APRIL
2008
Don't
be meek!
Make
John Coltrane Park
in
Potter Creek
April
is Jazz Appreciation Month
4/1/08
Today is Berkeley's 130th
Birthday
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY TO US
Seems it's also the 51th
Anniversary of the Oakland Hell's Angels
Illigitimus non
carborundum
Steel's up
at our Potter Creek Bowl
a Bob Kubik photo
Consolidated Printing is
now working on our election ballots.
"Open to debate:Cal's QB competition at
heart of spring practice"
reports Jonathan Okanes of our Times.
"Nate Longshore greets
a reporter for an interview and the discussion immediately turns
to the competition to become Cal's starting quarterback.
Such discourse would have
seemed laughable six months ago.
Much has changed for Longshore
since the first half of last football season. He went from the
returning, All-Pac-10, undisputed leader of the Bears offense
to a senior-to-be fighting for his job and his future.
Spring practice for the 2008
season kicks off Monday at Memorial Stadium, and coach Jeff Tedford
has opened up the quarterback position. Longshore will battle
Kevin Riley for the right to lead Cal's
offense next season."
Border's emails
40% off on inventory at Waldenbooks,
Alameda
On 4/05/2008 we will be closing
our Waldenbooks store at South Shore Center
*Excludes magazines, newspapers,
gift cards and certificates, and all electronics."
Almost three years ago Tom
Haydon closed Wessex Books and Records in Menlo Park. I helped
Tom with the records in the '70s, at the very beginning.
Tom writes of the store's
passing.
Wessex Books & Records
December, 1975 - June, 2005
So I am truly sorry that
Wessex has reverted back to a fictional place. Finding a way to
allow the bookstore to continue under someone else's ownership
and direction was very important to me, but ironically, it turned
out that an inventory that drew customers book-by-book had no
buyers when offered whole.
The role of the printed word
is now very different than it was in 1975,or even in 1995.
The place of books in people's
lives and in their home has also changed radically: books haven't
been replaced by something betterbut rather displaced by other
media, ignored because of demands on timeand space, and passed
by in favor of more-quickly digested media-bytes.
Add to that the simple fact
that the great majority of books for sale in all brick-and-mortar
stores can be "browsed" (to say nothing of bought) on
line at any moment of any day, and the attraction, as a practical
matter, of any
single aggregation of books, no matter how wonderful and unique
and carefully selected, will just never again be what it was a
few years ago. As a piece of technology the book can hardly be
improved upon, but that's not the only
chapter in the story, unfortunately.
Yet it's been a wonderful
thirty years; I'd do it all over again in a minute, though perhaps
with a few changes along the way. I'm looking forward to the next
thirty.
Much thanks to everyone,
Tom Haydon
Tom's whole essay is here.
I've just had a chance to
play with a Kindle,
the new bookstore and library?
It has over 100,000 books
available for download plus journals, magazines that you can all
rent or buy.
Cuban bassist, Israel
"Cachao" Lopez died March 22 at 89-- a legend has
passed.
KCSM, our FM jazz station, regularly plays him.
A movie about the Iraq War
has just been released. It's Stop-Loss.
Of it, imdb offers "Decorated
Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King makes a celebrated return to his
small Texas hometown following his tour of duty. He tries to resume
the life he left behind. Then, against Brandon's will, the Army
orders him back to duty in Iraq, which upends his world. The conflict
tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty
of friendship, the limits of love and the value of honor."
There is more at imdb
4/2/08
"36 Hours in Berkeley, Calif." a suggested tour by the New York Times.
"Anyone who thinks that
Berkeley is just a hotbed of political radicalism is in for a
surprise. College Avenue, the town's main drag, is packed with
more hipsters with BlackBerrys than hippies with beards. The city's
revamped shops can compete label-to-label with SoHo's sophisticated
boutiques, and its restaurants match its bigger neighbor across
San Francisco Bay. But the spirit of 1969 hasn't completely gone
away. Walk down Telegraph Avenue and along one block you'll find
activists for Free Tibet, patchouli-scented advocates of homeopathic
medicine, and crusty purple-haired free-love followers, still
eager to convert you to their cause. . . .
Old and new Berkeley, activists
and high-tech workers, all head to Moe's Books (2476 Telegraph
Avenue; 510-849-2087;) Founded in 1959 and piled high with used
books, Moe's is a reminder that Amazon can't shut down all the
little folks. You can wander its upper floors for hours, flipping
through out-of-print tomes on everything from 1950s African history
to kabbalah manuals. The store also has frequent in-store readings;
check its Web site for coming dates."
"Solar hiring boom sheds light on training
needs" reports Emma
Ritch in the San Francisco Business Times.
"The solar industry
is giving rise to a new crop of small businesses, but these companies
are hitting roadblocks when it comes to filling their green collar'
jobs."
"Documentary: Realities of war" is a movie review by Susan Young of Our Times.
"In the grainy green
night vision light, the embedded camera on the military transport
zeroes in on the truck in front as it hits an improvised explosive
device.
The explosion from the IED
jars the soldiers out of their mundane drive, electrifying them
into hyperactivity. There's no thought of a camera trained on
their actions, a recorder keeping track of their verbal response.
Just gut reaction working on instinct.
Unlike a journalist embedded
with the troops, the camera makes no judgements; no color commentary
spews from its lens. Just hard reality 'hat viewers can filter
through their own eyes.
Filmmaker Deborah Scranton
('The War Tapes") felt it was important to give soldiers
a chance to press their own record button on the war."
And, "Real Food"
is "A
Q&A with Michael Pollan, author, amateur gardener and hero
of the organic food movement" by Ashley Ball, with Matthew
Cooke contributing for MSN.COM
"Lawmakers, White House push for home help
plan. As lawmakers return to work the heat is on to push through
a plan to help cash-strapped borrowers and ease the tight credit
market" reports
CNN.
"Congressional leaders
are racing to push through an array of election-year housing measures
that already have stirred
up much political wrangling and the White House is examining its
own plan to further help homeowners caught in the mortgage meltdown.
With foreclosure signs prevalent
and a Wall Street rescue reverberating, majority Democrats want
the government to step in and
back up to $400 billion in troubled loans. The goal is to help
strapped borrowers and thaw a credit market plagued by uncertainty
about the value of subprime mortgages made to people with spotty
credit or low incomes."
Allan Sloan, senior editor
at large of Fortune reports on "Chaos
on Wall Street:The big banks' fear of big losses is threatening
to bring down the entire system, with dire consequences for all
of us. Here's what's going on, and what we can do about it.
How would I mop up this mess?
I have no magic cures, but I can offer a few modest suggestions.
Profit Sharing
If we taxpayers are going
to subsidize Wall Street, as we're now doing, the Fed - or some
agency the government sets up - should get a piece of the action
for us in return for saving those firms.
Model: the $1.2 billion of
Chrysler loans the Treasury guaranteed in 1980 and 1981. Chrysler
repaid the loans, and the government made $311 million from stock-purchase
warrants it extracted for issuing the guarantee. If firms can't
raise the capital they need, Uncle Sam himself should recapitalize
them, as Israel did for its banks in the 1980s, with an eye toward
making a profit by selling stock when things improve.
