With nearly 200 Berkeley public school teachers facing layoffs, union leaders are rejecting a call for all district employees to take a 10 percent pay cut to save the jobs. 

“We will not accept any cuts in pay or benefits,” said Stephanie Allan, a union official with Local 39, which represents bus drivers and food service workers. “We are not going to fund the [deficit] on the backs of our members.” 

Board of Education Director Shirley Issel called for the wage reduction Friday in an interview with the Daily Planet. 

“Our solutions have to come out of our paychecks,” she said. “There are no solutions in Sacramento. There are no solutions in council chambers or at school board meetings.”  

About 85 percent of the district’s $99 million budget is wrapped up in salaries and benefits. Unless workers accept a pay cut, Issel said, the schools, which face a $4 million to $8 million deficit next year, must proceed with heavy layoffs. 

The district issued pink slips to 220 of Berkeley’s 652 teachers by a preliminary, state-mandated deadline of March 15, hoping to rescind as many as 145 by the end of the year as the budget picture cleared up. 

The district has taken back a handful of notices since then and watched an administrative law judge toss out several more on technical grounds, leaving about 180 teachers eligible for layoffs.  

According to state law, the Berkeley Unified School District must issue a final round of pink slips by May 15 to any teachers it cannot guarantee a job next year. With the state budget still in flux and California $34.6 billion in debt, the schools have no choice but to give all 180 teachers notices at a special Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, said district spokesman Mark Coplan. 

“If we don’t have the funds allocated for these people, we have to lay them off,” he said. 

District officials say they hope to take back as many as 100 of the 180 notices by the start of the next school year and plan to take back 30 to 40 as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, said the numbers don’t add up. If the district only plans to lay off 80 to 100 teachers, he argues, it should not give notices to all 180. He said it will only leave more teachers worried their futures and seeking jobs elsewhere. 

Fike, who declined to take a public position on the 10 percent pay cut, ripped Issel for suggesting the reduction, calling it inappropriate and potentially illegal to negotiate contracts in public. 

Robert Thompson, general counsel for the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, said the case law is unclear on whether a public call for a wage cut violates negotiating rules. 

Officials from several unions said the district administration had not proposed a pay cut at the bargaining table and criticized Issel for stepping into the process. 

“It’s preposterous,” said Richard Hemann, a field representative for a California Federation of Teachers union that represents 350 secretaries and teachers’ aides. “If Mrs. Issel might like to join the bargaining team at the table and see what’s going on, it might be edifying.” 

“I don’t think the unions will support it,” added Associate Superintendent of Human Resources David Gomez.  

Board director John Selawsky said it would be difficult to extract a 10 percent wage cut from district employees, but defended the idea as a worthy one. 

“It’s certainly something we should all consider,” he said.  

Issel said the proposal marked a genuine attempt to save the jobs of dozens of teachers and other employees. 

“This is Berkeley, for heaven’s sake, we’re supposed to care for each other,” she said, arguing that the layoffs have had devastating impacts on schools like Washington Elementary, which saw 14 of its 19 teachers receive pink slips, two of them rescinded at this point. 

One union official said he is willing to discuss a possible pay cut. 

“We’re open to anything the district wants to negotiate,” said John Santoro, president of the Union of Berkeley Administrators, which represents 37 principals, assistant principals and other managers.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS 

TUESDAY, MAY 13 

Constitutional Rights Teach-In, covering the Patriot Act and the proposed Patriot Act II. Nancy Nadel, Oakland City Council, Keynote Speaker. At 6:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 685 Fourteenth St., Oakland. 533-8358. 

Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling, a free class on how to detect and remedy  

lead hazards in your home, offered by Alameda County lead Poisoning Prevention Program, at 6 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 567-8280.  

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

eraclub.org 

Personal and Professional Portfolios, a brown bag career talk with Mary Robbins, noon to 1 p.m, at YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way. 848-6370.  

Poetry Book Club, meets at the Claremont Branch Library, at 7:30 p.m. at 2940 Benvenue Ave. This month we will discuss the works of Rumi, the 13th century poet and mystic. 981-6280. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 

Youth and the Military: Your Rights & Your Options, a panel discussion with veterans, conscientious objectors, conscientious objector counselors, and a school representative followed by questions from high school youth. A light dinner will be served. Contributions are welcome. From 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., at 27th St., Oakland. For information call Ying, 841-4755. www.PNVRC.net.  

Uplifting Spirit through Education, panel discussion with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spiritual theologian Matthew Fox, and other thinkers in an evening of discussion on education and how to empower youth. Sponsored by the International Association for Human Values. At Zeller- 

bach Hall, UC Campus, at 7 p.m. Cost is $12, $8 for students. (800) 454-9857. www.iahv.org,  

symposium@iahv.org 

Berkeley Poetry Slam, with host Charles Ellik 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. 

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

THURSDAY, MAY 15 

Bike to Work Day Annual Celebration. Look for energizer stations around town, from 6 to 9 a.m. Registration and more information at www.btwd.org 

Berkeley Adult School Annual Career Day. Meet employers, get job leads and have your resume critiqued for free. From 9 a.m to noon, in the cafeteria, 1222 University Ave. 644-9868. 

South Berkeley Mural Project. Community members in South Berkeley are coming together to create a neighborhood mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. At 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204.  

San Pablo Park Community Discussion on new design for the park, at 6:30 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Recreation Center, San Pablo Park.  

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.  

Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid, a documentary  

by local film-maker Wendy Campbell, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. The screening will be preceeded by a talk by long-time activist Dave Kersting on the topic of “What is Zionism?” Suggested donation is $20, no one turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds to benefit Americans for Justice in Palestine-Israel projects. 849-2568. americansforjustice 

@earthlink.net  

FRIDAY, MAY 16 

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

548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. 496-6000, ext.135. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship www.bpf.org 

Poet Jack Hirschman featured at Fellowship Café 

& Open Mike on Friday, May 16, at Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Poets, singers, musicians, and performance artists are invited to sign up for the open mike. A donation of $5-10 is requested. Coffee, tea, and snack bar are available all evening. The Hall is wheelchair accessible. The café series is sponsored by the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series 

“How Stars Are Made,” with Steven Stahler, PhD, Professor, Dept of Astronomy, UC Berkeley. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

SATURDAY, MAY 17 

20th Annual Himalayan Fair 

Authentic Himalayan crafts, arts, music, dance, foods, antiques to benefit grassroots projects in Tibet, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mongolia, at Live Oak Park, 1300 Shattuck Ave., starting at 10 a.m. $5 donation. 869-3995. www.himalayanfair.net 

Berkeley Association of Neighborhood Associations meeting at 9:15 a.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 587-3257. www.berkeleycna.com 

Walk Across America 

Peace-by-Peace 

Four of the seven Berkeley women who walked across America for peace last year will discuss their experience at a benefit for the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Donation sliding scale $5 - $10, no one will be refused. Call Laura Santina, 925-828-8184 for more information.  

The 43rd Annual Walden Center and School Spring Fair, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2446 McKinley Ave., corner of Dwight and McKinley. Proceeds will support the scholarship and building funds.  

Disaster First Aid Class offered by the City of Ber- 

keley’s Emergency Operations Center, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. For more information call 981-5605. TDD: 981-5799. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours: “The Westbrae Commons,” led by John Dennis and Karl Linn. 10 a.m. $5 members, $10 non-members. For reservations call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

Strawberry Tastings at the Berkeley Farmers Market, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way, sponsored by the Ecology Center. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Dominos Tournament in San Pablo Park, on the new tables installed by Friends of San Pablo Park, at noon. Call 649-9874 for information. 

Know Your Rights Training, a free workshop presented by Copwatch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. For information call 548-0425. 

California Spring Wildflower Walk, with Nathan Smith, horticulturist and California natives expert, for an informative stroll through the Garden's magnificent collection of native wildflowers. You'll learn to recognize many of the wildflowers found around the state in spring and discover which of these are suitable for planting in your home garden, from 10 a.m. to noon. Fee $10, includes admission; Members free. Registration recommended. UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Drip Irrigation: Do-it-yourself, Save Water 

This class will cover such topics as: what are the benefits and limitations of drip irrigation; what are the basic tools and supplies needed to install your own drip irrigation system; how much does a drip irrigation system cost. Taught by Jon Bauer, longtime irrigation system ins- 

taller and gardener. Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way, from 10 am - 1 pm. Cost is $10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. For information 548-2220 x 233. 

Cordonices Creek Water Quality Monitoring Day, sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks. Call 848-9358 for more information. 

The American Cancer  

Society 24-hour "Relay for Life" from 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17 until Sunday, May 18 at the El Cerrito High School track. All El Cerrito, Kensington, Albany and Berkeley residents are invited to take part in this fourth annual community event that raises money to fight cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. To get involved contact Joann Steck-Bayat at 524-9464. www.cancer.org or 1-800-ACS-2345. 

California Horticultural Society’s Annual Plant Sale 

Thousands of rare and unusual plants. Preview Sale and Party, 6 to 9 p.m. $5 Members only; Memberships available at the door, $40 includes a free plant. 

General Sale on Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. County Fair Bldg, Strybing Arboretum, Golden Gate Park at 9th & Lincoln Ave. For more information: (800) 884-0009.  

Spring Cleaning Help from Berkeley High School 

Donate those twice read books or slightly worn blue jeans to our huge May 

Garage Sale. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

at 1639 Ashby, between King & California, 2 1/2 blocks below the Ashby BART Station, near Malcolm X School. 

531-5225. 

Child Safety Day at Habitot Children’s Museum. Free car seat checks, $5 toddler tricycle helmets. 10 a.m. to noon at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111, ext. 11. 

SUNDAY, MAY 18 

20th Annual Himalayan Fair 

(see Sat. May 17 listing) 

Hidden Gems of Berkeley Bike Ride Meet at Halcyon Commons at Prince, one bock west of Telegraph at 10 a.m. for a bike tour of special gardens, fanciful sculptures, a daylighted creek and much more. Bring lunch and water. Sponsored by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, 549-7433.  

Eckhart Tolle's Talks on Video, free gatherings, at 7:30 p.m. to hear the words of the author of "The Power of Now" at the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. Will meet on the first and third Sunday of each month. 547-2024. EdShorelin@aol.com 

California Horticultural  

Society’s Annual Plant Sale 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Plant experts will be on hand. County Fair Bldg, Strybing Arboretum, Golden Gate Park at 9th & Lincoln Ave., San Francisco For information call 800-884-0009.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Meetings on the City Budget. The public is invited to four meetings to learn more about the budget deficit and City plans to address the issue. The first meeting will be held May 15 at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. For information call 981-CITY.  

Council Agenda Committee meets Monday, May 12, at 2:30 p.m. in the Redwood Room, 6th Floor, 2180 Milvia St. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk 

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Landmarks Preservation Commission Special Meeting  

on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss revisions to the Landmarks Preservations Ordinance and the Zoning Ordinance, in the North Ber- 

keley Senior Center. Greg Powell, 981-7414. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

City Council meets Tuesday, May 13, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Disability  

meets Wednesday, May 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at  

7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

policereview 

Waterfront Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. at 201 University Ave. 

Cliff Marchetti, 644-6376 x 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/waterfront 

Design Review Committee  

meets Thursday, May 15 at 

7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thursday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the  

North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission  

meets Thursday, May 15 at  

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/transportation

TUESDAY, MAY 13 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: In Order Not to Be Here at 7:30 p.m at the Pacific Film Ar- 

chive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Lewis on “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Rebecca Lawton reads from her new book, “Reading Water,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu, performing Cajun/zydeco at 8:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

The Matt Flinner Quartet 

mandolin virtuoso and his band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 

FILM 

Video: I Found It at the Movies, Body Double X at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tanya Shaffer’s “Somebody’s Heart is Burning,” book release celebration at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15, which includes a copy of the book. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Eric Schosser describes “Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Mar- 

ket,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joyce Bueker discusses an ancient holist health system from India in her new book, “Ayurvedic Balancing,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brenda Boykin and Home Cookin’ perform West Coast swing at 9 p.m., swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Matt Haimovitz, virtuoso cellist, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Pin Up Motel, The Love Makers, Superlarry perform Indie Rock, Electro Clash, and Post Pardem Rock at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, MAY 15 

FILM 

Heroic Grace: Martial Arts 

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid, 50 min. documentary by Wendy Campbell. The screening will be preceded by a talk by Dave Ker- 

sting on What is Zionism? At 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. $20 donation requested. $10 for students with i.d. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jane Juska reads from “A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex & Romance,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Jack Foley and Richard Silberg talk about the poetic consciousness of the Bay Area in their book, “The Fallen Western Star Wars,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Russell, roots country troubadour, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Rogue Wave, Ebb and Flow, 

Venison Book, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

FRIDAY, MAY 16 

FILM 

Heroic Grace: Martial Arts 

Blood Brothers, at 7 and 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jack Hirschman, poet, painter, activist will be featured at the Fellowship Café and Open Mike at 7:30 p.m. Donation of $5-$10. 1924 Cedar St. 540-0898. 

Carroll Spinney reflects on his life as a puppeteer in “The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons From a Life in Feathers,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Todd Gitlin reads from “Letters to a Young Activist,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Richard Mahler discusses his book, “Stillness” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theatre Children's Division and Youth Company present “Seasons,” an opportunity for dance-lovers of all ages to enjoy ballet. The program includes Sally Street’s “Mon Parasol” and two world 

premieres by Sonya Delwaide, “Au Revoir” and “Au Pas,” plus a restaging of “Les Patineurs,” by Artistic Director Corinne Jonas, at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $16, available from the Ballet box office 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Dances for Peace presented by the Isadora Duncan Project, Inc., at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $13 in advance, $16 at the door. For reservations call 548-2259 or email nncogley@sbcglobal.net 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra performs Holst’s “The Planets” at the Dean Lesher Center in Walnut Creek at 8 p.m. Tickets are $6 - $13. For information call 665-5607. www.ypsomusic.org 

Los Mocoscos, a Latin funk-rock group from SF’s Mission District, performs at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

Bay Area Latin Jazz Legacy Series, an Afro-Latin eve- 

ning with John Calloway and Diaspora and O-Maya in a program of jazz, hip hop, funk, soul and salsa. Panel at 7:30 p.m. and show at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Kathy Kallick Band performs hot bluegrass, cool originals at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Asylum Street Spankers, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082.  

Ludicra, Insidious, The Vanishing, Skarp, Desolation 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. 

Stroke 9, Beth Champion Band perform Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 17 

CHILDREN 

Kids on the Block Puppet Show, promoting acceptance and understanding of physical and cultural differences, at 2 p.m. at the Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level). Suggested donation $3, children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

How Ground Hog’s Garden Grew, a story about gardening at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Heroic Grace: Martial Arts 

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, at 2:15 and 7 p.m. and Return to the 36th Chamber, at 4:30 and 9:15p.m., at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mary Ford-Grabowsky reads from her new anthology of women's sacred poetry, with local contributing authors Janine Canan, Christina Hutchins, Stephanie Marohn, Betty McAfee, Michelle Lynn Ryan, Jan Steckel and Dorothy Walters reading as well. At 7:30 p.m. at Boad- 

ecia's Books, 398 Colusa Ave., Kensington,. Free, refreshments served. 559-9184. www.bookpride.com. 

Jonathan Schell on “The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theatre Children's Division and Youth Company present “Seasons,” an opportunity for dance-lovers of all ages to enjoy ballet. The program includes Sally Street’s “Mon Parasol” and two world 

premieres by Sonya Delwaide, “Au Revoir” and “Au Pas,” plus a restaging of “Les Patineurs,” by Artistic Director Corinne Jonas, at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $16 available from the Ballet box office 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Dances for Peace presented by the Isadora Duncan Project, Inc., at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $13 in advance, $16 at the door. For reservations call 548-2259.  

Youth Musical Theater Commons presents “Les Miserables,” performed by students of King, Longfellow, Willard, BHS, and Albany High. This school edition is shorter than the Broadway version, but not short on talent. At 7:30 p.m. in the Longfellow Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Also on Sun. May 18 at 3 p.m. Tickets at the door, $5-$8. 848-1797. http://busduse.org/lesmiz  

Cecilia Long, vocalist, at 2:30 p.m. at Walnut Square, at Vine. 204-9228. www.walnutsquarecenter.com 

Lunar Heights, Malika Madre Mana, Mother Earth, Ujima Youth Poets, music and spoken words, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Music over Murder, a con- 

cert by Hip Hop for the Soul, in tribute to the 114 lives lost in Oakland last year, at 8 p.m. at the Mandela Arts Village, 1357 5th St., Oak- 

land, behind the West Oak- 

land BART Station. 891-0247 x 19. 

Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, Celtic and old-time music at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in ad- 

vance, $18.50 at the door. 

548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kairos Youth Choir performs a musical revue featuring the music of Rogers and Hammerstein at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Montessori School Auditorium, 1581 Le Roy. Tickets are $10, children under 12 $5. 

Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble, with Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, will perform a blend of taiko music and jazz. Reception is at 5 p.m., with concert at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $25 in advance, $30 at the door. 835-2003. www.taikoarts.com 

Hausmusik presents Carnival of Florence, a program of music from late 15th and early 16th century Florence, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Advance tickets, $15 and $18, are recommended. Reservations 524-5661. 

Naked Barbies, Kevin Welch, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Kellye Gray performs at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$ 18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kofy Brown and Subteraneanz perform Hip Hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Zydeco Flames performs at 9:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

Lungfish, The Embalmers, The Shivering, Once a Hero, 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, MAY 18 

CHILDREN 

Family Show with Asheba, reggae music and stories at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $3 for children, $5 for adults. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Arguing the World, a look at the lives of some of this century’s greatest thinkers, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Iving Howe and Irwing Kristal and their controversial role in the McCarthy era, at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Com- 

munity Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Margo Stever and Monica Youn, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books, $2 donation. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com, www.poetryflash.org 

Marilyn Gordon discusses her new book, “Extra- 

ordinary Healing,” at 3:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night, at 5:30 p.m. and A Woman's Secret at 7:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theatre Children's Division and Youth Company present “Seasons,” an opportunity for dance-lovers of all ages to enjoy ballet. The program includes Sally Street’s “Mon Parasol” and two world 

premieres by Sonya Delwaide, “Au Revoir” and “Au Pas,” plus a restaging of “Les Patineurs,” by Berkeley Ballet Theater's Artistic Director Corinne Jonas, at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $16, available from the Ballet box office 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

7th Annual Jazz on 4th Street Festival, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., on 4th St., between Hearst and Virginia. Raffle prizes donated by Fourth St. merchants, Yoshi’s and others. Proceeds benefit the Berkeley High Performing Arts and the award-winning Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. Presented by KCSM/Jazz 91, 4th Street Merchants and Yoshi's. Featuring Dave Ellis Quartet, John Santos Quartet with Orestes Vilato, Johnny Nitro and the DoorSlammers, and The Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos. For information 644-3002.  

Latin American Children’s Ensemble Los Mapeches in a journey through the Amer- 

icas at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kairos Youth Choir performs a musical revue featuring the music of Rogers and Hammerstein at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Montessori School Auditorium, 1581 Le Roy. Tickets are $10, children under 12 $5. 

Wafi Gad, Luna Angel and Shashamani Soundsystem, reggae music at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

Mary Freeberg and Trio, jazz standards at 11:30 a.m. at Walnut Square, at Vine. 204-9228. www.walnutsquarecenter.com 

Pine Valley Boys, with Butch Waller, David Nelson and Herb Pederson, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door.  

548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Vocalist Molly Holm performs “Right Here, Right Now” at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

OPENINGS 

Arts First Oakland opens with exhibits by textile artist Deborah J. Hamouris; the youth artists of Art Esteem; performances by Lara Bruckmann, Ensemble Mars, Tigris, and The Bridge and Tunnel Boys, on Friday, May 16th, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison Street, Oakland. Wheelchair accessible. Admission is free, donations happily encouraged. For more information call 444-8511 x15 or email artsfirst@ 

firstoakland.org, www.artsfirstoakland.org 

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley,” a photo exhibit by the Berke- 

ley Camera Club, Berkeley High School students, and community photographers, in celebration of the City’s 125th Anniversary, on Sunday, May 18th, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley His- 

tory Center, 1931 Center St. Exhibit runs May 18 to Sept. 13. sponsored by the Berke- 

ley Historical Society, 848-0181. Admission is free.  

OTHER GALLERIES 

ACCI Gallery “Into the Fire,” A Glass Exhibition at 1652 Shattuck Ave. Nine Bay Area Masters of Glass will display a collection of hand blown treasures. April 25 - May 23. 843-2527.  

www.accigallery.com 

Graduate Theological Union Library: “The Sorrows of War,” an exhibition of prints. Through May 31. 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

Annual Quilt Show at the Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins.  

April 1 - May 14. 981-6250.

AN AGENCY IN NEED 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I am grateful to have the Berkeley Daily Planet back on the streets and on the Web to cover the local stories that the media outside our community ignores. One of those stories was City Council’s hearing on the distribution of Community Development Block Grant funds (CDBG). I was disappointed that John Geluardi’s article did not mention Jobs Consortium, one of the agencies that received the most significant cuts. 

The city manager is recommending that Jobs Consortium receive no funding for the coming year. As a staff person, I did not speak before the council, but I listened as a dozen of our clients made an eloquent case for supporting the program. Mr. Geluardi cited agencies’ lack of need or mismanagement as possible reasons for the recommended cuts. If that is the reasoning behind the loss of Jobs Consortium’s CDBG funding, no one has told us that.  

At the end of our presentation, City Councilmember Dona Spring commended us for the work we are doing in the community. The only reason we have been given is that we should be working harder to get money from private foundations. In fact, we have worked very hard to win foundation grants and have received grants in the past from foundations set up by the Clorox Company and the Haas family. Unfortunately, times are as hard on foundations now as they are on state and local governments. Shrinking stock portfolios have shrunk the amount of money that foundations can award.  

We understand that times are tough, and the staff is already doing more with less by taking significant pay cuts in February. We will do all we can to maintain the current level of services to our clients.  

Time is running out. I urge those who have benefited from our services in the past to call Mayor Bates and members of the council. Let them know how much Jobs Consortium helped you gain employment and stable housing. Without Jobs Consortium, the benefits you received will not be available to those who need us in the future. Think of what you would have done without Jobs Consortium there to help.  

Tom Yamaguchi  

• 

LONG-TERM SOLUTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In Bud Hazelkorn’s article (Daily Planet, May 9-12 edition) on the student protest in Sacramento against education cuts, Mayor Tom Bates, bidding bye-bye to the buses as they left Berkeley, “insisted” that the state needed to raise income taxes as well as vehicle license fees to meet the current shortfall.  

Bates’ failure to specify that only the top 10 percent income level and license fees for vehicles costing more than $20,000 ought to face stiffer rates makes me feel I’m hearing the same old, same old. 

The budget deficits Berkeley and the state are facing call for more long-term solutions than increasing the financial burden for middle- and lower- income earners. I propose the following: Cancel the (unneeded) Delano II prison, $124,000,000. Adopt the Legislative Analyst Office’s options making better use of parole, $375,500,000. Reduce the number of parolees returned to prison on technicalities (returned without new convictions), $888,354,177.  

These measures will save California more than $1.3 billion a year, every year. In addition, if tax loopholes that California oil companies enjoy were plugged, the state would also reap huge amounts every year. 

It’s more than time for Berkeley’s elected officials to exhibit some creative political leadership, step outside the Democratic Party line and pro-actively advocate for some fundamental reforms. If they can’t or won’t, then they are simply party hacks working to save their own jobs and status.  

Maris Arnold 

• 

LANDLORD’S EXPENSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m sure “Name Withheld” (Letters to the Editor, May 6-8) is unaware how costly his “run-down” apartment is to the owner (mortgage, water, insurance, multiple taxes and fees, and the only expense which can be delayed — maintenance). If these expenses are higher than Mr. Withheld’s rent (and they almost certainly are), the landlord is in part supporting him. People naturally resent having dependents who are not family members. 

The tenants I know who’ve had rent-controlled apartments for 20 years (including lawyers and computer programers) aren’t heard from in the local press not due to fear of their landlords, but because they are embarrassed to have people know about their incredible deals. 

Judy Johnston 

• 

TRUE MEASURE OF TESTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Lauren Kayed (Letters to the Editor, May 6-8 edition) doesn’t understand what Michael Larrick meant by “traditional scholarship” and the “psychological, social worker model of education” in his earlier opinion piece. A reading of the piece makes it perfectly obvious. 

Traditional scholarship to Mr. Larrick means the “three Rs” of the conservative educational movement: rote, repetition and regurgitation. The psychological, social worker model of education means any recognition that children are individuals who have different ways of learning and develop them at different rates. Since teachers (at least at the elementary school level) can’t help but notice that the latter is true, conservatives are constantly shopping for “teacher-proof” curricula. 

I can’t speak to Mr. Larrick’s presumptions about 100 years ago, but I do know that when I was in school in the 1940s and 1950s, fewer than half of those who entered high school in the United States graduated. In California, half of Latino students had been pushed out by the eighth grade. U.S. students consistently lagged behind those of other industrialized countries in math and science. 

Unfortunately, every attempt to correct this has been vehemently opposed by the rote learning fans. When math teachers developed a curriculum which would teach children vital estimating skills, the regurgitators screamed that our children were being taught “to guess” rather than memorize formulae. Kids from countries like South Korea and Japan where they teach “guessing” naturally do better on math tests than rote-bound Americans. 

The “drill and kill” testing ideology has two foundations. The first is that learning consists of mastering a body of received truth and the function of teachers is to memorize that truth, then pass it on to their students so that they can regurgitate it onto test papers. This essentially religious idea is joined to the 18th-century enlightenment notion that children are just small adults, differing from us only in that they don’t know as much. The function of the schools is to fill them with measured doses of knowledge. The function of tests is to measure whether the schools are pumping the goo in fast enough. 

In reality, of course, what tests like the SAT measure best is how good you are at taking tests. (I speak as one who scored in the 99th percentile nationally on both parts of the SAT I. Give me multiple choices, and I can usually pass tests in subjects about which I know nothing.) 

Tom Condit 

• 

TRAGEDY AT HOME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

During the past two months we lost over 200 Americans who fought for freedom in Iraq. This is a tragedy; one life is too much to loose. But the price of freedom and world peace is high, and we must always be diligent and ready to fight for liberty, freedom and world peace. 

What is even more tragic is the loss of young American lives that occurred right here in the Berkeley-Oakland Congressional District of Dellums and Barbara Lee. During the past 12 years, since the Gulf War, we have lost 1,723 Americans to brutal homicides right here in our own neighborhoods. 

Barbara Lee, Don Perata, Loni Hancock and Tom Bates ignore this tragic brutality and badmouth President Bush and rave about our 200 American losses in Iraq, but they don’t give a damn about our brutal 1,723 murders right here in our own neighborhoods. I’m afraid to go out at night, while our local politicians do nothing except condemn President Bush, who has overwhelmingly proved himself to be one of our greatest presidents and who will be known as one of the greatest world leaders of this century. 

Ella Jensen 

El Cerrito 

• 

ALTERNATIVE NEWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When George Bush was selected president, it was observed by some that only twice in our history have a father and son become president of the United States. I found myself cynically thinking, “Yes, the Adams father and son at the beginning of our democracy and the Bush father and son at the end of it.” 

Remember that the first casualty of war is truth, so beware of propaganda out of Washington, D.C. For a true alternative to the corporate-owned media, we in Berkeley are lucky to have listener-sponsored, free-speech radio, KPFA, 94.1 FM. Try catching “Democracy Now” at 6 and 9 a.m. and “Flashpoint” at 5 p.m. for a different news exposure. 

Ann Middleton 

Albany

The Planning Commission on Wednesday will consider amendments to the city’s zoning ordinance that would make it easier for property owners to create accessory dwelling units, also known as secondary, or in-law, units.  

Under the proposed amendments, developers would no longer be required to get a use permit to build accessory dwelling units in most residentially zoned areas that conform to a certain set of standards. 

The city is required to make the changes under a state law, passed in 2002, that was intended to increase the number of secondary units throughout the state. The city is also compelled to ease the establishment of accessory residential units under its own general plan, which contains a policy to encourage property owners to develop secondary units on properties with single-family homes as a way to increase housing stock. 

Under the current system, property owners seeking to establish a secondary unit must get approval from the Zoning Adjustment Board, which determines whether to approve a use permit after conducting a public hearing and considering whether to approve the project based on both subjective and objective factors. The new ordinance would simply require an issuance of a zoning certificate and a building permit if the developer has complied with all of the standards outlined in the ordinance. 

Those standards include requirements that the total floor area of the secondary unit not exceed 25 percent of the main dwelling unit and that the total floor area of the secondary unit be no less than 300 square feet and no more than 640 square feet. The law would also make it illegal for a property owner to sell any part of the accessory unit separate from the main unit or for accessory units to be built on streets that lack sufficient room for emergency response, as specified in the California Fire Code. 

Secondary units that do not comply with any of the base standards may still get approved through a slightly more restrictive process. In that case, an officer of the zoning department must issue an administrative use permit which, unlike a use permit, does not automatically trigger a public hearing, but does require the approving zoning officer to post his or her decision in the neighborhood. Neighbors are then free to appeal the administrative use permit and demand a public hearing. 

The ordinance also eliminates the requirement that a developer who wants to convert a portion of a main unit into an accessory unit, thereby reducing the floor space of the main unit, get the permission of any tenant occupying the main unit. 

Senior planner Janet Homrighausen said the city has no estimate of how many housing units the new ordinance will create. “Most cities have yet to relax their requirements and still require use permits for accessory units,” she said. “So we have no other examples to look to to come up with an idea of how many units will be created.” 

The Planning Commission is also scheduled to discuss proposed revisions to the Southside Plan, which specifies the city’s long-term policies and goals for housing, land use, traffic, urban design, economic development and traffic in the area south of UC Berkeley campus. The plan is a joint project of the city and the university, which owns about one-third of the land in the southside area. 

The plan was approved by the commission last June and was set to undergo the required environmental impact review, but has since been stalled due to the university’s reluctance to sign on to certain aspects of the plan and because of the city’s own lack of funds. 

At the meeting on Wednesday, commissioners will respond to a letter sent by Thomas Lollini, assistant vice chancellor of physical and environmental planning, which requests that the city delete a portion of the plan that calls for the consideration of a proposal to reduce or eliminate automobile traffic on Bancroft, Telegraph and Durant to help speed up AC Transit bus flow along those corridors and calm traffic for the benefit of bicyclists and pedestrians. The university is also taking issue with a part of the plan that says the university should make housing development the highest development priority for the southside neighborhood. 

In addition, the letter asks the plan be amended to allow for the expansion of the areas in the Southside that are zoned for office use. 

The commission is also expected to respond to a letter from staff dated March 26 that states that the city no longer has sufficient funds to finance an environmental impact report for the plan, which has been in the works for five years. 

The Planning Commission meets Wednesday, May 14, at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St.

In a prior column that ran on the Daily Planet Web site, I wrote about the genesis of state law mandating an easier local process for the development of in-law units in single-family homes, and about some of the factors to be considered in Berkeley as we implement the state-mandated changes. 

The Planning Department and Planning Commission, working with unusual speed (to meet the purported state deadline of July 1, 2003), have produced a draft of proposed changes and are holding a public hearing on May 14.  

Following are some comments and questions with respect to the proposed changes for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). 

Under current zoning rules, all habitable accessory space that is rented, contains cooking facilities, or is used as a dwelling unit is effectively subject to the use permit/public hearing process. Under the proposed ADU rules, the standard of review will, for the most part, move down to an administrative use permit (AUP)/zoning officer level. There will be some instances when all that is involved is a by-right zoning certificate (issued with the building permit). 

However, under the current Berkeley permitting process, the AUP itself is potentially subject to appeal, ZAB review, public hearings and City Council. But, given the existence, mandate and direction of the mayor’s Permitting Task Force, the AUP process may well change in the direction of little or no opportunity for appeal. 

Parking! Under current ADU rules, one goal of the strict set of parking requirements is to avoid the worsening of parking problems and to reduce the amount of on-street parking. But larger city parking policy is in a cycle of change and we have no way now of knowing how the larger city parking policy will interact with old and new ADU rules. For example, are we going to establish auto limits per residential dwelling or per registered driver? Are we going to encourage more parking off-street and in garages? And so on. The proposed ADU rules call for a determination by the fire department that the new ADU is located on an “unconstricted street.” What does this mean now and what will it mean in the future? Hypothetically, we could ban all cars, then all streets would be unconstricted. Or we could force everyone to actually park in their garages—but then this would diminish the opportunity for garage conversion to an ADU! Although I personally support some reasonable limit on the number of cars per household, my nightmare is the elimination of a homeowner’s right to either own a car or to park it gratis in front of their highly taxed home. 

