Two supporters of the effort to save Berkeley Iceland at Tuesday’s council meeting. Photograph by Judith Scherr.
Two supporters of the effort to save Berkeley Iceland at Tuesday’s council meeting. Photograph by Judith Scherr.

Page One

Council OKs Iceland Landmark, Group Hopes to Save Rink

By Judith Scherr
Friday July 20, 2007

Applause rang out in the City Council Chambers Tuesday as dozens of people, many sporting blue “Save Berkeley Iceland” shirts, cheered the 5-4 council vote to uphold a city commission’s decision to landmark the 67-year-old structure that houses the ice skating rink at Derby and Milvia streets. -more-



‘Trader Joe’s Building’ Plan Wins Council Approval

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday July 20, 2007

After repeated public hearings before the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB), the 1885 University Ave. project—which promises to bring Trader Joe’s to Berkeley—won a 5-3 victory at Council Monday night. -more-



Battle for Big Downtown Buildings Spurs Tension

By Richard Brenneman
Friday July 20, 2007

The battle over the future of downtown Berkeley’s skyline took a new twist Wednesday when a group of Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) members offered their own proposal, sparking heated outbursts and a counterproposal. -more-



Council Clashes Over Decorum, Shuts B-Town

By Judith Scherr
Friday July 20, 2007

The last full City Council meeting before a long summer break ended with an angry exchange between Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Dona Spring over what Spring says is the mayor’s habit of cutting her and others off when they speak. -more-



Regents Approve Major Expansion at Lawrence Lab

By Richard Brenneman
Friday July 20, 2007

Despite pleas from Berkeley city officials, the UC Regents Thursday voted unanimously to approve Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) 2025. -more-



Features

LBNL Seeks Computer Lab Builder

By Richard Brenneman
Friday July 20, 2007

The search for a builder to erect a $90.4 million, 140,000-square-foot, 300-office state-of-the art computing research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is down to the short list. -more-


Contrast Between State Takeovers of Oakland and Vallejo Schools Raises Questions

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday July 20, 2007

With a bill making its way through the state legislature that would take the state superintendent’s discretion out of the return to local control of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), the granting of limited local control in the nearby Vallejo Unified School District last week raises new questions about how objective the standards are for returning power to a school district once it has been taken over by the state. -more-


Berkeley Commissions Update

By Al Winslow
Friday July 20, 2007

SOLANO AVENUE -more-


Celebrating the Many Virtues of Globe Artichokes

By Shirley Barker
Friday July 20, 2007

When I was young and newly minted and released into the world at large, I rented a room, board included, from an elderly woman. Our disparate reading matter at the breakfast table was united under the banner of the Times: the obituaries for her, the engagements for me. -more-


Farmers Market 20th Anniversary

By Rio Bauce
Friday July 20, 2007

Community members celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Berkeley farmers market at their Tuesday location on the 1900 block of Derby Street with food, speakers and music. -more-


Wayans Port of Oakland Deal Approved

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday July 20, 2007

With rumors circulating throughout Frank Ogawa Plaza all day Tuesday that Oakland City Councilmembers were threatening to hold up votes on the Wayans brothers Army Base project to stop at least one of Mayor Ron Dellums’ proposed nominees to the Port Commission, Dellums abruptly withdrew his Port Commission nominees, and the council later unanimously approved a four-month exclusive negotiating agreement with the Wayans. -more-


Bike Cops to Patrol South Berkeley

By Rio Bauce
Friday July 20, 2007

Lt. Wes Hester, spokesman for the Berkeley Police Department, announced Thursday that bike cops will be out on an intermittent basis in South Berkeley as part of a plan for increased patrol in that area of the city. -more-


Housing Authority Board Meeting Not Noticed

By Judith Scherr
Friday July 20, 2007

While staff at the new Berkeley Housing Authority says board meetings are posted on the city clerk's web site and city clerk staff thinks BHA meetings are posted on the housing authority website, a quick survey and several phone calls by the Daily Planet uncovered the fact that the meeting—scheduled for Monday, July 23 at 6 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St.—is posted on neither. -more-


Ten Questions for Councilmember Dona Spring

By Jonathan Wafer, Special to the Planet
Friday July 20, 2007

1. Where were you born and where did you grow up, and how does that affect how you regard the issues in Berkeley and in your district? -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday July 20, 2007

