Berkeleyside

The Berkeley Wire: 02.03.12

Tracey Taylor — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:55:10 +0000

Berkeley People’s Park tree sitter is convicted [SFGate]
Berkeley woman helps clients resolve intimacy issues [Daily Cal]
Musical titans to meet for Berkeley performance [Coco Times]
Berkeley architect wraps up William Wurster book [SFGate]
Former Cal student accuses sorority of beating, hazing her [SFWeekly]
Berkeley’s CIR and Bay Citizen in possible merger [NYT]
Berkeley City Council passes resolution to stand up for Tibet [Indy Bay]
Review: Aurora Theatre’s “Body Awareness” [Mercury News]

Photo: To bring you my love, by angela marlaud/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | No comment |
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Berkeleyside says thank you to our advertisers

Tracey Taylor — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:50:56 +0000

Berkeleyside would like to express its gratitude to our current advertisers:

Amoeba Music, Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, Aurora Theatre Company, Bernardo Lopez Garden Design & Installation, BHS Live, Bonhams, Buy Local Berkeley, Cal Youth Camps, Carolyn Jones at The Grubb Company, Focal Point, Greener Printer, The Grubb Company, Lehrhaus Judaica, Marsh Interiors, McKevitt Fiat, Photo Laboratory, Tom Miller & Friends Lawyers, Travlyn Russell Tupperware, and UC Berkeley Optometry.

We encourage our readers to patronize these businesses and help stimulate the local economy. If you are interested in promoting your business or service to Berkeleyside’s 84,833 unique monthly readers (latest figures), or in learning more about who they are, don’t hesitate to contact us.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | No comment |
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Police blotter: Recent crime in Berkeley

Tracey Taylor — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:15:37 +0000

This is a partial list of recent crimes in Berkeley based on information from the Berkeley Police Department and the UC Berkeley Police Department.

See also BPD’s weekly calls for service and 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.

January 30th:

Drunk in Public Arrest – 1800 Block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way – #2012-5525
On Monday, January 30, 2012 at about 11:51 p.m., a female community member called to report someone knocking on her door in the 1800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and creating a disturbance. BPD officers responded and found a man, later identified as a 30-year-old Berkeley resident. The handling officer immediately noted that the man displayed objective signs of alcohol beverage intoxication, including bloodshot watery eyes, unstable gait, slurred speech, flushed face, and had the odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath. The officer determined based on these factors that the subject could not care for his own welfare. BPD arrested the subject for violation of PC647(F) – Drunk in Public with a request that the Jail staff give him a citation and release him when he is sober.(...)

Read the rest of Police blotter: Recent crime in Berkeley (1,618 words)

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Berkeley crime, Berkeley Police Department

New Berkeley winery Urbano Cellars throws opening party

Frances Dinkelspiel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:00:37 +0000

Urbano Cellars took over the old Donkey & Goat space at 2323B Fourth Street. Photo: Fred Dick

For the last two years, Urbano Cellars has had a nomadic existence, storing its barrels of wine at other wineries and not having a place to call home.

The winery, run by Fred Dick and Bob Rawson, had rented space for years at Periscope Cellars on Hollis Street in Emeryville. That operation had to shut down. For a while it looked like the 15-year old Urbano would open a place in Oakland. The longtime friends had found a space near Jack London Square, but it needed retrofitting. The city of Oakland tempted the partners with tax breaks, but had to rescind the offer when Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature eliminated redevelopment agencies.

Then Donkey & Goat winery moved, in 2011, from its Fourth Street home to new quarters on Fifth near Gilman in Berkeley’s burgeoning “drinks district.” Urbano Cellars took the old space and brought in the 100 barrels and assorted bottles of Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc, and Syrach-Grenache blend that had been scattered around the East Bay.

On Saturday, they are throwing a big party to celebrate the move.

“Donkey and Goat’s space became available,” Dick said earlier this week as he rushed around to ready the place for the Grand Reopening. “Low and behold we had a turnkey winery with everything we needed.”(...)

Read the rest of New Berkeley winery Urbano Cellars throws opening party (282 words)

By Frances Dinkelspiel. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Bob Rawson, Donkey & Goat, Fred Dick, Urbano Cellars

Berkeley’s Mayor lays groundwork for reelection bid

Lance Knobel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:00:25 +0000

Bates: "I will make an announcement in the next couple of weeks." Photo: Lance Knobel

Mayor Tom Bates this week filed the necessary campaign finance forms that would enable him to run for reelection this November.

“I had to file the report, but I’m not officially running for reelection,” Bates told Berkeleyside. “I will make an announcement in the next couple of weeks.”

Bates, who is 73, has been mayor for ten years, serving one two-year term, followed by two four-year terms.

According to Acting City Clerk Mark Numainville, there is an important distinction between required campaign finance forms and the paperwork necessary to become a qualified candidate. The form Bates filed allows him to raise or spend money, but nothing else.

“It doesn’t commit you to run and it doesn’t qualify you as a candidate,” Numainville said.

Bates’ wife, State Senator Loni Hancock, preceded him in the Berkeley mayor’s office where she served for two terms. No other names have yet emerged as candidates for mayor.(...)

Read the rest of Berkeley’s Mayor lays groundwork for reelection bid (64 words)

By lance. | Permalink | 11 comments |
Post tags: Berkeley City Council, Berkeley government, Mayor Tom Bates

Marc Kelly dishes on the story behind Berkeley’s Soop

Sarah Henry — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:45:52 +0000

Soop owner Marc Kelly serves comfort food daily. Photos: Sarah Henry

As mid-life crises go, Marc Kelly’s was a pretty productive one — with a little spice thrown in for good measure.

