12/24/03

MERRY XMAS!

Potter Creek gardens on Christmas Eve

 

 

 

 

12/25/09

HAPPY

HOLIDAYS

 

 

Some proper and well used commerical space in Potter Creek is filled by 900 GRAYSON.

900 continues to prosper. Among the many holiday guests this week at 900 GRAYSON were Pete Doctor, Pete Hurney, Paul Bertolli and friends, Barry Gifford, John Philips, the Yasudas, Matt Phillips, Karen & Alec, Don Yost, Richard & Sally, Bob Kubik, Michael Goldin and guest, Berkeley's Finest, and many, many others.

 

Our Bowl keeps on "keepin' on"

with both the new lot and the old filled, and pedestrians streaming in to holiday shop

 

 

And work on the commerical structure between the Victors and Byron, Milo and Sarah on 8th continues apace with work now going on in the interior. A quirky project, I've come to love it.

 

 

our Steven Donaldson emails

Ron

There's an older woman, 93 who now lives up on Monterey. I see her out gardening when I'm on my morning run on the weekends. She told me she grew up in Berkeley. I asked where and she said down on Hearst and 2nd Street. She said they lived above her fathers business, which was between some place that made wooden barrels and a sheet metal maker. Business, industry, manufacturing and just plan living was all mixed together. It was loud, dirty, full of smoke, smelly and she said wonderful as a kid. Everyone was foreign; half the folks were Portuguese, the other half Irish, German, Italian. All she know was she didn't understand what people said half the time.The streets were unpaved accept for the crushed shells and gravel they put down once a year. Other times it was all mud. At low tide packs of kids and dogs would go along the beach, which stretched roughly from Ashby to the where the racetrack with a giant wharf in the middle,  to gather fire wood for cooking at the long expansive low tide. She said the sunsets were great.

Steven

 

 

our Janine Johnson emails

Happy Holidays!  I hope you and your loved ones are well and looking forward to the new year!  I have not taken any photo this year that comes close to the beauty of this one NASA posted on the 19th

Take a moment to marvel at what is possible on our beautiful Earth!  

Love, Janine

 

 

 

 

 

our David Snipper emails

pencil

art

 

 

Our Cedric "Doc" Shackleton sent a photo taken in the early 1900s in Cardiff, Wales of his Grandfather astride a 1903 REX motorcycle. I'm scanning it and will upload it sooner-than-laler. Doc drives Potter Creek's red XK 140 Jag roadster.

 

 

Nick emails

Wishing You Peace & Happiness this Holiday Season 

Nick Despotopoulos

 

 

 

"Black Oak store reopens across town" reports Carolyn Jones, Chronicle staff writer of our new-to Potter Creek bookstore.

"Santa arrived early for Bay Area bibliophiles, delivering a rare piece of good news for the beleaguered printed word.

Black Oak Books, the venerable Berkeley bookshop that closed last year, reopened across town in a former nightclub with 30 percent more space and ample street parking. The collection includes fewer treatises on socialist-eco-feminism and more books of humor."

 

 

 

 

"Alameda DA knocked over Berkeley case" by Chris Reed, San Diego Union Tribune.

"As promised yesterday, I did a bit of poking around into the surprising announcement from Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County DA's office, that charges were unlikely to be filed stemming from the terrifying Dec. 11 attack on the on-campus residence of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgenau. Some members of a masked mob of up to 70 people infuriated by tuition hikes attempted to break into the home and light it on fire. When police responded, they tried to torch officers' cars.

Police arrested eight people on suspicion of rioting, threatening an educational official, attempted burglary, attempted arson, felony vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Birgenau said he and his wife were afraid for their lives. The governor likened the attack to terrorism and said the terrorists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But on Monday, the Alameda County DA announced that no charges had been filed and that it was unlikely that any charges ever would be filed because of a lack of strong evidence."

 

 

"Audit Finds Lack Of Oversight for Mental Health Client Funds" writes our Riya Bhattacharjee" of our Planet.

"A new report warns that funds belonging to the city's mental health clients could be in danger of being lost, stolen or misused due to a lack of oversight by city officials.

Nearly $280,000 is at risk of being abused, the report found.

The average monthly Supple-mental Security Income for a mental health client is around $800.

The report, issued to the Berkeley City Council by the city auditor's office earlier this month, also indicates shoddy record-keeping and a failure of accountability in handling money."

