10/6/08
our Councilman, Darryl Moore's
re-election Kick-Off
was held yesterday afternoon
in San Pablo Park
photos here
from my log
10/5/08--off-and-on all afternoon,
irritant in front of warehouse, guest has "coughing attack,"
another smells STRONG odor of "burning natural gas."
In the story about a move
to secede "Yreka,
Siskiyou County:Some folks around here think the economic sky
is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are ignoring
their constituents in the hinterlands " sfgate.com
reports
"Guess the time is ripe
to create a whole new state.
That's the thinking up here
along the border between California and Oregon, where 12 sparsely
populated, thickly forested counties in both states want to break
away and generate the 51st star on the nation's flag - the state
of Jefferson.
You can see the signs of
discontent from Klamath Falls to Dunsmuir, where green double-X
'Jefferson State' flags hang in scores of businesses. You can
hear the talk of revolution at lunch counters and grocery lines,
where people grumble that politicians to the north and south don't
care."
(Hmmm,. . we could be, The
Independent Republic of West Berkeley.)
10/8/08
from my log
10/6/08--Off-and-on all day
SERIOUS irritant in front room, burning eyes, mouth, wear mask,
over-rides HEPA filter. New next store neighbor has odor in aadjacent
shop, "It's like nothing I've ever smelled before but really
bad." 8:30 PM--irritant in front room, nausea.
10/7/08--7:55 PM--irritant
in front room, dry eyes, dry mouth.
"Lawrence Berkeley Lab to help India reduce
greenhouse gas"
reports Steven E.F. Brown, San Francisco Business Times.
"Scientists at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory will work with businesses, governments
and universities in India to help that nation grow fast while
cutting pollution.
As part of this arrangement,
the University of California, Berkeley, which manages the lab
up on the forested hills above its campus, will get $2 million
to endow two faculty spots in engineering. That money comes from
Purnendu Chatterjee, chairman of the Chatterjee Group, an investment
firm."
"Court: Berkeley police review commission
records and hearings must be closed" reports Bay City News Service.
"A state appeals court
ruled in San Francisco today [10/7/08] that the Berkeley Police
Review Commission must keep investigative records and hearings
on citizen complaints closed to the public.
The Court of Appeal said
that confidential records and hearings are required by a 1978
state law and a 2006 California Supreme Court ruling interpreting
the law.
Today's decision was made
in a lawsuit filed by the Berkeley Police Association in 2002
to challenge open records and hearings.
Commission records and proceedings
were open to the public for 33 years, from the time the commission
was established by Berkeley voters in 1973 until the commission
suspended open hearings in 2006 in the wake of the state Supreme
Court decision.
The state high court ruled
in 2006 that a San Diego County civil service commission's records
on a deputy sheriff's termination appeal qualified as confidential
peace officer personnel records under the 1978 law.
In today's decision, the
appeals court upheld a 2007 ruling in which Alameda County Superior
Court Judge Winifred Smith found that the state law required closed
commission records and hearings."
"Two arrested in connection
with the slaying of a Berkeley man" reports Henry K. Lee,
Chronicle Staff Writer.
"A 15-year-old boy and
the stepson of a Berkeley man found shot and killed inside his
home in June were arrested today in connection with the slaying,
police said.
The boy, whose name was not
released, turned himself in at about 5 p.m. today in the June
19 slaying of Charles Faison, 39, in his home at 2022 Emerson
St., police said. He was being held at Alameda County Juvenile
Hall in San Leandro on suspicion of murder.
Faison's stepson, Deontae
Faison, 19, was arrested at 10:20 a.m. today as police served
a search warrant on the 2200 block of East 33rd Street in Oakland,
said Officer Andrew Frankel, a Berkeley police spokesman. He was
being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on suspicion
of being an accessory in the slaying.
Police did not release other information, including any motive
in the slaying."
"Some Bright Spots in Northern California" is a story in Publisher's Weekly by Wendy
Werris.