BRT TO KAISER -more-


Commentary: Berkeley Iceland Saved on Dramatic 5-4 Council Vote

By Randy Shaw
Friday July 20, 2007

Amidst a packed crowd of cheering children and their adult allies, the Berkeley City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday night to uphold the landmark status of the historic Berkeley Iceland. The vote reflected an ideological split between those councilmembers (Gordon Wozniak, Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Linda Maio), who recognized the building’s historic features and expressed excitement about future prospects for the site, and a group of bitter naysayers (Mayor Tom Bates, and Councilmembers Max Anderson, Laurie Capitelli and Darryl Moore) who predicted that Iceland would be overrun by rodents and become a public nuisance. This powerful demonstration of “people power” led Councilmember Olds to acknowledge that the coming together of such a diverse group might “scare” some people; the victory was a classic case of grassroots organizing overcoming big money real estate interests. -more-


Commentary: Don’t Move South Branch Library to Ed Roberts Campus

By Jane Welford
Friday July 20, 2007

South Branch library is on the Library Trustees’ fast track to being moved to the Ed Roberts Campus. Much money has already been spent on this project. Please come to the next Board of Library Trustees meeting. The meeting will be at South Branch Library, Russell and M.L.King Jr. Way on July 25 at 5 p.m. with public comment (you will have to sign a speaker card so please arrive a few minutes early). Your presence insures the democratic process. We are a group of South Berkeley residents who are opposed to the proposed move. We have called ourselves Save Our Library, (SOL). We believe that the proposal is being driven by political motives that have little to do with better serving South Berkeley residents. -more-


Commentary: A Thousand Channels for Participation and Inclusion

By Robert Vogel
Friday July 20, 2007

Ten years ago, I became concerned about the health of democracy in this country, especially at the local level. Lasting to midnight and beyond, City Hall meetings were often tyrannized by a noisy few who claimed to represent the will of the people. Democracy was a mess, and I felt obligated to use whatever skills I had to try to help. -more-


Commentary: Bedouin Tragedy

By Heidi Basch
Friday July 20, 2007

Last week in the West Bank Bedouin village, Arab al-Jahaleen, a 15-year-old boy named Khaled was killed by a speeding garbage truck. Khaled was on the edge of the road collecting scrap metal and other discarded materials useful in constructing the ramshackle homes his community lives in, when the driver struck and killed him. The road upon which he scrambled for these materials divides his village from the nearby Israeli dump. -more-


Commentary: Trader Joe’s — A Disaster for Our Neighborhood, A Danger for Every Neighborhood

By Stephen Wollmer
Friday July 20, 2007

Last Monday’s Berkeley City Council approval of the Trader Joe’s project at the Kragens lot at University and MLK is not only a disaster for our near-downtown, but eminently livable neighborhood, but also poses a significant risk to every neighborhood in the City. To approve this project the City Council has adopted new ad hoc procedures to grant 25 additional units of unknown provenance to reward the developer Hudson McDonald for their promise of bringing Trader Joe’s to Berkeley. According to our city attorney, the City Council’s newly found power is entirely at their discretion—an extremely scary thought given the current composition of the Council. -more-


Healthy Living: My Conversion to Bicycling

By Jonathan Bair
Friday July 20, 2007

Fulfilling a New Year’s resolution to do more community activism, in January I accepted an invitation to join the City of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. I am the token pedestrian. So when Bike to Work Month came along, and the committee needed to recruit novice cyclists for 511.org’s Team Bike Challenge, I was an easy target. -more-


Editorial

Editorial: Time to Savor the Small Stuff

By Becky O’Malley
Friday July 20, 2007

“The world, Mma Ramotswe believed, was composed of big things and small things. The big things were written large, and one could not but be aware of them—wars, oppression, the familiar theft by the rich and the strong of the those simple things that the poor needed, those scraps which would make their life more bearable; this happened, and could make even the reading of the newspaper an exercise in sorrow. There were all those unkindnesses, palpable, daily, so easily avoidable; but one could not just think of those, thought Mma Ramotswe, or one would spend one’s time in tears—and the unkindnesses would continue. So the small things came into their own: small acts of helping others, if one could; small ways of making one’s own life better: acts of love, acts of tea, acts of laughter. Clever people might laugh at such simplicity, but, she asked herself, what was their own solution?” -more-


Columns

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Civilian Deaths Create Afghan Rifts; Guns for Hire Across the Globe

By Conn Hallinan
Friday July 20, 2007

The rising tide of Afghan civilian deaths has opened a rift between the U.S. and NATO’s 37,000-member International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). According to NATO officials, the United States’ increasing use of air power has badly damaged support for the war in both Afghanistan and Europe. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Figuring Our Way Out of Iraq

