Small Businesses Thrive in Berkeley’s Downtown Niches By Al Winslow Special to the Planet
Small-business niches are scattered through downtown Berkeley, occupied by people who know things the rest of us don’t. -more-
Small-business niches are scattered through downtown Berkeley, occupied by people who know things the rest of us don’t. -more-
The Zoning Adjustments Board handed a reprieve to Black & White Liquors Thursday night, declining to declare the 3027 Adeline St. store a public nuisance. -more-
Testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland in a hearing to determine whether two friends of 19-year-old Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck should be bound over to trial for her murder on a Berkeley street. -more-
Spurred by neighborhood concerns, Max Anderson is asking his fellow city councilmembers to agree to limit the statutory powers to be used in building a proposed housing project at the Ashby BART station while re-affirming their support for a planning grant application for the site. -more-
Albany residents and other environmentalists packed the multi-purpose room of Albany High School Thursday to voice their opposition to Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso’s proposal for a massive shopping plaza on what is now the parking lot for Golden Gate Fields racetrack. Proponents introduced an initiative calling for a community planning process to guide development of commercial and park areas on the Albany shore. -more-
Alex Katz, the longtime education reporter for the Oakland Tribune, has been hired as the new press secretary for the Oakland Unified School District, continuing to report for the newspaper on school district matters while he was being recruited for his new job. -more-
California State Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s (D-Berkeley) public campaign finance bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week on a straight-line party vote, leaving it vulnerable to a possible veto by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-
The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count is a hallowed tradition and a valuable exercise in citizen science—but it’s not for everyone. Counts take place as scheduled, rain or shine, and shine is never guaranteed. As often as not, you wind up standing in a downpour, feeling the cold rain run down your neck, as you try to sort out very small, very active birds way up in a Douglas fir, or slogging through an alder swamp in search of whatever’s hiding in there, or bracing yourself against the winds off the ocean as you scope for seabirds. -more-
Jean Siri told it like it is and had a vision of how it should be. Former El Cerrito City Manager Pokorny said that Siri “had the courage to tell those who elected her and those who served with her, what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.” Unfortunately, those abilities are so rare these days they are described as “refreshing.” -more-
White House staff members, who are trying to prevent Iran from developing its own nuclear energy capacity and who refuse to take military action against Iran “off the table,” have conveniently forgotten that the United States was the midwife to the Iranian nuclear program 30 years ago. -more-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
Ongoing investigations into cloning researcher Hwang Woo Suk’s apparently fraudulent results are seeing American researchers and bioethicist apologists disavowing any connection between Korea’s scandal and the integrity of embryonic stem cell research more generally. Hwang, so recently honored as a hero in the field, is an aberration we are told now. The scientific community bears no taint. Distancing Hwang’s project from the larger cloning effort, Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology scolds that “while (Hwang) played his games…” cures have been held up. Biotech-industry favored bioethicist Laurie Zoloth soothes that “We can hope that with good codes…, good oversight…, good law and a good scientific process …the story (scientists tell us) is true.” -more-
The Berkeley Daily Planet reported on the joint Planning Commission-Creeks Task Force (CTF) workshop that took place on Jan. 25. As a member of the CTF who has attended every CTF meeting—save one—over the past year, I found myself surprised at some of the conclusions and opinions that were expressed by those interviewed for Richard Brenneman’s Jan. 27 article. Speaking only for myself and not the Creeks Task Force, allow me to point out where I think Mr. Brenneman and those he interviewed are either wrong or have mischaracterized what we have so far achieved on the CTF. -more-
Around noon on Sunday, Jan. 29, I watched two laborers with apparently no arborist credentials in the process of cutting down a large coast live oak in the Fulton Street yard of the historic Bartlett house at 2201 Blake St. When I arrived on the scene, the trunk was still there, but the majority of the upper branches and most of the canopy were gone. -more-
Once there was a kindly old elf named Santa Claus, who knew when everyone was sleeping, who knew when they were awake and who knew whether they’d been bad or good, and would leave them a gift if they’d been good, and nothing if they’d been bad. Thus he was the one who set up the first performance-based contract. -more-
Historic resources will be on the agendas of two city commissions meeting this week. -more-
Dateline New York Times, Jan. 29: “Memoir,” Ms. [Nan A. ] Talese said, “is a personal recollection. It is not an absolute fact. It’s how one remembers what happened.” -more-