While the proposed ADU procedure for approval of “tandem parking” is explicit, there is also a provision for a complete “parking waiver.” I believe that a parking “waiver” is an entirely new ADU concept and one not required by AB1866. This certainly needs more discussion. 

The draft ADU rules appear to contain no reference to any findings of “detriment” to neighbors. Does this mean that an ADU is now entirely exempt from review of detriment (i.e. impairment of light and air for neighbors)? There is also no larger reference or citywide policy context for the ADUs. For example, will the new ADUs be subject to regular rental safety inspections or simply treated as a private adjunct to the private home? What about rent control and ADA requirements? 

I have noted that the state Legislature is having some second thoughts about the various new laws limiting local control of “development” and promoting state-imposed superceding guidelines, all in the name of “affordable housing” and all supported by a cozy but not necessarily unholy alliance of developers and advocates for increased population density. In fact, the timetable for the new ADU rules may have been moved back by another year. This should be carefully researched by our planning personnel before we rush pell-mell into new rules.  

Barbara Gilbert is a Berkeley resident and occasional contributor to the Planet’s Commentary Page.

The City Council will hold a regular meeting for the first time since it began its spring break on April 8. The critical item on the agenda is the budget.  

The city manager on Monday submitted his proposed budget for fiscal year 2004 and 2005, and council will have to approve reduced grant allocations for as many as 93 nonprofit programs that serve the city’s most vulnerable. The council will also consider another request for money to redesign the troubled Harrison Street Skate Park, which has been closed since January, and a recommendation to amend the city’s election law to allow larger campaign contribution limits. 

Bad News Budget 

City Manager Weldon Rucker has completed his proposed biennial budget for 2004 and 2005. The budget attempts to deal with a $4.7 million deficit by not filling approximately 23 staff positions (most of which are currently vacant) and increasing parking ticket fines.  

City Council will hold two public hearings, May 20 and June 17, prior to approving a final budget on June 24.  

According to Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the budget was designed to be flexible because the city won’t know how much state funding to rely on until the state Assembly approves its budget, which might not be until the fall.  

The budget deficit has long been expected, and the city manager began working with the City Council, city commissions and labor unions as early as last January.  

In his draft budget, Rucker braces the city for additional cuts facing staff and programs next year when the estimated deficit is expected to soar to $7.6 million. 

“My proposed budget addresses the immediate fiscal year 2004 funding gap and potential impacts from the state budget. However, many more difficult choices lie ahead as we look to address the remaining projected fiscal year 2005 shortfall,” he writes. 

Council to approve grants 

City Council will approve about $8.1 million in federal, state and local moneys for as many as 93 nonprofits. Due to the economic downturn and sagging state and local budgets, available grant money was reduced this year by more than $700,000. 

During a public hearing last week about 70 people asked the council not to make reductions to the nonprofit programs.  

Skate Park  

The Parks and Waterfront Department is asking for $57,000 to hire Geomatrix Consulting, Inc. to develop a permanent solution to prevent the carcinogen hexavalent chromium from seeping into the popular but troubled Harrison Street Skate Park.  

The skate park has been plagued by problems relating to Hexavalent Chromium, or chrome 6, since construction began in 2000. Work was halted on the project in November 2000, when chrome 6 was discovered in groundwater that had seeped into nine-foot-deep holes being dug for the skate bowls. The city was saddled with hazardous waste treatment costs as well as the cost of hiring groundwater engineers to design a concrete base that would prevent chrome 6 contaminated groundwater from seeping into the bowls.  

Construction began anew and the skate park opened to rave reviews in September 2002. However the cost had risen from $380,000 to about $750,000. 

Then in January, after a heavy rain, the city discovered small amounts of chrome 6 in the base of the park’s concrete bowls. The park was immediately closed to the public and has remained closed since.  

Revising the election process 

Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniack are asking the city manager to explore revisions to the city’s election process. One suggestion is increasing campaign contribution limits. Currently individuals and organizations are limited to $250 contributions to individual candidates or ballot measure committees, according to the Berkeley Election Reformation Act of 1974. 

According to the recommendation, the cost of political campaigns has soared in the last decade and there has been no inflation adjustment since 1974. 

The recommendation does not include new contribution limits but suggests allowing different limits for council district elections and citywide elections. 

Saving the Bancroft vendors 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington is recommending that a license application deadline for two food cart vendors who operate on Oxford Street at Telegraph Avenue be extended through December. 

Currently there are four vendors who sell lunches from rollaway carts.  

City Council approved an ordinance in February that began to phase the carts out. Only two were approved for licenses last year, and the two remaining carts are currently operating without a license. If approved, the two unlicensed carts would be allowed to operate until the end of the year, but it is uncertain if they would qualify for licensing under the new ordinance. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which sits on the hill overlooking Berkeley is planning to build a six-story, 94,000-square-foot molecular foundry in Strawberry Canyon for the study of nanoscience. If such a construction was to take place elsewhere in the city, we would all be pouring over plans, discussing it with neighbors, attending public hearings, and writing to our mayor and councilmembers to make sure that the concerns of increased traffic and noise, environmental impacts and infrastructure degradation were adequately addressed. 

But this has not happened. There has been very little public notice on this specific development, and even less fair public process. 

The molecular foundry is not a recent idea of LBNL or the Department of Energy, yet Berkeley residents only learned of it this past winter. The draft report on the development was dated Dec. 9, 2002, and was received by the Panoramic Hill Neighborhood Association in mid-December.  

The lab’s press release was dated Dec. 18, announcing a public comment period from Dec. 10 to Jan. 21. During much of this time the Berkeley City Council was on winter recess, and the public remained in the dark about the project. 

The lab’s first request to meet with neighbors of the adjacent Panoramic Hill was on Jan. 13. The lab’s first presentation to the City Council was on Jan. 14.  

This is inadequate public notice, and the inadequacy is compounded by the fact that the lab insisted they did not have to hold any formal public hearing on the environmental impacts of the proposed development. A building of this size is a construction that merits public review. The potential impacts, from traffic and noise to environmental degradation in the canyon could be severe. The public and the city should have been working with the lab on this for years, not against it for months. 

The lab’s Dec. 9 “Draft Tiered Initial Study and Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration” was available on the lab’s Web site, but not the documents that were the basis for the “tiered” report. Compounding the problem, these underlying documents were old and out-of-date environmental impact reports. In addition to violating California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, this lack of access to documentation, and lack of current documentation is inappropriate public notice, and unfair public process. 

Given the above problems with notice and access to documents, how much do the people of Berkeley know about the proposed molecular foundry development, and how much should we know? It is too late at this point to stop or move the molecular foundry. The project is going ahead without an environmental impact report. 

What can be done in the future to help mend the relationship between the lab and the community? How can we become better neighbors? Here are some ideas: 

As promised several years ago, the lab will produce its 2002 — yes, 2002 — long range development plan, with adequate notice and public comment and input from both city staff and neighbors. This should give neighbors some advance warning as to future developments, and perhaps the chance to participate early on in the planning process. 

On the molecular foundry development, the lab will work with environmentalists and creek advocates to design a building that respects the environmental integrity of Strawberry Canyon Watershed, and will continue this process on future developments. Another design idea would be to incorporate green building techniques to enhance energy conservation. 

The whole hill area where the lab sits has evolved into an industrial park. That doesn’t sound too bad for a cash-strapped city needing a healthy business environment. But the lab and UC Berkeley pay no property taxes to the City of Berkeley. Another wish would be for the lab and the university to incorporate a cost of doing business into their federal grants as a payment to the city in lieu of taxes. This is not a novel idea, and is done by other universities. 

The lab will work with neighbors and the city to develop a public transportation system that will mitigate the impact of increased car traffic through our neighborhoods. This could include shuttle buses from locations outside of Berkeley. 

Another way to be a good neighbor would be to use local labor and local companies in construction projects, and even if they are not the lowest bidder, factor in the benefits to Berkeley in the bid. The revenues to Berkeley may just come in handy when our aging infrastructure, the sewers and roads that the lab requires, needs money for repairs.  

The lab should be encouraged to get active in our public schools. Given the talent at UC Berkeley and LBNL, Berkeley should have the most advantaged science and math students in the country. Assistance should not be limited to bringing in the best and the brightest as interns. The challenge is to get all students excited about math and science. How many of the lab’s glossy posters on genomics were distributed to the science classrooms at Berkeley High? Don’t worry, I took two from the lab’s May 8 presentation, and will get them to the AP biology teacher tomorrow. 

The wish list could go on. It is essentially a plea to be a good neighbor. Neighbors have a right to know.  

Anne Wagley is the calendar editor for the Berkeley Daily Planet. She serves on the City of Berkeley’s Housing Advisory Commission and Peace and Justice Commission.

Critics of the UC Berkeley decision to bar summer students from SARS-affected countries said Monday that the university did not go far enough this weekend when it partially lifted the ban. 

“We are pleased that the university had a willingness to re-evaluate its wholesale ban,” said Diane Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action. “We still take issue with what amounts to exclusion based on national origin.” 

University officials say they hope to lift the ban entirely as the summer progresses, but can only do so if they identify enough special housing to isolate students who show signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome.  

“It isn’t as easy as some people have suggested,” said UC Berkeley spokesman Marie Felde. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that any traveler from a SARS-afflicted area who gets a fever or suffers from respiratory problems within 10 days of arrival be isolated until the illness passes.  

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl announced Saturday that the university would allow an estimated 80 students from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to attend its Summer Sessions program, which provides a range of university courses for academic credit. An initial group of 30 Asian students will arrive May 27, with the remaining 50 cycling through over the course of the summer. 

The university has set aside housing on its Clark Kerr campus, four blocks south of the main campus, for isolation, if needed. 

UC Berkeley, the only U.S. university to ban students from SARS-affected areas, is still blocking about 500 students from attending English as a Second Language courses that begin in July at UC Extension.  

Civil rights advocates say the policy is contributing to an unwarranted SARS hysteria in the United States. 

“I think it is contributing to a disproportionate level of panic,” said Ivy Lee, president of the Sacramento-based Chinese American Political Action Committee. 

An April 29 public opinion survey by the Harvard School of Public Health found that the SARS story has impacted American behavior. Seventeen percent of citizens who have traveled outside of the United States in the past year have avoided international air travel recently due to reports about SARS, according to the survey, and 14 percent are avoiding Asian restaurants or stores. 

But Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis with the Harvard School of Public Health, said the survey shows Americans are relatively well informed about the disease’s limited impact on the United States. 

Blendon said the UC Berkeley policy, in this environment, has probably had a mild effect on public opinion.  

“You hear Berkeley and it heightens their concern,” he said. “People say it’s a smart university and they might know something here. But, at the moment, people know that there aren’t a lot of cases.” 

As of Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) had reported 64 SARS cases in the United States and no deaths. Worldwide, WHO reported 7,447 cases and 168 deaths. 

The Alameda County Health Care Services Agency reported four suspected and two probable SARS cases Monday, none of them in Berkeley. 

Felde said the university is exploring all the options for special, isolated housing, including off-campus facilities owned by other entities.  

Part of the problem with on-campus housing, she said, is that the university must supply not only a room, but also a bathroom, for each person who may be infected with SARS. Many of UC Berkeley’s dormitories, she said, have only one bathroom per floor. 

Public health experts have split on the UC Berkeley policy, first announced May 2. Some, including Berkeley’s Director of Public Health Dr. Poki Namkung, have backed the university’s decision. Others, like Diana Bonta, director of the California Department of Health Services, have argued that it goes too far. 

University of Michigan professor of epidemiology Arnold S. Monto said the issue is a difficult one for public entities like UC Berkeley which must weigh complicated medical, legal and public relations issues when it comes to making decisions on SARS. 

“The risk of an individual coming who is incubating SARS is relatively low,” he said. “On the other side, one case is really going to hurt you.” 

CORRECTION 

A May 6-8 story (“Doyle House Set to Fade Into History”) stated that Patrick Kennedy was formerly the president of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. In fact, he is a former member of the board of directors of the organization. 

A meeting sponsored by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) was nearly derailed before it began Thursday night when a group of vocal citizens protested the meeting’s format, which they called a “dog and pony show.” 

The meeting, which was billed as “A Conversation about Lab Activities,” was scheduled at the request of City Council to inform the public about LBNL’s plans to construct a six-story, 94,000-square-foot molecular foundry in Strawberry Canyon. 

The construction of the foundry is estimated at $85 million, which will be funded by the Department of Energy. The foundry will be devoted to the study of nanoscience, the manipulation of materials at the molecular level. 

The UC Regents approved the molecular foundry in March, and opponents contend they did so with insufficient public process and without an environmental impact report (EIR), which would have required a thorough examination of the plan and more lab response to community concerns. 

Prior to the meeting, which was held in the Haas Clubhouse, about 25 opponents of the foundry held a press conference to call attention to what they described as LBNL’s unwillingness to include the public during the approval process. They also raised concerns about consequences of nanotechnology research. 

Attending the press conference were members of the Community Environmental Advisory Group, the Peace and Justice Commission, the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste and City Councilmember Dona Spring.  

Lab officials argued that the environmental review that they did complete, known as a mitigated negative declaration, was sufficient and that the public had ample opportunity to comment on the foundry project prior to its approval.  

To supplement the meeting, which began at 7:30 p.m., a series of information booths were set up to provide information about various lab projects such as energy efficiency research, canyon vegetation management and science education programs. The meeting’s focus, however, was the construction of the foundry and the nanoscience research that will be carried out there.  

The evening began with the presentation of science achievement awards to three Berkeley High School students by Mayor Tom Bates and LBNL Director Charles Shank. Then, as discussion got under way, the proceedings were abruptly stopped by foundry opponents who demanded an opportunity to ask lab officials about the project. After several minutes of confrontation, the lab’s Community Relations Director Terry Powell assured the group they would have the chance to speak later during a question and answer period. 

During the question and answer period, foundry opponent Janice Thomas expressed her concerns about lack of public process and the lab’s apparent reluctance to perform an ERI. 

Her charges were challenged by LBNL attorney Nancy Ware. 

“We made the negative declaration available on the Web and at public libraries and we extended the public comment period to 58 days when an EIR only requires 40,” Ware said. “An EIR would have been absurd, especially when we have an environmental document that says we don’t need one.” 

Several people challenged Ware on the need for an EIR, saying the six-story foundry will have a huge impact on Strawberry Canyon, which is a habitat for the endangered Alameda Whip Snake and a watershed to city creeks. 

“So, sue us,” Ware said.

Berkeley’s newest theater group, the two-year-old Transparent Theater, is closing its second season with the world premier of “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” by Tom Clyde. The multi-talented — and clearly energetic — Clyde is also the theater’s artistic director and co-founder, and has directed three out of four of the season’s plays, including the current one. 

The theater sees its mission as turning out “innovative, unusual, thought-provoking world premier theater,” according to their publicity handout. “This is a theater where you are free to think, again.” (There are some of us who may be a bit surprised to find out that we haven’t had that freedom previously.) However, despite the vigor and enthusiasm with which Clyde and his co-founder, Coley Lally, are addressing both the establishment of a new theater and, apparently, a new concept of theater, it may not be surprising if they don’t always hit the mark.  

This looks like the case with the current production, Clyde’s adaptation of Woolf’s second novel, “Night and Day.” Despite the success of movies based on Woolf herself, there’s a good argument that her work is just not fertile material for theater. The novel form is inherently much more akin to cinema than it is to the stage. (Just think how the two media differ in their limits on the presentation of space and time.) And Woolf is a particularly multilayered novelist.  

The cards were stacked against Clyde in the first place.  

It isn’t necessary to read much more than a few pages from Woolf’s novel to see how much more is developed there than can be presented on stage. Despite the efforts of some fine actors (Lucy Owen and Chloe Bronzan give particularly effective performances) the play is curiously unmoving. In his efforts to boil Woolf’s novel down to a structure for the stage, Clyde seems to have wandered into a form that could be described as an unfunny farce. The whole second act focuses on who will marry which person — and if one doesn’t work out, then another one will do quite nicely. And within a couple of minutes, too. 

But it isn’t funny. It can’t be. Woolf isn’t a funny writer. Clyde is simply attempting an impossible task.  

The switching back and forth between potential spouses is done so rapidly, and so casually, that it soon becomes the point of the play’s action, a technique of the farce that the play fails to deliver. 

In fact, the only sense of any real warmth between male and female in “Night and Day” occurs in a brief unelaborated scene between two cousins.  

