Recycling and being conscientious can pay off when it comes to the bottom line, say business owners recently honored for their environmentally friendly practices. 

The Alameda County Green Business Program has recognized the efforts of five Berkeley businesses in recent months, awarding them Green Business Awards: Patti’s Auto Care, Ackerman’s Servicing Volvos, Grandma’s Garage, Consolidated Printers Inc., and Griffin Motor Works. 

And at a recent meeting of the Economic Development Alliance For Business, the Stop Waste Partnership recognized Bayer Corporation and UC Berkeley for their commitments to improving environmental performance. 

Stop Waste is a program of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board in San Leandro. Stop Waste participates along with other agencies as part of a team that evaluates the environmental practices of small businesses before they can be certified and recognized. 

Pamela Evans, coordinator for Green Business, said the awards let the public know where they can spend their dollars on environmentally friendly businesses. 

The nonprofit program is administered by the East Bay Small Business Development Center and funded local, state and federal government agencies. 

Since 1997 when Green Business began the awards, the program has recognized 10 Berkeley businesses. The previous five recipients are Art’s Automotive, Bob’s Volvo/Toyota Specialists, Britoil Ltd., Jim Doten’s Honda and Weatherford BMW. 

Evans said criteria for certification include environmental compliance with laws, pollution prevention or good housekeeping practices, energy and water conservation and solid waste. 

She said Green Business pulls together representatives from utilities and conservation agencies for an on-site inspection that is completed in less than two hours. 

For its size Berkeley has a “pretty healthy number” of businesses that are recognized by her program, said Evans, and Berkeley residents tend to patronize such businesses. 

“It does seem that in the northwest part of Alameda County and especially in Berkeley, that there is more consumer interest in green business, “ said Evans. 

Patti Critchfield, owner of Patti’s Auto Care, said achieving certification was not difficult – she knew the requirements from past practice. 

She painted the floor of her automotive business with epoxy paint making it easy to pick up oil spills with a squeegee and a dustpan. Then they put the oil in a waste oil tank and the remaining oil is wiped up with rags that go to the laundry. 

In a lot of cases, she said, brakes are made of asbestos, but the mechanics in her shop are not endangered by breathing its particles, she said. She uses an aqueous system of hot water and special soap, and the mechanics wash a braking system before taking it apart so the asbestos particles are dampened down. 

It’s easier being green, said Critchfield, because it saves money and clean-up time for employees and it’s healthier. 

Bruce Goddard, a spokesman for the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, said its Stop Waste Partnership program exemplifies the county waste management’s mission to “keep all material out of landfills.” 

With the larger corporations like past award recipient Alta Bates Medical Center, and with Bayer and UC Berkeley, Stop Waste found the components like energy, water and solid waste reduction are intertwined and could not be addressed separately. 

Stop Waste enters the picture to help large companies that face a host of regulations, and to improve their performance and implement necessary changes. 

“We have recognized some of them that have done very well, “ said Goddard. He said Bayer and UC Berkeley made commitments to change their own practices to become more sustainable. 

Thomas Malott, Principal Environmental Specialist at Bayer Corporation, said he had worked with Stop Waste for several years. 

The county brought in consultants from Scientific Applications International Corporation, he said. The consulting firm dived into Bayer’s dumpsters and rummaged through the waste to determine what percentage of it could have been recycled. 

Currently, said Malott, Bayer is recycling 40 percent of its solid waste. The plant recycles paper, aluminum, glass, plastic, iron and asphalt, and the company donates food from its cafeteria to a homeless shelter, he said. 

Bayer bought the dilapidated Colgate-Palmolive property next door and in the process of demolition, almost everything is being recycled, he said. Concrete is going into re-usable road base, rebar (steel for reinforcing concrete) and structural steel and bricks all are being recycled. 

He said Stop Waste has provided the company with continuing assistance, including weighing rebar and concrete, and working with Bayer’s contractor to insure that its diversion rate or the amount of “waste” that can be recycled, is as high as possible. 

The partnership has been a “win-win” proposition, he said. 

“By conserving you save money and you protect the environment,” Malott said. 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Fourth of July celebration 

11 a.m.-10 p.m. 

Berkeley Marina 

A full day of free family entertainment, with food, activities and entertainment in the south shore area will be offered. At 11 a.m., Adventure Playground opens with art projects and storytelling for kids. The picnic lasts from 1 to 4 p.m., as do free sailboat rides and an egg puppet show by Madame Ovary. Other entertainment throughout the day includes wacky art cars at 4 p.m., Troupe Tangiers Belly Dancers from noon to 1 p.m., Capoeira Performing Arts from 6 to 7 p.m. and a community drumming circle from noon to 3 p.m. Musical entertainment begins with Zambombazo at 3 p.m. and continues throughout the afternoon with MotorDude Zydeco, Ray Cepeda & Friends, Southbound and the Berkeley High Pep Band. The firework display begins at 9:35 p.m. 

“Kill your TV, free your mind” 

2 p.m. 

People’s Park 

Organizers say participants should bring their own smashing gear: televisions and monitors, sledge hammers, gloves and goggles. Wear red white and blue, of course. Free food. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

Wednesday, July 5

Monthly birthday party 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Asia FantAsia!” 

1 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC Berkeley Campus 

Storyteller Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo helps you explore various Asian cultures using music and theater to act out a variety of traditional folktales. This is part of the Summer Science Fundays series at the Hall. 

510-642-5132 

BUSD school board meeting 

7:30 p.m. 

Board/Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Thursday, July 6

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“Meeting Life Changes” 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Summer Lunchtime Concert Series 

Noon-1 p.m. 

Downtown Berkeley BART plaza 

This concert series features musicians from two unique schools in Downtown Berkeley, The Jazzschool and Capoeira Arts Café. This week, the Capoeira Arts Cafe will feature professional music artists and performers from Brazil, who will offer a Brazilian Music and Dance Show. This concert is free. This event is co-sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association, Berkeley Daily Planet, Korman & Ng, and BART. 

510-549-2230 

The Snake Man 

2 p.m. 

South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Vincent Seymour will be the featured guest. This is part of the Summer Program Series at the Berkeley Public Library. 

510-644-6860

Some folks smash cars to challenge university policy. That’s what a Boalt Hall student did a couple of months ago to protest, in his way, a university plan to put a parking structure, a dining commons and offices on a university-owned block bordered by College Avenue, Channing Way, Bowditch Street and Haste Street. 

Some 60 people staged a very different protest Thursday evening. 

These more genteel folk didn’t carry sledge hammers or protest signs. Under the leadership of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, the group took a walking tour of the Anna Head Historic District. Their point, like the car-bashers, was that the Underhill Area Project, now in its environmental review stage, would blight a historic district, comprised of a number of significant structures. 

“The Underhill Area Plan...currently calls for new construction and new land uses, which, in total, would seriously impact the surviving landmark structures,” says a pamphlet distributed to tour participants. 

The university plan calls for the demolition of the Fox Cottage, which BAHA calls “the smallest architectural jewel that survived the university expansion” of the 60s. 

The cottage was one of the stops along the way for the tour group. On the steps of the cottage, BAHA member Carrie Olson made a plea to the crowd to help save the 1930s “Mother Goose-style” structure, with its wavy brickwork and wavy windows. 

“Why not keep (the cottage) as a cafe. Why knock it down?” Olson asked. 

The group trooped across the street to Putnam Hall, where the dining commons is slated for demolition under the Underhill Plan and new housing is to be built. Susan Cerny said the dining commons should not be discounted and that the residence halls have a place in the history of the area. 

She pointed to the nearby square of open space and said it must be preserved. 

“One thousand people live on this block,” she said. “This is their common ground, an oasis in the middle of the complex.” 

The tour began at the Anna Head School, on the west side of Bowditch, near Channing Way. Mary Lee Noonan talked about the history of the more-than-100-year-old former girls’ school. Noonan turned her attention to the problems of today. 

“This building is the victim of neglect and the survivor of neglect,” said Noonan, standing on the steps in front of the school now owned by the university and used for offices. 

The building, the first known as Berkeley “brown shingle,” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. 

It hasn’t been painted in decades, the roof hasn’t been replaced and visible dry rot is evidence on the structure. “It’s what they call demolition by neglect,” said one member of the group as they walked around the building and into the inner courtyard. 

“Ask yourselves how you can encourage the university to do the right thing,” Noonan said. 

Reached Friday at the UC Berkeley planning office, Planning Director Tom Lollini took exception to BAHA’s point of view. 

“The plan we’re doing is building back the neighborhood,” he said. He pointed to the “big hole” on the Underhill block and said the university’s projects there would bring back life and therefore enhanced safety to the otherwise deserted area. 

The project will include a jogging track and will not be bordered by the unfriendly chain-link fence that rings the surface parking lot today. The dining facility will include a late-night cafe that will serve area residents. Lollini pointed out that 9,000 of the 11,000 people living in the area are students. 

The planning director argued that the architects for the new housing at the residence halls have taken the need for open space into account. Dormitory entrances will be on the street, with open space in the center, he said. 

The new public space at the residence halls will be more usable than it was previously, he added. 

The university is looking at alternatives to demolition of the Fox Cottage, Lollini said. Part of the structure might be re-used, he said, conceding that the cottage is likely to be impacted by the dining commons and offices planned on the site. 

Lollini also addressed the critics who say the university is allowing the Anna Head School to deteriorate. 

“That’s not our perspective or our intent,” he said, noting that there are competing funds for uses of the university’s capital funds, in particular, the seismic upgrading of many of the buildings on the campus proper. 

“The lion share of the university funds have to go to life safety,” he said. 

The university is not, however, ignoring the problem and is considering several solutions. One answer would be to seek gifts to restore the structure. Another would be to partner with a developer to turn the structure into student housing or a conference center, he said. 

A 27-year-old Berkeley man arrested in March for possession of 10 pounds of marijuana appeared in Superior Court on Friday as supporters from a medical marijuana group rallied in his defense in the hallway outside. 

Leaders of Oakland-based First Hemp Bank say the defendant, Michael Fenili, who is also known as “Freedom Om,” was distributing the marijuana to gravely ill patients. Lawyers for Fenili and a co-defendant say their clients are protected by Proposition 215, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act. 

The state is charging Fenili and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Celina Perez, with felony possession of marijuana with intent to sell. The defendants are currently free on bond awaiting trial. 

“There is not any evidence of intent to sell,” Jamie Elmer, Fenili’s attorney, said Friday. “They intended to transfer (the marijuana) to people in the necessary line to get it to the patients that need it.” 

Assistant District Attorney Colleen McMahon was unavailable for an interview Friday. In a telephone message to the Daily Planet, McMahon declined to speculate whether her office would continue to prosecute the case, if the defendants establish that more than a dozen bags of marijuana found in Fenili’s van were intended for medicinal use. 

First Hemp Bank has leapt to the defense of Fenili, a slender six-footer with a shock of curly red hair tucked in a bun. 

“He was doing his work for the network and had obtained the medicine necessary to keep our members safe and healthy,” said First Hemp Bank co-founder David Clancy. “If you are sick and dying you don’t have the energy to grow and cultivate (marijuana),” he said. 

Clancy has gone so far as to intervene in the criminal case to argue that the seized contraband actually belongs to him, not the defendants. 

Under the Compassionate Use Act, “patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes” are not subject to criminal prosecution. According to Clancy, about 30 East Bay residents with cancer, AIDS, chronic pain, arthritis and other illnesses receive marijuana from First Hemp Bank. The organization is licensed by the city of Oakland. 

But defense lawyers say Fenili’s arrest demonstrates the practical limitations of operating under the 1996 law. 

“People who need marijuana are finding they are having a hard time fighting their way through red tape and finding safe harbors,” said Perez’s attorney, Dirk Newberry. “The Act does not clarify how someone who needs marijuana may obtain it and how those who want to distribute it compassionately are supposed to do so. So it remains subject to prosecution.” 

Police arrested Fenili and Perez near People’s Park in Berkeley around midnight on March 26, after questioning Fenili on an unrelated traffic charge. According to police, a search of Fenili’s 1974 van turned up 19 bags of marijuana weighing a combined 10.4 pounds. Police say they also found a scale and 44 .25-caliber cartridges. 

Dressed in a green plaid shirt and baggy blue jeans, and wearing a light beard, Fenili stood at least a foot taller than co-defendant Perez in the cramped second-floor courtroom in downtown Berkeley. Friday’s court date had been set for a preliminary examination, but Superior Court Judge Jennie Rhine rescheduled that hearing for Aug. 9 because of other pressing court business. At that hearing, the judge will decide whether the prosecution has the evidence necessary to go forward with the case. 

Fenili, Perez and Clancy are each separately represented by counsel and supported by a colorful band of marijuana activists, patients, and volunteers. After Friday’s hearing a dozen people, many infirm or disheveled, gathered around the parties’ and their lawyers for an impromptu strategy session outside the courtroom. 

The legal merits of the defense case, however, are unclear. 

“A question arises whether the network and the people are caregivers” as the 1996 law defines that term, concedes Fenili attorney Elmer. 

“It is certainly our contention that they are. Otherwise people would be limited to growing it themselves. The network is the only realistic way to make this happen,” he added. 

But in two cases decided in 1997 by the California appellate court, the caregiver argument did not succeed. Three years ago the court ruled that San Francisco’s Cannabis Buyers’ Club could not qualify as a “primary caregiver” simply by having thousands of marijuana purchasers designate it as such. A contrary finding, the court said, “would entitle any marijuana dealer in California to obtain a primary caregiver designation from a patient before selling marijuana, and to thereby evade prosecution.” 

The court also declined that year to extend the protection of the Compassionate Use Act to the case of a Kensington resident arrested in 1994 for possession of two pounds of marijuana. 

Defense lawyers will try to show that Fenili and Perez fit the law’s definition of a primary caregiver as someone “who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of (the patient).” 

Attorneys for the defendants indicated Friday they plan to establish a medicinal marijuana defense by calling patients to testify. The DA agreed in court Friday to keep a proposed witness list confidential pending the defense filing a protective order based on the proposed witness’ medical privilege. 

Fenili’s backers say this is a test case that may set an important precedent for medicinal marijuana groups. 

But that could prove difficult. Commented Fenili attorney Elmer: “It’s just amazing what certain government bodies have done, including courts, to get around these marijuana initiatives and keep it a crime.” 

One source of confusion in the case could be a statement Fenili made to police following his arrest. Asked about his occupation, Berkeley police say, Fenili responded, “I sell herbs.” But Fenili told the Daily Planet that he was referring to a medicinal herb booth he operates at street fairs, not his work for First Hemp Bank. 

Fenili says he sells herbal products bearing such names as Good Health Smoke and Sexual Happiness Tea. He views himself as a shaman, he said, and therefore does not attempt to turn a profit from his business. 

“Cases like this will be forefront cases,” he said of his marijuana prosecution. 

“(The DA’s office) might want to challenge the ten pounds, they might want to challenge that we can actually have it in a vehicle. But how does marijuana get from the fields to the Hemp Bank?” he asked. “It has to be transported.” 

Fenili says he is prepared to stick with the case as far as necessary to make a point. 

“It’s a pioneer (case),” he said after Friday’s hearing. “But it needs to be done and other people down the road are going to be very thankful for this case.”

A. Richard Newton, a Silicon Valley innovator and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) at UC Berkeley, has been named to succeed Paul R. Gray as dean of the College of Engineering. 

Newton, a prominent researcher in the design of electronic circuits and systems, was scheduled to assume the deanship on Saturday. The appointment is pending approval by the UC Board of Regents. 

“Rich Newton is the ideal candidate for our new dean of engineering,” UC Berkeley Vice Provost Nicolas P. Jewell, who is stepping down from his post to return to the classroom, said in a statement last week. “He has an outstanding academic record in research and is a superb classroom teacher. He also has the ability to continue leading the college forward in exciting new directions, particularly through his visibility among high technology leaders and others in Silicon Valley.” 

Newton, 48, will become the 11th dean of the engineering college, which descended from three of the original colleges of the University of California. 

Born in Australia, Newton received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1978. He also holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering science from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

“This is a critical time for engineering as a profession, as we come to grips with what it really means to be an engineer in a world where recent developments in new materials, information technology, nanoscale systems and the biological sciences are reshaping our approach to almost everything we do,” Newton said in a statement. 

Newton joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1979. He served as vice chairman of the EECS department from 1985 to 1988, and as chair in the 1999-2000 school year. 

Paul R. Gray, who became UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost on Saturday after four years as dean of the engineering college, said Newton “brings tremendous energy and a creative, entrepreneurial spirit to the job of leading the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley.” 

Newton is the founding director of the MARCO/DDR&E Gigascale Silicon Research Center, a nine-university, industry/government-funded research consortium charged with undertaking the long-range research needed to keep the United States competitive in the design of complex integrated electronic systems. 

He is also a member of the Technical Advisory Board to Microsoft Research Laboratories and has acted as a venture partner with the Mayfield Fund, a high-technology venture capital partnership. 

He has helped found a number of design technology companies, including SDA Systems and PIE Design Systems (both now are part of Cadence Design Systems), as well as Simplex Solutions and Synopsys, where he rejoined the board of directors in 1994. 