Regulation
If Wall Street is going to
create its own banking system, let's regulate it - especially
the hedge funds - or restrict what it can do. Otherwise, how can
regulated banks, which need to follow rules and have capital,
compete with the cowboys that don't have to worry about either?
Transparency
Wall Street has made tons
of money by selling and trading esoteric securities without informing
investors in any meaningful way about the mortgages or other assets
that underlie them. It's now in everyone's interest to disclose
more, so these securities can be analyzed and trust in the market
restored. I'd start with Richard Field, founder of TYI - it stands
for 'trust your input.' TYI's programs let you track individual
assets like auto loans, credit card debts, and medical receivables
that are in
collateral pools. It's worth a look.
Mortgages
The one thing I won't try
to do is solve the home mortgage problem that started all this.
I'd like to save the truly innocent homeowners, while punishing
speculators and imprudent lenders. Alas, I have no idea how to
do that quickly, cost-effectively, or well.
What in the world is going
on here?
Why is Washington spending
billions to bail out Wall Street titans while leaving struggling
homeowners to fend for themselves? Why are the Federal Reserve
and the Treasury acting as if they're afraid the world may come
to an end, while the stock market seems much less concerned? And
finally, what does all this mean to those of us who aren't financial
professionals?
Okay, take a few breaths,
pour yourself a beverage of your choice, and I'll tell you what's
happening - and what I think is going to happen. Although I expect
these problems will resolve themselves without a catastrophic
meltdown, I'll also tell you why I'm more nervous about the world
financial system now than I've ever been in my 40 years of covering
business and markets.
Finally, I'll tell you why
I fear that the Wall Street enablers of the biggest financial
mess of my lifetime will escape with relatively light damage,
leaving the rest of us - and our children and grandchildren -
to pay for their misdeeds.
We're suffering the after
effects of the collapse of a Tinker Bell financial market, one
that depended heavily on borrowed money that has now vanished
like pixie dust. Like Tink, the famous fairy from Peter Pan, this
market could exist only as long as everyone agreed to believe
in it."
4/3/08
Rick Ballard of The Groove
Yard emails
As part of Jazz Appreciation
Month, San Jose Jazz is exhibiting the work of four jazz photographers-
Tom Ehrlich, Peter Maiden, Andy Nozaka and Walter Wagner- at the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose. Every Tuesday at
7:00 PM, there will be a lecture on jazz. The schedule is as follows:
Apr.1 producer Orrin
Keepnews
Apr.8 journalist Richard Scheinin
Apr.15 radio DJ and musician Bob Parlocha
Apr.22 percussionist John Santos
Apr.29 musicians Dave Ellis, Dayna Stephens, Terrence Brewer
and Jonathan Poretz
For more information visit www.sanjosejazz.org
April 1, 2008 from the PBS
NEWS HOUR.
"Reporter
Profiles Army Unit in Remote Afghan Outpost
Soldiers in Korengal Valley,
Afghanistan. In the fall of 2007, New York Times Magazine contributing
writer Elizabeth Rubin and photographer Lynsey Addario shadowed
U.S. forces in the Korengal Valley in northeastern Afghanistan,
an area along the Pakistani border known for its insurgency. Warning:
Some of the photographs in this slide show contain graphic imagery.
Tonight on the NewsHour:
Jeffrey Brown talks to Rubin about her experiences and the tough
decisions commanders have to make every day in war zones.
You can ask Elizabeth Rubin
your questions on Afghanistan in an Online NewsHour Insider Forum
or read her report for the New York Times Magazine."
"Air district brings back rebates for fireplaces:Agency's
new rules likely will make it easier for residents to qualify"
reports Our Times'
Denis Cuff.
"Bay Area residents have another chance at a $600 rebate
if they replace wood-burning fireplaces with gas stoves or fireplace
inserts, and they might make it easier to qualify for the money
this time.
The Bay Area Air Quality
Management District will begin accepting requests next week for
the next round of rebates aimed at reducing unhealthy soot in
the air.
On Monday, the air district
will post online application forms, which can be returned electronically
or by mail, in order to reserve a rebate that will paid by the
district after installation.
Consumers will have more
opportunity and advance notice than they did in the first round
in January, when all $100,000 for rebates was used up in about
30 hours."
"Seeing the Positive Reality of Change
in West Berkeley"
observes WBBA member, Steven Donaldson in our Planet.
"West Berkeley, according
to a West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies (WEBAIC),
John Curl, Rick Auerbach and their host of experts at a recent
meeting on the West Berkeley Plan and Sustainablity Berkeley,
is a thriving industrial area in balance with the economy and
the environment, supporting artists and living wage jobs. They
claim there are 7,000 well-paid industrial jobs in West Berkeley.
This portrayal of West Berkeley is far from accurate. What little
facts they had did not represent the real employment figures or
land use in West Berkeley. The presentation was glaring in its
lack of specifics and in ignoring the real uses and changes going
on in West Berkeley.
What's the nature of this
change? The simply reality is that in the last 20 years, large-scale
blue collar industry has disappeared from West Berkeley and much
of the Bay Area, making way for new well-paying jobs across many
sectors that are changing the face of the Bay Area economy and
the economy of Berkeley particularly. The change and potential
of new manufacturing businesses in West Berkeley-pharmaceutical
processing, lab and research along with innovative and unique
small manufacturing companies such as Timeworks and Berkeley Mills,
Swerve, Meyer Sound, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Trumer
Pils-all reflect specialization, smaller scale and a focus on
unique, highly valued products with a national or international
customer base."
"Jules Dassin - director abandoned Hollywood
during blacklisting era"
writes the AP reporter on Dassin's death.
"American director Jules
Dassin, whose Greek wife, Melina Mercouri, starred in his hit
movie 'Never on Sunday' and six more of his films, died late Monday
at an Athens hospital, officials said. He was 96.
The cause of death was not
made public. A spokeswoman for Hygeia hospital said only that
he had been treated there the past two weeks.
Mr. Dassin, a leftist activist
whose more than 20 films also included 'Topkapi,' abandoned Hollywood
in 1950 during the Communist blacklisting era.
Five years later, he won
wide acclaim for 'Rififi,' famous for its long heist sequence
that was free of dialogue. The movie won him the best director
prize at the Cannes Film Festival, where he met Mercouri.
He married the actress-politician
in 1966 and settled permanently in Athens. Mr. Dassin directed
his wife in seven films, including 1960's 'Never on Sunday,' in
which she gained international notice for her portrayal of a kindhearted
prostitute.
Reacting to news of the director's
death, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called Mr. Dassin 'a first-generation
Greek.'
'Greece mourns the loss of a rare human being, a significant artist
and a true friend,' Karamanlis said in a statement. 'His passion,
his relentless creative energy, his fighting spirit and his nobility
will remain unforgettable.'"
"UBS had warned that 2008 would be a tough
year" writes the
BBC's Robert Peston.
"Swiss financial giant UBS has reported that its writedowns
as a result of the sub-prime crisis have more than doubled to
about $37bn (£18.5bn).
It is the largest writedown by any bank since the credit crunch
began.
UBS also announced that its chairman and former chief executive
Marcel Ospel would not be seeking re-appointment.
