The Week

Helder Parreira shows brothers Miguel and Alvaro Hernandez how to build a boat at the Aquatic Park’s revamped Berkeley Boathouse last week. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
Helder Parreira shows brothers Miguel and Alvaro Hernandez how to build a boat at the Aquatic Park’s revamped Berkeley Boathouse last week. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

A Fresh Start for Berkeley’s Aquatic Park

By Riya Bhattacharjee and Rio Bauce
Tuesday August 07, 2007

In a corner of West Berkeley, amidst industrial rubble and smoke, two young minds are hard at work resurrecting what has long been a no man’s land. -more-


Developer Plans More Projects for Iceland Block

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Lost in the recent flap over the landmarking of Iceland is the future of the rest of the block on which it’s located—currently the home of McKevitt Volvo. -more-


AC Transit Directors Approve Bus Transfer

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 07, 2007

The general manager for the Alameda Contra Costa Transit District says that a trade-in of 16 existing North American Bus Industries (NABI) buses five years early for new Van Hools is still in the economic interest of the district, even though the $1.35 million federal interest in the NABIs cannot be transferred to another debt, as the district earlier anticipated. -more-


Local Attorney Now Heads Community Law Center

By Rio Bauce
Tuesday August 07, 2007

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is undergoing a makeover, not only becaused it has moved, but also because it has a new executive director. Last month, the center promoted a minority rights advocate, Tirien Steinbach, to be its new executive director. Steinbach replaced Interim Executive Director Deborah Moss-West. -more-


Popular Car Wash Faces Eviction

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Come fall—or maybe winter, as far as the Kandy Mann can guess—there may be one less African American-owned business in Berkeley, four fewer full-time jobs and one less place to get a car hand-washed any day of the week. -more-


Oakland Police Say Bailey Murderer Did Not Act Alone

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Oakland Police officials are saying that a 19-year-old employee of Oakland’s Your Black Muslim Bakery has confessed to the shotgun murder of Oakland Post editor and veteran journalist Chauncey Bailey. But Oakland Deputy Chief Howard Jordan said at a Monday morning press conference that OPD investigators do not believe the assertion of San Francisco native Devaughdre Broussard that he acted alone in Bailey’s shooting, and are pursuing leads about possible accomplices. -more-


Southside Rapist Strikes in Apartment Building Lobbies

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Berkeley police are seeking a suspect in two Southside rapes, one on July 6 and the other Aug. 2. -more-


War and Peace Notes: Grand Lake Screens New Documentary on Media’s Role in U.S. Wars

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Thursday, the community will have a chance to see the Bay Area premiere of War Made Easy, a film narrated by Sean Penn and based on Norman Solomon’s book by the same name. The film exposes the role of the media as cheerleader for the war in Iraq and shows, using archival footage, how the media played an almost identical role during the War in Vietnam and earlier wars. -more-


Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Forgotten range triggers blaze -more-


Landmarks Commission Debates Significance of 19th-Century Home

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 07, 2007

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) did not declare the 19th-century dwelling at 3100 Shattuck Ave. a structure of merit or a city landmark Thursday. -more-


Battle of Marin Avenue Nears Key Court Ruling

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Ray Chamberlin took the Battle of Marin Avenue to a venerable venue last week when he faced lawyers representing the governments of two cities in a San Francisco courtroom. -more-


Historic Blood House Back on Zoning Board Agenda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 07, 2007

The Blood House is back on the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) agenda Thursday after the board failed to take action almost two years ago on its proposed removal from 2526 Durant Ave. to make room for mixed-use development . -more-


Plants to Grow Beyond the Pale

By Shirley Barker, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 07, 2007

As noted in a previous article, globe artichokes are perennial plants that need a permanent spot outside the vegetable area designated for a four-year rotation plan. These are not the only plants needing their own separate place: rhubarb and horseradish are others. -more-


