Charlie, custodian at the Sutter Hotel and seven-year resident there, takes a break in front of the downtown Oakland Hotel. In a building with constant resident turnover, he is the hotel's institutional memory. Photograph by Michael Howerton.
Charlie, custodian at the Sutter Hotel and seven-year resident there, takes a break in front of the downtown Oakland Hotel. In a building with constant resident turnover, he is the hotel's institutional memory. Photograph by Michael Howerton.

Page One

The Comforts of Home at the Sutter Hotel

By Al Winslow
Friday June 29, 2007

You can find a Sutter Hotel in many cities. Go where the last wave of redevelopment has passed through and see what’s left standing. -more-



Berkeley Lab Wins Federal Biofuel Grant

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 29, 2007

Berkeley’s bid to become the biofuel research capital of academic and corporate America scored another major advance Tuesday, winning funds to start a second lab. -more-



Grand Jury Questions Library Practices

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 29, 2007

An Alameda County Grand Jury report released June 26 on a controversial three-year-old automated check-out system has raised questions about the library’s ability to manage its contracts effectively. -more-



Walters Leaves City College Top Post

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 29, 2007

Berkeley City College President Judy Walters, who presided over the transition of the downtown community college from its longtime rental quarters to a newly-built Center Street building, has left her position to take up a similar post at Diablo Valley Community College in Pleasant Hill. -more-



Local Safeways Plan to Revamp, Embrace Organics

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 29, 2007

Though Safeway’s plans for adding housing to its Albany grocery store on Solano Avenue proved a flop with neighbors, the Pleasanton-based grocery chain is still pursuing its plans for a makeover. -more-



Features

Council Repeals Drug City Employee Drug Test Prohibitions

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 29, 2007

At its meeting Tuesday the Berkeley City Council repealed the ordinance that prohibits the city from drug testing employees, approved a $369,000 budget, adding back some social services that had been cut and heard from both citizens and the developer’s representative on the question of a proposed commercial development at College and Ashby avenues. -more-


Sweden Detains Former Berkeley Resident

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 29, 2007

Ganna Dharmarajah, a former Berkeley resident whose mother still lives here, was arrested by Swedish authorities on Saturday while vacationing in Sweden. She is now being detained at a center for asylum seekers, even though she says she has never sought asylum and is not now doing so. -more-


City Transportation Manager Leaves for Private Sector

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 29, 2007

In a letter addressed to City Manager Phil Kamlarz and emailed to Kamlarz and the press on June 20, five-plus-year transportation manager Peter Hillier tendered his resignation effective July 8. -more-


School Board Approves Measure BB Before Summer Break

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 29, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education met for the last time Wednesday before breaking for summer. Board members will be back Aug. 22 for the new school year. -more-


BUSD Responds to Supreme Court Decision on School Race Placement

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 29, 2007

Minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 Thursday to limit the consideration of race in school integration plans, Berkeley Unified School District superintendent Michele Lawrence said that she hoped Berkeley public schools would stand the test and become a model for other schools. -more-


Bateman Neighbors Say Crime Is on the Rise

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 29, 2007

Residents of Berkeley’s Bateman neighborhood are spending a lot of time looking over their shoulders these days. -more-


Early Fire Season Brings Worry to Local Firefighters

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 29, 2007

As California launches into a dry summer with wildfires raging in both northern and southern California, David Orth wonders if we’re not seeing the start of something far more ominous. -more-


County Medical Center Rejects Union Request to Avoid Layoffs

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 29, 2007

The Board of Trustees of the Alameda County Medical Center approved a $460 million budget on Tuesday, rejecting requests by union members for a no layoff pledge and to set aside $5 million from increased debt payments to Alameda County to fund staff development and training to help staff transition into new positions. -more-


Legislative Briefs

Friday June 29, 2007

SB67 Vehicle Speed Contests -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday June 29, 2007

EMPTY LOT -more-


Commentary: Mayor Should Honor Pledge to Protect University Avenue Neighborhoods

By Regan Richardson
Friday June 29, 2007

In a Nov. 18, 2003 commentary, Mayor Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio made what appeared to be a heartfelt plea for immediate incorporation of the University Avenue Strategic Plan into the zoning ordinance. In light of developments such as the behemoth building proposed for 1950 MLK, affectionately known to some as the Trader Joe’s building, this public promise to champion the UASP principles of protecting Berkeley from inappropriately large development and to maintain the residential character of the neighborhoods definitely bears re-examination. -more-


Commentary: Bus Rapid Transit Will Destroy Telegraph Avenue

By George Oram, Mary Oram, Arlene Giordano, Thomas Cooper, Carol Lipnick and
Friday June 29, 2007