The bank has announced $19bn of fresh asset writedowns on top
of the $18.4bn it wrote off in 2007, as the value of its assets
has plummeted.
UBS added that it was seeking to raise 15bn Swiss francs ($15bn;
£7.5bn) in capital by issuing new shares.
Today's announcement will alarm both UBS shareholders and the
markets
Its losses dwarf those declared by US banks such as Citigroup
($21.1bn) and Merrill Lynch ($22bn)."
4/4/08
"Man hospitalized after
Berkeley daylight gunfire' reports Doug Oakley of the Times.
"An El Cerrito man was
hospitalized Wednesday after he was hit by gunfire in a lunchtime
shooting in south Berkeley.
Police responded to numerous
911 calls of gunshots in the 3300 block of Adeline Street near
the corner of Stanford Avenue at 12:22 p.m., Berkeley police Sgt.
Mary Kusmiss said.
About a minute later, police
got a call from security personnel at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley
about a gunshot victim there, Kusmiss said.
She said the victim was shot
while he was driving a white Ford Mustang convertible and may
have been involved in a driving gun battle.
After he was hit, the man
drove himself to Alta Bates; he was transferred to Highland hospital
in Oakland with nonlife-threatening injuries, Kusmiss said.
The victim is known to Berkeley
police as someone who frequents the southern area of the city,
police said.
Police were looking for the driver of a silver or gray four-door
sedan that was seen in the area of the shooting, Kusmiss said.
One of the witnesses believes
the two were driving along shooting at each other,' Kusmiss said. No gun was found in the victim's
car, she said.
"Daylight shootings
in Berkeley are very rare," Kusmiss said. 'It's troubling
because there were people all around including a mom with young
kids.'
No one else was injured,
but at least one parked car near the corner of Stanford Avenue
had a bullet hole in it."
Our Annie Kassof has a story
in the Planet. "My friend Peter has mice. Not pet
mice, but uninvited ones, who, he tells me on the phone, have
snuck into his cupboards and are ravaging his dry goods quick
as they can. Until he figures out the best way to get rid of them,
do I want some of the food that the critters haven't discovered
yet? I tell him sure, and drive to his house where he loads up
big bags of kasha and hot cocoa mix and rice vermicelli and penne
pasta and more. I figure the kids will enjoy eating (and drinking)
some things I don't ordinarily buy, and I'll save money on the
grocery bill this month." Her whole story is here.
"Food Prices Soaring Around The World" reports Russia's St Petersburg Times.
"If you're seeing your
grocery bill go up, you're not alone.
From subsistence farmers
eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France,
consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call
a perfect storm of conditions.
Freak weather is a factor.
But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher
oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in
China and India.
The world's poorest nations
still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt
killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke
out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon earlier this month.
But food protests now crop
up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled
in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.
'It's not likely that
prices will go back to as low as we're used to,' said Abdolreza
Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group
for Grains for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,
or FAO. 'Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is
subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption.
It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is.' "
"Washington's housing fix taking shape" reports CNN.
"Senate Democrats and
Republicans, under election-year pressure to do more about the
mortgage crisis, worked around the clock Wednesday to draft a
bipartisan housing bill that has been fast-tracked for a debate
and vote.
Some details on the agreement were released Wednesday evening,
and the bill may go before the full Senate for discussion Thursday.
The legislation is expected
to contain funding to help borrowers avert foreclosures and help
boost activity in neighborhoods with vacant properties. It's also
expected to include a business tax break and possibly some measures
designed to make loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration
more accessible.'
Email
Rick Ballard at The Groove
Yard for his free-tickets-to-jazz-concerts-contest.
John La Grou writes about the "World's
Largest Audio-Visual Archive"
"Will the music of Charlie
Parker and Ella Fitzgerald be heard 100 generations from now?
A major gift from David Packard has greatly increased the long
odds on that. David's $150M bequeath, the largest private gift
ever to the U.S. legislative branch, launched the just-opened
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) of the National
Library of Congress - the world's largest and most comprehensive
collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts, sound
recordings, and media collateral.
With stunning architecture
both inside and out, the NAVCC becomes the world's most advanced
A/V archiving and restoration facility - Alexandria for the information
era.
The new facility atop Mount
Pony VA is built into a converted cold-war era bunker previously
used to store billions of paper dollars for distribution after
a national emergency. When finished consolidating the Library's
massive A/V collections, the NAVCC will contain more than 4 million
historic film, video, and audio recordings lining more than 90
miles of shelves across nearly 1/2 million square feet beneath
45 acres. Counting scripts, posters, and photos, the archive will
host over 6 million items of historical interest.
The Library of Congress asked
me to design the analog electronics that will adapt a century
of legacy audio formats for digital archival storage. The electronics
had to exhibit world-class performance and be self-adaptable to
every known historic release format, including Edison cylinders,
acoustic and electric 78s, stereo 33s, and more. For me, it's
one of life's profound opportunities to serve an integral role
in the Long Now.
I recently spent an entire
day touring the near-complete NAVCC facility: giant storage rooms
crammed full of every known media playback machine (including
my friend Les Paul's multi-track prototype tape machine), a commercial-scale
film development lab, one entire wing dedicated to media cleaning
and restoration, scores of dedicated A/V archival transfer rooms,
endless catacombs hosting 124 temperature controlled nitrate film
vaults, and an authentic reproduction of David Packard's beloved
boyhood movie theatre in Palo Alto."
4/5/08
"Civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated
in Memphis, Tennessee, 40 years ago on 4 April 1968.
A year later, James Earl Ray admitted to being the assassin. Because
of that guilty plea there was no full trial. But Ray changed his
story almost at once and until his death in 1998 insisted he did
not murder Dr King. So was he the killer? And if so, did he work
alone?" asks BBC NEWS. Some answers here.
"Berkeley business man jailed for pollution" reports Doug Oakley in our Times.
"People who pollute
in Berkeley are going to jail. . . .
The city took the message
to heart. In the most recent case, it used a city law forbidding
the dumping of toxics into storm drains to put Ghahyaz in jail.
. . .
In the case of Ghahyaz, the
city has been prosecuting him for a little more than seven years.
In 2000, he paid a $50,000 fine and was put on five years probation
for dumping toxic waste in the city's landfill.
Carrie Estadt, a hazardous
materials specialist for the city, said it all started when a
warehouse Ghahyaz owned on 4th Street burned down. He got in trouble
when he dumped the remains, including oily engine parts, at the
Berkeley dump.
Since then, Estadt said Ghahyaz
has had numerous violations for allowing coolant and oil from
engines stored outside his 5th Street shop to wash their way into
the storm drains when it rains.
'He had hundreds of engines
stored outside, and we got numerous complaints of a sheen of oil
running down the street from his shop,' Estadt said. 'He is very
close to the Bay, so it goes right into to the Bay. And he also
had other hazardous waste violations.'
Those problems from 2002
through 2007 constituted a violation of his probation, Estadt
said, and resulted in jail time."
"Fix Potholes, Not U.S. Policy:Calls renewed
to fix Berkeley's citizen boards" writes Carolyn Jones of the San Francisco
Chronicle.
"Berkeley is finding
that having its own foreign policy isn't cheap. The city's recent
dustup with the U.S. Marine Corps has so far cost the city more
than $200,000, while businesses say they've been slammed by related
protests.