"When Cody's Bookstore
abruptly closed this summer in Berkeley, it was difficult to imagine
any upside to one of the most wrenching events in Northern California
bookselling history. At this weekend's NCIBA trade show in Oakland,
however, there were a couple of pieces of good news. Laura Tibbals,
senior buyer at Moe's Books in Berkeley, reported that sales of
new books in their store have increased by 25% every month since
Cody's shut its doors. 'That's been great for us, although admittedly
at the same time our used books have had flat sales,' Tibbals
said. 'Of course we never thought this would happen, that sales
on the smallest part of our inventory would increase so much,
but the economic anxiety is global now. We have to keep changing
the formula.' Moe's carries and is doing well with several Obama
titles, and has also increased its sidelines inventory since the
economic downturn began.
'We like IndieBound very
much,' Tibbals added, 'and it's good to finally be able to spread
the word about shopping locally. Hopefully this message will transfer
to the consumer.' "
Dianne Keaton in Potter Creek
Not
But just who is this famous
woman?
"Iran unveils plan for women's car" reports Jon Leyne, BBC News, Tehran.
(Iranian women can drive cars but are not allowed to ride motorbikes,
. . . argh.)
"Iran has announced
plans for a new car designed specially for women.
Its features will include
automatic transmission, parking and navigation aids and a jack
for changing tyres without getting grease on your chador.
Iran's biggest car producer,
Iran Khodro, says it will come in a range of feminine colours
and interior designs.
Other features are proposed
to make it easier for women when they are doing the family shopping
or taking their children to school."
"Barefoot College in India" is a PBS feature about training women
to install and maintain solar energy.
"Fred de Sam Lazaro:
The students are mostly women. Some are grandmothers. Hundreds
have come through here from villages across India and a dozen
other countries to learn how to install and maintain solar energy
in rural areas.
Even though it's sophisticated coursework, the only pre-requisite
for admission to the Barefoot College is that there are no pre-requisites,
not even to speak the language.
Until we arrived with a translator, these Mauritanian women who'd
been here four months hadn't spoken to anyone else in Arabic,
the only language they know. But language is not a barrier to
learning, says the college's founder.
Bunker Roy (Founder, Barefoot
College): Our job is to show how it is possible to take an illiterate
woman and make her into an engineer in six months and show that
she can solar-electrify a village."
Ryan Lau emails
Dear South and West Berkeley
Neighbors,
I wanted to thank everyone who came out to our meeting in late
September about the recent double homicide on Derby and Sacramento,
followed by a number of subsequent incidents. I apologize
about the lateness of these notes, but I wanted to try and find
out some information and be able to tell neighbors what we are
doing and will be doing. The police department has increased
patrols in the area to monitor and control the situation in the
area and have allocated extra bicycle patrols in South and West
Berkeley on a permanent basis. The Mayor, Councilmembers
Moore and Anderson, as well as School Board Director Karen Hemphill
will be meeting on October 14th to talk about specific next steps.
The Public Works Dept. will be conducting an extensive survey
of the lighting conditions in South and West Berkeley to determine
if lighting is sufficient, and if it is not, whether it is due
to insufficient lighting or if the vegetation is obstructing pedestrian
level lighting levels. There are several other efforts underway,
but I want to get confirmation before announcing any specifics.
I will make sure to be in touch once we have more information.
Thank you again for your concern around these issues. I
also encourage you to please relay this to your neighbors.
I tried as best I could to decipher the sign-in sheet, but some
of it was difficult to read and some people did not leave email
addresses. I also encourage those of you that are receiving
this through a third-party and would like to be added to our email
list to send me an email.
Sincerely,
Ryan Lau
Council Aide
Councilmember Darryl Moore, District 2
last week, CEID folks
visited
Bruce Hermann
an email from Rosa Parks
Neighborhood Assoc
"We are tentatively having a meeting at the school on the
22nd of this month.
Cheers,
Michael Colombo
510 684 5658
"Copra Warehouse Demolition" the part of a Planet story dealing with
Potter Creek.
