A 2.3-magnitude earthquake struck just outside Berkeley late Wednesday night, followed by a 1.8-magnitude aftershock this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquake shook the area 1-mile east-northeast of Berkeley at 11:10 p.m., according to the USGS.  

The quake had about a 6-mile depth.  

The aftershock was recorded at 12:52 a.m., according to the USGS.  

Many Berkeley residents said they did not feel the temblor, unlike when a series of earthquakes in October shook the East Bay from a Berkeley epicenter.

On Friday, November 18, 2011, at 8:48 p.m., Berkeley Firefighters responded to a reported structure fire at 2441 Haste Street in Berkeley. The fire eventually went to five alarms to control the incident. This fire resulted in total destruction of the 39-unit, four-story apartment building.

Berkeley Fire Department Fire Investigators are in the process of concluding their investigation and believe all indicators point towards the fire starting in the elevator machine room in the basement. At this time, they believe this fire originated in and around the elevator machinery. They believe this fire is accidental in nature and was not intentionally set. 

The onsite investigation phase is complete, and a final report will be completed and available within the next several weeks.

Following up on the White House demonstrations to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org , is already hard at work on the next stage of the movement to rein in reliance on fossil fuels.

On a three-state speaking tour, he is calling for a constitutional amendment to undo the damage the Supreme Court did when it declared corporations as persons and campaign contributions as speech. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more money last election cycle than the Democratic and Republican national committees combined—and 97 per cent of that went to climate deniers, he told an audience in Asheville, N.C., on Nov. 30. The climate change movement has to figure out how to break “the corporate power dominating our political lives.” 

Energy companies with huge reserves in fossil fuels have a long-term financial incentive to keep the current system in place. “Exxon made more money last quarter than any company in the history of money.” That, he said, is because Exxon and the other fossil fuel companies don’t have to account for the waste they pour into the atmosphere. What we have to do is curb the “power of the fossil fuel industry to prevent change.” 

Taking a page from Occupy Wall Street’s strategy book, proponents of an amendment to strip corporations of personhood will occupy federal courts across the country on January 20, 2012. Courts in San Francisco and San Jose are on the list. 

The idea of pushing through a constitutional amendment in time to make difference is daunting. Time is running out on the effort to slow climate change. People across the globe are already suffering devastating floods, storms, fire, and drought. 

The world’s people know the urgency of action, as is spelled out by a new digest of polling data featured in a Council of Foreign Relations blog on the same day McKibben spoke in Asheville. 

In his rundown of what the numbers mean, Stewart M. Patrick, senior fellow and director of the Council’s Program on International Institutions and Global Governance, said, “Publics around the world—including in the United States—believe that global warming is an urgent problem and want their governments to make it a higher priority, by taking vigorous national and multilateral actions to confront it.” 

The problem now, worldwide, is how to make governments responsive to the will of the people. 

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Carol Polsgrove is author of Divided Minds: Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement and professor emerita, Indiana University School of Journalism.

The Killer Crane that is chomping our heritage at the nearly century-old Sequoia Apartments, which burned last Friday, is owned by a demolition company that bills itself, "clearing the way to the future." 

It now remains unclear what the future will hold for Haste at Telegraph, which is seen by many as a Berkeley landmark itself—Berkeley's center. Indeed we so named the area in a Planet Piece ("Finding Berkeley's Center," Dec 23, 2008). 

The Sequoia had an eleventh-hour stay, Monday, while City fire and Insurance investigators poured over the remains for cause of the fire, but early Tuesday, the crane began its reign of destruction. 

A shivering crowd showed up at 8 a.m. Tuesday and watched in horror as the killer crane swung into position to destroy the Sequoia, using its jaws to grasp pivotal sections of the building and tear them down. 

As we huddled in a dark, foggy, cold morning mist, the combination of crane and "jaw" formed a veritable Jawzilla, a punitive weapon of mass destruction. 

Using its camera eyes, and manipulated from a cab by the crane's operator, who seemed, at times, to be playing with a giant toy, Jawzilla took its toll, all the while spitting water to quell the dust it stirred up. 

There were ahs and ohs from the crowd as Jawzilla seemed to falter at first, having trouble realizing its potential for ruination; but once a slow, killing rhythm was established, the conquering contraption began its systematic course of mayhem. 

Have no doubt, this was a heartbreaking scene, as the beautiful old landmark was scarred beyond recognition. And when large chunks of the building were dislodged, plunging to the ground with the clamor of falling bricks, swirling dust, and gushing water, the scene turned scary. 

Rubble built up on the sidewalk below, protected by plywood, like the ruins of Nazi Germany. 

The scene was so dispiriting it was difficult to see any upside to the downside. 

But there is an upside. 

Often criticized for allowing the Berkeley Inn (burned to the ground, 1985) site to go undeveloped for 26 years, the city of Berkeley has been quick to respond, to the plight of the already struggling lower Telegraph business area. Pleas to save the Sequoia by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, which made an 11th hour appeal to the city on the Sequoia's behalf, gave way to "public safety." 

The city's quick action has made it possible (at the Sequoia's expense) for a walkway connecting Haste to Channing, presently blocked, to be restored in no more than two weeks (perhaps less), in time for the Telegraph Ave. Holiday Street Fair, Dec. 16-24, which always increases foot traffic in local businesses. 

Moreover, there are signs that things could improve at the Cody site, which has been undergoing a lengthy, if routine, retrofit. 

Across the street at the Berkeley Inn site, its owner has reportedly commissioned yet another round of architect plans for a building at the site. 

According to reliable sources, the owners of Intermezzo, and Raleigh's intend to restore the left-standing businesses, as soon as possible. 

Nothing to get worked up over, just the glimmer of hope. And possibly the ghost of a chance that Telegraph and Haste can stem its decline and once more be Berkeley's center. 

It was erroneously reported here that the first floor of the Sequoia would be spared. 

All that will remain of the building according to Fredo Pena, the demolition crew-chief, is a "wall," at ground level. 

The wall is the facades of the popular Raleigh's pub and the Intermezzo cafe and coffee shop, which were not destroyed by the fire. 

According to Pena, the demolition crew chief , it will take three to five more days to knock down the Sequoia. A walkway connecting Haste to Channing, which has been blocked since the fire, will be complete when the sequoia site is safe to passersby, according to Pena. 

That will take two weeks maximum, said Pena Tuesday. 

The Killer Crane will be back to deal out more mass destruction Wednesday. 

 

---

Don't expect Ted Friedman, a 40 year resident of the South side, only three blocks from Teley and Haste, to have anything but hate for "Jawzilla."

Students and community members filed a lawsuit in federal court today alleging that police used excessive force against them during an "Occupy Cal" protest at the University of California at Berkeley on Nov. 9. 

Attorney Ronald Cruz of the group By Any Means Necessary said 24 plaintiffs are named in the suit but he expects that number to increase because he believes many people suffered at the hands of police during the protest, which involved hundreds of people. 

Cruz said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks unspecified general and punitive damages for the physical and emotional injuries the protesters suffered. 

Named as defendants are UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau, other senior university administrators, UC Berkeley Police Chief Mitchell Celaya, Alameda County Sheriff Chief Gregory Ahern, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan and several police officers. 

Cruz said the 41-page complaint includes detailed accounts of peaceful protesters being clubbed in the face, yanked by their hair, forcefully jabbed in their chests, stomachs, and groins, and beaten while lying on the ground. 

Cruz said police continued to beat protesters even after they destroyed the protesters' tents. 

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said university officials can't comment on the lawsuit's allegations because they haven't yet seen the suit. 

Gilmore said there are several investigations into police officers' actions during the protest and university officials "are looking forward to the outcome" of those probes.

Occupy Oakland protesters returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall today, but on a smaller scale than before. 

About 30 protesters rallied at the plaza at noon today and at 2 p.m. they erected a teepee on the side of the plaza while a small group of Oakland police officers and security guards watched. 

Assistant to the city administrator Arturo Sanchez said the city has granted the protesters a permit to set up the teepee but they must take it down at 10 p.m. every night. The protesters can then erect it again at 6 a.m. every morning, he said. 

J. Kirk Boyd, a University of California at Berkeley law professor who's a legal adviser for Occupy Wall Street protesters throughout the Bay Area, said the protesters plan to hold a vigil at Frank Ogawa Plaza around the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Asked if the protesters will take down the teepee every night, Boyd said, "For the time being." 

He said the protesters plan to take down the teepee tonight but declined to say if they will take it down every night. 

The vigil is on a much smaller scale than the encampment that previously was set up in the plaza. That encampment reached a peak of about 200 tents before Oakland police closed it down two weeks ago. 

Boyd said the teepee is "symbolic" and the vigil shows that the protesters "will be here for people who worry every night if their kids will be able to go to college or whether they will have health care." 

He said, "We will have people here around the clock." 

Phil Horne of Occupy Oakland said, "This is a demonstration that doesn't involve sleeping out or dwellings." 

