Disqus - Latest Comments for lknobel

Re: Berkeleyside is retiring comments on stories. Here’s why.

lknobel — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 14:40:34 -0000

Did I ever really run loose? I'm not so sure. And I can guarantee that there was never a time when Tracey or Frances worried about prying away the keyboard.

What I can confirm is that my blood pressure is lower and I'm generally happier since I cleaved away from comments. Yes, there are times when important points are raised in the comments, but they've become – to my eyes – increasingly rare. That's not just a Berkeleyside phenomenon. I see it across the landscape in the increasingly rare places where comments are encouraged.

There was certainly a day, maybe a dozen years ago, when there was more good-humored back-and-forth in the comments. But even then, to my mind, there were far too many trolls.

Part of me agrees with the commenters here who lament the passing of Berkeleyside comments (we once thought about doing a staged reading of selected Berkeleyside comments!). The dialogue comments should create is a wonderful thing. But I've been arguing for years that Berkeleyside should bite the bullet and close comments. That ideal has not existed for a long time, and the burden of maintaining something that could even minimally pass as a civil space for discourse is more than our newsroom can bear.

Re: Immediate evacuation of Marina ordered because of tsunami warning

lknobel — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 11:20:40 -0000

The advisory is really directed at people living on boats.

Re: What happens when the news desert is in your own backyard?

lknobel — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 22:32:41 -0000

On the basis of our experience with Berkeleyside and Oaklandside, there's no doubt in my mind that someone could create a highly sustainable nonprofit local newsroom in Cambridge that could cover the truly local stories very well.

It's shocking it hasn't happened yet.

Re: In reopening debate, we chose not to report on the teachers’ union leader and his toddler’s school. Here’s why

lknobel — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 20:23:04 -0000

The two sites have completely separate newsrooms.

Re: What were the best books of 2020? 3 Berkeleyside contributors share their favorites

lknobel — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:32:56 -0000

Just a note: I didn't know I should have picked five books! There are only four here. If you twist my arm for a fifth, I'd recommend Toby Green's A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution. It's a fascinating economic history of the devastating impact of western traders/slavers on what were thriving, sophisticated, globally connected societies. A side of the global tragedy of slavery that I knew very little about.

Re: Cityside named Publisher of the Year for ‘excellent coverage,’ and its vision for serving communities

lknobel — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 20:45:06 -0000

Yes, you can. I sometimes say we're an online newspaper without the paper.

Re: Subrosa transitions to States Coffee; Dopo to have last service on Oct. 3

lknobel — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:53:42 -0000

I will miss Secret Scoop.

Re: UC Berkeley has 47 new COVID-19 cases, mostly from week of frat parties

lknobel — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:52:59 -0000

47 is 204% of 23, but that doesn't make it a 204% increase. It makes it a 104% increase.

Think of the logic. On your arithmetic, cases moving from 23 to 23 would be a 100% increase, because 23 is 100% of 23.

Re: Amid local news crisis, Berkeleyside is growing: Hiring for 9 journalism and 4 business jobs

lknobel — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 19:23:53 -0000

Right now, Berkeley is seven people, top to bottom. By the middle of this year, if our hiring goes well, Berkeleyside will have five full-time journalists, Oakland will have eight, and the central organization will have two people on the journalism side (our co-founders Frances Dinkelspiel and Tracey Taylor) who will add to that overall capacity. Plus, in the center, we'll have another seven people (including me) dedicated to ensuring our sustainability through building our revenues. So total organization will equal 24 at that point.

Re: The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley over the holidays

lknobel — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 13:58:06 -0000

I love that play. I saw it in its original run at the National Theatre. (Everything by Michael Frayn is worth seeing.)

Re: Berkeleyside to launch news site in Oakland, will convert to nonprofit

lknobel — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:02:25 -0000

Berkeleyside's shareholders are consenting to the conversion. Their shares will be a capital loss, unfortunately. The common shares of the three founders will also be zeroed out. You're right that a nonprofit doesn't have shareholders.

Re: Can an unfinished but usable basement space be taxed? Berkeley says ‘yes’ and the courts have agreed

lknobel — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 14:46:34 -0000

I've added the quotes in the headline.

Re: Confusing information, failed website provoke frustration with PG&E in Berkeley

lknobel — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 23:20:25 -0000

From a recent AC Alert: Visit https://www.albanyca.org/Ho... for public safety power shutoff information from the City of Albany.

Re: Berkeley police arrest 2 amid rash of catalytic converter thefts, mainly from Priuses

lknobel — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 19:05:47 -0000

We considered and rejected that.

Re: After community campaign, Berkeley’s West Campus Pool will open year-round

lknobel — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:59:00 -0000

In the "related stories" links beneath the article, there is a useful summary of places to do lap swimming in the East Bay (including the lauded Albany pool): https://www.berkeleyside.co...

Re: After community campaign, Berkeley’s West Campus Pool will open year-round

lknobel — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:55:36 -0000

City pool hours can be found here: https://www.cityofberkeley....

Re: The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley, weekend of July 26-28

lknobel — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 01:33:02 -0000

It was from The Freight.

Re: Berkeley girl who climbed Mount Shasta: ‘I wanted to see the world from the top’

lknobel — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 12:37:39 -0000

Appropriately, Berkeleyside's article on the youngest girl to climb Mount Shasta was written by summer intern Cydney Devine-Jones, one of the youngest-ever published writers on Berkeleyside. She's a middle schooler at Oakland School for the Arts.

Re: Christopher Cukor says murder of his father in Berkeley prompted him to call police on a black man

lknobel — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 16:34:09 -0000

We're closing comments on this story.

Re: The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley over July Fourth and the weekend

lknobel — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 23:20:28 -0000

Rapinoe's partner Sue Bird calls it pink, so I feel on pretty strong ground.

Independent of that, Bird's article is a fantastic must read: https://www.theplayerstribu...

Re: Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Diamantino’

lknobel — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 16:02:11 -0000

After reading your plot summary, I'm not entirely sure how this isn't "weird enough" to qualify as an old-fashioned midnight movie. Is it possible to get weirder?

Re: East Bay fire agencies call for public self-defense: ‘It’s not if a fire occurs, but when’

lknobel — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 14:42:31 -0000

We've updated the story to note that the roughly $400,000 extra in the city budget for equipment and vegetation management was carved out by the Council's budget policy commission (voted for by Councilwomen Lori Droste and Rashi Kesarwani). The funds came from a miscalculation in the Rebuilding Together budget referral.

Re: Big Screen Berkeley: ‘War and Peace’

lknobel — Fri, 31 May 2019 15:58:27 -0000

I have fond memories of seeing the Bondarchuk film in 1969. But I recall that the opening credits – filled with swirling clouds – went on interminably. My father, not the most demonstrative of men, started slow clapping. I don't think the arty crowd in attendance were that appreciative.

Re: Opinion: Berkeley’s bike boulevards are fictions

lknobel — Tue, 28 May 2019 18:56:05 -0000

Read the op-ed: "I stopped for a driver coming from the West… and rode into the intersection." The author did stop.

Re: Berkeley police: ATM robbery, community center stabbing, more

lknobel — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:18:33 -0000

We've covered this extensively: https://www.berkeleyside.co...