Councilmember Betty Olds, 79, has served the community for more than two decades.  

Even before she won a seat on the rent board, on which she served for eight years before winning her council seat in 1992, she was a commissioner on the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

Olds’ council aide, Susan Wengraf, heads her campaign. The incumbent expects to spend about $15,000 on the race. 

A staunch member of the council’s moderate faction, made up of Mayor Shirley Dean, Councilmember Polly Armstrong and, sometimes, Councilmember Diane Woolley, Olds is a fiscal conservative, relative to the more progressive council faction.  

While she supported resolutions to put some tax and bond issues on the ballot, such as taxes for parks and the library, Olds opposed putting a new lighting tax before the voters. The $3 million that the council majority allocated to other projects, should have been directed to lighting, she said. 

Olds describes herself as an environmentalist and takes credit for blocking a new hotel proposed for the city’s waterfront.  

Probably the issue Olds has worked hardest on in the recent past is building a new fire house in District 6.  

Some close neighbors to the proposed site at Shasta and Park Gate roads have said they don’t want the station on their street. 

“I just want a new firehouse,” Olds said. An Environmental Impact Report is being prepared to look at impacts of siting the fire station there and Olds says that should give the neighbors the information they need. “We need the best possible response time,” she said. 

District 6 has special public works needs. Roads in the hills are in bad shape, she said.  

“It costs twice as much to resurface streets in the hills,” which have problems with water run-off. Undergrounding utilities is also a priority for Olds. 

Another problem unique to the district is land instability. 

“Houses are sliding,” Olds said. 

One of the things that the councilmember prides herself on, is working as a go-between to activate city bureaucrats on residents’ behalf.  

Olds pointed to the case of two senior citizens almost evicted by a landlord who said he wanted to move into their apartment. “I went to the owner and saw that they stopped the eviction,” Olds said. 

Olds said she is working for more citizen participation in council meetings by promoting civility among council members. “It starts with us as a council,” she said. 

She also wants streamlined meetings. “We should do something about people monopolizing the council,” she said. Meetings should end by 11 p.m.  

“If necessary, we should start at 6 p.m.,” Olds said. Meetings now begin at 7 p.m. 

She blames the progressive majority for the number of agenda items carried without action from meeting to meeting. “If the majority does not want to take up an item, they don’t bring it up,” Olds said. 

“Anything not (disposed of) within two meetings should be dropped,” she contended. 

When asked about the health disparity study, which showed that African Americans in the flatlands have much poorer health than the white hills dwellers, Olds said this is a concern. 

“There’s not a simple solution,” she said, noting that people can go to the doctor in Berkeley, but sometimes do not. Habits such as drinking and smoking need to be addressed, she said. 

“The main thing is doing a lot of outreach,” she said. “Education is the solution.” This will take time, she said. 

As for Berkeley’s housing crisis, Olds said the city needs more apartments, both market rate and affordable.  

But Olds said the fundamental question has not been addressed.  

“How many more people can we handle without becoming (another) San Francisco?” 

Instead of building more housing, one solution would be to work with the existing housing stock, with people renting out parts of their homes, for example. 

Olds has concerns about Measure Y, the ballot measure that stops landlords from moving into apartments they own. Had the measure simply addressed seniors and disabled people, she said she would have supported it.  

However, because it also targets people who have lived in homes for five years and mandates moving costs when a low-income renter is displaced, Olds said she can’t support it.  

Measure Y will cause landlords to rent only to students who they know will vacate the apartments every few years, she said. 

As for traffic, Olds said it’s up to the police to address the problem through enforcement. The city was supposed to get three new traffic officers, but got only two, she said.

Wednesday, Sept. 6

Alzheimer’s and dementia  

support group 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Martial arts demonstration 

noon-1 p.m. 

Sproul Hall steps, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley  

UC Berkeley Martial Arts Program will put on a demonstration to show what martial arts styles are offered at the university. 

Contact Patrick at beatty@haas.berkeley.edu. 

Thursday, Sept. 7

Growing wise with Betty Goren 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

“Discipline & Citizenship” conference 

6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Conversation between actor  

Paul Newman and Laura  

D'Andrea Tyson 

5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Arthur Andersen Auditorium 

Gayley Road between Hearst Avenue and Bancroft Way 

The eventinaugurates the business school's annual lecture series Forum on Philanthropy in Business. 

Rent Stabilization Board 

7 p.m. 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Among the issues the board will hear is a tenant’s appeal of a hearing examiner’s decision. The tenant in a building at 2472 Virginia St. will argue that the rent reductions granted for habitabilitiy problems were too small. 

Friday, Sept. 8

“Discipline & Citizenship” 

conference 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

895-4542 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 9

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

Sunday, Sept. 10

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

“Next Stop, Greenwich  

Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

Monday, Sept. 11

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working at local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 12

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Sept. 13

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Last townholl meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

Thursday, Sept. 14 

Eugene O’Neil House, Mt.  

Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Friday, Sept. 15 

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 16 

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

Call: 848-9358  

Sunday, Sept. 17

Berkeley Citizen’s Action Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

Thursday, Sept. 21

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 

Friday, September 22

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

Sunday, Sept. 24

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Fifth Birthday 

6-8 p.m. party 

film: 8:30-10:30 p.m. 

Pyramid Alehouse Outdoor Movie Theater 

1901 Gilman St. 

The event is to honor five years of BFB bike advocacy. Films will include: “Pedalphiles and Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels” 

Bring something to sit on. 

Free to members; $10-$20 sliding scale to non members.  

549-7433 

Monday, Sept. 25

Open forum on affordable housing 

5:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Sean Heron of the East Bay Housing Organizations will talk about building a campaign for affordable housing. Sponsored by the Affordable Housing Advocacy Project. 

1-800-773-2110 

Wednesday, Sept. 27

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Busines” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework romoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

Saturday, Sept. 30

Jim Hightower: “Election 2000: a Space Odyssey” 

8 p.m. 

King Middle School 

1781 Rose St. 

Sponsored by KPFA and Global Exchange 

“I am an agitator,” Hightower says. “The agitator is the centerpost in a washing mchine that gets the dirt out.” 

$10 in advance/$12 at the door 

848-6767 x609 

Monday, October 2

“2nd Annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

Thursday, October 5

“3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

ONGOING EVENTS 

Sundays 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

6 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 the countywide new Measure B transportation sales tax. The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Tuesdays 

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. 

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

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

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. 

531-8664 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

Rhyme and Reason Open Mike Series 

2:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. 

The public and students are invited. Sign-ups for the open mike begin at 2 p.m. 

234-0727;642-5168 

Tuesay and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

Father: Jeffrey is a caring human being 

Editor: 

There have been allegations that my son Jeffrey Schilling went to the Abu Sayyaf camp to negotiate about weapons. I just want to make it clear to Abu Sayyaf and the world that he is not now nor has he ever been involved in arms dealing. My son is not a CIA agent. These allegations are groundless. 

Before he went to the Philippines, Jeffrey had worked with friends in several small business ventures: contract painting, landscaping and goat herding. He had also had part-time jobs as a fitness instructor and a hotel desk clerk while going to school at UC Berkeley. I encouraged him to consider more conventional jobs so that he could have a steady income. 

Jeffrey wanted to start his own businesses instead. My son is a hard worker. He worked many hours a day last summer tending goats as part of a fire prevention business in the East Bay. 

Friends and family know Jeffrey as a man with a good and caring heart.  

He has a very generous spirit. He was concerned over the plight of the Filipino Muslim people. So he would send money, food and clothing to the Philippine Muslim community. 

He converted to Islam six years ago in the fall of 1994. Jeffrey married a Filipina Muslim this past April. Jeffrey went to the Philippines in search of a deepening of his Islamic faith. Now the Abu Sayyaf is holding him.  

I call on Abu Sabaya, as a Muslim and as a human being, to release my son unharmed. 

George Schilling 

Oakland 

Great city employees; treat them right! 

Editor: 

On Friday night there was a medical emergency at my house. We called 911. 

Minutes later we heard reassuring sounds: the sirens of the approaching emergency vehicles. 

The personnel were first rate. They were polite and friendly, swift and thorough with their questions, professional in their assessment of the situation, and adept at putting people at ease. 

To quote the victim, they were “just beautiful” in their handling of what was to us an extremely unsettling and confusing situation. Within minutes we were on our way to the hospital. 

During the ride I learned that the union of these stellar city workers is currently engaged in contract negotiations with the city on their behalf. 

I understand that these negotiations are beginning to drag on. 

The City should not permit these labor negotiations to continue much longer. These people work extremely hard, their job is difficult, and they are indispensable.  

Berkeley's Emergency Medical paramedics are a treasure, and they should be treated as such. We never know when we may need them. 

Grateful to the team and glad all is well again, 

Doris Willingham 

Berkeley 

Homophobia in Falun Gong needs exposure  

Editor: 

In his Op-ed piece, Professor Franz Schurman provides an interesting historical perspective concerning the Falun Gong cult. I hope that in the near future I will see a follow-upon their cultist preachings, one of which is virulent homophobism.  

I often visit China and have several personal friends there. The rights of Chinese gays has never been greater and is gradually increasing since Deng Xiao Peng overthrew maoism and under the greater liberalism of President Zhiang Zemin. 

It would be tragic to see Falun Gong spread its bigotry and superstition into Chinese society much the same way as the fanatic elements within the US evangelical community. 

Only the International Herald-Tribune has exposed this fanatic cult's anti-human rights position on this issue. Every one else ignores this issue, especially anti-Chinese politicians seeking votes like Nancy Pelosi. 

Armand Boulay 

Berkeley  

Libertarian says get rid of sales and income tax 

Editor: 

Fred Foldvary, Libertarian Party candidate in the 9th District (Berkeley-Oakland area), declared on Labor Day that he would be the best friend in Congress that labor could possibly have. 

“Libertarians would repeal all taxes on labor,” said Foldvary, “including not just taxes on wage income but also sales and excise taxes. Workers would be totally tax free.”  

Untaxing the American worker would effectively double the typical wage, enabling workingfamilies to afford housing, health care, and better education.  

“Taxing wages is unjust,” said Foldvary, “because the labor belongs to the worker, and so does the wage.” 

Since the Democratic incumbent is the likely winner, voters in the 9th District will not really be voting on who will represent them, but on what policy they favor. 

Voting for Foldvary will show that workers want to raise wages by shifting taxes out of wages. 

Foldvary says that the federal government should not tax workers or consumers directly, but instead obtain public revenues from the State governments.  

These federal revenues can be supplemented by federal rental charges for pollution and for the use of natural resources such as oil, forests, grazing, and other land values.  

Foldvary calls on labor unions and all groups working to improve the condition of labor to join him in advocating an end to the taxation of labor. 

Foldvary challenges the other candidates for Congress to state their position on taxing labor. 

Fred Foldvary 

Libertarian Party candidate for House of Representatives, 9th District

Eleanor Pepples, 35, is running in District 6 as an independent, unaligned with either the “liberal/progressive” or “moderate” factions of the City Council. 

Rather than working with one of the competing factions, Pepples said her strength would be in “working collectively.” 

That means finding out what her constituents want. 

“I would work tirelessly to listen to different opinions,” she said. 

Pepples has already begun what she calls a “listening tour,” going door to door, asking residents about their concerns. 

Turning listening into action is not new for Pepples. She has developed these skills as a Strategic Development Analyst in banking and health care. 

“On a daily basis, I listen to people’s needs,” she said. 

Each of the areas in the city has its own priorities, she said. “I want to ensure that the hills have an equally strong representation on the council.” 

Pepples did not hesitate before taking a shot at the incumbent. “I feel strongly that Betty Olds has not fully participated. She’s abstained fifty times on various issues.” For example, in February, 1996, Olds abstained on the Bay Trail Design.  

“The role of the councilmember is to vote one way or another,” Pepples said, underscoring that she would listen effectively, review the proposals and come to the best conclusion that she could. She would not abstain. 

One of Pepples’ contributions to city government would be making services more efficient. “Road repairs should be concurrent with sewer (replacement) and undergrounding (of utilities),” she said. “There is a cost savings.” 

Pepples points to the roads in her district. “I encounter more potholes (there) than in other sections of the city,” she said. 

