5/20/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

900 GRAYSON'S Courtney, Anthony, Peter, and Eric all together went to the Oakland Greek Festival on Saturday night. Stopping at the Victor's booth first, the guys got lamb-chop dinners and Courtney had the pork scure. Later they also all got Gyros to-go across the way. Anthony bought three. "Pretty damn good " said Anthony.

And even the Huffington Post loves the Oakland Greek Festival--specially the food. See it, and more of our John Victor, here.

 

new Berkeley Animal Shelter

steve smith photo

constructing on Bolivar Drive at the north end of Aquatic Park

Check it out!

While down around the Park check out the Social Realist sculpture at the east end of the bicycle bridge. I believe "The Thinker" figure is His Honor Da Boz. Looks like him and has a beer-stein between his legs--part of Da Boz' Pre Boz legacy is his pioneering assembly legislation legalizing home brewing. And who is that figure flying a kite among the Social Realist figures at the bridge's west end?

 

 

 

Thursday just before noon, a Grayson Street home was burglarized. Entering through an open side window the thieves took a computer, jewelry, and clothes among other things and vandalized the home.

A Potter Creek business woman walking toward the house, saw what she felt was suspicious activity, called Berkeley PD at 11:40 AM. Police responded in less than five minutes with two motor officers, a bicycle officer and three radio cars. More radio cars arrived soon after.

The business woman saw the thieves, two young, dark, black men, leave the property with what appeared to be filled bags and get into a white sedan. The men were dressed in baggy clothes and the sedan had "flames lightly painted" on the rear quarter panel.

Later, as Berkeley PD was taking the report, another woman, who lived a block and a half north stopped, and said that about an hour earlier she stopped a young black man who "seemed to be about to break into" her condo.

 

 

 

END

 

 

 

"Assembly speaker a Cal grad? Not so fast" writes Bruce B on his blog.

"Did California Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Democrat, ever lie about his UC-Berkeley degree? Maybe not precisely, but as California Watch reports, he sure let a lot of other people go uncorrected when they said he held a degree from Cal.

Of course, who cares? Bill Gates is a Harvard dropout. But that makes the fudging all the more petty, eh?"

 

 

 

 

 

5/22/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

recently Bob and Carol were in Europe

click on this Paris door

for Bob and Carol Paris photos

 

 

 

The author James Gleick traces information's evolution in his new book "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood." PBS New's Jeffrey Brown and the science and technology author discuss how our era of information overload evolved from pre-digital times. View the video or read the transcript here.

"The Influencing Machine" by Brooke Gladstone at slate.com.

"It takes me an absurdly long time to form an opinion. It took me some 20 years of writing about the media to coalesce a view coherent enough to call my own. The fact that I chose a comic-book format to present that view might seem a little peculiar to those who know me from the radio. After all, radio is the medium without pictures. But it's not really.

More than television, more than newspapers, radio creates a sense of intimacy-the illusion of a one-to-one relationship-because the listener relies on the reporter's voice to paint pictures. Voices are very personal."

 

 

 

Andrew, Kerstin, and Jim were also in Europe recently

where they saw this

Chinese "Handkerchief Tree" on Hampstead Heath in London

&

in Spain, where Andrew was consultant on this

24,000 square foot Toledo hunting lodge

 

END

 

 

POST FROM THE PAST

9/22/05

Motorcycle Art

Andrew Fischer's Norton Commando Fastback

 

END

 

 

 

"US pushes for Start-up Visa to keep immigrant entrepreneurs back in the country" indiatimes.com.

"Rituparna Chatterjee, Dhawal Mujumdar and Satish Polliseti, students at the University of California, Berkeley's campus have just completed their thesis on a new anti-spam software for smart phones. This software will help web pages verify that the user is a human and not an automated program."

 

 

"Kill spam e-mails by choking off scammers' cash" at consumerreport.org.

"With billions of junk e-mails floating around the global Internet, it seems like our inboxes are forever flooded with unwanted spam. But researchers may have identified a spammers' Achilles heel in that could bring an end to those annoying messages that hawk cheap prescription drugs and other knock-off goods.

The New York Times reported that computer scientists at two universities in California, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, recently completed a joint study on the nature of spam."

