The Week

Ayr, one of the ground crewmembers supporting the tree-in protest at the California Memorial Stadium grove, took a painting break Monday afternoon. An archaeological record has raised the possibility of a Native American burial ground at the site. Photo by Richard Brenneman.
Ayr, one of the ground crewmembers supporting the tree-in protest at the California Memorial Stadium grove, took a painting break Monday afternoon. An archaeological record has raised the possibility of a Native American burial ground at the site. Photo by Richard Brenneman.
 

News

Oak Grove May Be Native American Burial Site

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Rediscovered evidence of Native American burials at the site of UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium—omitted in university environmental documents—raises new questions about the future of the oak grove beside the stadium where the university is planning a massive building project. -more-


Oakland’s Inclusionary Housing Commission Under Fire

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Four months after it was formed by the Oakland City Council to make recommendations for a comprehensive inclusionary zoning ordinance for the city and two weeks after its final report was supposed to be due, members of the City of Oakland Inclusionary Housing Blue Rib-bon Commission met for the first time Thursday evening under attack from tenant advocates and under pressure from councilmembers to complete an ambitious agenda before the summer council break. -more-


Sustainable Berkeley Contract Questioned

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Next week is Timothy Burroughs’ last week as program officer for a nonprofit that works with cities to address global warming. March 5 will be his first day with Sustainable Berkeley, a collaboration among the city, university, nonprofits and business groups aimed at “keep[ing] Berkeley a national environmental leader.” -more-


DAPAC Tackles High-Rise Buildings, Parking

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Talk of “opportunity sites,” parking spaces and height limits occupied Tuesday’s meeting of a subcommittee hammering out what may become key elements of Berkeley’s plans for the downtown’s future. -more-


Berkeley High School Mourns denise brown at Memorial

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Smiles and tears marked the memorial of Berkeley High School Vice Principal denise brown at the Berkeley Community Theater Thursday. -more-


School Board to Review Homeless Youth Program

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 20, 2007

The Berkeley school board will meet Wednesday to approve a resolution honoring Berkeley Vice Principal denise brown and declaring Feb. 15 as denise brown day. brown died Feb. 2 following complications from knee surgery. -more-


Forum Planned for Reuse of UC Extension on Laguna St.

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 20, 2007

A documentary film and public forum on the history and reuse of the 5.8-acre historic UC Berkeley Extension campus at 55 Laguna St. in San Francisco will be held on Saturday. -more-


City Planners to Review LBNL Long Range Growth Plans

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Planning commissioners last week heard Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) plans for long-range growth and amended the city’s controversial soft-story ordinance. -more-


Emeryville Council Finishes Hotel Worker Regulations

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday February 20, 2007

While Emeryville voters passed Measure C—the living wage ordinance for hotel workers—in November 2005 the City Council didn’t write the final regulations until last week, when they put into place rules on worker complaints. -more-


ZAB Looks at Mental Health Services, Berkeley Iceland

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday February 20, 2007

The Zoning Adjustments Board will hear the request for a use permit modification by the City of Berkeley Mental Health and Human Services to change the hours of operation of the Health and Human Services mobile crisis team at 2433 Channing Way from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. -more-


Carousel Shut Down

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 16, 2007

The historic 1911 Herschell-Spillman “Menagerie Edition” carousel at Tilden Park was closed earlier this month after state officials said that under state law it is unsafe without a guard fence around it. -more-


UC Academics Excluded From BP Contract Vote

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 16, 2007

UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate probably won’t have a vote about the planned half-billion-dollar alternative fuel program now being negotiated with BP—the company formerly known as British Petroleum. -more-


BP/UC Deal Raises Concerns

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 16, 2007

The proposed agreement between one of the world’s largest oil companies, BP (formerly British Petroleum) and UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois has ignited a firestorm that promises to burn long and hot. -more-


Planning Chair Ousted in Surprise Move

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 16, 2007

Ousted Berkeley Planning Commission chair and environmentalist Helen Burke, defeated in a carefully staged coup Wednesday night, said Thursday that David Stoloff, her replacement, told her after the vote that he knew the only way he could beat her was by lying. -more-


City Revenue Up, But New Tax Still Possible

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 16, 2007

While Berkeley’s revenue is higher than expected and the city will be able to write checks for $3.3 million above budgeted expenditures, the City Council may need to go to the voters to pay for essential services such as police and fire, City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the council at a budget workshop, part of the council’s regular Tuesday meeting. -more-


Next Steps in Closed Police Misconduct Hearings Case

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 16, 2007

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith issued a decision, made available this week, agreeing with the Berkeley Police Association, which had filed suit against the city, that open hearings on complaints against the police violate the officers’ privacy rights. -more-


Legislation Takes Aim at Police Hearings

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 16, 2007

State Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) is planning to introduce legislation, which, if passed, could reopen police complaint hearings around the state. -more-


