Oh, when will it all be over! The Clog doesn’t care so much about that tree crap as much as people whose livelihood is partially dependent on keeping track of anything having to do with Cal football (which includes the damn stadium that’s on the damn earthquake fault).

Thus, we suggest you go to the commendably thorough California Golden Blogs for in-depth coverage of flinging excrement, grown adults acting like they’re in Never Never Land and high-res photos of Dumpster Muffin’s piss bottles.

In the mean time, we’ll give you a few “updates” on the saga that’s taking forever and ever to wrap–the Daily Cal reports that a stadium go-ahead is likely if they change their blueprints, although actual construction will definitely depend on whether the tree-sitters continue to build forts up there.

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The long-awaited court ruling is finally here–and it’s 129 pages long. According to the Daily Cal, “The ruling states that with a few exceptions, the university’s environmental impact report for the athletic center is in compliance with environmental state laws.”

We think that means, “YAY! WE WON,” but it isn’t for sure. If the uber-long document looks good to campus officials, then it looks good to us. We’ll keep you updated as the press conferences come and go. In the mean time, we still have a few questions.

How will the university get those people out of the trees once and for all? We doubt they’ll come down willingly. And without tree-sitters, where will we go for our daily dose of inane Berkeley drama?

UPDATE 9:22 P.M. - Alright, so it looks like the drama will continue. Daily Cal reporters updated their article and report that the treewok side actually won in-part. Stadium development cannot take place unless the university complies with the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act and the California Environmental Quality Act by drawing up a new plan. In other words, no trees will be cut down … for now.

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Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard e-mailed the student body this evening to tell us to play nice with USC fans. The USC game has always been tense as of recent times, but we can control ourselves just fine, right? It’s easy to play by Poullard’s rules:

* Set a positive example both in and out of the stadium;
* Show respect for yourself, your team, and your university by demonstrating respect towards all around you;
* While you alone are responsible for your actions, you do have the opportunity to set a positive example for others

Right?

Monday, Nov. 5, 2007

1:45 p.m., Unit 2 bicycle racks: Found property, sent to UCPD bike bureau for safekeeping.

See? No one stole the bike! That’s nice. That shows respect for others.

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007

12:30 a.m., Bowditch Street and Durant Ave: An officer talks to a male student, 21, for public intoxication and crossing against a red light. The officer also talks to a female student, 21, for crossing against a red light.

OK, so at least there wasn’t any harm done. A mere scratch on a glistening record.

Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007

7:33 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male, 27, for an open alcohol container.

7:44 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officers talks to a male, 52, for smuggling alcohol.

8:24 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer talks to a male, 49, for causing a disturbance.

8:25 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer talks to a male, 14, for causing a disturbance.

8:28 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer talks to a male, 23, for throwing an object onto field and staff.

8:29 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male, 19, for causing a disturbance and for public intoxication.

8:30 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male, 20, for underage alcohol consumption.

9:05 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a female, 27, for public intoxication.

9:15 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a female, 24, for public intoxication.

9:20 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male student, 19, for throwing objects into the crowd.

9:25 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male student, 21, and another male, 25, for disorderly conduct.

9:30 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a female, 27, for causing a disturbance and for alcohol consumption.

10:08 p.m., Memorial Stadium: An officer ejects a male student, 20, for throwing an object into the crowd.

Oh. Damn.

Image Source: Nate Tabak
PoLo is compiled from the UC Police Department’s online Daily Activity Bulletin.
Earlier: PoLo: Spies, Suspicion and Sh—Human Waste