Addressing fire danger is important to Pepples. One way of addressing the situation is to fully staff the department. 

For example, there are currently three firefighters on duty per engine. There should be four or five firefighters for each, Pepples said.  

How you pay for the added personnel – what kinds of expenditures would be eliminated – is a question she would ask her constituents. 

Planning is important to Pepples. “I’m an advocate of livable planning,” she said, arguing that downtown shouldn’t be “replete with skyscrapers.” 

Eight stories is as tall as buildings should go, she said. Apartments should be built with a range of incomes in mind, from affordable rents to market rate, she said. 

Pepples said she is opposing Measure Y, the ballot measure that restricts owners from moving into occupied apartment units. Although its “goals are laudable,” Pepples says, the measure is “overreaching,” because it will cause landlords not to rent to those over 60 and the disabled, the classes it seeks to protect.  

The measure says that landlords cannot move into units of people 60 and over, disabled people or, for those living in the buildings belonging to landlords with a lot of property, those who have lived in their apartments for five years or longer. 

Pepples said that when the health disparity study came out, showing the poor health of African Americans in the flatlands, she was surprised. “It’s the type of study the city should work with,” she said, adding that the goal would be to provide the best possible health care available.  

Although Pepples has not participated directly in city government, the ability for citizen participation is important to her. 

Berkeley is “a mecca for opportunities in public participation in city government” because of the more-than-40 commissions which advise the City Council, she said. 

Despite these opportunities, “citizens are not feeling heard or understood,” she said. She would help bridge that gap. 

Pepples said she hasn’t decided if she will continue her full-time job if she gets elected to the council. That is something she says she’ll decide when the time is right. 

And she hasn’t put a dollar amount on how much money she will spend on her campaign. “It’s a grass roots campaign,” she said. “I’ll raise enough money to win.”

Challenger Norine Smith, 58, is running for the District 6 seat as an independent. 

Her campaign will be run by herself and her supporters. “No one is officially running it,” she said. Olds spent $30,000 in 1992 to defeat independent Alan Goldfarb, she said, asserting “I will spend whatever it takes.” 

The mostly-retired software consultant says she never wanted to go into politics, but her concern for the original draft of the General Plan tugged her in that direction. 

In the first iteration of the plan, build ings could have been skyscrapers, Smith said. Now planners have the buildings down to 10-12 stories. “I want it down to five stories downtown and four stories along other commercial corridors.” 

There are still some empty lots, Smith said. They should be “contextually sensitive attractive infill,” she said. 

The city’s growth needs to be addressed. “How many more people should we be expected to absorb?” There is still room for growth in Hayward and Castro Valley, she said. 

Smith criticizes the city’s bond-fund expenditures.  

“No one dreamed that Measure S meant building bulb-outs and clear cutting trees,” she said of the measure that is paying for downtown improvements, which includes cutting down replacing trees and building sidewalk bulges at the corners.  

Bicyclists say these bulb-outs are dangerous to them. 

Overruns on capital projects anger Smith. She says the Civic Center Building retrofit that was to have cost $15 million, has shot up to more than $38 million. 

“Someone needs to watch the cost of capital outlays,” Smith said, pointing to another bond – Measure G. $2 million of its funds were spend on “the ill-conceived notion of a saltwater distribution system,” Smith said. The city finally turned down the idea “after wasting seven years.” 

Smith said she supports building a new fire station or retrofitting the current one, but she said she wants to poll the people in her district to see where they want a new one placed. 

And she said she wants to know the real costs of building a new station. “They say it will only cost $5-6 million,” she said. “With capital overruns, it could cost $12 million.” 

Public participation is important to Smith. “We can’t only listen to the most vocal people,” she said.  

“They do no represent the majority who do not have the time (to participate).” Polling people in her district would give Smith a good sense of their priorities. 

Smith said there’s a simple solution to getting the council’s work finished: it’s increasing the number of meetings. 

The council should meet four times each month, instead of three times and it should meet for 46 weeks a year instead of 33. 

She’d reorder the agenda so that items such as rent control and the budget are discussed early in the evening and “fences and chimneys at the end.” 

Meetings would be more efficient if the city installed a system of lap-top computers at the council desks. “The motions would be spelled out,” she said. 

Smith said part of the problem at council meetings is the sniping between the two council factions.  

As an independent, Smith said she would not be engaged in the dual. Her independent decisions would be “based on facts.” 

Rent control is the law, she said.  

“It needs to be administered fairly. It’s not fair to make one element of society bear the burden for equality.” 

The solution is providing more low-cost housing and housing for the disabled. 

But the funding for low-cost housing should be well spent, Smith said.  

Smith said she supports Measure Y, the restrictions against owner move-in evictions. “We can’t be kicking out the old and disabled,” she said. 

As for the health disparities between the hills and the flats and African Americans and whites, “We have to enhance the public health facilities at Sixth (Street) and University (Avenue),” Smith said, underscoring that abortions should be performed there. 

As for traffic problems, much of the problem is UC Berkeley commuters, Smith said.  

A solution would be satellite parking at Golden Gate Field and at the California Shakespeare lot situated in Orinda near the Caldecott Tunnel. 

Smith also wants the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit enforced and for the city to replace its worn vehicles with electric ones. 

Education is important, Smith said. Drivers should learn to yield to cyclists and pedestrians and bicyclists should learn to yield to pedestrians. 

“I will come to meetings informed and ready to listen,” Smith said.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer and State Senator Jackie Speier detailed plans Tuesday for an addition to the statewide DNA databank that would aid in the identification of missing children and adults. 

Under legislation approved last week the new databank will be housed at the California Department of Justice DNA Testing Lab at 626 Bancroft Way in west Berkeley. Approved with widespread bipartisan support, it is sitting on Governor Gray Davis’ desk awaiting his signature. 

The missing persons databank, which would remain separate from the convicted felon and registered sex offender databank currently kept in Berkeley, would involve voluntarily collecting DNA information from the maternal parent or relative of the missing person. 

“This program provides comfort to the relatives of missing persons. The smart thing about using new DNA technology is to convict the guilty and free the innocent,” Lockyer told parents and lab officials at a press conference at the laboratory. 

To demonstrate the procedure for obtaining DNA information, parents shared their own DNA samples by thoroughly swabbing the insides of their cheeks. Scientists will be able to compare information obtained from these cotton swabs with information from over 2,000 unidentified human remains currently kept in county coroners’ offices statewide, 150 of which are believed to belong to children. 

According to Jan Bashinski, Chief of the Bureau of Forensic Services, use of maternal DNA is preferred as it is more sensitive to testing techniques and therefore is more likely to give positive results from old bones or blood samples. 

Kim Swartz, mother of Amber Swartz-Garcia, a missing child abducted from her Pinole home in 1988, was a driving force in developing the legislation authorizing the new DNA missing person databank. 

Although her daughter has been missing for over 12 years, Swartz is hopeful that the new DNA identification procedure will bring closure to her family’s ordeal. 

“I am very optimistic that we will someday find an answer and know what happened to Amber,” Swartz said. “The hardest cases to solve are the ones where there are no witnesses. These cases cause a ripple effect throughout the community. They’re devastating. This project could be a big answer for many people still wondering.” 

The cost for performing tests on each case, estimated at about $3,000, would be covered by a $2 increase in the cost of state death certificates. The price increase would take effect on January 1, 2001 and provide funding for the DNA laboratory by July 2001. The legislature specifically requires that DNA testing and case analysis begin by January, 2002. The California Department of Justice DNA Testing Lab in Berkeley is the most advanced and well-known facility of its kind, involved in such high profile criminal cases as the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the trial of accused mass murderer Charles Ng. It is currently involved in eliminating the backlog of convicted felon DNA profiles which in California alone number over 200,000. It is also the first facility to use robots for DNA analysis ensuring a lower rate of human error and is also developing new and more precise techniques and methods of DNA testing. 

Lab officials took advantage of the press conference to encourage parents to perform simple tests on their children at home. They provided test kits which included sterilized cotton swabs, an identification envelope and plastic bags for storage. 

Dr. Jon Tonkyn, Assistant Laboratory Director, demonstrated the procedure on Swartz and described what parents need to do. “Just swab the inside of both cheeks thoroughly and let the swab air dry. Keep the swab in the envelopes and store it in two plastic bags in your kitchen freezer.” 

Speier remarked, “I have two children of my own and as soon as I get home tonight I am going to be doing this with them.” 

Other items that can also be used for DNA profiling are hairs pulled out with the roots intact, clipped finger and toe nails, or dried blood from a bandage or swab. These items should also be air dried to prevent the formation of bacteria and stored in the freezer. Information from these samples could be used in a child abduction cases to identify evidence. 

Michael Minasian says that he and King, his 80 pound German Shepherd service dog, went into the Jupiter Cafe at 2181 Shattuck Ave. Sunday afternoon for a Caesar salad. 

Instead, the 47-year-old Berkeley Waterfront Commissioner spent 17 hours in the Santa Rita jail for trespassing after he refused to divulge his disability and credentials for the dog to Berkeley police and to Joe Bisbiglia, the restaurant manager. 

Minasian claims that his right to medical privacy, and his legal right to have the dog – covered by Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act – were violated when Bisbiglia refused to serve him because of the dog, and then those rights were stomped on when he was arrested. 

Title III of the ADA makes it a federal offense for a restaurant or similar public establishment to deny service to an individual with an ADA compliant disability who is accompanied by a service animal. 

According to Erica Jones, director of the Pacific Disability and Business Technical Center, it’s illegal under the act to ask what a person’s disability is. Police responded to calls by both Bisbiglia and Minasian to the cafe after Bisbiglia refused to serve Minasian and asked him to leave. 

Minasian said that he called the police for a reading of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

On the other hand, Bisbiglia called because he wanted Minasian and his dog removed. 

Minasian said he was stunned when police asked him the very same question Bisbiglia did, and demanded credentials for the tagless dog. 

Minasian, who – according to the police report – doesn’t appear disabled, continued to refuse to answer questions about the nature of his disability and was subsequently arrested when Bisbiglia signed a citizen’s arrest. Minasian is adamant that the law is the issue, not his disability and declined to reveal his disability to the Daily Planet Tuesday. He did say that he has a letter from a physician saying that his illness is ADA compliant and that the dog is certified under the ADA. 

The ADA states that dogs are not required to be specially marked or tagged. 

Lt. Russell Lopes, of the Berkeley police, said all dogs in Berkeley are required to be tagged, and that the city provides free licensing for service dogs. 

Minasian claims that two arresting officers were “rude” and “sarcastic.” Lopes said, on the other hand, that the police report stated that Minasian became “belligerent” at the cafe. 

Minasian also said in a written statement that a third officer attempted to convince the two officers that they and the cafe were both in violation of federal law, but the two other officers disagreed and he was taken to the station. 

Lopes said that since Minasian would not tell police at the station about his condition, or any medical requirements he may need, he was transferred to the Santa Rita jail where there is a medical staff. At 10:30 a.m. Monday, his attorney posted $2,500 bail after 17 hours in custody. King, the dog, had also been taken into custody and spent the night at the animal shelter. 

John Martin, owner of Jupiter Cafe said that his employee was in a difficult situation and called police to mediate the situation. 

Martin said that the health department does not allow pet dogs in restaurants, and since there were no indicators that Minasian needed the dog, nor was the dog marked, Bisbiglia simply asked him why. According to the federal act, the ADA trumps the health department, and Minasian says that the restaurant and the police should know that. 

He says he plans on taking this as far as he can.  

“There’s every reason that there will be a recurrence,” he said. “This is simply intolerable.” 

He said he’s filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and is awaiting the results. 

The Department may file lawsuits in Federal court to enforce the ADA and may obtain court orders including compensatory damages to remedy discrimination. Under Title III the department may also obtain civil penalties of up to $50,000 for the first violation and $100,000 for subsequent violations.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling barred the Oakland Cannabis Buyer’s Cooperative from distributing marijuana for medical use on Tuesday, voting 7-1 to endorse an emergency request from the Clinton Administration. The ruling, aimed narrowly at the Oakland clinic, however, does not overturn the legality Proposition 215, nor does it effectively end the distribution of marijuana to patients throughout the state, according to Dale Gierenger, California coordinator for NORMAL – the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.  