Tree Sitters Hang In There Despite UC Pressure

By Richard Brenneman
Friday February 16, 2007

With a major courtroom victory in hand, Berkeley protesters aren’t giving up their arboreal perches high in a threatened grove adjacent to UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. -more-


Berkeley High Marks Valentine’s Day with Trash Heap

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday February 16, 2007

Candy and balloons were not the only things Berkeley High students got to sift through on Valentines Day Tuesday. A group of juniors from the School of Social Justice & Ecology (SSJE)—a small school at Berkeley High—met up with their peers at BHS to dig through the school’s trash and dissect it. -more-


West Oakland Fatal Crash Raises Questions

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 16, 2007

With Oakland Police officials insisting that no police chase preceded a Sunday evening North Oakland accident that resulted in the death of a 41-year-old Stockton woman, a North Oakland resident living within two blocks of the crash says she witnessed a police chase immediately before the fatal crash. -more-


Berkeley High Beat: Advisory Program Created At Berkeley High School

By Rio Bauce
Friday February 16, 2007

On Wednesday, the Berkeley High School’s (BHS) School Governance Committee discussed the creation of a schoolwide advisory program for all students. Under the BHS Western Association of Schools and Colleges Action Plan, the school agreed to implement such a program, which would create a mandatory advisory class for students starting for the 2007-2008 school year. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: One More Time: Who Is My Neighbor?

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday February 20, 2007

So you look out your kitchen window, and in the yard next door the two brothers who live there seem to be fighting. You notice that they’ve got knives and that one of them seems to be bleeding a bit. What do you do? Go over there and stand between them? Call the police? Yell out the window to them, “Cut it out, right now!” Perhaps? Or do you pull down your shades and go on making -more-


Bates Gives His Annual Assessment of the City

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 16, 2007

Mayor Tom Bates praised the city’s role in protecting the environment and the economic growth in many of Berkeley’s shopping districts, but spent most of his State of the City address Tuesday evening setting the stage for the future: -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday February 20, 2007

OPEN LETTER TO CAL -more-


Commentary: Kofi Annan’s Last Speech at UN Security Council

By Kofi Annan
Tuesday February 20, 2007

The following is an excerpt from Kofi Annan’s final address to the UN Security Council on the Middle East, on December 12, 2006. It appeared in this form in the New York Review of Books for February 15, 2007. -more-


Commentary: Brower/Oxford Development Was Well Reviewed and Is Needed

By Rob Wrenn
Tuesday February 20, 2007

The David Brower Center/Oxford Plaza project, which is two months away from breaking ground in downtown Berkeley, is an excellent project despite the misleading claims being made by opponents of affordable housing who are trying to derail the project. -more-


Commentary: Section 8 Rent Hikes Threaten Disabled and Elderly

By Berkeley Citizens for Fair Housing
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Former Clinton Secretary of State Robert Reich has recently deplored Berkeley’s housing gentrification rush and its unfortunate, un-Berkeley like homogenizing effects (Jan. 30, “The Private Eye”). -more-


The Theater: Pinter’s ‘The Birthday Party’ at Aurora

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 20, 2007

In the parlor/dining room of a sleazy boardinghouse, two patterns of wallpaper at war with each other, the day’s just beginning with a husband’s diffidence over a tabloid and a wife’s incessant, skewed platitudes (almost malapropisms) from the Pullman kitchen: is the news good, is the weather nice? -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday February 16, 2007

HOMELESS IN WILLARD PARK -more-


Commentary: Young People Need Help When Foster Care Ends

By Tony Thurmond
Friday February 16, 2007

Meeting my father for the first time in 38 years forced me to think about the experience of many young adults who transition out of the foster care system and proceed through life without forging connections to caring adults. -more-


Commentary: Brower Center, Oxford Plaza Separate but Linked

By Peter K. Buckley
Friday February 16, 2007

After years of public process, the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza Family Housing are scheduled to break ground in April. Any major project, especially in Berkeley, receives close study. The City Council, all the various City agencies, commissions, and departments that have a voice in this civic process have carefully considered these two projects, and all have given their approvals. -more-


Commentary: Rent Increase Too Much for BHA Tenants

By Eleanor Walden
Friday February 16, 2007

The Berkeley Housing Authority Special Meeting held on Tuesday Feb. 13th was an unusual event. Not only was it not previously announced, we read about it in the Daily Planet in the Tuesday edition, consequently it was not well attended by people whose shelter depends upon BHA. With the exception of one woman who spoke right to the point: that the City Council, who sits as the Housing Authority Board of Directors, have failed for 4 or 5 years to lift the agency out of it’s “troubled,” read failing, status, the other speakers recited jargon, statistics, and acronyms. I watched the performance, or should I say charade, on television. I was shocked at the lack of passion, outrage, or meaning that was expressed by Tia Ingraham, BHA Managing Director, or Steve Barton, Berkeley Housing Director, or the City Council members. Have none of these people ever suffered insecurity? Have none of these people ever serious been faced with the prospects of poverty? Darryl Moore thanked the two for an “informative report.” I was as mystified by his accolade as if indeed English was not my native language! -more-


