In the news today: Zoning changes for Panoramic Hill and Telegraph, fines for daycare centers proposed, new marijuana regulations, 155-unit apartment complex for South Shattuck, credit card fraud and a music club in financial trouble. -more-
[Editor's Note: This was received as a press release at 3 on Monday afternoon. A more complete article will follow. Berkeley Police Department Public Information Officer Jamie Perkins confirmed that the crime at Rabbi Lerner's home in the 900 block of Cragmont was reported at 11:40 today, Monday, and she said at about 6 p.m. that there were no suspects as yet.]
Berkeley police today confirmed that the attack on Rabbi Lerner's home late Sunday May 2nd or early morning Monday May 3rd was in fact a crime and was being investigated.
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Last night the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved the “Reduced Impact Alternative” BRT that is similar to “Rapid Bus Plus” as the “Locally Preferred Alternative.” It rejected the “Build Alternative” which would have removed traffic lanes and placed boarding stations in the middle of the street even though AC Transit sent a letter saying, more or less, that it was obliged to choose that alternative. This meeting with Bus Rapid Transit the only agenda item ended after 11:00 pm. Sixty-six members of the public were against the “Build Alternative,” twenty-three in favor and five asked all alternatives to be studied. Here are the alternatives. -more-
In the news today: -more-
"Driving while Black." "Walking while Black." These are phrases in the contemporary vernacular for racial profiling, which is defined as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner. Arizona's new immigration law will now target those "walking or driving while Brown." -more-
A state appeals court in San Francisco on Monday upheld a lower court decision that the environmental report for Chevron's Richmond refinery expansion project is inadequate under state environmental laws. -more-
In the news since the last issue: -more-
In a late night vote on Thursday, the Berkeley City Council voted to support hybrid alternatives to AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit proposal which eliminate dedicated bus lanes and bus boarding stations in the center of the street. According to AC Transit spokesperson Cory LaVigne this plan can’t be considered as part of the environmental impact study currently underway, making it effectively a "no build" alternative at this point. -more-
The usual catch-phrase for environmental responsibility is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." However, on Earth Day, in a small computer lab in University Village, Albany, a local group added "Repair" to the list. Toolbox open, my daughter grinned as she unscrewed the base of our long-broken vacuum cleaner. In a corner, two of my friends leaned over the disassembled guts of a malfunctioning laptop. Broken cameras, microwaves, and electronics filled the tables near their hopeful owners as tools were passed around and volunteers guided each project and offered advice. -more-
In the news today: -more-
A round-up of the day's interesting events as reported in other news media or otherwise. -more-
A roundup of important events in Berkeley, as reported in other media: -more-
A state appeals court in San Francisco on Monday upheld a lower court decision that the environmental report for Chevron's Richmond refinery expansion project is inadequate under state environmental laws. -more-
AC Transit riders should brace for another round of cuts after major service changes and reductions went into effect March 28 to cope with a projected $56 million deficit in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. -more-
On April 20 the Oakland City Council did indeed vote to support the full-build “Locally Preferred Alternative,” i.e., the alternative preferred by AC Transit. But it also directed that “Rapid Bus Plus” be studied as an alternative. The Public Works Committee had decided they wanted to “Study East Bay Bus Rapid Transit Project without the use of a dedicated traffic lane” and which would “Provide Level Boarding.” “Rapid Bus Plus,” unlike the no-build and the full-build alternatives, would split the line at downtown Oakland so you won’t get bunching like on the #51 line, and it, also, retains local service. So there is a lot to say for the “Rapid Bus Plus” but, unfortunately, you can’t get level boarding without bulb-outs (which would make it “Curbside BRT” or “Rapid Bus Plus Plus.”) The entry of the present Van Hool low-aisle buses is 14.56” above the street. (And the standard for American low-floor buses are “no more than 15 ½”.) Sidewalk curbs are about 6” so without bulb-outs one would have to do something really weird, and probably hazardous to pedestrians, in order to provide level boarding from sidewalks. -more-
The Albany community came together for open space and recreation for the Albany Waterfront, allowing only minimal ‘green’ development in its vision for the waterfront. -more-
My wife and I just returned from a visit to New Orleans. While there, we toured some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and Hurricane Rita in September 2005. Rose Scott was our personable and knowledgeable guide for the tours. Rose, born and raised in New Orleans, is a retired high school teacher who now works as a tour guide. Katrina flooding and an oil spill rendered her St. Bernard Parish home uninhabitable. -more-