It would be less than fair to fail to mention that the play contains some traces of early feminist thinking. Lucy Owen’s character, Katherine Hilberry, conceals her interest in mathematics as if it were a shameful secret; she plans her life around her marital prospects despite her lack of enthusiasm for the men in her life. Chloe Bronzan’s character, Mary Datchet, is forced to work by her economic circumstances and finds it a satisfying way of life. But the theme is not well developed and the play’s focus remains on the various efforts at romance. 

The technical aspects of the production present some interesting issues. The theater’s resident set designer, Anne Goldschmidt, has extremely long cords hanging from the top of the semi-circular set. At the end of a scene, they are frequently moved by one of the actors and tied down at a different place. The immediate explanation would seem to be that they designate different locations for the ensuing scenes. But there is enough inconsistency to suggest there may be some other meaning intended.  

The explanation given for Goldschmidt’s rounded set is that it is to “emphasize the characters’ sense of being watched at all times as they forge their identities in a world gone awry.” 

But, then, why does the play feel like nothing more than an unsuccessful comedy? 

I didn’t intend to raise butterflies when I planted the fennel. It was decorative enough, and figured in a few Italian recipes I had. It did entirely too well, propagating like crazy and muscling into the rest of the garden; and it tended to get woody and inedible before I harvested it. Weeding was complicated by its tenacious rootmass. But every year it produced a fine crop of anise swallowtails. 

The green-and-black-banded caterpillars showed up early in the summer, chomping away on the fennel plants. I don’t recall having seen the chrysalis stage, but at least some went through their metamorphosis in my garden: I’d see freshly emerged adults clinging to the living room windowsill while their black-and-yellow wings dried and expanded. Then they’d be off in search of mates, which is pretty much the whole agenda of a butterfly’s brief airborne existence. 

Hilltops are an anise swallowtail’s equivalent of singles bars. Males claim a likely spot and wait for females to wander by. They’re picky about their location; some have found their way back to their preferred summit from up to three miles away after being experimentally transferred by entomologists. “Hilltopping” males pursue passing females but ignore other males, who have a distinctive perfume-like smell. 

After mating, the females head for the nearest fennel patch to lay their round, cream-colored eggs. There are lots of those patches to choose from. A Mediterranean native, fennel (also called finocchio, like the late North Beach club) came to California with Italian kitchen gardeners and found the climate congenial. You’ll see it in head-high stands in vacant lots and on open slopes and roadsides. 

What did the swallowtail larvae do for food before there was fennel? They ate its wild relatives, plants called umbellifers in the family that includes parsley, celery and carrots: plants like cow parsnip, lovage, rangers button, yampah and lomatium. The native umbellifers grew in a variety of habitats, and there wasn’t a lot of competition for them from other plant eaters. 

In the ancient arms race between plants and insects, the umbellifers evolved chemical defenses. The plants contain toxins called furanocoumarins, lethal to most insects. But a few species of swallowtail butterflies developed an enzyme that detoxifies the chemicals. Other substances in the plants actually stimulate the caterpillars’ appetites: a drop of anisic aldehyde will give them the raging munchies. 

So when fennel came along, it tasted right and the butterflies switched to the new host. Cultivated fennel has less of a chemical load than wild umbellifers, and the caterpillars, not having to counter the toxins, grew up to 25 percent faster. And the rapid spread of fennel gave the swallowtail access to new habitats, like urban gardens and weed patches. It’s one of the rare cases of a native species benefiting from changes we’ve made to the environment. 

There’s a downside, though. To a caterpillar, the anisic aldehyde in a fennel leaf and the methyl chavicol in a citrus leaf taste just about the same. Anise swallowtails hopped from fennel patch to fennel patch in the coastal lowlands until they hit the orange groves of the San Joaquin Valley. Here was a bonanza of tasty stuff. Although they haven’t reached plague proportions, swallowtail caterpillars are now considered a pest by citrus growers.  

In the Bay Area there’s definitely fennel to spare, so we can enjoy these big showy butterflies without worrying about their economic impact (unless there’s a Meyer lemon or other hardy citrus in your yard). I’m not in the swallowtail business any more, having moved away from my ineradicable fennel. And the butterflies haven’t found my kaffir lime tree yet.

The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) presents Summer Noon Concerts 2003, a unique series of nine free concerts, Thursdays at noon in June & July, beginning June 5th. From Rhythm & Blues to Brazilian capoeira, these concerts at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza (Shattuck Ave. at Center St.) are a showcase of the culturally rich performing arts in Berkeley. This outdoor summer celebration of Berkeley-based musicians & dancers is just a small sampling of the performing arts happening nightly in clubs, cafes, schools, theaters and concert halls in Downtown Berkeley. 

On Thursday, June 5th, our concert series opens with Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut performing some of the best in R & B, with a splash of jazz and a solid helping of the blues. Soulful Strut appears regularly at many Bay Area nightspots such Enricos Sidewalk Café and Restaurant. 

On Thursday, July 31st, our concert series closes with SoVoSó, a highly visual and imaginative a capella ensemble that sings a compelling mix of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, world, pop, and improvisational music. The ensemble is made up of former members of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra, and McFerrin says, “SoVoSó is tight, soulful, and a whole lotta fun.” 

This event is easily accessible by transit and there is one hour free parking daily from 9 am to 5 pm in Center Street Garage. Seating will be available. 

For a complete schedule of entertainers for the Downtown Berkeley Summer Noon Concerts 2003 visit the Downtown Berkeley Association website at www.downtownberkeley.org. 

Nonprofit and city agencies who had been dreading budget cuts for months felt the first sting of the state budget crisis Tuesday at a special City Council public hearing. A long line of nonprofit advocates lamented funding reductions for programs that serve the community’s most vulnerable people. 

The city manager, after consultation with three city commissions, had announced prior to the meeting his suggested grant and general fund allocations for the 96 agencies that are vying for $8.1 million in federal, state and local grant money — over $700,000 less than what was available last year. Altogether the nonprofits applied for $12 million. 

City Council Chambers was filled to capacity with nonprofit staff and beneficiaries who came to plead with the council to reconsider recommended program cuts. Supporters included recovering substance abusers, teenagers in Twilite Basketball jerseys and low-income seniors who rely on food programs. 

City Council has the option to reallocate some of the funding recommendations before approving them during the next council meeting this Tuesday. However, the council typically doesn’t make significant changes to the city manager’s recommendations. 

City Manager Weldon Rucker and representatives from the commissions on Housing Advisory, Human Welfare, Community Actions, and the Homeless said how difficult it was to make cuts on programs that have been valuable to the community.  

Mayor Tom Bates said he had to make tough decisions during his 20 years in the state Assembly but that this was the first time he had to look into the faces of those who would suffer the consequences. 

“In the Assembly, budget cuts seem more academic,” he said. “To see the parade of people who came to talk about the pain they will feel from the cuts, right up close and personal, it was very tough.”  

Many of the nonprofits received the same or slightly less funding than they did last year. Other programs received cuts based on need or because of poor management. The recommendations emphasized the need to maintain homeless services. 

No new programs were funded other than critical homeless services and other high priority programs that requested one-time funding. 

The Coalition for Alternatives in Mental Health (CAMH), which has one of the city’s oldest drop-in centers, was recommended to be cut by $13,500 from the $88,500 it received last year. According to the City Manager’s Office, the cut was recommended because the organization has been operating without a permanent director for the last two years and therefore was determined to be “unstable.” 

According to CAMH Interim Director Emmitt Hutson, the cut likely will result in reduced hours of service. 

Catherine Heath told the Council on Tuesday that she has been sober for over two years thanks to CAMH and challenged the city manager’s assessment of the program.  

“I’ve been there every day for the last three years and I don’t see it being ‘unstable,’” she said. “I know that I am not unstable anymore because of CAMH’s drop-in center.” 

Hutson said the agency has continued to function while trying to find a permanent director. He also expressed a common frustration: “When the people with mental disabilities need us the most, we’re asked to take cuts,” he said. 

Other nonprofits that received significant cuts were Berkeley Youth Alternatives, a multi-service provider in central Berkeley; Berkeley Food and Housing, whose Quarter Meal Hot Dinner program was cut by nearly half, and the New Light Senior Center, which serves over 15,000 meals a year and was cut by 10 percent.  

COMMUNITY MEETINGS 

FRIDAY, MAY 9 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series 

“Saving the Planet,” with Michael H. O’Malley, Publisher, Berkeley Daily Planet. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

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

548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. 496-6000, ext.135. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship www.bpf.org 

Johan Galtung, Norwegian peace researcher and mediator, will conduct a day-long workshop on “Peaceful Conflict Transformation” at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Pre-registration required, call 232-4493. Galtung will give a free lecture, “New Approaches to Peace Studies” at 7:30 p.m. in 155 Dwinelle Hall, on the UC Campus. 

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

May Day Celebration, a benefit for the Revolutionary Worker newspaper, with food, poetry and speeches, at 7 p.m. at The Humanist Hall, 390 27th St between Tele- 

graph and Broadway. Dona- 

tion $5-10 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Sponsored by May Day Committee, 848-1196.  

SATURDAY, MAY 10 

Annual Letter Carriers’ Food Drive in support of Alameda County Community Food Bank. If you receive a post card about the food drive, please leave a bag of non-perishable food by your mailbox for letter carriers to pick up. Food can also be dropped off at Berkeley Main, Berkeley DDU, Station A, and Berkeley Elmwood Post Offices. For more information visit ww.accfb. 

org or call 800-870-FOOD. 

Thousand Oaks School 28th Annual Carnival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 840 Colusa Ave. near Solano. Play games of skill for all ages, from Vegi-roulette to Pie-in-the-Face! You could win a “Flower Power” quilt in the raffle contest, or an award-winning cake at our cake walk. Have wonderful homemade Mexican corn and chicken tostadas for lunch, or even pizza and cotton candy! Thousand Oaks School welcomes the whole community to come have some good old-fashioned fun! Call 841-1445 for more information.  

Kids’ Garden Club: Farm Animals, for ages 7 - 12, from 2 - 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 non-residents. For information call 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tours: “Fourth Street Tour and Spenger’s History,” led by Denny Abrams. 10 a.m. $5 members, $10 non-members. For reservations call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

Bike Day at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, with programs on traditional and practical bicycles for transportation and shipping, bike repair and bike safety. From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Center St., at MLK, Jr. Way, sponsored by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, the Sierra Club, and the Ecology Center. 549-7433. 

Green Design for Everyday People, a discussion of the process of green design and how we all can have beautiful living and working spaces that are not toxic to ourselves or our environment. Topics will include cleaners, paints, sealers, furnishings, flooring, energy efficient systems and products. Bring a rough plan of your space if possible. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. Call to pre-register. $10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-2220 x233.  

Take This Job and Shove It, a film on workers with  

Johnny Paycheck sound-track at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

The Great War Society will hold its monthly meeting, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. The topic will be “Hol- 

lywood Goes to War," presented by Andrew Melomet. 527-7118. 

SUNDAY, MAY 11 

Berkeley Architectural  

Heritage House Tour 

"Tamalpais and Shasta" 

from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring twelve houses in one of Berkeley's earliest subdivisions, created in 1905 with artistic, intellectual, and conservation-minded residents in mind. There will be a garden reception at one of the houses. Tickets for the self-guided House Tour and Reception are $25 for BAHA members and their guests and $30 for general admission. Tickets will also be sold on the day of the tour at a table on Euclid Avenue at Bay View Place. For reservations, please call the BAHA office at 841-2242 or 841-1055. www.berkeleyheritage.com/2003springhousetour.html 

Mothers’ Day Tea at the Botanical Garden, food and music in a peaceful setting. Seatings 1 - 3 p.m. Cost is  

$30, Members $20, children under 12, $10. UC Botanical Garden, Centennial Drive, To register, call 643-2755. 

Mothers’ Day Peace Cele- 

bration, join in prayers and reflections on peace from different faith traditions, with music, poetry, and activities for children, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in MLK, Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by Wo- 

men for Peace, Code Pink, Ecumenical Peace Institute, Gray Panthers, among many others. 415-255-7291. 

Planting the Seeds of Hope and Cooperation in Israel and Palestine Honor the earth and Mothers'Day to re-commit ourselves to working for harmony between Israelis and Palestinians by planting seeds at Cedar/Rose Park, two blocks west of Sacramento St. from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Co-sponsored by the Trees of Hope Committee, Bay Area Women in Black, 

A Jewish Voice for Peace, Kehilla Synagogue School, and Brit Tzedek. 

Is Hope an Option? A discussion with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Executive Director of the Jerusalem-based Rabbis for Human Rights at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley/Richmond Jewish 

Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

MONDAY, MAY 12 

Berkeley Partners for Parks General Meeting, with a presentation by UC students on their designs for the Santa Fe Right of Way, at 7 p.m. at the City of Berkeley Corporation Yard, 1326 Allston Way. mail@bpfp.org 

Writers Group discusses how to get an agent with a panel of agents including B.J. Roberts, Amy Rennert, and Mark Lee at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Cop Watch meets at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Berkeley Biodiesel Collective Business Meeting for collective members and those interested in making bio- 

diesel welcome. At 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center Recycling Trailers, 1231 2nd St. 594-4000 x107. biobauerx@hotmail.com. 

TUESDAY, MAY 13 

Constitutional Rights Teach-In, covering the Patriot Act and the proposed Patriot Act II. Nancy Nadel, Oakland City Council, Keynote Speaker. At 6:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 685 Fourteenth St., Oakland. 533-8358. 

Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling, a free class on how to detect and remedy  

Lead hazards in your home, offered by Alameda County lead Poisoning Prevention Program, at 6 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 567-8280.  

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

eraclub.org 

Personal and Professional Portfolios, a brown bag career talk with Mary Robbins, noon to 1 p.m, at YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way. 848-6370.  

Poetry Book Club, meets at the Claremont Branch Library, at 7:30 p.m. at 2940 Benvenue Ave. This month we will discuss the works of Rumi, the 13th century poet and mystic. 981-6280. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 

South Berkeley Mural Project. Community members in South Berkeley are coming together to create a neighborhood mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Meetings are held every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204.  

Youth and the Military: Your Rights & Your Options, a panel discussion with veterans, conscientious objectors, conscientious objector counselors, and a school representative followed by questions from high school youth. A light dinner will be served. Contributions are welcome. From 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., at 27th St., Oakland. For information call Ying, 841-4755. www.PNVRC.net.  

Uplifting Spirit through Education, panel discussion with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spiritual theologian Matthew Fox, and other thinkers in an evening of discussion on education and how to empower youth. Sponsored by the International Association for Human Values. At Zeller- 

bach Hall, UC Campus, at 7 p.m. Cost is $12, $8 for students. (800) 454-9857. www.iahv.org,  

symposium@iahv.org 

Berkeley Poetry Slam, with host Charles Ellik 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. 

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

ONGOING 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 9 and 10 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. Take ad- 

vantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of products such as paint, auto products, household batteries, cleaners and sprays, pesticides and fertilizers. Please do NOT bring asbestos, explosives, most compressed gasses, computer monitors, CRTs and TVs, computers & electronic equipment. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle. For information on what to do with other items, call 800-606-6606, email HHW@co.alameda.ca.us 

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Meetings on the City Budget. The public is invited to four meetings to learn more about the budget deficit and City plans to address the issue. May 15 at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, May 22 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, May 29 at the West Berkeley Senior Center, and June 5 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. For information call 981-CITY.  

Council Agenda Committee meets Monday, May 12, at 2:30 p.m. in the Redwood Room, 6th Floor, 2180 Milvia St. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk 

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Landmarks Preservation Commission Special Meeting  

on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss revisions to the Landmarks Preservations Ordinance and the Zoning Ordinance, in the North Ber- 

keley Senior Center. Greg Powell, 981-7414. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

City Council meets Tuesday, May 13, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Disability  

meets Wednesday, May 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church. 981-6342. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at  

7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

policereview 

Waterfront Commission 

meets Wednesday, May 14 at 

7 p.m. at 201 University Ave. 

Cliff Marchetti, 644-6376 x 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/waterfront 

Design Review Committee  

meets Thursday, May 15 at 

7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thursday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the  

North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission  

meets Thursday, May 15 at  

7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/transportation 

Berkeley-born koto master Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto uses melodies from traditional Japanese court music to interpret a diverse cross section of music, including rhythm ‘n’ blues, reggae, Ethiopian music and jazz. 

“Jazz is changing a lot these days,” said Muramoto. “People are able to take what’s in their background, traditionally or classically, and work that into new music. That’s what [her jazz band] Murasaki Ensemble is about. We grew up with rock, jazz, all kinds of influences. And being from the Bay Area we’re lucky enough to get even more influences from so many diverse cultures. You get all these people together from those kinds of backgrounds, that’s exciting.” 

