Jakob Schiller: Ema Antl and Keith Mikolavich walk down Telegraph Avenue near 51st Street in Oakland, part of the area included in preliminary plans for a redevelopment district.d
Jakob Schiller: Ema Antl and Keith Mikolavich walk down Telegraph Avenue near 51st Street in Oakland, part of the area included in preliminary plans for a redevelopment district.d

Page One

Redevelopment Proposed for North Oakland By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

Forget the F-word. For most of those standing-room-only crowd in the North Oakland Senior Center Monday, the real verbal bombshell was the R-word. -more-



Activists Win New Oversight At Campus Bay, UC Field Station By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

In a stunning victory for community activists, the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday agreed to hand jurisdiction over two adjoining contaminated Richmond sites to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). -more-



Bomb Scare Evacuates Downtown Building By JAKOB SCHILLER

Friday May 13, 2005

Employees in the building at 1947 Center St. which houses the City of Berkeley’s Office of Transportation were temporarily evacuated Thursday afternoon after a man walked into the building around 3 p.m. claiming to have a bomb in his backpack. -more-



Compromise Reached on Landmarks Ordinance By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

In a surprise turn, Berkeley’s Planning Commission Wednesday appeared to agree that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) should have the power to stop demolitions of city landmarks. -more-



Council Looks to Curtail City Commissions By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday May 13, 2005

A battle is brewing over a plan to scale back Berkeley’s 44 citizen commissions. -more-



Features

Popular Elmwood Soda Fountain To Close at End of Month By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

After four years of trying, Mike Hogan is giving up on his effort to save Ozzie’s, the popular soda fountain at 2900 College Ave. in the Elmwood district. -more-


BUSD-Teachers’ Union Talks Suddenly Pick up Steam By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday May 13, 2005

After several months of once-every-two-week mediation sessions, talks between the Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers took a dramatic turn this week, with a Monday session convening at 9 a.m. and running until 3 a.m., and then reconvening Wednesday afternoon. Two more sessions are scheduled next week, for Monday and Wednesday. -more-


East Bay Media Market Grows with ‘Daily News’ By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday May 13, 2005

The East Bay media market became a little bit more crowded Tuesday with the roll-out of the East Bay Daily News. -more-


Thousand Oaks School Receives Achievement Award By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday May 13, 2005

Thousand Oaks Elementary School in Berkeley has been selected as one of 248 California schools to receive a 2004-05 Title I Academic Achievement Award. -more-


Do-It-Yourself Electrical Repairs May Get a Lot More Expensive By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

At least when it comes to electrical things, do-it-your-selfers may find their craft considerably more expensive. -more-


Remembering John A. Vincent By STEPHEN VINCENT Special to the Planet

Friday May 13, 2005

John A. (“Jay”) Vincent, a well-known yachtsman, engineer, environmentalist, family man and Richmond civic leader passed away Wednesday, May 4. He was 93. -more-


John Patton, Lyric Tenor 1930-2005 By FRIENDS OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS

Friday May 13, 2005

Bay Area lyric tenor John Patton, Jr. passed away on April 18 in his Richmond home. The oldest of eight children, he was born on Feb. 18, 1930 in Garland City, Ark., on a sharecrop farm to sharecropping parents. At the age of 6, he knew he wanted to be a singer and pursued his dream and love of music when he moved to Richmond with his parents in 1944. -more-


Kamlarz’s Budget Cuts Fewer Services, Opens One Pool By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday May 13, 2005

City Manager Phil Kamlarz announced this week that Berkeley services won’t shut down one day a month this year as he had threatened they might have to, and one city swimming pool will be spared closure this winter. -more-


Peralta Board Still Awaits Dones Contract Issue By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday May 13, 2005

The man who wasn’t there continues to be the subject of the most interest at the Peralta Community College District Trustees meetings. -more-



Letters to the Editor

Staff
Friday May 13, 2005

CONTEMPT FOR THE PUBLIC -more-



COMMENTARY: Celebrate World Fair Trade Day on Saturday By HUNTER JACKSON

Friday May 13, 2005

A few days ago I was talking to a friend about shoes: I’d recently read that Nike owns Converse, which shocked my friend, an oblivious Converse-wearer. She had thought that by buying Converses she was withdrawing her support of the big shoemakers who are notorious for utilizing sweatshop labor. Our conversation turned to how these days it seems everything for sale comes from somewhere problematic, so much in fact that sometimes it feels like you have to either buy nothing or just ignore ethics altogether. -more-