He was also a founder and director of Crossbow Technology, Inc., a leading producer of MEMS-based embedded measurement sensor and control subsystems, and was acting president and CEO of Silicon Light Machines, which is bringing to market a number of display systems based on a new technology of micromachined silicon light-valves. 

A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Newton has published extensively in his field and received numerous awards and honors, including best paper awards from the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, the International Conference on Computer Design, the European Solid State Circuits Conference and the IEEE Transactions for Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.

Lawrence Hall of Science will exhibit a rare collection of kites from Indonesia from July 15 to Aug. 20. 

The Kites and Culture exhibit features a colorful Balinese kite with a 200-foot tail draped from the ceiling as a canopy. It is so large it takes 10 people to launch. Other kites include delicate Sulawesi bamboo and leaf kites used for fishing and kites in the sail shape. 

The kites are works of art and technology, as well as windows to understanding the various religions, traditional and contemporary influences within the huge nation of Indonesia. In Indonesia, kites are an expression of the kite maker’s artistic and spiritual inspirations. 

Kite flying is an individual recreational experience in Indonesia. Kites are also used as ritual objects, musical instruments and tools for fishing and catching bats. 

The opening day of the exhibit will feature kite-making activities and Indonesian coffee from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

The weekend of Aug. 19 and 20, Lawrence Hall of Science will host an Indonesian cultural festival. It will feature the first U.S. appearance by Indonesian kite makers demonstrating their kite building and flying skills. 

The first day of the festival will include Indonesian food, building and flying of Indonesian-style kites and performances by Balinese dancers. The second day a Javanese gamelan orchestra will perform. 

Lawrence Hall of Science is located on Centennial Drive, above the UC Berkeley campus. The Hall is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults; $4 for children 7-18, seniors and students; and $2 for children 3-6. For information, call (510) 642-5132 or visit www.lhs.berkeley.edu.

UC Berkeley officials took a step back in a meeting Thursday evening with Memorial Stadium neighbors, conceding that the university’s initial rendering of the proposed permanent lights was not a faithful depiction. 

Neighbors have been outraged at the university’s proposal for FOX-TV to install permanent lights at the stadium. The lights and their poles will destroy the ambiance of the neighborhood and lead to increased use of the venue, they argue. 

In an interview Friday, University Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty underscored that although the rendering was inaccurate, she could not say if the dimensions as stated in a report on the lights were inaccurate. 

“The neighbors felt the figures were inconsistent,” she said. 

Planners will check the numbers, then call a second meeting with stadium neighbors, she said. Although there is no date yet for the meeting, Hegarty said it will be in about two weeks. 

“We will bring back corrections to the initial study,” she said. 

That study concludes that the university does not have to conduct an Environmental Impact Report on the light structures, because they are only a minor addition to an existing structure.  

Neighbors disagreed strongly, saying the light structures would impede the flow of people at the stadium and pose an even greater seismic hazard in an already hazardous area. They said the lights illustrate yet again the ways in which they feel the university is encroaching upon their neighborhoods. 

FOX, which plans to broadcast four to six football games at the stadium this season, has offered to pay the $1 million cost for the light installation. University spokespeople argued that temporary lights presently brought in for televised games are difficult to manipulate and take time to adjust. 

They argued that the temporary lights cause greater disruption to the neighbors than the permanent structures would. University officials said that the televised games would make the hundreds of thousands of alumni scattered throughout the country feel a closer connection to their alma mater, and help support athletic programs at the university. 

Michael Kelly lives near the stadium and spoke in opposition to the lights, calling the inaccuracies in the study “huge deficiencies.” 

“You need to update the photographs (published) on the (university) web site and publish a statement saying that the previous visual simulations were wrong,” Kelly said. 

The residents, organized as Neighbors of Memorial Stadium, brought an enormous tarp that stretched almost the entire length of the conference room. They had painted 36 lights on it, illustrating the actual size of the light cages, which house the lights. 

“We now know that this is one of the medium-sized ones,” Kelly said. The largest cages will contain 45 lights. 

NOMS offered a variety of creative solutions, including holding televised games at the Oakland Coliseum, or allowing the Raiders to play a game or two at Memorial Stadium annually to increase the revenue needed to pay for temporary lights. The Raiders’ games had been restricted by the university in the past, in an effort to preserve the stadium for university athletic use only. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who represents the immediately affected area, reminded the university representatives that the city had asked for an Environmental Impact Report. 

“It just simply does not make sense to subject the neighbors to this environmental degradation 365 days a year for four to six televised football games a year,” Armstrong said. 

Armstrong said that she felt that the neighbors who came to the meeting were “well-informed, articulate, and passionate” about the project and praised them for offering solutions. 

“I felt the university had some serious holes in its initial study,” Armstrong said. 

Hegarty moderated the discussion that became emotionally charged at points. 

“I did expect there would be strong feelings,” she said. “I thought the meeting was well attended. Clearly there is information that needs to be gathered together for the next meeting, such as how the visual simulations were done. 

Hegarty said she would take the comments from the meeting to university administrators. She added that she was looking into extending the time the public can comment on the report by another 30 days. If it were not extended, the period for formal comment on the lights would end July 17. 

Bill Manning, senior associate athletic director for the university, stated that in the past the university has complied with wishes that the stadium only be used for university athletic events. 

“The use of the stadium has been extremely limited because we have severely restricted ourselves,” Manning said. “When we first brought this to you, we wanted to use the lights more, for evening practices. But we restricted ourselves.” 

Manning called on the neighbors for cooperation. “Try to respect us as we restrict ourselves in an effort to respect you.” 

Neighbors expressed concern that the university had gone against their wishes and had broken promises in the past. They said that they wanted the university’s word that they would be informed every step of the way in this process. Examples of past intrusions included a concert at the stadium which shook the neighbors’ windows, and increased use of the Greek Theatre to include pop concerts. 

Mayor Shirley Dean, the last to voice her opinion on the lights, expressed disappointment and anger with the university for its mismanagement of the project. 

“That this item has come under this amount of controversy just shows that it’s a bad project,” Dean said. 

“No amount of meeting and discussion is going to cure that fact. The university needs to own up to it, and cut their losses.”

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Civic Center Park, downtown Berkeley 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Pedestrian “Bike-In” Movie Night Party and Protest 

9 p.m. 

Underhill parking lot (Channing and College) 

This week’s feature: “Terminator,” plus video activist shorts. Help transform a parking lot into a paradise every Saturday night this summer in protest of the University's plan to build a parking lot on the site, instead of student housing. 

510-CREW-CUT; 

www.geocities.com/rickisyoung 

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Civic Center Park, downtown Berkeley 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Pedestrian “Bike-In” Movie Night Party and Protest 

9 p.m. 

Underhill parking lot (Channing and College) 

This week’s feature: “Terminator,” plus video activist shorts. Help transform a parking lot into a paradise every Saturday night this summer in protest of the University's plan to build a parking lot on the site, instead of student housing. 

510-CREW-CUT; 

www.geocities.com/rickisyoung 

Sunday, July 2

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Berkeley Hiking Club Mini-Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Point Reyes, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Five Brooks Staging Area. This will be a hike of about five miles, along trails that roll up and down terrain through the tall woods. 

510-843-5738 

Berkeley Hiking Club Main Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Mt. Tamalpais, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Rock Springs. Participants will make a hike of seven to eight miles, with a scenic view along the loop. 

510-532-6379 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Willard Park, Derby and Hillegass 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333  

Sunday, July 2 

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Berkeley Hiking Club Mini-Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Point Reyes, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Five Brooks Staging Area. This will be a hike of about five miles, along trails that roll up and down terrain through the tall woods. 

510-843-5738 

Berkeley Hiking Club Main Hike 

8:30 a.m. meet at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way 

Participants will travel to Mt. Tamalpais, where they will reconvene and meet leader at Rock Springs. Participants will make a hike of seven to eight miles, with a scenic view along the loop. 

510-532-6379 

“The Jungle Book” 

1 p.m. 

Willard Park, Derby and Hillegass 

The Shotgun Players will present a free performance of this play, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic book. The play is being shown in parks throughout the East Bay through Aug. 13. 

510-655-0813 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Monday, July 3

Urban Garden Training 

10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Santa Fe Bar and Grill, 1310 University Ave. 

This free community training, held on the first Monday of each month, is designed to inform people on intensive production urban gardening. The day begins with hands-on training in the garden, and includes a potluck lunch in the afternoon. 

510-841-1110 

Movie: “The Thin Red Line” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Tuesday, July 4

Fourth of July holiday 

City offices and most businesses will be closed for the holiday. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333

In downtown Berkeley, in the midst of heavy traffic, loud road construction and pedestrians rushing to and from places, there is a narrow walkway that leads you between two buildings. At the end of the walkway, there is a calm, quiet place to take a break. 

What was once an empty asphalt lot behind the Multi-Agency Service Center (MASC), a homeless agency, at 1931 Center St. has slowly been converted into a rich garden filled with fruit trees, medicinal herbs and perennials for Berkeley’s homeless population to enjoy. 

“It’s this beautiful little spot in downtown Berkeley that not many people know about,” said Tom Wegner, a social worker for the Men’s Homeless Drop-In Shelter who has been in charge of the garden for over a year. “It’s kind of hidden, you have to know how to get into it.” 

Surrounded on all four sides by buildings, the Solid Ground Garden has a circular walkway and benches for people to sit on and socialize. During the morning, the place is hopping with people getting away from the city surrounding them. One-third of the garden consists of medicinal herbs, which makes it a healing center of sorts. 

“We are bringing that vitality back to an urban center,” Wegner said. 

The Men’s Homeless Drop-In Center is located in the basement of the Veterans Building on Center Street between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Several agencies share the space, which is managed by the Berkeley Emergency Food and Housing Project. 

During the day, MASC operates the drop-in center. It allows homeless people to take showers, cook food and use the telephone to look for jobs and housing. An average of 160 people visit the shelter every day. 

Five days a week Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous hold meetings in the basement. At night a different agency comes in and operates a 50-bed men’s homeless shelter. 

“The garden acts as a gateway into this place,” Wegner said. 

Four years ago, the lot was nothing but concrete. In 1996, AmeriCorps volunteers tore up the asphalt and created small garden with seeds they purchased at a Longs Drug store. 

“We had a crew of 25 people from AmeriCorps pick and ax the cement,” said Judy Radke, a case manager at the drop-in center who was a member of the Americorps group. “The first garden we ever had out there were sunflower seeds. We threw the seeds into the ground and we had beautiful sunflowers out there. Thousands of them.” 

However, after the volunteers left there were no expansions to the garden for several years. 

“It was still a big vacant lot, with a little strip of color on one side,” Wegner said. 

Then students from UC Berkeley began coming in to work on the garden, a semester at a time. Over two years, the students slowly turned more of the cement ground into restored earth with plants and trees. But the students only worked for a few months at a time and their projects rarely overlapped. 

“What was happening from semester to semester was when one person was done with theirs and then the next person started, those two projects didn’t really overlap very well,” Wegner said. “There was a lot of hit and miss and there wasn’t a lot of coordination between the projects. We were getting a lot of things here and there but no real cohesion.” 

Then Wegner, who had been working for the agency for just over one year at the time, became involved in the garden. Since he had very little experience in gardening beforehand, the whole process has been a learning experience. 

“I’ve definitely got a whole workload down here and so that garden is just kind of a side project,” he said. “It’s just something that when I started here I just watched from afar. It was just happening and I was seeing where change could be made. I just stepped forward and started running with it.” 

Wegner works on the garden during his lunch break, after his work hours and on weekends. He has been helped by volunteers and clients of the drop-in center. 

“Three years ago I came into the courtyard and I saw some people doing the gardening,” said Yukon Hannibal, a client of the homeless agency. “I’ve always been interested in gardening, but I never had a shovel in my hand long enough to do really substantial work until I came here. I just got intrigued by it.” 

In the last three years, Hannibal has been one of the most involved gardeners. 

Boy Scouts of America installed two tables with checkerboards on them. UC Berkeley students from the Architecture Department built benches to go along with the tables. The City of Berkeley has also helped. 

What is impressive about the Solid Ground Garden is that is has been built with no funding. Supplies and plants have been donated and workers have budgeted their own time. 

There is still a large amount of work that can be done on the garden. Future plans could include a mural to be painted onto one of the four walls that surrounds the garden to add more color. Wegner said he hopes to build a perennial garden that is easy to maintain and that clients of the drop-in center can enjoy year-round. 

“Somehow something starts blooming where I didn’t even know things were planted, and that’s exciting,” Wegner said. “And every season it becomes thicker and more lush.” 

Organizers are looking for people with gardening experience or resources to help. To get involved in the garden project, contact Tom Wegner at 510-843-6800 extension 116 or 510-704-0729.

Maio’s proposal is intriguing 

As a shopkeeper in Berkeley, I appreciate efforts to encourage local shopping. I read the article in last week’s Daily Planet (June 24) concerning Councilmember Linda Maio’s proposal. Several comments/suggestions come to mind. 

1) Setting criteria would be a major dispute. Besides that, who or what committees will set the criteria? 

2) Fourth Street is a wonderful place to shop because of the atmosphere (clean, neat and with pleasant architecture and plantings) and the variety and quality of merchandise. It does not depend on government issued validation stickers. 

3) Downtown needs a better atmosphere and a wider variety of merchandise. New sidewalks, trees and lampposts will help, but what is in and on the buildings is more important. 

4) Please enforce existing laws before spending $25,000-70,000 on another program. Laws are on the books to limit window usage to a percentage of its square footage - not enforced. People living in stores and operating without a permit was not enforced recently. The tenant was subsequently arrested on an unrelated charge and is in jail. 

5) Maintenance of storefronts and buildings should be encouraged (not necessarily with gifts) if not required, of merchants and property owners. 

6) Please talk to us (merchants) more frequently. The DBA should not be our only direct/indirect interface. I hope this reaches your attention. I will be interested. 

Carl Pearson 

Berkeley 

Some merchants expect too much 

The co-owners of Nfusion Inc. (Letters, June 30) took exception to Carol Denney’s letter in last Tuesday’s issue of The Daily Planet for suggesting that she didn’t want her tax dollars handed out to Berkeley merchants to promote their businesses. I couldn’t agree more with Ms. Denney, but I am not surprised that Ms. Lee and Ms. Siador believe that their gourmet tea emporium deserves money from the city at a time when summer jobs programs are being defunded and people are living on the street for lack of decent housing. This is a curious merchant mindset – that somehow owning a business is more virtuous and of greater service to the community than simply working for a living. 

These two purveyors of gourmet teas complain that they have a zero budget for promoting their products. They bemoan the fact that they must provide employee training and wages – but I notice they didn’t mention health insurance or other benefits for their workers. Perhaps they have forgotten that in a free enterprise system the advertising budget and other expenses come out of pre-profit income. Perhaps they will have to raise the price of their gourmet teas in order to convince consumers that we should be drinking more of their product. 

I think the two owners of Nfusion need an infusion of reality. Myself, I’m on a budget so I don’t believe I’ll be buying much gourmet tea in the near future. Likewise, I don’t enjoy subsidizing their businesses with my tax dollars. 

Joe Cadora 

Berkeley 

Promoting shops is misuse of funds 

While the owner’s of Nfusion and other small businesses may appreciate the large sums of money that the City regularly hands them for promotion, many of us see this practice as a misuse of public funds (Letters, June 30). Does the City expect to recover this money if and when these businesses profit? Are we to assume that any business given this money does not also enjoy a profit simultaneously? Is it a matter of the profit not being large enough? 

The federal government is also notorious for this practice; subsidizing the meat and dairy industries to the tune of billions of dollars per year (otherwise your hamburger would cost roughly $79). Without this subsidy, both industries would clearly fail (and they should). More times than not, businesses fail, not only because of the high costs associated with operation and promotion, but because there is simply not enough demand to support the product or service they provide. So, instead of realizing this fact, government has created an artificial market of businesses and industries (at our expense) which could not, in today’s world, exist on their own. As a natural foods cook and free-lance musician, I have not been offered one cent from the City to help me with my “business.” I don’t expect the City to prop me up; others shouldn’t either. 

Michael Bauce 

Berkeley 

Suggestion was not organic 

I was glad to see your article about composting in the June 30 edition. However, your suggestion to add a layer of 10-10-10 fertilizer over the top of the rotting matter is not in the spirit of composting, which is to use organic materials and let ages-old natural processes unfold. For organic gardeners, this would create a product we wouldn’t want on our crops. 

Carol David 

Berkeley

After one of the most tumultuous years in the school’s history, Berkeley High Principal Theresa Saunders may leave her post to be reassigned to a district position. 

“This has been a difficult year, and we’re trying to reassess and determine what needs to happen for the high school to be successful,” Saunders told the Daily Planet on Friday. 

“No real decisions have been made yet, and what’s happening is that we’re looking at the school to figure out what needs to happen for this thing to function properly – whether I’m here as principal, or someone else, and whoever comes in and whoever stays.” 

A final decision on whether Saunders remains principal or moves into a district job likely will be made by the middle of next week. If she is reassigned to the district office, she would oversee continued development of Berkeley Unified’s music program and would assist in developing strategies for closing the “achievement gap” between white students and students of color. 

