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PATRICIA CHRISTA, Berkeley High’s new principal, with students.
PATRICIA CHRISTA, Berkeley High’s new principal, with students.
 

News

Principal Starts School With a Bang

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday May 20, 2003

Don’t be surprised if Berkeley High School’s newly appointed principal, Patricia Christa, shows up at work next fall in a helicopter. 

Christa, who served as an assistant principal and principal at Newark Memorial High School for 12 years, has a reputation for making a splash on the first day of school. 

“When I started [at Newark Memorial], everybody was down and I thought, I’ve got to be a little goofy,” she said. 

So the principal, a petite woman, arrived at her first all-school assembly on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, engines roaring. Not content with one jaw-dropping stunt, she turned up in a race car and a helicopter in subsequent years. 

Unexpected entrances became a tradition, one Christa promises to continue at Berkeley High. “But I won’t tell you what I’m going to do,” she said. 

Berkeley parents and school officials, who are just getting to know Christa, say they are impressed with her spunk and hope she will succeed in a post with notoriously high turnover. 

“It’s a very tough job,” said Marisita Jarvis, who served on the parent committee that screened the final nine candidates. “But she has a little touch of craziness, which is good ... She would be willing to do something a little off to get the attention of the students.” 

Christa, who grew up in Sacramento and San Jose, will be the fourth Berkeley High principal in six years. She said she plans to stick around, brushing aside concerns about a sprawling school that some consider unmanageable. 

“To me, it’s a travesty that principals have left,” Christa said. “That’s absurd. I had a hard time leaving my school after 12 years.” 

When Christa left Newark Memorial at the end of the 2001-2002 school year, she took a job as director of educational services for the Newark Unified School District. But she said the central office job was not as rewarding as her work as principal. 

“It was fine,” she said. “But I missed the kids.” 

Last week Christa began splitting her time between Berkeley High and Newark Unified. She plans to spend two days a week at the high school until July 1, when her responsibilities as full-time principal begin. Christa said she wants to familiarize herself with staff, parents and students, and learn about what issues the high school faces, before taking the helm.  

Christa will fill a post that has been vacant for two years. Co-principals, Mary Ann Valles and Laura Leventer, have been running the show in the interim. 

“The two co-principals have been doing a wonderful job at the school,” said Joan Edelstein, president of the Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association. “Nonetheless, parents felt there needed to be an identified person in charge who had authority and could bring a vision to this school.” 

Christa sums up her vision neatly: “Every school needs to have five things: leadership, culture, infrastructure, educational program, and professional development.” 

Newark Memorial is in some ways quite different from Berkeley High. Newark Memorial has 2,100 students this year, compared to 3,200 at Berkeley High, according to data from the California Department of Education.  

The school also has a much smaller black population — 6 percent of students versus 32 percent at Berkeley High. But Newark Memorial’s Hispanic population is significantly larger, 34 percent versus 12 percent. 

Christa isn’t overly concerned about the differences between the two. “Kids are kids,” she said. “High schools are very similar.” 

Newark Superintendent Ken Sherer, who served as Berkeley High principal in the late 1980s, said what really separates the Berkeley campus from Newark Memorial is the deep gap between its high-achieving and low-achieving students. 

Sherer said Christa understands the challenge and is ready to face it. 

“We talked long and hard, before she went down there, about what she can expect,” said Sherer. “She’s tenacious.” 

The long-standing “achievement gap” at Berkeley High breaks down along racial lines. Last year, white students at Berkeley High averaged 882 on the state Academic Performance Index, far exceeding a state target of 800. Asian students averaged 759, while Hispanics scored 550 and blacks averaged 512. 

“You’ve got a community that is reaping the benefits of the high school and a community that is just struggling to be there,” said Michael Miller, a member of Parents of Children of African Descent. 

Newark Memorial’s scores, by contrast, clustered in the middle last year. Asian students scored highest, at 724, followed by whites at 718, Filipinos at 668 and Hispanics at 590. The number of black students was too small to generate a score. 

Christa said she needs to take a close look at the Berkeley gap before charting a course of action. 

“I don’t know a lot about how big the gap is, who the gap is. I cannot proceed until I know that,” she said. “That’s why I’m getting into the school a little bit earlier than most people would, so I can do a lot of analysis and then, with the staff, make a plan.”  

Berkeley administrators want to close the gap by placing 50 percent of Berkeley High students in small, themed learning communities by 2005. The proposal, not yet approved, is a modification of a more ambitious plan, approved by the Board of Education last year, to move entirely to “small schools.” 

Negotiating the transition to small schools, each with relatively autonomous administrative structures, will be one of Christa’s chief challenges, school officials said. 

English teacher Rick Ayers said it’s important that the leadership transition doesn’t delay the reform effort. “We’re hoping there will be continuity with this process and it won’t be held up,” he said. 

Christa, who created small learning “clusters” at Newark Memorial, said she likes the concept and looks forward to getting small schools in place at Berkeley High. 

She added that communication and cooperation will be hallmarks of her administration. 

“We’re going to do everything as a team,” she said. 

Look out — there may be a fleet of Harleys in the parking lot next year.


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday May 20, 2003

TUESDAY, MAY 20 

 

Strawberry Tastings at the Berkeley Farmers Market Free strawberry samples from all of the strawberry  

growers, from 2 - 7 p.m. Sponsored by the Ecology Center. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org/farmers_mrkts/ 

 

Berkeley Garden Club pre- 

sents a lecture on Container Gardening with Keeyla Meadows at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

 

Let’s End Bullying and Name-Calling, a preview of a new film from the Women’s Educational Media and in-formation about the Respect for All Project, at 6:30 p.m. at Willard Middle School, 2425 Stuart St. Potluck dinner, door prizes. For information call 547-8080 or BerkeleySafeSchools@hotmail.com 

 

Identity Theft, a presentation by the Berkeley Police De- 

partment at 11:15 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

 

Kathy Kelly, founder of Iraq Peace Teams, speaks about her eyewitnessing the bombing of Baghdad, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets $20, benefit for Voices in the Wilderness. Wheelchair accessible and ASL-interpreted. 548-0542. www.vitw.org 

 

Azmi Bishara, Palestinian Member of Israeli Knesset, in conversation with Dennis Bernstein at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Sponsored by KFPA Radio 94.1 and Global Exchange. Tickets $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Tickets available at independent bookstores or phone orders at 415-255-7296 ext. 200. For more information call 415-575-5542, or www.globalexchange.org 

 

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.berkeleycameraclub.org 

 

Networking as Relationship Building, a brown bag career  

talk with Kate Dey, noon to 1 p.m., at YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way, at Bowditch. 848-6370. 

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 

 

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

 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 872-0768. 

 

THURSDAY, MAY 22 

 

Best Bike Rides in Northern California, a slide presentation with outdoor writer Ann Marie Brown, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Bay Area Racial Justice Coalition meets at 3 p.m in the main lounge of the YWCA, 2600 Bancroft Way, at Bowditch. For more information call Ana Traylor Jefferson at 848-6370. 

 

FRIDAY, MAY 23 

 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berke- 

ley, 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 

 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series 

“One Man’s Opinion,” with William K. (Sandy) Muir, Ph.D., Prof. of Political Science, emeritus, UC Ber- 

keley. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations 526-2925.  

 

Splitting the Sky, First Nations Freedom Fighter  

will speak on his experiences with the American Indian Movement at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

 

Tibetan Aid Project Spring Benefit Dinner Enjoy a vegetarian meal and music from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at The Brazilian Room in Tilden Park. All the proceeds are dedicated to supporting Tibetan monasteries, nunneries and schools, and to supporting the distribution of sacred texts and art vital to Tibetan culture. For reservations call 848-4238. www.tibetanaidproject.org 

SATURDAY, MAY 24 

 

Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival along the sidewalks of Solano Ave., Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Register to create your own chalk art at 1561 Solano Ave. Music, pet adoptions, food, chocolate and the unfurling of Spring Art Street banners. Sponsored by the Solano Avenue Associa- 

tion. 527-5358. www.solano- 

ave.org 

 

Strawberry Tastings at the Berkeley Farmers Market Free samples from all of the strawberry growers, from 2 - 7 p.m. Sponsored by the Ecology Center. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

 

Kiddies Carnival in Diamond Park, Oakland, from noon to 6 p.m. A traditional festival celebrated around the world. Music, costumes, face-painting, potluck. All performances are by children! Free event sponsored by Epic Arts in Berkeley. 644-2204. 

 

Winged Migration, a documentary by Jacques Perrin, on bird migration through forty countries, with presentations by Wildcare and The International Bird Rescue Research Center at 7 p.m. at the Albany Twin, 1115 Solano Ave. Tickets are $9. 843-3456. 

 

Outdoor Screening and Party for “Bum’s Paradise,” a  

documentary by Thomas McCabe about the Albany Bulb. Movie, djs, and bonfire at sundown at the Albany Landfill Amphitheater, out in the SF Bay at the end of Buchanan St. off of I-80. Rain date the following evening or evenings until it happens. www.nonchalance. 

org, 595-4626. 

 

Butterfly Blooms Tour  

Tour the Butterfly Garden, see what is in bloom and learn how you can help local butterflies, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org. 

 

Making Room for Butterflies and Songbirds Come learn how the presence of butterflies and songbirds protects human health and enriches experience, and what is re- 

quired to re-establish and extend useful habitat for songbirds and butterflies. Led by Alan Hopkins, who has studied birds and their behavior and use of habitat and Barbara Deutsch, who studied birds and butterflies during the 15 years she spent making a refuge for them around a local pathway. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10 members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. For information call 548-2220 ext. 233. 

 

Fire Suppression Class offered by the City of Berkeley’s Emergency Operations Center, from 1 to 5 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. For more information call 981-5605. TDD: 981-5799. 

 

SUNDAY, MAY 25 

 

Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival along the sidewalks of Solano Ave. See listing for Sat. May 24. 

 

Bike Fair and Demonstration from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

 

Permaculture Principles 

The Berkeley Eco House, a permaculture demonstration house, garden, and resource center, hosts a series of  

workshops on permaculture, green building, and sustainable lifestyle every second and last Sunday of the month, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Eco- 

House, 1305 Hopkins, at Peralta (enter the garden gate on Peralta). Donations of $5-$20 requested and includes a vegetarian lunch. For information call 465-9439. 

 

Meditation, a talk with representatives of Sant Thakar Singh at 1 p.m. at the Berke- 

ley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 845-9648. 

 

MONDAY, MAY 26 

 

Memorial Day - City Offices Are Closed 

 

Berkeley CopWatch meets at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Vol- 

unteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

 

ONGOING 

 

Technical Assistance for Non-Profits  

A free workshop series hosted by Alameda County Su- 

pervisor Keith Carson, to be held at the Alameda County Conference Center, at 125 12th St., Oakland. The first meeting will be May 29, on Public Relations and Media Training. For information or to register, please call Breonna Cole at 272-6060.  

 

CITY MEETINGS 

 

City Council meets Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil 

 

Community Meetings on the City Budget 

The public is invited to learn more about the budget de- 

ficit and how the city plans to address the issue. May 22 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-CITY. 

 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/humane 

 

Commission on Aging meets 

Wednesday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. in the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/aging 

 

Commission on Labor meets 

Wednesday, May 21, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

 

Human Welfare & Community Action Commission meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.- 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

welfare 

 

Rent Stabilization Board meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.- 

berkeley.ca.us/rent 

 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the West berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520.www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley 

 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/zoning  

  

School Board meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320.


A Capital Crime?

Becky O’Malley, executive editor
Tuesday May 20, 2003

The death of Berkeley resident Kevin Freeman in Santa Rita Jail raises a number of questions which public agencies who had him in custody before his death must answer. 

The first questions are for Alameda County, which runs Santa Rita. The most obvious one, of course, is why Freeman, charged only with public drunkenness, was assigned to the same cell as a man who was alleged to have attacked a stranger with a knife. Is it the jail’s policy to house people charged with violent crimes with non-violent offenders, or was a mistake made? If it was a mistake, how did it happen? Was one or the other of the cell mates mischaracterized, and if so, by whom? What are the qualifications of those who evaluate the psychological state of inmates before placing them in cells? 

Then there are the questions for City of Berkeley authorities. Berkeley Police officers expressed shock at Freeman’s apparent murder, but how did he end up in jail in the first place? Alcoholism, after all, is addiction, though to a legal drug. Most experts call it a disease. So why is the City of Berkeley still locking people up in the county jail for being alcoholics? 

Do we jail middle-class alcoholics with a support network of friends and family, or is jail reserved for the poor? There was a drunken brawl in front of a fraternity house a week or so ago. Any U.C. students locked up in Santa Rita for being drunk in public in that situation? 

And how much does it cost to jail an alcoholic for 30 days anyway? When you consider the salaries of prison guards, police officers and judges, not to mention the cost of building jails, it’s bound to add up to a pretty penny. Could the judge who sentenced Kevin Freeman to 30 days in Santa Rita have required the city to spend the same amount of money on medical detoxification for him instead? 

In the wake of Freeman’s death, social service agencies have once again called for the establishment of a local detox center. State Proposition 36 mandated a treatment option for people addicted to illegal drugs, but it doesn’t cover victims of alcohol, the heavily advertised legal drug. 

There is a widespread public perception that it’s a good idea to get people like Kevin off the street and out of sight by any means necessary. Gavin Newsom, a rich kid who has probably seen friends drunk in public, is making a run for mayor in San Francisco on the backs of unfortunates who can’t lick their alcoholism and other problems. His allies in the San Francisco hotel industry have even floated a billboard campaign against giving money to panhandlers. Their Care not Cash proposal, passed by San Francisco voters but recently overturned by a judge, would substitute shelter vouchers for food and rent money, with the excuse that sometimes checks are spent on alcohol. It takes more than a bed for the night to beat alcohol addiction, unfortunately. 

We tried a voucher program here in Berkeley a few years ago, probably after Kevin Freeman was already addicted, already on the street. It didn’t work, for him or for anyone else in his condition, and it won’t work in San Francisco either. 

Sick people like Kevin need treatment, not punishment. And even if punishment is all we offer them in Berkeley, it’s particularly outrageous that the criminal negligence of the management of Santa Rita has turned Kevin Freeman’s misdemeanor drunkenness into a death penalty crime. 

— Becky O’Malley, executive editor 

 

 

 


Arts Calendar

Tuesday May 20, 2003

TUESDAY, MAY 20 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Gina Kolata discusses her new book, “Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Suzan-Lori Parks reads from “Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Tanya Shaffer discusses her new narrative, “Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A Tale of  

a Woman Wanderer in Africa,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave., entrance on Rose St. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Youth Poetry Slam and Jazz with students from Berkeley Alternative High School and the Ben Saxe Quintet from Berkeley High, at 7 p.m. at The Jazz House. Students free, adults $3. 649-8744. www.sfsound.org/acme.html 

 

Berkeley Chamber Perfor- 

mances presents the San Francisco Saxophone Quar- 

tet, with David Schrader, soprano saxophone, Bill Aaron, alto saxophone, David Henderson, tenor saxophone, Kevin Stewart, baritone saxophone at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20, $15 for students and seniors. 525-5211. www.sfsax.com 

 

Creole Belles perform at 8:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

 

Richard Shindell, leading modern folk singer and songwriter, 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 

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Rafe Esquith reads from “There Are No Shortcuts,” about working as a teacher in inner-city Los Angeles, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Lou Marinoff looks at “The Big Questions: How Philo- 

sophy Can Change Your Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Live Oak Concert, with Marvin Sanders, flute, David Cheng, violin, Marta Tobey, viola, Paul Rhodes, cello, perform Quartets for Flute and Strings by Mozart and Haydn, at 7:30 p.m., at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15 sliding scale. 644-6893. 

 

Mokai, guitarist/lyricist blending elements of folk, jazz and blues at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Moh Alileche, Algerian singer and mondol player, performs at 8 p.m. at Ash- 

kenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

 

Crowden School Spring Concert featuring string orchestra and choral music per- 

formed by students age nine to 14, at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church at the corner of Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $10, students and seniors, $5. 559-2941. www.thecrowdenschool.org 

 

The 2003 California Music Awards Pre-party & Band Competition, where one band is picked to perform at this year’s awards on May 25 in Oakland, at 9 p.m. at  

Blakes on Telegraph, 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

 

THURSDAY, MAY 22 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Fred Wilson: “Aftermath,” guided tour of the installation at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, at 12:15 p.m. Free for members, UC students, faculty and staff, $5 seniors and disabled, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

 

Tom Robbins reads from his new novel, “Villa Incognito,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

An Evening of New Books by Men, with authors Joe Sutton, Geourg Dzul, Ches- 

ter Aaron and Lawrence Howard, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

 

Jennifer Leo, editor, and a panel of women travel writers read from “Sand in My Bra & Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write From the Road,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave., entrance on Rose St. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Portraits of Peace, concert with Hollee Farmer accompanied by Dennis Monaghan at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cul- 

tural Center. Donation re- 

quested. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Live Oak Concert, with Matthew Owens, cello, performing original compositions, at 7:30 p.m., at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15 sliding scale. 644-6893. 

 

Dr. Masseuse, Colin Blades,  

Woman, Oswald, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

 

Jenna Mammina, jazz vocal innovator, 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 

 

FRIDAY, MAY 23 

 

FILM 

 

Nicholas Ray: “Born to Be Bad” at 7:30 p.m. and “Flying Leathernecks” at 9:25 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 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

The 10th Annual Poetry Reading, co-sponsored by Berkeley High School’s English Language Learners’ Department and Berkeley Public Library, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Central Library Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Only program audience members will be permitted entrance to the building, which occurs outside the Library’s usual hours. For information call 981-6139. 