 

 

 

"Nail Salons Have a Chemical Problem" by Ngoc Nguyen, New America Media.

"A new study looks at the ugly side of salon manicures and pedicures: the occupational health and safety risks of salon workers."

 

 

 

"Hyatt Announces Purchase of Three California Woodfin Suites Properties" at sunherald.com.

"The acquired properties are located in Cypress, Emeryville, and Sorrento Mesa, California."

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/23/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

École Bilingue

La Place du Marché

 

 

Of our Noah Alper, mercurynews.com reports "Noah Alper is the founder of Noah's Bagels. He took the Noah's Bagels concept from a one-store location in Berkeley California in 1989, and in 6 1/2 years sold the business for 100 million dollars while taking it public."

 

 

And of our "California Mille" Nick Czap of nytimes.com offers " Last April, while gathering notes for a recent article which appeared in the Automobiles section, I spent a day riding shotgun in a trio of vintage Alfa Romeos participating in the 20th annual California Mille, a rally that pays tribute to Italy's historic road race, the Mille Miglia.

For a different perspective during this year's event, I spent a day with Conrad Stevenson, one of the rally's two dedicated mechanics. Mr. Stevenson, 51, whose bread and butter is an Alfa Romeo repair and restoration shop in Berkeley, Calif., has been serving in this capacity every year since the rally's inaugural run in 1990."

 

 

 

Not one of the great inventions of the 20th Century with inferior sound quality and physically unreliable,Caitlin Curran still writes at washingtonpost.com "Cassette tapes make a comeback."

"Four years ago, cassette tapes were headed toward their funeral. In 2007, British tabloid The Sun declared the death of the cassette, after the announcement that a major electronics retailer in the United Kingdom would cease selling cassette tapes. In 2009, the webzine Pop Matters bid cassettes good riddance: 'Some mediums are just meant to die and never experience a revival. Cassettes seem destined to fall into this category.'

Then, last year, cassettes began to rise from the dead. In the fall, NPR reported that cassettes were having a 'kind of" revival, with at least 25 labels in the United States putting out new music exclusively on tape."

 

END

 

 

POST FROM THE PAST

Early Development of the LP

by Ron Penndorf

"The advantages of the Long Playing record are too obvious to require extended comment. They minimize interruption and inconvenience: permit more logical and complete presentation of the music idea, reduce space requirements and represent an economy in expense that is decidedly worth considering."1

Thus, the 1930 RCA Victor Catalogue introduced their LP record, the 'Program Transcription.' This new kind of record was RCA's hope for restoring their market. By 1930, radio and the depression had reduced RCA's and all record companies' sales. The 'Program Transcription' was 12" in diameter, revolved at 33-1/3 RPM, had fine grooves (.0045 inch) that were closely spaced, and was made of a flexible plastic called 'Victrolac.' It carried up to 'three times' the playing time of a 12" 78, had quiet surfaces, and was to be played with a 1.5 mil RCA Chromium Orange Needle.

"Yet when these revolutionary discs appeared in record stores, they failed miserably to rejuvenate the doddering record industry. . . .

Meanwhile, by December 1939, Columbia records had been "recording all its sessions on standard groove 33 1/3 rpm master 'safeties' sixteen inches in diameter. During the first year, the 'safeties' were simply filed away after the session and used only when repair work was necessary on the 78s. By the end of 1940 all takes were incised on 33 1/3 sixteen inch disqs and then transferred later to 78 rpm records."5 By playing around with these safeties, Dr. Peter Goldmark and Columbia engineers, before World War II, were able to get fifteen minutes of music to a side of a 33-1/3 RPM record. Work slowed, but continued through the war, and at the war's end in 1945, Goldmark and his staff were hard at work on the LP.

"Goldmark assigned individual researchers to individual problems-cutting motor and stylus design, pickup design, turntable design, amplifier, radius equalization. The 33 1/3 speed had been established before work began and it already had become clear that a very narrow groove, something like the .003 inch groove finally adopted would be necessary to record twenty two minutes of music to a side."6 Goldmark decided on twenty-two minutes a side after an analysis of major musical compositions showed that 95 percent of the symphonic works considered would take less than forty-five minutes playing time. . . ."

full story here

My article is also referenced in Wikipedia's "Gramaphone Record History."