And that's on top of the $1 million the city spends annually on
domestic and foreign policy matters hatched by its 45 citizen
commissions, which outnumber those in virtually every other city
in America and debate everything from regime change in Iran to
the plight of nonneutered dogs."
"Berkeley: a Look back" from our Times.
"Would - or could -
Berkeley stay 'dry'? That was a big municipal issue 75 years ago,
as sale of beer or wine up to 3.2 percent alcohol by weight became
legal across the nation, following partial repeal of Prohibition.
The City Council has spent
countless hours on the matters of a beer bill license law,' the
Berkeley Gazette reported April 6, 1933.
Local historian William Warren Ferrier found a city charter provision
prohibiting the sale of 'spirituous, malt, vinous or alcoholic
liquors.' Voters adopted the ban in 1909, but the wording had
been misplaced in printings of the charter.
The council proposed that
Berkeley voters decide on the June ballot if 3.2 alcohol sales
should be legal."
"Food
prices drive India inflation" reports the BBC.
"Inflation in India
has hit a three-year high as a result of spiralling food and energy
costs, official figures show.
India's wholesale price index, released weekly, hit 7% for the
year up to 22 March, the highest since December 2004.
The government has been taking
steps to control prices, banning exports of non-basmati rice and
scrapping import duties on cooking oils and maize.
Economists said the data
could trigger a rise in interest rates this month, earlier than
many had expected.
India's Economic Times says the government is considering a price
ceiling on commodities if all other measures fail to bring down
inflation - a law last used in the 1970s."
our Sally emails
Hi Ron
My friend who owns a bakery, says cost of a bag of flour has doubled
since last year and eggs doubled in a few months all due to farmers
planting corn instead of wheat . . . . all for bio-fuel. My friend
. . . says her newspaper writes we will import wheat for the first
time ever?
Sally
4/6/08
Planning Commission reports
on zoning changes in west-Berkeley
I just received a copy of
the Planning Commission staff report--3/26/08-- on the March 1
Flexibility Tour of west-Berkeley. It contains eight recommendations
for changes in commercial and art/crafts use here. Noticeable
for its absence, is any reference to residential use--curious
because the suggested commercial and arts/craft changes affect
residents.
An earlier staff report--12/12/07--
contains this proposed action. "Inform non-industrial uses
that are considering moving into industrial areas that truck traffic,
24 hour operations, and noise up to legal limits are common and
accepted in industrial areas. Non-industrial uses are expected
to adjust to the practices of industrial operations."
My many years experience
in Potter Creek, a mixed use area, is that here similar "industrial-uses"
have taken precedence over the residential.
Though this is a mixed-use-residental
area, the title is almost academic. We butt-up against the manufactures
and interact with them--that is, 18 wheelers regularly use our
streets, we are down-wind of an electroplating facility, and next
to printers.
Now is the time to review
and resolve.
I would suggest beginning
by carefully studying an aerial-map of west-Berkeley, in order
to get a real sense of its nature and our interaction. Looking
at the zoning map only causes confusion and obscures contemporary
reality.
The square block between
9th and 10th and north of Pardee has sold for over 6 mil. Escrow
closed a few weeks ago.
"Tree-sitters keep campus police busy" reports Doug Oakley of Our Times.
"UC Berkeley police
have spent $300,000 and taken more than 200 police reports while
managing a group of protesters living in campus trees for 17 months,
says Cal Police Chief Victoria Harrison."
"Layoffs of CBS veterans signal industry
in crisis: Decline in audience, economic slump force TV stations
to downsize" reports
the Times' Chuck Barney
"When CBS 5-TV (KPIX)
laid off five veteran on-air journalists this week, it didn't
take long for the dismal news to spread, viruslike, to television
stations across the Bay Area.
'The e-mails were flying
back and forth all day. There was a lot of shock, a lot of sadness,'
said Lynn Friedman, president of the Northern California chapter
of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and an
ABC 7 (KGO) employee. 'There was so much buzz about it, that I'm
amazed the various newscasts got on the air that night.'
For television insiders,
it was just a taste of what newspaper journalists have been experiencing
recently as the industry downsizes in the wake of changing consumer
habits and an ongoing economic slump."
"Asian states feel rice pinch:Asian countries
have been struggling to cope as the cost of rice has reached record
levels" reports
BBC NEWS.
"The price of the staple crop has risen by as much as 70%
during the last year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).
Shortages have begun to hit
some importing countries.
Factors contributing to the price rise include:
Poor harvests resulting from extreme weather
A rise in demand in some rice-importing countries, where populations
and incomes are growing
The expectation of further price increases
- resulting in hoarding
Low stockpiles and a long term lack of agricultural
investment
The spike is also part of
a general surge in food costs worldwide, so the option of switching
to cheaper foods is often not available."
"Bear Stearns rescue backed amid concerns" reports the AP's Martin Crutsinger.
"Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke and the Bush administration on Thursday defended
the decision to rescue Bear Stearns amid questions by lawmakers
about why the government was helping Wall Street investment houses
but not people on Main Street.
Bernanke and Treasury Department
Undersecretary Robert Steel said that the consequences to the
U.S. economy and financial system would have been far more serious
had the government allowed the nation's fifth largest investment
house to go bankrupt.
'Given the exceptional
pressures on the global economy and financial system, the damage
caused by a default by Bear Stearns could have been severe and
extremely difficult to contain,'
Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee."
On 3/18/08 I wrote with some
confidence.
In the last week or so, I've
posted economic events at the expense of almost all else. For,
in-the-economic, we have moved from our past as surely as our
Democratic party have moved from theirs.
Our financial markets
were on the verge of collapse.
Our leaders at first denied
the problem, then tried to fix it with national not international
solutions--we are after-all a global economy. Finally, with cooperation
of other central banks and the private institutions of other capitalist
countries we have, for now stopped, the bank run and the world-wide
market drop. But things have changed forever.
"Rural communities hit by foreclosures" reports the AP's Evelyn Neives
"The end came in a blink
outside the Merced County courthouse.
Only six people showed up
for the foreclosure auction, Janice Pimentel and her son Nick
included. By chance, the Pimentels' dairy farm was the first property
offered.
The auctioneer, a young man
in aviator sunglasses and blue jeans, read their address and paused
for bids. When none came, the Joe T and Janice R Pimentel Dairy
Farm, 21 years in the life of the family, officially became the
property of its main creditor, a local lender.
'Well,' Janice Pimentel said,
'that's that' ".
4/7/08
Today is Billie
Holiday's Birthday
My memories of Moe Moskowitz
can now be found on the store, Moe's Books website, Check out
Moe's bio
and scroll donwn to
"Ron Penndorf remembers
his time at Moe's buying and selling records."
In addition to walking around
Potter Creek, Planning Commission members can see us another way.
It is now possible, with
the use of global positioning hardware and software to view
Potter Creek, indeed all of west-Berkeley anew, either as if seen
from a high flying aircraft or from a helicopter hovering just
above ground, and anywhere in between. More importantly, you can
see it as a whole. Our zoning maps, based now on decades old information,
on the other hand, encourage thinking in a box, both literally
and figuratively. West-Berkeley is organic and fluid and should
best be seen that way when making decisions about its future.
