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Photos by Erik Olson
          CYPRUS GONZALEZ recovers after being shot in the back with a wooden dowel, above. Protesters march through Oakland on Monday, below.
Photos by Erik Olson CYPRUS GONZALEZ recovers after being shot in the back with a wooden dowel, above. Protesters march through Oakland on Monday, below.
 

News

Violence Erupts At Oakland Port; Protesters Hurt

By ANGELA ROWEN
Tuesday April 08, 2003

At least a dozen anti-war protesters and six longshoremen were injured Monday morning when Oakland police fired wooden dowels, bean bags and other less lethal weapons at a group picketing at the Oakland port. 

More than 500 protesters gathered around 6 a.m. at the entrances to APL and Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), two shipping corporations that have military-related U.S. government contracts. Protesters said APL, an Oakland-based company, ships military cargo to Iraq. Seattle-based SSA won a $4.8 million contract last month to handle the aid cargo arriving at the Umm Qasr seaport in Iraq. 

Anti-war activists said Monday’s demonstration was aimed at highlighting the connection between corporate profits and the U.S. war in Iraq. It was held concurrently with demonstrations at the Concord Naval Weapons Station and in San Francisco, where demonstrators picketed in front of the federal building and blocked an off-ramp from Interstate 280. 

Most of the injured were shot in the back of the body and treated for bruises and lacerations. At least one protester was hit in the face. 

Monday’s demonstration was the culmination of four days of anti-war action held around the nation and came on the heels of Saturday’s rally and march in Berkeley and Oakland, during which 9,000 people protested without conflict with police. 

Danielle Ashford, spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department, said police officers on Monday opened fire on protesters after warning them to disperse. She said most protesters heeded the command; those who did not, however, were fired on with what she called “less lethal weapons,” including wooden “bullets,” bags filled with small metal balls, and sting balls, which disperse rubber bullets and a minuscule amount of tear gas. 

Ashford said police force was necessary because protesters refused to disperse and were throwing rocks, metal bolts and small pieces of wood at officers. She added that many protesters climbed on trucks attempting to enter the port gate.  

“There is a difference between a peaceful protest on Saturday and this one,” she said. “This was a direct action to deliberately shut down the port.”  

Protesters said the show of force was unprovoked and unnecessary. They said rifle-wielding police in riot gear and motorcycle officers began closing in on them at the SSA gate entrance, blocking off certain points of exit and directing them down Maritime Street toward Seventh Street. 

Oakland resident Cyprus Gonzalez was shot on the right side of his back while chanting with other protesters. “I think there may have been an announcement, but it was hard to hear with the chanting,” he said. “Immediately after they started firing, I started to leave, and then they shot me in the back really close up. People were getting shot at the beginning at SSA.” 

Michael Reagan, a Berkeley resident and Vista student, said he didn’t see any protesters throwing rocks. “It was a totally unnecessary use of force,” he said. “I saw police officers on motorcycles running into protesters and knocking them down, shooting people who were leaving in the back.” 

Berkeley resident Susan Quinlan said she was hit in the back of her arm and leg shortly after joining the crowd of picketers at the corner Seventh and Maritime streets. “All of a sudden I heard shots and explosions and began to breathe some kind of gas,” she said. “I and other protesters began walking away as quickly as possible, but the police continued to fire on us. This kind of bullying is the same kind of bullying that our government is doing around the world.” 

Protesters also said police fired wooden dowels directly at them, despite the fact that the label on the container holding the wooden dowel warns against firing the bullet directly at a target.  

Ashford said police didn’t fire wooden dowels at protesters, saying they probably were hit by bean bags. And she disputed claims that police aimed their fire at protesters’ faces and heads. “Our officers are not trained to do that,” she said. 

Sri Louise, a member of the Peace and Resistance Mobile Yoga Unit, was hit in the face shortly after huddling down by a truck in the road. Her left jaw was red and swollen and her neck bruised. 

“They were on both sides of us and then started to drive into us, saying ‘Get up, go,’” she said. “But they were on both sides of us. There was nowhere to go.” 

When she finally got up, she said she was shot. 

Police arrested 31 people, including Jack Heyman, a longshoreman attempting to reach his fellow workers who were standing about 100 yards from the protest and waiting to hear from superiors whether they should cross the picket lines.  

Heyman, a union arbitrator, said he intended to tell workers that they should not cross the picket line and tried to stop police from firing on longshoremen.  

Ashford didn’t have any information about Heyman’s arrest, but said the police department regrets shooting at the dock workers. 

“It is unfortunate,” she said. “I can assure you that they were not targeted on purpose.” 


Chronicle Suspension

By PAUL GLUSMAN
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Henry Norr was suspended without pay from Hearst Corporation’s San Francisco Chronicle for participating in an anti-war demonstration last week. Becky O’Malley wrote an excellent article in the Berkeley Daily Planet on April 4, criticizing the Chronicle’s actions for policy reasons. But what the Chronicle did to Norr wasn’t just an ethical lapse or an assault on journalistic freedom. It was illegal as hell. 

According to the California Department of Justice, in a circular it disseminates describing the civil rights of employees in California: 

“Labor Code section 1101 prohibits an employer from making, adopting or enforcing any rule or policy forbidding or preventing employees from participating in politics. In addition, an employer cannot control or direct the political activities or affiliations of its employees. Labor Code section 1102 prohibits an employer from coercing or influencing the political activities of employees.” 

Also, Labor Code section 96(k) provides that the Labor Commissioner can proceed against an employer who is suspended for lawful conduct occurring during nonworking hours away from the employer’s premises. 

Labor Code 98.6 makes termination or discrimination against an employee who engaged in lawful conduct a legal violation, and the failure of an employer to reinstate an employee who has been determined after a hearing to have been unlawfully discriminated against guilty of a misdemeanor. 

Now, Norr was arrested, but he hasn’t been convicted of anything. His arrest, though, is not why he was suspended. Dick Rogers, who is a Chronicle management employee, wrote an article justifying the Norr suspension in which he makes no reference to the fact that Norr was arrested. In his Chronicle apology, Rogers states, “On Wednesday, the paper strengthened its policy to prohibit public political activity related to the war.” Rogers makes clear that the real reason Norr was suspended was his political activism — that he publicly opposed Bush’s war in Iraq. 

California law is very clear that whatever political activities an employee engages in on his or her own time, away from the employer’s premises, is none of the employer’s goddamn business. And that’s it. 

I’ve read these laws carefully and, to my shock and surprise, have found no exceptions which apply to the Chronicle, or executive editor Phil Bronstein, or the Hearst Corporation. 

And, in fact, I believe that somehow the Hearst Corporation has access to legal counsel which could have informed them of California’s laws in this regard. After all, Labor Code sections 1101 and 1102 have been on the books since 1937. So either the Hearst Corporation’s attorneys were incompetent, or the Chronicle deliberately decided to flout the law. 

Rogers wants his Chronicle to put a sign over its entrance saying, “Check your activism at the door.” He should add to it, “Abandon civil rights and legal rights all who enter here.” 

 

Paul Glusman is a Berkeley lawyer whose practice emphasizes, among other things, employment law.


Residents Oppose Increase In UC Family Housing Rent

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Three years ago, $1,175 per month for a three-bedroom flat in the East Bay was pretty reasonable by most measures. But for Felix Germain, a UC Berkeley graduate student with a small income and family to support, it was back-breaking. 

“We couldn’t make it,” said Germain, 30, who lives with his wife, mother and two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. “We were living day to day.” 

At the time, Germain lived in the newly built, university-owned East Village complex in Albany — part of the larger University Village compound UC Berkeley has set aside for students with families. 

But with rents escalating at 5 to 6 percent per year, Germain moved his family to cheaper housing within the village — a smaller, two-bedroom flat built in the 1960s, which he now rents for $728 per month. 

Germain, part of a vocal group of University Village residents who are pushing UC Berkeley to cap rent increases at 2 percent per year, said young families simply will not be able to afford an education if the university continues with 6 percent annual hikes. 

Residents’ efforts to curtail rent increases won support from Berkeley’s top two politicians this week. Mayor Tom Bates and his wife, state Assemblymember Loni Hancock, both showed up at a Saturday rally to speak out in support of the students. 

“I truly believe that access to affordable housing means access to education,” said Hancock. “It is essential that affordable housing be a priority of the university.” 

Bates, who has made an improved relationship with the university a top priority of his new administration, said UC Berkeley’s conduct regarding University Village is inexcusable. 

University officials acknowledge that escalating rents could hurt their ability to recruit top-flight graduate students. But they note that village rents, which for some apartments have jumped as much as 44 percent over the last six years, are still 21 percent below market rates. 

They also argue the rent hikes played a crucial role in improving the quality of life at University Village, which is just over Berkeley’s northern border.  

Rent dollars are funding most of the $55 million reconstruction of the East Village — which replaced about 400 units of run-down housing three years ago. And tenants’ money, according to university officials, will help fund the replacement of roughly 560 units of old housing that still remain — many of them plagued by mold and heating problems. 

“Part of the challenge for us is making sure this housing is around in 20 years,” said Harry Le Grande, UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor for residential and student service programs. 

Le Grande said the university will require 4 to 6 percent increases every year for the next 30 years to keep viable, livable units in place.  

Graduate student Peter Brownell, who lives in the old housing, acknowledged that replacing run-down units would significantly improve living conditions. But he said it’s not worth building new apartments if the university relies upon rent hikes to subsidize the project. 

Brownell, who serves on the board of the Village Residents Association, added that he has been angered by the university’s failure to show residents any documents demonstrating that their rent dollars are actually going toward replacement of old housing. 

“For a long time, as someone who lives in a unit that needs to be remodeled or replaced, I was very sympathetic” to talk of building new units, he said. “But when I looked at the budget and didn’t see a reserve, I was irate.” 

Assistant Chancellor Le Grande acknowledged that the university could provide residents with a clearer budget and said that officials are working on a pie chart which will show that roughly 25 percent of student rents go into the reserve. 

Although Le Grande said he has not spoken one on one with Bates or Hancock, he said he communicated with a member of Hancock’s staff and plans to “keep the information flow going.”


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 08, 2003

HEADLINES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The following is a copy of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, but not printed: 

 

Sunday’s (March 30) banner head “War turns to terror” struck me as a surreal joke. I mean, it’s terror all the way down when it’s your country being invaded by bomb-them-into-shock-and-awe techno-heroes. 

But of course, what you were trying to say was that the Iraqi side had started employing terror tactics. A suicide bomber took four U.S. soldiers with him Saturday at a military checkpoint. 

Just days ago terrorism meant the sudden, unpredictable and indiscriminate use of deadly force against civilians. In the interim, the axis of good has started doing just that to the people of Baghdad (as punishment for their inexplicable failure to turn against their government and hand their country over to us). So the old definition had to metamorphose.  

The times are changing to the Pentagon’s drumbeat now, and the words race feverishly to catch up. 

Dave Blake 

 

• 

 

NATIONAL PRIDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would describe myself as left wing, but I often find myself at odds with leftist Berkeleyans not because I disagree with their principles but because I abhor their practices. I mean, how can you tout tolerance and equality and not tolerate anyone of lesser zeal? The flag-hiding activity described in your recent article “So That’s What the Flag Pole is For” is an example of that intolerance. 

We should proudly wave the flag in front of our schools because the flag does not mean, “I support the war;” it means, “I’m proud to be an American.” Proud of the rights, opportunities and ideals built into the framework of our nation that I pledge to uphold as an educated and involved civilian. Our nation is not perfect, but to change it for the better, we must claim it as fiercely as any right-winger. 

That does not mean we can stoop to propaganda and one-sided education, like the right-wing government currently in power. The required morning patriotic activities seem like a perfect opportunity to get kids interested each morning and declare why they are proud to be an American and list the top three changes they think would make American a better place. 

Teachers may hear some views they don’t find palatable, but isn’t freedom of speech one of our most cherished rights? 

Jinjer Larsen 

 

• 

 

CEASE AND DESIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am appalled that Fox News proposes to arrest as terrorists those who protest Fox’s coverage of the invasion of Iraq. 

The real terror in the world is currently coming from the U.S. and British illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, which can only create more misery and violence and hatred toward the United States, and thus more acts of terrorism in all their horror. 

In the name of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, I ask that Fox News cease and desist from painting those who want world peace as terrorists. 

Marianne Robinson 

 

• 

 

ACT FOR CHANGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently attended town hall meetings for Congressmembers Barbara Lee and Pete Stark. The assemblies were mostly seas of older citizens. 

Yet in past weeks, I have seen thousands of young people flock to cities nationwide in protest of the current war and education cuts. Their energy and frustration is evident, but protests only go so far. 

They need to register to vote, research candidates, talk to family and legislators and explain their needs, desires, and fears. Last but not least, they need to vote. 

Two years of damaging cuts, eroding civil liberties, and possible wars led a dozen Bay Area Young Democrat clubs, including the Cal Dems, to decide it was time for students and young professionals to talk to their leaders and learn how they could make grassroots-level changes. 

As a result, the Coalition of Bay Area Young Democrats is hosting a summit where young people can get much-needed education and share ideas with activist groups and elected officials. 

On April 26, hundreds of young people around the Bay Area will converge in San Francisco, learn about the issues and develop an action plan they can carry out over the next year to influence legislation and elections. Members of Congress, the state Legislature and issue-oriented organizations will lead discussion. 

If all of those fervent young people who protest the administration’s policies channeled their energies through constructive means of participation, their voice will be heard and they will inherit a world that they create. 

To find out more about the summit, visit www.cbayconference2003.com. 

Rocky Fernandez 

Castro Valley 

 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet accepts Letters to the Editor at opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Letters also can be mailed to 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Please include address and phone number for contact purposes. 

 


Suspended Chronicle Reporter Continues Fight Against War

By ANGELA ROWEN
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Henry Norr isn’t letting a suspension stop him from making his voice heard. 

The San Francisco Chronicle tech writer who was suspended after taking time off work to attend an anti-war protest spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people gathered at a rally held Saturday in UC Berkeley’s Lower Sproul Plaza.  

The rally prefaced a march by hundreds of protesters down Telegraph Avenue toward Mosswood Park in Oakland. 

The march terminated later in the day at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, where about 9,000 demonstrators gathered to hear community members, youth activists, state Rep. Barbara Lee and entertainer and longtime political activist Harry Belafonte urge an end to the war in Iraq and a replenishing of the country’s domestic resources, including education and health care. 

At the noon rally at UC Berkeley, Norr, a Berkeley resident, told the crowd to continue to fight back against the wave of jingoism and anti-Muslim propaganda. He said his case demonstrates the dangers that are increasingly faced by “anyone who is progressive-minded or shows a streak of critical thinking.” 

Norr was suspended when the Chronicle discovered that he participated and was arrested in an anti-war demonstration in San Francisco. He was technically given the two-week suspension for falsifying his time card, a reference to the fact that he took a sick day to attend the protest.  

He told the crowd that he was talking to attorneys about the possibility of filing a legal claim against the company and that the union has already filed two grievances. One grievance addresses his suspension specifically; the other takes issue with a new policy, adopted by the Chronicle soon after his suspension, that forbids employees from engaging in any war-related political activity. 