A tentative ruling Monday afternoon said that whether protesters provide legal names or not, UC Berkeley is tentatively allowed to remove the tree people fenced in at Memorial Stadium’s oak grove since a couple of months ago.The university and tree people have been at odds with one another since folks set up camp in the Nuclear-Free-Vegan-Save-the-Trees Zone almost a year ago.We share sentiments with folks at The Patriot on this one, but Beetle’s probably more realistic in suggesting nothing will happen until construction is set to begin. After all, nothing has happened since Oct. 1 when the court first ordered the tree people to leave or face $1,000 fine and five days in jail.We noticed stuff at the NFVSTTZ seems to happen about once a month. Hormones? Couldn’t be. The vegetables they aren’t cooking on propane tanks don’t have hormones.And it is the University of California. Expect efficiency? Pay thousands of dollars more for it at a school that cares.While we wait for the NFVSTTZ to become Tree People-Free, at least we can reflect as deeply about the issue as the girl on her cell phone (see picture).Image Source: Ted Kwong, Daily Cal. Edited by Krista LaneNew Ruling: Tree-Sitters Must Go [Daily Cal]Cal can boot all tree-sitters, judge says [SF Gate]Falling Excrement Prompts Court Order for Tree-Sitters [The Paper Trail]Vegan Nutrition with Dina Aronson, M.S. R.D. [Vegan Family Living]

All this hullaballoo about the construction of Memorial Stadium, and no one seems to care what might have happened to poor old Bowles Hall.

But for anyone who might care, let the Clog allay your fears: that dear Hogwarts-esque dorm will not be snatched from student residents and presented on a silver platter to Haas businessmen after all.

The plan to convert the 1928 landmark dormitory into suites for executives attending the university’s Haas School of Business received an outcry from former Bowlesmen. The controversy was enough for the SF Chronicle to blatantly label it the “Battle of Bowles Hall–tradition vs. money.”

It was also enough to have the Haas project collapse in favor of a more modest proposal for general renovation of student dormitories.

After all the deliberations, the Clog is still curious why there were tree-sitters but no Bowles-sitters. What would Bowles-sitters look like? The two controversial projects were next-door neighbors–it wouldn’t be that hard for the tree-sitters to occupy both areas. Because, yeah, we know trees are important, but that Led Zeppelin mural on the northeast corner of the top floor is just as important.

However, we do concede that it would have been awfully fun to see the Haas Business Executives sing the Bowles Hall Drinking Song.

Image Source: Allison Porterfield, Daily Cal
Plan for Bowles Hall Over; What’s Next for Landmark? [Berkeley Daily Planet]
Battle of Bowles Hall–tradition vs. money [SF Gate]
Haas Plans Educational Center at Bowles [Daily Cal]

 

 We caught glimpse of a handful of new posters around the west side of Memorial Stadium today. We hadn’t noticed them before, though it’s likely they’ve been standing tall and proud for a while.These posters stand exactly in front of–what else?–the oak grove. Each shows a different sport, but the bottom line’s the same.”Building passion,” this poster says. “The student-athlete high performance center” is, evidently, “coming soon to Cal.” We assume this means the center will feature a hippies-in-oak-trees atrium. To the right, the PR machine strings together UC Berkeley into “Buildings Champions.” For more information, the poster directs its public to stadiumcampaign.berkeley.edu.Yes, Treewoks, a successful football team may not stop global warming, but neither does sitting around in trees all day. We’re just saying. Plus, the site’s got a (ginormous) tree-friendly PDF that apparently separates fact from fiction. What’s your array of colored chalk going to do about that?Image Source: Christine BordenHome Page [Campaign for Student-Athletes]

Remember last week, when UCPD said it was looking for the people who have vandalized a couple of trees. Looks like we’ve found them.

The Oakland Tribune is reporting that yes, the tree-sitters outside of Memorial Stadium have done the damage to the same trees that said tree-sitters are trying to protect.

That sounds kind of counterintuitive or maybe even like a bit of hypocrisy.

Who said this? Why good ol’ Zachary RunningWolf. He evidently sent a letter to the Trib.

“Yes, we have topped one tree (redwood) which was dead, and have pruned other dead branches in the grove that happened to be dead,” RunningWolf wrote in an e-mail to the Oakland Tribune.

