The Week

 

News

Berkeley Fire Victims Still Out of Homes

By Sasha Lekach (BCN)
Monday January 13, 2014 - 10:13:00 PM

Nine residents and a cat who were displaced in a three-alarm fire in downtown Berkeley last Friday have not yet been able to return to their homes, the Berkeley fire deputy chief said today. -more-


Flash: Fire on Shattuck Displaces Berkeley Tenants

By Sasha Lekach (BCN)
Friday January 10, 2014 - 11:44:00 PM

Crews have controlled a three-alarm fire in downtown Berkeley this afternoon, fire officials said. -more-


Pittsburg Man Arrested, Charged with Gunshot Murder of Berkeley Resident on July 17

By Julia Cheever (BCN)
Tuesday January 07, 2014 - 08:01:00 AM

Berkeley police announced today that a Pittsburg man has been arrested on charges of murdering a 26-year-old Berkeley resident who was fatally shot on July 17. -more-


Faith Geer
1919-2013

By Marty Schiffenbauer
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:12:00 AM
Faith Geer 1919-2013

Faith Geer was born in Holland, NY, January 13, 1919. She passed away at Salem Lutheran Home in Oakland, CA, December 15, 2013, just shy of her 95th birthday. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Without the Referendum, Berkeley is Doomed to Ten More Years of Hanging-Basket Planning

By Becky O'Malley
Friday January 03, 2014 - 12:33:00 PM

Over the holidays I encountered an enormous number of people who are not at all happy with the way things have been going in Berkeley. What’s interesting about them is that they seldom agree with one another about what’s wrong (this is Berkeley after all). In fact, it’s close to miraculous that a crowd of them can assemble in the same room at a party and no fist fights break out (well, almost none).

At my house the closest we came to an altercation was a heated dispute between two men seemingly associated with the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist church, in which one shoved another and invited him outside. Nothing more happened. I have no idea what the beef was, though an observer reported hearing the word “Palestine”.

World peace aside, the main issue on which Berkeleyans agree is that things are a mess right now. All of our commercial districts except Fourth Street are pockmarked with vacancies and beset with impoverished beggars. Driving across town is difficult, parking to shop downtown is nigh unto impossible, bicylists feel that they’re taking their lives in their hands and pedestrians face being bowled over by vehicles of every description both in the street and on the sidewalk. Phone-snatching is endemic, attracting thieves from all over the Bay Area who know that students on cells are apt to be available for the picking at all hours.

Then there’s Berkeley’s moribund downtown. This week’s New Yorker has a funny piece by Calvin Trillin about another metropolis that sounds a bit like Berkeley: Greenville, Mississippi, and its Hot Tamale Festival.

He says that “I would guess that any number of cities have tried celebrating a local food specialty as a tonic for a lagging downtown, just after it became obvious doing some prettying up on a block or two that’s been closed to traffic—what I’ve always thought of as the hanging-basket approach to downtown revitalization—didn’t work.”

Substitute “Gourmet Ghetto” or “Food Trucks” for Hot Tamales, and it’s Berkeley all over again. The Downtown Berkeley (or Business) Association just recently tried the hanging-basket ploy, didn’t it? And I’d take any bet that it hasn’t worked and won’t work. Downtown problems everywhere are deeper rooted than that.

Griping about land use is always fun. Complaints range from the proliferation downtown of tacky luxury dorms disguised as market rate apartments to the difficulty of getting a permit to convert a garage into a workshop. All agree that the city’s Planning Department employees are effectively but ineffectually running the city, with next to no interference from the Electeds on the Berkeley City Council.

Which brings us to What You Might Do to Save Berkeley in the next two weeks, if you’re one of the many who think we’re not in Nirvana yet, Dorothy. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, the gormless Berkeley City Council majority has hatched a gerrymandering scheme to silence the loudest progressive voice on the council. It will take a referendum to reverse it. -more-


The Editor's Back Fence

New: Amazing Bedfellows Endorse Berkeley Referendum

Thursday January 16, 2014 - 04:54:00 PM

From the Berkeley Tenant's Union Newsletter:

"The Redistricting Referendum is now supported by BTU and The Council of Neighborhood Associations, SEIU Local 1021, East Bay COPE, former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport, the Alameda Green Party, the Cal Dems, and former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean."

