Backed into a corner by a mounting deficit and an obstinate firefighters’ union, the City Council Tuesday will contemplate approving the first cut to fire response services in over 20 years. -more-
As crews prepare to dredge a shoreline marsh in Richmond on the edge of one of the region’s most polluted sites, Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) is pushing for a legislative hearing. -more-
The math of building affordable housing in Berkeley looks especially troubling this year. -more-
There are 16 state ballot propositions this year. Enjoy. -more-
With school board elections less than a month away, controversial items are generally absent from BUSD’s board agenda for Wednesday night. One such contested item, however, may be a fee for the Middle School Extended Day Program. -more-
As string trios played and wait staff served up wine and munchies Friday evening, a hundred or so Berkeley business and political leaders got their first look at Patrick Kennedy’s newest additions to the downtown. -more-
Like many of you, I came to Berkeley to be a student at the University of California and I liked so many things about the city that I have lived here ever since. My wife Marilyn and I raised both of our children here, and Sarah and Matt went through the Berkeley schools. I graduated in 1967 with a degree in political science and began teaching social studies. I chose to teach high school because I wanted to help people understand the forces, policies, and even mythologies that shape the lives of ordinary people not only in this country but all over the world, and because I wanted to help give young people some of the tools they could use to change those conditions and to create better and fairer conditions for themselves and others. Although I changed careers in 1978, those values are still fundamentally important to me. They are the reasons I became active in city government 25 years ago, and they are the reasons why I’m running for City Council in District 5. -more-
District 5 and the city need Barbara Gilbert as councilperson because, put simply, the points of view for which I speak are not now adequately represented on our City Council. -more-
As important as the national elections are, we need to remember that our local democracy is also at risk. While I am not suggesting that we have local equivalents of Dick Cheney or John Ashcroft in our city government, I am suggesting that there is a connection between development and the democratic process which demands our attention. At a time when malign neglect of the economy at the national level and irresponsible grandstanding by our own governor have left cities such as Berkeley in severe economic distress, it is tempting to let the richest and most powerful segments of our community “solve” our problems for us. -more-
Paula Casio wants President Bush out of office. But with a daughter and a full-time job, she can’t spend the next month canvassing the streets of swing states. -more-
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, political humorist Molly Ivins and satirist Paul Krassner are among the voices speaking out as the Free Speech Movement’s 40th anniversary commemoration continues throughout the week. -more-
SAN FRANCISCO—Outside of a Vietnamese coffee shop in the Tenderloin district, two older Vietnamese men are smoking and talking about Bush and Kerry. “Kerry did very well, but Bush came out solid and strong,” says Mr. Tinh Nguyen. “Kerry might still have a fighting chance. Too bad we are voting in California. We can’t help President Bush from here.” -more-
Arsonist Strikes Julia Morgan Shed -more-
Attending the first day of an MFA fiction workshop at San Francisco State, I listened as the instructor took roll. When he came to the name Kirk Read, he hesitated, and then mumbled something about Kirk Read telling him he wouldn’t be taking the class. My ears perked up. The name Kirk Read was familiar. During the school year of 1982-83 in Virginia, when I was teaching fourth grade, I had a student named Kirk Read. Could it be the same little boy, all grown up and enrolled in graduate school? -more-
Probably the best-known human rights in the U.S. are the right to a lawyer and the right to due process. Anyone who has ever been arrested in a mass protest or in a strike may have also heard of the right to habeas corpus: the right, immediately after being arrested, to be brought before an official in the judicial system and told on what charges you are being held. -more-
Matthew Artz’ article “Owners Can Rebuild Near Creeks and Culverts,” (Daily Planet, Oct. 1-4) focused on the contentious nature of the Sept. 28 public hearing. Readers may remain unaware of some underlying details and issues. -more-