Norr said he doesn’t yet know how he will reconcile his desire to continue his political activity is following a trend in American journalism that explicitly tries “to make journalists into a class of scribes who wear blinders and aren’t involved in the world.” 

He said The New York Times and The Washington Post have similar bans on political expression. Fairness, accuracy and balance can be achieved but total objectivity never can, he said. 

“What we need is engaged people, people who are involved in their communities, who have commitments and passions and stand up for things,” he said. “I think the way to have a balanced paper is to have multiple voices, to get people with different opinions and to be up front about it.”


Forum: Urge for Apology Elicits Response

Tuesday April 08, 2003

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Carol Denney calls for an apology from the Green Party. It is not the Green Party who spoiled the election or are prosecuting this war. The Democrats won, but Bush was installed as President anyway. Remember? 

More appropriate would be a call for an apology from the Democrats who rolled over and played dead when called upon to defend the election of their candidate, and since his selection have supported and approved every reactionary policy put to them. They surrendered their power to declare war; they helped Bush and his gang overturn the Bill of Rights by endorsing the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Department, and they are out-Bushing Bush by advocating even more billions in the U.S. budget for war than the Republicans have asked for. 

Blame the Greens for this? I don’t think so. 

Robbin Henderson 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Carol Denney’s April 3 letter assailing  

the Green Party for purportedly enabling George W. Bush to win the 2000 presidential election is not only misdirected but promotes a cynical and calculated national Democratic Party falsehood. 

According to national voter exit polls, at least a million registered Democratic Party members nationwide voted for George W. Bush during the November 2000 election. I repeat: a million Democratic voters. 

Also, in an unprecedented political humiliation, Democratic candidate Al Gore failed to win his own home state of Tennessee during the 2000 election because tens of thousands of Gore’s fellow Tennessee Democrats voted for Bush (even Democrat George McGovern won his home state of North Dakota — while losing 49 states — against Richard Nixon during the Republican Party’s 1972 presidential election victory landslide). 

And, in the November 2002 Congressional elections, approximately seven percent of registered Democrats voted for Republican candidates, enabling Republicans to gain control of the Senate. 

With all due respect to Ms. Denney, the Democratic Party, unfortunately, has only itself to blame for the “nightmare” Ms. Denney complains about. 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The author claims the Green Party should apologize for “the role they played in the election, which brought about our current nightmare.” 

I suppose there should never be any third parties, because Democrats are an excellent alternative to Republicans, and we know we are well taken care of with these two choices. 

If the Democrats can’t refute an anti-environment, anti-union, pro-megacapitalist party, then everyone who voted for them threw their vote away. Had they all voted Green, we’d have Ralph Nader for President, and maybe a start on the desperately needed reconstruction of our Democracy rather than war after war for fun and profit. 

Doesn’t the real responsibility lie with the people who voted for the Republicans, or should I say, for the guy they could see being drinking buddies with? 

Lest we forget, the election was handed to the Poseur by a corrupt Supreme Court with an illegitimate fifth vote (Sandra Day O’Connor should have recused herself after stating she wouldn’t want to retire if a Democrat were in office). Gore did, in fact, win Florida; all the Greens did was make it close. 

Don’t blame the Greens for the right wing takeover of our government — they’re the only realistic choice for change. I’ll vote for Ralph until he wins. 

Eric Dynamic 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have read Ms. Denney’s letters over the years with respect. She is her own woman. She has unique perspective and is scathing on hypocrisy wherever she finds it. For this I appreciate her. 

I would like to say, however, that given what I know about the outcome of the election of 2000, I would still not vote for that eunuch Al Gore or his party. Diane Feinstein voted for this war. Most of the Democrats vying for the chance to replace George Bush are for this war. I won’t vote for any of them — no matter what. 

Furthermore, I will actively work against them and any Democratic Party candidates who don’t represent my values, and will actively work for, send money to and speak out for any candidate who does. 

If any candidate wants my vote, money and time, he can have it if he will only work for the following: liberty and justice for all, not just the rich people and corporations of this country. 

Nothing is perfect, but the Green Party and Ralph Nader were my best choice at the time. Ms. Denney will most assuredly stick to her principles and so will I. When candidates work for the truly revolutionary ideas embedded in the Bill of Rights I will respond. Unfortunately we are being led by those who want to win, regardless. 

Harry Wiener 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday April 08, 2003

Berkeley Camera Club, meets Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565.  

www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Palma Soriano: Berkeley’s Cuban Sister City. See the video of the visit by Berkeley’s delegation to Palma Soriano during the Week of Culture last December. From noon to 1 p.m. in the third floor meeting room, Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

In Our Own Hands: Reducing the Impacts of Climate Change in Berkeley. Discussion with Nathan E. Hultman (UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group) on what communities do to reduce global warming, and practical actions that can be taken. Begins at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. For reservations: 981-5435. 

energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy speaks in a lecture entitled “The Media and the War in Iraq.” Lecture begins at 8 p.m. in 155 Dwinelle Hall on the UC campus. For information, call 981-0292. 

 

Berkeley Poetry Slam, with host Charles Ellik, begins at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. $90 cash prizes. Cost is $7 at the door, $5 student i.d. 841-2082. 

Community Dances, traditional English and American Dances. Held at 8 p.m. every Wednesday, cost is $9. Also first Sunday of the month at 7 p.m. for $10. Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St., 233-5065. www.bacds.org 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. Join human rights activists to promote social justice one individual at a time. 872-0768. 

Disaster Preparedness Meeting, for community-based organizations, faith-based organizations and neighborhood associations, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Erna P. Harris Court, 1330 University Ave. Reservations required. Please call 451-3140. Sponsored by Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster of Alameda County and BOSS.  

Town Hall Meeting on Neighborhood Disaster Resistance and Community Sustainability, sponsored by Berkeley Fire Department and city of Berkeley. From 7 to 9 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. 

Residential Green Building, a workshop for homeowners. Learn to lower utility bills and use building materials that are healthier for family and the environment. From 6 to 8 p.m. at The Building Education Center, 812 Page St. at 6th St. Sponsored by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board. For information call Wes Sullens, 614-1699, or e-mail wsullens@stopwaste.org. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM, holds public meetings for all interested people twice a month, Thursdays at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190. 

Women in Black Vigil, held every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. 548-6310, 845-1143.  

wibberkeley@yahoo.com 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, held Fridays at noon in Berkeley. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Meet on the grass close to the west entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome.  

Buddhist Peace Fellowship,  

496-6000, ext. 135.  

bpf@bpf.org  

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride, held the second Friday 

of every month. Converge at Berkeley BART at 5:30 p.m.  

East Bay Regional Parks Beach Clean Up. Help tidy up the East Shore State Park beach, from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at Brickyard Beach, behind the Sea Breeze Deli off University Ave. at West Frontage Rd. Bags, gloves, beverages and snacks will be provided to volunteers. No dogs, please. Sponsored by EBRPD and California State Parks Foundation. 544-2208. 

Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade, “Ancient Voices.” Assembly and press conference at People’s Park begins at 11 a.m. Parade at noon. 843-0333. 

www.paganparade.org 

Career Talk: A Musician’s Way of Work, with Dana Anderson-Williams. Held from noon to 1 p.m. at the YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way. Cost is $3 at the door. For information call 848-6370. 

Renewable Energy: Policy and Practical Solutions, with 

Peter Asmus, director of PathFinder Communications.  

Begins at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. For reservations: 981-5435. 

energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

 

Activist Skill Class: Practical Skills for Difficult Times, tactics and strategies of activism with Karen Pickett and Phil Klasky. Classes offered through Merritt College, Tuesday evenings and Saturdays, beginning April 29. To register call 548-2220, ext. 233. The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Spring Break Theater Lab 

for Middle School students, in two sessions, from April 7 to 11 and 14 to 18. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $250. Curriculum includes clowning, acrobatics, acting, improv, musical theater, hip hop. 647-2978. 

school@berkeleyrep.org 

jseelig@berkeleyrep.org 

Theater of the Oppressed with Julie Sparling, M.Ed Theater of the Oppressed uses movement, storytelling and tableauz to explore how images of one’s personal experience reflect universal issues of power and change. Sundays through May 4 (excluding April 20). Class from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $90 to $140 on a sliding scale. UC Berkeley Racial Justice program. YWCA, 2600 Bancroft Way. 594-1377. 

A Taste of Judaism, free classes on the basic tenets of Judaism, sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay. Registration required. 839-2900, ext. 347. 

Residential Energy  

Conservation Contest, deadline April 10. If you are a Berkeley resident who has reduced your electrical energy use and has lived in the same location for at least one year you are eligible to enter the Berkeley Unplugged II contest and win one of several prizes. Winners will be announced at Berkeley Earth Day, April 19. For information and registration: Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us, telephone 981-5435, or TDD 981-6903. 

 

City Council Special Meeting on Tuesday, April 8, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/default.htm 

City Council meets Tuesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk. 

981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/default.htm  

Commission on Disability meets Wednesday, April 9, at 6:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability/default.htm  

Homeless Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless/default.htm  

Planning Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/planning/default.htm  

Police Review Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview/default.htm  

Waterfront Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti, 644-6376, ext. 224. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront/default.htm  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning/default.htm  

Community Health  

Commission meets Thursday, April 10, from 6:45 to 9:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. William Rogers, 981-5344. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/health/default.htm  

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at 

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Marianne Graham, 981-5416. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation/default.htm  

Design Review Committee meets Thursday, April 17, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Anne Burns, 981-7415. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview/default.htm  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thursday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign/default.htm 

 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet prints listings in the community calendar on a space-available basis. Send information at least two weeks in advance. E-mail calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com; fax 841-5695, or phone 841-5600, ext. 102.


Keep God Card

By STEVEN A. CHESTER
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Whenever I speak to a group that comes to my Temple to learn about Judaism, I begin by asking the participants to look around the sanctuary. I then ask if they have any questions about what they are seeing or what they do not see. What they are not seeing is found in the majority of synagogues in our country: flags. 

There is not an American flag in Temple Sinai’s sanctuary. Nor is there an Israeli flag. That these flags do not adorn our sanctuary is a conscious choice. They were not here before I became Rabbi at Temple Sinai and flags have not been present in the other two congregations that I have served. 

Why is this so? The answer for me is a simple one. I do not believe that the flag of any nation belongs in a synagogue. 

The Torah says, “Build Me a sanctuary that I might dwell within.” That I, God, may dwell within. It does not say to build God a sanctuary so that a national philosophy may dwell within. No, it specifically tells us that God will dwell in the sanctuary — that God’s laws of justice and mercy are to dwell within our sanctuary. 

This lesson seems particularly prescient given the war in Iraq and the turmoil here at home. Many people in my congregation have different opinions about the war. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the justness of this war, I am deeply disturbed by the playing of the “God card.” 

More and more President Bush asserts that God is on our side; he asks that God continue to bless America. Hard as it may be to hear, God is not on our side. God is not on the Iraqi side. God is not part of this war. 

We, the human being, through our freedom of choice given to us by God, have chosen to wage war after war. We, the human being, with the freedom of choice God gave us, have chosen to oppress others through the centuries. 

Just as flags do not belong in our sanctuary, God does not belong in this war. We must not make this a religious war pitting one leader’s God against the other leader’s God. 

The God that President Bush speaks of is not my God. He/she is not dressed in red, white and blue. The God of Saddam Hussein is not God. He/she is not dressed in the flag of Iraq. 

No, my God is another kind of God. My God dwells in the sanctuary of Temple Sinai and in other houses of worship. My God teaches us songs of peace. My God realizes there is evil in the world and, yes, at times realizes we must fight to eradicate evil. However, ultimately, my God is a God who helps us make peace. 

My God is a God who wants President Bush and Saddam Hussein to choose peace. May this — and only this — be God’s will in this war. 

 

Rabbi Steven Chester has served as Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Oakland since 1989.


City Considers Budget Cuts

By JOHN GELUARDI
Tuesday April 08, 2003

City Council meets Tuesday at 5 p.m. to discuss possible budget cuts to compensate for a projected $11 million city deficit over the next two years.  

Budget officials from the City Manager’s Office will present the council with recommendations for dealing with the budget shortfall that include offsetting a $4.7 million deficit for fiscal year 2004 by cutting general fund expenditures and raising parking fines from $23 to $30.  

The projected shortfall for the following year is $8 million. City Council will consider a proposed November 2004 tax-hike ballot measure to raise enough funds to avoid major service cutbacks. However, if the ballot measure is not approved by council, or if it is approved but fails at the polls, the council will have a contingency plan that will make $4 million to $5 million in one-time cuts from the general fund. 

The council also will consider possible cost-cutting measures for the city’s 49 commissions. Some of the measures include combining commissions with similar goals, reducing the frequency of meetings for less critical commissions and requiring commissions to write annual work programs, for which City Council would approve funding. 

During the regular meeting, the council will consider the American Baptist Seminary of the West’s plan to develop its campus in the 2600 block of Dwight Way. The seminary, which currently has 11 buildings, is proposing three projects including a five-story building, 41 new dwelling units and a 21-bed dormitory. Last week council closed a public hearing during which neighbors squared off against seminary officials over the merits of the project. 

Seminary officials said the campus needs the additional residential units to house students, staff and faculty. Neighbors said the project is too large and will alter the neighborhood ambiance on Hillegass and Benvenue avenues.  

Neighbors argued to preserve two cottages — one built in 1899, the other in 1906 — that are slated for demolition. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission had approved both for historical status, but City Council rejected the approval because of a state law that forbids the landmarking of buildings owned by religious institutions.  

Architectural historian Tim Kelley, hired by the seminary, told council the buildings do not merit preservation.  

Some councilmembers said they might support the project with some changes. Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio said they were concerned about the height of the proposed five-story building.  

“I think I could support a project that was four stories tall,” Bates said.  

City Council meets in City Council Chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at 7 p.m. Meetings are also broadcast on KPFB Radio 89.3 and Cable B-TV channel 25 and 78. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Case for Consistency in Policy and Planning

By HOWIE MUIR
Tuesday April 08, 2003

For years, the city of Berkeley has led its citizens to believe that its general plan and its constituent area plans actually articulate municipal public policy. 

Berkeleyans — those who labored hard and long to hammer out the community’s land use constitution and continue to refine it, and those who are concerned about the literal shape of Berkeley’s future cityscape and all of the impacts upon individual and collective living that will flow from that shape— might well be alarmed to discover that, in fact, both the general and area plans are legally meaningless with respect to zoning and land use decisions in this city. 

It is time for citizens to insist that ordinances be consistent with the general plan, for Berkeley’s competing agendas to be brought out from back rooms for debate and selection as public policy, for the general plan to be made a meaningful guide to public decision-making and for it to be the touchstone of Berkeley’s ordinances. 

On March 6, the city argued in Alameda Superior Court that Berkeley, as a charter city, has no obligation for consistency between its general plans and its zoning ordinance. Unlike most jurisdictions in California, Berkeley is free to say one thing in its general and area plans and to implement something entirely different in its ordinance. On March 18, the court agreed. 

