Tag Archives: Kriss Worthington
Berkeley property company in court over deposits
A Berkeley property company that has refused to return the security deposits of a number of former tenants agreed Wednesday to make some reparation.
Cleo and Eula Lekas, the mother and daughter behind Lekas & Associates, agreed to pay Alyson Sato $2,487 by Jan. 31, according to City Councilmember Kriss Worthington. The two sides reached the agreement after a two-hour, closed-door meeting in front of a judge in an Alameda County courtroom.
The resolution, if carried out, would end a 19-month-old fight over the return of Sato’s security deposit, a disagreement that made its way into small claims court, prompted a protest outside a meeting of the Berkeley Property Owners’ Association, led to a demonstration in front of the Lekas’ home in Oakland, and led the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of Cleo Lekas.
“The landlord has now agreed to pay Alyson by January 31 and she has signed a document, witnessed by the judge, that the check will be in the mail and received by Jan. 31st,” said Worthington. … Continue reading »
Alameda County bans use of some plastic bags
The Alameda County Waste Authority voted Wednesday to ban the use of plastic bags at pharmacies and grocery stores county-wide, starting in 2013.
The authority, which also goes by the name Stopwaste.org, also voted to require businesses and multi-family dwellings to recycle all “high-market value materials,” as part of an initiative to reduce waste going the landfill.
The plastic bag ban will apply to 2,000 stores around the county. The ban does not include restaurants or retail stores. … Continue reading »
Will Berkeley pass a plastic bag ban soon?
Kriss Worthington is tired of waiting.
More than six years ago, the Berkeley councilmember suggested that the city ban the use of plastic grocery bags.
At the time, the idea was new and Worthington liked the notion of Berkeley leading the nation by passing an environmentally friendly law.
Since then, more than 100 cities, counties and countries have banned the use of plastic grocery bags. In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the country to pass legislation outlawing the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and pharmacy chains.
Berkeley has done nothing.
“It’s an important environmental policy,” said Worthington. “To me, it’s sort of embarrassing that it was proposed in Berkeley before anywhere else. Now all these other places have policies. It’s time we get a policy.” … Continue reading »
Elmwood business quotas may change to help startups
The decades-old retail and food quotas in Berkeley’s Elmwood commercial district face a potentially dramatic overhaul with Councilmember Gordon Wozniak set to propose a review of the quotas to the Planning Commission at tonight’s City Council meeting. If it’s adopted, Wozniak’s scheme would eliminate retail quotas and collapse the current three-tier food quota into a single quota.
“I want to make it easier for startups, but still maintain the special character of the Elmwood,” Wozniak, who represents most of the Elmwood business district, said. The area is centered on the intersection of Ashby and College Avenues in south Berkeley. “There’s a need to keep the balance between food and retail, but having three distinct categories for food is very destructive and consumes an inordinate amount of staff time.”
Under the current quotas (see table below), there are six distinct retail categories and three food categories — carry out, quick service and full service. Wozniak said that the system can be a “real disincentive for a new business”, because of the cost and time needed for permitting.
Despite eviction notice, no raid on Occupy Berkeley
By Frances Dinkelspiel and Judith Scherr
Under the threat of eviction, protestors at Occupy Berkeley took down about 40 tents in Civic Center Park Wednesday night, preparing for the raid that never came.
As a 10 pm deadline to stop camping in the park loomed, many activists were packing up their gear and loading it up on trucks. Some had stashed their possessions in a safe place, but had returned to the park to confront the police if they showed up. Soon, only about 29 out of about 70 tents remained.
“I’ve got my stuff packed but I’m not leaving,” a man who identified himself as Cincinnati said as the deadline loomed. “I’m going to take the streets.”
But the desire to confront police and stand ground was shared by only some of the 150 people who have made up Occupy Berkeley. Maxina Ventura, who has been staying in the park off and on with her children ever since it started two months ago, took down her tent on Wednesday. She said she could no longer stand behind the radical fringe of protestors who seemed determined to fight police at all costs.
“We had to make it clear we were not a front for those people,” said Ventura.