Healthy Living: A Passion for Exercise and Healthier Food Choices

By Wendy Stephens
Tuesday August 07, 2007

When I was younger, and TV was in its relative infancy, and the big radio in my mother’s and my grandmother’s kitchens was a kind of second hearth to gather round and literally rub shoulders over while listening to distant yet homey messages beam in, I became very taken with my mother’s radio idol, lay nutritionist Carleton Fredericks, and my mother’s TV idol, feats of wonder strongman, Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne. -more-


Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally After Raid

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 03, 2007

Some 50 people, including four Berkeley city councilmembers, rallied Tuesday at the Maudelle Shirek Building, demanding that federal drug enforcement agents and the Los Angeles Police Department stay out of Berkeley and that the city become a sanctuary for medical marijuana distribution. -more-


West Berkeley Tax District Questioned

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 03, 2007

Bringing beauty to Berkeley’s ugly Ashby Avenue gateway, cleaning sidewalks, adding security, removing graffiti, creating an improved local transportation system emulating the popular Emery Go Round are just a few of the reasons South West Berkeley’s commercial property owners want to create an assessment district, says Marco Li Mandri, president of New City America and consultant on the South West Berkeley Community Benefits District (CBD) project. -more-


UC Gym Lawsuit Raises Legal Tensions

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 03, 2007

As the date for the courtroom showdown over UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium gym draws closer, a paperwork blizzard has begun to blow. -more-


Library Trustees Make Recommendation

By Judith Scherr
Friday August 03, 2007

In a 4-0-1 vote Wednesday evening, former Chamber of Commerce Chair Carolyn Henry Golphin was recommended by the Library Board of Trustees as the new trustee. -more-


Faultline Still Rocks Downtown Preservation Discussion

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 03, 2007

The fissure dividing Berkeley’s citizen downtown planners trembled anew Tuesday night, but when it was over, the “Big One” still lay ahead. -more-


Tributes on the Life of Chauncey Bailey

By Bay City News
Friday August 03, 2007

Tributes to slain Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey poured in today from prominent politicians as well as from his colleagues in the news business. -more-


Spring Agrees to Negotiate Campaign Violation

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 03, 2007

With a new treasurer, hi-tech computer software and a lesson in banking skills, Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring pledged to do a better job of following campaign finance laws. -more-


AHA Now to Offer Tenants Full Relocation Options

By Rio Bauce
Friday August 03, 2007

Affordable Housing Associates (AHA) announced this week that they would give tenants at Allston House on 2121 7th St. the option to be temporarily relocated during the renovation of their toilets beginning Aug. 20. -more-


Remembering Robin Gorton, Teacher and Puppeteer

By Janet Weiss
Friday August 03, 2007

Robin Gorton was a favorite teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District. With her quick smile, storyteller’s magic, and seemingly unlimited number of puppets, Mrs. Gorton performed hundreds of puppet shows for kindergarten students enrolled in the Cragmont and Oxford schools. -more-


Hearings Focus on UC-BP Deal, Computer Labs

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 03, 2007

People concerned about impacts of two planned Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) buildings—one housing the controversial BP-funded Energy Bioscience Institute (EBI)—can raise their questions during a special meeting Wednesday night. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Let’s Talk About What the Media Can Do

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday August 07, 2007

“...you wrote in your hit piece on me that you do sort your socks. That’s strange: Disorder is OK outdoors but not in? Sounds like symptoms of a closet conservative to me.....Let me digress by immodestly pointing out that, unlike for you, the challenges of broadcast programs like this one are not theoretical for me. I literally wrote the book on this subject....Unlike your newspaper which has only one point of view, my radio show serves the entire community and all points of view.....Consider this an invitation to join me one day soon on my radio show. You’ll find an environment shockingly different from the pages of your paper: a place where all points of view are truly welcome.” -more-


