The Week

Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters in Oakland. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters in Oakland. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

Council Yanks Term Limit Ordinance for Commissions from Agenda

By JUDITH SCHERR
Tuesday March 20, 2007

An ordinance passed 5-4 March 13 that would have limited the number of years a person can sit on certain commissions and impose restrictions on the number of commissions on which a person can sit was rescinded 8-0-1 at Tuesday’s council meeting, with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli abstaining. -more-


10,000 Rally for Obama in Oakland

By Riya Bhattacharjee and Rio Bauce
Tuesday March 20, 2007

On Saturday afternoon at Oakland City Hall, there was some R&B, some hip hop and jazz, and then there was Barack Obama. -more-


New Arpeggio Design Disappoints DRC

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday March 20, 2007

The Arpeggio—known in an earlier incarnation as the Seagate Building—will soon soar 120 feet into the Center Street skyline, its developers told a city panel last week. -more-


Loni Hancock Calls for State Health Care Reform

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

Berkeley Assemblymember Loni Hancock called out the big political guns on Saturday morning, with some of California’s top lawmakers to join her in an Oakland City Hall forum calling for reform of the state’s health care system. -more-


New Tapestry Delights Children at Berkeley Library

By Zelda Bronstein, Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Downtown Berkeley has acquired a delightful new attraction: Kaleidoscope, the marvelous tapestry that was recently installed in the fourth-floor Story Room of the Berkeley Public Library. -more-


Berkeley Symphony Makes Everyone a Performer

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday March 20, 2007

How many ways can a child experience an orchestra? Performing with it—as the “I am a Performer” concert at Washington Elementary School illustrated Friday morning—is one. -more-


Workshop Examines South, West Transportation Plan

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday March 20, 2007

A community workshop on the South and West Berkeley transportation plan was held at the North Berkeley Senior Center Thursday. -more-


PowerLight Finds New Richmond Home

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday March 20, 2007

PowerLight, a large-scale solar power system provider, announced last week that it would move out of Berkeley to the historic site of the former Ford Motor Company in Richmond. -more-


Thousands March

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Thousands marched down Market Street Sunday demanding an end to the war in Iraq and no military intervention in Iran. Catherine Siskron of Berkeley, at center with the St. John’s Presbyterian Church peace sign, told the Planet she had come to the march to speak out. “I believe we can live in peace,” she said. “The only way we can do that is to have a voice. I want to bring the troops home and keep people safe.” -more-


Sunshine and Alcohol Laws on Council Agenda

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Berkeley’s draft Sunshine Ordinance still needs work, says League of Women Voters President Junky Gardner, calling for the City Council to delay adoption of the ordinance intended to allow citizens greater access to local government until citizens can meet and further refine the law. -more-


Berkeley Historic Walking Tours Start This Weekend

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 20, 2007

A Maybeck home, a new religious headquarters, an old stadium, two lesser-known neighborhoods, and even a freeway interchange and municipal recycling center highlight the spring 2007 walking tours offered by the Berkeley Historical Society. -more-


Naked in the Oak Grove

By Fernando Torres
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Dozens of people shed their clothes at the UC Memorial Stadium Oak Grove Saturday for a treespirit photograph by Jack Gescheidt. To see the photographer’s image of the event, as well as his other photos of the series, see www.treespiritproject.com. -more-


Downtown Transit Options Studied

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Cars, busses, shuttles, passes and parking will be the themes of the day Wednesday when members of two city panels gather to discuss the future of downtown transportation. -more-


Sierra Club Holds Forum on UC-BP Deal

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Are UC Berkeley’s plans to unite with a British oil company in a quest for new biofuels good for the environment? -more-


First Person: Iranian New Year

By Talieh Shahrokhi
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Last Tuesday, March 13, Iranians across the world celebrated the last Wednesday Eve of the Iranian Calendar year, called Chaharshanbe Soori. -more-


‘Drop Everything And Read’

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday March 16, 2007

The smiles, gasps and cries of delight from the kindergartners sitting in their classroom at Washington Elementary School Tuesday morning were evidence of a morning well spent. -more-


