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-
Berkeley city councilmembers voted Tuesday to pledge $4 million in federal funds to pay for community services and affordable housing as collateral for a federal loan to help fund the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza. -more-
Sitting in his curio shop on University Avenue, Tsewang Khangsar recalls the onerous journey that he had made almost 45 years ago across the Himalayas from Tibet. -more-
There’s no denying that Berkeley has a worldwide reputation, not always positive. From humble beginnings in the 1850s, through the turbulent 1960s and up to today, Berkeley’s citizens are seldom shy about voicing their passions. -more-
Members of the joint commission formed to look into the city’s density bonus are moving closer to formulating suggestions for a new ordinance. -more-
A report on negotiations between the Oakland Unified School District and the Oakland Education Association has brought the city closer to a teacher strike or closer to a settlement. -more-
Planning Commissioners tackled creeks, cars dealerships and a proposed transportation services fee Wednesday—long-term issues that will eventually result in new city ordinances. -more-
In September 2003, two days after receiving an excellent evaluation, Chaplain James Yee was arrested, charged with espionage and thrown into solitary confinement for 76 days. When he left the Army in 2005 after all charges were dropped, he received a medal. He recounts his journey from Muslim American poster boy to “enemy of the state” in his memoir, For God and Country. Yee was interviewed by Sandip Roy, host of “UpFront,” New America Media's radio program. -more-
Brenda ran Los Angeles’ citywide marathon representing John Adams Middle School. After finishing at the top of her age group, she felt “on top of the world.” -more-
Historic resources will be on the agendas of two city commissions meeting this week. -more-
Today’s letters column contains an indignant response from an Oakland booster to a recent commentary from a Berkeley man who seems to think that Oakland will be getting a lot of new residents who won’t have much to entertain them. And also, that Berkeley’s much-hyped new Arts District is entertainment central, but there are not enough downtown residents to enjoy the fun. Oakland has every right to be annoyed. -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-
To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit -more-
Since I first saw the city’s Caltrans grant application last month, I had the gut feeling that the 50 units per acre it envisioned was nowhere near dense enough to make a for-profit project on the site economically feasible. This week, I finally found the data to back up that guess: a 2004 study performed by the Berkeley consulting firm Strategic Economics for the East Bay Community Foundation. -more-
Karl Marx was right; he only had to wait a little longer. Marxists once claimed that European capitalism was advancing into its final stages, decadence would overwhelm the West and capitalism’s contradictions would cause the system to collapse. Today, demographic collapse and cultural decadence may finally usher in the end stage of the ancient culture we share with Europe. -more-
Thank you for publishing your Jan. 24 front-page story, “Lake Merritt Tree Supporters Unmoved by Public Works Tour.” It revealed some new and troubling details about the Oakland city staff’s mentality behind its pig-headed plans to “rebuild” the Lake Merritt shorelines by killing more than 200 mature trees. This mentality seems to be “we had to destroy the shoreline to save it.” This would seem to parallel the Bush plan for Iraq: first destroy it and then rebuilt it at an obscene profit, as per the notorious no-bid contracts let to Halliburton. -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-
In a March article in The New Republic, Robert Reich wrote of four essential American stories. One of these is “the triumphant individual,” the little guy who pulls himself up by the bootstraps. Thanks to the Bush administration, that story has died for most Americans. -more-
Competitive elections give citizens a rare opportunity: a chance to participate in a discussion that could actually affect the future of their community. -more-
Eighteen years ago, when I started in the inspection business, my clients were always buyers and never sellers. In fact, sellers and, all too often, their agents, viewed the inspection as an assault on their homes. This was often miserable and I was sometimes foolish enough to take the bait and join in the adversarial tone of the conflict. When sellers insisted on being home, pitch-fork in hand to defend their turf from my unfair assertions, I would debate and even argue on occasion. -more-
Last week I counseled patience with a newly acquired garden. Honest to Ceres, it really does pay off, or at least cost less in terms of lost plants and ego-damage, to wait a full year before doing anything major and permanent to your land. You don’t have to sit on your thumbs: put in some encouraging annuals, watch when sprouts from whatever was left behind, and get your hands in the dirt in the meantime. You know you want to. -more-
The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. -more-
The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. -more-
The Berkeley Opera opened its 27th season Saturday with Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. Written when the composer was eighty, this opera breaks out of the mold of his earlier works: first, because it is a comedy (of his previous 27 operas, 26 are tragedies) and second, because he abandons his trademark style of grandiloquent vocalism, and uses the singing voices almost as orchestral accents. In Falstaff, the dynamic rhythmic pulse is punctuated by only a few lyrical moments. The singers, with the exception of the central character, sing mainly in intricate ensembles. It is partly because of Verdi’s focus on mathematical precision and brilliance, rather than on passionate melodic line, that this opera has remained out of the mainstream repertoire, and is considered by many to be overly eclectic and lacking in spontaneity. -more-
In a sort of homecoming, the Jazz House (formerly at 3192 Adeline St.) will host a CD release party for East Bay jazz artists Positive Knowledge on Sunday Feb. 5 at the Ashby Stage. -more-
Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone just presided over his Broadway debut with one show he directed at The Rep—Sarah Jones’ solo act Bridge & Tunnel—only to move on to prepare for the New Haven opening of another, the Maurice Sendak-Tony Kushner a daptations of Brundibar and Comedy on the Bridge. The double bill, which played Berkeley during the holidays, also opens uptown in New York this spring. -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-
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-
“Early in the morning, always early, I come to throw dead shoes in the river ... today the river must eat.” -more-
Ah, a cappella. -more-
Eighteen years ago, when I started in the inspection business, my clients were always buyers and never sellers. In fact, sellers and, all too often, their agents, viewed the inspection as an assault on their homes. This was often miserable and I was sometimes foolish enough to take the bait and join in the adversarial tone of the conflict. When sellers insisted on being home, pitch-fork in hand to defend their turf from my unfair assertions, I would debate and even argue on occasion. -more-
Last week I counseled patience with a newly acquired garden. Honest to Ceres, it really does pay off, or at least cost less in terms of lost plants and ego-damage, to wait a full year before doing anything major and permanent to your land. You don’t have to sit on your thumbs: put in some encouraging annuals, watch when sprouts from whatever was left behind, and get your hands in the dirt in the meantime. You know you want to. -more-