For the first time in recent memory, Berkeley has a professional politician in the mayor’s office — a schmoozer, a comedian, a dealmaker, a diplomat. He is a 20-year veteran of the state Assembly who, after terming out in 1996, fought like hell to overturn the law that pushed him out of office.  

Now, after a seven-year hiatus and a bona fide scandal to kick off his administration, Tom Bates is back in the game and he clearly revels in it. 

“I really do enjoy being back in the action,” he said. 

On a recent Tuesday, the action was in the mayor’s office. Bates, who had promised to go homeless for a night during his fall campaign to unseat former Mayor Shirley Dean, was meeting with four activists to plan the March 19 event. 

The mayor was relaxed and friendly, but he gently pushed the conversation forward whenever it began to drift. 

“We should think about the message we want to give the media,” he said at one point. 

Booma Cheema, who heads Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, a Berkeley nonprofit, suggested that the group capitalize on the looming invasion of Iraq. 

“They’re talking about city, state and federal cuts to pay for the war, and here’s what we’re talking about,” she said. 

Bates agreed and asked the activists to come up with a schedule he could release to the media. 

As the meeting came to a close the mayor, who would later postpone the event when war broke out, had some final questions about his night on the streets. 

“Do I bring a sleeping bag?,” he asked. “Do I get to bring my teddy bear?” 

Making of a Politician  

Bates, 65, grew up in the Southern California town of La Habra Heights, the son of a salesman and a homemaker. In 1956, he went to UC Berkeley on a football scholarship and played on the university’s 1959 Rose Bowl team. After college, he served with the U.S. Army in Germany before returning to the Bay Area to work in real estate. 

Bates got his first taste of politics volunteering for John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, and 12 years later he won election to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. In 1976, he jumped to the state Assembly, where he compiled a liberal voting record on health care and the environment that built a pool of good will in the East Bay. 

During the campaign, Bates made no effort to downplay his political pedigree. In fact, he made his Sacramento skills a chief selling point — pledging to bring civility to a notoriously divisive City Council, promising to improve the local legislative process and touting his connections in the state Capitol — not the least of which is his wife, Loni Hancock, a former Berkeley mayor who now holds his old Assembly seat. 

But critics, echoing those of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, say there is something distasteful in Bates’ polish. They see a big shot Sacramento politician who is cozy with developers, bent on controlling the agenda and not above a dirty trick. 

Detractors begin with Bates’ famous admission to trashing about 1,000 copies of The Daily Californian, a UC Berkeley student newspaper that endorsed Dean, the day before the Nov. 5 election.  

The mayor’s allies insist the incident was an out-of-character mistake that inspired regret in the mayor — who publicly apologized in December just a month after denying the allegation. 

“It was very tough on him,” said Malcolm Burnstein, who served as Bates’ campaign treasurer and attorney during the newspaper fiasco. “He had done something of which he was ashamed. People of integrity don’t like to do shameful things.”  

Some Berkeley residents won’t let him off so easily. 

“I don’t believe it was a momentary thing,” said West Berkeley neighborhood activist Michael Larrick. “I think it goes deeper to his character. I think he’s just used to getting his way.”  

The incident sparked a torrent of negative publicity and several calls for the mayor’s resignation. But Bates escaped with a $100 fine and a free ride from the moderate faction of the City Council, which had supported Dean during the campaign. 

“Look, the election was over — our charge was to govern the city and deal with the city’s problems,” said moderate Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, recalling the speedy move to forgive. “People aren’t saints.” 

If the newspaper scandal has faded from public view, analysts say it will resurface if Bates runs for re-election, and possibly before then. 

“He has one strike against him and people are waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said UC Berkeley political science professor Bruce Cain. “The second mistake will be magnified.” 

So far the mayor has avoided any significant new missteps — in part because he has stayed out of the public eye since the newspaper story surfaced. Bates and his allies, however, say he hasn’t made any effort to lay low. 

“He’s made a conscious effort to be mayor,” said Burnstein. “Being mayor doesn’t mean staying in the limelight, it means getting things done.” 

Bates’ chief accomplishment, supporters say, has been restoring civility to a City Council renowned for the bitter, petty factionalism that divided its moderate and progressive camps. 

City Hall insiders, on both sides of the divide, say weariness with the constant bickering played a role in the truce. But they also give much of the credit to Bates. 

“He’s aggressively friendly,” said City Councilmember and ally Kriss Worthington. 

Still, some of the progressives who backed Bates as an alternative to Dean say they are concerned that the mayor has sold out his supporters and moved to the center. Most troubling, they say, is his focus on development. 

Task Force Controversy 

The bulk of the criticism centers on the mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development. The group, appointed by Bates, is reviewing the city’s permitting process for everything from home improvement to large-scale development and will make recommendations for changes in local law. 

Many have criticized the current permitting process, particularly when it comes to big projects. Drawn-out, litigious battles that leave both neighbors and developers frustrated are commonplace in Berkeley. 

But community activists say Bates, the former developer, has stacked the task force with pro-development forces. 

“I want to keep an open mind, but I think if you read the list of names, there is some reason for concern,” said Nancy Carleton, who volunteered on the Bates campaign. 

Others are more pointed. 

“It is slanted one way,” said activist Marie Bowman, president of the Council of Neighborhood Associations. “The whole reason it’s been put together is to get developers’ projects through faster, not to fix the process.” 

“I think it’s a balanced group,” Bates replied, arguing that he has put together a strong mix of developers, zoning experts and community activists to fix a deeply flawed process. “I think I’ve tried to bend over backwards to get people who are fair and experienced.” 

Whatever the composition of the group, some are skeptical that it will get anything done. 

“Changing processes in Berkeley is a bit like changing the Politburo,” said Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy, who said he partnered with Bates several years ago in a development deal that ultimately fizzled. 

Critics don’t stop with the task force. Bates’ appointment of former UC Berkeley official David Stoloff to the Planning Commission has raised eyebrows in a town that has done constant battle with the university over its booming student population and the resulting housing crunch. 

“David Stoloff is a strong advocate for the university in a town where the university runs rampant,” said progressive City Councilmember Dona Spring, who backed Bates during the campaign but has emerged as one of his leading critics. 

When Stoloff joined the commission he immediately pushed for a special session with university officials, allowing them to voice concerns about the Southside Plan, a document years in the making, that will guide development south of campus. 

Planning Commission Chairperson Zelda Bronstein said that Stoloff lobbied her to forbid any public comment at the workshop and, when she refused, to limit public comment to half an hour at the end of the evening, a claim Stoloff denies. Bates, Bronstein said, followed with a call making the same request.  

The commission decided not to limit public input. But critics say the mayor’s overtures to the university were troubling. 

“City Council has always tried to be a strong counterbalance to the university, and the Berkeley community has always been on the short end of the stick,” Spring said. 

Bates said the Planning Commission has often been a hostile arena for the university. Appointing Stoloff and giving the university a forum to air its grievances, he said, was part of an attempt to improve upon the often combative relationship between the city and one of its most important institutions. 

“I think people see dastardly things in everything I do,” Bates said. “But I’m interested in having a better relationship with the university, period.” 

Healing broken relationships and fixing broken systems has emerged as perhaps the dominant theme in the first four months of the Bates administration. 

The mayor has made a particular effort to reach out to the Berkeley Unified School District, hiring a former district official, Julie Sinai, as a senior aide and working to convene a March 29 education summit that brought together city, district and university officials to discuss collaboration in a time of severe budget deficits. 

School officials say their relationship with Bates marks an improvement over their sometimes tense exchanges with Dean. 

District Superintendent Michele Lawrence joked that she used to call the monthly “2X2” meeting — which pairs two school officials and two city officials — the “2X4” meeting. 

“I’d go to these things and they’d beat the school district up,” she said. “I think there’s a lot less blame.” 

“I believe Tom has a great attitude toward the schools,” added school board Director Terry Doran. “He wants to help in any way possible, but he doesn’t want to control what it is.” 

Bates has, indeed, been careful to avoid a turf war with the district, stating clearly that the city will stay out of the classroom and focus instead on its traditional support role — funding after-school programs, providing police support on youth safety issues and working to get kids healthy for school. 

The Budget and the Future 

The challenge, observers say, will be funding these priorities, or any others, when the city faces a budget shortfall as high as $16.8 million over the next two years. 

“The true test of leadership is to govern when times are bad, and the jury is still out,” said Planning Commissioner Jerome Wiggins. 

Bates said he favors a balanced approach to the budget problem, cutting some city services while raising revenue through a hike in parking fines and a multi-million dollar parcel tax that would go before the voters.  

While the budget may turn out to be the most difficult “fix” of the mayor’s administration, his most controversial, so far, was his push to streamline the local legislative process by establishing a Rules Committee, recently renamed the Agenda Committee. 

Passed on a 7-2 vote at Bates’ first council meeting, with Spring and moderate Councilmember Betty Olds in opposition, the committee is composed of the mayor and two councilmembers — the moderate Miriam Hawley and progressive Linda Maio. 

The group screens City Council proposals a week in advance to ensure they are properly formatted and include enough background information for a council vote. If there are any deficiencies, the committee sends the proposal back to the sponsor to make improvements. 

The purpose of the Agenda Committee, supporters say, is to prevent the endless debates on half-baked measures that used to plague the council. Critics see an attempt to control the agenda. 

“I suspect it is an attempt at political management,” said Dean, the former mayor. “You don’t get sound decisions when you politically manage an event.” 

Spring, for her part, said the committee initially felt like a straightjacket, limiting her ability to bring measures before council. But Hawley, who serves on the Agenda Committee, said the body has not actually blocked any proposals from going before the council and will not in the future. 

