Daily Archives: April 4, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 04.04.11
Interview: John Harris, Berkeley’s “foodoodler” [Berkeley Food & Housing Project]
UC graduate donates $119 million to victims of Japan quake [World Wide]
UC Berkeley bomb squad destroys WWI munitions [Marin I-J]
Authors Meg Waite Clayton and Tatjana Soli at Books Inc Tuesday [Books, Inc]
New Museum names Alice Waters as 2011 Stuart Regen Visionary [Broadway World]
Photo: Three lights by Keoki Seu/Berkeleyside Flickr pool
Dog killed by police during house call on Saturday
On the afternoon of Saturday April 2, police shot and killed a dog at a home on Shattuck Avenue where a number of men had been shooting targets with pellet guns in their backyard.
According to a Berkeley Police Department statement, the police received a call at about 3:30 p.m. from a resident in the 3200 block of Shattuck who reported that a man was firing a handgun in the rear yard of a nearby residence.
“BPD Officers responded immediately and met with the witness/caller who pointed out the home to the officers,” the release stated. ”Officers contacted the occupants who complied with officers’ orders to exit the home. During the process, a pit-bull dog came out of the residence and refused to comply with the verbal commands issued by one of the occupants. The dog then growled and lunged at one of the officers causing that officer to fear for his safety. This officer fired one round from his pistol at the dog and it died instantly.” … Continue reading »
Berkeley High security officers play multiple roles
It was 2:10 pm on a warm Thursday afternoon and the Berkeley High detention center was hopping.
The school’s security team had done a sweep of the park across from the high school and had netted 13 students who had cut class. Now the truant teenagers sat in desks before a blank white board, quietly talking to one another as they waited for their parents to be notified.
Ardarius McDonald, the dean of students and the man who supervises the school’s security detail, came into the room, clearly not pleased – but not surprised –by the crowd. After all, it was close to 80 degrees that day, one of the first nice days after nearly two weeks of rain, and, as he pointed out, some teenagers have a hard time resisting the lure of the sun.
Just a day earlier, Berkeley High had gone on lockdown after a parent reported that she had seen a young person with a gun outside on Martin Luther King Avenue. McDonald and his team immediately rushed into action, locking all the school’s entrances, ordering students in classrooms on the west side of campus to stay away from the windows, and fanning out to prearranged spots on the 14-acre campus as Berkeley police investigated. It was the fourth gun-related incident in a week at the high school, including one on March 22 where two students shot off a gun in a bathroom.
The upsurge in violence has shone a spotlight on Berkeley High’s security detail. While no one has been hurt on campus this year, some parents have wondered if the school is adequately prepared for a serious gun event. Others contend that the school turns a blind eye to intimidation. Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Matthew Golde voiced these concerns last week when he stood up at a community forum and suggested that armed robberies were common at Berkeley High and that dangerous people wandered its halls.
It’s a concern that McDonald understands – but refutes. Berkeley High is generally a safe place, he said. Sure, wallets and iPods are stolen too often, but “there are no switchblade fights in the halls.”
Bay Citizen offers $5,000 award for community project
The Bay Citizen (an editorial partner to Berkeleyside) is hoping to identify and reward a worthwhile community project in the Bay Area, be it a group that aims to help local homeless people, provide job training, or create a pleasant outdoor space in their neighborhood.
The winner will receive a $5,000 grant, as well as a professionally produced video about the project and invitations to the Bay Citizen’s Citizen Celebration on May 18, where the award will be presented in front of an audience of community leaders.
“The only criteria for applicants is that they are local — within the 9-county Bay Area — and that they can demonstrate that they have already made an impact in tackling a significant problem in their community,” said Rose Roll, The Bay Citizen’s Director of Membership and Marketing. … Continue reading »
Discoveries while prepping the garden for spring
Berkeleysider Diana Howard created this sketch of what she found while preparing the dirt in her garden for planting this spring.
“I am particularly excited about seeing a Rufous hummingbird, which is a new one for me (usually you get the Allen’s or Anna’s kind). Don’t know how I feel about that scary-looking (yellow & black) Jerusalem cricket though,” she wrote.
Ippuku in Top 100, five Berkeley restaurants make cut
And now Ippuku in Berkeley joins the hallowed ranks of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 restaurants for the first time (published in yesterday’s paper, not yet available online).
Ippuku, which was given three stars by the Chronicle’s food critic and Top 100 compiler Michael Bauer in his October review, joins four other Berkeley restaurants in the hall of fame — three of which are Top 100 veterans. They are: Chez Panisse/Café at Chez Panisse, O Chamé, Rivoli, and Corso Trattoria. The last two are both run by Wendy Brucker and Roscoe Skipper.
Ippuku was opened in 2010 by chef Christian Geiderman whose purist tendencies extend to not serving wine. Instead, the restaurant specializes in shochu, a Japanese spirit, and offers beer. … Continue reading »