 

Mat Johnson discusses gentrification and urban blight in “Hunting in Harlem,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Elaine Pagels reads from “Beyond Belief,” about the origins of Christianity, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congrega- 

tional Church, 2345 Chan- 

ning Way. Tickets are $10 at the door, no one turned away for lack of funds. For information 848-3696 or Cody’s Books, 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Literary Friends discusses “Mothers in Nature,” at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. For information call 232-1351. 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Carnival, Carnival at Ashkenaz, featuring Singing Sandra, Pandeiros do Brasil, and steel pans from Trinidad and Tobago, at 9:30 p.m. at Ash- 

kenez. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

 

Latcho Drom, the story in music of the migration of the Roma people from Northern India to Europe at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

 

Live Oak Concert, with the Cypress String Quartet, at 7:30 p.m., at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15 sliding scale. 644-6893. 

 

MLK Middle School Chamber Ensemble will perform at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 981-5190. 

 

Mystic Roots, Reorchestra, and Flowtilla perform Reggae Hip Hop, Funk and Jazz Funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

 

Juanita Ulloa and Mariachi Picante, a concert of old and new Latin American huapangos, boleros and valses, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14 in advan- 

ce, $16 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Anthony Jeffries and his All Stars, blues band at 8:30 p.m. at Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10, ladies free until 9 p.m. 663-0440. 

 

Alphabet Soup, with saxophonist Kenny Brooks, pianist Dred Scott, rapper Chris Burger and drummer Jay Lane, performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. sfsound.org/acme.html 

 

Heavenly States, The Cables, Bill Holdens at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

 

Som’ma, Persian art music 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 

 

Thought Riot, Scissorhands, D.O.R.K., Beneath My Dreams 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 24 

 

CHILDREN 

 

Dance Jammies, a multi-generational event presented by Orches, a non-profit dance/ 

art organization, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at 2525 8th St. Reservations advised. 832-3835. orches@earthlink.net 

 

Eoin Colfer returns to delight readers young and old with the third adventure of Artemis Fowl in “The Eternity Code,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

 

“One Dog Canoe,” a summer vacation story at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

 

FILM 

 

Nicholas Ray: “In a Lonely Place” at 4:30 and 9 p.m. and “Knock on Any Door” at 7 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 

 

Turning Corners, a sign language-interpreted curator’s talk on a major exhibition of risk-taking art at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $5-$8. 642-5249. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

 

Rhythm and Muse features Asante and Chaos. Open mic 

sign-up at 6:30 p.m., reading at 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between 

Eunice & Rose Sts. Admission free. Piano and 2 mics available. 527-9753 or 569-5364. 

 

Huston Smith discusses “Buddhism: A Concise In- 

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

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Benefit Concert Feel the Beat! Drumming up support for music in schools with a concert featuring O-Maya, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, the Big Belly Blues Band, the Berkeley High School Afro-Hai- 

tian Dance Troupe, members of the Jazz Ensemble, and more. At the Berkeley Community Theater, Allston Way, at 7 p.m. Join us for BBQ and pre-concert entertainment at 5 p.m. in the courtyard. For tickets or donations call 644-8831. 

 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

The Chamberlain String Quartet, with Michael Yokas and Sharon Hendee, violins; Darcy Rindt, viola and Michael Graham ‘cello perform the music of Beetho- 

van, Shostakovich and Wolf’s Italian Seranade at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Suggested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

 

Michael Henderson with Norman Connors and the Starship Orchestra, perform at 8 and 10 p.m. at Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $25. 663-0440. 

 

Hyim and the Fat Foakland Orchestra urban sound combining Pop, Afro-Cuban, Folk, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Jazz, and World Beat, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10-$25 sliding scale. 649-8744. sfsound.org/acme.html 

 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit, an evening of East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

 

The Rich McCully Band and  

Paradigm at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Sterling Dervish, Stranger Things, and Alexis Harte perform Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

 

San Francisco Klezmer Experience, Jewish music ensemble 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 

 

Fito Reynoso’s Ritmo y Armonia, an evening of non-stop dancing at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Planes Mistaken for Stars, Black Eyes, Love Me De- 

stroyer, Mach Tiver 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. 

 

Crystal Singing Bowls Concert, performed by Kathleen Farrell, Chuck Cunningham and Jack Maranian at 7 p.m. at the Art of Living Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave., near Ashby. Cost is $10. 848-3736.  

 

SUNDAY, MAY 25 

 

CHILDREN 

 

Sun and Moon Ensemble presents “Enchanted Forest,” with theatre, dance, masked characters, giant puppets, and live music, at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 children, available from 925-798-1300.  

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Poetry Flash with Fresh Ink Poetry Group reading with poets Rita Bogaert, Madeline Lacques-Aranda, Barbara Minton, Charles Polly, Sue Prince, June Stoddart, and David White, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. $2 donation. 845-7852. www.codys 

books.com, www.poetryflash.org 

 

FILM 

 

Nicholas Ray: “Johnny Guitar” at 5:30 p.m., “The Lusty Men” at 7:40 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 

 

Michel Taddei and Friends in a double bass recital at 4 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Cost is $15 adults, $8 children. Proceeds to benefit Crowden School. 559-6910. www.thecrowdenschool.org 

 

2 on 2: BBoy/GGirl Battle, a fast-paced contest with cash prizes, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra, conducted by Ann Krinitsky, performs Rossini, Mozart, Corelli, Offenbach and more at 4 p.m. at the Laney Col- 

lege Theater in Oakland. Tickets are $5 at the door. For more information call 525-8484. www.byoweb.org 

 

MONDAY, MAY 26 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Poetry Flash with Shirley Kaufman at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. $2 donation. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com, www.poetryflash.org 

 

AT THE THEATER 

 

Berkeley Repertory Theater 

“The Guys,” by Anne Nelson directed by Robert Egan. An exploration of loss and redemption in the of 9/11. May 21 – July 5, Tues. - Sun., call for starting times. Tickets are $10-$54. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949. 888-4BRTTIX. www.berkeley 

rep.org 

 

Berkeley Repertory Theater 

“Surface Transit” 

Written and performed by Sarah Jones, directed by Tony Taccone. African American poet and spoken word performer, Jones weaves political humor into a collection of monologues detailing lives of eight New Yorkers. Extended until June 1. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949, (888) 4BRTTIX. www.berkeley- 

rep.org 

 

Transparent Theater 

Virginia Woolf's “Night and Day,” a world premiere stage adaptation by Tom Clyde, concerning the loves and careers of a group of young people in London in 1910. Directed by Tom Clyde. May 9 - June 8, Thurs. - Sat., 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. Sun., 7 p.m. pay what you can. 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305. www.transparenttheater.org 

 

Shotgun Players presents 

“under milk wood” a play for voices by Dylan Thomas, exploring the characters in a fishing town in Wales. At Eighth Street Studio, 2525 8th St., May 24 through June 22, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun 7 p.m. No performance May 25. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet accepts listings for both the Arts Calendar and the Berkeley This Week Calendar. Listings should be sent to calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.com, or by fax to 841-5695. Events are printed on a space available basis. For information call 841-5600, ext. 102.


Jailhouse Murder Suspect Attacked Other Cellmates

By JOHN GELUARDI
Tuesday May 20, 2003

The accused murderer of a jailed Berkeley man had attacked two of his previous cellmates in recent weeks, according to a newly released Alameda County Sheriff’s report. 

Ryan Lee Raper, 20, was arraigned last Friday on charges of murdering Kevin Lee Freeman, a longtime Berkeley transient, in Santa Rita jail. The murder has raised questions about Santa Rita Jail’s inmate classification and housing policy. Freeman, who at the time of his death was serving a 30-day sentence for public drunkenness, was a homeless alcoholic who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to court records he had no history of violent behavior. 

At the arraignment, Pleasanton Superior Court Judge Hugh Walker ordered the release of the report. Raper, who is being held without bail, is expected to enter a plea on Wednesday. 

According to the sheriff’s report, Raper, who was jailed on March 2, had attacked two previous cellmates before the fatal attack on Freeman, who was 55. In one of those attacks, he is suspected of pulling his cellmate out of his bunk in the middle of the night and threatening to break his leg. Neither of the victims pressed charges. Raper, who was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, was also caught stockpiling his medication.  

Raper is accused of killing Freeman in their two-man jail cell early on Friday May 9, a day after the two were assigned to the same cell. According to the report, Raper called sheriff’s deputies on the cell’s intercom system around 3 a.m. and said, “It’s done.” The guard asked if there was an emergency in the cell and Raper repeated, “It’s done.”  

When deputies arrived at the cell they found Freeman wrapped in bedding and face down on the cell floor. Raper lay in the cell’s upper bunk with a blood-soaked bed sheet wrapped around his waist. His face, hands and legs were also covered with blood, according to the report.  

Freeman was pronounced dead in the cell after paramedics tried to revive him. The Alameda County Coroner later determined that Freeman died of a skull fracture and severe trauma to his upper torso.  

As Raper was being taken to an isolation holding area, he said, “Man, the dude jumped off the top bunk at me and we got into it,” according to the report.  

Freeman’s friends and homeless advocates said they remain baffled as to how Raper, who had a series of recent violent offenses, was assigned to the same cell as a man who was not known to be violent. 

Alameda County Sheriff’s Spokesman Lt. Jim Knudsen did not return calls from the Daily Planet on Monday regarding Santa Rita’s cell assignment policies.  

Contacted in Pennsylvania by telephone, Freeman’s brother, Terry Freeman, said he is following the case closely.  

“I’ve been in contact with the district attorney’s office and I’m planning a trip out there,” he said. “I’m going to make sure this case will not go away.” 

Terry Freeman said his brother moved to California around 1971. He was born in Indiana and the family later moved to Pennsylvania where Kevin Freeman attended Trinity High School and later LaSalle and Temple universities.  

“He was an extremely smart person. He was a championship swimmer, boy scout and an all-American kid,” Freeman said. He added that his brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his early 20s. 

Deborah Tatto, who works for UC Berkeley at an office at 2481 Hearst St., said she started a street memorial on Friday in honor of Freeman. The memorial is located in front of a vacant store on Euclid Street near Hearst where Freeman would often hang out. She said Freeman has slept in the doorway of the building she works in for years.  

“He was very nice, never mean spirited or belligerent,” she said. “He never said anything to anybody, no asking anyone for anything, he’d put a cup out and that’s it.” 

Freeman is survived by two daughters, his mother and two brothers.  

 

 

 

 

 


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday May 20, 2003

URBAN INTRUDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for John Kenyon’s thoughtful ruminations (May 16-18 edition) on the project proposed for University Avenue at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. It is worth reflecting on some of the reasons why this project is, to use Mr. Kenyon’s phrase, an “urban intruder.” Developers like Patrick Kennedy know what so many Berkeley residents either have not noticed or have tacitly given in to: city officials’ profound and enduring failure to establish and follow public policy, evolving it accountably, through due process, as needed. 

City officials, elected and appointed, routinely ignore the General Plan. Neither state law nor Berkeley’s citizens require this charter city to follow any public policy for land use. The General Plan population density guidelines for this project’s location is 40 units per acre; Kennedy proposes nearly 200 — five times the foreseen density!  

Whose vision is the city realizing? If it’s to be the public’s, Berkeley needs to make its zoning ordinance and General Plan consistent. 

City officials utterly disregard the University Avenue Strategic Plan, officially adopted in 1996. The city has yet to implement it, conveniently missing the obvious opportunity in 1999 when the zoning ordinance was overhauled. That area land-use plan called for a three-story maximum along University Avenue, with a four-story maximum at commercial “nodes” (with room for greater height stories downtown). This project, as with the Kennedy project down the avenue at Acton Street, is an inappropriate five stories. 

We can count our blessings that the project might offer visual architectural merits, for the city’s own zoning ordinance requiring guidelines, against which its Design Review Committee must judge projects, also lies forgotten. Only the downtown area has such guidelines, leaving the public with no informed basis on which to interact with the DRC’s process for most projects in Berkeley. 

And while residents’ local officials are assisting such developers with stepping over or around municipal land-use plans and ordinances, as well as rolling over state environmental protection laws, readers can rest assured that developers’ bottom lines are being helped by millions in generous public tax and bond dollars, without adequate citizen input. 

Howie Muir 

 

• 

KEEP NEWS OBJECTIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why bother having an Opinion and Letters section of your paper when the articles themselves are loaded with opinion? Maybe I missed a headline in the on-line version of the May 16 edition, but John Kenyon’s “article” about the proposed development on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and University was not a news article, but clearly an opinion piece. 

Maybe I’m too idealistic, but I believe news reporting should present an objective recounting of basic facts — who, what, where, why and when. If Mr. Kenyon wants to be an architecture-planning-sociological critic, then please present his work as such. Frankly, after reading his article, I have no idea what is truly being proposed for the site other than the fact that Mr. Kenyon doesn’t like it. 

Gregory S. Murphy 

 

Editors’ Note: John Kenyon is a well-known Bay Area urban design critic who has written for the East Bay Express and other publications. The Planet assumed his byline would be familiar to readers. 

 

• 

WASTEFUL BUREAUCRACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is ironic that rent board commissioner Chris Kavanagh argues to increase landlord fees based on inflation rates in the Bay Area. He and his fellow commissioners of excessive regulation and economic waste have, for years, opposed rent increases based on similar indexes. 

The facts regarding the rent board are simple. This group of self-aggrandizing bureaucrats has reduced and damaged the rental housing stock, inspired and supported a system of legalized extortion, usurped the rights of individuals to negotiate agreements and wasted 20-plus million dollars of citizens’ money on a counter-productive and profoundly unjust system. 

Most profoundly, the abuse of common sense and basic fairness perpetrated by this self-righteous and self-deluded group has polarized our community and undermines a basic trust in the legitimacy of local government.  

Reason and wisdom would abolish this wasteful bureaucracy and use collected landlord fees for a general housing fund to build housing and provide subsidies for those who truly need it. Such a common sense approach would compel Kavanagh and his kind to actually be creative and inventive rather than engage in their usual ritual of whining and wasting public money.  

John Koenigshofer 

 

• 

REASSESS BANNERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why is it that when budget-cutting time rolls around and services for the poor are getting the ax, one can still see silly banners flying from light poles all over town? How can someone make a serious argument that banners are more important than the Jobs Consortium, or the other groups which are in danger of losing funding? 

Considering the costs of making and maintaining banners, and the costs of putting them up, taking them down and changing them seasonally, the obvious message they send is that when it comes to superficial business boosting, Berkeley has money to burn. 

Carol Denney 

 

• 

FINANCIAL FIASCO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When are Berkeley Unified School District’s excuses for poor fiscal management going to end? For example, the food service director, making a whopping $95,000, lost $800,000 during 2001-2002 and $650,000 this year, 2002-2003. The food service director and this director’s administrative bodyguard superintendent blamed the previous food service manager for the loss last year. (When, in fact, the previous manager left the district with an $800,000 surplus.) Now that the current director has been in place for nearly two years — what’s the excuse this year? 

When is the BUSD community going to wake up and realize that: 

1 — BUSD has made poor hiring recommendations, and 

2 — The current food service financial fiasco supports this idea. 

What is the Berkeley community getting for their hard-earned property taxes? Nothing but excuses, excuses and more excuses, which are boring and not very creative anymore. 

Rick Fuller 

Antioch 

 

• 

GRIEVOUS HARM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been following the story on the Doyle House with more than passing interest. 

A college education called me to Berkeley from a small town in Idaho in 1942. In those days, Berkeley was a tranquil place, graced with lovely old homes and gardens. 

The following year I was called to serve in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. 

When I returned to Berkeley to complete my studies in 1946, I was struck by the presence of so-called wartime housing ... multiple units of simple design, displayed cracker-box style, while displacing elderly, dignified single-family homes. 

With college completed, I returned to France to wed my wife. Following a period of employment in Paris, I brought her and our little son to Berkeley and found work in San Francisco. 

Shortly after our arrival in 1951, I leased the second floor of the Doyle House from a friend, Frances Doyle Murphy, the Doyle family daughter, for a term of three years. 

Mrs. Murphy’s niece and her family occupied the first floor, except for the Darling Flower Shop and its kindly owner, Ray Touriel, with space facing University Avenue. 

Our second child was born in the house. 

By 1969, beset by the congestion caused by multiple-unit housing around us, we left our home on Benvenue in Berkeley for the more pleasant neighborhood of another city. 

I recently learned of the peril confronting the Doyle House and note from your latest article that its demolition is imminent. 

Aside from my personal attachment to the house and its architectural features, many others have felt strongly that it should be preserved. 

There is a potential owner for this historic home with a site to which it can be removed. While the formalities of such a move have apparently all been completed, it is now discovered that a 20-day notice of removal must be published to accomplish its salvation, but there is not sufficient time to do so before demolition is scheduled to begin. 

Given the amount of time the possibility of a move has been under consideration, how could this requirement have been overlooked? 

Must the continued existence of such a noble old house be condemned for what seems to be a flimsy technicality at best? Your newspaper has certainly provided sufficient notice of such a possibility. 

How sad, that in the space of a half-century or so, we have lost our concern for these magnificent dwellings of the past, as well as our respect for those who created the very environment which Berkeley enjoys. 

Our desire to intensify land usage and increase return on investment has grievously harmed the Berkeley of old. 

This has neither served the betterment of the community nor its needs. Rather, it has served the interests, public and private, of those intent upon the pursuit of the almighty dollar to the detriment of the character and soul of the city. 

Berkeley was a delightful place in 1942. Where has that Berkeley gone? Where is the present Berkeley going? Is it progressing? I think not. 

Allen F. McDonald 

Oakland 


School Unions Halt Contract Negotiations

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday May 20, 2003

Negotiations between a second school union and the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) collapsed Thursday in a dispute over health care coverage. Talks with another union had stalled the week before. 

The two unions, representing about 500 school district employees, from secretaries to bus drivers, have both declared a formal impasse in negotiations. If the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) rules that contract talks have indeed reached a standstill, it will assign state mediators to intervene. A PERB decision on one of the two impasse declarations is expected by the end of the week. 

Union officials said the chief sticking point in negotiations is the district’s attempt to place a cap on health care costs, freezing its annual expenditure for each employee at $9,200, and passing the cost of rising premiums to workers. 