“I think [Spring] was really concerned in the beginning that Tom was going to run roughshod,” Hawley said. “I think he’s proven that he’s not going to do that.” 

Spring said she is pleased with a recent reform allowing a councilmember to brush aside the committee’s proposed changes and place an item directly on the City Council agenda. But she said she had to fight Bates tooth and nail to win the change. 

“He’s a tough cookie,” said Spring. “He’s been in the Sacramento environment for 20 years. I had to put a lot of energy into that.” 

Spring also suggested that the Rules Committee and a “stacked” development task force may be part of a larger attempt by Bates to shape the direction of Berkeley politics to his liking. 

“It feels like he wants to be in control of things,” said Spring. 

Not so, says Bates. 

“That’s not my style,” he said. “It’s my style to share. I’ve tried to be inclusive and get other people participating.” 

Ultimately, Bates hopes his charm and style will allow him to leave the newspaper scandal behind and avoid the plight of Sacramento politicians like Willie Brown and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who returned to local politics with great fanfare only to watch their reputations sour. 

“A lot of these legislators who came down to be mayors became very unpopular,” he said in a recent interview. “So I thought I’d reverse the process.”  

For those accustomed to being spoon-fed our messages at the movies the documentary films of Frederick Wiseman can be a little hard to swallow.  

He takes a distinctly austere approach to making films. Working in the style of observational cinema, Wiseman depicts the unscripted lives of real people and places using only natural sound and available light, and without the use of music, commentary or direct interviews. 

Nearly half of his films have been collected in a rare retrospective now at the Pacific Film Archive on the Berkeley campus. 

For 35 years Wiseman has churned out films as gripping and memorable as any tightly plotted thriller, and a good deal more provocative. 

Wiseman, however, has always kept a low profile. He’s never been nominated for an Academy Award, and his movies aren’t available at any video store. But last week Wiseman, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., spent five days at the Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley.  

The majority of Wiseman’s films explore quintessential social and public institutions. His documented subjects range from public high school and life on a military base to the daily routines of a hospital, domestic violence shelter, welfare processing center, police precinct and public housing complex. His films are both exemplary journalism and meditations on American idealism. 

To hear Wiseman tell it, his film technique is little more than a kind of happy accident of timing. Working with just two other people — a cameraman using a 16mm handheld camera, an assistant and himself handling the sound — Wiseman spends a few months immersed in his subject’s daily life. 

He said he does little prior research, relying only on his instincts, chance events and meetings, and his innate belief that the story will reveal itself over time. Rather than follow a single individual or small group of people for the entire film, Wiseman makes location his center. 

“The place is the star,” Wiseman said during his week in Berkeley. “In addition, the technique I use is that I wander.” 

Very few of Wiseman’s films come in under the two-hour mark, and a great many are three hours. “Near Death,” Wiseman’s 1989 study of an intensive care unit, runs six hours. 

Wiseman’s controversial first film, “Titticut Follies,” released in 1967, provided an explosive glimpse at the conditions inside a hospital for the criminally insane. Throughout his career he has displayed an interest in the condition of people struggling with powerlessness.  

“Meat,” Wiseman’s 1976 anatomy of a massive, automated, beef and sheep processing plant, takes the audience step by step through the process by which an animal is transformed into an object packed into a cardboard box.  

Wiseman taps into the viewer’s curiosity about how things work.  

In the film “Meat” all the sensory details and rhythms that define the meat packing plant are present. 

There is the comforting hum of the assembly line, the cutting equipment in action and at rest, the precise ritualized cuts made by workers at each station, a crowded lunchroom, a worker napping in the sun atop a stack of cinder blocks, a pile of rubber boots, the clean-up crew hosing down floors slick from the day’s work. 

Wiseman always finds the right details to tell the story, even in the seemingly mundane environment of an office building.  

In “Welfare,” a three-hour examination of a New York City welfare office, Wiseman devotes equal attention to individuals seeking services — angry people, stunned people, desperate people, amusing people — and staff. Here is the detached office director, strolling in late and leaving early with his newspaper and hat; here are the case workers, as fallible as the people they’re trying to serve, but on the whole remarkably skilled and patient in their efforts to make sense of a bewildering bureaucracy; here is the security guard who treats his antagonist with supreme forbearance; here, even, is the janitor sweeping the halls, an oasis of calm in the storm. 

“There’s a lot of drama in ordinary experience,” Wiseman has said. 

Wiseman’s films offer lessons about reserving judgment. “Domestic Violence,” a 2001 film about a domestic violence shelter in Tampa, Fla., contains scenes of abused women recounting their experiences.  

The movie is not so much a condemnation of a social scourge as a wrenching study of the complexity of people’s emotional lives. In one scene, a woman tells her story with sorrow, fear and self-blame. She then explains the tenderness she still feels toward her husband. 

Wiseman has objected to being labeled as a practitioner of cinema verité, the French film movement that sought to present life exactly as it is. The term suggests all events have equal value; Wiseman, on the other hand, has said he selects constantly among events, shuffling through reels in search of the moments that conform most closely with his sense of truth.  

Seven films remain in the Frederick Wiseman retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive. Among those scheduled at the theater for this weekend are “Racetrack,” a 1985 study of both high- and low-stakes gambling at the Belmont Stakes; “The Store,” a microcosm of the wealth and materialism at the Neiman Marcus headquarters in Dallas, and the 1995 “Ballet,” which documents the rarefied artistic world inside the American Ballet Theater.

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series: “Myths and Realities of Aging,” with Jennifer Winters, RN, MSN, professor of nursing, Merritt College. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. Cost $11.50-$12.50. Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925, 665-9020. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride converges at Berkeley BART at 5:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month. 

ASUC Art Studio Spring Sale, with art and pottery by Art Studio members and instructors, held on Lower Sproul Plaza, North Side, noon to 5p.m. 642-3065. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 12 

East Bay Regional Parks Beach Clean Up. Help tidy up East Shore State Park beach from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Brickyard Beach, behind 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. 

Path Walks, another view of Northside Paths. Meet at the Rose Garden on Euclid at 10 a.m. for a two- to three-hour walk. For more information call Alan Kaplan 526-7059. 

South Berkeley Community Action Team Forum. This forum includes a review of the results of the 2002 South Berkeley Community Survey and the 2002 Community Walk-Through. The forum also will identify community assets, including schools, businesses, hospitals, libraries, parks, community centers and neighborhood associations. Action Plans will be developed in response. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Center at San Pablo Park, 2800 Park St. For information, e-mail CMiles-Threatt@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

ASUC Art Studio Spring Sale, with art and pottery by Art Studio members and instructors, held on Lower Sproul Plaza, North Side, noon to 5 p.m. Pottery demonstrations noon to 2 p.m. 642-3065. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 13 

Berkeley Eco-House Workshop, “Home Greywater Systems and Water Reclamation,” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Suggested donation $5 - $20, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Vegetarian lunch provided. Hopkins and Peralta near Gilman. Enter at Peralta gate. Katharine Jolda, 465-9439. 

Organizing in the East Bay. 

East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse employees have unionized and invite the public to a celebration of music, art and speakers from 2 to 4 p.m., 6713 San Pablo Ave. For information e-mail depotworkers@yahoo.com 

Children at Tilden: Protist April. Toss and tow the plankton net to see what tiny creatures inhabit the pond. The 14-power Discovery Scope will reveal some; microscopes will reveal more. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade, “Ancient Voices,” assembles at People’s Park at 11 a.m., followed by parade at noon. 843-0333. www.paganparade.org 

TUESDAY, APRIL 15 

Career Talk: A Musician’s Way of Work, with Dana Anderson-Williams, 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 PathFinder Communications, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. For reservations: 981-5435. energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Berkeley Camera Club meets 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.  

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 

Community Meeting for Traffic Circle Project at California and Oregon Streets. Join city staff to discuss the proposed construction of a landscaped traffic circle at the intersection of California and Oregon streets. Begins at 7 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center, 1730 Oregon St. For information call Kenneth Emeziem 981-6444. 

The Cultural Heritage of Iraq and the Impacts of War. Professors David Stronach, Marian Feldman and Niek Veldhuis will speak on the cultural and archaeological resources threatened by the war, at 5 p.m. at 2547 Channing Way. 642-6914. conkey@sscl.berkeley.edu 

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

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

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 with student i.d. 841-2082. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 15 

LeConte Neighborhood Association Meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at LeConte School, Russell St. at Ellsworth. 

Lawyers in the Library at 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 981-6280. 

City of Berkeley Budget Crisis, a discussion with City Manager Weldon Rucker and City Budget Manager Paul Navazio, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Main Library, Kittredge St., in the third floor conference room. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. For information call Eloise Bodine 843-8824. 

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series: Robert Haas, former Poet Laureate of the United States. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. Cost $11.50-$12.50. Speech follows at 12:30 p.m., all at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

John Zerzan will speak on the Pathology of Civilization in the context of the deepening crisis we face. “Surplus,” a new film by Erik Gandini, will be shown first at 7 p.m. The film is a 52-minute critique of consumer society and its non-future. At the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-3402. 

