Simeon Properties, the controversial co-developer of the troubled Campus Bay site, is UC Berkeley’s first choice for developing the adjacent Richmond Field Station, a UC official revealed Monday. -more-
At an hour when many of their friends are sitting down to Sunday brunch, the congregates of Berkeley’s New Spirit Community Church hunt for spiritual nourishment. -more-
Reports of the impending death of the Elmwood Pharmacy and its ever-popular Ozzie’s soda fountain have been greatly exaggerated, said Victoria Carter, the second-generation owner of the pharmacy. -more-
Patrons of Berkeley’s main post office are used to waiting. For years, customers have sat on benches or strolled along nearby blocks killing time until their number was called. -more-
After months of unsuccessful negotiations, the union representing nearly 7,300 University of California service workers has declared impasse and asked a state mediator to help both sides reach an agreement. -more-
A 15-year Berkeley Unified School District-City of Berkeley joint project that helped boost the city’s reputation for teen services has moved to permanent headquarters on the Berkeley High School campus. -more-
Berkeley Unified School District plans to enter the state budget battles this week with a board resolution calling on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to “fully fund education according to the requirements of Proposition 98.” -more-
It is easy not to pay attention to the jumble of Speak Up—Stop Bullying posters lined inside the Addison Street Windows Gallery across from the Berkeley Repertory Theater. -more-
USCountVotes, a nonpartisan scientific research project, issued a statement Monday critical of exit pollsters Edison and Mitofsky’s Jan. 19 report attributing differences between exit poll and election results to possible survey-response rates of Republicans and Democrats. -more-
Less than two months after the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved a proposal for a five-story condominium apartment and retail building at 1122 University Ave., developer Alex Varum has put the property up for sale. -more-
Due to a snowstorm on the East Coast, I got back a day late from New York and missed my date with the Superior Court of Solano County. -more-
The Iraqi elections provide the American people with an opportunity to consider whether they want to continue the obdurate path chartered by the Bush administration or, instead, go in another direction. To chose the path not taken, we will first have to learn to set limits. -more-
We are enormously gratified by the City Design Review Committee’s praise for the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza (“Design Committee Praises Plan for Brower Center,” Daily Planet, Jan. 25-27). We are similarly pleased with the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) Design Committee’s positive response to the building’s design a few days earlier. This early support from city officials, downtown leaders, environmental and housing activists is very encouraging as we proceed to honor the memory and contribution of David Brower, one of the world’s greatest environmental activists, with a model of environmentally responsible design. -more-
Residents of the East Campus neighborhood in South Berkeley were recently given an opportunity to experience yet again the city’s (in this case, the School Board’s) devious tactic for pushing through a project that residents in a neighborhood don’t want. In this case it is a hardball field with overhead lights and loudspeakers that the neighborhood has been fighting for years. The first step of the tactic took place at the “East Campus Design Charrette” held at the Alternative High School Multi-Purpose Room, MLK Jr. Way and Derby, on Monday, Jan. 24. -more-
Since I was unable to attend the Jan. 24 community meeting on Derby Field use, I appreciate J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s report on the decision to demolish the old East Campus temporaries, but not to consider closing Derby for the present. However, because crucial details of this issue were left out of his article, many readers will surely misunderstand what our neighborhood concerns are. -more-
MASON, Tenn.—Bank robbers are discovering how it feels to be robbed when they make a phone call from a prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that today oversees a large share of the nation’s prisons and jails. -more-
Berkeley Independent Study student Amber Manuel, the youngest of four children, will be the first to complete high school when she graduates this June. -more-
It figured that when the fearless Berkeley Opera turned to Puccini, they weren’t going to do one of the big three fan favorites. Its choice was Il Trittico (The Trilogy, 1918), a triple bill of one-acters, the less favored members, Il Tabarro (The Cloak), and Suor Angelica together with the more popular, comic, Gianni Schicchi. Saturday’s audience at the Julia Morgan Theater was rewarded with uniformly strong singing, and exceptionally high musical values for a local opera company. -more-
Back in the heyday of The Far Side, Gary Larson drew a Sunday panel showing a middle-aged couple slumped on their living room floor and another couple exiting. The caption: “The Arnolds feign death until the Wagners, sensing awkwardness, are compelled to leave.” -more-
For San Pablo city officials, it isn’t a casino so much as an economic godsend, a chance to save an impoverished city that will die without it. -more-
Is there enough room in West Berkeley for the green grocer and the guy in the hard hat? That is a question the Planning Commission started to consider Wednesday at its first public hearing/workshop on the proposed West Berkeley Bowl. -more-
While the Berkeley Unified School District awaits a decision by the Berkeley City Council on whether or not the city will close down a block of Derby Street, a BUSD-contracted architectural firm is moving forward to develop proposals for temporary use of the district-owned adjoining property. -more-
Starting this summer Marin Avenue is scheduled to slim down for its 21,000 daily motorists. -more-
The City Council has authorized up to $75,000 to prepare a lawsuit against UC Berkeley. -more-
Caltrans announced Thursday that it is “moving full speed ahead” with perhaps the most eagerly awaited transit project in Contra Costa County and one of the least loved in Berkeley. -more-
