Daily Archives: March 9, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 03.09.11
Berkeley company Mog: the next frontier for digital music [New York Times]
Berkeley cookie author Alice Medrich a finalist for cookbook award [SFoodie]
Edible Schoolyard’s most popular visitor? Adorable newborn goat Oleoh [ES]
Code Pink hands out 41 Peace Heroine Awards to women over 70 [Code Pink]
Berkeley City College student fights system [Coco Times]
Hundreds attend Council workshop to support Ecology Center [East Bay Express]
Tony Taccone makes debut as playwright in Berkeley Rep’s 2011-12 season [SF Gate]
Photo: Helios building construction in time lapse by DH Parks/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Murder victim identified, reward offered for killer
The Berkeley Police Department reports that the man who was found shot dead in his back yard Tuesday afternoon at 1634 Blake Street was 30-year-old Tobias Pemadorji Eagle.
The BPD has not made any arrests or confirmed a possible motive in the case, and does not believe this was a random shooting. It is offering a $15,000 reward, and Bay Area Crime Stoppers is offering an additional $2,000 reward, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the city’s … Continue reading »
Closure of Lucky Dog pet store puts animals at risk
A dispute over rent and repairs has prompted a landlord to evict the Lucky Dog pet store from its home on San Pablo Avenue, putting the lives of dozens of animals at risk.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Department is scheduled to arrive at 2154 San Pablo Avenue at 6:00 am Thursday to take over the property, even though Bobby Rostam, the owner of Lucky Dog, doesn’t yet have a home for the chickens, pigeons, birds, rabbits, turtles, guinea pig, and fish that currently live in the store.
Rostam and his attorneys are asking Alameda County Superior Court for a 10-day reprieve, and they should know the results late on Wednesday.
“I have a bunch of chickens,” Rostam said Wednesday as he oversaw a close-out sale of his store. “I don’t know what I am going to do with them.”
“This is one of the last old-style pet stores in Berkeley,” said Rostam. “I have little customers coming here. The kids really love it. If I leave, there’s nothing for them.”
Rostam, whose legal name is Behrouze Rostampouir, said the trouble began when Mary Pagones, the landlord, refused to make repairs to the store. Water leaked through the roof and skylights, damaging his products and sending chunks of plaster to the floor.
The night Pablo Picasso heard the UC Berkeley fight song
In 1908, a Jewish woman from San Francisco named Harriet Lane Levy was invited to a supper in Montmartre to honor the painter Henri Rousseau. This was no ordinary supper: its hosts were the painter Pablo Picasso and his lover, Fernande Olivier.
Levy was well acquainted with the artists, painters, poets, and writers who lived in Paris in the first decades of the 20th century and came to be known as The Lost Generation. In 1907, she and her neighbor, Alice B. Toklas, left San Francisco to visit Paris. On their first day there they went to see a good friend, Sarah Samuels, who had married Michael Stein. In the room was Michael’s sister, Gertrude Stein. The love match between Stein and Toklas is one of the most famous couplings in history. … Continue reading »
Berkeley population up by 10%, African-American decline
Berkeley’s tally parallels California’s overall population growth of 10%, the lowest in the state’s history. The growth outpaced Alameda County, which only grew by 4.6% in the decade. The African-American population of Alameda County dropped nearly 12%, while the Asian population grew by more than 33% and the Latino population grew by 24%.
The 2010 data is used for redistricting and allocation of government funding. More detailed breakdowns are not yet available from the 2010 census. All of the data is available for browsing and download at the Census Bureau’s Factfinder site. … Continue reading »
Where in Berkeley?
Know where this is? Take a guess and let us know in the Comments.
Update, 09:49: Ira Serkes did it again. He correctly guessed that this is the Hearst Mining Building. And here, because we know he values precision, is the map location. Congratulations, Ira, on being this week’s winner.
Photo: Keoki Seu.
Opinion: The beauty of industrial West Berkeley
John Osborn moved from northern California to Berkeley in the late winter of 2010 and has been surprised by what he’s found: the wonders of BART, the diversity of people, the good food. John has been reporting on the issues of Humboldt County for years and will now be reporting on Berkeley issues for Berkeleyside. He will also be writing about his impressions of our city. Here he shares some impressions of our city:
West Berkeley is not an industrial wasteland; it is beautiful. But you know the cliché: beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
The robust and thriving industrial lifeblood of America has undergone a profound change. What was once the enviable industrial base of the world, employing untold numbers of blue-collar workers with middle class wages and benefits, has since succumbed to the great race for the bottom — a consequence of unleashing our national companies into the global marketplace.
But fear not. This doesn’t herald the death of manufacturing as some are quick to tell you. There is still a spirit of resilience that permeates particular areas, including here in West Berkeley. … Continue reading »