The central question of Proposition 215’s legality remains before a federal appeals court.  

“This law is being misconstrued by the media. It does not have anything to do with the legality of Proposition 215,” Gierenger says. One Berkeley activist at the Berkeley Patient Group, a Berkeley-based medical marijuana club, who declined to give her name, characterized the decision as “not really as big a deal as everyone thinks it is. Everything is actually OK.”  

The decision provoked more questions than answers. 

“We’re still cultivating an opinion” said E. Xeno Rasmusson, health consultant for the First Hemp Bank, a Berkeley-based privately held membership group of patients and care givers dedicated to safe, legal medical marijuana use. “But it seems to be part of the intricate dance between local, state, and federal decision making processes. ” 

While the decision does not necessarily shake the current status quo, it does set an uncomfortable legal precedent for those who support the medical use of marijuana. The case will eventually return to the Supreme Court, which will determine whether cannabis can be used medicinally. 

Many call it a test of representative democracy. At issue is whether the state-approved Compassionate Use Act, allowing marijuana to be distributed to patients with a prescription, will eclipse the federal Controlled Substance Act, which currently lists marijuana as an illegal substance.  

The Oakland Club is being used as a test case which will probably dictate policy for all similar cannabis clubs in California.  

The decisions will also have a long-term effect on cannabis clubs in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Maine, all of which have approved the use of medical marijuana. 

Locally, however, the Supreme Court decision throws some confusion into how Berkeley police should pursue criminal cases involving medical marijuana. 

Several calls to the Berkeley Police Department for comment were not returned. 

Buzzy Linhart, a local musician who jammed with Jimi Hendrix in the late 60s, recently had his marijuana plants confiscated and seized by the Berkeley police, despite the fact that he was carrying a card showing his right to have medical marijuana. 

Todd Mikuriya, a doctor who often prescribes cannabis for medical use, remembers a “chronic paranoid schizophrenic street person” who “lit up” on the UC Berkeley campus. 

“He was set upon by the UC campus guard. When he showed the guard medical documentation, the cop did not attempt to legitimate its authenticity. The patient was cited and pulled into municipal court.” 

Highly charged situations like this, says Mikuriya, “come from a disgraceful, systematic lack of compliance to the law on the part of police.” 

Don Duncan, director of the Berkeley Patient’s Group agrees. “There is no leadership coming from the top. So the police don’t know how to proceed. We need to at least implement Proposition 215 on a local level here in Berkeley.” 

“You’d think” continues Duncan, “that Berkeley would support this law, and there are a few people, particularly Worthington, Maio, and Spring who do, but the rest of the city has refused to take any leadership on the issue.” 

Polly Armstrong, however, disagrees. 

“The city of Berkeley voted 85 percent in favor of Proposition 215. I’m one hundred percent in favor of medical marijuana. It should be legalized throughout the nation. We just didn’t want to become a magnet for other city’s medical needs. Berkeley doesn’t have to become the Amsterdam of the United States” says Armstrong. 

And despite claims that everything is all right, “Fear is high in the community. We don’t know if the police will use this case and begin to act upon their own volition concerning medical marijuana use,” says Mikuriya. 

The decision ads to the controversy of whose jurisdiction the medical marijuana issue falls under. California voters approved the use of marijuana as a medicine in 1996, passing Proposition 215. When it was challenged in the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, the court ruled that “medical necessity” is a “legally cognizable defense” to a charge of drug distribution under the Substance Act. Federal lawyers have argued that this decision sets a dangerous precedent and provides a justification for illegal drug trafficking.  

Furthermore, the Berkeley City Council has a policy mandating police to make marijuana-related arrests a low-level priority. 

Such dictates put the Berkeley Police force squarely in the center of confusing legal conundrum. Will clubs similar to the OCBC, of which there are three in Berkeley, be forced to stop distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes as well? 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington does not think so. 

“If Berkeley police have information that a person is using marijuana for medical purposes, they are instructed to not arrest that person.” 

“If the police use this decision as an excuse to penalize anyone for medical use of marijuana, we will ask that to stop,” continues Worthington. 

For now, what seems to be at stake is the ability for the Oakland club to remain open. 

Jeff Jones, executive director of the OCBC, believes that discussing the Supreme Court’s decision is giving it too much importance. 

“It’s just a small fork in the road in the two and one-half year battle to legalize medical marijuana. The timing just has to do with the election cycle. Can the government allow someone to be exempt from the federal laws? No. Think about it. The government is all about control, and that’s what this decision is about,” says Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyer’s Cooperative. 

Worthington, however, warns that if the timing is tied to November’s national elections, it’s a poor decision that will backfire on the presidential candidates.  

“If it’s being done for political purposes, it’s sort of dumb. The average voter in California voted for 215 overwhelmingly. It’s not just a Berkeley issue,” says Worthington. 

“Once people have had a taste of freedom,” adds Mikuriya, “they won’t want to turn back. There is such a high demand for the medicine by patients, that clubs have been having difficulty keeping up.” 

It will be the patients who suffer if the Supreme Court shuts down the clubs, says Rasmusson. 

“The War on Drugs has been a long-bungled attempt to stem so called illegal drug use. If this draconian impulse continues, and the clubs are shut down, the patients will just have to go back to illegal dealers, where there is no insurance that what they receive will be high quality. This is a drug war against the sick. Closing the clubs won’t do anything to stem actual drug use,” says Rasmusson. 

Says Duncan, “We will continue dispensing medicine to our patients until we are forced to stop.”

Saturday, Sept. 2

Acupuncture for head and  

neck pain 

1-2 p.m. 

Meiji College of Oriental Medicine 

2550 Shattuck Ave. 

This is an opportunity to find out about what acupuncture and Oriental herbal medicine is and how it works. Free. 

666-8248 

Exercise to Music 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 5

Landmarks Preservaton  

Commission 

7-9 p.m. 

2nd Floor Conference Room, Permit Service Center 

2120 Milvia Street 

The commission will discuss the City Council direction relevant to the management of the west Berkeley Shellmound.  

Wednesday, Sept. 6

Alzheimer’s and dementia  

support group 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Martial arts demonstration 

noon-1 p.m. 

Sproul Hall steps, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley  

UC Berkeley Martial Arts Program will put on a demonstration to show what martial arts styles are offered at the university. 

beatty@haas.berkeley.edu. 

Thursday, Sept. 7

Growing wise with Betty Goren 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

“Discipline & Citizenship” conference 

6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

Conversation between actor  

Paul Newman and Laura  

D'Andrea Tyson 

5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Arthur Andersen Auditorium 

Gayley Road between Hearst Avenue and Bancroft Way 

The eventinaugurates the business school's annual lecture series Forum on Philanthropy in Business. 

Friday, Sept. 8

“Discipline & Citizenship” 

conference 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

895-4542 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 9

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

Sunday, Sept. 10

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

“Next Stop, Greenwich  

Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

848-0237 

Monday, Sept. 11

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA  

Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

Voter workshop 

1 p.m. 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 12

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Sept. 13

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Last townhall meeting on the  

Berkeley Housing Authority  

Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers. 

548-8776

If there’s one thing Coleen Doucette has seen enough of, it’s wild birds that have swallowed fishhooks or fish line.  

The San Francisco Bay is right on the Pacific Flyway, a major stopover for migrating waterfowl. Through this corridor pass thousands of ducks, grebes, gulls, geese, egrets, and much more.  

Because it’s a popular habitat for humans, too, conflicts inevitably arise.  

“We have seven pelicans brought in this week who swallowed fish line,” says Doucette, the rehabilitation manager at the International Bird Rescue and Research Center, located at Aquatic Park. “If people would just pick up their fish lines … we’d probably go out of business!”  

Actually, the nonprofit IBRRC does much more than tend to Bay Area water birds. It was founded in 1971 in response to a horrific oil spill, when two tankers collided under the Golden Gate Bridge, pouring 800,000 gallons of oil onto the waters in a slick that extended 50 miles along the coastline. There are hundreds of bird rescue centers in the U.S. today, but the Berkeley-based IBRRC is one of only two such organizations (the other is in Delaware) with an international oil spill response team. IBRRC director Jay Holcomb has spent the past two months in South Africa heading an international project to rescue penguins from a huge oil spill off Capetown. 

The Berkeley rehabilitation program was actually a spin-off of the IBRRC’s larger international mission. But it’s become a sizeable program – the center may see up to 80 birds a week during the summer, and Doucette estimates that 1,000 sick or injured birds come through in a year. 

This fall, IBRRC is moving to new quarters. The state has provided funds to build two new bird rescue facilities, one in Los Angeles, the other in Cordelia. Both will have the capacity to hold up to 1,000 birds at a time in case of a major environmental disaster. While the main office will relocate to Cordelia, staff hope they can find enough volunteers to keep the Berkeley facility open and continuing its important work. 

Some bird rescue centers specialize in songbirds; IBRRC is the place for aquatic fowl. The staff is in touch with other rescue centers around the state, exchanging ideas and sometimes trading birds. Coleen is concerned today about an abandoned baby grebe, just a couple of weeks old, which arrived last week. She places a call to a facility in San Rafael. 

“Hi,” she says. “You don’t have any grebes, do you? No? Well, I’d like it, if you get any Westerns or Clarks, if you’d send them down here. We’ve got a baby and he needs to grow up with some of his own kind.” 

She goes out to check on the progress of the grebe chick. This is his first day in the cold-water pool, which he shares with a group of recuperating murres.  

“He’s waterproofing up well!” Doucette says, peering at the downy chick. 

When a bird first arrives at the Rescue Center, it has usually lost its waterproofing, either through trauma or contamination. Preening, or grooming their plumage so the feathers are aligned and watertight, is how waterfowl stay waterproof (not, as is commonly thought, by oiling the feathers). A sick or traumatized bird will not preen; the feathers become disheveled, and that leaves the creature vulnerable to penetration by the cold water. Soon, the bird can die of hypothermia. To prevent that, rehabilitators put the bird first in a warm water pool while it regains its equilibrium. 

The grebe, who has recently graduated to the cold-water pool, is a darling of the staff. This is a bird so ugly that he’s cute. He could star as the Ugly Duckling in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale. Two beady black eyes are set in a round head covered with spiky grey down. He churns the water furiously with little black legs and webbed feet that are set far back on a nearly tailless body, giving him the look of a mutating tadpole. He looks as soft as a kitten, and the temptation to pick him up is strong. 

But that’s not allowed. “They’ll imprint really easily,” Doucette explains. And the whole point is for the grebe to grow up thinking he’s a grebe, not a person. 

A bird’s stay at the IBRRC can range from a few days to a few months. Juvenile birds remain at the rescue facility until they reach maturity. Older birds are released as soon as they are strong enough to fly or swim again.  

Today, two gulls and two murres are ready for release. Doucette and Lois Yuen, a volunteer, load the birds into cardboard carriers and drive to Point Emery. It’s a beautiful day – the sun sparkles on the water and a light breeze lifts the spirits.  

The gulls are first to be released. With a great flapping of wings, they escape into the air and head toward San Francisco. They know where the food is. 

The murres are released into the water. Doucette and Yuen grin in satisfaction as they watch the birds bob out onto the waves, then orient themselves toward the Golden Gate Bridge. These are deep sea birds that will soon be heading north.  

“It always amazes me that they know exactly where to go,” Doucette comments.  

The idyllic moment is soon over. Back at the rescue center, there’s already another casualty. Animal control officer Leslie Tisdale is here with a large pelican.  

It’s tangled in fishline. 

Contact the center at 841-9086.

Kindergartners at Malcolm X Elementary aren’t puzzled when they’re put into classes called yellow, green or blue on the first day of school.  

But some parents may scratch their heads when they receive a colored piece of paper in the mail a few days before school starts telling them that their child will be in the green class for three days. 

“It’s the way we build kindergarten classes here,” said teacher Louise Rosencrantz, who ran with the idea called Gentle Beginnings five years ago when Malcolm X was re-configured as a Kindergarten through fifth-grade school. 

“It’s the best way to get to know all the kids,” she said. 

It works like this: before school starts, the kids are assigned a color group and for three days the three kindergarten teachers each see a different group. This enables the teachers to look at each child’s academic strengths, social strengths and friendship needs, Rosencrantz said. 

