2/13/08
the quiet but deadly Bob
Kubik emails
Mob behavior in our town
reported by Carolyn Jones of the San Fransico Chronicle.
"Two thousand protesters began gathering
as early as Monday night outside City Hall in anticipation of
the Tuesday night meeting. By Tuesday morning, some confrontations
had become physical, and police in riot gear moved in to separate
the groups.
Three protesters were arrested
for minor scuffles with other demonstrators - and a fourth for
allegedly slapping a police officer - in what was one of the largest
demonstrations in the city in years.
By evening, many demonstrators
had squeezed into the council chambers - some telling the council
to stand firm, others urging the council to apologize for insulting
the military and the men and women who are serving their country.
The council was allowing public testimony to continue for hours
before making a decision. . . .
Outside City Hall, protesters
could still be heard shouting. They had spent the day yelling,
singing, chanting and flag-waving along Martin Luther King Jr.
Way in front of Maudelle Shirek City Hall. At times, the arguments
grew intense, as protesters stood face-to-face screaming obscenities
at one another.
A 49-year-old man from Rocklin
(Placer County) and two Berkeley teenagers were arrested in separate
scuffles, police said. About 1 p.m., a man supporting the Marines
ventured into an encampment by the anti-war group Code Pink and
drew a knife. Police arrested Keith Donald Salvatore for brandishing
the weapon. He told police he had taken out the knife in self-defense
after war protesters wrapped him in a pink banner, said Sgt. Mary
Kusmiss, a police spokeswoman.
Police arrested the teenagers,
boys ages 13 and 15, for scuffling with Marines supporters.
At around 4 p.m., police
arrested Luisa Romero De Los Angeles, an 18- year-old Berkeley
resident who they say slapped a police officer who told her to
back away as she demanded they release the two boys who had been
arrested earlier."
And the Times' Kristin
Bender reports of our town's mob behavior
"The left and the right
squared off in an all-day protest Tuesday over the City Council's
recent decision to call the U.S. Marines recruiting center uninvited
and unwelcome intruders in what is being called the largest and
most raucous protest in recent Berkeley history.
The City Council late Tuesday night was still considering whether
to rescind or amend the proposal they approved two weeks ago with
a 6-3 vote but the chanting from protesters outside was often
so loud it was difficult to hear the council inside. . . .
In the few hours before the council meeting, the number of protesters
in front of Old City Hall grew with at least 500 people yelling
through bullhorns, chanting, singing patriotic songs, yelling
at each other and playing musical instruments.
"The noise could be heard at least half-mile
away. The number of pro-military supporters, at times, appeared
to be about double that of anti-war demonstrators. Adding to the protest were union workers
from Pacific Steel Casting who showed up outside of City Hall
to protest a council item to put restrictions on the steel foundry.
The item was heard by the council but a vote was not taken."
italics mine
Post, post-radical thoughts.
Work with artists, artisans
and crafts-workers to form co-operatives now--organize to buy
affordable-property in industrial Bay-Area areas for immediate
use as studios, lofts and storage. Buy in areas that will appreciate--as
proprties increase in value use as leverage for other investment,
equipment, furnishings, real-estate, etc.
Work with the business community
to set up small business classes addressing the needs of artists
and crafts-workers.
In a different area, work
with the business community to set up programs of micro-loans
in low-income-neighborhoods.
Certainly not an in-depth
report, still, John King's appreciation of our Potter Creek, "West
Berkeley Builds Community," is worth reading.
"By their nature, cities
and neighborhoods change. Buildings rise and fall, people come
and go. Longtime businesses move away or close shop.
If we're lucky, the evolution
includes a moment when all the different elements slide smoothly
into place - as is the case today in a pocket of West Berkeley
known to locals as Potter Creek. Poised for the moment between
hard-edged and hip, it's a reminder that the best change is incremental."
"You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative. Don't mess
with Mister In-Between"
Bing Crosby.
I'm told French School students
are logging on to the Internet through--hacking into?--neighboring
neighbor's computers.
Bummer!
2/12/08--6:38 AM--irritant
in front room, cough, wear mask.
2/14/08
Bob Kubik forwards an email
originally written to his friend
Marines and Berkeley
I'm surprised that you, .
. . , haven't yet given me a hard time about the latest Berkeley
"news event". I will try to defend myself before
you can go on the offensive.
1. The Berkeley City Council
approved this ill-conceived motion by a vote of five to three
showing that a strong minority did not support and indeed objected
to it.
2. The Council is now trying to worm their
way out of this.
3. Perhaps, to me the most stupid part of this
was to attack the Marine Corps!
