The Berkeley Skate Park, quiet for months after toxics were found at the site, filled again with skaters this past weekend. 

The West Berkeley park opened Saturday without much ceremony after a six-month closure due to the discovery of the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, or chrome 6, in the basins of the park’s skate bowls.  

The concrete facility has been cleaned and city officials said they are convinced the contaminated water plume below the park will not infiltrate the park’s skate bowls during the dry weather months, according to a press release from the Department of Parks and Waterfront. 

The park was heavily used over the weekend, said Lisa Caronna, director of the Department of Parks and Waterfront. “It was a little quiet on Saturday when we opened the park, but as word got out usage was back to normal on Sunday,” she said.  

The chrome 6 plume is about four blocks long and three blocks wide. The source of the contamination is an engraving shop about three blocks east of the skate park, which is located at 5th and Harrison streets. 

The city recently approved $55,000 to contract with a Geomatrix Consultants Inc., a geotechnical consulting firm, to determine how contaminated water penetrated the skate bowls after the city went to great expense to avoid such an occurrence. 

“We intend to make the park as safe as possible,” Caronna said. “The city still feels like this is one of the best designed parks in the Bay Area and our goal is to maximize use of the facility in a way that is safe for all users no matter how big or how small.” 

Contamination problems have plagued the skate park since its excavation in November 1991. Groundwater pooled in the bottom of the nine-foot-deep bowls as they were dug. The water tested positive for chrome 6 and construction was halted while the city pumped out the groundwater, stored it in tanks, treated and then appropriately disposed of it. 

In addition, a park redesign was required to prevent future invasions of contaminated water. The mitigation sent the cost of the park from $380,000 soaring to $850,000. 

The park opened to rave reviews from local skate boarding magazines in September 2002. But four months later, the city discovered low levels of chrome 6 in the bowls after a severe rainstorm. The park was immediately closed.

From the large ceramic sun adorning the façade of her home-studio to the naked sculptures that border the stairs and driveway, to the full-blown sculpture garden and that blossoms in the backyard, it's clear Kit Skeoch is not one to restrain her impulses. 

While the 46-year-old started out more than 20 years ago as a dance ethnologist, performance artist, instructor and artist's model, for the past six years sculpture and painting have consumed her passions.  

From life-size to knee-high, Skeoch's Sticky Fingers Sculpture Garden and Studio on Curtis Street is peopled with hundreds of expressive nude figures of men and women lying languidly, slouching indolently and everywhere expressing the deeply sensuous nature of the human heart. 

Skeoch opens her home studio and garden, free to the public, every Sunday afternoon from June through October. She teaches figurative art classes year round for a modest fee.  

It was as an artist's model that she first experienced the power of sculpture. 

“The first time I was a model for a sculpture class, I thought, 'Oh my god, I want to do this!',” Skeoch recalled. “But it took me ten years before I actually did.” 

Shortly after taking a sculpture class from Tebby George at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Skeoch decided to open her backyard studio to other like-minded artists. Her years of experience as an artist's model made it easy for her to arrange the logistics and her long career in dance and dance instruction drove her passion for helping others find the beauty in the human figure. 

"We started the group in '97," she said. "It's a working situation. People come who have never sculpted before in their life. What I do with first timers is I just put them next to me. My belief, totally, is that anybody could sculpt because you have this wonderful model in front of you and what you do is you just look at that model and you try to imitate what you see. And then the model turns and you imitate again. Eventually, doing the process over and over again, you get a three-dimensional figure." 

A typical class is made up of eight to 14 artists, mostly women, working side by side.  

"We always have a model and there's a lot of other people working with you, at different levels," she said. "People come from all different backgrounds. Some people are professional artists, some are just coming because they love it and have a passion to do it. When somebody starts I always say, 'Come sit next to me,' so they're more comfortable but everybody's working in their own way, and batting around ideas. What I really try to do is encourage people to find their own style. Some teachers would encourage you to make (a classic, representational figure). If somebody wants to do really realistic work I can guide them, but what we really try to do here is encourage the creative space for people. It's a very loving group and they really help each other. People usually get very comfortable quickly." 

This time of year the garden gallery blooms with flowers and sculptures. Wooden bells clack gently in the background as the wind rustles through the foliage. Skeoch smiles quickly and offers everyone a hug. 

"When I moved into this neighborhood [in 1986] it was a crack neighborhood and we still have some remnants of that. I was very naïve about crack. I was like, 'No. I'm going to be safe here,' and I have been." Skeoch said.  

"I have to say, the drug thing is sad. I see it now. When I see people that are troubled I know now. The neighborhood is one of these neighborhoods that keeps changing. It used to have a lot of African-Americans. To my sadness those are the people who’ve been pushed out. We still have a very diverse neighborhood, which I love, but more and more homeowners are buying in the neighborhood." 

Her neighbors don't seem to have a problem with her numerous nudes. While several of her sculptures were stolen from her porch last Christmas, that hasn't dampened Skeoch's enthusiasm. 

"I think the human body is one of the most magnificent things. One of the wonderful things in working with the figure is you get to see so many different bodies. In a way it demystifies the whole mystery of us."  

Skeoch whispered conspiratorially, "What do we look like naked?" Laughing, she continued, "Some people would really not want to have all these naked people around but I love it and I wouldn't change it. I love seeing the body move. I try in my work to capture movement. Even when the person is sitting still.  

"I guess the question is, 'why not all the naked people?' Why not all the nude figures? Why not? Definitely we live in a culture where all the naked stuff is hard for people. I could project tons of things on to that, like the fear of their own bodies or whatever but again it's my passion. I don't know where the whole thing with the figure happened but it happened early on when I was modeling for a sculpture class. I want to do this! This is what I want to do." 

Kit Skeoch's Web site: http://www.clerestory.com/kitskeoch/.

TUESDAY, JUNE 10 

Forest Legislation and Actions, a discussion of current bills in Sacramento, sponsored by the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters at 7:30 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. 548-3133. 

Hiking the San Francisco Bay Area, slides and talk with author Linda Hamilton at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going 

Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 525-3565. www.ber 

keleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. B. K. Bose will speak on Yoga for Health at 10:30 a.m. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 

World Travel: Why SARS, the Economy and War Shouldn’t Keep You at Home, a panel discussion with Bay Area travel specialists at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. 

Wilderness Weekends: Camping and Backpacking in the Bay Area and Beyond with Matt Heid, author of “101 Hikes in Northern California,” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 12 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Opens on North Shattuck 

from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar, and continuing every Thursday. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Our Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, with Ann Fagan Ginger, on the new McCar- 

thyism that is sweeping the country, at 7 p.m. at the Friends’ Meetinghouse at the corner of Vine and Walnut Sts. Free, wheelchair accessible. 705-7314. 

Lawyers in the Library, at 6 p.m. in the South Branch, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers meet at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. Fly tying demonstration at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. rorlando@uclink4.berkeley.edu  

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 

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

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 

City of Berkeley Summer Aquatics Program Register from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the West Campus Pool, 2100 Browning St. at Addison and at the Willard pool, 2701 Telegraph, at Derby, or call 981-5150. 

Berkeley Special Education Parents Network End of Year Potluck and Gathering at 3 p.m. at San Pablo Park, Russell St. at Park. Wheel- 

chair accessible. For more information call 428-1131.  

Free Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class Learn how to detect and remedy lead hazards and conduct lead-safe renovations for your older home from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Training Center, 1017 22nd Ave., Suite #110, Oakland. For information or to register, call 567-8280. 

Kids’ Garden Club: Aroma- 

tic Plants For children age 7 to 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Til- 

den Nature Area. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Celebration of 30 Years of Curbside Recycling at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour, “McCreary-Greer House, The Berkeley City Club, and Environs,” 

led by Paul Grunland, 10 a.m. $5 members, $10 non-members. For reservations call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

Gaia and the Sacred: Religion, Science, and Ethics 

A one-day conference ex- 

ploring the ways in which religion, ethics, and the sciences shape our understanding of who we are. Keynote address by Carol P. Christ on her forthcoming book, “She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World.” From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Rd. To register contact Christopher Evans at 649-2560 or trees@gtu.edu 

Open House for the Acu- 

puncture and Integrative Medicine College for pro- 

spective students and neighbors. Learn about our Mas- 

ters of Science in Oriental Medicine program. Please register by June 10. For more information and to register, please call Taj Moore, 666-8248, or info@aic-berkeley.edu 

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 

Juneteenth Celebration on Adeline Street between Ashby and Alcatraz. Two stages for live entertainment, food vendors, arts and crafts, and jazz in the Black Reper- 

tory Theater. 655-8008. 

Father's Day Campfire 

from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Tilden Park. Bring your hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and join us for songs and stories around the fire. Dress for possible fog. Walk uphill to the campfire circle. Disabled accessible, call for transportation. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk, facilitated by singer/ 

songwriter/activist Margie Adam, at 2 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Join a growing number of people who have found that walking the laby- 

rinth, individually and in community, offers a powerful way to ground and focus healing and peace and justice work in the world. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

Tibetan Yoga, Kum Nye Instructors Charaka Jurgens and Donna Morton on “Practices of Tibetan Yoga,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 16 

Teaching About Africa and the African Diaspora A two-day institute, sponsored by the Center for African Stu- 

dies, UC Berkeley, for K-12 and college educators and librarians. Topics include Misconceptions and Stereo- 

types; Islam in Africa; Colonialism; Comparative Political Systems; Cultural Contributions of People of African Descent; Social Movements; and Literature. Cost is $40 for one day, or $50 for both days. Registration required, but fee waivers are available. Call 642-8338 or e-mail amma@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Homeowners Support Group on heaters and options for heating your home, at 3 p.m. in the Grey Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

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

unteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

Figure Drawing Workshop 

Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, starting June 14. This class is designed to sharpen your observation skills and enhance your drawings. Bring your own dry drawing tools and good paper. In- 

structor is Carol Brighton. Cost is $150 for four sessions. Contact the Berkeley Art Center to sign up, 644-6893. 