And afterward, they build three balanced classes for each teacher for the rest of the year.  

“It’s artistry,” Rosencrantz said of building the diverse classes. “It’s wonderful fun, but it’s very hard. You realize how individual each child is. To build a great class, you need diversity, and not just diverse in demographics only.” 

“We think it’s really important that classes are ethnically, temperamentally and academically diverse,” said teacher Cynthia Allman. 

Moreover, the teachers will begin home visits this month to talk to the families and discuss what the teacher and the parents say are the specific needs of the student. 

It gives parents a chance to talk to the teachers about their kids in their home setting. Later, teachers will be having school-based parent-teacher conferences, talking to parents about the how the child is performing in the school setting. 

“It’s extra work for teachers and parents, but we’re convinced it works,” said Allman. 

Allman, Rosencrantz and Dyantha McDougal also hosted a potluck at the school for the kindergartners and their families before school started to introduce themselves and the program to parents who haven’t experienced it, and to talk about health requirements and other things the students may need. 

Rosencrantz said that Gentle Beginnings lets the kids, the families and the teachers get to know each other, and said she sees it as a way to better meet goals. 

The parents also seem to like it.  

Felicity Bensch, an English teacher at Pinole Valley High School in Pinole whose child went through the program, said she wishes something like this could take off at the high school level.  

“Equity goes on,” she said. “It’s very impressive that they work together as a team so classes are balanced. I get the feeling that the teachers give immediate individual attention.” 

“It’s hard being a kindergartner,” said parent Laurie Senauke. “For the first month, they’re acclimating. This gives everyone a chance to form a real partnership with each other.”

When school opened Wednesday, Berkeley High School students who did not bring their lunch, still had to head for downtown – just as they have for the last decade. 

There was no “food court” on campus to keep the some 3,400 teens on campus. 

Merchants have complained for years about their onslaught, though they appreciate the revenue they bring. Last year the complaints rose to a roar. 

So the school district, working with city government and the Downtown Merchants Association, decided that if merchants provided food on campus, they would not lose the students’ revenue, but would keep the numbers of teens downtown to a minimum. 

The proposed food court could be up and running as soon as next week, Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said. 

He hopes to set the food distribution up in the gallery area of the Berkeley Community Theater. 

Students would then have the option of eating inside at tables the school would provide or taking their lunch outside on the school grounds or at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.  

McLaughlin said the students would still have the option of leaving campus if they wished. 

The superintendent plans to ask the school board to allocate $5,000 for an implementation plan at Wednesday’s school board meeting. 

He said that they may sell the food provided by downtown Berkeley merchants out of the snack shack on campus if the gallery isn’t available.  

The space to serve the food is just one of the details yet to be worked out, he said. 

The district is working with merchants to price food carts that would be used to deliver food from the Good Food Cafe – a culinary arts program and kitchen classroom on the campus.  

McLaughlin said that he hopes to use the Good Food Cafe as a commissary because it is already meets health department guidelines. 

There is also a question of personnel. McLaughlin said it also falls under health department guidelines that district personnel serve the food, and additional servers may have to be hired. 

McLaughlin said the district is negotiating prices with the merchants. 

“The food cannot be more expensive than the food they would buy at the restaurant,” he said. “So we know there are going to be losses in the beginning, but we’re going to try to make it work by the end of September.” 

McLaughlin and Elsie Szeto, the manager of child nutrition services for the district, say that they have made recommendations that the vendors provide students with as many healthy food choices as possible. 

“But recommendations are quite different from requirements,” Szeto said. “And we will view those with healthy choices more favorably.” 

Caleb Dardick of the Downtown Berkeley Association said that he’s talked with some 15 merchants who are interested in participating in the program, but said that they have not worked out which, or how many, vendors will provide food. 

Dardick said that some of the merchants being considered were: La Cascada Taqueria, EZ Stop Deli, Round Table Pizza, KFC, Cancun Taqueria and Mel’s Diner. 

McLaughlin said he’s been perusing the local eateries to get ideas for an ambiance at the food court.  

“We’ll be meeting with students to find out what they want and what suits their needs,” he said. 

The DBA and the school district began talking about a food court months ago after several downtown merchants complained about groups of students disrupting business during their lunch hour. 

The school has been without a cafeteria since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused structural damage to the cafeteria. It was demolished two years later.  

Construction will begin this winter for a new student union and administration building, which will probably house a cafeteria.

Though West Berkeley residents have known for years that trains run through Berkeley – late night blasts that bring to mind Coltrane in his least lucid moments – very few know that it stopped here. 

Hidden beneath the University Avenue I-80 overpass, where concrete pillars cast a cistern-like shadow over the blacktop below, are a few benches where passengers congregate for the morning train to Santa Clara, or the line to Sacramento. 

To raise awareness and increase use, the Redevelopment Agency has plans to upgrade the area, both immediate and long term. For now the city and Amtrak have $40,000 to add more benches, trash cans, lighting and for general maintenance.  

Long term, however, is a revamp of the entire area. A federal Transportation Improvement Program grant for $641,000, and a pending state grant that could amount to $300,000 will be used to revitalize the area. Concrete plans are yet to be made. 

Amalia Lorentz, Associate Planner for

Friday, Sept. 1

Bridge 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Community Center 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

The games are open to all players 

For partnership and other informa- 

tion, please call Vi Kimoto at (510) 223-6539 

“Daughter of the Regiment” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Lunar Cycle:  

All-women critical mass ride 

Gather 6:30 p.m., ride at 7 p.m. 

Mama Bear's book store and cafe 

6536 Telegraph Ave. (near Alcatraz) 

All-women ride around town. All ages and abilities welcome.  

Saturday, Sept. 2

Lakeside Park on Lake Merritt, Oakland 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Internationally Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh will lead meditation exercises and lectures focusing on ‘mindful living.’ 

(510) 433-9928 

Acupuncture for head  

and neck pain 

1-2 p.m. 

Meiji College of Oriental Medicine 

2550 Shattuck Ave. 

This is an opportunity to find out about what acupuncture and Oriental herbal medicine is and how it works. Free. 

666-8248 

Exercise to Music 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 5 

Landmarks Preservation  

Commission 

7-9 p.m. 

2nd Floor Conference Room, Permit Service Center 

2120 Milvia Street 

The commission will discuss the City Council direction relevant to the management of the west Berkeley Shellmound.  

Wednesday, Sept. 6

Alzheimer’s and dementia  

support group 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Martial arts demonstration 

noon-1 p.m. 

Sproul Hall steps, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley  

UC Berkeley Martial Arts Program will put on a demonstration to show what martial arts styles are offered at the university. 

Contact Patrick at beatty@haas.berkeley.edu. 

Thursday, Sept. 7

Growing wise with Betty Goren 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

“Discipline & Citizenship”  

conference 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

6:30 p.m. -8 p.m. 

Friday, Sept. 8

“Discipline & Citizenship”  

conference 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

895-4542 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 9

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

Sunday, Sept. 10

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

“Next Stop, Greenwich Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

Monday, Sept. 11

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

Voter workshop 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 12

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Sept. 13

Last town hall meeting on the Berkeley Housing Authority Plan 

6-8 p.m. 

West Berkeley Senior Center 

1900 Sixth St. 

For information on the plan, call Wanda Remmers 548-8776 

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Thursday, Sept. 14

Eugene O’Neil House, Mt.  

Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Ebony Museum of Arts 

The museum specializes in the art and history of Africa.  

Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.  

30 Jack London Village, Suite 209. (510) 763-0745. 

Habitot Children’s Museum 

Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 

“Back to the Farm.”  

Ongoing 

An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels like an earthworm, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more.  

Cost: $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under.  

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.  

647-1111 or www.habitot.org 

Judah L. Magnes Museum 

2911 Russell St.  

549-6950 

Free 

Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

“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. 

“Spring and Summer.”  

Through Nov. 4. 

“Chagall: Master Prints and Posters, Selections from the Magnes Museum Collection.”  

Through Sept. 28. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum 

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley 

“Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment,” through Sept. 17.  

An exhibit of rare and exquisite works featuring more than forty mandalas and related objects including sculptures and models of sacred spaces. 

“Doug Aitken/MATRIX 185: Into the Sun,” through Sept. 3.  

An exhibit of works primarily in video and film, using the interplay of art and media to evoke deserted landscapes. 

“Autour de Rodin: Auguste 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.” Some of the maquettes were cast during Rodin’s lifetime, others have been cast fairly recently under the aegis of the Musee Rodin which alone is authorized to cast his sculptures posthumously.  

“Hans Hoffmann,” open-ended.  

An exhibit of paintings by Hoffmann which emphasizes two experimental methods the artist employed: the introduction of slabs or rectangles of highly saturated colors and the use of large areas of black paint juxtaposed with intense oranges, greens and yellows.  

The Asian Galleries  

“Art of the Sung: Court and Monastery,” open-ended.  

A display of early Chinese works from the permanent collection.  

“Chinese Ceramics and Bronzes: The First 3,000 Years,” open-ended. 

“Works on Extended Loan from Warren King,” open-ended. 

“Three Towers of Han,” ongoing.$6 general; $4 seniors and students age 12 to 18; free children age 12 and under; free Thursday, 11 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

642-0808. 

UC Berkeley Museum  

of Paleontology 

Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley 

“Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing.  

A 20-foot tall, 40-foot long replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. 

“Pteranodon,” ongoing.  

A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. 

California Fossils Exhibit, ongoing. An exhibit of some of the fossils which have been excavated in California. 

Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

642-1821. 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst  

Museum of Anthropology 

Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College  

Avenue, 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.  

“Approaching a Century of Anthropology: The Phoebe Hearst Museum,” open-ended.  

This new permanent installation will introduce visitors to major topics in the museum’s history, including the role of Phoebe Apperson Hearst as the museum’s patron, as well as the relationship of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie to the museum. 

“Ishi and the Invention of Yahi Culture,” ongoing. 

This exhibit documents the culture of the Yahi Indians of California as described and demonstrated from 1911 to 1916 by Ishi, the last surviving member of the tribe. 

$2 general; $1 seniors; $.50 children age 17 and under; free on Thursdays. Wednesday, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

643-7648 

Mills College Art Museum 

5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 

“The 100 Languages of Children,” through October.  

An exhibit of art by children from Reggio Emilia, Italy. At Carnegie Building Bender Room. 

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. 430-2164 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

“Experiment Gallery”  

Closing Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

“Math Rules!” Ongoing. 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. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning  

experiments. 

Holt Planitarium  

Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. 

“How Big Is the Universe,” through Sept. 3. Learn about various  

ways to determine distances. Through Sept. 3: Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. 

“Moons of the Solar System,” through Dec. 10. Take a tour of the  

fascinating worlds that orbit Earth and other planets out to the edge  

of the Solar System. Through Sept. 3, Saturday and Sunday, 2:15 p.m.;  

Sept. 9 through Oct. 29, 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.; Nov. 4 through Dec. 10;  

2;15 p.m. 

“Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn  

to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the  

planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18;  

$3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m.  

to 5 p.m.; Centennial Drive, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

The Oakland Museum of  

California 

1000 Oak St., Oakland 

“Helen Nestor: Personal and Political” Through Oct. 15.  

An exhibit of images documenting the Free Speech Movement, the 60s civil rights marches, and women’s issues. 

“California Classic: Realist Paintings by Robert Bechtle” through Oct. 1.  

An exhibit of 18 paintings and drawings by the Bay Area artist dating from 1965 to 1997. 

Special Exhibit – “Meadowsweet Dairy: Wood Sculpture,” through Sept. 15.  

An exhibit of 12 sculptures made with materials found and salvaged to reveal the beauty of the natural object. At the Sculpture Court, City Center, 1111 Broadway. Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students; free children age 5 and under; second Sundays are free to all. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

(888) OAK-MUSE or www.museumca.org. 

Music 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5099 

For all ages 

www.ashkenaz.com 

Today, 9:30 p.m. CD release party with Strictly Roots 

Sept. 3, 9 p.m. Don Carlos & Reggaie Angels 

Sept. 5, 9 p.m. A night of Big Mountain Awareness with Blackfire 

Sept. 6, 8 p.m. lesson and 9 p.m. show Poullard-Thompson Band (Cajun) 

Sept. 8 Fantcha 

Sept. 27, 8 p.m., dance session, 9 p.m., music 

Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Heath Curtis, Bluegrass intentions 

Old time, Appalachian music 

525-5099 

924 Gilman St. 

924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, member-run no alcohol, drugs, and violence club. Most shows are $5. Memberships for the year are $2. Shows start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Call 525-9926.  

