BERKELEY A 74-year-old woman died Wednesday afternoon in a fire at her duplex near Strawberry Creek Park. Authorities were trying to confirm her identity and notify relatives before releasing her name. The fire erupted about 3:53 p.m. Wednesday at a single-story duplex in the 1300 block of Poe Street. Officials said the first crew of firefighters arrived to find flames and smoke showing from three sides of the structure. Crews were also alerted there was a possible victim inside the house.
Firefighters went to 1301 Poe St. shortly before 4 p.m. after 911 callers reported the fire and that there might be a victim inside the burning building, Berkeley Fire Department Deputy Chief Keith May said. When firefighters arrived there were flames and smoke coming from three sides of the building, May said. They forced their way into one unit home and found a woman's body within, May said.
On Nov. 21, three children, ages 4 and 5, asked to leave Cragmont's cafeteria, where the program is primarily held, and were allowed to go to the bathroom unattended, according to a parent of one of the children, who spoke to Berkeleyside on condition of anonymity. The parent said the kids left the campus through an unfenced and poorly lit area sometime between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., heading downhill toward Marin Avenue and Spruce Street.
A man was killed Monday when a Union Pacific train struck him near Hearst Avenue. Berkeley police received a call that a train had hit someone near the University Avenue overpass shortly before 11:40 a.m., according to a department spokesperson. When officers arrived at the tracks, they found the dead man and notified the Union Pacific Police Department. The man had been trespassing on the train tracks, Jill Micek, a Union Pacific spokesperson, said in an email.
Phyllis Carr passed away on July 16 in her husband Gregory Harper's arms after a lengthy illness at age 69. Phyllis was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on Oct. 9, 1955, to Carrie and Robert Carr. She moved with her family to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, attending James Foshay Jr. High and later graduating from Manual Arts High School.
When Sophia Johnson and her husband, Tyler Troy, were expecting a third child, their friends suggested names like Grizzly and Third Street. Though the couple understood that such suggestions were a big joke among their friends, for them, naming their children after Berkeley streets was a tradition they took seriously. Berkeley has a wealth of lovely, old-fashioned names to be found on its street signs, said Johnson.
The intersection of University and San Pablo avenues, which tattered banners proclaim is named International Marketplace to recognize the area's many multicultural businesses, was once the gateway to Berkeley and its university for those arriving by ferry. More than 100 years later it continues to play that role for drivers coming off the nearby I-80 off-ramp. At its heyday, two movie theaters served the area, and it was home to a melting pot of immigrant communities.
After 46 years, R. Kassman, Purveyor of Fine Pianos, has closed, as current owner Ric Overton is retiring after four decades in the industry. The last piano was sold at the Gilman District shop on Nov. 29. The piano store was founded in 1979 by Russell Kassman in San Francisco. Kassman closed his San Francisco shop in 2004 and reopened in Berkeley in 2007. Kassman sold the business to Overton in 2019.
Let's say it's a Thursday evening and you're thinking of cool places to take your friends while they're in town. Maybe you're new to Berkeley and want to get to know the city better. Or perhaps you'd like to take someone out on a date but can't seem to find anything fun to do without breaking the bank. We hope this non-comprehensive guide to budget-friendly things to do in Berkeley will help you plan your social week.
Type Five's technology and systems allow homeowners to design the home to their needs, vastly simplifying the process, and getting a backyard home built in as little as 5-6 months. Earlier this year, Jeroen Dewulf and family built a cozy ADU in their South Berkeley backyard, making it easy for his in-laws to visit and enjoy longer stays with the grandchildren. The unit doubles as Dewulf's home office.
City staff recently told us that we cannot have the Telegraph Holiday Fair or the Juneteenth Festival at their usual locations because of the fire code's 26-foot rule, which says streets with buildings more than 30 feet high must have at least 26 feet of clear roadway to accommodate emergency vehicles. Berkeley's Juneteenth Festival and a popular holiday market on Telegraph Avenue must move from their longtime homes, as the city mulls big fee increases and steps up fire code enforcement.
A motorist fatally struck a cyclist riding through the Southside neighborhood Saturday afternoon. John Edward Muller, 65, of Richmond had been riding southbound on Telegraph Avenue near Haste Street when the driver, headed north, struck him, according to police and the county coroner. Emergency workers took Muller to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The police department's Fatal Accident Investigation Team is looking into the collision, Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Byron White said in an email.
Berkeley voters may be asked to consider a ballot measure next year that would increase property taxes to generate money for performing arts organizations, which have struggled to bounce back from the pandemic and fear they can no longer rely on federal funding. A new coalition of arts groups that includes Berkeley Repertory Theater, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the Freight & Salvage announced last week that it will start collecting signatures for a parcel tax of 7 cents per square foot.
In a city of about 120,000 residents, it takes only about 50 to trigger the process. If that designation is issued on the grounds that the site has some historic value, future attempts to alter the property become much more challenging. It's a tool councilmembers and housing advocates say has been weaponized to prevent or delay housing development in the city.
Razavi had been a regular customer at the market ever since he moved to Berkeley in 1976 from his hometown, Yazd, Iran, to attend San Jose State University. At that time, Middle East Market was the only place where Persian and Iranian immigrants could find familiar products from home, including teas, spices, sweets and rice, and it became a cultural and culinary hub for the Iranian community.
BERKELEY A man has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting women on the same AC Transit bus as it drove through town, court records show. Isreal Mohammed, 35, was charged with felony counts of assault with intent to commit a sex crime, false imprisonment, and multiple counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.
Records and beer, together again! This afternoon record swap at the Cellarmaker Brewing location in Berkeley will feature over a dozen vendors selling a wide range of vinyl (vendor space is available; $25-$40 fee to sell), DJs playing records, food and more brews than you can shake a stick at...
I'm thrilled that Flying Horse Investments is bringing new life to these central storefronts. This deal, along with the dedicated work of our Office of Economic Development and the Downtown Berkeley Business District, will help revitalize our downtown and draw people back to the heart of Berkeley.
It has been a great honor to serve you all, meet your children and grandparents, be a part of your most important celebrations, write Babette's staff. We will miss cooking for you all and more than anything, we will miss the beautiful community that has gathered around the Redwood Tree, supported the incredible musicians who we have had the great pleasure to spotlight and our regulars who came for the food, the love and a little bit of grace in these tumultuous times.
Some business owners in West Berkeley say RV outposts, like this one on Dwight Way, have driven down business. Amber Whitson, who lives in one of the RVs, acknowledged that some troubling folks have come and gone, but said she tries to keep her part of the neighborhood tidy. Credit: Alex N. Gecan/Berkeleyside A Berkeley councilmember wants to make it easier for the city to tow RVs and other large vehicles off local roads, especially if they pose environmental hazards or are blocking roadways.
The shaking was most noticeable in the East Bay - the epicenter of the 4.3 quake was in Berkeley on Piedmont and Dwight Way - just to the south of the U.C. Berkeley campus. RELATED: 4.3 earthquake centered in Berkeley shakes Bay Area, shatters several windows Rattled Cal students woke up to the quake at 2:56 a.m., saying it felt like someone was shaking their bed or it sounded like a car crash.