Wednesday’s school board agenda includes a request from Superintendent Jack McLaughlin to appoint Darrel Taylor, a retired principal and superintendent in other California school districts, as the “Berkeley High School Fire Recovery and Transition Team Leader.” 

The board’s closed session agenda includes discussion of the employment contracts for McLaughlin, the district’s three associate superintendents and Saunders, during which time school board directors might discuss their feelings about any possible reassignment for the principal. 

Since assuming Berkeley High’s top job two years ago, Saunders has earned a reputation as a hard-working administrator – she frequently works 18-hour days – who’s committed to closing the achievement gap at BHS and making the campus a more functional institution. 

But she’s also drawn criticism from teachers, students and community members who blame her for many of the problems Berkeley High has experienced over the last year, including a high level of administrative turnover, scheduling conflicts at the start of the fall semester, the use of a police wagon to round up truant students and non-functioning clocks and intercoms around campus. 

Critics have said that Saunders’ leadership style too often ignores the comments of people around her, creating too much of an authoritarian approach to directing the school. At last week’s school board meeting, a series of teachers and parents complained about the initial proposal to kill the Chicano Studies program at BHS, as part of staffing reductions at the high school brought about by necessary budget cuts. The decision was reversed, after the superintendent and the school board intervened, but the teachers and parents said the principal approached the entire situation poorly. 

Her supporters rebut that assertion by noting that Berkeley High, while producing some of the top students in the country, is too dysfunctional of a campus. Saunders, they say, is the first person in a long time to finally tackle the problems that plague the school. 

McLaughlin, for one, agrees with that assessment. 

“I think she’s done an amazing job of creating some amazing changes,” he said. 

But this year’s long list of struggles – including the April arson fire that caused $2 million in damage to the B Building – have taken their toll on Saunders’ “quality of life,” as she puts it. And through a series of discussions with other administrators and the board, Saunders has become more open to the possibility of reassignment. 

“It has been a really tough year at Berkeley High,” said Board President Joaquin Rivera. “We’ve really felt that changes may be needed in order to have a good, successful school year this fall.” 

If Saunders is reassigned, the BUSD would begin a search for a new principal. Even though Taylor will serve in a leadership role over the next few months, he would not be considered an interim principal. 

“Berkeley High is a challenging place, but it’s also one of the most widely known high schools in the state and the nation, a place that be appealing to a lot of people,” McLaughlin said. 

For some, summer sun means barbecues and bucolic vacations. But for others, summer is the time to gear up for fall elections. 

That’s what Carol Hughes-Willoughby is doing. The southwest Berkeley resident has filed papers with the city clerk, allowing her to form a campaign committee and raise funds for a run for the District 2 City Council seat. 

She’ll be facing off against incumbent Margaret Breland, who was unavailable for an interview Friday. Hughes-Willoughby does not sound much like a politician when she talks about her rival for the seat. 

“Margaret Breland has a heart. I don’t have anything against her,” said the Berkeley native, who is pastor and founder of New Life Ministries in Oakland. 

“I think I’m a little more energetic. I’m not a rubber-stamp person,” she said, noting that she had conversations with former District 2 Council member Mary Wainwright, who lost to Breland four years ago, but had not yet begun to seek formal endorsements. 

Vice chair of the Human Welfare Commission, Hughes-Willoughby said she decided to take a stab at political life when the commission was sifting through funding requests from nonprofit agencies. She said she found very little proposed for youth age 17-25 and that the city has not done enough to fill the void. 

As councilmember, she says she would focus her work on young people and seniors. Hughes-Willoughby, who has been clean and sober for 14 years, says her work helping people has been informed by her years addicted to drugs and alcohol. She said she has been homeless and knows what that is like.  

An instructor at an after-school program at Malcolm X School, Hughes-Willoughby says her religious beliefs have been an important part of her recovery. 

Breland’s aide, Calvin Fong, confirmed Breland is planning to run again for the office. She was elected for her first term in 1996. 

All the other City Council incumbents said they are throwing their hats back into the familiar ring, including Maudelle Shirek, who has been councilmember for the south Berkeley flatlands District 3 since 1984, and Diane Woolley, who has been councilmember for District 5, the north central part of the city, since 1994. The fourth race will be in District 6, Betty Olds’ north hills district. Olds has been in office since 1992. 

Hughes-Willoughby is the only challenger to have established a campaign committee. The incumbents all have active committees. Formal nominations for the City Council, two School Board seats and four Rent Stabilization Board seats will open on July 17 and close August 11.  

Election day is Nov. 7. For several weeks before the elections, voting by computer will be offered in the city clerk’s office at 1900 Addison St. 

Information on running for office is available at the clerk’s office and on line at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/clerk/Election/eintro.htm. 

While a series of recent and ongoing construction projects in downtown Berkeley will ultimately bring improvements to the area’s appearance, it has left store and cafe owners with mixed feelings. 

Some say their businesses are losing up to 80 percent of their customers, while others consider road and building work just a slight inconvenience. 

The City of Berkeley is in charge of some construction projects and several private businesses are currently constructing their own buildings in the downtown area. 

The city’s downtown improvement projects includes work on Shattuck Avenue, Addison Street and University Avenue, where workers are replacing and fixing benches, sidewalks and street lamps. 

“The idea is to clean up the sidewalk and make it more attractive for pedestrians,” Deborah Badhia of the Downtown Berkeley Association said. 

Road construction last week closed off one lane of eastbound traffic on University Avenue and took away parking spaces on the block between Milvia Street and Shattuck Avenue while trench work was done. 

Daisy Dhillon, manager of House of Futons on University Avenue, complained about the noise that street construction makes outside the store. “They closed off the front part of our store that is a white loading zone, and normally people are able to park there and come in and purchase what they need,” said Dhillon, who estimated the store is losing about 30 percent of its customers during construction. “I think that now the construction is limiting that. A lot of people just drive by.” 

Bea Dong, owner of Eastwind Books on University Avenue, said the construction is not affecting foot traffic, it is just causing an inconvenience for people who normally park in front of the store. 

However, some businesses have seen an upside to construction. 

The construction at the Berkeley Repertory Theater on Addison Street directly across from the Capoeira Arts Cafe has been going on for about eight months, but has not hurt business, says manager Dae Beck. 

“Most of out business is foot traffic, so it has not affected us,” Beck said. “Actually, some of the construction workers have been patronizing the cafe, so if anything the construction is helping us.” 

Vic Touriel, owner of Darling Flower Shop on University Avenue, added that while walk-in customers have decreased almost a third in the last week, the city construction workers are working fast. 

“This group of construction workers is very efficient, and there’s nothing we can do about (loss of customers),” Touriel said. “I think it’s going to move all right.” 

Mike Talai, owner of Au Coquelet Cafe at the corner of University Avenue and Milvia Street, said that his main concern is that the road work on University only lasts as long as the contractors said it would. 

The construction is scheduled to last only three to four weeks for each block, with one week already complete on the first block. When finished, the sidewalk will be wider and restaurants will be able to put tables outside, similar to the present setup of Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street. 

The City of Berkeley is also currently in charge of construction of three downtown buildings. The Public Library at the corner of Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue is being renovated. It is expected to open by the spring of 2001. 

The Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Building at 2118 Milvia Street is under renovation. Construction should be completed by the end of the year. 

Construction of the Public Safety Building, next to the city courthouse, has closed off one lane of traffic for a block. The building should be finished in the next month or two. 

However, there are no stores adjacent to any of these buildings that are affected by the work. The only result of these projects is a loss of curbside parking spaces. 

Businesses are losing customers because of fewer parking spaces; however, they have no choice but to wait for street construction to finish. 

“Sometimes you have to go through some pain for progress,” Dong said. “But hopefully it will get better.”

At a luncheon last week, the Kiwanis Club of Berkeley awarded 12 local graduating high school students with $32,000 in scholarships. 

Rebecca Falik, who graduated from Berkeley High School in June, received the $10,000 George Whitehead Scholarship, which she will be using to attend Yale in the fall. 

Falik looked into several scholarships but said she wasn’t expecting to win this one from the Kiwanis Club. 

“This one seemed to be up my ally,” she said. “I was very pleasantly surprised.” 

The 11 other winners, who each received a $2,000 scholarship, are Angela Rothschild from Aerosmith; Elizabeth Mullarkey, Richard Pilara and Danski Perez from St. Mary’s High School; Victor Tsai and Andrea Gottlieb from Albany High School; Benjamin Hoss, Gary Yu, Jenny McNight and Amy Heidersbach from El Cerrito High School; and Eleanor Kung from Berkeley High School. 

The Kiwanis Club began issuing scholarships almost 10 years ago, and the number of students that receive the awards has grown from three to 12. The money comes from interest from a memorial fund as well as contributions from club members. 

“Community service is a big aspect of the awards,” Kiwanis Club member and scholarship chair Sharon Silveira said. 

“All these kids have gone out of their way to do community work. They are really incredible in what they did.”

Shambhala Booksellers, the 32-year-old Berkeley bookstore that was a pioneer in offering titles in Eastern and other religions of the world and their sacred traditions, may be forced to close its doors. 

Shambhala has long filled a niche in Telegraph Avenue’s booksellers row, but ironically it is threatened by the recent mass popularity of so-called “new age” books that the store always sold to its clientele, owner Philip Barry said. 

“The subject matter we specialize in is more popular than ever. Now we have the Dalai Lama on the New York Times bestseller list,” said Barry. “ That never used to happen. We are the victim of success.’’ 

The book chains expanded their inventory to include the best selling “new age” books, wrote Barry in a letter to his customers, and that meant fewer sales for Shambhala. The Internet booksellers have posed similar challenges. 

“We’re in a crisis situation,” said Barry, adding that the store may continue operating for only a few more months. “When you can’t maintain the quality of the store, that is the beginning of a downward spiral, and it’s a very The neat shelves along the walls in the small bookstore are labeled in a range of categories that include the world’s religions, Oriental medicine and Celtic studies. Robert Dreyfuss, a longtime customer and practitioner of Oriental medicine, said the store is unique. 

“It offers so much in the realm of spirituality that is so concentrated, so broad spectrum,” he said. 

Barry said he still is able to purchase inventory, but not as much as he would like to buy. 

“We always paid our bills and had a good credit rating, and we have now started to hit the point where we have trouble paying bills,” he said. 

Sales plunged 15 percent in 1998 but the store recovered 3 percent of that in 1999, but then after November sales dropped 5 percent, falling below the 1998 level. 

“We’re looking for an investor,” said Barry, who employed 13 full-time workers in 1987 and now employs a three part-time staffers besides himself. The store is open seven days a week. 

Dan Liebowitz, used book manager at Moe’s Bookstore at 2476 Telegraph, said the two stores have a symbiotic relationship. Moe’s sells used books in the same “very Berkeley” categories that Shambhala sells new, and customers can shuttle between both stores. 

He said Moe’s deliberately keeps its section of new books on Eastern religions, metaphysics and spirituality small so it doesn’t interfere with Shambhala’s trade. 

Liebowitz said that Shambhala’s owner “is a very discriminating buyer. It means a ton, and it rewards people who come into the store looking for that thing.” 

Shambhala was founded in 1968 by Samuel Bercholz and Michael Fagan in a tiny space in Moe’s Bookstore where a sign read: “Now Entering the Kingdom of Shambhala.” In Tibetan mythology the word means an elevated or happy place. 

“The store was cutting edge and it grew from there,” said Barry. 

Moe Moskowitz lent Bercholz money to move the store in 1969 to its present location at 2482 Telegraph, which had been a Christian Science reading room. 

“If I do get an investor, we’ll expand without leaving our spot,” said Barry, who began working as a clerk at Shambhala 21 years ago. 

The store’s business model no longer works, and he said he would seek a broader market without changing Shambhala’s emphasis on inventory categories. 

He would like to bring in authors and musical performances and make physical improvements in the space. On the positive side, he said, the woman who owns the building is “extremely generous.” He has an “amazing” 35-year lease signed 15 years ago. 

Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, of which Shambhala is a member, said “the thing we have to do is market ourselves better.” 

A bookstore owner himself, Landon said the college students in the Telegraph Avenue area are lured by the appeal of Amazon.com, a company “that has spent millions branding itself,’’ as opposed to advertising books. 

He said his association has to remind potential customers that there are alternatives to buying books on the net and in book chains. 

“There are things offered by stores like Shambhala that they can’t get on the Internet. It’s our job and Shambhala’s job to try to figure out ways to reach those people,” Landon said.

Thursday, June 29

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“A European Defense Identity: What Does It Mean for America?” 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Peter Gooderham, counselor of Politico-Military/European Affairs, British Embassy in Washington D.C., will be the featured lecturer. Gooderham joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983. The main focus of his career has been on defense and security issues. Before taking up his position in the Washington Embassy, Gooderham worked at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 1999. Prior to joining the British Diplomatic Service he completed a Ph.D. thesis at Bristol University in modern Russian and Soviet history. This free, brown-bag talk is sponsored by the Institute for Governmental Studies. 

510-642-4608; www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880 

Movie: “Birth of the Blues” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Memorial Stadium lights public meeting 

7-9 p.m. 

Hall of Fame Conference Room, Memorial Stadium, UC Berkeley campus 

This community meeting will present and discuss the findings of the initial study that describes the project and identifies its potential environmental effects. 

510-642-7720 

“Exploring the Trinity Alps” 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Stew Winchester of Diablo Valley College will present a slide lecture introducing the wilderness area 200 miles north of San Francisco. Free. 

510-527-4140 

Friday, June 30

Commission on Disability’s Disability Outreach Subcommittee 

11:30 a.m. 

Public Works Office, 2201 Dwight Way 

Among the items to be addressed are obstacles on sidewalks around town. 

Opera: “The Merry Widow” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; www.pacificcenter.org 

Sunday, July 2

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418

Monuments are worthy legacy 

I enjoyed reading Tom Elias’ piece about President Clinton and the national monuments (Opinion, June 28). I am happy that Clinton has chosen this way of perpetuating his memory. Corporations who log, mine and graze the lands we own are well represented in Congress. Also, the influential American Recreation Coalition represents resorts, theme parks and petroleum companies. Fee “demonstration” projects and public-private partnerships sponsored by these America Inc. groups were “forced” by cuts in the budgets of the United States Forest Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Each agency then designated between ten and fifty sites that are or are to be part of the program. Popular areas near urban centers will generate fees, leaving remote areas struggling to survive on their meager allotments. 

This is a reversal of the concept of a public good. Youth, the elderly, and poor people with children will bear the greatest burden. 

Bureaucratic czars in Smoky the Bear garb have become free of Congressional control. That’s why I waved a sign in front of the Disney store kitty-corner from Union Square (in San Francisco) a couple of weekends ago. 

Richard Thompson 

Berkeley (summer resident) 

Keene provided leadership 

I believe the City of Berkeley has benefited from City Manager James Keene’s leadership in the difficult job as City Manager. I think that I am a better councilperson for having worked with him. I have learned much from his management style. Even though our respective roles sometimes brought us into conflict, I valued the fact that I could be direct with him and he would patiently help with the big as well as small issues. 

The job as City Manager is a tough and often thankless one. The position becomes a lightening rod for whomever takes it. People’s criticism and frustration build up when decisions regarding government do not go their way. It takes a strong and poised person to handle all the flak. 

Mr. Keene is an articulate communicator and I think he has been generally liked by most in the community and will be missed. Personally, I will miss his sense of humor, especially when he hummed “Give peace a chance” at the city council meetings. 

Dona Spring 

Berkeley City Councilmember

After 14 years in jail, Laura Whitehorn is the star of a movie. And she’s not happy about it. 

“I tried talking them out of it,” said Whitehorn of Berkeley-based filmmakers Rhonda Collins and Sonja de Vries. Whitehorn, a lifelong activist-turned-violent agitator, is at the center of the filmmaking duo’s new work, “Out: The Making of a Revolutionary.” 

De Vries, whose documentary “Gay Cuba” won accolades at film festivals in 1995, and Collins, whose “we don’t live under NORMAL CONDITIONS” packed the Fine Arts Cinema last year, are premiering “Out” at San Francisco’s Castro Theater tonight as a benefit for a handful of prisoner support organizations. 

Whitehorn was incarcerated for planting a bomb in a U.S. Capitol building in 1983. The film uses her as an anchor in describing the revolutionary underground of America since the Civil Right’s Movement. A history which, for many, inevitably, includes prison. 

Whitehorn admitted on the telephone from New York that the film gave her a tempting platform to talk as much as she wanted about her political passions. But after dedicating her life to mobilizing people and aligning herself with activist collectives, to be portrayed as an individual revolutionary feels awkward. 

The problem is more than vanity versus martyrdom. The problem is representation, and it touches the essence of documentary filmmaking: how to present a subject to an audience, while staying true to the material? Activism is a collective effort, not a maverick one. 

But every story needs a main character, and if you can’t get Che Guevara, Whitehorn’s story is nonetheless engaging. Collins said she and de Vries faced a crucial decision early in the project. 

“We as filmmakers had an objective to tell the story of this one person so we could have an identification with the audience,” Collins said. 

“We hope this provokes thinking for people. Particularly for people who may have never been introduced to this history, and if they are, never really understood why certain people made the decision that they made.” 

