InBerkeley

The Daily Clog has posted Your Guide to Walkout Festivities to help you navigate the various budget protest and walkout events taking place on campus over the next  24 hours or so.   They warn you should expect to encounter a lot of picket lines and rallies if you’re planning on being anywhere in the vicinity of campus tomorrow.

Events kick off tonight at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium for a Save the University teach-in, where several big-name faculty members, including Robert Reich and Ananya Roy, will explain the situation and the reasons for all the fuss.

You’ll also find several links to other Daily Californian articles on the walkout.

Education, Events, Government, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

If you’re in Berkeley and concerned that global warming will cause sea levels to rise, you may want to be sure you’re east of San Pablo Ave. Even if sea level rises 14 meters you’ll stay dry according this interactive flood map, which shows how familiar land contours will change as the oceans rise.

Other parts of the Bay Area don’t fare so well. According to the map, even a 1 meter rise will inundate SFO, Foster City and other parts of San Mateo and Santa Clara County shoreline.

Environment, General, Green, Issues

I don’t usually associate great information design with government websites, but California’s Recovery.gov.ca defies my expectations. They hired Stamen Design (the people behind the Oakland crime map that I covet for Berkeley) to design an interface that would enable users truly to see how stimulus funds are being spent.

How’s Berkeley doing? The map cites five projects for a total of $6.43 million, ranging from $2 million for the school district to $54,000 for the Aspire California College Preparatory Academy. You can click on the map image above to go directly to the interactive site.

I guess the $115 million allocated to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory doesn’t count as funds to the city of Berkeley. I’m curious about that distinction.

Issues, Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Photo by Katey Alatalo

A group of demonstrators took to the streets today in Berkeley at the corner of Shattuck Ave. and Cedar St. to rally in support of health-care reform.  UC Berkeley student Katey Alatalo reported the event on Twitter, snapped this photo of the rally on her iPhone, and expressed surprise at the lack of press coverage of this event.

We don’t know who organized this event, or exactly what they were saying, but if anyone does know, we’d appreciate it if you could please post it in the comments section.

General, Issues, Politics

The Berkeley Unified School District’s plan to maintain diversity could serve as a model for other public schools nationwide that are seeking constitutionally sound desegregation programs, according to a new report by researchers at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California.

The UC report, “Integration Defended: Berkeley Unified’s Strategy to Maintain School Diversity,” pointed out that Berkeley school officials have achieved substantial integration in a city where neighborhoods are polarized by racial-ethnic and socioeconomic status. Moreover, their integration plan was upheld earlier this year by the state appellate court, a decision that the California Supreme Court allowed to stand.

via UC Berkeley News.

Education, Issues, UC Berkeley

Here’s an interesting commentary today by Lainey Feingold in the BeyondChron blog, postulating that the actions of Ally Jacobs and Lisa Campbell that lead to the discovery of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard support the controversial “wise Latina” statement made earlier this year (at UC Berkeley, no less) by then Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

But Jacobs’ hunch echos the one line of Justice Sotomayor’s stellar written and spoken record that was grist for the right-wing media mill: “I would hope,” Sotomayor said during a speech on the UC Berkeley campus in 2001, “that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” After several others in law enforcement let Garrido slip through their fingers, the richness of Jacobs’ and Campbell’s experience saved the life of a young woman and her two young daughters.

via BeyondChron: San Francisco’s Alternative Online Daily News.

Issues, People, UC Berkeley

An insider’s account of the demise of Eccolo on Fourth Street:

Fifty hardworking people lost their jobs when Eccolo closed on Berkeley’s Fourth Street strip last week, released into a vast ocean of unemployed restaurant workers. But the ripple effect is even more discouraging. Farmers, handymen, our cleaning crew and the neighborhood preschool we made lunch for daily are only a few of the dozens of local small businesses affected.

Ultimately, it was the piddling state of the economy that made us decide to close. Most restaurants never make much money, and Eccolo was no exception.

via SFGate.

