Eucalyptus trees in Claremont Canyon will be cut down to make room for native species and reduce fire risk if FEMA funding is approved. Photo: Tracey Taylor
The plan by UC Berkeley to reduce fire risk in Claremont and Strawberry canyons by eradicating non-native trees has attracted both praise and criticism from neighborhood groups. Over 22,000 eucalyptus, Monterey pine and acacia trees will be chopped down, making room, according to the university, for native trees like oak and California bay laurel.
A homicide on Grizzly Peak Boulevard early last Sunday morning closed the road for much of the day as police investigated the crime. On Wednesday, police released details of the suspect in the killing of 21-year old Fremont student Alverto Santana-Silva. Berkeleyside’s Emilie Raguso also analyzed the 25% rise in robberies in Berkeley this year. According to Berkeley police, most of the robberies involve pedestrians walking alone while carrying a cell phone that’s visible. The opportunity to target victims in this position may be on the increase as more and more people buy smart phones and tend to use them on the go.
The future of the old Cody’s building on Telegraph continues to concern our readers (71 comments and counting). Ken Sarachan, owner of the building, received approval to open his Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media from the Zoning Adjustments Board.
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Photo: beckcowles
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to address Berkeley’s 2013 grads (UCB)
Students think big ideas in tackling societal problems (UCB)
Road show: pavement on Berkeley streets a disgrace (BANG)
Berkeley to close part of Telegraph Sundays in summer (Tribune)
JAZZ ON FOURTH STREET The 18th annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival takes place on Sunday, May 19, from noon to 5 p.m. on Fourth Street in West Berkeley. The event is a benefit for Berkeley High School’s phenomenal jazz programs. The free day will feature the Dixieland sounds of famed radio host and trombonist Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band; the classic blues sounds from harmonica master Mark Hummel and the Blues Survivors; and the Latin jazz sounds of drummer and Berkeley High School alum Josh Jones and his Latin Jazz Group. The Berkeley High School Combo A, awarded DownBeat Magazine’s 2011 Best High School Combo Award, and the grand finale from the full 22-piece Berkeley High School Ensemble, directed by Sarah Cline. There’s always great food and drink too, and Berkeleyside, a proud sponsor, will be there with our booth. Come by and say hello! … Continue reading »
After a preliminary ruling issued this week tentatively denied a lawsuit to block the development of a grocery store and senior housing project planned in Albany by the University of California, attorneys for both sides argued the matter further before a Superior Court judge in downtown Oakland on Thursday.
The lawsuit — which questions the environmental review process undertaken when local officials approved the project — was filed last summer by supporters of Occupy the Farm. Some of the urban farming activists have said they want to see existing open space — several pieces of land owned by the university that include two vacant weedy lots slated for development, and an agricultural research field — protected and turned into public community farm space in perpetuity. … Continue reading »
Federal funding to enable UC Berkeley to cut down 22,000 non-native trees in Strawberry Canyon and Claremont Canyon is proceeding through the late stages of an environmental impact review. A final public meeting on the project will be held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Saturday, May 18, at Claremont Middle School in Oakland at 10 a.m.
The university’s project is a continuation of work it has been doing for the last decade on its land. Over 19,000 non-native trees — eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and acacia — have already been eradicated on 185 acres of campus property. The 22,000 additional trees expand the program to Strawberry Canyon and the hills to the north of Claremont Avenue as it climbs to Grizzly Peak.
“It’s a cohesive strategy that started over a decade ago,” said Tom Klatt, the university’s environmental projects manager. “We target the most fire-prone, fuel-productive trees that we have on our land. Those areas will have less fire intensity as a result.” … Continue reading »
Berkeley Police detectives were able to track down a parolee who police say tried to rob a woman at knife-point earlier this week after a witness took a photograph of the man’s license plate when he fled the scene, authorities said Friday.
Tuesday afternoon at 2, a woman was on Fifth Street south of Hearst Avenue loading items into her car, said Capt. Andrew Greenwood of the Berkeley Police Department.
A man with a knife came up to her and tried to rob her. She screamed and he ran to a parked vehicle and drove off. … Continue reading »
Spring running to summer, and the cookbooks keep arriving. Many of the season’s books focus on vegetables – there’s plenty to do with items home grown or picked up at farmer’s markets.