 

 

 

"U. of U. helped give birth to Internet:University was one of the four original sites of pioneer network" by Tom Harvey, The Salt Lake Tribune.

"It wasn't yet today's Internet, but 40 years ago technicians made the final connections between three computers in California and one at the University of Utah that would lead to the transformation of human communication.

The fledgling network they created inspired other government-backed and private projects that by the early 1990s would merge to become the Internet and revolutionize how we work and play. "

 

"Link between protein transport, spinal cord development established" is a report at thaindiannews.com.

"American scientists have broken new ground by discovering a new link between protein transport and spinal cord development in mice.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a team from the University of California, Berkeley, conducted the study."

 

Found in the New York Times Sampler

"Berkeley, Carefully, Considers A Ban on Plastic Bags | Berkeley may join other cities in the Bay Area in banning plastic bags and permitting stores to charge 15 to 25 cents for paper bags to encourage people to carry reusable bags. The City Council is expected to consider the proposal in February. Berkeley gave up pursuing a ban in 2007 after Oakland reversed its own ban after losing a suit against plastic bag manufacturers who claimed the city failed to consider the environmental effects. [The San Jose Mercury News].

Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open TV | Wood fires at home are likely to be banned in the nine Bay Area counties on Christmas Day, a decision that will be announced Thursday by air-quality officials. But it is possible to watch a fire: KTVU 36 will show a burning Yule log from 7 a.m. to noon on Christmas Day, with holiday tunes playing in the background. [The Contra Costa Times]"

 

 

 

"Christmas Memories" at sanfransicosentinal.com. by Bill Wilson.

"I don't know what is the most amazing part of my first Christmas in San Francisco - how much I recall, how much I don't recall or the fact that I survived at all! It was 1968. The new year would bring the summer of love and my cousin Susan was part of the hippie invasion. When she was two her mother divorced her alcoholic father and moved back to Elda Farm. At the time my family was living in the tenant house at Elda Farm. "

 

 

 

"Getting Acquainted with Vijay Iyer" is at allaboutjazz.com.

"This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring pianist Vijay Iyer. Iyer is one of the most talked-about jazz musicians of this year, and will be making his St. Louis debut starting Wednesday, January 20 through Saturday, January 23 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Born in 1971 in Rochester NY, Iyer studied classical violin for 15 years while growing up and earned an undergraduate degree in math and physics at Yale when he was just 20. After moving to California to pursue post-graduate studies in physics at Berkeley, he got seriously involved in the jazz scene in Oakland and eventually shifted his focus to music."

 

"Maguire's Duende Drama brings history to the fore" is a story at calaverasenterprise.com.

"Tom Maguire, actor and cofounder of Duende Drama, has the indelible stamp of Ireland on his face. His voice is perfect for stage whispering and projecting to the back of the house. It would appear that he was born to be an actor and when you learn about his family's background, it is easy to conclude that for Tom, acting is genetic.

He is an accomplished actor and director with more than 35 years of experience in professional theater, film and television. Just some of the places where you may have seen him are: San Francisco Poverty Theatre, San Francisco Actors Ensemble, Berkeley Stage Company, Magic Theatre, Eureka Theatre and Sierra Repertory Theatre in Sonora. We are fortunate that he calls our area home.

Yet, as a young man, Tom says he never even considered theatrical life and instead opted to attend the University of California, Berkeley, to become a mechanical engineer."

 

 

 

"Robert Reich feels the Bay Area's pain " is a story at wsj.com.

"Mr. Reich, an economist who has served in three presidential administrations, including as labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, bought his Bay Area home in 2006 -- just in time to see the local property market flounder and the regional economy tank.

Now a public-policy professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Reich blogs about national economic issues including the stimulus package and health-care overhaul -- and has also developed some less-well-known views on the Bay Area economy."

 

 

 

 

"Dirty Air May Raise Pneumonia Risk: Study" by Lindsey Konkel at abcnews.com.

"Air pollution may double the risk that an elderly person will be hospitalized for pneumonia, according to a new study.

'We have shown that air pollution exerts a strong effect on hospital admissions for pneumonia,' Michael Jerrett, of the University of California, Berkeley, who was involved in the study, noted in an interview with Reuters Health.

About 600,000 people are hospitalized for pneumonia in the United States each year. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in the elderly."

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/26/09

"Music store a castle to 'Vinyl Princess' " Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent.