District officials say the move is necessary given that the schools face a $4 million to $8 million budget shortfall and health care costs are projected to rise 20 percent next year.  

“We’re trying to contain costs — not just in health and welfare, but across the board,” said Eric Smith, district associate superintendent for business and operations. District officials said they were disappointed by the unions’ decisions to declare an impasse, but union officials said they had no choice. 

“We had a situation where we kept getting back the same proposals, which were unacceptable,” said Ann Graybeal, president of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE), American Federation of Teachers, Local 6192, which represents about 330 teachers’ aides, library technicians, secretaries and accountants, among others. 

Graybeal said her union, which declared an impasse May 8, is not yet ready for a strike. 

“I don’t think any of us would use that word at this point,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.” 

Stationary Engineers, Local 39, which represents 160 bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, maintenance workers and safety officers, declared an impasse Thursday. Both Local 39 and BCCE have been operating without a contract since July 2002. 

Local 39 and BCCE members currently get full dental and health care plans, paying nothing for visits to the doctor and $1 for prescriptions. If the district has its way, employees would face co-payments of $10 to $20 for doctors’ visits or prescriptions next year, according to officials. 

“It’s a huge takeaway,” said Stephanie Allan, business representative for Local 39. 

Samuel Scott, Jr., a general maintenance worker who serves on the Local 39 bargaining team, said his health care plan currently covers two children and a fiancee with chronic back problems who goes to therapy three times a week. If co-payments jumped to $10 per visit, he said, he would spend at least $120 per month on health care costs. 

“I have three people to provide for and $120 per month would hurt,” he said. 

Union officials say they are also concerned about proposals to cut back on some employees’ hours and eliminate an incentive clause in the last contract which provides four days’ pay to any employee who doesn’t take a sick day during the year. 

“They proposed all kinds of takebacks which were effectively cuts in income,” said Graybeal. 

But Tina Brier, the district’s director of classified personnel, said management offered to withdraw many of the “takebacks” for Local 39 in exchange for agreement on the health care cap, and was about to make the same offer to BCCE when that union declared an impasse. 

“They didn’t get to see all our cards because they didn’t give us the opportunity,” Brier said. 

The district is set to meet with BCCE Wednesday. The union’s chief negotiator, Richard Hemann, said he does not expect significant progress on the major stumbling blocks. 

“I doubt very much that the impasse will be resolved,” he said. 

Local 39 and BCCE have represented the district’s “classified employees” — most of its non-teaching staff — since last May, when they wrested control from another union, Local 1, through a workers’ vote. 

 

 


Howard Dean, a Meaningful Alternative for President

By LYNN DAVIDSON
Tuesday May 20, 2003

You don’t hear much about Howard Dean’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the newspapers or on television, which is not surprising given the way the corporate media has been towing the government’s pro-war line. However, the Dean campaign is definitely picking up support in the East Bay and particularly in Berkeley. At a “meet-up” of 85 Dean supporters at an Oakland rally in early April, over one-third of the participants were from Berkeley. 

A physician by profession, Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont. He came out early and vociferously against Bush’s unilateral invasion of Iraq. His speeches question why so many Democrats in Congress are going along with the administration’s policies not only on Iraq but also on tax cuts, health cuts, civil liberties, the environment and education. Dean has also been a consistent supporter of women’s reproductive rights, unlike the only other anti-war candidate, Dennis Kucinich, who has a miserable voting record with regard to a woman’s right to choose. 

As governor of Vermont, Dean acquired a reputation for courage and integrity by supporting civil unions for homosexual couples when the polls showed only 35 percent support for the bill. This stand could have cost him re-election, but it didn’t. 

Many people at the April meet-up who had heard Dean speak previously in Sacramento said they were impressed with his forceful delivery, personal presence and sincerity. They seemed convinced he could actually win the presidential election, and this conviction got them involved in the campaign. 

The Dean campaign is highly organized, totally grassroots and on-line. Almost all of the organizing is taking place on the Internet. Dean’s positions on the issues are posted on his Web site, http://www.deanforamerica.com, as are his speeches, including an abridged version of the address to the California State Democratic Convention that got so many Bay Area supporters excited about his candidacy. The Web site also enables contributions and sign-ups for local meet-ups, where people can schmooze with other Dean supporters and get involved in the campaign. 

For UC students, there is a Berkeley Students for Howard Dean organization on campus. The student contact is Adam Borelli (aborelli@uclink.berkeley.edu). People with Internet access who want to be informed about Dean organizing in the Berkeley/Albany area can subscribe to an e-mail list at http://lists.solanoave.net/listinfo.cgi/dean-bay-area-solanoave.net, which was born as a list of Berkeley and Albany residents who attended the last Dean meet-up in Oakland. 

Four liberal members of Congress have already endorsed him: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). A Franklin Pierce poll published in early April showed Dean tied with John Kerry at 21 percent of likely New Hampshire voters, with the Democratic hopefuls (Lieberman, Gephardt, Hart, Edwards, Clark and Graham) all below 10 percent. 

In the coming months, you can expect more noise about Howard Dean’s platform on and off the Internet as a meaningful alternative to the policies of the Bush administration and the platforms of the Democratic Bush-wanna-bes. 

Lynn Davidson is a Berkeley resident.


Doyle House Demolished For Kennedy Project

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday May 20, 2003

Developer Patrick Kennedy demolished the Doyle House on University Avenue Monday, bringing an end to a 17-month fight over the 19th-century home of Berkeley pioneer John M. Doyle.  

Kennedy plans to build a $7 million building at the downtown site, including 35 residential units and a flower shop. 

Preservationists with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), who argued that the house was an important historical resource, sought to block the project but lost a court battle last month. 

In recent weeks, Mayor Tom Bates tried to broker a deal that would have moved the house a block away and saved it from the wrecking ball. Berkeley resident Ian Faircloth, who was set to take the house on his Berkeley Way property, put up $25,000 for moving costs, BAHA pledged $15,000 and Kennedy offered $10,000. But the city requires a 20-day waiting period for the permit to move a structure, and Kennedy said he couldn’t wait. 

“We want to build during the summer when the weather’s good,” said Kennedy, who aims to complete the project by August 2004. 

BAHA board member Austene Hall criticized Kennedy for the decision. 

“For want of a couple of weeks, [he will] tear down 113 years of important Berkeley history,” she said. 

The developer said he twice offered the house to BAHA — once in December 2001, when BAHA moved to sue, and again in April. Kennedy said the group should have acted when the move was still a realistic possibility. 

“Moving a house is a very complex deal that cannot be thrown together in two weeks,” he said. 

Hall said Kennedy should have conducted an environmental impact report on the project months ago, which would have thrown it into the public arena. The publicity, she said, would have generated early public interest in moving the building.


Blair Witch-Hunt Project Heats Up New York Times

By RICHARD D. HYLTON
Tuesday May 20, 2003

One week ago The New York Times published an astonishing article. It was the story of Jayson Blair, a rogue reporter who repeatedly lied, plagiarized and conned his way onto the front page of the country’s leading newspaper. The paper claimed that a breakdown in communication among its top editors caused them to miss a hailstorm of signals that Blair, a troubled young black reporter with a long trail of bad work, was not the right person to cover some of the year’s most important stories. The Times placed the story of Blair’s “Long Trail of Deception” on the front page above the fold and continued it inside for four full pages. That kind of space is usually reserved for superpower summits or tectonic shifts in national policies. 

The journalism community is buzzing over the bizarre Blair scandal. And race and diversity are at the center of the fingerpointing. As a black journalist who spent several years as a Times reporter, I’ve watched with disbelief as this scandal has unfolded and been used by racist commentators as a broad indictment of blacks in journalism. Supposedly, black journalists are pulling down the high standards white journalists have built up. I don’t know which is more absurd: The idea that America’s newsrooms are under siege from unqualified minority journalists because the media company executives — bamboozled by affirmative action — are determined to elevate black employees; or, the top editors of the Times claiming their management blunder was really just a failure to communicate with each other.  

I spoke with several people at the Times this week to get a sense of the mood and the thinking in their newsroom. It isn’t pretty. The mood was described as “nasty,” “angry,” “vindictive” and so forth. One reporter said, “This is not over. It’s just beginning. Someone’s going to pay for this.”  

The same reporter said many of his colleagues are betting that Gerald Boyd, the second in charge at the Times and the paper’s first black managing editor, would pay the heaviest price. Apparently Boyd is seen as Blair’s sponsor although Howell Raines, the executive editor, admitted giving his stamp of approval. Now that Raines has stumbled, Times reporters have been more open in their criticism of his autocratic management style, but Boyd is seen as the real heavy. 

Who is really responsible for the Times’ mess and how could it have happened? Few readers would have missed the flat-footed way the Times’ editors used the blowout coverage to run from their own disastrous mistakes. It’s clear that Raines, Boyd, and national desk editor Jim Roberts share the responsibility for what Times’ publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., called “a huge black eye.” But you would hardly have known it from reading the Times’ account.  

The top guys at the Times still don’t seem to understand that they have failed on two different fronts: first, by not attracting more qualified non-white journalists to diversify the Times’ newsroom and, second, by giving a young reporter with a dreadful track record bigger and bigger stories supposedly as a way of helping black journalists.  

The Times article had the top editors dodging behind talk of not being fully briefed on Blair’s track record or thinking that he had suddenly reformed enough to be put on the Washington sniper case. Sulzberger, whose family has controlled the paper for more than a century, summed up the editorial posture by warning against placing blame on Raines and his deputies. “The person who did this is Jayson Blair,” Sulzberger said in the Times’ own account. “Let’s not begin to demonize our executives…” 

That must have been the mantra when the editors brought the full weight of the most powerful paper in the country down on this 27-year-old cub reporter who, they imply, has a drinking problem. The Times went to great lengths to crush Blair by describing him as a “study in carelessness” whose sloppiness was on display in many aspects of his life, including his clothing and his diet — Scotch and Cheez Doodles accompanied by cigarettes. 

A few days after the article, Raines held an unusual meeting of hundreds of the Times’ editorial staff where he offered a mea culpa for the Blair episode. He said that as a white man from Alabama who believes in diversity in the newsroom, he must admit that when he looks into his heart for the truth he realizes that he gave Blair one chance too many because he was black.  

What does this mean? Well, for starters, it means that Raines still does not get it. He and Boyd seem not to understand that diversity in the workplace does not mean showing black people who are bad at their jobs greater leniency than whites would get. Diversity programs at their best provide greater access to institutions and workplaces that have a history of excluding qualified minorities. And by that measure, the New York Times newsroom definitely needs to be diversified. 

Did Raines have to look into his heart to pull out another chance for this underperforming journalist because there aren’t any high-performing minority reporters out there? Some people would love to believe that that’s true. But it isn’t. Many talented minority journalists have left the Times in frustration over the years and they have gone on to success elsewhere. I met many great journalists (black and white) when I worked for the Times. And I know there are few minority journalists there who think the paper’s management gives them the same high regard or opportunities that it more commonly offers white journalists. 

The simple truth is that The New York Times has never been seriously committed to diversity in its newsroom. The Blair disaster shows that the top people don’t even understand what diversity would look like. 

 

Richard Hylton, a former New York Times reporter, lives in San Francisco.


Contest Awards Residents for Recycling

David Scharfenberg
Tuesday May 20, 2003

The nonprofit Ecology Center doled out $2,500 to three unsuspecting Berkeley residents Friday for their recycling prowess. 

Administrators of the Cash for Trash contest rifled through the trash of 20 randomly selected Berkeleyans early Friday morning, awarding $2,000 to a West Berkeley couple and $500 to a North Berkeley senior citizen when they found no recyclable materials in their waste cans. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Anne Edwardson, who won the $500 prize. “I thought it was a joke.” 

Edwardson said the check will be “very welcome,” adding that she’ll spend the money on plumbing and other household needs. 

“I do recycle and I do believe in it,” she said. 

Stephanie Turner and Robert Ping, who have a new baby, according to the Ecology Center, won the $2,000 prize. 

“We want to generate excitement about recycling and kind of remind people,” said Matthew Carlstoem, contest manager for the Ecology Center. “We want to have a little fun.” 

The Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board provided a total of $7,500 in prize money, which the Ecology Center hopes to award by the contest’s conclusion June 13. 

The center puts up $250 in prize money every day. If no one wins, the money rolls over to the next day. Friday was day 10 of the contest, and with no previous winners the pool had reached $2,500. 

 

—David Scharfenberg


Fireman’s September 11 Grief Inspires Play

By BETSY M. HUNTON Special to the Planet
Tuesday May 20, 2003

Not thinking highly of the Berkeley Repertory’s new production “The Guys” is rather like not being impressed with your best friend’s new baby. It’s a touch hard to figure out exactly what you should say.  

The play came directly out of the horror of Sept. 11. In more than one way it is a direct and honest response to the chaos and agony that permeated New York in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Author Anne Nelson is a longtime reporter who teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. The play is a first draft, written in nine days and never revised.  

It could almost be a transcript of her experience with a firefighter whom she helped to write eulogies for the men in his unit who died at the towers. 

The situation is heartbreaking, and still so close to our personal experience that it seemed embarrassing to feel relief that the “The Guys” is limited to four of the eight eulogies. Considering the play’s source, it’s hard to admit to a tinge of boredom. 

The substance of the play is the dialogue between the writer (Sharon Lawrence) and the fireman (Keith David) as he provides touching reminiscences of the dead men and she, in turn, writes eulogies and reads them back to him. It is far from an easy format for the actors. Each has lengthy speeches at times, and the other character little opportunity to respond. Other difficulties are inherent in the text, but both actors come through quite well. 

There is a little variation in the format when the writer comments directly to the audience about her own feelings or personal experiences. And there is a rather jarring attempt at relief from the play’s substance by some references to Argentina and the introduction of a tango between the two characters. (The rationale seems to be the fact that Nelson had to go to that country to give a lecture immediately after finishing the play). Nelson apparently expected to subject her first draft to the usual process of revision but was short-circuited by the speed with which the “The Guys” was staged.  

The play’s history would rouse envy in most fledgling playwrights. Shortly after Sept. 11, Nelson, who has no previous experience with playwriting and no particular ambition in that field, accidentally met Jim Simpson, the founder of New York’s Flea Theater. Located just seven blocks from the World Trade Center, the theater flourished before the attacks but audiences vanished in the subsequent chaos. 

Simpson, who is married to Sigourney Weaver, was vigorously looking for a play based on the tragedy. When Nelson casually told him about her work with the firefighter, he jumped at the idea. Simpson asked Nelson to turn her experience into a play, which then opened 12 weeks after the bombings. 

Aside from public interest in the material, the play’s success may have been boosted by the fact that Weaver and her friend, Bill Murray, played the writer and the firefighter. They established a pattern in which pairs of actors of similar renown rotated through the roles for short periods. Berkeley Repertory is following that same practice. The actors will include Dan Lauria, Lorraine Toussaint, Joe Spano, Linda Purls, Jimmy Smits and Wanda de Jesus.  

Another tradition which Berkeley Repertory maintains is that the actors work from open scripts. There are various explanations for that staging, but none mention that it might have something to do with the fact that the actors may not have time to completely learn their roles. 

The house manager made an announcement before the play started that the use of the scripts was to create a greater sense of reality. 

No comment.


Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley

Tuesday May 20, 2003

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 

 


Killing of Berkeley Man Raises Questions About County’s Prison Policies

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday May 16, 2003

For the last 25 years, Kevin Lee Freeman, who was murdered allegedly by his cell mate at Santa Rita Jail last Friday, was a fixture on Telegraph Avenue where he panhandled, kept to himself and collected dozens of citations for alcohol-related misdemeanors.  

As news of his death spread around Telegraph Avenue Wednesday, those who knew him — the homeless, store employees and beat cops — said they were stunned. 

“I was shocked when I heard,” said Berkeley Police Officer John Jones, who has arrested and cited Freeman many times since 1983. “He has been around here for so long, I thought he was going to outlive me.” 

Freeman’s murder, the second of an inmate at the jail in 13 months, has raised concerns about Santa Rita’s policies and procedures for classifying prisoners and has sparked an outcry by homeless advocates and substance abuse counselors who question the wisdom of jailing alcoholics alongside violent criminals. 

Freeman, 55, was murdered in his cell in Santa Rita’s psychiatric ward while serving a 30-day sentence for being drunk in public. His cell mate, Ryan Lee Raper, 20, a resident of the unincorporated town of Copperopolis in Calavaras County, was being held for allegedly attacking a stranger with a knife in front of a Union City restaurant on March 2, according to Union City Police Lt. Rob Romano. 

After Freeman was found dead, Raper was transported to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro where he is being held without bail while the Alameda County District Attorney decides whether to charge him with Freeman’s murder.  

According to Lt. Greg Ahern of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Investigations Unit, the circumstances that led to Freeman’s murder are being investigated and a report will be submitted to the Alameda County District Attorney in the coming days.  

“We’re going to look at everything, medical history, criminal history as well as current charges,” Ahern said. “We’ll also look at the medical screening and jail classification for the two inmates.” 

 

Longtime Presence 

 

By most accounts, Freeman kept to himself and rarely spoke to anyone. Many of Telegraph Avenue’s denizens said they often saw him, a gaunt and bearded figure, eating alone during the evening meal at Trinity United Methodist Church or hanging out on the sidewalk in front of Shakespeare and Company Books near People’s Park. Freeman, who was a chronic alcoholic and possibly suffered from mental illness, apparently had no close friends or family in the area.  

A homeless man who gave his name as Mike said he’d seen Freeman around for years. “I never saw him bother anybody,” he said. “He was always walking around by himself, just surviving.” 

Perhaps Freeman’s most significant human contact in recent years was with the police who had arrested or cited him more than 50 times, according to Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Mary Kusmiss. She said Freeman could become belligerent when he was very drunk, but most often he was friendly, cooperative and even charming. 

 

The Final Arrest 

 

On April 22, University of California Police officers arrested Freeman around midnight on Telegraph Avenue near Blake Street.  