Business, Food, Issues, West Berkeley, restaurants

If you missed the protests over John Yoo last Monday, there’s now a handy YouTube video of Code Pink’s mock arrest of law school professor Yoo.

Issues, UC Berkeley

Brad Delong responds to Berkeley law school dean Chris Edley about whether or not “there clear professional misconduct–that is, some breach of the professional ethics applicable to a government attorney–material to Professor Yoo’s academic performance now.”

So we see on the one hand that when the President is William Jefferson Clinton his Commander-in-Chief powers are so crabbed and restricted that Democratic President Clinton exceeded them by instructing American soldiers to obey the orders of the NATO theater commander.

And we see on the other hand when the President is George W. Bush his Commander-in-Chief powers are so extensive and unconstrained that Congress s explicit authority to “make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces” can place no restrictions at all on what lawful orders Republican President George W. Bush can give to mistreat abuse and torture persons held by the U.S. armed forces.

These two Commander-in-Chief powers are very different indeed.

To advance as your basic principle of Constitional construction “don t worry it s OK if you are a Republican” is a breach of professional ethics serious enough to more than pass the bar set by Dean Edley–unless of course all legal reasoning is just a crock of manure to mask partisan maneuvering.

via Grasping Reality with Both Hands.

Education, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

Here’s a link to the email message Dean Christopher Edley of Berkeley Law School sent to UC Berkeley faculty, administration and students responding to substantial public protests surrounding Professor Yoo’s return to his tenured professorship in law at Berkeley.

My sense is that the vast majority of legal academics with a view of the matter disagree with substantial portions of Professor Yoo’s analyses; this includes most though perhaps not all of his Berkeley Law colleagues. If, however, this strong consensus were enough to fire or sanction someone, then academic freedom would be meaningless.

…

I believe the crucial questions in view of our university mission are these: Was there clear professional misconduct—that is, some breach of the professional ethics applicable to a government attorney—material to Professor Yoo’s academic performance now? Did writing the memoranda, and any related acts, violate a criminal or comparable statute?
…

Absent very substantial evidence on these questions, no university worthy of distinction should even contemplate dismissing a faculty member. That standard has not been met.

Education, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

Opponents of a downtown Berkeley development plan say they have gathered more than enough referendum signatures to force the City Council to reconsider the plan or to put it to a citywide vote.

City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who was working with Councilman Jesse Arreguin on the issue, said the group collected about 8,000 signatures in 30 days, far more than the 5,558 signatures needed and a good cushion to offset signatures that are invalid.

via Oakland Tribune/Inside Bay Area.

Downtown, Government, Issues, Politics

When classes started Monday at UC Berkeley, protesters at the law school were demanding John Yoo’s dismissal.

The dean of the law school, Christopher Edley, has rejected calls for dismissal, saying Professor Yoo, who received tenure in 1999 before taking a leave to work for the Bush administration, is protected as a matter of academic freedom.

Is the Yoo case an instance where academic freedom principles clearly come into play or does it raise other considerations?

Brian Leiter, University of Chicago Law School, Kathleen Clark, Washington University Law School, Cary Nelson, American Association of University Professors and Carlos Villareal, National Lawyers Guild, present their views on the contentious John Yoo matter.  The general consensus seems to be that while dismissal cannot be handed down unilaterally by the dean of the law school, there is certainly plenty of reason for appropriate hearings to commence immediately.

via NYTimes.com.

Education, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

It appears the controversy over professor John Yoo has ratcheted up a notch as protesters have started rallying on the UC Berkeley campus with calls for the law school to fire him.

Anti-war protesters are rallying on the University of California, Berkeley campus to call for the firing of a law professor who co-wrote legal memos that critics say were used to justify the torture of suspected terrorists…The tenured professor has defended the controversial techniques, saying they were needed to protect the country from terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

via The Associated Press.

