``...Chuck misses an opportunity to answer "how Berkeley are you?" by reminding us that the University got the State to _condemn_ this property because it sits on the Hayward Fault..'' Jordan
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Shit! I completely forgot this twist in the story. That's right. Since it was state property, the big U could give themselves an earthquake variance which they got the state architects office to grant them on the remodel proposal.
The School for the Deaf resisted the move, but the blind kids took off early for the bowels of San Leandro or some such---half the place was deserted and falling apart. There were so many turns to this story that it almost rivaled People's Park---about five blocks away.
The politics are so outlandish that they make it seem as if Berkeley were a major urban center---all one hundred thousand permanent residents in the vast ten square miles of it (remember this means its only five miles across). I qualify residency as permanent because about thirty-thousand are non-permanent residents, i.e. students.
One interesting item. Berkeley cranks out a lot of religion students:
GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL UNION
PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION
JESUIT SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AT BERKELEY
PACIFIC LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
CHURCH DIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE PACIFIC
FRANCISCAN SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
DOMINICAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
STARR KING SCHOOL FOR MINISTRY
AMERICAN BAPTIST SEMINARY OF THE WEST
BAY CITIES BIBLE INSTITUTE
The Orthodox Jews, Buddhists, and the Hari-Krishnas have schools here too but they are not listed on the city blurb. I think that is because these schools are part of the synagogue and temples. There has to be a mosque somewhere nearby because there are a lot of Palestinians, Jordanians, and Iranians around---they can't all be Christians. Once the US declares Iraq won, we'll be seeing the refugees in Berkeley.
You wouldn't want to spark a religious war in Berkeley. It might light up like Beirut in the 80s.
In someways the really unbelievable diversity is a blessing. Nobody gets their agenda passed---except to condemn Christmas lights on Shattuck. Yet another long saga of liberalism gone awry.
But who knows, maybe the rightwing is making headway. I think the current policy of appeasement got `Holiday' (meaning from Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year) lights re-approved. In the old calendar reckoning that means from about Halloween to Easter. Just a few more holidays like Cinco de Mayo, the pagan Summer Solstice, and the Fourth of July could keep them up all year. Why take them down for August and September? What about the Roman emperors? Don't they get a month or two?
CG