Editorial: Keeping the Beserkeley in Berkeley

By Becky O’Malley
Friday August 03, 2007

If we don’t watch out, pretty soon there’ll no Beserkely left in Berkeley—nothing quirky, funky, artsy or even anything useful. Stories coming out of West Berkeley in the last few weeks strongly suggest that there’s a determined campaign underway to turn Berkeley’s last non-suburban bastion into a poor imitation of a cross between Emeryville and Walnut Creek, with the worst aspects of both. Case in point: the proposed re-zoning, supposedly just to create freeway-centric automobile dealerships a la Walnut Creek, but which threatens properties now home to unique and valued West Berkeley businesses like Ashby Lumber, MacBeath Hardwood, Urban Ore and the place that sells the outrageous sculpture and furniture made from salvaged redwoods. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday August 07, 2007

CHRIS KAVANAGH -more-


Commentary: Shame on Governor For Vetoing Universal Health Care Bill

By Jessica Rosen
Tuesday August 07, 2007

The OneCareNow universal health insurance campaign in 365 cities in 365 days is dedicated to ensuring quality, affordable universal healthcare gets passed in California. To get involved, go to www.onecarenow.org. -more-


Commentary: Rotating Primaries: An Eternally Bad Idea

By Thomas Gangale
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Ever wonder why nothing ever gets done in Washington? One of the reasons is that some of our elected officials, once they get an idea into their heads, they fixate on it until the end of time, no matter how dumb it is. The latest dumb, old idea is being trumpeted by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT). The fact that they’re touting it as a “tri-partisan solution” ought to tell that it’s more hype than substance. There’s a Democrat, a Republican, and a Leiberman. What, is Leiberman a party of one? Well, I guess that makes it easier for him to get seated in a busy restaurant. -more-


Commentary: Do Berkeley Police Have It In for Bicyclists?

By Michelle Lerager
Tuesday August 07, 2007

I am a 56-year-old woman who has enjoyed riding my bike all over Berkeley for over 25 years. I bike to work daily; I do most of my errands by bike; and I ride to reduce my carbon footprint and for fitness—I’m proud to say I ride up Spruce Street regularly for aerobic exercise. I am a very safe, conservative bicyclist. I stop at all stop lights and proceed cautiously at stop signs, slowing or stopping and taking my proper turn when entering intersections. I avoid main streets and appreciate the “Bicycle Boulevards,” which I use whenever possible. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday August 03, 2007

running KPFA -more-


Commentary: Controlling the Public

By Doug Buckwald
Friday August 03, 2007

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) meeting sponsored by the Transportation Commission on July 24 was even worse than I imagined it would be. The meeting was facilitated by the Chair of the Transportation Commission, Sarah Syed. She treated the people in the room as if they were a group of schoolchildren—rather than concerned Berkeley citizens who had volunteered their time on a weekday evening to weigh in on an important city issue. She was unfriendly and impatient right from the very start. She snapped orders at people and threatened to throw people out of the meeting. What were members of the audience doing that was so unacceptable? Just trying to express concerns about BRT, nothing more. She just would not allow it! -more-


Commentary: An Attempt at BRT Shepherding

By Mary Oram
Friday August 03, 2007

Tuesday night, July 23rd, I witnessed an exercise in mind control in the disguise of a meeting of a transit subcommittee of the Transportation Commis-sion. The subject of the meeting was to discuss the proposed BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) as it affects the South Side area. The meeting was run by the Chair of the Transportation Commission. Most of the attendees have attended more than one meeting about BRT so that the Chair knew many of the attendees by name and their position on this issue. -more-


Commentary: Saving the Strawberry Canyon Landscape

By Janice Thomas
Friday August 03, 2007

The rapid pace of proposed development for this town reminds me of post-war development, not only as in post-WW2, but as in post-Civil War. Buildings were decimated; towns pillaged; landscapes burned. People’s lives destroyed. -more-


Commentary: Violations of Residency Law Should Be Penalized

By Paul Schwartz
Friday August 03, 2007

I was shocked to read in the San Francisco Chronicle in the Matier and Ross column that our Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner Chris Kavanagh is defending an eviction proceeding from his home in Oakland. If these allegations are true, that Mr. Kavangh perjured himself when he signed election papers to seek the position of Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, then he must be prosecuted for that perjury by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. If he is not prosecuted, then our election laws, which are sacred, become meaningless and subject to fraud and manipulation by unscrupulous individuals. -more-