Marine Biology Classes for students ages 10 to 13, from Tues., June 17 to Fri., June 27, 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave., at the Marina. Cost is $90 for eight days of classes. For information call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina  

Educators Academy: Project WILD and Project Aquatic WILD Tues., June 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tilden Na- 

ture Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $45 for Berkeley residents and $51 for non-residents. Insects and Crawling Creatures Tues., June 24 - Thurs., June 26, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration is required. Cost is $100 for Berkeley residents, $110 for non-residents. Financial assistance for both courses. For information 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

The Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for children 7-13 years of age, in a series of five, 2-week sessions beginning June 16 and ending August 22. John Hinkel Park, South- 

ampton Place at Arlington Ave. The cost is $340 per session. After-care is also provided for a fee. Scholar- 

ships are available; call 981-5150 for details. To register for the camp, or for more information, please call 415-422-2222, or 800-978-PLAY. 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 12 - 14 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. For information on what can and cannot be dropped off, please call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle.  

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tuesday, June 10, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Council Agenda Committee Meeting Monday, June 16, at 

2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Two-by-Two Meeting A bi-monthly meeting of City and School District elected and appointed officials to discuss problems of common concern, Thursday, June 12, at 12:30 p.m., in the Redwood Room, 6th floor, 2180 Milvia St. 644-6147. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Individual Rent Adjustment/Annual General Adjustment Committee meets Wednesday, June 11, at 5:30 p.m., at 2001 Center Street, 2nd Floor, Law Library. Regular Board meeting Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Commission on Disability  

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets  

Thursday, June 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation 

Community Health Commission meets Thursday, June 12 at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/health 

Homeless Commission meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Workshop on the Protection of Arts and Crafts Uses in West Berkeley at the Planning Commission, Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. 

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

Waterfront Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Zoning Adjustments Board 

meets Thursday, June 12, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/zoning

PROTECT CREEK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you went to the Live Oak Fair, you may have caught a glimpse of the last remains of the most beautiful creek site in Berkeley, just east of the park. The largest trees on the Codornices Creek bank are to be felled this week so the creek can be nudged northward to accommodate a driveway and bus parking lane along the south bank. 

Most cities now protect creeks. Oakland, Santa Rosa, Walnut Creek and many more make them an essential element of their urban design. Berkeley even protected this creek on this site when the site was owned by a different religious institution. 

As of today, a grading and landscape plan for the complete site has yet to be approved by the city (a requirement of the use permit and any submittal for a 35,000-square-foot building). But obliteration is almost complete. 

Eva Bansner 

• 

BUDGET CRUNCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As Dan Peven noted in his letter to the editor on June 6, Berkeley only has one library that lends tools. That makes it especially difficult to see it lose any of its hours. 

One of the things that makes the Tool Lending Library the special place that it is, is that the workers there are all tool specialists. They have passed tests and can answer questions about tools and how those tools work. No other employee in the library possesses those specialized skills. 

In March, we began to freeze positions in anticipation of the budget deficits coming in July. Unfortunately, one of our tool specialists left at that time. The others have been trying to operate regular hours while lacking about 25 percent of their staffing. 

Unless the budget crisis is averted, the branches and central library will also begin cutting hours after July 1. In addition, the budgets to buy books, videos, CDs and, yes, tools will be severely affected. No part of the library will be without cuts in service. 

We regret the inconvenience to our patrons and will work with the community to make the reductions in service as painless as possible. 

Jackie Y. Griffin 

Director of Library Services. 

• 

OUT OF ORDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Art Goldberg’s characterization of Berkeley’s director of planning as a “duplicitous insect” (Letters to the Editor, June 6-9 edition) is out of order. I do not know whether Mark Rhodes has kept neighbors in the dark about upcoming projects, as Mr. Goldberg charges. I do know that he created a monthly report, sent to neighborhood organizations, that for the first time listed and described upcoming projects and their status months in advance.  

And I strongly believe that personal or dehumanizing attacks on one’s opponents (of which I, too, have been guilty) corrode community life and institutions. In both public and public servants, it nurtures an “us versus them” misapprehension, fosters disregard or distortion of positive efforts, withers the search for compromise and common ground, and drives many people of good will from contributing to dialogue and democracy. 

Susan Schwartz 

• 

DEFAMATION 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Daily Planet’s biases are evident for all to see. But to allow Art Goldberg to refer by name to a Planning Department employee as a “duplicitous insect” introduces a degree of defamation and viciousness that no newspaper should ever allow to be printed. 

Revan Tranter 

• 

UNJUST SYSTEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Chris Kavanagh, of the Berkeley Rent Board, doesn’t get it. In an effort to explain and defend this unjust, wasteful agency he invokes the obfuscating specter of bureaucratic minutia. 

It is hardly worth responding to his misrepresentations, but it is worth noting that the Rent Board on numerous occasions hired “experts” to determine annual rent increases and then ignored the paid experts’ recommendations, approving significantly lesser rent adjustments. The Rent Board’s commitment to injustice is only outweighed by its willingness to waste public money.  

The facts are simple—rent control is unjust and unfair. 

Because rent control has no means testing (it does not consider the finances of those who receive its benefit) it grants subsidies (artificially low rent) to a random group of citizens. The granting of these subsidies tends to inflate the rent of those not lucky enough to be of this privileged class.  

There are tenants from economically advantaged backgrounds with higher incomes than the property owner(s) compelled to subsidize their rent. The enthusiastic willingness of the Rent Board to administer a system so profoundly unjust further demonstrates the moral bankruptcy at the root of this wasteful agency. 

Rent control is ineffective and counter-productive. It has resulted in the loss of rental housing units contributing to our housing shortage and increasing rents for those not of the random benefactor class. New housing is built in Berkeley only because new housing is exempt from rent control. 

Rent control has reduced the number of small scale (mom-and-pop) type landlords, causing a consolidation of ownership in the hands of large property owners who can afford to “wait out” or legally maneuver this Kafkaesque system. Essentially, rent control promotes the corporate ownership of housing. 

Rent control has created a bureaucracy that has wasted 24 million dollars of public money and never created a single housing unit but rather created regulations discouraging the creation of housing. 

Rent control usurps the fundamental right of citizens to negotiate contracts, thus undermining the social weave created by person to person agreements—a weave crucial to the fabric of civilized life. Rent control presumes the inability of the individual to choose and negotiate and opts instead for the imposition of bureaucratic authoritarianism. It is the insulting assumption of citizen as child and government as mommy-daddy. 

As Kavanagh and his cohorts continue on their self-deluded path, imagining they are doing good, they instead do harm, not only to individuals but to the psyche of the Commons. They promote policy that creates polarity. They perpetrate injustice that erodes fundamental faith in government. They lead the assault against the creative on behalf of slothful and wasteful bureaucracy.  

If the Rent Board had any commitment to justice or common sense it would conduct one final vote—it would vote to abolish its own existence. With this Byzantine bureaucracy gone we could redirect the wasted money to a housing fund that provides subsidies to those who need it and allows the creativity of the marketplace to do the rest. 

John Koenigshofer 

• 

VETERANS’ BUILDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Workers under contract to Alameda County are now removing beautiful Spanish-style clay roofing tiles from the Albany Veterans’ Building in Memorial Park in Albany and replacing them with asphalt shingles. The county never gave Albany citizens notice of this, nor did they let the Albany city government know about it. 

The tiles, worth $4 a piece, were a freebie to the contractor, and many have already been sold, although some are still sitting on pallets on-site. 

John Kitchening, deputy director for building maintenance with General Services Administration in Alameda County, is the official in charge. He says he made a mistake in not considering the architectural significance of the building and its Spanish tiles. That admission, however, does little to remedy the problem. 

Ironically, the very day the Alameda County roofing contractor showed up last week, a contractor for the City of Albany broke ground on a $950,000-plus Memorial Park beautification project. Two central goals of the beautification project are to create a Spanish-style plaza in front of the Veterans’ Building and to remove trees in front of the building so as to better feature its Spanish architecture. When it’s finished, the Spanish tiles will be gone, rendering those efforts fruitless. 

According to Kitchening’s staff, during the past year Alameda County completed a historic renovation and seismic upgrade to the Veterans’ Memorial Building in Fremont. They were able to preserve 85 percent of the tiles, and had the remaining 15 percent custom manufactured to match the originals. 

Why isn’t Albany being treated the same way? Who issued the contract? What public notice did they give? Was the project reviewed by the county architect or historic preservationist? Who approved the contractor’s getting the tiles for free? Did the county know the tiles are worth $4 a piece and that the roof had at least 30,000 tiles on it? That’s a $120,000 freebie! Even the company that delivered the asphalt shingles thinks the loss of the Spanish tiles is a crying shame. 

My fellow citizens in Albany need to know this is happening and make the county replace the Spanish-style roof, in keeping with the adjacent city building (which was built seven years ago with Spanish tile roof to match the Veterans’ Building) and the Memorial Park beautification effort now under way. 

Leif Magnuson  

Albany

ACCI Gallery, “Midstream” 

A photography exhibition of artists Alex Ambrose, Bar- 

bara Bobes, Dafna Kory, and Catherine Stone. Exhibition runs until June 24. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. acciart@aol. 

com, www.accigallery.com 

Addison Street Windows, “The Color of Sound” 

Paintings, prints, and mixed media art about music, by Eve Donovan, through June 27, 2018 Addison St. 658-0585. 

Albany Community Center Arts Foyer Gallery, “Many Faces of the Middle East” 

Photographs by Ed Kinney, through July 11. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. 524-9283. 

Alta Bates Community Gallery, “Hot Flash Glass” An exibition by eight Bay Area artists, through June 20. “The Whole Story,” handmade paper art by Linda Lemon, through June 21. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily. 2450 Ashby Ave. 548-7333. 

The Ames Gallery, “Conversations with Myself” Works by Barry Simons. Paintings and collages incorporating the artist’s original poetry. By appointment or chance. Exhibition runs until August 15. 2661 Cedar St. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com  

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

Bancroft Library, 

“Then and Now” Student photographs of the Berkeley Campus,from the late 1800s to the present, through July 18. Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m - 5 p.m., Sat. 1 - 5 p.m. 642-3781. 