"Yvonne Prinz is the vinyl princess. As a teenager growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, the daughter of Dutch immigrants got a job in a record store. Years later, after moving to California, she and her husband started the largest independent record store in the country, Amoeba Music of Berkeley.

After writing a successful trilogy of novels for young adults featuring a character named Clare - 'Not Fair Clare,' 'Double-Dare Clare' and 'Still There Clare' - Prinz has introduced Allie, the star of her new book for young adults, 'The Vinyl Princess,' the story of a young girl working in a record store on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue a lot like Amoeba. 'I wanted to write a "High Fidelity'"for kids,' she said over lunch this month at a Berkeley restaurant.

She rented an apartment in Berkeley's Elmwood district - near where Allie lives - from the son of Tenzing Norgay, whose father was one of the first men to climb Mount Everest (she recognized the name when she wrote her deposit check). She went to work at the apartment every day for a year, spinning the story of Allie, a young girl on a journey of self-discovery through the world of phonograph records."

 

Self discovery through selling LPs? Cheez that's familiar. Here's something from my Journal of Recorded Music 6

 

Back in The Day: Selling Records on Berkeley's Telegraph Ave

Albert really wasn't capable of having a manager

I'm told that today Reese Holmandoller lives on an island off the coast of South America. I guess it's possible. I know that for years he lived on an island off the Greek coast.

Reese Holmandoller was the first manager at Campus Records that I remember. Manager isn't exactly right. I don't think that Albert was capable of having a manager. Reese came from New York and so did Albert. More importantly, Reese learned the record business in New York City. But in the end, Albert probably hired Reese because he liked him.

Reese was tall, thin, a little stoop- shouldered, and had a droopy Einstein moustache. Before the Beatles had longish hair, Reese had hair down to his shoulders.

Berkeley has always thought of itself as a liberal, tolerant and accepting community. But in the '60s, sadly, even in Berkeley, people thought something should be done about a man with a woman's hair. In particular, Reese's hair annoyed some members of the Telegraph Avenue Merchants Association. At a regular meeting, and with Albert present, they suggested that either Reese get a hair cut or that Albert fire him. Albert quit the Association, but I vaguely remember Reese's hair becoming a touch shorter.

Reese now began to make a point of smooching in public. In front of the shop, and with great gusto, he would kiss and squeeze his saftig lady for all to see. His lady was a good jazz piano player and Reese played alto. I remember waiting, along with him, for the release of Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch album. When the first shipment arrived from the distributor, work ceased for a moment and we all listened. We agreed it was "far out."

Reese, his lady, and some friends had regular "blowing sessions" at a warehouse just off Shattuck Ave.

I was asked to sit in.

I was just beginning to play classical 'cello, but the idea of playing jazz was tantalizing. The 'cello was much softer than the jazz instruments that surrounded it, especially the piano and drums. In the first session I couldn't even hear myself, but Reese thought the 'cello could be made louder by electrically amplifying it. So at the next session we rigged a guitar pick-up to the 'cello bridge and plugged it into an amplifier.

 

Now I could hear myself, but I had a hard time following the "changes," after all, I was being trained to sight read Bach, not improvise over chords.
I can't say that I was a very good jazz player, but I can say that I played with Country Joe and the Fish's drummer. Chick "Chicken" Hirsh was one of the people who sat in that night.

 

You had to be there

I guess I liked my job because I worked at night and mostly alone, and when it was slow, as it often was, I could play any record in the shop. Campus Records was a full catalogue store and in the '60s that meant we had virtually every classical and jazz record that there was. Happily I could play them all-well maybe not all. Albert didn't like you to break the seal on a new recording, but in the '60s many records weren't sealed, so there were many to be played. Also, if I absolutely had to hear something that was tightly wrapped in plastic, I could usually get a free copy from the salesmen.

There I was with an enormous collection of classics and jazz. Of course, waiting on customers sometimes interfered with my listening, but then much to my surprise, many of them bought a copy of what I was listening to. It seems I had also discovered a way to successfully sell records.

In the summer Berkeley was still a quiet university town with a small summer session of teachers "vacationing for credit." Still, with the "serious" regular students always talking about how the classes were too big, how the teachers didn't care, and how the administration was "fascist," you could sense some unrest. But all in all, the town was quiet, especially at night, and that meant I would have plenty of time for listening-I could learn all about music.