Muramoto exemplifies a new generation of koto players who are taking the six-foot-long, 10-inch-wide instrument in new directions, away from traditional Japanese court music. Sometimes referred to as an “Asian piano,” the 13-stringed koto originated in China over 4,000 years ago. 

“You have to tune it before you play it. It’s not like a piano where you can just sit down and start playing,” said Muramoto. “When I play koto I usually base it on five tones, an Asian pentatonic scale, very similar to a blues scale. That’s why I’m able to play blues. I can tune with whomever I’m going to be playing with. I play with Elias Negash, an Ethiopian jazz pianist in Oakland. He asked me to play with him on a couple of Ethiopian songs. I was just blown away because they were just regular scales for me. ‘This is Ethiopian music?’ ... The more I play with other people, it seems like a smaller world, musically. There’re a lot of things that are very similar all over.” 

“We get to stretch out a lot. I just follow my guitarist wherever he goes. We did some surfer music the other day,” Muramoto said, laughing. “Then all of a sudden we’re playing ‘I Shot the Sheriff.’ I was thinking, ‘God, am I doing this on the koto?’” 

In addition to leading the Murasaki Ensemble, Muramoto teaches koto at UC Berkeley and has raised two children. Her oldest son, 18, studies music at Cal State Hayward and plays the koto. Her younger son, 16, attends Oakland High School and studies martial arts. 

“You can say I’ve been playing and teaching instruments for about 45 years,” she said, laughing, when asked her age. 

Muramoto earned her Shihan degree (instructor’s license) with Yushusho (highest ranking honors) at the Chikushi School in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1976. A fourth-generation Japanese American, she learned to play the koto at her mother’s knee. Her mother, in turn, learned during World War II while interned at America’s notorious Tule Lake and Topaz Internment camps for ethnic-Japanese American citizens. 

“My mother was a child at that time,” Muramoto said. “My grandparents were born here. They were American citizens and lived in San Mateo. They lost everything when they were ‘relocated.’ They didn’t talk about it too much. It was one of those things they didn’t want to discuss. They were among the Japanese Americans who gave up their citizenship after the war. Because of that they had to move to Japan. It was a very difficult experience for all of them. My grandmother didn’t speak Japanese. She was an American. She was born here.” 

As the mother of a student at Oakland High School, she has been working to save the school’s music program. 

“Every year it’s been a struggle,” she said. “Just to keep the arts going on there. The city of Oakland decided to make all the high schools into academies, so they just concentrate on certain aspects of education ... I know for a fact in Oakland they gave pink slips to all the music teachers. That means they’re cutting all of it. It’s scary what’s happening. It seems like it’s a roller-coaster going down.” 

The Murasaki Ensemble performs at the Annual Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar on Sunday, May 18, from noon to 7 p.m. Located at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, 2121 Channing Way, the two-day event, starting Saturday, May 17, is free.

FRIDAY, MAY 9 

CHILDREN 

Madeline, will be at Barnes and Noble at 10:30 a.m. while the storyteller reads her story. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Born to Be Bad 2 

I Walked with a Zombie, at 7:30 p.m., introduced by Mikita Brottman. Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, introduced by Patrick Macias at 9:30 p.m., Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Diana Abu-Jaber reads from her new novel “Crescent,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Stomp the Stumps” benefit dance for Berkeley-based Bay Area Coalition for  

Headwaters with Gary Gates Band, Funky Nixons and The Shut-Ins at 8 p.m. at Ash- 

kenaz. Cost is $8-$15, sliding scale. 525-5054.  www.ash- 

kenaz.com 

Sally Tims and Her Sadies at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. 

University Symphony, Chorus and Alumni Chorus, directed by David Milnes and Marika Kuzuma, perform Beethoven, Symphony Nº 9, “The Choral” and John Thow’s “Eros and Dust,” at 8 p.m.at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $2, $6, $8, from 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series presents Scott Rosenberg's Skronktet West and, from Vancouver, Almost Transparent Blue at The Jazz House, formerly TUVA Space, at 8:15 p.m. Admission is free, donations ac- 

cepted. 649-8744. sfsound.org/acme.html 

Fiesta Musicale, an evening of good food and wine, and a program of music and dance at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Ad- 

vance tickets $35, students and seniors $25. For reservations call 527-3883 or email k7mr@yahoo.com 

Thunderpussy, Spoke, Space Vacuum perform Funk Pop, Alt Rock and Electro Clash at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Chorale Spring Show, featuring the UC Women’s and Men’s Chorales, at 7 p.m. in the Chorale Rehearsal Hall, basement of Cesar Chavez, UC Campus. Tickets are $10, $5 students. 642-3880. 

Butch Thompson, Prairie Home Companion pianist makes his Freight debut at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Small Brown Bike, Pitch Black, Choke, Scattered Fall, Charlevoix 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, MAY 10 

CHILDREN 

Shadow Puppets by Sean Powers, a workshop for all ages at 11 a.m. with a performance at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale; scholarships available on request. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

Kristen Brooks Davidman’s flute students and members of the Windfall Woodwind 

Quintet at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

A Present for Mom, stories about the great gift of mothers, at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Born to Be Bad 2, Raw Force at 7:30 p.m. and Pig- 

keeper's Daughter at 9:20 p.m., introduced by Amy Abugo Ongiri, at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joan Price shares convenient exercises from her new book, “The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book,” at 3:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, under the direction of Arlene Sagan, performs Brahms “German Requiem,” at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison. Admission is free, donations appreciated. 964- 0665.www.bcco.org 

Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, a musical-political force in Zimbabwe performs at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

San Francisco Early Music Society presents The Orlan- 

do Consort, music from the antipodes of the 18th century musical spectrum at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 528-1725. ww.sfems.org 

Jazz... After Dark, with the Cal Jazz Choir at 8 p.m. in the Chorale Rehearsal Hall, basement of Cesar Chavez, UC Campus. Tickets are $10, $5 students. 642-3880. 

Broceliande celebrates spring in a concert of Celtic and Early music at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Parish Hall, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. $10-$12 suggested donation. 569-0437.www.broceliande.org 

University Symphony, Chorus, and Alumni Chorus, directed by David Milnes and Marika Kuzuma, perform Beethoven, Symphony Nº 9, “The Choral” and John Thow’s “Eros and Dust,” at 8 p.m.at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $2, $6, $8, from 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance 

Annual Repertory Concert, featuring live music and drumming, professional guest artists, as well as more than 100 performers of world dance at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Adults $18, children, students, seniors $15 at the door. Advance tickets $15 adults, $12 children, students, seniors available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

The Usher-Erlich-Rosenak Piano Quartet, with Sara Usher, violin; Paul Erlich, viola; Vicky Erlich, ‘cello and Karen Rosenak, piano performs the music of Han- 

del Halverson, Rebecca Clark and Brahms at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Suggested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Rhythm and Music: Young Poets, Writers and Musicians 

Open Mike, featuring Joshua Jamieson, Young Composers Trio, Ise Lyfe, Katrina Flint, Miguel Soberanis and others. Open-mic sign-up for 25 yrs. and under. Sign up at 6:30 p.m. for free performance at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.ber- 

keleyartcenter.org 

Passenger, Brown Baggin and Savant Guard perform Funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Mark Growden and the Electric Pinata, Go Van Gogh, Glass Bead Game, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Greg Brown performs contemporary folk at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $21.50 in ad- 

vance, $22.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Sheldon Brown Group performs at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Against Me! Pansy Division, Fifth Hour Hero, Jason Webley, Panty Raid perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5, $1 if wearing prom clothes! 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 11 

CHILDREN 

Kathy Kallick Family Show, bluegrass celebration of Mother’s Day at 1 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50 for children, $8.50 for adults. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mothers Day Celebration 

California Revels at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, at 2 p.m. An event for the whole family! Celebrate Mom in grand style with song, dance and story. From fiddle tunes to Irish dance, classical guitar to audience sing-alongs, there's something for everyone at this Mother's Day gathering. Revels founder John Lang- 

staff will be joined by a cast of favorites including Sira Kammen, Susan Rode Morris, Eileen Mize, Yair Evnine and Mariel Vandersteel. Tickets available from 925-798-1300. Adults $10, Children $5. www.juliamorgan.org 

Freaky Friday at 2 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Recommended for ages 8 and older. Celebrate Mother's Day with a lesson in mother-daughter appreciation. Cost is $4 members,UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa. 

berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Born to Be Bad 2 

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine introduced by Tamao Nakahara, at 5 p.m., at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Jack Marshall, winner of the BABRA Poetry Award for Northern California, and Eric Gudas, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. $2 donation. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com, www.poetryflash.org 

South Asian Book Club, discusses “Gabriel’s Gift” by Hanif Kureishi at 11:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Ernesto Carmona will pre- 

sent his book “The Owners of Chile,” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sonny Fitman, guitar and vocals, at 11 a.m. in Walnut Square, at Vine. 204-9228. www.walnutsquare.com 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, under the direction of Arlene Sagan, performs Brahms “German Requiem,” at 4 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison. Admission is free, donations appreciated. 964- 0665. www.bcco.org 

SoVoSó, world-jazz-pop vocal ensemble, performs at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience performs in a benefit for the Albany Music Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving excellence and equity in music education in the Albany School District. Featuring teenage fiddler Brittany Haas, master fiddler Darol Anger and Mike Marshall on mandolin. At 7 p.m. at the Albany High School Gym, 603 Key Route, Al- 

bany. Ticket prices are $30 for Main Floor, $20 general and $10 students. 559-8474. http://creativedifferences.com  

University Wind Ensemble, Robert Calonico, director. Works by Edwin Dugger, Divertimento for Wind Ensemble (premiere) and Reed, Sparke, Daehn, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, tickets are $2, $6, $8. 642-9988. pennyb@socrates.berkeley.edu 

“Triple Play,” Guitars, Strings and All that Jazz. A benefit and celebration of the 20th Anniversary of The Crowden School. John Ad- 

ams, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, conductor; David Tanenbaum, guitar and conductor; Gyan Riley, guitar and composer; Paul Dresher, guitar and composer; San Francisco Guitar Quartet; San Francisco Conservatory Guitar Ensemble and Crowden Orchestra; selected current and alumni soloists. Michael Morgan, Music Director, Oakland East Bay Symphony, will be Master of Ceremonies. At 7:30 p.m. at the Dean Lesher Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $45 for orchestra and front terrace, $25 for rear terrace. $175 special donor ticket, includes gifts and reception with artists. For more information 559-6910. Purchase tickets online at http://www.dlrca.org 

The Rincon Ramblers, bluegrass and roots country at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Blue Blazer, Fine by Me and Feral Moan perform Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, MAY 12 

CHILDREN 

Cantemos Juntos with Lydia Mills and Arianna Guthries at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Family Art Day. Drop by and make something special at the Berkeley Art Center, at 2 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nancy Kricorian reads from her novel, “Dreams of Bread and Fire,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 13 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: In Order Not to Be Here at 7:30 p.m at the Pacific Film Ar- 

chive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Lewis on “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Rebecca Lawton reads from her new book, “Reading Water,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu, performing Cajun/zydeco at 8:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

The Matt Flinner Quartet 

mandolin virtuoso and his band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14 

FILM 

Video: I Found It at the Movies, Body Double X at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tanya Shaffer’s “Somebody’s Heart is Burning,” book release celebration at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15, which includes a copy of the book. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Eric Schosser describes “Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Mar- 

ket,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joyce Bueker discusses an ancient holist health system from India in her new book, “Ayurvedic Balancing,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brenda Boykin and Home Cookin’ perform West Coast swing at 9 p.m., swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Matt Haimovitz, virtuoso cellist, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Pin Up Motel, The Love Makers, Superlarry perform Indie Rock, Electro Clash, and Post Pardem Rock at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, MAY 15 

FILM 

Heroic Grace: Martial Arts 

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid, 50 min. documentary by Wendy Campbell. The screening will be preceded by a talk by Dave Ker- 

sting on What is Zionism? At 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. $20 donation requested. $10 for students with i.d. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jane Juska reads from “A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex & Romance,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Jack Foley and Richard Silberg talk about the poetic consciousness of the Bay Area in their book, “The Fallen Western Star Wars,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Russell, roots country troubadour, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Rogue Wave, Ebb and Flow, 

Venison Book, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

ALL THE FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Property Owners Association President Michael Wilson’s May 2 letter (“Rent Board”), while critical of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board’s 2003-2004 registration fee proposal, conveniently omitted the context and facts surrounding the board’s modest fee increase. 

It is important to bear in mind that the Rent Board’s registration fee has remained frozen for the past five consecutive years. In fact, the board’s fee has remained stable for the past 10 years: Since 1991-1992, the fee has stayed at the same level as — or below — the 2002-2003 fee level. 

Meanwhile, over the past five years alone, the Bay Area’s inflation rate has increased by 17 percent. Like other city services and public agencies that have increased fees to cover costs during the past five years — e.g. city fire inspection service, city refuse collection, city sewer service, water service, etc. — the Rent Board’s basic expenses have also increased. 

The Rent Board’s new budget is a “status quo” budget in that only the same or prior level of services and operations will be maintained. 

In his letter, Mr. Wilson claims that the Rent Board has “processed fewer” inquiries or complaints. In fact, the Rent Board’s activity level has remained very steady: In 2002 alone, over 12,000 individuals received consultations in person or by telephone, 1,400 e-mail inquiries were responded to, over 260 examiner cases or hearings were conducted and materials were distributed to over 20,000 tenant and property owner households. 

It is worth noting that since 1996 — when passage of the state Costa-Hawkins rent decontrol law allowed for market rate rent levels on newly vacant units — the average rent level for all one-bedroom units citywide has increased by 53 percent. 

Meanwhile, since 1996, the average rent level for newly decontrolled (or vacant) one-bedroom units only has increased by 97 percent, nearly double the rent level six years ago. 

Under the voter-approved 1980 Rent Stabilization Ordinance, the elected Rent Board’s purpose and mission, according to Section 120 of the City of Berkeley Charter, is to “provide for the proper administration of programs to regulate residential rents ... maintain community diversity ... and ensure compliance with legal obligations relating to the rental of housing.” 

Chris Kavanagh 

     Commissioner, Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board 

• 

A GOOD INVESTMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It would be easy to agree with Tom Brown’s letter opposing ferry subsidies — if his numbers were accurate. 

Mr. Brown states that ferry costs per rider are “vastly higher” than BART. This may have 

been true for some of the early proposals involving high-speed ferries on long routes. But not for Berkeley to San Francisco. Cost per passenger, including subsidy and capitalization, is estimated by the Water Transit Authority (and independently confirmed) to be about $6.50 per 

one-way trip. Compare to BART: The fare from downtown Berkeley to the Embarcadero is $2.75, and after adding the $1.60 operating subsidy and the $3-and-change capitalization subsidy, we’re well over $7 per ride. No wonder we have to finance BART with sales tax. 

Brown also states that ferries cause more air pollution than competing modes. Again, he is using old data. The 1999 Bay Area Council study proposed a network of long high-speed ferry routes with no regard for emission controls, and was rightfully attacked by the environmental community for that omission. But this has little relation to the short routes and relatively low-speed vessels that would serve Berkeley. Our ferry would go less than half as fast and use less than one-quarter as much fuel per passenger mile. Let’s compare apples to apples: Apply the same emission controls as for land-based vehicles, use the correct speed and distance, and we find that ferries are cleaner and more fuel efficient than buses or cars. 

Whether the Berkeley ferry is a “core transit service” is not the issue. Certainly there are more cost-effective ways to move people across the bay, but to date we have not shown the political will to apply them. 

Ferries do more than take cars off the bridge. Ferries enhance mobility for a very diverse group of people who are currently not being served by any form of public transit. This includes anyone who travels by bicycle during commute hours, anyone who travels with a dog, and anyone unable to walk or bike to a station who wants to get to San Francisco after the BART parking lots fill up early in the morning. And ferries can serve all of these users at a subsidy level that compares favorably with other modes. This is not waste, this is a good investment in the quality of life in Berkeley. 

There are plenty of examples of wasteful transportation systems, and there are ferry routes, both proposed and existing, that would qualify. Let’s not confuse these with what is being proposed for Berkeley, where the service will be clean, efficient and economical. 

