When Berkeley High School junior Allison Roberts entered the New York Times Magazine high school photography contest, she did it only because it was required for a grade in her photography class. -more-

FRIDAY, MAY 30 -more-

Full confession: I live on a Transit Corridor in a house without a backyard, so I sympathize with people who complain when their blocks are designated as urban sacrifice zones. Many of Berkeley’s Transit Corridors (translation: bus routes) have actual humans living right on them, or near them. The Amazing South Shattuck Flying House in the last Planet, though on the 43 bus route in a commercial zone, is surrounded by homes. Streets like my street became Transit Corridors in the first place because residents of Neighborhoods (translation: side streets) didn’t want cars (or, godforbid, buses) mucking up their lovely blocks. The barrier explosion of the early seventies re-routed all that nasty traffic onto just a few streets (MLK, Ashby, Sacramento, Sixth, University, San Pablo, Shattuck), and their residents were told to shut up and smell the diesel. -more-

FRIDAY, MAY 30 -more-

City Manager Weldon Rucker has asked Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz to run the city’s troubled Planning Department temporarily. -more-

RIGHT TO BE HEARD -more-

A controversy over a fall 2002 UC Berkeley course description that warned “conservative thinkers ... to seek other sections” has sparked a systemwide debate at the nine-campus University of California over one of academia’s most treasured concepts: academic freedom. -more-

If Charles Siegel (“NIMBYs Shout ‘It’s Too Big!’” May 23-26 edition) had bothered to talk with any of the actual neighbors of Patrick Kennedy’s proposed 1950 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way project, he would have discovered that we are not NIMBYs, but a group of reasonable people working to protect the character of our neighborhood and peacefully coexist with the project. -more-

The demolition process has begun in the construction of the new Congregation Beth El synagogue, the 35,000-square-foot project that pitted the synagogue against neighborhood activists. -more-

In reply to Charles Siegel’s commentary on the emerging opposition to Patrick Kennedy’s proposal to build 191 units of housing at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and University Avenue: I am a resident of the 1800 block of Berkeley Way and I want to defend my neighborhood against the slander of Mr. Siegel, who attempts to brand us as suburban NIMBY whiners because we dare to challenge the “received” wisdom of the person he considers the only successful developer in town. -more-

The Planning Commission put final touches Wednesday on a proposal to allow more in-law apartments in the city. -more-

What is authorship after all, I wondered, as I pondered Jayson Blair, formerly of the New York Times, surfing the Internet for juicy details for his stories. -more-