Albert left for home about 6 o'clock and we were open until 11:00 PM so at about 5:00, between waiting on customers, I began planning my evening's program.

Often I'd play different performances of the 'cello pieces I was working on. How did I want to play the Sarabande from the Bach G Major 'Cello Suite? Did I want to learn the D Minor Suite? How should the C Major Prelude sound? I'd listen to Casals, to Fournier, or to Janigro. They were my teachers, and at the evening's end, many times, I'd be in complete confusion about the works I'd heard, my head swimming with ideas, solutions and more problems. How could Casals make them dance so? Why did Janigro's bow on the string sound like pulling taffy felt? Was that good? How could Fournier play so quiet and so strong?

I usually managed to sell a copy or two during my evening's concert-usually the Janigro; I guess because he sounded good on first-hearing or maybe just because the Westminster record sounded good on the store's system. Of course it sold for $2.98 or sometimes, if Albert had a sale, less.

Bach cantatas also sold well, and I learned to love them as I listened my way through the Westminster, Archiv and Cantate stock. We had a speaker outside the shop that was pointed across the street towards the university, and so on a quiet summer night you could hear Stich-Randall or Fischer-Dieskau singing Bach two blocks into campus. I know you could hear it that far and I know that it whetted musical appetites, for many a student arrived at the shop after walking across campus and had to know what kind of "song" they had heard and if they could buy it.

I learned a lot about playing a string instrument by listening to Rössl-Majdan, Poell, and others singing Bach. I learned to imitate the human voice, the best of all instruments; to phrase as a singer breathed; to just barely touch a high note; to come into a note flat and then satisfyingly resolve it in tune. I hoped I learned to play with all the expression of a good singer. I hoped . . . well, maybe you had to be there.

 

Story continued here--click and then scroll down page.

 

 

 

"India governor, 86, resigns after 3-woman sex tape" by Omer Farooq, Associated Press Writer.

"The 86-year-old governor of a southern Indian state resigned Saturday, a day after a television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women, an official said."

 

 

"It's Official: Jeff Tedford Is on the Hot Seat" Lisa Horne, Senior Writer bleacherreport.com.

"The fans walked away quietly clutching their little stuffed Bears. Or may be they were strangling them.

It wasn't just a loss to the Utah Utes, it was the way their team lost that was so unnerving.

Cal was out coached. Cal was inept in defending the pass. Cal was lucky the Utes had to settle for a few field goals instead of touchdowns, or the score would have really been embarrassing.

Jeff Tedford got schooled by Kyle Whittingham and the Pac-10 got another whupping by the Mountain West Conference. The fans are now officially peeved at Tedford, and to be honest, no one should blame them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/28/09

a recently remodelled commerical building in Potter Creek

Bayer's offices on 8th

 

 

Potter Creek's event of the year

the Bowl Pre-Opening 5/30

Berkeley Councilman, Max Anderson

more Pre-Opening photos here

 

 

"Air Quality Guidelines Face Unexpected Critics" is a story by Daniel Weintraub at nytimes.com.

"California's battle against greenhouse gases is likely to come to the Bay Area soon - with rules designed to reduce the carbon footprint of new housing and commercial development.

That is a concept you might expect to be welcome in a region known for its environmental advocacy and hostility to growth.

But some environmentalists and city planners fear that the new set of guidelines being considered by the region's air quality regulators could have an unintended consequence, making it more difficult and more expensive for developers to construct buildings within already urbanized areas.

That would run counter to the notion that builders should be given incentives to shift future population growth from the car-dependent outer suburbs to places where public services are already available and public transit is a more viable option to get people out of their cars.

After performing a set of intricate calculations, the board's staff determined how much greenhouse gas the Bay Area was likely to produce by 2020, and by how much that projected amount would need to shrink to comply with new state guidelines. Then the board estimated what part of that reduction would be accomplished through the state's broader effort to regulate carbon emissions. The amount left over was deemed to be the obligation of new development, and, in essence, each potential project was given an allowance of greenhouse gas emissions.. . .

If a new project appears to exceed its allowance, it would trigger an environmental impact report to look for ways to reduce it. Guidelines suggest that a typical condominium development with more than 77 units would go over the threshold, as would a single-family housing project with 56 homes.

And that caused an uproar throughout the region.