Collins is referring to the decision to move from mass, (so-called) peaceful demonstrations to violently aggressive acts. In the film Whitehorn says the gesture of bombing a federal building was an act of “armed propaganda,” in response to the U.S. involvement in Granada and Lebanon. It came after a lifetime of petitioning, marching, and organizing. 

Hers was an act not dissimilar to that which we will be celebrating this upcoming fourth of July. For Whitehorn, the course of human events was nigh. 

Her act, also, did not come forth from a vacuum. “Out” offers a few highlights of America’s late-20th century activism. Fred Hampton, the charismatic chairman of the Chicago branch of the Black Panthers, who was assassinated, is featured prominently in archival films speaking urgent inspiration. We see image montages of police confrontations scored with protest songs. Contemporary footage of demonstrations to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, on death row in Pennsylvania, bring the film up to date. 

Whitehorn is careful not to get lost in extolling these personalities and newsreel-ready events of civil rights activism. She said she was inspired by “the courage of people who were not politicians or speakers, but people who were going about living their lives and then had to take on the water cannons and bullwhips.” 

The film has a few compelling images of Southern justice to the Civil Rights Movement’s uprising, circa 1965, but the quieter, calmer pictures reveal the sacrifices made. A lawyer, reading from documents and newspaper clippings, said Whitehorn’s sentence was the result of a plea bargain to lessen the jail time of an incarcerated comrade sick with cancer. 

Whitehorn agreed to participate in the film as a way to speak about political activism happening behind bars. Along with her fellow activists she created an HIV/AIDS educational program for inmates which was eventually shut down by prison officials. Having AIDS support groups in prison is next to impossible because it involves admitting to one of two highly illegal activities in prison: having sex and taking drugs. 

Collins and de Vries were at the Dublin facility with their cameras when Whitehorn was released, but the newly freed prisoner had turbulently mixed feelings and refused to talk. Her grief over her personal and political intimates still inside conflicted with her elation. 

Her emotions have calmed somewhat since then. 

“I have enormous amount of joy everyday at being free,” Whitehorn said on the phone last week, “but there’s a real pain that never leaves my heart."

THEATER 

AURORA THEATRE 

“Split” by Mayo Simon, June 1 through July 2. A mordant clear-eyed view of an older couple's love affair. $25 to $28. Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Closer” by Patrick Marber, through July 9. A funny, touching and unflinchingly honest examination of love and relationships set in contemporary London. $38 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; May 27, June 1, June 3, June 10, June 15, June 24, June 29 and July 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, July 1 through July 22. Shakespeare probes the shadowy corners of the human psyche in this dark, compelling tragedy of vengeance, madness and murder most foul. 

$21 to $38 general; $19 to $38 seniors; $10 to $38 children. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m.; July 11 and July 18, 7 p.m.; July 22, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre, Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit on state Highway 24. (510) 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

LaVal’s Subterranean 

Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Yoni Barkan. The play will run from June 8 to July 8, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. each night. 1834 Euclid Ave. (510) 234-6046. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Martin Fierro and Legion of Mary, June 29, 10 p.m. $9. 

“Rattle The Cage!!!” June 30, 8:30 p.m. Featuring Rebecca Riots, Green, Copperwimmin, Helen Chaya, Anna and Eileen, Women Walking Tall. $8 to $15. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

Ripe, Orquestra D, Soul, June 29. $4. 

Blue Marmalade, Molasses, June 30. $5. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Judy Henske with Craig Doerge, June 30. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Cats and Jammers, July 1. $15.50 to $16.50. 

The Copper Family, July 2. $15.50 to $16.50. 

John Miller and John Reischman, July 6. With Tammy Fassaert. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Roy Rogers and Shana Morrison, July 7. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Mighty Prince Singers and Talk of da Town, July 8. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Lila Downs, June 29, 8 p.m. $14. 

Jaranon y Bochinche, June 30, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

Zion I, July 1, 9 p.m. $8 general; $6 students. 

Quetzal, July 5, 8 p.m. $6. 

Atahualpamantab, July 7, 8 p.m. $10. 

The Soul of Black Folks, July 8, 9 p.m. $10 general; $8 students. 

Domingos de Rumba, July 9, 4:30 p.m. Free. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

The Cost, The Hi-Fives, Maurice's Little Bastard, Merrick, June 30. 

Midnight Lazer Beam, The Convocation Of..., Heart Of Snow, July 1. 

Dead and Gone, Catheter, Hog, Laughing Dog, Jeno, July 7. 

El Dopa, Dystopia, Scratchabit, July 8. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Human Life Index, June 29. $4. 

Kirby Grips, Applesaucer, The Chantigs, June 30. $6. 

Charming Hostess, July 1. 

Noche de Flamenco, July 5, 9:30 p.m. $5. 

Giblet Dribblers, The Bellyachers, July 6. $4. 

Gun and Doll Show, Chub, July 7. $6. 

Soldier of Fortune Cookie, Stikman, July 8. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

MUSEUMS 

Berkeley Historical Society 

"Berkeley's Ethnic Heritage." May 7 through March 2001. The exhibit examines the rich cultural diversity of our city and the contributions of individuals and minority groups to our history and development. The exhibit look at the original native tribelets in the area and the immigrants who settled in Ocean View and displaced the Spanish/Mexican landowners. It also examines the influence of theUniversity of California, the San Francisco earthquake, and World War II on the population and culture of Berkeley, and subsequent efforts to overcome discrimination. Curated by Linda Rosen and the Berkeley Historical Society Exhibit Committee. Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Admission free. 

Berkeley Historical Society located in the Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center Street, Berkeley. 510-848-0181 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition,” May 20 through July 2. The 13th annual exhibit of work by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree. 

“Doug Aitken/MATRIX 185: Into the Sun,” July 9 through Sept. 3. An exhibit of works primarily in video and film, using the interplay of art and media to evoke deserted landscapes. Artist’s Talk, July 9, 3 p.m. Doug Aitken discusses his installation. In Gallery 1. 

Rodin and His Contemporaries,” through August. An exhibit of 11 bronze maquettes on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles. The bronzes range in style from the artist's classically inspired “Torso of a Woman” to the anguish of “The Martyr.” 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley. A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. Free. For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Experiment Gallery,” through Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

“Math Rules!” ongoing exhibit. A math exhibit of hands-on problem-solving stations, each with a different mathematical challenge. Make mathematical ice-cream cones, use blocks to build three dimensional structures, make dodecagon pies from a variety of mathematical shapes and stretch mathematical thinking. 

“Within the Human Brain,” ongoing installation. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

PHOEBE HEARST MUSEUM 

Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley 

“Modern Treasures from Ancient Iran,” through Oct. 29. This exhibit explores nomadic and town life in ancient and modern Iran as illustrated in bronze and pottery vessels, and textiles. 

“Pana O’ahu: Sacred Stones – Sacred Places,” through July 16. An exhibit of photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. 

Wednesday through Sunday 10 am -4:30 pm; Thursday until 9 pm (Sept-May) 

(510) 643-7648 

HABITOT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

A museum especially for children age 7 and younger. Highlights include “WaterWorks,” an area with some unusual water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library. 

Admission is $4 for adults; $6 child age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child. Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

(510) 647-1111 

JUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002.  

An exhibit structured around the seasons of the year and the seasons of life with objects ranging from the sacred and the secular, to the provocative and the whimsical. Highlights include treasures from Jewish ceremonial and folk art, rare books and manuscripts, contemporary and traditional fine art, video, photography and cultural kitsch. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (510) 549-6950. 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

The City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night requiring pet owners to spay and neuter their animals or pay for the right not to. 

The vote was 6-2, with Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Councilmember Diane Woolley voting in opposition, Councilmember Margaret Breland absent and the others supporting the ordinance. 

A last-ditch effort urging the council to forget the ordinance and focus its time and energy on improving the animal shelter, went down in defeat. The substitute motion, proposed by Woolley and Shirek, suggested that the council wait about five or six weeks to pass an ordinance until a shelter director was named, and enlist the help of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Shelter Medicine Program to help improve the operation of the animal shelter. 

Woolley’s motion was defeated by a 4-3 vote, with Councilmember Polly Armstrong and Shirek joining Woolley in favor of the proposal and Councilmembers Dona Spring, Linda Maio, Betty Olds and Mayor Shirley Dean voting against it. Councilmember Kriss Worthington abstained and Breland was absent, having left the meeting early due to illness. 

The new ordinance, which Armstrong said has been misrepresented as mandatory, will require dog and cat owners to pay a $30 annual fee if they choose not to spay or neuter their animals. The fee cannot be raised for two years. Licenses for altered dogs will be $7.50. Altered cats will not require a license. 

Under the new ordinance, if a dog is caught running at large or is a dangerous animal, the citation will be $100. But this amount will be forgiven if the dog is altered within 30 days. If the dog is on the “bad dog” list, meaning it has been picked up before, the license will cost the owner $60 if the dog is unaltered. 

The new law also makes feeding and harboring feral cats a public nuisance unless the person doing so is working with an animal agency or working to have the cats spayed or neutered. 

Low-income residents and those over 65 years old are exempt from paying licensing fees. 

Proponents of the ordinance, which has been discussed in various forms for five years, said they are relieved that action has been taken on behalf of Berkeley’s animals. 

“I feel very good that council has taken a giant leap for animals here in Berkeley,” Spring said Wednesday. Spring served on the animal task force that hammered out the ordinance. 

“There was so much misinformation put forth – it was painful to see the tactics put forth to beat this mild-mannered ordinance,” Spring said. 

She called the ordinance “mild-mannered” in comparison to cities such as Los Angeles, which requires its pet owners to pay a $100 licensing fee for unaltered animals, and an additional $100 breeders charge if owners wish to breed the animal. 

Spring noted that in San Mateo a spay and neuter program reduced the number of animals killed by over 35 percent and, in contrast, Oakland built a new animal shelter without a spay and neuter program and it was full the day after its completion. 

Lee Ann Assalone, a former animal shelter worker in Santa Cruz, supported the ordinance and pleaded with the council to increase education in conjunction with it. Assalone said she had the unfortunate responsibility of euthanizing unwanted animals. 

“Everyone knows the right thing to do,” she said. 

The staff estimates that the cost to put the ordinance in place will be $57,000 for the first year and $20,000 for subsequent years. The $37,000 start-up cost includes $25,000 for a staff person to set up the unaltered license program and $12,000 for computer upgrades. The money will be taken from a surplus of $52,500 allocated to the council’s animal task force in last year’s budget. The funds were not spent because of the time taken to implement the ordinance. 

Opponents of the law, and even some supporters, believe that it is too bureaucratic, complaint-driven and punitive. 

“I think we have taken a good idea and created a bureaucracy that I don’t think will work,” said Armstrong. “It seems we could have done it in a much easier way.” 

Woolley said the ordinance has caused bad feelings among animal activists. 

“This has caused a split in the community when we should be working together for the animals. It’s become counter-productive,” she said. 

“The fix-or-be-fined notion becomes punitive. The idea that you can legislate compliance is nuts.” 

Sharply divided along traditional faction lines, the council approved a spending plan for the $3.5 million – the “little fringe at the end” of the budget, as Councilmember Polly Armstrong described it – the council is authorized to disburse. 

The rest of the city’s $215 million budget is already allocated to fixed personnel and capital costs for the fiscal year that begins Jul. 1. 

At the well-attended Tuesday night meeting, the five liberal/progressive councilmembers – Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring, and Margaret Breland – approved a list of some three dozen items, which addressed job creation, homelessness, the environment, business needs and city government needs. 

Led by the mayor, the four moderates called for the council to put off approving $1 million in spending and approve only the city manager’s $2 million list of recommended expenditures. 

The mayor argued that the remaining $1 million should not be spent until a more rational process for doling out the money has been put into place. 

“We have before us tonight a budget proposal...that continues the same flawed process that we have experienced in the past,” Dean said, reading from a prepared statement. 

“Each year council actions encourage more and more requests for new, undefined concepts and programs, some of which don’t even exist at the time funds are allocated. These requests create a frenzy of activity in which previous commitments and priorities are pushed aside, work plans are ignored, and staff is pushed to the point they cannot perform even basic duties adequately.” 

But Maio, who led the progressives’ allocation efforts, accused the mayor of ducking the hard questions. 

“Some choices had to be made,” Maio said. “We just don’t have enough money.” 

Armstrong countered Maio and backed the mayor’s stance. 

“I appreciate the mayor’s intelligent overview,” she said, acknowledging the realities of being aligned with the minority faction. “We have a disadvantage of not being on the majority. The (allocations) were worked out by the people who have five votes.” 

Armstrong went on, however, to applaud some of the content on the progressives’ list. “Much of it is wonderful,” she said. 

But a “major complaint” she offered was the absence of $150,000 for sidewalk repair and $250,000 for street repair, which the city manager had requested. 

Shirek agreed that it is important to fill up a pothole or repair a street. But she questioned the council minority’s priorities. 

“Which is more important, (street repairs or) education and caring for our youth?” she asked, rhetorically. 

Maio reminded the others that street and sidewalk repair is included as fixed costs elsewhere in the budget. The funds requested by the city manager would have accelerated the street and sidewalk repair process. 

The council majority included $150,000 in its budget for needs relating to the animal shelter and animal rescue. Woolley, however, contended that no funds should be spent on animal care issues – hiring a volunteer coordinator, upgrades to the shelter, advertising for pet adoption, funding low-cost spay and neuter programs and more – until a permanent animal shelter director is hired. That will be in about six weeks, staff said. 

“Directing the funds before we get the director in place, that’s backwards,” Woolley argued. 

During the public comment session at the beginning of the meeting, a number of citizens lined up to underscore the need for the $200,000 the council majority had proposed to improve health in the African-American community in South and West Berkeley. 

“We’re beginning to address the health disparity,” Worthington said, referring to the study that showed the chasm between the health of the largely Caucasian Hills community and the flatlands’ African-American community. 

Worthington did not miss a chance to take a swipe at the city manager: The progressive budget “reflects values not sufficiently addressed in the city manager’s budget.”

Police found a man sleeping in a gutter about 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Ridge Road. When an officer came up next to him and tried to wake him, he was slow to awaken, but finally shook his head and got up, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

Police officers identified him, and they learned there was a parole warrant for his arrest and another warrant for the misdemeanor of driving with a suspended license. 

When they searched the suspect they found an unidentified substance they believed to be half of a gram of methamphetamine in his pocket. They also found what appeared to be burglary tools, keys and other tools with the edges filed off to make them useful in breaking open locks. 

Douglas Floyd Parker was arrested on charges of parole violation and driving with a suspended license.

A man who gained entrance to a residential hall at 1777 Euclid Ave. Sunday night was thwarted in his burglary attempt. 

Around 11 p.m. Sunday, the man entered a second-floor room where the occupant, a UC Berkeley student, was away and the suspect stole her camera, wallet, laptop computer and cassette disks. 

Carrying all these items he walked down into the common living room area and one person there began talking to him, thinking he was a relative of one of the students. Then another resident, a 24-year-old man, noticed what the suspect was carrying, and asked him who he was. 

With the inquiry, the suspect turned and ran. The witness chased him and almost caught him, said Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller. 

In the chase the suspect dropped the stolen property, and it was recovered by the witness. 

The suspect was described as a Caucasian male in his 20s or 30s, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, around 200 pounds. 

At the time of the incident, he was wearing a dark vest, a short sleeve shirt and blue jeans.

This year’s annual Solano Avenue Stroll Sept. 10, in addition to the food, entertainment and crafts fair, silent auction and a parade, will highlight the 26-year-old Stroll’s recognition by the Library of Congress. 

The popular regional event draws about 100,000 people to the Solano Avenue shopping district, as the biggest and oldest free street festival in the East Bay, said Lisa Bullwinkel, Executive Director of the Solano Avenue Association. 

The Solano Avenue Stroll was selected by the Library of Congress for its Local Legacies Project initiated by the library to celebrate its bicentennial, she said. 

She said the library developed Local Legacies to ensure that future generations will be able to learn about the traditions of local communities as they were played out in cultural events at the millennium. 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee nominated Berkeley/Albany’s Solano Avenue Stroll along with Oakland’s Black Cowboys Parade, Dia de Los Muertos, and The Festival of Greece. All four events were chosen for the Local Legacies collection. 

The Stroll is represented in the library’s folk section with copies of 25 years of Stroll scrapbooks kept by the Solano Avenue Association, and with historical Stroll posters. 

Also included are 28 8-inch by 10-inch color copies of photographs, taken in the last five years, that are representative of the Stroll. The Association was required to historically document them, correctly identifying all the people in the photos. 

Taking Local Legacies one step further for this year’s Stroll, the Solano Avenue Association’s theme is Local Legacies on Parade. 

Celebrating the contributions of community members, the Association is requesting nominations of local people who are “cultural icons, quirky and wonderful,” said Bullwinkel. “You know them when you see them.” Nominees must be residents of Berkeley, Albany, Kensington or El Cerrito. 

To nominate a person who may be a local legacy, the association requests a minimum 25-word description. Nominators are requested to include their own names and addresses and telephone numbers along with the same information for the nominee. 