 

END

 

 

"RadiantBrands Helps Promote Green Alternative to Paper Products with New Package Design" is a story release at theopenpress.com about our Steven Donaldson, his partner and their west-Berkeley company.

"RadiantBrands, a full-service creative branding and design agency, has completed a new branding project to bring People Towels, a reusable organic towel made from Fair Trade cotton, to the shelves of The Container Store and Whole Foods Market. The project included designing new packaging that explains how reusable towels offer an environmentally responsible alternative to paper towels.

RadiantBrands was commissioned to develop new packaging for People Towels that would emphasize the sustainability and consumer value of their reusable paper towels. They needed a package that would dramatize the value of reusable cotton towels and promote the B.Y.O. Towel™ concept. After conducting market research using Facebook and customer surveys, the RadiantBrands team determined that People Towels needed in-store packaging that was minimal, yet explained the full story of why consumers need to adopt reusable towels.

The result was a simple package that included information highlighting the benefits of reusable towels. For example, the average consumer uses 3,000 paper towels outside the home every year."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/24/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

more steel

is going up at our Fourth Street Apple Store

 

Again I hear of a real upturn in the real estate market--specially commercial and multi unit residential. There's money out there at a good price, I'm told. And there's increasing out-of-town interest.

 

END

 

 

"Realty Trust Acquires Collegiate Housing Community Adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley" is a report at 4-traders.com.

"Education Realty Trust Inc., one of the nation's largest developers, owners and managers of collegiate housing, . . . completed the purchase of Westminster House, an historic collegiate housing community adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) for $16.3 million.

The Westminster House community, comprised of two buildings adjacent to the north and south sides of the campus, contains a total of 167 beds. Each is one block closer to the core of campus than university- sponsored housing. "

 

"Utility, telecom companies boost minority contracting" is a report at asianjournal.com.

"California utility and telecommunications companies have boosted their contracting with firms owned by people of color, women, and disabled veterans, the Greenlining Institute's latest Supplier Diversity Report Card shows, but contracting still doesn't match the state's growing diversity."

 

 

"A recent study out of the University of California, Berkeley on 'Keeping Women in the SciencePipeline' found that one of the reasons many women graduate students leave research careers is because paid parental leave after the birth of a child is so difficult for graduate students to obtain" at harvardcrimson.com. Full report here.

 

 

"Cazadero, where music and nature merge" by Dave Newhouse, Oakland Tribune Columnist.

"Creativity has a sharper sense, and a clearer sound, when it's nurtured by beauty -- an ocean's wave, a desert sunset, a mountain trail, a retreat in the woods.

"For 54 years, the Cazadero Performing Arts Camp, located among the redwoods in Sonoma County, has enhanced the ability of young musicians, many hailing from the East Bay, including Steve 'Doc' Kupka of Tower of Power."

 

POST FROM THE PAST

6/1/04

Think "classical music" boring? It's not!

Check out The San Francisco Early Music Society.

And as I've already written, I recently heard Joanna Blendulf and JungHae Kim's CD of Johann Sebalt Triemer's 'Cello Sonatas. I believe this private production to be a major effort the equal of Harmonia Mundi. I will soon write a full review, but for the moment offer a paraphrase from Dick Clark's American Bandstand. When the kids really liked a 45 they blurted out, often self consciously, "Great tunes and I can dance to it. Give it a ten!" . . . Should you want to order a copy of their Triemer CD now, go to Ms. Kim's website, here.

END

 

 

 

 

 

5/26/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

Curt Fonger photos

The bobcat was getting away from a mountain lion that was stalking it. He darted up a 40-foot saguaro in Gold Canyon Arizona--and stayed for the remainder of the day.

from Cliff Miller, Richmond Ramblers Motorcycle Club

 

 

A reader emails that the "dirt mound behind Seabreeze is part of the Eastshore State Park plan. Eventually the dirt mound will be sculpted and trailed and grassy. They also have plans to put in a visitor center." Awhile back, another reader offered "Dirt storage."