David Bowman emails
This Tuesday night at 7pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center
there is a public hearing on new rules lowering permissible building
heights on commercial corridors such as San Pablo Avenue. There
are also other new rules all of which are intended to lessen the
impact the large new buildings on the corridors have on their
residential neighbors. . . .
My post from the Planning Commission agenda for the Tuesday, April
8 meeting which was in their April 3 Update
Following the public hearing, the Planning Commission may vote
to recommend
adoption, modification, or rejection of the proposed amendments.
The proposed
amendments will be forwarded for action to the City Council.
Project description : Proposed amendments to Title 23 (Zoning
Ordinance) of
the Berkeley Municipal Code to modify the lot and development
standards for mixed-
use, residential, and commercial projects in the commercial zoning
districts including
but not limited to amendments that:
Restrict open space on building rooftops;
Limit use of "parking lifts" for required parking
spaces through minimum
standards for at-grade spaces;
Increase setbacks on commercial lots from abutting residential
districts;
Prohibit most residential uses on the ground floor in mixed-use
buildings;
Add minimum size requirements for ground floor commercial spaces;
and
In the C-W District, reduce the maximum mixed-use building
height to three
stories and 40 feet and increase open space requirements.
The amendments are designed to provide building mass transitions
where they are
adjacent to a residential zoning district and increase the City's
control over building size
and shape.
Kubik emails
Here is your chance to protest big developments on San Pablo.
"Less corn being planted root of higher
prices" reports Mary
Clare Jalonick of the AP.
"From chicken nuggets
to corn flakes, food prices at grocery stores and dinner tables
could be headed even higher as farmers cut back on the land they're
planting in corn this spring.
Corn prices already are high,
and a drop in supply should keep them rising. Combine that with
the huge demand for corn-based ethanol fuel - and higher energy
costs for transporting food - and consumers are likely to see
their food bills going up and up.
Farmers are now expected
to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of
Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from last year, which
was the highest since World War II.
Corn is almost everywhere
you look in the U.S. food supply. Poultry, beef and pork companies
use it to feed their animals. High fructose corn syrup is used
in soft drinks and many other foods, including lunch meats and
salad dressings. Corn is often an ingredient in breads, peanut
butter, oatmeal and potato chips.
Corn components are even
used in many grocery store items that aren't edible - including
disposable diapers and dry cell batteries. "
Car Guy, Jerry Victor hipped
me to this possibility years ago.
"Is India facing a food crisis?" asks the BBC's Paranjoy Guha
Thakurta.
"This question is vexing
policy makers and analysts alike even as creeping inflation -
around 7% now - is sending jitters through the Congress party-led
ruling coalition.
To be sure, India has not
yet experienced riots over rising food prices that have hit other
countries like Zimbabwe or Argentina."
4/9/08
Ron Faich emails
Newspaper demographics
1. The Wall Street Journal
is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the
country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should
run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the
country, but don't really understand The New York Times. They
do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by Liberals who wouldn't mind
running the country if they could find the time and if they didn't
have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run
the country, and did a far superior job of it, thank you very
much.
The Planning Commission meeting, April 8
a Bob Kubik summary
Under discussion were two proposals for development standards
along the commercial corridors, (including San Pablo Ave.)
1. from the city planning commission
&
2. from a joint subcommittee of ZAB and others that is more restrictive
of developers - ie. greater setbacks, more open space, less dense,
lower heights.
The meeting had a few rowdies, particularly two women speakers
who just wouldn't abide by the time limits and wouldn't shut up.
But, no shouted insults.
Most speakers were respectful and to the point. Developers
wanted the least restrictions, flat land residents felt the more
restrictive standards were the best they could hope for.
One of the more interesting speakers was Zachery
Running Wolf - candidate for mayor - who spoke of the sacredness
of trees and water.
p.s. an interesting sidelight
- a speaker said that the new condos at 2700 San Pablo had had
two price reductions, no sales, and had $192,000 in mechanics
liens against the property!
"Pending Home Sales Hit Low in February" writes Alan Zibel of the AP.
"Homeowners and investors
hunting for any indication that the housing market has bottomed
out didn't get it Tuesday, as the latest home sales data from
a real estate trade group moved that sign further down the road
to recovery.
The National Association
of Realtors said pending U.S. home sales fell in February to the
lowest reading since the index began in 2001. The trade group's
seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes
fell to 84.6 from January's upwardly revised reading of 86.2.
A year earlier, the index stood at 107.6."
The San Francisco Chronicle
reports
Results (sort of) : day 82
Paving the way: The cracked, potholed roadway at Bolivar Drive
and Potter Street in Berkeley, which leads to an on-ramp to eastbound
Interstate 80, has been patched up - well, parts of it, at least.
The busted-up roadway, which is just over the Berkeley border
from Emeryville and intersects with a path that cyclists use to
get around Aquatic Park, has mixed responsibility. The on-ramp
is Caltrans' job, while Berkeley is responsible for the city street
section. Both areas had serious divots. On a recent visit, the
highway on-ramp was smooth, and potholes on the immediate approach
had been freshly patched. Caltrans says it finished up its area
on Thursday. But plenty of potholes and rough patches remain on
the rest of the roadway. ChronicleWatch tipster Bryce Nesbitt,
a dedicated cyclist, observed motorists dodging and weaving around
potholes while heading to the on-ramp when he alerted us to the
problem in January. On Friday, ChronicleWatch saw cars still swerving
around rough patches, sometimes straddling the double line. But
at least the final approach to the freeway was smoother.
Who got it done: Bijan Sartipi, Caltrans District 4 director,
(510) 286-6444; bijan_sartipi@dot.ca.gov
and the Chronicle also observes
"Saul's in Berkeley
is . . . hosting a Passover bazaar for last-minute prepared foods.
On April 18-20, Saul's will tent over the parking area in front
of the deli to offer to-go foods for Passover Seders, including
chicken soup, matzo balls, chopped liver, Freund's gefilte fish
from Brooklyn, horseradish, kugel, charoset and Niman Ranch brisket.
Macaroons from Grand Lake Bakery in Oakland will also be available.
On the third night of Passover, April 21, Saul's will also host
a fixed-price Seder dinner for about $40 (price was not set as
of press time). Saul's, 1475 Shattuck Ave. (near Rose), Berkeley;
(510) 848-3354.
The Pasta Shop also has Passover
items to go, as well as complete dinners, which can be ordered
online. Two menus are available - traditional Ashkenazi (Eastern
European) and Sephardic (Mediterranean). The menus will be available
April 18-20. The Pasta Shop, 6566 College Ave. (in Market Hall),
Oakland; (510) 547-4005; and 1786 Fourth St. (near Hearst), Berkeley;
(510) 528-1786 ."
and informs about
"Alternatives to the
Aerial Spray Program
A forum on the dangers of
using pesticides to eradicate the light-brown apple moth and a
discussion of alternative approaches. 7-9 p.m. Thurs. Ecology
Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510)548-2220."www.ecologycenter.org.
"Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers" reports Justin Mott for The New York
Times.
