Friend and Wired founding editor Louis Rosetto emailed me yesterday: "This is one of those good versus evil, little guy — actually little grandmother — versus City Hall kind of stories. As you will read below, my mother has been ensnarled for two years trying to get approval to build a modest addition on her house — a ground floor bedroom because, at 87, she is becoming literally terrified of climbing the stairs to her current bedroom.
"Two couples across the street have been fighting her as if she was the Irvine Corporation about to slam a 500 home subdivision into the neighborhood — perhaps for no other reason than, in Berkeley, they can. When they had exhausted all statutory remedies, they decided to go nuclear and are now trying to landmark my mother's house. Regulatory abuse turns into real abuse. There's a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing in Berkeley Monday 7:30pm at 1901 Hearst. If you're in the neighborhood, please drop by for the fireworks." (click image of newspaper advertisement for enlargement).