According to the police report, he was intoxicated and had difficulty walking. He was charged with public drunkenness and violation of a court order to stay away from an area known as “the box,” which is enclosed by Bancroft Way, Ellsworth Street, College Avenue and Parker Street. The area includes People’s Park and a section of Telegraph Avenue that Freeman frequented for at least twenty years. 

On April 24, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carol Brosnahan sentenced Freeman to 30 days in Santa Rita Jail for both charges, according to court documents. 

All Santa Rita inmates are psychologically evaluated by a licensed mental health care clinician, according to Barbara Majak, deputy director of Alameda County Behavioral Health Services.  

The clinician then makes recommendations for jail classifications to deputy sheriffs. Once classified, the deputies assign inmates to various housing units such as the general population, minimum or maximum security. 

Both Freeman and Raper were evaluated and assigned to a two-person cell in the Behavioral Health Unit, where inmates who suffer from mental illness or are mentally disturbed can better be monitored. 

However, the reason why Freeman, an older man with no history of violence, was put in a cell with Raper, a younger man suspected of committing an unprovoked knife attack on a stranger, is under investigation.  

“I can’t say why the decision was made,” Ahern said. “But so far there was no indication that there would have been a problem by putting the two men in the same cell.” 

 

A Grisly Scene 

 

Around 3 a.m. last Friday, several inmates, including Raper, called unit guards on intercoms to report a disturbance. When guards arrived at Freeman’s cell, they found a grisly scene. According to some reports, Freeman’s brain matter and internal organs had been smeared on the walls of the cell.  

Ahern would not confirm or deny those reports. “All I can say is that the victim died of severe blunt trauma,” he said.  

Another inmate was allegedly killed by a cell mate in the Behavioral Health Unit in April 2002. James Mitchell, 24, died from a skull fracture after a fight with his cell mate, Daniel Beltran, 22, who was later ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. Mitchell, who had ties to Berkeley, also had a substance abuse problem and suffered from mental illness, according to Tom Gorham, a senior counselor at the 12-step program Options Recovery Services. 

 

“Outraged” 

 

Osha Neuman, a Berkeley attorney and homeless advocate, said Freeman should have been treated as a person with a disease and not as a criminal. “I’m outraged and disgusted that something like this has happened,” he said. 

He added that city and county officials should reevaluate how the criminal justice system deals with the mentally ill homeless who are severe substance abusers.  

“There are a lot of questions to ask the Alameda County sheriff about why a chronic alcoholic was sent to Santa Rita and, appallingly, put in a cell with a violent criminal,” he said. “But more than that this should be occasion for us to do a searching inventory of how we deal with this problem.” 

Gorham said Alameda County has a dire need for a detox center. 

“The way it is now, we drive local homeless people with substance abuse problems from the courts, jails and Alta Bates Hospital to San Mateo or Marin County where they can be treated at county-run detox centers,” he said.  

“Both Mitchell and Freeman’s deaths could possibly have been avoided if there was appropriate care for substance abusers in Alameda County.” 

Besides his extensive arrest record, not much is known about Kevin Lee Freeman.  

He was from Indiana where, an acquaintance said, he had been a state champion swimmer.  

He is survived by a daughter, Rasa-Lila Christina Lagaras, who lives in Cumberland County, Pa. 


Berkeley This Week

Friday May 16, 2003

COMMUNITY MEETINGS 

 

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. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

 

 

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 call 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 meets 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, a talk by four of the seven Berkeley women who walked across America for peace last year, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Donation sliding scale $5-$10, no one will be refused. Call Laura 925-828-8184 for more information. Benefit for Wo- 

men’s International League for Peace and Freedom. 

 

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.  

 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour, “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 a stroll through the Garden’s collection of native wildflowers, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $10, members free. Registration recommended. UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

 

Drip Irrigation:  

Do-it-yourself, Save Water 

A class covering the benefits and limitations of drip irrigation and basic tools and supplies needed to install your own drip irrigation system. Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Cost is $10 for Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-2220 ext. 233. 

 

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

 

Asian Pacific Islander Festival from noon to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park. Enjoy community booths, cultural food and entertainment. asianfestival@hotmailcom. 289-4452. 

 

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. 

 

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 community event that raises money to fight cancer. To get involved contact Joann Steck-Bayat at 524-9464. www.cancer.org or 1-800-ACS-2345. 

Palestine: Between Iraq’s Occupation and the Roadmap to Peace, with speakers Marc Ellis, Professor of American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University, Texas and Dr. Mustafa Abu Swai, General Director of the Islamic Research Center, Al-Quds University, at 7 p.m. in 110 Barrows Hall, UC Campus.  

 

California Horticultural  

Society’s Annual Plant Sale 

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 in- 

formation call 800-884-0009.  

 

Spring Cleaning Help from Berkeley High School 

Donate twice-read books or slightly worn blue jeans to our huge May Garage Sale to benefit the CAS program’s trip to Mexico this summer. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1639 Ashby, between King & California, 2 1/2 blocks be- 

low the Ashby BART Station, near Malcolm X School. 

531-5225. 

 

SUNDAY, MAY 18 

 

20th Annual Himalayan Fair 

See listing Sat. May 17 

 

Auditions for Oliver! with Berkeley Musical Theater, at 1 p.m. and May 19 at 7 p.m. at Grace North Church at Cedar and Oxford. Children ages 7 to 13, and adults of all ages. Bring sheet music with a Broadway song. For more information call 524-1224. 

 

Hidden Gems of Berkeley Bike Ride Meet at Halcyon Commons at Prince St., one block 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. 549-7433.  

 

King Jr HS Track Clean-up  

There is lots of weeding and ivy whacking, so bring your gloves, loppers and clippers, and water to drink. Meet at the Hopkins St. entrance at 10 a.m. This is an opportunity to give back to the Track, to help BUSD. 526-5130. 

 

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. See listing May 18. 

 

MONDAY, MAY 19 

 

Malcolm X Day 

City Offices Are Closed  

 

League of Women Voters Annual Meeting, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Business meeting and light supper at 5 followed by talk at 7 p.m., Rita Maran, Ph.D. on “The Future of the United Na-tions.” At the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Call 843-8824 for dinner reservations at $15, and further information.  

 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Homeowners Support Group 

holds a discussion on How to Keep Your Title Clear and Deal with Liens and Other Problems, at 3 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. graypanthersberk@aol.com 

 

Berkeley CopWatch meets at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 

Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

 

TUESDAY, MAY 20 

 

Strawberry Tastings at the Berkeley Farmers Market, from 2 - 7 p.m., sponsored by the Ecology Center. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter. 

org/farmers_mrkts/ 

 

Berkeley Garden Club presents a lecture on Container Gardening with Keeyla Meadows at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

 

Let’s End Bullying and Name-Calling, a preview of a new film from the Women’s Educational Media and in-formation about the Respect for All Project, at 6:30 p.m. at Willard Middle School, 2425 Stuart St. Pot-luck dinner, door prizes. For information call 547-8080 or BerkeleySafeSchools@hotmail.com 

 

Identity Theft, a presentation by the Berkeley Police De- 

partment at 11:15 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

 

Kathy Kelly, founder of Iraq Peace Teams, speaks about her eyewitnessing the bombing of Baghdad, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets $20, benefit for Voices in the Wilderness. Wheelchair accessible and ASL-interpreted. 548-0542. www.vitw.org 

 

Azmi Bishara, Palestinian Member of Israeli Knesset, and recipient of the Global Exchange 2003 Human Rights Award, in conversation with Dennis Bernstein at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Sponsored by KFPA Radio 94.1 and Global Exchange. Tickets $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Tickets available at independent bookstores or phone orders at 415-255-7296 ext. 200. For more information call 415-575-5542, or www.globalexchange.org 

 

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.berkeleycameraclub.org 

 

Networking as Relationship Building, a brown bag career  

talk with Kate Dey, noon to 1 p.m., at YWCA Turning Point Career Center, 2600 Bancroft Way. 848-6370. 

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 

 

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

 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 872-0768. 

 

 

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 

 

 

CITY MEETINGS 

 

City Council meets Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil 

 

Community Meetings on the City Budget 

The public is invited to learn more about the budget de- 

ficit and how the city plans to address the issue. May 22 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-CITY.  

 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center.  

Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/humane 

 

Commission on Aging meets 

Wednesday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. in the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/aging 

 

Commission on Labor meets 

Wednesday, May 21, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

 

Human Welfare & Community Action Commission meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.- 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

welfare 

 

Rent Stabilization Board meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.- 

berkeley.ca.us/rent 

 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at 1900 Sixth St. Iris Starr, 981-7520. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley 

 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, May 22, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/zoning  

  

School Board meets Wednesday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320.


Letters to the Editor

Friday May 16, 2003

A USEFUL TOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I share Dr. Schiffenbauer’s dismay with the results of the April 15 New York Times /CBS News poll, I do not share the belief that this (and other polls by the reputable agencies that he lists) was constructed and conducted in a manner designed to shape public opinion. 

First, of course, it might be useful to question the assumption that publication of polling results has any detectable lasting impact on public opinion whatsoever. 

Second, it is worth noting the predictive utility of well-conducted polling. Although readers may be familiar with the relative accuracy of voter preference predictions, there are many other areas where this technique has proven to be quite accurate. These include such diverse topics as drinking behavior by college students and charitable giving by individuals. Polling is useful because, from a properly drawn sample, using reliable and valid indicators, it is possible to obtain an accurate description of a large population from a relatively few observations. 

Dr. Schiffenbauer is mistaken when he asserts “each of the 898 people polled was ... a proxy for ... 240,000 U.S. residents.” Careful reading of the sample design, available by contacting the polling organization, will reveal there was never any representation that the sample was representative of all U.S. residents. 

Dr. Schiffenbauer may be correct, however, when he implies that journalists pick and choose elements of a survey to support a particular point or to make an article more interesting. These are journalistic and editorial decisions, of course, and not polling decisions at all. 

I agree that it is always wise to consume mass media products with great care and am grateful that Dr. Schiffenbauer has attempted to show others how this might be done in the analysis of public opinion based on polling. But I do believe his readers would benefit if he was a bit more rigorous in his own writing for the Daily Planet. 

David Nasatir 

• 

BATES IN CUBA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mayor Bates has withdrawn from a friendship visit to Cuba citing recent acts of repression by Fidel Castro’s government. Repression in Cuba impressed me on my two weeks there with a Mexican cultural group in 1993. At the airport at the end of the stay, I could not wait for the airplane to get me off that island.   

With that said, I wish our mayor would go. To stay here he wastes a chance to push forward peaceful reforms. In a 1993 Cuban/Mexican dialog many reforms were discussed, and I subsequently learned that many were implemented, such as informal farmers markets.   

On my 1993 trip the one large positive memory was the eagerness of Cubans for ideas for peaceful change. For instance, the possibility of a movement for “affirmative action” to redress the tendency of light-skinned Cubans to hold all the good jobs was discussed. 

Mayor Bates should go. He should politely tell his hosts he is concerned with repression. And he should act the friendly guy that I hear he is. Thus he can further continue peaceful reform. The likely alternative is the fall of Fidel and Havana turned into a Baghdad. Who wants that? 

       Ted Vincent 

 

• 

ETHICAL CONCERNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was thrilled when I saw the headline in the Portland newspaper declaring that The New York Times had admitted one of its reporters was guilty of professional ethics violations. Finally, I thought, Judith Miller is being called to task. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the culprit was a staff reporter who simply faked interviews. 

The Times has made lots of noise about the hapless Jayson Blair, but I think it is time to look at the real miscreants. Ms. Miller has opened a new page on journalistic complicity with government in her Pentagon-led stories. First, of course, there was the “leaked” story from the White House that claimed that some aluminum tubes had been sent to Iraq and these could be part of a nuclear program. When this failed to pan out, she was the one who filed a report, published on the front page, that claimed to be the evidence given by an Iraqi scientist.  

Ms. Miller admitted openly that she allowed the Pentagon to vet the story. And the whole piece was fed to her by the military and based on one source. Ms. Miller did not even interview the scientist, instead being satisfied with a staged performance where she watched him from a few hundred yards as he pointed to a spot in the sand where weapons had supposedly been stored in the past. 

With the incredible work of Judith Miller, The New York Times has abandoned any independence of the fourth estate. The paper has become a shameless mouthpiece and official government organ for the U.S. government as it launches new and preposterous imperial missions. 

Rick Ayers 

 

• 

AN ANCIENT CRIME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Imagine if the Saudis had built several large bases in our country, manned by thousands of soldiers who were armed with everything from rifles to nuclear-tipped missiles. And imagine if the Saudi forces were supporting an illegitimate American government. Hmm. Would we be a bit resentful? 

In 1776, we declared our independence from the English King George the Third. We attacked and killed his British Redcoat troops at every opportunity. We fired at them from behind trees and rocks (tactics considered extremely unfair at the time). We dressed up as Indians and in darkness boarded British ships in Boston harbor and vandalized their tea shipments. We destroyed the homes and crops of Tories (supporters of British colonial rule in America); we even stole their horses and cattle.  

The English have been imperialists and colonists since 1620, about 380 years to date. We Americans have been imperialists and colonists since 1898, only 105 years to date.  

We began our modern colonialism and imperialism by winning the Spanish-American war in 1898. As spoils, we seized Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands. The residents of these islands were not consulted in this matter. The residents of the Philippines in particular did not wish to be ruled by Americans. We slaughtered thousands of them and didn’t leave until 1946.  

In the early 1920s, after the collapse of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, the British, the French, the Dutch and the Americans divided up Iraq’s oil reserves, with each country getting about one-fourth of the Iraqi oil reserves. The Iraqis and the Kurds fought valiantly against the superior military technology of the British and finally lost. In 1925, the British dropped poison gas from airplanes on the town of Sulamnaiya in Kurdish Iraq. This was the first use of a “weapon of mass destruction” in Iraq.  

American imperialism and colonialism in the 21st century? Do Bush and Company think that they can get away with this ancient crime? Yankee come home.  

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

 

• 

BUS ROUTE IN QUESTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Today, Monday morning, May 12, I walked my dog down Seventh Street and found bright green posters yelling, “Save Our Buses,” or something like that. They appear to have been posted by neighbors, wanting to prevent the cancellation of full-size 52 AC Transit buses up Cedar Street. They say their opposition is a “small group of anti-bus people.” 

I doubt it’s either small or anti-bus; I grew up on Cedar Street, and watched while neighboring streets one by one bollarded and diverted traffic off their streets onto our unlucky “conduit” — then watched as our parents and neighbors petitioned City Council and AC Transit to limit diesel trucks and full-size buses so that the “small group” of taxpayers who live the length of Cedar Street and beyond could walk to the BART station without gagging. 

The “small inefficient vans” were an ideal solution to address both transportation and residential needs.  

Who is behind these posters, and where do they get their information? How many people ride the buses, and how do they feel? If the vans are not efficient, why should we expect large buses to be? Is it a scheduling issue? 

Thanks for any light you can shed on this situation. 

Jenny Cole 

 

• 

UNJUST EDICT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Chancellor Robert Berdahl’s edict regarding SARS is rather like forbidding people who use wheelchairs from coming to campus to stop the spread of neurological conditions and spinal infirmities.  

After this, the world is entitled to a low opinion indeed of the state of science at the University of California. 

Carol Denney


Exhibitions

Friday May 16, 2003

ACCI Gallery  

“Into the Fire,” the works of nine Bay Area Masters of Glass: Jeff Benrotch, Michael Sosin, Melodie Beylik, Pam- 

ina Traylor, Bill Burch, Holly Wallace, Erik Eiserling, Dan Woodell and David Hering. April 25 - May 23. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. acciart@aol.com, www.accigallery.com 

 

Art of Living Center “Watercolors” by William Webb. Runs May 17 through July 18, Tues., Wed., Sat., noon - 5 p.m., Fri. 1 - 5 p.m. 2905 Shattuck Ave. 848-3736. 

 

Bancroft Library 

Student Photographs of the Berkeley Campus, through July 18. Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m - 5 p.m., Sat. 1 - 5 p.m. 642-3781. 

Conversations with Myself  

May 15 to August 15, 2003 

 

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley,” a photoraphy exhibit by the Berkeley Camera Club, Berkeley High School students, and community photographers in celebration of the City’s 125th Anniversary. Exhibit runs May 18 to Sept. 13. Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society, 848-0181. Admission is free. 

 

Berkeley Art Museum 

The 33rd Annual UC Ber- 

keley Masters of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition, May 15 - July 28, Admission $8, free for UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. 

rmacneil@uclink.berkeley.edu 

“The Black Panthers 1968” 

Photographs by Ruth-Mario Baruch and Pirkle Jones, March 26 - June 29. 

Roger Ballen, “Photographs” 

May 12 - August 15. 

“Everything Matters: Paul Klos, A Retrospective,” April 2 - July 20. 

“A Brush with Truth,” 13th c. 

Chinese ink paintings, “Haboku” Japanese landscape paintings, to June 29. 

Fred Wilson’s “Aftermath” selected objects on war and conflict from the museum’s collection. Through July 20. 

“Turning Corners,” an exhibition of five centuries of innovative art, through the summer of 2004. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is open Wed. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Cost is $5 - $8, and free the first Thursday of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

 

Graduate Theological  

Union Library 

Hand-crafted books by Bay Area artists: Zea Morwitz, Mary Eubank, Nance O'Banion, Ted Purves, Susanne Cockrell, Karen Sjoholm, and Lisa Kokin. The books are accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the works. May 12 through Sept. 30. 

“The Sorrows of War,” an exhibition of prints from the collection of David and Eva Bradford by Käthe Kollwitz, with German Expressionists Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Erich Heckel. Through May 31. Graduate Theological Union Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

 

Kala Art Institute 

Water World presents photographically-based images of water by a diverse group of artists. Photography, digital imaging and video reveal perspectives on the ways we see and think about water. Gallery Reception May 22, Visit with the artists, June 17. Runs May 22 to June 21. Call for more information and exhibit hours, 549-2977. www.kala.org  

 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Lego Ocean Adventure 

The underwater world comes to life through role play and hands-on activities. Children learn how people eat, sleep, and work while living underwater as well as how scientists explore the ocean depths using unmanned rovers. May 17 – Sept. 7, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Cost is $8 adults, $6 for youth 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. 

Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above the UC Campus. 642-5132. www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

 

Phoebe S. Hearst Museum of Anthropology 

“Photographs from the Great Age of Exploration, 1865-1915,” through March 2004. “A Century of Collecting” Exploring the variety of art and culture across the globe from ancient times to the present. Phoebe S. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Kroeber Hall, UC Campus is open Wed. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sun., noon - 4 p.m. Free for museum members, UC students, staff and faculty/free to the public on Thursdays. 643-7648. http://hearstmuseum. 

berkeley.edu/outreach 

 

Red Oak Realty Gallery 

Prints by Barbara de Groot, Runs untilJuly 26. at 1891 Solano Ave. 848-3965. 

 

Townsend Center Gallery 

“Obsolescence and Rele- 

vance,” recent work by John Jenkins and Eric Theise, through May 30. 220 Ste- 

phens Hall, UC Campus. Mon.- Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 643-9670. 

 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery 

Bibiana Lai, “Painted Blessings,” painted breast castings. Runs May 23 - July 3. reception with the artist May 23, 7-9 p.m. 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040, x 111. www.wcrc.org  

 

Worth Ryder Gallery 

“Senior Show,” by UC Department of Art Practice Seniors, May 12 - 16, 1 - 4 p.m. weekdays. 116 Krober Hall, UC Campus.


Arts Calendar

Friday May 16, 2003

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 and 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 Theater 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 e-mail 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 9:15 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 

 

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 Theater 

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. 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 ext. 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. 

 

Sacred Drums of India, featuring Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, tabla; T.H. Subash Chandran, ghatam and konnokol; Ganesh Kumar, kanjira; with Jim Santi Owen, drumset and Indian percussion; and Tim Witter, tabla, at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$25. For information and reservations call 836-6936.  

www.jimsantiowen.com  

 

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 Subterraneanz 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, Irving 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. 

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 

 

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. 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Berkeley Ballet Theater 

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. Proceeds benefit the Berkeley High Performing Arts and Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. Presented by KCSM/Jazz 91, Fourth 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 En-semble and Combos. 644-3002.  

 

Youth Musical Theater Commons presents “Les Miserables,” performed by students of King, Longfellow, Willard, BHS, and Albany High. At 3 p.m. in the Longfellow Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Tickets at the door, $5-$8. 848-1797. http://busduse.org/lesmiz 

 

Kingdom Travelers, Inspired Catholic Voices and Sons of the Soul Revivers sing tradtional and contemporary gospel at 3 p.m. at Kimball’s East, 6005 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Benefits the Cal-Pac Scholarship Fund. Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door. 835-8453.  

 

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. 

 

New Millenium Strings, Laurien Jones, conductor, performs Handel, Bach, Mozart and Hayden at 7 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Ellsworth. Suggested donation $10, seniors and students $7, children under 12 free. 526-331.  

 

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 

 

MONDAY, MAY 19 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Jane Smiley reads from “Good Faith,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Andrew Schelling, teacher of  

poetry, Sanskrit, and wilderness writing, at Moe’s Books 2467 Telegraph Ave., at 7:30 p.m. 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Richard Shindell, leading modern folk singer and songwriter 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 

 

TUESDAY, MAY 20 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Gina Kolata discusses her new book, “Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Suzan-Lori Parks reads from, “Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Tanya Shaffer discusses her new narrative, “Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A Tale of a Woman Wanderer in Africa,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave., entrance on Rose St. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Berkeley Chamber Perfor- 

mances presents the San Francisco Saxophone Quar- 

tet, with David Schrader, soprano saxophone, Bill Aaron, alto saxophone, David Henderson, tenor saxophone, Kevin Stewart, baritone saxophone at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20, $15 for students and seniors. 525-5211. www.sfsax.com 

 

Creole Belles, perform at 8:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

 

Richard Shindell, leading modern folk singer and songwriter 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 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Rafe Esquith reads from “There Are No Shortcuts,” about working as a teacher in inner-city Los Angeles, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

 

Lou Marinoff looks at “The Big Questions: How Philo- 

sophy Can Change Your Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Mokai, guitarist/lyricist blending elements of folk, jazz and blues at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Moh Alileche, Algerian singer and mondol player performs at 8 p.m. at Ash- 

kenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

 

Crowden School Spring Concert featuring string orchestra and choral music pefor-med by students age nine to 14, at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church at the corner of Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $10, students and seniors, $5. 559-2941, www.thecrowdenschool.org 

 

The 2003 California Music Awards Pre-party & Band Competition, where one band is picked to perform at this year’s awards on May 25 in Oakland, at 9 p.m. at  

Blakes On Telegraph, 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

 

THURSDAY, MAY 22 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

 

Tom Robbins reads from his new novel, “Villa Incognito,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

 

An Evening of New Books by Men, with authors Joe Sutton, Geourg Dzul, Ches- 

ter Aaron and Lawrence Howard, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

 

Jennifer Leo, editor, and a panel of women travel writers read from “Sand in My Bra & Other Misadventures: Funny Women Write From the Road,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave., entrance on Rose St. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

 

Portraits of Peace, concert with Hollee Farmer accompanied by Dennis Monaghan at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cul- 

tural Center. Donation re- 

quested. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

 

Dr. Masseuse, Colin Blades,  

Woman, Oswald, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

 

Jenna Mammina, jazz vocal innovator, 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


Morning Bomb Scare Clears Civic Center

By JOHN GELUARDI and AL WINSLOW
Friday May 16, 2003

The Berkeley Police Department’s Bomb Squad detonated a suspicious cardboard package on the steps of the Civic Center Thursday after evacuating the first two floors and closing down traffic in front of the building.  

“The package did not contain anything of note, really, just more folded up cardboard boxes,” police spokesman Mary Kusmiss said after the package was detonated by the bomb squad.  

Police arrested the man who was carrying the Fed Ex box, Ronald Rigoberto, 39, on suspicion of making terrorist threats and disturbing the peace, according to Kusmiss. She added that Rigoberto had been arrested in April for making a similar threat at a Knight Ridder Office in San Jose. 

Kusmiss said Rigoberto arrived at the Civic Center shortly before 9 a.m. and told city staff at the lobby check-in counter that he had to deliver a package but was uncertain to which department. He finally decided on the city attorney’s office on the fourth floor.  

Moments later he walked into the Housing Department on the second floor and began to disrupt staff by making statements about civil liberties. A staffer called police and Rigoberto was detained minutes later on the steps of the Civic Center.  

When the officer asked him what was in the box, Rigoberto said, “It will take the full extent of the law to open this box,” and “It’s going to go ‘poof.’” 

At that point the bomb squad was called in, traffic closed off and the first two floors of the Civic Center evacuated.  

Bomb Squad Officer John Jones, a FBI-trained bomb squad technician, took about half an hour to suit up in several layers of protective armor. He then placed an explosive charge next to the box, which was sitting atop a concrete balustrade at the top of the Civic Center steps.  

When detonated, the charge blew the cardboard contents


Avert Budget Crisis For Public Library; Adjust Parcel Tax

By JOSEPHINE ARASTEH
Friday May 16, 2003

We all take the Berkeley Public Library for granted. The Central Library and branches are open Monday through Thursday until 9 p.m., with shorter hours Friday and Saturday, and open on Sunday at Central. It’s all there for us — the ever helpful reference section, the book information desk, great book collections, both technical and casual, magazines, newspapers, an extensive collection of videos, CDs and musical scores; not to mention easy access to computers. And there are special events to please everyone — storytelling for children, live musical events, timely lectures and meetings. Library access is free to everyone, including the unemployed who are trying to get their lives back together.  

Library use has surged. Since it reopened in 2002, the greatly expanded and elegant Central Library has attracted many more patrons (at least 30 percent more). It’s a favorite site for nearby Berkeley High School students to do homework assignments and use the Internet. The branches are also serving increasing numbers of adults and children. Indeed, the branches bring library service to all corners of Berkeley, as patrons can request that materials be sent to their neighborhood branch.  

These resources may well diminish in the coming months. The looming budget crisis has not spared the library system: the library is faced with a shortfall of almost $2 million in the next two fiscal years, beginning July 2003. Beyond the strict hiring freeze now in place, the library would have to cut the materials budget (for books, magazines, CDs, etc.) and reduce the hours of library service.  

Maybe you remember the 1980s, when library hours and service were strictly limited until Berkeley passed the Library Parcel Tax in 1988. That measure allowed the library to hire additional staff and extend hours of service. It also gave City Council the option of adjusting the parcel tax in line with either the very conservative Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the more generous Personal Income Growth Index (PIGI). Thus far, the council has followed only the CPI index in making yearly adjustments. However, if the council chooses to follow the PIGI, the budget crisis can be averted. Under this plan, homeowners with a house of 1600 square feet would pay an additional $65 a year. (Very low-income homeowners are exempt from the parcel tax.) 

How much do you value the Berkeley Public Library? In these times of economic difficulty and political uncertainty, the library offers us a quiet oasis to browse the varied collections and to come away refreshed and ready to face future challenges. And it provides our school-age children an additional resource when teacher layoffs and larger class sizes might stymie their academic progress.  

Please contact your City Councilmembers and the mayor to express your support for a parcel tax adjustment.  

Josephine Arasteh is a Berkeley resident.


Where Italian Buffalo Tread

By DAVID D. DOWNIE Featurewell
Friday May 16, 2003

"Bambola! Rossa! Tragedia! Veloce! Come on, gals, it's time to be milked..." The water buffalo milkman coaxed and wheedled his charges in a rich Neapolitan accent. It sounded like surreal poetry. "If you don't call them by name they won't come," he said. "They're gentle, lovable creatures." Soon, big-lashed Bambola and her sister water buffaloes sauntered from their wading pool to be relieved of their afternoon's milk, the makings of what might just be the world's best mozzarella. 

We were standing in the middle of the ultra-modern Vannullo water buffalo dairy and cheese factory half an hour south of Naples, famous throughout Italy for the quality of its wholly organic products: mozzarella and ricotta fresh or smoked, provola cheese and yogurt. But the scene could have been straight out of Antiquity: the ruined temples of Paestum rise across emerald fields and national park land a mere mile and a half away from the facility. 

Water buffaloes like Bambola have thrived in this lush swath of southern Italy — the birthplace of mozzarella — since time immemorial. No one is sure just when they arrived from India, via the Middle East, though many historians think bubalus bubalis may have trudged behind Hannibal's elephants into Italy around 216 B.C. If they arrived later, it was probably with hordes of invaders around 600 A.D. 

In either case, following the fall of the Roman Empire the land around Paestum slowly turned into a swamp, fed by the Sele and Alento rivers. The inhabitants fled but the water buffaloes stayed on, ranging freely among the ruins. For centuries, local cowboys, known as butteri, would round up the wild animals, rough-and-ready milkmen would milk them and cheese makers would transform the milk into the elastic, white balls found today in every supermarket in the world. 

The region's swamps were drained in the earlier 20th century. The water buffaloes survive in captivity on farms, like Vannullo, equipped with pools or crossed by rivers. In order to regulate their body temperature, they must be able to submerge themselves in water several times a day. There are an estimated 80,000 head of buffalo in Italy now, all of them on diary farms. 

Like the 400 females and dozen males at the Vannullo farm, most Italian buffaloes live in the hot, humid lowlands of the Campania region, between Naples, Salerno, Caserta, Benevento, Battipaglia, Eboli and Capaccio. The area has its own DOC and DOP quality-control appellations. 

Vannullo is the brainchild of dapper Antonio Palmieri, a former banker who in 1988 gave up his career to take over the buffalo ranch his grandfather had started in 1900. It took Palmieri about eight years to embellish the family's 18th-century farmhouse, plant espaliered lemons and roses along handsome stone walls, and transform the ranch into a model organic farm, dairy and cheese factory. It was officially certified in 1996. What that means, explained Palmieri, is that all the fodder — corn, wheat, rye, oats, alfalfa, sorghum and grass — is grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers on the estate's 225 acres. No hormones are given, there's no artificial insemination and only homeopathic medicine is used to treat animals. Everything is done by hand, from the cheese making to the weeding. 

And the petting: the buffaloes get first-class treatment and are practically pets (except the mature males, who behave like the bulls they are). Their ample pens are swept several times a day. The place is uncommonly clean and orderly. I glanced up from bashful Bambola to the snowy peaks east of the farm and thought, "this could be Switzerland." In Italy "mozzarella" refers only to cheese made from buffalo milk (cow's milk mozzarella is called fior di latte). It's richer (9 percent fat and 5 percent protein) and more flavorful than cow's milk (4 percent fat and 3 protein). The name derives from the verb mozzare, to pinch off into bits. At the Vannullo cheese factory you can arrange for a private tour as I did and watch the long, complex and artful process of making this delicacy. 

First, said the head cheese-maker, you add rennet to the fresh milk and heat it to about 100 degrees F. After 90 minutes, you break the curds up and let them mature in the whey another three hours. Then you cut them into 35-pound chunks, mince them and put them in a tub with whey and nearly boiling water. You stir with a wooden paddle until the pieces bind and form a soft lump that you can pull into long, stretchy threads. These are what the cheese-maker pinches off into bits, keeping them constantly submerged. After soaking in a saline solution for another few hours, the glistening round balls are bagged in their own liquid and sold as thimble-sized cardinali, bite-sized bocconcini, normal mozzarelle or giant aversane weighing about a pound. The real test of the mozzarella-maker's art, though, is the intricately plaited treccia, my personal favorite when it comes to flavor and texture. I watched a treccia was made with sweeping, graceful underwater motions. 

Genuine mozzarella is rich, flavorful and delicate: it should be eaten the day it is made, at most a few days later (smoked mozzarella lasts longer). That's why, said Palmieri as we approached the sales counter, his cheese is sold exclusively on-site and not even in local restaurants. "We sell out every day," he admitted, as we battled our way through lines of customers. "People drive all the way down from Rome to get it." I popped a still-warm bocconcino into my mouth, tasting an explosion of tangy cream with hazelnut highlights, and instantly understood why. 

 

Caseificio Vannulo 

 

10 Via Galileo Galilei 

 

84040 Capaccio Scalo (Salerno) 

 

Tel: 011 39 0828/724765 

 

Fax: 011 39 0828/725245 

 

 

Daaid D. Downie is the author of "Cooking the Roman Way : Authentic Recipes from the Home Cooks and Trattorias of Rome."


Davis Holds Line at UC Cuts — For Now

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday May 16, 2003

Four months after proposing a $300 million cut for the University of California, Gov. Gray Davis spared UC from further reductions this week in the May revision of his annual budget. 

“I think we owe [Davis] a round of applause and gratitude,” said Larry Hershman, UC vice president for budget. 

The move eased some fears among UC students, who likely face a $795 fee hike next year, that they will have to dish out even more for fees. 

But UC officials said they are still concerned about a Republican plan to add $400 million in cuts to the governor’s $300 million proposal. 

“That would be devastating,” said Hershman, suggesting that student fees would skyrocket if the Republicans have their way. 

Peter DeMarco, spokesman for Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks), said heavy cuts for the university and many other state-funded programs are necessary when the only alternative is the $8.3 billion in new taxes Davis proposed this week to help close an estimated $38 billion state budget shortfall. 

“The tax increases are a non-starter for us,” he said. 

Hans Hemann, chief of staff for state Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), said Hancock was shocked by the Republicans’ $400 million additional cuts, released April 29. 

“It would have wiped out a university the size of [UC] Berkeley,” he said, arguing that voters will never stand for such a huge cut.  

California law requires a two-thirds vote in the state Legislature to pass a budget, giving Republicans, the minority party, significant leverage in the debate. The legislature has until June 15 to pass a final budget, but has traditionally ignored the deadline. 

The $300 million in UC cuts that Davis proposed in January include a $25 million reduction in student services, a $29 million cut in research dollars and a $33 million cut to outreach programs designed to prepare poor, minority students for the UC system.  

The January proposal also called for a $795, or 24 percent, fee hike for undergraduate students. The UC Board of Regents is set to vote on the $795 increase in June or July. If approved, the increase would come on top of a 10 percent, $405 mid-year hike, bringing the average annual fee on UC’s nine campuses to $5,082. 

Graduate students systemwide would face an $855 hike next year, on top of a $405 mid-year jump, bringing average fees to $6,196.  

Dozens of students, from as far away as the University of California Los Angeles, showed up at the Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco Wednesday to protest the proposed hike, arguing that it will price thousands out of an education. 

“You raise my fees, you cripple our communities,” said Leon Arellano, a UC Davis student who warned that he will have to spend more time working and less time studying if the hike passes. “Release your hands from my neck.” 

“Fee increases should be a last resort,” added Stephen Klass, a UC San Diego student and chair of the University of California Student Association. “If you raise fees you will not only be failing students, you will be failing the state of California.” 

UC officials said the alternatives — cutting classes or slashing faculty salaries that already lag 9 percent behind the market — are unacceptable. 

“Taking students and not offering [a full range of ] classes is not a solution,” said Hershman. “We have resisted that.” 

Tempers peaked when the regents, after one extension of the public comment session, declined to hear more speakers. Students, who said they had skipped classes and driven all night to attend the meeting, refused to back down, and board chairman John Moores called a recess.  

Moments later, UC police declared an unlawful assembly and escorted the students out of the auditorium as they chanted, “Whose university? Our university.” 

There were no arrests. 

Protesters called on the regents to vote on fee increases by the end of May, so students can be present, rather than wait for the summer when campuses empty. But officials said they will have to delay the vote until June or July when the state passes a final budget. 

“We cannot take an action until there is something to be acted on,” said Regent Judith Hopkinson. 

