Patrick Kennedy and David Teece—Berkeley’s biggest private landlords—are selling their seven signature apartment buildings to a Chicago-based corporation. -more-
Berkeley is not invulnerable to virulent racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic hate campaigns. -more-
After declaring Hillside School to be surplus property, the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is getting ready to give the same designation to the Berkeley High School tennis courts and property at West Campus and on Sixth Street. -more-
While Woodfin Suite Hotel workers are beefing up union and local support to get the hotel to comply with Measure C, Emeryville’s Living Wage Ordinance for hotel workers, the hotel is flexing its muscle in its own way. Last week the Woodfin filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court—for the second time—claiming the 2005 law passed by the city’s voters is unconstitu-tional. -more-
Berkeley High became the scene of a virtual battleground over spring break when the Berkeley Police Department SWAT team—known as the Barricaded Subject Hostage Negotiation Team (BSHNT)—descended on the campus Thursday. -more-
California Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) brought his Oakland Unified School District restoration of local control bill to the OUSD Board of Trustees Wednesday night, and, not surprisingly, trustees voted unanimously for a resolution in support. -more-
The ongoing battle between tree-sitter Zachary Running Wolf and UC Berkeley police took a new turn Friday when legendary Bay Area attorney Tony Serra agreed to represent the protester. -more-
Manager Scott Doddington and many of his fellow workers at the San Francisco Cody’s store will be out of their jobs effective April 20. -more-
That baker’s dozen plus one of 16-story “point towers” sprouting like mushrooms after a spring rain in downtown Berkeley? Forget about it. -more-
The AC Transit District continued with its sudden premature replacement of its NABI bus fleet, with directors approving, on Wednesday afternoon, the request of General Manger Rick Fernandez to sell 10 more of the popular 40-foot buses five years before their scheduled retirement date and to replace them with buses from the Van Hool company. -more-
The People’s Park Advisory Committee will be announcing the names of Gianna Ranuzzi and Christine Dixon as its newest board members during a meeting Monday. -more-
The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology at the Berkeley Public library has been a flashpoint since its inception more than two years ago, enraging some patrons, who say the identifiers allow “Big Brother” to track what people read and where they are if they’re carrying library books, and upsetting some library workers who say the system doesn’t work as it is supposed to and is devouring library funds better spent elsewhere. -more-
In many ways the Reference Department, as the disseminator of information about the world, is the heart of a library. At the downtown Central Library, reference librarians, sitting behind the green-topped counters, field questions both on the phone, on the computer and from the patrons who come into the library. -more-
After graduating from UCLA, I went to Library School at UC Berkeley known then as “Danton’s Inferno,” for J. Perian Danton who was the head of the Library School at that time. -more-
With a crowd of TV cameras and adults with microphones towering over them, Adrian, Yadira and Adriana Ramirez—6, 10 and 12 years old—sat on a bench outside of First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto yesterday, and shyly told the news crews that though they wanted to stay at their home in Palo Alto, they would go to Mexico to be with their father, who was deported an hour after his arrest by Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers. -more-
In the backyard of President George Bush’s home state of Texas, a racist legacy continues. But Shaquanda Cotton, the 14-year-old black student who was convicted of shoving a hall monitor at a Paris high school in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun, was released by the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) on Saturday, March 31. She was detained at the Brownwood facility, where she was mandated to serve a seven-year prison term. -more-
Last Friday, when most of their friends were hanging out somewhere enjoying the Caesar Chavez holiday break from school, a group of mostly Latino Oakland middle school students were sitting in a classroom at Havenscourt Middle, taking in lessons. The subject? Gang Awareness. The teachers: high school students from an East Oakland youth advocacy group called Teens on Target (TNT) sponsored by the Youth Alive! anti-violence, youth leadership organization. -more-
When EBMUD director Andy Katz spoke to the City Council early in the year, he urged councilmembers and residents to conserve water, given the East Bay Municipal Utility District pipeline retrofit that affected the amount of available water from December through the end of February. -more-
After years of struggle, work began Monday at the site of what will become the city’s largest low-income housing structure and the home for a collection of cutting-edge environmental groups. -more-
Strawberries marked Cesar Chavez’s 80th birthday at Malcolm X Elementary School Friday. -more-
It’s more than just a house on a hill. For 76 years International House at UC Berkeley has been a second home to more than 60,000 scholars from around the world—a place where Palestinians have dialogues with Israelis, Christians share meals with Muslims and, most recently, an Iraqi made his first Iranian friend. -more-
While Iceland shuttered its doors Saturday, supporters are marshaling their efforts to save the facility—including a hearing Wednesday before the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). -more-
The plan for a possible local takeover of energy decision-making is moving forward, albeit at a slower pace than the City Council had projected—and much too slowly for Paul Fenn, who wrote the legislation making possible local takeover of energy decisions. -more-
DAPAC Chair Will Travis insists that a scenario for creating a new downtown Berkeley landscape studded with high-rise, apartment-filled “point towers” is solely for modeling purposes. -more-
