Feature Archives

7/31/2004:The lot that has been the home of the South Berkeley Community Garden since 1987 is for sale. The garden is located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way between Oregon and Russell Streets. It is L-shaped and extends to Russell Street. The person who held the title to the land has died, and the property is being sold by Red Oak Realty. Gardeners were notified of the death of the owner in early July and were given only 3 weeks to try to come up with money to buy the lot. About 10 potential buyers have gone to check out the lot, but apparently due to the potential karmic affects of a purchase of land that is not "developed," none has placed an offer on the lot. The gardeners are still looking for people who can put up money to help them buy the land. In the meantime, they continue to work on the garden- on a recent Saturday one man was replacing a rebar signpost with a wooden one, another was watering plants, and a neighborhood cat was keeping the gardeners company. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs in the garden include raspberries, figs, tomatoes, squash, beans, and borage. The volunteers will soon be able to put more of the land in the lot under cultivation, as Spiral Gardens will be moving its tables and plants out. In addition to benefactors who can help buy the land, the gardeners are also looking for more people to work in the garden. Garden workdays are on Sundays from 11am to 3pm.
Announcement of sale | 7/26 Update | Photos from 7/31: 1 | 2

7/29/04: Four Klamath River tribes, the Yurok, Klamath, Karuk and Hoopa; fishermen; and environmentalists are campaigning to remove dams on the Klamath River and restore the salmon runs, which have been nearly wiped out over the past century, including a massive die-off in 2002. The coalition paid a visit to Scottish Power and its subsidiary PacifiCorp in Scotland, and the EU in Brussels, to lobby for the construction of fish ladders and removal of some of the dams. According to Jeff Mitchell, acting emissary for the four Native American nations that live along the Klamath River, "Our fundamental human rights are being denied and our way of life destroyed." Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Photos and story at UK Indymedia

7/29/04: As a multi-million dollar fraud lawsuit against Maxxam percolates through the Humboldt County courts, direct action forest defenders have constructed a treesit village in defense of old-growth forest in the Mattole River watershed. This announcement came hot on the heels of two roadblocks on logging roads leading to active Timber Harvest Plans, where old-growth forest continues to be razed by Maxxam's Pacific Lumber. At one of the roadblocks, a bus was wedged into a bottleneck at an access gate, with two women locked down in steel devices that had been drilled through the floor and cemented into the ground below. North Coast Earth First! activists intend to protect "Heritage Trees" until the Heritage Tree Preservation Act can be passed. The act, if passed, would protect much of the remaining old-growth trees on non-federal land in California, defined as any tree older than the state of California (150 years). Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Photos

Muni’s Third Street Rail project has had a devastating impact on communities in southeast San Francisco, and now it appears that ratepayers and taxpayers will pay the price of the environmental cleanup. Up and down Third Street, black businesses have closed because of the endless construction mess—three years and counting—and Muni has not met its minority and women hiring and contracting goals. And in 2001, faulty construction of a city electrical conduit across Islais Creek resulted in a horrific spill as sinkholes opened up and millions of gallons of sewage poured into Islais Creek and Muwkema Ohlone Park. Previous coverage

Three years later, it turns out the repairs, which further demolished the park, were as shoddy as the original construction, and the 10-foot sewage main is leaking again. Muni and CCSF electrical lines have already been loaded into the replacement conduit, which has been compressed into an egg shape and flooded. As PG&E and various factions of city bureaucracy discuss the project, local residents and the Community First Coalition of Bayview Hunters Point are asking tough questions. Report | More coverage and photos from the SF Bay View

July 14th, 2004: The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) held a sidewalk "cook-in" at Wells Fargo Corporate Headquarters yesterday to launch BBQ the Banks, a campaign to bring attention to the banks that it calls "the liquidators," America’s most environmentally-destructive banks. While Wells Fargo hosted a lunchtime reception to commemorate the first day of business (July 13, 1852) inside what is now the company’s museum, RAN's eco-chefs were serving up "tofu and tough questions" on the sidewalk.

RAN has pointed out that Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and John Hancock are on the list of banks that have yet to follow the footsteps of industry leaders Citigroup and Bank of America, who earlier this year announced sweeping environmental standards as a result of pressure brought by RAN's Global Finance Campaign. Wells Fargo is the bank of choice for the U.S. oil industry. It finances seven of the top ten oilfield service firms and four of the top eight offshore drillers. It is also financing the destruction of North America’s last remaining old-growth forests, including the Tongass region of Alaska. According to Global Finance Campaign Director Ilyse Hogue, “Rather than adopting strong environmental policies that redirect investment away from climate change and forest destruction, Wells Fargo continues to drag its feet and avoid public scrutiny while pouring billions of dollars into companies and projects that are destroying the Earth's endangered ecosystems, fueling climate chaos, and displacing indigenous peoples.” More information on Wells Fargo’s destructive lending can be found at BBQtheBanks.com.

RAN itself has come under fire recently for declaring "victory" after its agreement with Citigroup allowed the mega-corporation to voluntarily monitor its fossil fuel investments, with no accountability to environmental or indigenous advocates; previous RAN campaigns against Mitsubishi and Home Depot reached similar "self-regulating" conclusions. Not to be outdone, anti-environment industry groups have labeled RAN a "terrorist organization."

The Grand Opening of the Urban Garden Center at 2850 Sacramento St. (at Oregon St.) in South Berkeley took place on June 27, 2004. The site at the end of the Santa Fe Right of Way, was formerly a rail line and more recently has been a strip of city-owned vacant parcels cutting diagonally through Southwest Berkeley, and has been made into a gardening center by Spiral Gardens.

After obtaining unanimous approval from the Berkeley City Council and finalizing permits and a lease, the two closest lots have been built into an expanded retail nursery, outdoor community classroom, and intensive food production site. The nursery, which is being moved from the South Berkeley Community Garden, will serve as the propagation nexus for the seedlings and decorative plants for all of the Spiral Gardens sites.

Several projects take place out of the Urban Garden Center. There is a collective food production garden from which half of the harvest will go to the homeless and elderly, and half will be divided among the volunteers who grow it. The site also has an organic urban nursery that specializes in plants for food, medicine, and ecological restoration. A low-cost organic produce stand featuring fresh food from regional farmers is at the corner on Tuesdays from 3-7pm. Organizers also hope to hold intensive trainings and a regular schedule of free public classes at this new outdoor education site in the future. These classes will be a way for people to share knowledge about self-sufficiency through gardening, skills for good eating habits, and tools to build a vibrant community. These skills are needed in a predominately African American and poor neighborhood that largely serves as a freeway for other people to get from one place to another in their cars, without stopping to take part in nature or growing their own food. There is only one store within a three-block radius from the site that sells produce. Spiral Gardens also has a booth at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers' Market from March through September. The Urban Garden Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 12-7.

Photos: 1 | 2 | List of Spiral Gardens Sites (formerly Boss Urban Gardening Institute) | Californians are having a love affair with sustainable agriculture.

5/27/04: According to state and federal regulators, Maxxam's Pacific Lumber has racked up 325 violations of environmental laws since 1999. The pattern of illegal cutting consists of destroying habitat for the endangered marbled murrelet and spotted owl, failing to acknowledge watercourses, and over-cutting boundary lines. About 75% of the violations degraded water quality. The new list of violations adds to the 250 previous violations accumulated from 1995-1997. A new report released by the Environmental Protection Information Center details the crimes of this notoriously destructive timber corporation. Read more | 5/19: With old-growth redwoods still threatened, activists staged a sit-in and disruption at the annual Maxxam shareholders meeting in Houston: 1 | 2 | 3