Seeking change after a 20-year career in the fruit and vegetable export business, Kelly was keen to open a food joint of his own. Something modest and manageable, a takeaway place that satisfied his culinary aspirations and cravings.

That’s how Soop, one of the original anchor businesses in the Gourmet Ghetto’s Epicurious Garden, came about.

Kelly, a self-taught chef, determined that soup was an unexplored market niche in the edible landscape. He sensed an opportunity. Six years into serving up soup every day, Kelly’s enthusiasm for the comfort food he sells is still apparent.

He has a loyal band of regulars — Kelly sees them coming and knows which ladle to reach for. And his years of global travel inform what he sells: every culture has a soup tradition and on the road he learned the universal language of soup.(...)

Read the rest of Marc Kelly dishes on the story behind Berkeley’s Soop (1,260 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Alice Walker, Berkeley Bowl, Corso, Epicurious Garden, Gourmet Ghetto, Marc Kelly, Michael Pollan, Rivoli, SOOP, Venus

At Berkeley European car meet, the ambience is laid-back

Guest contributor — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:32:02 +0000

At the Berkeley Marina Meet on January 21st, Volkswagens were much in evidence. Photos: Linda Hemmila

By Linda Hemmila

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the normally quiet parking lot at Hs Lordships at the Berkeley Marina was transformed into an arena for specialty cars, teeming with enthusiasts and interested passersby who probably didn’t expect to see a dazzling array of custom vehicles on their way to brunch.

Billed as the Berkeley Marina Meet, European car hobbyists who have connected through online forums gather at prearranged spots to share stories and take in each other’s rides. Some come from as far away as San Jose and Sacramento, and many come in caravans attracting curious looks on the freeway. Others are Berkeley locals with familiar looking cars who enjoy the opportunity to show off their work and socialize.

Many of the cars in evidence on January 21st were Volkswagens, as online forum VWvortex had been a conduit to orchestrating the gathering. Also featured were Audis, BMWs as well as a smattering of European models.(...)

Read the rest of At Berkeley European car meet, the ambience is laid-back (241 words)

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Post tags: Audi, Berkeley Marina Meet, BMW, Car meets, Hs Lordships, Volkswagen

The Berkeley Wire: 02.02.12

Tracey Taylor — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:55:29 +0000

The new agtivist: Adam Berman, faith-based urban farmer [Grist]
Dying dad, ex Pacific Steel, denied kidney transplant [ABC]
Energy Secretary joins groundbreaking for new LBNL facility [UCB]
Remembering Jane Imamura, 91, longtime Berkeley resident [Coco Times]
Long on the move, Bishop Berkeley finds a home on Cal campus [UCB]

Photo: Magnolia bud, by Sisterfish8/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

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Ex Berkeley teacher Marie Schumacher plays hometown

Andrew Gilbert — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:30:20 +0000

Marie Schumacher, a former teacher at King Middle School in Berkeley, plays the Subterranean Art House on Saturday

Back in the mid-1990s when Marie Schumacher was teaching at Berkeley’s King Middle School, her students didn’t know she was living a double life. By day she elucidated math and science for sixth graders, and by night she performed at venues like Albany’s Club Muse and Berkeley’s Rose Street House of Music. While honing her craft with bands like the retro-pop combo Agent 99, she started to develop her own book of tunes as a singer/songwriter.

Based in Portland, OR since 2000, the vocalist, guitarist, pianist and vocal arranger has maintained close creative ties to the East Bay through her long-running faculty position at Cazadero Music Camp. She plays her annual Berkeley concert Saturday February 4th at the Subterranean Arthouse with bassist John Foster, drummer Jon Arkin and guitarist Steve Gibson, co-founder and co-director of Berkeley’s innovative music program BandWorks.

Her latest album, “Island Set Aflame,” is the result of her revived collaboration with Gibson, with whom she often performed back in the 90s. While developing the new music in the fall of 2008, she received a jolt of inspiration from a spectacular brush fire that swept across Angel Island, with flames visible from her rehearsal. Crystallizing themes of destruction and creation, life and death, she wrote a series of thematically linked songs that Gibson set to beautifully latticed arrangements.(...)

Read the rest of Ex Berkeley teacher Marie Schumacher plays hometown (168 words)

By andrew. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: BandWorks, King Middle School, Marie Schumacher, PDX Vox, Subterranean Art House

Actual Café launches Bicycle Bingo fundraising parties

Tracey Taylor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:30:15 +0000

Bicycle Bingo at the Actual Café on San Pablo will take place every Thursday evening from tonight -- for many good causes

Actual Café has had a novel idea for groundhog day — which, as it happens is today — and for every week after today. The whole point of groundhog day, after all, is that it repeats itself.

The San Pablo Avenue café is launching “Bicycle Bingo”, a weekly fundraising bingo game and party that will benefit several nonprofits active in Berkeley and Oakland.

The event will feature the area’s only bicycle-driven bingo ball machine, and will be MC’ed by Berkeley’s Steffy Sue on the Uke.

“We like games and parties, and we like to support organizations who do good work in our own backyard, so this event is a no-brainer,” says Sal Bednarz, owner of Actual Café, which is known for its love of all things bike-related. “We want to help these organizations find a wider audience, and make it easy and fun for folks to give them some support (and maybe win a prize!).”(...)

Read the rest of Actual Café launches Bicycle Bingo fundraising parties (177 words)

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: A Verb for Keeping Warm, Actual Cafe, Berkeley bike station, Bicycle Bingo, East Bay Bicycle Coalition, East Bay College Fund, James and the Giant Cupcake, Mike's Bikes, Rebuilding Together Oakland, Steffy Sue on the Uke, The Essence of Beauty, United Roots Oakland