"Wareham, the San Raphael-based
commercial property developer with tenants like Fantasy Records
and the federally funded Joint BioEnergy Institute, plans to ask
Berkeley's Zoning Adjustments Board in November to approve a new
life sciences institute at 740 Heinz St.
Randall Dowler, president
of DGA-the Mountain View-based architecture firm hired to design
the project-presented a new design to the Landmarks Preservation
Commission Thursday after some members of the zoning board criticized
the project in July.
Dowler said Wareham had filed
a formal application to the Planning Department a week ago and
would be returning to the landmarks commission and the zoning
board for an official permit in the following weeks.
Wareham will also be asking
the zoning board for a variance since the building's proposed
height, 72 foot, is currently not allowed in the neighborhood.
"Bailout doubts has some seeking Plan B"
is a story by William
Neikirk in The Swamp.
Now that Congress has approved
a $700 billion 'rescue' for the economy, more doubts are arising
over whether it will work.
Some economists say the effort
to have the Treasury to use the money to buy 'distressed' or 'toxic'
mortgage-backed securities should be changed to get at the heart
of the problem.
And the heart of the problem
is a rapid decline in housing prices--the collateral for these
highly leveraged securities. They have caused a rise in foreclosures
and resulted in deterioration of bank capital.
In addition, they have led
to a severe credit crunch in which banks have virtually stopped
lending, leading to fears that the economy could be in for a deep
downturn.
Martin Feldstein, who was
chairman of the government's Council of Economic Advisers during
the Reagan administration, wrote an interesting piece about this
in the weekend Wall Street Journal.
And that is to have the U.S.
government get directly into the mortgage business. He suggested
the government should offer any mortgage holder the chance to
replace 20 percent of the mortgage with a low-interest (possibly
2 percent) government loan. Such a scheme would be an effective
buffer against falling prices, he said, by making it less likely
that the value of a house would be lower than the mortgage."
10/9/08
a bola en la calle
Steve Sullivan, Acme owner
and man of his word, cleaned up all the overgrowth on the
west side of his property--for which he gets the "Marsha
Wacko Major Award."
John Abrate, manager of our
Wells Fargo business office and Wells officer, recently received
a "Major Award." Actually, John got a service award
and a weekend in the Sierra's for its presentation. While walking
through the hotel lobby last Saturday with his wife, she picked
up a Chronicle and exclaimed in surprise "Your bank just
bought Wachovia!"
David Brooks, New York Times
columnist, said on one of this week's Charlie Rose Shows that
the presidential debates, because of the monumental economic changes
of the last weeks, were about subjects that no longer were relevant
and because of the enormity of these changes, in fact, no longer
existed.
That's how different Brooks
felt today's world to be. (He has, by the way, one of the great
analytic minds of our time, his politics aside.)
"Mother's
Cookies - Oakland institution since 1914 - shutting down"
reports George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer.
"Mother's Cookies, an
Oakland institution for 92 years has been shuttered, its owner
seeking bankruptcy protection for the company.
The ending was abrupt: Workers
for the company, which shifted its baking and distribution operations
to plants in Ohio and Canada back in 2006, informed workers on
Friday that operations would cease on Monday. The company cited
rising prices for raw materials and fuel, and on Monday filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District
of Delaware."
"Gangs ... in Berkeley? Campaign signs
get brutalized, Contra Costans get burglarized, and a Berkeley
neighborhood gets terrorized"
reports Anneli Rufus in the Express.
"Picture this. A roistering
crowd jostles and shouts at the end of your block. You lose count
at three dozen. They fill the street. Based on how things have
been going around here lately - the homicides, the late-night
gunfire, the Tec-9 assault-rifle shell casings on the sidewalk,
the daily drug-dealing, the gang graffiti - you're sure that many
of them are armed. Even one of them, alone, would terrify you,
much less this many. You've called the police four times tonight.
Each time, as always, the crowd scatters at the sight of the black-and-white.
