cried, tears streaming down his face as he turned away from witnessing boys his own age stone pudgy, philosophical “Piggy” to death. -more-
As was earlier announced, here and elsewhere, Mayor Jerry Brown is proposing shutting down the Kaiser Convention Center as a “cost-saving” venture to “balance Oakland’s budget.” Noting in a “Budget Facts” document on the mayor’s proposed policy budget for fiscal year 2005-07 released by City Administrator Deborah A. Edgerly that we are looking at a $32 million shortfall in those years, we learn that in order to help close that shortfall, Mr. Brown proposed to “shut [the Convention Center’s] doors on Jan. 1, 2006, upon completion of existing contracts with community groups. This closure will eliminate the growing annual city subsidy to the facility of an estimated $0.4 million per year, and result in the elimination of 20 positions, mostly part-time.” -more-
Tom got lucky with a waitress 22 years ago, and the baby she had alone came out to California to see him. -more-
In the debate over President Bush’s appeals court nominees, Democrats are kicking and screaming over the possibility that Republicans may seriously use their congressional majority to their advantage, and in so doing force Democrats to play by the rules and actually vote on the nominees. -more-
On May 2, the City of Berkeley Youth Commission voted 10-1-1 to approve a two-part proposal, recommending that the Berkeley City Council support state legislation to allow local choice in setting a voting age of 16 years or older and send the previously proposed ballot initiative back to the Youth Commission for them to hold a public hearing on the details of an amendment in Berkeley regarding lowering the voting age to 16, if and when the state permits such an action. -more-
Opening with a Puja, a ritual of blessing conducted by lamas, and closing with the sounds of Karma Moffett’s Long Horns, the 22nd annual Himalayan Fair transforms Live Oak Park this weekend into an open-air market for art, antiques and clothing, with foodstalls and traditional performing arts from Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mongolia. -more-
If Michael Moore represents the modern face of documentary filmmaking—in which the filmmaker doubles as star of the show, dominating the onscreen time with questions and commentary—then Smith College Master of Social Work candidate Lindsay Duckles must be the old school, where the filmmaker gets out of the way and lets the subject tell the story. -more-
Whenever I travel the first thing I search out is a guided walking tour. It’s my favorite way to get up close and notice the details that lend character and uniqueness to a business district or neighborhood. When the visual is supplemented with interesting stories and pieces of history, the experience is magnified. -more-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today we are pleased to offer for your information a guest editorial, author unknown. It’s a cogent, well-written summary of why the City of Berkeley needs an adequate environmental impact report from the University of California before the university moves forward with its relentless desire to radically change the face of our city between now and 2020. Nothing’s changed—the points made in this piece, placed on the city’s website in February when the lawsuit was filed under the title “Fact Sheet,” are still valid. -more-
On the first of May we had the pleasure of dropping in at three homes on the Bringing Back the Natives garden tour which we learned about from Ron Sullivan’s article in these pages. This was not one of your elegant events featuring name architects and landscape designers which are staged, with pricey admission fees, for the benefit of good causes, though we’ve enjoyed some of those too. This one was more basic: just an outright public relations triumph designed to show anybody who’s interested what you can, yes, try at home. The three sites were in the Northeast Richmond flats, numbered streets not far from Barrett and San Pablo. The houses there are modest in scale, and the small gardens on flat city plots were designed and executed by the homeowners themselves. Showcasing native plants in luxuriant display, they demonstrated gardening with minimal water to attract butterflies and other wildlife to the city. That area is a fertile alluvial plain, better for gardening than hilltop view lots. Look at the web page bringingbackthenatives.net to get a glimpse of what they’re up to. -more-
