News

Mandated by state law to analyze the city’s Housing Element for constraints on building new housing, Berkeley Deputy Planning and Development Director Wendy Cosin couldn’t find any. -more-

AC Transit took its first steps June 24 toward implementing a December district-wide bus service cut. The bus district held a public board workshop to reveal the first public details of its plan and set a Sept. 9 date for a formal public hearing. -more-

A two-alarm arson fire caused nearly $200,000 in damage to a South Berkeley home early Saturday evening, the first in a series of three arsons on the same street that evening. -more-

AC Transit’s Policy Steering Committee has approved in principle the bus district’s plan to consolidate station stops along the route of its prosped Bus Rapid Transit route, but made it plain that any decisions on setting aside dedicated bus lanes must go to the governing bodies of the affected cities. -more-

UC Berkeley has just issued a call for bids from builders for the $190 million “seismic safety improvement” overhaul of Memorial Stadium. -more-

State budget cuts will force more parents to take responsibility for dropping off and picking up their children from Berkeley’s public elementary schools starting in August. -more-

West Berkeley residents and business owners voiced their concerns to the Planning Commission Wednesday (June 24) about proposals to ease development rules on larger parcels in Berkeley’s only industrial area. -more-

The Berkeley City Council adopted its two year-biennial budget Tuesday night, with the caveat—now becoming the standard refrain of the day—that the results of currently ongoing state budget action will mean that Berkeley will be tinkering with its finances into the fall. Since no one expects that the results of the Sacramento deliberations will be more money going back to local governments in California, this will mean that Berkeley’s budget adjustments will either be cutbacks or revenue increases, or some combination of the two. -more-

The Berkeley City Council took significantly more than a symbolic stand against international sweatshop labor Tuesday night, approving a Sweatshop Free Ordinance to limit the amount of city money going to companies that exploit their labor. -more-

In nearby Richmond, Garden Club activist Jayma Brown had raised concerns with city officials after she was told during a monthly neighborhood council meeting that the city had banned front-yard gardens. -more-

Asa Dodsworth faces an ever-mounting pile of potential fines from the City of Berkeley. His crime? He says it’s front-yard gardening. -more-

A pastor, a couple of community organizers and a group of parents, educators and students met at The Way Christian Center in Berkeley recently to discuss plans for a new charter school in the city. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education will seek input from Berkeley High School before crafting any policy seeking to reform its School Governance Council. -more-

The Berkeley Board of Education approved more budget reductions at a board meeting Wednesday in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May revision of the state budget. -more-

In a push to reduce drug and alcohol use by Berkeley’s public school students, the Berkeley Unified School District will collaborate with the City of Berkeley government to form a committee by September to address the issue. -more-

The City of Berkeley began the formal process this week of what could be a decade-long or longer multi-million dollar environmental upgrade of the Aquatic Park bayside tidal pool. -more-

The Bevatron, at least large parts of it, will be reincarnated, in concrete form—its concrete ground back to powder and used for new construction. -more-

Although no one is giving any guarantees just yet, there appears to be a strong possibility that three Alameda County cities will have the opportunity to implement a ranked-choice voting system for the municipal 2010 elections. -more-

A $28.4 million chunk of federal money is coming to Albany’s U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Regional Re-search Center at 800 Buchanan St. -more-

Two of BART’s three largest unions have voted to authorize a strike, but BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Wednesday, June 24, that “it’s outrageous to even talk about a strike in these economic times.” -more-

One of two men accused of murder for the 2006 death of a man who succumbed to a gunshot wound shortly after stumbling to the door of a University of California at Berkeley sorority house has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, a prosecutor said Friday, June 19. -more-

CityCentric Investments will ask the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board June 25, Thursday, to modify a use permit to change a previously approved mixed-use building in West Berkeley into an affordable senior housing project. -more-

To an old urban designer, the best view of Oakland’s new Roman Catholic Cathedral is from the raised edge of the wooded park that runs along Grand Avenue between Harrison and Children’s Fairyland at Grand and Bellevue. Looking under big trees across the narrow northerly arm of Lake Merritt, you’ll notice a remarkable transformation. Dominating the lake-edge since 1970, the 27-story Ordway Building, Kaiser’s second tower, is now suddenly humanized by the low spreading social complex of a new Catholic center, whose novel sanctuary, a glassy oval crown, completes the northerly end of a striking ensemble. -more-