News

Amidst jeers, catcalls and demands for the mayor's recall – and threats from Mayor Tom Bates that he'd clear the rowdy public from the chambers – the Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday to allow two powerful telecommunications companies to place their antennas atop UC Storage, adjacent to the neighborhood at Ward Street and Shattuck Avenue. The building is owned by developer Patrick Kennedy. -more-

As Berkeley’s downtown planning panel faces its Wednesday deadline to make, break, or abandon a compromise on raising buildings’ height limits, it might want to look to the decisions of those who’ve considered the issue a bit longer. -more-

High rises and high densities top the agenda for Wednesday’s Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee meeting. -more-

Berkeley could be the first city to pay upfront costs for residents upgrading energy efficiencies and/or going solar. -more-

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted on Thursday to nominate the Berkeley High School campus to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district . -more-

The Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency (RCRA) is proposing to build a new housing development called Miraflores on the site of three Japanese American nurseries that date from the early 20th century. The greenhouse roofs are visible from west Interstate 80 near the Cutting Boulevard exit. -more-

For the average citizen, trying to clear up personal information on a government computer—Social Security records, for example—can range between a headache and a bureaucratic nightmare. For California ex-offenders it can be worse, a permanent way of life that sometimes can resemble a trip down into a Victor Hugo or Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel, a hole in which any effort to dig one’s way out only ends in burying oneself in a deeper hole. -more-

City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Police Chief Doug Hambleton will be at the Wednesday Police Review Commission meeting to respond to a subcommittee report on evidence theft issues. -more-

Council rules are clear: councilmembers and mayor may not direct city staff to perform any task—at least not without the city manager’s intervention. -more-

From the outside, Portable 9 looks like any other classroom at Berkeley High. But inside, a mix of sights, sounds and colors hurtles the visitor into a world of oil, paper and fabric. -more-

The easygoing truce that prevailed during much of the debate over downtown land-use policy blew apart Wednesday, fissuring along familiar fault lines. -more-

While Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee members have waged prolonged struggles over landmarks and tall buildings, they voted unanimously twice Monday night, approving two more chapters of the new downtown plan. -more-

Berkeley High School has dropped a plan to ask visitors to provide photo identification to enter the campus after some parents complained that it was unwelcoming and discriminatory. -more-

The law governing Berkeley’s condominium conversion, revised multiple times over some three decades, is likely to undergo more changes in the next month or so. -more-

A dozen protesters gathered Tuesday morning outside the building where UC Berkeley was celebrating its embrace of Dow Chemical. -more-

It was just a little rain three weeks ago, but enough to stop up a drain and cause flooding at the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library bookstore in city-owned Sather Gate Mall. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is reprinted with permission from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. -more-

A group of South Berkeley neighbors will picket the Verizon Wireless store on 1109 University Ave. from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday to protest the company’s plans to install cell-phone antennas atop the UC Storage building at 2721 Shattuck Ave. -more-

Formerly incarcerated individuals will have the chance to learn how to clear up their criminal records and “put the past behind them” when Congressmember Barbara Lee and several East Bay officeholders and agencies host the third annual Clean Slate Summit this weekend. -more-

Robbery -more-

CHIANG MAI—The world needs to hear from Aung San Suu Kyi—even if it’s just a three-minute statement. -more-

… poco maestoso -more-