The Week

Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks out against the war in Iraq at a labor rally at the San Francisco Federal Building Oct. 27 prior to the commencement of a peace march, in which thousands walked from Civic Center to Dolores Park. Photograph by Judith Scherr.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee speaks out against the war in Iraq at a labor rally at the San Francisco Federal Building Oct. 27 prior to the commencement of a peace march, in which thousands walked from Civic Center to Dolores Park. Photograph by Judith Scherr.
 

News

Judge Hits Berkeley Tree-Sitters With Injunction to Leave

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 30, 2007

On Monday a Fremont judge granted an injunction that broadens his earlier order, which banished one named tree-sitter, to include all occupants of the trees, as well as to bar their supporters from the Memorial Stadium oak grove. -more-


City’s Creative Financing May Help Residents, Businesses Go Solar

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 30, 2007

The number of Berkeley homeowners and businesses with rooftop solar collectors could multiply in the next few years, if a complex financing proposal pans out. -more-


Confusion Continues to Plague Peralta District Measure A

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday October 30, 2007

The citizens’ oversight committee for the Peralta Community College District Measure A facilities bonds, which has not issued required minutes or a report on its activities for the year and a half since the bond measure was passed, descended into something close to disarray this month with confusion over its membership. -more-


Downtown Advisory Panel Rules Out Point Towers

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Point towers are out for downtown Berkeley and 10-story apartment buildings are in—or eight floors for office and commercial buildings. That’s the solid consensus emerging from Monday morning’s meeting of DAPAC’s Land Use subcommittee—the six-member panel tasked with writing the new downtown plan’s central chapter. -more-


Dow Comes to Berkeley, Sparking Student Protest

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Dow Chemical, the company whose very name sparked violent student protests during the Vietnam War era, is coming back to the UC Berkeley campus. -more-


West Branch Library Re-Opens After Refurbishment

By Phila Rogers, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

On a typical foggy Friday morning, just before 10 a.m., mothers and a few grandmothers wheel their toddlers to the front of the West Branch Library, waiting for the doors of the library to open admitting them to the toddler story hour. Once inside, strollers are deposited along the short hallway into the community meeting room. -more-


Letter Mistakenly Sent to County’s Party-Affiliated Voters

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Alameda County election officials are saying that letters sent out to county voters this week indicating the recipients were not registered by party was done by mistake, and no changes have been actually made to registered voters’ party affiliation. -more-


LeConte Neighbors Protest Proposed Project

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 30, 2007

A group of LeConte neighbors turned up at the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) meeting Thursday to protest a proposed three-story second unit at 2837 Fulton St. that, they said, was out of character with the neighborhood and would have visual and shadow impacts on the adjacent LeConte Elementary schoolyard. -more-


Signing of UC-BP Biofuel Pact Is Imminent, Say Lab, UCB

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 30, 2007

The half-billion-dollar biofuel contract between a British oil company and UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), and the University of Illinois should be signed “within the next couple of weeks.” -more-


LPC to Vote on BHS Historic District Nomination

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 30, 2007

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will vote on whether to nominate the Berkeley High School (BHS) Campus Historic District, at 1980 Allston Way, to the National Register of Historic places Thursday. -more-


Police Blotter

By Rio Bauce
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Robbery -more-


Students Protest Islamo-Fascist Week on Campus

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday October 26, 2007

The UC Berkeley Muslim Students Association (MSA) responded to Islamo-Fascist Week on campus with Peace Not Prejudice Week, ending today. -more-


Council Asks for Study On Hotel Funding

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 26, 2007

Despite concerns of some residents that the city could end up subsidizing a downtown hotel-condo project, the council on Tuesday voted 8-1 to accept the developer’s funds to hire a consultant to figure out funding. -more-


New Children’s Hospital Tax Measure Added to Ballot

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday October 26, 2007

After what Supervisor Keith Carson said was “reluctantly” carrying out their legally-mandated duty to place a $12 million Children’s Hospital special tax initiative on the February ballot, Alameda County supervisors voted to place a second compromise measure on the ballot as well. -more-