The Albatross Pub 

1822 San Pablo Ave. 

843-2473 

All shows begin at 9 p.m. 

Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet, Sept. 2. 

Dunsmuir Historic Estate 

2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland 

End of summer concert: “Caribbean Rhythms” 

Sunday, Sept. 3, noon- 3 p.m. 

$5 adults, $4 seniors; $1 for children under 13 

615-5555, www.dunsmuir.org 

Starry Plough 

3101 Shattuck Ave. 

Noche de Flamenco, 8:30 p.m., Sept. 6 

Featured artists include Cristo Cortes, Monica Bermudez  

and Carola Zertuche, with special guest El Pollito 

$10 

841-2082 

The Greek Theatre 

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals, Maceo Parker, Sept. 8, 7 p.m. $30.  

Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road, Berkeley. (510) 444-TIXS 

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 

Daniela Mercury, Sept. 8, 8 p.m. $35. 

10 10th St., Oakland. (510) 534-6348, (510) 762-BASS 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra 

Nicholas McGegan conducting, Sept. 9 and Sept. 10.  

A performance of Handel's opera-oratorio “Semele.”  

$32 to $46. Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. First  

Congregational Church, Dana Street and Durant Avenue, Berkeley.  

(415) 392-4400 or www.philharmonia.org 

The Jazzschool 

2375 Shattuck Ave. 

Dick Hindman Trio 

4:30 p.m., Sept. 17 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

Classical Concert 

Friday, Sept. 29  

First Lutheran Church at Homer and Webster streets, Palo Alto 

8 p.m. 

(415) 378-4863 

Films 

University of California, Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 1 -Oct. 8 

“MadCat Women’s International Film Festival”  

Sept. 8,9 

Festival showcases women filmmakers from around the world. 

“Paper Tiger Television” 

A look at TV used to promote grassroots political action. PTTV members will appear for discussion with the audiences at screenings. 

Sept. 12,15 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

Paramount Movie Classics Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 8: The French Connection. 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

Theater 

“The Green Bird” by Carlo  

Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs from September 8 - October 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Preview dates are September 8-10 and 13, tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

“Endgame” 

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, through Sept. 2 at La Val’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. Berkeley. 

Directed by George Charbak.  

524-9327. 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Sept.7 -Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

Exhibits 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.  

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space. The opening reception is on September 12 from 6-8 p.m. 

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” Sept. 1 through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Sept. 10 through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

Sept. 5 through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

Creative Growth 

“Indelible Ink” closing Sept. 1. Selections from the Creative Growth Permanent Collection and new works. 

Free. Monday through Friday, noon to 5:30 p.m. 355 24th St., Oakland. (510) 836-2340 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

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

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 5, 7:30 p.m. Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan discuss their book “Mean Genes – From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts.” 

Sept. 7, 7 p.m. Andrea Siegel, “Open and Clothed: For the Passionate Clothes Lover.” At 1730 Fourth St. 

Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. Diana Spaulding and David Dodd, “The Grateful Dead Reader” 

Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Glenn Dickey, “Glenn Dickey's 49ers – the Rise, the Fall and the Future of  

Football's Greatest Dynasty.” 

Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. Julia Cameron and her book “The Artist's Way.”  

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 3, 3 to 5 p.m. Open House 

Free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

6-7 p.m. “Life of the Buddha” 

Instructor Eva Casey relates the lessons of Buddha to the practitioner’s experience.  

Sept. 10, 6-7p.m. “Overcoming Obstacles to Meditation” 

Instructor Abbe Blum talks about meditation troubles and how they can be viewed to unlock the mind’s secrets. 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

UC Berkeley’s Poem Reading Series Kickoff Event 

Sept. 7, 12:10 p.m. Robert Hass introduces Berkeley campus figures reading their favorite poems. Free. Morrison Room, Doe Library, Bancroft Way at College Avenue,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-0137 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Mark Isham's In A Silent Way Project Sept. 4, $18. 

Ray Brown Trio with Kevin Mahogany, Sept. 5 through Sept. 10. $20 to $24 general; Sunday matinee: $5 children; $10 adult with one child. 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 9, 9-10 a.m. 

Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave, Oakland 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenas, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

“Experiment Gallery”  

Closing Sept. 10. Step inside a giant laboratory and experiment with concepts surrounding sound, light, mechanics, electricity, and weather. 

“Math Rules!” Ongoing. 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. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning  

experiments. 

Holt Planitarium  

Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. 

“How Big Is the Universe,” through Sept. 3. Learn about various  

ways to determine distances. Through Sept. 3: Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. 

“Moons of the Solar System,” through Dec. 10. Take a tour of the  

fascinating worlds that orbit Earth and other planets out to the edge  

of the Solar System. Through Sept. 3, Saturday and Sunday, 2:15 p.m.;  

Sept. 9 through Oct. 29, 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.; Nov. 4 through Dec. 10; 2:15 p.m. 

“Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn  

to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the  

planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18;  

$3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m.  

to 5 p.m.; Centennial Drive, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu 

The Oakland Museum  

of California 

1000 Oak St., Oakland 

“Helen Nestor: Personal and Political” Through Oct. 15.  

An exhibit of images documenting the Free Speech Movement, the 60s civil rights marches, and women’s issues. 

“California Classic: Realist Paintings by Robert Bechtle” through Oct. 1.  

An exhibit of 18 paintings and drawings by the Bay Area artist dating from 1965 to 1997. 

Special Exhibit – “Meadowsweet Dairy: Wood Sculpture,” through Sept. 15.  

An exhibit of 12 sculptures made with materials found and salvaged to reveal the beauty of the natural object. At the Sculpture Court, City Center, 1111 Broadway. Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

$6 general; $4 seniors and students; free children age 5 and under; second Sundays are free to all. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

(888) OAK-MUSE or www.museumca.org. 

Ashkenaz 

1317 San Pablo Ave.  

525-5099 

For all ages 

www.ashkenaz.com 

Today, 9:30 p.m. CD release party with Strictly Roots 

Sept. 3, 9 p.m. Don Carlos & Reggaie Angels 

Sept. 5, 9 p.m. A night of Big Mountain Awareness with Blackfire 

Sept. 6, 8 p.m. lesson and 9 p.m. show Poullard-Thompson Band (Cajun) 

Sept. 8 Fantcha 

Sept. 27, 8 p.m., dance session, 9 p.m., music 

Kate Brislin, Jody Stecher, Heath Curtis, Bluegrass intentions 

Old time, Appalachian music 

525-5099 

924 Gilman St. 

924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, member-run no alcohol, drugs, and violence club. Most shows are $5. Memberships for the year are $2. Shows start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Call 525-9926.  

The Albatross Pub 

1822 San Pablo Ave. 

843-2473 

All shows begin at 9 p.m. 

Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet, Sept. 2. 

Dunsmuir Historic Estate 

2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland 

End of summer concert: “Caribbean Rhythms” 

Sunday, Sept. 3, noon- 3 p.m. 

$5 adults, $4 seniors; $1 for children under 13 

615-5555, www.dunsmuir.org 

Starry Plough 

3101 Shattuck Ave. 

Noche de Flamenco, 8:30 p.m., Sept. 6 

Featured artists include Cristo Cortes, Monica Bermudez  

and Carola Zertuche, with special guest El Pollito 

$10 841-2082 

The Greek Theatre 

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals, Maceo Parker, Sept. 8, 7 p.m. $30.  

Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road, Berkeley. (510) 444-TIXS 

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 

Daniela Mercury, Sept. 8, 8 p.m. $35. 

10 10th St., Oakland. (510) 534-6348, (510) 762-BASS 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra 

Nicholas McGegan conducting, Sept. 9 and Sept. 10.  

A performance of Handel's opera-oratorio “Semele.”  

$32 to $46. Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. First  

Congregational Church, Dana Street and Durant Avenue, Berkeley.  

(415) 392-4400 or www.philharmonia.org 

The Jazzschool 

2375 Shattuck Ave. 

Dick Hindman Trio 

4:30 p.m., Sept. 17 

$12; $10 students/seniors; $6 for Jazzschool students and children under 13 

Classical Concert 

Friday, Sept. 29  

First Lutheran Church at Homer and Webster streets, Palo Alto 

8 p.m. 

(415) 378-4863 

Films 

University of California, Berkeley Art Museum 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 1 -Oct. 8 

“MadCat Women’s International Film Festival”  

Sept. 8,9 

Festival showcases women filmmakers from around the world. 

“Paper Tiger Television” 

A look at TV used to promote grassroots political action. PTTV members will appear for discussion with the audiences at screenings. 

Sept. 12,15 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

Paramount Movie Classics Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 8: The French Connection. 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

Theater 

“The Green Bird” by Carlo  

Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs from September 8 - October 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Preview dates are September 8-10 and 13, tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

“Endgame” 

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, through Sept. 2 at La Val’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. Berkeley. 

Directed by George Charbak.  

524-9327. 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Sept.7 -Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

Exhibits 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.  

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space. The opening reception is on September 12 from 6-8 p.m. 

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” Sept. 1 through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Sept. 10 through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

California College of Arts and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

Sept. 5 through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

Creative Growth 

“Indelible Ink” closing Sept. 1. Selections from the Creative Growth Permanent Collection and new works. 

Free. Monday through Friday, noon to 5:30 p.m. 355 24th St., Oakland. (510) 836-2340 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

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

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 5, 7:30 p.m. Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan discuss their book “Mean Genes – From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts.” 

Sept. 7, 7 p.m. Andrea Siegel, “Open and Clothed: For the Passionate Clothes Lover.” At 1730 Fourth St. 

Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. Diana Spaulding and David Dodd, “The Grateful Dead Reader” 

Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Glenn Dickey, “Glenn Dickey's 49ers – the Rise, the Fall and the Future of  

Football's Greatest Dynasty.” 

Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. Julia Cameron and her book “The Artist's Way.”  

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 3, 3 to 5 p.m. Open House 

Free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

6-7 p.m. “Life of the Buddha” 

Instructor Eva Casey relates the lessons of Buddha to the practitioner’s experience.  

Sept. 10, 6-7p.m. “Overcoming Obstacles to Meditation” 

Instructor Abbe Blum talks about meditation troubles and how they can be viewed to unlock the mind’s secrets. 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

UC Berkeley’s Poem Reading Series Kickoff Event 

Sept. 7, 12:10 p.m. Robert Hass introduces Berkeley campus figures reading their favorite poems. Free. Morrison Room, Doe Library, Bancroft Way at College Avenue,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-0137 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Mark Isham's In A Silent Way Project Sept. 4, $18. 

Ray Brown Trio with Kevin Mahogany, Sept. 5 through Sept. 10. $20 to $24 general; Sunday matinee: $5 children; $10 adult with one child. 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 9, 9-10 a.m. 

Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave, Oakland 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenas, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 

University of  

California, Berkeley 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way 

642-1412 

“Treasures from the George Eastman House” 

Various programs and a 16-film salute to little-known actresses. 

Sept. 1 -Oct. 8 

“MadCat Women’s International Film Festival”  

Sept. 8,9 

Festival showcases women filmmakers from around the world. 

“Paper Tiger Television” 

A look at TV used to promote grassroots political action. PTTV members will appear for discussion with the audiences at screenings. 

Sept. 12,15 

$7 for one film; $8.50 for double bills. UC Berkeley students are $4/$5.50. Seniors and children are $4.50/6.00  

Paramount Movie Classics  

Summer 2000 Series  

The evening includes a classic movie, walk-in music from the Wurlitzer  

organ, a newsreel, cartoon, movie previews and the Paramount's prize  

give-away game “Dec-O-Win.” 

Sept. 8: The French Connection. 

Sept. 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

$5. Shows at 8 p.m. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. 

“The Green Bird”  

by Carlo Gozzi 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

2025 Addison St. 

Adapted by Theatre de la Jeune Lune and directed by Dominique Serrand.  

