Food Festival Spotlights West Berkeley’s Cultures
Sunday’s second Berkeley International Food Festival Sunday will celebrate the story of how a West Berkeley neighborhood overcame ethnic, racial and economic boundaries through food. -more-
Sunday’s second Berkeley International Food Festival Sunday will celebrate the story of how a West Berkeley neighborhood overcame ethnic, racial and economic boundaries through food. -more-
A popular Albany physician and her two daughters were shot to death by her distraught husband in a secluded Tilden Park parking lot Monday night. He then turned the gun on himself. -more-
If anything, the week got worse. On Tuesday, I wrote a blog about the internet abuse of children, our disassociation from what happens right in front of our faces. I didn't know when I wrote it that I had witnessed the scene of an unimaginable horror the evening before. -more-
A packed council budget hearing at the Tuesday evening City Council meeting brought out people with requests ranging from homeless services to arts to emergency road access. -more-
When Mayor Tom Bates saw the crowd that had assembled at Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting to address the question of development at the former site of Wright’s Garage—a commercial complex proposed by realtor John Gordon near the intersection of College and Ashby avenues and approved March 8 by the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB)—he asked why it was on the agenda at all. -more-
City Commissioners Jesse Arreguin and Steve Wollmer had been sent to address the Tuesday City Council meeting by the Rent Board and Housing Advisory Commission. -more-
In response to criticism that his administration has been relatively inactive in its first days, the office of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has released a report outlining its accomplishments and activities since the January inauguration. -more-
Chiori Santiago passed away on April 14, 2007 from kidney cancer. She will be missed dearly by her family and extended community of friends and colleagues. Chiori’s life was about sharing her great joy, love and wisdom of the many cultures, people and plants that make up our world. -more-
Only days before major changes in its lines and schedules are scheduled to take place, the AC Transit District has failed to put information signs on its bus stops up along stretches of one of the major streets being affected by the change. -more-
Pursuit of a pair of Oakland robbery suspects ended Wednesday in a Berkeley neighborhood with a bullet-punctuated car and foot chase of one man and the arrest of his woman companion, clad only in her birthday suit. -more-
Alameda County prosecutors have charged a member of UC Berkeley’s national championship 2007 rugby team for a May 5 beating that left another student with a broken jaw and brain injuries. -more-
In addition to the free Universal Breakfasts that Berkeley Unified will be serving children in the city all summer, the city will be treating them to free lunches. -more-
Using language that expressed reluctance, the Berkeley Board of Education unanimously approved a policy reversal to release student information to the military for recruitment to be eligible for federal education grants. -more-
Parents of children at LeConte’s Extended Day Care (EDC) came to the school board meeting Wednesday to protest the program’s move from a bungalow outside the school to a basement inside the building at 2241 Russell St. -more-
A giant backyard redwood tree is felled on the summer solstice. Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan once was quoted as saying, “If you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all.” This was back in the 1960s, I believe, when there was a strong environmental movement to save many of the remaining pristine groves of the Coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) in Northern California from impending cutting. Thousands of acres of prime native habitat dominated by these towering giant trees were eventually saved. Several weeks ago one of my neighbors told me that a landowner several properties down the street had applied for a permit to cut down our local landmark redwood tree, which dominates our block. It is probably over one hundred feet high and is possibly one hundred years old. I called the telephone contact number on the public notice that was posted on the telephone pole and after leaving a couple of messages and waiting a couple of days (this is in Oakland, the city that seemingly has much trouble doing much of anything right and/or in a timely fashion…), and was told that, yes, the owner had applied for a tree-cutting permit because its roots were beginning to affect his duplex’s foundation. -more-
In this, the “Year of Health Care Reform” in California, it’s ironic that the governor in his May Revise would fail to fund a reimbursement rate increase for providers of some of the most cost-effective preventive health care in the state. The cost of such an increase—$24 million—is just a speck of the overall $104 billion state budget—especially compared to the cost of doing nothing. -more-
Although I sent an e-mail to all the Berkeley City Council members and the mayor, opposing the planned bar/restaurant at Ashby and College, it took your June 19 editorial dated to alert me to the stealth disregard of the Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Ordinance that citizens of the Elmwood worked tirelessly to get passed. The variance granted by the Zoning Adjustments Board, specifically so a watering hole can dispense hard liquor in a neighborhood that clearly opposes it, is more of the same that we are getting from the mayor and those who support his vision of asphalting all open spaces and denying the needs for parks and playgrounds in districts that need them. -more-
Just a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanied the interrupted consummation of the apparent deal between local politicians and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce last week. Mayor Bates and some council allies made a vigorous show of enacting new laws aimed at getting untidy people out of shopping districts, seemingly in return for the Chamber Political Action Commitee’s cash contributions to their re-election campaigns, but in the end nothing was enacted except concept statements, and everyone knows the devil’s in the details. -more-
There are few areas in the world more entangled in historical deceit and betrayal than northern Iraq, where the British, the Ottomans, and the Americans have played a deadly game of political chess at the expense of the local Kurds. And now, because of a volatile brew of internal Iraqi and Turkish politics, coupled with the Bush administration’s clandestine war to destabilize and overthrow the Iranian government, the region threatens to explode into a full-scale regional war. -more-