University officials said financial aid will cover the full fee increase for 40 percent of all UC students, including most of those from families that earn less than $60,000 per year. 

But students said the fee hikes will still hurt. 

“People will have to work more, to take out student loans, to put their children in day care,” said UC Berkeley student Camilo Romero.


Californians Must Engage In Battle for Fair Tax Plan

By WILMA CHAN
Friday May 16, 2003

With the war winding down, focus is shifting to the home front, to a sagging national economy and state deficits that threaten basic human services, and the need for an effective plan to restore our economy in a way that is fair to all taxpayers.  

President George W. Bush has proposed a half-trillion dollars in tax cuts as the centerpiece of his plan to achieve this. However, the Bush tax cuts are too large, poorly designed and highly inequitable. We are now engaged in a battle for a fair tax plan both for America and for California, and our new target is injustice. 

It is unjust to propose tax cuts that would divert $2.5 trillion dollars over the next decade from health care, Social Security, education and public safety, for tax cuts that would mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans.  

It is unjust that under the Bush plan the wealthiest 1 percent of Californians will get a tax cut averaging almost $36,000, while middle-income working families will average only $305. It is unjust that four million Californians will get nothing from this plan and nearly seven million will get less than $100.  

It is unjust that three-quarters of the elderly will get absolutely nothing from Bush’s proposed stock dividend tax exemption, because only one in four seniors receives even a dollar in taxable dividends. 

It is unjust and morally irresponsible to give ourselves tax cuts and leave future generations with an even higher tax and debt burden. These tax cuts will likely increase the total national debt, including what is owed to Social Security to $10 trillion dollars. Tax cuts financed by perpetual deficits will eventually slow the economy even more.  

President George Bush didn’t hesitate to invest $70 billion in the war in Iraq. Now he needs to show the same resolve — and the funding to go with it — to address the needs of working families and their children. 

Since the legislative session began in January, I have been seeking to define a balanced approach to our state’s $38 billion budget crisis. I support solutions that balance painful reductions with prudent revenue increases in the form of equitable tax and fee increases. To that end I introduced Assembly Bill 4, which will reinstate slightly higher tax rates for the state’s very top earners. This approach is nothing new — previously, Governors Wilson and Reagan adopted higher tax rates on a short-term basis to deal with budget crises during their administrations. The impact of the tax reinstatement on the state’s top earners would be completely offset by the last round of income tax reductions by the federal government.  

To encourage involvement, I initiated a letter writing campaign in the East Bay. The response has been overwhelming. Over the course of four Saturdays, 150 volunteers collected over 3,000 postcards calling on Congress to stop the Bush tax plan. Within the state, the postcards call for support of Assembly Bill 4, and for cuts in spending on state prisons at a time when state-funded programs in education, health care, public safety, senior services and the disabled face drastic reductions.  

Congress will make its decision on the federal tax cut later this month and Assembly Bill 4 is awaiting action in the Assembly. It is unacceptable to mortgage our children’s futures to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest today. Now is the time for all taxpayers to join the battle for economic justice.  

State Assemblywoman Wilma Chan represents Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont and serves as Majority Leader. To get involved in the effort for a fair tax plan, call Raymond Ehrlich in Wilma Chan’s office at 510-286-1670. 

 

 

 

 

 


UC Regents Oppose Connerly Race Initiative

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday May 16, 2003

The University of California Board of Regents dealt a symbolic blow to one of its own Thursday, coming out in formal opposition to Regent Ward Connerly’s controversial Racial Privacy Initiative. 

The initiative, which will go before California voters in March 2004, would prevent state and local government from collecting data on race. Supporters say the ballot measure marks an important step toward a color-blind society, but opponents say it would block vital research and erase any evidence of racial discrimination in public health, housing and education. 

“We cannot create a color-blind society by making government blind to discrimination,” said California Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City), who is an ex officio member of the board. 

Connerly, the leading force behind the voter-approved Proposition 209, which dismantled many of the state’s affirmative action programs, dismissed the regents’ vote as inconsequential. 

“The University of California, with all due respect, is irrelevant,” he said, predicting victory at the ballot box in March. 

A recent, independent Field Poll found 48 percent of voters in favor of the initiative and 33 percent opposed, with 19 percent undecided. 

Jay Ziegler, co-director of the Campaign Against the Information Ban, a coalition of health care, education and civil rights groups opposed to the Racial Privacy Initiative, said he is not concerned about the poll numbers. 

“The debate hasn’t been joined yet,” he said. “The more voters learn about this initiative, the more the playing field dips in our favor.” 

Some regents expressed regret that the board, which voted 15-3 to oppose the initiative, was weighing in on such a politically charged issue. 

“The regents are not a debating society,” said Regent George Marcus, adding that he was baffled that UC President Richard Atkinson had placed the resolution, opposing the Racial Privacy Initiative, on the board’s agenda. 

Regent John Davies said the board’s action will have no bearing on the voters’ decision next March and argued that it will only alienate those who support the ballot measure. 

But others said Connerly, as a regent, has inevitably linked the Racial Privacy Initiative to the university, forcing the board to take a stand. 

“We have been drawn into this,” said Regent Alfredo Terrazas. “We have to clear our name.”  

The initiative, formally known as “Classification By Race, Ethnicity, Color or National Origin” (CRECNO), has sparked concern among UC professors and students who fear that it will restrict their ability to conduct policy-shaping research on education and health care. 

“A whole lot of the state databases that our researchers utilize would disappear,” said Gayle Binion, chair of the UC Academic Senate, which voted unanimously to oppose the Racial Privacy Initiative. “No appropriate information should ever be taboo.” 

But San Diego State biology professor Stuart Hulbert, who supports Connerly’s initiative, said academic research focused on race only divides the nation. 

“Business as usual has been bad business,” said Hulbert. 

Critics say it is naive to brush aside race when it still plays a major role in American society. 

“It is not good to be blind,” said student Regent Dexter Ligot-Gordon, who attends UC Berkeley. “We need to be cognizant of the issues we deal with. We need to be cognizant of the people we serve.” 

But Connerly rejected the critique, arguing that the state must take the lead in changing the national “obsession” with race. 

“I concur with those who say California will not become a color-blind society just because we wish it so,” he said. But “by its decrees and conduct, government charts the course for its people to follow.” 

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, an ex officio regent who frequently clashes with Connerly, said the initiative threatens medical research which has demonstrated, for example, that Hispanics suffer disproportionately from diabetes and Vietnamese women have the highest incidence of cervical cancer of any ethnic group in the nation. 

“This is about identifying people at risk,” he said. 

But Connerly, pointing to an exemption for “medical research subjects and patients,” said Bustamante was using scare tactics. 

“This goes beyond the pale,” Connerly said. “It’s irresponsible to frighten the people of California and the people of the nation.” 

Critics, including Kaiser Permanente and the California Medical Association, say the exemption is vaguely worded and may not protect all medical research. 

“Because California is one of the most racially diverse states, physicians and health officials need data on race and national origin to help them make critical decisions,” said Ron Lopp, spokesman for the California Medical Association. 

In addition to the medical exemption, the initiative protects information on prisoners’ race and any data collection required by the federal government. 

Washington, D.C., requires public universities to keep tabs on the race of enrolled students, but does not require records on applicants. Opponents of CRECNO say the applicant data is vital in monitoring the successes and failures of UC’s outreach programs for underachieving communities. Without the data, they argue, UC will not be accountable. 

“They removed our bodies from the campus,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Mo Kashmiri, referring to Proposition 209’s ban on affirmative action in admissions. “Now they want to remove the evidence.” 

But Connerly said the university’s constant focus on the plight of “underrepresented minorities” — black, Hispanic and Native American students — sends the wrong message. 

“We instill in students the notion that underrepresented minorities can’t help but underachieve,” he said. 

About 100 UC students, who spoke out against the initiative over the course of the board’s two-day meeting and hissed at Connerly’s arguments, hailed the final vote. 

“It was a resounding victory,” said Cintya Molina, a UC Berkeley graduate student. “It really showed the power of the students to put on pressure.” 

Diane Schacterle, spokesman for the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Coalition, which favors the Racial Privacy Initiative, said the university, which sometimes uses racial data to win funding for research grants, was simply protecting its interests. 

“It’s not surprising,” she said. “The university is too vested in the research monies.”


Lab Officials Use ‘Science Fair’ to Avoid Foundry Issue

By JANICE THOMAS
Friday May 16, 2003

The stage was set for chaos and confusion to be followed by anger and grief. Concerned citizens had been told by Mayor Tom Bates that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory would hold a public meeting to discuss the proposed molecular foundry. Citizens were skeptical because they had received invitations for a broadly conceived “Conversation about Lab Activities” to discuss the proverbial kitchen sink including not only “Nanoscience and the Molecular Foundry” but “Energy Efficiency and the Berkeley Lamp, other Scientific Initiatives, Fire Protection and Vegetation Management, and Science Education Programs.”  

Meanwhile hardy citizens found their way to the Strawberry Canyon Recreation Area, where the room in the Haas Club House was set up like a science fair with tables and posters, but no chairs for people to sit in. Director Shank made introductory remarks introducing interns who had won a prestigious prize. Mayor Bates thanked the lab for holding the meeting.  

And then all hell broke loose when one of the foundry directors started giving a presentation on nanotechnology. Concerned citizens wanted to know when they could speak. No answer was given to the first questioner.  

Then a second person asked. And before long there was a chorus of people asking when they could ask questions. Finally, the community relations officer did what she should have done in the first place and told the audience what they should have known, i.e. the agenda for the evening.  

As concerned citizens began to speak, the community relations officer directed them to ask their questions. It was unfriendly and poorly timed given the evening’s billing as a conversation.  

Concerned citizens have been blamed when these meetings go awry but it should be clear that the unfriendly circumstances were engineered by the lab. As  

concerned citizens were trying to make public statements, lab employees were talking at their booths that were located at the perimeter of the room, effectively ignoring the speakers and successfully distracting from what the speakers had to say.  

Concerned citizens felt set up, just as the room had been set up for small group conversations rather than for a large group conversation. The lab employees probably knew not what we were told, and meanwhile, we knew not what the lab employees were told. It was a needless collision of the two groups, and they as we were innocent bystanders.  

Meanwhile, the proposed six-story building and molecular foundry go forward for approval from the UC Regents without benefit of an Environmental Impact Report.  

Less than one-third of a mile from a neighborhood, even closer to the intercollegiate rugby and softball fields, in endangered Alameda Whipsnake habitat, competing with flora and fauna for every inch of space in Strawberry Canyon, spilling construction debris into No Name Creek, it is obvious that a real public meeting would have caused great peril to an expedient completion of the lab’s replacement to the Cyclotron, i.e. the well-funded National Nanotechnology Institute otherwise known as the molecular foundry. 

Janice Thomas is a Berkeley resident.


City Expedites Permit Process But Cannot Save Doyle House

By ANGELA ROWEN
Friday May 16, 2003

A plan brokered between Mayor Tom Bates, developer Patrick Kennedy and preservationists to move the 19th-century home of Berkeley pioneer John M. Doyle to another location appeared to be dead this week when organizers discovered that moving the structure would require a 20-day waiting period. 

Preservationists with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) have been struggling to save the Doyle House, located behind the Darling Flower Shop on University Avenue, from demolition by Kennedy, who wants to build a 35-unit housing project on the site. A lawsuit filed by BAHA against Kennedy argues that demolition of the house, which BAHA says is a historical resource, requires an environmental impact report. BAHA lost the suit earlier this month. 

Shortly after BAHA gave up its legal battle against Kennedy, Bates began talking with the developer, BAHA members and resident Ian Faircloth, who wants to move the house to his property. BAHA, Faircloth and the developer agreed to cover the cost of the move, with Faircloth donating $25,000, BAHA putting in $15,000 and Kennedy contributing $10,000. 

Bates and city councilmembers expedited the permitting approval process necessary to get PG&E and the telephone company moving on the project. The last minute scramble appeared to be paying off, with BAHA announcing that it was rapidly approaching its $15,000 goal through aggressive fund-raising efforts. But earlier this week, it was discovered that the city requires a use permit, which calls for a 20-day waiting period before moving a structure to give the public an opportunity to appeal the decision. 

Kennedy had said he needed the move to happen before June 1 because of contractual agreements that require him to start work on the project by then. With the waiting period, Bates said, the deal seems to have fallen through.  

Bates said he wished the disputing parties would have considered the compromise months ago, instead of continuing to battle it out in court. “It was a wasted opportunity,” Bates said. “I hope in the future I can get involved earlier. We need to look for the win-win situation rather than fighting it out to the death in court.” 

Kennedy has already secured the demolition permit for the project, but it isn’t clear when he will begin demolishing the building. BAHA board member Austene Hall said members of her organization have called Kennedy to ask him to extend the June 1 deadline, but have received no word. 

Kennedy did not return calls for comment for this story.


Fifty Teachers Rehired, Two Top Posts Left Open

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday May 16, 2003

Fifty pink-slipped teachers got their jobs back Wednesday and 18 to 20 more may have their layoff notices rescinded by June, schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence announced this week. 

Lawrence also said the Berkeley Unified School District will not replace Associate Superintendent of Human Resources David Gomez and Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Christine Lim when they leave this summer to take jobs as superintendents in two other districts. 

“I can’t see filling them financially at this point,” said Lawrence, who estimated that the district will save more than $300,000 next year by leaving the positions vacant. 

The district, which faces a $4 million to $8 million budget shortfall next year, gave 220 teachers pink slips by a state-mandated March 15 deadline. But officials hoped to restore as many as 145 as the budget picture cleared up. With this week’s move, about 90 of the 220 teachers have received assurances that they will be back in the classroom next year.  

Lawrence said it could be “a couple of years” before the district replaces Gomez and Lim. 

“It’s going to hurt,” she said. 

Lawrence said she will pick up some of the slack herself and call on other managers to play a larger administrative role. 

Berkeley’s Associate Superintendent of Business and Operations Jerry Kurr is also leaving this spring, but the district has already replaced him with a new business chief, Eric Smith. 

Union officials have argued that the administration has not made enough cuts from the central office. But Lawrence said the decision to leave Gomez’s and Lim’s positions vacant is proof that belt-tightening is happening at the upper levels. 

“I think leaving these positions open is evidence that everything is going to be up for grabs,” she said. 

Union officials did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday afternoon. 

Gomez will become superintendent of the Santa Paula High School District in Ventura County and Lim will serve as schools chief in nearby San Leandro.


Commission Roundup

Friday May 16, 2003

PEACE AND JUSITCE (5/5) 

 

Approved a waiver of Berkeley's nuclear free zone ordinance for Hewlitt Packard, a corporation involved in the nuclear industry which is seeking a city contract. 

 

PERSONNEL (5/5) 

 

Recommended making a non-officer Piolce Department business manager.  

The city auditor last year recommended placing otherwise qualified non-officers in police management positions that don't require police police training. 

 

YOUTH (5/5) 

Discussed recent program aimed at youth violence . The program at Berkeley Alternative High School was in response to recent killings of youths in South Berkeley. 

 

STATUS OF WOMEN (5/7) 

Continued ongoing discussion of homeless women and children, domestic violence, and infant mortality and low birth weight. 

 

PEOPLE'S PARK COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD (5/8) 

Discussed recent removal of a People's Park tree deemed to be dangerous and steps toward possible future removals, including ipublic comment and independent evaluations. 

— Al Winslow 

 

 


Berkeley Residents Will Walk for Cancer Fundraiser this Weekend

— David Scharfenberg
Friday May 16, 2003

They will walk all night in a fight against cancer. 

Dozens of Berkeley residents will be part of a group of 280 people from the East Bay in a 24-hour “Relay for Life” at the El Cerrito High School track this weekend, hoping to raise $40,000 for the American Cancer Society. 

The walk will begin with a 24-minute stroll by cancer survivors at 10 a.m. Saturday and will conclude with a 24-minute survivors’ walk Sunday morning. 

Berkeley resident and cancer survivor Marisa Saunders said helping to organize the event has been a healing process. 

“It puts me in a position to be surrounded by others I have a connection to,” said Saunders. “I have a feeling I’m doing something positive.” 

Saunders has organized a 15-member team, including Berkeley Board of Education Director Terry Doran and Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, to participate. Three other Berkeley teams will also participate. 

The American Cancer Society has sponsored similar events, all over the country, since 1985. Last year, the relays raised $200 million for cancer prevention, research, detection and treatment, including $35,000 from the East Bay event. 

For information, go to www.cancer.org or call Joann Steck-Bay at at (510) 524-9464. El Cerrito High School is located at 540 Ashbury Ave. in El Cerrito. 

 

— David Scharfenberg


Police Blotter

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday May 16, 2003

Daylight Beating 

Monday around 11 a.m., a 20-year-old UC student was walking toward campus on the 2100 block of Center Street when two teenage girls walking in the opposite direction tried to grab her backpack. When the victim resisted, the two girls were joined by two more teenage girls and the four began punching the suspect in the face and head until she was knocked to the ground where they continued to beat her.  

Two witnesses ran out from a nearby coffee shop to intervene and the four suspects ran west on Center Street without the victim’s backpack. The four girls were described as Asian, about 16 to 17 years old and wearing jeans, dark clothing and each had their hair pulled back.  

 

Creepy Camera Guy 

Police have received two reports on Friday of an approximately 20-year-old man who was walked behind two young women, knelt down and took pictures up their dresses.  

The first incident was reported to police just before 4:30 p.m. by three young women who were standing in line to purchase frozen yogurt on Bancroft Way when one noticed a flash.  

One of her companions told her a man had just pointed a small camera up her dress and apparently taken a picture. The women chased the suspect until losing him in a crowd on Bancroft Way.  

A half hour later at 5 p.m., three other women who were shopping at a clothes store on Bancroft Way, reported a similar incident. The suspect is described as an Asian male about 5.4 with a “buzz haircut” and wearing a navy-blue T-shirt and khaki shorts.  

