Karl Linn didn’t just build some of Berkeley’s most resplendent gardens, his friends say. He built communities. -more-

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau formally unveiled the university’s plans for a quarter of a billion dollars worth of privately funded new construction Thursday, prompting an angry response from Mayor Tom Bates. -more-

In a town that would relish a role as the intellectual antidote to the current Washington establishment, one well-heeled group intent on battling conservative policy wonks has set up shop on University Avenue. -more-

When the Greenlining Institute made its foray into Berkeley politics last year it was seeking to add to the city’s storied tradition as a national springboard for political innovation. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District’s superintendent and board directors, at Wednesday’s meeting, blasted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s education budget cuts, calling on constituents to write protest letters to the governor and legislators and promising further action. -more-

A state mediator brought in to facilitate the bargaining of a new union contract between the University of California and service workers has called off talks between the two sides, according to the chief negotiator for the union representing 7,300 service employees at the nine campuses. -more-

To state regulators, they’re Meade Street Operable Units 1 and 2; to Russ Pitto, they represent opportunities for long-term investments, and for state Assemblymember Loni Hancock, they represent everything that can go wrong with the regulatory process. -more-

Landmarks Preservation commissioners will consider a trio of controversial applications when they meet Monday night. -more-

Fellow councilmembers Tuesday forced Richmond Mayor Irma Anderson to shelve her plan for a Blue Ribbon Committee on Campus Bay, following the pleas of both project critics and developer Russ Pitto. -more-

Concluding that Berkeley’s public housing authority unfairly favors African Americans, federal regulators have suggested that the agency target other groups including UC Berkeley students. -more-

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas -more-

WRITER FOR HIRE -more-

In recent years, with the active cooperation of its local elected officials, Oakland has become something of a constitutional rights experimental ground for California. The idea has been to implement laws of dubious constitutionality—applicable to Oakland and only Oakland—to see if they work, how they work, and, perhaps, if they can be gotten away with. And so, among other things, Oaklanders have endured (thanks to Mayor Jerry Brown) the suspension of certain state environmental protections under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that are available to every other California city. In addition, we’ve had Senator Don Perata’s Sideshow Red Queen Justice Car Seizure Act (called the U’Kendra Johnson law) in which the city is allowed to confiscate cars for 30 days solely on the word of a police officer—without a prior hearing—that someone had been spinning donuts in the car. One would think that like the villagers in the Frankenstein movies, Oaklanders would get fed up, storm the castle, and drive these legal monsters out. Why that hasn’t happened (yet) is a story for another day. -more-

Flashlight Robbery -more-

The recent defeat of every tax measure proposed by the City Council in the same election that Berkeley voters overwhelmingly approved tax increases to finance the school district and several state initiatives is evidence that a sufficient number of Berkeley voters are fed up with the way the City Council operates. Especially frustrating is the disregard for law and policy that the council shows by selling out our interest virtually every time developers present a plan. The Seagate project is a recent manifestation of this. Remember how opponents of the Height Initiative sought to demonize the Height Initiative’s supporters by calling them NIMBY’S who opposed affordable housing? Seagate is just the type of project the Height Initiative would have stopped, and anyone with perception can tell Seagate is primarily a luxury development. Despite that fact the City Council agreed to waive applicable city regulations, far beyond what state law required, in return for the few affordable units. It is a sad commentary that Kriss Worthington is the only member of the City Council who seemed to understand that disregard of the law by pro-development staff and the City Council was a major factor underlying much of the voter anger that defeated every single tax measure proposed by the City Council. -more-

Russell Schoch—longtime editor of the California Alumni Association’s magazine, the California Monthly—wrote in the December issue an “Editor’s Farewell” announcing his premature retirement. Had I read it more carefully at that time, I would have known that the essay was that of a man writing with a gun to his head. After 30 years of service to the award-winning magazine, Shoch was abruptly fired without warning by the CAA’s new Executive Director Randy Parent on Nov. 22. Parent terminated him without so much as a gold watch, let alone a farewell reception which would have given those of us who had worked for Schoch—and the many who admired the courage often needed to perform that service—the opportunity to express gratitude for all that he had done for the association and for the university. The Cal Monthly Editorial Advisory Committee was not informed that Parent intended to take this action in order to move the magazine in a radically different direction without consultation. In his belated Dec. 16 announcement to the CAA Board that Russell would be “leaving,” Mr. Parent said that they hadn’t always agreed, but that he was certain that Schoch “is a man of principle, integrity, and honor.” -more-

In a letter published in the Jan. 28-31 Daily Planet, a reader states that he “would be much more inclined to give some thought to the meetings between the mayor and Seagate developers if Zelda Bronstein’s name wasn’t associated with the story.” He asks: “Has anyone else noticed that Ms. Bronstein’s name appears regularly in news reports concerning opposition to development projects or requests for commercial expansion?” Having read in the Daily Cal that I oppose the West Berkeley Bowl, and knowing that I was against the expansion of Jeremy’s clothing store on College Avenue, he writes: “The Seagate project has gone through all the required levels of our city government checks and balances. Perhaps Ms. Bronstein could try and see that not all development is bad for our city....give it a rest!” -more-

Organizations and individuals dedicated to fellowship, the appreciation of nature, and other high ideals flourished in Berkeley in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, when locals provided much of the energy behind causes such as the Sierra Club. -more-

Over the stage of a tiled plaza, backed by a screen framed by flags of the Western Hemisphere—not so much draped as running together, a Rorschach test— are projected words of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, of how we’re the children of one America, out of different origins and different colored skins: “This dissimilarity is of the greatest significance.” -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 4 -more-