AC Transit proposes to eliminate two auto lanes on Telegraph Avenue and have curbed, restricted, and exclusive fast bus lanes in the middle two lanes for the new BRT service. Their thinking and the environmental impact report do not address the problems this will cause. Telegraph today is attractive, clean, and traffic flows. -more-


Commentary: Berkeley Complicit In Hamas Takeover

By John Gertz
Friday June 29, 2007

At last count, there were 43 separate militias in Gaza, including clan based militias, Fatah splinter groups, criminal gangs, and non-Hamas Islamic groups. It is unclear as of this writing how long it will take Hamas to consolidate its control, and eliminate all possible resistance. But they will. To subdue one clan, they took three female civilian clan members, one a young girl, and executed them summarily as an example. Summary execution has always greeted those accused (no trials necessary in Palestine) of collaboration with Israel. Now collaboration with Fatah has become a capital offense as well. Military control is but one aspect of the story. Gaza is about to descend into a very dark night of the soul. Hamas will gradually monopolize and Islamicize all aspects of life. There have already been innumerable attacks on normal expressions of modernity. Nightclubs and internet cafes have been torched, gays murdered, churches burned (Palestine, which, until recently, was 7 percent Christian Arab, is now only about 2 percent Christian). Women who commit adultery face death by stoning, if their own brothers and fathers do not kill them first. Hundreds of women have already been strangled by their own family members in so-called “honor killings.” Women also face forced genital mutilations, and, of course, they will be required to take up the veil. The education system will become Islamic. Already, Mickey Mouse broadcasts a message of hate on Hamas TV. “Kill the Jew and the crusader” (i.e., Christians), preaches Hamas’ Mickey Mouse, “for they are all pigs and apes.” But this has been going on for years. Hamas’ “summer camps” routinely taught children how to become martyred suicide bombers. Those children have grown up to become the shock troops which made short order of Fatah in Gaza, and may someday soon do the same in the West Bank. -more-


Editorial

Editorial: Taking the Pledge, One More Time

By Becky O’Malley
Friday June 29, 2007

The Saturday Farmers’ Market in Berkeley was awash with politicians, pressing the flesh and hawking their latest products. “Will you take the pledge?” one shouted at me, and I fled. I’ve got many historic associations with taking pledges, none of them good. -more-


Columns

Column: Undercurrents: Mincing Words About Oakland Development

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 29, 2007

An attentive and knowledgeable reader has pointed out that in my June 15 column on Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums (“Mayor Dellums Isn’t What’s Wrong With Oakland”), I incorrectly reported that at the new mayor’s direction, the city’s Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) has “put a moratorium on conversion of Oakland's dwindling industrial-zoned parcels to mixed-use.” Though close, that’s not what actually happened. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Immigrants’ Sons Established Local Tanning Industry

By Daniella Thompson
Friday June 29, 2007

The history of Bay Area industry parallels that of immigration. In the East Bay, the economy was largely built by first- and second-generation immigrants who had settled in the West, bringing with them specialized skills from points east, often Europe. -more-


Garden Variety: Sales, Temptations and a Crisis of Conscience

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 29, 2007

I see the inimitable Annie’s Annuals is having a sale. Some of the stuff the two Anni(e)s are offering are rarities in the plant trade, in the area, maybe anywhere. Once again I’ll have to wrestle with my conscience. -more-


About the House: How to Say ‘I Love You’

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 29, 2007

I was with a very charming couple today. He was French and she was American. They were very different and both very smart and we had a great time looking at an incredible place that needed … like … nothing. Well, not much. -more-


Arts Listings

Arts Calendar

Friday June 29, 2007

Around the East Bay

Friday June 29, 2007

Wang Gangfeng Photos of China at Alta Galleria

By Robert McDonald, Special to the Planet
Friday June 29, 2007


Guare’s ‘Bosoms and Neglect’ at Aurora

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday June 29, 2007

Events Listings

Berkeley This Week

Friday June 29, 2007

Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Taking the Pledge, One More Time 06-29-2007

Editorial: Enabling Mass Murders in El Cerrito 06-26-2007

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 06-29-2007

Commentary: Mayor Should Honor Pledge to Protect University Avenue Neighborhoods By Regan Richardson 06-29-2007

Commentary: Bus Rapid Transit Will Destroy Telegraph Avenue By George Oram, Mary Oram, Arlene Giordano, Thomas Cooper, Carol Lipnick and 06-29-2007