General Smedly Butler (1881-1940)
who twice won the Medal of Honor and was the most decorated and
influential Marine of his time perhaps best summed up the early
history of the Corps."I spent 33 years and four months
in active military service and during that period I spent most
of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall
Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster
for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe
for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba
a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues
in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics
for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for
the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912.
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar
interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American
fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that
Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I
might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was
to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three
continents."
The Corps since then has
seen to its public relations in an exemplary fashion. It
has branded itself as the preeminent branch of the service - more
selective, braver and more capable than the army, navy or air
force. Stunts like the reenactment that led to the iconic
photo of raising the flag on Mt. Surabachi were pure PR genius.
After WWII when the Army, the Air Force and
Harry Truman wanted to disband the Marine Corps the Corps defeated
them soundly - (did the Berkeley City Council think the could
win when the combined effort of the Army, the Air Force and the
President couldn't prevail?)
Now before you get me wrong I am not dissing
the Corps. I'm just saying they know how to handle perceptions.
Indeed, they have distinguished themselves as war fighters.
They did more than their share of the toughest fighting in WWII,
Korea, Vietnam, and the First Gulf War. The casualties they
received demonstrate that. Typically, in the First Gulf
War the marines had the hardest job - attacking straight ahead
against mine fields and prepared defenses - while the army did
an end run around the defenders.
Getting back to my main point
- the ill-conceived motion by the Berkeley City Council - I take
it as self evident that one should not get into arguments with
large groups of people with guns and also not get into a pissing
contest with a group that understands public relations better
than Procter and Gamble.
Want to find out about General
Smedly Butler's War is a Racket and more? Do it here.
With all the
tsuris I forgot that February 9, 1938 is Da Boz' birthdate.
Zo, . . .
HAPPY
70TH BOZ
Boz, next time please pick
a fight we can win--go after the Coast Guard.
"Berkeley Council takes
the blame" writes Carolyn Jones of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Berkeley City Council members said Wednesday
they learned an important lesson from the explosion of animosity
following their attack on the Marine Corps: They'll spend more
time reading the small print in their agenda packets before voting
on such incendiary topics."
Maybe yes, maybe no. . .
. maybe we need full-time help.
Kubik also sent an essay
by our Robert Reich. I'm reprinting all of it.
We're sliding into recession, or worse,
and Washington is turning to the normal remedies for economic
downturns. But the normal remedies are not likely to work this
time, because this isn't a normal downturn.
The problem lies deeper. It is the culmination of three decades
during which American consumers have spent beyond their means.
That era is now coming to an end. Consumers have run out of ways
to keep the spending binge going.
The only lasting remedy, other than for Americans to accept a
lower standard of living and for businesses to adjust to a smaller
economy, is to give middle- and lower-income Americans more buying
power-- and not just temporarily.
Much of the current debate is irrelevant. Even with more tax breaks
for business like accelerated depreciation, companies won't invest
in more factories or equipment when demand is dropping for products
and services across the board, as it is now. And temporary fixes
like a stimulus package that would give households a one-time
cash infusion won't get consumers back to the malls, because consumers
know the assistance is temporary. The problems most consumers
face are permanent, so they are likely to pocket the extra money
instead of spending it.
Another Fed rate cut might unfreeze credit markets and give consumers
access to somewhat cheaper loans, but there?s no going back to
the easy money of a few years ago. Lenders and borrowers have
been badly burned, and the values of houses and other assets are
dropping faster than interest rates can be lowered.
The underlying problem has been building for decades. America's
median hourly wage is barely higher than it was 35 years ago,
adjusted for inflation. The income of a man in his 30s is now
12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago. Most
of what's been earned in America since then has gone to the richest
5 percent.
Yet the rich devote a smaller percentage of their earnings to
buying things than the rest of us because, after all, they're
rich. They already have most of what they want. Instead of buying,
and thus stimulating the American economy, the rich are more likely
to invest their earnings wherever around the world they can get
the highest return.
The problem has been masked for years as middle- and lower-income
Americans found ways to live beyond their paychecks. But now they
have run out of ways.
The first way was to send more women into paid work. Most women
streamed into the work force in the 1970s less because new professional
opportunities opened up to them than because they had to prop
up family incomes. The percentage of American working mothers
with school-age children has almost doubled since 1970-- to more
than 70 percent. But there's a limit to how many mothers can maintain
paying jobs.
So Americans turned to a second way of spending beyond their hourly
wages. They worked more hours. The typical American now works
more each year than he or she did three decades ago. Americans
became veritable workaholics, putting in 350 more hours a year
than the average European, more even than the notoriously industrious
Japanese.
But there's also a limit to how many hours Americans can put into
work, so Americans turned to a third way of spending beyond their
wages. They began to borrow. With housing prices rising briskly
through the 1990s and even faster from 2002 to 2006, they turned
their homes into piggy banks by refinancing home mortgages and
taking out home-equity loans. But this third strategy also had
a built-in limit. With the bursting of the housing bubble, the
piggy banks are closing.