Among the specifics is that Berkeley has no applied population density standards for zoning districts denser than R-2A; no established or consistent methodology for evaluating a project’s density or its impacts, and no intention of developing either operative standards or methodology. In spite of state law requiring population density standards throughout a jurisdiction, the court decided that a “statement” was literally all that was required of a charter city, not its actual application. 

The implications are potentially dramatic for Berkeley. The city has put its cards on the table: With respect to zoning, there is no public policy document. The interpretation and the enforcement of local zoning ordinances are largely in the hands of City Council and staff, who now stand not so much above or outside the law, but are empowered to shape local law from moment to moment to suit private agendas. Competing visions of development have no principles by which they may be refereed except by the naked exercise of political power and the hidden exercise of special interests and back-room dealing. 

We now discover that there is no real need for “density” bonuses, for there are no density limits. Indeed, the Planning Department has specifically asserted in support of state funding applications that the density possible in both the C-SA and C-2 zoning districts is “unlimited.” Conveniently, the city can turn to the legal cover of “concessions” under the State Density Bonus Law to justify the waiver, relaxation or set-aside of any — and any number of —development standards for any project with “affordable” housing. 

Thus, Berkeley’s famously discretionary zoning is revealed to be so flexible as to offer no real guidance, control or boundaries to municipal actions. The sky is literally the limit. 

Whatever future shape citizens may wish Berkeley to take, the most alarming revelation from the court’s decision is that city officials are not obliged to provide a meaningful civic framework to articulate it. Whether smart-growth advocate, neighborhood preservationist, new-urban visionary or back-to-the-earth utopian, the lack of a public road map to chart Berkeley’s land use aspirations for the near and middle future will make progress difficult and development divisive. The absence of an operational road map, a general plan, reveals the fundamental lack of planning in Berkeley, reducing that department’s duties to one of mere permitting — or, more darkly, “planning” will be a creature of hidden agendas rather than the fruit of public policy.


Group Returns to La Peña

By FRED DODSWORTH
Tuesday April 08, 2003

In 1979 a group of local Chilean refugees came together as Grupo Raiz (Roots Group). They played as house band for Berkeley’s La Peña Cultural Center, home away from home for the Bay Area’s Latin American diaspora. 

Twenty years after achieving local renown with the band, Rafael Manriquez, Quique Cruz, Lichi Fuentes, Hector Salgado, Fernando Torres and Ellen Moore have reunited and will play at La Peña on Friday. Following their sold-out performance in September at the Berkeley club, the band is planning this week’s show as a protest against the war in Iraq. 

For five years and three albums in the early 1980s Grupo Raiz was the music for supporters of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and their ilk. Playing in a style that came to be called nueva canción (new music), Grupo Raiz incorporated traditional instruments and melodies with modern instruments and song forms. They also toured the United States and Europe both on their own and with such musicians as Pete Seeger and Holly Near.  

When the band dissolved in the late 1980s, its members went their separate ways hoping to make it big, or at least to make enough to pay the rent and not be displaced again. Of the band’s six members only Rafael Manriquez managed to grab a modest ride on the music-making machine, releasing albums, touring, teaching and scoring films. The other band members sought sustenance from non-music jobs, according to founding member Fernando Torres. But when asked in December 2001 to reunite and perform for the 20th anniversary of Encuentro del Canto Popular, they did so enthusiastically. 

“It felt great!” said Ellen Moore, now a Berkeley High School mental health social worker. “We were singing for peace and justice and working toward social change again. All of us in Grupo Raiz believe politics has a place in the musical context, as well as esthetics. We feel there’s a need for music with a social content — not that Ani DiFranco or Pearl Jam aren’t doing that, but we believe we have something to offer.” 

Moore said she was excited to revive the group for old fans and to bring the music to a new generation. 

“When we played at La Peña last September there were a lot of people who had never seen us,” she said. “Including the children, now in their 20s, of our fans from when we were sort of the house band at La Peña.”  

Last year La Peña Cultural Center, where Fernando Torres works as publicity coordinator and music programmer, helped produce “Grupo Raiz: Anthology 1980-1984,” a double CD release featuring all the band’s now long-out-of-print recordings. 

These discs feature over two hours of upbeat, Latin-style protest music. The sound is similar to the early sixties acoustic folk music of Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio, but with a distinctive “Andes” instrumentation and Spanish lyrics. 

On Friday, April 11, Grupo Raiz plays at La Peña Cultural Center at 3105 Shattuck Ave. For ticket information call 510-849-2568 or visit La Peña on the web at www.lapena.org.


We Aren’t the World

By CHARLES PAUL FREUND
Tuesday April 08, 2003

In the mid-1990s, the well- known French filmmaker Claude Berri warned that without protection from American cultural exports, “European culture is finished.” He had plenty of pessimistic company. In that era, French Culture Minister Jack Lang spoke in terms of America’s irrepressible “cultural imperialism.” Strict programming quotas were enacted to prevent U.S.-made TV shows from overwhelming foreign prime time. 

Meanwhile, scholars such as Herbert Schiller had worked out theories explaining how the American political empire was founded on its expanding communications empire, and critics such as Ariel Dorfman were busy publicizing the poisonous imperialistic messages buried in the adventures of such despoilers as Donald Duck. 

But mounting evidence suggests that all this fulmination has been entirely pointless, and that cultural pessimists have been as clueless about the processes shaping the world as were their social, economic, and political forebears. 

In January The New York Times ran a front-page story reporting that American TV programs had largely lost their appeal for overseas audiences. 

“Given the choice,” wrote London-based reporter Suzanne Kapner, “foreign viewers often prefer homegrown shows that better reflect local tastes, cultures and historical events.” Many foreign networks had been created in a wave of 1980s privatization and lacked the financial and creative resources to produce their own programming. For a while, the most effective way to fill their schedules was by purchasing shows, especially American-made series. But as U.S. producers continued to drive up the price of their products, the now more-experienced broadcasters opted to make their own programs. 

The foreign broadcasters chose neither to whine about nor to spin theories about American culture but rather to compete with it. As of 2001, more than 70 percent of the most popular shows in 60 countries were produced locally. There are still popular American shows on foreign TV sets, but as one European broadcaster told the Times, “You cannot win a prime-time slot with an American show anymore.” 

In 2001 "business for American films overseas fell by 16 percent against local product,” according to Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. Writing last August in the British newspaper The Guardian, Kapur noted: “The biggest success in Japan last year was not an American film, it was a Japanese film. The biggest success in Germany was not an American film, it was a German film. The biggest success in Spain was not an American film, but a Spanish film. The same in France. In India, of course, it’s always been like that.” 

Kapur believes that “American culture has been able to dominate the world because it has had the biggest home market.” But the growing commercial importance of Asia — China, India, Japan — along with the larger markets of the Mideast and North Africa will change that, he argues. In other words, cultural globalization is far from a recipe for American dominance; it is an opportunity for other cultures and markets to assert themselves. 

It is the smart cultures who are competing with the U.S. Indeed, it is American producers who have lately been borrowing cultural ideas, just to stay competitive. Reality TV, surely the most reviled — if popular — format now on American screens, comes from Europe.


Arts Calendar

Tuesday April 08, 2003

Hambone Ham Tech with Derique, actor, acrobat and veteran of the Pickle Family Circus, will perform at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave., at San Pablo Ave. 981-6270. 

Melissa Fay Greene reads from “The Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Tadesse Meskela, general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia, will speak about "Fair Trade Coffee Around the World”— and the situation of coffee farmers in the global economy — at 6:30 p.m. in Wurster Auditorium, UC Campus. Suggested donation $5 - $10. No one turned away for lack of funds. Contact George Galvis, sapo@msn.com or Valerie Orth at valerie@globalexchange.org, 415-558-6938. 

John Kader on “Charles Schwab” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

The Murder of Fred Hampton, with Michael Gray in person, will be shown at 

7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Empyrean Ensemble presents Chou Wen-Chung 80th Birthday Celebration at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $18 for adults, seniors; $10 children, students. 925-798-1300. 

www.juliamorgan.org 

Inti-Illimani performs traditional Latin American music on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20, $24, $36. 642-9988.  

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Courtableu, a Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Mimi Fox, solo jazz guitar, at 8 p.m. at downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810 www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Foreign Policy Association 

Great Decisions Lecture: 

Global Struggle for Women’s Rights with Laurel Fletcher, Boalt Hall School of Law, at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. For reservations call Bert Wilson at 526-2925. 

La Lucha Continua Chiapas,  

a report by the Chiapas Support Group on the latest political developments in Mexico, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5 - $10 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cafe Poetry, hosted by Kira Allen, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Murray, reads from a 

“A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

John Shelton Lawrence will discuss “Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Bill Turner on “Farewell America” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Frederick Wiseman’s film, 

Juvenile Court will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way.  

Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Noon Concert: Works by student composers from the spring 2003 Graduate Composers Seminar of professor John Thow. Concert is free. Doors open at 11:55 a.m. Hertz Hall, UC Campus 

642-4864. 

http://music.berkeley.edu 

Red Archibald and the Internationals. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Jules Broussard and Ned Boynton perform jazz ballads for saxophone, guitar and bass, at 8 p.m. at downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810 www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Battlefield Band, forward with Scotland’s past at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Michael Wollenberg, on the solo guitar at 7 p.m. at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. at Center St. 

486-1840. 

T. N. Narisimhan speaks on “Spiritual Heritage in a Material World: the Challenge of Harmony,” at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St. at Spruce. 848-1755.  

www.allsoulsparish.org 

Adrain Nicole LeBlanc reads from “Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Emmy E. Werner reads from 

“A Conspiracy of Decency,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Monologist Josh Kornbluth presents his one-man show “Red Diaper Baby,” about growing up a boomer in New York City, in a home with outspoken communists for parents, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Spank with DJs Solarz from Groove Conflux. Hip hop and R&B at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Keni El Lebrijano performs on Flamenco guitar at 8 p.m. at downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

www.downtownrestaurant.com 

La Gran Noche del Charango, Horacio Duran & Italo Pedrotti, an evening with two Chilean Charango masters at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tim Sparks, Teja Gerken, a 

guitar masters’ double-bill at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Buckets, Slick 67, The Cowlicks perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Storytelling and reading with Maisy at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Kinky Friedman reads from  

“Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Literary Friendships: Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, presented by Connie Andersen, at 1:15 p.m. at the  

North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Free. For information call 232-1351. 

Frederick Wiseman’s films  

Primate at 7 p.m. and Missile at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Noon Concert with Axel Van Chee, baritone, Colleen Kobussen, piano, perform songs by Grieg. And Ann Marie Darrow, mezzo soprano, Jonathan Chou, piano, perform Siete Canciones populares españoles, by Manuel de Falla. Concert is free. Doors open at 11:55 a.m. Hertz Hall, UC Campus 

642-4864. 

Friday Afternoon Hang: 

The Yair Evnine Quartet 

in a free concert 5 - 7 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 845-5373. 

www.jazzschool.com 

Camerata Sweden, Chamber Music and Orchestra perform at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Cost is $38. 642-9988. 

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Wadi Gad, Jah Bandis with special guest Jr. Toots, Ashanti HiFi perform conscious reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stung: The Police Tribute 

Zoo Station: U2 Tribute 

perform Police and U2 music at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Grupo Raiz the Latin American music sextet founded at La Peña returns for an evening of peace and justice songs, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Scoop Nisker, Scoop with the News celebrates publication of his new book at 8 p.m. Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Berkeley High School Jazz Combo performs at 7 p.m. at  

Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. at Center. 486-1840. 

Winfred E. Eye, Sonny Smith, Bart Davenport 

perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Jackie Ryan performs at 9:30 p.m. at downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

The Bananas, This is My Fist, Operation Make Out, Pirx the Pilot, Abi Yo Yo perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Lydia Mills and Arianna Guthries, “Cantemos Juntos,” traditional and original Latin American songs and games at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $3 for children, $4 for adults. 849-2568.  

www.lapena.org 

Frederick Wiseman’s films, 

Zoo at 3 p.m., The Store at 7 p.m. and Racetrack at 9:20 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Broadway Singers will perform “Moonglow!” in  

a benefit for its rehearsal home, St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St., at 2 p.m. Proceeds go to the church’s capital projects campaign. Tickets $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors. 524-7840. 

University Chorus with Marika Kuzma, conductor, performs the Brahms Requiem at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $2 - $8. 642-9988. 

The Movement, Spring 2003 Showcase. UC Berkeley dance group performs at 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $5 from 925-798-1300. 

www.juliamorgan.org 

Utah Phillips, the golden throat of the great southwest, sings at Freight and Salvage Coffee House at 8 p.m. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 1111 Addison St.  

548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Scott Amendola Band performs at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Cost is $12, $15, $18. 845-5373.  

www.jazzschool.com 

De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian Dance and Music at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Daevid Allen’s University of Errors, Faun Fables at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 841-2082. 

The Contraceptions, Scissorhands, Stalker Potential, Megan March, Gally 99 vs Torn Girl Squad perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet prints listings on a space-available basis, and will soon include theater shows and exhibits. Send information at least two weeks in advance to calendar@berkeleydaily planet.com; fax 841-5695, or phone 841-5600, ext. 102. 


Foreign Reporters

By KATHRYN JESSUP
Tuesday April 08, 2003

A group of European journalists, at a UC Berkeley forum last week, took their American counterparts to task for not being more skeptical of their government during wartime. 

The discussion, entitled “Looking at America From Abroad: A European Media Perspective,” attracted a full crowd at the university’s Sibley Auditorium. On the panel were five journalists from France, Germany, Italy and England, as well as a British specialist on the European Union; attention quickly turned to how media outlets in various countries are portraying the war in Iraq. 

“It’s a different war in France,” said Annette Levy-Willard, West Coast bureau chief of the French newspaper Libération. “They see blood, hospitals, victims, the results of the bombing. On American TV you don’t even see Iraqis.” 

While most of the panelists were critical of American TV war coverage, several pointed out that major U.S. newspapers such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and New York Times are providing detailed coverage and editorials that often criticize U.S. policy. 

Still, several panelists found fault with U.S. media outlets for being too cozy with government sources.  

“I recently attended a press conference with Bush and Blair. All the tough questions came from British reporters,” said Anthony Gooch, a former advisor to the European Commission. “It’s incredibly choreographed. It’s done with an iron fist. In terms of media management, it’s great, but in terms of getting a question from out of left field, it will never happen.” 

Patrick Jarreau, Washington bureau chief of Le Monde, said the notion that journalists are independent of their country’s prejudices was noble but unrealistic. 

“In my youth, I thought the workers had no ‘patri,’ no nationality,” he said. “I’d like to think that journalists don’t have ‘patri,’ but now I know that’s not the case.” 

Most American journalists, including newspaper reporters, have been too timid to challenge the government line, said Frederico Rampini, an editor and correspondent for Italy’s La Republica. 

“I am amazed at the way the Halliburton issue has been treated,” he said, referring to possible large-scale government contracts for the energy and construction company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney. “I can assure you in my country it would be front page news every day till the vice president was ousted.” 

