Come out on SUNDAY to the Gill Tract Farm

for a Community Field Day!

THIS SUNDAY:  Oct 13th, 10am-4pm.

For the first time, a community event is being planned between the College of Natural Resources and a coalition of community groups (which includes Occupy the Farm), to discuss what we’d like to see happen on the Gill Tract!  1.5 Acres has been allocated for the project, so come check it out and let’s brainstorm!

SCHEDULE 10:00 Opening Ceremony 10:10 Welcome! Glenda Humiston,USDA Rural Development California State Director Keith Gilless, Dean, UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources Daniel Cardozo, Community Farmer-Researcher & Albany Farm Alliance member Miguel Altieri, Professor, Department of Environmental, Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley 10:20 Intro to Community Agroecology Research Project (Professor Miguel Altieri) 10:30-12:00 Ongoing Workshops & Activities 12:00-1:00 Lunch – With vegetables from the Gill Tract Farm! 1:00-2:00 Storytelling Circle – “Where We’ve Been” and “Visions for the Future” With storytellers from our community: Hank Herrera, Dig Deep Farms; Miguel Altieri, UC Berkeley Professor, Agroecology; Jeff Romm UC Berkeley Professor, Environmental Science, Policy & Management; Alexa Hauser, Albany Farm Alliance; Keith Gilless, Dean, UCB College of Natural Resources; Joy Moore, Garden Teacher and Community Food Activist 2:00-4:00 Community Forum & Breakout Groups Visions for the Future: Share your ideas about how the Gill Tract can serve the community as a center for education and research and connect with others who share your vision. ACTIVITIES Plot 1   Draw and color with children of all ages.  Walk through the rows and talk about the different vegetables that are planted, then draw and color what we see! Plot 2   Bob for apples and guided plot tours Plot 3   Read about the abundance of food produced on this plot sinceAugust 10th. Plot 4   Harvest squash and cucumbers for today’s salad andlearn how  to save the seeds. Plot 5   Wander and searchthrough our plot in search of answers to clues. “Nature” prizes for completing your lottery/bingo card Plot 6   Plant a patch of narrow leaf milkweed as a Monarch butterfly way station (habitat) +giveaway of seeds and information Plot 7   Dig in the soil and identify plants, both loved and misunderstood. Plot 8   Plant rainbow seedlings to take away, adorn scarecrows, and paint signs Plot 9   Scavenge & hunt for all ages Plot 10  Dye natural fabrics and yarns with flower dyes. Stamppaper with handcut vegetable stamps. Identify – unusual and useful plants Area A: 10:30-12:00 Kid’s Activity: Dig for Worms and Other Critters! UC Cooperative Extension, Alameda Kids and families CAN touch the soils and learn about worm anatomy and soils ecology together, and the role those decomposers play in healthy plant growth.   WORKSHOPS Phat Beets Table: 10:30-12:00 Kimchi making Workshop Phat Beets Produce  Make, taste and take home your own small jar of kimchi to watch ferment! Big Circle: 10:30-11:15 Encouraging Pollinator Habitat and Conservation in Home Gardens Professor Claire Kremen, Hillary Sardinas (grad student), Emily Kearney (grad student), Leithen M’gonigle (post doc), Kerry Cutler (lab manager) from the Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley.  Appreciate the importance of pollinators for food security; Discover some of the diversity of pollinators in our area; Learn how to support bee populations in your garden, through creating both nesting and floral resources for a variety of bees; Learn to make an Osmia colony in your backyard. Little Circle 2: 10:30-12:00 Native California bees are everywhere, just look around your garden! Professor Gordon Frankie, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management Little Circle 1: 11:00-12:00 Participatory Mapping Project Adam Calo, PhD Student in Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley See how Local Ground—an innovative mapping technology– can be utilized as a visioning tool to capture diverse perspectives on what the Gill Tract means to them & how it could be used in the future. Welcome Table: 11:30-12:00 Codornices Creek Walk! Amy Merrill, Senior Riparian Ecologist, Stillwater Sciences Explore Codornices Creek to discover what lives in urban creeks and their potential for restoration. SOGA space: 11:00-12:00 Seed Babies Workshop The Berkeley Student Organic Gardening Association (SOGA)  Make balls of seeds, clay, and soil that you can throw into empty plots of land to encourage life. The technique originated in the 1970’s when the Guerilla Gardening Movement threw balloons filled with tomato seeds and fertilizer into empty city lots to beautify the streets. We will make clay capsules with moisture in them to encourage germination after landing. Come learn how to make your own seed baby with clay, compost, and other materials.  You can take one home for your own garden, or maybe use it as a form of protest to beautify our Bay Area landscape. Area A, 11am-12:00 Soil Sampling Professor of Agroecology, Miguel Altieri   Take soil samples of the Area A for analysis of basic nutrient levels, pH and lead levels. Help spread lime and also sow winter cover crops that will help enhance organic matter levels necessary for spring 2014 plantings. Plot 7: 11:15-12:00. Urban Ag 101 Joy Moore- Garden teacher and Community Food Activist The further back we can look the further ahead we will see! This soil, this land is sacred as is all soil, all land! The future of urban agriculture is not new – it is a reflection of the past; or at least it should be. We are gathered here today to discuss what the future might be, what we may envision and realize will happen here on this soil, on this land. We must trust that the seeds we plant today in this soil, on this land may grow to be the future! Big Circle, 11:15-12:00 Cultivating Resilience in the Law: Policy Initiatives and Innovative Strategies for Just Local Economies  Chris Tittle, Sustainable Economies Law Center Our food system is not well served by today’s predominant food business models, which incentivize growth, shareholder profit maximization, absentee ownership, and exploitation of land and people. Converse with the Sustainable Economies Law Center about creative strategies for creating local wealth and community ownership, including food policy initiatives that remove legal barriers and models for community-owned food enterprise. Master Gardener’s Booth, All Day Master Gardeners – Plant Doctor Booth Get Help from a Trained Master Gardener from the UC Cooperative Extension Alameda/Master Gardener Program! Alameda County Master Gardeners help gardeners by answering questions about plants and plant/garden problems and extending the information they have learned through community events and projects, including seminars, demonstration workshops and newspaper articles.  Volunteers answer gardening questions on a plant doctor hotline, through email, at local farmers markets, at our three demonstration gardens, and at various community events such as the Alameda County Fair. UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Booth MyPlate, Fruits & Vegetables, and Physical Activity UC CalFresh – All Day

