“Berkeley schools are big but schools in China are bigger,” was the observation made by the delegation of 17 school principals from the TangGu district of Tianjin in China, who were visiting Berkeley High School on Wednesday. -more-
They came, they watched, they listened, they noshed, and for the most part, they liked. -more-
In an 8-1 vote, Berkeley city councilmembers voted Tuesday to hire a lawyer to prepare for legal action challenging UC Berkeley’s massive stadium area expansion plans. -more-
Upstart UC Berkeley student Jason Overman, 21, catapulted late into the District 8 race by announcing his decision to run only last month. Campaigning with the vigor of a youthful attack dog, the Washington, D.C., transplant has picked up a fistful of endorsements. -more-
Ward Street neighbors flocked to the City Council meeting Tuesday night to oppose plans for 18 antennas atop the UC Storage building at Ward and Shattuck Avenue. -more-
Traditionally, on the first Tuesday in November on even-numbered years, voters head to the polls. -more-
The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees confirmed Judy Walters as the first head of Berkeley City College Tuesday night, but not without some contention and controversy. -more-
The revitalized Ashby BART Task Force, charged with planning development on the transit station’s western parking lot, meets Tuesday night to draft a statement for an application to seek state funding. -more-
As the long-running battle over the future of Berkeley’s Creeks Ordinance nears a climax, tensions remain high—evidenced by Wednesday night’s Planning Commission meeting. -more-
An alert Berkeley Police officer caught a rapist in the act Wednesday afternoon, leading to a chase and manhunt that ended with the suspect’s arrest. -more-
A blaze triggered by a faulty water heater demolished a $1.3 million home in the Berkeley Hills early Tuesday morning, reports Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. -more-
At least two elementary schools in Berkeley have stopped hiring physical education teachers through their discretionary funds and are using the money for other programs, leading some parents to question whether their children are receiving adequate exercise. -more-
East Bay Area neighborhood watchdog groups, environmentalists and community members got together on Wednesday to form the first Pacific Steel Protest Committee to heat up efforts to stop the west Berkeley-based steel foundry from emitting noxious fumes. -more-
Local museum enthusiasts—particularly the impoverished, the penurious, or the simply thrifty—have a welcome opportunity this Saturday to visit several local scientific and cultural venues without paying regular admission. -more-
A blaze triggered by a faulty water heater demolished a $1.3 million home in the Berkeley Hills early Tuesday morning, reports Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. -more-
A developer unveiled Friday plans for a 5.5-acre, two-block corporate, retail, condo and artists’ development for West Berkeley. -more-
Berkeley officials are planning another lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s development plans—this time challenging the quarter-billion-dollar complex planned for the Memorial Stadium area. -more-
Aimee Allison is hoping that the third time is the charm. Pat Kernighan is hoping that history keeps repeating itself. -more-
There were no surprises at the Berkeley Citizens Action Endorsement convention Sunday afternoon, with the 30-year-old group that once was Berkeley’s progressive electoral powerhouse endorsing longtime members Mayor Tom Bates, and City Councilmembers Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio. -more-
Oakland’s massive Oak-to-Ninth development project entered familiar territory this week with another citizen lawsuit filed in Superior Court against the controversial project. -more-
For neighbors of UC Storage at Ward Street and Shattuck Avenue, approval of placing 18 antennas atop the four-story building is the last straw. -more-
Planning commissioners face two action items on the agenda Wednesday. -more-
Creation of a major new UC Berkeley museum complex on Center Street inched a step closer Monday with the close of applications for the position of project architect. -more-
Two 19-year-old men were convicted today of second-degree murder for beating and kicking a 100-pound homeless woman to death in Berkeley last year. -more-
Berkeley’s City Club and the First Church of Christ, Scientist are among 25 Bay Area architectural and historic treasures competing this fall for one million dollars in grant funding from the American Express Foundation through the National Trust for Historic Preservation. -more-
It seems too early, with the September hot spell still upon us, to be thinking about the November local election, but it’s here. Vote-at-home ballots will be mailed out next week, and consultants will be directing calls to frequent voters urging them to vote NOW. The local campaigns, such as they are, are almost over. -more-
The record-breaking, triple-digit heat wave that rolled through California this summer did untold harm to the state’s $31.8 billion agricultural industry—cooking walnuts in their shells, killing dairy cows and wilting tender greens in the field. -more-
As a vocal critic of redevelopment agencies, I was pleased to learn that a petition was circulating that would curtail the use of eminent domain. Unfortunately, when I read the measure (which is now Proposition 90 on the November ballot) I learned that the initiative’s backers sought to capitalize on rising anti-eminent domain sentiment by inserting a sentence jeopardizing the future enactment of most land use laws, including amendments to local rent control ordinances. This sentence—which allows property owners to sue government entities over any new law that reduces their property values—is so destructive that it overwhelms the good part of the initiative. Prop. 90’s specific language limiting eminent domain made this broad sentence unnecessary, raising questions about the motives behind November’s “Protect our Homes” initiative. -more-
Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley, in the Sept. 8 edition, bemoans the California prison guard union’s endorsement of Angelides. Well why not? For all his liberal stances (and there are a few significant ones at least, like campaign finance reform and the public financing of elections that cut against the grain of DLC policy) Angelides supports the draconian “eye-for-an-eye” social policy a.k.a. capital punishment (“those with the capital don’t get the punishment”). But there is more going on here that’s worth examining. The relationship between the prison guard union and Angelides is not exactly the one they had with the former Gov. Davis. -more-