PHOENIX, AZ - On Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. (MST), MALDEF, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) will hold a news conference on the House lawn of the State Capitol Grounds in Phoenix, Arizona to announce that they are preparing to challenge Arizona's extreme new law, which requires law enforcement to question people about their immigration status during everyday police encounters and criminalizes immigrants for failing to carry their "papers." The unconstitutional law, the groups say, encourages racial profiling, endangers public safety and betrays American values. -more-
The massive and shocking Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010 is still periodically in the news, with much of the current focus on the human suffering and efforts at recovery. It was the fourth most deadly earthquake anywhere since 1900. -more-
It’s not surprising that Republicans oppose the Obama Administration – they want to suck up to the rich by maintaining the status quo. And it’s not surprising that they lie – this is, after all, the Party that created the fictional Iraqi atomic bomb threat so they would have a winning issue in the 2002 mid-term elections. What is surprising is that they’ve been so successful. Why are Republican supporters so enthusiastic when they’ve been force-fed a diet of BS? -more-
The question of how to provide a sustainable information source for a small city in a metropolitan area is ongoing around here. It’s a subset of what now constitutes news, since even on a national level the main “news” outlets are increasingly aggregators (an insider word meaning collectors) of news stories created in other media. The ratio of “new news” to repeats on sites like the Huffington Post is small. -more-
This is one busy week for the civic-minded amongst us. I had originally thought to do a preview, without comment, in the news section, of some of the wide selection of meetings that the conscientious Berkeleyan who wanted to be influential or just well informed could attend this week, but I find that I am constitutionally unable to comply with the “without comment”stipulation, so as we move through the week you’ll find some notes on what’s happening and why you should care. -more-
Everyone's celebrating the Governor's "pledge" to save the Cal Grant... everyone except for students, that is. The pledge to save the Cal grant doesn't save anything at all. In fact, it hurts low income students and their families. -more-
I remain shocked, furious, and appalled by what's been done to the American people and how impervious the banking system and others who aren't living where and how we are in the age of job loss, rising prices, home losses, all the outcomes of the banks' cavalier disregard of those who don't hold the same priivilege--especially legal privilege. -more-
Will Arizona’ s draconian immigration law prompt Congress to act soon on immigration reform? Unlikely. The Democrats have too much on their plate right now -- financial reform, global warming legislation, selecting a Supreme Court nominee, selling health care reform to the public -- to tackle the difficult job of comprehensive immigration reform, including a way for undocumented immigrants to become legal. -more-
When will the University of California stop funding war crimes against Palestinian civilians and the occupation of Palestinian land? How much longer will grieving mothers have to wait for justice? -more-
Rapid Bus Plus (RB+) is Berkeley's answer to the environmental disaster that is Bus Rapid Transit(BRT). The RB+ Coalition has been working on this plan since AC Transit's Draft EIRs came out and it became clear that the number of new transit riders on BRt would be negligible and the reduction in greenhouse gases with BRT would be miniscule. We believe that RB+ will provide 80% of the projected benefits of BRT for 20% of the cost and virtually none of the detriments. Beyond that, RB+ can be implemented immediately with the current funds AC Transit has on hand. We don't need to wait another 5 years, or longer, for BRT to be fully funded. We need better public transit today! -more-
Ending corporate dominance of our government is key to most of what we want whether climate justice, fair trade, food security, affordable quality healthcare, or -- in many cases -- peace. The "CITIZENS UNITED" Supreme Court ruling against the Federal Elections Commission lifted corporate limits on buying elections, so Berkeley's Peace & Justice Commission recommends that the City Council again call for constitutional amendments saying that a corporation is not a person and may not claim constitutional "rights" (such as corporate financing of election ads being defined as free speech.) These resolutions are researched/vetted by volunteer commissioners, cost the city almost nothing, and have more weight than individual lobbying. Corporations may operate by privilege, the way they did historically, and can more easily be held accountable, when needed, if they no longer have human rights. -more-