 

 

Our Sarah Klise

has received a major award

"Stand Straight, Ella Kate" has been named the recipient of the 2011 Comstock
Read Aloud Book Award. . . . This will be announced to the
public Wednesday afternoon, May 25 and will be announced on our award website.

 

 

The Criminal Justice Conversations Podcasts are a feature of Berkeley Law, University of California. This particularly important conversation is with Frank Zimring, Professor, Berkeley Law School.

"Frank Zimring, Professor at Berkeley Law School, discusses New York City's remarkable crime decline in the past twenty years, the related policy implications, and more."

 

END

 

 

"Better fuel efficiency, emissions could lead to new jobs" Sacramento Business Journal.

"A new study finds that cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles will lead to thousands of new jobs, consumer savings and economic growth in California."

 

"Software routines developed to help robots handle domestic chores" reports dailyindia.com.

"Many domestic chores have been a big problem for robots to handle, but now a number of softwares have been developed to tackle the problem.

Pieter Abbeel and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, for example, have devised software routines capable of recognising items of clothing even when they are crumpled up on a flat surface such as a bed.

 

 

 

 

POST FROM THE PAST

10/7/07

Well, Ok then!

 

Last week, someone asked me if I liked Elvis. I had to think a little. I remembered that I'd seen him premier on the Ed Sullivan Show with just his bass player. Still, . . . understand that as a teenager I listened to Black Gospel Music, radio- broadcast most Sunday nights--and I went to Revival Meetings. I guess I felt Elvis was Ok.

 

END

 

 

 

 

5/28/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

Comstock Read Aloud Book Award 2011

" Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant" written by Kate Klise, illustrated by M. Sarah Klise.

"In this fictionalized biography, Ella Kate Ewing tells her own story about growing up to be a 'real, live giant.' By age seventeen, Ella Kate was eight feet tall."

 

 

our Tak Nakamoto emails

Ron,

Thanks for pointing to Prof. Zimring's podcast. [Frank Zimring, Professor, Berkeley Law School] It was very valuable. He's a good,practical sociologist. (I know he's a law professor but his sociological reasoning would make C. Wright Mills proud.)

Tak

 

 

 

"So much information, so little knowledge" Milo Farcey.

Seen berkeleypatch.com? Wondering about it? Here's one view of patch.com, the AOL hyperlocal news network

"Mark Josephson, CEO of hyper-local news aggregator Outside.in, doesn't seem all that concerned about AOL's plans to pour $50 million into its own hyper-local news operation, Patch.com. That's because while AOL is trying to generate its own custom content for dozens of small cities and towns in New York state and elsewhere, Outside.in is happy to take on the much less resource-intensive job of pulling together what is created by others - from traditional media outlets such as newspapers and TV affiliates to local bloggers and even municipal listings and announcements. If anything, the expansion of Patch.com will just give Outside.in even more content to aggregate."

More atgigaom.com.

 

 

 

And after a story I broke with my photo essay on April 21-22, 2011, George Avalos reports at mercurynews.com

"California Closets moves headquarters to Berkeley.

California Closets, a Bay Area producer of custom home storage spaces, will move its headquarters and manufacturing from San Rafael to Berkeley, bringing the East Bay dozens of new jobs.

About 50 jobs will move to a building on Fourth Street near Virginia Street. California Closets will use the building for the head offices, a retail showroom and a production facility that will take up two-thirds of the 30,000-square-foot facility."

 

 

"The used-car bubble" by Andrew Stoy at autoweek.com.

"Rarely have I sold a car and watched it drive away for the last time without a twinge of loss. Like an ex, no matter the reason for the breakup, there were still some good times.

The feeling was no different as my 2006 Chrysler minivan drove off last night. I'd bought it new while working for then-DaimlerChrysler's ad agency. It had shuttled one kid to and from preschool for years and brought another home from the hospital.

This time, though, the nostalgia was mixed with something else--surprise.

I'd listed the van on Craigslist at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. I had a deposit in hand by 6 p.m."

 

END

 

 

 

POSTS FROM THE PAST

6/2/08

"Beyond Repair" has worked on my cars and trucks for over 30 years. I believe Mike and his crew are among the best, if not THE best, independent shops for Japanese vehicles in the Bay Area. I can't say enough for his honesty, knowledge and top notch service. "Beyond Repair" is at 2147 San Pablo and their phone is 510-845-7700. DEFINITELY check them out.