Paul Kamen 

• 

UNFAIR FEE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The May 2 article “Bates Touts City’s New Congeniality” states that the city manager instituted a hiring freeze several months ago. Why then is the Housing Department striving to expand? The rental inspection program they attempted to implement failed completely. Nonetheless they propose to institute a $25 per year landlord fee to pay for increased staff. 

In addition, the Rent Board is planning to increase their annual landlord fee by 10 percent. One of the most bloated bureaucracies, they wish to bloat further, despite cutbacks and reductions for other departments. I’m baffled. Is a city department exempt from fiscal constraint if (and only if) they can get more revenue from landlords? 

Can anyone explain why Berkeley landlords are treated so unfairly? 

Suzie Osborn 

• 

SCHOOL PLAY SHINES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The current Berkeley High School production of “Guys and Dolls” knocked my socks off. It is spectacular, as well done as any theater production I’ve seen. This was my first time at a high school play, and I was amazed. The acting, the singing, the dancing, the live orchestra, the sets, the costumes, the energy, took my breath away. How could this come out of a school where so many teachers have received pink slips? How could this come out of a school where the classrooms are often short of chairs? 

A parent reminded me: The high school is terrific. The students are terrific, the teachers are terrific. It’s the district administration that’s the problem. 

For example, while the district poor mouths it and constantly requests parents to badger our legislators about policy changes the district is advocating (like enlarging class sizes), the district still can’t tell us the numbers for the high school budget, or for the budget of any other school. Also, two years ago, the district spent $4 million to buy the Urban Ore land on 6th and Gilman (ostensibly for the transportation department). Yet, two years later, the district is still paying half a million dollars a year rent for its bus yard and the Urban Ore lot is still empty. Is BUSD poor, or just fiscally a dingbat? 

So, go see this great production. There’s two more shows Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10, at 8 p.m.  

Yolanda Huang 

• 

QUESTIONABLE INTENT  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is impossible for me to believe the stated intentions of UC Berkeley when it claims: 

“During a bi-annual walk-through of the park last fall ... three acacia trees were identified as potential safety hazards to children playing in the play area and to the people who sleep under the trees in that area,” (from UC leaflet); 

“It [the acacia tree, on the east end of the park, that UC Berkeley took a chainsaw to in April] appeared to be in danger of falling over,” (Daily Planet, April 29 edition); 

“A large acacia tree near the lawn, closer to the Dwight Way side of the park, suddenly fell on a Saturday morning several months ago,” (from UC leaflet), and 

“The acacia tree ... was removed for safety reasons,” (from UC leaflet). 

If UC is really concerned about the safety of children playing and of people who sleep under the trees — rather than, as the Berkeley Lorax claims, “There has always been a university faction that wants to clear-cut People’s Park. For over 20 years they’ve wanted to clear out the trees from the east end” — would UC be kind enough to explain why they didn’t post the “unsafe” areas at any time since last fall? Why didn’t they post areas away from the trees “in danger of falling over” as safer for people to sleep or children to play?  

Also, was the tree that fell one of those identified as a potential safety hazard? I suspect not, from the above descriptions of the trees’ locations. All this leads me to suspect that the real reason for cutting down trees is so the police can see if there are homeless in the east end at night, so they can chase them out of the park. 

When I look at UC’s history of park intervention, I remember, for example, plans in the 1990s to build sports courts in front of the stage and to replace the stage with bathrooms, and attempts to remove the Free Box and the bulletin board. These memories make it difficult to imagine straightforward good intentions on the part of the university in regards to People’s Park. 

Jane Welford

As a UC Berkeley exchange student in China, Connie Wu, a junior, at first thought the foreign press might be overplaying the SARS story. 

“The government was really not reporting anything,” Wu said. “People were just going about their daily business. Everything was calm. I didn’t know who to believe.” 

Then, rumors and new press reports suggested the government was being deceitful about the scope of severe acute respiratory syndrome, and people on the street began wearing masks. 

On April 15, Peking University announced that a professor’s mother had died of the mysterious illness and that the lecturer herself might be infected. 

“All of a sudden, departments were shutting down, classes stopped,” Wu said. “It was at that point that there was a real sense of fear.” 

Two days later, the nine-campus University of California announced that it was recalling all 44 of its students, including 10 from UC Berkeley. Wu and her classmates scrambled to drop apartment leases, close bank accounts and buy plane tickets. Within two weeks all but one student, a UC Santa Cruz undergraduate who stayed behind to work on a Chinese television show about American sports terminology, had left Beijing. 

Wu said UC made the right call in bringing the students home. 

“People were hoarding food,” she said. “The streets were emptying out. Even if we had stayed in Beijing, what’s the point of being cooped up in your room all day long?” 

None of the returning students have tested positive for SARS, which had infected 7,053 people worldwide and killed 506 as of Wednesday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

UC’s SARS saga did not end with the Beijing exodus in April. Last week, the university announced it was canceling its summer session in China, a decision that affected 130 students. UC Berkeley went a step further, barring an estimated 500 students from SARS-affected areas — China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong — from enrolling in its own summer program. 

The university later dropped Singapore from the list because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) downgraded its warning about the country. Still, the move, which could cost the university $1.5 million to $2 million in lost revenue, has drawn fire from Asian civil rights advocates. 

“This policy excludes people from educational opportunities based only on their country of origin without any possible exceptions made for individual circumstances,” said Diane Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action, in a statement this week. 

UC Berkeley Professor of Asian American Studies L. Ling-chi Wang, in a commentary piece that appears in today’s Daily Planet, writes that UC Berkeley’s decision “risks racializing a public health issue and inciting further hysteria” on a campus with a large Asian population. He also charges that the university has arbitrarily chosen countries for the ban, noting that Canada and Vietnam have also had significant SARS problems. 

But UC Berkeley spokesman Marie Felde notes that the CDC reported a lower threat level in Canada and Vietnam. 

“There’s nothing arbitrary about it,” she said. 

Felde said the university will admit students from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong as soon as the CDC scales back its travel warnings for those areas. 

“If circumstances change, then the policy will change,” she said. “We want the students to come to this country.” 

Public health officials have divided on UC Berkeley’s decision, with the city of Berkeley’s director of public health, Dr. Poki Namkung, backing it and Diana Bonta, director of the California Department of Health Services, arguing that the university policy “goes a step beyond what our advice would be.” 

UC Berkeley sophomore Victoria Huang, who was also studying at Peking University, said the quiet was eerie in a city that was normally bustling. 

“The trains were pretty empty,” she said. “Usually, you can’t find a place to stand. And now, you could get a seat.” 

Still, Huang said she was not seriously considering leaving China until UC announced the recall on April 17. Just a couple of hours before the announcement, she said, she was telling a friend in San Francisco, over the phone, that she had no intention to leave. 

“I thought people were too worried about it,” she said. “Now, I’ve taken a 180-degree turn.”

Berkeley High School Drama Department presents “Guys and Dolls,” music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, directed by Jordan Winer. The musical is based on short stories by Damon Runyon, of gamblers and chorus girls who lived on the fringes of the criminal world in the Broadway district of New York City. May 9 and 10 at  

8 p.m. at the Florence Sch- 

wimley Little Theater on Allston Way between Milvia and MLK Jr. Way. Tickets are $7, $5 with student i.d. and are on sale at the box office 1/2 hr. before performance time.  

Youth Musical Theater Commons presents “Les Miserables,” performed by students of King, Longfellow, Willard, BHS, and Albany High. This school edition is shorter than the Broadway version, but not short on talent. May 9, 10 and 17 at 7:30 p.m., and Sun. May 18 at 3 p.m. Longfellow Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Tickets at the door, $5-$8. 848-1797. http://busduse.org/lesmiz  

Sia Amma in What Mama Said About Down There, a new performance of monologues inspired through gossip, interviews, and conversations with women from all walks of life, May 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

La Casa Azul, a work based on the life of Frida Kahlo with author/actress Sophie Faucher; Robert Lepage, director, May 8 - 10 at 8 p.m., May 10 at 2 p.m. and May 11 at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $36-$52. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

1 Foot 2 Players presents “The Maids,” by Jean Genet. Maids play a nightly game masquerading as their mistress, until the game unravels with devastating consequences. May 2-18, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 pm, with one extra late show Sat. May 3 at 11 p.m., at Ann Davlin Dance Studio, 2311 Stuart St., between Telegraph and Ellsworth. $10 general, $8 seniors, students. 644-1889. 

Aurora Theater Company 

“Partition,” written by Ira Hauptman, directed by Barbara Oliver. April 17- May 18. Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m. $32-$34. 2081 Addison St. 843-4822. www.auroratheater.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater 

“Surface Transit” 

Written and performed by Sarah Jones, directed by Tony Taccone. April 18 - May 18. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, (888) 4BRTTIX.  

www.berkeleyrep.org 

Shotgun Theater Lab  

“Fig Leaf: Tales of Truth and Transgressions,” a glimpse of truth and transgressions.  

May 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. at La Val's Subterranean 

1834 Euclid. $10, no reservations.www.shotgunplayers.org 

Transparent Theater 

Virginia Woolf's “Night and Day,” a world premiere stage adaptation and direction by Tom Clyde. May 9 - June 8, Thurs - Sat, 8 p.m. $20. Sun, 7 p.m. Pay what you can. 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305. www.transparenttheater.org 

Shotgun Players 

“Vampires,” by Harry Kondoleon, directed by Joanie McBrien, April 12 - May 17, Thursday through Sunday, at 8 p.m. La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. www.shotgunplayers.com

Why do we believe a large majority of the U.S. public approves of President Bush’s job performance? We believe it because that’s what the pollsters tell us. 

But what if the polls are rigged? Not deliberately rigged, with the numbers simply made up. But biased in a more subtle manner, the way SAT scores are biased. 

Polls don’t merely reflect public opinion. They’re often a significant factor in shaping public opinion. A poll pronouncing overwhelming support for the president will discourage some of his opposition and stifle their criticism. And news that Bush is exceptionally popular will sway many in the center, having a weak or neutral opinion, to join the majority in a kind of bandwagon effect. 

Consequently, public opinion polls can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

There are relatively few prominent U.S. pollsters whose findings are widely disseminated. Gallup is the most recognizable polling name, and polls conducted by media partnerships such as New York Times/CBS News and NBC News/Wall Street Journal are also influential. In California, the Field Poll is the best known. 

Since polls play an important role in shaping public opinion and there are only a handful of top polling organizations, it’s tempting to presume a conspiracy where opinion polls are manipulated to promote the message of the “ruling class.” It seems more plausible that rather than deliberate manipulation, the methods used by the pollsters typically guarantee that their findings confirm and advance the views of those running the country. Nonetheless, whether public opinion polls are manipulated or methodologically biased, their impact winds up being the same — to inhibit dissent and swing undecideds to the majority position. 

Is there a way to diminish the power of the polls? My personal reaction to a recent national poll by the New York Times/CBS News may be instructive. 

The poll, as reported in the April 15 New York Times, found that “73 percent of Americans approve” of President Bush’s job performance. This, said the Times, was a 14 percent jump from Bush’s 59 percent approval rating the week before the Iraq war started. What’s more, “61 percent” of Democrats, the poll indicated, were now in the Bush camp. 

Given my strong convictions that Bush’s presidency has been a disaster, domestically and internationally, when I saw his huge approval numbers in the Times, my heart sank. And I was sufficiently disgusted and dismayed by the poll results that a part of me just wanted to throw in the towel and move to Canada. 

However, after a little moaning and groaning, the “Question Authority” module in my brain began firing away. First off, I did a bit of mental arithmetic. If 73 percent of the people polled voiced approval of President Bush, this means 27 percent declined to declare such support. That’s a decent number, considering the public has been bombarded with a vast amount of pro-war propaganda and one-sided media coverage. Not to mention that even mild critics of Bush have been viciously attacked, ranging from Vietnam war hero Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the Dixie Chicks. 

Therefore, it’s impressive that 27 percent of those confronted by some stranger on the phone in the middle of dinner had the courage to withhold support of the Commander in Chief while U.S. troops were in combat. One wonders how many of the 73 percent who identified themselves as Dubya fans, but really weren’t, might be willing to express their true feelings in the secrecy of a voting booth. 

I next carefully reread the Times report of the poll results, paying particular attention to the section describing “How the Poll Was Conducted.” According to the Times, the pollsters only phoned “898 adults throughout the United States.” A quick Google search discovered the U.S. adult population is about 215 million. Plugging this number into a calculator revealed that each of the 898 people polled was supposedly a proxy for roughly 240,000 U.S. residents. 

To ensure these proxies were representative, the Times explained, the polling sample was weighted to take account of “geographic region, sex, race, age and education.” How was the weighting system determined? 

The Times doesn’t inform us, yet it does point out the potential for sampling error. And with a single poll respondent standing in for 240,000 other individuals, there wouldn’t need to be much error in the assumptions employed in devising the weighted sampling system to invalidate the poll’s findings. Along with sampling error, the Times further qualified the poll numbers by noting that the specific “wording and order of questions” asked by the pollsters could have compromised the results. Would it be a surprise if the guys writing the poll questions were burdened by the same racial and class biases as the guys writing the SAT questions? 

Deconstructing the details of the Times/CBS poll, my confidence in the results markedly dwindled. But my guess is most people, as I did initially, accepted the 73 percent approval margin at face value. And by creating the widespread impression that Bush’s popularity had soared, the poll likely helped shape the opinions and actions of a substantial segment of the U.S. public, whatever their political tendencies. 

What can opponents of Bushism do to limit the influence of slanted poll results? For starters, we can minimize their depressing effect on our own psyche by treating super-high Bush poll ratings with lots of skepticism. It’s worth remembering that Daddy Bush had great poll numbers following Iraq War I, yet still lost to Clinton. 

In addition, progressives need to challenge the media to evaluate public opinion polls more critically, scrutinizing the validity of the numbers and publicizing the biases inherent in the pollsters’ methodology. Perhaps, as well, progressive organizations should begin to do some counter-polling. For example, they could do a poll to gauge whether Americans have become more fearful to express certain opinions to pollsters; notably, their opinion of the president and his policies. 

Marty Schiffenbauer is a Berkeley resident.

The new general manager for KPFA, 94.1 FM, has no experience in journalism. But former Berkeley mayor Gus Newport said his new post suits him just fine. 

“To me, it’s just a continuation of my legacy,” said Newport, 68, who will officially take the reins of Berkeley’s radical public radio station in June. 

The former mayor, who played a key role in Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation push to divest from the apartheid state of South Africa in 1979, said he views the 54-year-old KPFA as a powerful weapon in a lifelong struggle for social justice. 

In an interview this week, Newport reeled off a series of causes, from universal health care to the protection of civil liberties, that he hopes to push on KPFA’s airwaves. 

“I see KPFA as a fine jewel and a natural tool,” he said. 

Newport served as mayor from 1979 to 1986 before heading to Boston to lead a major redevelopment project called the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. Since then, he has held various teaching posts around the country and, most recently, served as a senior associate at the Oakland-based Urban Strategies Council, focusing on leadership development and strategic planning. 

Moderate City Councilmember Betty Olds, who often clashed with Newport when he was mayor, said she was surprised to hear that he was moving from politics to the press. Berkeley, she said, will have to wait and see whether he makes an effective transition. 

“We’ll find out,” she said. 

But Olds said that Newport, even in times of conflict, was always a “gentleman” during his days as mayor. His people skills will be put to the test at KPFA, which has 35 paid staff, 125 volunteers and a cadre of thousands of devoted listeners — all devoted to their own competing visions for the station. 

“There’s only one KPFA and there are dozens of passionate people with their own political agendas,” said Larry Bensky, host of the station’s “Sunday Salon” program. “That’s always the challenge at KPFA.” 

Van Jones, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco and a longtime KPFA observer, said Newport is up to the task. 

“If anybody can pull together the fractious staff and diverse listenership, it would definitely be Gus Newport,” said Jones. “He has the political skill to bring about compromises where that’s appropriate.” 

Newport will also have to deal with the fallout from a brutal, two-and-a-half-year battle between KPFA and its parent organization, the Pacifica Radio Foundation, over programming and local control.  

The fight, which included a 23-day lockout of KPFA staff in July 1999, ended with a legal settlement in December 2001 that left local control intact and forced changes at Pacifica, which runs five radio stations across the country and provides programming to dozens more.  

Since then, under interim general manager Jim Bennett, KPFA has stabilized to some degree. Relations with a reconstituted Pacifica have improved, on-air fundraising has reached record heights and the station has won kudos from the left for its coverage of the war in Iraq.  

Most staff members say KPFA can only maintain its community radio feel if it keeps its current hodgepodge of arts, music, health and political programming on the air. 