I know: it’s another birds-of-prey column. But when the gods drop a subject into your lap, it would be an act of rank ingratitude not to use it. -more-
When the poet William Everson (1912-1994) came to Berkeley shortly after World War II, he earned his living as a fine art printer and, at one time, as a janitor at the UC Press. He became part of the group known collectively as the Berkeley Renaissance—Ro bert Duncan, Mary Fabilli, Josephine Miles, and others. Despite local objections, critics fold the Berkeley Renaissance into the San Francisco Renaissance, which in turn is subsumed by the Beat Generation. In little more than a decade, however, he created a new identity for himself and stepped clear of such categories. -more-
At long last, there’s a worthy companionc—or successor—to Marjorie Schmidt’s indispensable Growing California Native Plants. -more-
Two City Meetings Eye Landmarks By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-31-2006
Editorial Oakland’s Charms Often Unappreciated By BECKY O'MALLEY 01-27-2006
Correction 01-27-2006
Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 01-31-2006
Letters to the Editor 01-31-2006
Commentary: Cloning Fraud: Just a Korean Scandal? By M.L. Tina Stevens and Diane Beeson 01-31-2006
Commentary: Mistaken Beliefs Regarding Creeks Task Force and Creeks Ordinance By TOM KELLY 01-31-2006
Commentary: Oak Ordinance Violations Ignored By City Staff By DANIELLA THOMPSON 01-31-2006
Commentary: Santa Claus and the History of Welfare Reform By WINSTON BURTON 01-31-2006
Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS 01-27-2006
Letters to the Editor 01-27-2006
Commentary: Is a Transit Village Economically Feasible? By Robert Lauriston 01-27-2006
Commentary: Karl Marx Was Right By Alan Christie Swain 01-27-2006
Commentary: The Destruction of Lake Merritt By James Sayre 01-27-2006
Small Businesses Thrive in Berkeley’s Downtown Niches By Al Winslow Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Black & White Liquor Not a Nuisance, Says City Zoning Board By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-31-2006
New Witness To Testify in Willis-Starbuck Hearing By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 01-31-2006
Anderson Seeks to Allay Ashby BART Anxieties By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-31-2006
Residents, Environmentalists Debate Albany Mall By MARK SCHNEIDER Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Ethics Issues Raised in Oakland School District Hiring of Reporter By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 01-31-2006
Hancock’s Clean Money Bill Vulnerable to Veto By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 01-31-2006
Backyard Bird Count to Be Held Presidents’ Day Weekend By JOE EATON Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Jean Siri: Wild Woman of the West County By SUSAN PRATHER Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-31-2006
Council Approves Loan For Brower Center By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-27-2006
Focus on West Berkeley Getting the Job Done By MARTA YAMAMOTO Special to the Planet 01-27-2006
Density Bonus Committee Explores Retail, In-Lieu Fees By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-27-2006
Report: Oakland May Be Closer to a Teacher Strike By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 01-27-2006
Planners Ponder Creeks, Car Dealers, Transportation Fees By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-27-2006
Captain Yee: The Truth About Guantanamo By Pacific News Service 01-27-2006
The Paper Ceiling By NICK GUROFF Pacific News Service 01-27-2006
Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-27-2006
Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 01-27-2006
Column: Righting the Unrightable Wrong By SUSAN PARKER 01-31-2006
Finding Food Can Be Tough Work for a Falcon By JOE EATON Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Column: The Public Eye: The Death of the Triumphant Individual By Bob Burnett 01-27-2006
Column: Undercurrents: Debating the Future of Oakland By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR Staff 01-27-2006
About the House: Detailed Inspections Can Benefit Sellers By MATT CANTOR 01-27-2006
Garden Variety: Garden Preparation Means Getting to Know the Dirt By RON SULLIVAN 01-27-2006
Arts Calendar 01-31-2006
Arts: Bluegrass and Old Time Festival Comes to the East Bay By Mark Schneider Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Arts: Bluegrass and Old Time Festival Comes to the East Bay By Mark Schneider Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Arts: Berkeley Opera’s ‘Falstaff’ Never Quite Takes Off By OLIVIA STAPP Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Arts: Positive Knowledge At The Ashby Stage By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Arts: Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Makes His Broadway Debut By KEN BULLOCKSpecial to the Planet 01-31-2006
Books: William Everson: The Poet as Mystic By PHIL McARDLESpecial to the Planet 01-31-2006
Books: Garden Inspiration From California Native Plants By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Finding Food Can Be Tough Work for a Falcon By JOE EATON Special to the Planet 01-31-2006
Berkeley This Week 01-31-2006
Arts Calendar 01-27-2006
Arts: A Graceful and EvocativeOne-Woman Performance By KEN BULLOCKSpecial to the Planet 01-27-2006
Arts: A Cappella Contest A Treat for the Ears By STEVEN FINACOM Special to the Planet 01-27-2006
About the House: Detailed Inspections Can Benefit Sellers By MATT CANTOR 01-27-2006
Garden Variety: Garden Preparation Means Getting to Know the Dirt By RON SULLIVAN 01-27-2006
Berkeley This Week 01-27-2006