Berkeley Art Center, “Un- 

bound and Under Covers,” 

Visual writing: spoken word performances and book exhibition from June 13 to July 27. Curated by Jaime Robles. Work and performance by Indigo Som, Meredith Stricker, Dale Going and Marie Carbone, Susan King and Lisa Kokin. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

Berkeley Art Museum,  

“The Black Panthers 1968” Photographs by Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones, Free exhibition runs until June 29. “Far Away-Nearby” The 33rd Annual UC Berkeley Masters of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition, through July 28. 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, through 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. Admission $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students, and free for general public the first Thurs. of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley”  

A photography exhibit by the Berkeley Camera Club, Berkeley High School students and community photographers in celebration of the City’s 125th Anniversary. Exhibition runs until Sept. 13. Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 848-0181.  

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. Each book is accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the work. Exhibition runs until Sept. 30. 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, “Water World” Photograph-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. Exhibition runs until June 21. 1060 Heinz Ave. 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. Runs until Sept. 7. 

“K'NEXtech” Technology meets your imagination--without stumbling blocks. Construct models from colorful K'NEX pieces, which snap easily together, of whatever you can imagine. Or just examine the amazing K'NEX sculptures built by professional designers all made with more than half a million K'NEX pieces. Runs from May 24 to Sept. 14. Law- 

rence Hall of Science is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Cost is $8 for 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. 643-5961. www.lawrencehall- 

ofscience.org 

A New Leaf Gallery, “Four Elements of Sculpture Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” from  

June 7 to August 31. Call for exhibit opening hours and regular gallery hours. 1286 Gilman St. 527-7621. www.sculpturesite.com 

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. Gallery hours are Wed. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sun., noon - 4 p.m. Cost is $2 for adults, $.50 for children, free for museum members, UC students, staff and faculty, free to the public on Thurs. Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-7648. http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/outreach 

Photolab Gallery, “Images from the Ballroom Series” by Andy Stewart Black and white photographs on exhibit from June 7 to July 19. Gallery hours are Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., sat. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reception for the Artist, June 14, 6 to 8 p.m. 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400. www.photolaboratory.com  

Gallery 1450, “Permutations,” Michele Pred’s sculptures using confiscated airport items, at 1450 4th St. Exhibition runs until June 12. Gallery hours are Fri. and Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment. 526-2695. 

Red Oak Realty Gallery, Prints by Barbara de Groot. Exhibition runs until July 26. 1891 Solano Ave. 848-3965. 

Regional Parks Botanic Gardens Visitors Center, “Closeup Photographs of Wildflowers,” by Maggie Ely. Visitors center is located at the intersection of Wildcat Canyon and South Park Drive. 

Thelma Harris Art Gallery, “Hopes and Dreams and Spring” Paintings by Bernie Casey, through June 30. Gallery hours are Tues. - Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., noon to 5 p.m. 5940 College Ave., Oakland, 654-0443. 

Traywick Gallery, “Osmotica” Works by Linda Mieko Allen. Exhibition runs until June 21. Gallery hours are  

Wed. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214. www.traywick.com 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery, “Painted Blessings” Painted breast castings by Bibiana Lai. Exhibition runs until July 3. 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-

In the latest high-level shake-up at Berkeley High School, newly appointed principal Patricia Christa abruptly resigned Thursday, stunning parents, teachers and administrators. 

“It’s pretty devastating news,” said Joan Edelstein, president of the Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association. “As one of the parents said, it feels like Berkeley High has been sucker-punched again.” 

Christa’s resignation came just eight days after high school co-principals Mary Ann Valles and Laura Leventer announced their resignations, effective at the end of the school year. Valles and Leventer had been slated to serve as vice principals under Christa next year. 

Valles refused to comment on Christa’s resignation, saying that any statement on the matter had to come from the superintendent’s office. 

The rapid-fire resignations have raised questions about the stability of the troubled, 3,000-student high school, which is preparing for a major reform effort that would place half its students in a series of schools-within-a-school by the 2005-2006 school year. 

Christa did not return calls for comment, but Superintendent Michele Lawrence said the erstwhile principal felt overwhelmed by the challenges at Berkeley High and bombarded by parents and staff who focused on all the problems at the school. 

“To immediately tell her about all the warts and not the beauty marks is unfair,” said Lawrence. 

Christa, officially named principal May 7, swept into town pledging to bring much-needed stability to Berkeley High, which has seen four administrations in the last six years. 

“To me, it’s a travesty that principals have left,” Christa told the Daily Planet last month. “That’s absurd.” 

Christa will return to her current job as director of educational services for the Newark Unified School District. Lawrence said she has no timeline for filling the vacancy. 

“I’m moving with deliberate speed,” Lawrence said. “But this will not force me to make a quick decision. I’m not going to put anybody in there just because we don’t have someone.” 

Lawrence said she is talking with other finalists from this spring’s principal search. She has also contacted retired administrators around the state who might fill in as temporary or long-term replacements. 

Students said they were not surprised by Christa’s decision, given the sprawling high school’s history of rapid turnover at the top. 

“We’ve had a billion principals,” said 15-year-old sophomore Rhiannon Mariani. 

The changes at Berkeley High come just weeks after all three of Berkeley’s associate superintendents announced that they will resign at the end of the school year, two to take jobs as superintendents elsewhere. In a cost-saving measure, the cash-strapped district has only replaced one of the administrators, Associate Superintendent of Business and Operations Jerry Kurr. Eric Smith is the new business chief. 

Lawrence cautioned against reading too much into the parade of resignations, arguing that leadership changes are common in public education, particularly in high-stress urban school districts.  

Joe Jones, assistant executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, said the game of musical chairs often picks up during budget crises. Veteran administrators with hefty salaries often retire to save their districts money, he said, opening up a host of positions around the state. 

“I’m not sure that Berkeley is in a unique situation,” he said. 

But Berkeley High history teacher Annie Johnston said the district will suffer from the loss of so many experienced administrators. 

“These connections to what has gone on before are all gone,” she said. “Many, many mistakes are going to be made.” 

Johnston raised particular concern about the shift to “small schools” at Berkeley High, worrying that it could be “severely impacted” by the shake-up in the principal’s office. 

Lawrence said she has concerns about the small schools transition, the development of next year’s class schedule, the hiring and assigning of teachers, and the success of this year’s summer school program. 

Board of Education Director Shirley Issel said the resignation is particularly difficult for staff to stomach at the end of the year. 

“It’s sad, because the school year’s ending and the kids are graduating and you’re separating from the organization without leadership and there are unknowns,” she said. 

Berkeley High librarian Ellie Goldstein-Erickson said staff was particularly struck by Christa’s passion for education. 

“She impressed me as someone with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm,” she said. “It seemed to be contagious.” 

But parents said constant problems with everything from scheduling to student safety to the “achievement gap” separating white and Asian students from blacks and Hispanics are enough to scare off any administrator. 

“The problems at that school seem so endemic, that you just can’t imagine someone coming in to fix it,” said Stephen DeGange, the parent of a senior and coach of the Berkeley High junior varsity baseball team. “I think your best bet is to just level it and start over.”

On April 7, the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) informed local residents of Superintendent Michelle Lawrence’s desire to move the Berkeley Adult School from its University Avenue location to the currently vacant Franklin School. The district wants the School Board to approve the move in July and begin construction in September 2003.  

The proposed move received mixed response from neighbors who are still trying to digest the district’s rationale and the impact of the proposed move. But Franklin cannot, and should not, remain vacant. So, regardless of what kind of facility eventually goes there, our community’s concern is that the change be well thought out and integrated into our neighborhood.  

Clearly, if implemented, this multi-million-dollar Adult School move will have a huge impact on the quiet neighborhood surrounding Franklin. The district’s figures show that 1,340 new people will be entering our community every day, including 455 evening students whose classes won’t end until 9:30 p.m. In a part of town where parks and recreational areas are sparse, the district intends to pave over at least one-half the Franklin playground for parking—eliminating ball fields, basketball courts and a track.  

The daily influx of people, the long hours of operation and amount of activity associated with the Adult School will have a significant impact on recreational space, local traffic circulation, parking, noise, litter and security for the Franklin neighborhood. Residents want to make sure that careful and thoughtful plans are instituted to address the additional stresses the neighborhood will undergo. 

The good news is that all the stakeholders are in good communication over the proposed Franklin change. The district, with Superintendent Lawrence and School Board members in attendance, have organized several well-attended community meetings to make their case and hear neighborhood concerns. Individual School Board members have also been meeting with community activists. City Councilmember Linda Maio has taken a leadership position from the beginning and her office continues to work vigorously with all parties. And both the Franklin neighbors and the current Adult School neighbors (many of whom want the Adult School to remain at its present location) are mobilized and actively engaging the process.  

The bad news is the law appears to make BUSD a power unto themselves, virtually exempt from any of the traditional city review processes normally required before making a move of this scale. (Does anyone familiar with Berkeley’s permitting process believe a comparably sized shopping development or housing complex would be approved and break ground five months after announcing its intentions?) Yet, the district can seemingly make whatever unilateral decisions they want, essentially without review or recourse, and the city can do little beyond reviewing parking and traffic mitigations.  

There is a better way to serve the community, the city and the school district. It’s a collaborative approach, where we work in partnership to determine what Franklin should become and how best to integrate it into our neighborhood. But we can’t do that by merely offering our observations and comments and then looking in from the outside as the district exercises all the power, as is the current model. We must be an integral part of that process, working together to determine the best course for all.  

Here are two concrete steps that would help. First, open all district planning and design meetings to our neighborhood site committee and city representatives and make us an integral part of the planning process. Second, take the time to do careful, accurate and thoughtful traffic, parking, public transportation, recreation and other relevant studies. The few months lost while careful planning takes place are insignificant compared to long-term benefits gained by embracing community and city involvement in a full analysis of the proposed changes and their ramifications.  

