Berkeley Reporter

by Steed Dropout
April 28, 2014

LAST GASPS FROM BERKELEY RADS?

Photo by Ted Friedman.

Those shouts and exhortations you could have heard at a pre-anniversary (45th) People’s Park forum, Saturday, entitled “What is to Be Done Now,” could be radical…or Berkeley radicals’ last gasp.

A 45th park anniversary celebration would follow, Sunday.
Continue reading “45th People’s Park Anniversary: What Now?” »

by Steed Dropout
April 26, 2014

NON TREE-SIT LEAVES BERKELEY REPORTER IN THE DARK

Misty. Photo by Ted Friedman.

It was a beautiful night for a tree-sit at U.C. Light drizzle–artificially lighted–dazzled campus. Campus sprinklers swizzled misty swirls, wasting water in a drought year. Students were drunkenly drifting away from a hip-hop concert at Sproul Plaza. Some were making up hip-hop of their own.
Continue reading “Bad Tip: No Berkeley Tree-Sit” »

by Steed Dropout
April 23, 2014

BERKELEY’S CENTER

TeleHaste (Telegraph Avenue at Haste) was first identified as Berkeley’s true Center by Ted Friedman in the Berkeley Daily Planet, then in print, in 2008. Other writers had picked the North side Gourmet Ghetto or downtown Center Street.

Recently, Friedman returned to the scene of his South side meme where he continues to cover the urban-blighted void developers avoid.

“IS THAT ALL THERE IS?”

Is that all there is? asks a song. Maybe you’ve heard the Peggy Lee version.

Successive stanzas from the song depict fires, love, and death; each stanza ends with, “is that all there is?” Here at TeleHaste, we could write our own version of “Is That All There Is?”

As we await two TeleHaste apartment houses and a grand opening (a night club at Cody’s) our disappointments at delays mount; we might feel that the way it is now (forlorn) is all there is.

Is that all all there is after TeleHaste’s Sequoia Apartments burned down?

Continue reading “Berkeley’s Telegraph Ave. Center Now” »

by Steed Dropout
April, 21, 2014

CELEBRATE THIS!

The Scream. Photo by Ted Friedman.

With People’s Park’s 45th anniversary upcoming next week and a “symposium” exploring, “What is to be done [in the park] now?” scheduled for the eve of the anniversary, the news featured here represents life as it is lived in this Berkeley shrine to oppositionality–Editor’s Comment.

Continue reading “A Scream from Berkeley’s People’s Park” »

by Steed Dropout
Apr. 15, 2014

If you want to catch crooks and fight crime, you head for the Med.

That’s Telegraph’s Caffe Mediterraneum to you; to me its a crime lab.

Tom came to the stairs, where he called out to me, “someone’s ranting and raving.” Here at the Med you can’t tell the rants from the raves.

Raving Begins. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Berkeley Telegraph Ave Crime-in-Progress” »

by Steed Dropout
April 11, 2014

POTTED ON TELEGRAPH AVE

Ten Big-Wigs. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Ten city big-wigs showed up on Telegraph Avenue, Tuesday, to plan for ten (planter-style) pots to begin beautifying the ave. The big-wigs almost out-numbered the intended pots. There was one big-wig per pot.

“Now street people will finally have a pot to pee in,” said a Teley wise-guy.
Continue reading “Berkeley Big-Wigs’ Pot Plan For Telegraph” »

by Steed dropout
Apr. 7, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: COPS TRUNCATE TREES TO NIP TREE-SIT IN THE BUD

University police’s quick intervention has foiled a North side tree-sit demo in a Redwoods grove, a block from campus, two blocks from Cal’s football stadium, site of a million dollar tree-sit media circus.

The nearby stadium demo, which stalled construction of the stadium re-build for more than two years taught university cops to act quickly. Their nip-in-the-bud operation, Sunday, could well signal the end of tree-sits in Berkeley.

An attempt, recently, to maintain a tree-sit alongside a recent Post Office protest downtown failed, as did several tree-sits in People’s Park.

Zachary Running Wolf Brown, 52, organizer of the stadium demo was incommunicado and may be on the run. Ever since a recent forty-five day stay in county jail, he has been a marked man, hunted by at least one BPD cop and one university cop.

Redwood before. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Foiled Berkeley Tree-Sit” »

by Steed Dropout
Apr. 3, 2014

Berkeley, Ca

MICAH M. WHITE AND ME–A ROMANCE

On assignment for the Berkeley Daily Planet, two years ago, I missed Micah M. White, the co-founder of the international Occupy movement, as he tried to lead Berkeley’s Occupy franchise on its inaugural Berkeley take-over.

White happened to be living in Berkeley with his Phd wife who had an appointment In U.C. Berkeley’s Rhetoric Department. I didn’t pick up his trail until a few nights later when I tried to photograph his wife, and later, Micah.

My editor wanted me to interview White, when we learned that a founder of the international Occupy movement moved among us. Online White now refers to himself as a “boutique activist,” conducting workshops on protesting.

I tried to get his wife’s permission to photograph her, saying our readers would be interested; White’s wife said she couldn’t understand that.

I said, “you’re a rhetorician, you should [understand].” She seemed worked up over this and appealed to her husband to deal with me, which he did forthwith.You can say what you like about White–social media activist–but you can’t fault his chivalry.

Micah M. White, center in white shirt, a founder of Occupy Wall Street movement, and a new Berkeley resident. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “What You Miss Makes You Stronger” »