This week provided two contrasting views on the role of urban farming.
Occupy the Farm is back in the news. The group is trying again to plant crops on vacant UC Berkeley property on San Pablo Avenue in Albany. The activists have been there off and on since May 11 and Cal has plowed up the crops three times.
Urban Adamah, which leases land from Wareham Development for its 1-acre urban farm on Parker and San Pablo Avenue, announced this week it is in contract to buy a 2+ acre parcel on Sixth and Harrison streets from the U.S. Post Office. The cost is $2.1 million and the group has until Aug. 4 to raise the funds.
A story on a recent City Council discussion on how best to revitalize Telegraph Avenue prompted many lively discussions. So did the article on Ken Sarachan’s plan to install a walk-up ice cream counter on Telegraph Avenue that serves Rasputin’s Dream Ice Cream. The problem? It will be across the street from Cream Ice Cream. The City Council will hold a public hearing on the Cream vs Dream controversy later this year.
The parents of Milanca Lopez filed a wrongful death lawsuit against U.C. Berkeley and the man who caused the auto accident that killed her and her six-year old son. That article, and one on a nurses’ strike, were much discussed.
In other significant news (although not widely commented on) the Berkeley Unified School District hired Donald Evans as its new superintendent. Evans, now the superintendent for the Hayward Unified School District, will start July 1. His salary will be $229,500.
What posts stood out to you this week? Are there other stories you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments or by writing to us at editors@berkeleyside.com.
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