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

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

ONGOING EVENTS 

Activist Skill Class: Practical Skills for Difficult Times. Learn tactics and strategies of activism with Karen Pickett and Phil Klasky. Classes offered through Merritt College, Tuesday evenings and Saturdays, April 29 through May 24. To register call 548-2220, ext. 233. The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Theater of the Oppressed with Julie Sparling, M.Ed. Theater of the Oppressed uses movement, storytelling and tableaux to explore how images of one’s personal experience reflect universal issues of power and change. Sundays April 6 - May 4 (excluding April 20) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $90-$140 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. Classes through mid-May. 839-2900, ext. 347. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/humane/default.htm  

Commission on Aging meets Wednesday, April 16, at 1:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging/default.htm 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare/default.htm  

Commission on Labor meets Wednesday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor/default.htm  

Disaster Council Special Meeting, Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disaster/default.htm  

Design Review Committee meets Thursday, April 17, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 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 the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign/default.htm  

Transportation Commission meets Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation/default.htm  

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

IN MY THOUGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am glad that the Daily Planet is once again reporting the local Berkeley news. At times I agreed with you, at times I disagreed, but I always appreciated your diversity of opinions. Freedom of the press offers continuing opportunity for all citizens. 

One of our Eagle scouts of Troop 19 and Berkeley High School graduate, LCPL Maurice Delmer USMC, has been serving in Iraq for quite some time. I miss seeing his smiling face and pray he comes home safely to his family soon. 

To keep him up to date with the Berkeley scene, I mailed him the first two issues of the Planet for his reading enjoyment. I'm sure he’ll be sharing the Planet with his fellow marines in Baghdad. 

Vince Lipinski 

• 

AVOID BIAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I welcome back the local coverage of the Daily Planet. You are a major potential source for encouraging democracy to flourish. We need good local information and not Associated Press press releases. I hope you will have diverse writers from the Black, Asian and Latino communities of Berkeley. 

Please avoid out-of-context cartoons like the one this past week about Mayor Tom Bates and the Daily Cal.  

Leave partial, slanted truth-telling to the major media. The absurdity of the Daily Cal supporting the conservative UC Berkeley employee Shirley Dean for mayor could have been sketched on a headline tossed in the garbage can. That was Bates’ statement and is more accurate reporting. 

Rev. Sandra Decker 

• 

YOUTH SUMMIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the youth summit (Daily Planet, April 4-7) and participated in the school safety group. I was pleased with the outcome and commitment. Truancy, victim services and the climate of permissiveness were identified as priorities. Some of the tasks toward achieving these objectives are under way. 

Effectively responding to school violence requires systems for incident reporting and victim services. When students report incidents, they exercise their right to a safe learning environment and everyone benefits. The schools’ administrations need to respond appropriately as well as enforce their own policies and rules. 

Reducing truancy will restore revenue, improve academic success and reduce crime. During the summit some data was presented. We did not see Berkeley High School truancy data; however, police data showed youth crime between noon and 3 p.m. to be not much less than in the 3 to 6 p.m. period. 

Three years ago a group of parents and high school students requested that the city and school district form a task force on youth health and safety issues. Sound familiar? The issues identified were primarily compliance with state law. Then Mayor Shirley Dean placed our presentations on the 2x2 committee agenda. Safety became a focus of subsequent meetings and some progress should be recognized. 

In the Planet article, Michael Miller, of Parents of Children of African Descent (PCAD), states “nothing will change.” I find this pessimism ironic, when I recall the message from PCAD at its inception. It was a message of hope and belief in our kids. Berkeley spends $15 million on youth services; with assessment and re-allocations, surely we can do better. 

Shirley Issel is quoted as saying there is less tension with the change of mayors. Watching years of these discussions I know the issues are not so easily explained. To understand the contentious nature of Berkeley politics, I recommend reading Joseph P. Lyford’s social history, “The Berkeley Archipelago.” The book describes the unwillingness of the then school board to respond to school violence. Is the current school board any different? 

Laura Menard 

• 

WELCOME BACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a former East Bay resident, I’m glad to see the Berkeley Daily Planet up and running again, and better than ever. Your web site is going to be a home away from home while I live in Bloomington, Ind. 

Carol Polsgrove 

The Berkeley Daily Planet encourages Letters to the Editor. Please send them to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com, or by mail to 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Please include address and phone number for contact purposes. The Planet reserves the right to edit letters for space.

City Council previewed four budget-cutting proposals Tuesday that could result in higher parking fines, massive cuts to city services and the loss of over 100 city jobs.  

The budget deficit for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 ranges from $2.7 million to $16.8 million, according to city officials. The council won’t know the exact amount of the shortfall until the state, which faces a $35 billion deficit, finalizes its budget, which might not occur until late summer or early fall.  

City Manager Weldon Rucker, Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Budget Manager Paul Navazio presented four budget scenarios to the council.  

“We just don’t know what the state is going to do,” Kamlarz said on Wednesday. “So we’re planning for the worst case and then we can back off.” 

During the public comment portion of the special meeting, several public swimming pool advocates, a Civics Art Commissioner and the artistic director of the Shotgun Players theater group asked the council to show restraint when making tough budget decisions.  

Depending on the severity of the budget shortfall, the council is considering several countermeasures. They include raising parking fines, putting a property tax increase measure on the November 2004 ballot and cutting city programs and jobs.  

In the best case scenario, the city will continue a hiring freeze, restrict travel for city officials and cut library, storm drain and street lighting programs. In the worst case scenario, the city will close a fire station, cut more than 100 jobs and take a serious look at revising all the city’s labor contracts. 

The council is also considering raising taxes and increasing fines. Under the proposal, an expired meter ticket might jump from $23 to $30, raising about $2 million in city revenue annually.  

Several cities have raised parking fines to contend with deficits. San Francisco just raised its expired meter fine to $35 in most commercial neighborhoods and to as much as $40 in the downtown. UC Berkeley charges $32 for expired meters. 

There was some conflict among councilmembers about raising parking fines, but overall the idea had support. 

“Our fines should be in line with other communities,” said Mayor Tom Bates, who suggested increasing meter fines to $32. “Oakland and other cities are going higher.” 

Councilmember Betty Olds was one of the few dissenting voices. “Raising parking fines is very unfriendly,” she said. “We’ll have too many Berkeley residents who will be upset.” 

Councilmembers also discussed a ballot measure that would raise about $8 million in fiscal year 2005 through increased property taxes. The exact amount of the tax or how it might be assessed has not been decided. 

City Council typically approves a two-year budget, but because uncertainty surrounds state and federal budgets, Bates proposed planning for a shorter time span.  

“Unfortunately nobody has a crystal ball telling us what the state is going to do,” Bates said. “If we do a one-year budget we won’t have to anticipate the worst and slam together a doomsday budget without knowing what the reality is.”  

The city manager will present his budget proposal to City Council at its May 13 meeting. A public hearing will be held May 20, and councilmembers will suggest amendments on June 10. After a final public hearing on June 17, the council will adopt a new budget on June 24.

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 

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. 

So How’d You Become an Activist? with Darryl Cherney and Fr. Bill O’Donnell. Monthly series in which local activists share their experiences and influences, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $5. For more information call 415-927-1645. 

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: 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 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 

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 the publication of his new book at 8 p.m. at the 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. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 12 

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 

Hillside Players present “Tangled Tales!” children’s stories combined in an original comedy, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is  

$7 adults; $4 under 12, seniors and students. 384-6418. 

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. 

San Francisco Early Music Society presents Hopkinson Smith, lute and vihuela de mano in El Siglo de Oro, in a concert of Renaissance music of England and Spain at 8 p.m. St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 528-1725 or www.sfems.org. 

University Chorus, with conductor Marika Kuzma 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’s 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 

Kotoja, dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m., followed by show at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Solemite, 62nd St, Stonecutters, ska rock and rock at Blake’s on Telegraph at 9:30 p.m. Cost is $6. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Utah Phillips 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 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. 

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

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 

SUNDAY, APRIL 13 

Family Classic: The Iron Giant at 2 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Recommended for ages six and older. Cost is $4 for members, UC students; $5 for UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 for adults. 642-1412. 

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Hillside Players present 

“Tangled Tales!” children’s stories combined in an original comedy, at 2 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $7 adults; $4 under 12, seniors and students. 384-6418. 

Kum Nye 30th Anniversary Event with a talk on Tibetan relaxation mind-body exercises, at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812. 

www.NyingmaInstitute.com 

Aris Janigian will read from her first novel, “Bloodvine,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698.  

www.blackoakbooks.com 

South Asian Book Club discusses “Desirable Daughters,” by Bharate Mukherjee, at 11:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

MONDAY, APRIL 14 

Frederick Wiseman’s film 

Ballet at 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.ed 

The Tramp and the Dictator, 

documentary on Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” and the collision of art and politics at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. $2 suggested donation. 848-0237. 

California Friends of Lousiana French Music present an afternoon of Cajun and Creole music and dance, starting at 1:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5 for CFLFM members, $8 for non-members. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sunmasons, Boomshanka, Reorchestra, funk rock, funk, jazz funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $3. 848-0886.  

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Two Tricks perform in a CD release party and benefit for Exhale at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10 - $15 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kálmán Balogh and the Gypsy Cimbalon Band, an acclaimed Hungarian Gypsy troupe, perform at Freight and Salvage Coffee House at 8 p.m. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcos Silva and Intersection, Brazilian Music at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. at 8 p.m. Cost is $12, $15, $18. 845-5373.  

www.jazzschool.com 

Erika Luckett, singer-songwriter, performs at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. at 7 p.m. 486-1840. 

The Butchies, The Cost, Free Verse perform at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926 

Frederick Wiseman’s film 

Canal Zone 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 

Oz Shelach will read from his book about growing up in Israel, “Picnic Grounds: A Novel in Fragments,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Oscar Casares reads from “Brownsville,” his collection of stories of the Mexican American experience in Brownsville, Texas, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

West African Refugee Community Celebration, with live 

music and cuisine from West Africa, hosted by the International Rescue Committee. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m., at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

All Star Jam, featuring The Steve Gannon Band & Mz. Dee at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $4. 848-0886. 

