ArchivesMay 18, 2012
Berkeleyside would like to express its gratitude to our current advertisers:
By Tefari Ezequiel Casas
Update, May 24: Because many readers have expressed an interest, Berkeleyside made inquiries about whether the Café Fanny staff who lost their jobs after the restaurant closed down received severance pay. A Chez Panisse spokesperson said that Alice Waters personally ensured all of the staff were looked after. “Alice Waters paid the severance of all Café Fanny employees,” he said. (Separately, look out for our feature to be published tomorrow on Bartavelle!)
Tomorrow morning, a (simulated) 6.9 earthquake on the Hayward Fault hits Berkeley. Do you know what to do in a major disaster?
TREKKING IN BERKELEY Get a taste of the high mountains of Asia at The Himalayan Fair, started 29 years ago by mountain climber Arlene Blum. Eat momos and other Tibetan dishes, browse art, jewelry, clothing and collectibles from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Burma and other countries, and watch amazing dance and music performances. The fair runs Saturday May 19 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm and Sunday May 20 10 am to 5:30 pm at Live Oak Park.
UC Berkeley has released an open letter to update the community on the state of play at Gill Tract, which, until May 14, was being occupied by a group of farm activists known as the Gill Tract Farmers Collective. The letter says that preparations for agricultural research are now under way at the university-owned site, which is just over the Berkeley border in Albany on San Pablo Avenue, and sets out to dispel what it calls several “myths and misunderstandings” that have appeared in the media, in blogs and in online forums.
This is a partial list of recent crimes in Berkeley based on information from the Berkeley Police Department and the UC Police Department, followed by a snapshot of BPD activity this week. The calls for service spreadsheet is available on Google Docs. See also the San Francisco Chronicle’s regularly published list of arrests in Berkeley. For other sources of information on crime in Berkeley see Community CrimeView and Crimemapping.com.
The city of Berkeley has hired a public relations firm at a cost of $24,000 to review the police department’s media policies, bringing the price tag to $49,000 for Police Chief Michael Meehan’s decision to send a sergeant to a reporter’s home in the middle of the night to ask for a change to a story.
Update, 11:32 am: All three of the occupants of the Cadillac are currently Berkeley residents, according to new information released by BPD.
For the impressive cast of young jazz musicians at Berkeley High, the road to Cuba runs right through Fourth Street. On Sunday from noon to 5:00 p.m., the 17th Annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival transforms the upscale commercial district into a welcoming street fair with food booths, and two music stages. Funds raised at the event through raffle tickets and sale of beer and sake go directly to Berkeley High Jazz Program, funding travel to festivals, scholarships, and this year, the band’s first trip to Cuba.
