Safeway on Shattuck before it closed for renovations. Photo: TheRealMichaelMoore

On Tuesday, Berkeley approved a plan for its downtown area which had been seven long years in the making. Watch — eventually — for a few more tall(ish) buildings and more open spaces to accompany the ongoing streets clean-up.

Otherwise, all our top stories  this week were in the educational domain, as 48 Berkeley Unified teachers received layoff notices, the city’s pioneering edible schoolyard programs came under threat, plans to expand Jefferson Elementary School came under scrutiny, as did significant declines in math and English proficiency at Berkeley High.

Images by two of our contributing photographers of a bleak-looking, pre-renovation Safeway store, also grabbed people’s imagination this week.

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Reader engagement tally for the past seven days? 763 comments and 1,195 Facebook Likes from 34,632 unique visitors. Berkeleysiders: never short of an opinion or insight! Thank you.

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Tracey Taylor is co-founder of Berkeleyside and co-founder and editorial director of Cityside, the nonprofit parent to Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside. Before launching Berkeleyside, Tracey wrote for...