The binge seems to be over. We're finally reaping the whirlwind
of widening inequality and ever more concentrated wealth.
The only way to keep the economy going over the long run is to
increase the wages of the bottom two-thirds of Americans. The
answer is not to protect jobs through trade protection. That would
only drive up the prices of everything purchased from abroad.
Most routine jobs are being automated anyway.
A larger earned-income tax credit, financed by a higher marginal
income tax on top earners, is required. The tax credit functions
like a reverse income tax. Enlarging it would mean giving workers
at the bottom a bigger wage supplement, as well as phasing it
out at a higher wage. The current supplement for a worker with
two children who earns up to $16,000 a year is about $5,000. That
amount declines as earnings increase and is eliminated at about
$38,000. It should be increased to, say, $8,000 at the low end
and phased out at an income of $46,000.
We also need stronger unions, especially in the local service
sector that's sheltered from global competition. Employees should
be able to form a union without the current protracted certification
process that gives employers too much opportunity to intimidate
or coerce them. Workers should be able to decide whether to form
a union with a simple majority vote.
And employers who fire workers for trying to organize should have
to pay substantial fines. Right now, the typical penalty is back
pay for the worker, plus interest -- a slap on the wrist.
Over the longer term, inequality can be reversed only through
better schools for children in lower- and moderate-income communities.
This will require, at the least, good preschools, fewer students
per classroom and better pay for teachers in such schools, in
order to attract the teaching talent these students need.
These measures are necessary to give Americans enough buying power
to keep the American economy going. They are also needed to overcome
widening inequality, and thereby keep America in one piece.
Whoooa, . . .
italic mine
Reader and contributor, Tony
Almeida emails
let me be short
[I've always admired] Robert
Reich . . .
Real intellegence is being able to grasp something complex,
and explain it clearly and simply.
Women entering the workforce, everyone working more hours, borrowing
on home equity - all now maxed out...YUP!
A little bragging:
Bobby, [Tony's youngest son] who you met, got accepted to the
University of Michigan and is visiting there tomorrow. He also
got into USC and won a Dean's scholorship.
Tony
Tony's Jimi Hendrix story is the only page that routinely gets
more hits than Scrambled Eggs
2/15/08
Ok, let me see if I've got
this straight.
This, from Carolyn Jones'
story in the Chronicle about Berkeley and the Marines,
"the arguments grew intense, as protesters stood face-to-face
screaming obscenities at one another." Screaming obscenites
isn't intense argument, it's intimidation. It's what you do "on-the-street"
before you "knife-the-mutha-f#%ker."
Let's be perfectly clear.
This confrontation didn't
take place within the 60s' background, "love and peace man."
This is 2008, and if you want to know just what the background
is now, read Robert Reich's essay above.
"Pacific Steel strikes deal with City Council:Berkeley
business will voluntarily cut noxious odors as city eyes public
nuisance charge"
reports Doug Oakley of our Times.
"Pacific Steel Casting
in Berkeley has agreed to voluntarily reduce noxious odors coming
from its 2nd Street plants in the face of a City Council proposal
to declare it a public nuisance.
After receiving a letter
on Tuesday from Pacific Steel General Manager Joe Emmerichs agreeing
to "cut odor and emissions while producing superior steel
castings," Berkeley City Councilwoman Linda Maio pulled her
proposal from consideration at the start of the council meeting."
"Top Officials See Bleaker Outlook for
the Economy" reports
the New York Times.
"With the credit markets
once again deteriorating, the nation's two top economic policy
makers acknowledged Thursday that the outlook for the economy
had worsened, as both came under criticism for being overtaken
by events and failing to act boldly enough."
"US consumer confidence plummets" reports BBC NEWS.
"Confidence among US consumers has fallen to a 16-year low,
as fears grow about recession and job cuts, a closely-watched
survey has found.
The University of Michigan
index of consumer sentiment fell to 69.6 in February, from 78.4
in January.
The report said the index had only been this low during past recessions."
2/16/08
mixed-use in Potter Creek
a Bob Kubik photo
Kids listen, Coach explains,
at the École Bilingue 8th and Grayson playground, . . .
and in the background, immediately across the street, Adams &
Chittenden Scientific Glass and behind Adams & Chittenden,
the massive Acme Bread solar array.
In our Times Saturday
Forum
"Readers oppose Berkeley City Council's
Marine stance: Arrogance, ignorance.
2/17/08
"Country Joe still gives a damn:Fifty years
after Woodstock.
Country Joe McDonald remains
true to his causes, his music and Woody Guthrie" writes Jim
Harrington of our Times.
