The dividing lines in the political struggle over the future of Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) grew clearer at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting when Mayor Tom Bates offered a 10-page “Draft for Discussion” of his own. It is not a draft of ordinance language, but simply a conceptual proposal. -more-
UC Berkeley and UCLA professors who have called for an investigation into newspaper allegations of hidden university employee compensation practices say they are not satisfied with the university’s response. -more-
Heated words and testy tempers at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting suggested that race remains very much an issue in Berkeley politics. -more-
Those with concerns about UC Berkeley’s major expansion plans for the Memorial Stadium area will be able to offer comments at Thursday’s scoping session on the project. -more-
We invite our readers to submit personal essays, short fiction, poetry and pictures for our Annual Reader Contribution Holiday Issue. Selected SUbmissions will be published in the Tuesday, Dec. 27 issue. Deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Sunday Dec. 18. Send us your material at holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com, or to 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 -more-
For their second meeting, members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC)—joined by interested citizens—will take a stroll this Saturday. -more-
New appointments at the Landmarks Preservation Commission could create a more developer-friendly majority on the panel that builders love to hate. -more-
Have you ever wondered what is happening with bathroom construction at Berkeley High School (BHS)? Has the bathroom retrofit been completed so that Berkeley High students can use them? -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
Wednesday, George W. Bush confirmed what many of us have long suspected—our plan for Iraq is based upon a Talking Heads hit. The president’s “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” was lifted from the lyrics to Road to Nowhere. -more-
In one of the recent articles on the recent West Oakland liquor store attacks, the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Mayor Jerry Brown as condemning the incidents—including the trashing of the two stores—and adding, “If there are issues, and there are issues in Oakland with liquor stores, people can come together to discuss them.” -more-
Down by the station -more-
Rob Wrenn’s Nov. 29 article on the context for downtown planning created by previous documents and city commitments was very helpful in reminding us where we have come from. But we will continually face two related challenges: making sure that we remember the past as completely as possible, and making sure we don’t give in to the temptation to selective retrieve only those parts of the past that support favored positions. -more-
An exhibition of limited edition fine prints addressing the transgressions of justice in Palestine is currently on view at the Berkeley Art Center. Fourteen multinational and multiethnic artists communicate their concerns in their approach. -more-
Music can turn any old day into a celebration, but the holiday season is a special time for concerts, with Messiah, Messiah & Messiah (not a law firm), dancing Sugar Plums, and other traditions that often provide a significant first experience of classical music. -more-
In retrospect, it was the best possible introduction: stumbling into Ono Hawaiian Foods, a hole-in-the-wall on Kapahulu Avenue in Waikiki, after walking from the hotel almost to Diamond Head and back, and ordering the laulau. I wasn’t sure what I was in for except that it involved pork and taro leaves, but we had just seen the white terns of Kapiolani Park and felt like celebrating with something local. -more-
When I first went to look at Ernestine Camp’s quilts in the early 1980s, I didn’t expect the work to be of much interest to me. The improvisational African-American patchwork I’d been collecting and documenting was generally made by women who’d had littl e education and worked at jobs that required no formal training. -more-
A contract dispute between the Peralta Community College District and a San Jose construction inspection firm over the Vista College construction project have left district and company officials squabbling over why the firm stopped work in July and whether Peralta will pay the firm $130,000. -more-
The City Council has called a special work session starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the city’s existing homeless and anti-poverty programs. -more-
Embattled Peralta College District Trustee Marcie Hodge has escalated her attacks against the district’s Office of International Affairs, with her sister hiring San Francisco Freedom of Information Act attorney Karl Olson to renew a request for an investigative report on the department. -more-
The city has begun the process of creating a new plan for Berkeley’s downtown. The current Berkeley Downtown Plan was adopted by the City Council in 1990. The work of putting that plan together began in 1984. -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
On Wednesday morning I go to the store and buy onions, Brussels sprouts, butter, cranberries, and $195 worth of other edibles and non-edibles. I start cooking. -more-
On Dec. 6, the Berkeley City Council will consider asking the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) to be significantly more transparent about the health and environmental issues associated with its new nanotechnology facility. -more-
Oakland Opera Theatre will present “Peace Through Song” this weekend. -more-
Eugene Burdick (1918-1967) was a professor of political science at the University of California and the author of The Ugly American and other best-selling novels. He was described to me years ago as “a cigar smoking extrovert.” At the time of his death, Clark Kerr spoke of him as “...one of the truly blithe spirits of the university—joyous, curious, friendly, creative, helpful.” -more-
We don’t have a lot of eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) in Berkeley. There are lots of domestic cultivars—weeping, or tall and narrow, or bluer than the usual—and if I’m remembering correctly, it’s the species Mom and Dad used to get for the Christmas tree when I was a kid in Pennsylvania. That was partly a matter of tradition, I guess, but also because its soft needles weren’t hazardous when we were all hanging ornaments and tinsel. -more-
The fate of Black & White Liquors will be determined at a Dec. 8 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB). -more-
When I was a small child, about 5 or so, I had a recurring dream in which I was driving a car, but was still a child and didn’t know how to drive it. It carried me all sorts of places I’d never intended to go, and I couldn’t make it stop. My dream car never crashed, because I learned how to wake myself up before things got too dire, but it was frightening nonetheless. The United States at the moment is in the grip of a similar dream. All sorts of things are careening out of the control of the electorate, of those of us who are theoretically in the driver’s seat, but who cannot control where the country is going. -more-
