Lately we’ve been showing newly vacant storefronts. In this walk I show two recently empty stores that have new businesses. One a new restaurant and the other new Internet cafe. Crepevine replaces Starbucks and Philz Coffee replaces Cafe de la Paz. Both are at near intersection of Cedar and Shattuck.
If you’ve ever needed to book a hotel room for guests visiting you in Berkeley, you’ll know choices are thin on the ground.
The Claremont has the monopoly at the higher end — and don’t they know it — and then there’s the rest.
So I took notice last summer when I heard talk of a swanky new hotel mooted for downtown Berkeley. Pity then that it may not happen.
The plans to build a 19-story hotel and conference center on Center Street, called the Berkeley Charles Hotel, were being discussed as part of the broader regeneration of downtown currently under way, which includes the construction of the Toyo Ito- designed Berkeley Art Museum, slated to open in 2013.
The hotel’s developers, Carpenter & Company, were working in tandem with the same group behind the upscale Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Ma.
But now the Planet reports that the project has stalled. There’s some ambiguity however, with the city’s Mayor, Tom Bates, quoted as saying “it’s no more”, while UC spokesperson Christine Shaff insists the university is still pursuing the project. (The university hopes to put up campus visitors and host conventions at the new hotel.)
While we await a final verdict, you might try the newly opened Hotel Shattuck Plaza. And a friend tells me the accommodation at the Berkeley City Club is very old-school, in a good way, with period details and comfortable, albeit modestly sized rooms.
According to the Hillside Club blog: “Founded in the late 19th century to promote good design practices in the Berkeley hills, the Hillside Club today is a community-based membership organization.”
On Saturday they’re having a Front-Porch-Plus work party, starting at 10AM. For questions, contact Tim Hansen at TimLHansen@aol.com or call him at 510-508-6242.
There are lots of great events and people at the Hillside Club, I’ve been a member since I moved here.
This is the first post in what will likely be a series as I try Sonic.net’s new Internet services for Berkeley. I may or may not become a customer, but I’m going to share what I learn, as I go.
First the background..
I currently use AT&T DSL service. It was my backup — I was using Comcast as my primary service until they fired me as a customer. I do software development and had an app working with high resolution pictures and RSS, it was running on several machines. I didn’t realize how much it was downloading, and figured that the ISP would just regulate my use to an acceptable limit. It’s a long story that I detailed on my blog. It’s one of the top hits on Google when you search for hate Comcast.
Comcast’s service really is a marvel if you don’t get them angry. I was getting 20 Mbs down on a regular basis, often much more. That’s not a typo. Really amazing. But I can’t have it, sad to say.
I just ran a speed test on my line and got 5315 Kbps down and 637 Kbps up.
Not bad, but I’m hoping to get a better deal from Sonic.net.
Yesterday I spoke with Dane Jasper, the CEO of the company, for about an hour. He told me the story of their dealings with AT&T, and gave me a rough idea of the kind of DSL service they offer.
At breakfast today Tom Hunt told me about a higher-end service they offer. I’m going to look into that.
Lid writes in the comments:
Before moving, researching Silicon Valley and the Bay area online was just about the most awful experience. But for the standard gov sites, there was nothing – in fact we now live in Palo Alto and there is STILL nothing of any relevance or use to locals – yet I keep being told that Palo Alto is the ‘birthplace’ of Silicon Valley – redonkulous that where it all supposedly happens when it comes to tech/Web, there is no one site catering to the locals.
I just checked and someone owns InPaloAlto.com, although they aren’t using it. Someone down on the peninsula should get with the program! I’ll leave Dave, a refugee from the peninsula to the East Bay, to offer an explanation.
I’d love to see thousands of flowers bloom in terms of local sites. That’s what inspired Dave and me to start this site. We wanted it for Berkeley, and we were utterly bewildered by its absence. One of the real hopes we have for InBerkeley is that we can be one of the gathering points for the growing movement of hyperlocal sites. Berkeley has changed the nation in many ways, many times. Why not in this endeavor?
Berkeley High School has been ranked 266th in Newsweek’s annual ranking of the best 1,500 public high schools in the US. The 1,500 represent the top 6% of schools in the country, according to the Newsweek formula, which takes the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 and divides by the number of graduating seniors.
BHS’s place is particularly notable because it has risen in each year Newsweek has done the league table. In 2005, BHS placed 580th, then moved up in 2006 to 378th, then to 297th and 286th before attaining this year’s ranking. BHS places 30th among the California schools in Newsweek’s table. The top-rated school in California is La Jolla’s Preuss UCSD, ranked 10th in the country. The nation’s top school according to Newsweek is the Talented and Gifted high school in Dallas, Texas.
In education circles, Newsweek’s ranking generates plenty of controversy, which the magazine itself covers fairly:
Even in Dallas, where our top two schools are, there’s been skepticism. In the same paper that shared the good news, an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News reported on the school district’s increased dropout rate. And Tawnell Hobbs, the paper’s education reporter, offered her own criticism of NEWSWEEK’s numbers game. “I have to be honest, I don’t put much stake in Newsweek’s rankings,” she wrote on her education blog. “One single number determines it. It doesn’t take into account many other factors—SAT scores, dropout rates, scores on state tests. Educators say [it's] not a complete picture of how a school is doing … but schools covet having a top spot.”
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