Video: Welcome to Berkeley Patch

I love living in Berkeley because it combines the ambitions of a big city with a sense of community that’s more often found in small towns. In covering this city, I aim to emphasize certain broad themes that I think encompass the city’s rich diversity, ideals and challenges.

Schools: I want to follow what’s happening in the schools from inside the classroom, from the perspective of students and teachers, to inside the boardroom, where decisions about budgets, staffing, and policies are made. I want to reach out to youth and younger readers and invite them to participate in the discussion.

Sustainability: Berkeley and California in general have been leaders in many arenas of innovation, and sustainability is just one area where Berkeley residents have shown a willingness to take risks and push the envelope. I want to cover the modern social experiment of trying to live greener, but I also want to ask questions about what the costs and challenges are. What does sustainability smell, taste and look like? For anyone with bills to pay, does it cost more? Does it make our lives more complicated or is it worth the additional effort? I also want to invite readers to weigh in and provide tips, advice and insights into how they do it.

Town-gown relationships: UC Berkeley is an institution unto itself, with its own news gathering organizations, infrastructure and even culture. I cannot hope to adequately cover all the research, intellectual energy and creative activity at UC Berkeley. Instead, I will try to focus on the places where the university and city have a direct dialogue. What are the research projects that most affect residents in the city of Berkeley? How are students, faculty and staff changing the city and how does the city contribute to the innovating that takes place on campus?

Access: From affordable housing to special education to navigating a multi-lingual society, I am interested in what Berkeley is doing to increase access for people from all walks of life. I want to invite bloggers, opinion writers and what I call “citizen experts” to participate in the discussion. I define a citizen expert as anyone with an expertise large or small; you don’t need a degree to know a lot about knitting, composting, playing music, or understanding budgets, and I hope you’ll share that experience on Berkeley Patch.

Arts I believe strongly in the importance of art in our lives, because of its ability to educate and open minds and for the pure aesthetic pleasure of it. From the zebra-covered car on Ada Street to the revival of Philip Glass’ groundbreaking opera Einstein on the Beach, I look forward to covering the diversity of arts in Berkeley.

Have a question or a comment? Story tip or news idea? Write to monica.lam@patch.com

Download the movie