Injunction issued against Cal renovations
Well, it looks like yet again the irrational idiot minority have won over rational adults. A judge has issued a temporary injunction against the Cal Performance Center. The best-case scenario at this point is a quick appeal to overturn the ruling. The likely scenario is that it delays the project a year. The worst-case scenario is that this will be the demise of the project, Tedford will leave, the Cal football program will go into the tank, and I’ll be able to improve my season ticket location in the stadium (I took a hit when I added some seats).
This ruling upsets me for so many reasons but the biggest is just how disingenuous the lawsuits are. From the article:
“[the plantiffs] made a sufficient case that the project violates the Alquist-Priolo Act, a state law prohibiting new buildings on earthquake faults.”
Yet, it is clear from talking to any of the plaintiffs that they could care less about the earthquake fault. The tree-huggers only care about the trees. The other two organizations only cares about the trees and their views and Tom Bates, the mayor of Berkeley is quoted in the article as saying:
“We’re open to discussion. I personally would be willing to negotiate, although it’s not totally my call,” he said. “Some things are non-negotiable. The garage, for example, is off the charts. That’s a non-starter.”
In other words, this is about traffic and trees and political clout. Any idiot, including the idiots filing the lawsuits, realize that this project will dramatically improve seismic safety not hamper it. But no, instead of having the integrity to file the suit on what they really believe, they file the suit based on whatever they can come up with that looks like it might have a prayer of winning.
The other thing that really bothers me is just how horrible our judges are. They are overly cautious and defer WAY to much to activists. It seems there is a new example every day of a lawsuit that just about any rational person knows what the ruling should be that some idiot judge says something like “Nah, we’ll make the University delay. We want to be extra cautious.”
I know fairly few Cal Bear fans are practicing Catholics but today should be a day of prayer and fasting for all Cal Bear fans:
“Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? …
Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. … Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, for I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.  I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.†(Daniel 15:18-21)
OK, so maybe that’s a bit over the top, this is just football, but nevertheless for all those who ask today “WHY!?! DEAR GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN CAL BEAR FANS!?!” remember that God listens to all prayers, and rejoices in those who repent of their sins.
January 29th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Today was a dark day for all fans of the Blue and Gold. I’m finding it very difficult to be positive. I wouldn’t blame Tedford one bit if he picked up and left tomorrow. (Well, that’s not true but you get my point). I’m not a man of violence but I’m filled with wrath & hatred when I think of what damage those protestors have done to the University of California.
If this lawsuit drags on into the football season with continued uncertainty to the final status of the upgrade, I would adivise these protestors to be nowhere near the stadium on Sept 1st. It could get ugly
Nobody ever said being a Cal fan is easy.
January 30th, 2007 at 12:24 am
My God, I like your thinking! This project needs passionate people like you! Continue to speak out, never allow your voice or feelings to be trivialized or silenced. That is what these protestors want you to believe more than anything.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Berkeley. Tragedy, farce, and comedy, all done up with the nice aroma of patchouli and days-old trash.
Is anyone truly surprised by this? I mean, really?
If there is one thing the EnviroKooks are quite adept at, it is judge shopping. It looks to me like they got themselves a good one, who will probably have the ability and the authority to keep this training center project bollixed up for the long term.
The university has no choice but to appeal, and to do so vigorously.
If taken at its logical conclusion, this decision bodes very badly for any kind of retrofit project on The Crack House. This project was stopped merely because it was adjacent to the Hayward Fault – IOW, pretty much the entire Kal campus will fit under that criterion (the trees involved were planted after the stadium was constructed, and are a side issue, IMHO).
The NIMBY phenomenon has been pressed and formed by the Berkeley folks into BANANA – “build absolutely nothing, anywhere near anything.â€
If it turns out the Rai-Duhs decide to bunk in with the 49ers in Santa Clara, perhaps Kal could get a decent rental rate at the Mausoleum.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:21 am
Well, I have more optimism than that “Cal’s Dead”. You’re obviously right that this ruling stinks, but it’s just a preliminary hearing and judges are much more likely to be interested in issuing an injunction at the preliminary hearing than the real one.
I’ll withhold judgement from the judge until I read her final ruling sometime this summer.
February 1st, 2007 at 2:37 pm
1) Take one cordless drill and make long and wide diameter hole in the tree trunk, preferably pointing down at 45 degrees. Fill hole with salt; Plug hole with bark, mud or anything else to hand.
OR
2) Purchase 1lb of Sodium Chlorate and mix with sugar. Bury that near the tree and watch the sucker die.
OR
3) Spray the leaves with high concentration of urea/nitrogen (fertilizer) on a sunny day. Nitrogen will burn it.
OR
4) To kill a tree without removing it you can just girdle it: remove the bark in a band all the way around the trunk. It could possibly survive if the cambium manages to stay alive, so you may want to scrub/scrape the band after you remove the bark.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
OK, I like to keep the discussion here as open as possible but you guys are testing my patience with these suggestions for how to break the law. Note to readers: I DO NOT ENDORSE KILLING THESE TREES W/O APPROVAL.
I would appreciate it if no one else piled on with additional ways to kill trees.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Wow, your comments on how to kill a tree give me crazy thoughts. Thankfully I am not crazy enough to do what you have said. In the end I think the UC will prevail and the sanctioned killing of these trees will be permitted for the greater good. Remember we are going to plant three new trees that will be just as good, if not better, than the ones currently there.
February 1st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
See what I’m talking about guys? The last thing we need to be doing is giving Seth crazy thoughts. Right Seth?
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 am
I will say this, you better pray none of us fall when and if we do come out of the trees. I can assure you that with our lawyers, if any of us should fall, we will sue your school for every penny of that 125 million needed to build the center. You saw how we were able to Judge shop in the injunction trial. Just imagine what kind of Judge we could get in a personal injury suit against the school. Come to think of it, we all might fall out of our trees, and rest assured we would blame it on your unjust University. See if they never came up with this stupid plan in the fist place, none of us would have to be in these precious beautiful trees. Say goodbye to your football dreams. We are getting more supporters everyday, and though we still number in the very few, our voices are louder and better organized than yours! And you say we smoke pot, please, you guys are sorry…
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
Maybe you should re-check how clean that water is you’re drinking “Clean Water Girl”. “Your lawyers” were completely unsuccessful in winning their case. The case was won by the City of Berkeley lawyers regarding the seismic issues. There was ZERO indication that the trees were part of the injunction.
But thank you for admiting that you have no integrity. Besides being willing to claim a victory you were not given, you’re willing to lie in court (“Come to think of it, we all might fall out of our trees, and rest assured we would blame it on your unjust University”), and threaten us with a lawsuit for a crime we didn’t commit.
And you say we’re the sorry ones?