Then as soon as the cops leave, the crowd surges back. Nothing
on Earth could coax you outside your house right now. You can't
forget how that crowd surrounded your car the last time you tried
to drive down your block late at night: how they pressed against
your windows and said: Find another route home. It's hot: Pushing
the window open as you go to bed, you think: This might be my
last act. You wonder whether your car will get egged again tonight.
Or keyed. One of your neighbors, every time she sees you, hisses:
Snitch.
Richmond? West Oakland? Nope.
Welcome to Berkeley, home of elite academia, wine bars, and terrifying
gang activity."
"Strong
slate of French films in S.F. for festival" reports Mick
LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic.
"There was a time when
it was possible to say that San Francisco and the Bay Area regularly
got to see the cream of the European cinematic crop. We didn't
get everything, but we got every European film worth seeing. That
hasn't been true for a long time. Even so, for a while after that,
San Francisco at least got to see as much as New York or Los Angeles
did. Again, no longer true. What we get these days is a sprinkling
of above-average movies, seemingly chosen and distributed at
For Italian cinema, this
isn't such a big problem because at least we have the New Italian
Cinema festival every November. But we've had no equivalent festival
for French films, despite France having Europe's biggest, best
and healthiest cinema, with an impressive roster of charismatic,
bona fide film stars.
But things are getting better,
with a new festival at the Clay Theatre. It's called French Cinema
Now, and it's a joint effort of the San Francisco Film Society,
the French American Cultural Society, the French Consulate of
San Francisco and Unifrance. The festival brings together a good
sampling of the most noteworthy French films of the current year."
"Commentary: Is this the start of another
Great Depression? by Barry
Eichengreen" is
at cnn.com.
(Barry Eichengreen is George
C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political
Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author
of 'Golden Fetters: the Gold Standard and the Great Depression,
1919-1939.' Barry Eichengreen says strong action should be taken
to stop the financial crisis from getting worse.)
"Every time the economy
and stock market turn down, financial historians get predictable
calls from reporters.
Could this be the start of
another Great Depression? Could 'it' possibly happen again? My
stock answer has always been no."
10/11/08
a bola en la calle
The bank took over the 2700
San Pablo development and re-sold it.
Pete Hurney, mechanical genius,
manufactured a part for 900's coffee machine, installed it, and tuned the
unit.
When Cheech and Chong were
asked on "Extra" if they smoked marijuana with their
old buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Day, Cheech finessed the
answer. Arnold, in a later interview quipped "We knew how
to have a good time."
Norheim and Yost have moved
their office to Addison just off Fourth--same building they were
in decdes ago when Charlie Ware worked for them.
"U.S. plans to buy direct stakes in banks" reports Carolyn
Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau.
"Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson, acting with finance ministers from the Group of
Seven industrialized
nations, Friday said the government will buy direct stakes in
banks to stem a global financial collapse, as it became clear
that his original $700 billion rescue, passed by Congress just
last week, was not working."
I reported this about 3:30
Friday afternoon.
"The tipping point"
is a story by Paul Wachter in the International Herald Tribune.
"One day in November 2006, Jay Porter, the owner of a small
restaurant in San Diego called the Linkery, scheduled a staff
meeting. Less than two years old, the casual farm-to-table restaurant
had already won praise from national magazines. Nonetheless, Porter
was troubled. The staff was squabbling, mainly over money: Waiters
were angling for better shifts and tables, and the kitchen workers
didn't feel they were getting a fair share of the profits.
The bickering was typical
of the restaurant business, but Porter, who is 38, had no previous
industry experience. He had been a computer consultant, one who
made good money but derived few other satisfactions from his job.
After much thought, Porter arrived at a possible solution, which
he presented to his staff on that November afternoon. 'How do
you feel about eliminating tipping?' he asked them.