He said protesters are "building coalitions and reaching out to people." 

Horne said protesters will fight home foreclosures and will occupy banks. 

Among the protesters today was former Berkeley mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, who recently spent seven consecutive days perched in a tree in Frank Ogawa Plaza. 

Running Wolf said he now takes turns with seven other protesters so that one person is in the tree at all times. 

"We've been in the tree for 17 days," he said. 

Running Wolf previously participated in a long-running tree-sitting protest in a grove of oak trees near the football stadium at the University of California at Berkeley. That protest attempted to stop the building of a student recreation center but the construction work eventually went forward and is now nearly complete. 

 

 

We came to see it fall, but stayed to see it outlast us.
City Officials reported the Sequoia would be "demolished" Monday morning, but a few things interfered on the way to demolishment.

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, in a tautly-written letter to Berkeley's new city manager, Christine Daniel, argued that the Sequoia has a unique heritage that must be preserved.

But preservation apparently gave way to the city's argument favoring "public safety." 

So we all showed up to see the corpse collapse. We is reporters and videographers from KGO AM, Ch.4 TV, Ch.2 TV, the Daily Cal, a gaggle of gawkers from nowhere in particular, and last, but not least, this Planet reporter. 

A small but spirited group of on-lookers and media, hovered over the scene, just for the sight of the Sequoia coming down. 

But the reality of the situation was more important than expectations. For one thing, only part of the Sequoia is being (surgically) removed. Floors, four and three will go, according to a source in the city manager's office, but floor one, and the ground floor will stand. Officials at the site confirm this. 

Although this is small solace for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, there will at least be something left of the Sequoia. 

Still, there we were for the show, until after several interviews with the demolition crew-chief, and anyone else who would talk to us, it became obvious by noon that dismantlement (my term) was on hold until Tuesday at 8a.m. 

We could hardly complain because while "Waiting for Godot," we had learned all about tearing down an historic Berkeley building (1916) brick-by-brick. Blowing something up--that, we could understand--but lopping off its head without having the lower floors collapse, that was difficult to understand. 

First, we learned (on-lookers were also quite interested in all this), you had to transport the "jaw," a contraption with a jaw that apparently snapped, around the block where it would be somehow, perhaps beaten, (there was outright bea

As the morning wore on, and we resorted to interviewing each other (I was interviewed twice), I interviewed a homeless man with a pickup truck, who said he had swung a deal with the city for the Sequoia bricks. He said he expected to make $1,000 on some of the bricks, but that he didn't need to sell more than some. 

"So the re-cycled bricks would be a re-birth of the Sequoia," I said. 

"You could say that," he said. 

Back on the planet, part of the Sequoia is coming down tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it for anything. 

Who knows, maybe the brick entrepreneur will prevail and the Sequoia's better half will be re-cycled. 

_________________________________________________________________ 

When not on the disaster scene, Ted Friedman, reports from the Southside on crime, homelessness, and drug abuse.

The Berkeley Division of the University of California Faculty Senate endorsed, by a 10-1 margin (336-34), a group of four resolutions expressing, with varying degrees of specificity, their lack of confidence in the way Berkeley administrators have handled student protests.

Three U.C. Berkeley executives, Chancellor Robert Birgenau and two of his subordinates, attempted an explanation of their actions on November 9, when students and faculty were clubbed by police. They were greeted with stony silence by the faculty members in the front of the International House auditorium where the meeting was held, and with audible snickers from the students in the back of the room.

Professor Judith Butler, one of the sponsors of the original no-confidence resolution, moved the acceptance of her motion plus three more which had been submitted by other faculty members.

A University of California Board of Regents meeting held via teleconference at four UC campuses wrapped up this afternoon after being briefly interrupted by protesters who criticized recent police actions in Davis and Berkeley and rising tuition costs. 

The meeting, which had originally been scheduled earlier for this month, was postponed until today because of "credible intelligence" that violence was possible at the meeting, which was to take place in San Francisco, university officials said. 

The perceived threat followed criticism that UC Berkeley police were overly aggressive and beat protesters with batons when responding to "Occupy Cal" protests on Nov. 9. The outrage over police tactics grew when several students were pepper sprayed while peacefully protesting at UC Davis on Nov. 18. 

Today's meeting was held via teleconference, with UC staff and students speaking at the Davis, Los Angeles, Merced and San Francisco Mission Bay campuses. 

No proposed tuition hikes were on the agenda, but some regents addressed the recent incidents at Davis and Berkeley and student concerns about rising costs. 

Board of Regents chair Sherry Lansing said she was "personally shocked and appalled" at the police actions and said the meeting was held jointly at the four campuses "to give the UC community an even greater opportunity to be heard." 

But Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is on the board, said before the meeting started that holding it by phone was "awkward at best" and "not ideal." 

UC President Mark Yudof said at the start of the meeting that he is calling for the partial restoration of funding for the system in the state Legislature's next budget negotiations, saying the state has reduced its contribution to the UC system by nearly a billion dollars in the past few years. 

About 150 people at the four campuses signed up to speak during the public comment period, many of whom criticized university police, tuition hikes, and the corporate backgrounds of some of the regents. 

Charlie Eaton, financial secretary for United Auto Workers Local 2865, which represents about 12,000 UC teaching assistants and other staff, was one of about two dozen speakers at the San Francisco meeting, telling the regents "The buck stops with you ... and it's time for you to pay." 

Lansing said at the end of the two-hour public comment period that she "would like to continue this dialogue" with students with a tour of various UC campuses with some of the regents. 

However, that sentiment did not satisfy the protesters at the San Francisco meeting, who started prolonged chants, prompting the regents to take a recess at 11:40 a.m. 

While most of the regents left, Newsom stayed and joined protesters who then held a "People's Regents Meeting" in the room, during which they called on Yudof to resign, as well as the chancellors at Berkeley and Davis, and proposed new ways of appointing regents. 

Newsom said the protesters "restored my faith and confidence in this state and country" since "there were not a lot of people showing up at these meetings" until the Occupy movements started spreading across the country in recent months. 

Newsom eventually joined the rest of the regents in a separate room this afternoon to finish the meeting, which included a discussion of alternative funding sources beyond tuition from students and taxpayer support and approval of an expenditure plan for the upcoming budgetary year.

It is our hope that this letter will help open the door to a better understanding between UC Berkeley police and the University community. 

The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association, representing approximately 64 campus police officers, understands your frustration over massive tuition hikes and budget cuts, and we fully support your right to peacefully protest to bring about change.  

It was not our decision to engage campus protesters on November 9th. We are now faced with “managing” the results of years of poor budget planning. Please know we are not your enemy. 

A video clip gone viral does not depict the full story or the facts leading up to an actual incident. Multiple dispersal requests were given in the days and hours before the tent removal operation. Not caught on most videos were scenes of protesters hitting, pushing, grabbing officers’ batons, fighting back with backpacks and skateboards. 

The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association supports a full investigation of the events that took place on November 9th, as well as a full review of University policing policies. That being said, we do not abrogate responsibility for the events on November 9th.  

UC Berkeley police officers want to better serve students and faculty members and we welcome ideas for how we can have a better discourse to avoid future confrontations. We are open to all suggestions on ways we can improve our ability to better protect and serve the UC Berkeley community. 

As your campus police, we also have safety concerns that we ask you to consider. 

Society has changed significantly since 1964 when peaceful UC Berkeley student protesters organized a 10-hour sit-in in Sproul Hall and 10,000 students held a police car at bay – spawning change and the birth of our nation’s Free Speech Movement. 

However proud we can all be of UC Berkeley’s contribution to free speech in America, no one can deny this: Our society in 2011 has become an extremely more violent place to live and to protect. No one understands the effects of this violence more than those of us in law enforcement. 

Disgruntled citizens in this day and age express their frustrations in far more violent ways – with knives, with guns and sometimes by killing innocent bystanders. Peaceful protests can, in an instant, turn into violent rioting, ending in destruction of property or worse – the loss of lives. Police officers and innocent citizens everywhere are being injured, and in some instances, killed. 

In the back of every police officer’s mind is this: How can I control this incident so it does not escalate into a seriously violent, potentially life-threatening event for all involved? 

While students were calling the protest “non-violent,” the events on November 9th were anything but nonviolent. In previous student Occupy protests, protesters hit police officers with chairs, bricks, spitting, and using homemade plywood shields as weapons – with documented injuries to officers.  

At a moment’s notice, the November 9th protest at UC Berkeley could have turned even more violent than it did, much like the Occupy protests in neighboring Oakland. 

Please understand that by no means are we interested in making excuses. We are only hoping that you will understand and consider the frustrations we experience daily as public safety officers sworn to uphold the law. It is our job to keep protests from escalating into violent events where lives could be endangered.  

We sincerely ask for your help in doing this. 

Like you, we have been victims to budget cuts that affect our children and our families in real ways. We, too, hold on to the dream of being able to afford to send our children and grandchildren to a four-year university. Like you, we understand and fully support the need for change and a redirection of priorities. 