Bullwinkel said a tentative deadline for nominations is July 15. The nominators and their local legacies are invited to ride together in the parade that begins at the top of Solano Sept. 10. To nominate a local legacy, mail information to The Solano Avenue Association, 1563 Solano Ave., #101; Berkeley 94707. The e-mail address is lbullwinkl@aol.com

Barbara T. Christian, an acclaimed professor of African-American Studies at UC Berkeley, and a pioneer of contemporary American literary feminism, died Sunday at her home in Berkeley from cancer. She was 56. 

The author and editor of several books and almost 100 published articles and reviews, Christian was best known for her landmark study, “Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition,” which appeared in 1980 following the rediscovery of the work of important women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen. She was among the first scholars to focus national attention on such major writers as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. 

“She was a path-breaking scholar,” Percy Hintzen, chair of the department of African-American studies at UC Berkeley, said in a statement released by the university. “Nobody did more to bring black women writers into academic and popular recognition.” 

Christian was known for her critical presence in the growing debates over the relationship between race, class and gender. Her widely cited article, “The Race for Theory,” challenged the increasing domination of African-American literary study by theorists who seemed to displace both writers and their writing. 

Christian received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1970. A year later, she was appointed to UC Berkeley as an assistant professor. Previously, she had spent six years as an activist and teacher at New York’s City College. 

At UC Berkeley, Christian soon became central in establishing the African-American Studies department, where she taught from 1972 until her death. She served as chair of that department from 1978 until 1983 and went on to chair the campus’s new Ethnic Studies doctoral program from 1986 to 1989.  

Christian was the first African-American woman at UC Berkeley to be granted tenure (1978), the first to receive the campus’s Distinguished Teaching Award (1991), and the first to be promoted to full professor (1986). 

This year, she was awarded UC Berkeley’s highest honor, the Berkeley Citation. 

A beloved teacher, her courses attracted large numbers of students of virtually all ethnic backgrounds.  

“Fighting the backlash against affirmative action, which decreased the presence of students of color in higher education, remained one of her central passions,” said Dr. Gabrielle Foreman, one of Christian’s former graduate students.  

Christian’s home was an extension of the intellectual activity, diversity and warmth that had characterized her classroom. 

She also was committed to community education, helping to found the University Without Walls, a community-based alternative college for people of color. 

Her work establishing the college is but one example of her dedication to progressive politics and social justice, friends note. 

Christian, who was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, is survived by her daughter, Najuma I. Henderson of Berkeley; her parents, Judge Alphonso A. Christian and Ruth Christian of St. Thomas; her siblings, Reubina Gomez of St. Thomas, Alicia Wells of Philadelphia, Delano Christian of San Francisco, Cora Christian of St. Croix, Alphonso Christian II of Washington D.C.; her ex-husband, David Henderson of New York; and by her stepson, Imetai Malik Henderson of New York. 

The African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley will hold memorial services this August. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions should be sent to the Barbara T. Christian Scholarship Fund, c/o Marvina White, Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.

An attempted robbery was foiled about 6 a.m. Monday after three would-be robbers gained entry to rooms at the Ramada Inn at 920 University Ave. 

The suspects went into the motel and told the desk clerk they had come to visit a guest staying in one of the rooms. Instead they went into several rooms, finding some of them unlocked. The suspects were able to enter some occupied rooms, where they demanded money from the guests. 

In one room, as the suspects accosted one of the guests, he screamed loudly that he was being robbed. The victim’s screams attracted attention to the robbers, who had no weapons, and they left the motel. Police were alerted before the suspects left the motel, and found them running away near Addison and Eighth streets. 

Three people, all Berkeley residents were arrested by police: two juveniles, and John Wilson, 19, of Berkeley, who was arrested on charges of attempted robbery and possession of cocaine. 

An attempted robbery was foiled about 6 a.m. Monday after three would-be robbers gained entry to rooms at the Ramada Inn at 920 University Ave. 

The suspects went into the motel and told the desk clerk they had come to visit a guest staying in one of the rooms. Instead they went into several rooms, finding some of them unlocked. The suspects were able to enter some occupied rooms, where they demanded money from the guests. 

In one room, as the suspects accosted one of the guests, he screamed loudly that he was being robbed. The victim’s screams attracted attention to the robbers, who had no weapons, and they left the motel. Police were alerted before the suspects left the motel, and found them running away near Addison and Eighth streets. 

Three people, all Berkeley residents were arrested by police: two juveniles, and John Wilson, 19, of Berkeley, who was arrested on charges of attempted robbery and possession of cocaine. 

The handwriting is on the walls, on the trash cans and on traffic signs – anywhere taggers leave their marks for the world to see – and the city spends more than $250,000 a year to fight it with cleanup crews daily. 

Eleven years ago, the city launched its Graffiti Abatement Program, the start of an aggressive, targeted effort to quickly remove graffiti from public property. As that program has grown and progressed, however, people have noticed that taggers have started to scrawl more of their work on private property. 

“If there is graffiti on a building it makes the whole street look bad, “ said Patrick Keilch, deputy director of the city’s Public Works Department. “We believe it is in the public interest to remove it from private property, but we encourage businesses to do more themselves.”  

He said graffiti abatement is both a public and private responsibility. The city is able to do removal on private property because graffiti is considered to be a blight on the community. 

Deborah Badhia of the Downtown Berkeley Association said she understands that the city is “stretched thin” in terms of abating graffiti. It takes immediate removal to discourage taggers, she said. 

“Some of the graffiti (downtown) is on longer than we want it to be,” she said. 

Nevertheless, Badhia said that “ultimately the property owners are responsible for much of their own cleanup. It’s part of the equation of living in an urban area.” 

In a recent draft of strategies for downtown Berkeley graffiti abatement, Badhia suggested more education for DBA members regarding what they can do themselves to discourage taggers and how they can work more effectively with the Public Works Department. 

Last May, property owners along Telegraph Avenue joined together to hire their own graffiti clean-up crew, because they wanted shoppers to visit a clean, attractive district. 

Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District, said that the amount of graffiti on Telegraph “is not more overwhelming than any other place.” 

On a recent morning crew supervisor Mary Isbell and Calvin Kelly removed black spray painted circles on a gray stucco wall. An easy removal, the pair sprayed Goof Off graffiti remover on the wall, wiped it off with rags and then painted over the spot with brushes leaving no trace of graffiti. 

This full-time crew or “broom brigade” of four people spends most of its time on other cleaning jobs in the district unrelated to graffiti abatement, said Peterson. The budget for their services is between $90,000 and $100,000 a year. 

Peterson said last June when he took the job he walked out in the morning and found about 20 different graffiti samples every day. But the amount decreased to about 10 incidents six months ago and now most days it is fewer than five. 

“So there isn’t graffiti left over from the previous day,” said Peterson. 

He said the intention of the district’s property owners is to squelch the satisfaction that graffiti makers might get from the public display of their work. 

The Public Works Department, in its graffiti-fighting effort, hires workers from three sources: the agency’s Streets Division, which provides two abatement employees; BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency), which provides two employees on a contract basis; and a program for high school students, who work on weekends, school vacations and holidays and are supervised by Boss crews. 

The BOSS crews do not step up on ladders or hang from roofs to remove graffiti or stickers higher than nine feet, because of cost issues with worker’s compensation and insurance, said Adrian Harper from BOSS. 

As of Sunday 20 high school students are working in shifts to remove graffiti in Berkeley. 

“I think they understand how much work it is to remove graffiti” said Harper. “They get a much better appreciation of the city.” 

Harper said he did not know if the graffiti problem is improving or becoming worse. 

“It’s just maintenance. If you don’t have someone out there diligently removing it, the problem is going to be worse.” Spray paint makes it easy for kids to do graffiti, he said. 

He recalled the work of one tagger two years ago who spraypainted swastikas on buildings along San Pablo Avenue from Dwight Way to Alcatraz Avenue. 

With spray paint, said Harper, a tagger like that one can paint an icon in less than one minute, but it takes about 30 minutes to cover each icon with paint that matches the walls of the building, and it may need more than one coat. 

Keilch said the graffiti removal includes steam cleaning under high pressure, and a “soda blaster” that blasts pulverized salt mixed with water onto walls. 

A powerful aid in removing marks on stucco, concrete and stone, it is especially useful on brick masonry where paint and solvents don’t work, he said. 

He said several kinds of paint removers are on the market, but the city would rather not use them because employees would breathe toxic fumes. 

Keilch said prime targets of taggers are the streets and sidewalks in the downtown, on University Avenue and on Telegraph Avenue. But the city’s 27 parks and five recreation centers are hit the hardest. He said they could receive as much as half of all the tagging activity in the summer. 

Taggers who deface buildings with graffiti here because they seek recognition or because they are marking gang territory mainly are youthful offenders, and not all of them come from Berkeley, said Sgt. Steve Odom of the police department’s Youth Services Bureau. 

He said his department investigates graffiti cases, depending on its location and its content – whether its gang-related or more “artistic.” Officers may photograph the graffiti before removal if they think the graffiti is associated with gang activity. 

Youthful offenders are required to make restitution to property owners and they receive education to understand the impact and consequences of doing graffiti, said Odom. 

He said he has seen a decrease in tagging in recent years. He credited recently retired Sgt. Frank Reynolds with avidly collecting information that helped the police shut down more taggers. 

Odom said that in 1996 Berkeley placed 48 taggers on probation in the Oakland Juvenile Court. In 1997 there were 56 taggers placed on probation. In 1998 the number dropped to 17, and only 13 referrals were made in 1999. Odom said that so far this year there only has been one. 

An aggressive attack on the problem in the Graffiti Abatement Program and by police, said Odom, got the word out to the network of taggers that Berkeley is knowledgeable, comprehensive and tough on taggers. “So they didn’t mess with us.”

Wednesday, June 28 

“Seeds of Fun” 

Noon 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC Berkeley campu 

Explore and identify the many different sizes and shapes of seeds, and use them to make music, create jewelry, and to plant. This is part of the Summer Science Funday series at the Hall. Included with admission. 

510-642-5132; www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

Low-vision trip to Orientation Center for the Blind 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Housing Rights? Where Will You Live Tomorrow?” 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

This membership meeting of the Berkeley Gray Panthers will address affordable housing. The meeting is open to the public. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 

Among the other items for discussion, the commission will address the safety element of the General Plan. 

Baby Bounce and Toddler Tales 

7 p.m. 

West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 

This storytime program is designed for families with children up to 3 years old. The free, participatory program features a half hour of multicultural songs, rhymes, lap jogs and stories to give very young children a lively introduction to the magic of books. Parents also will enjoy the new stories, rediscover old favorites and learn new songs and games to share. 

510-644-6870 

Poetry Flash 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured poets this session will be Brandon Brown and Peter Money. 

510-845-7852; 510-525-5476 

Thursday, June 29 

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“A European Defense Identity: What Does It Mean for America?” 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Peter Gooderham, counselor of Politico-Military/European Affairs, British Embassy in Washington D.C., will be the featured lecturer. Gooderham joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983. The main focus of his career has been on defense and security issues. Before taking up his position in the Washington Embassy, Gooderham worked at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 1999. This free, brown-bag talk is sponsored by the Institute for Governmental Studies. 

510-642-4608; www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880 

Movie: “Birth of the Blues” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Memorial Stadium lights public meeting 

7-9 p.m. 

Hall of Fame Conference Room, Memorial Stadium, UC Berkeley campus 

This community meeting will present and discuss the findings of the initial study that describes the project and identifies its potential environmental effects. 

510-642-7720 

“Exploring the Trinity Alps” 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Stew Winchester of Diablo Valley College will present a slide lecture introducing the wilderness area 200 miles north of San Francisco. Free. 

510-527-4140 

Friday, June 30 

Opera: “The Merry Widow” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Saturday, July 1 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

“The Rides of Summer” 

11 a.m. 

Meet at Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Center Street 

This is a “first Saturday” all-ages community bike ride. On this ride, the group may visit the Albany “Bulb” and then take the Bay Trail out to Point Richmond for a picnic and some fun at Keller’s beach – but organizers note that anything's possible. 

510-601-8124 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Sunday, July 2 

“Early A.M. Birdwalk” 

8 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

This is a walk in Laurel Canyon for people 10 years and older. 

510-525-2233 

Traditional music performance 

2 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, Canon Drive off Grizzly Peak Boulevard 

Paul Kotapish and Scott Nygaard will perform traditional music from the Americas. 

510-525-2233 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

7 p.m. 

2022 Blake St. 

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions for the Green Party of Alameda County, leading up to endorsements on measures and candidates on the November ballot. This week’s focus will be, “Should the Green Party consider endorsing Republican/Democratic candidates in partisan races?” The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418

Nuclear vs. nuclear weapons research in Berkeley 

I would like to clarify some points raised by the opinion letters of Doug Finley (Letters, June 21) and Julian Borrill (Letters, June 22). 

Firstly, the most serious confusion raised by those letters is the discrepancy between the titles given to the letters – “Nuclear research not conducted in Berkeley” and “Nuclear-related work does occur here in Berkeley” – and their content. Neither of those writers were addressing the issue of whether “Nuclear” or “Nuclear-related” research is conducted in Berkeley. It is. Berkeley Lab has a division whose name and focus is Nuclear Science. UC Berkeley has a Nuclear Engineering Department. All of matter is composed of nuclear particles. It would be difficult to have a serious science program without including the study of nuclear particles in some form. 

The issue that was being addressed in those opinion letters was whether or not Nuclear WEAPONS research is conducted in Berkeley. I believe this issue is subject to interpretation. 

Research that the US keeps secret from others because we believe it gives us power over them with more capable weapons is not conducted in Berkeley. As Mr. Finley says, such classified weapons research was phased out at Berkeley Lab many years ago. The results of research done at Berkeley Lab are published in the open literature. 

On the other hand as my colleague Mr. Borrill notes, much unclassified research can be considered to support nuclear weapons work. Development of a scientific instrument such as DARHT can and in this case clearly will be used for nuclear weapons research. Some multipurpose computer science research can be used for nuclear weapons investigations and therefore may be funded by a program like ASCI whose focus is on nuclear weapons. 

I would say that while such unclassified research may support nuclear weapons research, it is not in itself nuclear weapons research. I supported nuclear weapons research for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and now support unclassified research at Berkeley Lab. While I personally believe in the value of both types of research, I think the distinction is an important one. 

James Donnelley 

Staff Scientist, Berkeley Lab

THEATER 

AURORA THEATRE 

“Split” by Mayo Simon, June 1 through July 2. A mordant clear-eyed view of an older couple's love affair. $25 to $28. Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE 

“Closer” by Patrick Marber, through July 9. A funny, touching and unflinchingly honest examination of love and relationships set in contemporary London. $38 to $48.50. Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; May 27, June 1, June 3, June 10, June 15, June 24, June 29 and July 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-4700 or (888) 4BRTTIX. 

CALIFORNIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, July 1 through July 22. Shakespeare probes the shadowy corners of the human psyche in this dark, compelling tragedy of vengeance, madness and murder most foul. $21 to $38 general; $19 to $38 seniors; $10 to $38 children. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m.; July 11 and July 18, 7 p.m.; July 22, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre, Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit on state Highway 24. (510) 548-9666 or www.calshakes.org 

LaVal’s Subterranean 

Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Yoni Barkan. The play will run from June 8 to July 8, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. each night. 1834 Euclid Ave. (510) 234-6046. 

MUSIC VENUES 

ASHKENAZ 

Dotgals with Caller, June 28, 8 p.m. $8. 

Martin Fierro and Legion of Mary, June 29, 10 p.m. $9. 

“Rattle The Cage!!!” June 30, 8:30 p.m. Featuring Rebecca Riots, Green, Copperwimmin, Helen Chaya, Anna and Eileen, Women Walking Tall. $8 to $15. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

“Third World,” June 28. With UC Buu, DJ Add, Jah Bonz, Big Willie. 

Ripe, Orquestra D, Soul, June 29. $4. 

Blue Marmalade, Molasses, June 30. $5. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Dakota Dave Hull and Kari Larson, Duck Baker, Tony Marcus and Bob Wilson, June 29. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Judy Henske with Craig Doerge, June 30. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Cats and Jammers, July 1. $15.50 to $16.50. 

The Copper Family, July 2. $15.50 to $16.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Lila Downs, June 29, 8 p.m. $14. 

Jaranon y Bochinche, June 30, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

The Cost, The Hi-Fives, Maurice's Little Bastard, Merrick, June 30. 

Midnight Lazer Beam, The Convocation Of..., Heart Of Snow, July 1. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Human Life Index, June 29. $4. 

Kirby Grips, Applesaucer, The Chantigs, June 30. $6. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

MUSEUMS 

Berkeley Historical Society 

"Berkeley's Ethnic Heritage." May 7 through March 2001. The exhibit examines the rich cultural diversity of our city and the contributions of individuals and minority groups to our history and development. Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Admission free. 

Berkeley Historical Society located in the Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center Street, Berkeley. 510-848-0181 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

UC BERKELEY ART 

MUSEUM 

“Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition,” May 20 through July 2. The 13th annual exhibit of work by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students ages 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 1 1 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. 

HALL OF HEALTH  

2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level), Berkeley 

A hands-on community health education museum and science center sponsored by Children's Hospital Oakland and Alta Bates Medical Center. 

