Spring Defends Need For Warm Water Pool
When Councilmember Dona Spring proposed that the Berkeley City Council ask voters to complete bond financing for a new warm pool two weeks ago, the issue died for lack of a second. -more-
When Councilmember Dona Spring proposed that the Berkeley City Council ask voters to complete bond financing for a new warm pool two weeks ago, the issue died for lack of a second. -more-
Hoping to maintain affordable housing for the city’s most vulnerable citizens, local activists are rallying to save the beleaguered Berkeley Housing Authority. -more-
A proposal to perk up Telegraph Avenue with a new Peet’s Coffee and Tea is in the works. -more-
“Clean money” supporters failed to get the Berkeley City Council to place public financing on the November ballot two weeks ago, so they are calling out the troops to convince the body to approve the referendum at tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting. -more-
Berkeley gained a pair of new landmarks Thursday during a meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) dominated by projects planned on the UC Berkeley campus. -more-
Outgoing state administrator Randolph Ward is moving forward this week with the first of three public hearings to discuss the sale of the downtown Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) properties as education and political leaders and activists are escalating their challenge to both the proposed property sale and the continued state management of the district. -more-
Pacific Steel Casting, the subject of noxious odor complaints in West Berkeley for more than two decades, is headed to court. -more-
B-Tech Academy (formerly Berkeley Alternative High School) has secured a major grant from State Superintendent Jack O’Connell to help raise student achievement. -more-
If you’ve put in your eight-plus hours at the office, fought the traffic home, picked up your kids from childcare, no way are you going home to prepare a gourmet meal. -more-
The San Francisco Chronicle reported last October that “eight lucky families,” all victims of Hurricane Katrina, would move into a 48-unit apartment complex in West Berkeley under the auspices of a non-profit affordable housing agency. -more-
While the City Council is set to resolve one battle of that structural war known as the Gaia Building, other conflagrations still confront city officials and citizen commissioners. -more-
Deangelo Wilson, an aspiring basketball player, is learning a valuable lesson this summer: plies and jump shots are remarkably similar. -more-
Lies, lawsuits and chalk marks: It’s politics as usual on the UC Berkeley campus. -more-
Neighbors of Bateman Mall met with Berkeley city officials for the third time on Thursday to discuss the city’s conceptual plan for the restoration of the grassy mall. -more-
SAN JOSE—If this city were a person, it would be a middle-aged man on the tail end of a spiraling career who, having just gone through a mid-life crisis, buys a glitzy new house and tries to hook up with younger women, then lies to his family about it. In other words, San Jose would be our current mayor, Ron Gonzales. -more-
Last Poetry Reading at Cody’s Books -more-
Editor’s Note: Between 1995 and 2001, according to the Federal Reserve bank, the average family of color saw their net worth fall 7 percent to $17,000 while the average white family's net worth rose 37 percent to $120,000. Meizhu Lui is one of the co-authors of “The Color of Wealth,” and the executive director of United For a Fair Economy. -more-
In my voicemail this Monday morning: a message from one of my many red-diaper-baby chums, born again to political activism after a brief mid-life flirtation with Republicanism. “Schwarzenegger is trying to bust the nurses’ union! Come to a rally on Tuesday! If you don’t we’ll soon see 100 patients to every nurse!” Well, she might exaggerate a bit, but she’s oh, so right in principle. Things are bad in hospitals now, and if the medical industry has its way they’ll be getting worse. -more-
The office of Oakland Unified School District administrator Randolph Ward has revealed that one of the developers who lost out in the bid to purchase the OUSD Lake Merritt properties was a familiar figure in Lake Merritt development issues: Oakland developer Alan Dones. -more-
Want to know how Gainesville, Florida, protects neighborhood residents during college football games? How Columbus, Ohio handles the problem of trash in neighborhoods near the Ohio State campus? How Colorado State University in Fort Collins responds to calls about off-campus student behavior problems? Or how police in Boulder, Colorado and Corvallis, Oregon handle disruptive student parties? So did we. That’s why we went to the conference on “Best Practices in Building University/City Relations” last month in Colorado. What we learned there kept our eyes wide open and our pens scratching notes as fast as we could write. We learned that cities across the United States and Canada handle these problems effectively and efficiently every day—in contrast to the typical inaction of our own city officials and UC Berkeley. -more-
Because you can easily see 10-story buildings, large condo projects and several giant transit villages in the pipeline, it hardly seems that large-scale real estate development in Berkeley needs a boost. Yet the Planning Department, along with the mayor and his followers on the City Council, has drafted a new landmark ordinance that will be presented to the City Council. The bureaucratic language crafted by our local Machiavellis in the city attorney’s office—likely still spinning the regs as I write—will make you run up to Tilden for a breath of clean air, vowing you will never come within earshot of City Hall again. -more-