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 15 

“Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther” will be introduced by Kathleen Cleaver and screened at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. A pre-film reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the BAM Theater Gallery. Cost is $4 members,UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Atul Gawande reads from  

“Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science” at 12:15 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Motor Dude Zydeco, Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m., followed by show at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Movement, Spring 2003 Showcase. UC Berkeley’s dance group performs at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets $5 from www.juliamorgan.org. 925-798-1300. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 

Ikiru at 3 p.m. (sold out) and Sympathetic Vibrations at 7:30 p.m., with Paul Klos in person, 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 

Tamim Ansary reads from 

“West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Noon Concert, Shaw Pong Liu, violin, Jody Redhage, cello, Monica Chew, piano, perform Ravel’s Piano Trio in G at noon. Doors open at 11:55 a.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. 

http://music.berkeley.edu 

Timbuktu Heritage Institute Benefit, special Malian Workshop with Tartit Ensemble, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10 - $15 sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Damelatones Groove and Riot A Go Go at 9:30 p.m. at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $4. 848-0886.  

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Carol Denney, singer-songwriter, activist and folk wit, 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 

Bob Daley, singer-songwriter at 7 p.m. at Starbucks Coffeehouse, 2128 Oxford St. 486-1840. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 17 

UC Jazz at Noon free concert on Lower Sproul Plaza. 

Grateful Dead DJ Nite at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $6. 525-505.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

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

www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Patty Larkin, singer-songwriter, 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 

Redwood Forest Benefit with Darryl Cherney and the Chernobles, Francine Allen, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. Cost is sliding scale $5 - $10. 841-2082. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 

S.F. International Film Festival showing The Century of the Self (Parts 1 and 2) at 4 p.m., Blissfully Yours at 7 p.m. and Internal Affairs at 9:45 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 

The Anarchists, directed by Yu Young-Sik, in Korean with English subtitles. Action film in historical setting of anti-Imperial movement during Japanese occupation. Begins at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

A. J. Albany reads from “Low Down: Junk, Jazz and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852. 

www.codysbooks.com 

Noon Concert, Cathy Olsen, flute, Brian Christian, piano, perform works by Dutilleux, Ibert, Roussel, Messiaen, Boulanger at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Concert is free, doors open at 11:55 a.m. 642-4864. 

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

In his piece “Big Box Targets City” (Daily Planet, April 4-7), John Geluardi raises a number of issues regarding the construction of a Target Store on Eastshore Highway in Albany. 

Though well written, a number of points deserve clarification. 

Mr. Geluardi begins by saying the city of Albany is “cash-strapped.” In truth, all cities in California face varying degrees of economic challenges due to the recession and political decisions made in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. 

However, given the situation, Albany is doing exceptionally well. Don’t take our word for it — come see for yourselves. 

Our business district, located on Solano and San Pablo avenues, is overwhelmingly composed of mom-and-pop shops, modern boutiques and a diversity of wonderful restaurants, virtually all independently owned and operated. Though we have been hard hit by competition from big box malls north and south, we do not believe a Target Store in the industrial section of our town will pose a threat to our district. 

In order to maintain the small-town ambiance that makes Albany unique, we need additional sources of sales tax revenue, and we believe that Target will provide a good shot in the arm. Many people shop at Target, including working families in Albany and Berkeley. This new location will provide convenient access for them, reduce driving time and save gas. 

Contrary to Mr. Geluardi’s article, Target Stores, Inc. is not building a “sprawling retail complex.” They are constructing a two-story emporium on what is now a vacant industrial lot situated between railroad tracks, Interstate 80 and Berkeley’s Solid Waste Transfer Station. 

Yet some in Berkeley have concerns about the project. 

Community Environmental Advisory Commissioner LA Wood expressed surprise that Target would locate so close to Berkeley’s transfer station, which he says “has had issues of airborne particulate matter and odors.” If there are issues arising from the garbage and recycling center in Berkeley, it is up to Berkeley to settle them. 

Mr. Geluardi also raised the question of Cordornices Creek — a beautiful and important part of our watershed that must be protected. It’s interesting to note that the location of the Berkeley transfer station 20 feet from Cordornices Creek, including a gas station for their vehicles, was approved by the Berkeley City Council. 

Target Stores, in contrast, voluntarily agreed to protect the creek and its environs, maintaining a setback that is 60 feet to 70 feet from it. 

Then there is the traffic issue. Mr. Geluardi quotes Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier who, referring to the Gilman Street Interchange from Eastshore Highway, said, “It’s a very old and awkward intersection,” adding he was surprised that Albany did not take into consideration “the increased risk of collisions” there. 

The fact is that Albany and TMG Partners consulted with the city of Berkeley while drawing up plans for the Eastshore Highway development, especially concerning traffic issues. They even hired Berkeley’s own traffic study consultants to review their consultant’s conclusions. In fact, Albany took the extraordinary step of having three separate reviews of plans before finalizing them. 

Albany also spent nearly $4 million to create access to Eastshore Highway from Buchanan Street and Interstate 80 and opened up what had been a dead-end street to facilitate the flow of traffic. We are confident that Target Stores will bring many benefits to our community and to Berkeley as well. 

In closing, we want to welcome the revival of the Berkeley Daily Planet. It is an important newspaper with excellent writers, including Mr. Geluardi, and we hope it is widely read. 

Sherman Lim is the president of the Albany Chamber of Commerce and James Carter is executive director.

Berkeley composer John Adams won the Pulitzer Prize in music this week for his homage to the Sept. 11 victims, “On the Transmigration of Souls,” but his elation was tempered by criticism of the award. 

“Among musicians that I know, the Pulitzer has over the years lost much of the prestige it still carries in other fields like literature and journalism,” he wrote, in an e-mail interview with The New York Times.  

“Anyone perusing the list of past winners cannot help noticing that many if not most of the country’s greatest musical minds are conspicuously missing,” he wrote. 

Adams, like other critics, complains that the Pulitzer jury has focused too much attention, in recent years, on a series of obscure academic composers. 

But UC Berkeley music professor Edmund Campion said the Pulitzer appears to be shifting focus with last year’s award to John Corigliano and this year’s selection of Adams, considered by many to be the nation’s preeminent composer. 

“They seem to be making up for past mistakes,” he said. 

Previous awards, Campion argues, were the product of a cloistered critical culture, powered by composers from the Ivy League colleges of the East Coast and a few western schools like UC Berkeley. 

“Composers in those chairs were responsible for deciding what was important in American music,” he said. “The old structure was definitely in need of being refurbished.” 

The piece that broke through, “Transmigration,” is a 30-minute work for chorus, children’s chorus, orchestra and taped sounds, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, which draws on text from the missing persons signs that dotted New York City after the Sept. 11 attacks. 

The piece is the latest in a career that dates back to 1978 when Adams, who did not return calls for this article, began work as new music adviser and composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Symphony. 

Over the past 25 years, Adams has composed for orchestra, video, film and opera — including “Nixon in China,” a 1987 opera, and “The Death of Klinghoffer,” a 1991 piece that drew charges of anti-Semitism, which many consider unfair. 

Adams, in a January 2001 interview with The New Yorker, suggested he is still troubled by the criticism. “At the time, I was so upset,” he said. “I couldn’t think of anything to say. ‘Anti-Semitic Opera Opens in Brooklyn’ — you can’t shake that kind of thing.” 

If “Klinghoffer” created controversy, Adams is perhaps best known for pieces like “Harmonium,” “Harmonielehre” and “Shaker Loops,” which add a lush quality to the minimalist stylings of modern composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 

“One hears harmonies from the late 19th, early 20th century,” said Ronald Bruce Smith, a visiting professor of music at the University of Illinois. “But he fuses that with more recent developments in music.” 

This “synthesis of a broad range of music,” Smith said, marks Adams’ greatest contribution to modern music. 

Richard Reynolds, a French horn player with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, said he is struck by Adams’ ability to combine depth with accessibility. 

“That was something that impressed me deeply,” he said. 

A recent performance of three sections from “Klinghoffer,” Reynolds said, marked one of the most meaningful musical experiences of his life. 

“The emotional impact of the sections we did was just astonishing,” he said. 

Locals interested in seeing a performance of Adams’ work won’t have to wait long. On April 30 the San Francisco Symphony, led by music director Michael Tilson Thomas, will play the world premier of Adams’ “My Father Knew Charles Ives.” 

The piece is the first of four, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, to be performed between now and the 2011-2012 season, when the orchestra celebrates its 100th anniversary. 

Adams, 56, grew up in Vermont and New Hampshire and graduated from Harvard University. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, photographer Deborah O’Grady, and their two teenage children, Emily and Sam.

I have lived in Berkeley for 34 years and have been actively involved in civic life for the past six. I have been often dismayed and occasionally sickened by the low, mean level at which many civic participants operate, and I know that this grim atmosphere keeps many intelligent and interested residents away from the civic table. 

I am embarrassed by the city’s reputation as a bastion of unfree speech. Frequently, bad manners and undemocratic interactions are cloaked in righteous ideology, making it even harder to take a different position or approach. The pool of badly-behaving civic participants is wide and deep and includes politicians, citizen groups, neighborhood leaders, interest groups, city commissioners, even occasional city staff. 

There is a fairly constant stream of bossiness, rudeness, meanness, pre-emptive dismissal of ideas that are not one’s own, unwillingness to listen and unwillingness to discuss the issues at hand. Luckily for us all, we still have some rules and norms of civilized democratic discussion against which to judge and improve our bad behavior. 

So, since I am preaching on this occasion of the recent re-launch of our local newspaper, the Berkeley Daily Planet (which I hope will be fair-minded and informative as well as lively and interesting), I would like to set forth anew some guidelines for decency and serious debate in Berkeley civic life. Maybe we can some day reclaim our status as “Athens of the West.” 