“There’s a need for a sense of where our programming is going,” said Lisa Rothman, executive producer of the “Morning Show,” a drive-time, current affairs program. 

They add that KPFA’s strident political tone limits the station’s audience, which tops out at 180,000 to 200,000 at peak times, according to the latest figures, now several years old. By contrast, San Francisco-based KQED, the Bay Area’s leading public radio station, had 746,000 listeners at peak times this winter. 

“I think the biggest challenge Gus will have is creating some analytical public affairs programming rather than just reflecting the political views of the staff,” said former general manager Pat Scott, who clashed with KPFA traditionalists during the Pacifica crisis. 

But a shift to more balanced political reporting seems unlikely. KPFA has a devoted following that views the station as a progressive oasis in a desert of corporate media and rejected calls for change during the Pacifica crisis. 

Newport, for his part, said he doesn’t have any preconceived notions about where he wants to take the station’s programming. Instead, the new general manager will talk with staff and listeners, he said, and focus on filling the long-vacant program director’s slot at the station. 

Newport’s more immediate task, staff members say, will be cultivating foundations and wealthy donors who backed away during the Pacifica crisis. 

“I think it’s collapsed completely — it’s a disaster,” said Bensky, discussing the station’s “off-air” fund-raising operation. “I think people are ready and willing to come back, but they have to be approached.” 

Bennett, who was also among the 20 people who applied for the full-time job, acknowledged that Newport, well-connected from his days as mayor, will bring a new cache to the fund-raising effort. 

“Gus brings a lot to KPFA that we probably didn’t have before as a general manager in terms of his connections and his ability to be a public face,” said Bennett, who will help Newport with the transition and then shift to a job with Pacifica, which is moving its national offices from Washington, D.C., to Berkeley in June.  

Most at KPFA agree that Newport will excel at fundraising but say the former mayor, who has no experience in journalism, will have a lot to learn about other facets of his job. 

“He has not been involved in programming issues at all,” said Pacifica board member Peter Bramson. “So there’s a learning curve.” 

Newport acknowledges that he has much to learn, but said KPFA may be better served without a journalist in the general manager’s chair. 

“I will remind people, as we learned in the old days in running hospitals, that doctors are not necessarily the best managers,” he said. 

Whether he stumbles or succeeds, Berkeley will be watching him closely. 

“KPFA is the oldest public radio station in the country — it’s where public radio got invented,” said Susan da Silva, chair of KPFA’s local advisory board. “It’s a very important institution and very beloved in this area.”

The decision by the University of California, Berkeley, to bar hundreds of admitted students from SARS-afflicted Asian nations from attending summer sessions on campus risks racializing a public health issue and intensifying hysteria. 

On the surface, Chancellor Robert Berdahl’s decision appears precautionary and judicious. The university will bar students from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China from attending five summer sessions starting in May, June and July. In reality, the move is sweeping, untimely and arbitrary. 

It makes good sense for the chancellor to take all precautions necessary to protect the health and welfare of everyone on campus. This has to be the highest priority for any campus, and the SARS epidemic should not be taken lightly. But there are several serious problems with the decision. 

First, it is not clear why the countries targeted for exclusion were selected. The chancellor cited sources from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) as the basis for his decision. But we know from WHO and CDC reports that Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Canada were hardest hit by the epidemic. We also know that in countries such as Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Canada, only certain cities have been affected by the epidemic (for example, Hanoi, 

Beijing, Taipei and Toronto, respectively). 

The question is, why does the rule apply just to the Chinese-dominated countries and not to Canada and Vietnam? 

Second, it makes perfect sense for the chancellor to put a ban on those admitted for the May 27 summer session, because these students would not have been able to meet the two-week mandatory self-quarantine as recommended by WHO and the CDC (assuming they were not already in the United States when the chancellor made the announcement). But the students already admitted for the later sessions have at least two weeks to prove that they are not carriers of the SARS coronavirus. There is no legitimate basis to exclude them if, at the end of the mandatory quarantine period, they test negative. 

Third, the decision is particularly troublesome in light of the fact that the CDC has not prohibited normal travel and trade between the United States and the named countries. Tourists and business people, diplomats and students alike are still traveling back and forth. They are under closer scrutiny at the ports of departure and entry in the affected countries, and all travelers are required to undergo a two-week quarantine. But if the U.S. government allows people from these areas to be admitted into the country, why can’t the students be admitted into UC Berkeley, if they follow the regulations issued by the CDC and WHO? 

There is no U.S. prohibition against Americans traveling to any of the countries listed by the chancellor. In fact, Assistant Secretary James A. Kelly and his entourage of diplomats traveled last week to Beijing for a three-day meeting with North Korean diplomats. In addition, WHO has already concluded that the epidemic in Vietnam is now fully under control, and has declared that the SARS epidemic in Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto has peaked.  

With reports of sharp declines in visits to Asian restaurants from New York to Honolulu and fewer tourists visiting Chinatowns across America, such a sweeping and arbitrary decision could not come at a worse time. On a predominantly Asian campus in a multiracial state, it could be particularly divisive, contributing to hysteria and racializing and politicizing a public health issue that now affects more than three dozen countries around the globe.  

L. Ling-chi Wang teaches Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley.

A caravan of buses from Berkeley, carrying students, parents and teachers, converged on the state capital Thursday to challenge proposed cuts of some $5 billion in education funds from this year’s state budget. 

More than 500 Berkeley students participated in the school board sanctioned field trip, promoted as a civics lesson in lobbying government. They joined hundreds of other Bay Area students in Sacramento. 

Hardest hit by the cuts will be teachers. In Berkeley, 217 teachers found pink slips in their mailboxes in March warning of possible dismissal, while popular programs, such as the Franklin after-school and district music programs, are slated to be reduced or eliminated. Board officials say 70 to 80 teachers will actually be laid-off once the budget is passed. In Oakland, nearly 1,000 teachers’ jobs are at stake. 

"We need to get a completely new system of financing schools. We’re always reacting to crises," said Berkeley High School English teacher Tammy Harkins, who shepherded a group of 17 students through representatives’ offices where they spoke with legislative aides about what they saw as inequities in public financing. 

Harkins, who herself received a pink slip, and Laura Lackey, a junior, wore homemade striped prison uniforms to connect the school cuts with raises for prison guards. Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed budget includes an additional $330 million for the Department of Corrections, while lopping at least 15 percent off current general education funds. 

“If you spent the money on schools, couldn’t you save a lot on prisons?” Laura asked. 

Nine buses took off from the Milvia Street sidewalk adjacent to the high school Thursday morning. Mayor Tom Bates was present, as was Sheila Jordan, county superintendent of schools. Jordan rode with the students. Bates, who did not make the trip, said he wanted to lend his support to the event.  

Bates insisted that the state needed to raise income taxes to meet the current shortfall. He suggested that $4 billion could be obtained from vehicle license fees — funds which go directly to local governments. Davis has said he would not entertain any such bill, according to assistant director of the state Department of Finance, Anita Gore. 

In Sacramento, the Berkeley contingent met with Assemblywoman and former Mayor Loni Hancock.  

“You can’t cut $36 billion from a $72 billion dollar budget,” Hancock said. She said she would refuse to sign an inadequate compromise on education spending, even if it meant dragging out a resolution. 

The rally crowd, estimated at 1,500 to 2,000, listened to speakers and teenage rap singers. 

Rose Braz, director of Education Not Incarceration, said, “This rally is about connecting education and prisons. In polls, people have consistently said they want to reduce prison spending and restore education spending.” 

“There are very few places to cut,” insisted Gore in an office interview. “Education is one. Health and human services is another.” 

As to the viability of such tax options as the vehicle license tax, Gore said, “Governor Davis told legislators not to bring him those bills. He thought it would not be prudent at this time.” 

There were reasons why certain budgets, such as for corrections, could not be cut, she said. 

“It has to do with federal mandates and court orders, not to mention statutes in the constitution. There’s one for education, too. Prop 98. It gets 40 percent of the budget.” 

Meanwhile, Harkins’ class swarmed in and out of offices to question aides and practice their lobbying skills. They wandered into the office of the Republican caucus, where they debated with a legislative aide for 45 minutes.  

Harkins felt the day at the state capital presented an exceptional teaching opportunity for the students. 

"It’s wonderful to show them you can lobby and take your case to the representatives,” she said. “They need to know that they can be that intern in a summer job. It was a great exercise in real citizenship.” 

A group of UC Berkeley students upset over a campus newspaper photograph they described as racist have caused the student-run Daily Californian to “lock down” their offices indefinitely. 

In addition, over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, at least 2,400 newspapers disappeared from racks at various locations around campus, according to UC Police Capt. Bill Cooper. He said officers cited two students for petty theft on Thursday, a charge that could carry a $250 fine.  

James Drake, a spokesman for the student group, denied that anybody associated with the group had anything to do with the missing papers. 

The lock down went into effect after about 50 members of the student group flooded the Daily Californian’s offices Tuesday to protest a story that ran with a photograph of Cal Football player Michael Gray. Gray, 19, was arrested under suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after a brawl outside a fraternity house on Saturday night. The lock down means the sixth-floor offices of the Daily Cal in Eshleman Hall are locked to the general public, though staffers can come and go at will. 

About 30 group members returned to the newspaper offices Wednesday night but were unable to gain access.  

The student group is not officially organized but includes blacks, Asians and “anti-racist” whites, according to Drake. 

Daily Californian Editor in Chief Rong-Gong Lin II said he’s taking measures to assure the paper will be available to readers and that the offices will remain in lock down until “We feel like it’s safe.” 

The controversy stems from a Saturday-night fight in which as many as 50 people were involved, according to police. Four people involved in the fight were taken by ambulance to Alta Bates hospital. The most serious injury was a skull fracture suffered by a UC student when he was struck in the head with a bottle, allegedly by Gray. 

Gray was released on Sunday, according to Berkeley police. An Alameda County District Attorney’s Office spokesman said Gray has not yet been charged. 

On Tuesday, the Daily Californian ran a story about the fight and included a photograph of Gray, which they copied from a Cal Football publication.  

The student group said Gray’s photo looked like a mug shot and accused the newspaper of racial profiling. The photograph and story, the group said, could adversely affect Gray’s collegiate career. 

“The Daily Cal has had problems like this in the past,” Drake said referring to past controversy surrounding Daily Californian cartoons and ads that were challenged as racist. “We’re going to continue taking action against the Daily Californian until they run a front page apology.” 

He said actions would include demonstrations and possibly contacting advertisers to discourage their purchasing advertising space in the Daily Californian. 

Lin said the editorial staff has refused to run a retraction and will stand by the photograph and story. He said that Gray enjoys special status as a Cal Football player and that his arrest, regardless of whether he is charged with assault, is news.  

Lin said he was upset about the paper thefts and that if members of the student group were stealing them, they were defeating their own argument.  

“It’s crucial to continue the dialogue on this issue,” he said. “Friday’s paper will include letters and opinion pieces from a variety of perspectives. If anybody takes the papers again, that goes against the very foundation of freedom of speech.”

EXTERIOR. DAY. Rubble-strewn street. A lone soldier, heavily armed, is standing guard.  

ENTER THREE MEN, disguised as state department officials, holding their kevlar-lined briefcases in front of their faces. 

SOLDIER: Halt! Who goes there. 

CHICO: Who’s on first!  

GROUCHO: That’s not our number, you idiot. It’s better to flatter them. Watch. [to the soldier] Good morning, Major. 

SOLDIER: Actually it’s General. I’m working undercover as a private to put an end to this stone throwing. [a stone flies by] Hey, aren’t you the Marx Brothers? 

GROUCHO: We were but we had to change our names — nobody will book an act named Marx. 

SOLDIER: Tough. But what are you doing here? 

CHICO: We can’t say.  

GROUCHO: You’ve heard of Mata Hari? [does a little shimmy] 

SOLDIER: Did he play for Buffalo? 

CHICO: [points to Harpo] What do you see? 

SOLDIER: Blonde? 

CHICO: Blonde. James Blonde. [Harpo tosses his curls; Chico catches them and puts them back.] 

[A stone comes flying past.] 

SOLDIER: [running after stone] I’ll get that rock if it’s the last thing I do.  

CHICO: Tell me, what are these WMDs? What are we looking for anyway? 

GROUCHO: It’s simple. You got your W, that’s for weapon 

CHICO: W for weapons, right. 

GROUCHO: You got your M, that’s for mass. You know about mass? 

CHICO: I should. I go every Sunday at nine. 

GROUCHO: Not that mass. 

CHICO: Well sometimes I go at 11. 

GROUCHO: Mass is everywhere -- even people have mass. Haven’t you heard of the masses? 

CHICO: I don’t know — hum a few bars, maybe I’ll remember it. 

HARPO: [writes on a blackboard E=mc squared] 

CHICO: [studies the board] Now I get it! It’s like mass production! 

GROUCHO: No no no.  

CHICO: But that’s great — if you got mass destruction [points to the wreckage all around] then you need mass production.  

GROUCHO: That’s not destruction. It’s collateral damage. 

CHICO: Lateral like in football, to the side? 

GROUCHO: Not lateral, CO-lateral. That means to the side no matter which way you face.  

CHICO: [inspecting the rubble] I think I get it. 

GROUCHO: [inspecting his watch] this is an outrage. Our contact has not liaised as promised 

[A WOMAN: ENTERS] 

CHICO: Maybe that’s it. 

GROUCHO: I’ll try the code. Pardon me miss, but are you going our way? 

WOMAN: Not if I can help it. 

GROUCHO: Actually, we just need directions. 

WOMAN: That’s easy. Go home. 

CHICO: Go home? 

WOMAN: You want a second opinion? 

GROUCHO: Sure. 

WOMAN: Go home now.  

[WALKS OFF as a young boy comes running in, pockets bursting with stones] 

BOY: Hey! You the guys looking for weapons of mass destruction? 

GROUCHO: It’s possible. 

BOY: Is there a reward? 

CHICO: Could be. 

BOY: There’s one just a little way down the road. It has a code name on it — I’m sure it’s the right one. 

GROUCHO: We’ll decide that, sonny. What’s the code? 

BOY: B five two.  

[DISSOLVE]

NONE SO BLIND AS…  

The Germans, or maybe it was the Swiss, used to tell a fable about a peddler who strayed into a forbidden forest, angering the troll who guarded those woods. The troll was about to kill the man, but the peddler begged so hard for his life that the monster took pity and devised another punishment. “I’ll send you back home on one condition,” the troll said. “You must walk the high road into town, and every person you see, you must give a gold coin from your sack. I will follow in the woods behind, and if you break this vow, I will pounce on you and eat you up in one bite.” The troll thought this was a fit punishment because he knew that the peddler loved his gold more than he loved his own life. The peddler agreed to the arrangement and walked out of the woods with the troll close behind, but when the peddler came out on the high road he stopped and tied a scarf around his eyes. In that way he walked all the way home, passing many but seeing none, and keeping all his gold.  

One wonders if Mayor Jerry Brown walks through downtown Oakland with his eyes purposely covered, so that he cannot see the people he insists are just not there.  

According to national columnist George Will, the mayor once described downtown Oakland in the late nineties as consisting of “a concentrated, homogeneous population — the elderly, parolees, people in drug rehab, from mental hospitals, transients. This is not the vibrant civic culture some might have in mind.” Since we doubt Mayor Brown would describe Oakland’s Chinatown as a community full of junkies and criminals, we can only assume that he has never actually seen that portion of downtown during the several years he has lived in our city.  

So, too, it must be with the mayor and the Alice Arts Center.  

First, the mayor. He came into office on a platform that emphasized revitalization of Oakland’s downtown, saying that it needed an influx of new residents to bring it back to economic and cultural health. He spoke often of the fact that downtown Oakland pretty much went dead on weekdays after five, with few places to eat or shop or gather for casual conversation.  

Now, to Alice Arts. The center is a city-owned property just off 14th Street near the lake — converted in 1993 from an exclusive women’s club. For 10 years it has been one of Oakland’s success stories. The facility houses several regionally and nationally recognized dance companies, including (but not limited to) Diamano Coura and Dimensions (two Afrocentric companies), AXIS Dance (which blends disabled and non-disabled performers) and the Oakland Ballet. Koncepts Kultural Gallery, which has offices at Alice, was bringing major jazz talent into the Jack London Square area as far back as the late 1980s, helping lead the way to that district’s revival as an entertainment center. Evening and weekend dance classes, sponsored mostly by Citicentre Dance, bring in thousands of participants a year.  