Why? Because the idea threatens city rules exempting projects from extra levels of environmental review if they are proposed for areas that are already heavily developed. These exemptions can save builders hundreds of thousands of dollars - enough, in some cases, to make building in the inner city more profitable than building in the suburbs.

Dan Marks, the planning director in Berkeley, calls this a 'get out of jail free' card.

'Depending on where the threshold is set and who sets it, we can either promote and encourage appropriate patterns of development or make that harder,' Mr. Marks said in an interview. 'The infill exemption means a little less cost and time for the developer. Anything that makes it harder to get the exemption is going to make it harder for that development to occur.'

Berkeley is opposing the new guidelines, as is San Francisco, Oakland, Emeryville and several other cities. The pushback has forced the air board's staff to retool and try to clarify its recommendation."

 

"Art Rosenfeld, the 'godfather' of energy efficiency" is a story by Dana Hull at mercurynews.com.

"When U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared on the "The Daily Show" in July, he bantered with host Jon Stewart about energy-efficient "white roofs," a powerful tool in the race to combat climate change.

Chu credited much of the research on white roofs to 'Art Rosenfeld, one of my local heroes.' 'Rosenfeld. I love his energy stuff,' cracked Stewart, who didn't appear to know who he is. 'Top-notch weatherizing guy.' "

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/29/09

our Angela emails

Hello Ron,
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, staying warm and hanging out with friendsthank you so much for all you do for west Berkeley and keeping folks informed about the many many things going on in the city and elsewhere.  You really are a treasure!
 
I wish you the best this coming year!
Warm regards,
 
Angela

 

our Tracy emails

Hi Ron,

Christmas Day was so beautiful we took a Christmas walk from San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier to the Wave Organ near St. Francis Yacht Club

we are . . . "rock stars" in the Fort Mason bandshell.

Tracy

 

 

a Potter Creek event of the decade

Scrambled Eggs & Lox first posts

OCTOBER 2002

We find in The City of Berkeley's West Berkeley Plan of which Potter Creek is part "Yet while all parts of Berkeley felt they benefited (between 1906-1941) from growth, political issues remained between West and East Berkeley. West Berkeley made a serious, though unsuccessful attempt to secede from Berkeley in 1908. One major reason for the effort was the incorporation in the 'reform' City Charter of 1909 of a complete prohibition on bars and alcohol sales in Berkeley, more than a decade before national prohibition." When I came to Cal in 1963 I found there were still no bars within a mile of Campus - I'd come from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where beer was served in the Student Union. 10/22/02

 

This page is named after my favorite breakfast at the Saffron Caffe. The caffe also serves freshly roasted Uncommon Grounds coffee, and the Uncommon Grounds roastery is adjacent to the caffe - you can see them working through a shared window. The caffe reminds me of a 1950s coffee house and is at 2813 7th Street, behind V & W Door and Window. Sometimes I have stuffed grape-leaves and a single-espresso. 10/23/02

 

 

 

"Worst home-front disaster of WWII gets recognition" by William M. Welch at usatoday.com.

"America's newest national park is largely removed from public view, just 5 acres on a remote bank of the Sacramento River on a military base in Northern California.

The powerful story it holds has gone little-noticed as well: the worst home-front disaster of World War II, when 320 men - two-thirds of them African Americans - perished in a giant munitions explosion. Fifty of the survivors were court-martialed for refusing orders to return to work.

It was a horror that helped bring an end to racial segregation of the U.S. military - a change that in turn gave impetus to the broader civil rights movement.

Now that chapter of history is getting a wider telling. President Obama has signed legislation making the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial a full unit of the National Park System, following approval by Congress. That means federal dollars, rangers and a visitors center, as well as preservation of the historical site and ruins at Concord, Calif.

'I am so thrilled,' says the Rev. Diana McDaniel of Oakland, whose uncle was one of the sailors who survived the blast on July 17, 1944. 'For me, it's a story that shouldn't be forgotten.'

Of the men who died that night, 202 were African-American sailors assigned to work as cargo handlers, loading explosives, incendiary bombs, depth charges and ammunition onto ships for delivery to the war in the Pacific. According to the Navy's history of the event, the men had no training in handling munitions.

The black enlisted men were supervised by white officers.

