Opinion

We must be doing something right, since we’ve gotten a bunch of letters and phone calls complaining about our profile of Livable Berkeley. The majority of them, some of which we printed, complained that the piece was too soft on the organization, which seems to be a real thorn in the side of Berkeley residents who feel that they’re living in the target zone for Smart Growth zealots. We also got a couple of complaints on the other side, from Livable Berkeley members, both of whom live in Berkeley and are employed in offshoots of the development industry. -more-

Last week a Berkeley woman died in a fire which started in her bedroom. Neighbors said she was a cigarette smoker. Fire Marshal David Orth has not yet definitively reported on what caused the fire, but he thinks a dropped cigarette was the most probable cause. Statistically speaking, there’s a very good chance it was the cigarette, because many, many fires are started by dropped cigarettes. -more-