Porter considered raising
the prices of each item on the menu and simply increasing the
wages of his employees. But that would have penalized the restaurant's
many takeout diners. Also, he figured many potential diners would
look at the prices and - not factoring in what they spend on tips
- compare them unfavorably with those of his competitors. So Porter
instead proposed a service fee of 18 percent, to be pooled and
split roughly 3 to 1 between the restaurant's front of the house
and its kitchen. . . .
In his pitch to his staff,
he employed the same arguments Alice Waters had nearly two decades
before.
Waters, the owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, wrote
to her board that at the restaurant, 'the quality of the food
and the skill and taste of the cooks are at least as central to
our success as the quality of the service. Unfortunately, traditional
tipping has created great disparities in earning between the serving
staff and the cooking and support staff.' "
"Berkeley in Good Shape for Current State
Budget Cuts, but More Cuts May Be Coming" writes J. Douglas Allen-Taylor in the Planet.
"Berkeley City Manager
Phil Kamlarz told councilmembers Tuesday night that the city was
prepared to absorb the hits that are the result of the recent
adoption of the State of California's 2008-09 budget. Possible
further cuts to Berkeley's $321 million city budget, stemming
from the state's ongoing financial crisis, may be another matter,
however."
"Parcel tax would enhance safety, Berkeley
firefighters union says"
reports Kristin Bender of Oakland Tribune.
"The Berkeley firefighters'
union is asking residents to approve a parcel tax that would raise
about $3.6 million in fiscal 2009 to prevent fire station closures,
put paramedics at each station, fund neighborhood disaster preparedness
and upgrade radio communication equipment."
"Developer Selects West Berkeley for New
Housing Project"
writes Riya Bhattacharjee in the Planet.
"Berkeley real estate
developer duo Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald-known for the Fine
Arts building downtown and the Trader Joe's project on University
Avenue-gave the city's Zoning Adjustments Board a glimpse of their
next big venture at a public meeting Monday.
The board and the public
were asked to weigh in on the project's draft environmental impact
report, which will be back at the zoning board for approval at
a future date. No one from the community turned up to comment.
The proposed project-a 92,470-square-foot five-story mixed-use
94-unit apartment building called The Addison-would be located
at 651 Addison St. in West Berkeley, just two blocks from the
Fourth Street shopping district.
The project promises 'modern,
executive housing in the heart of the city's high-tech, bio-tech,
and creative jobs center.'
Designed by Baum Thornley
Architects, the proposed project would also feature a ground-floor
cafe-restaurant, offices, retail space, and 14 low-income units.
The project would be completed in 2010.
The Addison, which boasts
an energy-efficient design and construction plans, would also
be only three blocks from the transbay bus stop, a block from
Amtrak and right on the Bay Trail bicycle path. It would include
a community roof garden and barbecue area that would give residents
panoramic views of San Francisco."
"Development Wanes in Wake Of Economic
Woes" is a story
by Riya Bhattacharjee in the Planet that deals with Potter
Creek in "Condominiums developed by local developer
Patrick Kennedy's Panoramic Interests at 2700 San Pablo Ave. have
had a difficult time finding potential buyers, . . . , simply
because they were put on the market at a time when the economy
was poor.
Calls to Kennedy for comment
were not returned."
Perhaps Kennedy didn't return
the calls because 2700 San Pablo is not his project. In fact,
the San Fransico group that built these units lost them to the
bank. They have subsequently been resold.
At the moment in Potter Creek,
a six by eight block area west of San Pablo to the tracks and
north of Ashby to Dwight, there are two developments going ahead--one
is the grand Potter Creek, Berkeley Bowl, the other a tallish
residential complex on 7th just north of Heinz. Two residential
re-models are also in progress, with one almost finished. And
there are five guerilla projects, on going or just completed--three
of which are substantial interior remodels.
Well, Ok then.
"Court Orders Maio To Testify Over Loan
From Developer"
is an almost too complex, somewhat confusing report by our Planet's
Richard Brenneman.
.
"Controversy over a $45,000 loan from Berkeley's most controversial
developer to City Councilmember Linda Maio and her spouse has
resulted in a court order compelling the councilmember's testimony.