“The Green Bird” runs from September 8 - October 27. For tickets contact the box office at 845-4700 

“The Philanderer”  

by George Bernard Shaw 

Berkeley City Club 

2315 Durant Ave. 

Performed by the Aurora Theatre company, “The Philanderer” takes on the challenging and often humorous exploration of gender roles and the separations that exist between the sexes. 

Preview dates are September 8-10 and 13, tickets for preview showings are sold at $26. Opening night is September 14, admission is $35. Showtimes run Wednesday through Saturday through October 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees show at 2 p.m., plus selected Sunday evenings at 7 p.m. Admission for regular performances is $30. Student discounts are available. For tickets and information call 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. 

“Endgame” 

Fridays, and Saturdays, through Sept. 2 at La Val’s Subterranean 1834 Euclid Ave. Berkeley. 

Directed by George Charbak.  

524-9327. 

“MIMZABIM!” 

Climate Theatre & Subterranean Shakespeare 

La Vals Subterraniean 1834 Euclid, Berkeley 

Sept.7 -Oct. 14 

Thursday - Saturday 8:00 p.m. 

$12, Students $8 

The Artistry of Rae Louise  

Hayward 

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

3023 Shattuck Ave. 

548-9286, ext. 307 

Through Sept. 27 

Rae Louise Hayward, one of the founders of The Art of Living Black, Bay Area Black Artist Annual Exhibition and Open Studios Tour. 

Haywards’ art celebrates the beauty of African culture from its people to its music.  

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 1-7 p.m., Saturday 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.  

Traywick Gallery 

1316 Tenth St.  

527-1214 

Charles LaBelle 

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

LaBelle’s new series of large-scale color photographs highlight nighttime nature in Hollywood. He recreates trees at night using a hand-held spotlight and playing on the beam across the leaves and branches. The opening reception will be held on September 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.  

Blue Vinyl by Connie Walsh  

Sept. 9 - Oct. 15 

This multimedia project combines video, sound and printmaking to explore concepts of intimacy and its relation to private space. The opening reception is on September 12 from 6-8 p.m. 

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-6 p.m. and Sundays 12-5 p.m. 

A.C.C.I. Gallery  

“Paperworks,” Sept. 1 through Oct. 7.  

A group exhibit of works by Carol Brighton, Vannie Keightley, Jean Hearst. 

Opening Reception, Sept. 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-2527 

Berkeley Art Center 

“Ethnic Notions: Black Images in the White Mind,''  

Sept. 10 through Nov. 12. An exhibit by Janette Faulkner exploring racial stereotypes in commercial imagery. Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893 

California College of Arts  

and Crafts  

“Add/Drop/Add: CCAC Fine Arts Faculty Exhibitions”  

Sept. 5 through Sept. 16. 

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oliver Art Center, 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712 

Chi Gallery  

“Alegres Cantos en Mi Ser (Songs of Joy in My Being)” through Sept. 30.  

An exhibit of paintings depicting scenes of Afro-cuban music, by Susan Mathews. Reception, Sept. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. 912-A Clay St., Oakland. (510) 832-4244. 

Creative Growth 

“Indelible Ink” closing Sept. 1. Selections from the Creative Growth Permanent Collection and new works. 

Free. Monday through Friday, noon to 5:30 p.m. 355 24th St., Oakland. (510) 836-2340 

Kala Institute  

“Layerings: New Work by Four Kala Fellows” through Sept. 28. The 2000 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Awards Exhibitions, Part II of works by Margaret M. Kessler, Barbara Milman, Michele Muennig, and  

David Politzer. Free. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Workshop Media Center  

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

Readings 

Rhyme & Reason Poetry Series 

Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant 

Second and fourth Sundays of each month. For open reading following featured readers, sign up at 2 p.m., readings begin at 2:30 p.m. 

Sept. 10. Q.R. Hand, Tennessee Reed 

Readings at Cody’s 

2454 Telegraph Ave.  

Sept. 5, 7:30 p.m. Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan discuss their book “Mean Genes – From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts.” 

Sept. 7, 7 p.m. Andrea Siegel, “Open and Clothed: For the Passionate Clothes Lover.” At 1730 Fourth St. 

Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. Diana Spaulding and David Dodd, “The Grateful Dead Reader” 

Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Glenn Dickey, “Glenn Dickey's 49ers – the Rise, the Fall and the Future of  

Football's Greatest Dynasty.” 

Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. Julia Cameron and her book “The Artist's Way.”  

Nyingma Institute 

1815 Highland Place  

843-6812 

Free 

Sept. 3, 3 to 5 p.m. Open House 

Free introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Culture 

6-7 p.m. “Life of the Buddha” 

Instructor Eva Casey relates the lessons of Buddha to the practitioner’s experience.  

Sept. 10, 6-7p.m. “Overcoming Obstacles to Meditation” 

Instructor Abbe Blum talks about meditation troubles and how they can be viewed to unlock the mind’s secrets. 

Sept. 17, 6-7 p.m. “Knowledge of Freedom” 

Buddhist teacher June Rosenberg will demonstrate how “Knowledge of Freedom” teachings can be applied in daily life. 

UC Berkeley’s Poem Reading Series Kickoff Event 

Sept. 7, 12:10 p.m. Robert Hass introduces Berkeley campus figures reading their favorite poems. Free. Morrison Room, Doe Library, Bancroft Way at College Avenue,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-0137 

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers 

Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size, run along a half mile of track in Tilden Regional Park. The small trains are owned and maintained by a non-profit group of railroad buffs who offer rides.  

Free. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley.  

486-0623  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

Scientists and engineers guide visitors through the research areas of the laboratory, demonstrating emerging technology and discussing the research’s current and potential applications. A Berkeley lab tour usually lasts two hours and includes visits to several research areas. Popular tour sites include the Advanced Light Source, The National Center for Electron Microscopy, the 88-Inch Cyclotron, The Advanced Lighting Laboratory, and The Human Genome Laboratory. Reservations required at least two weeks in advance of tour. 

Free. University of California, Berkeley. 

486-4387 

Berkeley City Club Tours 

Guided tours through Berkeley’s City Club, a landmark building designed by architect Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle. 

$2. The fourth Sunday of every month except December, between noon to 4 p.m.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. 

848-7800 

Dance 

Yoshi’s 

Mark Isham's In A Silent Way Project Sept. 4, $18. 

Ray Brown Trio with Kevin Mahogany, Sept. 5 through Sept. 10. $20 to $24 general; Sunday matinee: $5 children; $10 adult with one child. 

Unless otherwise noted, music at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or  

(510) 762-BASS 

Luna Kids Dance 

Creative dance for children 

Parent-child class 

Sept. 9, 9-10 a.m. 

Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave, Oakland 

Sept. 12, open house 

Ashkenas, 1317 San Pablo, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 

530-4113 

Mark Morris Dance Group 

“Four Saints in Three Acts” and “Dido & Aeneas” 

Sept. 21-24 Zellerbach Hall 

Music by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and American Bach Soloists 

Tickets: $34 - $52 

643-6714 

Mention the name Deltha O’Neal to just about any football fan and you’ll get a response. 1999 All-American, Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, first-round NFL pick. O’Neal regularly made highlight films last season, picking off passes for touchdowns, returning kicks for touchdowns, and generally being spectacular on Saturdays. 

Now mention Chidi Iwuoma. Unless you’re talking to a die-hard Cal fan, you’ll likely get a blank stare. Playing across the field from O’Neal, there wasn’t a lot of fanfare for the tiny cornerback with Nigerian roots. He didn’t return either of his interceptions for touchdowns, and his three punt returns didn’t get him into the end zone either. 

But ask Cal head coach Tom Holmoe, and he’ll tell you a different story. 

“He actually graded out better, game by game, than Deltha last year,” Holmoe said. “Deltha was our big-play guy, but Chidi did his job very well last year.” 

Iwouma will fill many roles this year. He is the lone returning starter in the defensive backfield, and will be the Bears’ primary kick and punt return man, entrusted with providing the offense with good field position to start their drives. 

But perhaps his most important role will be as one of the experienced players whom the younger guys look up to. 

“This year, I am playing the role as a leader and inspiration for the younger players, not just for the secondary, but for the whole team,” said Iwuoma. “The coaches want me to step up and be more vocal, and I’m ready to do that. I’m ready in my senior season to do that, not just on the field, but any way possible.” 

Iwuoma’s new partner at cornerback will be sophmore LaShaun Ward, who played in all 11 games last year and has the potential to become an outstanding player. But there is no question that Iwuoma must become an impact player if the Bears are to dominate defensively like last season, when they led the Pac-10 in both scoring and total defense. 

“I’ll get the chance to get the ball in my hands, so hopefully I’ll get to make some plays there,” Iwuoma says. 

Iwuoma says he was sometimes hesitant to go for the big play last year. 

“A lot of times I’d be right there on a pick and I’d secure the tackle. I think this year I’ll work on looking for the ball a little better. I worked on those skills all summer. I’m still going to do my job — I’m not going to be a wild man out there — but I think I’ll have a better sense of where the ball is at.” 

Iwuoma has set high goals for both himself and the team. 

“I want to go to a major bowl game,” he said. “We know that we have to work for it, so a lot of guys are a lot more focused on working towards that goal and that was apparent during spring ball and during the summer... the guys are really more goal oriented towards getting to that bowl game.” 

The fact that most pre-season predictions have the Bears near the bottom of the conference gives him even more motivation. 

“Those ratings just set my goals even higher,” he says. “I pretty much just laugh at those ratings because I know that we are going to do much better, and as long as we play the way we can, we’ll finish much higher in the Pac-10.”

A few obscure cassette tapes and compact discs by easily forgotten artists like “Katrina and the Waves” and “Poco,” along with a handful of old books and magazines – some circa 1979 – dotted the dusty bookshelves at Half Price Books at 2525 Telegraph Ave. about 5 p.m. Thursday afternoon. 

They were the leftovers of a 95 percent markdown. A moving out sale to get rid of all its stuff to avoid warehousing.  

After 16 years at the location along the strip of Telegraph known for its bevy of bookstores, the book and music dealer is closing its doors. 

“It’s sad, we’ll miss Telegraph,” said manager Ellen Foster, who has worked at the store for 13 years. 

“This store is just too small for us,” she said. “It’s the smallest of the 60 some (Half Price Book) stores. It’s just not as profitable as some of the larger stores.” 

No, the store isn’t a victim of a hellish rent increase, nor were they bought out by Starbucks. said. “We just need to be bigger,” she said. 

None of their employees will be forced to panhandle across the street, either. 

“Most of our employees have gone back to school, and some are being transferred to our Solano store,” she said.  

Half Price has another Berkeley location at 1849 Solano Ave. 

And Foster is also staying with the company, too, she said. 

Foster said the 25-year-old chain purchased a larger space for the re-sale books and music chain in Concord. She said they’re set to open in January. 

“I’ll miss them,” said Andy Ross, owner of nearby Cody’s Books. “It’s where I met my wife.” 

Ross said that there isn’t much competition between the handful of bookstores that inhabit the two or three blocks of Telegraph, and said he didn’t think that it would affect his business at all. 

Foster agreed.  

“The more bookstores the better,” she said.  

She added that the landlord asked her to leave the shelves in the store because he’s anticipating another bookstore.

After practicing psychotherapy in the historic building at 1942 University Ave. for more than a dozen years, Karen Rose will be out on the street. 

She was given notice Aug. 15 that she had to be out of her office by Sept. 15. 

And that’s not an easy thing for the blind woman, who insists on wheelchair-accessible space for her clients. 

Rose’s landlord is Reddy Realty, whose owner Lakireddy Bali Reddy made headlines for his alleged role in bringing teenagers from abroad for sex and bringing others to work in his businesses under false pretenses. Reddy’s now confined to his brother’s home in Modesto, out of jail on $10 million bail. 

Sid Lakireddy, Reddy’s nephew, is managing a remodeling project at the building, one of more-than $70 million in properties Reddy owns. 

A fire in December damaged the roof, which he is replacing. He’s also repainting the front of the building and doing some other interior work, he said.  

Lakireddy told the Daily Planet that he expects the work will take about three months and that Rose will be able to move back in if she wants to. 

He added that if she were unable to find a new place for her practice by the Sept. 15 date, he would hold up the work for another two weeks to allow her more time. And he’s trying to find her a suitable place for her practice. 