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday July 20, 2007

In my younger days, with more time on my hands but less patience, I used to try to figure out ways to make the water run out of the bathtub faster. Short of taking a hammer to the bottom of the tub, you can’t. It’s a mass-space-flow kind of thing. You can slow the water down or stop it back up altogether, I finally found, but you cannot speed up the water running out of the bathtub. -more-


Open Home in Focus: Gester House Open for Viewing Sunday

By Steve Finacom
Friday July 20, 2007

“It’s a castle!” a friend said when I showed her a picture of the turreted Gester House, at 2620 Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley. -more-


Garden Variety: Gardener, Spare That Tree! Especially Its Roots

By Ron Sullivan
Friday July 20, 2007

I ran into an old friend from hospital nursing days and we got together to go on about old times and friends—it’s amazing how many of them are still working where we’d met; they’re definitely made of tougher stuff than I am—and, surprise, about gardens. She’s got a rental house with a yard and a co-operative landlady and a pleasant garden already, and was looking for ways to make the place bloom more. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week: Kudos to Danville!

By Larry Guillot
Friday July 20, 2007

The town council of Danville has passed an ordinance stating that, as of July 1, an automatic gas shut-off valve must be installed any time a permit is pulled for work of $10,000 or more. -more-


About the House: This One Hasn’t Happened Yet

By Matt Cantor
Friday July 20, 2007

Like most people, I want to think of myself as a good person. Someone interested in the general welfare, democracy and wholesome values. But like most people, I have a bit of a dark streak. Mayhem is fun. Trouble is more interesting than smooth, well-oiled continuity. Admit it, you probably find earthquakes and plane crashes interesting. The whole news business is based on our fascination with things gone wrong (especially things gone terribly wrong). -more-


Arts & Events

Denner and Bromige Bring Poetry to Moe’s Monday Series

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday July 20, 2007

Richard Denner, dubbed “the Berkeley Barb poet” by Max Scheer, a founder of that fabled ’60s publication, will read with Sonoma County Poet Laureate David Bromige 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 23, at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. Admission is free. -more-


Play About Dietrich and Piaf at Alterena

Friday July 20, 2007

Dietrich and Piaf, La Chanson Intime (The Intimate Song), the story of two great stars and their friendship, with cabaret music and song, will be performed just this Sunday at 7 p.m. by the authors, Ellen Brooks as Piaf and Shannon Nicholson as Dietrich. The play will be at Altarena Theatre, 1409 High St. in Alameda, with music director and accordionist Deb Cimbellon, Armando Fox on piano and Ted Barker as announcer. Set just after World War II, when Piaf was in the Resistance and Dietrich was entertaining (and risking her life), the play expresses the sympathy between “two icons who both led intensely private lives.” Piaf, at whose first wedding Dietrich was matron of honor, died in 1963; Dietrich lived on for decades after. Tickets are $18-$20. Reservations recommended, 523-1553. -more-


Arts Listings

Arts Calendar

Friday July 20, 2007

‘Painting to Live’ at UC East Asian Institute

By Zelda Bronstein, Special to the Planet
Friday July 20, 2007

The Theater: Actors Ensemble ‘All in the Timing’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday July 20, 2007

Moving Pictures: Jewish Film Festival Comes to Roda Theater

By Justin De Freitas
Friday July 20, 2007


Events Listings

Berkeley This Week

Friday July 20, 2007

Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Time to Savor the Small Stuff 07-20-2007

Editorial: Whatever Became of the Commons? 07-17-2007

Public Comment

Letters to the Editor 07-20-2007

Commentary: Berkeley Iceland Saved on Dramatic 5-4 Council Vote By Randy Shaw 07-20-2007

Commentary: Don’t Move South Branch Library to Ed Roberts Campus By Jane Welford 07-20-2007

Commentary: A Thousand Channels for Participation and Inclusion By Robert Vogel 07-20-2007

Commentary: Bedouin Tragedy By Heidi Basch 07-20-2007

Commentary: Trader Joe’s — A Disaster for Our Neighborhood, A Danger for Every Neighborhood By Stephen Wollmer 07-20-2007

Healthy Living: My Conversion to Bicycling By Jonathan Bair 07-20-2007

Letters to the Editor 07-17-2007

Commentary: Mayor’s Proposed Public Comment Rules Violate Fair Play By Dona Spring 07-17-2007

Commentary: Berkeley Iceland: A Treasure that Should Not Be at Risk By Gale Garcia 07-17-2007

Commentary: Thoughts on Berkeley Living By George Oram 07-17-2007

Healthy Living: What Are We Eating and How Is Our Food Produced? By Charlene M. Woodcock 07-17-2007