'It was a terribly dangerous situation,' says Robert Allen, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California-Berkeley and author of a history of Port Chicago. 'The officers compelled the all-black workers to compete in loading munitions. The officers would bet on the outcome.' "

 

 

 

 

12/31/09

a Potter Creek event of the decade

900 GRAYSON isn't just mentioned in the current East Bay Express, it is their Best New Restaurant.

 

 

 

"Why We Need to Take Creeks Out of Pipes" opines Carole Schemmerling in our Planet.

When the citizens of Berkeley so generously passed a small-$5 million for five years-bond measure in the late 1970s, to put parks in neighborhoods in which there were none, they created an opportunity to open (daylight) a portion of an urban creek for the first time in California, and, possibly, the nation.

A new park, on an old railroad right-of-way was designed and built by the city and changed the area from a desolate dumping ground to one of the most heavily used parks in Berkeley. Strawberry Creek, contained in a 300-foot cement culvert, bisected the area, and the city staff were opposed to the Parks and Recreation Commission's proposal to open it."

 

 

"Berkeley Marina's Adventure Playground in budget trouble" is a comment at sfgate.com.

"Berkeley's Adventure Playground needs money to remain open."

 

 

 

"BART assigns Butler as interim police chief" is a report at progressiverailroading.com.

"Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) recently appointed former Berkeley, Calif., Police Chief Daschel Butler interim police chief. He will assume the post in mid-January after meeting the state of California's Peace Officers Standards and Training administrative requirements.

Butler will head BART's police department while the agency conducts a nationwide search for a permanent successor to Gary Gee, who will retire today. Police Department Commander Maria White will serve as acting chief of police until Butler is sworn in.

Butler, who retired from Berkeley's police department in 2002 after serving as chief for 12 years, has 31 years' experience in law enforcement."

 

 

 

"Olive oil: California's golden nectar" by Jessica Yadegaran, Contra Costa Times.

"It was nine years ago that Al Courchesne took a fall trip to Tuscany and fell in love with the region's olive oil, a zesty, pungent nectar so revered that locals knock it back like vodka. Courchesne worked the harvest, plucking purplish olives from trees and celebrating the bounty at Italian festivals.

'They have a joy and appreciation for everything having to do with the olive - the wonderful taste, how healthy it is for you,"'Courchesne says. ' Their civilization was built around olive oil.'

Courchesne, a Brentwood fruit farmer, was hooked on huile. Upon his return, he planted 400 olive trees on his 130-acre Frog Hollow Farm, on the organic acreage famous for peaches. Today, he makes Tuscan oil based on a centuries-old ratio of Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino, and Maurino olives.

Courchesne is one of dozens of producers today who are making Northern California synonymous with zippy, handcrafted, extra virgin olive oil, which ranges from soft and buttery to grassy and peppery. From Petaluma to Menlo Park, they farm 150 olive varietals to create oils so vibrant, they're almost a different commodity than the stuff you buy off supermarket shelves.

Currently, most of the olive oil we consume comes from countries such as Italy, Spain, and Greece. A lack of government regulation means that despite the label it's possible you're consuming adulterated olive oil, canola oil, or a blend, says Patricia Darragh of the
Advertisement
Berkeley-based California Olive Oil Council. The COOC filed a petition with the USDA in August 2004 to set standards for the importation of olive oil into the United States. The petition is pending."

 

 

 

"Areva eyes California's Central Valley for nuclear reactors" is a report at San Francisco Business Times by Steven E.F. Brown.

"French nuclear power giant Areva SA is talking to a group of investors about putting one or two atomic power plants in California's Central Valley.

Paris-based Areva said Tuesday it's signed a letter of intent with Fresno Nuclear Energy Group LLC, which it calls 'a group of investors,' about early work necessary to bring the company's advanced EPR technology to California.

It's a long way from a letter of intent to building actual power stations - there are many technical, regulatory and political hurdles to clear, particularly in the United States, which is more leery of nuclear power than Areva's home nation of France, which generates about three-quarters of its power that way.

But the new plant would be a big help, said William Ibbs, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He thinks the EPR, or competing technologies offered by General Electric or Korean competitors to Areva are worth the investment, despite the delays and cost overruns that often accompany huge projects like this.

'Whether it's Areva, GE or the Koreans, California needs nuclear power.' "

 

 

 

"Architectural trends of the decade" opines John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer.

 

 

Charlie Rose conversation with architect, Annebelle Selldorf is certainly worth viewing.

 

 

 

 

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 posted material retains copyright. The material is used only to illustrate.