"Bat Trang:Vietnam - The free ride for American consumers
is ending. For two generations, Americans have imported goods
produced ever more cheaply from a succession of low-wage countries
- first Japan and Korea, then China, and now increasingly places
like Vietnam and India."
"IMF slashes world growth forecast:Analysts
forecast the US will briefly go into recession" reports BBC NEWS.
"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the
world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years
as a result of the credit crunch.
In its latest economic forecast,
the IMF says that world economic growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008
and 2009, 1.25% lower than growth in 2007.
The downturn will be led
by the US, which the IMF believes will go into a "mild recession"
this year.
Growth in the UK will slow sharply to 1.6% in both 2008 and 2009.
Its UK forecast is substantially below the Treasury forecast of
around 2% growth this year and 2.5% next year made at the time
of the March Budget.
The greatest risk comes from the still-unfolding events in financial
markets (which might lead to) the current credit squeeze mutating
into a full-blown credit crunch. . . .
The IMF admits that the global
downturn might be still more severe than it is currently predicting,
and says that there is a one in four chance of a "global
recession" when world growth falls below 3%. "
4/11/08
Last week, Pete Hurney went
to the Ukulele
Noir Show in Shirley, Mass--a BIG event, check out the link.
Many of the performers own and play his ukes.
I also just heard some of
the pilot for his new KALX production, Unfortunate Dating, by
the new KALX Barrow's Basement Radio Theater. Their "Quinby
Product's Karaoke Gun" episode is fall-down funny.
Our Tracy forwards an email
"Ask
Not"
"Ask Not" is a
rare and compelling exploration of the U.S. military's "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The film exposes the tangled
political battles that led to the discriminatory law . . . . As
wars in the Middle East rage on, "Ask Not" reveals personal
stories of gay Americans who serve in combat under a veil of secrecy.
"Ask Not," will
have its world premiere on Saturday, April 26th at noon at the
San Francisco International Film Festival. . . . The first showing
will be at the world-renowned Castro Theater.
The film has also been selected
to broadcast nationally on PBS as part of the 2008-09 season of
"Independent Lens" . . . . I'll let you know the
airdate once it's announced.
I'd love to have as many
of you as possible at the world premiere . . . Please pass
the word to your friends. Tickets go on sale soon. . . .
I'll send you a reminder email in a couple weeks.
I look forward to celebrating with you soon!
Our Darryl Moore emails
Potential Bond Measures for
November 2008
Here is the link to the special
meeting where the City Council discussed the possible bond measures which
could come before voters in November. You can find
the staff report and a copy of the presentation here.
I am interested in your thoughts about
the various bond measures before our City. Please e-mail
me what you think are priorities for community
investment at rlau@ci.berkeley.ca.us.
East Bay Track Club Sign-Ups
Meet:
Jim Hines:Gold Medalist 1968 Mexico Olympics, former World Record
Holder in the 100 meter
Willie White:Legendary Berkeley High Track Coach
Come meet them for an autograph signing and running demonstration !
Sign-up for the Berkeley East Bay Track Club for kids 5-15
years of age.
Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 6PM at the Rosa Parks Elementary Track
Field at 920 Allston Way.
High Blood Pressure Drop-In
Clinic:Celebrating Our One-Year Anniversary
Thursday May 8, 2008
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Over 60 Health Center (Terrace Level)
3260 Sacramento Street
Free Food-Free Blood Pressure Screening-Free Giveaways
6th Annual Bike Rodeo
The City of Berkeley Injury
Prevention and Chronic Disease Prevention Programs are sponsoring
the 6th Annual Berkeley Bike Rodeo!
The theme of the event is "Live Smart, Eat Smart, Ride Smart!"
It will be held on Saturday, May 10th from 11am-3pm
at San Pablo Park and Frances Albrier Community Center - 2800
Park St (at Oregon St.) in Berkeley
The Bike Rodeo is a free family celebration of bike safety
and physical activity - geared towards elementary school kids
and their families.
Activities include an obstacle course, mock city, bicycle tours,
face painting, performers, bike maintenance and fix-a-flat stations,
blood pressure screenings and lots of other activities and health
resources!
We need volunteers to help from 10am-3:30pm with jobs
such as set-up, face painting, parachute games, distributing water,
etc. It's a really fun event to help out with! We also need volunteers
to distribute posters about the event in mid-April (flexible days
and times).
Each volunteer will receive a free t-shirt plus breakfast and
lunch at the event. To volunteer, please contact Amy at or 981-5326.
Model City for Solar Award
at Solar Summit 1.0
I, as Vice-Mayor, will be accepting the Model City for Solar Award
at Solar Summit 1.0 on behalf of the City of Berkeley for its
first initiative, Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar
Technology, the sustainable energy financing district that is
set to launch its pilot phase in June 2008.
Sincerely,
Councilmember Darryl Moore
Kubik's April 9 summary didn't
mention the vote taken by our Planning Commission last Tuesday.
Our Planet's Richard Brenneman does in his detailed, fact-filled
"Planning
Commission Endorses Tighter Density-Bonus Controls."
Here are some excerpts
"By a 5-4 vote, Berkeley
planning commissioners voted Tuesday night to endorse the recommendations
of the Joint Density Bonus Subcommittee over a more developer-friendly
staff report. Both documents will go to the council, which will
chose what--if any--measures to enact prior to the June 3 election,
when passage of Proposition 98 could impose potentially harsh
penalties on new land regulations by local and state government.
Commissioners acted to give
the City Council a chance to enact a law that would give city
planning staff and the Zoning Adjustments Board more control over
the size and massing of large mixed-use housing projects, so that
it could be in place in case the statewide ballot initiative passes.
The measure would contain
a built-in sunset clause, so the measure would expire if the ballot
measure fails. If 98 passes, the commission and council could
subsequently modify the law. Critics of Proposition 98 contend
that it would effectively forbid any kind of downzoning, ending
the ability of city, county and state government to limit such
construction projects. . . .
Poschman said that by recommending
the subcommittee proposals to the council, the commissioners would
be giving the city's top elective body the most options for staving
off the most adverse potential impacts of the ballot measure."
So let me see now, . . .
Both measures will be sent
to our Council, our Council may or may not approve one or the
other, but the one that the Commission recommends would not become
law if Prop 98 fails.
Recently, I've asked some
people "in the know" about the Commission and west-Berkeley--those
asked were a diverse group. The responses are best be summed up
by one "They haven't got a clue."
Prop 98, depending on who
you listen too, would or would not restrict rezoning.
Oh ya, someone said "Poschman
knows the ins-and-outs, and works them."
"Searching for Bernard" by Jon Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle
is a story not so much about Christian Science as it is about
building-preservation.
"So I was invited to
give 'remarks' at a benefit to raise funds to complete the restoration
of Bernard Maybeck's impossibly lovely First Church of Christ,
Scientist, on Dwight Way in Berkeley. My expertise in architecture
is on a par with my expertise in particle physics, but surely
'remarks' imply that the speaker is just making small talk until
something interesting happens.
It was at night, when the
building somehow transforms the glow from the streetlights into
a heavenly nimbus - the building is full of magic tricks like
that, just one reason to cherish it - and I got to sit where the
Christian Science readers (they are not, definitely not, preachers)
normally sit, on a concrete platform behind what would be an altar
if the Christian Scientists believed in that sort of thing. Call
it a podium."