The stakeholders are currently in good communication and, I believe, there is sufficient good will to make this approach succeed. Let’s take it to the next level and implement a truly cooperative decision-making system that includes all the key players. The alternative is to leave all the decision-making power in the district’s hands. That’s not a process designed to make the best community-wide decisions and inevitably will create resentment toward BUSD at a time when they need our good will as much as we need for them to succeed. 

Change is in the wind with the Berkeley Unified School District. This proposed move is the first of many that the district will be making at several sites over the next few years, when the Berkeley Adult School, the administrative center and maintenance yards, the Oregon campus and other schools currently operating in the district will likely change. Let’s make the proposed Franklin development the model for how we can work together for the good of all parties in the future.  

Paul Shain is a Berkeley resident and Franklin School neighbor.

TUESDAY, JUNE 10 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Confessions of a Sociopath” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sherman Alexie, chronicler of the Native American experience, presents “Ten Little Indians” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are free with the purchase of the book, available in both Cody’s Bookstores. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Cynthia Kaufman addresses the growing number of people who are unhappy with the status quo in her new book “Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Deborah Day explains the use of poetry to educate in her book “Mindful Messages: Healing Thoughts for the Hip Hop Descendants from the Motherland” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sol Americano and The Mara Connection, in a benefit performance for the Center for Educational Research and Development at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jimmy Bruno, John Palme and Carol Denney offer an evening of song artistry at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight-andsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “All the Hitchcock You Can Repeat” at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Scoop Nisker returns at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freight-andsalvage.org 

Kevin Sweeny discusses his new book “Father Figures: A Boy Goes Searching” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bridget Connelly discusses her memoir, “Forgetting Ireland,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Laila Halaby, daughter of a Jordanian and an American, discusses the difficulty of growing up in two cultures in her new novel, “West of the Jordan,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

peAktimes, a performance project mixing today’s news with experimental music and dance at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Already Dead, Astral Realm, Puddingstone, Scribe perform punk and rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Juan Diego Flórez, tenor, performs at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

La Peña Recital with students from Rafael Manriquez’s Latin American Music Ensembles and Josh Jones’ Latin Jazz Ensembles at 7 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

THURSDAY, JUNE 12 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “We Can’t Go Home Again” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Target Iraq: What the News Media is not Telling You” with Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Isabel Allende describes her exile from her homeland in her new book, “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Noah Levine discusses his transformation from a skateboarding punk in Santa Cruz in his memoir, “Dharma Punx,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Lynn Bobby Band at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Assoc. 549-2230. 

Jackie Greene, folk and blues prodigy, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jesse Legé with Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hannah Marcus, The Obli- 

vion Seeker and Ultra Lash at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 

CHILDREN 

“Little Nut Brown Hare” at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “King of Kings” at 7:30 p.m., Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Racial Profiling and Counter-Terrorism” with Jack Glasser, Ph.D., Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Karen X. Tulchinsky returns with the Rabinovitch family in her new book “Love and Other Ruins,” at 7:30 p.m. at Boadecia’s Books, 398 Co- 

lusa St., Kensington. 559-9184. 

Andrea Siegel talks about the father-daughter bond in her new book “Snapshots From the Heart” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Gayle Brandeis, winner of the Bellwether Prize reads from her novel “The Book of Dead Birds” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. She will be introduced by Maxine Hong Kingston. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Legacy Series, with Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Eddie and Mad Duran. Panel at 7:30 p.m., performance at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performs Brahms, Benoit/ 

Beintus, and Nodaira at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall. Tickets are $10-$45. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Jazzschool Students’ Spring Recital at 6 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Admission is free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

María Bermúdez y Sonidos Gitanos perform flamenco at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $32 for adults, $29 for children under 12, students and seniors. 925-798-1300. 

Groundation, reggae classics with band originals, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Taos Hum, Club Dub and The Spindles perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

SoVoSó, jazz-inflected a cappella, 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 

Inspect Her Gadget, Spag, Second Opinion, Solamente, Resilience, The Peels 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. 

Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy with Eddie Gale and Marco Eneidi, jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 

CHILDREN 

Celebrate Father’s Day and Flag Day with readings of “What Dads Can Do” and “The Starry, Stripy Blanket” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861.  

FILM 

“Dersu Uzala,” a film by Akira Kurosawa about a military explorer who meets and befriends a hunter in the unmapped forests of Siberia, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheel- 

chair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

Nicholas Ray: “Bitter Victory” at 4:30 and 8:50 p.m. and “The Savage Innocents” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The Global War on Terror and Its Impact on the Philippines with Romeo Capulong, a human rights attorney in the Philippines, at 5:30 p.m. in Booth Memorial Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley. Sponsored by the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines. 415-244-9734. 

Rhythm and Muse Poetry reading at the Berkeley Art Center. Open mic sign-up at 6:30 p.m., reading at 7 p.m. 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Admis- 

sion is free. 527-9753 or 569-5364. 

Daniel Glick discusses life as a single father in “Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Freight’s 35th Anniversary Concert with Phil Marsh, and members of the Clean- 

liness and Godliness Skiffle Band, East Bay Sharks, Darryl Henriques, Marc Silber and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Tickets are $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Celebrates its 28th Anniversary with Bobi Céspedes, Cuban singer, percus- 

sionist and Yoruba Lucumi priestess, at 8 and 10 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ensemble 6-4-2 presents “A Musical Offering from Berlin to Paris: Virtuoso Sonatas of Bach, Leclair, Marais, Telemann” on period instruments at 8 p.m. at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors and students. 415-242-4348. 

Flamenco Fever with Yaelisa accompanied by singers Antonio Malena and Mateo Solea. Dinner Show at 7 p.m., $49-$67; Wine and Tapas Show at 9:45 p.m. $20-$37. Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662. www.cafedelapaz.net 

Jewish Soulfolk with Ira Scott English and Hebrew songs for the whole community at 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Ave., between Vine and Rose. The concert will end with a short Havdalah service. 848-0237. 

Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra with Avram Fefer performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Transmission Trio, avant groove at 9 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $7. 644-2204. 

O-Maya performs a blend of Latin music and hip-hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Calamity and Main, The Cowlicks, and Richard Marsh perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Phenomenauts, D. S. B., Assault, From Ashes Rise, Black Lung Patriots perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5, $1 if wearing prom clothes! 525-9926. 

Gil Chun’s “Bay Area Follies” A variety dance program including tap, ballroom and ethnic dances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church at 2727 College Ave. Cost is $9, $6 for seniors. 526-8474. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “There is Always Tomorrow” at 5:30 p.m., at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

25 Years of Women’s Poetry, a celebration reading of “A Fierce Brightness” with Re- 

becca Gordon, Merle Woo and others at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joseph McElroy reads from his new book, “Actress in the House,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Gallery Talk on The Painted Tales of India, with Lee Patterson, at 3 p.m. in Gallery D of the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Patti Smith and Her Band in Concert in Appreciation of the Anti-War Movement from 1 to 4 p.m. in the MLK, Jr. Park. Donations requested. Sponsored by KPFA, Slim’s, ANSWER Coalition, Middle East Children’s Alli- 

ance, and Code Pink. 415-821-6565. 

African Drum Workshop, held every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners at 11 a.m., experienced at 12:30 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-425, and advan- 

ced registration is encouraged. 533-5111. 

Pacific Mozart performs a cappella jazz and pop at 5 p.m. at the Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $20 general, $15 seniors and students available from 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Kalajali: Dances of India at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25 front rows, $12 general seating, available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Country Joe McDonald, Berkeley’s world-renowned troubador, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

John Shiurba and Good For Cows perform at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Admission is free, donations welcome. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

E.W. Wainwright and the African Roots of Jazz at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 16 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Express with Kirk Lumpkin at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave., near University Ave. 

Khaled Hosseini reads from “The Kite Runner,” the first novel about contemporary Afghanistan to be written in English, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Subhankar Banerjee will show slides and introduce his book on the endangered wilderness, “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David White will read from his new book “The Kiss of the Yogini: Tantric Sex in its South Asian Context,” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2467 Telegraph Ave. 849-2133. www.moesbooks.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “The Bacchae” 

Euripedes’ play about Dionysus and his revenge against a hateful king. Directed by David Stein. At 5:30 p.m., outdoors in John Hinkle Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Ave and Somerset Place. Performan- 

ces Sat. and Sun., June 21 through July 6. Free admission. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theater Company, “Thérèse Raquin,” by Emile Zola, directed by Tom Ross. A sinister tale set among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Runs June 20 to July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822.  

www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, 

“The Guys,” by Anne Nelson, directed by Robert Egan. May 21 – July 5, Tues - Sun call for starting times. $10 - $54. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949. (888) 4BRTTIX  

www.berkeleyrep.org 

California Shakespeare Festival runs May 28 to October 22. Performances this year will be Julius Caesar, Arms and the Man, Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing. Please call for performance dates and times. The Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org  

Central Works Theater Ensemble, “The Wyrd Sisters” directed by Jan Zvaifler. June 13 - July 13, Thurs. - Sat at 8 p.m. and Sun at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations and information call 558-1381. 

Shotgun Players presents 

“under milk wood” by Dylan Thomas at Eighth Street Studio, 2525 8th St., May 24 through June 21, 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

Bus transfers, discount cards and student passes may be eliminated because of AC Transit’s projected budget deficit of $40 million. 

In two public hearings on Thursday, June 11, the AC Transit Board of Directors will listen to community response to the planned changes, which could take effect as early as September. The hearings, which were advertised with brochures and posters on all AC Transit lines, will be held at the Scottish Rite Center at 1547 Lakeside Dr. in Oakland at 3 and 6 p.m. 

At the hearings, bus riders will be asked to consider two options to increase fare revenue. The first proposal would reduce regular cash fares to $1 from $1.50, but would eliminate all bus-to-bus transfers and discount passes. The second option would retain the $1.50 fare and maintain monthly discount passes for seniors and disabled riders only. Both options eliminate the pilot program that provides free passes to low-income secondary school students. 