Free. 

For children ages 3 to 12 and their parents. 

(510) 549-1564 

LAWRENCE HALL 

OF SCIENCE 

“Experiment Gallery,” through Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

$6 general; $4 seniors, students and children ages 7 to 18; $2 children ages 3 to 6; free children under age 3. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.eduJUDAH L. MAGNES 

MUSEUM 

2911 Russell St., Berkeley 

“Telling Time: To Everything There Is A Season,” through May 2002. Through Nov. 4: “Spring and Summer.” Free. Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

(510) 549-6950. 

GALLERIES  

A.C.C.I. GALLERY 

“Abstract Expressions,” through July 1. A group show featuring Rita Flanagan, Carolyn Careis, Heather Hutchinson, Muriel Paley, and Naomi Policoff. 

Free. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527. 

KALA INSTITUTE 

“Markings/Imprints,” through July 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part I, featuring works by Susan Belau, Liliana Lobo Ferreira, and Jamie Morgan. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. 

Workshop Media Center Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-2977. 

NEW PIECES GALLERY 

“Progressions: the Quilt as Art,” through June 29. An exhibit of quilts by Jill Le Croisette. 

“Go We to the Revels Masked,” through June 29. An exhibit of dolls by Elise Peeples. 

Free. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1597 Solano Ave., Berkeley. (510) 527-6779. 

“Yangtze River: in the Dragon’s Teeth” 

Carol Brighton's poured paper paintings of the Yangtze River gorges, through July 31. 

Six-foot paper pieces in the long format of a Chinese scroll. Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St., Berkeley 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). 

Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. 

Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

Much attention has been paid in recent months to the troubling academic achievement gap between white students and students of color at Berkeley High School, but the parallel “discipline gap” at the campus is not being openly addressed. 

That’s one of the conclusion of a report presented to the school board last week by the Diversity Project’s Discipline Committee, which has been examining the issue since September. 

“I think the challenge to the board, to the administration and to this whole community is to make sure that this issue doesn’t die, and that support for these very basic recommendations to be carried out, is provided,” Pedro Noguera, co-director of the Diversity Project and a UC Berkeley professor, said during a presentation at last week’s school board. 

A central theme in the report is the lack of accountability at the high school, which is highly evident in the often dysfunctional discipline system. The group’s research found that “not one teacher” who was interviewed felt there was a “cohesive, directed or shared understanding of discipline” at the school. 

The On-Campus Suspension (OCS) program is used unevenly, and it seems to lack a defined purpose, the report states. And Off-Campus Suspension seems equally ineffective in changing student behavior. 

But the most unsettling finding – though hardly shocking to those who know Berkeley High well – was the over-representation of minority students in the discipline system at the school. During the fall 1998 semester, African-American students comprised 39 percent of the student body but made up 70 percent of the referrals to OCS. Caucasian students were 31 percent of the campus but just 10 percent of the referrals. 

The report made a series of recommendations to begin tackling the apparent inequity in discipline, as well as academic achievement. Those ideas included increased communication on campus, a more clearly defined discipline system, needs assessment to identify how individual students can be assisted, and ongoing professional development for staff. 

The school board was largely receptive to the recommendations made in the report and the analyses provided during the presentation. School Board Director Terry Doran, himself a retired BHS teacher, told the committee members that many teachers and staff have known of the inequity issues for years, but those who have pushed for change have run into roadblocks. 

“There are many people at Berkeley High who want to do things differently, and they see the issues that you’ve raised very clearly, and they’ve been blocked,” he said. “We know that for some people, preserving the status quo preserves their programs that meet the needs of certain students.” 

But Director Shirley Issel, while saying she agreed with much of the committee’s report, took issue with some of the conclusions and recommendations. The academic achievement gap does exist, but it has to be viewed in a broader context, she argued. She cited an in-house report that showed Caucasian, African-American and Latino students performed better, on average, on the SAT-9 tests than their counterparts around the state. 

“We are nowhere near where we need to be,” she said. “But we have to realize that we are doing something right.” 

Issel offered her harshest criticisms against suggestions to create more heterogeneous courses in the freshman CORE program, and to use “equity” as the primary focus for staff development. Instead, equity must be one of several standards by which staff training effectiveness is measured. 

And she objected to “subtle and sometimes not so subtle assumptions that racism lies at the heart of the achievement gap at the high school.” 

Noguera said he was “disturbed” by Issel’s reaction and her assertion that the Diversity Project was accusing anyone of racism. 

“What we’ve tried to do at Berkeley High School is to bring together teachers, students and parents, from across racial groups, to look at these issues without fingerpointing,” he said. “And although it has been uncomfortable at times to ask the tough questions, we have never singled people out, so to hear that tonight, I find insulting.” 

He said Issel’s comments were similar to what he’s heard from other people in Berkeley, who pat themselves on the back because things aren’t as bad here as they are in other places, so they settle for not pursuing change. 

The Human Genome Project is a perfect example of how the Internet has changed science by making vast databases of information available to scientists at the click of a mouse. In the same way, the Internet could revolutionize America’s dauntingly complex health care industry.  

But a group of scientists and venture capitalists who gathered Tuesday for a discussion at UC Berkeley focused instead on the many roadblocks ahead for what they called “e-health care.” 

“I think there are phenomenal opportunities here, but the road’s going to be torturous,’’ said Samuel Colella, managing director of Versant Ventures, a Menlo Park venture capital firm that specializes in health care interests. 

Online health care, which right now is largely limited to informational and pharmacy Web sites such as PlanetRx.com and WebMD.com, has been hyped a great deal. But profitable business models – and reasons for investing – are few and far between, Colella said. 

To be sure, the Internet could streamline medical records, insurance claims and prescriptions, but the computing power needed to handle all that data is several years away, panelists said. And until better technology and viable business models come along, investing in e-health care is “still an incredibly high risk,” Colella said. 

Thus far the only profits associated with online health care have come from business-to-business transactions such as medical supply auctions, and from shepherding online “communities” of patients toward products that interest them, panelists said. 

But the roadblocks to the one-click health care system of the future are not just about business models and technology. Medical records are another frontier. 

Putting records online would make it possible for any doctor anywhere to see a patient’s comprehensive medical history, thus avoiding duplicate tests and making it far easier to diagnose illness. 

But Americans are still not comfortable enough with security on the Web to put their records online, said Dr. Mark McClellan, an assistant professor at Stanford University’s Center for Health Policy. 

“There’s still a fundamental perception problem of whether people think medical records online are safe,” McClellan said. “Most Americans do not think so.” 

Providing such widespread access to medical histories also raises ethical questions, McClellan said, which are notably similar to those raised by Monday’s announcement that scientists had completed a rough draft map of all the genetic information contained in a typical human.  

The fear is that if medical records or genetic information about individual humans gets into the wrong hands – particularly if it happens long before cures are developed – discrimination could result. 

Complicating matters further, there is no standard medical-record format that every hospital, insurance provider and doctor uses, McClellan said. All these health care entities would have to agree on a format before the information could be put online with any efficiency, he said.  

Despite the obstacles, the experts at Tuesday’s conference, entitled “Into the 21st Century: Genomics and Beyond,” were still enthusiastic about online health care’s potential. 

“E-health care is one of the few things in the last 50 years that could improve not only the quality of health care but its efficiency,” said Laura D’Andrea Tyson, dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

SAN FRANCISCO – You are what you eat, right? Well, a few hundred years down the road the only way people might know anything about you is because of the stuff you didn’t eat – the bones, the cans, the bottles. After all, as any sanitation worker, detective or crazed stalker will tell you, one can tell a lot about somebody by sifting through his garbage. 

And some 225-year-old “garbage” is telling UC Berkeley researchers quite a lot about San Francisco’s first non-indigenous settlers. 

Having been nearly continuously inhabited by Spanish, Mexican and finally American soldiers and their families since 1776, the Presidio is an archaeological gold mine – or rather, a garbage dump. The Funston Avenue Archaeological Research Project’s sites are inundated with a wealth of remnants from the 1770s all the way up to the present, a situation conveniently unearthed by a serendipitous discovery seven years ago. 

“The site was discovered in 1993 back when the U.S. Army was undertaking an environmental remediation program out here,” recalls Barb Voss, a UC Berkeley anthropology graduate student and the archaeological project’s co-coordinator. “I was working for an archaeological consulting firm hired to oversee the process. On one rainy day in May we were removing a fuel oil storage tank behind Building 12 and we discovered some stones that aren’t native to the soil. We weren’t sure what we’d found.” 

Several weeks and several test excavations later, Voss realized just what it was that had been uncovered beneath the old fuel tank – the exposed external foundation of the original Spanish colonial quadrangle (a quadrangle is an open space surrounded on its four sides by buildings). 

The site was on display for the public Tuesday afternoon as Voss and a good number of the 60 volunteers (one-quarter of whom come from Cal, while others hail from universities as far off as Scotland or Australia) spent the day working the fifth-year dig and answering questions for the curious onlookers. 

The original Presidio served as a Spanish military post from its inception in 1776 until the Mexican war of independence ended in 1822. At that time the fort became a Mexican stronghold until transferring over to United States hands in 1848. Military personnel and their families lived on the Presidio up until 1994 – and Voss has the artifacts to prove it. 

Remnants from the Spanish era include adobe bricks, roofing tile (Voss points out that roofs were originally thatched, but the colonists quickly learned that straw roofs and San Francisco weather do not a mixture make), imported and domestically produced pottery and, of course, remains of meals long past. 

“The animal bones present are fairly large-sized, feet, vertebrae, teeth. That points to primary butchering rather than household butchering,” says Voss. “Based on the amount of bones we’ve found, beef stew was probably a mainstay.” 

Moving from the site of the unearthed wall of the eastern wing of the Spanish quadrangle to roughly 75 feet eastward, Voss jokes “we’ve just walked 100 years up in history.” In front of the Victorian officers’ housing erected in 1862 (and still standing), a pit yielding “a wealth of trash from the Civil War period” is teeming with activity. Until 1878, the officers’ housing faced the other direction, meaning the current dig is actually leafing through the Civil War soldiers’ backyards – meaning all the scraps and trash hurled out the back door are now seeing the light of day once more. 

“We’ve found a lovely collection of American artifacts,” says Amy Ramsay, the project’s other co-coordinator and also a UC Berkeley anthropology grad student. “Bottle fragments, handles to silverware, fragments of whiteware (American and English-produced plates), military buttons and lots of other things that say, ‘Hey! You’ve got a nice American period deposit here.’” 

In addition to uncovering a number of broken items that were thrown away, researchers have found artifacts that were, fortunately for posterity, lost. 

“A lot of the children’s toys we found are things I imagine the kids would have liked to have kept,” says Ramsay. “We’ve found so many children’s toys this year, and children are generally not represented well in archaeological recoveries.” 

Archaeologists and students have turned up several-hundred year old marbles, Crackerjack prizes, a miniature Coca-Cola bottle, a Roy Rogers pistol from the 1940s or ’50s and, most recently, toy jet plane wings from the ’70s. 

“During the Civil War period a lot was written about the Presidio and photography was very active,” says Ramsay. “So a lot of people say we have all the answers. But the question is, who was included in the written record? Were the people who were being written about in agreement with those who were writing? 

“Here we see the mundane, day-to-day experience,” continues Ramsay while pointing at the dig. “I want to find artifacts and other indicators in the soil so we can figure out what was going on here in the backyards of Civil War and immediately post-Civil War officers’ quarters.”

Two new vice provosts at UC Berkeley, who will play central roles in academic administration, have been selected, officials announced Tuesday. 

History and economics professor Jan de Vries will oversee academic affairs and faculty welfare while engineering professor William C. Webster will take the lead for academic planning and facilities. 

“I am delighted that Jan de Vries and Bill Webster have agreed to serve in these senior positions. The foundations of Berkeley’s excellence have always been the faculty and the quality of the education we provide. With these appointments, our faculty and our students will be well served,” Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said in a statement announcing the appointments. 

The vice provost positions, which are pending the UC Regents’ approval, are key components of a restructuring of the senior administration that is aimed at seizing opportunities in teaching, technology and research as UC Berkeley moves into the 21st century. 

“Jan de Vries and Bill Webster know this campus, its faculty and its academic mission inside and out. But what impresses me most is their commitment to ensuring that the future of UC Berkeley is as distinguished as its past. I could not have asked for two more experienced and skillful partners,” Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Designate Paul R. Gray, who will assume his post on July 1, said in the university news release. 

With the appointment in the near future of a vice provost for undergraduate education and instructional technology, the new senior management team will be complete. Earlier it was announced that professor Mary Beth Burnside will become vice chancellor for research in January 2001 and that Mary Ann Mason, a professor of social welfare, will become dean of the Graduate Division on Aug. 1. 

As vice provost for academic affairs and faculty welfare, de Vries will be responsible for all aspects of the academic personnel process for UC Berkeley’s 2,500 faculty members. He also will provide leadership in academic affirmative action and will oversee the offices of Academic Compliance and Faculty Equity Assistance. 

“In the coming years, we must renew and further develop the best faculty in the world. I can’t think of a greater academic responsibility and look forward to the challenge it represents,” said de Vries. 

A UC Berkeley faculty member since 1973, de Vries, 56, is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History and a professor of economics. He served as interim dean of the social sciences in 1999 and was chairman of the history department from 1987 to 1991. He recently was awarded the A.H. Heineken Prize for History and has published widely on European and Dutch economic history. 

Webster, who served as the associate dean of the College of Engineering from 1991 to 1999, will assume primary responsibility for planning, coordinating and implementing academic planning initiatives as the vice provost for academic planning and facilities. 

He will also be responsible for operations of self-supporting academic units, including University Extension and Summer Sessions. 

“What excites me about this new position is the opportunity to help determine what the ‘shape’ of the university should be so that we can better address the problems and opportunities California and the world will face in the coming decades,” said Webster.  

In addition to a number of positions in academic administration, Webster, 62, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley since 1969 and holds the James Fife Chair in the department. 

He is a world-recognized expert in the motion of ships and off-shore platforms such as oil rigs and floating airport run

The next city manager will be selected by a supermajority if the mayor has her way. 

Mayor Shirley Dean will propose a process at tonight’s council meeting for the selection of a top executive to replace City Manager Jim Keene, who is taking the city manager post in Tucson in August. 

In a document released Monday, Dean suggests that seven out of the nine members of the council should agree on the candidate. 

“This is to ensure that the broadest possible support is available to the candidate,” the mayor says in her proposal. 

In a phone interview, Dean conceded that the city charter says decisions are made by five votes and has no provisions for a two-thirds vote. However, she said she hopes the council will go along with the spirit of her proposal. 

“I would think that any city manager would turn down the job with a divided city council,” Dean said. 

The council will discuss Dean’s proposal as well as one to be presented by Councilmember Linda Maio. Maio’s recommendations were not available Monday. 

The mayor will also propose a process for the selection of an interim city manager, since the manager selection process is expected to take six months or longer. 

The council “will interview the candidate already selected for interview (at the closed council meeting June 13) regarding filling the city manager position on an interim bases,” she writs in her council report. 

Some speculate that person may be Deputy City Manager Weldon Rucker, whose candidacy Councilmember Dona Spring is championing. The mayor said she could not divulge the name of the individual who may be interviewed. The council will meet in closed session, perhaps as early as Wednesday, to make the decision, which will not be made public until the candidate and the council come to an agreement on remuneration, Dean said. 

Dean is proposing that at tonight’s meeting certain councilmembers be designated to negotiate the contract provisions with the person selected for interim manager. 

The bulk of the mayor’s proposal addresses the search for a new city manager. She says the search should be conducted by a national headhunter, chosen by the council. 

The firm would look for an individual whose profile would be created through interviews with all councilmembers, six senior staff members and six representatives of the employee unions. The full council would approve the final profile. 

Once the search is completed, a representative of the firm would meet in closed session with the council, sort through the candidates and create a short list of applicants. 

These five or six top candidates would then be interviewed by a community committee of nine or 10 members. The interviews would be “closed in order to protect the confidentiality of the candidates,” the mayor writes. When Keene and several other candidates were interviewed in Tucson by a citizens committee, the interviews were conducted on public TV, according to the local papers. 

The committee members would be appointed by the council as a whole in closed session. They would be designated “under a voluntary agreement among ourselves that a consensus of seven or more councilmembers would be needed to appoint each member of the committee,” the mayor writes. 

The community committee, which would meet only once or twice, should include representatives of the business community, the university community, neighborhoods, city employees and other groups as determined by the council, the mayor said. “The committee should represent the diversity of the city, but need not be confined to Berkeley residents.” 

Dean said committee members would not rank candidates, but would submit written comments to the council on each. 

The council would then interview candidates on the short list in closed session and make a selection. A contract would be negotiated by the same group that negotiated the contract with the interim city manager. 

Tonight’s City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. and will be held in Council Chambers in Old City Hall, at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The meeting will be broadcast over 89.3-FM, KPFB, and televised on Cable Channel 25, B-TV.

Tuesday, June 27

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

Easy Tilden Trails 

9:30 a.m. 

Tilden Regional Park, in the parking lot that dead ends at the Little Farm 

Join a few seniors, the Tuesday Tilden Walkers, for a stroll around Jewel Lake and the Little Farm Area. Enjoy the beauty of the wildflowers, turtles, and warblers, and waterfowl. 