"Economy
tops Bay Area concerns" reports Erik N. Nelson of the
Times.
"Bay Area residents
are more worried about the economy than they are about housing,
crime or education, a poll by the business group Bay Area Council
has found.
The resurgent fiscal concern
even supplanted worries about transportation, which has been the
top problem since 2004 in the organization's annual poll.
While the poll, which has
a margin of error of 4 percentage points, suggests that Bay Area
residents are losing faith in the economy, the financial data
have yet to indicate a regional downturn."
"Apple Inc. has gained unlikely allies
in its bid to boost iPhone sales:Smugglers Help Boost Popularity
of iPhone" reports Alex
Nicholson of Russia's St. Petersburg Times.
"The device isn't sold
by Cupertino, California-based Apple in Russia and it can't be
used legally on local networks. Still, about 250,000 people own
one, more than any other country except the U.S. and China, according
to Eldar Murtazin, chief analyst at Moscow-based Mobile Research
Group.
That popularity has turned
into a bonanza for traders who sell the phones in kiosks and on
the Internet for $1,000 each, more than twice the U.S. price.
Hackers say they charge as much as 2,500 rubles ($105) to 'unlock'
them so they work locally.
'It's an icon for Russians,'
said Timofei Kulikov, a lawyer and buyer of electronic products
for X5 Retail Group NV, Russia's largest supermarket chain. 'If
you see two businessmen at lunch in Moscow, they'll both have
iPhones on the table.'"
"BlackBerry Available For First Time in
Russia" reports
the St. Peterburg Times.
"VimpelCom became the
first operator to introduce the BlackBerry service to the country,
selling a contract to the Russian unit of the world's second-largest
cigarette maker, British American Tobacco.
VimpelCom said Friday that
its customers would use the 8700g model, a wireless handheld device
produced and sold worldwide by Canada's Research In Motion. VimpelCom,
the country's No. 2 mobile operator, is in talks with 40 more
potential corporate clients, spokeswoman Yekaterina Osadchaya
said."
4/12/08
"Darling calls for economic action:Mr Darling
is leading calls for the G7 nations to collectively act" reports BBC NEWS.
"Chancellor Alistair
Darling has described the credit squeeze as the 'biggest economic
shock' the world has seen since the 1930s Great Depression.
Speaking in Washington DC
before the start of a meeting of the G7 group of most industrialised
nations, he said the seven had to take 'urgent action'.
Yet Mr Darling also cautioned
that such action meant better regulation rather than the temptation
to simply add more.
G7 ministers have gathered
before World Bank and IMF meetings at the weekend.
The G7 finance ministers are tipped to debate proposals including
better oversight of banks and how to maintain access to capital.
They are also expected to
address the wide variation in currency exchanges, particularly
the weak US dollar."
Bay Area Icon, Jass-trombone-player
and KCSM disc-jockey, Mal Sharpe emails
Forwarded from my daughter,
Jennifer . . . ,
It's a great radio piece
on her part and loaded with a
startling slide show, photos and video and an essay of hers, called
"Reporters Notebook."(Sandra [Ms Mal] and I have a revealing
part in this)
This is an aspect of the new direction NPR is going in with extensive
use of the Web. I think if you have the whole experience, you'll
get
the picture.
In case you missed the story
on air, here are the links to the
archived Source Family story online:
The Birth of Organic, Polygamous Spiritualism
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89422387
web extras: audio slideshow
From Source Restaurant to "Cosmic"
Commune
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89467276
web extras: book excerpt
A 70s Spiritual Rock Commune Reunites
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89498024
web extras: yahowha 13 music video, reporter's notebook essay
Things went extremely well
for this series. It made NPR's "Story of
the Day" on Monday. Part Two was the number one clicked on
story at npt.org on
Tuesday, and the whole thing is still being featured on their
front
page. Yesterday, the series also became a feature on the front
page of
the NPR music site.
"By them, the bells toll:Select few make
music echoing from Campanile" reports Jackie
Burrell of our Times.
"Every day, the music
from Berkeley's iconic Campanile echoes from the Berkeley hills,
filling the air with rippling triplets, shimmering sound and the
sonorous tones of the 10,500-pound Great Bear Bell. But it never
occurred to Jennifer Pham that there was a human at the keyboard
until the night she heard a student carillonist make a mistake.
'Wait,' the molecular cell
biology major remembers thinking, 'automated clock towers don't
make mistakes.'
The Campanile is one of Berkeley's most beloved and photographed
landmarks, and it's also one of the nation's largest musical instruments,
played by professorial carillonists, their students and, this
June, carillonists from around the world.
On a recent morning, in a
ritual enacted three times a day, every day, university carillonist
Jeff Davis adjusted the cables connecting each bell's clapper
to the elaborate wooden batons of the instrument keyboard, as
a chilly breeze blew in from the Golden Gate. The tower rumbled
as the giant clock hands moved toward the 12. And inside, propped
against the keyboard, a Radio Shack digital clock counted down
the seconds until showtime.
As the Great Bear tolled
the 12th stroke, Davis took a deep breath and dropped his loosely
clenched fists onto the batons, ringing out the opening notes
of a Scherzo by his mentor, former Cal carillonist Ronald Barnes."
Pete Hurney devoted one of
his KALX "Alternate Tunings" to the carillon complete
with recorded performances by Davis. Sadly they don't seem to
be archived. But still, check out http://kalx.berkeley.edu/
"Berkeley sports field nears completion"
reports our Times'
Doug Oakley.
"A $7 million sports
field complex for soccer, baseball and softball will open in September
in Berkeley more than a year behind schedule, according to Berkeley
officials.
Artificial turf on two soccer
fields is in at the Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex just west
of Interstate 80 at Gilman Street.
The fields were named after
Berkeley's mayor in February by the East Bay Regional Park District."
"Marines issue may cost Berkeley" is not really what Steve Harmon Times'
story is about.
"The lone Republican
Bay Area lawmaker wants to withhold state transportation funding
from the city of Berkeley until it rescinds a resolution that
grants protesters a parking space in front of the U.S. Marine
Corp's recruiting office.
Assemblyman Guy Houston,
R-San Ramon, said the Berkeley City Council is making a political
war zone out of what should be a public right of way for those
who want to join the military.
His bill, AB2615, would suspend
$3.3 million in local road and street funding in the next two
years from Proposition 1B. It's scheduled to be taken up Monday
in the Assembly transportation committee, but is unlikely to get
through the Democratic-controlled panel - particularly because
the new chairman, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, opposes
the bill."
The bill that proposed cutting Federal funding for Berkeley was
defeated in Congress.
"GE loss shocks market investors" writes Stephen Singer of the AP.
"General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt was expected to tell
the world Friday how the conglomerate's global strategy had paid
off and allowed it to ride out the credit crisis.
Instead, he found himself defending the company's business model
after GE shocked investors with lower-than expected earnings and
a profit warning that wiped $46.9 billion off GE's value and sent
the overall market slumping."
"Huge losses ahead at WaMu?