Moreover, he said if Rose could tolerate the construction noises and danger, she could stay during the work. “If she wants to stay on, she can,” he said. 

Much of this is news to Rose. 

“I was told that I could move back after one year or 18 months,” she said.  

And she said no one told her she could stay.  

“If they’d let me stay through the construction, I would stay,” she said. 

Rose, who is on the faculty of San Francisco State University, said that ever since she got the notice to move, she’s been searching for a place to hold her therapy sessions. 

She said she’s contacted 14 commercial realtors, the Chamber of Commerce, the University Avenue Merchants Association and others.  

All she’s found is space she could use exclusively in the evening – she sees clients during the day, in the evening and on weekends – and a building that is closed evenings and on weekends. 

She’d be willing to see clients in her small Berkeley home, but she’d have to get approval from the Zoning Adjustments Board.  

“They said there are 140 hearings before me,” she said. Approval would take months. 

Rose said a therapist can’t just tell a client, the week before, that she will no longer be seeing clients.  

Preparation for terminating a therapist-client relationship takes some time. 

She said her eviction appears legal, since she has a month-to-month lease.  

Rose, who is a member of the Commission on Disability, said she is proud of her accomplishments in life.  

After earning an undergraduate and graduate degree, she received her license to practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist in 1984.  

She was forced, early on, to go into solo practice, because agencies refused to hire a blind therapist, she said, citing Department of Labor statistics which say that 70 percent of blind adults are unemployed. 

Rose said she’s determined to continue her work and is offering a reward to anyone who can help her find a new office. She can be reached at 486-1188.

A teary-eyed Kaiza Robinson, 5, sat by the door of Jeannie Gee’s kindergarten class about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday morning at Le Conte Elementary School, tugging on her pigtails and wondering just where her mother left her, and when is she coming back. 

“I want my mom,” she said as she sniffled.  

Five-year-old Edward Fong didn’t want to let go of his mom to go to the brave new world called kindergarten. His classmate Watson Berreman, also 5, was doing the same. 

“He didn’t go to preschool first,” said Jennie Fong, Edward’s mother. “So this really is his first day of school.” 

The newest editions to the some 350 kids at Le Conte Elementary, at 2241 Russell St., were suffering a little separation anxiety and the first-day-of-school blues. 

So were the moms and dads, who hung around in classrooms – sometimes with their little ones fused to their necks – and in the new teacher’s lounge until a little after 9 a.m. 

Things were a little easier for Eric Saddler, 5, because his mom is the principal and right across the hall. 

“I have a little anxiety myself,” said second-year principal Patricia Saddler as she walked into Mrs. Gee’s class taking snapshots of Eric as he made blue and red pancakes from clay. 

By 10 a.m., when Gee’s class lined up to go to the play area, all the tears and fears were gone. And Kaiza, Edward, Watson and Eric all romped around like pint-sized puppies with jump-ropes and bouncy balls. 

With $3,661,659 in measure A funds, Le Conte now has a modernized auditorium, and a new library and office.  

Saddler said construction finished in the spring. 

The first day last year, she said, “didn’t go quite as smoothly.” 

The main hallway was open the first two weeks, but then closed and the kids had to be redirected.  

“The construction went in phases,” she said. “We didn’t have a library, and part of the building was closed off. There’s a lot of excitement that the construction is finished.” 

What’s also exciting is the unique 14-year-old farm and garden science lab program that Le Conte maintains, that invites the kids to get dirty as they study soil and practice composting. Last year the school received part of a $1 million state Nutrition Network Grant, and the school will integrate the teaching in the garden into the school’s core curriculum and will use vegetables grown and cooked by the children into their daily diet. 

Also inhabiting the garden are ducks, rabbits, a turkey, chickens and the newest editions – Aries, the black Irish mountain lamb and Susie the goat. 

The school has also launched a new five-year Spanish dual immersion program that children begin in kindergarten and complete in the fifth grade.  

Kindergartners and first graders spend 90 percent of the day learning Spanish. Second and third graders concentrate on learning English.  

Fourth and fifth graders study both languages. 

Saddler said the goal is that by the fifth grade the students are bilingual and biliterate.  

Half of the children in the class are native Spanish speakers and the other half are native English speakers or speak another native tongue.  

Two of the 16 kindergarten and first grade classes are dual immersion classes, she said. 

Saddler said so many parents want their children in the class that the kids are chosen by lottery. 

“I missed the lottery (for Eric),” she said. 

But that hasn’t kept her from enrolling her son at Le Conte, even though he was originally assigned to Berkeley Arts Magnet. 

“I think I have some of the best kindergarten teachers here,” she said. “And I can keep him here with me.” 

Thursday, August 31

Meeting Life Changes 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

With John Hammerman. 

644-6107 

“Life and Death Mishnaic  

Themes of Yom Kippur” 

8 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC 

1414 Walnut St. 

Leah Rosental, from Israel, presents a free evening lecture, in English, with the corporation with the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay.  

The History of California Rock Climbing 

7 p.m. 

REI 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Join Andy Puhvel, director of Yo! Basecamp rock climbing school, for a slide presentation on the history of rock climbing here in California. You’ll find out how creative advancements in technology, combined with boldness and inspiration, made Yosemite Valley climbers the pioneers of this sport.  

527-7377 

“Calming Our Minds” 

7 p.m. 

Berkeley Community Theater 

Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master, will be giving a public lecture titled “Calming Our Minds, Opening Our Hearts” at the Berkeley Community Theater. 

Tickets are $20 

433-9928 

The Revelations: A Concert for the Children of Chiapas 

8 p.m. 

La Pena Cultural Center 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

The Revelations, a Spanish-English reggae band from San Diego, will perform at La Pena Cultural Center to benefit Schools for Chiapas. Schools for Chiapas, a 

nonprofit organization, supports Mayan communities in the Mexican state of Chiapas in their effort to create an autonomous, indigenous education system. $5. 

849-2568 

Friday, Sept. 1

Bridge 

1 p.m. 

Live Oak Community Center 

1301 Shattuck Ave. 

The games are open to all players 

For partnership and other informa- 

tion, please call Vi Kimoto at (510) 

223-6539 

“Daughter of the Regiment” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Lunar Cycle: All-women critical mass ride 

Gather 6:30 p.m., ride at 7 p.m. 

Mama Bear's book store and cafe 

6536 Telegraph Ave. (near Alcatraz) 

All-women ride around town. All ages and abilities welcome.  

Saturday, Sept. 2

Lakeside Park on Lake Merritt, Oakland 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Internationally Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh will lead meditation exercises and lectures focusing on ‘mindful living.’ 

(510) 433-9928 

Acupuncture for head and neck pain 

1-2 p.m. 

Meiji College of Oriental Medicine 

2550 Shattuck Ave. 

This is an opportunity to find out about what acupuncture and Oriental herbal medicine is and how it works. Free. 

666-8248 

Exercise to Music 

10 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 5

Landmarks Preservation  

Commission 

7-9 p.m. 

2nd Floor Conference Room, Permit Service Center 

2120 Milvia Street 

The commission will discuss the City Council direction relevant to the management of the west Berkeley Shellmound.  

Wednesday, Sept. 6

Alzheimer’s and dementia support group 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Thursday, Sept. 7

Growing wise with Betty Goren 

10:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

“Discipline & Citizenship”  

conference 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

6:30 p.m. -8 p.m. 

Friday, Sept. 8

“Discipline & Citizenship” 

conference 

Graduate Theological Union 

Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 

1798 Scenic Ave. 

9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

895-4542 

Conversational Yiddish 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 9

Open house 

Julia Morgan center for the Arts 

Meet new leaders and artist and learn about future plans for the facility. RSVPs encouraged 

2640 College Ave. Berkeley 

4- 7 p.m. 

845-8542 

Sunday, Sept. 10

“Doors to Madame Marie” 

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

As part of the Jewish Learning Center’s Authors Series in the Library, Odette Meyers will be available for discussion and booksigning. 

848-0237 

“Next Stop, Greenwich Village” 

2-4:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center Cinema 

1414 Walnut St.  

Based on filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s own passage from Brooklyn to Greenwich Village, the film is about the dynamics of leaving home and trying to leave home behind. There will be a peer led discussion following the movie. 

$2 suggested donation.  

848-0237 

Monday, Sept. 11

“12th annual Berkeley YMCA Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 11:00 a.m. 

Entry fee includes cart, lunch on the course and dinner. Proceeds benefit Albany-Berkeley YMCA  

$125 Entry Fee 

549-4525 

Voter workshop 

Learn about voting absentee and working a local polling places. 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Tuesday, Sept. 12

Tai Chi Chuan 

11 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Wednesday, Sept. 13

Mid-Autumn Festival 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Thursday, Sept. 14

Eugene O’Neil House, Mt.  

Diablo State Park Trip  

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$21 per person 

644-6107 

Pre-business workshop 

Small-business Development Center 

519 17th St. Suite 200, Oakland 

8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

$35  

273-6611, www.eastbayscore.org, eastbayscore@yahoo.com 

Yoga class 

2 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Friday, Sept. 15

“The Barber of Seville” 

1 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

644-6107 

Saturday, Sept. 16

Shoreline clean-up walk 

10 a.m. 

Seabreeze Market, on Frontage Road just west of University Avenue 

Friends of Five Creeks leads a walk, talking about  

history, wildlife, and restoration possibilities from Strawberry to Codornices Creeks, as part of Coastal Cleanup 2000.  

Call: 848-9358  

Sunday, September 17

Berkeley Citizen’s Action Endorsement Meeting 

2-5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

To include local and state endorsements. 

Please place this upcoming event in your listings. 

Contact: BCA Co-chair Linda Olivenbaum at (510) 652-1206 

Call 549-0816 

Saturday, Sept. 19

“Fibromyalgia Support  

Group” 

noon -2:00 p.m. 

“RAP Session” 

Alta Bates Medical Center, Maffly Auditorium-Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way 

601-0550 

Thursday, Sept. 21

Hearing to terminate the  

Conditional Order for  

Abatement for Pacific Steel  

Casting Co. 

Bay Area Air Quality management District 

939 Ellis St. 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

415-749-4965 

APCO vs. Pacific Steel Casting Company 

Docket No. 832 

9:30 a.m. 

Bay Area Air Quality Management District  

939 Ellis St., 7th Floor Board Room 

San Francisco 

A hearing has been scheduled in connection with the Motion to Terminate the Conditional Order for Abatement filed by the Respondent, Pacific Steel Casting Company. 

(415) 749-4965 

Friday, September 22

Point Reyes Nature Center, Earthquake Trail Trip 

9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst and MLK Jr. Way 

$18 per person 

644-6107 

Sunday, Sept. 24

“First Steps in Finding your Family History” 

Brunch 10:30 a.m., lecture 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Using both story-telling and generational techniques, Dr. Lois Silverstein will offer beginning steps to rediscovering family heritage and traditions.  

$4 for BRJCC members and $5 for all others 

848-0237 

Wednesday, Sept. 27

“Improving your bottom line” 

2-5 p.m. 

Berkeley Yacht Club 

1 Seawall Dr. 

Speakers include, Mayor Shirley Dean, Dr. Drian Nattrass and Mary Altomare Natrass, authors of “The Natural Step for Busines” and two of the world’s leading authorities on providing a strategic business framework romoting sustainabiliity and profitability. 

Monday, October 2

“2nd Annual Berkeley City Championship” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Entries accepted August 1. Entry Fee includes gift, cart and Awards Dinner. Proceeds benefit local organizations and projects. This event determines Berkeley City Champion and Seven other Flight Winners. 

$115 Entry Fee 

841-0972 

Thursday, October 5

“3rd annual Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Association Golf Tournament” 

Tilden Park Golf Course 

Shotgun Start at 7:30 a.m. Entry Fee includes cart range balls and Award Luncheon. Proceeds benefit Berkeley Black Police Officers’ Scholarship Fund. 

$99 Entry Fee 

644-6554 

ONGOING EVENTS 

Sundays 

Green Party Consensus Building Meeting 

6 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 the countywide new Measure B transportation sales tax. The meeting is open to all, regardless of party affiliation. 

415-789-8418 

Tuesdays 

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. 

