The Week

The former Oxford parking lot, where construction of the David Brower Center and the Oxford Plaza affordable residential project is already under way, will be the site of a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday at 4 p.m. Photograph by Michael Howerton.
The former Oxford parking lot, where construction of the David Brower Center and the Oxford Plaza affordable residential project is already under way, will be the site of a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday at 4 p.m. Photograph by Michael Howerton.
 

News

Flash: Housing Authority Workers Fight Back

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday May 22, 2007

After Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) workers were skewered in a city attorney report for in competencies such as housing dead people in low-income apartments and obstructing investigations, they fought back at Tuesday’s BHA meeting. -more-


Missing the Oxford Parking Lot

By Al Winslow, Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 22, 2007

The Oxford Street parking lot was closed and bulldozed Monday morning, April 2. That night, nearby businesses had little business. The lot is the site of plans to build a residential housing project (called Oxford Plaza) and environmental center named in honor of the late activist David Brower. -more-


Dead Tenants Get Low-Income Housing; City Blames Staff

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday May 22, 2007

The Berkeley Housing Authority has paid rent on at least 15 units where tenants are dead—as much as two years of rent on the deceased, failed to inspect units where substandard conditions exist, and allowed ineligible family members to “inherit” a unit ahead of others on the waiting list. -more-


Council Addresses Two City of Refuge Proposals

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Poised to reaffirm its status as a city of refuge for immigrants at tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting, councilmembers are likely to debate the format of the proposal—ordinance or resolution—while supporting the concept of Berkeley as a sanctuary city, a designation made first in 1971 and again in 1986. -more-


Governor Touts Berkeley Biofuel Programs

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to Berkeley Friday, declaring that market forces would solve one of the greatest issues in global warming. -more-



Chronicle Newsroom Slashed, East Bay Express Goes Indie

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday May 22, 2007

It was good news/bad news in the Bay Area media world last week. -more-


Board Considers Washington School Solar Project

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday May 22, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education will vote Wednesday on whether to approve $750,000 in funds from the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and $305,000 in PG&E funds to complete a solar project for Washington Elementary School. -more-


Council Re-Examines Mayor’s Public Commons Initiative

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Mayor Tom Bates has added to and clarified some elements in his Public Commons for Everyone Initiative proposal, which the City Council will be asked to address tonight (Tuesday). -more-


Cheryl Draper Named Coach for BHS Women’s Basketball Team

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Berkeley High School named Cheryl Draper as its new girls’ basketball coach Monday. Draper replaced Gene Nakamura two weeks ago and her team will play their first basketball game in November. -more-


Residential Additions Dominate Zoning Board Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday May 22, 2007

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will once again hear the appeal of an administrative use permit on Thursday that would allow construction at a single-family residential building at 2008 Virginia St. -more-


National Talk Show Hosts Brings Health Expo to Oakland

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Nationally known African-American talk show host Tavis Smiley brought his Road to Health Wellness Expo to the Oakland Convention Center recently, with hundreds of residents turning out to the downtown facility on May 11 and 12 to hear presentations on various aspects of healthy living, sample food and products, and get free medical testing by representatives of local health clinics and medical facilities. -more-


UC Aims to Curtail Annual Student Sidewalk Couch Drop

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday May 18, 2007

Two years ago, Derby Street resident Martha Jones had a sofa sitting on the sidewalk of her block for an entire week. -more-


City to Challenge Closed Police Complaint Hearings

By Judith Scherr
Friday May 18, 2007

More than 50 complaints lodged with the Police Review Commission against various Berkeley police officers sit awaiting action at the city’s Police Review Commission offices. -more-


Library Budget Raises RFID Questions

By Judith Scherr
Friday May 18, 2007

In an effort to bring more transparency to library governance, the Board of Library Trustees held its first public hearing last week on the budget, giving the public a chance to comment on how the institution spends the $13 million it receives through the city’s library tax. -more-


Hotel on a Hill: 60 Rooms, Suites For Lab’s ‘Guest House’ Plans

By Richard Brenneman
Friday May 18, 2007

A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) plan to build a 25,000-square-foot, 60-bedroom, four-story guest house at the lab poses no significant negative environmental impacts, lab officials contend. -more-


Conscientious Objector Day

By Judith Scherr
Friday May 18, 2007

When Augustin Aguayo joined the military the young man thought it would open doors for him, but soon realized that he had been mistaken. -more-


Transit Officials Predict Trouble from Proposed Cutbacks

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday May 18, 2007

With some predictions that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new budget proposals could have severe effects on the East Bay’s public transit system, East Bay transit officials and its powerful trio of state legislators are indicating that a fight is in the works. -more-


Compromise Bill Freezes Casino San Pablo Games

By Richard Brenneman
Friday May 18, 2007

The long-running battle of Casino San Pablo is at an end, with both sides claiming victory. -more-


City Panel to Discuss Bus Rapid Transit

By Richard Brenneman
Friday May 18, 2007

Berkeley’s Transportation and Planning commissions and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will meet with representatives of AC Transit next Thursday night, May 24, to talk about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). -more-