 

"twomile wines" is a Potter Creek winery. Check out their website here.

 

The owners of Sea Salt are opening a pizza place on San Pablo Avenue next to Sea Salt.

 

Learned a lot with ole friend WD through the years

Read his The music was more impressive than the sound in I learned to love records.

And, he just sent me a copy of "Sunshine State."

It's a movie in which real estate development in Florida is a background for stories just about people. It is a small film about black folks, white folks, . . . life.

Or, according to imbd,

"A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development."

 

END

 

 

"'Berkeley, Davis and Auburn Named " 'Best College Towns for Renters' " at sys-con.com.

 

"Cambridge, Mass., tops Amazon.com 'well-read' list" is an AP report.

"A new study released by Amazon.com notes that college towns are prime spots for readers.

The online giant ranked Cambridge, Mass., as the country's best-read city. That's the home of Harvard University.

Alexandria, Va., is in second place. Schools including George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University have satellite campuses there.

Next were Berkeley, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich. They're both cities with a strong campus presence."

 

 

"Historians from around the state flock together in Berkeley" by Nilda Rego at insidebayarea.com.

"It will be a sort of a homecoming when local history enthusiasts from all over California gather in Berkeley on June 23, 24, and 25 for the annual meeting of the Conference of California Historical Societies."

 

 

 

"FX reserves alone won't get it done" at Korea's joongangdaily.com."Barry Eichengreen, a renowned economist and an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, does not think Korea should focus only on increasing its foreign reserves in preparation for another financial crisis, since doing so would raise foreign exposure and risks on banks.

 

"China Yuan Will Eventually Be The Single Asian Currency" reports nasdaq.com.

"Asia will eventually have a single currency in the region, although it will take a long time to realize, and China's yuan will most likely be that regional currency, economic historian Barry Eichengreen of the University of California at Berkeley said Thursday."

 

 

 

 

 

5/29/11

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

"Bayer to cut 540 jobs in Emeryville" by David Morrill, Contra Costa Times.

"Bayer HealthCare announced late Wednesday that it will wind down its multiple sclerosis drug production in Emeryville, resulting in the loss of about 540 jobs starting next year and the vacating of more than 300,000 square feet of office space."

 

Emeryville's PIXAR is releasing it's Cars 2 movie on June 24th. But here's the trailer now.

 

 

 

Potter Creek's Crema restaurant has closed, though the master lease for the space is held for another three years.

 

But the EastBay Express gives their impression of our West Side Cafe. Mattew Stafford writes "This longtime West Berkeley cafe/bakery/hangout is now open for dinner with a full bar, an upscale (yet affordable) California-cuisine bill of fare, . . . "

And also offers a review in "Westside Cafe transforms from neighborhood cafe to dining destination."

 

 

"Off the Grid gourmet food truck event expanding to East Bay" Jackie Burrell, Bay Area News Group.

"Gourmet burgers, mushroom bisque and jasmine-flavored snow cones? As legions of foodies have discovered, the street fare of today bears only a passing resemblance to the roach coaches of yore.

The food trucks that are rolling into cities across the nation -- and onto the Food Network airwaves, as well -- feature chefs at the wheel and gourmet fare at the counter. And they're serving up things like oyster sandwiches, watermelon-basil coolers and frosting-swirled cupcakes with a Chez Panisse pedigree.

The result has been a street food explosion -- Los Angeles alone accounts for 7,000 of these trucks -- but up until recently, hungry Bay Area diners had to troll Twitter to find the location of their favorite falafel truck or cupcakery-on-wheels. And street food fests, like Oakland's Eat Real event, came but once a year.

Then came Matt Cohen's Off the Grid, a weekly food truck fest at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center that draws 40 independently owned food trucks and tens of thousands of ravenously happy throngs every Friday evening. By March, San Franciscans -- and those willing to commute to the city -- were able to hit smaller-scale Off the Grids six days a week in neighborhoods from SoMa to the Upper Haight.