City Concerned Over UC Lab, Campus Plans

By Richard Brenneman
Friday March 16, 2007

For the city, it’s both too much and too little—too much building by UC Berkeley and too little consideration of its potentially profound impacts on the surrounding community. -more-


‘Commons for Everyone’ Excludes Homeless, Some Charge

By Judith Scherr
Friday March 16, 2007

Mayor Tom Bates’ proposal to crack down on people engaged in “prolonged sitting” or yelling in public spaces near businesses got Berkeley City Council approval (5-2-1) in concept Tuesday night—and sharp condemnation from the several dozen residents who came to the meeting to demand that the council not criminalize homelessness and drug addiction. -more-


City Council Agrees to Limit Commissioner Terms

By Judith Scherr
Friday March 16, 2007

Berkeley City Counclimember Laurie Capitelli said an ordinance approved 6-3 Tuesday night to limit the time commissioners can serve on key commissions and to restrict service to just one of these commissions at a time is good government. -more-


Peralta Trustees Approve ‘Concept’ of $10 Million Laney Complex

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

The ghost of construction deals past stalked the Peralta Community College District trustees meeting this week, with a sometimes-bitter clash between trustees and district staff over a $9.7 million proposal to build a new physical education complex on the Laney College campus. -more-


Planners Pick New Chair, Hear Economic Report

By Richard Brenneman
Friday March 16, 2007

Berkeley’s Planning Commission gained a new chair Wednesday night, when incumbent David Stoloff, elected in a controversial coup in February, resigned the post and declared James Samuels his replacement. -more-


BUSD Reviews Summer School Program Options

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday March 16, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education approved the 2007 Summer School Program on Wednesday. -more-


Hawking Inspires Students at UC Lecture

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday March 16, 2007

Physics was what 17-year-old Katy Forte had always wanted to pursue in college. That was until she started school at UC Berkeley last fall. -more-


Weekend of Anti-War Events

By Judith Scherr
Friday March 16, 2007

On the fourth anniversary of the war on Iraq, people need to show their opposition to the war, says Phoebe Anne Sorgen, member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission and active with Code Pink, among other organizations. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Ending the War and Beyond

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Sunday was a beautiful Northern California spring day, sunny in the afternoon but not too hot for long walks out of doors. In San Francisco, as in many other cities, lots of people combined their desire to take walks with their commitment to putting a halt to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and judging by the pictures a good time was had by all. Peace marches in the springtime are an American tradition going back at least 40 years in our own subculture, and they have much to recommend them. Especially for those of us who lived in the Midwest 40 years ago, it was a genuine pleasure, in spite of the underlying reason, to go to Washington as the cherry trees were breaking into bloom and walk out of doors carrying signs and pushing the kids in strollers. And it eventually worked—Americans caught on to the waste and carnage in Vietnam and withdrew, though not nearly soon enough. -more-


Editorial: Berkeley Businesses Need to Accentuate the Positive

By Becky O’Malley
Friday March 16, 2007

A young friend told me that she’d made the mistake of watching the city council on cable on Tuesday night. Her verdict? “Pathetic!” she said. “Most of the time they didn’t even seem to know what was going on.” Sadly, I agree. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday March 20, 2007

NO TEARS FOR BARNES AND NOBLE -more-


Commentary: Pros and Cons of New South Berkeley Library

By Christopher Adams
Tuesday March 20, 2007

In April 2002 Berkeley’s handsome Central library at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Kittredge reopened with a splendid party attended by more than 7,700 people. It had been completely renovated and almost doubled in size. Support for this project came from citizens of Berkeley, who passed a bond measure to pay for the building, and from private donations, funneled through the Berkeley Public Library Foundation, which paid for new furniture, equipment, and refurbishing of the original furnishings of this historic structure. -more-


Commentary: Farewell to the Local Labor Community

By Nicholas E. Smith
Tuesday March 20, 2007

As my final meeting as chairman of the City of Berkeley’s Commission on Labor draws near, I thought I’d to take a minute to give my farewell to the local labor community and to Berkeley residents. -more-


Commentary: Santa Cruz Ordinances Are Divisive, Unfair

By Tracie de Angelis Salim
Tuesday March 20, 2007

According to wikipedia.org déjà vu is “the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.” -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday March 16, 2007

COMMISSIONERS -more-


Commentary: New-Speak Comes to Berkeley — Guess Who’s the Target?