Police are asking the community’s help in identifying the suspect. Anyone with any information, or any women who may have had a similar experience are asked to call the Sex Crimes Unit at (510) 981-5735. 

 

An Oakland Man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with allegedly stealing technology trade secrets and attempting to sell them to a competitor, announced the U.S. Department of Justice today. 

Brent Alan Woodward, 32, is accused of allegedly stealing trade  

secrets stored on computer backup tapes from his former employer, Lightwave Microsystems Inc., and trying to sell them to JDS Uniphase, which competes with Lightwave, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. 

The maximum statutory penalty for each count that Woodward faces is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

— Bay City News Service


UnderCurrents

From J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday May 16, 2003

 

And so now we have another horrific, high-speed East Oakland auto accident and the death of a young African-American woman, and Oakland Police are once more blaming it on Oakland’s “sideshows.” 

Forgive me if I reserve judgment on the cause until all of the facts come in.  

A little over a year ago, a 22-year-old popular former Oakland High School cheerleader, U’Kendra Johnson, was killed in an auto accident on Seminary Avenue that the Oakland Police called “sideshow related.” What the police failed to say (and what court testimony, an amateur video and analysis of police files later revealed) was that a high-speed police chase preceded the U’Kendra Johnson accident. 

Late last Saturday night, a 24-year-old mother of three, Breeonna Mobley, was killed when the car in which she was riding crashed into a tree on the southern side of Hegenberger Road near International Boulevard. The driver of the vehicle, 22-year-old Terrell Woods, is expected to be charged with vehicular manslaughter and felony drunk driving.  

Oakland Police spokesmen told the Oakland Tribune that Woods sped off after police rolled up “sideshow-related activity” (an undefined term) on Hegenberger. Although they did not specify the location on Hegenberger, sideshows traditionally have taken place near the Pac N’ Save parking lots, which is several blocks away and not within sight of the accident location. And according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “in both [the Mobley and the Johnson accidents], police said that they were not in pursuit.” 

Which leads us to something of a puzzlement. If police were not in pursuit of Woods, how do they know he was driving one of the cars that sped off from the “sideshow-related activity”? Did they just happen upon the accident later and make a detective’s guess, or did they ask the driver or one of the three remaining passengers in the car? (I’m not suggesting the police are not telling the truth here — frankly, I don’t know — but it’s just one of those odd sort of questions that stick out in a story like this and bug you until they get answered, if they ever get answered.)  

Also, too, if police were not in pursuit of Woods, why did he speed off, for several blocks, at speeds which the Chronicle reported to be in excess of 100 mph? If Woods was, indeed, running from the police breakup of the Pac N’ Save area activity, why not just slow down to a decent speed once he saw he was not being chased? Within a half a block of the accident scene is the intersection of International, and you’ve got to be crazy to run that at any speed at any time of night. If Woods was planning on stopping or even slowing down at International, he didn’t give any indication. There are no skid marks at the accident scene. 

Maybe Woods was crazy, or crazy drunk. Or maybe he was being chased. Or maybe all three. These are questions to be answered, before one starts drawing conclusions. 

And conclusions, my friends, are necessary. They won’t bring back Breeonna Mobley, or U’Kendra Johnson, either, but if we know what caused their deaths, we might be able to take steps that will keep other young people from dying as they did. 

The conclusions, and the resulting solutions, that some Oakland Police officials want to be drawn are implicit in the way this story is being framed. 

Frame Breeonna Mobley’s death as a sideshow-death story — by putting the term “sideshow” prominently at the front of the first Tribune and Chronicle articles and by linking it to the death of U’Kendra Johnson, which is already linked in the public’s mind to sideshows — and the solution is obvious: We need a crackdown on sideshows. 

But spin the story a different way — place prominently the possible police chase aspect and drop the “sideshow-related activity” part to the end of the story (both of them are equally speculative at this point), and you have a conclusion/solution that points in the opposite direction: Maybe it’s the manner in which police are cracking down on sideshows that is causing these deaths, and, therefore, a different ... and safer means of dealing with sideshows might be in order. 

Or ...  

Emphasize that the drivers in both the Mobley and Johnson deaths were alleged to have been drinking at the time of the accidents — add in the numerous other drunk-driving deaths that have taken place in our community over the years, including those schoolchildren who were struck on International near 29th Avenue a couple of years ago — and suddenly your conclusion might be that we need to hike the penalties on drinking and driving, as well as shut down some of the many liquor stores which proliferate the International Boulevard corridor. 

It’s all in how you frame it. 

This is a hard time, I know, for the public to figure out what’s in our best interests. What with war and terror and the economy collapsing and the schools being hijacked and democracy disappearing before our eyes, we don’t have much time for thoughtful investigation these days. We want someone (the media? our leaders?) to identify the good guys and the bad guys right off, so we can know who to go after without having to bother with all the tedious details. But incomplete information mostly leads to erroneous conclusions, leads to incorrect solutions, which means the same situations keep arising again and again. 

What exactly led to the death of Breeonna Mobley on that long stretch of Hegenberger Road? We don’t yet know, because all of the facts aren’t yet in. 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor is an Oakland resident.


President Uses Al Qaeda As Scapegoat for Violence

By WILLIAM O. BEEMAN Pacific News Service
Friday May 16, 2003

President Bush characterized the May 12 suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as being carried out by “killers whose only faith is hate.” In fact, the devastating attack was a calculated, political act that was probably not orchestrated by al Qaeda and not directed primarily against the United States. 

A thorough understanding of the incident — a repeat of a similar attack that took place in 1995 — might help the United States to act in a responsible and measured manner. 

Both the recent bombings and the 1995 attack were made against the same target. This was the Vinnell Corp., a Fairfax, Va., company recently acquired by Northrop-Grumman that trains the 80,000-member Saudi Arabian National Guard under the supervision of the U.S. Army. 

Why Vinnell?  

The Vinnell operation represents everything that is wrong with the U.S.-Saudi relationship in the eyes of anti-monarchist revolutionaries. The corporation, which employs ex-military and CIA personnel, has close connections with a series of U.S. administrations, including the current one. It has had a contractual relationship to train the Saudi Arabian National Guard since 1975. The corporation was instrumental in the American “Twin Pillars” strategy, whereby both the Saudi Arabian regime and the Shah of Iran would serve as U.S. surrogates in the Gulf region to protect American interests against the possible incursion of the Soviet Union. 

Even before the first Gulf War, when the United States established a formal military presence in Saudi Arabia, Vinnell was a “stealth” military presence in the kingdom. It was seen as a military colonizing force. The Saudi Arabian National Guard, by extension, was seen as a de-facto American military force.  

Additionally, the guard has the specific duty of protecting the Saudi Royal Family, which the revolutionaries see as corrupt. Without the National Guard, the family would be weakened, perhaps to the point of dissolution. 

Thus, since the Vinnell operation looks to revolutionaries like a body of United States-sponsored mercenaries shoring up the National Guard, and by extension, the royal family, striking the Vinnell operation is a logical strategy to damage the Saudi regime. 

There is another reason for attacking Vinnell. The dissidents know that the United States has agreed to withdraw the 5,000 troops stationed at the Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Air Force Base. However, the withdrawal would not cover the Vinnell contract employees, who presumably will stay in Saudi Arabia and keep propping up the regime. Since the revolutionaries want all Americans out of Saudi Arabia, they are looking to the ouster of this group as well as the troops based at the Prince Sultan base. 

Furthermore, the compound that was bombed was a relatively easy target. It was not as heavily defended as an embassy or ministry. 

This is not the first attack involving Vinnell. In 1995, the terrorists attacked the Saudi National Guard Headquarters, where the guard was trained by Vinnell. The bomb killed six people and injured many more. Among the dead were five U.S. citizens, including two soldiers. Two Saudi opposition groups took responsibility for the blast, the Tigers of the Gulf and the Islamic Movement for Change. Both have previously criticized the ruling Saudi monarchy and U.S. military presence. 

The facts of this earlier attack call into question the theory that the al Qaeda operation was responsible for the May 12 bombing. Ali al-Ahmed, executive director of the Washington-based Saudi Institute for Development and Studies, said on the PBS NewsHour of May 13 that this was a “home-grown operation” that borrowed ideas from al Qaeda but was not directed by Osama bin Laden. 

Americans have become used to thinking of al Qaeda as the primary terrorist opponent of the United States. The Bush administration has encouraged a public view of al Qaeda as a highly organized group with omnipotent, worldwide reach. This has led to a general view that every group espousing violent political change is an emanation of Osama bin Laden’s machinations. The view is inaccurate. Insofar as it has a structure at all, al Qaeda is a group of loosely affiliated cells, many of which have no knowledge of the operations of the others. 

Groups opposed to the Saudi regime have been in continual existence for decades, predating bin Laden’s activities. As soon as their leaders are arrested or killed, they regroup and renew their attack. It is more likely that al Qaeda, a relatively new organization, sprung from these earlier groups, rather than the other way around. 

Currently the United States is wedded to a bipolar, black-and-white view of the world. On one side are the United States and its friends. On the other are the dark forces of terrorism. 

So strong is this formulation, and so self-centered the American worldview, that Washington no longer seems able to entertain the thought that there might be revolutionary groups that have entirely local reasons for their actions. This tragic attack might well have taken place if the United States had not had a presence in Saudi Arabia. However, the existence of a quasi-military command force in the form of the Vinnell Corp. virtually guaranteed that Americans would be caught in the cross fire of what was arguably a local revolutionary action. 


After Years Waiting, Our First Walk in the Park

From Zac Unger
Friday May 16, 2003

The balcony of my apartment overlooks a Berkeley park with swings, a grassy field and a jungle-gym. Every day it’s packed with happy parents, and the laughter of kids filters up through the windows into our living room. For three years my wife and I have been looking down on that park, wishing we could be there with the rest of the normal families. 

Now, after six miscarriages, we’ve finally had our baby. And, after 139 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, our daughter, Percy, is healthy and home with us, ready to take up her rightful spot in the sandbox. 

There’s a nice, normal way to be a preemie. You get born scarily early, you have some ups and downs, maybe get an infection or two, but pretty soon you start packing the weight on and, in most cases, you end up going home a few weeks before your due date. By the time we left the NICU, Percy was the senior baby on the ward, having overstayed her expected date of release by almost two and a half months. She never had any of the normal preemie complications, not the brain bleeds or the lung disease or the eye damage. 

But she did develop a choking problem that stymied all of the professionals; once a day or so she’d gag on a bit of milk and her heart rate would dip into the twenties and her face would turn blue. A dozen vigorous back blows usually did the trick, and within seconds of coming out of her spell Percy would be back to smiling and cooing, ready for another shot at the bottle. In the end the doctors decided that we were as adept as anyone at reviving her and since being in the hospital obviously wasn’t doing her any good, they sent us home with their best wishes. Now that we’ve been home for two months Percy’s choking still keeps us on our toes but, apart from the fact that it makes it a little tough to find babysitters, we haven’t had much trouble dealing with the problem. 

People always talk about how exhausting it is to have a new baby at home, but compared to the NICU, this seems like a breeze. Like any new parents we could use a few more hours of sleep, but emotionally it feels like we’ve been released from prison. When I wake up my baby is right there next to me in a basket on the floor. No more 3 a.m. dashes to Alta Bates just to see if my daughter is doing all right. Everybody at the hospital was fantastic, but I hated leaving her there; that sterile nursery full of steel cribs and Plexiglas incubators isn’t the right place for a person to spend her first months in the world. 

Being in the NICU was like having 10,000 mother-in-laws. Everyone from the head neonatologist to the newest nursing student had a hundred helpful tips on how to be a better parent. Too much advice — even the best-intentioned advice — starts to feel like criticism before too long. Now it’s just my wife and me. We’re probably making a million mistakes, but they’re our mistakes and we’ll stumble along like anybody else.  

On our second day home we took Percy on a stroller ride through the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley, where everyone lounging around the French Hotel and Black Oak Books is 30 years old and has a baby in a stroller. Nobody seemed to find us the least bit interesting and I wanted to shake strangers by the shoulders and shout, “You don’t understand! This isn’t just any baby — this is a superhero!” 

One woman did stop to admire her — she is astoundingly beautiful after all — but when she asked me how old my baby was, I found myself momentarily struck stupid. “Five months?” I said, unsure how to answer. It must have been the wrong thing to say because she gave me a look that could have curdled breast milk and stalked off, probably to report me to Child Protective Services for malnourishing my child. The next time someone asked I gave Percy’s “adjusted age” of six weeks. Of course then they wanted to know how much she weighed at birth, and when I said “one pound, 15 ounces” I had to launch into the whole prematurity story anyway. 

Actually, with us shoving food in her face every time she opens her mouth she’s been laying on the fat like a seal getting ready for winter. She’s got chubby arms and pink, round cheeks and she was a massive 11 pounds at her last weigh-in. 

When my wife naps I carry Percy down to the park almost every day. She couldn’t care less about the place — life for her is about eating, sleeping and giggling at the wooden goose that hangs over her changing table. But for me, sitting on the swings with a baby in my arms is an incomparable high. I finally get to be what I’ve always wanted, just a normal, boring dad who thinks his daughter is going to grow up to be the best person on Earth.  

 

 

 


Five-Story Complex Set for Edge of Downtown

By JOHN KENYON Special to the Planet
Friday May 16, 2003

Longtime Berkeley-area residents surely are familiar with the old 1950’s strip mall at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and University Avenue, popularly known as Grand Auto (for its former tenant) — that long facade of glass and aluminum set back behind parking which signals, driving south, the transition from residential tree-lined Old Grove to the busy commercial arterial. Few, however, are aware of a project in the pipeline that will replace that innocuous one-story frontage with a five-floor cliff of stores and apartments sited right up against the Martin Luther King, Jr. Way sidewalk. 

If you haven’t already guessed, this is yet another Patrick Kennedy “smart growth” project, i.e., designed to accommodate more people with fewer cars in central Berkeley. But alas, in this case it’s “super smart.” His giant problematic Gaia Building on Allston Way contains 91 apartments. This one will have 190, sitting on two to three levels of parking and with lavish retail space wrapped around the University Avenue corner. A good half of the residential units will look directly out at busy car-filled streets, or into a 27-foot-wide “garden” court that would drive any middle-class hill dweller into claustrophobic despair. 

As architecture (read “facade design”) it ranks Pretty Good. Indeed, judging from drawings, the proposed structure would have a pleasing-enough public image, albeit in one of Kennedy’s preferred eclectic styles. “Respectablized” by Dan Solomon, a talented, award-winning local architect, the building could fairly be labeled Maybeckian Chalet Style. The top is boarded and set back under generous Alpine eaves. Windows are cleverly grouped, vertically, second-floor apartments over shop fronts, etc., to soften the impact of the five story wall, which, in fact, drops down to four halfway along Martin Luther King, Jr. Way frontage in deference to Berkeley Way and the old houses thereabouts. This is a welcome concession to neighborhood scale. 

The other concession is splitting the building mass into rather narrow vertical pavilions, presumably to suggest the additive character of a traditional Main Street created over time. This device looks more charming on the elevational drawing than it probably will in reality, for the separating breaks, as the bird’s eye block plan reveals, are just shallow indentations. The one exception is Building B, tucked around the corner on Berkeley Way. Separated from the main block by an alley — real space — with its four stories squashed a little and the overhanging Alpine roof emphasized by supporting outriggers, this modest annex promises to be the friendliest bit of the ambitious complex, which, in spite of clever facade design, remains yet another developer intrusion. 

We need to ask ourselves, why can’t an old one-story strip mall become attractive shops and cafes under, say, two or three floors of apartments, somewhat like the wood-shingled, low-key building immediately north of the Longs Drugs parking lot on upper Shattuck Avenue? Are we to be allowed only blockbusters in fancy dress? Through the 1950s and early 1960s, crude shoebox apartments replaced nice old shingled houses on handsome streets like Benvenue and Hillegass, until finally banned by neighborhood outrage. Big fortresses of soulless apartments now threaten the overall small-city ambiance. 

We should also ask ourselves why one developer, Patrick Kennedy, can take the basically intelligent concept of mixed-use, in this case apartments over commercial, and run with it until he becomes the Baron Haussmann of Berkeley. True, he sometimes employs real architectural talent — Kirk Peterson, Dan Solomon, Kava Massih — but often the results seem less distinguished and less adventurous than such people’s best, more independent work. Meanwhile, opinionated, cantankerous, but eminently livable Berkeley needs more environmental variety than one ambitious developer — even with the best intentions — can provide. 

So what should be our response to this proposed urban intruder? Well, there is no easy answer. There are, and will be, all kinds of arguments for more affordable apartments, but not much discussion of quality of life. For those interested, it is still quite early in the approval process, and most of the critical meetings are open to the public. The Zoning Adjustments Board will have its say, and city staff must decide whether to require an Environmental Impact Report. Without doubt, there will be strong neighborhood concern.


City Manager Will Hold Public Meetings to Answer Citizens’ Budget Questions

By JOHN GELUARDI
Friday May 16, 2003

The City Manager presented his proposed biennial budget to the City Council on Tuesday complete with plans to deal with an expected $4.7 million deficit next year and a possible $7.6 million next year. 

In addition, the proposed plan has contingency plans in case the state assembly approves a budget sometime next fall that further shrinks expected state funding. 

The council will hold two public hearings on the proposed budget and, in an unusual step, the city manager is holding several community meetings to answer questions about his budget proposal because of the expected cuts. The council is scheduled to adopt the budget, perhaps with some alterations, on June 24 

For the coming year, the city manager’s proposes to balance the $4.7 million deficit by the elimination of 23 city staff positions, 16 of which are already vacant, and raising parking fines from $23 to $30.  

If the state approves a more draconian budget, the city manager’s contingency plan still calls for the increased parking fines and the elimination of 29 city jobs. 

In addition the city will reduce spending by continuing a selective hiring freeze, reducing travel and restricting cell phones and pagers.  

