Opinion

Well, I think we can safely say that the fast-track canonization of John Paul II is a sure thing now. Not only has the new Pope waived the waiting period, but the requisite miracle has occurred. Anna DeLeon, the pride of Immaculate Heart High School, who has arm-wrestled for months or even years with developer Patrick Kennedy, has brought him to his knees. Anna’s Jazz Island bar opened on Saturday night in Kennedy’s Gaia Building. It is the heir to a long line of struggles and failures by wanna-be impresarios who didn’t have the muscle to collect on Kennedy’s promise to devote the first floor of the building to some cultural use in return for an extra story or two of student apartments upstairs. What Anna brought to the party that earlier would-be tenants lacked: (1) a law degree from Boalt, a good match for Kennedy’s Ivy League law degree; (2) extremely good political connections from years of swimming in leftish waters; (3) quick wits; (4) incredible tenacity and general chutzpah. -more-

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-