Author Archives: Tracey Taylor

News

Early morning fire breaks out at west Berkeley art gallery

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A fire that broke out at around 3:20 am Wednesday morning at Gate 13 Art Gallery at 813 Page Street in west Berkeley left several people displaced and two firefighters with minor injuries from a resident dog, according to media reports.

The working studio and residential art gallery is distinctive for having an airplane tail jutting out of its roof, and this momentarily confused the firefighters arriving on the scene, although they quickly realized it was an artwork.

The single-alarm fire was reported at 3:23 a.m., a fire dispatcher told the Mercury News. It was put out at 4:08 a.m. and caused moderate damage to one of the buildings on the property.

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Where in Berkeley?

Where in Berkeley?

Know where this is? Take a guess and let us know in the Comments.

Update, 9:26 am: Abby guessed this is Ashby Avenue just east of 9th Street. The view is looking north and, according to Neil Mishalov who took the picture, shows “a relic and curio of an East Bay mass transportation system of the early 20th Century. These railroad tracks, which are crossing Ashby Avenue, are part of the few the only remaining remnants of the Southern Pacific Interurban Electric Railway tracks of the Berkeley Ninth Street Line. The line was abandoned on 26 July 1941.”

Congratulations, Abby, on being this week’s winner!

Photo: Neil Mishalov.

News

The Berkeley Wire: 02.21.12

Berkeley’s BeBop gives Korean food a Californian twist [Mercury News]
New Helios building uses innovative lab exhaust ductwork system [Eon]
A fabulous Cal-Japanese dinner party from chef Sylvan Brackett [F&W]
Obstetrician puts fresh food on health care table [Chronicle]
Weekend Occupy Cal activities end peacefully [UCB]

Photo: Lomo leaks, by Angela Marlaud/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

Shop Talk: The ins and outs of Berkeley businesses

New Molly Mutt HQ in Berkeley

NEW CAFE AT BAM After a short tenure by Remedy Coffee (which also has a space on Telegraph in Oakland), Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA)’s café on the first floor has been taken over and is now called Babette. The light-filled, concrete-walled space, which gives onto an open courtyard, opened under its new moniker on January 3rd and is serving rustic food — think pulled pork and spicy coleslaw sandwiches and lentil and red chard soup — along with coffee from Ritual and housemade sodas. Husband and wife team Joan Ellis and Patrick Hooker, who live in Berkeley and have 20-plus years of cooking and catering experience under their belts, are at the helm. Babette is open for breakfast and lunch during the week, and coffee and pastries at the weekend. Follow Babette on its Facebook page for menu updates and other news. Babette is accessible through a gate to the right of the museum’s Bancroft Way entrance, and from 2625 Durant Avenue. (Hat tip: Lisa Sibony) … Continue reading »

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News

The Berkeley Wire: 02.20.12

Berkeley Public Library Foundation gets Foodoodled [Zester Daily]
UC Berkeley’s artwork loss is a museum’s gain [New York Times]
Missing Santa Barbara man turns up in Berkeley [KVEC]
Dance cup runneth over in Berkeley [Mercury News]
Occupy Oakland joins forces with Occupy Cal for one day [Daily Cal]

Photo: Camilia St. Amtrak railroad crossing, by Ira Serkes/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

Berkeley hills neighbors react with shock to murder

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Update, 6:25 pm: BPD issued some new clarifications at 5:00 pm this evening about the February 18th killing. There follows a statement by Operations & Area 2 Commander Lt. Andrew Greenwood:

“BPD received a report of a suspicious person possibly trespassing. The caller calmly reported an encounter with a strange person on his property, and asked for an officer to respond. This call for service was queued for dispatch.

At that time, available Patrol teams were being reconfigured in order to monitor a protest which was to come into Berkeley from Oakland in the next hour. Only criminal, in-progress emergency calls were to be dispatched, due to the reduction in officers available to handle calls for service.

BPD subsequently received a call of an attack in progress on Park Gate Rd. Officers were immediately dispatched to that call. … Continue reading »

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News

Best of Berkeleyside: This week’s most popular posts

Burrowing owls, and docents, return to Berkeley park Five Western burrowing owls have been spotted in Cesar Chavez Park. The small ground-dwelling birds spend much of the day sitting alertly near their burrows, astonishingly close to all those humans with dogs, kites and strollers. [Photo, above, by Doug Donaldson.]

Anti-harassment cyclist law goes into effect in Berkeley On Thursday, Berkeley joined Los Angeles as only the second city in the nation to provide specific civil recourse for harassed and assaulted cyclists. No everyone thought this made sense.

Set-back for Mitch Kapor and his plans to build a home in Berkeley An environmental impact report will need to be conducted at 2707 Rose Street after a group challenging the philantropist’s proposal to build a new home there (pictured left) won their court appeal.

Berkeley passes police mutual aid agreements On Tuesday, the City Council opted to allow Berkeley’s police department to help out UC Police, among others, in a relaxation of its mutual aid policies — despite vocal protests from members of the public who expressed concerns over the “increasing militarization of the police.”

This week, Berkeleyside signed up Autodesk as a sponsor, and Qeyno Lab’s Kalimah Priforce and Andre Marquis, head of UC Berkeley’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship as panelists for Startup Berkeley, our Local Business Forum on the evening of March 5th at the Freight & Salvage. Want to see Berkeley become a more welcoming city for new businesses? Be part of the conversation!

If you like Berkeleyside, become a subscriber to support our efforts to bring you news. Be first on the news by following us on Twitter and becoming a fan on Facebook.

Adopt a pet: Minky, a sweet and social cat

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Minky arrived at the Milo Foundation in March and her babies were born the first night. They have all moved on to new homes, and now it’s Minky’s turn.

A Manx, Minky is very sweet and social cat, spending the majority of her day following her foster parents around the house, and snuggling beside them. She thoroughly enjoys petting sessions and will gently swat her paw at your hand to request more attention, then give a light love nip … Continue reading »

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News

The Berkeley Wire: 02.17.12

Peruvian rotisserie Brasa to open February 21st [Eater SF]
Traffic stop becomes arrest for weapons violations [Daily Cal]
Schools Fund head steps down amid questions [Berkeley Voice]
Police clear out small Occupy Cal encampment [Oakland Tribune]

Photo: Fine Fabrics, by 2812 photography/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

Animated vegetables recount Michael Pollan’s food rules

Benoit Detalle and Marija Jacimovic, a freelance editor and animator, created this adorable film of animated vegetables explaining how Berkeley author Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules” work.

Pollan’s message here is that organic works, especially in the developing world, and we can grow enough good food to feed people if we stop using it for industrial meat operations and biofuel projects.

According to Jacimovic, writing about the film on Viemo, the pair used a mixture of stop-motion and compositing. “Our aim and challenge was to convey the topic in a visually interesting way using a variety of different food products. We made a little table top set up at home and worked on this a little over three weeks,” she said.

The video made it into the top five shortlisted films at the RSA/Nominet Trust Film Competition, for which voting is still open at the time of writing.

[Hat-tip: Grist via Brain Pickings]

Related:
Michael Pollan: New food rules but no need to be neurotic [11.02.11]

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