AC Transit spokesman Mike Mills said the company chose to reduce discounts instead of increasing basic cash fares. 

“The cash fare, at $1.50, is already at a level that is relatively high compared to other transit organizations,” Mills said. “But the discounts, in many cases, are substantial, and eliminating them would bring in considerably more revenue. Ideally we’d like to keep everything, but with the budget deficit we need to find ways to increase revenue.” 

The second part of the plan cuts operating expenses by reducing services. The proposal calls for the elimination of up to 20 bus lines and reduced frequency, hours of operation, and/or coverage area of as many as 25 additional lines. 

Mills said that AC Transit general managers decided on the basis of ridership which lines could be reduced while affecting the smallest number of people. 

“It is a relatively nominal number of passengers that this would hurt; a small percentage of our 230,000 riders per day,” Mills said. “But those small changes combined with the other changes will allow us to cut $15 million for the next fiscal year.” 

AC Transit managers emphasized that the fare changes and service reductions were the last resort in their cost-cutting moves. Although the company raised fares two years ago, more recent steps have included laying off workers, imposing a hiring freeze, deferring capital projects and spending financial reserves. 

“Internal cost-cutting actions, up until now, largely have not affected many passengers,” said AC Transit general manager Rick Fernandez. 

Many bus riders said they would no longer ride the bus if discount passes and transfers were eliminated. Kaaren Bock, who rides the 51, 40 and 43 bus lines, said more than half of the passengers she spoke to while handing out fliers told her they would find other methods of transportation. 

“I use the 31-day pass every month to go to work,” said Mark Cinsert, a passenger on the 43 bus line in downtown Berkeley. “Eliminating that would almost double my transportation costs, so I would most likely create a carpool instead. They’re not going to increase fare revenue if they lose lots of riders.” 

Steve Geller, president of the Bus Riders Union, a public transit advocacy organization, said the service reductions and fare changes are necessary because of the operating deficit. 

“Increasing fares is never popular, and nobody likes the prospect of increasing the already high sales tax,” Geller said. “But if the East Bay wants bus service, the money has to come from somewhere.”

The mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development has been meeting every two weeks since Feb. 28 to “investigate options for improving and rationalizing the permitting process, while continuing to guarantee appropriate public input.” Although many task force members are much more interested in shortening the process than in “improving” either the process or the resulting developments, and are even contemptuous of “public input,” a persistent audience of citizen observers reminds them that the public cannot be wholly ignored. I am pleased to report that the task force’s early NIMBY-bashing has gradually dissipated, and an excellent discussion of public input occurred, for the first time, on June 6. 

The task force has 14 members. Eight are planners, developers, builders or architects, all of whom have some personal, philosophical or professional interest in making things easy for developers and commercial interests. Only two or three members (notably Bart Seldon of West Berkeley) effectively represent the interests of citizens affected by development projects. Victor Herbert, a mediator of neighbor-to-neighbor development conflicts, also realizes that there are at least two sides to every issue, although even he seems to have a very limited definition of the stakeholders in the development process; for example, he told me that he does not believe that the process needs to protect the rights of future Berkeleyans to a good urban environment. I disagree.  

The mayor did not appoint Berkeley’s most active neighborhood supporters to the task force, ostensibly because the city attorney felt it necessary to prohibit discussion of current projects. I find this argument unconvincing: Ex parte rules in Berkeley certainly make any intelligent discussion of planning problems difficult, but many neighborhood representatives outside this forum are making useful contributions to the development discussion despite Berkeley’s unique and onerous gag rule. On the task force as elsewhere, the primary effect of the gag rule is not to protect fair process, but to prevent exposure of the rampant misbehavior in the Planning Department and city attorney’s office.  

On the other hand, the task force contains many active developers, supposedly because they can draw on past experiences unrelated to current projects. But since the chair of the task force is also the sitting chair of the Zoning Adjustments Board, and since mayoral staff also attend the task force, even though these are all good and ethical people, socializing on the task force itself facilitates relationships between these developers and city staff and decision makers.  

Like me, about 50 percent of Berkeleyans are renters. As a group, renters are at the most risk of being negatively impacted by poor developments, both as neighbors and inhabitants of poorly designed rental projects. Renters in Berkeley greatly outnumber developers and even potential single-family project applicants, and have every legal and moral right to protect their neighborhoods and quality of life. Nonetheless, all members of the task force are homeowners, which accounts for one of its main obsessions: grumpy neighbors. 

Grumpy neighbors—in fact, almost all neighbors—are nitpicking troublemakers who have the temerity to try to defend their own property, neighborhoods and quality-of-life by keeping always-considerate, reasonable landowners from doing exactly what they want with their own property. Some task force members, especially ex-Councilmembers Polly Armstrong and Nancy Skinner, have expressed the opinion that groups of grumpy neighbors—no matter how large and united—are vocal minorities standing in opposition to some hypothetical “silent majority.” Since this assumption is irreconcilable with any democratic process, let’s hope our current councilmembers don’t believe this. 

The task force divided development issues into three categories: single-family residential (neighbor-to-neighbor) issues; commercial use permits, and new large-scale developments. Although it was wise to start with residential developments because they are the least complex, it understandably took time for the task force to find its sea legs, and now there are only two meetings left to discuss large developments. It will be interesting to see what they can do in this time.  

I believe the task force should have spent its first meetings laying the philosophical foundations for their process recommendations—in particular, deciding who the stakeholders are and how they should be represented—which could then have been applied to all three types of developments. They did not. The consequence of this omission, as well as lack of time, has so far been a piecemeal orientation aimed at rectifying superficial zoning quirks and inconveniences encountered by various task force members and people they know. But, as member Seldon pointed out: “Anecdotes do not make good policy.” Although task force discussions have revealed major underlying factors that make development problems inevitable (such as planning staff and budget problems, ubiquitous lack of parking and dispute over Berkeley’s urban environmental vision), the task force is not empowered or able to grapple with most of these issues, which are at the very heart of Berkeley’s development conflicts. Even the most brilliant task force could not make these problems go away, so resolving them is still up to the citizens of Berkeley.  

Sharon Hudson is a resident of Berkeley.

City Council may raise most parking fines by 30 percent Tuesday in an effort to offset next year’s $4.7 million budget deficit. 

The parking fine increases are expected to raise an extra $2 million for the city’s general fund. The remainder of the deficit is being made up by a city hiring freeze and restricted spending policies on expenditures such as travel and cell phones. 

The city issues approximately 240,000 tickets annually, generating about $6.5 million in parking citation revenue. The annual cost of parking enforcement staff and administration is roughly $3.5 million.  

According to a report by the City Manager’s Office, the new parking fines will be comparable to other Bay Area municipalities. For example, if the council approves the increases, parking meter violations will jump from $23 to $30, equal to Oakland’s fine. San Francisco is currently considering a $5 increase to $35 in most areas and $40 downtown.  

Nearly all of Berkeley’s 135 parking fines are included in the proposed hike. Those that will remain unchanged include $275 fines for disabled zone violations and $250 fines for bus zone violations. 

Library Tax Increase Proposal 

Berkeley Public Library officials plan to ask City Council to increase the library tax by 36 percent. The request will be made during a 5 p.m. special meeting Tuesday.  

The council will vote on the increased library tax when it votes on the city’s overall budget on June 17. 

According to the Library Tax Act, the city can raise the library tax according to two revenue streams, the Consumer Price Index, which is about 3 percent a year, or the California Personal Income Growth Index, about 4 percent a year. In recent years the library hasn’t increased the tax by the full amount it was entitled to and now wants to retroactively raise the tax.  

“We think of the money very much as a banking account,” Library Director Jackie Griffin said. “You don’t take out all of it because you don’t need it. You save it for a rainy day, and if ever the library was facing a rainy day, it’s now.” 

The tax increase will raise total library revenues from $11.2 million to $14.5 million, which will allow the library to maintain operation hours, update materials and pay for $650,000 in increased employee benefit costs due to union contracts the city recently negotiated.  

According to Jorge Garcia, chair of the Board of Library Trustees, library officials have struggled to keep costs down since opening the renovated and expanded Main Library. “We have experienced a 65 percent increase in usage in a library that’s twice as big as it used to be, with the same number of staff,” he said. 

Commute Store Closing 

The City Council is also scheduled to vote on paying UC Berkeley $129,000 to cover administration costs of the Berkeley TRiP Commute Store, which is closing its doors on June 27.  

The city and UC Berkeley opened the store in 1987 with the aim of reducing traffic congestion through increased access to public transportation and ridesharing. 

TRiP sold more than 110,000 transit tickets and fielded more than 50,000 ride sharing inquiries a year.  

According to city staff, the store was losing money and it was no longer feasible to keep it open in the face of expected state budget cuts.  

City transportation planners said the city is considering placing a transit pass vending machine in City Hall. The machine would distribute both BART and AC Transit passes.  

For information about obtaining transit passes contact AC Transit at (510) 891-4700 or visit their Web site at www.actransit.org. Or Call BART at (510) 464-7133 or visit their Web site at www.bart.gov/.

City Councilmember Dona Spring has sponsored a recommendation to name June 17 Charles Betcher Day in honor of the retired hospital administrator’s indefatigable work on city and county commissions and committees. 

City Council likely will approve the recommendation during Tuesday’s meeting. 

Betcher, 82, serves on a long list of government advisory bodies. He is vice chair of the Commission on Aging, vice chair on the Commission on Disability and vice chair of the Paratransit Alameda County Committee. 

He also co-chairs the Gray Panthers of Berkeley and is president of the Bus Riders Union of the East Bay. He is the immediate past president of the United Seniors and former chair of the Transportation Commission.  

“The commission system in Berkeley is beautiful,” Betcher said. “It’s a fine system that encourages citizens, especially low-income citizens, to participate in city government.” 

Berkeley is renowned for the number of commissions that advise city departments and City Council. Berkeley has 48 commissions. 

“Charlie Betcher is an unsung hero,” Spring said. “He’s done such fantastic work for so many years. He’s a real dynamo and has always managed to get along with everyone.” 