UPDATE: Apparently at least four protesters have been arrested, so far.

Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

Something to ponder the next time you go swimming at the UC Berkeley gym:

The skulls and bones of Japanese war dead from World War II’s Battle of Saipan are being kept at the University of California-Berkeley in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims.

The remains of several Japanese soldiers or civilians removed from the island of Saipan in 1945 by a Navy doctor are housed on storage shelves maintained by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the UC-Berkeley campus, museum officials said.

The admission has sparked the fury of international law experts and anthropologists, who say the university has a legal and ethical duty to return the remains to Japan.

Three sets of skeletal remains with skulls, and various bones of three additional Japanese war dead without skulls, are stored in wooden containers in vaults beneath the Hearst Gymnasium swimming pool.

via MontereyHerald.com/San Francisco Chronicle.

Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

Jack responds to our earlier post on how the homeless are treated in Berkeley:

I’ve been homeless in Berkeley for just over a year now. I can tell you firsthand what it’s like. It’s true that Berkeley gets some pretty hard-core homeless folks, including some of the “worst kind” and some that travel around.

But it’s not a town that has or does much for people that aren’t like that, either. That is, if you aren’t a drunk, drug addict, crazy, etc. There are “services” and “programs” and “options” for these that you just don’t qualify for, meaning that you’re mostly on your own.

City Hall and some business groups are doing a lot of Orwellian doublespeak on these topics these days. Yes, “numbers of homeless going down” DOES mean things like driving people outa’ town, jailing them, etc. I think a mere TWO “case study examples” have been used to “show” success stories of people that actually got off the streets into real housing and went back to work and/or “qualified” for benefits.

The rest of us are just stuck out here with increasing criminalization of things like sleeping anywhere and getting encroached and harassed more for just being outdoors all the time, but with usual human needs.

Berkeley also garnered some Fed $ for “homeless programs” but has been spending it on hiring “hosts” that walk around and have been told by their bosses to complain to the police about homeless people, so that they can be “enforced” against. Things like $200 tickets for sleeping on a sidewalk (no, there’s no law against that, but “obstructing a sidewalk” is illegal), etc. Why? Because apparently not enough citizens have been complaining and the biz owners wanted to arrange for more complaints.

This is Fed “Homeless program/services” money PAYING for employees to be used to complain to the police about homeless people. While these “success stories” of the employees (formerly homeless and/or drug program graduates) also get paid to just walk around and sit in cafe’s, etc. for hours at a time, too. Some solution and success, huh? At least until the funds run out, when they’ll then be “qualified” for… what?

At least then, remaining homeless folks won’t have that “service” inflicted on them anymore.

Issues

The Berkeley Downtown Area Plan was passed by the Berkeley City Council on a 7–2 vote on July 14, 2009. As expected, opponents of that plan have already initiated a petition drive seeking a referendum to cancel the plan.  According to the Berkeley Daily Planet, if at least 5,558 valid signatures of registered Berkeley voters are collected and turned in to city officials by Aug. 20, the City Council has the option of either invalidating the Downtown Area Plan itself or putting a referendum on the November 2010 ballot for voters to decide if they want the plan implemented.

In Berkeley recently received an email message from Berkeley resident and New York Times bestselling author Ayelet Waldman endorsing a letter she received from Liveable Berkeley Executive Director Erin Rhoades which asks people not to sign the petition now being circulated in opposition to the Berkeley plan.  With their permission, we are reprinting Ms. Rhoades’ letter and Ms. Waldman’s introduction here.

Glory, have we had bad weather and good food here in Maine. Ribs from local pigs. Ice cream and milk from local cows (my kids think the milk tastes like milkshakes – we’re in heaven unless we all get E Coli and die). Vegetables from friends’ gardens. Honestly, it’s a culinary wonderland. And let’s not forget the fried clams and lobster rolls.