The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!! Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.

Last week we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.

Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk last week at our Save the Post Office Rally!

Discuss next actions and organizational steps in the fight to save City College.

Save CCSF Events Calendar.

Ocean Campus Map and other info.

The Ocean Campus is located adjacent to the Balboa BART station.

What the new globalized, high-tech imperialism means for the class struggle in the U.S.

http://www.lowwagecapitalism.com/

2nd in series of three classes We will cover section 2 of 3 this week. If you missed session 1, no worries, you’ll be able to follow the discussion with no problem.

Facebook event & RSVP.

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!! Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.

Two weeks ago we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.

Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk last week at our Save the Post Office Rally!

Attend the Albany city council meeting on Monday, October 21st and tell them to delay the evictions until permanent, affordable housing exists. March from the Albany Bulb (1 Buchanan Street) at 6:30 to the city council meeting, which starts at 7:30.

The countdown is on, just three days left til our big day! There’s already been a lot of media attention. We have had interviews with the Oakland Tribune, Oakland North, tomorrow on Hard Knock, Thurs on Kpfa’s Morning Show and several other local publications.

Now we just need to finalize some last minute logistical plans.

We have a meeting Wednesday where we’ll make posters, and the banner, at the Oakland Peace Center at 6:30 tomorrow… so please bring any cardboard and/or supplies you have lying around.