To students and faculty: As 10,000 students surrounded a police car on campus in 1964, protesters passed the hat to help pay for repairs to the police car as a show of respect. Please peacefully respect the rules we are required to enforce – for all our safety and protection. Please respect the requests of our officers as we try to do our jobs. 

To the University Administration and Regents: Please don’t ask us to enforce your policies then refuse to stand by us when we do. Your students, your faculty and your police – we need you to provide real leadership. 

We openly and honestly ask the UC Berkeley community for the opportunity to move forward together, peacefully and without further incident – in better understanding of one another. Thank you for listening.

Demolition work is expected to begin today on the top two floors of a four-story apartment building near the University of California at Berkeley that was badly damaged in a five-alarm fire earlier this month, the head of a local merchants' group said. 

Roland Peterson, president of the Telegraph Property and Business Management Corp., said cranes are in place to begin work at the 39-unit Sequoia Apartments building at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street. 

City of Berkeley spokeswoman Mary Kay Clunies-Ross confirmed that the city issued a demolition permit to the building's owners late Wednesday. The owners couldn't immediately be reached for comment today. 

Peterson said the demolition work is expected to be completed by next Monday. 

Clunies-Ross said that after the top two floors are demolished, the bottom two floors will be braced while a decision is made on what to do with them. 

The fire was reported at 8:48 p.m. on Nov. 18 and wasn't contained until after 3 a.m. the next day. It wasn't completely extinguished until Nov. 21. 

No one was injured in the blaze, which Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said caused more than $2 million in structural damage and the loss of more than $500,000 in contents. All 68 of the building's residents have been accounted for, Clunies-Ross said. 

In addition to the apartment units, the building, which was red-tagged by city officials, housed Cafe Intermezzo and Raleigh's Bar and Grill, which remain closed. 

The restaurant Thai Noodle II, which is located next door, is also closed because of concerns that customers and pedestrians could be injured by falling bricks. 

Peterson said his understanding is that pedestrians will be able to return to that block once the building is deemed safe again. 

He said, "The quicker the demolition work is done, the better." 

Peterson said the decision to demolish the top two floors of the building "is a very good move and a very necessary move." 

JeffShuttleworth0226p11/28/11

Dozens of University of California students, employees and others spoke at a Board of Regents meeting held via teleconference at four UC campuses today, sharply criticizing recent police actions in Davis and Berkeley, as well as rising tuition costs. 

The meeting, which had initially been scheduled for earlier this month, was postponed until today because of "credible intelligence" that violence was possible at the previous meeting, which was to take place in San Francisco, university officials said. 

The perceived threat followed criticism that UC Berkeley police were overly aggressive in responding to "Occupy Cal" protests on Nov. 9. The outrage over police tactics grew when several students were pepper-sprayed while peacefully protesting at UC Davis on Nov. 18. 

Today's meeting was held via teleconference, with UC staff and students speaking at four campuses -- Davis, Los Angeles, Merced and UC San Francisco's Mission Bay campus. 

Board of Regents chair Sherry Lansing said she was "personally shocked and appalled" at the police actions and said the meeting was held jointly at the four campuses "to give the UC community an even greater opportunity to be heard." 

But Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is on the board, said before the meeting started that holding it by phone was "awkward at best" and "not ideal." 

UC President Mark Yudof said at the start of the meeting that he is calling for the partial restoration of funding for the system in the state Legislature's next budget negotiations. 

"State disinvestment has placed a tremendous strain on the university," reducing the state's contribution to the UC system from $3.2 billion to $2.3 billion over the past few years, Yudof said. 

Newsom said state cuts have led to the doubling of tuition at UC campuses since 2008-09. 

About 150 people at the four campuses signed up to speak during a nearly two-hour public comment period, many of whom criticized university police, tuition hikes and the corporate backgrounds of some of the regents. 

Charlie Eaton, financial secretary for United Auto Workers Local 2865, which represents about 12,000 UC teaching assistants, tutors and other staff, was one of about two dozen people to speak at the San Francisco campus. 

Eaton criticized what he called "the actions of the financial and corporate elite on the board" to raise tuition costs. 

He said police then responded to protesters at universities by "having us beaten, having us pepper sprayed and having us arrested." 

"The buck stops with you ... and it's time for you to pay," Eaton said. 

Other speakers criticized an independent commission proposed by the regents to look into the Davis incident that would be led by former Los Angeles and New York police Chief William Bratton, who is already contracted to work with the UC administration. 

Yudof said, "I don't see any conflict problem" and said "we will get to the bottom of the difficulties at Davis." 

Lansing said at the end of the public comment period that she "would like to continue this dialogue" with a tour of various UC campuses by some of the regents. 

"We hear you, and we share your concerns," she said. 

The crowd at the San Francisco meeting tried to prolong the public comment period with chants, and the regents took a recess at 11:40 a.m. 

Today's agenda also includes a discussion on alternate funding sources beyond tuition from students and taxpayer support. 

 

Copyright © 2011 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. 

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This evening, The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) sent the following letter to President Yudof in response to his decision to hire the Kroll Security Group, and its Chairman William Bratton, to to conduct an investigation of police violence at UC Davis.

Dear President Yudof,

The Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) protests your decision to hire the Kroll Security Group, and its Chairman William Bratton, to conduct what you call an independent investigation of police violence at UC Davis. We take no position here on Mr. Bratton’s personal qualifications; our objection is to the conflicts of interest of Kroll Security itself, which is already a major contractor with UC on security matters. According to its website, Kroll’s services are not confined to securing databases and facilities from attacks by criminals and terrorists. It also protects many global financial institutions and other multinationals against threats to “operations” that may come from public criticism and direct political action.

By deepening UC’s links to Kroll, you would be illustrating the kinds of connection between public higher education and Wall Street that the Occupy UC movement is protesting. Kroll’s parent company, Altegrity, provides data-mining, intelligence and on-the-ground security to financial institutions and governments seeking to head off and defeat both private sabotage and public protest. In addition, Altegrity’s parent company, Providence Private Equity, is a major global investor in for-profit higher education companies that benefit from the decline of publicly funded higher education. 

We already know that Kroll has provided security services to at least three UC campuses for the past several years. This in itself would disqualify Mr. Bratton from participating in the investigation you propose, even if the role of Kroll and its affiliated companies in defending the financial sector against OWS did not raise further questions about its pro-Wall Street and pro-privatization bias. 

A truly independent investigation that would allow UC to provide a credible response to the events at Davis (and the other campuses) needs to address several questions that would not be seriously considered if you hire Kroll. 

• What was your role and that of UC General Counsel in the events at Davis? Did you, as a distinguished first amendment scholar, tell chancellors and campus police chiefs that protests (especially protests against UC’s own policies) are “part of the DNA of this University” that should not be addressed using the same techniques that UC has developed (likely with the help of Kroll) to deal with terrorists, shooters, and cyber-saboteurs? (Even if you have been a zealous defender of the rising student movement to restore public higher education, such a conclusion would not be credible coming from an investigation tainted by Kroll’s conflicts of interest outlined above.) 

• What was and is the role of Kroll in helping banks and public institutions (including UC) investigate and defeat movements such as OWS and their campus counterparts? Is Kroll now acting as a liaison between universities, city governments and the Department of Homeland Security in defending the financial sector against protests occurring on what used to be considered public spaces? Are protests against Wall Street in such spaces now considered a threat to the security of the nation, the city and the public university? (The growing securitization of public space has been a major obstacle to first amendment activity since 9-11.) 

• How much money has UC and its individual campuses paid to Kroll for security services? Were these contracts issued as sole source contracts or was there open bidding? Were Kroll’s services confined to protecting, for example, the privacy and integrity of data systems and faculty and staff conducting animal research or did they extended to what Kroll’s website calls “organizational threats” arising from “the dynamic and sometimes conflicting needs of the entire campus population”? (This could be a description of the student protests that you rightly regard as “central to our history” as a university.) 

• What led to the issuance of false and misleading statements by University of California officials (Chancellors and their assistants, spokespeople, and police chiefs) in the aftermath of police violence at Berkeley and Davis? Did you encourage these efforts at spin control? (Dishonest statements seriously damage the university as an institution devoted to truth and protect only the individuals whose decisions are in question.) 

The broader issue is how protest can be part of what you characterized as “our university’s DNA” when the right to protest is not formally recognized within the university’s own codes of student and faculty conduct. It could be and should be. The CSU student code states explicitly that “[n]othing in this Code may conflict with Education Code Section 66301 that prohibits disciplinary action against students based on behavior protected by the first amendment.” If such language were included in the UC code of conduct, students would have a clear first amendment defense against disciplinary action arising from peaceful political protest—and there would be strong grounds for questioning the legality of a police order to disperse a peaceful protest from a public site on a public university campus. The explicit incorporation of constitutional limits on UC’s power to break up demonstrations that threaten its march toward privatization would go a long way toward recovering UC as a public, rather than a private, space. We urge you to see that the UC codes of conduct are amended to parallel those in place at CSU. 

