Berkeley Planning Manager Mark Rhoades is headed for the private sector, the third high level city official to vacate his position in city government. -more-

Tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting will look at holding public hearings on landmarking Iceland, an ice skating rink at Milvia and Derby streets, and allowing a commercial development at College and Ashby avenues. -more-

Although the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted 5-4 to landmark the Berkeley High School (BHS) Old Gym at 1920 Allston Way Thursday, the Berkeley Unified School District will move ahead with its demolition plans. -more-

Sunday was a day of envisioning the future of People’s Park. -more-

California State Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O’Connell came to Oakland on Monday to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) returning a portion of the Oakland Unified School District back to local control, telling a crowd of reporters, citizens, education activists, and politicians gathered at East Oakland’s Franklin Elementary School that “this is a big day for Oakland Unified. This is a new beginning for us. The district’s future looks brighter than ever before.” -more-

One of the nation’s rising stars of landscape architecture shared the stirrings of a vision for what could become a Berkeley civic showcase—the Center Street Plaza. -more-

A visit from our friend the journalism professor prompted many “whither newspapers” conversations around dinner tables last week. These were a continuation of earlier similar discussions with local friends about recent developments in what used to be called the corporate mass media. I say “used to be called” because as newspapers are increasingly the playthings of large corporate empires their influence on the masses seems to be diminishing. -more-