1—Listen to the message rather than stereotype the messenger. 

2—Don’t shut down reasonable debate just because you can. 

3—Don’t use up the lion’s share of time during civic discussions. 

4—Listen seriously and respectfully to various viewpoints. 

5—Recognize that some opinions may actually be more informed than others, and may be more informed than you own. 

6—Recognize that passionately held positions aren’t always the best positions. 

7—Share information so that all stakeholders will be able to reach an informed opinion. 

8—Forgive and forget whenever possible. Don’t hold grudges. Try a fresh start. A negative encounter with someone five years ago should not necessarily guide your actions today. 

9—Do not confuse self-interest with the public good. Just because you would like to ride a scooter on the sidewalk does not mean it is good public policy. Recognize that self-interest can include a simple desire to hold onto control or power regardless of the issue at hand. 

10—Look to the present and the future. Just because a policy, program or person was (or was not) appropriate in the 1980s does not mean the same holds true for today and tomorrow. 

11—Maintain your sense of perspective and humor. Have a semblance of a life outside of civic life. 

Barbara Gilbert is a resident of Berkeley.

I report this more in sorrow than in anger, but I have been flipped off three times in the past couple of weeks by middle-aged women driving expensive vehicles. 

People, people. Get a grip. Don’t make me start publishing license plate numbers.  

I understand that these dark times can give rise to feelings of nameless dread, to intimations that the best years lie somewhere behind us, to that old where-but-to-think-is-to-be-full-of-sorrow-and-leaden-eyed-despairs sensation. The anonymity of the freeway might allow some of us flirting with the hopelessness of it all to act out just a bit. 

May I offer a better alternative? Meal Ticket, located a few steps north on San Pablo Avenue from Gilman Street, is the kind of place that can help reconnect us to our fellow person. “We sort of think of it as part community center,” explained Carolyn Del Gaudio, who owns the restaurant along with her husband, Jimmy Carter. 

It’s a true mom-and-pop operation, with Carolyn handling the front-of-the-house chores and Jimmy doing all of the cooking. “It’s amazing how loyal customers can be if you offer real warmth with a personal connection. I think that people long for an intimate, non-corporate setting,” said Carolyn, an erstwhile civil rights attorney. 

And loyal its customers seem to be; many of them have followed Carolyn and Jimmy crosstown from their original Southside establishment, a storied hole-in-the-wall joint that they closed in 1998 for a spate of serious globe-trotting. The new, larger place has a comfortable haute proletariat air, sporting a painted concrete floor and plastic-covered tables, with decorative artifacts from their travels providing the haute. 

Carolyn takes orders at the counter up front (be sure to check the blackboard of daily specials). Grab your own water, coffee and silverware. If the place isn’t too busy, Carolyn provides refills; otherwise, fend for yourself. 

Of course, it’s the food that really keeps the faithful, well, faithful. Jimmy — trained in the kitchens of the old Fourth Street Grill and the original incarnations of the Santa Fe Bar and Grill and Christopher’s — brings his classical technique to bear on some pretty straightforward dishes.  

“I like to cook simple, seasonal, what I think of as comfort food, using really fresh, great ingredients,” he said. “And I want to keep things affordable.” He does all the shopping each day, then turns out food that a dining companion described as “Chez Panisse for the working class.” 

One fan insisted that you should always order Jimmy’s fish, waxing poetic about the silky salmon and eggs offered for weekend brunch, and the grilled salmon and trout often featured as lunch specials. “I do a lot of fish, because I think it’s really good for you,” the Scottish-born chef said. Another raved about the tender, flavorful grilled pork loin with chipotle salsa. “I only serve all-natural meat,” Jimmy said. “We also have a vegetarian soup and a vegetarian pasta every day, so vegans and meat-eaters can dine together.”  

While Jimmy’s omelettes, such as a fluffy artichoke, blue cheese and green onion creation, are justly popular, I always opt for his airy, slightly crisp, made-from-scratch cornmeal pancakes for breakfast, served with a smattering of fruit and real maple syrup. (Buckwheat pancakes are also offered.) Really good homemade pastries and granola also can be ordered.  

Salads are impeccably fresh; sandwiches are served on warmed, seeded baguettes; dressings and croutons are house made. Good wines are served by the glass. (Such demanding attention to detail befits the three-time Olympian that Jimmy is.) And the most expensive item on a recent visit topped out at $7.95. No wonder the place boasts an almost cult-like following. 

Right now, Meal Ticket only serves breakfast and lunch, though plans are afoot to add dinner and perhaps patio dining in the near future. 

I talked Jimmy into sharing the recipe for one of his delightful soups, a smoky, slightly sweet roasted tomato soup. “Of course, vine-ripened summer tomatoes work best,” Jimmy cautioned. “And do add some cream or butter if you want a richer version.” 

Meal Ticket is located at 1235 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley. Its hours are Wednesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Weekend Brunch 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The telephone number is 526-6325.

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series: “Myths and Realities of Aging,” with Jennifer Winters, RN, MSN, professor of nursing, Merritt College. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. Cost $11.50-$12.50. Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925, 665-9020. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride converges at Berkeley BART at 5:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month. 

ASUC Art Studio Spring Sale, with art and pottery by Art Studio members and instructors, held on Lower Sproul Plaza, North Side, noon to 5p.m. 642-3065. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 12 

East Bay Regional Parks Beach Clean Up. Help tidy up East Shore State Park beach from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Brickyard Beach, behind 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. 

Path Walks, another view of Northside Paths. Meet at the Rose Garden on Euclid at 10 a.m. for a two- to three-hour walk. For more information call Alan Kaplan 526-7059. 

South Berkeley Community Action Team Forum. This forum includes a review of the results of the 2002 South Berkeley Community Survey and the 2002 Community Walk-Through. The forum also will identify community assets, including schools, businesses, hospitals, libraries, parks, community centers and neighborhood associations. Action Plans will be developed in response. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Center at San Pablo Park, 2800 Park St. For information, e-mail CMiles-Threatt@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

ASUC Art Studio Spring Sale, with art and pottery by Art Studio members and instructors, held on Lower Sproul Plaza, North Side, noon to 5 p.m. Pottery demonstrations noon to 2 p.m. 642-3065. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 13 

Berkeley Eco-House Workshop, “Home Greywater Systems and Water Reclamation,” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Suggested donation $5 - $20, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Vegetarian lunch provided. Hopkins and Peralta near Gilman. Enter at Peralta gate. Katharine Jolda, 465-9439. 

Organizing in the East Bay. 

East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse employees have unionized and invite the public to a celebration of music, art and speakers from 2 to 4 p.m., 6713 San Pablo Ave. For information e-mail depotworkers@yahoo.com 

Children at Tilden: Protist April. Toss and tow the plankton net to see what tiny creatures inhabit the pond. The 14-power Discovery Scope will reveal some; microscopes will reveal more. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade, “Ancient Voices,” assembles at People’s Park at 11 a.m., followed by parade at noon. 843-0333. www.paganparade.org 

TUESDAY, APRIL 15 

Career Talk: A Musician’s Way of Work, with Dana Anderson-Williams, 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 PathFinder Communications, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. For reservations: 981-5435. energy@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Berkeley Camera Club meets 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.  

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 

Community Meeting for Traffic Circle Project at California and Oregon Streets. Join city staff to discuss the proposed construction of a landscaped traffic circle at the intersection of California and Oregon streets. Begins at 7 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center, 1730 Oregon St. For information call Kenneth Emeziem 981-6444. 

The Cultural Heritage of Iraq and the Impacts of War. Professors David Stronach, Marian Feldman and Niek Veldhuis will speak on the cultural and archaeological resources threatened by the war, at 5 p.m. at 2547 Channing Way. 642-6914. conkey@sscl.berkeley.edu 

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

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

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 with student i.d. 841-2082. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 15 

LeConte Neighborhood Association Meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at LeConte School, Russell St. at Ellsworth. 

Lawyers in the Library at 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 981-6280. 

City of Berkeley Budget Crisis, a discussion with City Manager Weldon Rucker and City Budget Manager Paul Navazio, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Main Library, Kittredge St., in the third floor conference room. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. For information call Eloise Bodine 843-8824. 

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series: Robert Haas, former Poet Laureate of the United States. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. Cost $11.50-$12.50. Speech follows at 12:30 p.m., all at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

John Zerzan will speak on the Pathology of Civilization in the context of the deepening crisis we face. “Surplus,” a new film by Erik Gandini, will be shown first at 7 p.m. The film is a 52-minute critique of consumer society and its non-future. At the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-3402. 

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

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

ONGOING EVENTS 

Activist Skill Class: Practical Skills for Difficult Times. Learn tactics and strategies of activism with Karen Pickett and Phil Klasky. Classes offered through Merritt College, Tuesday evenings and Saturdays, April 29 through May 24. To register call 548-2220, ext. 233. The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 

Theater of the Oppressed with Julie Sparling, M.Ed. Theater of the Oppressed uses movement, storytelling and tableaux to explore how images of one’s personal experience reflect universal issues of power and change. Sundays April 6 - May 4 (excluding April 20) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $90-$140 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. Classes through mid-May. 839-2900, ext. 347. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/humane/default.htm  

Commission on Aging meets Wednesday, April 16, at 1:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging/default.htm 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare/default.htm  

Commission on Labor meets Wednesday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor/default.htm  

Disaster Council Special Meeting, Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disaster/default.htm  

Design Review Committee meets Thursday, April 17, from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 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 the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign/default.htm  

Transportation Commission meets Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation/default.htm  

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

The other day my wife brought home a baby bunny. She had stopped at the pet store on the way home from work and picked it out from a bunch of baby bunnies. There is nothing like a baby bunny. They are perhaps the cutest thing in the world. 