Election Section

BART Must Put Public Safety First By HAROLD BROWN

Friday May 13, 2005

When the BART Board of Directors met April 28 to discuss next year’s proposed budget, BART station agents, train operators, transit advocates, and advocates for the blind, disabled, seniors and students turned out in force to protest proposed reductions that we feel put rider safety at risk. -more-


It’s Time to Re-Think Taxation By GAR SMITH

Friday May 13, 2005

In the afterglow of April 15, it may be timely to consider adopting the Willy Sutton approach to tax-collection. As the wily bank-robber once observed: If you want to prosper in your chosen career, you have to go “where the money is.” -more-


COMMENTARY Teachers Need to Hear Views of All Parents By JULIE HOLCOMB

Friday May 13, 2005

I’ve been the recipient of responses to a “Letter to BUSD Teachers” written by me in collaboration with other concerned Berkeley parents. The letter has been widely circulated among parents and teachers, and has been sometimes forwarded with an attachment on teacher compensation not authorized or endorsed by the parents originally involved. In all cases it has provoked discussion. Following an event organized by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) and billed as an Informational Meeting, which many parents found to be intimidating, and where they were thanked for coming out to show support when many came with questions and comments and were not prepared to offer support for the BFT positions, we felt it was necessary to offer an opportunity for parents to express dissenting views. -more-


COMMENTARY Deal Fairly With Those Who Teach Your Children By PAM DREW

Friday May 13, 2005

Berkeley has always been a town which valued education at all levels. We show our support in myriad ways. With the possibility of a teacher strike in this community within the next six months, now is the time to support those whose everyday job is to teach our children. Whether we have school-age children currently or not, we recognize that the entire community has a stake in fostering literacy, numeracy, creativity, and citizenship among other good things in our young. Teachers who are valued by the community are teachers who project positive values in every word and gesture. Teachers pour their love into their teaching. They give the community their working lives and expect respect for their labors and reasonable compensation in return. -more-


COMMENTARY BUSD Employees Have No Confidence in District’s Fiscal DataBy GEN KOGURE

Friday May 13, 2005

I’m not going to get into a popularity debate with recent letter writers to the Daily Planet. I’m sure that the parents who take time to talk to me support the teacher actions while parents who are frustrated with work-to-rule will talk to each other. At first, I was taken aback by their claims of fiscal realities, but I shouldn’t have been surprised since the district has a full time public relations officer who has repeatedly used public funds to misinform parents about the budget. There’s a historic reason why teachers, clerical, and plant workers have no confidence in the district’s fiscal data: -more-


Column: Undercurrents By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday May 13, 2005

For the last two years, there has been mounting anger in Oakland over the rule of Oakland School Administrator Randy Ward, who was appointed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell after the California legislature seized the Oakland Unified School District from Oakland residents and taxpayers. -more-


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

Major Crime Spree -more-


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday May 13, 2005

Bedroom Blaze -more-


‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Showcases Joy Carlin By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Friday May 13, 2005

Joy Carlin, a Berkeley woman of the theater, has found a solution to the age-old complaint that there’s a shortage of roles for mature actresses. She’s playing a 16-year-old, the title role of Kimberly Akimbo, a play by David Lindsay-Abaire, at the San Francisco Playhouse near Union Square through May 21. -more-


Apfelbaum Comes Home for ‘Jazz on Fourth Street’By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet

Friday May 13, 2005

This weekend’s ninth annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival marks a musical homecoming for multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum. -more-


Editorial

EDITORIAL Fighting Cal with a Rubber Banana By BECKY O'MALLEY

Staff
Friday May 13, 2005

One more time, at the risk of becoming a tedious scold, the Berkeley Daily Planet wants to go on record on behalf of the public interest in demanding that those who run the government of the City of Berkeley (manager, staff, attorneys, mayor, councilmembers….?) make full public disclosure regarding any deals they’re making with the University of California before they take the final vote on such deals. Oh, and we don’t mean in the Friday release of a Tuesday agenda. We mean long enough in advance of the vote that the public, including the press, has time to investigate the details of the deal and comment on their ramifications. It’s a cliché that the devil is in the details, but the average voter/reader might not appreciate how deeply the bad details can be buried in the public process. -more-


Columns

The Meteoric Career of Berkeley’s First Great Novelist By PHIL McARDLE Special to the Planet

Friday May 13, 2005

In 1900 the principal American novelists were Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and young Frank Norris. A glowing portrait of him in the early days of his success was written by Hamlin Garland, who called him, “a stunning fellow—an author who does not personally disappoint his admirers. He is handsome, tall and straight, with keen brown eyes and beautifully modeled features... a poet in appearance, but a close observer and a realist in fiction.” -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday May 13, 2005