Daily Planet letter writer Doug Pestrak (Sept. 21-23) doesn’t have to look far for an answer to the homeless situation which puzzles him so much. If he just turns a few pages in the issue of the Planet in which his letter appeared, he’ll see that a site which once housed more than 70 low-income people with come-as-you-are (no large security deposits, leases, etc.) units runs the risk of being replaced with a building housing only 20 people, with possibly one or two “low income” units for the $35,000 a year set. -more-
I attended the public hearing on the Berkeley Creek Ordinance on Wednesday and was taken aback by the degree of fear and anxiety over the ordinance. The fear is based on the mistaken belief that you could not rebuild your home to the same footprint and height after a disaster or fire. I cannot think of any instance where the Creek Ordinance prevented a home from being rebuilt. Nevertheless, the City Council passed Alternative No. 2 with some amendments to make that clear. When misconceptions are repeated frequently enough, it can give listeners a mistaken impression that the idea is true. This is reminiscent of FOX news. -more-
In 1989 a group of creek enthusiasts, presumably with personal ties to members of the City Council, surreptitiously sold the City a strange bill of goods – an ordinance filled with nitpicking regulations and a glossary of arcane terms (rip-rap, crib-walls, fascines, gabions) – that reads as if it were written not by common-sense conservationists but by a cult of creek-worshipers intent on imposing their obsession on the world. It offered some reasonable constraints – no new construction within thirty feet of a creek, the day-lighting of culverted creeks where feasible – but hidden within it and unnoticed for fifteen years wasa larger vision. Following a major disaster – something like the ‘06 quake and its attendant firestorms – no creek-side structure could be rebuilt without a special variance from the City’s notoriously willful and erratic Zoning Adjustments Board. Thus, after such an event, great swaths of homes and businesses could be replaced by parkland with footpaths and biketrails. -more-
In the past 40 years the world of ceramic art has undergone a metamorphosis. In the 1960s every Berkeley housewife was a potter, producing clunky mugs and vases in the muted, often glassy, grays and browns of high temperature reduction firing. The influence of Bernard Leach was strong. -more-
In the shimmering, intricately beautiful music of the Balinese gamelan orchestra, the recurring cycles of melody are marked by the stirring ring of a gong. -more-
Although nature writers are supposed to have benign feelings about their (nonhuman, anyway) fellow creatures, I draw the line at raccoons: garbage-raiding, koi-eating thugs that make alarming noises in the dead of night. But to give the Devil his due, they’re good with their hands. Lacking opposable thumbs doesn’t seem to slow them down much. Scientists have claimed that raccoons far outrank their fellow carnivores in manual dexterity and are almost up there with the primates. -more-
Two major forces dominating American society in the 1950s—one waning, the other waxing—collided in Sproul Plaza 40 years ago today, Oct. 1, climaxing in an epochal moment. -more-
Homeowners who live beside Berkeley creeks have less to fear from mother nature after the City Council Tuesday affirmed their right to rebuild their homes after a disaster. -more-
Gov. Arnold Schwarze-negger signed into law Thursday a new measure that increases the inclusionary bonus granted to builders who included low income housing in apartment and condominiums building. -more-
Richmond City Council members tabled Tuesday night’s planned vote on a casino complex development pact for Point Molate after ChevronTexaco offered a lucrative last-minute alternative. -more-
State officials Thursday afternoon approved a developer’s plans to dredge marshland at the edge of a highly polluted Richmond site, though some neighbors remain deeply concerned about possible effects to neighboring lives and property. -more-
On a typical day Berkeley’s Veterans’ Memorial Building has plenty of veterans inside; they just aren’t where one would expect to find them. -more-
Building on the city’s reputation as being one of the homes of the best and the brightest, two Berkeley-based winners were among the 23 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Fellowship awards. -more-
After nine straight hours on her feet as an event usher, Carol Harris could sympathize with the workers she passed at 11:30 p.m. who were walking a 24-hour picket outside the Claremont Hotel at the end of August. -more-