Due to term limits, Betcher will resign from both the Commission on Aging and the Commission on Disability next year. He said he might ask to be appointed to other city commissions. 

“You know, I haven’t even thought about it yet,” he said. “I am pleased and honored to work on the city’s commissions but mostly I serve on them because I have a short attention span and unless I’m doing something different all the time I get bored.”

Despite administrative threats of disciplinary action, an estimated 35 Berkeley High School seniors took part in the annual “Senior Streak” on Monday. 

Almost as soon as the bell rang at 11:32 a.m. to signal the end of third period and the beginning of lunch, seniors in nothing but tennis shoes, masks and body paint ran across the Berkeley High courtyard as friends stood cheering and snapping photographs. The students ran out the gate on Allston Way and escaped in a set of getaway cars driven by classmates. 

“That was great,” one junior who plans to participate in the streak next year said on Monday afternoon. “I really love seeing these fun traditions.” 

Berkeley High administrators said previously they would suspend any identifiable students. But though several witnessed Monday’s streak, it was not immediately clear how many students had been recognized. 

In a series of memos addressed to the senior class in past weeks, Berkeley High co-principals Laura Leventer and Mary Ann Valles urged students to keep their clothes on while on campus or risk losing the privilege of walking the stage at the school’s graduation ceremony Friday. 

“It is completely inappropriate, in a year of serious budget crisis, for us to focus our time, staff resources and money cleaning up after or monitoring such events,” the principals wrote in a letter dated June 2. “Participants will be subject to consequences including suspension, expulsion, financial remuneration and/or exclusion from senior prom.” 

Because the streak happened after the prom, which took place on Saturday night, streak participants ran without fear of missing that senior year tradition. Streak organizers said they made the choice to hold the streak this week instead of last so as not to risk being barred from the prom. 

Some students who chose not to streak said their choice had nothing to do with the threatened consequences. 

“I fully support the people who [did] run,” said one senior girl. “I just don’t feel comfortable running naked in front of my 900 closest friends.” 

Several of the students who did streak said the threats of disciplinary action did not deter them from participating. 

“The point of doing it is that the administration doesn’t like it,” said one streaker who declined to be named. “We’re not doing it because they like it. It’s a prank to make the students happy and the administrators mad.” 

Another senior said she was glad she had participated in the yearly tradition. “It’s a way to say good-bye,” she said.

The battle between preservationists and would-be housing developers over the fate of a 19th-century Victorian home at 2526 Durant Ave. is expected to heat up in the next few weeks, as the city puts the final touches on the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) and considers whether to issue a permit allowing developers to replace the historical Ellen Blood house with a 31,000-square-foot, five-story development that will include two retail establishments and 44 units of housing. 

On Thursday, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will consider whether the final EIR, which was released in April 2003, is adequate. State law mandates that local entities approve an EIR for any project that threatens to significantly impact a historical resource, so that they can examine solutions that may mitigate such impacts. 

The Blood House, a two-story structure built in 1891 that is now being used for office space, was designated a city structure of merit in September 1999. Among the reasons for the designation are the building’s Queen Anne style decor—characterized by textured shingles, curved and turned woodwork, lattice brackets and patterned masonry—and its status as one of only a handful of 19th-century buildings on the historic College Homestead tract, a Southside neighborhood developed at the turn of the last century. The house is located in the Telegraph Avenue commercial district near Bowditch Street between two other structures of merit, the Beau Sky Hotel and the Albra Apartments. 

Preservationists have taken issue with the EIR’s position that the Blood House, although a historic resource as defined by the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, has lost its historic integrity due to extensive alteration, including the paving over of its original garden and the replacement of its original exterior with cement plaster. 

One such preservationist is Sally Sachs, former president of the board of directors of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. In a letter commenting on the draft EIR, Sachs said the EIR’s authors, in pointing to the alterations to the building’s exterior, “establish a ridiculously low threshold of historic significance.” 

Despite the EIR’s half-hearted defense of the Blood House as a historic resource, its final conclusion on the matter may make it tougher for developers to go through with their plans. The EIR concludes that the project’s proposal to demolish or remove the Blood House constitutes a significant impact that cannot be mitigated. That means that in order for developers to carry out plans to destroy or relocate the Blood House, they will have to convince the ZAB and City Council to craft and approve a Statement of Overriding Considerations, which lists reasons why the development should proceed despite harm to a historic resource. 

“In this particular case,” said Greg Powell, senior planner and Landmarks Preservation Commission staff person, “the city may find that the need to produce our fair share of housing [in the region] outweighs the benefit of preserving a historic structure.” 

The Statement of Overriding Considerations must be approved if the city decides to issue a use permit for the project, and both City Council and the ZAB must approve it. 

Blood House defenders and the house owner say they are hoping for a win-win situation. Carrie Olson, a Landmarks Preservation commissioner, said she hopes the property owners, the Ruegg & Ellsworth company, will voluntarily decide to make a good faith effort to move the house, which she describes as huge and “beautiful inside” despite its stucco exterior. “The notion of putting a notice on it for several months in hopes that someone will come forward is not good enough,” she said. “We need to ask for concrete solutions, such as contacting property owners of the vacant lots around Berkeley to see if they would be interested in taking the house.”

About 650 seniors will cross the stage Friday at Berkeley High School’s graduation ceremony. 

“It’s a very accomplished group of young men and women and we’re very proud to see them move off to their next level of learning,” said Berkeley High School co-principal Mary Ann Valles. 

The ceremony will take place at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theater at 5:30 p.m. and will last about three hours, with male students in red gowns and female students sporting gold. 

Senior Andy Turner, who serves as student representative on Berkeley’s Board of Education, will be one of three featured speakers. Students David Chernicoff and Shelly Therrence will also speak. 

Various students are also expected to sing, read poetry and play music at the ceremony. As of Monday, graduation organizers were trying to line up a performance by the high school’s Afro-Haitian dance class. 

Berkeley High, as always, will have no valedictorian. 

“All of the children are first in the class,” said school district spokesman Mark Coplan. 

Each graduating senior received 10 tickets to distribute to family and friends, who can enter the Greek Theatre beginning at 4 p.m. Friday. Limited disabled seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Parking is limited and high school officials are encouraging families to carpool. For more information, call Berkeley High’s events coordinator Ivery McKnight-Johnson at 644-8990.

While Berkeley is noted nationally, even internationally, for its turn-of-the-20th-century architects such as Bernard Maybeck and their creative and innovative residential designs, Berkeley also has a large number of house types that could simply be referred to as common.  

After the electric streetcar was introduced in Berkeley in 1891, and then consolidated and expanded in 1903, the streets along the routes and within walking distance of a streetcar stop were subdivided for homes. Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (formerly Grove Street) was the site of the earliest electric street car, and today is lined with two- to three-story houses called “Classic Boxes.”  

Inspired by the Classic-styled architecture of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the Classic Box was so popular that streetcar suburbs across the United States and Canada were soon filled with them. They are quintessentially North American and were built from Key West, Fla., to Vancouver, BC, with little regard for climate or location. These two-story houses are noteworthy for their rectangular shape, square, hipped or pyramidal roof (often with a single dormer in the center), closed eaves and covered entry porch.  

Early examples of these houses had Classical detailing such as engaged Ionic or Corinthian columns at the corners or free-standing columns supporting the entrance porches. Sometimes there were dentils under the eaves or a three-part Palladian-styled window. There are numerous variations on the theme, some large and designed by architects, others copied from design books. The style is referred to by several different names: Classic Revival, Edwardian, Neo-colonial Revival, Classic Box and in the Midwest the American foursquare.  

In Berkeley and Oakland there are many fine examples of the more elaborately decorated variations because the style was popular here between 1895 and 1910.  

As a housing type, the Classic Box is substantial and has a flexible floor plan easily adapted to contemporary life styles. Many have been converted to duplexes, and some to commercial uses such as restaurants like Chez Panisse.  

However, just because a house is ordinary does not mean that the building may not have interesting associations. For example, this house was built in 1903 for retired Army Officer John T. Morrison, his wife, Henrietta, and their daughter, May. Morrison fought Geronimo in the late 1800s and served on the Berkeley Town Council. Before moving here the family had lived on Addison Street. May Morrison graduated from Berkeley High School in 1895 and the University of California in 1914. She was an accomplished painter and teacher who is listed in several anthologies of California painters. The Morrison House is located at 2532 Benvenue Ave. and was designated a Berkeley Landmark, Structure of Merit in 1990.  

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

My baby, just a mere speck of a thing, a child smaller than most honest housecats, has, in the space of a few brief, non-ambulatory months, managed to acquire enough crap that we’re on the verge of being forced to move our queen-bed onto the balcony. I’m not exactly sure where the stuff comes from, but I do know that it just keeps coming. We’ve got more blankets than an Arctic rescue team, most of them handmade with love. We try to cycle them over the sleeping baby for photo-ops, and we can usually get about 40 good snaps before she wakes up and makes it clear that it’s 90 degrees in her room, she’s already wearing three hand-embroidered onesies and she didn’t want a blanket in the first place. The baby herself could still fit quite comfortably inside my left snowboot, but she’s got an entire steamer chest full of blocks and toys and stuffed animals all eagerly awaiting their call to active duty. 

Since it seems pretty clear that the baby isn’t going to mend her acquisitive ways, my wife and I have realized that it’s up to us. Goodwill beckons; we’re making piles. 

But the truth is, we need everything. Nothing is nonessential or we wouldn’t have it in the first place. During a younger, more obsessive-compulsive stage in her life, Shona collected miniature pencil-sharpeners, and, honestly, how could we give those up? Suppose due to Homeland Insecurity they need to hold the LSAT in our living room? Thank God we’d be prepared for the legions of dully graphited legal wannabes. 