"Country Joe McDonald
sits in the kitchen of his Berkeley home, a few miles and more
than four decades removed from where he got his start in the music
business, hawking self-released EPs on the UC Berkeley campus.
There are relatively few
mementos of his career on display. The most noticeable is a picture
of the folk-rock star with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia above
the entryway. In all, the scene probably isn't that different
from what one could find in any home in this area, north of the
intersection of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way
-- that is, until the topic turns to tunes.
McDonald, 66, is an absolute
encyclopedia of music. You'd expect him to know a lot about the
sounds of the '60s -- he became a part of pop culture history
when he performed his 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag' at the
Woodstock festival; and his old band, Country Joe and the Fish,
emerged as one of the signature acts of the era. But he can
also talk intelligently about '80s hip-hop, modern electronic
music, thrash metal and whatever else needs discussing.
Right now, the relevant topic
is Woody Guthrie, the folk music great whom McDonald will salute
with a tribute show on Friday at the Freight & Salvage Coffee
House in Berkeley. The singer-songwriter has been paying tribute
to Guthrie off and on for most of his career. His first post-Fish
release was 1969's 'Thinking of Woody Guthrie,' which was recorded
just two years after the honoree died, and he's been sporadically
performing his Guthrie show since 2001."
Avenue Lore has it Moe helped
Joe a lot by carrying and hyping the Fish's first record-a 45
RPM, EP. My memory is Moe's, even though then really just a book
store, was first to carry the Fish's EP. Chick Hirsch, the band's
drummer, was a record salesman for wholesaler Eric-Mainland. He
also hung around Campus Records and jammed with Reese, one of
our employees. I sat in one a couple of sessions. Check out "Back in The Day: Selling Records on Berkeley's Telegraph
Ave" on
Journal
of Recorded Music 6.
When Joe and the band came
into Campus Records, Albert sometimes recommended music. Seems
I remember him playing an Original Dixeland Band record for them.
And, here's a photo of Chick
"Chicken" Hirsch from The Day
Helen Schneider, one of the
owners of Record City, found this among her old stuff.
"Tedford reflects:Disappointing season
leads to changes"
reports our Times' Jonathan Okanes.
"Jeff Tedford begins
to speak, and you can immediately tell Cal's football coach is
congested. He coughs every so often, confirming he's contracted
a bad case of the flu.
'I'm much better today,'
Tedford says. 'You should have heard me yesterday.'
An empty box of TheraFlu
cold medicine sits on a desk behind him. Is it November all over
again?"
Early AM, irritant in warehouse
front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse plus "chlorine-like"
odor.
2/18/08
The San Francisco Chronicle
reports "Berkeley officer fatally shoots knife-wielding woman.
A woman who allegedly confronted
a police with a knife is dead after an officer opened fire in
what authorities are calling a case of self- defense.
Berkeley police Sgt. Mary
Kusmiss said police were responding to a second domestic disturbance
call Saturday night at a South Berkeley apartment complex when
the shooting took place.
Kusmiss said the five-year
veteran shot the woman to defend himself and a second person who
was not named. The names of the shooting victim and the officer
were also not released.
The officer was placed on
paid leave pending an investigation - standard practice in officer-involved
shootings.
The last fatal shooting involving
Berkeley police occurred in 2003 when officers gunned down a bank
robbery suspect near the University of California, Berkeley campus."
2/19/08
Kubik tours 2700 san pablo"Avenue
West"
There are 18 one bedroom
condos, 12 two bedroom units, four live-work lofts and a commercial
space. The one bedroom units go for $400k and up, the two bedroom
units up to $600k. Homeowners dues range from $283 to $358 per
month. Three of the one bedroom units are in sale. From what I
have seen of comparable condos in this area - these units are
on the lower end of charm and amenities. It feels more like an
apartment building.
"Tasers weighed after cop shoots woman"
reports Kristin Bender
of our Times.
"More than 450 police
departments in California have equipped their officers with Tasers.
Berkeley isn't one of them.
But in the aftermath of a
deadly shooting of a South Berkeley woman by a Berkeley police
officer, city leaders said they may rethink their ban on the weapons.
'It's too bad that our police
don't have other methods to subdue people,' Councilwoman Betty
Olds said.
Anita Gay, 51, was fatally
shot by officer Rashawn Cummings outside her home in the 1700
block of Ward Street about 8 p.m. Saturday after police say she
brandished a kitchen knife at an officer and family members. She
died at the scene. Witnesses say she was shot in the back but
police officials say they are awaiting an autopsy report
from the Alameda County Coroner's Office, expected later this
week, before releasing details.
The officer fired at least
twice, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said.
Based on a preliminary investigation,
after reviewing three witness statements and the statement of
the officer, Kusmiss said Monday 'it appears the officer's actions
were justified.'