510-215-7672; members.home.com/teachme99/tilden/index.html 

Blood pressure screening 

9:30 a.m. 

“When Do You Take it Personally?” 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

City Council Meeting 

7 p.m. 

Council Chambers, Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

510-531-8664 

Women’s Rap 

8-9:30 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

This week’s session will include a viewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s famous lesbian episode. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

Wednesday, June 28

“Seeds of Fun” 

Noon 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above UC Berkeley campu 

Explore and identify the many different sizes and shapes of seeds, and use them to make music, create jewelry, and to plant. This is part of the Summer Science Funday series at the Hall. Included with admission. 

510-642-5132; www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

Low-vision trip to Orientation Center for the Blind 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

“Housing Rights? Where Will You Live Tomorrow?” 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

This membership meeting of the Berkeley Gray Panthers will address affordable housing. The meeting is open to the public. 

Disaster Council 

7 p.m. 

Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 

Among the other items for discussion, the commission will address the safety element of the General Plan. 

Baby Bounce and Toddler Tales 

7 p.m. 

West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 

This storytime program is designed for families with children up to 3 years old. The free, participatory program features a half hour of multicultural songs, rhymes, lap jogs and stories to give very young children a lively introduction to the magic of books. Parents also will enjoy the new stories, rediscover old favorites and learn new songs and games to share. 

510-644-6870 

Poetry Flash 

7:30 p.m. 

Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured poets this session will be Brandon Brown and Peter Money. 

510-845-7852; 510-525-5476 

Thursday, June 29

Free computer class for seniors 

9:30-11:30 a.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

This free course offers basic instruction in keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Windows 95, Excel and Internet access. Space is limited; the class is offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Call ahead for a reservation. 

510-644-6109 

“A European Defense Identity: What Does It Mean for America?” 

Noon 

119 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley campus 

Peter Gooderham, counselor of Politico-Military/European Affairs, British Embassy in Washington D.C., will be the featured lecturer. Gooderham joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983. The main focus of his career has been on defense and security issues. Before taking up his position in the Washington Embassy, Gooderham worked at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 1999. Prior to joining the British Diplomatic Service he completed a Ph.D. thesis at Bristol University in modern Russian and Soviet history. This free, brown-bag talk is sponsored by the Institute for Governmental Studies. 

510-642-4608; www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880 

Movie: “Birth of the Blues” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Memorial Stadium lights public meeting 

7-9 p.m. 

Hall of Fame Conference Room, Memorial Stadium, UC Berkeley campus 

This community meeting will present and discuss the findings of the initial study that describes the project and identifies its potential environmental effects. 

510-642-7720 

“Exploring the Trinity Alps” 

7 p.m. 

REI Berkeley, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Stew Winchester of Diablo Valley College will present a slide lecture introducing the wilderness area 200 miles north of San Francisco. Free. 

510-527-4140 

Friday, June 30

Opera: “The Merry Widow” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

510-644-6107 

Saturday, July 1

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

Center Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

510-548-3333 

New Moon Walk 

7:30 p.m. 

Tilden Regional Park; meet at Inspiration Point 

Experience the sunset, stars and cities on a walk along Nimitz Way. 

510-525-2233 

Women’s Movie Night 

7:30-10 p.m. 

Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. 

The featured film will be “I Became A Lesbian & Others Too.” These are several lesbian short comedy films with lots of lesbians, poetry, cats, dreams, love affairs, and swashbuckling heroes. The Pacific Center is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community center. 

510-548-8283; 

www.pacificcenter.org 

An open letter to Mayor Shirley Dean and members of the Berkeley City Council: 

Sometime in 2001, Council will dedicate a new landmark in Berkeley for generations to come – the pedestrian/bicycle bridge over I-80. This month, however, is when you must select which design features of the I-80 overcrossing will be added to the construction contract you recently awarded. Decisions made now will determine whether the bridge is a pedestrian-friendly gateway that welcomes people to our city and its waterfront or merely a very expensive steel arch whose design flaws make it difficult and uncomfortable to use. 

Over a year of extensive research went into the bridge’s design phase to guarantee it would attract users and be safe and pleasant for them. Similar structures from around the world were analyzed for their design successes and failures. Simple design features were identified to make the project function best for the user. A team of internationally known architects, landscape architects, and engineers was hired to translate these guidelines into a unified whole. 

In preparing the construction drawings, however, many of these basic user features were stripped from the contract as it became evident that the engineers had significantly underestimated the cost to build the bridge structure they had recommended. The original budget of $3,100,000 has already ballooned 70 percent to $5,270,584. More troubling is that even this new funding level has been met only by the elimination of exactly those features which will make the bridge a success for its intended visitors. 

The main entry staircases have disappeared, adding nearly a mile for the pedestrian making a round trip. The landscaping plan to soften the massive structure’s impacts on the two parks is entirely gone. Any place to sit down along the 1/3 mile pathway has been dropped. Even the bridge entryways are no longer deemed to be part of the project. Walkers and cyclists will arrive in our shoreline park at a patch of bare dirt. Those coming from the Bay Trail will be greeted to Berkeley by an odd conglomeration of old roadbed, an abandoned traffic island, and a parking lot – rather than by a landscaped plaza with terraced seating overlooking the dramatic view of the lagoon in Aquatic Park. 

This dysfunctional design does not have to be the face you present to the world when you dedicate the bridge. For a fractional increase of the total budget, you can build the project the people of Berkeley want. You must look closely at those features which have been stripped from the contract and decide which ones must be added as change orders. Direct staff to identify suitable funding strategies. Don’t let bad planning ruin a landmark that will stand for a hundred years as your legacy. 

Gail Keleman, Parks & Recreation Commission 

Paul Kamen, Vice-chair Waterfront Commission 

D. Mark Abrahams, Transportation Commission 

Zasa Swanson, President Berkeley Partners for Parks 

Dave Campbell, President Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition 

Mark Liolios, Past President 1998 Berkeley Partners for Parks 

Key issues city needs to address 

Staircases 

• Direct access routes to bridge removed 

• Greatly reduces bridge functionality for pedestrians 

• Round trip to bridge's viewing deck now 1/2 mile instead of single staircase 

• Round trip to bay shoreline nearly a mile longer 

• Awkward connection to points south 

• Loss of important safety feature – quick alternate exit from lengthy ramping 

Landscaping 

• All trees and shoreline planting at site in Aquatic Park will be removed to build ramps, columns, and roadbed 

• Massive berms to support bridge ramping will become primary landscaping feature seen by everyone entering Berkeley or passing through 

• Without landscaping, long ramping on multiple concrete columns will destroy scenery in both parks 

• Proposed hydro-seeding of ground cover has already failed at this site 

• Will encourage pedestrians to make shortcuts down hillsides 

• Without irrigation, invasive non-natives such as thistles and kikuyu will colonize the site and be impossible to eradicate 

• Adding landscaping at a later date may triple its cost 

Seating/Rest Areas 

• One-way crossing is a third of a mile long 

• Pedestrians need clearly delineated spaces in which to rest along the way 

• There is no seating anywhere along the entire route 

Berming against retaining wall 

• Simple landscaping solution can soften impact of large concrete retaining wall. 

• Without berming, wall is a permanent graffiti billboard 

Entryway plazas 

• Much of ramping and span will be stark and pedestrian unfriendly 

• Two plazas are the gateways to Berkeley and its shoreline park 

• Aquatic Park entryway could provide simple terraced seating down to the water 

• Opportunity to feature views of two parks 

• Should have kiosks with maps to nearby destinations 

• Lighting standards should be pedestrian-friendly

Shotgun Players opened its fourth outdoor annual summer theatrical tour Sunday afternoon at Willard Park with an original adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s collection of animal stories “The Jungle Book.” 

Influenced by the years Kipling spent in India, “Jungle Book” tells fables set in the animal and human worlds that consider many of life’s most complex issues. But Richard J. Silberg’s didactic and rambling adaptation makes the show seem long and repetitive, more like a sociology lecture than a play. 

And although the production is directed at children and adults alike, its preachiness limits the appeal. 

In “Jungle Book,” a human baby named Mowgli – a girl in this production, a boy in Kipling’s original book – is adopted and raised by a tribe of wolves after a tiger kills and eats her parents. As she grows up, Mowgli struggles to understand who she is, and find her real identity, living as both an insider and an outsider in the world of jungle animals. 

Although “Jungle Book” feels at times like an arbitrary sociology of the wilderness based on a Kipling’s somewhat liberal Victorian sensibility, it hits interesting themes. 

In large part, “Jungle Book” is about the difficulties of living ethically in state of nature where the main concerns of life are finding enough to eat while avoid becoming someone else’s dinner. 

As a story of a human being raised by wolves, it also considers the different ways that both nature and nurture contribute to, and conflict in, the development of a person. 

Further, in its expression of wolf pack social ethics, “Jungle Book” about learning trust and confidence in oneself and others as part a healthy growing process – or not learning it, to the peril of everyone. 

“Jungle Book” also has prescient ecological sensibilities, observing how the shifting of food and water masses in ecosystems can quickly alter deeply held social relationships and customs. 

Finally, it deals with the paradoxes between community of purpose and diversity of purpose among living species. And in a related motif, it touches on how fear is the force that divides species. 

But in an effort to communicate all of these large and important themes, in its account of Mowgli’s wanderings, the Shotgun production covers too much ground and includes too many unfocused story elements,. 

Further complicating the matter, Silberg’s dialogue is very declamatory and didactic. Often Mowgli or the animals talk theory about the laws of the jungle, or list principles for survival. There are debates on child-rearing practices. Such dialogue is inherently non-dramatic. 

And there are just too many episodic story elements squeezed into this two-hour show that aren’t at the service of a clear, dramatic story line. 

Mowgli’s early life with the wolves, for example, in the first half of the play, and her later life among humans in the second half of the play, are tied together in the denouement, but in many ways they feel like two separate stories. 

Shotgun’s script is an expansion by Silberg of a shorter adaptation of “Jungle Book” he wrote for performance by his students at Berkeley’s King Middle School, where Silberg has taught for a decade. The shorter play was probably stronger. 

Among the actors in this production, a smooth, stalking and light-footed Nora el Samahy most effectively got the look and feel of her animal character – a panther. 

Anna Moore’s Mowgli has some strong moments in her biggest scenes at the end of the play. 

Other Shotgun performers include George Frangides (jackal), Meghan Love (tiger), Shaun Church (bear), Jodi Feder (wolf mother), Garth Petal (wolf leader). 

Director Amy Sass, who also teaches middle school and high school drama in the East Bay, cast other teen performers in some of the smaller roles. 

Various actors alternate playing drums, rattles, bells and other percussion instruments to punctuate moments in the story. 

“Jungle Book” plays Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m. at parks in Berkeley and Oakland through Aug. 13. 

The show runs Saturday at Civic Center/MLK Park at Center and Milvia, and Sunday at Willard Park at Derby and Hillegass. Both shows begin at 1 p.m. Admission is free. 

Be sure to take a blanket or chairs, hats, sunglasses and sunscreen, and a picnic if you like. For future shows and directions, call (510) 655-0813 or visit the Shotgun web site (www.shotgunplayers.com).

MUSIC VENUES

ASHKENAZ 

DP and The Rhythm Riders, June 27, 9 p.m. $8. 

Dotgals with Caller, June 28, 8 p.m. $8. 

Martin Fierro and Legion of Mary, June 29, 10 p.m. $9. 

“Rattle The Cage!!!” June 30, 8:30 p.m. Featuring Rebecca Riots, Green, Copperwimmin, Helen Chaya, Anna and Eileen, Women Walking Tall. $8 to $15. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5099 or www.ashkenaz.com 

BLAKES 

Illa-dapted, Miricle Orchestra, June 27. $3. 

“Third World,” June 28. With UC Buu, DJ Add, Jah Bonz, Big Willie. 

Ripe, Orquestra D, Soul, June 29. $4. 

Blue Marmalade, Molasses, June 30. $5. 

For age 18 and older. Music at 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886. 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE 

Andrew Kerr, Natalia Zukerman, Matt Nathanson, Karry Walker, June 27. $12.50 to $13.50. 

Dakota Dave Hull and Kari Larson, Duck Baker, Tony Marcus and Bob Wilson, June 29. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Judy Henske with Craig Doerge, June 30. $14.50 to $15.50. 

Music at 8 p.m. 1111 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761 or (510) 762-BASS. 

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER 

Lila Downs, June 29, 8 p.m. $14. 

Jaranon y Bochinche, June 30, 8:30 p.m. $12. 

3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 or www.lapena.org 

924 GILMAN ST. 

The Cost, The Hi-Fives, Maurice's Little Bastard, Merrick, June 30. 

Midnight Lazer Beam, The Convocation Of..., Heart Of Snow, July 1. 

$5. Music at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510) 525-9926. 

THE STARRY PLOUGH PUB 

Human Life Index, June 29. $4. 

Kirby Grips, Applesaucer, The Chantigs, June 30. $6. 

For age 21 and over. Wednesday, 8 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:45 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. 

To publicize an upcoming event, please submit information to the Daily Planet via fax (841-5695), e-mail (calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com) or traditional mail (2076 University Avenue, 94704). Calendar items should be submitted at least one week before the opening of a new exhibit or performance. Please include a daytime telephone number in case we need to clarify any information.

A San Jose man was arrested Monday in connection with a botched home invasion robbery in South Berkeley, but his alleged accomplice remained on the loose. 

The episode began around 3:30 p.m., when the Berkeley Police Department received a call from a resident reporting that at least two men carrying guns entered an apartment building in the 3200 block of California Street. 

Once inside the building, the men stormed into a ground-floor apartment, occupied by several people who apparently knew the suspects. One of the men then forced a woman at gunpoint to walk upstairs to her apartment, which police say he intended to rob. 

But officers who were nearby quickly arrived on the scene and interrupted the crime in progress in the first-floor apartment, said Police Capt. Bobby Miller. The suspect in the downstairs unit apparently hid his weapon when he realized police were coming in. He attempted to blend in with the other people in the apartment and tried to walk out of the building. 

As the suspect was leaving, another person in the unit told officers to stop him because he was one of the gunmen. The suspect managed to escape from police and fled into the neighborhood. 

His alleged accomplice upstairs, however, did not escape from the scene. Police took 28-year-old Phil Martin Jr. of San Jose into custody. He was booked Monday evening on four charges: home invasion robbery, illegal possession of a concealable handgun, possession of stolen property and parole violation. 

Miller said it appears that the two gunmen specifically targeted the individuals in the apartment, although a possible motive was not immediately known. He did confirm that police have had problems with drug dealing and related crimes in the immediate vicinity. 

After the other suspect fled the scene, police sealed off several blocks near the intersection of California and Woolsey streets to conduct a search, which ended unsuccessfully several hours later. 

Crowds formed at various locations around the cordoned blocks – on bicycles, standing around, talking to friends about the incident on cell phones, sitting in cars – wondering what would unfold next. 

Residents who wanted to return home were forbidden to do so during the incident. As one young man walked from the corner of California and Woolsey, across Woolsey, an officer ran from the intersection, grabbed him and walked him out to California Street. He was not detained. 

Earlier at King and Woolsey a resident wondered if it would be safe to be in her own home nearby. Another woman couldn’t return to her home and her three children. 

A woman whose apartment is in the 1600 block of Woolsey, which was cordoned off, waited on a porch at the corner of King and Woolsey. She was eager to see the standoff end. 

“He ought to up and come out. I want to go to work.” 

Ramiro Duarte, interviewed at the corner of California and Woolsey near his home, said he saw a man run out of the building across Fairview Street. 

“I could see police running after him,” Duarte said. “They almost caught him but he was too fast. I was scared because maybe the guy would come this way.” 

The suspect who fled the scene was described as an African-American male, between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall, with a medium build. At the time he was wearing a mint green T-shirt and knee-length tan pants.

Seems to be anarchy in our city government

The controversy over speed limits on Claremont and Ashby shows that we have a streak of anarchy in our government. 

I was surprised to find out that posted speed limits may be ignored if 85 percent or more of the drivers drive faster. It’s a matter of driver judgment; those speed limit signs are just “advisory.” This may explain being tailgated while driving at the posted limit. Silly me. I thought I was obeying the law. 

My experience is that a large percentage of car drivers are anxious get where they’re going as fast as possible. This attitude has to affect their judgment about what’s a safe speed. The speeders tend to drag the rest along. 

There are some limits to trusting driver judgment. The California Driver’s Manual says that police can give a speeding ticket for driving “too fast for conditions,” regardless of the posted limit. Actually, this happens only if a police officer happens to be monitoring that particular road at that particular time. And I think that, in practice, the “conditions” rule is invoked only for weather-slick roads, or perhaps fog. In fine weather, it’s pedal to the metal, if you’ve got an 85 percent majority. 

The bottom line is that the city can’t do anything to reduce the danger from cars going too fast, especially on the streets which are also state roads. It sure looks like anarchy, and right here in Berkeley. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley 

Let businesses create their own promotions

Council representative Linda Maio wants to use my tax dollars to promote shopping (Daily Planet, June 24-25)? How much more lunacy are taxpayers supposed to tolerate? As things stand now we have competing area business lobbies that get public funds to promote themselves; now we’ll have a city-wide program that does the same thing? 