Events at Davis and the other campuses have shown the University of California in a negative light, and we agree strongly with the need for an independent investigation. We believe, however, that your appointment of Kroll to investigate the university’s response to last week’s protest could itself become a basis for new protests, and that you should ask Speaker Pérez (or someone unaffiliated with the University) to appoint a genuinely independent committee with representatives from student, faculty, staff and civil liberties groups. Such a committee should be given a specific charge to investigate and report on all of the questions set forth above. 

Robert Meister, President, Council of UC Faculty Associations

Writing a new chapter in physics, a Ford Mustang convertible, traveling under 30mph hit a BMW leaving the curb, and then launched into the air and landed, upside-down, on its rag-roof. It happened Saturday, just before noon at Channing Way and Telegraph.

Although both drivers were taken to the hospital, they were not seriously injured, according to rescue workers at the scene.

The driver of the Mustang was wrenched from under his steering wheel by a good-samaritan street vendor, who rushed over from his Teley street stand. 

This was the second time the good samaritan had been involved with flipped Mustangs, he said. Known as "Doc," because he fixes things, he tinkered just right with a jammed steering wheel releasing it so the Mustang driver could squeeze out of the car, Doc said. 

In 2004, Doc saw another Mustang flip, only this time he was involved in the accident, he said. "I sat in the car with the other guy and watched his broken leg bleed," Doc said. "We both should have died." 

The driver of the BMW was hauled off on a gurney, but only because, a paramedic wanted to protect the man's vertebrae, he said, "like in the NFL." 

The driver of the Mustang walked away from his steed on his own. He was offered a chair from Chinese Express, formerly a dollar-restaurant--now $1.85. The restaurant also donated napkins, which did a pretty good job of mopping the blood from the Mustang driver's knees. 

On-lookers, including eight Berkeley policeman, marveled at the scene. What caused the horse to flip, the crowd wondered.? At least one of the on-lookers claimed to have seen a flipped Mustang before. "Even at twenty miles per hour, a car can flip," he said. 

That on-looker was a cop, who said that, with a previous police department, he had flipped his squad car when he rear-ended a perp. "I was only doing 20mph," he said. 

A Medhead, with a Phd. in Physics offered an explanation, which involved, gross vehicle weight, car body composition, velocity, and a twist of fate. But he wrapped it all up into the "ramp effect," theory. Medheads can be found at the notorious Caffe Mediterraneum on Telegraph. 

According to this typical Med-style coffee-house jive, the wheel of the Tang churned a trail through the front left fender of the Beemer, which served as a "ramp."--launching the horse. An accompanying photo from the point of view of the Beemer's fender, seems to support the ramp effect theory. 

Now that the mystery of the flip is explained, we can move on to assigning guilt, even though the real culprit was fate. According to "Patchman," a patch vendor at Teley and Channing, with a spot-on view of the crash, the Beemer pulled into traffic from a parked position without signaling or checking its rear mirror. 

"People may not realize that you have to signal when leaving a parking space," Patchman said. 

A Telegraph Avenue business owner called the car accident, "insult to injury," after the recent Sequoia Apartments fire closed sections of Telegraph and clobbered Teley businesses. A block of Channing was closed Saturday for nearly two hours and Telegraph was flooded with squad cars, a paramedic's unit, and an ambulance.  

_________________________________________________________________ 

 

Ted Friedman neither passed nor failed physics. He avoided it. Now he's back on his South side beat, where he relies on the kindness of physicists and other intellectuals.

The UC Berkeley Academic Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a resolution condemning the use of violence against students exercising their First Amendment rights.

From the meeting announcement:

Monday, November 28, 2011 – 3:00pm – 5:00pm

A special meeting of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate will be held in the Chevron Auditorium of the International House (2299 Piedmont Avenue). The Notice of Meeting and the resolution to be presented can be downloaded by clicking here.

We will be meeting to deliberate and reach conclusions upon a specific topic: The role of protest at Berkeley, the protests of November 2011 and events surrounding them including police and administration responses, and related policies.

In addition to the initial resolution, three others have since been introduced, and we’ll reprint them all.

But UC Berkeley’s email system suddenly shuts down

But before we do, we’ll like to call your attention to an email we’ve just received revealing that a critical mode of discussion used by the faculty members has conveniently broken down over the weekend.

Here’s what one faculty member reports:

The Berkeley email is disabled this weekend, at a critical time of organization and discussion leading to a special meeting of the Academic Senate on Monday. Those using berkeley.edu addresses are out of email from the morning after their Thanksgiving dinners (Friday morning) until the Monday when the Academic Senate meeting takes place. The meeting is intended “to deliberate and reach conclusions upon a specific topic: The role of protest at Berkeley, the protests of November 2011 and events surrounding them including police and administration responses, and related policies.” Some see this meeting as potentially leading to a vote of no-confidence in the Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau. In my personal experience, this kind of outage is not accidental.  

 

And here’s the notice faculty members receive when they try to log onto the campus email system: 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Technisource ~ ee
On 11/25/2011 at 4:00 pm PST
Modified on 11/25/2011 at 4:06 pm PST
Modified by IST Service Desk ~br
Posted in Unscheduled Outage

Outage Type: UNSCHEDULED OUTAGE
Date Submitted: Friday, November 25th, 2011
Outage Start/End Time: 0953
Groups Impacted: All CalMail users
Equipment: CalMail  

Description: A key component of the CalMail system has experienced a serious hardware failure that will prevent all account holders from logging in. Email messages within mailboxes are protected and incoming mail is being deferred. The database that maintains account holder information has been corrupted and must be rebuilt. That process is lengthy and will require extended downtime. Calmail expected to be available Monday morning, November 28. Please check back to the system status page for the latest information as updates become available.
CMR: TBD 

 

 

If nothing else, an email outage at a time when many faculty members are out of town for the holidays on the long weekend before a crucial vote by the Academic Senate is curious indeed. If nothing else, it makes organizing much more difficult before a vote in which the administration has a great deal at stake. 

 

 

Now for the resolutions. . . 

 

 

The first resolution, and a note from the authors

(Revised) Resolution proposed by: Wendy Brown, Professor, Political Science; Barrie Thorne, Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies/Sociology; Judith Butler, Professor, Rhetoric.  

Whereas, Non-violent political protest engages fundamental rights of free assembly and free speech, and 

Whereas, November 9th efforts by protestors to set up and remain in a temporary encampment near Sproul Hall constitutes non-violent political protest, and Whereas, These non-violent actions were met with a brutal and dangerous police response (see, e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=share), a response authorized in advance as well as retroactively justified by Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs LeGrande, and 

Whereas, This is the third time in two years that such police violence has been unleashed upon protesters at Berkeley, with resulting bodily injuries to protestors, student and faculty outrage, a series of expensive lawsuits against the university, a tarnished university image, and a severely compromised climate for free expression on campus; 

Therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate: 

1. Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protest, whether that protest is lawful or not. 

2. Condemns the UC Berkeley administration’s authorization of violent responses to nonviolent protests over the past two years. 

3. Demands that Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer, and Vice Chancellor LeGrande take responsibility for and repudiate such policing as it occurred over the past two years. 

4. Demands that these administrators develop, follow and enforce university policy to respond non-violently to non-violent protests, to secure student welfare amidst these protests, and to minimize the deployment of force and foster free expression and assembly on campus. 

 

 

And here’s the note sent by the authors after the original resolution was first posted: 

 

 

 

 

Dear Academic Senate Colleagues,  

We write as authors of the “Senate Resolution on Administrative Authorization and Justification of Police Violence Against Non-Violent Campus Protestors” that triggered the call for a special meeting of the Academic Senate on Monday, November 28, 2011. 

We formulated this resolution in the immediate aftermath of police violence against UC protestors on November 9th. Since that time, we have learned that our resolution is being misconstrued in two important ways. First, some have misread the resolution as unqualifiedly defending the Occupy Cal encampment and as arguing that students have the right to pitch tents on campus whenever and wherever they like. Second, some have misread the resolution as proposing a blanket “no-confidence” vote on three administrators, effectively soliciting their resignations. 

Neither of these positions or effects was our intention. Rather, we are concerned about a pattern of violent police responses to non-violent protests (three instances in two years) on our campus, and we are calling on the Senate to bring such responses to an immediate end. 

On the first matter, let us simply clarify: The resolution has no position on when and whether tents and encampments may be permitted on campus but does maintain that tents are non-violent. 

On the second matter, we have chosen to exercise our authorial prerogative to amend the proposed resolution. The “Whereas” clauses remain unchanged but we have revised the “Resolved” clause as follows: 

Therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate: 

1. Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protest, whether that protest is lawful or not. 

2. Condemns the UC Berkeley administration’s authorization of violent responses to nonviolent protests over the past two years. 

3. Demands that Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer, and Vice Chancellor LeGrande take responsibility for and repudiate such policing as it occurred over the past two years. 

