This whole Trade Joe’s thing just never seems to die.

About a month or so after the Berkeley City Council “finally approved” the Trader Joe’s project, to be on the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, residents near the proposed site “are ready to file suit”:http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_6550026 to try to prevent its development.

You know, after 14 public hearings and five years of idling in purgatory, sometimes enough is enough.

Hopefully this will just be the last little hurdle that this project must endure–whether or not Trader Joe’s gets built.

And of course, the concern with the Trader Joe’s is exactly the same—traffic.

bq. “It’s too big, it’s bigger than it should be,” said Wollmer, who lives on Berkeley Way next to the project site. “It’s going to make traffic and parking chaos in our neighborhood for anyone who travels along University or MLK during peak shopping periods. Everybody knows it’s laughable.”

Laughable? We’ll show you laughable.

In a city trying to bring businesses in to help revitalize an old, run-down city, it’s pretty laughable to see that the residents are the ones trying to stop this revitalization movement.

Berkeley needs projects like this. The city probably needs another grocery store as much as that guy on Telegraph Avenue needs more weed or as much as Oren Gabriel needs student fees to pay for his lawyer.

But the city and especially the residents need to understand that if the community doesn’t welcome these new projects, then the city will just become dirtier and more run-down than it already is.

And we’re pretty sure when 2010 comes around—which is ETA for the opening of the new Trader Joe’s—that most, if not all residents, will welcome the arrival of the Two-Buck Chuck.

Earlier: “Two-Buck Chuck Makes Its Way to Berkeley”

Berkeley residents to sue city, Trader Joe’s [Tri-Valley Herald]

Now that Walgreens has invaded Telegraph Avenue and Trader Joe’s is proposed for University Avenue, it looks like Berkeley is finally becoming bourgeois. Right?

Wrong. Fear not hippies and students who wish they were students during the ’60s, for Berkeley’s spirit lies not in the 15 gelaterias that occupy a 10-mile radius around campus, but rather in the community’s fight to preserve its true essence—weed.

Last week the Berkeley Patients Group, one of the three (three!) medical cannabis clubs in Berkeley, found their assets frozen after their sister organization in Los Angeles was raided by the police. We didn’t even know such clubs existed before reading about the event, but now that we do, we fully support the 2,500 residents the Berkeley Patients Group serves with its wonderfully magical medicine.

By all means (please!) let Berkeley be the safe haven for the distribution of medical marijuana. What better issue to fight for? In fact, why are we even posting this? Who needs convincing? Under Proposition 215, more than 80 percent of Berkeley voters approved of legal medical marijuana. Even City Council members are warning Berkeley police not to make similar raids as carried out by the federal administration.

The lesson learned here is that from oaks to cannabis if it’s not green, it’s not worth saving. But you already knew that. For yet another example on Berkeley’s love for vegetation, “check out the enthusiasm for a plant that releases a stench similar to a decomposing mammal.

Mmm, yes. Now that’s what we call Berkeley.

Cannabis Club’s Assets Frozen [Daily Cal]

The bastion of cheap organic food, cheap wines, great specialty chocolate and yes, the Two-Buck Chuck, finally crossed its final hurdle yesterday when the Berkeley City Council voted to reject an appeal from neighbors to try to stop the specialty grocery store from coming into town.

Yes, Trader Joe’s finally got the green light after five years of debates, 14 different public hearings and being suspended in purgatory.

Trader Joe’s can finally be built on the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, on the present site of a Kragen Auto Parts store.

Of course, Trader Joe’s adds to a growing list of corporate America seemingly being able to invade the city, which may or may not be such a bad thing.

About a month ago Walgreens opened its Telegraph Avenue location. Last fall we saw the grand opening of really bad Mexican food, a.k.a. Chipotle.

We also guess that this underlines the city’s focus to revitalize both the Telegraph Ave. and Downtown Berkeley areas.

But of course, some residents won’t be happy. Not with all the traffic and congestion that they say will come with the new Trader Joe’s. This is what one resident said back in October, when neighbors filed the appeal.

“Trader Joe’s is a nonunion store owned by a secretive German family that sells specialty food and low-cost alcohol,” said Steve Wollmer, who lives 250 feet from the site. “Do we really need this in our neighborhood?”

Maybe you haven’t had some of that Two-Buck Chuck. Try some. We’re sure it’ll relax you and maybe convince you that Trader Joe’s won’t be too much of a problem.

Downtown Trader Joe’s wins approval with 5-3 council vote [SF Gate]
Neighbors say no to popular market [SF Gate]