Ward Street Community Says No to Antennas On UC Storage

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 26, 2007

Faced with some 60 neighbors opposing telecommunications antennas proposed for a building at Ward Street and Shattuck Avenue—and armed with signs calling for the recall of the mayor and stating “Don’t Sell Us Out”—the Berkeley City Council split Tuesday over whether to uphold the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) decision to deny permits for the antennas at 2721 Shattuck Ave. -more-


Building Heights Edge Up at DAPAC Group

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 26, 2007

The question of downtown Berkeley’s future skyline remained unresolved Thursday at the end of the second of three scheduled meetings of a citizen planning committee, the land-use subcommitee of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). -more-


University Seeks Community Input on People’s Park Report

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday October 26, 2007

The People’s Park Community Advisory Board is now accepting public comments on the draft report assessing the park’s needs and planning future changes. -more-


Planners Mull Code, OK Condos

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 26, 2007

Berkeley’s Planning Commissioners spent their meeting Wednesday talking about what they’d like to do. -more-


Character and Cross Country

By Al Winslow
Friday October 26, 2007

Cross country running is a sport where everybody gets to play. -more-


BUSD Nondiscrimination Policy to Include LGBT Students

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday October 26, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education approved a policy to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their families from discrimination and harassment in the Berkeley Unified School District for the first time Wednesday. -more-


Protesters Gear Up for Oct. 27 March to End the War

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 26, 2007

The oft-divided anti-war movement will be marching in San Francisco under a single banner Saturday: End the War Now. “No more surges, no more study groups: BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!” -more-


UC Regents Set to Approve Berkeley Projects

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 26, 2007

UC could make the first cash payment on a new downtown Berkeley art museum in January. -more-


Fire News

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 26, 2007

Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said a cigarette-sparked fire did about $20,000 in damage to an Alvarado Road home and its contents early Wednesday evening. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: So Just March, Already...

By Becky O’Malley
Friday October 26, 2007

The weather forecast says that Saturday will be another one of those gorgeous October days we’re blessed with in Northern California. It looks like it will be a very nice day for a walk—a long walk, a walk perhaps in San Francisco. Yes, if you haven’t figured it out already, this is a restrained pitch for the peace march in San Francisco. It’s being sponsored by—oh, who is it being sponsored by? And why does it matter anyhow? There will undoubtedly be people there with whom you disagree on some part of the message, or who will behave in a way you might not want to endorse. Go anyhow, carry your own sign with your own message, act the way you want everyone to act. -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday October 30, 2007

UC EXPENDITURES -more-


Commentary: UC and BP: A Step in the Wrong Direction

By Ignacio Chapela
Tuesday October 30, 2007

When our students look back in time, it will be easy for them to recognize this as a key moment in history. The signing of the “bioenergy” agreement between British Petroleum and the University of California, Berkeley for a reported $500 million will be clearly visible then, in the future, as a very big step indeed, a decisive step in the wrong direction. -more-


Commentary: Support Free Speech and Open Debate in KPFA Election

By Carol Spooner
Tuesday October 30, 2007

We fought a long hard fight to win democratic elections for KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB). One of the most important reasons for that was so that listeners could be informed by the candidates of the issues and problems and their proposed solutions. Imagine, if back in 1999 we had had the ability to communicate with all the members and to elect—and recall—the board of directors (through our elected delegates on the LSB). -more-


Commentary: KPFA ‘Concerned Listeners’

By Sherry Gendelman
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Concerned Listeners very much appreciates the Berkeley Daily Planet’s coverage of the current KPFA LSB elections. -more-


Commentary: The KPFA Flap

By Matthew Hallinan
Tuesday October 30, 2007

When I was considering running for the KPFA Local Station Board, a number of old-time activist friends told me I was crazy. There is a sectarian fringe, they said, that has placed all their hopes for getting access to an audience by gaining control over KPFA. At the same time, they explained, there was a staff that had grown comfortable with the way things are, and that would resist any effort to change things. Anybody who would put him or herself in the middle of that minefield was just plain nuts. -more-