An elementary school with students dancing and banging on drums might seem to be begging for a strong dose of discipline. But at the Berkeley Arts Magnet school, where the drumming may be Afro-Cuban and the dance a Mexican folk number, the curriculum is based on what elsewhere might be chaos. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 4 -more-

Simeon Properties, the controversial co-developer of the troubled Campus Bay site, is UC Berkeley’s first choice for developing the adjacent Richmond Field Station, a UC official revealed Monday. -more-

At an hour when many of their friends are sitting down to Sunday brunch, the congregates of Berkeley’s New Spirit Community Church hunt for spiritual nourishment. -more-

Reports of the impending death of the Elmwood Pharmacy and its ever-popular Ozzie’s soda fountain have been greatly exaggerated, said Victoria Carter, the second-generation owner of the pharmacy. -more-

Patrons of Berkeley’s main post office are used to waiting. For years, customers have sat on benches or strolled along nearby blocks killing time until their number was called. -more-

After months of unsuccessful negotiations, the union representing nearly 7,300 University of California service workers has declared impasse and asked a state mediator to help both sides reach an agreement. -more-

A 15-year Berkeley Unified School District-City of Berkeley joint project that helped boost the city’s reputation for teen services has moved to permanent headquarters on the Berkeley High School campus. -more-

Berkeley Unified School District plans to enter the state budget battles this week with a board resolution calling on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to “fully fund education according to the requirements of Proposition 98.” -more-

It is easy not to pay attention to the jumble of Speak Up—Stop Bullying posters lined inside the Addison Street Windows Gallery across from the Berkeley Repertory Theater. -more-

USCountVotes, a nonpartisan scientific research project, issued a statement Monday critical of exit pollsters Edison and Mitofsky’s Jan. 19 report attributing differences between exit poll and election results to possible survey-response rates of Republicans and Democrats. -more-

Less than two months after the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved a proposal for a five-story condominium apartment and retail building at 1122 University Ave., developer Alex Varum has put the property up for sale. -more-

THE LOOKING GLASS -more-

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas -more-

Due to a snowstorm on the East Coast, I got back a day late from New York and missed my date with the Superior Court of Solano County. -more-

The Iraqi elections provide the American people with an opportunity to consider whether they want to continue the obdurate path chartered by the Bush administration or, instead, go in another direction. To chose the path not taken, we will first have to learn to set limits. -more-

Fast Bandit Grabs Cash -more-

We are enormously gratified by the City Design Review Committee’s praise for the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza (“Design Committee Praises Plan for Brower Center,” Daily Planet, Jan. 25-27). We are similarly pleased with the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) Design Committee’s positive response to the building’s design a few days earlier. This early support from city officials, downtown leaders, environmental and housing activists is very encouraging as we proceed to honor the memory and contribution of David Brower, one of the world’s greatest environmental activists, with a model of environmentally responsible design. -more-

Residents of the East Campus neighborhood in South Berkeley were recently given an opportunity to experience yet again the city’s (in this case, the School Board’s) devious tactic for pushing through a project that residents in a neighborhood don’t want. In this case it is a hardball field with overhead lights and loudspeakers that the neighborhood has been fighting for years. The first step of the tactic took place at the “East Campus Design Charrette” held at the Alternative High School Multi-Purpose Room, MLK Jr. Way and Derby, on Monday, Jan. 24. -more-

Since I was unable to attend the Jan. 24 community meeting on Derby Field use, I appreciate J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s report on the decision to demolish the old East Campus temporaries, but not to consider closing Derby for the present. However, because crucial details of this issue were left out of his article, many readers will surely misunderstand what our neighborhood concerns are. -more-

MASON, Tenn.—Bank robbers are discovering how it feels to be robbed when they make a phone call from a prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that today oversees a large share of the nation’s prisons and jails. -more-

Berkeley Independent Study student Amber Manuel, the youngest of four children, will be the first to complete high school when she graduates this June. -more-

It figured that when the fearless Berkeley Opera turned to Puccini, they weren’t going to do one of the big three fan favorites. Its choice was Il Trittico (The Trilogy, 1918), a triple bill of one-acters, the less favored members, Il Tabarro (The Cloak), and Suor Angelica together with the more popular, comic, Gianni Schicchi. Saturday’s audience at the Julia Morgan Theater was rewarded with uniformly strong singing, and exceptionally high musical values for a local opera company. -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 1 -more-

Back in the heyday of The Far Side, Gary Larson drew a Sunday panel showing a middle-aged couple slumped on their living room floor and another couple exiting. The caption: “The Arnolds feign death until the Wagners, sensing awkwardness, are compelled to leave.” -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 1 -more-

Betty Bunton died on Sunday. She complained about shortness of breath, and an ambulance was called, but she was dead on arrival at Alta Bates. It was probably asthma, which she’d had as long as we knew her, now at least 10 years. -more-

If you live on Ashby Avenue and wake up in the middle of the night, as I do sometimes, you can tell what time it is by how much noise comes in through your closed bedroom window. If it’s relatively quiet, with only the occasional roar of a really big truck which rattles the windows, it’s probably about 3 a.m. The trucks at that time of night are fewer, but they compensate by gunning their engines up to about 50 mph (when the speed limit is 25.) Commuters get going about 4, at a high speed because they’re not so numerous until about 5, eventually slowing down to just under 30 mph between 6 and 9. By that time traffic is often bumper-to-bumper, with students and employees who come by bridge and tunnel on their way to the UC campus. It’s pretty much impossible to sleep past about 6:30 because of the noise volume, even in the winter when the windows can be kept closed. -more-