You know bunnies are born hairless and very tiny into a bed of fur picked from their mothers’ coats. Tiny hairless blind tiny things squirmy and hungry for mothers’ milk. Ours is of course covered with fur and has its eyes wide open. It’s a female, so they say, but it is hard to tell at this age and we have gotten it wrong before: Peter turned out to be a girl and Fuzzy a boy. 

Nothing says spring like a baby bunny. They do a thing called “pop corn” where they leap straight up in the air and turn on a dime. Nothing, that is, except perhaps the blossoms of our Santa Rosa Plum Tree. Incredible white cascade against the blue skies of March. In just a heartbeat they turn into an abundance of delicious sweet and sour treats. 

I tied a yellow ribbon around that plum tree during the Gulf War vowing not to take it down until my nephew returned from his war duty in the Persian Gulf. He did return and today is in good health. Thank you God. And I took the yellow ribbon down. 

Today I am thinking of putting up another yellow ribbon for all those boys and girls and men and women who have left their homes and are missing this spring weather and blossoms and baby bunnies. 

I was happy to see the new bunny but also worried. I wondered how Fuzzy, our adult bunny who lives in our backyard, and this new baby bunny would get along. Bunnies are very complex social creatures. A warren in the wild may have several hundred individuals living together. 

My wife and son got another baby bunny last year and it did not work out well. Speedy, the new bunny, called that because he sped around the living room so fast when he was a baby, turned on Fuzzy when he became an adolescent. We never got him fixed and maybe we should have. Lowered testosterone levels might have helped. 

At first Fuzzy chased Speedy, but then got used to him. They would sit together in the sun and Fuzzy would preen Speedy. But one day I went out on the deck and saw tufts of brown fur all over the yard and Fuzzy on the deck fearful. With some investigation I discovered that Speedy had been attacking him. 

We tried many things to broker peace, and all failed. I began to hate that rabbit and found that we could not give him away. The House Rabbit Society would not take him. Plus he bit me one day, disqualifying himself as a nice house pet. So I announced to the family I would take him on a one-way trip to the animal control people, as even the Humane Society would not take him. 

I pulled him out of his cage wearing gloves so as not to get bitten or scratched. Rabbits can be very aggressive and fierce if they want to be. I put him in a cage in the kitchen for his last night. In the morning he was dead. 

If you have some bunnies who do not get along and you want them to, here is what you do. Put them in a new environment together. In their mutual anxiety they will bond and become friends. We of course tried this with Fuzzy and Speedy, and it worked at first but not later. I think Speedy went insane. Perhaps he had a brain tumor.  

My daddy was a farm boy and a cowboy. He taught me to whistle at a rabbit to stop it so you could shoot it. It works. The rabbit stops and listens. I shot with my B.B. gun but never hit a rabbit. 

Maybe we could put humans in a new environment and they would bond and not fight. Then again, what about madness and brain tumors. 

When I was a teenager in the U.S. Navy in Japan I pressed cherry blossoms one spring and put them in plastic in my photo album. I still have those blossoms from Atsugi, Japan. 

There is nothing like a baby bunny and spring blossoms. I hope the bunnies get along, the blossoms give us good fruit and the soldiers come home from the war. 

Country Joe McDonald is a resident of Berkeley.

Both the Oakland Police Department and the demonstrators who clashed with them at Monday’s anti-war protest will have a chance to testify at a hearing later this month. The public hearing will be held before the Public Safety Committee on April 29 at 3 p.m. in Oakland’s City Hall. 

City officials said they want to hold the hearing to examine whether the Oakland police department acted appropriately when they used wooden dowels, bean bags and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd of about 100 demonstrators protesting outside of Port of Oakland terminals Monday morning.  

Police said they had to use force because demonstrators refused to disperse when ordered to, were climbing on top of trucks that were attempting to enter the port terminals,and were throwing objects at police officers. Protesters have said the police response was unprovoked and excessive, insisting they were demonstrating peacefully before police opened fire. 

At least 12 protesters and six longshoremen were injured in the melee. The police made 31 arrests, but no one has been charged. 

Several demonstrators, some of whom spoke at a raucous City Council meeting Tuesday night, have said they will file a lawsuit against the city.  

The Oakland City Council will meet next week in a closed door meeting to consider City Attorney John Russo’s proposal to hire an external, independent investigator to look into the protest melee and police behavior. 

I work for a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization that offers comprehensive services to help homeless people gain independence. I have worked here for 17 years, and watched as attention to the war on poverty ebbed and flowed as public priorities changed. We are seemingly no closer to a solution than when I first arrived. Or are we? 

Berkeley is sometimes considered a too generous provider of services, drawing homeless from surrounding cities. This is false, as Berkeley has about 1 percent homeless persons, lower than Oakland’s 1 percent to 1.5 percent and San Francisco’s 1.5 percent to 1.8 percent. This jibes with the 2000 Urban Institute estimate of 3.5 million homeless nationwide, or 1.2 percent. (The U.S. Census is so insecure about their lower number — and rightly so as it fails to capture large numbers of “hidden homeless,” who double up with friends or family, as well as those not present at a participating shelter or soup kitchen on counting night — that the 2000 Census refers to their count as the “emergency shelter and transitional shelter population” and not the homeless population.) 

One percent of the U.S. population is a large number of people. But we do not need numbers to tell the story. We know homelessness remains unsolved, as we walk by homeless people every day. Why does it remain so after all this time? Part of it is underfunding, and part is inadequate diagnosis. 

Most of the homeless face multiple difficulties, resulting from inadequately treating several ailments, which may be of a physical, mental, emotional, social or systemic nature. 

This complex hodge-podge of obstacles is why homelessness persists, since not all are accepted as valid barriers and subsequently are not supported by policy or resource allocation. 

Physical and organic mental barriers are the most comprehensible and thus easier to mobilize around. Emotional and social barriers are less comprehensible, and often perceived more as personal shortcomings that a person can “get over” with sufficient willpower. This higher degree of victim-blaming muddies our ability to implement solutions. Systemic barriers are by and large accepted as valid by the public, who understand that structural issues make it harder for some people to survive and thrive than others. 

In effect, the public has a collective emotional dysfunction about systemic shortcomings — a shared sense of hopelessness that prevents ambitious corrections. 

Policy and opinion makers need to deepen their understanding of the obstacles in the way of solving homelessness and speak a more informed language with the public, to increase their understanding as well. We should then apply the same concepts of patience, commitment and long wars, which this administration has adopted for the purposes of fighting terrorism, to the ongoing fight against homelessness and poverty here at home. 

Sonja Fitz is a resident of Berkeley and works for Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS).

A UC Berkeley ceremony honoring Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control, as “Alumna of the Year” became an impromptu press conference last week on the mysterious disease SARS, which stands for severe acute respiratory disease. 

Dr. Gerberding, a graduate of U.C. Berkeley’s School of Public Health, addressed a standing-room-only crowd of Bay Area public health professionals reporters, students and faculty for over an hour on Tuesday. 

Originally scheduled to discuss bioterrorism, Gerberding devoted most of her speech to the emerging global epidemic that already has infected more than 2,700 people around the world. Gerberding said it was likely that a U.S. health professional had been infected with the disease. 

“The most recent diagnosis has all the hallmarks of SARS,” she said about the worker, “and we’re confident it will turn out to be a true case.”  

It was the first confirmed case in America of the disease’s transmission to a health-care provider. Two other healthcare workers had been reported with suspected SARS infections, but their cases had not been confirmed as of early this week.  

Health-care workers in the US have been cautious when dealing with SARS patients, taking precautions to avoid the infection which has had a devastating effect on health-care workers in Canada, Southeast Asia and Asia. 

SARS currently has a 4 percent mortality rate. In her address Gerberding noted SARS may have a very high attack rate. In the only example currently analyzed, 66 percent of people exposed to a Hong Kong SARS carrier developed the disease, according to Gerberding. 

“We are very concerned about the spread of this virus,” Gerberding said. “It does appear to be transmitted very efficiently, and what we know about respiratory viruses suggests that the potential for infecting large numbers of people is very great. We may be in the very early stages of what could be a much larger problem.” 

Despite the persistent questions about SARS, Gerberding also spoke about bioterrorism, funding for public health issues and obesity, which she called the most dangerous epidemic facing America today. 

“We are enjoying unprecedented investments in the public health infrastructure as a consequence of congressional concern, the executive branch concern and fears people have about the ongoing risk of terrorism of varying kinds,” she said. “The philosophy that we’ve been using in all of this is to try to build this kind of preparedness on a solid foundation of existing public health services and structures.”

City Council handed a partial victory to neighborhood opponents of an American Baptist Seminary of the West proposal to demolish two century-old cottages to make way for a five-story building. 

The council, by a 6-2-1 vote, required the seminary to conduct an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to determine whether the two cottages have historical significance under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The EIR will also analyze impacts on traffic and parking in the residential neighborhood, which is south of the UC Berkeley campus. 

Councilmembers Miriam Hawley and Margaret Breland voted against the EIR and Councilmember Kriss Worthington abstained. 

The council’s ruling will delay the project by approximately six months, according to Department of Planning and Development Director Carol Barrett. The EIR is estimated to cost the Seminary somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. 

The project, proposed for 2514 Benvenue Ave., would have included 23 new dwelling units, a 22-bed dormitory, classrooms, offices and a 48-car garage.  