Commentary: Density: Cause or Effect

By Darren Conly
Tuesday October 30, 2007

In his well-researched Oct. 23 commentary on the cons of increasing the density of downtown and Berkeley as a whole, Neil Mayer provided me with two major negative points concerning increased density: 1) That it produces gritty, undesirable urban conditions, or 2) that increased density leads to gentrification and the ousting of working families. -more-


Commentary: A Moderate Position on Density

By Charles Siegel
Tuesday October 30, 2007

The debate about development in Berkeley has been polarized for decades, but a moderate position is emerging in the current debate over downtown height limits. The moderates support smart growth but oppose high-rises. I myself am a long-time advocate of smart growth. I have supported all the pedestrian-oriented infill projects built in downtown and on transit-corridors during the past 20 years, including the Gaia Building. But I am completely opposed to building 16-story or 12-story towers downtown, because I want to preserve downtown’s human scale. During the current debate over downtown density, both extremes—anti-development advocates and pro-high-rise advocates—have made misleading claims. -more-


Commentary: Underneath the Shady Tree (Again)

By Winston Burton
Tuesday October 30, 2007

I was sitting outside at a restaurant, on Center Street in downtown Berkeley, when my friend Martin the mailman approached. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Friday October 26, 2007

CORRECTION -more-


Commentary: West Berkeley BID is Not Mom and Apple Pie

By Dan Knapp
Friday October 26, 2007

In his Oct. 19 letter to the editor, Steven Donaldson didn’t mention that he is one of the West Berkeley property owners trying to set up a new tax to fund privatizing city services. He posed instead as just another interested neighborhood guy, who no doubt attended the “Town Hall Meeting” partly to register his support for the tax and partly to observe the antics of dozens of “folks” whose earnest and articulate arguments he professes never to understand. Indeed, in 12 paragraphs of Steven’s prose, he never engages his opponents’ arguments at all. It’s as if we had nothing to say. But of course we did. -more-


Commentary: An Open Letter to Captain Richard Lund

By Zanne Joi
Friday October 26, 2007

Dear Captain Lund, -more-


Commentary; A Public Comment Process Without Central Control

By Robert Vogel and Simona Carini
Friday October 26, 2007

Most of the world today has access to competing sources of news, each claiming to present a balanced version of truth. While the professional media reports from multiple primary sources and permits a variety of opinion in letters to the editor, no single source is truly capable of “balance” in reporting the news. At some point, an editor ultimately controls what gets published; at that point “balance” is compromised and the editor’s bias inevitably influences public opinion and policy. -more-


Commentary: BioEnergy Institute and BP Grant Are Already Archaic

By James Singmaster
Friday October 26, 2007

Regrettably, UC Berkeley, which just had a big opening show Oct. 22 for its Joint BioEnergy Institute, will soon see the bioenergy concept drop dead after so much hoopla from the University and BP on bioenergy having great “possibilities to save the world.” The hydrogen fuel future may be fast approaching as German scientists at the Max Planck Institute announced a few weeks ago their finding a catalyst that uses sunlight energy to convert water into hydrogen. Hydrogen for fuel and windmills for electric power have no pollution or residual junk problems and should be setup as fast as possible to give us clean energy, and most of the bioenergy concept will soon be laughed about for its shortsightedness. -more-


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Breaking the Public Trust (Three Cheers for Dona Spring)

By Zelda Bronstein
Tuesday October 30, 2007

It was after 11 p.m. last Tuesday, and the council chamber was nearly empty, when Dave Blake stepped up to the lectern and used his two minutes of public comment to warn the council that its secretive ways were undermining Berkeley’s ability to generate revenue at the ballot box. Describing himself “as a citizen who’s been involved in raising money for the city”—Blake has campaigned for measures to fund the city’s library, parks and warm water pool—the former Zoning Adjustments Board member obliquely referred to the failure of the four city tax measures in November 2004: “A lot of people think that the reason we’re no longer successful in passing items in this city,” he said, “is that we’re not generating the feeling of trust between the council and the people in the city … I don’t think we’re going to be passing any two-thirds measures in the near future, unless we start to be open and clear about big decisions like this one.” -more-


