Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Oxford/Brower Brouhaha Turns Ugly at the Market

By Becky O’Malley
Friday February 23, 2007

Going to the Tuesday Farmer’s Market is usually a pleasure, but this last Tuesday it was more than a chore, it was an annoyance. It’s become the battleground of choice for those who have differing views about the soon-to-be-launched Brower Center and Oxford Plaza projects. Only the Planet’s opinion pages (see today’s) and the flamemail circuit have seen more skirmishes. -more-


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-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday February 23, 2007

FACELIFT -more-


Commentary: North Shattuck Plaza, Inc.

By Daniel Caraco
Friday February 23, 2007

On the surface, the fuss over a plaza on Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose Streets seems silly. Asphalt abounds, the parking and circulation patterns in the area are chaotic, there is interest, and green is in. Beneath the surface, however, lies a cautionary tale about privatizing the development of public assets and resources. What happens when the City entrusts its development agenda to intermediaries? Does this represent a new way of doing business in Berkeley? If so, is it widespread? And, does this practice promote or retard the prospects for good governance? -more-


Commentary; Stadium Stories Paint Sinister Picture

By Vince Tancreto
Friday February 23, 2007

I guess by now I shouldn’t be surprised by every slanted article written about the UC Stadium Project. Your Feb. 20, 2007 article (“Oak Grove May Be Native American Burial Site”) was no exception in the continued disingenuous anti-stadium project rhetoric and misinformation campaign using the BPD as their mouthpiece. Basing this article on the biased opinions of a plaintiff lawyer and an “activist” with obvious agendas presents only the story you apparently want your readers to hear. -more-


Commentary: The Oxford/Brower Bait and Switch

By Barbara Gilbert
Friday February 23, 2007

The Oxford/Brower Project is not only about affordable housing and a green center for environmental activists. It is also about municipal fiscal responsibility, sound downtown economic development, crucial downtown parking, respect for the taxpayer, and honest accounting on the part of public officials. -more-


Commentary: Oxford/Brower Is a Good Investment

By Marcy Greenhut
Friday February 23, 2007

The David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza Housing www.browercenter. org/ is quite possibly the best land use project proposed in Berkeley in this generation. It will serve as a model for other developers and cities who are considering building green; the way forward in building sustainably. -more-


Commentary: Opponents Concerns Unfounded

By Kirstin Miller
Friday February 23, 2007

In an eleventh hour attempt to derail Berkeley’s first ever downtown affordable family housing project and “green” nonprofit office and meeting facility, signature gatherers appearing at Berkeley Farmer’s Markets are telling people that the David Brower Center’s underground parking facility would likely flood during a storm event or as a result of culvert failure due to its proximity to the Strawberry Creek underground culvert and that that is a reason to oppose the project. A few people have also expressed concernthat the Brower Center would make future creek restoration more difficult. -more-


Commentary: Big Projects Need Environmental Impact Reports

By Barry Wofsy
Friday February 23, 2007

It is shocking that the massive Brower development, which includes approximately 18 commercial businesses accompanied by approximately 100 housing units, is not being required to have an environmental impact report (EIR). -more-


Commentary: Attack on Referendum Supporter Was Unfair

By Peter Teichner
Friday February 23, 2007

In his op-ed promoting the Brower Center (Feb 20-22), Rob Wrenn makes such a concerted, personal attack on Gale Garcia and her efforts to expose and oppose the foolhardiness of the City’s giveaway of the proposed Brower Center land that one has to consider what might be his interest in this venture and whether he’s actually a shill for Mayor Bates and the developers. -more-


Molly Ivins Tribute: The Pelosi Revolution

By Phil McArdle
Friday February 23, 2007

Before November’s election it was impossible to imagine the current debate in the House and the Senate. Nancy Pelosi supervised the creation of an outstanding resolution on Iraq for the House of Representatives. For those who have not yet seen it, the text reads: -more-


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-