Five council members said they want to go beyond the zoning proposals presented by city planning staff and set a seven-story height cap along the commercial corridors in North Berkeley and the Elmwood District. Those areas have only seen a handful of housing projects proposed in recent years, none of which have broken ground, despite a building boom elsewhere.
Typically I avoid telling people where I'm from. Especially now that I live on the West Coast, the perception of the Hamptons is so different from my childhood and young adult experience that I'd rather just tell people I'm from Long Island than explain the reality of growing up in an area notorious for its status as a playground for the rich and famous with sky-high real estate prices and club entry fees in the hundreds of dollars.
The 2,928-square-foot property, built in 1975, was sold on Sept. 23, 2025 for $1,860,000 which represents a price per square foot of $635. This two-story house offers a capacious living environment with its six bedrooms and three bathrooms. The property is equipped with central A/C. In addition, the house comes with two parking spots. The lot of the unit covers a substantial area of 8,000 square feet.
Work is finally underway to remove telephone poles from the center of the sidewalk-level bike lane on Fruitvale Avenue, which runs from the Fruitvale BART station to Jingletown and the estuary. "The work should be done on Monday," said a uniformed AT&T worker at the intersection of Fruitvale and San Leandro. That means cutting down the old pole and filling the hole it leaves behind. As seen in the lead image, the new pole is already installed and the wires have been moved over.
A longtime Berkeley developer says he wants to build housing at the former site of Oxford Elementary School, after the Berkeley school district accepted his $3 million bid to buy the property last week. Patrick Kennedy, owner of the development firm Panoramic Interests, was the only person to bid on the former school site at 1130 Oxford St. during an auction at the school board meeting Wednesday.
At its height, Church for Today founded in 1957 by theologian, educator, and music promoter the Rev. William Hazaiah Williams, Jr. was a sonically vibrant, multiracial hub in Northwest Berkeley. The church's long-running concert series showcased Black opera stars and classical musicians. In the 1970s, a young Barbara Lee, now mayor of Oakland, had a spiritual and ethical awakening in its pews. Later, in the 1990s, church leaders were charged with fraudulently using money taken in for the concert series toward personal expenses.
"I'm not anti-car, I'm anti-speed," explained Oakland DOT director Josh Rowan, at a SPUR talk Tuesday in Rockridge. The key, he said, to making a city inviting all comes down to how it feels to walk around, and it's a big deterrent when people don't feel safe crossing the street. "We have challenges in Oakland with reckless drivers, speeding... how do we scrub some of that speed off?"
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.
The much-needed housing, which will be named in honor of disability rights activist Judith Heumann, is expected to be up and running by the start of the 2027-28 school year, university spokesperson Kyle Gibson said. What was once a green 2.8-acre lot known for being a hub for political activism and gathering place for unsheltered residents now features an 11-story concrete structure currently being wrapped with a prefabricated facade.