A friend gave me a piece of petrified lava from Rwanda. It’s really just a crumbling bit of black rock, poised to leap off a shelf at the slightest hint of earthquake, but I’m afraid the people at Goodwill won’t appreciate it for the geographo-culturo-significant relic it really is. Also, I worry that giving away anything that comes from Rwanda will leave me open to charges of historical insensitivity. Into the pile it goes, I suppose. But, for the record, my position on genocide: anti, staunchly anti. 

The closets are the true front lines in the clutter wars. My closet at least. Shona carefully considered every item on her rack and declared each one to be essential. It’s true, she did wear that Scheherazade half-shirt one New Year’s last millennium, and if she ever wants to reprise her third-grade figure skating championship (a double-lutz to the strains of Bolero!) she’ll definitely need the yellow polka-dotted mini-tard. Fair enough. Who am I to question haute couture?  

So into my closet I go. Since I’ve worn the same thing (free T-shirts, shorts, jeans when I go to San Francisco) since junior high, I can’t really cull anything due to its having fallen out of style. An article of clothing has to have fully served out its life to merit relegation to the pile. But when exactly is a T-shirt no longer a T-shirt? Ah, this is the way of Zen, grasshopper; we must await the answer mindfully. All of the items on my shelf have holes for arms, a bigger one where a neck might conceivably go. Many even still have near-legible logos for races I never ran and charity events I didn’t attend. Thus, they are all still shirts. 

A significant impediment to adding something to the pile is the myth of home repair. I probably have 40 shirts and 10 pairs of jeans that I save “in case I ever have to do some painting.” Of course, I live in a rental and avail myself of the tenant-landlord relationship every time the faucet leaks, but I still need a full stable of work clothes in case the landlord decides to leave me the building after he dies. 

The ownership of work clothes puts me on a slippery slope. Every few weeks my good clothes get dirty and the work clothes get elevated to frontline status, thereby redefining the center to the point that I now consider a two-year-old magenta Eddie Bauer T-shirt to be formal wear by virtue of the fact that it has a pocket, no logo and no visible stains (provided that it’s tucked in. Way, way in). 

But here’s the real stumbling block: The thought that Goodwill might actually accept my rejects makes me unutterably sad. Being panhandled up and down Shattuck every day doesn’t pierce my cold, cold heart, but the notion that somebody might be in bad enough shape to actually purchase castoffs from someone with no discernible taste and a very low hygiene threshold is enough to make me start handing out twenties.  

And so I say: Oh hell with it. There are just too many reasons why we need to hold on to every last shred of junk. Goodwill is out, my stuff is in and the baby’s going up for adoption so we can have her closet back. It’s a solution that’s simple, crisp and tidy, just like my apartment used to be. Wash hands, declare victory. Next problem? 

Zac Unger, a Berkeley resident, is an Oakland firefighter.

Berkeley High School will soon have its first full public address system. Younger-Wunar, Inc. last month won the contract to install speakers this summer.  

The plan calls for speakers in every building that lacks public address capabilities with the exception of the Old Gym and portable classrooms. Each classroom in the C-Building and the buildings currently being constructed will also be wired. 

District spokesman Mark Coplan said the system will run out of the main administrative offices. It will enable staff to read the daily bulletin and will alert students during emergency situations. 

“When we had a blackout this year people had to go from classroom to classroom to give information,” Coplan said. “This will allow us to reach everybody.” 

The school district will pay the $145,000 contract with funding from measure A and B, which allocated money for facilities projects specifically. 

Next year the school will broadcast school-related information on cable television channel 25, which operates out of the high school’s G-Building, allowing parents and community members to get information from off-campus.

For many years, people driving up Rose Street toward the delights of North Shattuck have habitually averted their eyes while passing Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, an unmistakable “old landmark” that looked more like a minimum-security prison than a place of enlightenment for boys and girls. To be sure, some wonderful things were happening behind the dingy facade, a special one being the school’s organic vegetable garden sponsored by the famous restaurateur Alice Waters. But from the street, the dark brown—unbreakable—plastic windows and shabby stucco walls symbolized perfectly a prevailing Dickensian squalor. 

But now, suddenly, like a butterfly out of a cocoon, King Jr. Middle School, courtesy of a splendid paint job, handsome new windows and a nice new roof, has graduated cum laude into architecture. We can appreciate as if for the first time the informal L-shaped classroom wings wrapping around the high southeast corner of that much loved recreational site of track, park, swim center and tennis courts. We can admire again the angled corner at Rose and Grant, dramatized by the garden-enclosing entrance-block with its two little gated pavilions. And we can remember, to be fair, that this friendly, informal design is still, essentially, William C. Hays’ Garfield Jr. High, circa 1920. 

Go and see this remarkable transformation, for color cannot be adequately described in words. Enough to say here that the two main body-colors, cream with a touch of orange for the walls and joyous rose-pink for special features such as the entrance pavilions, are balanced, or given the requisite public dignity by the remarkable windows, each framed in very dark blue. The delicate green mullions and charming red openable casements couldn’t possibly be more different from the brown celluloid horrors they have replaced. 

Perhaps the boldest color touch, and certainly a novel one, is the red-and-gray-striped cornice that crowns the flat-roofed classroom wings, relating them to the lid of Spanish tile on the single-story entrance buildings. Here, the handsome new mix of yellow and orange tile was selected with the expert help of Gladding McBean, a building products firm famous for its historical restoration work. 

Round the back or north side, where the school reads as a mishmash of big brutal additions best described as Poor Man’s Bauhaus, the new colors do a lot to pull everything together, particularly the bold rose-and-deep-blue treatment of the auditorium’s back entrance—a playful note seldom struck in a public building. 

Credit for this heartening transformation must be given primarily to the architectural firm of Baker Vilar of Emeryville and to their color adviser, Karl Kardel, famous hereabouts for his novel, somber-hued buildings such as the North Berkeley Library. 

This spirited rescue of a lost landmark sets a splendid standard for the grand site’s future enhancement. The sea of portables that chokes the ex-playground area is already scheduled to be removed, while the long-term plan includes a new dining commons in the vicinity of that big wood gazebo just above the public park, a heady opportunity indeed for some talented designer. Another opportunity for transforming a shabby, well-nigh forgotten structure into lively architecture lies in the school gym, located in the playground’s northeast corner, just above the running track. Designed by Masten and Hurd, respected Bay Area architects, around 1955, this potentially attractive unsentimental building could be a rewarding project, its skylights and painted-over windows replaced and its long blank walls and industrial roof-shapes dramatized by, again, good color. 

Lastly, but not yet on a firm list, there is the critical question of landscape design. Not only does the reborn King Jr. Middle School itself deserve a verdant setting, but bold tree-planting could pull this whole public site together, visually reducing the separation between school-playground (harsh) and public park (pretty). An inspired beginning exists in the grand sycamores lining Hopkins, in the giant eucalyptus of the park and in the hedge of pines above the track. On the Rose Street side, a handful of deodar cedar suggests the scale and character of future planting.

The Berkeley Board of Education unanimously approved a plan last Wednesday to shift half of Berkeley High students into small schools by the 2005-2006 school year, but raised questions about whether the school will be able to make the switch amid changes in leadership. 

In recent weeks, the school district has announced the hiring of a new Berkeley High principal, Patricia Christa, and the resignation of Berkeley High’s two co-principals, Laura Leventer and Mary Ann Valles, who were slated to serve as vice principals under Christa next year. On Friday, Christa resigned, leaving a question mark at the school’s top job. 

“I think it’s always a concern,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence last week before she knew of Christa’s resignation. “There’s so much fluidity in public [education] right now and keeping administrators, and Berkeley is not the easiest place to work.” 

The small schools vote, which was widely expected, came four weeks after the board reviewed a draft of the policy and provided mostly favorable reviews. 

The policy calls for racially diverse, relatively autonomous small schools of 200 to 520 students. It also sets parameters on admissions and evaluation of the success of each school. 

The policy ends with a three-page small schools application that calls on parents, teachers and staff to set goals for achievement, community building and student leadership, among other categories. 

The new Berkeley High principal, whoever it will be, the superintendent and the school board must approve each application. 

School board Director Shirley Issel raised concerns about generating enough applications to meet the goal of placing half the high school in small schools by 2005-2006, but the board was generally supportive of the policy. 

“This is very exciting,” said board president Joaquin Rivera. 

The policy was the work of the Small School Advisory Committee—a group of parents, teachers and union officials who have been meeting since fall 2002. 

Last year the board approved a shift to wall-to-wall small schools, but Lawrence said she scaled down the proposal out of concern that it would hurt students who are thriving in the larger high school.

More than 200 Berkeley High School students received certificates of excellence from Mayor Tom Bates Tuesday, June 3, in the seventh annual student recognition ceremony. 

The tradition, begun in 1996 by former Mayor Shirley Dean, honors students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, citizenship or perseverance.  

Recognized students were nominated by any Berkeley High teacher, many of whom were present at the ceremony. 

The students, along with their parents, siblings and friends, easily filled the tent set up in the courtyard of the Radisson Hotel at the Berkeley Marina, leaving much of the crowd standing outside. In his opening address, Bates said he was overwhelmed by the turnout. 

The Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble’s trio opened the evening.  

After a brief welcome from Bates, keynote speaker John Sasaki took the stage. Sasaki, a KTVU reporter and 1985 Berkeley High graduate, drew on his experiences from Berkeley High, especially his performances in school plays and role as a founding member of the school’s men’s lacrosse program.  

“When you add my acting and my leadership and my general obnoxiousness as a student, you get a fairly successful news reporter,” Sasaki said. “You all have found a niche yourselves, and that is something to be admired and honored.” 

Sasaki encouraged the students to continue to pursue activities they have passion for, no matter where those activities might lead them. 

“Very few successful people dislike what they do,” he said, citing actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, football star Jerry Rice and Bates as examples. 

Unlike in past years, students did not walk to the stage to accept their awards due to space constraints; they instead waved acknowledgment from their seats when their names were called.

Weekend Bank Robbery 

Around noon on Saturday, a man walked into the Mechanics Bank at 2301 Shattuck Ave. and handed a note to the teller. 