Members of the St. Joseph the Worker Social Action Committee will join the Ecumenical Peace Institute, Seminarians to End War, Tri-Valley Cares and others at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for the annual Good Friday protest April 6. -more-
In a revival of the sharp fiscal debate that often took place two years ago when newly elected board members sought to establish stricter fiscal controls on the district, Peralta trustees rejected a staff recommendation last week for a one-year renewal of a contract with ePaperless consultants for computer hardware work, agreeing instead to a month-to-month renewal until the scope of the contract work can be evaluated. -more-
The Peralta Community College District, which has gotten generally poor marks for the quality of its website, took a leap forward last week with board approval of a $55,000 three-year contract with Granicus, Inc. of San Francisco to provide web-based streaming videos of district board meetings. The contract provides for a setup fee and an $11,640 yearly charge for which Granicus will provide storage of Peralta’s video archives. -more-
UC recycling center demolished in blaze -more-
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. -more-
Monday’s big news was that Apple might finally be making the Beatles music the company has purchased available to iPod users. Speculation was that there would even be a “Yellow Submarine” iPod which would come pre-loaded with Beatles tunes. This all sounds like a successful money-making plan, but I’d like to give Apple, absolutely free of charge, some marketing advice which they’re going to need if they go ahead. -more-
Looking upon his alma mater from his place in the heavens, Mario Savio would likely be filled with a mixture of confusion and disappointment. If he was lucky enough to peer onto the UC Berkeley campus on one of the few days each semester that students demonstrate, he would witness a small band of outspoken, ostracized activists struggling to be heard amid throngs of passing iPod enthusiasts, its message drowned out by cell phone conversations. -more-
I share Steve Geller’s vision of prioritized bus rapid transit that moves faster than the cars on our major arterials. But the extent to which this will replace personal vehicles is an open issue, and I believe Steve is applying more wishful thinking than science when he asserts that “people will flock to ride it instead of drive.” -more-
Nancy Keiler writes (Letters, March 27) castigating KPFA for not covering Barbara Lee-Ron Dellums-Sean Penn at Grand Lake Theater on Mar. 24. I sympathize with Kieler. The current lethargy in coverage of events—government hearings and such—by KPFA results from the tenacious battle that has been going on inside KPFA and Pacifica since listeners and staff defeated the self-perpetuating Pacifica National Board attempted coup under the infamous Civil Rights Commissioner Mary Frances Berry. Berry had every intention of moving the network away from its radical populist roots. Ironically she might still get her way, as the following memo attacking advocacy journalism reveals: -more-
Good grief! Iraq is just brimming with news. I don’t even know where to begin. At 4 am this morning, a huge armored vehicle moved us from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone in a convoy composed of vehicles that looked like they had just came out of a Toys R Us catalog. -more-
Mayor Bates recently introduced at City Council an initiative to improve the quality of life for all Berkeley residents and visitors. He named this “Public Commons for Everyone” initiative. If one only listened to a few critics, one would think that this is some sort of absurd assault on the homeless. Rather, all one needs to do to realize the absurdity of that exaggeration is to read the initiative. Note the following: -more-
It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that Oakland City Attorney John Russo, in the pages of the Montclarion and the Oakland Tribune, has chosen to blame the Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee for the problems he has with the referendum petition. Shifting the blame to someone else is a common political ploy to avoid taking responsibility for one’s mistakes; and mistakes by city staff and Mr. Russo’s own office are the real culprit behind the objections Russo has raised to the petition. -more-
The second court-martial of Lt. Ehren Watada is set for July. This brave officer who refused deployment to Iraq faces six years in prison on three charges: “missing movement,” “conduct unbecoming an officer,” and “use of contemptuous words for the president.” -more-
And thus Captain Ahab shouted as he clung to the side of the great white whale in the midst of the sea, stabbing at it over and over with his harpoon: ‘I turn my body from the sun. … Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! THUS, I give up the spear!’ -more-
It’s one of those discussions that only Arts and Crafts people would have, because we’re weird. The basic question is, “What would Stickley do with a computer?” (Gustav Stickley, for those who don’t know, was a famous furniture designer and proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement during the first two decades of the 20th century.) There seem to be two points of view on the question: the “Oh, he’d just stick it out on a library table” camp and the “No, he would have designed a special piece of furniture for it” camp. -more-
Everybody up and at ‘em! Shop till you drop! It’s time for spring plant sales! -more-
The East Bay is a special place for so many reasons including architectural history. Now, I’m a technical guy (for a sensitive male) and the history that turns me on involves silly things like pipe threading and wire soldering. I love museums of mine shafts and light bulbs. I get no kick from champagne but a museum of science and industry makes my pulse race. In other words, I’m a geek. The one that all the girls moved away from at the junior high school dance and now, years later I can proudly come out of the closet, with my phaser held high and admit my affiliation with those who collect glass doorknobs and vacuum tube radios. -more-