Washington Mutual (WM) is
under the gun again. Shares fell 7% in early trading Friday after
analysts at Goldman Sachs said the Seattle-based thrift could
be looking at $14 billion in additional loan loss provisions this
year. The comments come just days after Washington Mutual managed
to raise $7 billion by selling stock to a group led by private
equity firm TPG, which is run by David Bonderman, a former WaMu
director who as part of the deal agreed to rejoin the board.
Goldman likes that deal,
saying in Friday's report, 'The good news is that we believe WaMu's
$7 billion capital raise should prove sufficient.' But the bad
news is that even after $3.5 billion in loan loss provisions for
the first quarter - nearly double the thrift's forecast of just
three months ago - WaMu could be facing more problems in its mortgage
book."
"Hoarders blamed for Philippine rice crisis" writes Jonathan Head of BBC NEWS.
"As global prices for rice surge to ever higher levels, the
world's biggest importer, the Philippines, shows all the signs
of being gripped by a rice crisis.
Huge queues form wherever
government stocks are being sold at subsidised prices.
The government has been scouring the international markets for
new supplies to replenish its stocks, paying record prices.
Rice dominates the newspaper
headlines every day, and seems to be consuming the government's
energy.
But this crisis is not all it seems. 'There's no shortage,' Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Yap told me. 'The problem is not with supplies,
but with price.' "
4/13/04
an example of mixed-use in
Potter Creek
Pete and Geralyn's
to the west, Aerosol Dynamics;
to the east, Inlite Corporation; immediately behind, "a lighting
fixture manufacture"; far behind, Acme's flour solos.
&
a study in scale in Potter
Creek
a commercial building on
Pardee
with a condo to its west
on 8th, and a two story commercial building to its east
Our Swerve is showing at
a funiture/equipment trade show at Chicago's Merchandise Mart
in June. Check out NEOCON
World's Trade Fair 2008. Not that NEOCON?!
"Documentary shines light on mambo king
Cachao" writes Joe
Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The music of the late
Cuban bassist and composer Israel 'Cachao' Lopez is a treasure,
but one that rarely sparkles outside the collections of Cuban-jazz
aficionados. That may soon change for the man known simply as
Cachao, the father of the mambo.
More music lovers will be
exposed to Cachao's delightfully intoxicating jams and charming,
self-deprecating personality with the April 28 premiere of 'Cachao:
Uno Mas' at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The
68-minute documentary is the first production of San Francisco
State's Documentary Film Institute, and features a March 2005
Cachao (pronounced kah-CHOW) concert at San Francisco's Bimbo's
365 Club. The film serves up a scintillating musical education
on the 89-year-old legend who died March 22."
"IMF head gives food price warning" reports BBC NEWS.
"The head of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people
will face starvation if food prices keep rising.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said
that social unrest from continuing food price inflation could
cause conflict.
There have been food riots recently in a number of countries,
including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.
Meeting in Washington, the IMF called for strong action on food
prices and the international financial crisis.
Market turmoil
Although the problems in
global credit markets were the main focus of the meeting of the
IMF's steering committee of finance ministers from 24 countries,
Mr Strauss-Kahn warned of dire consequences from continued food
price rises.
'Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving.
Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences
for all their lives,' he told reporters.
He said the problem could
lead to trade imbalances that may eventually affect developed
nations, 'so it is not only a humanitarian question' ".
8/14/08
Last week, there were two
auto burglaries in Potter Creek on the Tuesday the 8th--one at
8th and Pardee at 10 AM the other an hour later in the 900 block
of Grayson. And on Friday the 11th, there were two police actions--one
around 4 PM in front of Cafe Clem the other after 6PM in the 2700
block of 9th with two responding radio-cars and a crime-scene
unit.
"QB Riley a fan favorite in Cal's open
practice" reports
our Times.
"Several thousand fans showed up on a sunny and unseasonably
warm day to watch Cal's only spring practice open to the public.
When Riley's name was announced
before the scrimmage's first series, fans gave him a loud welcome.
Riley got the biggest cheer of the day, but running backs Tracy
Slocum and Covaughn DeBoskie carried most of the offensive load
Saturday during a controlled scrimmage at Memorial Stadium."
"Saving money on grocery bills" writes our Times' Eve Mitchell.
"Frances Borrecco has noticed higher prices for everyday
grocery staples, which is all the more reason she pays attention
to sale items when shopping for food.
Prices for coffee, bread,
milk, fresh tomatoes and other produce items have gone up in recent
months, Borrecco said while placing her groceries in the trunk
of her car after shopping at Nob Hill Foods in Walnut Creek.
'I watch for the sales. Sometimes
I'll see something on sale and buy it ahead of time if it's something
I'll use all the time,' said Borrecco, a Walnut Creek resident.
The food prices are climbing
due to rising transportation costs, more demand for meat and dairy
products in emerging overseas markets and increased use of corn
to produce ethanol, an alternative biofuel.
Taking advantage of sales is one of the shopping strategies recommended
by experts."
"Motorcycle
guru's life has been quite a ride" writes Meera Pal in
our Times.
"At times, even Arlen
Ness is blown away by the ride he has taken.
From humble beginnings as
a kid growing up in San Leandro, to a young family man bringing
home the pay by driving a furniture delivery truck for his father,
Ness used his interest in classic vehicle design, his eye for
sleek lines and his skills with a spray paint gun to create a
life built atop a multimillion dollar custom motorcycle empire.
'It surprises me sometimes,' Ness said one morning last week,
as he looked over the second-floor motorcycle museum at his Dublin
world headquarters.
Today, the man who many call
the 'King of Customizers,' oversees a company with annual sales
of more than $20 million, a worldwide catalog business and showrooms
worldwide that sell Arlen Ness originals for as much as $120,000."
"Youngstown, Ohio has long been on the
decline and now is being hit by the foreclosure crisis. Its answer:
Razing abandoned buildings and tearing up streets" reports CNN.
"Youngstown, Ohio, has
seen its population shrink by more than half over the past 40
years, leaving behind huge swaths of empty homes, streets and
neighborhoods.
Now, in a radical move, the
city - which has suffered since the steel industry left town and
jobs dried up - is bulldozing abandoned buildings and tearing
up blighted streets, converting entire blocks into open green
spaces. More than 1,000 structures have been demolished so far."
"French push for EU food response" reports BBC NEWS.
"France is urging EU
countries to come up with a global initiative on food security
in the wake of violence linked to price rises in basic foodstuffs.
Agriculture minister Michel
Barnier said Europe could not remain passive and leave the situation
to the markets.
As he spoke, UN special rapporteur
Jean Ziegler accused the EU of agricultural dumping in Africa.
He said producing biofuels, a key part of the EU's plans to tackle
climate change, was a 'crime against humanity'.
"World Bank echoes food cost alarm" reports BBC NEWS.
"The rapid rise in food prices could push 100m people in
poor countries deeper into poverty, the head of the World Bank,
Robert Zoellick, has said.
His warning follows that
from the leader of the International Monetary Fund, who said hundreds
of thousands of people are at risk of starvation.
Mr Zoellick proposed an action
plan to boost long-run agricultural production.
There have been food riots recently in a number of countries,
including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.
'Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food
prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million
people in low-income countries deeper into poverty,' Mr Zoellick
said."
4/15/08
and following are 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 City of Berkeley Boards
and Commissions page is here--redone
and friendly.
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