The comments by the Italian journalist drew loud cheers from the audience until moderator Orville Schell, dean of the journalism school, said, “I would ask you all to contain your rational exuberance.” 

The discussion gravitated from European perceptions of America to Europe itself. Schell asked the panel about Europe’s role — or lack thereof — in resolving the conflicts of Rwanda, Kosovo and Serbia. 

“The Balkan crisis was a terrible failure of Europe,” Rampini said. “We were unable to solve a crisis in our own backyard. We needed U.S. military intervention to prevent a genocide. The idea that Europe is good at soft power is not enough.” 

The last question came from professor Mark Danner of the journalism school. “Why, 15 years after the end of the Cold War, couldn’t the EU, which is richer and more populous, stand in the way of the U.S?” 

Rampini said the war has divided Europe and threatens the unification of the region, minimizing its global power. 

 

 


Police Blotter

By JOHN GELUARDI
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Digital Camera Stolen 

Employees from Sarber’s Camera on Solano Avenue called police on Sunday to report the theft of a digital camera valued at $3,500. According to store employees, three men entered the store around 4 p.m. and two of them began to ask a series of questions about digital cameras.  

While they kept the employees engaged, the third man made his way into an unsecured storage area on the second floor where the camera was later found to be missing. A customer told police that he saw the man leave the store with a box in a duffel bag.  

The three suspects may have left the scene in a red, four-door vehicle that could have been a Ford Taurus. Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call 510-981-5740. 

 

Injuries in Bar Brawl  

An employee of the DownLow Lounge, at 2284 Shattuck Ave., called police just before 2 a.m. Sunday morning to report a fight. According to the employee, two groups of men were arguing and pushing in the club. When the employee tried to separate them, he was struck in the back of the head with an object that was likely a bottle. Another customer, who was not previously involved in the altercation, began arguing with one of the groups and was knocked to the ground.  

The club employee was treated for a laceration at the scene, and the customer, who was bleeding from the mouth, refused medical attention. 

 

City offers $15,000 reward in hills murder case 

The city of Berkeley approved a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Andre Byes, a 37-year-old Berkeley Hills resident. 

The victim was discovered on March 17 by a friend who let himself into Byes’ home on Glendale Avenue. According to police, Byes was shot multiple times with a large caliber weapon. There were no signs of forced entry into the home and police suspect that Byes may have known his murderer or murderers and let them in.  

There have been no arrests in the case, but police are investigating several possible motives for the killing.  

Byes was the second murder victim in Berkeley this year.  

Anyone with information about the murder is asked to contact police at (510) 981-5741.


Berkeley Briefs

John Geluardi - David Scharfenberg
Tuesday April 08, 2003

New police chief 

City Manager Weldon Rucker will swear in Roy Meisner as Berkeley’s new chief of police this afternoon on the steps of the Ronald Tsukamoto Public Safety Building at 2 p.m. 

Meisner, a 30-year veteran of the Berkeley Police Department, has been acting chief since July when Chief Dash Butler retired.  

City Council approved Meisner as the new chief last month after the city manager conducted a nationwide search for potential candidates.  

Meisner, 53, inherits a young police department that will face a tough budget over the next two years.  

“The department will have to maintain services with fewer resources,” Rucker said when he announced Meisner as the new chief. “The new chief will have to operate differently but still maintain the high level of sensitivity that’s required to be a police officer in this community. It’s a big challenge.” 

—John Geluardi 

 

Toxic chemical on campus 

The state has granted the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory an emergency permit to treat a toxic chemical container that is at risk of creating “a small explosion” in the Calvin Building on campus. 

The emergency permit, approved by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) , allows the laboratory to treat about one liter of liquid diethyl ether, in the parking lot adjacent to the Calvin Building, which is located near Piedmont Avenue in the busy eastern quadrant of the campus. 

According to the DTSC public notice, the chemical, which can become volatile after being stored for long periods of time, is being treated on campus because the laboratory’s hazardous waste disposal contractor worried about handling the container. 

“Shock resulting from the transportation of the unstable diethyl ether can result in a small explosion and can pose an imminent danger to human health and the environment,” the notice reads. 

Lab officials said they don’t know for sure if the container is in danger of exploding but are not taking any chances. 

“We’re not sure,” said BNL Waste Management Group Leader Nancy Rothermich. The container “is very old, so we’re being very conservative and doing a remote opening.” 

The container will be moved to the parking lot and opened by a remote control device. The chemical then will be treated by adding ethanol and water, which will reduce its volatility.  

Rothermich said the treatment likely will take place during the early morning some time this week or next.  

—John Geluardi 

 

Small victory for neighbors in cell phone antennae dispute 

A group of North Berkeley neighbors, worried that three proposed cell phone antennae will emit harmful radiation, won a small victory at City Council last Tuesday night. 

The council — rejecting City Manager Weldon Rucker’s advice — declined to sign off on Sprint PCS plans to erect antennae on the roof of a Starbucks cafe at the corner of Shattuck and Cedar streets. Instead, the council will hold a public hearing on the matter June 17 and vote on the project within 30 days of the hearing. 

Cell phone antennae, and cell phones themselves, emit low levels of radiation. 

Dr. Christopher Portier, director of the environmental toxicology program for the federal government’s National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said there has been limited research on the risk posed to cell phone users and next to nothing on the danger faced by those who simply live near an antenna. 

The research on cell phone users has found no evidence of a cancer link, but Portier warned that cell phones have not been around long enough to allow for a definitive study. 

“Nobody’s really studied it adequately,” he said. 

While health concerns dominate the local debate over the Sprint plans, the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 forbids municipalities from making a decision based on health concerns, according to City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

The neighbors contend the city is reading the law too broadly, arguing that health concerns can be considered. But City Councilmember Kriss Worthington warned activists that they need to come up with alternate arguments if they are going to win over the council in June. 

Neighbors have raised other objections. They argued, for example, that the antennae would impede views and that they are unnecessary. Cell phone service in the area, they maintained, is already at satisfactory levels. 

But Sprint officials and the City Manager’s office noted there are no other antennae in the area and argue that the proposal meets local requirements on appearance.  

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sprint plan by a 7-2 vote in December, after the company cut its proposal from six to three antennae and made some aesthetic adjustments to conform with the city’s concerns. 

The neighbors appealed the board’s decision and bombarded City Council with e-mail and letters in advance of Tuesday night’s vote. 

By David Scharfenberg 

 

 

 

querque. 

The neighbors contend the city is reading the law too broadly, arguing that health concerns can be considered. 

But City Councilmember Kriss Worthington warned activists that they need to come up with alternate arguments if they are going to win over the council in June. 

Neighbors have raised other objections. They argued, for example, that the antennae would impede views and that they are unnecessary. Cell phone service in the area, they maintained, is already at satisfactory levels. 

But Sprint officials and the City Manager’s office noted there are no other antennae in the area and argue that the proposal meets local requirements on appearance.  

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sprint plan by a 7-2 vote in December, after the company cut its proposal from six to three antennae and made some aesthetic adjustments to conform with the city’s concerns. 

The neighbors appealed the board’s decision and bombarded City Council with e-mail and letters in advance of Tuesday night’s vote. 

 

—David Scharfenberg


Garden - Ceramic Sentinels

By FRED DODSWORTH
Tuesday April 08, 2003

Perched high in the Berkeley hills, Büldan Seka’s exotic army of colorful and heroic ceramic figures wait, ready to belay the eyes of passing bicyclists, walkers and commuters. Easily visible from the street, Seka’s garden at 707 Spruce St. is crowded with strange, exotic animals, colorful, voluptuous females and tall and mysterious males, many standing over seven feet tall. 

“It’s hard to be a cyclist and not get into an accident when you ride by here,” said Henri Laborde. He rides up and down Spruce Street at least four times a week, and Seka’s large sculptures never fail to distract him. 

Originally from Macedonia and Turkey, Seka and her husband, Georg, have lived in their north Berkeley home for nearly 36 years. For most of that time their home was much like the others in their neighborhood. All that changed five years ago when a friend suggested she display one of her greater-than-life-size sculptures in her front yard.  

“When I first was told to put out one piece I wondered if people would break it or do some damage. No. Everybody, the whole neighborhood protects them. Everybody wants them in their garden now,” Seka said laughing.  

Seka’s sculpture garden reflects her world view. The interior of her house is cluttered with a rich selection of colorful glass and fabric and objects she and her husband collected in their travels around the world.  

Seka originally studied art in Turkey, but raising a family interrupted her commitment. Seventeen years ago, after her children no longer needed care on a daily basis, Seka enrolled in Oakland’s California College of Arts and Crafts to continue art studies under sculptress Viola Frey. 

“I have my own gallery right here in my front yard,” Seka said. “Sometimes the kids come, especially the Cragmont School kids, and they look at the work and they write me beautiful love letters. ‘Thank you for leaving your art out for us,’ and all kinds of nice things like that. I find it very nice when I get those notes.” 

But along with the compliments have come some not-so-encouraging remarks. 

“When you open your own work, like I do, it’s almost like exposing a piece of your soul to total strangers,” Seka said. “Some people criticize you without knowing you or knowing where you come from or how it was done. They come and give you a good criticism. So you have to know how to take those. But all together it has been such a pleasant experience to put them out.” 

Next door, Red Oak Realtor Charlie Cook held an open house last weekend for a three-bedroom home listed at $939,000. While he praised the sculptures, he acknowledged that not everyone would want to live next door to them.  

“In this price range there are many very conservative people,” Cook said. “Some of them might not want that in their front yard.”  

Lon and Carol Sobel viewed the home for sale over the weekend. The couple is based in Los Angeles and Lon Sobel teaches at UC’s Boalt School of Law.  

“It’s not in my taste, but I think it actually enhances the value of this property,” said Sobel. 

Would-be home buyer Pete Dito was not so enamored. “As much as I like it, it doesn’t belong in front of a house,” he insisted.  

His wife, Rejinther Dito, disagreed. “I love art and I love these sculptures. Besides, this is what America is all about. You can do anything you like on your own property.”  

For the most part Seka does not sell her work.  

“I’m keeping them all together because I feel when you see the whole work it’s quite impressive,” she said. “You know that the same person did the whole work. You can see that I have been working very regularly, very hard, for a very long time. 

“I was told that there are two kinds of artists. One kind of artist will make few works and they will go out and make themselves a name. The second kind of artist, they will work and work and work. Then the work will become an army and start marching and pull the artist behind.”


Big Box Targets City

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday April 04, 2003

The cash-strapped city of Albany is considering building a sprawling retail complex on its southern border with Berkeley. The project threatens to create traffic hazards on the Gilman Interchange.  

Target Stores, Inc. submitted plans to the Albany Planning Department in early February. The proposed project calls for 179,000 square feet of retail space that will include a two-story Target Store, garden center and a fast food restaurant.  

In addition, a 600-space parking lot is planned over a culverted section of Village Creek. The project is expected to generate 11,000 vehicle trips a day, according to a traffic report compiled by the traffic engineering company, Kimley-Horn and Associates. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring said the project should be reconsidered because of the large amount of traffic it would cause.  

“Any project with that much parking can hardly be what you would call smart growth,” Spring said. “And all the extra traffic swamp the Gilman Interchange.” 

Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier said that without a traffic signal or traffic circle at the Gilman Interchange, drivers waiting to merge into the Gilman Interchange from Eastshore Highway could become frustrated and take unnecessary risks. 

“It’s a very old and awkward intersection and the traffic engineering report the city of Albany ordered, surprisingly, did not take into consideration the increased risk of collisions or suggest possible mitigations,” Hillier said. 

The city of Berkeley has submitted a proposal to improve the interchange, but Hillier said any potential improvements are at least five years off. 

The proposed 10-acre site runs along the railroad tracks between UC Village and the Eastshore Highway. The Berkeley Solid Waste Transfer Station is immediately south of the site and the Harrison Playing Fields — which include four popular soccer fields — are also close by.  

Community Environmental Advisory Commissioner LA Wood said he was surprised at project’s location. “I was surprised to see it so close to the transfer station that has had issues of airborne particulate matter and odors.” 

The traffic report also cited poor access for emergency vehicles on the south and east sides of the main building and suggested an emergency access be added to the plans.  

The Albany Planning Commission has not yet considered the plan, but there is political support among the city’s elected officials. 

Mayor Jewel Okawachi said Albany, which has a population of 18,000 and is known for its small-town ambiance, could use an infusion of retail revenue.  

“We’ve wanted some type of business to generate revenue and (179,000 square feet) of retail will be helpful,” Okawachi said.  

The city has considered two other projects for the site since 1998. Both, a cinema complex and retail development and an office park, were canceled by the developers.  

According to Albany’s planning manager, David Dowswell, the city is working with Target Stores, Inc. to resolve the traffic and access problems.  

“We’re in the process of working out the traffic impacts,” he said. “Once we come to a meeting of the minds, we’ll bring the project to the Planning Commission.” 

In the past, proposed buildings or parking lots over culverted creeks have been controversial. In this case, however, the Friends of Five Creeks — a nonprofit group that advocates for the restoration and protection of creeks and watersheds — has worked with the property owners, TMG Partners, since the office complex was proposed in 2000. 

Susan Schwartz, president of Friends of Five Creeks, said she does not anticipate much negative impact on the two creeks that run through the proposed site.  

“The plan was pretty good when they submitted it,” she said. “But we would like to see a little more setback from the banks of Codornices Creek, and we would also like a wooden footbridge across the open section of the Village Creek wetland so people could enjoy it.”


Letters to the editor

Friday April 04, 2003

FOR SHAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The following is a copy of a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle and addressed to Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, and Managing Editor Robert Rosenthal: 

 

I am horrified that the San Francisco Chronicle suspended Mr. Henry Norr, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, for joining in a peace demonstration in San Francisco. 

What is the press coming to? 

I thought in America there was something called a “free press.” Obviously the San Francisco Chronicle is not one of that group. 

Is the current American government’s war of occupation of Iraq curtailing the information the American citizens receive? This is really the beginning of something quite terrible. The Chronicle cannot pretend to be sending its readers the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth if it begins to punish its employees for doing what they are free to do in their personal time and thereby preventing the reading public’s hearing those points of view. 

Whenever I read the San Francisco Chronicle in the future I will know I am not reading the whole story — only what you wish us to read. Shame! 

Wendy Markel 

 

• 

 

IMPROVE TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is good to see the empty lots on main streets becoming useful housing and businesses.  

Unfortunately, the infrastructure changes promised, planned or even required to accompany these new developments have not materialized. 

Maybe, now that building is booming, funds now designated for development fee waivers could be used to materialize the alternative transportation improvements (protected crossing medians, sidewalk extensions, tree plantings, bus stop enhancements, traffic calming). In this way, transit-friendly development could then start to become a reality. 

Wendy Alfsen 

 

• 

 

APOLOGY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the protest organizers sort through their next moves, they might consider urging an apology from the Green Party. I’ve yet to hear any embarrassment from them over the role they played in the election, which brought about our current nightmare. 