This is the week when, in between barbecues and fireworks, we sometimes spare a few thoughts about our founding dead white guys. Guys like Thomas Jefferson, who’s had a hard run recently. -more-
Last year while making the rounds at various budget-related events, Mayor Bates made a point of asking the community to help prioritize how City of Berkeley funds should be spent. Needless to say, the activities presented to choose among were skewed towards validating the “usual suspects” favored by the mayor, which one supposes was the reason for the survey to begin with. All the same, residents managed to sift down to the lower reaches of the mayor’s list to find public safety (police and fire services), which they identified as their overall top priority. Despite making their priorities clear, the community has been largely ignored by the City Council. -more-
Many progressives view the November mid-term elections as a referendum on the presidency of George Bush and the ineptitude of his rubber-stamp Republican Congress. -more-
In last week’s column I mentioned that I had been out of the country and that I wouldn’t bore readers with the details of my fabulous vacation. I said I had endured no pathos, problems, or porn, and that I had no epiphanies while abroad. This, of course, was not true. I experienced plenty of the above-mentioned items. I suffered sorrow. I encountered difficulties. I saw several dirty pictures. I had a few insights. -more-
“We’ve had people say they’d like to come back as our cats,” says Juliet Lamont. -more-
There is a whiff of “regime change” in the air these days, but not where you might expect it. Not in Iraq, where the conservative United States-backed Shiites are already in power. Not in Iran, where White House threats have served to unite, rather than divide, that country. But in Pakistan, and for reasons that go back to a 1992 document that maps out a strategy for a new Cold War. -more-
It’s important to remember these days that during the events that led to the 2003 takeover of the Oakland Unified School District by the State of California, there was never an allegation the district’s budget shortfall occurred because someone in the administration of Superintendent Dennis Chaconas or on the OUSD Board of Trustees was either stealing or misappropriating district money. -more-
Snowy egrets and coal-black cormorants roosting in trees—in Oakland? Hansel and Gretel along with the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, brought to life with a Magic Key—in Oakland? A Daimyo oak bonsai, in cultivation since Abraham Lincoln’s term as President—in Oakland? Venetian gondolas gliding across sparkling waters under fairy lights—in Oakland? Discover these wonders and more, in Oakland’s Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt. -more-
For those of you who are regular readers of this column, it will come as no surprise that today’s topic is one related to energy efficiency. Keeping our globe cool means generating less heat in all of our pursuits—or at least burning less oil or gas. -more-
Last week I left my readers with a newly installed plant, in its hole of the right size and (shallow) depth, with soil amendments, if any, added on top to be worked in gradually by our ancient allies, the earthworms and other burrowers in the soil. -more-
Art at the Kala Institute is becoming increasingly multi-media. The current show, called “Future Tense,” predicts a future in which reality is replaced by its virtual substitute. -more-
The play begins with the gorgeously dressed rake Loveless (Elijah Alexander) addressing the audience and explaining why and how we and he are there—in this small open air theater on a lovely California summer evening, the stage decked out in oversized 17th-century graphics, floral and starkly black and white at the same time. -more-
No one quite knew what to make of the new invention at first. The ability to capture motion on film, while a scientific breakthrough, didn’t seem to portend much for the future. Most deemed it a novelty, a toy which would quickly lose its appeal. -more-
“We’ve had people say they’d like to come back as our cats,” says Juliet Lamont. -more-
Last month’s San Francisco International Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival screened more than 250 films, an overwhelming bounty featuring a wide array of topics and genres, from documentaries about adoption and AIDS to narratives about love, loss and life. Nearly every facet of sexual and gender politics was explored in a month’s worth of presentations. -more-
Snowy egrets and coal-black cormorants roosting in trees—in Oakland? Hansel and Gretel along with the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, brought to life with a Magic Key—in Oakland? A Daimyo oak bonsai, in cultivation since Abraham Lincoln’s term as President—in Oakland? Venetian gondolas gliding across sparkling waters under fairy lights—in Oakland? Discover these wonders and more, in Oakland’s Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt. -more-
For those of you who are regular readers of this column, it will come as no surprise that today’s topic is one related to energy efficiency. Keeping our globe cool means generating less heat in all of our pursuits—or at least burning less oil or gas. -more-
Last week I left my readers with a newly installed plant, in its hole of the right size and (shallow) depth, with soil amendments, if any, added on top to be worked in gradually by our ancient allies, the earthworms and other burrowers in the soil. -more-