The officer, who has been
on the force for five years, is on paid administrative leave while
internal affairs conducts an investigation, which could take a
week or longer."
Another bad decision by our
leaders? This time with delayed but deadly results?
"Neighbors: Berkeley cop didn't have to
kill. Berkeley police say officer acted in self-defense against
armed woman"
writes Anna Belle Peevey in our Times.
"Semper fi, Berkeley"
enthuses David L. Kirp of our Haas Business School.
"The recent attack on
the Marine Corps as 'unwelcome intruders' is just the latest example
of Berkeley politicians behaving badly. Showered with ridicule,
confronted with the loss of federal and state money, the City
Council was obliged to withdraw its misbegotten resolution, though
it wasn't prepared to apologize for its blunder. 'To err is human,
but to really screw up it takes the Berkeley City Council,' one
councilmember ruefully acknowledged.
But ask Standard & Poor's,
the financial services company, what it thinks about Berkeley
and you'll get a very different response. Last month, the firm
upgraded the city's bonds to AA, which puts it among the top 5
percent of American municipalities. While cities across the country
are watching their credit ratings plummet, Berkeley has convinced
the green-eyeshade crowd that it can manage taxpayers' dollars."
Full story is in the Chronicle here.
Buy this guy dinner, Boz!
"Catch a glimpse of lunar eclipse" writes Betsy Mason of our Times.
"Like she does every
now and again, Mother Nature will play hide-the-swiss-cheese Wednesday
night, and Bay Area residents can join in the fun'
If, that is, they find a
good perch and train their eyes on what a poet once called 'Lozenge
of Love!'
The lunar eclipse will start
just as the sun is setting, and anyone with a clear view of the
eastern horizon will be able to see it.
'If there are tall trees
or hills or buildings in that direction, find a different place,'
said Ben Burress, an astronomer at Chabot Space & Science
Center in Oakland.
Getting away from city lights
is best, but the eclipse will be visible from anywhere in the
country, if the weather cooperates. Cloudy skies and rain are
predicted for Wednesday evening.
'We're hoping for clear skies,
though,' Burress said.
The moon will already be
in eclipse when it rises at 5:47 p.m., but it will be hard to
see until about 6:15 p.m. The full eclipse, known as totality,
will begin about 7 p.m. and last for 50 minutes."
last
year February
Don Yost emails
Google "the
kindle store" . Kindle is an amazon.com product. I was
alerted to this by an author/heavy duty reader. You can't buy
one!
They can't keep up!!
2/20/08
Pete's Potter Creek rain
gauge showed .7 yesterday through this morning.
And Pete's KALX-radio-players
have their first 15 minute program in-the-can.
Peter Hartlaub of the San
Francisco Chronicle writes of the head of Potter Creek's Secret
Movie Studio
"Phil Tippett a special-effects pioneer
It's not hard to find Phil Tippett, who is waiting upstairs in
the main building of his special-effects studio in Berkeley. Just
follow the trail of Tyrannosaurus rex models, which are scattered
liberally among the memorabilia from scores of science fiction
films he's contributed to since his groundbreaking work on 'Star
Wars.' 'Little boys diverge into two groups: One goes into trucks
and the other goes into dinosaurs,' he says. 'I went into dinosaurs.'
Among the special-effects pioneers of his era, many of whom have
settled in the Bay Area, Tippett is a bit of a dinosaur himself.
The Berkeley native carried the stop-motion animation torch longer
than anyone else, and was so despondent when computer graphics
took over the industry in the early 1990s, that he became physically
ill.
But a decade and a half later, his studio continues to thrive
- known for its superior creature effects. Tippett Studio was
responsible for the monster in 'Cloverfield,' and the studio teamed
with Industrial Light & Magic to create various beasts for
"The Spiderwick Chronicles." Tippett's resume already
contained a toy chest's worth of science fiction geek icons, starting
with the animated chessboard monsters in 'Star Wars' and the stop-motion
AT-AT snow walkers in 'The Empire Strikes Back.'"
"Larger agendas stall city's best-laid
plans" reports John
King in the Chronicle.
"Some concerns are neighborhood
based and genuine. In other cases, it looks as if some activists
want to up the ante here so that when they move to the next fight
- over a larger area known in planning circles as the Eastern
Neighborhoods, which includes everything from Potrero Hill to
portions of the Mission and the industrial waterfront - they can
tighten the screws even more: kick up the fees an extra notch
or require builders to add more subsidized housing to their projects.
. . .
Now, neighbors and builders
who don't like the activists' fiddling are raising a ruckus of
their own. When the plan goes back to the committee next week,
other supervisors might weigh in with revisions as well. . . .