When Mayor Bates ran for re-election last year, he said the protection of West Berkeley artists and artisans was one of his top priorities. But when confronted with appeals for help from real, beleaguered artists and artisans, the mayor and his allies, who make up the current council majority, merely wring their hands and shed copious crocodile tears, if that. In 2005 the city did nothing to halt the destruction of the live-work artists’ community at the Drayage, nor did it help the evicted tenants find new space. In 2006 the Bates council ignored the artists evicted from the now-defunct Nexus Institute. -more-
Thursday’s Senate vote on funding for Iraq sets the stage for an epic battle between Congress and President Bush; a struggle with the dramatic elements of a Shakespeare play: a headstrong emperor who claims God gave him absolute power battling a stalwart band of democratic solons. -more-
A couple of years ago (have I really been doing this for a couple of years?) I wrote about the sneaky reproductive tactics of the brown-headed cowbird, one of a handful of bird species that are brood parasites. Instead of building their own nests and raising their own young, they dump their eggs in the nest of a host and go away. Apart from the New World cowbirds, avian brood parasites include Old World cuckoos, some African finches, African and Asian honeyguides, and the South American black-headed duck. Opportunistic egg-dumping occurs among swallows, waterfowl, and others, but these guys are pros. -more-
FAIRY TALE PROJECT AT ALBANY LIBRARY -more-
A very important painting belonging to the university’s Berkeley Art Museum is about to be auctioned off at Christie’s April 18 sale. The large oil is by the renowned 19th-century painter Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904), whose paintings are honored in their display at Moscow’s Tretiakov Museum of Art. The picture, entitled Solomon’s Wall, depicts the West Wall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It is part of the artist’s Palestine series and was shown in the 1880s throughout Europe and also in New York. -more-
Dorothy Vance (called Dotty by her childhood friends in Colorado and Dart by her Berkeley friends), radical, anti-nuclear protester and jailbird, rebel girl and woman for peace, vegetarian, feminist, champion of the poor and foe of the powerful, resident of Berkeley for 50 years, and of the Elmwood for 35, friend extraordinaire, mother of three and grandmother of four, the best sister in the world, sociologist and college teacher, librarian, early receptionist for KPFA back in the days when it was upstairs over Edy’s on Shattuck, former drunk and smoker to the end, assertive yet modest and self-effacing, breadmaker, playwright and short story writer, graphic artist, potter and tile maker, creator of award-winning appliqué quilts of great good humor, some on historical, political or cultural themes, others simply whimsical, fundamentally dubious about labels and categories such as those above, died in her home on Russell Street in late February. She was 76. -more-
By KEN BULLOCK -more-
Ken Loach’s new film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, opening this weekend at Shattuck Cinemas in downtown Berkeley, is the story of the nascent Irish Republican Army and its struggle against British occupation in the early 1920s. -more-
The documentary category is consistently one of the few categories in the Academy Awards in which every nominee genuinely seems to be worthy of the attention. This year’s nominees were all high-caliber films whose selection can hardly be questioned. The winner, however, was An Inconvenient Truth, its high visibility and great cultural impact perhaps earning greater recognition for the film than its inherent quality would merit. Jesus Camp, for example, was more compelling, and Iraq in Fragments was a unique artistic triumph. -more-
It’s one of those discussions that only Arts and Crafts people would have, because we’re weird. The basic question is, “What would Stickley do with a computer?” (Gustav Stickley, for those who don’t know, was a famous furniture designer and proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement during the first two decades of the 20th century.) There seem to be two points of view on the question: the “Oh, he’d just stick it out on a library table” camp and the “No, he would have designed a special piece of furniture for it” camp. -more-
Everybody up and at ‘em! Shop till you drop! It’s time for spring plant sales! -more-
The East Bay is a special place for so many reasons including architectural history. Now, I’m a technical guy (for a sensitive male) and the history that turns me on involves silly things like pipe threading and wire soldering. I love museums of mine shafts and light bulbs. I get no kick from champagne but a museum of science and industry makes my pulse race. In other words, I’m a geek. The one that all the girls moved away from at the junior high school dance and now, years later I can proudly come out of the closet, with my phaser held high and admit my affiliation with those who collect glass doorknobs and vacuum tube radios. -more-
YOUTH PERFORM ‘365 DAYS / 365 PLAYS’ -more-
On a blood-red tile floor stained with the sepia of age, rust or dried blood, before a great stucco arch which later becomes the outline of a full moon, The Mother (Scarlett Hepworth) puts a knife which her son The Groom (Ryan O’Donnell) has handed to her on an empty chair in front of the one in which she sits. She stares at it mournfully: “How can it be that something as small as a pistol or a knife can kill a man?” -more-
I first met Tiny when she came to my law office to talk about working off her parking tickets. She had pink hair spiking off in various directions and was dressed in a biker punk combination of clashing prints and colors. I remember thinking she looked awfully young, but then again, something about her contradicted that youthful impression. Now reading her extraordinary memoir I understand the reason for the double image. -more-
A couple of years ago (have I really been doing this for a couple of years?) I wrote about the sneaky reproductive tactics of the brown-headed cowbird, one of a handful of bird species that are brood parasites. Instead of building their own nests and raising their own young, they dump their eggs in the nest of a host and go away. Apart from the New World cowbirds, avian brood parasites include Old World cuckoos, some African finches, African and Asian honeyguides, and the South American black-headed duck. Opportunistic egg-dumping occurs among swallows, waterfowl, and others, but these guys are pros. -more-