But I’m not writing to make you feel bad. If you don’t live in Berkeley, just delete. Seriously, this won’t interest you. But if you do, and you agree that downtown Berkeley is a monstrous blot on our city, that’s is a sinkhole desperate for some decent urban planning, then please read the attached email. It was written by someone who knows more than you and I do, and forwarded by an architect whom I trust.

I’m telling you, I love our town, but I am so goddamn sick of the myopic vision of some of its more vocal (and colorfully-dressed) citizens.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Friend,

I’m writing to ask your help to revitalize Downtown Berkeley.

It’s an easy request. You don’t have to contribute any money, join any group or attend any meeting.

All you have to do is NOT sign the petition now being circulated to cancel our new Downtown Area Plan. And tell your friends to also “just say no.”

After four years of community-wide effort, seven of our nine Berkeley council-members (Anderson, Bates, Capitelli, Maio, Moore, Wengraf, Wozniak) voted to approve a new plan for Downtown Berkeley which would help turn around a downtown stuck in failure.

Our new Downtown Area Plan will revitalize Downtown Berkeley. It encourages more Downtown residents and more affordable housing, supports a pedestrian plaza on Center Street, enforces new green building standards and provides for much-needed street-level amenities to make the Downtown more enjoyable. It’s also essential to Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan because it supports more residents living downtown near transit and daily-needs shopping — essential to our environmental leadership role as a “climate smart” city.

In Downtown Berkeley today, commercial vacancy rates have topped 16%, almost all retail businesses continue to struggle, and only one new affordable apartment building has been completed in years. We need to do better, and the new Downtown Plan will help big-time.

For many years the people now opposed to our new Downtown Area Plan have also opposed all previous attempts to accommodate more people in Berkeley — even though that’s just what we need to BUILD an equitable, diverse and environmentally responsible future for our city.

This time their scare tactic is “Manhattanization:” the specter of “greedy corporate developers” crowding our Downtown with a forest of “huge skyscrapers”.

What’s actually in the new Downtown Plan is something different. It limits “tall” additions over the next 20 years to a maximum of one or two buildings for conference-oriented hotels or housing, plus no more than 6 other medium-height buildings — 2 of which could be office buildings and at least 4 residential. It asks for significant returns from developers for public amenities, including public open spaces in the Downtown. This potential growth over twenty years is constrained to a district that takes up less than FOUR PERCENT of Berkeley’s land – existing zoning limits would still apply everywhere else.

The conclusion the City Council reached is clear: the only way we can turn around Downtown is if we can house more residents and workers in new green buildings to support LOCAL-oriented shopping and services. Given that commitment, when is doing nothing the “better and greener solution” for Downtown, as the petitioners claim?

If the referendum succeeds, four years of hard community planning work would be thrown away and improvements for Downtown would be put on hold again. How would that help make Downtown more successful?

Please join the Council majority, Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, environmental and labor groups and many of your own neighbors in opposing this unfortunate and short-sighted attempt to freeze Downtown Berkeley in failure mode. Say NO to the petition — and say YES to a better and greener Berkeley in years to come.

Please help further by forwarding this message to your Berkeley friends and neighbors. And, let me know if you have a little time you could contribute in the next 3 weeks to help defeat this petition.

Best,

Erin Rhoades

P.S. If the petition gains enough signatures, the required election could cost the city more than $200,000 — money needed for many more important things in these tough economic times.

Yours,

Ayelet Waldman

You can read more about the referendum campaign here. Kriss Worthington, who represents District 7 on Berkeley’s City Council, voices his Top Ten Super-Sized Flaws of the Downtown Area Plan.

Business, Downtown, Government, Issues, Politics

The Berkeley Kite Festival down at the Marina was a blast. Gusty wind and sunny; hundreds of people spectating and flying, picnicking and cheering. If you look closely you’ll spot InBerkeley co-founder Lance Knobel (above) engaged in a rokakko kite fight.

Events, Issues