I'm not saying there aren't
legitimate changes that might improve the overall plan. But it's
absurd that one small piece of the map - which evolved because
of true community involvement - is jeopardized by the larger games.
Something eventually will
get built. My fear is that the process will drag out so long the
details won't matter. Whoever controls the land by then will just
want to cut corners and move on."
Yesterday early AM, Kimar
emailed from next-to-Campus
Hi Ron
At the moment it sounds as if there has been an invasion--there
are at least 2 news helicopters
circling and have been doing so for about 20 minutes. I have just
seen on the Channel 7 news that Cal has hired professional climbers
to go up and get the tree sitters down without confrontation,
Channel 7's words. It is very loud here and I can only imagine
the traffic jam on upper campus.
Kimar
Later in the day, Kristin
Bender and William Brand of our Times reported
"Heavy rain sweeping into Berkeley ended
a move this morning by UC Berkeley police to clear out equipment
and supplies assembled by tree-sitters in a grove of trees in
front of Memorial Stadium this morning. The effort by a university arborist, backed
by campus police, was messy. At one point, a 'poop bucket' hanging
from a rope from one of the tree platforms fell to the ground
with messy effect.
University spokesman Dan
Mogulof said police had no intention of arresting the tree sitters
or pulling anyone down out of the trees, where demonstrators have
resided since December 2006 protesting university plans to cut
down the trees and build a $125 million sports training center
on the site.
'The numbers of tree-sitters
having dwindled to a hard-core few, we had an opportunity to address
some safety and sanitary concerns with minimal risk to people,'
Mogulof said. Only about three protesters were in the trees when
police arrived shortly before 7 a.m."
Today, Kristin Bender reports "Arborist
removes tree sitters' gear:." University officials say expert
was called in for 'safety reasons'".
"Morimoto's design of Yoshi's evokes stillness" writes Eve Kushner in the San Francisco
Chronicle.
"At the San Francisco
Yoshi's, striped fabrics hang from the ceiling to the banquettes,
perfectly capturing a paradox: movement and serenity. On the one
hand, the jazzy stripes draw the eye to the two-story ceiling,
making the space feel dynamic. On the other hand, the earth-toned
fabrics have a calming effect. Separating the restaurant from
the lounge, they make both areas more intimate.
Berkeley architect Hiroshi
Morimoto, 66, who designed the interior, has worked with Yoshi's
owner Kaz Kajimura for two decades, starting in 1985 with his
first club on Oakland's Claremont Avenue. In 1997, Kajimura moved
to an 18,500-square-foot space in Oakland's Jack London Square.
This sister enterprise, measuring 28,000 square feet,
opened in November.
Kajimura said Morimoto has
mixed calmness and vibrancy in all these designs. With the newest
Yoshi's, 'you can really see that he was trying to bring in calmness.
It's not all dancing and running around,' he said. 'Hiro's concept
is based very much on the Japanese art philosophy. He wanted to
have movement and serenity and lots of juxtapositions. I think
it's a Zen idea that there's always one against the other, yin
and yang.'
The use of curves helps create
a sense of movement in both the San Francisco and Jack London
Square nightclubs. Eye-catching soffits undulate across the large
rooms, recalling the wavy forms of International Style architect
Richard Meier.
Curves also appear in Morimoto's
residential work. Elisabeth Siekhaus of Berkeley has hired him
to renovate two houses. She believes that his curved walls provide
a sense of flow, creating a gentle transition and an opening from
one space into another. . . .
In the same vein, 'subtlety
of detailing' provides delightful surprises, said Berkeley architect
Jim Samuels, who worked with Morimoto at E. Paul Kelly Architecture/Planning
in the early 1980s. Samuels cites thoughtful accents such as a
Japanese garden beneath the stairs to the mezzanine sake bar,
as well as a distinctive metal stairway railing."
Jim Samuels not only worked with Morimoto at Paul Kelly's firm,
but my memory is that Ole College Buddy, Gary Guenther, Jim--now
James of our Planning Commission--Samuels and Hiroshi Morimoto
went to Architecture School together at Cal in the '60s. And,
I seem to remember Guenther bringing Morimoto to Campus Records
during night-session-breaks from work at Wurster Hall, and am
sure he was among the guests at the Guenthers' famous Christmas
parties. Jim--now James-- and Riet certainly were.
"A Baking Odyssey" to preserve old world baking recipes
is a book review in our Times.
"One bite of Catherine Goodman's Italian Anise-Orange cookies
told cookbook author Greg Patent that this recipe had lost connection
with its past.
Patent gazes
at a trio of glass cases filled with cream tortes and sugar-dusted
Hungarian pastries at Crixa Cakes in Berkeley and shares a bit
about his own connection to the art of baking.