The statement, which will
be given under oath in the presence of a court reporter, is part
of a lawsuit challenging installation of cell phone antennas atop
the UC Storage building at 2721 Shattuck Ave.
Maio is scheduled to give
her statement next Wednesday, and the plaintiffs are also seeking
a similar deposition from developer Patrick Kennedy, the storage
building owner who gave the councilmember and her spouse a loan
to help them buy parking spaces at the site of her spouse's business
in another building also built by the developer."
I'm not sure Kennedy, my
"favorite Irish developer" is now developing, or was
when he sold the parking places.
Controversial?
Well he did say he was not
interested in buying the NEXUS property because he felt it was
haunted by ghosts of artists and artisans.
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle
Staff Writer writes "The
hottest issue in Berkeley this election season isn't Marines recruitment,
solar energy or people living in trees. It's the fate of the city's
battered downtown.
Nearly all 12 candidates
competing for five City Council seats on the Nov. 4 ballot say
revitalizing the downtown area is the most crucial issue facing
the city and the topic they hear about most from constituents.
. . .
In West Berkeley, Moore is
facing tenants' rights activist Jon Crowder, who says he has strong
ties to the community and would work at the council job full-time.
City Council positions pay $28,158 a year, plus health benefits,
and most council members hold other full-time jobs.
Both candidates agree that
crime and development are the most pressing issues in the district.
Moore said he wants to see more police patrolling the area and
more neighborhood crime-watch meetings. He also wants to see traffic
improvements, such as roundabout circles and curb bulb-outs intended
to slow traffic.
Moore has been endorsed by
six City Council members, Mayor Tom Bates, the police and fire
unions, the Sierra Club and the city's two primary political groups,
Berkeley Citizens Action and Berkeley Democratic Club."
from the Planet
District 2 City Council Candidate Statement:
Darryl Moore
District 2 City Council Candidate Statement:
Jon Crowder
Councilman Darryl Moore emails
What better way to get to
know each other than a casual stroll through the District?
Help me walk some precincts and when we're done, we can relax
in the park and have a bite to eat.
Precinct Walking with Darryl
on
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
2:00pm - 4:00pm
beginning at
Frances Albrier Center in San Pablo Park
2800 Park Street between Russell and Ward
If you're running a bit late,
not to worry. There will be someone to direct you where you
are needed. Thanks so much for all of your support and hope
to see you Sunday.
I really hope that you will
join me this weekend to help me communicate to our SouthWest Berkeley
neighbors my goals and vision for this next term. I have
really enjoyed serving District 2 over the last four years and
I would be honored to have your support so that I can continue
my work on issues affecting Southwest Berkeley and the entire
City of Berkeley.
"Berkeley offers workshops for residents
interested in new solar financing plan" is a brief report on insidebayarea.com
solar-financing workshops
for residents: The city of Berkeley is
holding three workshops this month for property owners interested
in
learning more about a first-of-its-kind city program to help people
with the cost of solar installation by tacking the cost onto their
property tax bills over a 20-year period.
The workshops for the Berkeley
Financing Initiative for Renewable and
Solar Technologies program will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m Tuesday
at
the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St.; from 7 to 8:30
p.m. Thursday at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis
St.;
and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the West Berkeley Senior Center,
1900 Sixth St."
"Berkeley bike patrols increase" reports Doug Oakley in the Berkeley Voice.
"Berkeley neighborhoods
on the south and west side now have increased patrols of bike
officers following an outcry for more police in the wake of two
killings and a shooting last month.
The move came partly as a
result of a community meeting Sept. 22 at which angry residents
called for more officers, better face-to-face communication between
police and residents and more city services designed to prevent
violent crime.
Two bicycle officers now
are spending most of their 10-hour shifts, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
four days a week, in the neighborhoods, said police spokesman
Andrew Frankel.
The shift in police resources
was made possible by new department hires after a period of understaffing
caused by retirements and officers going out on work-related disabilities,
said officials with the police and in the city manager's office.