Carol Denney 

 

• 

 

LAB INSIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A proposed Molecular Foundry project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories inspires this insight: 

That the Department of Energy research facility has effectively intimidated City Council and many Berkeley residents into believing that scientists are the only group worthy of an opinion about environmental planning and anticipated impacts from lab-related projects. 

My own opinion is that a project undergoing environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act should be explained to the public by the environmental planning coordinator rather than a scientist who has a stake in the successful environmental review of the project. 

Janice Thomas 

 

• 

 

WELCOME BACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was happily surprised when somebody at the Ashby BART entrance thrust a new Daily Planet into my hands as I hurried to catch a train to San Francisco. I missed it while it was gone. 

When I opened it, I was really delighted to find it’s been taken over by people who can write so beautifully, sensitively and progressively about the things that mean so much to me. The editorial moved me to tears. Even the comics are precious. 

I’m going to save my copy away with other important documents. Thank you for fine journalism. 

Barbara Michel 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet accepts Letters to the Editor at opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Letters also can be mailed to 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Please include address and phone number for contact purposes.


So That’s What the Flag Pole is For

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday April 04, 2003

In recent weeks, Berkeley High School has been the site of a teach-in, a die-in and a walkout, among other anti-war activities. But thanks to Michael and Vicki Larrick, it all happened in the shadow of an American flag. 

The couple, parents of a freshman and conservatives in a liberal haven, noticed this fall that the school had no outdoor flag and very few classroom flags. They pressured the school district to conform with state law requiring a “suitable Flag of the United States” outside every school and “smaller and suitable” flags in each classroom. 

“If you’re not going to keep politics out of the classroom, at least abide by the law,” said Vicki Larrick, explaining her position. 

After the couple complained the school district moved quickly to put a flag in the courtyard, explaining they had taken down Old Glory two years ago at the start of a campus construction project and neglected to put it up again. 

A quick survey of most of Berkeley’s elementary and middle schools found most had a flag flying out front. Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School, according to a school secretary, is missing a flag because its pole is temporarily broken. 

But many classrooms at Berkeley High and around the district still do not hang an American flag by the chalkboard. District spokesman Mark Coplan said the central office ordered 371 classroom flags in the fall. But high demand since Sept. 11, 2001, has delayed the shipment, he said. 

Many parents, teachers and students are less than thrilled by the prospect of hoisting flags during a war that most Berkeley residents oppose. 

“I think that the issue of waving the flag right now does tend to represent support for what the government is doing,” said Annie Johnston, a Berkeley High School history teacher. Putting up the flag “sends a message, and it’s not a message that a lot of students in my classroom would be comfortable with.” 

But Superintendent Michele Lawrence said the district must comply with the law. 

“My personal views and those of the Board of Education can’t supersede the Education Code,” she said. “As a result, flags have to go in because we are in violation and we’ve been called on it.” 

Vince Rios, a Vietnam War veteran and officer with the American Legion in San Francisco, said mere compliance with the law is not the only reason to fly a flag. 

“This is something that should have been done voluntarily long ago,” he said. The flag “is part and parcel of American life. It’s as important to school kids as it is to have their mother’s and father’s portrait up.” 

Board of Education Director Terry Doran, who opposes the war, said he has no problem flying the flag, arguing that it need not suggest support for the invasion of Iraq. 

“I think the flag represents the best of America — the right to express differences of opinion,” he said. 

Most students said they didn’t notice the hoisting of the flag and have paid little attention to the “patriotic quote of the day” that now adorns the daily student bulletin. 

The district, after complaints from the Larricks, put the quote in place to satisfy a state requirement for “appropriate patriotic exercises” at the start of the school day — a requirement normally met with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. 

“It’s kind of intrusive, really, but we do live in America,” said Berkeley High senior James Foley of the reappearance of the flag. 

The Larricks said raising the flag is just a small part of a larger push to win balance in the classroom. They argue that Berkeley High teachers are using the classroom as a soapbox to express their liberal political views. 

“I just want to make sure my child is getting a well-rounded education,” said Michael Larrick. “I basically have to re-educate my kid every day.” 

Larrick pointed to a pair of incidents — the distribution of a petition in his daughter’s English class asking students to “support the struggles of the gay community” and a poster in Johnston’s history class equating California’s “three strikes” law with slavery. 

“Here’s a law that was put through by the democratic process and was recently upheld by the Supreme Court,” Larrick said. 

“They really don’t have a basis to criticize or critique my teaching,” said Johnston, who does not teach the Larricks’ daughter. “Putting provocative posters on the wall is part of keeping my students on their toes.” 

Students agreed that teachers regularly voice their own political views — usually liberal, but sometimes conservative — particularly in this time of war. Some teachers, whatever their stated beliefs, work to lead a balanced discussion but others do not, students said. 

“They’re teaching us what to think and not how to think,” said senior Joseph Manoleas. “The war is an awful thing, but I want to hear what the right wing is thinking.” 

School board directors said balance in the classroom is important, but defended teachers’ rights to speak their minds in an appropriate manner. 

“I think the teacher has a right to express his or her opinion as long as it’s expressed as his or her opinion,” said board Director John Selawsky.


Informed Journalism Needs Reporters Who Participate

By BECKY O’MALLEY
Friday April 04, 2003

Thursday’s Chronicle Op-Ed page featured a column by a smiling fellow identified as a Readers’ Representative, entitled “Credibility at Stake.” The title was right; the column was flat wrong. His conclusion: “If it were up to me … the sign over the entrance to The Chronicle would read ‘Check your activism at the door.’” 

The author, despite his title, is a Chronicle management employee; he describes himself as having spent years as a reporter and editor. In this connection, I should here identify my own perspective. I am actually a member of an endangered species, a Chronicle reader, and I confess that I have been since 1959. And you know what? Dick Rogers doesn’t represent me, or, I suspect, most other Chronicle readers.  

His piece refers to letters the Chronicle has received criticizing their suspension of technology columnist Henry Norr for demonstrating against the Iraq war. We readers might have liked to read these letters, but for some reason they never made it into the paper. (One which was copied to the Planet is reprinted here.) At first the story about Norr’s suspension didn’t make it into the Chronicle either, though it was picked up by Reuters and the SF Mercury and has been burning up the ‘blogs on the Internet. When Tuesday’s Planet (many of whose readers also read the Chronicle) printed Norr’s comments on what happened to him, the Chronicle was finally forced to take official notice of reader outrage. 

I’ve been a dedicated reader of Henry Norr’s trenchant dissections of technology innovations since my days as a high-tech executive, even before he was hired by the Chronicle. No other tech columnist comes close to his combination of technical savvy with literate prose. He provides the information that computer users need, and does it elegantly. There is absolutely no connection between his beat and his opinion on the Iraq invasion. As his reader, I was surprised to hear about his strong anti-war opinions, except of course that I did know he’s a very smart guy. Why should readers be deprived of Henry Norr’s excellent advice because he demonstrates against foreign policy? As we used to say in the tech biz, it doesn’t compute. 

And what if there were a connection between a writer’s beliefs and his or her beat?  

Let’s suppose that, for example, a financial reporter, who personally opposes the Iraq invasion on moral grounds, concludes that the recent behavior of the stock market was influenced by investors’ war jitters. Should she suppress this analysis in her stories? As a reader and investor, I would object to that. Does it make any additional difference if she also went to an anti-war candlelight vigil in her neighborhood last Sunday night? Why should it? 

Rogers’ piece lays out what I call the “Greater Eunuch” theory of journalism: that the public is better served if newsies check their cojones at the door. Reporters should of course do their level best to keep their own ideas from influencing what they put in news stories. But papers should be written by humans, not robots. It’s easier to leave your own biases out of news if you know what they are. And strongly held opinions add flavor to pieces that are not just straight news reports. 

The most interesting part of most papers, including the Chronicle, is the opinionated section: the Robert  

Scheers, the Molly Ivins, the Jon Carrolls, the Arianna Huffingtons. Old readers remember Herb Caen’s excellent columns against the Vietnam War. 

Arianna’s years as a conservative true believer, including participating in her then husband’s gubernatorial campaign, lend credibility to her recent role of critic of the excesses of capitalism. Should Bob Scheer be barred from the Chronicle because he once ran for Congress in Berkeley? Of course not. One of the reasons he was an excellent reporter for the L.A. Times was that he’d seen politics from both sides of the camera, and thus was hard for politicians to fool. 

I was a political activist and even managed campaigns before I became a journalist. I ran a business after I was a journalist. Meanwhile, I raised three kids who went to the Berkeley schools. I know a lot about why the public schools are constantly running out of money because of my years in the PTO — a lot more than the kind of reporter whose main news source is the superintendent’s office. 

Experience has convinced me that the public is best informed by people who from time to time cross over the line between participant and observer, not by journalists whose views have always been from the sidelines and never from the field.


Residents Oppose Seminary Growth

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday April 04, 2003

Residents and officials from American Baptist Seminary of the West squared off Tuesday over the seminary’s proposed campus expansion in the Benvenue neighborhood. 

A capacity crowd filled the City Council Chambers Tuesday for a public hearing on the plans.  

The seminary has proposed three projects on the theological campus in the 2500 block of Benvenue Avenue. They include demolishing two turn-of-the-century cottages to make way for a new five-story building and the retrofit and reconfiguration of two existing buildings.  

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved use permits for the proposed projects last June. The board’s decision was challenged by neighbors of the project, Sharon Hudson and David Baker, who filed an appeal on behalf of the Benvenue Neighborhood Association. 

The three projects will add 41 new dwelling units, a 22-bed dormitory, classrooms, some office space and a 48-car garage to the seminary campus.  

After listening to arguments from both sides, City Council closed the public hearing well after midnight but is not expected to make a decision on the project until the meeting next Tuesday.  

Seminary representatives said the development is needed to provide housing for students, faculty and staff.  

Neighbors argued the scale of the project is too large and will change the residential ambiance of Hillegass and Benvenue avenues. They also claimed the two cottages marked for demolition have historical significance and would be a loss to Berkeley’s architectural heritage. 

The seminary is located four blocks south of the UC Berkeley campus on roughly half a block bounded by Dwight Way and Hillegass and Benvenue avenues. Currently on site are 11 buildings, which are used as classrooms, offices and housing for students, staff and faculty. 

Seminary President Rev. Keith Russell said project approval will improve safety in the two existing buildings in the event of an earthquake and will alleviate the seminary’s housing shortage.  

“Primarily this is about housing, affordable housing, that will be used exclusively for students, staff and faculty,” Russell said. “We also have two buildings that have to be renovated and restored. There is a safety issue that puts our students at risk.” 

The proposal calls for eight affordable dwelling units and five affordable dormitory beds. But a letter from a seminary attorney included in the council’s communications claimed the residential rents are not subject to affordable housing regulations and can be raised any time after construction.  

A group of neighbors said they opposed the 65-foot-tall building proposed for 2514 Benvenue Ave. David Baker, who lives in the area, argued that the institutional building will transform the avenue’s residential nature. 

“This building is nearly three times larger than adjacent buildings, which are three stories,” he said. The building “will have a staggering impact on the Benvenue neighborhood and should be put on a traffic corridor.” 

Neighbors also argued that the two cottages — one built in 1899, the other in 1906 — are worth saving. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved both cottages for historical status last year, but City Council rejected the approval because of a state law that forbids the landmarking of buildings owned by religious institutions.  

Neighbors said there is still enough evidence, including the documented support of seven UC professors, for the council to deem the cottages historically significant — or at least to order an Environmental Impact Report, under the Californian Environmental Quality Act.  

But architectural historian Tim Kelley, hired by the seminary, argued the buildings did not merit historical designation because they do not relate to any significant historical event, nor were they designed by an architect of note.  

Some councilmembers indicated they would support the project with some changes. Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio said they were concerned about the height of the proposed five-story building.  

“I think I could support a project that was four stories tall,” Bates said.


A Call for Empathy: Rethink Pre-emptive Bush Doctrine

By DAN BROOK
Friday April 04, 2003

Baghdad’s residents are being pounded by the U.S. military policy of shock and awe. Designed to be “the non-nuclear equivalent of the impact that atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese,” the purpose is to “take the city down ... [until] they are physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted.” President Bush describes this terrorism as liberation. 

Using the Bush Doctrine, another country could launch pre-emptive war against the United States. Since Bush is unelected and authoritarian, invokes false evidence, uses weapons of mass destruction (including depleted uranium, while threatening to use nuclear weapons), supports dictators and terrorists, violates international law, commits war crimes and menaces the global environment, another country could assemble a coalition of the willing to disarm Bush and liberate Americans. 

We do need to be liberated from Bush – though by active resistance and grassroots organizing, not war. 

Herb Caen once called San Francisco “Baghdad by the Bay.” If instead of Baghdad, San Francisco were attacked for Bush’s crimes, we would be the victims. Judging by the United States’ recent wars, we could picture some of the local targets in a war on San Francisco. 

During the first night, many government structures would be bombed and destroyed. City Hall, the State and Federal buildings, various courthouses, police stations and other leadership and command-control centers would be ablaze. Shortly thereafter, cruise missiles and massive bunker-busting bombs would fall on the Federal Reserve Building, the old Mint and the Transamerica Building, as well as on the Moscone Center, Civic and Masonic auditoriums and Embarcadero buildings – regardless of who was in them. 

Symbolic targets, including Coit Tower and the Ferry Building, might be bombed to demoralize us. Fire would be all around. Broken concrete, twisted metal and shattered glass would be everywhere. Smoke, dust and the stench of death would fill the air. 

Bridges would be bombed: the Bay, Golden Gate, San Mateo, Richmond-San Rafael and the Carquinez Straits. Based on military logic of cutting supply lines, disrupting communications and intimidation, bombs would target SBC and PG&E offices and stations; Sutro Tower and other antennae; television and radio stations; ISPs and technology companies. San Francisco International Airport, the piers and other targets of opportunity would be taken. BART, MUNI, Caltrans, the bus terminal and the Cable Car building would also be hit. Gas, water and sewer lines would be ruptured. 

We would be physically and electronically cut off. We would be scared. Some of us would be dying; others dead. 

Outside San Francisco, the oil refineries would be a major target. So would the Oakland Airport, industrial and technology companies, city halls and federal buildings, the Oakland Army Base and Alameda Naval Base, Fort Ord and other active and former bases. San Jose and Silicon Valley would receive heavy fire. The destruction and despair would be tremendous. Universities would not be spared; science and computer labs, weapons research and engineering centers, all would be decimated. 

Even if they were using smart bombs and precision missiles, we can extrapolate from U.S. warfare that there would be serious collateral damage against soft targets. Cruise missiles fired from ships would hit residential neighborhoods. Many people would be killed. 

The environment – air, soil, ocean, bay – would be terribly, possibly permanently, polluted with chemicals, toxic substances, poisonous gases, heavy metals and radioactivity. People would suffer inescapable mental and physical anguish for generations. 

Can you imagine the destruction and disarray, anxiety and terror, the blood and the crying? Can you imagine this in Baghdad by the Bay? Can you imagine similar scenarios in other American cities? Washington, D.C. New York. Los Angeles. Chicago. Boston. Despite the difficulty and distress, imagine what it would feel like. 