4. Demands that these administrators develop, follow and enforce university policy to respond non-violently to non-violent protests, to secure student welfare amidst these protests, and to minimize the deployment of force and foster free expression and assembly on campus. 

 

 

The second resolution

Resolution proposed by: Brian A. Barsky, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Jonathan Simon, Professor, Law.  

Whereas, The “right of the people peaceably to assemble” is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States; 

Whereas, Section 9(a) of Article 9 of the California Constitution establishes that“the University of California constitutes a public trust”; 

Whereas, Demonstrations consisting of both explicit and symbolic speech are a fundamental part of the public discourse in modern democracies and have been an important part of many social movements both nationally and internationally; 

Whereas, Police violence has been repeatedly perpetrated against peaceful demonstrators on the Berkeley campus;[For example, at and around Wheeler Hall (on November 20, 2009, December 11, 2009, and March 3, 2011), Tolman Hall (on September 22, 2011), and Sproul Hall (on November 9, 2011).] 

Whereas, The repeated incidents of police violence suggest that the Administration and the UCPD and may have adopted a policy of preemptive use of force against peaceful demonstrators whom they anticipate may engage in acts of civil disobedience; and 

Whereas, The Administration and UCPD appear to have not followed the recommendation of the June 14, 2010 Report of the Police Review Board (“Brazil report”) to clarify the proper lines of authority and approach to non-violent civil disobedience on the Berkeley campus despite this confusion having been identified in the Report as a possible source of unnecessary violence; 

Be it therefore RESOLVED, that: 

1. It is the sense of the faculty that the physical safety of campus community members (including police officers), and respect for their rights of political expression, dictate that police should not be deployed preemptively with riot weapons and tactics in response to non-violent demonstrations. 

2. The faculty calls upon the Administration to implement the recommendations of the June 14, 2010 Report of the Police Review Board (“Brazil report”). 

3. The faculty calls upon the Administration to immediately clarify the division of civilian and police authority over response to campus demonstrations including requests for mutual aid to outside police forces. 

4. The faculty calls upon the Administration to make public the specific conditions under which it is prepared to authorize UCPD (as well as other forces operating under mutual aid) to use weapons and forceful tactics, including but not limited to batons, pepper spray, and pressure point grips, against demonstrators engaged in non-violent actions including linking arms and other forms of passive resistance to arrest. 

5. The faculty calls upon the Administration to announce that it will not authorize the use of such forceful tactics to prevent or preempt the formation of any “unlawful assembly” that is composed in substantial part of students, faculty, or staff, and remains peaceful and non-violent. 

6. The faculty recommends that if a demonstration turns into an unlawful assembly (for example, an occupation of a building) then the Administration should engage in dialogue, communication, and negotiation as the primary and preferred approach. 

7. The faculty recommends that if and when arrests are deemed necessary to restore core university functions, the Administration not authorize the routine use of batons, pepper spray or other weapons and forceful tactics without specific need to respond to violence by arrestees. 

8. The faculty recommends that following any incident in which forcible methods were used that the Chancellor should convene a public meeting with a minimum of delay to explain the rationale of the decision to employ them. 

9. The Academic Senate shall establish a Senate Committee on Demonstrations and Student Actions composed solely of faculty members to consult with the Administration, UCPD and students. 

 

 

The third resolution

Resolution proposed by: David Hollinger, Professor, History, and Thomas Laqueur, Professor, History.  

The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate of the University of Californiahereby condemns the over-reaction of police to demonstrations on our campus on November 9; formally alerts the Chancellor and those who report to him that this incident has greatly diminished confidence in the Campus’s leadership; calls upon the Chancellor to institute special training for police forces employed on campus to deal with acts of political expression and civil disobedience in the University and, more generally, to immediately implement the recommendations of the Police Review Board (The Brazil Report) as issued on June 14, 2010. 

 

 

The fourth resolution

Resolution proposed by: Kurt C. Organista, Professor, Social Welfare  

Whereas, nonviolent political protest engages fundamental rights of free assembly and free speech, and Whereas, the campus has established time, place, and manner guidelines by which it encourages such activities, and Whereas, protesters may sometimes engage in political noncooperation which includes acts of civil disobedience – including the deliberate, open and peaceful violation of particular laws, decrees, regulations, and 

Whereas, there is a clear chain of command ending with the Chancellor, which implements training and deployment of police to respond appropriately to protests, and Whereas, campuses should exercise restraint in responding to peaceful protests and seek to resolve the situation through dialogue, and 

Whereas, we are outraged by the brutal and dangerous police responses against members of the University community at UC Berkeley and other campuses, Therefore be it Resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate 

1) calls upon the Chancellor, EVCP, and Chief of Police to officially apologize to the campus community for the behavior of the UCPD on Nov.9, 2011 

2) calls for immediate revision of policies and practices to minimize the danger of excessive use of force by the police, and to better train the police to employ nonviolent law enforcement that respects the rights of nonviolent protesters 

3) affirms its support for the right of free speech and peaceful protest by all members of the University community 

4) affirms its strong opposition to the State’s disinvestment in higher education, which is at the root of the student protests. 

 

 

All of the documents are posted online here as PDFs. 

 

Some crafty Occupy Berkeley members are showing solidarity with their Occupy brethren in cold-weather areas by holding a "knit-in at the sit-in" today.

Organizers are inviting the public to join them as they knit and crochet hats, mittens and scarves to send to cold-weather encampments that are facing dropping temperatures and snow as winter approaches.

The knit-in will be held at noon, rain or shine, at Civic Center Park at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Center Street. 

Participants are asked to bring their own yarn and needles, however local stores, including Piedmont Yarn and Apparel, have donated some supplies for those who need them. 

The knit-in's organizer, Maxina Ventura, was busy occupying Berkeley this evening but her son, Andy Pollyak, 15, who will be joining his mother at the knit-in, said they expect a large turnout.  

Interested knitters who are unable to attend the knit-in are invited to drop off handmade items along with a photo, name or note, at Occupy Berkeley in a bag marked "Max". 

Participants can also send their hand-knitted goods directly to Occupy Berkeley c/o Maxina Ventura at 2399 E. 14th St. No. 24, San Leandro, CA 94577. 

Andronico's, the supermarket chain that opened its first store in Berkeley in the 1920s, announced today that it will close its Telegraph Avenue store in Berkeley.

The store was called "Park and Shop" when it opened, but the name was later changed to reflect family ownership.

The closure is related to the chain's restructuring after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this August, according to a representative for the markets.

Five stores will remain open and "will receive the company's full attention" as part of a capital improvement plan expected to begin early next year, according to a statement released on behalf of the company. 

"The closing of the Telegraph Avenue store became necessary because the property would have been too difficult to bring up to the standards that our customers expect and deserve," said Bill Andronico, a third-generation member of the market's founding family. 

Andronico said that the chain is now financially stable following the sale of the company to Renovo Capital. 

"We have completed a difficult restructuring process, and I am pleased that we have been able to save the business and in the process preserve 375 jobs," he said. 

Andronico's will continue to operate its two stores in Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue and Solano Avenue, and stores in San Francisco, San Anselmo and Los Altos. 

"We have embarked on an ambitious program of significantly improving merchandising and stock conditions now that we are healthy again," Chief Operating Officer Justin Jackson said. 

Over the next year, capital improvements will be made at the remaining locations, Jackson said, to "greatly enhance the categories and shopping experience our customers expect in this unique marketplace."

The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has scheduled a special meeting to take up a series of resolutions prompted by the Nov. 9 campus confrontation between police and Occupy Cal protesters.  

Forty-seven Berkeley faculty members initially asked for the meeting to vote on a resolution of no-confidence in Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande. 

Separate resolutions offered by other faculty since then call on the UC Berkeley administration to immediately implement recommendations made by the campus Police Review Board in the wake of 2009′s takeover of Wheeler Hall, to better train police “to employ nonviolent law enforcement that respects the rights of nonviolent protesters” and to set explicit limits on the use of police force in response to nonviolent protests involving Berkeley students. 

“This is how the faculty gets together to deliberate on significant issues,” said Senate Chair Bob Jacobsen, “and I encourage faculty to come and take part.” 

The resolutions, as well as other details of the special meeting, are posted on the Academic Senate website. The session is set for Monday, Nov. 28, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Chevron Auditorium at International House.

The future of the fire-damaged Sequoia Apartments at Haste and Telegraph remained uncertain today, as crews worked to board up the ground floor storefronts and a fire investigation remained ongoing. All but one Telegraph Avenue business on the blocks adjacent to the fire is open, and all the open businesses can be reached by pedestrians.

The historic 96 year old building, a visual icon of the Telegraph district, looked much as it did on Saturday after the Friday night fire was largely extinguished, with a missing roof and many of the windows gone, while others looked incongruously normal with blinds closed behind the glass. 

Pieces of fire debris, including charred fragments of wood, lined Haste downhill from the building, where water had flooded along the street during the fire-fighting efforts. 