Column: The Public Eye: Depressed America

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday October 30, 2007

These are hard times in America. There’s broad agreement our nation has lost its way and the U.S. is no longer “the shining light on the hill.” We don’t trust our leaders or believe national politicians care about the common good. Americans are uncertain and depressed. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Birds in Berkeley: The Owls in the Oak

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Eighty-one years ago Joseph Grinnell, director of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, sat in his corner office at the edge of Faculty Glade watching a crew of arborists at work on a venerable coast live oak. Or, as he put it in his essay “Tree Surgery and the Birds,” “ ‘tree surgeons’ … under directions of a ‘landscape architect.’ ” His contempt is evident. Over the years, Grinnell had observed 46 species of birds in that oak. And he noted the removal of bits of the tree that had attracted particular species of birds: the decaying stub where the downy woodpecker drummed, the white-breasted nuthatch’s favorite foraging ground, the flycatcher’s perch. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Lies, Damned Lies and Iraq

By Conn Hallinan
Friday October 26, 2007

The great 19th century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once remarked there were three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. It is a dictum the Bush administration has taken to heart when it comes to totaling up the carnage in Iraq: If you don’t like the numbers, just change them; and when in doubt, look ‘em in the eye and lie. -more-


Column: Undercurrents: The Oakland Development Debate Gets Ugly

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday October 26, 2007

Back South, where I once lived, I used to know an older man who I’d greet every time I saw him with the question, “How’s the world treating you?” -more-


Open Home in Focus: Elegant and Cozy North Berkeley House on View

By Steven Finacom
Friday October 26, 2007

Around a North Berkeley bend, quickly by-passed by those busily headed someplace else, there’s a gem of a creek side house. The architecture and setting embody much of what gives residential Berkeley a special sense of place. -more-


Garden Variety: NWF’s Connie Award Goes to Local Wildlands/Garden Patron Kathy Kramer

By Ron Sullivan
Friday October 26, 2007

One of our own is on her way to Washington DC to receive a long-deserved award. Kathy Kramer, who founded and runs the annual Bringing Back the Natives garden tour, will be honored on Nov. 1—appropriately enough, All Saints’ Day—along with Bill McKibben (The End of Nature), Al Gore, Rev. Richard Cizik (who has stirred up a hornets’ nest with the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s “Call to Action” statement, insisting on Christians’ responsibility toward stewardship of the earth), Steve Curwood (host of NPR’s Living on Earth show) and others including more dubious company like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday October 26, 2007

More Earthquake Tidbits -more-


About the House: Insurance: Knob and Tube Wiring

By Matt Cantor
Friday October 26, 2007

The other day a recent inspection client of mine called up and asked if I could help answer a few questions. She proceeded to ask if her new house had copper piping. -more-


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday October 30, 2007

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 -more-


The Shtetl Before the Holocaust

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

We know so much about the deportation and death of Polish Jews in the Holocaust, but so little about life in the shtetl before the genocide. The exhibition of his paintings, currently on view at the Magnes Museum displays 65 pictures by an artist who has documented the joys and sorrows of daily life in the shtetl. -more-


The Theater: Virago Theatre Stages ‘Mankind’s Last Hope’ In Alameda

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Mankind’s Last Hope, Virago Theatre’s burlesque futuristic sitcom, through this weekend at Alameda’s Rhythmix Cultural Center near the Park Street Bridge, is the perfect antidote to the overcommercialization of Halloween. -more-


Spooky, Unusual Events in Celebration of Halloween

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls, Samhain, Todos Santos, Dia de los Muertes ... by any other name, to us, Halloween and the cluster of celebrations around the old Celtic lunar new year after harvest, adopted by the Christian Church as holidays. -more-


Books: A Guide to the Bay Area’s Buildings and Architecture

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Daily Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

A long-awaited, much-needed, and up-to-date guide to the great and representative buildings and architectural history of the Bay Area debuts this month. -more-


Kingdom of Shadows: The Origins of the Horror Film

By Justin DeFreitas
Tuesday October 30, 2007

As long as we've had motion pictures, we've used them to scare ourselves. The medium is perfectly suited for it. Even the earliest filmmakers saw the potential, employing double exposures, trick shots, spooky sets and dramatic lighting to illuminate the darker side of the imagination, to bring to life the ethereal netherworlds and distorted figures of the collective unconscious. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Birds in Berkeley: The Owls in the Oak

