Kate McEachern in her Cupkates truck Kate McEachern is a blonde, cheerful woman whose main goal is to make people happy. By feeding them cupcakes. Two months ago, McEachern, a former editor for Dwell, a high-end architecture and lifestyle magazine, turned her attention to baking. She rented space in a commercial kitchen in Richmond, sought […]
Frances Dinkelspiel
Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside and CItyside co-founder, is a journalist and author. Her first book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, published in November 2008, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Her second book, Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California was published in October 2015 and was both a New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Frances is a former staff reporter for the Syracuse Newspapers and the San Jose Mercury News. Her freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, Daily Beast, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere.
Posted inEvents, Schools
Lots of Spirit at Berkeley High Rally
The hallways, courtyards, and football field at Berkeley High were covered in a sea of red and gold Friday as thousands of students dressed up to celebrate Rally Day. Teenagers painted their faces and chests red and gold, topped their heads with colored pom poms, and donned a lot of gold lame to declare their […]
Posted inCrime, Crime & Safety, Schools
Streetside memorial to 5-year-old killed by truck
Street memorial for Zachary Cole I drive by the intersection of Warring and Derby several times a week and I am always struck by the flowers, balloons, and cards set up at the spot where 5-year-old Zachary Cruz was killed in February. I do not know if it is his parents, his family’s friends, or […]
Posted inArts
Seymour Fromer, founder of Magnes Museum, dies
Magnes Museum on Russell Street Seymour Fromer, who founded the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley in the early 1960s, died early Sunday after a short illness. Fromer, 87, and his wife Rebecca started the museum in response to what they saw as California’s lack of knowledge of its Jewish heritage. Starting with a few […]
Posted inCommunity
Jewish life in the East Bay
The Judah L. Magnes Museum is tucked away on Russell Street, its stately brick mansion barely visible from the road. Yet the 50-year old museum has the third largest collection of Judaica and fine art in the country and is internationally recognized as an outstanding museum. Take the Magnes, multiply it many times over, and […]
Posted inSchools
Berkeley High Jacket now online
Photo by Simone Obidahday, Jacket staff The Berkeley High School Jacket has long been recognized as one of the best high school newspapers in the country. That reputation comes in part from the story it broke 9 years ago about how Berkeley landlord Lackireddy Bali Reddy was importing girls from India to work as sex […]
Posted inArts, Schools
Bargains galore at UC Press sidewalk sale
UC Press is holding its annual sidewalk sale today until 5:30pm in front of its offices at 2120 Berkeley Way. Hardbacks are $10.00 and paperbacks are $5.00. My favorite find? “California Gold Camps,” by Erwin G. Gudde, who made a career writing books that revealed the origins of the state’s towns. (This books sells for […]