Two turkey hot dogs, Tater Tots, canned fruit and chocolate milk—that was what lunch meant for Berkeley public school students a year ago. -more-
Backers of a pedestrian plaza along North Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets are ready to seek funds for the project, the project’s leading proponents say. -more-
While housekeepers waved white sheets from the Emeryville Woodfin Suite Hotel balconies early Friday morning, some 80 people—Emeryville residents, religious leaders, trade unionists, and immigrant rights activists—circled the sidewalk in front of the hotel calling on management to implement Measure C, Emeryville’s minimum wage law for hotel workers. -more-
Today (Tuesday) the City Council and Police Review Commission are scheduled to discuss whether the city can hold public inquiries to investigate complaints against Berkeley Police Department officers as they have in the past. -more-
Embattled former Berkeley Library Director Jackie Griffin, whose attorney threatened to sue the Berkeley Public Library if its trustees fired Griffin, is poised to become the next director of the Ventura County library system. -more-
Some members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will face back-to-back meetings this week as the full committee meets Wednesday night, followed by a second session Thursday for members who sit on a subcommittee looking at developments on Center Street. -more-
The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) addressed issues concerning residential use permits on Thursday. -more-
Ralph S. Hager, Oakland resident, retired physicist, and quiet activist for the disabled community, passed away at Alta Bates Hospital on Friday morning, Sept. 29. -more-
“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-
As members of a Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) discuss the future of Center Street in a meeting room upstairs, Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) members will meet Thursday downstairs to consider a proposed new Center Street Landmark. -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-
Robert Cheasty’s recent Daily Planet commentary correctly points out Magna’s strong desire to obtain a casino. He portrays this a negative in that it would be used to subsidize the continuation of the racetrack. But there is also a flip-side to all this: Magna’s desire for a casino can be used as leverage to convince Magna to quickly close the track and create a very large park in its place. -more-
I must protest the entire page given over to Mr. Cheasty’s Sept. 26 commentary on Golden Gate Fields. The CAS/CESP/Sierra Club group are at it again with their by-now-familiar list of scare tactics and misstatements. I think you owe it to your readers to correct the record. Let’s look at just a few of those scare tactics and misstatements: -more-
Tom Bates’ mayoral campaign sent out an e-mail this week boasting that Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA) members endorsed Bates’ re-election by “an overwhelming 69 percent vote.” What wasn’t mentioned in the e-mail was that the crucial five votes that appeared to put Bates over the endorsement threshold were cast by BCA members who actually preferred his opponent, Zelda Bronstein. Those votes should never have been reallocated to Bates. Without those votes BCA would have voted no endorsement. -more-
Some years back, the San Francisco Chronicle published a graphic photograph of a young African American man hanging from the guard railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, his arms stretched out so that, remarkably, he appeared to be dangling in a crucifix position. The youth had attempted to commit suicide. As a Caucasian Quaker chaplain and someone involved in the interfaith religious community for most of the last 20 years, and also as a mother and longtime Berkeley resident, that photo has haunted me. I have not been able to erase the image of that anguished young man from my mind, and have continued to ponder the questions: What can we do to empower and offer needed support to vulnerable older youth of color in our community? Aren’t we all his parents? How are we “crucifying” or by neglect leading our older young men of color to suicidal despair and a sense of hopelessness? -more-
In the United States, consumerism is becoming a social disease. Billions of dollars is spent annually on advertising campaigns designed to delude people into spending huge sums of money on things they don’t need, many of which are harmful. From cosmetics, to “fashion” products, to household cleaners, to SUVs, people are consuming more and more, and at every turn, ingenious advertisers are coaxing us along. And the never-ending search for the wider TV screen, the bigger car, the most effective anti-aging cream, and the best household disinfectant, has left us distracted from those things that truly matter to us, and less able to affect meaningful change in our lives. -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-
One person’s ornamental is another’s weed. Like many other exotic plants, passionvine grows weedlike all over the Hawai’ian islands. It’s so much a part of the landscape that it has acquired a local name: lilikoi. Its fruit flavors the local specialty shave ice, and Queen Liliuokalani was so fond of it that she had a special set of dinnerware with a passionfruit motif. -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-
From an Ohlone woman’s menage with a zoot-suited Coyote, through a Japanese ex-houseboy and his picture bride eating pickled plums while awaiting relocation, a pair of Cain-and-Abel brothers who end up as Black Panther and strung-out Vietnam vet to the hip-hop kid of an interracial couple who bought a fixer-upper amid the drive-bys, the Shotgun Players’ premiere of Marcus Gardley’s Love is a Dream House in Lorin employs a cast of 30 to play 40-some characters that personify the story of the South Berkeley district in something like the narrative style of a WPA mural, all chromatic persona and event, motifs overlapping in time and space, recurring in gesture and song. -more-
The Oakland Opera Theater opens this Friday its third Philip Glass opera—the compelling dance opera Les Enfants Terribles. This final opera of his trilogy based on the work by French artist Jean Cocteau, Les Enfants Terribles has been described by Glass as Cocteau’s “tragedy”: -more-
One person’s ornamental is another’s weed. Like many other exotic plants, passionvine grows weedlike all over the Hawai’ian islands. It’s so much a part of the landscape that it has acquired a local name: lilikoi. Its fruit flavors the local specialty shave ice, and Queen Liliuokalani was so fond of it that she had a special set of dinnerware with a passionfruit motif. -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-