Now Off the Grid is expanding into other parts of the Bay Area, beginning with Berkeley, where it's making plans to take up weekly residence in the Gourmet Ghetto as early as June 8. "

 

 

 

John King, writes at sfgate.com "The most dynamic new building in Berkeley has 47-year-old bones." Read more here.

 

 

 

"California violent crime rate drops for 2010" Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer.

"Just a few years after killings in the Bay Area's biggest cities lurched upward, the state's homicide rate fell to a 44-year low in 2010, officials said, easing concern that a sour economy might translate into desperation and danger on the streets.

Overall violent crime dropped as well, with the number of homicides, robberies, rapes and assaults down 6.4 percent from 2009, according to preliminary figures that the California Department of Justice collected from the state's biggest police agencies and released this week. . . .

Oakland had the highest per-capita violent crime rate of any of the 59 California cities with a population of more than 100,000, the figures show. Richmond had the third-highest rate, Antioch the fifth-highest. Berkeley, meanwhile, remained the state's leader in property crime, despite an 8 percent drop last year."

 

 

Tavis Smiley's conversation with Dick Van Dyke is worth watching just for the surprises. For instance, an activist in The Day, Van Dyke "hung out with the Panthers."

 

END

 

 

POST FROM THE PAST

6/1/07

Kate and Sarah have a new book.

Find out about it here.

 

And find out more about Kate and Sarah here.


END

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/30/11

Today is Memorial Day

 

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

"For ice cream truck vendors, the mystery music works" by Steve Hendrix, washingtonpost.com.

"Just as he has done nearly every warm day for the past quarter-century, Mohamed Gardian Jalloh turned onto Denise Drive in Capitol Heights on Wednesday afternoon and flipped a switch. What emerged from the speaker on the roof of his white van was the instantly distinctive soundtrack of summer: ice cream truck music.

Within 45 seconds, a door slammed, a mother shouted and a little boy in blue pants and a white shirt streaked to the corner."

 

 

 

A Richmond Ramblers Motorcycle Club member emails the video

How close to a train track can you put a vegetable market?

 

 

"A new generation of Jewish delis embraces sustainability" Sue Fishkoff, jewishvoicesnj.org.

"Can a Jewish deli be a Jewish deli without pastrami?

That's the question Saul's Restaurant and Deli in Berkeley is facing after refusing the delivery of a truckload of pastrami because it did not meet the deli's sustainability standards.' explained Saul's co-owner Peter Levitt, who has been a leader in artisanal food sourcing for more than a decade. 'We're going to hear a lot of backlash from our customers these next few weeks.'

Levitt was speaking at the socalled 'Jewish Deli Summit"'that he and his business partner Karen Adelman convened last month at Berkeley's Jewish community center."

Karen learned some of what she knows about food service under Mary G at the Buttercup--see 8/4/03

 

 

 

 

"Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter and World War II in American Memory" Samuel Redman at berkeley.edu.

"Sixty-eight years ago today, The Saturday Evening Post published an iconic cover featuring Norman Rockwell's now famous image of Rosie the Riveter. Rockwell built upon other notions of a fictionalized woman called 'Rosie the Riveter' ­ a figure representing the women stepping into traditionally male factory jobs and assisting the war effort on the assembly line. Rockwell depicted Rosie as confident, strong, and of noticeably muscular physique. Contrasting with the 'We Can Do It!' image featuring a more traditionally feminine model, Rockwell's Rosie holds a heavy riveting "gun" on her lap, with oil staining her hands and forearms."

 

 

"Dating a queen bee is a killer" Meredith May, sfgate.com.

"Imagine a society where women outnumber men 100 to 1. The president is female, and her first law is that only women can work. All the men are on welfare, getting free food and housing from the ladies.

Sounds nice if you're a guy, until you learn that every winter you are unceremoniously dumped on the streets to die. The women will just make more men in the spring when they feel frisky."

Sometimes I worry about Meredith.

 

 

 

Councilman Wozniak emails

At its May 31st meeting the Berkeley City Council will consider a number of important issues. For residents who are unable to attend the Council meeting, but wish to provide input to the Council,  I have posted four agenda issues on the Open Town Hall website.  