A sharply-divided Peralta Community College Trustee board this week narrowly approved Chancellor Elihu Harris’ request to authorize a Facility Land Use Plan. The decision followed a contentious debate. -more-
The Berkeley Historical Society has announced that it is sponsoring the first Berkeley Historical Society Life Magazine-style photo essay competition, and the Berkeley Daily Planet has agreed to be a co-sponsor. A total of $1,028 will be awarded for 12 prizes: first prizes, $127, second, $75, third, $50. -more-
When they came for Hadi Saleh, they found him at home in Baghdad with his family. First, they bound his hands and feet with wire. Then they tortured him, cutting him with a knife. He died of strangulation, and before fleeing, his assailants pumped bullets into his dead body. -more-
Taste of the Himalayas Restaurant -more-
THE STUPIDIPTY OF THE POLITICAL LEFT -more-
Now that we’ve heard the announcement that the Chinese government is going to rent two giant pandas to the Oakland Zoo—and before City Councilmember Henry Chang comes up with another five or six year project to occupy his publicly-financed hours—perhaps the time has come for Oakland to rethink this whole idea of an at-large councilmember. -more-
The election of a new Iraqi Assembly is a milestone in the occupation and, therefore, an opportunity for Americans to consider our options in Iraq: one would be to stick with the Bush “plan” to tough it out, another to withdraw our troops, and a third to proceed in some novel direction. This analysis considers the second option, a speedy withdrawal. -more-
The recent meeting between President Bush and the Congressional Black Caucus grabbed headlines because Bush and the group spent the last four years snubbing each other. What did not make news was a meeting Bush had with black evangelical leaders the day before his get-together with the caucus. -more-
Unless U.S. senators have a collective spine transplant (our own Barbara Boxer is thankfully excluded from this group) they will soon confirm Alberto Gonzales as the United States Attorney General. I mention spinelessness because it seems to be the new Democratic policy to “work with” the Bush administration, no matter how outrageous its proposals are. For example, if the Bush administration were to suggest strip mining the entirety of Yosemite National Park (as they probably will) we can be sure that some—if not most—of the Democrats will decry that and, instead, propose that they only strip mine half of Yosemite. Then, when a bill sails through the congress providing that three-quarters of the park be strip mined, the Democrats will trumpet that they got the best deal they were capable of. After all, they wouldn’t want to offend any middle of the road potential voters. -more-
The recount of Berkeley’s Measure R ended Jan. 10, with the Alameda County Registrar of Voter declaring this initiative had failed by 161 votes. However, inefficient counting methods, denial of voter intent, and flawed machinery combined to make this recount meaningless. Americans for Safe Access, a Berkeley based patient’s rights group, along with several individual voters, are contesting this count with a motion filed in Superior Court. -more-
We live in an era of privatization of essential social services. The most recent to come under attack is social security, a reform enacted during the New Deal which the Bush administration now wants to roll back. -more-
Lewis and Mary Suzuki will soon celebrate their fifty-second wedding anniversary, but a fair-sized book could be written about their adventures and misadventures before they ever got together, starting with Lewis’ father jumping ship in 1912, entering San Francisco illegally, and making his way to L.A., where he made a precarious living as a musician. In 1917 He went back to Japan, married, then re-entered the U.S. legally, starting a dry-cleaning business and a family in L.A. -more-
Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico (The Triptych), an unusual omnibus of three one-act operas, will be presented by Berkeley Opera this Saturday and Sunday and Feb. 2 and 6 at Julia Morgan Theater, sung in Italian with English supertitles. -more-
On early summer mornings John Muir would climb the stairs of his house to the bell tower above the attic. Here he would meditate and survey grand vistas of fruit orchards and the sweep of hills. Admiring the 360-degree views, his gaze may have turned farther east toward his beloved Sierras. With peace of mind, he would descend to his daily work, managing the ranch and fighting to save America’s resources. -more-
If you live on Ashby Avenue and wake up in the middle of the night, as I do sometimes, you can tell what time it is by how much noise comes in through your closed bedroom window. If it’s relatively quiet, with only the occasional roar of a really big truck which rattles the windows, it’s probably about 3 a.m. The trucks at that time of night are fewer, but they compensate by gunning their engines up to about 50 mph (when the speed limit is 25.) Commuters get going about 4, at a high speed because they’re not so numerous until about 5, eventually slowing down to just under 30 mph between 6 and 9. By that time traffic is often bumper-to-bumper, with students and employees who come by bridge and tunnel on their way to the UC campus. It’s pretty much impossible to sleep past about 6:30 because of the noise volume, even in the winter when the windows can be kept closed. -more-
One of the perks of this job is that you get an early window on what lies are currently being launched in the D.C. fabrication industry. No sooner do the Republicans dream up a lie in one of their many captive think tanks than it’s on the Internet as a press release directed at editorial writers across the country. That’s how we first found out about that masterpiece of doublespeak titling, the Healthy Forests Initiative, which was a covert attack by the logging industry on the nation’s old growth forests. Frankly, we laughed at it. We didn’t believe that such blatantly untrue propaganda would find any audience among thinking people. We set our Netscape filter to deposit the Healthy Forest people’s press releases in the trash folder and forgot about it. Boy, were we wrong! It passed, with some Democrats supporting it. -more-