Police Blotter

By Rio Bauce
Friday May 18, 2007

School burglary -more-


Point Richmond Council Opposes Tearing Down Library

By Geneviève Duboscq, Special to the Planet
Friday May 18, 2007

At a contentious meeting of the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council (PRNC) on Monday dues-paying members voted 60-7 against supporting a local committee’s proposal to tear down the Richmond library’s Westside branch in Point Richmond and move the branch’s operations to a nearby rental facility. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Doing Things Wrong on the West Side of Town

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday May 22, 2007

West Berkeley’s been the top planning controversy in the news in the last couple of weeks. On the southern flank, yet another edgy, vibrant artists’ colony is being pushed out, this one The Shipyard, a prominent contributor to the annual Burning Man extravaganza. On the north, speculators seem to have big plans for the approximately 5 acre home of the former Cal Ink company, once a central player in a small industry. In 1999 Cal Ink (now owned by Michigan’s Flint Ink) was the oldest factory in Berkeley operating at its original location. If information about their plans gleaned from the internet by Public Eye columnist Zelda Bronstein is reliable, some developers might be hoping to parlay the Berkeley City Council’s authorization for the addition of a zoning overlay for auto dealerships into much, much more. -more-


Editorial: Rude, Crude and In Your Face

By Becky O’Malley
Friday May 18, 2007

A few years ago the publisher and I were tourists in London, and we stopped to look at a lovely old churchyard in Hampstead or somewhere. The kindly grey-haired old vicar saw us looking at his tombstones, and came over to tell us a few interesting stories about local history. Then, with no apparent segue, he launched into a tirade about what savages the Irish were, how they were making England uninhabitable and worse. Now, to be fair, this was during the time when some IRA members were planting bombs in British cities, so his annoyance was not unjustifiable, but he went way over the top with accusations of superstition and illiteracy against the whole Irish nation. We went on our way quickly at that point, terrified that he would introduce himself and we would have to cop to our shared Irish surname. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday May 22, 2007

KITCHEN DEMOCRACY -more-


Commentary: Mayor Bates Sends Mixed Message On Troubled Housing Authority

By Lynda Carson
Tuesday May 22, 2007

On May 10, the office of Mayor Tom Bates sent out a press release to announce that seven new board members have been chosen for the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA), as part of the effort to salvage the embattled agency from a HUD takeover, and to keep it under local Berkeley control. -more-


Commentary: Don’t Assume He’s Pro-Israel

By Joel Tranter
Tuesday May 22, 2007

I should disclose up front that I do not generally agree with the points of view of the Daily Planet’s editorials. I find many of the editorials offensive, frankly. I was not surprised, therefore, as I read through the May 18 editorial (“Rude, Crude and in Your Face”), to find myself thinking: “What planet is Mrs. O’Malley living on?” -more-


Commentary: Subverting the Peace and Justice Commission

By Joanna Graham
Tuesday May 22, 2007

Jonathan Wornick may be an unpleasant human being but he’s not a loose cannon. He’s a Zionist ideologue, doing the job to which he has been assigned: to keep the Peace and Justice Commission from functioning. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday May 18, 2007

CRITICAL MASS -more-


Commentary: City Considers Proposals to Counter Immigration Raids

By Margot Pepper
Friday May 18, 2007

Following two months of community pressure, the Berkeley City Council is considering strengthening Berkeley’s 1986 status as a City of Refuge for immigrants. Two competing measures, both of which would direct city staff to expend no funds nor staff time in aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will be on the City Council agenda Tuesday, May 22. Last week, the Peace and Justice Commission passed a proposal for a San Francisco-style ordinance that would also require the city manager to notify the public whenever ICE asks for assistance. City Council members Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring will be introducing this ordinance. And Mayor Tom Bates is weighing in with a resolution offering language similar to San Francisco’s ordinance, minus the enforcement provisions and durability, since unlike the other proposal, it would not be adopted as part of the city’s municipal code. -more-


Commentary: The False Courage of Bullies-on-Bicycles

By James K. Sayre
Friday May 18, 2007

Your May 15 front-page story, “Critical Mass Cyclists Confront Driver in Melee,” was an eye-opener. It seems that bicycling bullies-on-wheels, otherwise known as Critical Mass (or Critical Mob), has spread from San Francisco across the bay to Berkeley. This is not progress. There is a propensity of East Bay bicyclists to consider themselves as above the rules of the road and then ride through both stop signs and red lights. Now we have bullies-on-bicycles in group rides openly flaunting the rules of the road (for everyone else) and daring the local police or anyone else to stop them. They have the false courage of a mob. These folks seem to have a very large chip on their shoulder. Actually, bicycling bullies seem to have the same mind-set as the Bush crime family: ordinary rules and laws don’t apply to us: it’s our way on the highway… -more-


