UC Berkeley police are investigating the death of a graduate student whose body was discovered Friday evening in the same residential co-op where 16 residents were treated at local hospitals a week earlier after consuming cannabis-laced cookies. -more-
After the City Council and mayoral candidates fielded questions on workers rights, affordable housing, a closed-door city-university lawsuit settlement, the city’s (convicted and alleged) criminal police, the use of city resources to fight terrorism and more, some 60 Berkeley residents participated in the Berkeley Progressive Coalition Endorsement Convention Saturday, choosing to endorse Zelda Bronstein for mayor and Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Jason Overman for City Council. -more-
Supporters of the Milo Foundation urged the Zoning Adjustments Board last week to authorize the animal adoption agency’s continued use and plans for 1575 Solano Ave. and 1572 Capistrano Ave., as other neighbors called the business a nuisance. -more-
The appearance of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in Oakland on Friday morning to announce the selection of a new state administrator for the Oakland Unified School District shows how far OUSD School Board members are being kept out of the loop in the running of Oakland’s schools. -more-
With growing community concerns over what some local media outlets are calling the “shocking escalation” in Oakland’s murder rates, Oakland officials are trying to settle a simmering dispute between the city’s two major citizen law enforcement advisory groups and its police department over the allocation of scarce police resources. -more-
Berkeley Police Chief Douglas Hambleton announced Monday that he has suspended two of his officers pending the outcome of internal investigations. -more-
Fresh from summer break, the Berkeley City Council will jump into the fray with a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on a controversial five-story project proposed for the corner parcel at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue. -more-
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-
The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will take up the price of parking when they meet Wednesday. -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-
As a Berkeley teacher, I have followed the recent discussion about out-of-district students with interest. -more-
On Sept. 12 Pope Benedict XVI aroused the fury of the Islamic world with a speech given at the University of Regensburg in which he assailed the Muslim concept of holy war as a violation of God’s will and nature. The pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who derided Islam and the Prophet Muhammad for introducing “things only inhuman and evil,” such as spreading the faith by the sword. The pope held up (Catholic) Christianity, by contrast, as a model religion that promoted a “profound encounter of faith and reason.” -more-
When Tom Bates ran for mayor of Berkeley four years ago my daughter Gracie and I occasionally volunteered at the Bates campaign office to work the phones. It was tedious work but Bates was running for mayor on a promise to improve education and Gracie would be attending Berkeley High School soon so it seemed like a good way to introduce a 12-year-old to local politics and civic affairs. -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-
Democrats continue to gain momentum in their bid to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans. According to veteran DC prognosticator, Charlie Cook, there are now 46 House seats in play. In order to prevail, the Democrats will have to win 15 of the 36 tenuous GOP seats. And hold onto 10 shaky Democratic seats. -more-
On Thursday I bought three pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream for Ralph, Andrea, and me. We were planning on watching “Survivor” together. It was the 188th episode, the beginning of the most controversial season yet. Real life-like explosive racial stereotyping, the news reports said. -more-
By Ron Sullivan -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-
From ancient geological ages through the present, plus selected eras in between, the heritage of Berkeley is on display this fall in six walking tours. -more-
“Both the theater and the circus are places where imagination thrives, springs up and flies high,” says Ismail Azeem, coproducer with Lisa Marie Rollins of The Secret Circus, to be presented by The Marsh Berkeley on Wednesdays and Thursdays from Sept. 20 to Oct. 19. “So to take all kinds of artists and put them together under one tent—it’s genius and magic all at once.” -more-
By Ron Sullivan -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-
