On Wednesday the Planning Commission grappled with diverse recommendations on mixed-use and multi-family residential projects in Berkeley’s commercial districts from the city staff and the Joint Subcommittee on Density Bonus. The commission ultimately voted 5-4 to urge the City Council to take no action on any of the recommendations at this time. -more-

California law requires candidates periodically to report in detail where they get their campaign cash and what debts they’ve incurred. And Berkeley election law says candidates must make public copies of all election materials sent by mail to more than 200 Berkeley residents. -more-

Some 60 UC Berkeley custodians and their supporters marched through campus Thursday afternoon to the chancellor’s office to present their applications for the newly created $282,000 per year post of Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion. -more-

As part of his effort to wrest the District 7 City Council seat from Councilmember Kriss Worthington, challenger George Beier has pledged his efforts to create a student-controlled council district. -more-

Youth safety issues, diversion programs and a possible teen center on Center Street were some of the issues discussed at Tuesday’s meeting between officials from the city and the school board. -more-

The Bateman Mall restoration group met with city officials on Tuesday to discuss a final restoration plan. Public Works engineer Lorin Jensen presented the group with a rough draft of the mall restoration design. -more-

With the Laney College Children’s Center infant and toddler program closed for the 2006-07 school year, at least, Laney students and faculty continue to press Peralta Community College District officials to get it re-opened. -more-

The Peralta Community College Board of Trustees and the presumed incoming California assemblymember representing Oakland have joined the growing chorus of public officials calling for a halt to the proposed sale of the Oakland Unified School District downtown properties. -more-

By Jonathan Wafer -more-

A black acacia tree in Live Oak Park, nearly 100 years old and for years home to a family of Cooper’s hawks, was removed Saturday as neighbors looked on. -more-

A member of the Oakland coalition that sought a citizen referendum on the controversial Oak to Ninth project says that the group “is, of course, planning a legal challenge” to an Oakland city attorney’s ruling throwing out referendum petitions. -more-

Both Telegraph Avenue area candidates, incumbent Kriss Worthington and challenger George Beier, wrap themselves in the “progressive” mantle, but the two are distinguished by their support within the community and by their approaches to issues affecting students, particularly public safety and housing. -more-

Just because you don’t plunk down 50 cents for your Daily Planet or your Daily Cal, that doesn’t mean free newspapers are without value. That’s the basis of AB 2612, authored by George Plescia (R-San Diego) and signed by the governor. -more-

Negotiations over the sale of 8.25 acres of Lake Merritt area Oakland Unified School District property will be extended for another 90 days, according to a representative of the East Coast developers involved in the negotiations. -more-

Pacific Steel Casting handed over their emissions inventory report to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District early last week, according to PSC spokesperson Elizabeth Jewell. -more-

“Day to day we all get along,” assures community leader Arturo Ybarra, unintentionally alluding to Rodney King’s famous post-riot plea, “Can we all get along?” -more-

Many readers requested contact information for the Berkeley Cooperative Grocery, following the article in the Sept. 8 issue. The website for the co-op is www.berkeleycog.org. -more-

Sept. 1 was a day of victory for environmentalists, organic farmers, and local government around the state, as a bill that would have barred cities and counties from passing laws that restrict genetically modified foods (GMOs) did not come to a vote in the State Senate, effectively killing the bill. -more-

Could you imagine being a student who didn’t have a math class for five days? Could you imagine being a student desperately trying to switch out of a class of 50 students? Could you imagine being a student who signed up for Latin 5/6, but ended up in Spanish 1/2? -more-

Most of the publications I read regularly (the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Nation) have had back-to-school stories carrying on at length about a perceived crisis in childhood nutrition. This year’s version is anxiety about obesity in children—a few years ago the same kinds of articles were being written about anorexia and bulimia, but this year it’s obesity. I’ll leave it to Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Pollan to determine if the epidemiology justifies the perception of crisis, but I can’t help being bemused by the discussions of remedies in these articles, all written for the consumption of the chattering classes, though coming from various points in the left-right spectrum. -more-