Berkeley police, acting on orders from interim City Manager Christine Daniel, handed out notices on Dec. 20 that the city would no longer look the other way during the park’s 10 pm to 6 am curfew. … Continue reading »
Sequoia: Demolition imminent, tenants meet to complain
As demolition crews prepared to partially demolish the fire-ravaged building at 2441 Haste Street Monday afternoon, a group of former tenants of the building were planning to meet this evening to discuss securing settlements from the building’s owners and fixing damage from a fire which, they say, could have been prevented.
The demolition work will likely begin in earnest Tuesday. On Monday crews were doing the groundwork in advance of tearing parts of the structure down, including shoring up nearby retail spaces, putting protective matting on the sidewalks and removing parking meters.
Vehicle and pedestrian traffic is still restricted around the Telegraph-Haste intersection because of the danger posed by the unstable building, although cars can now take a left turn onto Telegraph if driving west on Haste. … Continue reading »
Are Blackberries best bet for Berkeley in emergencies?
On Tuesday, October 11th, at about 4:00 pm, a power outage in Berkeley shut down the downtown BART station and disabled the city’s computer system, which meant services and documents for elected officials, city agency staff, and city residents were inaccessible for several hours.
On the same day, owners of BlackBerries across the country — which includes all senior City of Berkeley personnel — were experiencing outages on their handheld devices after a system hardware glitch caused a backlog of data to build up in the European servers of Research In Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry.
Both incidents highlight Berkeley’s dependence on potentially unreliable technologies. They also underscore how vulnerable our city’s government might be in a state of emergency. … Continue reading »
Berkeley city: No truth to viral email predicting quake
UPDATE 4:07 pm: Genie Stowers, the professor who sent out the original email issued an apology this afternoon by email. Here it is:
Last week, I sent out an email to family and close friends and colleagues about recent earthquakes.
My intent was to pass on a message that they should take the occurrence of these recent earthquakes as an opportunity to make sure their earthquake kits and other emergency measures were up to date.
It is unfortunate that this email instead went viral and has caused great concern among many in the Berkeley area.
My message was not intended to be a commentary on earthquake science, on City of Berkeley preparedness, or on anything else except that folks should get ready. The message was intended to be, preparedness is good.
I apologize for what has happened and the concerns this caused. It was a mistake and I regret that it happened.
Genie Stowers
…………………………….
An email that has gone viral that predicts an imminent quake on the Hayward fault is causing widespread concern in Berkeley, but city officials say its premise is false.
The email, which began spreading on Friday, says that geologists have told Berkeley officials that the recent spate of small earthquakes suggest that there will be a 6.0 quake or higher on the Hayward Fault within the next two to three weeks.
City officials have not been specially briefed by geologists, and there is no way of predicting earthquakes, numerous city officials told Berkeleyside.
“I have not received any briefings,” said City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. “In addition, I do not believe that anyone knows how to predict the precise time an earthquake will happen on the Hayward fault. Thus, I would not give credence to such rumors.”
Here is the email that has gone viral:
“A student in my class tonight works in Berkeley City Hall and they have been getting briefings on the earthquakes recently in Berkeley on the Hayward Fault by geologists. … Continue reading »
Rapid growth of cannabis collective raises concern
In the 21 months since it opened, the 40 Acres Medical Marijuana Growers Collective has seen its membership jump to more than 7,000 people, making it one of the fastest growing and largest cannabis businesses in Berkeley.
From a set of rooms located above the Albatross pub on San Pablo Avenue, 40 Acres has become more than just a place where people can obtain and consume medical cannabis. Started by African-Americans, run by African-Americans, 40 Acres aims to bring diversity to the medical cannabis movement and use the rapidly growing industry as a way to open up opportunities for the poor and disenfranchised.
The leaders of the collective actively reach out to marginalized young adults and encourage them to enter the group’s training program, where they can learn the nuts and bolts of bud tending, cultivation, patient intake methods, and how to assess product.
“There is a population of kids, high school dropouts, who are coming to us to learn,” said Toya Groves, a director and one of the four co-founders of the group. “This is a way the unemployable become employable.” … Continue reading »
City to consider suing owner of blighted Telegraph lot
The city of Berkeley may finally be getting fed up with the vacant, rat-infested lot on the northeast corner of Haste and Telegraph.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider filing a lawsuit against Ken Sarachan, the owner of the lot, to collect $500,000 in city liens on the property. The idea so delights City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who represents the area and who has long been frustrated by an empty space in such a prime commercial district, that he … Continue reading »
by Email