Columns

Green Neighbors: The Tough, Sweet Beauty of Cecile Brunner Roses

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday May 22, 2007

It’s been a crappy year for wildflowers, but a great one for roses. When I mistook something for a startling pink tree and then realized it was a ‘Cecile Brunner’ rose climbing fifteen feet up a utility-pole guywire, and then did the same double-take for the same cultivar climbing a tree on Sacramento Avenue, I decided to write about roses this week. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Thinking of War with Iran While at War in Iraq

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday May 18, 2007

Figuring out the motives and actions of a wartime President while those actions are taking place is always difficult because, after all, one of the key elements of the successful prosecution of a war is deceiving the enemy, and you cannot very well do that while honestly explaining your true plans and intentions to your own people. Wish it weren’t so, friends, but that seems to be a fact. And for democracies, which bill themselves as being based on an informed public, it is a contradiction that will never be fully resolved. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Captain Slater’s House Is an Early Classic Colonial

By Daniella Thompson
Friday May 18, 2007

Not every house in Berkeley can boast of an illustrious resident. Fewer can boast of two. Fewer yet can demonstrate a connection between the two notables. The house at 1335 Shattuck Avenue is one of the latter. -more-


Garden Variety: There’s Still Something for Gardeners at The Gardener

By Ron Sullivan
Friday May 18, 2007

One might be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but there are things to buy at The Gardener that actually have something to do with gardens. -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: Foundation Caps

Friday May 18, 2007

Hi Matt: Enjoyed your excellent article on foundation capping.One thing that I sometimes mention to my clients is that the faulty grade problem may sometimes be solved by simply digging away the dirt and debris that has accumulated against the foundation. This of course is the most economical solution when a complete foundation replacement isn’t needed for structural reasons! Do you think this is an okay observation to make? -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday May 18, 2007

Nightmare On Elm Street? -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday May 22, 2007

TUESDAY, MAY 22 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday May 22, 2007

SONGS AND POEMS OF BERTOLT BRECHT -more-


The Theater: Berkeley Playwright Makes Hometown Debut

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 22, 2007

In a swirl of scenes that quickly alternate between darkness and light, at first very different in what they show, then interpenetrating, Just Theater stages the Bay Area premiere of Berkeley native Anne Washburn’s “text about message,” I Have Loved Strangers, for just three more performances, through Saturday. -more-


Green Neighbors: The Tough, Sweet Beauty of Cecile Brunner Roses

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday May 22, 2007

It’s been a crappy year for wildflowers, but a great one for roses. When I mistook something for a startling pink tree and then realized it was a ‘Cecile Brunner’ rose climbing fifteen feet up a utility-pole guywire, and then did the same double-take for the same cultivar climbing a tree on Sacramento Avenue, I decided to write about roses this week. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday May 22, 2007

TUESDAY, MAY 22 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday May 18, 2007

FRIDAY, MAY 18 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday May 18, 2007

BERKELEY ART CENTER CELEBRATES 40 YEARS -more-


Moving Pictures: A Long-Lost Classic Finally Gets its Due

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday May 18, 2007

In the prologue to his 1945 novel Cannery Row, John Steinbeck articulated the difficulties inherent in capturing a real time and place in a work of artistic fiction, likening the process to that of a marine biologist attempting to capture the most delicate of specimens. Ultimately, Steinbeck concluded, it is easier to simply open the jar and let the little creatures ooze in of their own accord, and this is the approach he took to his novel—“to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves.” -more-


Freight and Salvage Presents ‘The Great Night of Rumi’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday May 18, 2007

“Alas, alas, that so bright a moon should be hidden by the clouds.” From this first translation of Rumi into a European language, circa 1780, by Sir William Jones in his Grammar of the Persian Language, through Ralph Waldo Emerson’s solitary version of a Rumi poem, to today’s outpouring of interpretations, the great mystic poet of Islam has become the bestselling poet in English today. -more-


Live Oak Park Hosts 24th Annual Himalayan Fair

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday May 18, 2007

Berkeley’s Himalayan Fair celebrates its 24th year in Live Oak Park this weekend. It might be its last as the city of Berkeley has increased restrictions on the event which may force it to move next year or shut down, according to fair organizers. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Captain Slater’s House Is an Early Classic Colonial

By Daniella Thompson
Friday May 18, 2007

Not every house in Berkeley can boast of an illustrious resident. Fewer can boast of two. Fewer yet can demonstrate a connection between the two notables. The house at 1335 Shattuck Avenue is one of the latter. -more-


Garden Variety: There’s Still Something for Gardeners at The Gardener

By Ron Sullivan
Friday May 18, 2007

One might be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but there are things to buy at The Gardener that actually have something to do with gardens. -more-


About the House: Ask Matt: Foundation Caps

Friday May 18, 2007

Hi Matt: Enjoyed your excellent article on foundation capping.One thing that I sometimes mention to my clients is that the faulty grade problem may sometimes be solved by simply digging away the dirt and debris that has accumulated against the foundation. This of course is the most economical solution when a complete foundation replacement isn’t needed for structural reasons! Do you think this is an okay observation to make? -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday May 18, 2007

Nightmare On Elm Street? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday May 18, 2007

FRIDAY, MAY 18 -more-