Commentary: Land Owners, Polluters Should Pay Fair Share

By Fred Foldvary
Friday August 03, 2007

In the “Ten Questions for Council-member Dona Spring” (07-20-07), “high rents,” which soak up much of the residents’ income and prevents people from being able to afford to live in Berkeley, was at the top of the pressing issues. -more-


Commentary: Where Chris Lives and Why It Matters

By David M. Wilson
Friday August 03, 2007

The Planet is to be congratulated. While Matier and Ross broke the story of Chris Kavanagh’s floating domicile, Judith Scherr’s astute reporting adds an awful lot to the picture. Despite filing numerous statements (under penalty of perjury) stating he was a Berkeley tenant, Rent Board Commissioner Chris has apparently lived in Oakland since at least 2001. He has never lived at either 22 Tunnel Road or 2709 Dwight Way, where he has registered to vote. Indeed, he cares so much about his Oakland pad that he is now in court fighting the owner’s effort to move him out. In the meantime, his “residence” is the Elmwood post office. -more-


Healthy Living: Adapting an Age-Old Body to Contemporary Berkeley

By Marcella Murphy
Friday August 03, 2007

I have found that the challenge of healthy living is this: to adapt the body that my ancestors carefully evolved to live a particular way of life to the demands of life in twenty-first century Berkeley. What an undertaking! -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Giuliani: ‘It’s Great to Be Rich”

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday August 07, 2007

On July 24, Rudy Giuliani, the leading Republican presidential candidate, gave a campaign speech in San Francisco. It’s illuminating to study the former New York City mayor’s remarks because they reveal a lot about him and the prevailing philosophy of the GOP. He asserted that Democrats “do not understand a capitalist economy…they think it’s bad to make money. They think it’s bad to be rich… I think it’s great to be rich.” -more-


Green Neighbors: The Madrone: The Red Jewel of Our Pacific Forest

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Sometimes when you’re walking through Briones Park, through the oak-laurel forest on the trail that leads to the archery range and that old-homestead meadow where they line up the Boy Scouts to salute things, your gaze and the sun shining through the canopy and the remnants of the day’s fogbank will intersect at just the right moment. I swear you can see the various leaves getting all excited about photosynthesis, that quotidian necessary miracle, and open themselves cell by cell to the light. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Speculation Grows on Murder of Editor

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 03, 2007

Some years ago, while I was working for an African-American newspaper in South Carolina called the Charleston Chronicle, a local Black attorney tried to get me to ride down with him to a country community near the Georgia border to talk with some people he was representing. George Payton was a self-promoter who had run for public office several times and would probably be running again, and an incessant talker as well, and the idea of spending a day with him—including four hours alone in a car—just so he could get his name in the paper didn’t appeal to me, so I begged off. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Indonesia and the U.S. — A Shameful Record

By Conn Hallinan
Friday August 03, 2007

This is a tale about politics, influence, money and murder. It began more than 40 years ago with a bloodletting so massive no one quite knows how many people died. Half a million? A million? Through four decades the story has left a trail of misery and terror. Last month it claimed four peasants, one of them a 27-year old mother. -more-


What Would Stickley Do With a Computer in the Kitchen?

By Jane Powell
Friday August 03, 2007

The Kitchen -more-


Garden Variety: Lafayette Work in Progress Is Worth a Visit

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 03, 2007

Change is inevitable; it’s always reassuring when a change in a good business is in the spirit of the original, an enhancement rather than a trip to the oubliette—for example, when an owner retired and sells the place to people who are familiar with it and like its style already. A breath of fresh air is much better than a tornado where there’s something worth preserving. Oh, Toto! -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 03, 2007

Ouch! That Quake Hurts! -more-


About the House: At War with Germany Again

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 03, 2007

We’re at war with Germany again, and this time they’re winning. No, it’s not a shooting war but since shooting wars always start with economic pretexts, it’s not a far stretch to talk about shooting wars in conjunction with this war and since it involves energy, it’s easy to point to our differing approaches to the war in Iraq as one example of how they’re winning, both morally and physically. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday August 07, 2007