Then imagine Baghdad. And Basra, Nasiriyah, Mosul and other Iraqi cities. 

To those being bombed, the differences between Osama bin Laden and Bush are minimal. In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, I mourn for Baghdad while I organize in the Bay Area. 

Dan Brook teaches sociology part-time at UC Berkeley.


Women in Black Vigil, held every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. Singing for Peace at BART, A chance to voice your protest and prayers for peace, all voices and ages welco

Friday April 04, 2003

Women in Black Vigil, held every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 

548-6310, 845-1143. 

Singing for Peace at BART, 

A chance to voice your protest and prayers for peace, all voices and ages welcome. Bring friends, signs, drums and songs. From 4:45 to 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley BART station. For more information call Betsy Rose at 525-7082 or e-mail betsy@betsyrosemusic.org. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, held Fridays at noon. Sponsored by members of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Meet on the grass close to the west entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome. Buddhist Peace Fellowship bpf@bpf.org. 496-6000, ext.135.  

Books Not Bombs, sponsored by UC Campus Anti-War network. Meet at 10 a.m. for a rally at Sproul Plaza; leave at 11 a.m. for a march down Telegraph Ave. 

Affordable Housing Rally 

For UC Berkeley Families begins at 11 a.m. at University Village Plaza. Family activities; speakers at noon, including State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock; Albany Mayor Jewel Okawachi; Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. For information call Peter Brownell 525-0408 or Brent Ducker 610-2495. 

Sick Plant Clinic held from 9 a.m. to noon. UC Botanical Garden experts diagnose plant woes the first Saturday of every month. Service is free; held at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. 

www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden 

Creating An Ecological House, with author Skip Wenz. A discussion of modeling houses on ecosystems, natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods. Held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 312 Page St. Cost is $75. 

525-7610. 

Kids’ Garden Club: Pollinators, held from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Spring Ponds, an exploration of ponds to learn about spring life cycles. Participants will capture and release naiads, nymphs and maybe some newts. Held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Soap party with surprises! A special party introducing new and unique hand-crafted soaps and home-spa products, with free brunch, networking, music, belly dancer. From 10 a.m. to noon at 1208 Peralta Ave. To RSVP or get more information, call Sonja 848-7305. 

Block Captains’ Workshop on Disaster Preparedness, held at 6 p.m. at the Public Safety Building, 2100 MLK Way. This annual event is designed to encourage contact between neighborhood block organizers. Comunity Services Bureau, 981-5808. 

Palma Soriano: Berkeley’s Cuban Sister City. Come see the video of the Berkeley delegation’s visit to Palma Soriano during the Week of Culture last December. Held from noon to 1 p.m., in the third floor meeting room of Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

In Our Own Hands: Reducing the Impacts of Climate Change in Berkeley, a discussion with Nathan E. Hultman (UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group) on local, practical steps to reduce global warming. Begins at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. For reservations: 981-5435. 

energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Community Dances in Berkeley, traditional English and American dances, at 8 p.m. every Wednesday. Cost is $9. Also the first Sunday of the month at 7 p.m. for $10. Held at Grace North Church,  

2138 Cedar St. Mary 233-5065.  

www.bacds.org 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. Join human rights activists to promote social justice. Held at Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 872-0768. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik. Cash prizes. Begins at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7 at the door; $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM holds public meetings for all interested people on the first and third 

Thursdays of the month. Meet at 7 p.m. at Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190. 

Disaster Preparedness Meeting, for community-based organizations, faith-based organizations and neighborhood associations, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Erna P. Harris Court, 1330 University Ave. Reservations required. Please call 451-3140. Sponsored by Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster of Alameda County and BOSS.  

Town Hall Meeting on  

Neighborhood Disaster Resistance and Community Sustainability. Sponsored by Berkeley Fire Department and the city of Berkeley. Held from 7 to 9 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 

2727 College Ave. Contact 

Carol Lopes, 981-5514. 

Residential Green Building, a workshop for homeowners. Learn to reduce utility bills and use building materials that are healthier for family and the environment. From 6 to 8 p.m. at The Building Education Center, 812 Page St. at 6th St. Sponsored by Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board. For information call Wes Sullens 614-1699 or e-mail wsullens@stopwaste.org. 

Residential Energy Conservation Contest, deadline April 10. If you are a Berkeley resident who has reduced your electrical energy use and has lived in the same location for at least one year you are eligible to enter the Berkeley Unplugged II contest and win one of several prizes. Winners will be announced at Berkeley Earth Day, April 19. For information and registration: Energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us, telephone 981-5435, or TDD 981-6903. 

Free Disaster Preparedness Classes, offered by the Berkeley Office of Emergency Services. Topics include basic personal preparedness, disaster first aid, light search and rescue, fire suppression, disaster mental health, shelter operations  

and earthquake retrofitting. 

Register online at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html or call 981-5605. 

Theater of the Oppressed 

with Julie Sparling, M.Ed. 

Theater of the Oppressed uses movement, storytelling and tableauz to explore how images of one’s personal experience reflect universal issues of power and change. At the YWCA, 2600 Bancroft Way, on Sundays April 6 through May 4 (excluding April 20), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost varies from $90 to $140. UC Berkeley Racial Justice program. 594-1377. 

Spring Break Theater Lab 

for middle school students, session one from April 7 to 11; session two from April 14 to 18. Runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Curriculum includes clowning/acrobatics, acting, improv, musical theater and hip hop. Cost is $250. 647-2978. 

school@berkeleyrep.org 

jseelig@berkeleyrep.org 

A Taste of Judaism, free classes on the basic tenets of Judaism. Sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay. Registration required, classes through mid-May. 839-2900 ext. 347. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets every Tuesday at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Begins at 7:30 p.m. Call Don, 525-3565. 

www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

 

City Council Special Meeting on Tuesday, April 8, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in City Council chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/default.htm 

City Council meets Tuesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk. 

981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/default.htm 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Monday, April 7 at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Pam Wyche 644-6128, ext. 113. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent/  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Monday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks/default.htm  

Peace and Justice Commission meets Monday, April 7, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/peaceandjustice/default.htm 

Youth Commission meets Monday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. 

at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/youth/default.htm  

Commission on Disability meets Wednesday, April 9, at 

6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Paul Church, 981-6342.        www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability/default.htm 

Homeless Commission meets 

Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless/default.htm  

Planning Commission meets 

Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/planning/default.htm  

Police Review Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 

7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview/default.htm  

Waterfront Commission meets Wednesday, April 9, at 

7 p.m. at 201 University Ave. 

Cliff Marchetti, 644-6376, ext. 224. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront/default.htm  

Community Health Commission meets Thursday, April 10, from 6:45 to 9:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. William Rogers, 981-5344. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/health/default.htm  

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation/default.htm  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, April 10, at 

7 p.m. in City Council chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning/default.htm 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet prints listings in the community calendar on a space-available basis. Send information at least two weeks in advance. E-mail calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com; fax 841-5695, or phone 841-5600, ext. 102. 

 


An Optimist in War Time: Cultural Sphere Benefits From Increased Activism

By ROBERT COMMANDAY
Friday April 04, 2003

Even as the country has been plunged into a war, something positive might still come out of all this. Whatever the outcome of the pending crises, and whatever their duration, a significant portion of this country just may have been reawakened to become active, involved participants — players, voters, protesters, hell-raisers. 

The most important manifestation of that would, of course, be in the political, social and economic spheres. Beyond that, were there to be such a changing attitude toward personal activation, it would have to spill over into the cultural realm. 

The awakening entails people starting to value important things that they had been lulled into taking for granted or simply ignoring. This includes such a wide range of former “givens” as decent education for next generations and the availability of music from institutions long regarded as solid and high-minded but now threatened or taking on a commercial outlook. There’s no end to the list of our unchallenged assumptions.  

In the San Francisco Classical Voice, the particular concern is, of course, music. Our priority is to stimulate and perhaps deepen the engagement of people in the musical experience. That starts with bringing out, even just reminding readers, about what is so special, so treasurable, so valuable in this work, that work, this or that performer’s skills, this genre, say symphony, or that, say opera. 

We naturally presuppose that many people are involved in classical music; after all, just look at the attendance and patronage. But the seriousness, the depth or quality of the involvement is not so obvious. That has changed over time with the changes in our world and culture. In the 1930s, young though I was, I was always aware of audience members during intermissions and just after, buzzing about the music, the performance, praising, disparaging, arguing. You don’t hear that today. 

In that earlier time, attendance at the live concert or opera was a bigger deal than today. There was no alternative source. Performances then were not competing with or being diluted by the TV, LP, CD experience. Granted that those technologies have greatly expanded the interest in music. However, it might also be instructive to read our readers’ answers to the Question of the Week, “What was your most memorable childhood musical experience?” 

Almost every answer cites a live performing event, not a recording or broadcast. This does not intend to rule out such inspirational sources of our youth as the Met or major symphony broadcasts, especially for those in rural or small-town America. But it is the interaction with the live performance that strikes deepest. 

What the musical community is combating alongside every other creative force in society, and for that matter, politics, is passivity. It is passivity in perception and in the mental processing of information. It is passivity expressed in nonparticipation, unresponsiveness, inaction.  

Americans have been programmed in this passivity by the very means with which news, entertainment and cultural expressions are communicated: the television and related electronic media. 

It is well known and much discussed that these means do not encourage interaction. Watching news on TV hardly promotes the thoughtful consideration that is possible and fostered by the process of reading the newspaper. The newspaper is clearly a rapidly dwindling institution. There are only 16 cities left in the United States that still have more than one newspaper; only 200 papers are independently owned. 

A people who become less thoughtful, less active intellectually, become poorer listeners to music and are more inclined to favor, if not to insist upon, entertainment. Entertainment, after all, is now a dominant force in our culture. This takes the creative energy out of music life, frustrating, blocking those with something to say, something that is challenging, that addresses the whole and active listener. 

Musical institutions do take worthwhile steps to draw their listeners into more active engagement with the music itself, through pre-concert lectures, talks by the music directors and other strategies. The San Francisco Classical Voice tries to encourage the interactivity at the heart of the musical experience by providing a breadth of reviewing no longer offered by the drastically reduced press. 

These and other actions help, but in music as in all other fields, education, for one critical example, it will take a lot to turn the people of this nation around. 

Just maybe, the shock of the momentous events that are unfolding may have that positive effect. 

 

A version of this article first appeared in San Francisco Classical Voice. Robert P. Commanday, a Berkeley resident, is the editor of SFCV, which can be found at www.sfcv.org. He is a former music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and before that a conductor and lecturer at UC Berkeley.


Addison Window Gallery Showcases Local Artwork

By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet
Friday April 04, 2003

Walking through Berkeley’s Arts District, along Addison Street — Berkeley’s Broadway with its theaters, arts and music venues and restaurants — it's impossible to miss the Addison Street Window Gallery.  

Open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, this well lit art gallery captures the attention of everyone passing by. At least ten art shows a year are showcased in this streetside gallery. 

“I try and balance it with non-profit arts, children’s art, disability art shows,” says Brenda Prager, curator and 30-year Berkeley resident. “I did a show called “Artists on the Fringe” with BN Duncan. It was a great exhibit featuring artists who were mostly street people.” 

When the city built the Center Street Parking Garage, it included windows for civic clubs and agencies to market their services and programs. Fifteen years ago the windows were dirty, crumbling and vacant. 

After three months of nagging from the City Council, Prager, then a new Berkeley Civic Art Commissioner as well as an art student at SF Art Institute, volunteered to take on the task of cleaning them up and installed her first show in February of 1988.  

“My basic philosophy has been to support local artists,” said Prager. “To be able to show artists that don’t usually get exposure and be able to support them. Berkeley is one of those places where there're just hundreds of people working away on their art with no venue (in which) to show it. That’s my niche.” 

With no staff and a minuscule budget, Prager presents shows every day of every month and takes pains to ensure that the gallery space reflects various segments of the community, featuring photography, painting, installations, children’s art, dancers and political teach-ins.  

“When it first started I decided to handle the space as much like a gallery as possible,” Prager said. “And I underwrote all the expenses. There was no budget for paint. If the windows needed painting, I would buy the paints. If we needed light bulbs, I would find the light bulbs, I begged the Berkeley University Art Museum and the Oakland Museum for their old light bulbs. If we had a little ‘opening’ I paid for the opening. I even washed the windows.” 

In 1994 the Civic Art Commission created a modest budget for the gallery. Addison Street, home to Berkeley Repertory Theater, had developed into an important arts district for the city of Berkeley. Now Prager is paid a stipend of $360 a month to manage and maintain the gallery space, and the artists are paid a modest honorarium.  

“We give the artists $200 from which they have to pay for their own mailings and other expenses. 

“For example, the artist who’s currently displaying paid for the paint to change the background color. She’ll pay for the paint to repaint it white again,” said Prager. “Out of my $360 per month I still pay for the openings and once a month I hire a window washer for $40 to wash the windows. The city now reimburses me for the other little expenses like light bulbs.” 

The current exhibition at the Addison Street Windows Gallery is a multi-media exhibit by Terri Garland documenting the imperiled lifecycle of endangered Sea Turtles in Baja, Mexico. The show opened in the sidewalk gallery on Monday and runs through May 14. 

“Art is the lifeblood of culture,” Prager said. “It’s a marker of our culture. It enhances our well being and it indicates our quality of life.” 

A recent study on the impact of the arts in Berkeley — tracing the money generated by the arts in Berkeley, where the money goes and where it stops along the way until it leaves Berkeley — showed that art is the fifth largest business in Berkeley, just behind city government, she said. 

“This is definitely different from most communities in the Bay Area. There are over 230 non-profit arts organizations in Berkeley. When they want to cut back on the arts they don’t take this into consideration. They say art is the most dispensable item but it’s not, it’s one of the most indispensable.” 


City and Schools Put Heads Together

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday April 04, 2003

Berkeley schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence told a group of city officials and parents over the weekend that elementary school libraries may face serious cuts next year and that district staff, stretched to the limit in the midst of a budget crisis, simply don’t have the time to come up with a creative solution. 

“In two weeks’ time, this is going to fall to me,” Lawrence said at Saturday’s education summit between the city and the school district. “I’m going to have to make a decision and it’s going to be ugly ... I need you, I really need you, to do some problem-solving.” 

The summit was the brainchild of Mayor Tom Bates, who promised during the fall campaign to convene the event within 100 days of the start of his administration. 

Welcoming roughly 200 people to the summit, Bates promised a stronger alliance between city government and the Berkeley Unified School District at a time of severe financial crisis. 

“We have an elected school board and they’ve got a lot of different problems, but I want to support them to the maximum I can,” he said. 

But some participants raised doubts about whether the summit will actually result in any change, and collaboration may prove difficult in the midst of a financial crunch. The city of Berkeley faces a $7.7 million shortfall next year and the school district has already chopped $8 million from its budget, with $4 to $6 million more in reductions on the way. 

Summit participants, divided into six work groups focused on everything from mentoring to school safety, had difficulty escaping the shadow of the fiscal emergency.  

