Berkeleyside

The Berkeley Wire: 05.16.12

Tracey Taylor — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:55:59 +0000

Food authors, academics urge Cal to embrace Gill Tract Farm [Fog City Journal]
Berkeley’s Fred Rodriguez boost Olympic dream with Cal Tour [Merc]
Praise for BAM benefit honoring SF arts patron Cissie Swig [Huff Po]
UC Berkeley picks 4th St spot for Shared Services Center [UCB]
King teacher takes teenagers to protest at UC Berkeley [Chronicle]
Cal Golden Bears win record-setting six titles [Cal Bears]

Photo: Helios building, by Avi Hesterman/Watershed Photography.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | One comment |
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West Berkeley plan held for further council debate

Lance Knobel — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:58:29 +0000

Public hearings on the West Berkeley Project were heated and contentious. Photo: Tracey Taylor

For the third consecutive week, Berkeley City Council heard many passionate arguments against the third phase of the West Berkeley Project and a handful in support. But a vote on amending the West Berkeley Plan, certifying the environmental impact report and adopting CEQA findings and the Mitigation Monitoring Program was held over to yet another special council meeting — scheduled for 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22.

Last year, the City Council approved zoning amendments for reusing and expanding existing buildings and businesses and which allowed new uses. The third part of the project deals with a new Master Use Permit (MUP) process which provides for greater flexibility in developing large sites. The project would allow the creation of a maximum of no more than six MUP sites over the next ten years.

At last week’s council meeting, planning director Eric Angstadt suggested a number of modifications to the proposals to mollify critics. Last night, he detailed the changes. First, there will be no Master Use Permit (MUP) approvals until a Community Benefits Agreement is passed. Second, no housing will be permitted in the M, MM and MU-LI areas. Third, density, height and floor area ratios in the MU-R would be maintained. Fourth, in the MUPs there would be a 75-foot height limit, except where industrial processes require up to 100 feet (and those exceptions are restricted to nine potential sites). Finally, protections were added to prevent shadows or degradation of the “existing visual quality or character” of Aquatic Park.(...)

Read the rest of West Berkeley plan held for further council debate (684 words)

By lance. | Permalink | 8 comments |
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In memory: John Quigley, Cal leader, inspirational mentor

Guest contributor — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:56:35 +0000

Quigley was Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Business, and Economics at UC Berkeley

John M. Quigley, a leading scholar of housing markets, local public finance, energy efficient buildings, homelessness, and racial discrimination in housing, passed away in Berkeley on Saturday May 12. He was 70.

Quigley, the I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Business, and Economics at UC Berkeley, was a campus leader, an inspirational mentor, and a leading figure in urban economics and housing policy.

During his career he produced fourteen books and over 150 scholarly articles. Quigley excelled at finding clever ways to use empirical data about housing and urban areas to answer important public policy questions such as the macro-economic impact of rising housing prices on consumption behavior, the impact of segregation on African Americans’ opportunities to accumulate wealth through investment in housing, the effect of governmental and voluntary energy standards on energy efficiency and the value of buildings, and the relationship between housing markets and homelessness.(...)

Read the rest of In memory: John Quigley, Cal leader, inspirational mentor (1,019 words)

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Post tags: John Quigley, UC Berkeley

Berkeley home, crime hotbed, declared a public nuisance

Tracey Taylor — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:48:34 +0000

Local residents describe 1722 Ninth Street, which has been declared a public nuisance, as "the neighbors from hell"

Last night, a West Berkeley home that has been the nexus for serious crime and drug dealing for 30 years was declared a public nuisance by the City Council.

The household at 1722 Ninth Street, owned by 77-year old Roberto Alcala, many of whose extended family live there with him, was described by local residents as “the neighbors from hell.”

The Council’s decision follows a recommendation made in February by the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board not only to slap the home with a public nuisance order, but also to evict its inhabitants. The council chose not to have the house vacated, but instead imposed 11 conditions on the property owner in order to “abate the nuisance activity,” all of which need to be met within one month. These include eradicating illegal substances and unregistered guns from the property, eliminating excessive noise and applying for the permits necessary to demolish an illegal kitchen addition. (Read the full recommendation.)(...)

Read the rest of Berkeley home, crime hotbed, declared a public nuisance (444 words)

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | 60 comments |
Post tags: 1722 Ninth Street Berkeley, Berkeley City Council, Berkeley crime, Berkeley Police Department, Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board

Where in Berkeley?

Tracey Taylor — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:00:23 +0000

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

Update 11:35 am: Rachel A. got it. As Nick Gross explains it, this is a pair of authentic baseball bleacher seats from Fenway Park in Boston that he had installed in front of his house at 1215 Oxford Street. He bought them at an auction last year and says they attract a lot of attention, particularly from street hikers taking a break on their walk up the hill. Congratulations on being this week’s winner, Rachel!

Photo: Nick Gross.