The city’s own Web site describes Café 1428, which sits next door to the Alice Center auditorium, as “a cozy, intimate cafe reminiscent of those found in New York’s Soho district.” This is probably an understatement. With a stream of people coming in and out from the dance classes and other activities at Alice, 1428 is probably the only place in downtown Oakland where you can drink coffee at an outdoor table, play chess or hold political discussions in four (or more) languages.  

In addition, the Alice building has some 70 apartments on its top floors, which the city encourages as residential rental space to “local artists, art students and individuals with careers in the arts.”  

But now comes trouble in the camp.  

A year ago, helped by a million-and-a-half-dollar renovation financed by the city, Brown moved his Oakland School For The Arts charter academy into the basement and unused ground floor office space at the Alice Arts complex. At the time, there was a lot of community concern that the unstated city plan was for the arts school eventually to take over the entire building, leaving no room for the present occupants. The Oakland Tribune, however, reported assurances from city staff back then that the arts school would “not displace any of the dance, music and performing arts groups that call the Alice Arts Center home.”  

Assurances, assurances.  

This week, we learn that the arts school needs more room, and Brown is considering giving it the whole center, scattering both the Alice Arts residential tenants and the various performance groups to other parts of the city. Or out of the city, if they can’t find space in Oakland.  

There are presently some 100 ninth-grade students enrolled at the arts school, which is able to operate only with an annual quarter-of-a-million-dollar city subsidy. If the school eventually reaches its long-term goal of a ninth- to 12th-grade student body (which is no certainty), it would reach a maximum enrollment of about 500, coming downtown each weekday morning, and leaving when the school closes at five.  

The arts school could be relocated, with little harm to its programs. Instead, Mayor Brown is willing to risk the dismantling of a proven Alice Arts Center program, successful over a 10-year period, that annually brings what the Tribune estimates as “tens of thousands” of people into the downtown area, daytime, evenings and weekends each year — what should be a cornerstone of the mayor’s downtown revival.  

You think maybe it’s ‘cause he just can’t see it? Or is there something else going on? 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor is an Oakland resident.

A main water pipeline ruptured early Wednesday morning on Grant Street near Allston Way, sending a stream of water onto the street and flooding the garage and basement of a nearby residence. 

Kathy Goldsmith, whose Allston Street house was hit with five inches of water, said she was awakened around 1 a.m. by the fire department. “I heard water and thought it was rain,” she said. “The street looked like a raging river.” 

About 40 residences in the affected neighborhood, which spans about two blocks around Allston and Grant, received no water service from 1:45 to 11:15 a.m. as a crew of East Bay Municipal Utility Department (EBMUD) employees worked to fix the rupture. EBMUD workers finished replacing the damaged section of the 12-inch-thick pipe and laying down temporary asphalt over the affected area around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

A subcontractor of EBMUD was brought in to pump water out of the Goldsmiths’ basement and garage and completely dry the area to prevent mold growth. Steve Goldsmith, Kathy’s husband, said he was pleased with the pace of the clean-up. “All the water was out in about an hour,” he said. “They were amazingly quick about it.” 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said it’s not uncommon for water mains to break but that Tuesday’s leak was “a fairly big one.” 

EBMUD spokesman Jeff Becerra said no exact cause has been pinpointed. He said there are water breaks almost every day throughout EMBUD’s jurisdiction, which covers about 45 miles of pipeline. He said most ruptures are caused by simple wear and tear. Other causes include heavy traffic and sudden weather changes. 

Officials could give no cost estimate for the damage.

Half of Berkeley High School’s 3,000 students will be in “small schools” of 200 to 250 pupils by the 2005-2006 school year, according to a much-anticipated reform package unveiled at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night. 

The document, developed by 17 administrators, parents, teachers, students and union officials known as the Small Schools Advisory Committee, lays out an application process for parents and teachers interested in creating a small school and recommends a new administrative structure for the revamped high school. 

Under the policy, still in draft form, small schools could have a specific theme or function as a smaller version of the high school. They would be required to develop accountability measures, recruit a racially diverse student body and provide students with a “passport” so they could take courses outside the small school. 

Board members raised a number of concerns around admissions policies and the legality of mandating a racially diverse student body. 

The advisory committee will meet next week to discuss possible changes and, if all goes according to schedule, the board will take a formal vote on the policy May 21. 

The policy, in its draft form, can be viewed on the Berkeley Unified School District’s Web site, www.berkeley.k12.ca.us. 

—David Scharfenberg

A last-ditch effort to save the 19th-century home of Berkeley pioneer John M. Doyle is $15,000 short and running out of time. 

Mayor Tom Bates said a resident has put up some money to pay the cost of moving the house, slated for demolition May 16, to a nearby location.  

Developer Patrick Kennedy, who plans to replace the building at 2008 University Ave. with a 35-unit housing project on the site, has also offered some cash for the move, said Bates. But $15,000 more is needed. 

“If someone is very interested in seeing the building saved, now is the time to do it,” said Bates, urging would-be preservationists to contact his office soon. 

Even if the money comes through, he said, the city would have to push the permits through quickly and hope for a small miracle from PG&E, which requires weeks of advance notice before conducting the sort of complicated wiring job the move would require. 

Bates said the city will make every effort to push the process forward if the money appears. 

The Doyle House has been the subject of a battle between Kennedy and preservationists from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). Kennedy cleared his last major hurdle to the project earlier this week when BAHA dropped a lawsuit asking the city of Berkeley to do an environmental impact report on the demolition proposal. 

—David Scharfenberg 

“Chile is living through a period of transition ... it’s the transition to democracy, not democracy. There is currently no freedom of expression in Chile.” 

—Ernesto Carmona, author “Los Dueños de Chile” 

Investigative journalism in Chile? It might seem like a contradiction in terms, but television and print periodista Ernesto Carmona shows that investigative journalism is alive and well, though limited in scope, in post-Augusto Pinochet Chile. 

Carmona has written a new book, “Los Dueños de Chile” (“The Owners of Chile”), a study of the 100 wealthiest Chilean citizens. The book teases out, in great detail, the hows and whys of the 100 who, out of a population of 15.4 million, have come to be known as the owners of Chile. In some respects the book appears to be a Chilean equivalent to C. Wright Mills’ “The Power Elite” and G. William Domhoff’s “Who Rules America.” Although the 100 individuals and families possess most of the wealth in Chile, there are five among the super rich, including at least three billionaires, according to Carmona. 

Carmona is on a speaking tour in the Bay Area, and on a recent gray Sunday he spoke with the Daily Planet in the offices of La Peña Cultural Center on Shattuck Avenue. 

He talked about how he was exiled from the country for 18 years during the Pinochet era. He now runs a small publication, “La Huella” (“The Fingerprint”), in Santiago and relies solely on the cover price — the equivalent of about $1.50 — to support him and his tiny staff. Its monthly circulation of 10,000 is part of a nascent alternative press in a country with few alternative media outlets. 

Carmona will speak in Berkeley at La Peña on Sunday and at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco on Wednesday. During his two-week stay in the area he also plans to speak at Sonoma State University and at San Francisco City College. He will also be a guest in Conn Hallinan’s journalism classes at UC Santa Cruz. 

As Carmona began discussing Chilean politics and journalism his gestures became lively. The interview, which was conducted in Spanish, was translated by the reporter: 

Is there a free press in Chile today?  

“In fact, there is no freedom of expression in Chile and there are just two companies [El Mercurio and Copesa] that control the written word. Investigative journalism is done, but independently. ... Small papers with no advertisements do it.”  

Why are you basing yourself in Berkeley on this book tour? 

“I have been invited by the Chilean community here. There is a strong, active Chilean community in the Bay Area. In addition, I am working with Fernando Torres, the publicist here at La Peña, to open a center for investigative journalism in Santiago based on the Media Alliance and Media Watch models here.” 

Berkeley is known for its politically left culture and ideas. What is the state of the Left in post-Salvador Allende Chile? 

“There is no political force on the Left right now. I do not see a resurgence in the Left, I see a great crisis among progressives in Chile. The Socialist Party has turned into a European-style Social Democrat Party. It was a party born out of the urban workers movement and now it has taken the word ‘worker’ out of its current vocabulary ... similar to the Labor Party in England. There is no political force on the Left currently in Chile. What is going to surface [next election] is the Right with a leftist mask. What is emerging right now is populism ... a discourse on leftist ideas, but actual decision-making in favor of the Right. That’s what will happen in the next round of Chilean elections. 

“What’s happened is that the country was robbed under the dictatorship and the problem is that the people forget this. In Bolivia and Ecuador there is a leftist resurgence ... and it is linked with indigenous movements. In Brazil, too, there has been a resurgence of the Left in the form of Lula, but that is all.” 

Is there democracy in Chile? 

“There is no democracy at this time in Chile ... There cannot be democracy when a high percentage of members in the Senate are appointed and not elected. Eight out of 50 senators are not elected.” 

Why didn’t Chile support the U.S.-led coalition in the Iraq war? 

“Chile never supported the United States in Iraq. It was a question of business. [President Roberto] Lagos and his people were going to support Bush, but the people of Chile were very much against it … Right, Center, everybody was against it … Chile has a free trade agreement with the European Union’s 15 countries.” 

What would you like the American people to know about how we are affected by the fabulously wealthy people in Chile? What does this book, “The Owners of Chile,” have to offer?  

“It’s important because it has much to do with what has happened in Chile. It’s very relevant to the role the United States played during the intervention of the government of Salvador Allende [1970-73]. That government was a constitutionally elected one, a legitimate one. I would like the American people to understand that the process of globalization of the economy permits and implies that the poor in our countries [Latin America] finance the well-being and quality of life for the wealthy countries with the only thing that we have, our natural resources. And they impose governments on us that facilitate that process.” 

Ernesto Carmona speaks in Berkeley this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave., and at Modern Times Bookstore on Wednesday, May 14, at 888 Valencia St. in San Francisco. 

Two weeks ago, when I called the New York publishing house Villard and asked to speak to Jane Juska’s publicist, a polite but curt voice demurred, “As you can imagine, she’s quite busy right now. Everyone’s talking about Ms. Juska and her book.” Eventually he put me through to the assistant to the publicist who sent me Jane’s new memoir, “A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance.”  

You betcha everyone’s talking about Jane Juska: Publisher’s Weekly, the Kirkus Review, The New York Times, The Times of London, the L.A. Times, television and radio talk shows across the country and the Atlantic. While I sat in Jane’s sunny garden for a little over an hour, the phone never stopped ringing. Jane Juska is in demand, and not just with the men she’s dating. 

About the only place that Jane hasn’t yet heard from is the New York Review of Books. And those are the very folks who should be knocking on her Berkeley cottage door. After all, it was in their pages that Jane placed the personal ad that prompted her tell-all memoir and thus the ensuing onslaught of media attention.  

It all started back in 1999, when Jane wrote the following ad after watching Eric Rohmer’s “Autumn Tale” at the Elmwood Theater in Berkeley: “Before I turn 67 — next March — I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” She received 63 responses and, after putting them in piles of yes, no and maybe, she decided to explore her options. The result is a rollicking, well-told tale about a strong-willed, bold woman who goes in search of a good time.  

“A Round-Heeled Woman” is also a candid, sensitive look at what it’s like to be single, over 60 and desirous of physical and intellectual relationships. Jane taught English for more than 40 years in high schools, colleges and prisons in the Bay Area. For 20 of those years she was busy raising a son and juggling multiple teaching responsibilities. She writes bluntly that she was too tired, too fat and too depressed for sex. She hid her body in extra-large muumuus and numbed herself with scotch. But when she finally retired from teaching she knew she wanted more than reading, drinking and puttering alone in the garden. 

Jane’s honesty about her need for physical contact and meaningful dialogue is refreshing. She wants sex. She wants cuddling. She yearns to share intimate dinners and hold lively discussions about books, music and art. Through her personal ad she finds men who want to satisfy her physically and indulge in her passion for conversation and good literature. But it’s not perfect. As you might expect it’s sometimes messy, disappointing and scary. Messy because it’s not always easy to meet someone in person that you’ve communicated with only via snail and e-mail. Disappointing because, well let’s face it, sex can often be disappointing. And scary because Jane took some risks.  

“I knew when I went into this thing that I could get hurt. I knew I could get beaten up every which way, slapped around on both coasts, mugged, assaulted all across the country, suffer injuries from which I would never recover. I could even die. I knew when I decided to fill my life fully, I could not choose only the good parts.” 

Jane tells us about her suitors with humor and insight. She travels across the country several times for intimate rendezvous. Some of the men she meets are gentle, some are confused, others are mean, kind, funny, silly, handsome and both wonderful and lousy lovers. They range in age from 32 to 82. The personal detail of her prose is not scintillating. It’s honest, real, gutsy and genuine. Some readers may think that Jane should take a cold shower, get a dog or purchase a well-designed dildo down at Good Vibrations. But luckily, Jane opts instead to make some feisty choices and to share her journey with us. 

As I leave Jane’s garden, she walks me to the gate. I hear the phone ring. She smiles. “My publicist told me she’ll leave me alone on Sundays. And I told her ‘Don’t worry, I’m available 24/7.’”  

I think to myself “You go, girl. Someday, when I’m sixty-six, I’m going to run an ad like yours.”  

I watch Jane turn and head for her cottage. She has passed some of her joie de vivre on to me. I let my hips sway a little as I walk down the street. I smile. It’s good to be alive. It’s good to be in Berkeley. It’s good to know Jane Juska. 

Jane Juska will read from her memoir A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex & Romance on Thursday, May 15, 7 PM at Cody’s on Fourth Street.  

Last week was May Day and it made me think of the three lovely young Russian women who stayed in our home several weeks ago. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, they were part of a group of 10 Russians studying advocacy issues with the Center for Independent Living, the Center of Accessible Technology, World Institute on Disability, Whirlwind Wheelchair International and several other Bay Area organizations that work on disability issues. 

Irina Gubareva, Marina Grinuk and Anna Naumovo live in Novosibirsk, a large city located in central Siberia, closer to Mongolia than to Moscow. They showed me photographs of their families, friends and school: pictures of stout grandmothers, lanky fathers, handsome boyfriends, smiling young women and huge gray buildings. Through lots of grunting, shouting and body language we were able to communicate on a very basic level. Marina, who is deaf, used sign language to talk with Anna and Irina, who then pantomimed or pointed to a Russian-English dictionary in order to get their point across.  

Although it was confusing, I think I was able to take care of most of their needs. I discovered that they liked coffee, soft white bread, jam and yogurt for breakfast. I figured out when they needed their clothes washed, when they wanted to borrow a hair dryer, when they had to go shopping. “Ross” they said and pointed to their skintight polyester Russian jeans.  

I took them to Ross Dress for Less on Shattuck Avenue where they poured themselves into the tightest pants imaginable. Anna bought clog-like sneakers and Marina purchased sky blue high heels that looked fit for a “working woman.” Irina wound up with a blue jean skirt far too short and all three bought socks. The prude in me wanted to cover their attractive bodies in sack-like, ankle-length dresses, but there was no deterring them. They were on a mission to purchase American clothing, and they had no trouble finding what they wanted.  

We went to Point Reyes where I got a map from the Visitors Center, positioned them at the Bear Valley trailhead and pointed westward. I showed them my watch and indicated that I’d be back in four hours to retrieve them. They were there when I returned, tired, sunburned and smiling. 

One night they heard African music coming from the house next door. Irina went outside, swayed her hips and giggled. I thought they might like to meet my neighbor, Githingi Mbire, a Kenyan artist. I shouted over the fence to his open window and told him my Russian guests requested his presence. He came over.  

His native language is Swahili and he was more successful at communication than I was. Or perhaps he was more interesting. With very little effort Marina let him know that she and her comrades wanted to see his painting studio. At 1 a.m. I went to bed. I left the back door unlocked for them.  

When I was growing up in the 1950s, all Russians were my enemy. I vividly remember crawling under my 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade school desks, sticking my head between my knees and praying that the Commies wouldn’t drop the big one. I recall curling up in my mother’s arms, allowing her to comfort me after a bad nightmare in which a fat little Nikita Kruschev beat me over the head with his shiny black shoes.  

How remarkable it is that now, while the United States fights a war with a country I hadn’t realized was our enemy, I am host to the children of the people I’d always thought were out to get me.  

I hope that it doesn’t take me another 40 years before I get to share a homestay with three young Iraqis. By then we’ll probably be at war with someone else. But maybe, if every American takes the time to meet the people we are told to fear, we can prevent another war from happening. Sign me up. They can buy whatever they want at Ross Dress for Less and I won’t complain. 

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.