The council did approve the use permits for two other seminary projects, both retrofits at 2500 and 2508 Benvenue Ave. The project at 2500 Benvenue Ave. will add 12 dwelling units for a total of 24. The 2508 project would add six dwelling units to an existing 15. Both of the approved projects will result in 18 additional dwelling units for a total of 45. 

Seminary President Rev. Keith Russell said the setback on the five-story building was unfortunate but he was glad the other two projects were approved. 

“After the two years of public process we’ve gone through, we’re delighted to get started on the retrofit projects,” he said. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board narrowly approved a use permit for the five-story building in July, which the Benvenue Neighborhood Association appealed. After the council’s ruling on Tuesday, BNA members congratulated each other outside the council chambers. 

“This is a huge victory for our neighborhood and all neighborhoods across Berkeley,” said BNA member David Baker. 

Baker accused the Planning Department of showing favoritism toward the Seminary throughout the approval process. He said planning staff dismissed the opinion of seven UC professors who believed the two cottages, one built in 1899, the other in 1906, had historical significance. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniack, who made the motion for the EIR, said there was insufficient evidence that the cottages lack historic value. 

“The EIR should authoritatively address whether those buildings are historical resources for the purposes of CEQA,” he said. 

Councilmember Miriam Hawley voted against requiring the EIR. “I’m opposed to this motion because the city has been involved with this project for over two years,” she said. 

Councilmember Betty Olds said she voted for the EIR because she was concerned about density in the neighborhood, which is just south of the UC Berkeley campus. 

“I’m scared,” she said as she stood on the sharp edge of the shallow end of Willard Pool in Berkeley. 

“Don’t be scared,” I answered. “It’s easy. Just jump into my arms.”  

“I’m scared,” she repeated. Her thin body was shaking like a leaf. 

“Stop saying you’re scared and jump,” I demanded.  

I was standing in three feet of water and was close enough to touch her. If she jumped and by some freak miscalculation missed my outspread arms, she’d wind up standing herself, her head at least six inches above water.  

“Come on. I haven’t got all day. You can do it.” 

“Okay,” she said. “But move closer and don’t drop me. I’m almost ready.” 

She was holding her nose with her right hand and swinging her left arm as if she were going to fly. She wore a tiny blue flowered bikini and a pair of enormous snorkeling goggles that magnified her already big brown eyes. She looked like a preying mantis with her long legs and spindly arms.  

“I’m gonna do it, I swear,” she said. “I’m almost ready. Are you ready?” 

“Yes,” I said, barely hiding my irritation. “Hurry up.” 

“Here I come,” she yelled, and she jumped. She landed with her hands wrapped around my neck and her knees tucked under my armpits. She was holding on so tight I could barely breathe, and the force of her momentum knocked me back. She hadn’t made a splash and only her toes were wet. The rest of her frail body was high above the water. 

“I did it!” she screamed in my ear. “I did it. I did it. I did it. Let’s do it again!”  

“Let go,” I said. “You’re strangling me!”  

“Put me on the side of the pool,” she demanded. “I want to do it again and again and again.” 

Several months later I held her hand as we entered Head Over Heels, located in a cavernous building in Emeryville.  

“I’m scared,” she whispered as she watched little girls in black leotards do somersaults, cartwheels and flips. 

“Don’t be scared,” I said. “It’s easy. You can do this stuff.” 

“I’m scared,” she said again as an instructor led her to the trampoline. She tentatively stepped on the springy surface and began to jump. First little jumps and then bigger and bigger and bigger until she was practically flying. 

“This is fun,” she yelled, looking at me and waving. She turned around and around as she sprung higher and higher and then she pretended that she was running in the air, like a clown in a circus.  

Now it is spring and we are outside on the sidewalk. She is balanced on a small pink two-wheeled bicycle with glittery plastic streamers sprouting from the handlebars. I stand beside her, keeping the bicycle and her body upright by holding the seat and her thin shoulder. 

“I’m scared,” she says, looking at me.  

“Don’t be afraid,” I whisper. “You can do this. I’ll hold on to you the whole time. All you have to do is pedal.” 

“Don’t let go of me. You promise?” 

“Yes, I promise. Now pedal, please.” 

“Okay,” she says. “I’m gonna do it. I really am.” She looks forward and squints her eyes in concentration. “I can do this,” she repeats and she is no longer talking to me. 

She starts to pedal and wobbles forward, going faster and faster until I can’t keep up. 

I let go of her shoulder and then the back of the seat and she is pedaling in a straight line down the sidewalk, as if she has been bicycling for a hundred years. She comes to the corner of 53rd Street and makes a smooth, professional turn, pedaling out of my sight, out of my reach. 

And now it is my turn to be scared, because I am going to have to let her go. “I can do this,” I say to myself, without much conviction. “I really can.” 

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

Elderly woman robbed 

Police are looking for two men suspected of robbing an 85-year-old Berkeley woman of thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash. 

The woman was at her 10th Street home on Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. when two men knocked on her door claiming there was a problem with her chimney, said Officer Mary KusmisS, Berkeley Police spokesperson.  

One of the men said the chimney problem was critical and offered to fix it immediately for $200 cash.  

When he took the woman outside to show her the problem, the other man ransacked her home, according to police. The woman reported missing over $2,000 in gold jewelry and over $500 in cash.  

Police nab murder suspect 

Kevin Sterling Jones, who was shot by Berkeley Police last November during an armed robbery sting, was charged with the rape and murder of two women on Wednesday. 

Jones, who is in custody and recovering from gunshot wounds at the Santa Rita Jail infirmary, was charged after Oakland and Napa police said they could link him to the two murders that occurred 1999 and 2000. 

The two victims were Jamie Williams, 22, and Sharonda Parker, 16. Both were raped and strangled.  

Berkeley Police arrested Jones Nov. 15 after a tip that he intended to rob a beauty parlor on Alcatraz Avenue. Because Jones was considered dangerous, parlor employees took the night off and female police officers took their place as stylists and customers.  

Snipers and members of the Barricaded Hostage Negotiating Team were deployed around the business. When an armed Jones arrived at the parlor with an accomplice, he was confronted by police and then shot twice in the abdomen when he resisted. 

Actor’s car still missing 

Actor Sean Penn’s jet black 1987 Buick Grand National, along with two handguns, is still missing after being stolen in downtown Berkeley on Tuesday. 

Berkeley police said it’s possible it was taken to a garage and dismantled for parts. 

Penn parked in front of Citibank on Shattuck Avenue around 1 p.m. Upon his return after having lunch at 2:30, he discovered the car was missing. 

When officers arrived at the scene, Penn told them there was a loaded Glock 9 mm handgun and an unloaded Smith and Wesson, five-shot revolver in the car. Penn has a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon. 

Kusmiss said the car theft has generated calls from the London Times and the Paris Match in addition to other local newspapers.  

Students Protest for Palestine 

One year after storming UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall and making national headlines, several dozen pro-Palestinian student activists staged a modest protest Wednesday afternoon calling on the university to divest from Israel. 

The Sproul Plaza rally commemorated the April 9, 1948, Israeli paramilitary attack on the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, which left several civilians dead. 

Activists, many involved in the anti-war movement, said events in Iraq have shifted the focus away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

“I think a lot of momentum was building around the Palestinian issue when the war broke out, and that energy has been transitioning into the anti-war movement,” said NAME REMOVED BECAUSE OF PRESSURE, an Oakland resident who took part in the student protest. 

Last year on April 9 UC Berkeley police arrested 79 protesters for taking over Wheeler Hall. Two months later, the Alameda County district attorney dropped criminal charges against the protesters, but the students involved still faced possible disciplinary action from the university.  

In February, students signed confidential agreements with the university settling their conduct cases. 

On Wednesday, protesters staged street theater with students impersonating Israeli guards before the noon rally. Protesters waved Palestinian flags and equated Israel with South Africa’s former apartheid state. 

Josh Baron, a member of a student group called the Israel Action Committee, held an Israeli flag aloft during the rally. He criticized pro-Palestinian activists for equating Israeli policies with apartheid. 

“I think it does an injustice to the intellectual capacity of this university,” Baron said of the protest. “I’m here to say I think your slogan is crap.” 

—David Scharfenberg 

Cesar Chavez Street 

Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmembers Betty Olds, Linda Maio and Kriss Worthington will serve on a new committee, formed last week, that will chose a “major street” to be named after Cesar Chavez, the founder of the National Farm Workers Association. He died in 1993. 

The streets that have been talked about include University and Ashby avenues and Gilman Street, because Chavez’s name would be displayed prominently on exit signs on Interstate 80.  

“Sacramento Street has also been talked about because it runs parallel to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, which would have symbolic significance,” Worthington said.  

Olds said she supports naming a street after Chavez, but has reservations about altering Gilman Street and University and Ashby avenues because of the hardships the name change would impose on the small businesses that line those streets. 

“People think it doesn’t hurt businesses, but it does,” she said. “And I don’t think Cesar Chavez would want to hurt these little mom-and-pop businesses.” 

Once the committee chooses a street, it will be approved by City Council and submitted to the city’s two-year work plan. 

—John Geluardi 

Study Slams Charter Schools 

The nation’s growing number of charter schools rely heavily on uncredentialed teachers; fail to secure available public funding for low-achieving or disabled students, and leave black children isolated in racially homogenous schools, according to a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. 

“Charter schools now offer hope for hundreds of thousands of families, many dissatisfied with mediocre or unsafe local schools,” said Bruce Fuller, the UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy who directed the study. “Ironically, we discovered that many charter students are exposed to less qualified teachers and weaker instructional support than if they had remained in regular public schools.” 

The report found that 48 percent of charter school teachers, including 32 percent of those in California, are uncredentialed, compared to only 9 percent at the typical public school. 