”We have a professional arborist with us along with my (Native American knowledge) of how to help the tree regenerate after pruning the degenerative material off the tree. Also, as far as safety of our tree-sitters are concerned, trimming off dangerous material will help in the safety of both our people in the trees and on the ground,” according to the e-mail.

Woah, where did the Treewoks find a professional arborist?

But of course, the campus doesn’t think that chopping off pieces of the tree was such a good idea. At least, that’s not what Jim Horner, the campus’s landscape architect said.

“The trees won’t die from being topped but they are disfigured and as the tree responds to the topping it sends off a cluster of branches that try and resume growth. What you get is a candle opera effect,” he said in a recent interview.

Even with the email sent to the Trib, UCPD said its still looking for the culprits. If UC police find that it is the Treewoks, then it’ll just be a nice big pot of irony, now won’t it?

Image Source: George Derk, Daily Cal
Earlier: Tree People May Be Vandalizing Oak Grove, Police Say

Berkeley tree sitters admit to pruning evergreens [Oakland Trib]

Well it looks like the city of Berkeley and those guys sitting in the trees are winning, kind of.

The Chron reports that Cal is going to alter some of its development plans for Memorial Stadium in an attempt to try to avoid going to court with the city of Berkeley, the California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill
Neighborhood Association. The court date has been set for Sept. 19.

Among the areas to be adjusted in this new proposal include the number of parking spots in a new garage scheduled for construction next to the stadium and the addition of full-grown oak trees to replace the ones that the university plans to take down.

bq. Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said the university would reduce the size of the proposed parking garage so that there would be no more spaces than are currently in the area. UC also would plant one fully grown tree and two younger trees for each one that would be chopped down to make way for a new, $125 million athletic training facility.

To us, this looks like the university is trying to find a compromise, albeit a small one. Hopefully the city will want to compromise too. And then Cal can have its new stadium renovations and the Treewoks can finally come out of those trees.

But right now, it doesn’t look like it.

bq. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said 500 parking spaces is still too many, and the training center should be moved elsewhere. “I’d be OK with 50 spots next to the stadium for coaches and a few others,” he said. “The rest of them can get physical excerise like the rest of us.”

Earlier: Five Months Later and Everything’s on Shaky Ground Again

UC Berkeley to scale back Memorial Stadium plans [SF Gate]

Well, everything except the oak grove. That’s actually on stable ground (unlike most of Berkeley, go figure). We mean it’s on physically stable ground—which means that its future is on “shaky ground,” because there are no fault lines, so it . . . you know what? Nevermind. We’re just not up for wordplay this morning. Let’s try this again.

The future of the oak grove, which the university looks to replace with an athletic training center (resulting in the ultimate faceoff between jocks and hippies), partially depends on whether the grove lies on any active fault lines.

SF Chronicle reports:

State law prohibits new construction on earthquake faults. In October, the university released a Geomatrix report stating that most of the site was free of fault traces, but because of deep sediment on the site’s northeast corner engineers could not drill deep enough to reach a conclusion. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey both said the study needed to be complete.

Turns out that, according to the follow-up study from the engineering firm Geomatrix, it’s not. The university is hoping that this will be sufficient evidence that the stadium’s construction isn’t a violation of the Alquist-Priolo Act, which prevents building on active fault lines.

Granted, this doesn’t mean that the future of the oak grove is at all certain. There’s still the lawsuits, which prevent the university from making physical alterations to the site until after said lawsuits are settled. However, for the protesters who have been sitting in those trees for about six months now, it probably would’ve been pretty nice to hear that they could finally come down.

Of course, some still see fault (no pun intended) with the university for its handling of the matter. In the rustic analogy which seems to be required of lawyers, Stephan Volker said:

(The university) has the cart before the horse. It approved the project without a completely adequate seismic review. The university needs to start over and do the process correctly.

The best advice we have? Get settled in. This conflict won’t be ending any time soon.

Report Finds No Fault Traces at Site of Proposed Athletic Center [Daily Cal]
Earthquake study finds Cal sports center site fault-free [SF Chronicle]