In a stunning victory for environmental groups, the California Court of Appeal rejected most of Chevron’s challenge to a lower court decision that stopped construction on a $1 billion refinery upgrade. -more-
Berkeley -- During July 1944, when famed Lieutenant C.D. "Lucky" Lester of the Tuskegee Airmen shot down 3 Nazi enemy aircraft over Europe in a brief span of 4-6 minutes with his P-51 Mustang while on a mission to protect some B-17 Flying Fortresses on their way to bomb a German airfield in southern Germany, he probably had no idea then that his actions would lead to the day he became one of the founders in 1969 of a small venture capital firm called the Inner City Fund, that was later renamed ICF International. It now plays a direct role in the scheme of some high priced consultants who desire to grab Section 8 funding from the poor, to finance their master plan to privatize Berkeley's 75 public housing units. -more-
The latest polls indicate that if the mid-term elections were held today, Democrats would lose seats in Congress because of dissatisfaction about the economy, particularly high rates of unemployment. Over the next six months, what should the Obama Administration do to solve the jobs problem? -more-
So what does being stranded in the middle of the high Mexican desert have to do with Chrysler and cocaine? Well, it was a Chrysler that got Anne and me into the mess—a model aptly named Attitude (“all attitude,” as one of my kids would say). But there was no cocaine or other assorted drugs in the tiny town of Bondojito Huichapan Hidalgo, just a hardware store, a minuscule tienda, and, of course, a church. -more-
Part 2: “…go with the flow.” -more-
Kaua’i is an extraordinary place to see seabirds. Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge on the North Shore hosts nesting Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, and wedge-tailed shearwaters. The boobies occupy a wooded slope above the ocean; we watched them bringing in twigs as nesting material. The albatrosses, mostly unpaired adolescents and supersized chicks, use a nearby hill. Almost literally underfoot, the shearwaters had excavated burrows right at the edge of a paved path. Great frigatebirds, long-winged piratical creatures, nest elsewhere but come to Kilauea to steal fish from the hapless boobies. -more-
Spring showers will give way to local, native, wildflowers this weekend as a number of local homeowners invite the public into their gardens. -more-
Part 1: “With our own hands.” -more-
Around the turn of the last century, it was common practice for middle-class or well-to-do families with adolescent children to move their residence to Berkeley in order to secure good education for their young. Among those was the household of Clark and Louise Goddard. -more-
A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS -- Kathi Goldmark and Sam Barry, May 8, 7 p.m. The authors talk about "Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now.'' -more-
AURORA THEATRE COMPANY -- CLOSING -- "John Gabriel Borkman," by David Eldridge, through May 9, Tuesday, 7 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. After serving eight years in prison for embezzlement, Borkman plans a comeback. $15-$55. -more-
BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE -- -more-
A century ago, theatre changed. The first “modern” play was The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. The usual theater fare then was melodrama which was considered to be high art. The Seagull was people just talking, expressing their innermost longings, mired in incontrovertible conflicts of the heart, and locked in a “union of opposites.” When it opened in St. Petersburg, the audience response was hostile. The actress playing Nina was so frightened that she lost her voice mid-performance, and Chekhov hid backstage after the first act. But fellow playwright and producer Nemirovich-Danchenko saw the play’s potential and three years later in 1898 convinced C. Stanislavski to direct it for their Moscow Art Theatre. The rest is history. The MAT brought its work to NYC in the ‘20’s, the crowd gasped when actors just behaved and engaged in such startling and ground-breaking staging as turning their back on the audience while conversing. It overwhelmed the audience with a naturalism that set a new tone and mode which would be the forefather of film acting. The crest of the Moscow Art Theatre still bears a seagull. -more-
Tony Judt is a distinguished scholar, historian, writer, and academic, born in England and based mostly in America. Of his thirteen earlier books, I have read only one. Presently, I am working my way through his 2005 masterpiece Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. I am more familiar with his highly informed and probing reviews and essays in the New York Review of Books. One of those NYReview essays (December 17, 2009) grew into this book. -more-
Kaua’i is an extraordinary place to see seabirds. Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge on the North Shore hosts nesting Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, and wedge-tailed shearwaters. The boobies occupy a wooded slope above the ocean; we watched them bringing in twigs as nesting material. The albatrosses, mostly unpaired adolescents and supersized chicks, use a nearby hill. Almost literally underfoot, the shearwaters had excavated burrows right at the edge of a paved path. Great frigatebirds, long-winged piratical creatures, nest elsewhere but come to Kilauea to steal fish from the hapless boobies. -more-
