City Fines Bring End To Arbor On Acton By RICHARD BRENNNEMAN
While many who live near the corner of Acton and Addison streets see it as a neighborhood delight, city officials see it as a code violation. -more-
While many who live near the corner of Acton and Addison streets see it as a neighborhood delight, city officials see it as a code violation. -more-
In a move that signals a truce in the library’s six-month labor-management war, the Library Board of Trustees approved Wednesday a $12.8 million budget that would avoid layoffs and open the door to restoring Sunday hours. -more-
A former KPFA radio employee has filed a sexual discrimination and harassment suit against the station, charging that she was repeatedly harassed by her male supervisor and that station management refused to respond to her complaints and ultimately fired her when she continued to press her concerns. -more-
The Jefferson Elementary School name controversy did not end with the decision by Jefferson parents/guardians, school staff, and students to change the school’s name to Sequoia. -more-
Thirteen years after Berkeley voters approved the Hills Fire Station, the project is within a year of completion, with the final tab estimated at $6.7 million. -more-
Medical marijuana users have few promising avenues to turn to after Monday’s Supreme Court decision upholding the federal government’s authority to prosecute sick people who use and grow marijuana, according to legal experts and legislative staffers. -more-
Tentative Berkeley Unified School District contract settlements have been ratified by three school unions, but the agreements must be cleared by the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) before going to the BUSD Board of Directors for final approval. -more-
Thanks to $12.5 million in tax credits granted by the state this week, construction can begin on an 80-unit low-income senior housing project at 1535 University Ave. -more-
The Berkeley homeless woman who last month asked the City Council for help has recovered her pick-up truck and two dogs taken from her in February. -more-
At the foot of an oak-studded hillside facing Doe Library on the UC Berkeley campus, a team of UC students is hard at work this month unearthing the remains of what was once one of the most prominent and distinctive buildings in the Berkeley landscape. -more-
http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workj -more-
If you were able to stay up well into the early morning hours during Tuesday night’s Oakland City Council meeting, you would have come across some interesting things. -more-
The Bates/Maio/Capitelli/Anderson article of last Friday defending the private settlement between Berkeley and the University of California is profoundly misleading. Instead of opening a “new era of cooperation,” the agreement effectively gives the Regents an effective veto over development in the downtown area. At the same time it gives the city no voice whatsoever in the university’s expansion plans. -more-
Librarian. From the Latin librarius: “concerned with books.” -more-
Probably one of the toughest jobs an improvisational theater company has in putting on a show must be figuring up a title. Think about it: Since nobody knows what the actors are going to do on any given night, how on earth do they find a title encouraging people to give it a try? -more-
January was the time for resolutions: get outside, exercise, eat better food, reduce stress and get healthy. Half way through the year, your resolutions may remain on paper only. If you’re still waiting for the right motivation, an easy solution may be at hand. -more-
After 16 years of wandering through the desert of homelessness, Berkeley’s only conservative Jewish congregation, Netivot Shalom, finally took shelter in their half-acre of promised land Friday on University Avenue. -more-
In order to get enough money to build what has been billed as the greenest project in Berkeley, the city may have to ask federal officials to designate part of the downtown as a brownfield—a term that typically applies to contaminated industrial sites. -more-
In a setback for medical marijuana users, on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a seriously ill Oakland woman seeking to grow and use marijuana without fear of federal raids. -more-
The Berkeley Unified School District notified families last week that it has reached a settlement in the Smith v. BUSD Board of Education case, a 2004 class action suit filed on behalf of three minority Berkeley students—two African-Americans and one Latino—who claimed that their education at Berkeley High was disrupted by improper expulsions. -more-
Tensions are heating up over impending changes at both East Bay Alta Bates hospitals. -more-
Two weeks after the Berkeley Unified School District reached tentative contract agreements with three of its five unions, the BUSD Board of Directors on Wednesday will get back to the business of finding the money to pay for those pacts. -more-
An aide to Mayor Tom Bates promised Thursday to help neighbors of BUSD’s West Campus who have fought plans to move some district services and added parking lots to the University Avenue site. -more-
The Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday will consider the addition of a fourth story to the recently landmarked Frederick H. Dakin Warehouse at 2750 Adeline St. -more-
French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the European constitution wasn’t a fluke, as some European statesmen would have us believe, but it isn’t the death of the European Union either, as some doomsday prophets on both sides of the Atlantic predict. It is, however, the most serious crisis the union has faced since its inception in 1995. -more-
A photograph caption for the June 3 article about Adagia restaurant mistakenly described a meal among workers from Cal Performances as a good-bye meal for Matt Patrone. Another co-worker was leaving the company; Patrone said he intends to stay with Cal Performances for a long time to come. -more-
Due to a copyediting error, the following letter ran incorrectly in the June 3-6 Daily Planet. -more-
Back in New York last week, I thought I wouldn’t have a problem finding literary inspiration. I went to the Catskills to look for excitement, adventure, and column topics. No surprise though, there wasn’t any there there—not even a piece of borderline artwork to recognize the condition. -more-
Berkeley once was a place where ideals were pursued, where movements to make the world greener and more just were rooted, where openness and free speech were championed. -more-
Reading the May 31 article and seeing the photo of driftwood/junk structures which might be removed if the Albany Bulb becomes part of the Eastshore State Park, I was taken back years and years to—does anyone remember?—the Mudflat Sculpture in the tidela nds beyond the Eastshore Freeway before it was expanded and “improved.” -more-
On May 26, the Zoning Adjustments Board ruled that an application to construct a three-story mixed-use building with two apartments over ground-floor commercial space at 3045 Shattuck Ave. (aka the “Flying Cottage”) could be approved by city planning staff on a zoning certificate. This type of staff-level approval requires no public hearing and cannot be appealed by neighbors to ZAB or City Council, as would be the case if ZAB had ruled that one or more use permits were required. -more-
The mood was somber when FBI officials recently dug up the body of Emmett Till in suburban Chicago. The mood should have been downright grim. If ever there was a racial lynching case that screamed for federal action it was the Till case. And there are more. -more-
Two years after La Peña was founded in the same place where it is today in South Berkeley, I arrived to the East Coast as an exile. Not escaping but expelled from Pinochet’s Chile, one of the bloodiest military dictatorship in the continent. I was a youn g rebel, a bit of poet and musician who loved the political process that in 1970 opened minds giving us a deep sense of latinoamericanismo. -more-
On Saturday La Peña Cultural Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a free street festival at the corner of Prince Street and Shattuck Avenue. -more-
“Perhaps we exploit the past for what the present lacks.” ... -more-
This year’s Midsummer Mozart Festival kicks off a month ahead of schedule with a sneak preview Mozart at a garden party this coming Sunday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 1140 Arlington Blvd. in El Cerrito. -more-
When we import all those magnificent oaks—gracious eastern red oaks, ziggy little pin oaks, stately English oaks—to line our streets and grace our gardens and public places, we’re joining an old tradition. It’s a globalization that dates back to some of the earliest human explorations: we’ve moved taro, breadfruit, and later pineapples throughout Polynesia; coffee between Africa and Asia and South America. -more-