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Eighty-one years ago Joseph Grinnell, director of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, sat in his corner office at the edge of Faculty Glade watching a crew of arborists at work on a venerable coast live oak. Or, as he put it in his essay “Tree Surgery and the Birds,” “ ‘tree surgeons’ … under directions of a ‘landscape architect.’ ” His contempt is evident. Over the years, Grinnell had observed 46 species of birds in that oak. And he noted the removal of bits of the tree that had attracted particular species of birds: the decaying stub where the downy woodpecker drummed, the white-breasted nuthatch’s favorite foraging ground, the flycatcher’s perch. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday October 30, 2007

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday October 26, 2007

FRIDAY, OCT 26 -more-


The Theater: ‘Rosencrantz & Guildenstern’ at Live Oak

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday October 26, 2007

Among the bodies in the famous heap at the end of Hamlet, two are notably missing: the Melancholy Prince’s schoolmates (though Hamlet himself can’t seem to tell them apart), summoned by his usurper uncle to spy on him in his presumed madness, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. -more-


The Theater: Altarena Playhouse Presents ‘Morning’s at Seven’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday October 26, 2007

Altarena Playhouse, Alameda’s venerable community theater, is celebrating its 70th anniversary—and 50 years at its present location on High Street—with a venerable old comedy of just about the same vintage as the troupe, Paul Osbourn’s Morning’s at Seven (1939). -more-


Harvest of Song at Berkeley Art Center

Friday October 26, 2007

The seventh annual Harvest of Song features new vo-cal and instrumental compositions by Bay Area composers headed by Ann Callaway, Allen Shearer and Peter Josheff, in collaboration with writer Jaime Robles. Composers Alexis Alrich and Laurie San Martin join this year’s mix. Performers include the Harvest Players, some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians, augmented by marimba and vibraphone. A women’s vocal ensemble adds to the festivities.Sat.Oct. 27 and Sun. Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. -more-


Moving Pictures: Arab Film Festival at California Theater

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

The 11th annual Arab First Festival continues this weekend at the California Theater in downtown Berkeley. -more-


Moving Pictures: A Few Days in the Life Of Jimmy Carter

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

Jimmy Carter is more active in his 80s than I was at any time during my 20s. If that’s an exaggeration it’s not much of one. The man’s zest for life is well known, but it is still awe-inspiring to see. In addition to his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center and a writing career that results in a book per year, the man somehow manages to find time to paint, preach, hike, bicycle and travel the world. -more-


Moving Pictures: Mamet's "House of Games"

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

House of Games, David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut, was and still is like no other film. -more-


Open Home in Focus: Elegant and Cozy North Berkeley House on View

By Steven Finacom
Friday October 26, 2007

Around a North Berkeley bend, quickly by-passed by those busily headed someplace else, there’s a gem of a creek side house. The architecture and setting embody much of what gives residential Berkeley a special sense of place. -more-


Garden Variety: NWF’s Connie Award Goes to Local Wildlands/Garden Patron Kathy Kramer

By Ron Sullivan
Friday October 26, 2007

One of our own is on her way to Washington DC to receive a long-deserved award. Kathy Kramer, who founded and runs the annual Bringing Back the Natives garden tour, will be honored on Nov. 1—appropriately enough, All Saints’ Day—along with Bill McKibben (The End of Nature), Al Gore, Rev. Richard Cizik (who has stirred up a hornets’ nest with the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s “Call to Action” statement, insisting on Christians’ responsibility toward stewardship of the earth), Steve Curwood (host of NPR’s Living on Earth show) and others including more dubious company like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday October 26, 2007

More Earthquake Tidbits -more-


About the House: Insurance: Knob and Tube Wiring

By Matt Cantor
Friday October 26, 2007

The other day a recent inspection client of mine called up and asked if I could help answer a few questions. She proceeded to ask if her new house had copper piping. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday October 26, 2007

FRIDAY, OCT. 26 -more-