More than 100 people crowded into the Maudelle Shirek building in downtown Berkeley on Thursday morning to celebrate three promotions and recognize the retirement of a longtime officer from the Berkeley Police Department.
Opening these ceremonies to the public is a relatively new move by the department to give the community a chance to learn about how officers approach their work, said Police Chief Michael Meehan.
“It’s something I changed when I got hired,” said Meehan. “We’re proud of who we are and what we’re doing in this city, and we want people to know who their officers are.” … Continue reading »
No musical style is as inextricably linked to a particular city as tango is to Buenos Aires. So what happens when you take one of tango’s most acclaimed vocalists and plop her down in the Bay Area? For María Volonté, the result is a burst of inspiration, as she forges ties with some of the region’s finest jazz and Latin American musicians. Which isn’t to say that she’s cut her ties to Argentina. Volonté performs Sunday at the Garden Gate Creativity Center on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, an early stop on her Wapas tour with Mavi Díaz, the founder of the seminal 1980s all-female Argentine pop band Viudas e Hijas de Roque Enroll. While steeped in different traditions, both women are intensely passionate performers who share a rare gift for self-revelation and playful self-mockery.
Accompanying themselves on guitar, they’ll perform together and separately, playing original material and exploring classic songs by grandes mujeres Violeta Parra, Chabuca Granda and Tita Merello. Volonté’s regular musical partner, harmonica player Kevin Footer, will also join the proceedings (a particularly apt accompanist as Díaz’s father is the late great Argentine harmonica maestro Hugo Díaz). … Continue reading »
Berkeley High School. Photo: William Newton
Cal swim coach received $2.85m settlement in abuse case (Patch)
Oprah’s ‘all time favorite guest’ to graduate from Cal (ABC)
FEMA plans clear-cutting 85,000 trees in hill area (CA Progress Report)
An interview with Steve Wozniak (Daily Clog)
UC moves forward with plan for new aquatics center (Daily Cal)
Tabitha Soren was driving down Sacramento Street near Stanford Avenue when she spotted a change in a huge tree jutting up in the air.
For months Soren, a Berkeley photographer and former news correspondent for MTV and NBC, had been eyeing the tree. At 60 feet high, with a bifurcated trunk completely covered with leaves and vines, the tree was an arresting sight in the gritty Oakland neighborhood. Soren had long been intrigued by its sculptural qualities, but the tree had always been inaccessible behind a chain link fence. … Continue reading »
Friday just after midnight, three people walking south of the UC Berkeley campus were accosted by three young men with guns who robbed them of their wallets, phones and sunglasses. The men fled, but police say officers caught up with them early Sunday during a traffic stop. All three were arrested on suspicion of robbery.
If it seems like this story, or at least the first part of it, has become all too common this year, that’s because robberies are up a whopping 25% when compared to the same period last year, police said Wednesday. … Continue reading »
SISTA SANDWICH New in town: start-up Sista Sandwich, which provides grab-and-go gourmet gluten free sandwiches in Berkeley. Laura Tucker, who founded the company with her sister Sharon Pearlstein, says Sista is one of the few companies to be filling this niche and, so far, business is good. ”Our 100% gluten free sandwiches are made in Oakland and sold in Berkeley,” she says. The idea for Sista Sandwich came in the fall of 2011 while the pair were sitting in a cafe discussing how they would love to start a food related business of their own. While at the cafe Laura, who had been on a gluten free diet for two years already, realized that there was nothing for her to eat, other than yogurt, chips and packs of nuts. The Sista Sandwiches can be found at Berkeley Bowl, in two cafés on the UC Berkeley campus, at the new Café La Renaissance (see below) as well as a couple of small Berkeley markets. … Continue reading »
I was too young to be aware of the political ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Blissfully ignorant, I’d walk to school each morning in my English schoolboy’s uniform (cap, tie and shorts, regardless of the weather), and return home each afternoon to watch Blue Peter, Crackerjack (“It’s Friday! It’s 5 to 5! It’s CRACKERJACK!”), or Doctor Who. Why worry about Daniel Cohn-Bendit when Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were being threatened by Cybermen and Daleks?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the English Channel, French students were on the verge of toppling their country’s government. The fallout of this fraught moment in history is the subject of Olivier Assayas’ new film Something in the Air (more appropriately titled Après mai in France, in reference to the fateful month when De Gaulle’s government almost fell), opening at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas on Friday, May 17. … Continue reading »