“Please take a minute to fill out a survey!” I was strolling through the hallway of Jefferson School on a May evening in 1986. It was Open House night. My son Andy would start school there in the fall, and we were checking out the kindergarten classrooms, getting a feel for the place. I glanced down to see a card table manned by Jefferson moms. I picked up a survey and read: -more-
Pope Benedict XVI may be too old and conservative for what is best for the Catholic Church. However, the undeserved bad media coverage and misinterpretation of his out of context comments are appalling. Most of the media is sound-biting the controversy into a wider spreading of unfortunately horrible publicity that does not present the facts of the situation, only furthering the damage. Peace is what the world needs more of, not inflaming violence and those who want to escalate it. -more-
I greatly appreciate the forum you have provided for airing viewpoints on a very contentious set of issues, and the effort you made in a recent editorial with regard to anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, difficult problems remain that must be brought to light. Before I go further: My own background is a left-wing, non-Zionist Jew. -more-
Randy Shaw’s long attack on the record of Mayor Bates was a study in strange contradictions and outright errors. I’ll just take a few moments to point out a few of them. -more-
By ROBERT CHEASTY -more-
One of the things you learn in the business of journalism is that in trying to uncover the real meaning and purpose of a particular public policy, you rarely come across a smoking gun. -more-
If there is a phrase found in a real estate listing that fills me with even more horror than “updated kitchen,” it has to be “new dual-pane windows.” Dual-pane windows are probably one of the biggest scams ever foisted off on an unsuspecting American public. The lies and half-truths promulgated by window replacement companies should be right up there with other famous lies like “The dog ate my homework” and “Only one glass of wine with dinner, officer…” -more-
This is one of those subjects that is both important and a real snoozer. If you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, stop now, rip this page out and take it to bed with you. Guaranteed snoring in 10 minutes or less. -more-
This is a season that confounds naming, a season that also confounds immigrants, especially gardeners from eastern North America, who can be heard to complain, “There are no real seasons here.” Some of us figured out right quick that there are indeed seasons in coastal Northern California. After 33 years here I still haven’t come up with adequate names or even a satisfactory number for them, though. -more-
Do You Know Your Elderly Neighbors? -more-
Several years ago, my husband Ralph returned home from a stay in Oakland’s Kaiser hospital and insisted he’d been kidnapped by aliens. He e-mailed an acquaintance in Wisconsin and told her she was the only witness to his abduction. He asked her to write down everything she had seen for a lawsuit he planned to pursue. I called a Kaiser doctor to discuss Ralph’s mental state. -more-
I’d like to be able to make some kind of Berkeley connection with the California Academy of Sciences’ new exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.” But geology is against me. There was no there here during the dinosaur era: the coast of North America ended about where the Sierra Nevada is now. Westward, there were volcanic island arcs, ancient equivalents of Japan or the Philippines, then open ocean. -more-
Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) is one of the most influential and iconic of Spanish films. Set “somewhere on the Castillian plain” in 1940, just after the Spanish Civil War, Erice’s film conjures a remote village where the echoes of war and repression resound in the lives of an increasingly fragmented family. -more-
Even today, 30 years after his death and nearly 100 years since he first stepped before a motion picture camera, Charlie Chaplin is still one of the most recognizable people in the world. The dandified Tramp, with his brush mustache, ill-fitting clothes, wicker cane and derby hat, is an iconic figure, but one whose familiarity has to some extent undermined his art. Chaplin today has become something of a two-dimensional figure, a static icon that means little to those born in the decades since his heyday; he exists as a fully formed entity, a known quantity, and is therefore just as easily ignored, an image from the past that no longer requires our attention. -more-
On the wall was chalked:/They Want War./The man who wrote it/Has already fallen. -more-
If there is a phrase found in a real estate listing that fills me with even more horror than “updated kitchen,” it has to be “new dual-pane windows.” Dual-pane windows are probably one of the biggest scams ever foisted off on an unsuspecting American public. The lies and half-truths promulgated by window replacement companies should be right up there with other famous lies like “The dog ate my homework” and “Only one glass of wine with dinner, officer…” -more-
This is one of those subjects that is both important and a real snoozer. If you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, stop now, rip this page out and take it to bed with you. Guaranteed snoring in 10 minutes or less. -more-
This is a season that confounds naming, a season that also confounds immigrants, especially gardeners from eastern North America, who can be heard to complain, “There are no real seasons here.” Some of us figured out right quick that there are indeed seasons in coastal Northern California. After 33 years here I still haven’t come up with adequate names or even a satisfactory number for them, though. -more-
Do You Know Your Elderly Neighbors? -more-
“You’re going to talk to me! Another happy day!” Samuel Beckett’s heroine Winnie addresses her seldom-seen husband Willie after he’s finally emitted a syllable. -more-
Milarepa, a new film by Tibetan lama and actor/director Netken Chokling, will show at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30 at Wheeler Hall Auditorium on the UC campus. -more-
Another weekend, another film festival. -more-
Resurrecting a book is probably like raising Lazarus. It can happen, but only with a little divine intervention. On the other hand, there are scientifically documented cases—like Their Eyes Were Watching God (and indeed all the works -more-
I’d like to be able to make some kind of Berkeley connection with the California Academy of Sciences’ new exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.” But geology is against me. There was no there here during the dinosaur era: the coast of North America ended about where the Sierra Nevada is now. Westward, there were volcanic island arcs, ancient equivalents of Japan or the Philippines, then open ocean. -more-