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

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

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. 

531-8664 

Computer literacy course 

6-8 p.m. 

James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 Eighth St. 

This free course will cover topics such as running Windows, File Management, connecting to and surfing the web, using Email, creating Web pages, JavaScript and a simple overview of programming. The course is oriented for adults. 

644-8511 

Saturdays 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

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

548-3333 

Poets Juan Sequeira and Wanna Thibideux Wright 

Thursdays 

The Disability Mural 

4-7 p.m. through September 

Integrated Arts 

933 Parker 

Drop-in Mural Studios will be held for community gatherings and tile-making sessions. This mural will be installed at Ed Roberts campus. 

841-1466 

Fridays 

Ralph Nader for President 

7 p.m.  

Video showings to continue until November. Campaign donations are requested. Admission is free.  

Contact Jack for directions at 524-1784. 

2nd and 4th Sunday 

Rhyme and Reason Open Mike Series 

2:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. 

The public and students are invited. Sign-ups for the open mike begin at 2 p.m. 

234-0727;642-5168 

Tuesay and Thursday 

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. 

644-6109 

Correcting the record 

Editor:  

Again Berkeley Lab would like your readers to receive accurate information regarding the tritium issue. The Lab's record of tritium emissions, and its monitoring and reporting of these emissions from its National Tritium Labeling Facility, is confirmed as safe, verifiable, and far below the allowable regulatory limits established by the U.S. EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants (NESHAPs). No public health risk has been suggested or determined by the regulators. To correct errors in the Aug. 22 Opinion by Mark McDonald:  

• The Lab captures and recycles nearly all of the tritium used in its research facilities; it does not “dump” tritium.  

• Both of its laboratories involving tritium research are more than 100 meters from Girton Hall on campus or the Lawrence Hall of Science and not “immediately adjacent.”  

• The NTLF is not a nuclear facility; it is a National Institutes of Health national resource center using radiotracers in performing biomedical research in the national interest.  

• The NTLF's treatability study researched combustion techniques in closed systems to eliminate the hazardous component of mixed waste; the Lab does not incinerate mixed waste.  

• Dose calculations for radiation exposure from the Lab's research facilities are conservatively estimated, and these produce a likely overestimated exposure, not an underestimated level.  

I encourage your readers to review the actual text of documents for factual information on this issue. The IFEU report is readily available via the web, at http://www.lbl.gov/ehs/tritium/IFEUReport.htm. The Lab's annual Site Environmental Reports are also available via the web at http://www.lbl.gov/ehs/epg/html/env_protection.htm. The Delisting Petition for tritiated mixed waste residues is available at http://www.lbl.gov/LBL-Programs/tritium/delisting/index.html.  

These and many other Laboratory documents, are also available in hard copy form at UC Berkeley’s Doe Library, second floor.  

Terry Powell  

Community Relations  

Lawrence Berkeley Labs 

National Laboratory

Some might call Willie Phillips a dreamer. He walks along a city block dominated by dot-commerce e-tailer lofts and gets visions of a funky, ethnic street mercado. He considers the Fourth Street boutiques and cafes and imagines some of the millions in yearly sales returning to the Oceanview community that surrounds it. 

As he speaks, he waves his hands as if conjuring up the market, to which he refers with its Spanish name. 

“The mercado would have a stage in the center for music and poetry, and 50 pop-up umbrellas for merchant stands around the edges. They’d sell organic produce, arts and crafts, ethnic foods. There’d be places for kids to play, and people would come from the neighborhoods to be here - to buy and sell high quality, affordable goods.” 

Proposed by the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation, a non-profit organization, the mercado was originally slated for a May opening. But the West Berkeley market has instead run aground on procedural snags, most based on resident and local business opposition. Some fear that the market will worsen parking. Others don’t want “itinerant traffic” to increase by their homes. 

Owen Maercks, owner of the Vivarium, doesn’t see the need for such a market. “Berkeley has a farmers’ market. We have a flea market. We have an arts and crafts market too. Why do we need another one?” 

But after a three year ride to get to this point, Phillips, who chairs the WBNDC, sees the resistance as mere bollards on the road of progress. He’s more concerned with seeing the project reach fruition. 

It’s admirable dedication for someone who became a board member almost by default. 

“I picked up on it after the former chair of the project, H.S. Zulu, was evicted from his home, and had to deal with his own problems. He’s now homeless. Another founder, Esther Bernal, died last year. It was her idea to give the Latino community a place to come to.” 

It’s a vision fermented of the frustration of many Oceanview residents who feel that the benefits of economic redevelopment in their neighborhood have passed them by.  

When Christine Vida, member of the West Berkeley Project Area Commission, looks at her neighborhood, she sees gentrification. 

“Even though I like a little bit of Beverly Hills, I don’t want a mega shopping zone here in West Berkeley. And I don’t want those interests taking over the neighborhood.” 

Though the West Berkeley market is still in astral form, it’s already polarized the rapidly changing neighborhood of Oceanview. The mercado has been in the works for over three years now, Phillips said. 

Though several sites have been considered, the setting du jour is the block of Fifth Street between University and Hearst avenues. It’s a small block bookended by Spenger’s large, rusted anchor on one side and the slick stucco polish of the Nature Company on the other. 

“It is not a produce market, or a flea market. Nor is it just a minority, hippy operation.” says Phillips, trying to dispel some of the perceptions surrounding the market. 

“What it is, is a market that will provide goods and opportunity to the people of West Berkeley who are not benefiting from the economic boom on Fourth Street. It takes advantage of what is already here, and creates a family-oriented, comfortable environment where local artisans can bring their wares and make a small living from the Fourth Street spillover,” says Phillips. 

Projected to profit perhaps $200,000 per season, which runs only during the warm months, much of the money, claims Phillips, would go toward subsidizing low-income entrepreneurs. 

“Training and development of local entrepreneurs is something that’s really lacking on a grass roots level. That’s something we want to address, not only theoretically, but in practice. Nothing beats giving a beginning entrepreneur a chance to run their own booth at a weekend market.” 

Many on the City Council and the PAC committee are supportive of the project. 

Calvin Fong, aide to District 2 Councilmember Margaret Breland said Breland is “very supportive” of the market. 

“Fourth Street generally caters to people who don’t live in Berkeley,” says Fong. “People who have lived here for years are having difficulty remaining here - to say it’s all due to Fourth Street is unfair - but Fourth Street is just the symptom of a larger problem. Property values are going up and those who can afford to move in come from a different demographic. This new market is neighborhood serving, and if it were at Fifth Street, would be accessible, by foot, by bus, for the people who do live here.” 

Vida agrees. 

“The yuppie element, upwardly mobile white folks for the most part, come here, knowing where they are coming, and then they start to complain about the low income folk who lived here already. I’m like, ‘you know who lived here before you came here, so don’t start acting like it’s suddenly a problem.’” 

Opposition to the market troubles her. 

“On one hand, I feel some sympathy for the residents who will be affected by this market,” she says, “but it really irritates me when business owners who benefit from the traffic suddenly say they don’t want the residents of this neighborhood to benefit from “their” customers. They need to remember, back in the 80’s before any of this development came here, things were never supposed to get this out of control.  

“I’m tired of all the tourist stuff - everyone deserves a little piece of the pie.” 

While figures on just how much money the Fourth Street shopping district generated in the last year were unavailable, WBNDC reports peg 1997 figures at $88 million. 

For now, the existence of such a market hangs in the balance. At the last PAC meeting, overwhelming testimony against the market’s proposed location prompted the commission to postpone any recommendation it would make to the City Council until the WBNDC could come up with a show of support from the community. 

Between now and then, Phillips will be outreaching in the neighborhood to find those people. But he says it won’t be easy. 

“I’m hoping to get people there, over 100 have already signed a petition showing their support. But people around here have become so disenchanted by the process of decision making that they don’t trust the process anymore. They don’t feel comfortable in a meeting just attended by people with vested interests,” say Phillips. 

Citing very few people of color on the PAC committee, he claims that many citizens don’t feel that they will be heard.  

“You get this situation where a few people are trying to represent all of West Berkeley, and that’s very problematic. People need to see some of their own up there, to know that they will be understood.” 

But if Phillips can just conjure up the image strongly enough in the next month, perhaps he will see his dream come into existence. 

“We need to tear down the walls between the perfumed soaps of Fourth Street and the so-called raggedy people who live in Oceanview. This market could start that,” says Vida. “That’s what gritty, historical Berkeley is all about.”

The little guys won and Berkeley led the way. 

AB2412 authored by Assesmblymembers Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, and Carole Migden D-San Francisco, is designed to create a more level playing field for independent book sellers who charge state sales tax and California-based dot-comers that do not. 

The bill, on its way to the governor’s desk, would “clarify that the processing of orders electronically, by fax, telephone, the Internet, or other electronic ordering process, does not relieve a retailer of responsibility for collection of the tax from purchaser if the retailer is engaged in business in this state.” 

Andy Ross, who owns Cody’s books, first brought the concept of the bill to Aroner and Migden on behalf of the 300 members of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. 

Ross said he and other booksellers are put at a disadvantage by large corporations such as Barnes and Noble and Borders Books and Music that do not charge sales tax on their Internet purchases. 

The Daily Planet was unable to reach either of these corporations for comment. 

Ross argued that, although these giants claim their Internet and in-store businesses are separate, “they extensively cross promote.  

At Barnes and Nobles, on the walls, it says ‘buy on line.’ ” 

“California is the first state to pass a law to do this, despite (the political clout) of Silicon Valley,” Ross said. 

Aroner said the bill adds nothing to present law. “It clarifies and defines” the statues which already exist, that say a retailer doing business in California must pay sales taxes. 

“They’ll pay their fair share,” she said. Passage of the bill is estimated to bring another $14 million in sales taxes to California. 

At least one bookseller, Berkeley’s Gaia Books, may have gone out of business because of Internet competition, Aroner said: “It’s a question of leveling the playing field.” 

While the Assembly vote Wednesday was 42-31 to send the bill to Gov. Gray Davis, his spokeswoman Hilary McLean said Davis has not yet taken a position on it. 

“The governor’s general view on Internet tax is that at this point it is not a good idea,” she said. 

The American Electronics Association of Sacramento lobbied heavily against the bill.  

In an Aug. 1 letter to Aroner and Migden, Ted Casazza, the corporation’s vice president in charge of California public policy, argued that the proposed law in not merely “clarification.” 

“AB2412 adds completely new criteria to the statute – a substantial expansion of existing law.” 

That is because the bill defines the link between two corporate entities as a parent corporation having substantial ownership interest in an affiliate and a “similar name, similar product line, or cross-promotion of in-store and web sales.” 

Under this definition, Barnes and Nobles would not be able to argue that barnesandnoble.com was a separate entity with no “brick and morter” status in the state. 

Further, Casazza argues, the bill does not level the playing field at all. He said that if brick-and-mortar stores and California dot-coms both are subject to sales tax, others are “beyond the reach of California law.” 

“For example, Borders Books and Music may have set up Borders.com as a separate dot-com subsidiary to compete with Amazon,” which is based outside of California.  

The new bill would mean that both Borders and Borders.com must collect sales taxes. “All three are disadvantaged when compared to Amazon,” he said. 

Ross agrees that he continues to be disadvantaged by corporations, such as Amazon.com, which have no brick-and-mortor stores in California. “The total solution has to be done through Congress,” he said. 

AB2412 can be read online at www.sen.ca.gov 

The Associated Press wire services contributed to this story.

At its first meeting since school was back in session, the school board will again try to approve a policy on the use and installation of cameras at Berkeley High School. 

The policy has been mulled over the past two meetings, and approval has been delayed. 

In addition, Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said he plans to ask the board to approve a $5,000 implementation policy for a possible food court at Berkeley High. 

The board will recess to closed session at 6 p.m., and the regular meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. The board will also discuss:  

• Acceptance of a $1,000 contribution to the English Department at Berkeley High School for dictionaries for the English Department classrooms. 

• Approval of an agreement with Pleasanton Unified District for data processing services 

• Approval of Berkeley High School Health Center domestic violence prevention program. 

• Discuss a plan for 4th grade transition at two-way English-Spanish immersion sites. 

The meeting is in the Board Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It is televised on TV-