Early Wednesday morning I briefly talked to Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong, who came by to take a look at the building. I asked him about the status of the structure. He said that the “building owner is supposed to work on getting a permit” and portions of “the upper floors are what needs to come down.” The owner has a structural engineer, he said, who should be submitting plans to the City. 

The City’s investigation of the fire origins has not yet been completed. The Fire Department is waiting, Dong said, to get access to portions of the structure that are still off limits. Fire investigators want to look at one area in particular. “The area of interest is in the basement”, he said. 

A full list of building residents has not yet been compiled, but Dong said the City has no indication at present that anyone is unaccounted for. The City had one report of a missing resident, but that individual turned up via a Facebook posting after the fire. 

Dong said that the Fire Department would also like to talk to residents so they can get firsthand accounts of what was happening with the fire in the building in its early stages Friday night. He encouraged all residents to contact the Red Cross and / or the City. 

While we were talking, a displaced resident of the building came by to look. He identified himself as Tyler, and said he had been in the elevator when the fire began to spread. “It got hot, it filled up with smoke,” he said, before heading off up Haste, holding a paper cup of coffee. He said he was staying with friends in central Berkeley. 

Circulation and Shopping 

Most of Telegraph Avenue between Haste and Channing remains off-limits to vehicles and pedestrians, although it is possible from the Channing end of the block to reach all the businesses on both sides of the north half of the street, including Rasputin’s Records. The only un-burnt business that can’t be reached is Thai Noodle II which is in the shadow of the north wall of the Sequoia and remains closed. 

On the block between Haste and Dwight the sidewalks are primarily open, except in front of the old, vacant, Cody’s building, and all the businesses including Moe’s Books and Amoeba Records can be reached from Dwight. 

The City has posted an update on Telegraph access and shopping It notes that the Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Faire, a long standing Berkeley tradition, is still scheduled to take place as planned on December 16, 17, 18, 22, and 24, from 11 am to 6 p.m. Usually the popular street fair closes the four blocks of Telegraph north of Dwight and some 200 arts and crafts vendors set up a double row of booths. 

Pedestrians are currently unable to walk on Telegraph between Channing and Haste, or go down Haste from Telegraph, meaning they must divert up to Bowditch, or down Dwight to Dana and go around on those streets to Channing. Dong said that Telegraph between Haste and Channing would remain closed to through pedestrian traffic for the time being. 

Late Tuesday when I walked home, I saw an uncomfortable situation at the intersection. A unshaven man dressed in black pants and turtleneck was standing at the barriers shouting abruptly at pedestrians and bicyclists that they could not go north on Telegraph. He had no visible identification, and most passersby seemed startled to be so accosted. I asked him who he was. He said he worked for a company, “UPS” (although it could have been URS) involved with the building clean-up. 

Wednesday morning the situation seemed more organized. Uniformed City staff were out along the barriers monitoring traffic and directing pedestrians. 

A temporary traffic arrangement has been put in place. Haste Street is now open above Telegraph. Traffic coming westbound on Haste must turn left onto Telegraph at Haste, a situation that allows southbound traffic on Telegraph north of Dwight for the first time since one-way streets were put in place in the 1970s. 

When the southbound traffic reaches Dwight, temporary stoplights allow vehicles to cross Dwight. One of the northbound lanes has been converted with orange barriers into a temporary southbound lane, so vehicles heading south then merge into the two regular southbound traffic lanes on Telegraph. 

This arrangement may ease traffic tangles north of Dwight, but as I watched cars navigate the new system early on Wednesday morning, I saw another problem developing. Most vehicles headed down Haste are aiming westbound to reach Shattuck Avenue. 

Every single car I saw that found itself on the Telegraph detour drove south of Dwight, then immediately crossed over both southbound lanes of Telegraph and made an abrupt right turn onto Blake Street. Most of them did this without any signaling. 

The drivers are probably assuming they can go down Blake to reach Shattuck, or perhaps double back to Haste. However, Blake has a diagonal barrier at Fulton, so these cars will be diverted further south, to Parker Street. The end result, while the temporary traffic arrangement is in place, will probably be a steady stream of stop and go traffic and confused drivers on Blake, Fulton, and Parker through the residential Le Conte neighborhood. 

If you are seeking to reach a destination in the immediate Telegraph business district by car, a good course is probably to approach via College Avenue or Shattuck Avenue, and then take Channing, Durant, or Bancroft to Telegraph. The City is encouraging shoppers to head for the Sather Gate Garage, just west of Telegraph, which can be reached eastbound on Durant, or from either direction on Channing.

Five students who survived Friday's blaze at the Sequoia apartments at Telegraph and Haste returned to the site Tuesday to see if they could re-enter the building to rescue a hamster named Tango. 

They could not [enter], and Tango is missing. 

The students believe everyone else got out of the burning building alive, although one woman had to leap into the arms of friends from a fire escape ladder that would not descend, according to the students. The woman was not hurt, they said. 

The Berkeley Fire Department's investigation into survivors may have been hampered by the lack of a tenants list, which burned in the fire, according to the students, Alexandria Lujan, Fabian Collazo, Jessica Watson, Hwa-Rim Lee, and Victor Palacioj. 

.As reported Saturday in the Planet, city officials have been unable to establish "whether all the occupants of the building got out."  

Phone questions, Wednesday, to police and fire about missing persons have not yet been answered. 

The students' last night in the building was to have been what one called a "pre-thanksgiving dinner. We were looking forward to pie and champagne for dessert, when the fire started," one said. "We never had that dessert." 

The students believe the fire started in the building's basement. They reported that a resident tried to extinguish flames with a pillow, but decided to leave the fire-fighting to pros. 

The students recalled that their building had what they called a "safety inspection" two days prior to the fire, in which batteries were replaced in individual smoke detectors, but that some of the detectors didn't work, even after the inspection. 

The building fire alarm worked just fine, though, the students reported. 

They were happy in the building in a one-bedroom apartment for which they paid $1,250 a month. 

One of the students estimated her losses to be $29,000. The hamster was priceless. The students said they are being assisted by the university's student advocates office, where an attorney is advising them on legal action to win compensation for their losses. They said that the Sequoia's owner has told them his insurance doesn't cover them. 

One of the students said she had just purchased a new MacBook which was lost in the fire. 

They are staying with friends but have been offered up to two months of student housing by the university. 

Signs posted in nearby businesses give the following number (510) 981-7368 to call if you were displaced by the Sequoia fire. 

Meanwhile conditions in the Sequoia neighborhood have improved. Amoeba opened Monday, and it is possible to walk from Dwight to Haste, and by late afternoon cars were allowed to turn left at Haste and Telegraph (directed the wrong-way, South, on Telegraph, which was one-way North). Cars had previously been blocked from this block, and from Haste. 

Although clever placement of barriers allows shoppers to reach businesses next door to the Sequoia, it is not yet possible to walk the block between Haste and Channing--disrupting North-South foot traffic on Telegraph. 

__________________________________________________________________ 

Ted Friedman reports for the Planet from the South side.

NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
BERKELEY DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Monday, November 28, 2011, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue
Summary of Business 

A special meeting of the Berkeley Division was requested by forty-seven
members of the Division: Elizabeth Abel, Professor, English; Kathryn
Abrams, Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law, Law; Patricia
Baquedano-Lopez, Associate Professor, Education; Brian A. Barsky,
Professor, Computer Science; Patricia Berger, Associate Professor, History
of Art; Deborah Blocker, Associate Professor, French; Jean-Paul Bourdier,
Professor, Architecture; Natalia Brizuela, Associate Professor, Spanish and
Portuguese; Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Professor, Political Science;
Judith Butler, Professor, Rhetoric; T.J. Clarke, Professor Emeritus, History
of Art; Lawrence Cohen, Professor, Anthropology; Robert Dudley,
Professor, Integrative Biology; Wayne M. Getz, Professor, Environmental
Science, Policy and Management; Cecil Giscome, Professor, English; Peter
Glazer, Associate Professor and Chair, Theater, Dance and Performance
Studies; Suzanne Guerlac, Professor, French; Yoko Hasegawa, Associate
Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures; Lyn Hejinian, Professor,
English; Leslea Hlusko, Associate Professor, Integrative Biology; You-tien
Hsing, Professor, Geography; Jean Lave, Professor Emerita, Education;
Zeus Leonardo, Associate Professor, Education; Gregory Levine, Associate
Professor, History of Art; John H. Lie, Professor, Sociology; Michael L.
Lucey, Bernie H. Williams Professor of Comparative Literature and
Professor, French; Colleen Lye, Associate Professor, English; Samer
Madanat, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Brent D.
Mishler, Professor, Integrative Biology; Rasmus Nielsen, Professor,
Integrative Biology; Richard B. Norgard, Professor, Energy and Resources;
Michael O’Hare, Professor, Public Policy; Nancy Peluso, Professor,
Environmental Science, Policy and Management; Daniel Perlstein,
Associate Professor, Education; Paul Rabinow, Professor, Anthropology;
Juana Maria Rodriguez, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s
Studies; Leslie Salzinger, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s
Studies; Susan Schweik, Professor, English; Ellen L. Sims, Professor,
Integrative Biology; Jeffrey Skoller, Associate Professor, Film and Media
Studies; Sandra Smith, Associate Professor, Sociology; Shannon Steen,
Associate Professor, Theater, Dance and Performance Studies; Estelle
Taricia, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese; Barrie Thorne,
Professor and Interim Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Professor,
Sociology; James Vernon, Professor, History; Sophie Volpp, Associate
Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures/Comparative Literature;
Richard A. Walker, Professor, Geography. 