The Planet has received a second commentary (opinion essay) from Kurosh (Cyrus) Arianpour, a student who is Iranian by nationality, Zoroasterian by religion, used to live in Berkeley and is currently studying physics in Bombay and learning English. Publication of his first letter upset many Planet readers and others who saw it quoted elsewhere. Since his second letter is substantially similar to the first one, we will not print it in full. In summary: he says he’s outraged by Israel’s actions in Lebanon and in Gaza, and that many others throughout the world are also angry. He thinks critics of the Planet’s printing his first letter should instead be condemning Israel because of the civilian deaths in Lebanon. He quotes a writer who believes that Zionists are controlling Americans. He repeats the charges from his first letter: that Israel’s current policies are characteristic of the behavior of what he calls “Jews/Zionists” throughout history and around the world, and as such are the cause of anti-Semitism. We’d like to take the opportunity now to set him straight about a few of his most egregious misconceptions: -more-

A CORRECTION -more-

As a sometime contributor to the Daily Planet who knows its executive editor and publisher pretty well, I’m perplexed by the recent fireworks on these pages over the paper’s own past Middle East commentary. -more-

The Daily Planet’s Sept. 12 article, “Pacific Steel Emission Reports Turned Over to Air District,” was missing several important facts. If you take a look at the article, PSC’s public relations firm is the most common source for information (and reminds us all of the questionable and sad transformation from public servant to public relations consultant for Dion Aroner and company) -more-

Berkeley, California has long been America’s leading municipal incubator of progressive social change. Berkeley was the home of the nation’s first alternative, listener-sponsored radio show (Pacifica), and was the first city to ban Styrofoam and disinvest from South Africa. Berkeley was the first city west of New York to enact rent control (in 1973), it is the home of the visionary and politically powerful MoveOn.org, had the first gourmet coffeehouse in Peets, and its Chez Panisse invented what became known nationally as “California cuisine.” The Berkeley Free Speech movement in 1964 legitimized campus protests across America, and Berkeley’s congressmembers have been the leading opponents of America’s military industrial complex. Yet Berkeley has become so desirable that those who made it an activist stronghold can no longer afford to live there. There is no better evidence of Berkeley’s political decline than the current mayor’s race, where incumbent Tom Bates is assured of re-election despite maintaining a record that would have him on the political ropes elsewhere. -more-

The Planning Commission caved to a posse of developers Wednesday evening: They left the meeting jubilantly. The commission voted to make no recommendation to the city council on the subcommittee’s recommendations on density bonus. The most important stakeholders in this issue, the homeowners and tenants whose homes are directly affected, were not notified that the issue was coming up. The one citizen who spoke against the developers and in favor of the recommendations said she was there only because she always comes to these meetings. She characterized the developments that have proliferated in Berkeley as providing substandard housing, impinging on neighbors’ light and air, and being ugly; “looks like a prison,” she said of one building. -more-

Concerning the debate about land use and density in Berkeley, I believe it is helpful to keep in mind the strong link between housing supply and the price of housing. Most of us who have lived in Berkeley for a few decades (I arrived in 1979 for grad school) long for the days when it didn’t take being a millionaire to buy a modest home in a nice neighborhood close to shops. What has happened, simply put, is that the available stock of single-family homes has barely changed since 1980, while the demand to live in Berkeley (which we all agree is one of the best places to live in America) has soared. Combined with historic low mortgage rates, this has lead to a situation where even homes in “less desirable” neighborhoods go for half a million or more. -more-

The following are letters to the editor commenting on the Middle East and the Arianpour commentary that we haven’t yet had space to publish. Some of them may yet appear in our print edition. -more-

OFFER TO MEET IS STILL OPEN — WITH NO RESPONSE YET -more-

PARKING -more-

History was made in the California State Legislature last month when it sent SB 840 to the governor’s desk! Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s single payer health care bill would extend coverage to all California residents for less than what is spent collectively now by employers, consumers and local, state and federal government. Patients would choose their own doctors or providers, pre-existing conditions would be covered, all needed services, drugs, hospital stays, therapies and medical equipment would be covered, and there would be no co-pays or deductibles for at least the first two years. -more-

This is Berkeley’s season for political endorsements. But there is only one group which is actively inviting all progressives to attend, to debate and to vote, and that is the Berkeley Progressive Coalition. All are invited to the candidates convention from 2-5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16 at Washington School at MLK and Bancroft. -more-

A recent regional study by the Bay Area Council contains some eye-opening statistics about Berkeley working and commuting patterns. According to the BAC, of Berkeley’s 71,172 jobs in 2005, only a third (33.1 percent) were held by Berkeley residents, meaning two-thirds commuted to work here, while more than half of the city’s 54,421 employed citizens (56.7 percent) commuted to jobs out of town. Taken together, this means that nearly 78,500 workers—not counting students—commute into or out of Berkeley every workday. And the large majority of them still do so by private automobile. -more-