1.   Should the City Council adopt the proposed West Berkeley Zoning Amendments to allow specific uses into "Protected Space" under certain conditions?

http://www.opentownhall.com/703

2.  Should the City Council direct the City Manager to bring back necessary legislation to consolidate City commissions and adjust the meeting frequency for certain commissions in order to reduce resources allocated to commission work?

http://www.opentownhall.com/704

3. Should the City Council support AB 889 establishing employment rights for domestic care workers?

http://www.opentownhall.com/705

4.  Should the Council establish a premium parking zone in the Downtown and increase the parking rate by $0.25 to $1.75 per hour?

http://www.opentownhall.com/702

Note: The Open Town Hall site requires individuals who submit public comment to register in order to limit input to one per individual. In addition, you can read what others are saying about these issues.

I will carefully consider all public input from the Open Town Hall forum as well as other sources in making my final decision on these matters.

To read what the Council decided on previously posted issues, go to:

http://www.opentownhall.com/portals/30/Forum_259?a=100

Gordon Wozniak
Berkeley City Council - District 8

 

Understand this type of "survey" is in no way representative, the participants being self-selected.

"Well, but it's better that no information at all."

Probably not!

Besides, it's easily played.

END

 

 

 

POST FROM THE PAST

8/24/03

Andrew and his 1968 Norton Commando

This isn't a particularly small Norton, it's a particularly large Andrew.

 

END

 

 

"Tempers flare over Berkeley High gun reforms" by Doug Oakley, Berkeley Voice.

"A school board discussion on what to do about guns being brought to Berkeley's two high schools turned red hot Wednesday when trustees and a parent complained that the district is taking too much time and drifting from the issue.

That prompted a tense response from Superintendent Bill Huyett.

'This isn't fair, it's not fair to our staff,' he said, his voice rising. 'We're not drifting. Our work is very specific. We've done exactly what the school board asked us to do.'

Seven students have been arrested and recommended for expulsion at Berkeley High School and Berkeley Technology Academy from Jan. 1 through March 21. In the most recent incident, a student fired a gun in a bathroom at Berkeley High. No one was injured."

 

 

And Oakley reports "Berkeley homeless program yields mixed results" at insidebayarea.com.

"Two weeks ago Cory Smith rolled into Berkeley with just his backpack, no place to stay and no job.

With nothing to do and little money, he found himself on a Friday afternoon jingling a can for spare change in front of Jupiter restaurant on

The 24-year-old hitched his way to town from Eugene, Ore. He found Berkeley simply because it was the last place a driver dropped him.
Smith has been homeless for two years. He is not getting Social Security benefits, but "would be down with" offers of getting social security, housing and job assistance.

Smith likes to work in a kitchen or build trails in parks when he is employed. He makes about $10 a day asking people for spare change in Berkeley.
Three years after the city started a new program aimed to reduce the numbers of homeless like Smith, the mentally ill and the obnoxious petty criminals who inhabit downtown and Telegraph Avenue, a new report says the city has had only mixed results."

 

JUNE 2011, HERE

 

 

from my log

5/22/11--8:39 PM--SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, burning dry dirty air, watery burning eyes, light head.

5/23/11-8:00 PM-similar.

5/24/11--9:23 AM--"burning gas" odor in warehouse front, light head, mucus membrane irritation. 6:58 PM. irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, burning dry dirt air, watery burning eyes--NOT allergies.

5/25/11--6:32 AM--VERY SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, burning dry dirty air, watery burning eyes, cough attack, short breath, light head. 7:57 AM--same.

5/29/11--10:27 AM--irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, dry dirty air, watery burning eyes--NOT allergies.

5/30/11--7:23 AM--irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, dry dirty air, watery burning eyes--NOT allergies.

6/1/11--6:36 AM--irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, dry dirty air, watery burning eyes, light head--NOT allergies. 7:46 AM--SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse, dry dirty air, watery burning eyes, light head--NOT allergies. 10:40 AM--VERY SERIOUS irritant in front room, dry dirty air, watery burning eyes, light head, overrides HEPA filter, wear respirator.

 

 

 

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 Area Coordinator is Officer Karen Buckheit, Berkeley PD - 981-5774 kbuckheit@ci.berkeley.ca.us

AND check out BPD feature "Who are these Suspects."

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.