Spring showers will give way to local, native, wildflowers this weekend as a number of local homeowners invite the public into their gardens. -more-
BAY AREA RAIL TRAILS -- A network of trails converted from unused railway corridors and developed by the Rails to Trails Conservancy. -more-
Highly acclaimed pianist Sarah Cahill will inaugurate the Berkeley Arts Festival at 8 pm on Saturday, May 1, performing a program of exciting piano music, including of Annie Gosfield's Five Characters Walk Into a Bar (2010), Eve Beglarian's Night Psalm (2009), Terry Riley's Fandango on the Heaven Ladder (1994), Balinese Ceremonial Music arranged by Colin McPhee/Evan Ziporyn (2007), Tania Leon's Mistica (2003), selections from Larry Polansky's B'midbar (2009), Guy Klucevsek's Don't Let the Boogie Man Get You (2005), and selections from Mamoru Fujieda's Begonia in My Life (2009). -more-
Any old messiah can turn water into wine. But wine into water? That takes a community effort. -more-
If you want to get dirt under your fingernails in a productive cause, there’s an opportunity this weekend. -more-
With previews starting Friday, April 30 at 8, at the Berkeley City Club: TERRORISTKA, a new play by Rebecca Bella, directed by Jessica Holt for Threshold Theatre (which began in a Berkeley directors workshop), based on a true story Bella heard while a Fulbright Fellow in Russia, of a young Chechen woman, recruited to be a suicide bomber, journeying to Moscow, told in verse and song. With sound design by Greg Scharpen and costumes by Tammy Berlin, both of Central Works. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p. m.; Sundays at 5 2315 Durant Ave. $12-$29. (415) 891-7235; thethresholdproject.blogspot.com -more-
A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS -- Kathi Goldmark and Sam Barry, May 8, 7 p.m. The authors talk about "Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now.'' -more-
AURORA THEATRE COMPANY -- CLOSING -- "John Gabriel Borkman," by David Eldridge, through May 9, Tuesday, 7 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. After serving eight years in prison for embezzlement, Borkman plans a comeback. $15-$55. -more-
BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE -- -more-
924 GILMAN ST. -- All ages welcome. -more-
BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY, CENTRAL BRANCH -- -more-
BAY AREA HEART GALLERY -- Exhibit consists of photographs of children, youth and families, accompanied by their compelling stories. The joint exhibit opens in the Alameda County Administration Building, 1221 Oak Street, Oakland and at the Eden Area Multi-Service Center, 24100 Amador Way, Hayward. -more-
CALVARY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH -- -more-
The Berkeley Arts Festival will soon be in full swing, starting this weekend on Saturday with pianist Sarah Cahill at 8pm and continuing on Sunday at 8 pm with the Dazzling Divas ,Pamela Connelly, Kathleen Moss and Eliza O'Malley and pianist Hadley McCarroll,presenting favorites from the opera repertoire. -more-
The Oakland Museum of California reopens the weekend of May 1-2, 2010 with a continuous 31-hour long stream of events. The main building has been closed for two years for extensive renovations and creation of what the museum calls a “re-imagined” exhibit program. -more-
Nine houses designed by Julia Morgan in the Claremont and Elmwood districts will be open on the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s Spring House Tour, to take place Sunday, May 2, between 1 pm and 5 pm. -more-
How do we remember a social protest movement? Often by words that have been left behind: founding documents, manifestos, flyers, and the like. But visual artifacts can be powerful too: sometimes a movement’s images reveal its deepest character and commitments. -more-
Around the turn of the last century, it was common practice for middle-class or well-to-do families with adolescent children to move their residence to Berkeley in order to secure good education for their young. Among those was the household of Clark and Louise Goddard. -more-
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND -- The Oakland Public Library's museum is designed to discover, preserve, interpret and share the cultural and historical experiences of African Americans in California and the West. In addition, a three-panel mural is on permanent display. -more-
ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM -- Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission. -more-
ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM -- Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission. -more-
A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS -- -more-
ALCATRAZ ISLAND TOURS -- On the Island, The National Park Service offers a captioned orientation video with historical footage, self-guided walks, exhibits, and Ranger interpretive talks. Also available is an award-winning audio tour in the prison Cell House with actual interviews of former guards and inmates, available in six languages. There is a steep uphill walk to the Cell House. -more-
