Posted on 07/18/2008 12:44:37 PM PDT by SmithL
UC Berkeley, eager to resolve the tree-sitters' standoff outside Memorial Stadium before football season begins, asked a judge Thursday to allow construction on a sports training center to begin as soon as next week.
The university also asked the city of Berkeley, a neighborhood group and a group of oak tree advocates, who have sued UC to block the project, to put up a $1.5 million-a-month bond if they choose to appeal the judge's ruling on whether the $125 million training center can be built safely and legally.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller said she will decide soon whether to lift her 18-month-old order barring the university from beginning construction.
Last month, Miller issued a preliminary ruling that the proposed center complies with most environmental and earthquake-safety laws. But plaintiffs have argued that the remaining hurdles are significant enough to stop, or at least delay, the project.
They asked the judge Thursday to extend the order blocking construction for 30 days after she issues her final ruling, to give project opponents time to file an appeal.
The plaintiffs sued in December 2006 to block UC Berkeley from building the training center, which would sit near the Hayward Fault and require the removal of about 45 oaks, redwoods, laurels and bay trees next to Memorial Stadium. The facility would provide lockers, weight rooms and offices for about 450 athletes and staff who now use Memorial Stadium, which needs seismic work.
The case is costing UC $47,000 a day in rising construction costs and security associated with protesters who've been roosting in the stadium oak grove since December 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
These tree sitters stand out as the poster children of Berkeley to the rest of the country. The city and university deserve more of this since they helped lay the foundation for it.
Berkeley is reaping what it has sown. I honestly hope both sides lose.
Build it!
heck I’d buy the oak firewood and burn it up .. before the thermal police shut me down.. that is.
Perhaps I spent too much time in Mass., but whenever I read such sentences, I tend to translate it to:
Superior Court Judge SO-and-so said she will make her decision soon after she examines her bank/re-election account balances.
Haha. They do eat their own, don’t they?
Declare the “Tree Sitters” as Environmental Terrorists with a bounty on their asses - and I could have 5 men there within a hour to shoot them out of those trees...
But — since they’re costing UC Berkeley $45,000 a day while just sitting there -— perhaps we should allow them to stay until UC Berkeley grows a pair...
Uh — wait a minute — that MY tax money going down the rat hole...
NEW DEAL — I’ll shoot the bastards for free if they will provide a Get out of Jail Free card.
But their saving the trees!! It's not like you can plant new trees and they will grow or anything.......... Oh, wait. Never mind.
Actually, the seismic argument for moving much of the student athlete activity from Memorial Stadium is a good one. Notice below how the Hayward Fault (a fork of the infamous San Andreas Fault) neatly bisects the stadium.
BTW, I have cheerfully not spent as much as one farthing in the once-nice City of Berkekey since the council has chosen to help harass the U. S. Marine Corps recruiters.
It’s a testament to the stupidity of this whole situation that this has been allowed to continue as long as it has.
If I was the president of that school, I would of walked up to the trees in question, tell them they have 15 minutes to collect their crap and get down, and then I would start my chainsaw and start cutting.
This would of been over in less than a day with me. Instead, this has been going on for years.
A bounty. I like that.
In the goods old days, you wanted an athletic center, you just went ahead and built one. Now one must ask a Judge to let you build it?
karma
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