The special meeting of the Berkeley Division is scheduled for Monday,
November 28, 2011 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Chevron Auditorium,
International House. In accordance with Division Bylaw 5(B), this notice
of meeting is being sent to the members of the Berkeley Division at least
five days of instruction prior to the meeting. 

The forty-seven members of the Division who requested the special
meeting propose one resolution as the business for the meeting. The
resolution is noticed in the order of business that follows this summary. 

Gary Holland
Secretary
Berkeley Division 

ORDER OF BUSINESS 

I. Business
Consideration of the following resolution. 

Resolution proposed by: Wendy Brown, Professor, Political Science; Barrie
Thorne, Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies/Sociology; Judith Butler,
Professor, Rhetoric.* 

Whereas, Non-violent political protest engages fundamental rights of free
assembly and free speech, and 

Whereas, November 9th efforts by protestors to set up and remain in a
temporary encampment near Sproul Hall constitutes non-violent political
protest, and 

Whereas, These non-violent actions were met with a brutal and dangerous police
response (see, e.g.,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=share), a
response authorized in advance as well as retroactively justified by Chancellor
Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs LeGrand, and 

Whereas, This is the third time in two years that such police violence has been
unleashed upon protesters at Berkeley, with resulting bodily injuries to
protestors, student and faculty outrage, a series of expensive lawsuits against the
university, a tarnished university image, and a severely compromised climate for
free expression on campus; 

Therefore be it Resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has
lost confidence in the ability of Chancellor Birgeneau, EVC Breslauer and VC
LeGrande to respond appropriately to non-violent campus protests, to secure
student welfare amidst these protests, to minimize the deployment of force and
to respect freedom of speech and assembly on the Berkeley campus. 

II. Other matters authorized by unanimous consent of the voting members
present 

* Corrected November 18, 2011.

University of California President Mark G. Yudof moved on two fronts today (Tuesday, Nov. 22) to address policing issues in the wake of the pepper spraying of UC Davis students and other incidents involving law enforcement officers and protesters. 

Acting in response to a written request from UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, Yudof agreed to conduct a thorough review of the events of Nov. 18 on the Davis campus. 

As a first step, Yudof reached out to former Los Angeles police chief William J. Bratton to undertake an independent fact-finding of the pepper spray incident and report back the results to him within 30 days. 

Bratton, who also led the New York City police department, now heads the New York-based Kroll consulting company as chairman. He also is a renowned expert in progressive community policing. 

“My intent,” Yudof said, “is to provide the Chancellor and the entire University of California community with an independent, unvarnished report about what happened at Davis.” 

Assembly Speaker John A. Perez also had made a request to President Yudof and UC Regents Chair Sherry Lansing for an independent investigation. 

Under the plan, Bratton’s report also will be presented to an advisory panel that Yudof is forming, again at Katehi’s request. The panel will consist of a cross-section of students, faculty, staff and other UC community members. 

The advisory panel, whose members will be announced at a later date, will review the report and make recommendations to Chancellor Katehi on steps that should be taken to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters on campus. She will present her implementation plan to President Yudof. 

On a second track, Yudof appointed UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley Jr. to lead a system-wide examination of police protocols and policies as they apply to protests at all 10 UC campuses. 

This effort will include visits to campuses for discussions with students, faculty and staff, and consultation with an array of experts. 

The review is expected to result in recommended best practices for policing protests across the 10 UC campuses. 

“With these actions,” Yudof said, “we are moving forward to identify what needs to be done to ensure the safety of students and others who engage in non-violent protests on UC campuses. The right to peaceful protest on all of our campuses must be protected.”

Telegraph Avenue’s Sequoia Apartments building, seriously damaged in a fire on Friday, November 18, 2011, is a stately and historic edifice that helped define the character of Telegraph Avenue in both the early 20^th century and in the 1960s.

Constructed in 1915, the 96-year-old, 39-apartment, building was part of an early 20^th century development boom that transformed Telegraph Avenue into a bustling business and residential district.

When the Sequoia was built, Berkeley was one of most populous cities in California, riding a wave of suburb development and urbanization that had started with the construction of streetcar lines around the turn of the century, and accelerated after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. 

Upper Telegraph Avenue in the 19^th century was still dotted with private homes, vacant lots, and non-commercial buildings including churches. But by the time the Sequoia Building was constructed the street was becoming a more solidly developed business district north from Dwight Way to Sather Gate on the University campus. Residences were moved to side streets or demolished, and one to five-story commercial and apartment buildings began to rise, side by side. 

The Sequoia was one of several masonry, mid-rise, housing over commercial, buildings constructed on Telegraph Avenue in this era. Today, five remain: the Granada at Bancroft and Telegraph; the Cambridge at Durant and Telegraph; the Palazzo mid-block on Telegraph just north of the Sequoia; the Sequoia itself; the Chandler Apartments at Dwight and Telegraph. 

In addition to these apartment buildings Telegraph Avenue boasted two substantial early 20^th century hotels—the Carlton, which still stands at Durant and Telegraph, and the Berkeley Inn, across from the Sequoia on what is now a vacant lot on the northeast corner of Telegraph and Dwight. 

Although these buildings were always small in number, they have an outsized presence on Telegraph Avenue. They physically frame the four blocks north of Dwight and give the street both an urban and an early 20^th century commercial district feel. 

In the era when the Sequoia Apartments were built streetcars still ran on Telegraph, the commercial district extended north of Bancroft one block to Allston Way and Sather Gate, and the district adjoining Telegraph was a mixed residential community of single family homes, apartments, and private student living groups. 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler was still President of the University of California while another prominent college president, Woodrow Wilson, was President of the United States. Women had had the vote in California for just half a decade, and women students at Cal still had to have their housing approved by the Dean of Women. Apartment living for students was still somewhat unusual; most lived in rooming or boarding houses, fraternities and sororities, or at home with their own families.  

The Sequoia was constructed at a reported cost of $600,000 and designed by an Oakland firm, Richardson & Beverell (the spelling of the second name is uncertain). Oakland based Sommarstrom Bros., which seems to have built extensively in the East Bay in that era, was the contractor. 

The building is architecturally unusual. Most of the exterior is sheathed in cream-colored bricks, unlike the darker red, buff, or burnt clinker bricks more common in that era, at least amongst Berkeley buildings. The off-white walls are set off by colored bricks and tiles in decorative motifs, including an “x” pattern under the cornice. 

The Haste Street façade included what historian Betty Marvin described in a 1979 historical analysis as two “shovel-gables” rising above the traditional cornice. The most architecturally similar building in Berkeley is the Danbert Apartments, constructed at College and Derby in 1915, the year before the Sequoia.  

Marvin characterized the Sequoia as having a “pueblo style” feel. Anthony Bruce, the Executive Director of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) also notes a Prairie Style and German Arts & Crafts influence in the architecture. 

The building originally had a profusion of stonework around the main entrance and commercial storefronts, including marble front stairs to the grand residential entrance on Haste Street. The storefronts themselves have been renovated and altered several times. Original apartment windows—presumably wood sashes--were replaced sometime prior to the 1960s with aluminum frames. 

In its first decades, the Telegraph commercial frontage of the Sequoia had four separate storefronts with neighborhood businesses, including the A-1 Meat market, Hagstrom’s Food Store and the Garden Spot Market. In 1953 Hagstrom’s closed and was replaced with what Marvin called “one of the earlier outposts of Telegraph Avenue as bohemian-intellectual playground”, the Berkeley Cinema Guild.  

Showing classic, art, and foreign films the small theatre organized by Edward Landberg had a second screen—the Studio—added in the rear in 1957. Landberg recruited—and briefly married—Pauline Kael who was then doing unpaid film reviews for KPFA. She became deeply involved with the theater and wrote program notes for the movies at the Cinema Guild. “Locals grew accustomed to seeing her up on a ladder changing the Guild’s marquee, a hip flask filled with Wild Turkey dangling from a belt loop”, recent Kael biographer Brian Kellow wrote. 

In 1965 she went on from Berkeley to the New Yorker and became the most influential film critic in the country. In a recent commentary on Kellow’s book for the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Frank Rich wrote “such was the power of Kael’s voluminous writing about movies that she transformed the sensibility and standards of mainstream pop culture criticism in America — mostly for the better…” 

The Studio/Guild closed on Telegraph in 1967. By that point Telegraph’s bohemian era was over and the Counter Culture had taken over. The Sequoia Building—situated across the street from the intellectual mecca of the new Cody’s Books, and half a block below the future People’s Park—would stand at the center of Berkeley’s political, cultural, and social ferment.  

