Iceland Blogs

Contrary to reports you may have heard, Berkeley Iceland is still designated a Berkeley landmark. After two hours of testimony and significant new documentation, the city council voted to put off the final decision on the landmark until 17 July at a special time - 6 pm. They will be taking additional comments up until 5pm Friday. My full notes of the day follow:

Summary of July 10

July 10 [AM] –

Current owners enter into purchase contract with a developer the day of the hearing. The contract is apparently contingent on the success of the landmark appeal. This precludes any formal negotiations with other parties to settle the landmark and ownership issues.

Berkeley Iceland Landmark Appeal

I want to thank everyone who has supported the plans to restore Berkeley Iceland, our recently closed, historic ice palace.  After almost a year delay, which was requested by the current owners, the Berkeley Landmark Preservation Commission designated the building and all its features as a landmark worthy of preservation at its April meeting.  This decision was arrived at after three public hearings, hours of testimony and review of supporting documentation.  As one of the applicants for landmark status, I have no doubts that Berkeley Iceland is an historic landmark.

SaveBerkeleyIceland Shirts now available!  We now have very cool shirts, a white logo on royal blue shirt, available where ever we have an event AND at Rasputin Records in Berkeley (corner of Telegraph and Channing).  A donation of $15 will snag you a shirt that will show your support for SBI when you wear it and the proceeds go towards our organizing efforts.

It has been a few weeks since I sent out the last update and we are a bit behind in getting the website up-to-date, so I think it is time for me to update everyone on what is happening with Save Berkeley Iceland.First and probably the most important recent news is the hiring of Allison Taguchi as the first, full time Fundraising Director for SBI.  Allison comes with over 14 years of fundraising experience including projects similar to ours.  She was officially hired on 16 June and has been hard at work ever since.  She has full confidence that our goals are achievable in the time we have and the SBI core has full confidence in her.  If you have any leads or questions about our fundraising efforts, Allison can be reached at "allison@SaveBerkeleyIceland.org".  

i didnt know anything was still going on with this until i got n email about some town hall meeting. im gonna b at the meeting but i wanna know y they dont want iceland to b a land mark. isnt berkeley iceland the best. I live not more than 3 blocks away from dublin iceland and I go to berkeley because its sooo much better, right? course it is. Ill c wat kinda fundraisin i can do out here but it wont b much (dats fer sher) alright peops keep on keepin on!

I grew up in Oakland during the 60's and 70's.  Iceland was the one place we kids could go for fun, especially as teenagers.  My friends and I spent many Friday and Saturday nights there.  I live in Northern Michigan now, and only just recently found out that Iceland was closed.  I feel terrible about it.  Where I live now, there are three major ice rinks within 20 minutes of my house.  They are thriving and there doesn't seem to ever be enough ice time available for all the groups that want to use them.  In the the upper Midwest and Canada, hockey is a way of life, and