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | 6 comments |
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The Berkeley Wire: 05.15.12

Tracey Taylor — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:55:24 +0000

Berkeley places third on Amazon’s Best Read Cities list [AP]
Berkeley Symphony’s new season, conductor’s contract extended [Merc]
Berkeley home of late prof. Robert Scalapino for sale [MarketWire]
BUSD looks at amalgamating language immersion program [Patch]
Berkeley Youth Alternatives gets funds to boost attendance [Tribune]
Vigil for UC Berkeley sophomore (photos) [Mercury News]

Photo: Campanile and Albany hill, by TJ Gehling/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

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Shop Talk: The ins and outs of Berkeley businesses

Tracey Taylor — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:10:29 +0000

Book repair at Coriander Reisbord

BETTER BOOKS Reader Carla Shapreau writes in to say she had the pleasure of visiting a new business in Berkeley where rare books are restored and the book arts are taught. “I have an old book in disrepair that needed some conservation, which is what led me to the Family Book Lab on MLK, which is also the workshop of book conservator Coriander Reisbord,” she says. Reisbord, who has been repairing and restoring books for more than 20 years, has just opened Family Book Lab which offers a program of workshops for both adults and kids (or both together, as the name implies). She teaches bookbinding, paper decoration and typesetting among other skills. Both that business and the book repair store are based at 1413 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, three doors down from Mr Mopp’s. Reisbord can be reached at coriander@corybooks.com

Skates: re-opening

NEW LOOK Skates on the Bay, Berkeley’s restaurant that literally floats over the bay, is re-opening following an extensive interior redesign. Look out for the restaurant’s new menu, that includes oysters, sashimi, lobster and crab when in season, and an “extensive” raw bar. Skates is at 100 Seawall Drive Berkeley, CA 94710. Tel: 510-549-1900.(...)

Read the rest of Shop Talk: The ins and outs of Berkeley businesses (285 words)

By Tracey Taylor. | Permalink | 8 comments |
Post tags: Coriander Reisbord, Family Book Lab, Frin Graphics, Skates on the Bay, Vegi Food

Unfunded liabilities prompt initiative, Council resolution

Lance Knobel — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:15:03 +0000

Street repair is one of the major deferred maintenance costs the city faces. Photo: Tracey Taylor

A ballot initiative to force the city to do biennial reports on obligations for employee and retiree expenses and for Berkeley’s physical infrastructure and capital assets appears likely to appear on the ballot in the November election, according to supporters of the plan. At the same time, at tonight’s City Council meeting a similar measure is being proposed by four councilmembers, led by District 5′s Laurie Capitelli. The council measure, however, lacks the penalties for failing to produce the report that the initiative draft contains.

The ballot initiative is called the Berkeley Fiscal Accountability, Clarity, Transparency and Sustainability Ordinance of 2012, which shortens to FACTS. It would require biennial reports on the city’s financial obligations for the next 20 years, and would prohibit the City Council or the voters from “incurring any debt financing, or imposing any new tax, assessment or property-related fee, or increasing any existing tax, assessment or property-related fee, or scheduling an election to impose or increase and tax, assessment or property-related fee” unless the report required in the ordinance has been published and certified.(...)

Read the rest of Unfunded liabilities prompt initiative, Council resolution (243 words)

By lance. | Permalink | 15 comments |
Post tags: Berkeley Budget SOS, Berkeley City Council, Berkeley Fiscal Accountability, Clarity, Jacquelyn McCormick, Laurie Capitelli, Transparency and Sustainability Ordinance of 2012

McDonald’s tries to rebrand itself

Frances Dinkelspiel — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:40:57 +0000

The McDonald's on San Pablo. The fast food franchise is trying to rebrand itself as a restaurant that offers healthy fare. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel

In an attempt to rebrand its current image as a place that only serves fatty fast food and super-size sodas, McDonald’s Corporation has launched a makeover campaign.

Titled “Rediscover What’s Under the Arches,” the marketing effort includes reaching out to stealth taste-makers like mommy and food bloggers to show them that the menu at the world’s largest fast food franchise (28 million people a day and counting) isn’t just French fries, Chicken McNuggets, Happy Meals, and hamburgers. It now includes more healthy items like oatmeal and fruit and yogurt parfaits.

On May 4, in what may seem like a visit to the lion’s den, the PR campaign came to Berkeley.

Call it a case of reverse marketing. What better way to challenge perceptions than by coming to a city with three farmers’ markets and a population that embraces all things organic, fresh, and local?(...)

Read the rest of McDonald’s tries to rebrand itself (1,210 words)

By Frances Dinkelspiel. | Permalink | 41 comments |
Post tags: Anjali Shah, Golin Harris, Heather Flett, McDonald's, Rookie Moms, The Picky Eater, Thomas Parker

Big Screen Berkeley: Payback, Yellow Submarine

John Seal — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:15:09 +0000

"Payback" examines the interrelatedness of payback, debt, reparations, and revenge, with a focus on debts of the non-monetary variety

Payback, it is sometimes said indelicately, can be a bitch. Jennifer Baichal’s new documentary Payback, opening this Friday, May 18 at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas (and most definitely not to be confused with the 1999 Mel Gibson thriller of the same name), takes a more contemplative approach to the term: payback, it turns out, can also be a restorative in the right hands.

Inspired by Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s book “Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth”, the film takes a decidedly broad approach to its topic. Traveling around the world, Baichal examines the interrelatedness of payback, debt, reparations, and revenge, with especial attention paid to debts of the non-monetary variety.

The film begins in Albania, where the question emerges — how do you keep them down on the farm once they’ve seen Tirana? The not so obvious answer is to invoke Kanun, an ancient, quasi-legal code of honor developed hundreds of years ago. Kanun still holds sway in the remote regions of northern Albania, where farmer Llesh Prenaga has been under virtual house arrest for the last three years.(...)

Read the rest of Big Screen Berkeley: Payback, Yellow Submarine (478 words)

By John Seal. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Beatlemaniac, Margaret Atwood, Payback, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Shattuck Cinemas, The Beatles, Yellow Submarine