News

Thursday morning at or around 9:30 am two cars burned in the driveway between the Clark Kerr Campus and the back of Redwood Gardens senior housing in Berkeley. Black and white plumes from the fires rose hundreds of feet into the air, clearly marking the location for emergency crews, campus officials, and on-lookers. -more-

On Friday, July 20, from 3– 6:00 pm. A public information demonstration will gather at the Downtown Berkeley Post Office, at 2200 Allston Way (near Milvia St). -more-

Steve Finacom confirmed rumors I’d heard when he reported on June 24 that the US Postal Service will soon sell Berkeley’s downtown post office. If that sale goes through as planned, it will be only the latest instance of an accelerating heist from the public domain as the USPS Board of Governors and Congress incrementally unravel America’s 237-year old postal system. In that sense, it is also another lurch in the direction of Ayn Rand’s utopia in which public services and the public domain simply cease to exist. -more-

It was to have been a working birthday for me. I can't recommend a working birthday too highly, especially if you are running from your age, and discover the soul of Berkeley in the process. -more-

A bicyclist was killed in downtown Berkeley this afternoon in a collision with a dump truck, police said.

The 65-year-old Berkeley resident was found lying in the roadway on Bancroft Way west of Fulton Street at 3:38 p.m.

The Alameda County coroner's bureau identified him as Shlomo Bentin. -more-

Gravity has emerged as a player in Berkeley politics in the guise of a watershed and streets bond currently under consideration by the City Council. In a city bifurcated between hills and flatlands, the way water moves towards the Bay parallels the trickling down of money into the municipal coffers. -more-

This afternoon, Friday, July 13, 2012 at about 3:38 p.m., community members called the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) reporting a collision involving a bicyclist and a dump truck. The bicyclist, a man in his 60s, was lying in the roadway on Bancroft Way west of Fulton Street. The dump truck was not aware of a collision, but returned to the scene after being alerted by a passing motorcyclist. -more-

Off the Grid, a federation of chef-operated, moderately priced food trucks rolled onto Haste and Telegraph to help save Berkeley's besieged center, Thursday 5-9 p.m., and packed in the crowds (as many as 5,000, mostly students, over four hours). -more-