By Osha Neumann
Friday March 16, 2007

There is a lot that’s troubling about the mayor’s “Public Commons For Every One Initiative,” beginning with the name. I really regret that new-speak has made its way from our nation’s capital to Berkeley. A more accurate name for this initiative would be the “Get Homeless People Off the Streets of Berkeley Initiative.” -more-


Commentary: Public Space Should Be Enhanced, Not Closed Off

By Teddy Knight
Friday March 16, 2007

Weasel words and spin doctoring in Berkeley! A public commons is a place where people can sit, sleep, feed the geese, talk, and generally rub shoulders, dance, make music, and interact with all sorts of people. Putting laws in place which target the very people most in need of a relaxing space is the very opposite of “public” or “commons.” The old guys sitting on the park benches or on the barrels on the porch of a general store could be annoying, as could the chorus in a Greek play, but they were the essence of the public, the whole picture, the alternative views, the different values in life. -more-


Commentary: Oakland’s Waterfront Deserves a Better Plan

By Akio Tanaka
Friday March 16, 2007

Last June I attended an Oakland City Council meeting at which the would-be developer for the Oak to Ninth project was comparing the proposed development to other urban waterfront projects including Chicago’s Millennium Park. -more-


Commentary: The Inconvenient Few

By Nancy Carleton
Friday March 16, 2007

Luckily for our democracy, even in our nation’s darkest hours there have always been a courageous few willing to speak truth to power. They may start out as mavericks with powerful enemies out to silence them, but they often go on to become inadvertent heroes, as the rest of the country finally catches up. -more-


Commentary: Independent Study Program at Risk

By Wendy Walker-Moffat
Friday March 16, 2007

The Berkeley Independent Study program is an exemplary educational program that currently educates 140 high school students. However, because it is so well run, Berkeley Independent Study is rarely in the news. And like many quietly successful programs, Berkeley Independent Study is at risk of losing the essential element that lends to its success, its proximity to Berkeley High School. Located on Derby and Martin Luther King, it is a 10-minute walk to the main Berkeley High campus and it is immediately adjacent to the Alternative High School. -more-


Commentary: What We Can Do to Stop an Attack on Iran

By Cynthia Papermaster
Friday March 16, 2007

Becky O’Malley’s March 2 editorial on Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article asks “Can we do anything to stop this insane plan from here?” Yes, as a matter of fact, there are many things each of us can do right here, right now to stop the Bush Regime’s plans to attack Iran and continue the Iraq war. Here in Berkeley we can live up to our heritage as leaders of progressive social movements. We can write to Congress, occupy offices of congresspeople, work for impeachment, and sue Cheney and Bush. Many people are doing these things; why not join them, take action, have hope, and read on? You’ll be happy you did something. -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: The Threat of Nuclear Terrorism in the United States

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Opening his memorable Graceland album, Paul Simon sang: -more-


Column: Two Days in East Oakland

By Susan Parker
Tuesday March 20, 2007

I had a few job interviews, and by doing so, I learned a thing or two. I discovered, too late, that one should not mention in an interview that what interests one most about the position is its part-time status and proximity to one’s home. I also learned that I should have a better idea of what kind of work I want. Employers do not like to hear that the interviewee is still trying to find herself, especially when the interviewee is 54, almost 55, and closer to retirement age than career-making status. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Thinking About Breakfast: The Mind of the Jay Revisited

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Nicola Clayton and her scrub-jays have been at it again. Clayton, as you may recall, is the Cambridge experimental psychologist who keeps making startling claims about the cognitive abilities of the western scrub-jay, a bird she met while at UC Davis. (It’s the most widespread of three closely related species of crestless blue-and-gray jays; the others, the Florida scrub-jay and island scrub-jay, have limited ranges). -more-