Commentary: Berkeley Complicit In Hamas Takeover By John Gertz 06-29-2007

Letters to the Editor 06-26-2007

Commentary: An Unenforceable Contract By Judith Epstein 06-26-2007

Commentary: South Berkeley Cell Phone Antenna Net By Michael Barglow 06-26-2007

Commentary: Immigration: What’s Behind the Furor? By Marc Sapir 06-26-2007

News

The Comforts of Home at the Sutter Hotel By Al Winslow 06-29-2007

Berkeley Lab Wins Federal Biofuel Grant By Richard Brenneman 06-29-2007

Grand Jury Questions Library Practices By Judith Scherr 06-29-2007

Walters Leaves City College Top Post By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-29-2007

Local Safeways Plan to Revamp, Embrace Organics By Richard Brenneman 06-29-2007

Council Repeals Drug City Employee Drug Test Prohibitions By Judith Scherr 06-29-2007

Sweden Detains Former Berkeley Resident By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-29-2007

City Transportation Manager Leaves for Private Sector By Judith Scherr 06-29-2007

School Board Approves Measure BB Before Summer Break By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-29-2007

BUSD Responds to Supreme Court Decision on School Race Placement By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-29-2007

Bateman Neighbors Say Crime Is on the Rise By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-29-2007

Early Fire Season Brings Worry to Local Firefighters By Richard Brenneman 06-29-2007

County Medical Center Rejects Union Request to Avoid Layoffs By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-29-2007

Legislative Briefs 06-29-2007

Berkeley Lab Wins Federal Biofuel Lab By Richard Brenneman 06-26-2007

Mural Honors Maudelle Shirek By Judith Scherr 06-26-2007

Preservationists Win Round in Downtown Plan Debate By Richard Brenneman 06-26-2007

UC Biofuel Grant Expected, Contractor Sought For New Lab By Richard Brenneman 06-26-2007

City Council Discusses Police Drug Testing, Budget By Judith Scherr 06-26-2007

Questions on Berkeley Chamber Election Filing Go to State By Judith Scherr 06-26-2007

One Year Later, Measure A Still Has No Citizen Oversight By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-26-2007

Bread Project Mourns Co-Founder Lucie Buchbinder By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-26-2007

North Oakland School Reconstruction Gets Under Way By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-26-2007

Decomposing Body Retrieved from Bay Bay City News 06-26-2007

Council Remands Cell Phone Towers to ZAB for Second Time By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-26-2007

Bus Rapid Transit on Downtown Panel Agenda By Richard Brenneman 06-26-2007

School Board Upgrades School Site Safety Plans By Riya Bhattacharjee 06-26-2007

Columns

Column: Undercurrents: Mincing Words About Oakland Development By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 06-29-2007

East Bay Then and Now: Immigrants’ Sons Established Local Tanning Industry By Daniella Thompson 06-29-2007

Garden Variety: Sales, Temptations and a Crisis of Conscience By Ron Sullivan 06-29-2007

About the House: How to Say ‘I Love You’ By Matt Cantor 06-29-2007

Column: The Public Eye: Welcome to Animal Farm By Zelda Bronstein 06-26-2007

Column: The Public Eye: What Obama Needs to Win the Nomination By Bob Burnett 06-26-2007

Wild Neighbors: When One Bird’s Nest is Another’s Home Depot By Joe Eaton 06-26-2007

Arts & Events

Arts Calendar 06-29-2007

Around the East Bay 06-29-2007

Wang Gangfeng Photos of China at Alta Galleria By Robert McDonald, Special to the Planet 06-29-2007

Moving Pictures: Shifting Alliances and Realities in Von Trier’s ‘Boss of It All’ By Justin DeFreitas 06-29-2007

Guare’s ‘Bosoms and Neglect’ at Aurora By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-29-2007

East Bay Then and Now: Immigrants’ Sons Established Local Tanning Industry By Daniella Thompson 06-29-2007

Garden Variety: Sales, Temptations and a Crisis of Conscience By Ron Sullivan 06-29-2007

About the House: How to Say ‘I Love You’ By Matt Cantor 06-29-2007

Berkeley This Week 06-29-2007

Arts Calendar 06-26-2007

Around the East Bay 06-26-2007

The Theater: Masquers Present ‘Ring Round the Moon’ By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-26-2007

The Theater: ‘Bird in the Hand’ at Berkeley City Club By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 06-26-2007

Books: Hildegarde Flanner and the Great Berkeley Fire of 1923 By Phil McArdle 06-26-2007

Wild Neighbors: When One Bird’s Nest is Another’s Home Depot By Joe Eaton 06-26-2007

Berkeley This Week 06-26-2007

Open Call for Essays 06-26-2007