Archive

Archive for July 4th, 2009

Brit theater beams into Berkeley

July 4th, 2009
No comments

NTLive_Phedre_US_5x8.indd

Oooh. Quintessential British culture direct to my doorstep…

The gorgeous Helen Mirren is coming to my Berkeley neighborhood, along with a fabulous program of live theater beamed straight from the National Theater on London’s South Bank.

First up at the Elmwood Rialto Cinema is the Greek tragedy “Phedre”. Future screenings include “All’s Well that Ends Well”, “Nation”, based on a novel by Terry Pratchett and  “The Habit of Art”, a new play by the incomparable Alan Bennett.

Arts, The Elmwood, Theater , ,

Berkeley wrestles with downtown development

July 4th, 2009
1 comment

According to today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Berkeley is poised to rewrite its zoning rules for its downtown, raising height limits throughout the area and creating nine towers, including three as high as 225 feet – at least 45 feet taller than anything else in the city.

City leaders see the array of taller buildings as an environmental beacon for the region, a hedge against sprawl and a model of how to curb dependence on cars.
…

The downtown development plan, which the council will discuss Tuesday and vote on by July 14, is being driven by two primary forces.

UC Berkeley, which employs nearly 16,000 nonstudents in this city of 107,000 people, wants to develop 800,000 square feet of space for nonacademic uses in or next to the downtown area.

In addition, the Association of Bay Area Governments has said the city needs to build 2,700 housing units by 2014. The downtown is a natural place for much of the housing, all sides agree, because it is near transit hubs such as BART and AC Transit. Transit corridors adjacent to neighborhoods are other targets for housing.

The housing component is key to revitalizing the moribund downtown area. The hotels are just as important. From that flows everything else.

General