Commentary: Center Street Closure Needs Careful Scrutiny

By John N. Roberts
Friday February 16, 2007

The DAPAC recently recommended limiting the options for a future design study of the Center Street corridor in Downtown Berkeley to that of closure to vehicular traffic (except for service and loading) and allowance for a maximum feasible creek. In making this recommendation, the DAPAC has rejected alternate street right of way considerations that would accommodate vehicular traffic and/or parking in some manner. -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: ‘Just Say No’ Is Just Wrong

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday February 20, 2007

There’s new evidence that the Bush Administration’s “abstinence only” approach to sex education is not proving effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies or the spread of sexually transmitted disease. -more-


Column: Why Visit India When You Live in Paradise?

By Susan Parker
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Friends invited me to go to India with them and I gave their offer serious consideration. They’re experienced travelers, spending five to six weeks a year on foreign soil, often in places off the beaten track, difficult, and obscure. But at the last minute I opted to stay home. Running around the subcontinent, though no doubt fun, would be fiscally irresponsible. I’ve got new priorities and responsibilities, bills pending and not much income. I need time to adjust to this weird, wretched state of widowhood. -more-


Green Neighbors: Winter Native Flowers: Silk-Tassel and Leatherwood

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Along with all the flowering plums, acacias, and magnolias, a few native trees and shrubs are late-winter bloomers. Most, like the manzanitas and flowering currants, are on the shrubby side. But coast or wavyleaf silk-tassel (Garrya elliptica) is a bona fide tree up to 30 feet high, showy in its own way, and amenable to planting as an ornamental. There’s a particularly handsome silk-tassel specimen on the University Avenue median strip. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Anatomy of a Massacre

By Conn Hallinan
Friday February 16, 2007

As the fables about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and clandestine ties with al-Qaeda began to unravel following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the flagship of U.S. news reporting, the New York Times, took itself to task for its failure to challenge its news sources. In May, 2004, the Times wrote: “Information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged … Articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried. In some cases, there was no follow-up at all.” -more-


Column: Undercurrents: The Last Word on the Dellums’ Paramount Incident

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 16, 2007

This being the third (and final) column on the subject of the disruption at the City of Oakland’s Paramount Theater Inaugural last month, some readers may be wondering with all of the other issues to talk about, why so much time is being spent on this. -more-


About the House: Secondary Drains and the Very Scary Porch

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 16, 2007

I met a very nice fellow today. A composer. Funny how homeowners end up being something other than just … homeowners. Neat guy, writes music for films, TV, industrials (corporate film) and the like. He also had the composure of musician, smooth and philosophical. Good thing for all those involved in selling him this house because let me tell you, he had some pain and it would be very easy to acrimonious with this particular type. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday February 20, 2007

TUESDAY, FEB. 20 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday February 20, 2007

‘FLIGHT OUT OF TIME’ RECEPTION AT KALA -more-


Green Neighbors: Winter Native Flowers: Silk-Tassel and Leatherwood

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday February 20, 2007

Along with all the flowering plums, acacias, and magnolias, a few native trees and shrubs are late-winter bloomers. Most, like the manzanitas and flowering currants, are on the shrubby side. But coast or wavyleaf silk-tassel (Garrya elliptica) is a bona fide tree up to 30 feet high, showy in its own way, and amenable to planting as an ornamental. There’s a particularly handsome silk-tassel specimen on the University Avenue median strip. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday February 20, 2007

TUESDAY, FEB. 20 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday February 16, 2007

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday February 16, 2007

THE ART OF LIVING BLACK ARTISTS’ TALK -more-


The Theater: ‘Shopping for God’ at The Marsh-Berkeley

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday February 16, 2007

In Shopping for God, her solo piece now playing at The Marsh-Berkeley in the Gaia Building, Erica Lann Clark, an accomplished storyteller with a distinctive stage presence, seems at first to cover familiar territory, albeit in her own, humorously idiosyncratic, sketchy way. But once she gets down to brass tacks, what she has to say—and act out—is much more than just another autobiographical story. The shopping is over. Or has it just begun? -more-


About the House: Secondary Drains and the Very Scary Porch

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 16, 2007

I met a very nice fellow today. A composer. Funny how homeowners end up being something other than just … homeowners. Neat guy, writes music for films, TV, industrials (corporate film) and the like. He also had the composure of musician, smooth and philosophical. Good thing for all those involved in selling him this house because let me tell you, he had some pain and it would be very easy to acrimonious with this particular type. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday February 16, 2007

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 -more-