City to Launch a Second Review of Media Policies

Controversial visit to reporter's home leads to closer look at rapidly changing news media.

The Berkeley Police Department will revamp its media policies, spurred by a controversial March incident in which Chief Michael Meehan dispatched an officer to a reporter's home in the middle of the night to request changes to an article. The city will pay the Irvine-based Cornerstone Communications to audit the department’s policies beginning this month and continuing till October, the Daily Californian is reporting. Costs could run as high as $24,000. The department could choose to extend the review after October. The department was widely criticized when Meehan sent department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss to Oakland Tribune reporter Doug Oakley’s home at 12:45 a.m. on March 9. Oakley had written a story about a March 8 town hall …

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'Edible Gardening Initiative' Wins Support

Planning commission unanimously passes draft proposal to allow sales of home-grown produce; initiative now goes to city council.

Urban farmers are cheering a decision to allow residents to sell the food they produce at home to the public, provided it is whole, intact, and organically grown. The Berkeley Planning Commission last night unanimously passed the Edible Garden Initiative, designed to make fresh produce accessible across neighborhoods. The initiative covers unprocessed fruit, vegetables, nuts, honey, and shell eggs from fowl or poultry but draws the line at meat and cannabis. Up until now, Berkeley gardeners have enjoyed the right to grow what they please. But to sell those Early Girl tomatoes and brown eggs to the public -- even a small number of acquaintances -- has required pulling a “Moderate Impact Home Occupation” permit, a process critics say is …

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Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against 'Occupy the Farm' Defendants

The ruling prohibits 14 defendants from entering Gill Tract. A hearing is scheduled for May 31.

Nine Arrested After Early-Morning Police Raid at Gill Tract

Occupiers surprised by police raid Monday morning. UCB issued a statement citing growing demands from faculty and neighbors to take action.

Bike Passing Safety Bill Likely to Pass

Would require 3-foot buffer between bikes, passing cars.

Soon after this Bike-to-Work Day, cyclists may get a belated present: A law requiring a buffer zone of three feet between bikes and cars passing them in the same lane. A bill by state Sen. Al Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, passed unanimously in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee in April and looks likely to coast to approval. Gov. Brown has said if it reaches his desk, he will sign it. He vetoed a similar bill last year. Along with Caltrans, the CHP and AAA, Brown took issue with a provision in the bill that required motorists who couldn’t observe a three-foot buffer to slow down to 15 miles per hour could create lengthy back-ups or spur rear-end collisions. The provision is not in the current version of the bill. There is no …

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Farmer Zeke

7:24 pm on Saturday, May 12, 2012

Did I say anything contrary to what you listed here? " ...if bicyclist were also held liable... " pretty much puts me in agreement with both Tim and yourself. Still, if we can put aside our point of view as a 'frustrated motorist who expects people, often children, to obey the law to the letter' (how many drivers do? How many drivers even KNOW the law to the letter?), we all need to be aware and …   more ›

BART Wants More Cyclists on Board

Transit agency asks riders to weigh in on 10-year plan.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit's new bike plan reflects a 10-year cultural shift among commuters and those who shape transit for them, said a cycling advocate who helped craft the document. "It's encouraging to see BART making a commitment to and an investment in bike ridership," said Renee Rivera, executive director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. "They really see the potential in having many more people bike to BART." The transit agency has charted a bicycle plan for the coming decade, with the goal of doubling the number of passengers who ride to BART stations on two wheels. The BART of the future could include bike sharing, expanded parking, and more seamless access to other transportation systems -- and housing where acres of auto …

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Berkeley Gets New Planning Director

Eric Angstadt, formerly with the City of Oakland, started this week

Berkeley’s new planning director started work this week. A 16-year veteran in planning and economic development, Eric Angstadt came to the city from Oakland, where he headed up the planning, building and neighborhood development department. His accomplishments include updating the city's zoning code, which had not had a comprehensive overhaul since 1965. The department had been managed by Interim Director Wendy Cosin since former Planning Director Dan Marks retired last July. He came to Oakland from Benicia, where as a planner and economic development director. He was also an economic development specialist for the State of Tennessee, where he help attract, retain and expand businesses in 16 rural counties. Angstadt's original field was …

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Bates Tells Patch What He'd Do with Four More Years in City Hall

The septuagenarian politician is seeking his third four-year term in city hall.

In a lengthy political career that has included seats in city, county and state government, Tom Bates has never seen California in such desperate straits. But Berkeley is still Berkeley – a community that will tax itself to provide the kinds of services that are being slashed elsewhere in the state – and Bates, who works without a salary, said being mayor of Berkeley remains a plum job. "It is a wonderful privilege to be a mayor of Berkeley," he said. Bates announced his re-election bid Thursday with a tweet, a Facebook page and a website touting his past accomplishments and future plans. No one has emerged to contest him, but that may not be much of an issue if the past is any indicator: He won his first mayoral race with 55 percent of …

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Bond Measure to Fund a New Pool?

Council member says seniors and disabled 'are hurting.'

It’s been five months since Berkeley’s last warm water pool closed, a development that one city council member says is disproportionately hurting elderly and disabled residents. Neither of the two remaining alternatives, King Pool in North Berkeley and the YMCA pool, function fully as therapeutic pools, council member Jesse Arreguin told the Daily Californian. That may change. At its next meeting May 1, the Berkeley City Council will discuss the possibility of a November bond measure to build a new pool. The cost has been pegged at $10.5 million. A second survey is soon to get underway to gauges residents’ feelings about the pool and a tax of roughly $26 per home per year to pay for it.

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