'I am an immigrant baker
myself,' he says, further explaining that he grew up in Shanghai
with his Iraqi mother and Russian father. Patent started baking
as a preteen and started winning awards. At 19, he won the Pillsbury
Bake-Off and $1,000. He studied and even taught zoology before
realizing that his real passion was baking."
"Air board considers limits on rebates:Homeowners
who replace fireplaces with gas stoves and gas inserts may qualify
for $600 rebates"
reports Denis Cuff of our Times.
"The Bay Area's air
pollution board today will consider restarting but adding more
restrictions to a popular program offering $600 rebates to homeowners
who replace smoky fireplaces and stoves with cleaner heating devices.
The first rebate program opened and closed abruptly last month
when consumers from the nine Bay Area counties snapped up all
$100,000 of the incentives in less than 48 hours.
Now a board committee recommends
allocating $400,000 for more rebates but tightening eligibility
rules.
Under the committee proposal, the $600 rebates would be restricted
to homeowners who switch to gas stoves and gas fireplace inserts.
Wood-burning devices would
be ineligible this time around -- even low-emission, EPA-certified
wood stoves, fireplace inserts and pellet stoves, according to
the plan."
"Newspaper offers staff buyouts:Bay Area
News Group, parent to the Times, says layoffs will follow if insufficient
number of employees accept offer" writes the Times' George Avalos.
"The operator of this newspaper and numerous others in the
Bay Area has announced plans for across-the-board job cuts to
be achieved through voluntary buyouts or outright layoffs.
The job cuts involve 23 Bay
Area daily and weekly publications, including the Contra Costa
Times and Oakland Tribune, the company said Tuesday.
Bay Area News Group-East
Bay said Tuesday that it had decided to undertake the program
to slash operating expenses in the face of an ongoing weakness
in revenue. The papers are owned by a three-newspaper partnership
that includes Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc."
BBC NEWS reports
"Obama extends lead
over Clinton.
Barack Obama is riding a wave of momentum after a series of wins.
Barack Obama has gained more ground over his rival, Hillary Clinton,
in the contest to win the Democratic nomination to run for US
president. . . .
The BBC's Jonathan Beale
says Wisconsin was a significant victory for Mr Obama, eating
into Mrs Clinton's support base.
It is a major disappointment for Mrs Clinton, the senator for
New York, who had been hoping to restore momentum to her campaign.
Instead, Mr Obama was reported
to have gained almost equal support from white women, and to have
polled well from working-class Democrats - both groups which have
usually supported Mrs Clinton.
Mr Obama also took the youth
vote and six out of 10 self-described independent voters, according
to exit polls for ABC."
2/22/08
Cameron emails
Hey Ron,
Did you see those turkeys walking down the sidewalk in front of
your place yesterday about 12:50 pm? Yes, I mean real feathered
turkeys, 4-5 of them taking a stroll down 8th St. Ask David Rowinski,
he saw them too! Where'd they come from? Where were they going?
And, no, I'm not referring to the Berkeley City Council
Cameron
Anyone with more information
please email me.
Claudia emails
Yes we saw them. Have no
idea from whence they came. I just hope that they arrived "safe"
to where they were going. Poor dears.
On another note, do you know
anything about the building that is going up 7th in back of Sarah's
and her neighbors. Funny that one hasn't come up for discussion,
or did we simply miss it?
Claudia
Steve Smith emails
Ron, I see turkeys in Potter
Creek all the time. In fact, our city is riddled with them.
In fact, people have mistaken me for a turkey . . . seriously.
Ain't no big thang.
Sincerely,
Steve Smith
the ordinarily reclusive
JFN emails
They are great slow smoked
with lots of herbs!
JFN
Merryll who is leaving her
Marin home next to China Camp emails
Maybe I'm not leaving nature.
Merryl
Boz, they did put
acid in the water.
An article about our Ruth
Okimoto's "Poston Project" is in the Los Angeles
Times, 2/19/08. Check
it out!
"West Berkeley Zoning Tour Opens to Public" reports Richard Brenneman of our Planet.
"Planning Commissioners
and interested citizens will tour West Berkeley March 1 as the
commission prepares to ease new zoning rules in the city's core
industrial area.
Dubbed the West Berkeley
Increased Flexibility Tour, the event will begin at 8:30 a.m.
and end at 1 p.m.According to the official notice issued by the
city planning department, 'The tour is a focused effort by the
Planning Commission to better understand the types of businesses
and uses that thrive and/or face obstacles in their attempts to
locate in West Berkeley.
'Major landowners and developers
have called for changes in the existing zoning ordinances, which
they say are overly restrictive and bar needed enterprises from
locating in the area covered by the West Berkeley Plan.The scope
of changes would affect most of the land west of San Pablo except
for properties zoned R-1A and C-W.
