The Planet has an excellent piece on the latest in the Daily Cal negotiations. Lots of new details, including where the Daily Cal is moving, financial numbers, and when the DC would move, if at all. And boy, is the paper dealing from a position of strength! The new site is across the street-- in the old Campus Textbook Exchange building. Take it! You'd be silly not to!

It looks like a spectacular deal.

From a financial standpoint, the move to Bancroft and Telegraph seems like a no-brainer. The owner has offered a four-year deal, with an option for six more years on a 4,300-square-foot-office for about $60,000 per year. The paper has until Oct. 6 to sign the lease.

“The ASUC has quite a deal to live up to compared to what we’ve been offered at this space,” Schewe said, noting that the paper pays the student government $72,000 a year for 4,100 square feet in Eshleman Hall.

That is to say, it's just as close, cheaper, has more space, and offers a four-year lease with option for many more. The few objections seem piddling.

Many of the paper’s board are alumni who remember the paper’s travails when it first left campus in 1971 and did not return until 1994.

During those years the paper was subject to the fluctuations of Berkeley’s real estate market, and the paper failed to make rent payments on several occasions.

Schewe said that although commercial real estate prices are down now, several board members prefer to remain on campus where rent prices are more stable.

Another concern would have to be security. On the other hand, the Daily Cal would, in one swoop, rid themselves of endless ASUC posturing and threats.

So it looks like the GA's hard tactics have succeeded mostly in requiring the Daily Cal to make an excellent business deal. Congrats on pushing so hard for their objectives that they're going to lose everything. And now they're so focused on the tiny issue of Graduate Assembly representation on the Store Operations Board that $72,000 in rent money is about to walk out the door.

In the first month of this Administration's reign they've opened the ASUC up to numerous lawsuits, lost tens of thousands of dollars, misspent tens of thousands more, and we're not even through September. Looking forward to October.Email This Post!