Video: The charter amendment Measure R doesn’t redistrict Berkeley at all. It undistricts it. A little history: District Elections were instituted in 1986 to end citywide elections for all council seats. It was a measure put forth by the conservative hills residents against the monopoly the much more progressive flatlands of Read More…
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would have given the University of California’s more than 14,000 graduate student research assistants the same rights that other UC employees have under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act. These rights include the freedom to form a union if a majority of Read More…
Just last Wednesday, a system was launched that allows Californians to register to vote online for the first time. Anyone who cares about hearing the voices of young people in our democracy should celebrate this action. Online registration will make voting more accessible for everyone. Youth, however, will likely see Read More…
This year, Cal students have an unprecedented opportunity to have a voice in local Berkeley politics. Currently, Cal students make up about a quarter of Berkeley’s population, but in the last half century, only one student has been elected to Berkeley City Council. The Free Speech Movement — the apex Read More…
It’s been easy to overlook the youth vote — until recently, we’ve been seen as an immobilized voting bloc, to be recruited as volunteers rather than to be courted as a constituency. However, we challenged that notion in 2008 when we more than tripled our turnout as one of the Read More…
Perhaps nothing symbolizes the changes in the economy more than what we all see on Thursday evenings with the “Off the Grid” food trucks. Food trucks are a hot, growing phenomenon all over the country and they are now here on Telegraph every Thursday evening. Hundreds of people come to socialize on the sidewalks and street while enjoying a tasty meal. Our challenge, which we are still working on, is how to meaningfully tie Telegraph as a destination into such a fun event. Some individual merchants have done so already. Moe’s Books has poetry readings many Thursday evenings and Caffe Mediterraneum has interesting coffee tastings in front of their café during “Off the Grid.” Read More…
Just a few days from now, a symbol of Berkeley’s commitment to a high quality of life will be smashed into dust and rubble, loaded onto trucks and hauled to a landfill. Demolition is scheduled to begin within the coming week on the Warm Pool, which provided exercise and therapy to the elderly, the disabled, the injured and parents with young children from 1983 until it was padlocked in December. Read More…