My grandfather, Ellis Allen, Sr. I am told, spoke with a musical French accent, as did his sister, Aunt Isobel, who migrated with other Allen family members to Oakland at the end of the 19th century. I barely remember my grandfather and his accent, not at all, but that information does not now surprise me. My father’s people were from the Louisiana bayou country, St. James Parish, near New Orleans, where French was the predominant settler language for years until “the Americans came” and supplanted it with English. -more-
One of Berkeley’s most important and historic brown shingle homes—with Maybeck connections, too—is currently for sale at 2601 Derby Street. An Open House is scheduled from 2-4:30 p.m. this Sunday, June 24. -more-
We’ve driven past the place dozens of times on the way to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and it’s become a private landmark rather like San Quentin. But last week was the first time we’ve ever managed to get off I-580 and get our feet on the ground at Golden Gate Palms in Richmond. -more-
Ihate code books. Not code as in dot-dash-dot or SLWBT means I love you. I mean the building codes. -more-
One thing history has taught us about major earthquakes: houses that are correctly retrofitted survive intact. -more-
Editorial: Celebrating Berkeley’s Neighborhood Commerce 06-22-2007
Editorial: A Confused Council Should Demand a Second Opinion 06-19-2007
Letters to the Editor 06-22-2007
Commentary: Oakland Loses a Landmark Redwood By James Sayre 06-22-2007
Commentary: The Cost of Doing Nothing By Dian J. Harrison 06-22-2007
Commentary: Mayor, Council Fail to Protect Neighborhood Interests By R.J. Schwendinger 06-22-2007
Letters to the Editor 06-19-2007
Commentary: Bus Rapid Transit Won’t Be Rapid, But It Will Be a Bus...t By Gale Garcia 06-19-2007
Commentary: BRT Would Have A Negative Impact On Our Neighborhoods By Mary Oram 06-19-2007
Commentary: Speeding Up Buses Without Screwing Up Telegraph By Michael Katz 06-19-2007
Readers Sound Off On Bus Rapid Transit Plan 06-19-2007
Food Festival Spotlights West Berkeley’s Cultures By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-22-2007
Mystery Surrounds Tilden Murder/Suicide By Richard Brenneman 07-06-2010
First Person: Tragedy in Tilden Park By Jill Posener 06-22-2007
Council Hears Budget Pleas, Approves Development By Judith Scherr 06-22-2007
Wright’s Garage Project Opponents Call Again for Public Hearing By Judith Scherr 06-22-2007
Council Meeting’s Early Close Leaves Speakers Speechless By Judith Scherr 06-22-2007
Dellums Administration Answers Critics By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-22-2007
Celebrating the Life of Writer, Activist Chiori Santiago By Gary Carr 06-22-2007
AC Transit Changes Not Reported in All Areas By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-22-2007
Robbery Chase Ends in Tub By Richard Brenneman 06-22-2007
Cal Rugby Flanker Charged in Assault By Richard Brenneman 06-22-2007
City Offers Children Free Summer Lunch Program at Schools and Centers By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-22-2007
BUSD Approves, with Regret, Reversal of Military Recruiter Policy By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-22-2007
LeConte Extended Day Care Parents Protest Move By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-22-2007
BHS Class of 2007 Says Goodbye By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-19-2007
Council Gets Down To Budget Business By Judith Scherr 06-19-2007
Hancock, Chan Vie for Seat Now Held By Don Perata By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-19-2007
Downtown Committee Meets Public In Sometimes Heated Session By Richard Brenneman 06-19-2007
Council to Discuss Public Comment Rules, Priority Development Areas By Judith Scherr 06-19-2007
Use Permit Approved for Fred’s on Telegraph By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-19-2007
Court Dates Set For Oak Grove Lawsuits By Richard Brenneman 06-19-2007
King Principal Takes Her Leave By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-19-2007
Legislative Briefs By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-19-2007
KyotoUSA Optimistic About Solar Project By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-19-2007
Arrest Made in 2005 Triple Fatal Collision By Bay City News 06-19-2007
Historic Buildings, New Projects Top Land Use Agendas By Richard Brenneman 06-19-2007
Hal Carlstad, 1925-2007 By Eleanor Piez 06-19-2007
Peralta Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig Dies By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-19-2007
Column: Dispatches From The Edge: The Tangled Webs of Northern Iraq By Conn Hallinan 06-22-2007
Column: Undercurrents: Preserving a First Language While Learning a Second By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-22-2007
Maybeck Connections on View at Gifford McGrew Open House By Steven Finacom 06-22-2007
Garden Variety: Reading Palms from I-580 in Richmond By Ron Sullivan 06-22-2007
About the House: Reverse Engineering for the Builder By Matt Cantor 06-22-2007
Quake Tip of the Week: Is Your Major Asset In Jeopardy? By Larry Guillot 06-22-2007
Green Neighbors: Be Sure to Use Those Exotic Species Responsibly By Rn Sullivan 06-19-2007
Arts Calendar 06-22-2007
Compositions of Space and Light By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet 06-22-2007
The Theater: ‘A Dream Play’ in Live Oak Park By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-22-2007
Moving Pictures: Stumbling After ‘The Third Man’ By Justin DeFreitas 06-22-2007
Music Set to Fill Laurel District for Weekend Solstice Celebration By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-22-2007
Maybeck Connections on View at Gifford McGrew Open House By Steven Finacom 06-22-2007
Garden Variety: Reading Palms from I-580 in Richmond By Ron Sullivan 06-22-2007
About the House: Reverse Engineering for the Builder By Matt Cantor 06-22-2007
Quake Tip of the Week: Is Your Major Asset In Jeopardy? By Larry Guillot 06-22-2007
Berkeley This Week 06-22-2007
Open Call for First-Person Essays 06-22-2007
Arts Calendar 06-19-2007
Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay 06-19-2007
The Theater: Cal Shakes Stages Richard III in Orinda By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-19-2007
The Theater: Virago Presents Two Plays by Local Playwrights By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-19-2007
Green Neighbors: Be Sure to Use Those Exotic Species Responsibly By Rn Sullivan 06-19-2007
Berkeley This Week 06-19-2007
Correction and Clarification 06-19-2007
Open Call for Essays 06-19-2007