‘Inquiring Mind’ Journal Throws 25th Anniversary Party By Marty Schiffenbauer 07-17-2007

News

Council OKs Iceland Landmark, Group Hopes to Save Rink By Judith Scherr 07-20-2007

‘Trader Joe’s Building’ Plan Wins Council Approval By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-20-2007

Battle for Big Downtown Buildings Spurs Tension By Richard Brenneman 07-20-2007

Council Clashes Over Decorum, Shuts B-Town By Judith Scherr 07-20-2007

Regents Approve Major Expansion at Lawrence Lab By Richard Brenneman 07-20-2007

LBNL Seeks Computer Lab Builder By Richard Brenneman 07-20-2007

Contrast Between State Takeovers of Oakland and Vallejo Schools Raises Questions By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-20-2007

Berkeley Commissions Update By Al Winslow 07-20-2007

Celebrating the Many Virtues of Globe Artichokes By Shirley Barker 07-20-2007

Farmers Market 20th Anniversary By Rio Bauce 07-20-2007

Wayans Port of Oakland Deal Approved By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-20-2007

Bike Cops to Patrol South Berkeley By Rio Bauce 07-20-2007

Housing Authority Board Meeting Not Noticed By Judith Scherr 07-20-2007

Ten Questions for Councilmember Dona Spring By Jonathan Wafer, Special to the Planet 07-20-2007

Council Upholds Iceland as Landmark By Judith Scherr 07-17-2007

Council Takes Another Look at Berkeley Iceland Landmark Status By Judith Scherr 07-17-2007

West Berkeley Car Sales Plan Nears Deadline By Richard Brenneman 07-17-2007

Forfeiture Audit Shows Police, City Mismanagement By Judith Scherr 07-17-2007

Competing Resolutions for Public Comment Vie for Council Approval By Judith Scherr 07-17-2007

LeConte Neighbors Oppose UC Student Dorm Project By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-17-2007

Pacific Steel Prepares Health Risk Report By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-17-2007

Attorney Slams UC Response to Richmond Toxic Dump By Richard Brenneman 07-17-2007

OUSD Local Control Bill Gains Support By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-17-2007

Teenagers Arrested For Shooting at Passing Vehicles By Rio Bauce 07-17-2007

Berkeley Police Blotter By Rio Bauce 07-17-2007

UC Extension Landmark Denial Appealed By Riya Bhattacharjee 07-17-2007

Columns

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Civilian Deaths Create Afghan Rifts; Guns for Hire Across the Globe By Conn Hallinan 07-20-2007

Column: Undercurrents: Figuring Our Way Out of Iraq By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 07-20-2007

Open Home in Focus: Gester House Open for Viewing Sunday By Steve Finacom 07-20-2007

Garden Variety: Gardener, Spare That Tree! Especially Its Roots By Ron Sullivan 07-20-2007

Quake Tip of the Week: Kudos to Danville! By Larry Guillot 07-20-2007

About the House: This One Hasn’t Happened Yet By Matt Cantor 07-20-2007

Wild Neighbors: Requiem for the Hat Creek Beavers By Joe Eaton 07-17-2007

Arts & Events

Arts Calendar 07-20-2007

‘Painting to Live’ at UC East Asian Institute By Zelda Bronstein, Special to the Planet 07-20-2007

The Theater: Actors Ensemble ‘All in the Timing’ By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 07-20-2007

Moving Pictures: Jewish Film Festival Comes to Roda Theater By Justin De Freitas 07-20-2007

Moving Pictures: A Bucolic Dream Amid the Horrors of the Holocaust By Justin DeFreitas 07-20-2007

Denner and Bromige Bring Poetry to Moe’s Monday Series By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 07-20-2007

Play About Dietrich and Piaf at Alterena 07-20-2007

Open Home in Focus: Gester House Open for Viewing Sunday By Steve Finacom 07-20-2007

Garden Variety: Gardener, Spare That Tree! Especially Its Roots By Ron Sullivan 07-20-2007

Quake Tip of the Week: Kudos to Danville! By Larry Guillot 07-20-2007

About the House: This One Hasn’t Happened Yet By Matt Cantor 07-20-2007

Berkeley This Week 07-20-2007

Arts Calendar 07-17-2007

Midsummer Mozart Kicks Off New Season By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet 07-17-2007

The Theater: Impact Briefs: Sinfully Delicious By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet 07-17-2007

Wild Neighbors: Requiem for the Hat Creek Beavers By Joe Eaton 07-17-2007

Berkeley This Week 07-17-2007