Tamsen Fynn, a new Berkeley
resident who organized a candlelight march protesting the Sept.
18 killings on Derby Street and shooting Sept. 19, said she is
pleased the bike officers will spend more time in the area, but
noted "it has to be part of a bigger plan" to fight
violent crime in the area.
So far this year, there have been 10 killings in Berkeley, a number
not seen in at least six years. Rapes and robberies in the city
for the first six months were at a four-year high.
'I feel like this is really
just the beginning of working on all the issues,' Fynn said."
"Gunman robs Martinez
Safeway" reports Robert Salonga in the Times.
"A gunman robbed a Safeway store this morning and took cash
before fleeing, police said.
The robbery was reported
about 4 a.m. at the store located at 6688 Alhambra Ave., police
said. A man entered the store and approached a cashier, brandished
a dark-colored revolver and demanded money.The robber left the
store, but police are not certain whether he was on foot or got
into a vehicle. Police searched the area following the robbery
but did not find any suspects."
"Berkeley mothers start Farsi-immersion
preschool--Preschool immerses kids in culture, language of Iran" is a reports by Katy Murphy of the Oakland
Tribune.
"Yalda Modabber's parents
didn't understand, at first, why their daughter insisted on speaking
to her children in Farsi.
'They said, "Why don't you speak French to them? Farsi's
a useless language," ' Modabber said.
The Berkeley mother doesn't
think so. Neither do her Iranian-American friends - many of whom
came to the United States as young children in the late 1970s.
They want their children to embrace a language and culture that
isn't well understood in the West, she said.
About two years ago, Modabber
and other like-minded mothers, including Ladan Sobhani and Yasi
Massih, began meeting in the park for informal Farsi playgroups.
Knowing that their kids might lose interest in the
Persian language the moment
they attended an English-speaking preschool, they started a preschool
of their own: Golestan Kids."
from my log
10/8/08--11:45AM--irritant
in front room, eyes, nose burn, leave.
10/9/08--11:45 AM--irritant
in front room with "bleach/chlorine" smell. smell also
IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse.
10/10/08--5:56 AM--SERIOUS
irritant in warehouse front plus STRONG odor, nausea.
10/11/08--1:13 PM--irritant
in front of warehouse and warehouse front, light head.
"The IMF has warned the financial crisis
is the most dangerous since the 1930s" reports BBC NEWS.
"The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) has activated an emergency finance mechanism to help
countries hit by the financial crisis.
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan
said the lending procedure would allow the IMF to react quickly
to support countries facing funding problems.
The scheme, which was used
during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, will help speed up
approval of loans.
The news came as US stocks sank to a five-year low.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones
ended down 7.3% - tumbling below 9,000 points for the first time
since August 2003 and falling for a seventh consecutive session."
"Can the G-7 Save the World from Financial
Chaos?" in Time
quotes Cal's J. Bradford DeLong.
"The world's economists
have been nearly unanimous in saying that only a coordinated,
worldwide effort can stem the current credit crunch and companion
market meltdown. Their proposed solutions include: cut
interest rates, recapitalize the banks and insure deposits; get
governments to step in and guarantee short-term interbank lending.
'The first good thing about
this situation is that it does not call for different central
banks and Treasuries to do different things, but rather for them
all to do the same thing in unison without fouling each other's
oars. That should be relatively easy to arrange,' wrote University
of California, Berkeley, professor J. Bradford DeLong in a new
e-book about the crisis."
Eternally useful
links
Bay Area home prices from sfgate.com
Bay Area foreclosures from sfgate.com
Our City Council update is
here.
Our Planning Commision update
is here
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.
Best gas prices in 94710,
as well as all of US and Canada, are here
at gasbuddy.com
Kimar finds Costco routinely
has the lowest price.
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/
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.
Berkeley
Police reports at insidebay area.com are 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:
Our new Area
Coordinator is Officer Karen Buckheit, Berkeley PD - 981-5774
kbuckheit@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