The images most Americans have of the recent war in Lebanon are of shattered cities, dead civilians, and terrified people bunkered down in basements or picking their way through blasted streets. The carnage of modern war draws the media as ancient battles called forth the Valkyries. -more-

Sometime around 10 o’clock in the evening on June 25, 2005, an Oakland police officer pulled over a van near the corner of Havenscourt and Bancroft, in the heart of the city’s so-called “sideshow zone.” Telling the van’s African-American driver and two passengers that the stop was part of a “sideshow sweep” that night, the officer did a search of the car and its contents, including the backpacks of the two passengers. The officer then announced that he was citing the driver for a sideshow violation and having the van towed under Oakland’s sideshow abatement ordinance. Unwilling to wait for the tow truck, however, the officer eventually got into the van and drove off, leaving the driver and the two passengers standing on the sidewalk, trying to figure out how they were going to get home. -more-

If one were to choose a building most likely to survive the ages in San Francisco—or any other place, for that matter—it would seem unlikely that a structure made primarily of glass and fragile wood could top the list. -more-

“We never wasted anything. We worked hard, had a starvation life. We didn’t have much but we enjoyed life. How did we quilt? We cut blocks. Put the blocks together. Think in your mind, um, I can do it. We sew the blocks together.” -more-

I’ve passed Green Jeans at about 65 mph dozens of times, and never stopped to have a look until this month. For a plant lover who had a secret girlhood crush on Mister Green Jeans, Captain Kangaroo’s gardening neighbor, this is an inexplicable lapse. -more-

I am not a high tech guy. Ask anyone who knows me. I like technology. I respect modern whiz-bang innovation but, personally, I’m very slow to adopt anything newer than about 1965. In many ways I’m slower to adopt anything newer than the 18th century. I was listening to Linda Ronstadt interviewed on the radio the other day and she said that she really liked 19th century songs and that after about 1910 they just lose her. I’m like that. One reason is that Old is time tested; crushed, run over and aged some more. If it still works, well then you’ve got something. So when I say that there is a new technology that’s worth looking at (here it comes) I do it with some impunity. So here’s what’s new. Ready. Sewer pipes. Bet I surprised you. -more-

Retrofits – A Deep, Dark Secret? -more-

The phone rang, as it always does on Sunday afternoon. “Susan,” said the voice on the other end of the line, “this is your mother.” -more-

By Joe Eaton -more-

FRIDAY, SEPT. 15 -more-

For most Americans, the impact of Washington politics and policy does not intrude much on everyday life. Unless you happen to be a member of a particularly demonized minority, or have a loved one on the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan, it can be all too easy to go through life blithely unaware of the consequences of public policy and legislated morality. -more-

Students of the Berkeley High School Drama Department have been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland next summer and are staging a set of fundraiser performances this weekend to help get there. -more-

If one were to choose a building most likely to survive the ages in San Francisco—or any other place, for that matter—it would seem unlikely that a structure made primarily of glass and fragile wood could top the list. -more-

“We never wasted anything. We worked hard, had a starvation life. We didn’t have much but we enjoyed life. How did we quilt? We cut blocks. Put the blocks together. Think in your mind, um, I can do it. We sew the blocks together.” -more-

I’ve passed Green Jeans at about 65 mph dozens of times, and never stopped to have a look until this month. For a plant lover who had a secret girlhood crush on Mister Green Jeans, Captain Kangaroo’s gardening neighbor, this is an inexplicable lapse. -more-

I am not a high tech guy. Ask anyone who knows me. I like technology. I respect modern whiz-bang innovation but, personally, I’m very slow to adopt anything newer than about 1965. In many ways I’m slower to adopt anything newer than the 18th century. I was listening to Linda Ronstadt interviewed on the radio the other day and she said that she really liked 19th century songs and that after about 1910 they just lose her. I’m like that. One reason is that Old is time tested; crushed, run over and aged some more. If it still works, well then you’ve got something. So when I say that there is a new technology that’s worth looking at (here it comes) I do it with some impunity. So here’s what’s new. Ready. Sewer pipes. Bet I surprised you. -more-

Retrofits – A Deep, Dark Secret? -more-

FRIDAY, SEPT. 15 -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 12 -more-

By Ken Bullock -more-

By Joe Eaton -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 12 -more-