Anyone wanting to participate
in the tour should send an e-mail by Wednesday to Melanie E. Beasley
at the Planning Department, mbeasley@ci.berkeley.ca.us."
"Cody's Books to Move Downtown, Close Fourth
St. Store" reports
Judith Scherr of the Planet.
"Cody's is leaving Fourth
Street for downtown Berkeley.
'We love Cody's,' Fourth
Street developer Denny Abrams told the Planet through spokesperson
Luma Cortez. 'We hate to see it go.
'While the move may hurt
the upscale Fourth-Street area's careful mix of home furnishings
and restaurants, with its toy, music and specialty shops, it will
be a plus for downtown, said Michael Caplan, the city's economic
development director.
Cody's plans to remain open
on Fourth Street during most the transition, and will re-open
March 24 at the corner of Allston Way and Shattuck Avenue, the
site of the former Eddie Bauer's."
"Stanford offers free tuition to low-,
middle-income students"
reports Lisa M. Krieger of the Mercury News.
Stanford University is jumping into the competitive world of deep
discounting. Tapping into its burgeoning endowment to make college
more affordable, Stanford announced Wednesday that beginning next
year it will offer free tuition - worth $36,000 a year - to middle-class
students whose parents make less than $100,000 a year.
Joining a trend started by other elite universities such as Harvard,
Princeton and Yale, Stanford is also eliminating student loans.
The move will make Stanford
a better value than the University of California-Berkeley and
San Jose State University for many students."
"Board limits fireplace rebates:Only gas-fueled
devices will be eligible for rebate under new regulations designed
by regional air quality district" reports our Times' Denis Cuff.
Solar panels a 'loser,' prof says" writes Matt Nauman in the Mercury News.
"Installing solar panels on homes is an economic "loser"
with the costs far outweighing the financial benefit, a respected
University of California-Berkeley business professor said Wednesday.
The technology, using photovoltaic
panels to generate electricity, is not economically competitive
with fossil fuels and costs more than other renewable fuels, said
Severin Borenstein, who also directs the UC Energy Institute.
'We are throwing away money by installing the current solar PV
technology,' he said."
"Fed downgrades 2008 economic expectations:
Minutes from January meeting indicate board believed economy would
deteriorate after rate cut"
reports Jeannine Aversa in our Times.
"Two bankruptcy filings may signal more
ahead" reports the
AP's Mae Anderson.
A weak holiday season and
a struggling economy led retailers Sharper Image and Lillian Vernon
to file for bankruptcy this week, and analysts predict others
could soon follow them as consumer spending worsens.
'You'll see a record number of bankruptcies over the next 50,
100, and 1,000 days,' said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director
of the New York-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource
Group. 'Consumers are cash and credit constrained. They're out
of purchasing power.'
Both Sharper Image, known
for its high-tech novelty gadgets, and Lillian Vernon, which sells
low-cost gifts and gadgets through its catalog and Web site, have
long been plagued with falling sales. But retailers across the
sector have been laying off staff and closing stores as consumers
cut back on discretionary spending.
2/23/08 and following
here
Eternally useful
links
In our rainy season you can
find more information about our current weather conditions than
is good for you at www.wunderground.com
Want to see weather coming
in, going out, beautiful sunsets, and much, much more? Check out
http://sv.berkeley.edu/view/
This very hip site was in an email from reader and contributor,
Tony Almeida. Read Tony's Jimi Hendrix story on the only page that routinely gets
more hits than Scrambled Eggs.
Richmond
Ramblers' motorcycle club member, Cliff Miller emails A very
useful link
If you ever need to get a
human being on the phone at a credit card company or bank, etc.,
this site tells you how to defeat their automated system and get
you to a human being within a few seconds.
http://gethuman.com/us/
Markets
is not just a reference for Berkeley-Hills radicals with 1.5 mil
homes and considerable portfolios.
Our Planning Department is
here.
Our Berkeley
PD Site with crime statistics and more is here.
Crime Log
for 94710 is here
This site is NOT affiliated
with Berkeley PD.
Take time to report
crime!
All reports
of crime-in-progress should first go to Berkeley PD dispatch--911
or non-emergency, 981-5900. THEN make sure you notify EACH of
these City people.
The contacts
are below:
Officer Andrew
Frankel, Berkeley PD - 981-5774 AFrankel@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Angela Gallegos-Castillo,
City Mgr Off - 981-2491 agallegos-castillo@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Ryan Lau,
aid to Darryl Moore - 981-7120 rlau@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Darryl Moore,
City Councilman dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us
More
Scrambled Eggs & Lox, here
and
Stories about Berkeley and stories about recorded-music
are at
Journal of Recorded Music 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
ronpenndorf@earthlink.net
The original owner
of all scanned material retains copyright. The material is used
only to illustrate