Who would ever expected to see all these people on the same page? Must be something going on! -more-


Cartoons

Odd Bodkins: Eternal Life Insurance Policy Holders (Cartoon)

By Dan O'Neill
Friday January 03, 2014 - 01:41:00 PM

Odd Bodkins: The Gift (Cartoon)

By Dan O'Neill
Friday January 03, 2014 - 01:38:00 PM

Public Comment

Affordable Care's Slow Start is not Unique

By Ron Lowe
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:23:00 AM

In the early 1980s, General Motors embarked upon an enormous investment in automation. In 1985, it opened its showcase: the new Hamtramck factory in Detroit, Michigan, had 50 automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) to ferry parts around the plant, and 260 robots to weld and paint. It turned out not to be such a good idea. -more-


January Pepper Spray Times

By Grace Underpressure
Friday January 03, 2014 - 01:45:00 PM

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available.

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends.

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money. -more-


NSA Spying

Jagjit Singh
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:10:00 AM

New revelations by the German publication, Der Spiegel have provided details of a super secretive unit inside the National Security Agency, called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO (no connection to the Chinese spiritual path). TAO has developed new ways to invade our privacy, courtesy of Microsoft, by gaining access to WINDOWS users who report technical problems (a frequent occurrence). In addition, new computer orders are intercepted in transit and special malware is implanted to monitor all activity of unsuspecting users all with a wink and nod from Federal Express and United Parcel Service. Two federal judges have harshly admonished the NSA for its dragnet surveillance vastly exceeding its mandate and thus violating the Constitution. -more-


A Modest Way Forward for Climate Action

By Spencer Veale
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:11:00 AM

In 2010, the Cap and Trade bill died in the Senate. That same year, Republican incumbent Bob Inglis lost his seat to a Tea Party challenger in a landslide, after publicly admitting he believed the scientific consensus on man-made climate change was correct. Since then, Republican politicians have viewed it as political suicide to talk about climate change as anything other than a liberal hoax. As a result, those concerned about climate change have largely put their hopes for meaningful national climate legislation on the back burner. While many wait for a break in the clouds when large scale climate action once again becomes plausible, communities across the country have found a way to move forward, however modestly, to address the climate crisis without waiting for legislation. -more-


Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: Turkey’s Crisis: More Than Meets The Eye

By Conn Hallinan
Friday January 03, 2014 - 12:41:00 PM

The current corruption crisis zeroing in on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyio Erdogan has all the elements of one of his country’s famous soap operas that tens of millions of people all over the Middle East tune in to each day: Bribes, shoe boxes filled with millions in cash, and dark whispers of foreign conspiracies. -more-


THE PUBLIC EYE: Pope Francis: 2013 Politician of the Year

By Bob Burnett
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:29:00 AM

With the exception of Senator Elizabeth Warren, American politicians had a terrible year. President Obama’s approval ratings plummeted along with those of Congress. Indeed, the most popular “politician” in the United States was a non-American, the new head of the Catholic Church, 77-year-old Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now known as Pope Francis. -more-


SENIOR POWER: Scams

By Helen Rippier Wheeler, pen136@dslextreme.com
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:15:00 AM

Ralph E. Stone’s December 16th Planet column, “Eclectic rant: Protect yourself from scams this holiday season,” was right on. And I would add, especially senior citizens and year-round and everywhere. As a former Federal Trade Commission attorney and currently a volunteer for Consumer Action and Seven On Your Side, the consumer hotline for ABC-TV Channel 7, he has heard a wide range of scams that separated unsuspecting consumers from their money, especially during the holiday season. -more-


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Effects of Paranoia

Jack Bragen
Friday January 03, 2014 - 08:19:00 AM

A "normal" person can become psychotic under certain conditions such as sleep deprivation or taking narcotics. However, many newly, correctly diagnosed people with schizophrenia, as a form of denial, will decide that their problem was just due to the drugs they took or to lack of sleep. -more-