FRIDAY, MAY 13 -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday May 13, 2005

FRIDAY, MAY 13 -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

EDITORIAL Fighting Cal with a Rubber Banana By BECKY O'MALLEY 05-13-2005

EDITORIAL: The Kids are All Right By BECKY O'MALLEY 05-10-2005

News

Redevelopment Proposed for North Oakland By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

Activists Win New Oversight At Campus Bay, UC Field Station By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

Bomb Scare Evacuates Downtown Building By JAKOB SCHILLER 05-13-2005

Compromise Reached on Landmarks Ordinance By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

Council Looks to Curtail City Commissions By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-13-2005

Popular Elmwood Soda Fountain To Close at End of Month By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

BUSD-Teachers’ Union Talks Suddenly Pick up Steam By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-13-2005

East Bay Media Market Grows with ‘Daily News’ By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-13-2005

Thousand Oaks School Receives Achievement Award By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-13-2005

Do-It-Yourself Electrical Repairs May Get a Lot More Expensive By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

Remembering John A. Vincent By STEPHEN VINCENT Special to the Planet 05-13-2005

John Patton, Lyric Tenor 1930-2005 By FRIENDS OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS 05-13-2005

Kamlarz’s Budget Cuts Fewer Services, Opens One Pool By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-13-2005

Peralta Board Still Awaits Dones Contract Issue By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-13-2005

EDITORIAL CARTOON By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 05-13-2005

Letters to the Editor Staff 05-13-2005

Letters to the Editor: SCHOOL DISTRICT 05-13-2005

COMMENTARY: Celebrate World Fair Trade Day on Saturday By HUNTER JACKSON 05-13-2005

BART Must Put Public Safety First By HAROLD BROWN 05-13-2005

It’s Time to Re-Think Taxation By GAR SMITH 05-13-2005

COMMENTARY Teachers Need to Hear Views of All Parents By JULIE HOLCOMB 05-13-2005

COMMENTARY Deal Fairly With Those Who Teach Your Children By PAM DREW 05-13-2005

COMMENTARY BUSD Employees Have No Confidence in District’s Fiscal DataBy GEN KOGURE 05-13-2005

Column: Undercurrents By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-13-2005

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-13-2005

‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Showcases Joy Carlin By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet 05-13-2005

Apfelbaum Comes Home for ‘Jazz on Fourth Street’By IRA STEINGROOT Special to the Planet 05-13-2005

LeConte Principal Switches to Rosa Parks By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-10-2005

Rumors of City-UC Deal on Long Range Plan By MATTHEW ARTZ Staff 05-10-2005

Alta Bates Faces Accreditation Loss By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-10-2005

City Council Considers Funding Energy Bond Project By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-10-2005

City Council to Receive Proposed $300 Million Budget By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-10-2005

16 Drayage Tenants Refuse to Leave; Owner’s Fines Exceed $100,000 By MATTHEW ARTZ 05-10-2005

UC, Union Agree to 3-Year Contract By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-10-2005

Alcohol Banned for Fraternities and Sororities By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-10-2005

Architects Chosen for UC Building Projects By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-10-2005

School Board Looks to Balance Budget with Reductions By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 05-10-2005

Berkeley Residents Get Prison Time For Pay Phone Scam By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-10-2005

Landmarks Law, West Campus Top Land Use Agendas By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-10-2005

Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 05-10-2005

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 05-10-2005

Column: The Public Eye: Canary in the Coal Mine: Berkeley’s Landmarks Ordinance By ZELDA BRONSTEIN 05-10-2005

Column: The Things You Learn When You Put Your Life on Videotape By SUSAN PARKER Staff 05-10-2005

Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 05-10-2005

Commentary: Citations and Protestations 05-10-2005

Commentary: Industry’s Gain, Library’s Pain By PETER WARFIELD and LEE TIEN 05-10-2005

Commentary: Through the Looking Glass By SHARON HUDSON 05-10-2005

Celebration of Old Roses at El Cerrito Community Center By JOHN McBRIDE Special to the Planet 05-10-2005

UC Landscape Plan Wins Webby Award By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet 05-10-2005

Eastenders Plots ‘A Knight’s Escape’ at Ashby Stage By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet 05-10-2005

BAHA Features LeConte Cottage Lecture By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet 05-10-2005

Arts Calendar 05-10-2005

Malcolm X Students Sing Praises of New Oak Tree By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 05-10-2005

Berkeley This Week 05-10-2005

Columns

The Meteoric Career of Berkeley’s First Great Novelist By PHIL McARDLE Special to the Planet 05-13-2005

Arts Calendar 05-13-2005

Berkeley This Week 05-13-2005