In the library services group, Lawrence suggested that the district and the city library consider pooling resources to save money — turning school libraries into community institutions that serve both adults and schoolchildren.  

But with the school district and city focused on immediate budget concerns, Lawrence acknowledged after the meeting that collaboration, in the short-term, is unlikely. The district, she said, will probably have to cut elementary school librarians in September and rely on teachers to fill the gap. 

Bates has made city-school district cooperation a top priority in his new administration, pushing last weekend’s education summit and hiring a former district employee, Julie Sinai, as a senior aide. 

Some in the district have raised concerns about the mayor impinging on Berkeley Unified’s mission to educate children. But Bates has worked to avoid a turf war, stating clearly that the city, which currently spends $15 million on youth services, intends to focus upon its traditional support role — providing health care services, on-site police officers and after school programming — rather than going into the classroom.  

“We’re not imposing,” Bates said in a recent interview. “It’s really a spirit of collaboration.” 

Lawrence embraced the mayor’s initiative. Caring for Berkeley’s children, she said, is a “shared responsibility” that should extend beyond the district.  

The school board has also signaled its support. Director Shirley Issel acknowledges that there was some tension between the district and the city under former Mayor Shirley Dean, but says the situation has improved. 

“Tom’s attitude is much more, ‘what can we do for you?,’” Issel said. 

But parent Michael Miller, a member of the advocacy group Parents of Children of African Descent, said the summit did not include enough minority parents, and doubted whether it would result in real change. 

“The problems we talked about at the summit are problems we’ve had for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think anything is actually going to get done.” 

The Berkeley Public Education Foundation and the Berkeley Community Fund co-sponsored Saturday’s summit. Both groups expressed interest in supporting any initiatives that come out of the event, but warned their budgets are tight. UC Berkeley officials also attended the event.  

The summit, which took place at Berkeley Alternative High School, came eight days after a meeting at the Berkeley Yacht Club that brought together the city, school district and university to discuss possible cost-sharing measures in six areas: information technology, purchasing, employee training, transportation and health and human services. 


Arts Calendar

Friday April 04, 2003

The Occupied Territories: What is the Future? This symposium with professors from Israel and Palestine takes place from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in room 2050 in the Valley Life Sciences Building on the UC campus. 

First Annual Haiku Contest, Poetry Reading, takes place at 7 p.m. in the Central Library Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6121. 

Frederick Wiseman’s The Last Letter begins at 7:30 p.m. with a special apearance by Frederick Wiseman. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. Takes place at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

4 Stand-Up Dads, a PG-rated comedy for the whole family. Cost is $20 for adults; $15 for children under 13, students and seniors. Show starts at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. For tickets call 925-798-1300. 

www.juliamorgan.org 

Noon Concert, the University Gospel Choir, with director Silvester Henderson. Gospel music in the American tradition. Doors open to this free concert at 11:55 a.m. at Hertz Hall on the UC campus. 642-4864. 

http://music.berkeley.edu 

Friday Afternoon Hang, The Brubeck Institute Quartet, an afternoon of jazz from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Suggested donation of $2 to $5. 845-5373. 

www.jazzschool.com 

Apple Hill Chamber Players, Playing for Peace Concert, at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Cost is $8 to $10. 848-3696. 

Momix Dance Theater presents Opus Cactus at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall on the UC campus. Tickets vary at $20, $30, $42. 642-9988. 

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu   

Jazz at Downtown: Danny Caron, Brenda Boykin and Friends play jazz and blues guitar in the spirit of Charles Brown, at 9:30 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit, at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Swing lesson with Nick and Shanna begins at 8 p.m., followed by the show at 9:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Jethro Jeremiah Band, Dank Man Shank perform reggae and ska at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $6. 848-0886.  

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Laurie Lewis with Nina Gerber, folk and bluegrass singer-songwriter teams with guitar accompanist at 8 p.m. at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bay Area Latin Jazz Series 

Tribute to West Coast Jazz 

with guest of honor Johnny Coppola. Panel discussion begins at 7 p.m. followed by performance at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12 in advance or before 7 p.m.; $15 at the door. 849-2568.       

www.lapena.org 

The Feederz, Born/Dead, Brainoil, Scurvy Dogs, Funeral Shock at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Henri-Pierre Koubaka performs West African folk music at 7 p.m. at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. 

486-1840. 

Mommy’s Friend, Cellofane 

at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave., at 9:30 p.m. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Dance Jammies, a multi-generational event presented by Orches, a nonprofit dance-art organization. Show runs from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Motivity Center, 2525 8th St. Reservations advised, call 832-3835. orches@earthlink.net 

Jane Timberlake presents songs to benefit Fair Wage — an organization working to raise child care workers’ wages — at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $3 for children, $4 for adults. 

849-2568.    

www.lapena.org 

Bay Area Poets Coalition presents a free, open reading at the west branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave., from 3 to 5 p.m. Call 527-9905 or visit poetalk@aol.com. 

Poets Connie Post, Caryn Stardancer and Marianne Robinson speak on “Suvivorship and Healing” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Woman Shaman: Female Spiritual Powers, a slide presentation of female dreamers, drummers, healers and dancers from around the world, by Max Dashu. Begins at 7:30 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Center, 2951 Derby St. Cost is $10, $15. Wheelchair access. For information, call 654-9298 or e-mail maxdashu@lmi.net.  

Frederick Wiseman’s films  

Near Death (Part 1) and Domestic Violence, at 3:30 and 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. 

Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Broadway Players presents Moonglow!, directed by Ellen Hoffman, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Free but donations appreciated. 525-7815.  

singbroadway@yahoo.com 

Moscow Soloists, chamber music and orchestra with  

Yuri Bashmet, viola, 

perform at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall on the UC campus. Cost is $48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

The Toasters, Warsaw, Go Jimmy Go, Codename Rocky perform at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10 in advance or $12 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com. 

Lavish Green, Dr. Masseuse, Habit of Mine, rock music at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave., at 9:30 p.m. Cost is $5. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jazz at Downtown: Sylvia and the Silvertones, swing era ballads for voice and guitar, at 9:30 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Love Kills Love, Kill The Pain, The Eddie Haskells, The Drink Tickets perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Jody Stecher and Kate Breslin present traditional American roots music at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Hecho en Califas Series, 

Noche de ska-temoc con La Plebe Los Kung fu monkees 

at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 849-2568.      www.lapena.org 

Funeral Diner, Deconditional, An Arrow in Flight, End on End, Takaru perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Steve Smith-Mike Zilber Quartet presents Reimagined, material from their Blue Jay Records CD, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Tickets are $12, $15, $18. 845-5373. 

www.jazzschool.com 

Baba Ken and the Nigerian Brothers perform from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3 for children, $5 for adults. 525-5054.    

www.ashkenaz.com 

Matrix 203 Memorial Project Vietnam, a talk by artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba with reception to follow, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $5 to $8, free for members and UCB students. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Betty Cook speaks on “A Buddhist Pilgrimage in India” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. For information call 843-6812. 

Alan Rinzler in the final session of Take that Manuscript off the Shelf, a free seminar with a veteran editor, at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Frederick Wiseman’s films  

Near Death (Part 2) and Belfast, Maine, at 2 and 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. 

Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Video about Victor Jara, life of the singer-songwriter killed by Chilean military junta in 1973, presented by members of Inti-Ilimani at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10 and benefits Chile’s Victor Jara Foundation. 849-2568.    

www.lapena.org 

Cafe Rumba performs at 3 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ends on Nine, Moonstack, Endure, rock music at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave., at 9:30 p.m. Cost is $3. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Holly Near in a rare small club appearance at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St., at 8 p.m. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bob Daley, singer-songwriter, performs at 2 p.m. at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. 486-1840. 

Bach Collegium Japan 

Masaki Suzuki, music director and conductor performs  

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC campus. Tickets are $24, $36, $48. 642-9988. 

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Anthony Brown’s Asian American Quartet perform at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Tickets are $12, $15, $18. 845-5373. 

www.jazzschool.com 

Candace Falk, Barry Pateman and Jessica Moran speak in a free program on “Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years: Volume One: Made for America”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Willis Barnstone reads from  

“The Secret Reader” and Algebra of Night” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Frederick Wiseman’s film 

Hospital at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, under the direction of David Milnes, perform works by John Thow, Gunther Schuller and 2003 Visiting Bloch Lecturer Steven Stucky at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC campus. Tickets range from $2 to $8. 642-9988. 

All Star Jam, featuring The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $4. 

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Melissa Fay Greene reads from “The Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Tadesse Meskela: “Fair Trade Coffee Around the World.” Meskela, general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia, will speak on the situation of coffee farmers in the global economy and the benefits of Fair Trade. Lecture from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Wurster Auditorium, UC campus. Suggested donation $5 to $10. No one turned away for lack of funds. 415-558-6938. 

John Kader on “Charles Schwab” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

The Murder of Fred Hampton, with Michael Gray in person, will be shown at 

7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Empyrean Ensemble presents Chou Wen-Chung 80th Birthday Celebration at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $18 for adults, seniors; $10 children, students. 925-798-1300. 

www.juliamorgan.org 

Inti-Illimani performs traditional Latin American music on more than 30 wind, string and percussion instruments at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC campus. Tickets are $20, $24, $36. 642-9988.  

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Courtableu at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo begins at 8 p.m., followed by show at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.   www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazz at Downtown: Mimi Fox, solo jazz guitar, performs at 8 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Foreign Policy Association 

Great Decisions Lecture: 

Global Struggle for Women’s Rights with Laurel Fletcher, Boalt Hall School of Law, at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. For reservations call Bert Wilson at 526-2925. 

La Lucha Continua Chiapas,  

a report by the Chiapas Support Group on the latest political developments in Mexico, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5 to $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cafe Poetry, hosted by Kira Allen, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Murray reads from “A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Bill Turner on “Farewell America” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

John Shelton Lawrence will discuss “Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Frederick Wiseman’s film, 

Juvenile Court, will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Noon Concert featuring works by student composers from the spring 2003 Graduate Composers Seminar of professor John Thow. Doors open to this free concert at 11:55 a.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. 

http://music.berkeley.edu 

Red Archibald and The Internationals at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. A swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna begins at 8 p.m., followed by the show at 9 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.   www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazz at Downtown: Jules Broussard and Ned Boynton perform jazz ballads for saxophone, guitar and bass at 8 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Battlefield Band, forward with Scotland’s past, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Michael Wollenberg on solo guitar at 7 p.m. at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. at Center St. 486-1840. 

 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet prints listings on a space-available basis, and will soon include theater shows and exhibits. Send information at least two weeks in advance to calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com; fax 841-5695, or phone 841-5600, ext. 102. 

 

 

 

 

 

LECTURES AND READINGS 

 

T. N. Narisimhan speaks on Spiritual Heritage in a Material World: The Challenge of Harmony, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St. at Spruce St. 848-1755. www.allsoulsparish.org 

Adrain Nicole LeBlanc reads from “Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Emmy E. Werner reads from 

“A Conspiracy of Decency” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

 

DANCE AND MUSIC 

 

Monologist Josh Kornbluth presents his one-man show “Red Diaper Baby,” about growing up a boomer in New York City, in a home with outspoken communists for parents, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $12. 525-5054.   www.ashkenaz.com 

Spank with DJs Solarz from Groove Conflux. Hip hop and R&B music begins at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jazz at Downtown: Keni El Lebrijano performs on Flamenco guitar at 8 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

La Gran Noche del Charango: Horacio Duran and Italo Pedrotti, an evening with two Chilean Charango masters, begins at  

8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tim Sparks and Teja Gerken, a guitar masters’ double-bill, begins at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Buckets, Slick 67, The Cowlicks perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough,  

3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 

 

CHILDREN 

 

Storytelling and reading with Maisy begins at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

 

LECTURES AND READINGS 

 

Kinky Friedman reads from  

“Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

         

FILM 

 

Frederick Wiseman’s films  

Primate and Missile, at 7 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

 

DANCE AND MUSIC 

 

Noon Concert with Axel Van Chee, baritone, and Colleen Kobussen, piano, performing 

songs by Grieg. Also, Ann Marie Darrow, mezzo soprano, and Jonathan Chou, piano, perform Siete Canciones populares espanoles, by Manuela De Falla. Doors to this free concert open at 11:55 a.m. at Hertz Hall, UC campus. 642-4864. 

http://music.berkeley.edu 

Friday Afternoon Hang with 

The Yair Evnine Quartet, a free concert, from 5 to 7 p.m. 

at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. 845-5373. 

www.jazzschool.com 

Camerata Sweden, chamber music and orchestra, perform at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 

2345 Channing Way. Cost is $38. 642-9988. 

www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Wadi Gad, Jah Bandis with special guest Jr. Toots, Ashanti HiFi perform conscious reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $12. 525-5054.   www.ashkenaz.com 

Stung: The Police Tribute, 

Zoo Station: U2 Tribute, 

perform Police and U2 music at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $7. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jazz at Downtown: Jackie Ryan performs at 9:30 p.m. at 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Grupo Raiz, the Latin American music sextet founded at La Peña, returns for an evening of peace and justice songs in a Peace No War Concert. Begins at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568.    www.lapena.org 

Scoop Nisker, Scoop with the News celebrating the publication of his new book at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Berkeley High School Jazz Combo performs at 7 p.m. at  

Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. at Center St. 

486-1840. 

Winfred E. Eye, Sonny Smith, Bart Davenport 

perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $6 at the door. 841-2082. 

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, the Bananas, Operation Make Out, Pirx the Pilot, Stalker Potential perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 


Death on Dover Street

Susan Parker
Friday April 04, 2003

I heard the pop-pop of a gun outside my bedroom window late one night last month, but I didn’t get up right away. I waited for more noises. I heard a scream and someone running. I kept still, hoping the commotion was the result of friendly fireworks, but it was too late for Chinese New Year and too early for Independence Day. 

When I heard sirens I decided to investigate. I went downstairs, opened my door and found the corner aglow in red flashing lights. Police cars blocked both ends of Dover Street. My neighbor was on his stoop and together we walked to the corner of 54th Street, where a small knot of people stood. 

I shivered in my pajamas. I’d forgotten to put on my shoes and the cold soaked my feet and crept up my calves. 

“What happened?” we asked above the crackle of police radios.  

“Someone’s been shot,” a man answered.  

“A woman,” a voice added. 

Another voice chimed in, “She’s already dead.” 

A different kind of shiver went up my spine. A fire truck was parked in the middle of the street, but none of the many police or firefighters nearby appeared to be in a hurry as they walked back and forth between two houses to the backyard of a large, square duplex. 

When the ambulance finally appeared I knew it was true, that whoever lay behind the house, whoever I had heard scream and then run, must be dead, for the ambulance arrived silently. The paramedics got out of their vehicle slowly, and when they returned from their trip to the backyard they left, only the beep of their back-up alarm announcing their departure.  

A policeman asked those of us standing on the corner to leave. Yellow caution tape now stretched from my porch banister to the fence in front of the house across the street. I ducked underneath and went inside, climbed the stairs, lay down in my bed and stared at the ceiling where the reflection of police lights kept me awake.  