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 -more-


The Theater: ‘Three Musketeers’ in Full Swing at Hinkel Park

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 07, 2007

You have compromised the honor of a lady!” “And you’ve bastardized an English poet!” With repartee and ripostes, fast dialogue and swordplay, Shotgun Players’ The Three Musketeers, an adaptation by Joanie McBrien (who also directed) with Dave Garrett of the rich Alexandre Dumas epic of the wars of religion in 17th-century France under the sway of Cardinal Richelieu, is in full swing weekend afternoons in John Hinkel Park, for free—and it’s quite a crowd-pleaser. -more-


Green Neighbors: The Madrone: The Red Jewel of Our Pacific Forest

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday August 07, 2007

Sometimes when you’re walking through Briones Park, through the oak-laurel forest on the trail that leads to the archery range and that old-homestead meadow where they line up the Boy Scouts to salute things, your gaze and the sun shining through the canopy and the remnants of the day’s fogbank will intersect at just the right moment. I swear you can see the various leaves getting all excited about photosynthesis, that quotidian necessary miracle, and open themselves cell by cell to the light. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday August 07, 2007

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 -more-


Clarification

Tuesday August 07, 2007

Regarding a report in the Aug. 3 article “Spring Agrees to Negotiate Campaign Violation,” a July 26 FCPC staff update clarifies that Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring did not incur any late filing obligation for the SEIU Local 535 PAC $250 contribution because it was hand-delivered a week after the date on the check. -more-


Correction

Tuesday August 07, 2007

The Planet incorrectly stated in a story Friday on the proposed South West Berkeley Benefits District that in the draft budget there are no funds allocated to address zoning issues. The draft budget, however, allocates $60,000 for the first year for “overall district management,” which will include funding a district administrator responsible for “oversight of contracted services.” Those services are to include: “Hiring professionals (to) advise on land use issues, transportation planning, [and] input on [the] West Berkeley Plan.” South West Berkeley zoning is spelled out in the West Berkeley Plan adopted by the city. -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday August 03, 2007

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 -more-


Around the East Bay: Photography: "A New Life, A New Home"

Friday August 03, 2007

‘A NEW LIFE, A NEW HOME’ -more-


No DQ Comes The Jazz House

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday August 03, 2007

Guitarist Ross Hammond, doubling on banjo and lap steel guitar, will lead a quartet dubbed “No DQ,” featuring Philip Greenlief (saxophone), Gino Robair (percussion) and J.P. Carter (trumpet) for tonight’s Free Jazz Friday, The Jazz House’s biweekly event, 8 p. m. at the Performance Space at 1510 8th St. (a block from West Oakland BART). Admission is $5-15, sliding scale. -more-


The Thrill of Visiting the Lick Observatory

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Planet
Friday August 03, 2007

Well before nuclear physics, Nobel Prizes, Free Speech, championship athletics, or alternative fuels research, the University of California was known for academic work in fields such as agriculture, mining … and astronomy. -more-


What Would Stickley Do With a Computer in the Kitchen?

By Jane Powell
Friday August 03, 2007

The Kitchen -more-


Garden Variety: Lafayette Work in Progress Is Worth a Visit

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 03, 2007

Change is inevitable; it’s always reassuring when a change in a good business is in the spirit of the original, an enhancement rather than a trip to the oubliette—for example, when an owner retired and sells the place to people who are familiar with it and like its style already. A breath of fresh air is much better than a tornado where there’s something worth preserving. Oh, Toto! -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 03, 2007

Ouch! That Quake Hurts! -more-


About the House: At War with Germany Again

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 03, 2007

We’re at war with Germany again, and this time they’re winning. No, it’s not a shooting war but since shooting wars always start with economic pretexts, it’s not a far stretch to talk about shooting wars in conjunction with this war and since it involves energy, it’s easy to point to our differing approaches to the war in Iraq as one example of how they’re winning, both morally and physically. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday August 03, 2007

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 -more-