The budget proposal also calls for the reorganization of certain city departments and functions. One measure will be having non-sworn police department employees carry out duties that are currently the responsibility of sworn officers. Other departments that could be effected are Health and Human Services, the Office of Information Technology and the Office of Economic Development.  

Public hearings on the budget will be held in the City Council Chambers on May 20 and June 17. For information about the city manager sponsored community meetings call (510) 981-7041. 

 

Community Grants Approved 

At the meeting, the council also approved $4.4 million in Community Development Block Grants, which will fund numerous nonprofits organizations that serve the most vulnerable people in the community including the homeless, at risk teenagers and substance abusers.  

The adopted grant allotments held some good news for several nonprofits. A Better Way received an extra $15,000 for an office expansion, the West Campus Pool received extra money to stabilize it’s roof and the Berkeley Food and Housing Project received an additional $24,000.  

 

De-chroming the skate park 

The council unanimously approved $57,000 to get the Skate Park up and rolling again. The money will go to a geotechnical consultant who will devise a permanent solution to the persistent, and expensive problem of contaminated water bubbling up into the park’s concrete skate bowls.  

During construction of the park in 2000. Contractors who were excavating the nine-foot-deep skate bowls struck groundwater that was laden with the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, or chrome 6. Construction was halted while the city spent thousands of dollars to clean up the site and devise a new design that would prevent the contaminated groundwater from seeping into the bowls.  

However, last December, just four months after the park opened to rave reviews from skaters and skater magazines, chrome 6 was discovered in small pools of water that had formed at the bottom of two of the park’s skate bowls.  

The park was immediately closed to the public — although many skate boarders continue to use the park.  

A report from the Department of Parks and Waterfront does not include an estimate for when the park might possibly be reopened, but so far the second discovery of chrome 6 has cost another $102,000, which brings the total expenditure on the skate park to $850,000. Originally, construction of the park was estimated at $380,000.


Migrants Risk Death Daily Seeking Jobs in United States

By MARY JO McCONAHAY Pacific News Service
Friday May 16, 2003

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — In this crowded, bustling town, migrants gather to collect their strength and make connections that will take them across the watery border and safely by road — they hope — to work or join family and friends in the United States. The horrific discovery of a trailer truck filled with dead and dying undocumented migrants near Victoria, Texas, about four hours north, is a vivid picture of the risks they face. Yet, even images of blue-gloved officers picking about for evidence as bodies of the suffocated lay still on the ground — photos running in newspapers throughout Latin America — are unlikely to deter the kind of expectant travelers who reach this town. Future Victorias loom. 

“It’s unfair — the professionals migrate without danger,” said 22-year-old Raul just days before the Victoria incident. A jobless El Salvadoran, Raul said he traveled for weeks fending off predatory Mexican police and gangs of youths his own age to reach this crossing point. He was headed for New York, where he believed an uncle lived. Once he crossed the Rio Grande, Raul figured the hired coyote — a human smuggler — would lead him across the desert until “some kind of transport” collected him and others for the ride to the central Houston bus terminal, from which the undocumented fan out across the country. Coyote cost: $1,500. 

Hundreds of young men wait here nervously every day in sight of the tantalizing “line,” a shallow strip of the Rio Grande or grassy leap from many points in town, with a gigantic U.S. flag visible flapping widely over the sister city of Laredo on the other side. To talk to some of them is to hear so many stories of determination that it’s hard to believe another Victoria will not happen. 

“We can give (our children) a life if we cross,” said Antonio, one of three Honduran fathers taking a break installing windows at a shelter run by Roman Catholic nuns. An out-of-work sewing machine operator, Antonio knew the dangers of crossing the border clandestinely, but said factory jobs at home paid just $15 a week. His new Honduran friends, met on the migrants’ trail, nodded in assent. “He might not recognize me now,” said Antonio of a two-year-old at home, “but we have slept in the streets and suffered other terrible things to get this far. When he grows up, he will know what a father does.” 

The packed trailer outside Victoria claimed 18 lives, including a young boy reportedly found in his father’s arms. It was the highest single death toll in an immigrant smuggling incident in recent memory. Less visible along the Rio Grande and in the flat, hot desert between here and Victoria is the painfully regular incidence of individual migrant fatalities, averaging almost one a day in the last few years according to one attempted counting. 

Drowning, dehydration, extreme weakness that draws attacks of wild animals — all are causes of the deaths noted by researchers at the University of Houston’s Center for Immigration Research. 

“For every body found there is certainly one that isn’t,” said the center’s co-director, Nestor Rodriguez. Bodies decompose quickly in the water, and the sun and animals make short work of other remains. In his Houston office recently, Rodriguez pulled out a file of photos and spread some across his desk. A middle-aged woman smiled in a hammock on a porch, a teen-age boy mugged for the camera and a young man held aloft a baby boy. Once word got out that the center was tracking the nameless border deaths, families sent photos and descriptions of sons and even mothers gone missing. 

With summer coming, temperatures among the nopal cactus and low scrub bushes will top 100 degrees. “The desert has the upper hand right now,” said Rodriguez. Yet the factors that push Mexicans and Central Americans north at the rate of hundreds of thousands a year are not diminishing: the economic slowdown that costs jobs in the United States echoes in the south, with even some Mexican border region “maquila” factories cutting their labor forces; the unfulfilled promise of economic stability at the end of the Central American wars of the l980s; and decades of more open migration that means innumerable Mexican and Central American families are now firmly transnational, their undocumented members moving in and out of the United States at risk. 

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers were discovered to be undocumented foreigners, border enforcement nationwide has been strengthened. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met April 24 in San Diego with Mexican Interior Minister Santiago Creel to reinforce commitment to a “Smart Border” utilizing “progressive technology.” Migrant advocates and repeat undocumented migrants here confirm the crossing is “tighter” than ever. Yet without a new, clear-eyed look at the force and inevitability of migration from the south, more trailer trucks stuffed with dead and dying will certainly be found, and more individual desert and river fatalities will continue to be tabulated in the researchers’ border death watch. 

Unscrupulous human smugglers cannot take all the blame for the serial tragedy taking place on the U.S. side of the line. 

McConahay is a journalist and filmmaker with long experience in the Americas. 

Reporting was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. 

 


Students Charge Coca-Cola with Persecution

By ANGELA ROWEN
Friday May 16, 2003

A group of UC Berkeley staff and students, concerned about the persecution of Latin American trade unionists, confronted a Coca-Cola Company representative this week at a campus meeting about the abuses. 

The Atlanta-based multinational beverage conglomerate has drawn protests from human rights advocates who say managers at some of the company’s bottling plants in Colombia collude with paramilitaries to intimidate and murder union leaders fighting for improved working conditions. 

S’bu Mngadi, director of media relations for Coca Cola, spoke Wednesday night at the monthly meeting of the Store Operations Board of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). The board, which consists of six students and five faculty and staff members, oversees campus stores, the Student Union, the ASUC Art Studio and other income-producing activities. 

Wednesday’s meeting marks the first time that Coca Cola has visited a university specifically to address the situation at its Colombian factories.  

In an interview after the discussion, which was punctuated by challenges from human rights activists, Mngadi said he “appreciated the opportunity to present our side of the story” and reiterated Coca Cola’s position that all “allegations are completely false.” 

The board invited the Coca Cola representative to come to campus after student groups pressured the ASUC last year to take a more active role in opposing the company’s alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Colombia. Members of the Colombian Support Network and other campus groups say UC Berkeley, which has a 10-year contract with Coca Cola, should use their leverage to pressure the company to stop the human rights abuses occurring at their factories abroad. 

The groups have said they will consider calling for the university to sever its contract with Coca Cola and are encouraging students to take part in the worldwide boycott of Coca Cola products that will begin in July. 

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami two years ago by the United Steelworkers of America and SINALTRAINAL, a trade union representing 15 percent of all workers of Coca Cola’s Colombian plants, alleges that the company and its Colombian bottlers used paramilitary forces to assassinate, abuse and intimidate union leaders at several Coca Cola plants between 1995 and 1996. 

In April, District Judge Jose Martinez dismissed the case against the Coca Cola Company, but allowed the case to proceed against the other defendants named in the suit, including Panamco, Coca Cola’s main Latin American bottler, and Bebidas y Alimentos, which owns the plant at which several trade unionists have been killed. Coca Cola owns 25 percent of the Panamco stock and several of its employees sit on Panamco’s board of directors. Bebidas y Alimentos produces solely Coca Cola products. 

At the board meeting Wednesday, Mngadi said that the claims against Coca Cola were politically motivated and that “the allegations are being used for shock value for furthering the objectives of groups who oppose multinational corporations.” 

Mngadi said Coca Cola, far from colluding with paramilitaries to commit human rights abuses, is actually a victim of paramilitary violence, which he described as widespread in a country plagued by a breakdown of law and order and not limited to trade unionists. 

“We are also at the receiving end of the murders,” he said. “Our senior managers have died. One manager was kidnapped for 15 months.” 

Mngadi went over a list of protections and benefits that Coca Cola, its bottlers and the Colombian and U.S. government provide to workers who face threat from paramilitaries, including body guards, armored transportation to and from work, loans to improve safety of union offices, and loans to help threatened workers relocate to safer areas.  

He added that Coca Cola has “extensive normal relations” with all 12 of its Colombian unions, which represent 3,000 employees at 20 Coca Cola bottling plants throughout the country. 

“Only one trade union of the 12 unions representing Coca Cola workers in Colombia have made these allegations,” Mngadi said, referring to the plaintiff in the lawsuit, SINALTRAINAL. “There is a tiny fraction of workers employed by Coca Cola that is making these allegations. It’s not as if the workers are continually raising these questions.” 

He said one of the unions, SINALTRAINBEC, has publicly rejected the allegations made by SINALTRAINAL, and said some branches of SINALTRAINAL oppose the central office’s stance against Coca Cola. 

Some Store Operation Board members and most people in the audience said they weren’t convinced by Mngadi’s presentation. One audience member took issue with Coca Cola’s repeated insistence that there is no evidence inculpating the company in trade unionist murders. 

“There are ongoing monthly payments from John Ordonez, an official of Panamco, to paramilitary leaders. There have been recent meetings between Panamco and Carlos Castano of ... a paramilitary group,” said Jeremy Blasi, an Oakland resident and UC Berkeley graduate student. “These are specific allegations of human rights abuse, not just flippant remarks by radical groups.” 

Blasi, who sat on the committee that drafted the University of California’s anti-sweatshop policy, said Mngadi’s assertion that the claims against the company are simply allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law shouldn’t stop the university from taking a stand against Coca Cola.  

“We don’t wait for a lawsuit to go to completion before we express our concern over human rights abuses,” he said. “Nike was never convicted of using sweatshops in its apparel shops throughout the world but that hasn’t stopped the University of California from taking action to protect Nike workers in factories in Mexico and elsewhere.” 

Mngadi said the allegations have been dismissed by the Colombian justice system on two occasions. 

Board member Jessica Quindel said she appreciated Coca Cola’s willingness to speak to students, but was not yet convinced that Coca Cola was completely innocent or doing enough to stop the human rights abuses. 

“I’m really grateful that they came out, that they realize that this is a big enough issue that they came to campus,” she said. “But I am not satisfied with some of their responses and would like to see them use their privilege more responsibly and not just say, ‘Oh that’s just how it is down there.’ They need to take a role in changing the situation.”  

Likewise, Quindel said, students have an obligation to take the issue seriously as well. 

“We have a million dollar contract with Coca Cola on this campus,” she said. “And on one hand that’s funds coming into the university, but on the other hand it’s blood money.” 


Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley

Friday May 16, 2003

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. 


Opinion

Editorials

Public to Sound Off On City Budget Deficit

By JOHN GELUARDI
Tuesday May 20, 2003

It’s public hearing night and the City Council will be hearing testimony on a number of different issues including the proposed budget and city fees. 

 

The proposed budget  

The public will have its first opportunity to address the council on the city manager’s proposed budget, which balances a projected $4.7 million deficit by continuing a selective hiring freeze, eliminating 23 city staff positions and raising parking meter fines from $23 to $30. 

The budget also has a built-in alternate plan in case the state budget, when it’s adopted in the fall, calls for local program cuts that are deeper than expected. The alternate plan is designed to balance a budget deficit of $6.8 million, in which case the city will eliminate 29 jobs. 

In addition to the selective hiring freeze, the city manager has already restricted travel and pager and cell phone use.  

Another public hearing on the budget will be held June 17, and City Council is required by the city charter to adopt the budget on June 24. 

 

City fees 

The council will also hear public testimony about a proposal to increase city fees for a variety of services including recreation programs, the animal shelter and fire permit inspections.  

Perhaps the most controversial fee hike proposal is the per-unit fee for the Rental Housing Safety Program. The Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) and the city manager are recommending that landlords be charged $18 per unit to fund the program, which is designed to catch building code violations. It is estimated to cost about $330,000 a year with three full-time employees and at least five part-time employees.  

Currently the program is funded in part by the Community Development Block Grant funds and the General Fund. Both the HAC and city manager support the fee to free additional grant funding for nonprofits. 

Landlords have complained they are already overburdened by excessive Rent Board fees and higher license fees than other types of business.  

The council will also hear comment about raising recreation fees. The city manager is proposing an overall 24 percent hike in fees for programs including athletics, swimming pools and youth and family camps. Recreation fees had a cost of living increase of 4 percent in 2002.  

The city is also planning to raise its refuse rate. Currently residents pay $17.22 for the once-a-week pick-up of a 32-gallon container of refuse. The city manager is proposing a $1.22 hike to cover union labor agreements and a 1 percent increase to fund the city’s green building program.  

Even with the hike, city residents will pay less than Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito residents who pay between $20 and $21.46 for the same services. 

Higher sewer fees are also proposed. The new rates would include a 6 percent raise for 2004, which will net approximately $13 million in new revenue, followed by a second 6 percent raise in 2005 for another $13.7 million.  

What that means for the average homeowner is an increase from $36 per month to $40.50 per month by 2005. Duplex owners will pay $65 a month in 2005 and triplex owners will pay $96 a month. 

Sewer charges pay for city sewer system maintenance, construction and administration.  

Without the increase, sewer funding would face a shortfall of $800,000 by next year. If that occurred, the city would have to reduce repairs, which could affect the city’s 30-year plan to eliminate San Francisco Bay pollution.  

There is also a proposal to increase fire safety fees from $41.50 to $53. Animal shelter boarding fees are also slated to go up. The per-day cost to board a dog, for example, will go from $10 to $15. 

 

School Protest Planned 

Teachers, librarians, clerks and other professionals will demonstrate in front of Berkeley Unified School District’s Administration Building Tuesday, May 20, from 3:45 to 4:15 p.m. Protesters are concerned that cuts recommended by Superintendent Michele Lawrence go beyond what is necessary to solve the budget crisis. 

More than 100 teachers received final layoff notices last week, forcing increases in class size and cuts in other programs.


With In-Law Units Easier To Build, Some Complain Of Crowded Neighborhoods

By ANGELA ROWEN
Friday May 16, 2003

The Planning Commission, prompted by concerns aired by community members and government officials during a public hearing on Wednesday, asked department staff to examine the possibility of reducing the minimum size allowed for accessory dwelling units, also known as in-law or secondary units, to encourage the development of more such units. 

Staff was also instructed to study the possibility of restricting the height allowed for secondary units to and increasing the rear and side space required for such units to prevent the encroachment of secondary units on neighbors. 

The hearing was held to discuss proposed amendments to the city ordinance that will make it easier to establish accessory dwelling units. The changes are necessary to comply with a state law passed last year that requires cities to eliminate discretionary review and public hearing requirements for the development of secondary units. The city must formulate its own revised ordinance within certain parameters by July, or simply adopt the state guidelines verbatim. 

Accessory dwelling units are those created as an addition to a main dwelling unit, either within a main structure, or built separately from the main building. The city’s proposed amendments would allow developers to build a secondary unit in all primarily residential zones if they comply with a certain set of objective standards specified in the ordinance, including requirements related to the size of the unit, the size of the lot containing the unit, and the amount of space allowed on the side and rear of the unit. 

The current version of the draft ordinance states that the total floor area of the secondary unit not exceed 25 percent of the main dwelling unit and that the floor area of the secondary unit be no less than 300 square feet. At least two speakers at the hearing requested that the city revise these requirements to allow for the development of more accessory dwelling units. 

Jennifer Kaufer, a Berkeley resident and a member of Livable Berkeley, a nonprofit devoted to sustainable development, said the current size limitation would prevent the development of secondary units. 

“People with houses of 1,200 square feet wouldn’t be able to build under this requirement,” she said. “And given the number of traditional bungalows in Berkeley, the [size] requirement would significantly reduce the number of units being created.” 

At least one other resident didn’t agree with her. Tim Awry, who lives on Francisco Street near Franklin Elementary School, said he was concerned about the parking problems and congestion more accessory units would bring. 

“The parking problem is already bad and will get worse when the Adult School moves into my neighborhood,” he said. “Do we really want to look like San Francisco, like Japan, where there are wall-to-wall houses. Don’t we appreciate our gardens? Do we really want neighbors peering into your garden?” 

Other residents said they were worried that property owners would build secondary units that would tower over or encroach on existing residences, bringing shade to existing units and eliminating valued garden space. The current draft requires that detached secondary units have at least four feet of rear and side space. There is no current height restriction. 

The commission is also struggling with the question of owner occupancy. The current draft requires that the owner be a resident of the main dwelling unit. Commissioners discussed whether such a requirement is desirable or enforceable. Andy Katz, a member of the Zoning Adjustment Board, said the requirement would be “unduly restrictive on homeowners.” He also said it was hard to enforce. 

“If a grandmother moves into a unit, is that a tenant or a member of the [owner’s] family?” he asked. 

Senior planner Janet Homrighausen will complete another staff report examining the possibility of allowing for smaller secondary units, increasing the set back space and restricting the height limit. She will also look at policies in other cities regarding owner occupancy requirements for secondary units. The commission will consider the new information at the May 28 meeting, at which point it can wrap up its recommendations and send it to the full council for consideration.