Sometime during the night, the victim’s body was removed and the caution tape came down. When I got up, Dover Street was awash in early morning sunshine, the rows of front lawns sparkling with dew. The newspaper rested on my porch. There was no mention of the shooting in its pages. 

I took my dog for a walk. I hurried past the house where the woman had died the night before, the second drive-by shooting in our neighborhood in the past six months. I looked for signs of what had happened — blood on the sidewalk, empty bullet cartridges, anything that might mark what had occurred — but found only the dusty gray ashes of emergency flares.  

A few days later I read in the newspaper that the victim was a 35-year-old mother who sometimes lived in the area. Neighbors had heard the shots, the slap of her sneakers running on the pavement and then her soft, weak voice pleading for help as she lay dying, the article reported. She was Oakland’s 20th homicide of the year and it was only the first week of March. 

But lately I have found it difficult to concentrate on the streets outside my front door. The abandoned wars against ignorance, poverty, racial inequality and gun control have been replaced with another. Instead, I watch the evening news on television. War has begun in a country on the other side of the globe. I watch the satellite transmissions and momentarily forget about the woman who died in my neighbor’s backyard. Sometimes it’s less difficult to stare at the distant images on TV than to think about the problems at home. 

Susan Parker lives in Oakland near the Berkeley border. She is the author of “Tumbling After,” a memoir published last year by Crown Publishing.  


UC Forum on Middle East Peace Process on April 4

— Angela Rowen
Friday April 04, 2003

Four Israeli and Palestinian scholars and leaders will be in Berkeley to discuss options for peace. 

The group will take part in a symposium, “The Occupied Territories: What is the Future?” to explore solutions to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Scheduled topics include the role of faculty in promoting peaceful solutions to the conflict and the effect of regional trends on the issue. 

Samer Madanat, a member of Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, which is co-sponsoring the event, said the symposium offers a unique look into the conflict. 

The panel speakers are Michael Tarazi, of the Palestine Liberation Organization; Ariella Friedman, a professor at Tel-Aviv University; Samir Awad of Columbia University, and Danny Rothschild, President of the Israeli Council on Peace and Security. 

The symposium will take place Friday in the Valley Life Sciences Building, Room 2050 from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30pm. 


Police Blotter

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday April 04, 2003

Aquatic Park vandalism 

Vandals destroyed thousands of dollars of natural habitat landscaping and set an outhouse on fire last weekend at the north end of Aquatic Park. 

According to police, a patrol officer responded to a call of smoke at the north end of Aquatic Park early Sunday morning around 3:30. When the officer arrived at the scene, he found a Porta-Sans portable toilet in flames. The officer extinguished the fire, but not before 90 percent of the plastic structure was destroyed.  

The officer noted in his report that all the garbage cans in the area had been turned over. 

Also over the weekend, a vandal or vandals uprooted as many as 40 shrubs, cut down 15 young oak trees and severed a network of drip irrigation lines in the landscaped area, according to police. 

Police said they didn’t know if the two incidents were related. 

Damage to the landscaping occurred on either side of West Boulevard Drive, which separates the Main Lagoon from the Center Pond. 

“This doesn’t seem like the work of a sane person,” said Mark Liolios, of the Aquatic Park Egrets, a volunteer group that maintains the landscaping. “It’s especially upsetting because all of the flowers in the habitat area are in bloom right now.” 

Liolios estimated the damage to the landscaping at more than $2,000. 

 

Lunch time drug sting near high school  

Responding to complaints of drug sales near East Campus High School, police conducted a surveillance operation that resulted in the arrest of a woman who allegedly sold drugs to a student. 

On April 2, Berkeley’s Special Enforcement Unit and the Drug Task Force arrested Zareta Brandi Jones, 21, of Pinole, for allegedly selling marijuana to a 16-year-old West Campus student.  

A police spokesman said officers arrested Jones after witnessing what appeared to be a lunch-time drug transaction between the student and Jones, who was in a parked Mercury station wagon on the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Jones was arrested and found to be carrying $600 in small bills and 13 grams of crack cocaine hidden in her underwear, according to police. She was booked into Berkeley jail for sales of marijuana, possession of crack cocaine for the purpose of sales, sales to a minor, sales of narcotics within 1,000 feet of a school and felony probation violation.  

The minor was arrested and released for possession of marijuana. 


The Pleasures of Sonoma — A Day Trip to Wine Country

By KATHLEEN HILL Special to the Planet
Friday April 04, 2003

An hour northwest of Berkeley lies the city of Sonoma, full of clean air, rolling hills and seductive vineyards. Though the town weathered a burst of notoriety in 1846 — as the rebellious center and 25-day capital of the California Republic — today it is known more for its pleasures than its politics: good food and wine, art galleries, boutiques, small shops and history. 

And though there is much to explore, a one- or two-day excursion is a good way to begin. 

For the most peaceful drive to Sonoma, take the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, go north on 101, then Highway 37 east. Turn north (left) at Infineon (formerly Sears Point) Raceway on 121, and follow the signs to Sonoma. Free parking is available behind the Barracks off First Street East and Spain Street, and there is lots of free parking on side streets with only a block or two walk. 

Just a mile north of the raceway is Roche Winery, a family operation run by Drs. Genevieve and Joe Roche and their daughter, Mara. Huge French posters decorate the tasting room, designed by Sonoma architect Victor Conforti. The Roches offer their own excellent wines along with those of other producers.  

A few miles north you come to Viansa Winery and Italian Marketplace, created by Vicki and Sam Sebastiani, now run in part by their children. WITH great sauce and edible oil samples; Cucina Viansa picnic foods augment their wines and Ducks Unlimited souvenirs. Viansa’s picnic area looks out on Sam’s wildlife preserve, the tiny Sonoma Valley Airport and the southern outpost of the Sonoma Valley Visitors’ Bureau. 

For a quick breakfast or lunch detour, go straight north up Arnold Drive, past the 76 station about three miles to Arnold Drive and Grove Street. There, at Follini & Eichenbaum Mediterranean Deli & Café, you’ll find Peet’s Coffee and Teas and Artisan Bakery pastries. Also try their large green salad with Maytag or Pt. Reyes blue cheese, great sandwiches, Short and Tall Aunties’ beat-all-others cheesecakes, Matzo balls, roast turkey and the best house mustard anywhere. Families might enjoy the children’s playroom. 

Back to the original approach, follow signs eastward on 121 into Sonoma, and turn left toward Sonoma following the signs. Down Broadway toward Sonoma City Hall, straight ahead in the plaza, is Train Town, a miniature steam railroad that provides a trip into the past for children of all ages. Suzanne Brangham’s MacArthur Place inn and Saddles Restaurant are on the corner of Broadway and MacArthur, and restaurants Deuce, La Poste and Meritage line Broadway just before the plaza. (No lunch at La Poste.) 

Napa Street runs in front of Sonoma City Hall, and an enjoyable stroll can be taken around the plaza. Every corner is wheelchair accessible, and much of the plaza is registered in either the California or National Register of Historic Places. The first block of East Napa Street offers art galleries; Maya Restaurant’s California-Mexican cuisine; Della Santina’s Italian spit-grilled meats, pastas and pastries; Rin’s Thai Restaurant’s excellent and elegantly low-key repasts; and the renowned, unpretentious Café LaHaye. (No lunch at LaHaye.) On East Napa is a favorite stop, Readers’ Books, a bookstore where even kids and teenagers love to hang out. 

Check out San Francisco Solano Mission at the northwest corner of the plaza, the historic Barracks, Casa Grande Indian Servants Quarters and the Toscano Hotel. Sonoma Cheese Factory is next door, and cheese lovers might also want to take a short side trip: One block east on Spain Street and one block up First Street East is Vella’s Cheese, whose internationally acclaimed cheeses are made on site. Just ask for a tour of the one-room plant. 

Back on the plaza, most Sonomans rotate dining in local restaurants and always end up at the Swiss Hotel, worthy of note though often overlooked by reviewers. “The Swiss” serves Italian-California cuisine and fabulous Caesar salads, and offers a fascinating historic bar and sidewalk, indoor and patio dining. At the next corner, is the recommended girl & the fig for Rhone cuisine, cheeses and wines. 

Several places around the plaza offer wine tasting, an easy option for visitors on a tight schedule. Uncorked at East Napa and First Street East offers wines of tiny, personal wineries such as Stoneheath, Noah, Abundance, Casa Carneros, Nance and Favero. Buena Vista has its own tasting bar in The Corner Store kitty-corner from Uncorked. 

Up First Street East enjoy Wine Exchange of Sonoma with its incomparable selection of local, California and imported wines (many winemakers end the day here with a quick imported beer). Cucina Viansa sells tastes of Viansa wines across from the Mission, and Sebastiani offers tastes of Sebastiani wines near the Swiss Hotel on Spain Street. If time is short, Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery is just three blocks east of the plaza at 389 Fourth Street East. New CEO and President Mary Ann Sebastiani Cuneo has redone the tasting room with elegance and rededicated the winery to making fine wines, as well as to using more environmentally sound farming practices. 

Kathleen Hill writes a series of six Hill Guides to the West Coast with her husband, Gerald Hill, including “Sonoma Valley—The Secret Wine Country” from Globe-Pequot Press.


Opinion

Editorials

Raised on Revolution

Zac Unger
Tuesday April 08, 2003

I took my infant daughter, Percy, to her first protest march a few weeks ago in the hopes that nine pounds and 10 ounces of pure political muscle in pink footsie pajamas might be just enough to tip the scales toward peace. 

You’re never too young to start developing a political consciousness. Really, she ought to be scared of this New New World Order more than anyone, living as she does inside John Ashcroft’s dream world. We’ve got her confined to a bed for hours at a time, she’s under round-the-clock surveillance and the food’s always the same — milk, nine square meals a day with no end in sight. 

So, in the interest of broadening her horizons we grabbed a few extra diapers and bundled her up in the matching vest and socks from Baby Gap — the outfit was a gift, I swear. I’d never support that sort of Third-World sweatshopping, but since we’ve already got the clothes, it’s hard not to admit that she looks ridiculously cute in them. If you want to be heard, you’d better look good. 

As a child in the semi-sovereign Berkeley principality of Rockridge I was raised with a picket sign in my hand. My parents figured we could always go to the Lawrence Hall of Science some other weekend when we weren’t busy saving the world. Protests are more fun than picnics, and better exercise, too. We rallied for the Sandinistas and against the Contras. Or was it the other way around? I always had trouble keeping my Central American paramilitaries straight when I hadn’t had my nap. The MX missile was a definite no-no, and I was demanding freedom of choice before I knew where babies came from. I remember the day my third-grade class picketed Bank of America to demand they divest from South Africa. Imagine that: eight years old and already toppling corrupt governments. I’m almost positive I was personally responsible for freeing Nelson Mandela from prison. 

By the time I got to high school my political activism mainly consisted of going to Telegraph whenever there was a riot. The root issue might have been some new atrocity about to be committed against People’s Park, but mostly we just liked to watch as Rasputin’s had its windows broken (again). By the time my senior year rolled around, though, the first Gulf War was on and the word “draft” was in the air. So I found myself marching again — mostly out of pure, terror-stricken self-interest, but chanting about the injustice of Iraqi collateral damage because it sounded better. 

The recent rally in downtown Berkeley was like many others I’d been to over the years, with lots of genuine good intentions delivered via shotgun — forceful and scattershot. Most of the speeches went right over Percy’s head, and mine, too, if you want to get technical. In the space of half an hour I was exhorted not only to end war, but to fight homophobia, legalize marijuana and write my city councilmember about some sort of communications tower that’s about to be erected within radiation-wave distance of — gasp! — Chez Panisse. A pair of kids in hip-waders stopped to ask if I had “just a minute” to save the California environment. Sorry, I’m still busy with homophobia, but thanks for asking. One speaker made the point that since global opposition to this war was so much stronger than during Gulf War I, peace must be on an exponential upswing. He was sure that after this round of fighting we’d pretty much have naked aggression stamped out once and for all. 

I used to be that earnest, I know I was. And I kind of miss that George Bush-Julia Butterfly moral certainty that I’m unassailably in the right and damn the detractors. These days I’m not so sure; it’s quite possible that I’m wrong about a lot of things, maybe even most of them. I do know that I’m as powerless as a baby to affect what’s coming out of Washington, D.C., but I still like being connected to a movement that’s large and outraged, even if it is a little goofy around the edges. 

I’ll keep taking Percy to the protest marches until she’s old enough to decide for herself. Besides, if I don’t take her out now, how will people ever get to see her in that fabulous, frilly Old Navy skirt we just bought her for spring? 

 

Zac Unger is a Berkeley resident and an Oakland firefighter.


125 Years Ago ...

By SUSAN CERNY
Friday April 04, 2003

This week, 125 years ago, Berkeley was incorporated as a town. On that day, April 1, 1878, it was not yet large enough to be a city; that would happen in 1908 just before Old City Hall was dedicated in 1909.  

Berkeley’s past, however, stretches back before incorporation, before the Spanish arrived in 1820, to when Native Americans lived here and left evidence of their habitation in shell mounds by Strawberry Creek and mortar depressions in granite rocks in the north hills.  

Berkeley’s non-native history dates to 1820 when the King of Spain granted Don Luis Maria Peralta Rancho San Antonio, a large area that today is part of Alameda County. In 1842 Don Luis gave his son, Jose Domingo Peralta, the area that would become Berkeley. Jose Domingo built an adobe home on the banks of what is today Codornices Creek near Hopkins Street. 

During the Gold Rush California became part of the United States, and by 1852 Jose Domingo had sold most of his land to the newly arrived Americans. Berkeley’s first American settlement, Ocean View, was begun in 1852 when Captain James Jacob built a wharf near the mouth of what is now Strawberry Creek. 

Most of Berkeley was used for farming and grazing until 1860, when the College of California, a small, private institution then located in Oakland, purchased 30 acres of land for the “benefits of a country location.” A subdivision south of the campus was recorded in 1864, and plans for the college campus and a residential subdivision were made by Frederick Law Olmsted around 1865. The college picked the name Berkeley in 1866. The University of California was founded in 1868 and merged with the College of California. 

After the university opened in 1873, there was much activity in building up the surrounding areas. In 1876, Francis Kittredge Shattuck, an early landowner, convinced Leland Stanford to bring a Central (later Southern) Pacific spur line from Oakland along Adeline Street into what is now downtown Berkeley.  

Not yet a city, the communities of Berkeley and Ocean View were part of an unincorporated area of Oakland Township. Citizens in both communities resisted Oakland’s attempts to annex the area. The battle was won in Sacramento on April 1, 1878, when the state Senate voted to establish the town of Berkeley.  

Town Trustees met for years in various rented halls. Berkeley’s first Town Hall was built in 1884 at Sacramento Street and University Avenue (halfway between the two settlements). In 1899 Town Hall was moved to approximately the location of where Old City Hall stands today.  

After Town Hall burned in 1904 it was replaced by Old City Hall. Berkeley’s Civic Center as it stands today was not completed until 1950. The five-block area is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny is the author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes this column in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.