Noura, Lynn and Ali

(Also, there’s an important Berkeley Police Review Board meeting that Copwatch needs folks to come out to, at the same time as tomorrow’s meeting…so if you can’t be in Oakland, hope you can go to that. 🙂 Good luck Andrea & CopWatch!!)

Berkeley Copwatch has collected enough signatures to require the Berkeley Police Review Commission to hold a Special Meeting to hear from the public their concerns about what went wrong when Kayla died in police custody.

Please Come to the next Police Review Commission Meeting!

Read the just released People’s Investigation: In-Custody Death of Kayla Moore.

Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally.

– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight privatization
of our commons. Watch the video of Peter Bryne speaking at our September 28th rally on the steps of the historic downtown Berkeley Post Office.

– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read an article written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.

In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.

– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal, an action to bring awareness about the Federal Reserve on our near it’s hundredth birthday on December 23rd, 2013, support for tenants’ rights in Oakland, a Debtors’ Union, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, and more.

Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

Note: Strike Debt’s own resident debt artist, Cassie Thornton, has a show up at Royal Nonesuch, and has generously volunteered the gallery space for our meetings!

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!! Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.

Three weeks ago we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.

Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk last week at our Save the Post Office Rally!

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.

Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland

The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!! Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.

Four weeks ago we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.

Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk at our recent Save the Post Office Rally!

From Inside Bay Area.

The Oakland City Council will soon consider whether to endorse Richmond’s strategy to use eminent domain as a tool to fight foreclosure and study whether it should do the same. The council will take up the issue at a 4:30 p.m. special meeting on Nov. 5 that was requested by Council members Desley Brooks, Larry Reid and Noel Gallo.

Richmond’s effort to do something constructive about mortgage relief for large numbers of homeowners in Richmond is being supported by Strike Debt Bay Area (Facebook and webpage) and ACCE.

For background check out this article by two Strike Debt Bay Area peeps, Can a Small California City Take on Wall Street—And Survive?.

Come and show your support for a city willing to take on Wall Street and demand that Oakland do the same.

What the new globalized, high-tech imperialism means for the class struggle in the U.S.

http://www.lowwagecapitalism.com/

3rd in series of three classes – if you’d like a copy of the book to read in advance of the class, please message Terri Kay to work out getting a copy to you. We will cover section 3 of 3 this week. If you missed session 1 or 2, no worries, you’ll be able to follow the discussion with no problem.

Snacks will be served – wheelchair accessible

Facebook event & RSVP.

Support the Zoning Overlay

WE MUST AGAIN PACK THE PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING

Zone for the Community, not the Developers
We need you to speak or be a supportive audience member.

SAVE THE BERKELEY POST OFFICE!

Over 75 people came to the last Planning Commission meeting–60 spoke FOR the Zoning Overlay and only 3 spoke for the developers. At this next meeting, the Commission will finalize its recommendation to the City Council.

WE MUST AGAIN BE THERE TO SPEAK FOR THE ZONING OVERLAY!

Berkeley’s Planning Commission and City Council propose to place a Zoning Overlay on Berkeley’s existing Historic District. This area includes Berkeley’s Old City Hall, New City Hall, Berkeley High School, Veteran’s Memorial Hall, and the Berkeley Main Post Office at 2000 Allston Way. The Zoning Overlay would limit the area’s use to community, cultural, and civic purposes. It will make the Post Office less vulnerable to developers and help the USPS realize the value that Berkeley places on its public services.

Berkeley’s historic Civic Center District is our Public Commons. Let’s protect it with appropriate zoning. Although the uses of buildings change, the end result must be a stronger community, not a richer real-estate developer. Let us show that we are a city of caring citizens in community.

Save the Berkeley Post Office Facebook.

Berkeley Post Office Defenders Meets Mondays on the Steps of the Downtown Berkeley Post Office.