News

Eighteen-year city employee Stephen Barton, asked to resign last Tuesday, was publicly pummeled in a memo by the Berkeley city attorney Wednesday, a six-page document addressed to the mayor and City Council and filled with attacks aimed primarily at Barton, but also at the city manager, deputy city manager and other city staff. -more-

Twenty-three young men and women were sent out to conquer the real world on Friday. -more-

The Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) will take another look at the mayor’s controversial Public Commons for Everyone Initiative. At the last meeting, an exhausted council did not address the specifics in the measure intended to enhance shopping areas by removing persons whose behavior is unacceptable. -more-

Berkeley police found the body of the year’s second murder, 46-year-old Terrence Marlow Broadnax, shortly after noon Friday in a fourth-floor apartment at University Avenue Homes. -more-

World Can’t Wait called on all Berkeley High School students Monday to sign a letter protesting the U.S. military’s requirement that Berkeley High give student information to military recruiters unless the students request the school not to. -more-

Littering, downtown safety issues and plans for the warm water pool dominated the meeting held between representatives of the city and the Berkeley Unified School District Friday. -more-

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will once again hear the appeal of an administrative use permit for a residential addition to 2008 Virginia St. -more-

The Housing Advisory Commission is asking the Berkeley City Council to have an independent investigation conducted into allegations made by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque regarding former Housing Director Steve Barton’s alleged refusal to take her advice and similar allegations directed at City Manager Phil Kamlarz, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna and other staff. -more-

The new Berkeley Housing Authority Board will meet in joint session with the City Council at 5 p.m. -more-

In a scene that invoked historical images of a lanky President Abraham Lincoln walking through the streets of a liberated Richmond shortly before the end of the Civil War, Ron Dellums took a 15-block walking tour of International Boulevard in the Fruitvale District Friday evening surrounded by a phalanx of city officials, local residents, staff, police and private security packed around him so dense that the tall Oakland mayor could only be viewed by his snow-haired head towering above the crowd. -more-

The Oakland Police Department official in charge of Oakland’s sideshow enforcement activities may have seriously understated the number of vehicles towed in Oakland in connection with a state sideshow car towing law. -more-

Berkeley landmarks commissioners failed to reach a consensus on the old Berkeley High School Gymnasium Thursday, with a motion to declare the aging structure a landmark failing on a 4-3-1 vote. -more-

A joint subcommittee hammering out a proposal that would define the role of historic buildings in the center of downtown Berkeley will hold its final meeting Tuesday night. -more-

Berkeley residents will have another chance to weigh on with their visions of the future of downtown Berkeley during a Saturday workshop at the Berkeley Public Library. -more-

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) tops the agendas of two city panels this week, the Planning Commission and a DAPAC subcommittee. -more-

While Berkeley struggles with drafting a legally mandated new plan for the city’s downtown, a committee of Richmond residents has been working toward a new plan for their city. -more-

For some, Steve Barton’s an idealist who puts his principles into practice, advocating housing policies—rent control, subsidized housing, co-operative housing—aimed at keeping diverse populations in Berkeley. -more-

Walk into the South Berkeley Library and you practically bump into the four computers near the entry way. If you want to browse the history section, you’ve got to move to a narrow hallway to find what you’re looking for. -more-

The People’s Park Community Advisory Board approved a policy Monday to allow a one-year trial for limited commercial activity at the park. -more-

The Sierra Club doesn’t object to a new track finish for Albany’s Golden Gate Fields; they just don’t like how it’s being done. -more-

Well-known Albany environmentalist Ruth Meniketti died Wednesday night after she was struck by a pickup as she crossed Marin Avenue at Talbot Avenue, police report. -more-

A Berkeley High School senior and her date were arrested Saturday at the senior prom in San Francisco for possession of a loaded gun. -more-

Today, the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) is a division of the housing department that oversees federally-funded low-income housing. A board currently consisting of the mayor and City Council and two tenants oversees the authority. -more-

UC Berkeley issued notice Thursday that it plans a $3 million to $5 million renovation of Cloyne Court, a venerable shingle-sided landmark that has served both as a hotel and as student housing. -more-

Changes, adjustments, or complete disbandment affecting some AC Transit 20 route lines are scheduled to go into effect June 24, but district representatives say that riders will be able to catch buses at almost all of the currently existing bus stops, and will be able to get to and from virtually all of the existing travel points. In several cases, however, riders may have to get where they are going on AC Transit a slightly different way than they have been used to. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education accepted the first reading of a policy reversal to release student information to the military for recruitment to be eligible for federal education grants. -more-

Berkeley High School unveiled its Athletic Hall of Fame last week to recognize former student athletes who have excelled in sports over the last century. -more-

Members of the Assembly Select Committee On Youth Violence Prevention brought their third and final hearing to Oakland last week, hearing hours of expert testimony before an overflow crowd at the Port of Oakland boardroom on Friday on strategies that have been used to address and attack one of California’s most pressing problems. -more-

Urban shoplifters -more-

“When this war is over, there will be one between colored and white!” These were the words of my parents that I listened to in horror from the back seat of our car outside of the A&P in East Providence, R.I. I had seen war in the newsreels on Saturday afternoon. I had seen people shooting at other people from the protection of hedgerows. I pictured myself shooting at my eight-year-old white friends. My only friends of color were my cousin and Anna, and neither lived in my neighborhood. It was the early ‘40s and my parents were referring to the segregation of our armed forces in the Second World War. I got over that. -more-