Despite the unveiling last Friday of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $76 billion 2004-05 budget with its restoration of Vehicle License Fee monies to California’s cities and counties, Berkeley’s top two officials say it’s far too early to tell how big an economic hit this city will take. -more-
Nothing pumps an audience more than music with a beat, performers with attitude, and dancers jumping off the stage into the audience! This is exactly how Berkeley High School’s Dance Production 2004 begins. -more-
Just two days after approving a use permit, city planners booted a nonprofit from its office space in one of Berkeley’s most drug-blighted neighborhoods, revoking their permit amid allegations the group’s chief planned to bring a cannabis club to the site. -more-
The Daily Planet editorial of Dec. 19-22 invited positive ideas for the future of the Holy Land. Following is a summary of a peace plan which I presented -more-
“If somebody was to ask me how I came to be here, I swear b’fore God that I wouldn’t know what to say to ‘em. My whole life, I always wanted to be able to hear stories ‘bout how I came into the world a wanted and special child. But the folks I lived with told stories, ‘bout my mama that wasn’t meant for children’s ears. Truth be told, seemed like nobody could even dig up a idea of how I got inside my mama, let alone what happened afterwards. Since no one was gonna tell me what I wanted to hear, I let myself believe that God had gave me a mouth and mind of my own to do what I seen fit…” -more-
Following a unanimous rejection by Zoning Adjustment Board commissioners Thursday, the developer of the controversial Library Gardens project says he’s been hammering out a compromise to add public parking spaces to the largest apartment complex ever planned for the city center. -more-
Two weeks ago, national representatives of Eddie Bauer stores announced the closure of its retail outlet at Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way in downtown Berkeley, seven years after Berkeley preservationists fought a pitched and ultimately unsuccessful battle to prevent the city from allowing the demolition of the 1890’s-era Edy’s Ice Creamery building where the Bauer store now stands. -more-
A light agenda awaits Berkeley City Council schedule for their first meeting of the new year at 7 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 13)—its first meeting in a month—proving either that the city is exhausted from wrestling with budget deficits throughout the fall, or that it is merely taking a breath before gearing up for the new money battles this winter and spring. -more-
Apparently, the apartment downstairs and one over from mine was broken into last week. One of our neighborhood methamphetamine enthusiasts forced his way through the bathroom window and started rifling through some drawers while the tenant and her boyfriend were, ahem, busy in the back bedroom. -more-
There are few harvesting thrills for the home vegetable gardener to equal the digging of new potatoes. Disinterring a bed of Jerusalem artichokes is one of them. -more-
Berkeley—which really did not need any more bad news on the budget front this fiscal year—got it anyway with the surprise, sudden, and stunning announcement this week that the almost universally respected Paul Navazio was resigning as Budget Manager at the end of January to become the Finance Director for the city of Davis. -more-
City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak’s op-ed piece “Rush to IRV Ballot Raises Troubling Questions” (Daily Planet, Dec. 26-29) is full of factual errors and misleading statements. It also ignores one of the strongest arguments for Instant Runoff Voting: IRV offers voters a stronger voice. Under our current system, many people are afraid to vote for their first choice in candidates when that candidate is not one of the frontrunners. They are afraid their vote will be “thrown away,” or that their alternative candidate will be a “spoiler.” So, voters hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils. When that candidate wins, s/he claims “I must implement the platform I ran on.” But, with traditional single vote elections, it is unclear how many voters actually agree with the platform. -more-
When early music scholar and performer Eileen Hadidian was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994, the longtime East Bay resident used the music she loved most to help herself through difficult times. -more-
It’s wet out there. It’s mud time, mushroom time, the Season of the Newt. -more-
With the announcement Monday that Avenue Books would soon close its doors forever, a visitor to Elmwood’s only bookstore discovers an atmosphere that feels like a wake. -more-
While Berkeley public access television is now available to a world-wide audience, that doesn’t mean it’s ready for prime time. -more-
A 44-year old Berkeley peace activist detained and jailed in the Occupied West Bank for participating in a New Year Eve’s protest over the construction of Israel’s new “security fence” was freed on bail Thursday morning after nine days in a Ministry of the Interior detention center in Khadera, north of Tel Aviv. -more-
“I get ideas, I start things, but then I don’t know what to do with them. I’m not a good administrator. It’s a serious fault,” said Zoia Horn, looking down apologetically. -more-
A world-renowned Berkeley landscape architect has paired with a relatively unknown City of New York employee to win the competition to design the memorial for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. -more-
Heavy rains over the holiday break left a number of teachers and students at Malcolm X Arts and Academic magnet school without classrooms after water from the surrounding area came spilling into the annex building, forcing a major cleanup and renovation that will keep ground-floor rooms closed until the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Day. -more-
Immigrant communities and their news media were quick to respond to the implementation this week of a program that fingerprints and photographs most foreign visitors upon entry to the United States. -more-
Among European foreign correspondents based in the United States there is an uproar. Returning from their homelands after their end-of-the-year vacations, for the first time in history many had the unsavory experience of being asked at the border to provide their fingerprints and their pictures. -more-
Bay Area hospitals have issued an urgent call for blood donors after regional supplies fell so low that a San Francisco hospital was forced to delay open heart surgery Tuesday. -more-
Randolph Ward came to the Greater Mandana Action Coalition meeting the other night and patted his own back as the guy who’s had the courage and the cojones to make the “tough choices” to reform the Oakland Unified School District, adding more than a minor implication that Oakland school stewards in the recent past have not displayed such leadership. Wrong on both counts, Mr. Ward. But we’ll get back to that point in a bit. -more-
Fired reporter Henry Norr’s offhand snipe that the San Francisco Chronicle “apparently sees no problem in having a Sacramento bureau chief whose wife is Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff and was previously a flack for Maria Shriver” prompted not one but two indignant denials from Chronicle functionaries. They told us that the Chronicle's Sacramento bureau chief, Greg Lucas, has agreed to be reassigned, and is no longer covering the governor, the Legislature or any area of state government. -more-
California now ranks dead last in the country in per capita arts spending, at three cents per person, according to the most recent report from the almost-extinct California Arts Council. Last year, the 27-year-old Arts Council was decimated by a 94 percent budget cut from the Legislature and the governor. This situation is deeply ironic in a state which owes so much to the entertainment industry, which in turn has always relied on the talent produced by California’s formerly excellent arts education program, especially since so many of our political leaders, including the current governor, came from that industry. -more-