Column: Dispatches from the Edge: A Tale of Malice and Mold

By Conn Hallinan
Friday March 16, 2007

“It’s the same the whole world over -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Taking on Don Perata’s Take on Term Limits

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

One of the least likeable things about California State Senate President Don Perata is that even on issues where you support him in principle, the Oakland Democrat often does it in such a backhanded, underhanded, and throw-a-brick-and-hide-your-hand-handed kind of way that you end up having to oppose him because of the particularly unprincipled way he goes about trying to apply those principles. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Guy Hyde Chick, the Man Behind the House

By Daniella Thompson
Friday March 16, 2007

Guy Hyde Chick is the kind of name one doesn’t forget easily. In addition to its catchy concatenation of consonants, the name stands for one of Bernard Maybeck’s most famous houses. But what of the man who built the house? This shadowy figure, now all but forgotten, once played a visible role in Berkeley’s public life. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday March 16, 2007

Too Many Valves? -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: How to Find Ways to Lift Your Spirits

By Matt Cantor
Friday March 16, 2007

Mr. Cantor, What do you think about lifting the shell of a house and building a new first floor under it? -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday March 20, 2007

TUESDAY, MARCH 20 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday March 20, 2007

‘CITY OF WALLS, CITY OF PEOPLE’ -more-


Berkeley Art Museum Spotlights Bruce Nauman

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 20, 2007

If we think of Picasso and Duchamp as the two opposing poles in 20th century art, the Berkeley campus at present displays significant work by their successors. Fernando Botero’s series of paintings and drawings, documenting the torture at Abu Ghraib, has been perceived as a contemporary Guernica. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Thinking About Breakfast: The Mind of the Jay Revisited

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 20, 2007

Nicola Clayton and her scrub-jays have been at it again. Clayton, as you may recall, is the Cambridge experimental psychologist who keeps making startling claims about the cognitive abilities of the western scrub-jay, a bird she met while at UC Davis. (It’s the most widespread of three closely related species of crestless blue-and-gray jays; the others, the Florida scrub-jay and island scrub-jay, have limited ranges). -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday March 20, 2007

TUESDAY, MARCH 20 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday March 16, 2007

FRIDAY, MARCH 16 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday March 16, 2007

MAGICIAN CHIN-CHIN IN EMERYVILLE -more-


Jazz Legend Randy Weston at Yoshi’s

By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet
Friday March 16, 2007

Randy Weston—jazz pianist, composer, bandleader—turned 80 last year. Along with a few other generation be-boppers, such as Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Jimmy Heath and Benny Golson, he is one of the last survivors from the halcyon days of what was then being called modern jazz. -more-


Berkeley Opera Reinvents ‘Seraglio’ at Morgan Center

By Olivia Stapp, Special to the Planet
Friday March 16, 2007

Mozart purists should not expect Berkeley Opera’s new production, Seraglio, to have much resemblance to the renowned opera The Abduction From The Seraglio. Nothing in this rendition follows the original except the music. -more-


The Theater; Virago Theatre Brings Kessler’s ‘Orphans’ to Alameda

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

Phillip and Treat are orphans, abandoned by their father when little, bereaved by their mother’s more recent death. But they still constitute a kind of nuclear family, however abbreviated and dysfunctional: Treat’s the breadwinner, a petty criminal who watches out for his little brother by keeping the allergic couchpotato Phillip indoors in their North Philadelphia tenement row house, with windows shut, subsisting mostly on tuna sandwiches (Phillip’s a gourmand of mayonnaise). -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Guy Hyde Chick, the Man Behind the House

By Daniella Thompson
Friday March 16, 2007

Guy Hyde Chick is the kind of name one doesn’t forget easily. In addition to its catchy concatenation of consonants, the name stands for one of Bernard Maybeck’s most famous houses. But what of the man who built the house? This shadowy figure, now all but forgotten, once played a visible role in Berkeley’s public life. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday March 16, 2007

Too Many Valves? -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: How to Find Ways to Lift Your Spirits

By Matt Cantor
Friday March 16, 2007

Mr. Cantor, What do you think about lifting the shell of a house and building a new first floor under it? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday March 16, 2007

FRIDAY, MARCH 16 -more-