Columnists

Column: The Public Eye: Next Time, Check Your Sources and Read the Planet

By Zelda Bronstein
Friday February 22, 2008
One of the many perturbing effects of the Berkeley City Council’s colossally stupid attack on the Marines is the re-emergence of UC professor and San Francisco resident David Kirp as an apologist for Berkeley City Hall. On Feb. 18 Kirk’s provoking tribute to the city’s officialdom, “Semper Fi, Berkeley,” appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. -more-

Column: Undercurrents: Underlying Currents Run Through Oakland’s Debates

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday February 22, 2008
One of the reasons that three of the most pressing issues currently on Oakland’s city agenda—crime and violence, industrial zoning preservation vs. residential or commercial development, and affordable housing—are so naggingly difficult to settle is that, while there is an underlying current that runs through all of them and ties them all together, there is reluctance to talk about them, to engage that debate in the open. -more-

East Bay Then and Now: William Wharff: Architect, Civil War Vet and Mason

By Daniella Thompson
Friday February 22, 2008
The Masonic Temple at 2105 Bancroft Way was built in 1906.
Of all the architects who resided in Berkeley during the first four decades of the 20th century, the one who received the most coverage in the local press was not John Galen Howard or Bernard Maybeck but William Hatch Wharff. And only occasionally was the press coverage related to his profession. -more-

Garden Variety: Grow Local Heirlooms and Have a Good Time Too

By Ron Sullivan
Friday February 22, 2008
“Music will be an Old Time Music Jam, bring yer fiddle,” is what Terri Compost, the exquisitely named point person of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (acronym’ed, equally exquisitely, “BASIL”) replied to my query. I wanted to know who would be playing the music promised for BASIL’s Ninth Annual Seed Swap tomorrow, Saturday February 23, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ecology Center. Dang, I don’t have a fiddle. Guess I’ll just send the cat. -more-

About the House: Some Notes on Building a Fire

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 22, 2008
I was inspecting a house out beyond the Naugahyde Curtain the other day (Walnut Creek, if memory serves; landing strip for white flight). The house was unillustrious but amongst the artifacts that brought me sufficient intrigue to set the day aglow was a brand new fireplace. -more-

Column: Mary Dean Owes Me Three Bucks

By Susan Parker
Tuesday February 19, 2008
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’m fixated on keeping privately run Children’s Hospital Oakland (CHO) from eating me and my neighborhood alive. Soon there’ll be nothing left of me but a small oil slick in front of my 100-year-old house. That should make it easier for the bulldozers to roll down Dover Street. At least there’ll be no me to run over. -more-

Column: The Politics of the Oscars

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday February 19, 2008
It’s always dangerous to read too much into trends in popular culture. Nonetheless, there seems to be a strong relationship between the five movies nominated for best picture of 2007 and polls showing 67 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction. -more-

Green Neighbors: Still Pruning? Take Care of Your Wildlife

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday February 19, 2008
Plumblossoms, a male lesser goldfinch, and an old nest-not his; this one’s probably a squirrel’s.
Never mind that it’s caught me unarmed and ill-prepared, as usual; I love this sample of early spring we’re getting. We didn’t have it quite the same way last year, I guess. As happened, I was ‘way out of town and in another climate for most of last February on a most urgent and unfortunate errand, so I’m only guessing. -more-