I hope someday we’ll have a few people on the City Council who recognize that the merchants in this town are capable of underwriting their own promotion. This is not and should not be the government’s job. 

Carol Denney 

Berkeley

OAKLAND – Now more than ever, candidates, party officials and voters seem to be saying that it’s getting easier to be Green. 

It certainly wasn’t an effort for a packed, standing-room-only crowd of several hundred that wedged into the University of Creation Spirituality in downtown Oakland Monday night for a Green Party rally headlined by the party’s presidential nominee, Ralph Nader. 

Preceded by Oakland city council candidate Rebecca Kaplan and U.S. senate candidate Medea Benjamin, Nader tore into candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush with all the enthusiasm of Evil Knieval in a ramp factory. 

Fresh off his second consecutive nomination as the Green presidential candidate at the party’s convention over the weekend in Denver, Nader referred to Democrat Gore as having “broken more written promises than probably any presidential candidate in modern times” and called Republican Bush an “ex-Yale frat boy who has trouble putting together three sequential sentences” and “the corporate welfare king of all time.” 

Between jabs at the two major parties and their candidates – whom he described as too beholden to special interests to represent the people of the United States – the well-known consumer advocate touched on insufficient health care, the widening gap between the rich and poor, the degradation of the environment, campaign finance reform and the death penalty. 

“The majority of workers are actually making less now adjusted for inflation and working 160 hours a year more on average. This is not supposed to happen after almost 10 years of booming stock market prices and economic growth,” said Nader. “We have an apartheid economy where the top 5 percent do very well, and the top 1 percent do astonishingly well. The rest of the country is increasingly just hanging on. Instead of a rising tide lifting all boats, the rising tide is lifting all yachts.” 

Nader highlighted California as “a state which, in many ways, shows what happens when the concentration of wealth and power is so skewed that millions of innocent people who work hard don’t get their just rewards.” He pointed out that while 15 percent of the state’s children were impoverished in 1980, that figure had grown to 25.2 percent by 1998, with 1.8 million children having no health coverage in California. A total of 47 million people nationally lack health coverage. 

Nader stated that the ever growing divide between the rich and poor, environmental concerns, labor issues, and health care were all back-burner issues for the two major parties, who have chosen instead to “compete in an incredibly incessant race to raise more money than each other every month from business interests all over the country.” 

“A few weeks ago, the Republicans announced they’d broken the record for one fund raiser; $21.5 million for one back in Washington,” continued Nader. “The Democrats said ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet,’ and a few weeks later they raised $26.5 million. Guess what? The same business interest lobbyists with the same loads of cash showed up at each event. These business lobbyists demand homogenization from their political receivers. They demand any competition between the two parties is only the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when big business comes knocking at the door.” 

In a night filled with searing condemnations of both the Democrats and Republicans, Nader made perhaps his most damning criticism of the two-party system when he accused the Democrats and Republicans of avoiding the issues such as corporate crime and corporate welfare because “they are no longer two parties. They have merged to become one corporate party with two heads wearing different makeup.” 

Nader went on to say that recent nationwide polls showed 52 percent of Americans wished to see both he and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan included in the presidential debates.  

That number would probably be much higher in California, where some polls run Nader as high as 9 percent, and, of course, in Berkeley, where Nader was the favorite candidate in the 1996 presidential election by nearly 20 percent. 

“When Ralph Nader endorses something, voters have confidence it will be in their interests,” said Berkeley city councilmember Dona Spring, a member of the Green Party. “I think it’s because of his lifetime of activity fighting for the little guy, the little consumers, that he’s so well-respected.” 

While recent national news stories in such prominent sources as the New York Times have mainly cast Nader in the role of a thorn in Al Gore’s side, Spring feels the Green Party could glean votes from dissatisfied Republican voters as well. 

“I think (Nader) appeals to McCain voters as well,” said the councilmember. “Greens embrace what used to be Republican values; decentralization of the power structure and accountability in the way our taxes are spent.” 

Spring said she thought a best-case scenario might be Nader’s capturing of 20 percent of the national vote, an ample enough total that “it would really raise the Green Party to a force to be contended with in electoral politics.”

When the hard hats and dump trucks clear out of City Hall and the public flows back in, citizens may be greeted by more than new furniture, repainted walls and council agendas. 

Lattés, cappuccinos and straight java from the Civic Center Cafe could greet visitor and employee alike. 

On tonight’s council agenda is a proposal for a $70,000 contract with an interior designer. That firm would decide which of the building’s furniture should be saved and which should be trashed and consult on the interior design of the sixth-floor conference room, the employee break room, the offices for the city manager, deputies and department heads, council offices, the mayor’s office – and the café. 

“The café? What café?” asked Councilmember Kriss Worthington, when reached by the Daily Planet. 

“There’s a proposal to put a small café (in the civic center building),” said Capital Projects Director John Rosenbrock. “It’s an area where visitors and employees could sit down and have a talk, with a cup of coffee and a donut.” 

He said the concept had been proposed by the city manager and mayor. The café, which would not include cooking facilities, would be contracted out to a private vendor, he said. 

Worthington was angry that the project had not been brought to the council. 

“They should bring it to us all together and not make all the deals with individuals,” he said, noting that the city will be paying high costs for leased office space for city workers who must continue to work outside the civic center building, because there’s not enough room inside. 

The café was also news to Councilmember Margaret Breland, who said it might be a good idea, but there should be more study of the space before it is installed. 

On the other hand, Mayor Shirley Dean said the café is just what City Hall needs. 

“That’s an absolutely marvelous idea,” she said, noting that some public libraries and courts have cafés in them. 

She said she didn’t believe it was taking up space where an office might be located.

On this week’s council agenda there are two different proposals to streamline the city’s tortuous council meetings. One was written by City Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan and the other by Mayor Shirley Dean. 

But since there are about 70-something other items before the council – one of them being the passage of $3 million in budget items – the body may put off the discussion for another day. 

Another agenda item will bring the animal-friendly community out – a vote on the proposed Spay/Neuter Ordinance is scheduled. 

Last week the city heard from animal aficionados about the draft law. The proposal is to create a $30 cat license for unaltered felines and a $30 license for unaltered dogs. There would be no license fee for spayed and neutered cats, and there would be a $7.50 fee for spayed and neutered dogs. Unaltered dogs caught disobeying the law – wandering around unleashed, pooping where they shouldn’t or disturbing the neighborhood with their howls – would be placed on a “bad dog” list and their owners charged a $60 license fee. 

The proposal brought out dozens of two-legged beings on both sides of the issue. Those in favor of the ordinance, such as Councilmember Dona Spring, said the higher fees for unaltered animals are the best way to get people to spay and neuter their cats and dogs and, consequently, the best way to reduce the numbers of strays euthanized at the animal shelter. 

Those on the other side of the question, such as Diane Sequoia, an African-American veterinarian, argued that this law would give police officers one more opportunity to discriminate against people of color, by checking dog licenses when they go to public parks. She and others said that spay and neutering is not the answer – responsible animal ownership is the solution, they argued. 

Another important decision the council will be asked to make tonight is on the question of taking away Kragen Auto Parts’ license to operate. The Zoning Adjustment Board voted for revocation, weighing in on the side of neighbors who have argued for years that operators of the establishment do not keep the area around the store clean and have not stopped customers from working on their cars outside the establishment. Kragen appealed the ZAB’s decision to the City Council. 

At last week’s public hearing, Kragen representatives argued that employees regularly clean outside the business. They also made the point that in an emergency – such as when a person’s oil is dangerously low – individuals have a right to perform a certain amount of work near the business. 

The council also will vote on whether to put a proposed measure on the November ballot that would blunt owner move-in evictions, which would displace seniors and disabled people and would displace long-term renters whose landlords own a number of rental properties. 

The council decided several months ago to add plastic bottles to its recycling efforts on Sept. 1. A committee that included representatives from city staff, the Solid Waste Management Commission and the Ecology Center, which will contract for the recycling, met and proposed a number of principles, which council will be asked to approve. The policy would affirm: 

• That producers of packaging ought to be responsible for designing products that are reusable or recyclable. 

• That the city’s goal is to reduce the amount of plastic packaging that ultimately goes to the landfills. 

• That the city will prioritize “bottle to bottle” recycling, with an awareness that plastics recycling is in its early stages. Bottle to bottle recycling means that the recycled bottle ends up being reused as a bottle. 

• That the city will encourage local efforts for businesses to use reusable packaging, such as refillable plastic beverage containers. 

• That the city recognize “the negative environmental impacts of polyvinyl chloride in the construction sector and from consumer packaging and recommend appropriate actions.” 

In addition, the council will vote on putting two bond measures on the fall ballot: a $5.2 million bond for branch library improvements and a $3.2 million bond for renovation and repair of the warm water pool at Berkeley High School.

A plan to spruce up downtown took a highly visible step forward Monday as crews began cutting down trees along University Avenue, part of a taxpayer-funded revitalization effort. 

The tree removals on University between Milvia Street and Shattuck Avenue are part of the $2.5 million project that will bring new street lights, sidewalks, trees, public art and drainage systems to the heart of downtown. The funds are coming from Measure S, the $50 million bond measure approved by Berkeley voters in 1996. 

Not surprisingly, the tree-cutting component of the plan was controversial when introduced in 1998. The original project sparked intense debate, with protesters attaching themselves with paper chains to condemned trees. The initial plan called for the removal of 200 trees, but a compromise was reached on the City Council, reducing the number to be removed: 103 trees will be cut down, and 121 new ones will be planted. Many of the trees being removed are diseased, which has created a sticky mess of sidewalks along several downtown streets. 

On Monday, crews cut down most of the trees along the south side of University between Milvia and Shattuck; two trees on each end will be preserved. The tree-cutting slowed down vehicles for much of the morning, and traffic had to stop several times as the arbors came crashing to the ground. Once the trees were down, they were quickly shoved into a shredder, and the crew moved on to the next tree. 

One of the workers was surprised by the response of passers-by. He had expected people to express dismay at the removal of the trees, but he found that nearly everyone who offered a comment was happy to see the diseased, sappy arbors cut down. 

The overall project, which is moving block by block, will tackle the south side of University first, which is expected to take three or four weeks. The work on the north side also will run for three or four weeks, but that construction won’t begin until the contractor reaches Oxford Street, and then returns down to Milvia on the north side of the street. Only one lane will be closed at any time. Work also will be done along Shattuck between University and Channing Way.

About 10: 20 p.m. Thursday a woman walking alone in the 1500 block of Woolsey Street was approached by a man who was walking in front of her and abruptly turned around. 

He faced her holding a silver semi-automatic pistol, and demanded she give him her purse. 

Her response to the threat was to spray him with pepper spray, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley Police Department. 

The suspect grabbed her purse despite the spray, and then fled, and the victim screamed. 

Neighbors heard her scream and responded, but they did not catch the suspect by that time joined by another man who had been walking behind the victim. 

The suspect who stole her purse is described as an African-American male, 20 to 30 years old, 6 feet tall, with a slim build. 

He wore a red sweatshirt with a hood and dark pants. 

The second suspect is about the same age range, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, medium build, and he was wearing a black sweatshirt and light brown pants cut off at the knees.

Phone repairs taking time 

SAN BRUNO – Pacific Bell officials said Wednesday they expect it will take at least two weeks to restore service to 25,000 phone lines affected by a fire which severed 27 cables in a San Bruno communications vault. 

Spokesman Rodd Aubrey said damage from Monday’s fire was more extensive than originally thought, adding that the procedure for repairing the cut cables requires splicing and testing each line one by one. The small space surrounding the vault has further complicated matters. Only two workers could fit into the hole surrounding the vault until Tuesday, when the company brought out a backhoe to enlarge the work space. Seven splicers are now on the scene working around the clock to repair the lines, he said. 

The fire was apparently caused by sparks from BART workers welding steel pillars at a nearby construction site for the agency’s airport extension project. BART spokesman Ron Rodriguez said the transit agency is still in the process of conducting an investigation into the fire’s origin. 

Emergency 911 service has been restored to parts of the Peninsula that lost the service for more than five hours Monday evening as a result of the blaze. 

Murder trail delayed 

REDWOOD CITY – Attorneys agreed Wednesday to delay setting a trial date in the case of Mohammed Haroon Ali, accused of murdering his girlfriend, the daughter of former Oakland Raiders great Fred Biletnikoff. 

The 24-year-old Ali is accused of strangling Tracey Biletnikoff in February 1999, then dumping the 20-year-old’s partially clad body near a parking lot at Canada College in Woodside. The pair had been dating for several months when the killing occurred. 

Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe agreed to postpone the hearing until Sept. 22, which would allow Buenaventura to resolve matters in the other case. Ali is being held without bail at the San Mateo County Jail. 

Child porn arrest made 

HAYWARD – The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alameda County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force have arrested a Hayward man on charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. 

Postal Inspector Linda Joe said Chester Eric Gossett, 24, allegedly contacted an Internet bulletin board in February this year, advertising teen and preteen sex videos. Joe said Gossett allegedly corresponded with agents via e-mail, expressing interest in some videos. In exchange he sent, via U.S. Mail, computer diskettes with 149 images of minors in sexually explicit poses. During the arrest Tuesday, a search of Gossett’s residence resulted in the seizure of photographs, videotapes, a computer and computer equipment, according to Joe. 

– Bay City News Service

Two new vice provosts at UC Berkeley, who will play central roles in academic administration, have been selected, officials announced Tuesday. 

History and economics professor Jan de Vries will oversee academic affairs and faculty welfare while engineering professor William C. Webster will take the lead for academic planning and facilities. 

“I am delighted that Jan de Vries and Bill Webster have agreed to serve in these senior positions. The foundations of Berkeley’s excellence have always been the faculty and the quality of the education we provide. With these appointments, our faculty and our students will be well served,” Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said in a statement announcing the appointments. 

The vice provost positions, which are pending the UC Regents’ approval, are key components of a restructuring of the senior administration that is aimed at seizing opportunities in teaching, technology and research as UC Berkeley moves into the 21st century. 

“Jan de Vries and Bill Webster know this campus, its faculty and its academic mission inside and out. But what impresses me most is their commitment to ensuring that the future of UC Berkeley is as distinguished as its past. I could not have asked for two more experienced and skillful partners,” Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Designate Paul R. Gray, who will assume his post on July 1, said in the university news release. 

With the appointment in the near future of a vice provost for undergraduate education and instructional technology, the new senior management team will be complete. Earlier it was announced that professor Mary Beth Burnside will become vice chancellor for research in January 2001 and that Mary Ann Mason, a professor of social welfare, will become dean of the Graduate Division on Aug. 1. 

As vice provost for academic affairs and faculty welfare, de Vries will be responsible for all aspects of the academic personnel process for UC Berkeley’s 2,500 faculty members. He also will provide leadership in academic affirmative action and will oversee the offices of Academic Compliance and Faculty Equity Assistance. 

“In the coming years, we must renew and further develop the best faculty in the world. I can’t think of a greater academic responsibility and look forward to the challenge it represents,” said de Vries. 

A UC Berkeley faculty member since 1973, de Vries, 56, is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History and a professor of economics. He served as interim dean of the social sciences in 1999 and was chairman of the history department from 1987 to 1991. He recently was awarded the A.H. Heineken Prize for History and has published widely on European and Dutch economic history. 

Webster, who served as the associate dean of the College of Engineering from 1991 to 1999, will assume primary responsibility for planning, coordinating and implementing academic planning initiatives as the vice provost for academic planning and facilities. 

He will also be responsible for operations of self-supporting academic units, including University Extension and Summer Sessions. 

“What excites me about this new position is the opportunity to help determine what the ‘shape’ of the university should be so that we can better address the problems and opportunities California and the world will face in the coming decades,” said Webster.  

In addition to a number of positions in academic administration, Webster, 62, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley since 1969 and holds the James Fife Chair in the department. 

He is a world-recognized expert in the motion of ships and off-shore platforms such as oil rigs and floating airport run

Peter Gooderham, Counsellor of Politico-Military/European Affairs at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., will be the featured speaker at a noontime lecture Thursday on the UC Berkeley campus. 

His topic will be “A European Defense Identity: What Does It Mean for America?” The talk, sponsored by the Institute for Governmental Studies, will be held at noon in 119 Moses Hall. 

Gooderham joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983. The main focus of his career has been on defense and security issues. He served as a member of the UK Delegation to NATO from 1985 to 1987, working principally on arms control questions. He was Deputy Head of the FCO’s Security Policy Department from 1993-96, overseeing British policy toward NATO and the Western European Union. 

Before taking up his position in the Washington Embassy, Gooderham worked as Counsellor (Economic, Social and Environment) at the UK Mission to the UN in New York from 1996 to 1999. 

Gooderham is a graduate in Politics and Economics from Newcastle University in England. Prior to joining the British Diplomatic Service he completed a Ph.D. thesis at Bristol University in modern Russian and Soviet history. His research took him to Moscow State University, where he was a British Council exchange scholar from 1978-79. 

For more information call 510-642-4608 or visit the IGS web site at www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880