A boor given to embarrassing behavior, an American lackey on Iraq, a clown. He toes the U.S. line of not dealing with terrorists, yet his government may have secretly paid a ransom to free two kidnapped Italian aid workers. These are some of the darts critics throw at Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Yet, none seems to matter to the Italian electorate as Berlusconi has managed to hold onto power. What explains his mystique? -more-
With nearly 100 residents in Berkeley and Albany nearing the end of their first week without telephone service, SBC, as of press time Thursday, continued to repair water-logged underground cables. -more-
People’s Park is not just a park—it’s an institution. It’s home to all sorts of people, gardeners, hopeful athletes, dancers, poets and musicians, and many of Berkeley’s poor, homeless and hungry. -more-
East Bay liberal-progressives pride themselves on the fact that they saw the errors of Iraq early-on and long before the rest of the country—the half-truths and misstatements by the nation’s leaders, the faulty conclusions, the failure of the media to as k the tough questions and point out the inconsistencies. -more-
As the election approaches, the Bush Administration is appealing for votes from the military and from civilians who want to feel safe from terrorist attacks. -more-
Berkeley firefighters were forced to summon assistance from Oakland, Albany and Alameda County to battle a Tuesday night blaze that nearly destroyed a dwelling at 2811 Stuart St. -more-
Editors, Daily Planet: -more-
Who remembers the proposal a few years ago for the Albany casino development in the vicinity of Golden Gate fields? To sweeten the deal, developers promised a ferry service for the anticipated boatloads of gamblers and shoppers. This proposal went to court and was defeated on appeal. -more-
For the last 35 years Cal Sailing Club has occupied a small piece of land in the Berkeley Marina, on the south side of University Avenue. CSC is a non-profit sailing co-operative. Historically it was a UC student activity, but in 1979 it severed its last ties, and became officially open to the public. -more-
The Planet has asked our readers to submit short questions for Berkeley City Council candidates, who will be given space for short answers. Candidates may answer any questions, even those addressed to other candidates. -more-
Caffe Trieste, the North Beach institution that takes credit for popularizing espresso culture on the west coast, opened a Berkeley café last week. -more-
It’s make it or break it for Berkeley’s Nabolom bakery. -more-
Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ classic of ancient comedy—and the preeminent modern antiwar stage production—will be presented by The National Theatre of Greece Friday, Oct. 1 (8 p. m.) and Sunday, Oct. 3 (3 p. m.) at Oakland’s Calvin Simmons Theatre. Adapted to modern Greek and directed by Kostas Tsianos (who will give introductory talks an hour before each performance), Lysistrata will have English supertitles. Lydia Koniordiu stars as Lysistrata. These performances mark its American debut after its presentation at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens—and celebrate the National Theatre's 100th anniversary. -more-
While many of us think of the ride to Pleasanton as a nasty commute and weekend excursions eastward as much more pleasant, Pleasanton, in fact, has a rather charming Main Street, complete with the old arched lighted white sign overhead, antique stores, and ye old tack shop. -more-
This week Berkeley is remembering the grand excitement of the Free Speech Movement, at a time, 40 years later, when a sizable number of movement veterans are still around to reminisce. I wasn’t here in 1964 myself, so what’s entertaining for me is finding out which of my current friends and acquaintances who still live here took part in the action, considering who they are now. Landlords, teachers, corporate lobbyists, lawyers, stock market investors, gardeners, small business owners, farmers, political organizers, librarians…their jobs, if they still have them, run the gamut, as do their experiences over the last 40 years. What was remarkable about the FSM is that it swept up a broad cross-section of students who understood that it was a bad idea for a state university to ban free expression of ideas from its campus. -more-
Culture. Or as they say in America’s capital of culture, New York City, kulcha. Everyone’s for it, who could be against it? We’ve gotten a number of communications from representatives of what’s described as the “arts and culture industry” in Mayor Bates’ proclamation endorsing today, Oct. 1, as “California Arts Day” and October as “Arts and Humanities Month.” The Arts Day press releases are chock-full of shocking statistics about the California’s sorry state of support for the arts, the worst of which is this, from the California Arts Council: -more-