The study also found that schools serving the largest number of black students are 80 percent black on average. Comparable public schools are more integrated, with 54 percent the highest percentage of black students. 

Critics of the study said the report did not address the fundamental question of how charter school students are performing. A study conducted last year by the Charter Schools Development Center found that California’s “veteran” charter schools — those that have been in existence for five years or more — outperformed standard public schools on the state’s testing system. Charter schools, as a whole, did worse than regular schools. 

—David Scharfenberg

For those accustomed to being spoon-fed our messages at the movies the documentary films of Frederick Wiseman can be a little hard to swallow.  

He takes a distinctly austere approach to making films. Working in the style of observational cinema, Wiseman depicts the unscripted lives of real people and places using only natural sound and available light, and without the use of music, commentary or direct interviews. 

Nearly half of his films have been collected in a rare retrospective now at the Pacific Film Archive on the Berkeley campus. 

For 35 years Wiseman has churned out films as gripping and memorable as any tightly plotted thriller, and a good deal more provocative. 

Wiseman, however, has always kept a low profile. He’s never been nominated for an Academy Award, and his movies aren’t available at any video store. But last week Wiseman, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., spent five days at the Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley.  

The majority of Wiseman’s films explore quintessential social and public institutions. His documented subjects range from public high school and life on a military base to the daily routines of a hospital, domestic violence shelter, welfare processing center, police precinct and public housing complex. His films are both exemplary journalism and meditations on American idealism. 

To hear Wiseman tell it, his film technique is little more than a kind of happy accident of timing. Working with just two other people — a cameraman using a 16mm handheld camera, an assistant and himself handling the sound — Wiseman spends a few months immersed in his subject’s daily life. 

He said he does little prior research, relying only on his instincts, chance events and meetings, and his innate belief that the story will reveal itself over time. Rather than follow a single individual or small group of people for the entire film, Wiseman makes location his center. 

“The place is the star,” Wiseman said during his week in Berkeley. “In addition, the technique I use is that I wander.” 

Very few of Wiseman’s films come in under the two-hour mark, and a great many are three hours. “Near Death,” Wiseman’s 1989 study of an intensive care unit, runs six hours. 

Wiseman’s controversial first film, “Titticut Follies,” released in 1967, provided an explosive glimpse at the conditions inside a hospital for the criminally insane. Throughout his career he has displayed an interest in the condition of people struggling with powerlessness.  

“Meat,” Wiseman’s 1976 anatomy of a massive, automated, beef and sheep processing plant, takes the audience step by step through the process by which an animal is transformed into an object packed into a cardboard box.  

Wiseman taps into the viewer’s curiosity about how things work.  

In the film “Meat” all the sensory details and rhythms that define the meat packing plant are present. 

There is the comforting hum of the assembly line, the cutting equipment in action and at rest, the precise ritualized cuts made by workers at each station, a crowded lunchroom, a worker napping in the sun atop a stack of cinder blocks, a pile of rubber boots, the clean-up crew hosing down floors slick from the day’s work. 

Wiseman always finds the right details to tell the story, even in the seemingly mundane environment of an office building.  

In “Welfare,” a three-hour examination of a New York City welfare office, Wiseman devotes equal attention to individuals seeking services — angry people, stunned people, desperate people, amusing people — and staff. Here is the detached office director, strolling in late and leaving early with his newspaper and hat; here are the case workers, as fallible as the people they’re trying to serve, but on the whole remarkably skilled and patient in their efforts to make sense of a bewildering bureaucracy; here is the security guard who treats his antagonist with supreme forbearance; here, even, is the janitor sweeping the halls, an oasis of calm in the storm. 

“There’s a lot of drama in ordinary experience,” Wiseman has said. 

Wiseman’s films offer lessons about reserving judgment. “Domestic Violence,” a 2001 film about a domestic violence shelter in Tampa, Fla., contains scenes of abused women recounting their experiences.  

The movie is not so much a condemnation of a social scourge as a wrenching study of the complexity of people’s emotional lives. In one scene, a woman tells her story with sorrow, fear and self-blame. She then explains the tenderness she still feels toward her husband. 

Wiseman has objected to being labeled as a practitioner of cinema verité, the French film movement that sought to present life exactly as it is. The term suggests all events have equal value; Wiseman, on the other hand, has said he selects constantly among events, shuffling through reels in search of the moments that conform most closely with his sense of truth.  

Seven films remain in the Frederick Wiseman retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive. Among those scheduled at the theater for this weekend are “Racetrack,” a 1985 study of both high- and low-stakes gambling at the Belmont Stakes; “The Store,” a microcosm of the wealth and materialism at the Neiman Marcus headquarters in Dallas, and the 1995 “Ballet,” which documents the rarefied artistic world inside the American Ballet Theater.

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.” 

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.

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.”

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. 

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.”

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 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.

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 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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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

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.”

ohn Henry Mitchell, always concerned about the well-being of others, wrote several letters to the city pleading for a stop sign at the busy Shattuck Avenue corner near his home, the very intersection where he was killed by a car in January.  

Walking home from his senior yoga class on Jan. 17, the 78-year-old retired teacher was crossing Shattuck at Woolsey Street — a stretch of Berkeley’s main thoroughfare where there isn’t a stop light or sign between Ashby and Alcatraz — when he was struck. 

A city report on whether to install a stop sign in the area is promised for next week. 

Witnesses told Berkeley Police that the driver, Jennifer Troia, of Oakland, appeared preoccupied when she struck Mitchell, according to the accident report. 

According to Mitchell’s wife of 30 years, Siglinde, Mitchell had been writing to Berkeley officials since 1998 about putting in a stop sign at that exact intersection — not far from their home near the corner of Telegraph and Woolsey.  

Mitchell’s first letter led to a city study that concluded there was not enough pedestrian or vehicular traffic at the intersection to warrant a stop light. He asked for a pedestrian-operated sign, known as a Santa Rosa light. 

“He didn’t even ask for a signal,” said Siglinde. 

Not one to give up easily, Mitchell responded to the report — based on data gathered during the summer when Berkeley’s student population is depleted — to conduct another study when U.C. Berkeley was in session. The city did just that in the fall of 1998 and came to the same conclusion, not enough pedestrian traffic. 

According to Peter Hillier, Berkeley’s assistant city manager for transportation, the last studies done on accidents at the intersection where Mitchell was killed showed that for a five-year period ending in 2001 there were no other fatalities. Four collisions, however, involved either a bicyclist or pedestrian.  

The same number of crashes and no deaths occurred at nearby Prince and Shattuck during the same period. Hillier would not say what the report’s recommendation would be, but he did say that “with that kind of collision frequency, there are some improvements that we should be making.”  

Berkeley Transportation Commission member Dean Metzger isn’t sure there’s the wherewithal to put in new stop signs in Berkeley. 

According to Metzger, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is the perception that stop signs cause more pollution as a result of a car’s engine having to work harder coming to a complete stop and then starting again.  

An advocate for more stop signs, Metzger  

is equally critical of the resources devoted by the Berkeley police to crack down on speeders and distracted drivers. 

Mitchell’s tenacity about the stop sign was no surprise to his son Derek, 40, of San Anselmo.  

“What he had been involved with in his later years is more than most people are involved with in their whole lives,” says Derek. “Like he said one time, there’s too many arm chair liberals out there these days.” 

In their father’s honor, Derek and his other son Ian, of Santa Cruz, and daughters Hilary, a Berkeley school teacher and Sonia, a junior at Berkeley High, along with Siglinde, carried a banner Mitchell had intended to carry in the peace rally held in San Francisco the day after he was killed. A reproduction of a cartoon, it showed Uncle Sam telling his psychiatrist, “I’m not paranoid doc, it’s just that everyone’s out to get me so I have to get them first.” 

Mitchell grew up in Oklahoma during the dust bowl. The image of tenant farmers eking out a living left a lasting impression of the importance of social justice on him, family members said. His father, a prominent pharmacist, wanted him to become a veterinarian, but he had other plans and after dropping out of vet school in Oklahoma headed to Chicago in the late 1930s.  

There he lived in a co-op with future BART Director Roy Nakadegawa, and attended Roosevelt University where he earned a degree in special education. It was during this period that Mitchell also learned folk music and eventually went on to play with Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Country Joe and the Fish among others.  

In the early 1950s, Mitchell moved to Berkeley and began a 36-year-career as a junior high school special education teacher in east Oakland.  

“His thing was if you want to be a good human being go out and do things that really affect other people’s lives. Like special education. He touched a lot of children and had an impact on their lives. He didn’t think that would’ve happened if he was in business,” said Derek. 

Throughout his teaching career, Mitchell continued to perform at the Berkeley Folk Festival and the Fillmore West in San Francisco. He was also a fixture at Ashkenaz where he called square dances. He loved to hike Bay Area trails as a member of the Montclair Hiking Club. 

After his retirement in the early 1990s, Mitchell became president of the California Retired Teacher’s Association. A member of the ACLU and Amnesty International, Mitchell wrote countless letters for organizations to free political prisoners. 

Even Mitchell’s work on improving traffic conditions for Berkeley pedestrians was an ongoing commitment — in the 1970s he successfully lobbied the city to put in a four-way stop sign near his then-home at the corner of Prince and Wheeler after several accidents occurred there. 

Siglinde has not given up her husband’s last fight. She and several other concerned neighbors went to a Berkeley city transportation committee meeting in February to again ask for a stop sign at the intersection of Shattuck and Woolsey.  

“They said they were going to give us a traffic report in an about a month,” said Siglinde. “Well, it’s been almost three months and we still haven’t seen the traffic report.” 

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.