Along with the other commercial buildings of Telegraph, big and small, it formed a physical backdrop and frame for the nationally significant “street scene” of Telegraph in the ‘60s and 70s. The Sequoia had at its doorstep the pioneering Civil Rights movement “shop ins” at the Lucky’s market diagonally across the street (where Amoeba Records is now located), innumerable protest marches and demonstrations, police battling protestors along Telegraph, and the appearance of Telegraph’s arts and crafts vendors that lend the street a colorful character to this day. 

Mario’s La Fiesta Restaurant moved into the corner storefront, the Garden Spot market hung on for some time—it was essentially a convenience store when I came to Berkeley—and, eventually, most of the Telegraph street frontage of the building was renovated in the 1980s to house Café Intermezzo, noted for its salads, and Raleigh’s.  

The two new eateries and the older one next door made this block of Telegraph a quick dining destination for students, alumni and locals, and the building became notable, once again, to a new generation that knew nothing of the Cinema Guild or streetcar tracks on “Telly”. 

(This article is greatly indebted to Betty Marvin’s 1979 research on the Sequoia Building for the State Historical Resources Inventory.) 

(Steven Finacom writes frequently on Berkeley history for local publications. He is the current President of the Berkeley Historical Society and Vice President of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), and is an advocate, with BAHA, of the reconstruction / rehabilitation of the historic Sequoia Apartments Building).

The University of California bureaucracy is all over the Occupy scandal, now that it’s gone viral. Seldom have I experienced such a fast response to my online opinions—but University of California President Mark Yudof seems to have hopped to, with alacrity. Unfortunately, he's only made things worse.

Last Wednesday I predicted that U.C. administrators would continue their longstanding tradition of trying stupid repressive measures against students exercising free speech. Right on cue, the dumb cops at U.C. Davis on Friday assaulted passive non-violent students with pepper spray—on camera yet. 

So on Saturday I posted that video, along with my considered judgment that Yudof and the Berkeley and Davis chancellors should all quit or be fired for permitting this outrage on their watch: “Either these three highly paid executives approved of what happened and planned it that way, or they've lost control of the jack-booted thugs who work for them. Either way, they've failed, disgracefully, at their jobs.” Strong language, right? 

So Sunday Yudof came out with—well, not quite an abject apology for dereliction of duty, but close. He was Shocked, Shocked: 

“I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses.” 

And he was Going to Take Steps: 

“I intend to do everything in my power as President of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.” 

This is an incremental improvement over Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau, who made this stupid statement when his police force assaulted student and faculty protesters: “It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms and forming a human chain to prevent the police from gaining access to the tents. This is not non-violent civil disobedience.” I suppose the history of the civil rights movement in the United States wasn’t part of his education in Canada. 

Yudof’s statement was also better than Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi’s first response to what happened on her campus—she said she was planning to form a task force. Later she suspended the police chief and the two cops who were caught on video. Even later she shed copious tears over the incident (not necessarily crocodile, because she could see her career in jeopardy) though of course not as many tears as the pepper-sprayed students shed. 

Modesty compels me to admit that it wasn’t just my opinions that caused these three blind mice to figure out that they’ve got problems. In fact, most likely they never heard from me, but as the saying goes, The Whole World Was Watching. Two notable voices: James Fallows in the Atlantic Monthly and Phillip Gourevitch in the New Yorker, both quickly online, presumably soon in print, not to mention Glen Greenwald, Matt Tabbibi and a host of bloggers around the world. 

There have been equally disgusting actions by police against Occupiers in other cities: New York, Seattle, Oakland, L.A and many smaller places. But somehow it’s even more shocking to see force used against the very young, neatly dressed and earnest undergraduates at the clean bucolic Davis campus. It’s possible to say that a percentage of the in-your-face New Yorkers asked for it, but those Davis kids never did. 

One might expect, history to the contrary not withstanding, that the well-educated, sophisticated internationally active University of California administrators, who manage billion-dollar budgets, would know better. What’s wrong with them? 

I got a clue when I idly typed “Where does Mark Yudof live?” into a Google search and came up with a long saga of his quest for the ideal home since he started his $800,000-plus-per-year job a couple of years ago. Steve Fainaru on the Bay Citizen website did a brilliant job of tracking down the facts and laying them out. 

Briefly, very briefly, when Yudof and his wife arrived a couple of years ago they declined to live in the charming, historic Blake House, which has been the traditional residence of the University of California presidents. Instead, they rented an ugly 10,000 sq.ft. McMansion in the Oakland hills, added an elevator, air conditioning and other Texas-style embellishments, then got into a pissing match with the owner, moved into the Claremont Hotel for some weeks, and finally into another McMansion, this time through the tunnel in Lafayette. Steve’s estimate was that the whole episode added up to about $600,000 in sunk costs by the time his story ran in August of 2010—and there’s surely been more since. 

The standard operating procedure these days seems to be to pay enough to University of California administrators so that they can afford what can only be described as vulgar ostentation. And all of this lavish spending is on top of Yudof’s regular $800K compensation package, which puts him well into the proverbial 1% category. Is it any wonder that he doesn’t relate to the grievances of the 99% percenter students? 

Now the latest outrage: very late yesterday U.C. President Yudof’s press office announced that he’s Taken More Steps. He’s picked three people to lead investigations into what went wrong at Berkeley and Davis. 

Who are they? Former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley Jr. 

Surely he jests. 

Let’s take Robinson first. All we really need to know about him is that his compensation package is close to a half-million dollars, give or take a hundred thousand, and that he would lead U.C.’s defense should pepper-sprayed protesters decide to sue, which seems very likely. Unbiased? No. 

Which leave Bratton and Edley. Bill Bratton and Christopher Edley? He really must be joking with these two. 

Bratton is lauded in the press release as “a renowned expert in progressive community policing.” Tell that to the Brits. He was recently touted as an advisor to embattled Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron after the summer riots, but an interview with him in the Daily Telegraph annoyed enough people that he probably won’t get a real job there after all. 

Sample quote from the Telegraph interview: 

“To be effective, a police force should have ‘a lot of arrows in the quiver,’ said Mr Bratton, advocating a doctrine of ‘escalating force’ where weapons including rubber bullets, Tasers, pepper spray and water cannon were all available to commanders.” 

Then there’s Edley. He’s been roundly criticized for his staunch support of John Yoo, still on the Berkeley law school faculty despite being the infamous defender of torturing prisoners. 

Among his critics is Economics Professor Brad DeLong, whose blog is one of the two or three best discussions of progressive politics available these days. I look forward with relish to Professor DeLong’s discussion of the Yudof choices in this context. 

From yesterday’s press release: 

“My intent,” Yudof said, “is to provide the Chancellor and the entire University of California community with an independent, unvarnished report about what happened at Davis.” 

Oh sure. If he really wants “an independent, unvarnished report”, these are not the reporters to choose. Varnishing, in fact, is undoubtedly the job description. 

I could give President Yudof a very long list of better choices—former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara? California Attorney General Kamala Harris?—but he probably doesn’t plan to ask me. I still think he should resign. 

_______________________________________________________________________ 

More on this: 

http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-love-blake-house-mark-yudof-does-not.html 

http://blog.sfgate.com/scavenger/2010/08/27/uc-president-yudof-vs-landlord-from-hell/ 

\http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/other_administrative_costs.php 

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/255187/november-05-2009/william-bratton 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/19/1038204/-Who-is-Bill-Bratton 

http://delong.typepad.com/the_torture_memo/2008/05/phillip-carter.html 

http://delong.typepad.com/the_torture_memo/2008/05/chris-edley-on.html 

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8540-pepper-spray-incident-reveals-weakness-up-top 

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/the_roots_of_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying/ 

http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/yudofs-curious-choice-to-head-ucpd-probe/ 

Thanks to Richard Brenneman for this terrific link! We think we live in Bezerkeley, but we'll never top this one.

The master sets the tone: "A lot more to say about this — but I’m needed in the kitchen to chop vegetables."--Paul Krugman's blog today. Me too.

But an apology is owed to architect Kirk Petersen--I accidentally published one of his informal and private emails exploring the idea of reconstruction instead of demolition for the Sequoia building, which had been forwarded to me by the recipient, thinking it was a Letter to the Editor. I did think it was an intelligent observation, and I hope he takes me up on my invitation to write a formal commentary on the subject when he has time. 

More good articles are in the hopper, but I might have to wait until Friday to post them. Keep checking this space for updates.

 

Dan O'Neill

 

 

Dan O'Neill

 

Eids; Why the Super Committee Was Doomed; U.C. Berkeley Police;Resignation Vs. Moratorium;The Super Commitee's Failure; A Thought about Needed Change