The teller handed the man an undisclosed amount of money, which he stuffed into a bag before fleeing eastbound on Bancroft Way. He was last seen going south on Fulton Street on foot.  

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his mid-twenties. He is about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds. He wore a black beanie, black sunglasses and a checkered, flannel shirt and blue jeans. He also had a dark birthmark on one cheek. The suspect did not display a weapon during the robbery. 

Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call the Berkeley Police Department’s robbery detail at (510) 981-5742. 

Armed robber steals goods 

On Sunday around 10 a.m., the store manager of the University Avenue Andronicos began following a man who was acting suspiciously. The manager told police the man was putting handfuls of items into his hand basket until it was “overflowing.”  

The manager called for store security, but before they arrived the suspect asked the manager if he was a security guard. When the manager said he wasn’t the man proceeded to leave the store.  

The manager asked if he was going to pay for the goods and the man lifted his shirt to expose a handgun tucked into his belt. The man put his hand on the gun handle and the manager let him leave the store. According to the manager, the suspect got away with between $300 and $400. 

Hate Incident 

According to the director of the Pacific Center, a gay, lesbian and bisexual community center at 2712 Telegraph Ave., an unidentified person came into the center between 1:40 and 3:15 p.m., turned over a table and taped a handwritten note to the wall. The note read: “Gay youth are a bunch of stuck-up rotten bitches that should be strung out with Columbine.” 

Berkeley police are asking anyone with information to contact the hate crimes division at (510) 981-5900.

A county school board member has charged that someone sent out an email under his name which he didn’t write. 

Alameda County education officials admitted that a staff member tampered with Board member Ernest Avellar’s e-mail account in January. 

Avellar who represents Hayward and Union City, sent an e-mail to staff and constituents on the morning of Jan. 15, summarizing the Jan. 14 board meeting and criticizing County Superintendent Sheila Jordan. Later that day, a retraction of Avellar’s e-mail was sent out under his name. 

But Avellar said he didn’t send it. 

“This is identity theft,” said Avellar, who has long clashed with Jordan. 

“It’s hardly identity theft,” Jordan said. “It was a mistake.” 

Jordan said an unnamed staffer retracted the e-mail out of concern that it improperly used the county’s resources to make a political statement. 

Still, Jordan, who said she was not involved, acknowledged that the retraction was wrong. Her chief human resources officer, Rick Minnis, issued a written apology to Avellar Jan. 17. 

Avellar was a majority member of a former 4-3 split on the board that frequently clashed with Jordan in a bitter, personal feud that lost steam last year when new elections gave Jordan’s supporters a 5-2 edge. 

Avellar and fellow board member Gay Plair Cobb have continued to butt heads with Jordan and placed a series of long-standing grievances on the board’s Tuesday night agenda. Included was a censure of Jordan for the e-mail tampering. 

The meeting adjourned before Avellar’s and Cobb’s items came before the board, but Jordan said they will appear on the June 25 agenda. 

The Alameda County Office of Education has broad jurisdiction over 18 school districts in the county and runs a series of county schools for troubled youth.

Neighbors of a mixed-use project at 3045 Shattuck Ave. haven’t given up their fight for a public hearing. 

South Berkeley residents opposed to the project are expected to wave placards, present a petition of signatures, and speak out during the public comment period in an attempt to convince city council to stop construction of the project and schedule a public hearing on the grounds that the project fails to provide the necessary rear yard space. 

In a May 23 letter to senior planner Debra Sanderson, project opponent Rob Lauriston argues that developer Christina Sun’s plan to pave over the rear yard for parking conflicts with the city’s zoning ordinance, which requires that projects provide 15 feet of rear yard space. Planning staff has said that part of the ordinance is a “drafting error” that resulted from the rewrite of the ordinance in 1999. City manager Weldon Rucker’s response to the claim will be introduced as an information item at the meeting and can be found on the city’s website.

Toward the end of April, soon after the fall of Baghdad, I was in Tilden Park on a rare dry Saturday watching hostilities of a different kind. The black-headed grosbeaks were back from their wintering grounds in western Mexico and setting up territories for the nesting season. All the grosbeaks I saw were males; the females might have been due in a second wave, or may just have been staying out of sight. 

Intense song-duels were in progress all along the trail to Jewel Lake. The grosbeak’s is one of the songs I have to relearn every spring: robin-like, but slower and more deliberate. Just off the boardwalk section of the trail, two males were vying for a bent-over willow that looked like prime real estate. From nearby perches in the same small tree, they sang vehemently at each other. One would chase its competitor off, then both would return and start up again, oblivious to my presence a few feet away. 

The grosbeaks were just one set of voices in the chorus. All around, other returning migrants—warbling vireos, Wilson’s warblers—had joined the year-round residents like song sparrows and juncos. Even the Anna’s hummingbirds were belting out their scratchy, squeaky excuse for a song. Dozens of birds broadcasting: “I’m a grosbeak (or finch, or towhee); I’m a real stud, and I have this amazing nest site staked out.” 

Which is of course to anthropomorphize a bit. Birdsong is a multifunctional thing. Whole books have been devoted to its esthetics alone. Listen to a Swainson’s thrush bouncing its voice off the caves above Wildcat Creek in late spring; does it sound as good to a female thrush us it does to us? 

Ornithologists used to assume song was pretty much hardwired: every male bird leaves the egg with the “right” song in its genes. That may be true for some species, but not across the board. 

Many birds have to learn their songs, and there’s an optimal window for learning. The late Luis Baptista, curator of birds and mammals at the California Academy of Sciences, is responsible for much of what we know about that process. He found that some birds have local song traditions—dialects, in a way. To a discerning ear, a white-crowned sparrow from Golden Gate Park will sound different than one from Tilden Park, as will a bird from across the hills in Orinda. 

We’re also learning what female birds listen for; how they judge the contestants. They’re attuned to the right kind of male, of course; differences in song can keep closely related species from hybridizing. And experiments have shown that some females, like Mae West, prefer a male with a big vocabulary. Western marsh wrens can run through a repertoire of 200 or more song types, and females seem attracted to those with the most variety. This may be what has driven the evolution of song mimicry in mockingbirds and their relatives. 

Recent research by Stephen Nowicki and William Searcy on song sparrows, a common species in the Bay Area and across most of North America, has also shown that mate choice reflects how well a male has learned the local dialect. That seems counterintuitive when you think about the bird’s history. Song sparrows are sedentary in the extreme, never wandering more than a few miles from their birthplaces. Females rarely encounter a male singing an unfamiliar song. So what’s the point of their selectivity? 

It turns out that a male’s ability to deliver the right version of the song reflects his general fitness. Nowicki and Searcy reduced the food intake of captive-reared male song sparrows during the critical song-acquisition stage. They grew up physically normal but never mastered the local song dialect, despite exposure to appropriate models. And they had no luck at all with the females. Song-dialect fidelity appears to be one of the cues females use to determine if males have the right genetic stuff. 

I have no idea whether this also holds for black-headed grosbeaks . But it’s possible that any females present that Saturday in Tilden Park were keeping score of those dueling males’ mastery of Tildenese.

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 "http://www.downtownberkeley.org."www.downtownberkeley.org."

Surrounded by worn chasing hammers, punches and gravers that were made by her father, jeweler Susan Brooks sat at a cluttered workbench and shaped a thin piece of sterling silver with short, precise hammer strikes.  

At one point she stopped and held up the small, square piece of silver. With eyes exaggerated fivefold by the thick lenses of a jeweler’s optivisor pulled low on her forehead, Brooks examined the emerging figure of a dark-eyed woman with long, flowing hair. 

Brooks was making a pair of earrings in her studio in West Berkeley’s Saw Tooth Building, a former window frame factory that now houses glass blowers, potters, cabinet makers and other craftsmen who earn moderate to low incomes by selling their handmade wares. 

“I’ve never been in a building with all working artisans like the Saw Tooth,” said Brooks, who moved in in 2002 after high rents forced her out of her longtime Berkeley work space. “There’s a vitality in this building that you can feel when you walk down the hallways. It’s really exciting.” 

The Saw Tooth Building at 2547 8th St. is in the boundaries of west Berkeley’s Multiple Use Light Industry District, also known as the MULI. Within the MULI is an amazing diversity of land uses, including manufacturing, warehouses, offices, bio-tech laboratories, wineries and dozens of arts and crafts studios, like the Saw Tooth Building.  

However, several planning commissioners and a group of artisans are concerned that a poor economy and rising commercial rents will spur a trend toward developing office space and converting former manufacturing space into offices, threatening the light industry and arts and crafts businesses in the area. 

On June 11, the Planning Commission will hold a public workshop on a subcommitee report on the MULI. The report was prepared by Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein, Vice Chair Gene Poschman and Commissioner John Curl. The report examines office development in the West Berkeley Plan and the zoning ordinance and the protection and enhancement of arts and crafts uses. The report also details what it describes as the “lack of implementation of the two important aspects of the West Berkeley Plan, the inventory of industrial space and the implementation and monitoring program.” 

Changing the face of the neighborhood 

Curl, part owner of a woodworking cooperative, said it’s time to evaluate whether the West Berkeley Plan, a 10-year-old document designed to guide zoning law, is being followed. He said he is concerned that the district is reaching a “tipping point toward gentrification.” 

“We want to evaluate what has happened with the implementation of the West Berkeley Plan,” he said. “We want an inventory of all the businesses in West Berkeley and once we have information about what is going on down there, we’ll be able to evaluate the plan’s effects and try to find ways to implement the West Berkeley Plan more fully.”  

Other commissioners, some elected officials and property owners are concerned that zoning restrictions are too tight and might discourage new revenue-generating businesses such as retail stores and offices.  

Commissioner Susan Wengraf said the West Berkeley Plan clearly outlined what was a fair balance between light industry, arts and crafts and office use. She added that office use in the MULI is below the recommended levels.  

“I don’t think we’re near the limit and there certainly are not a lot of businesses looking for offices in this economy,” she said. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he would like to see the West Berkeley Plan encourage more retail businesses on Gilman Street and Ashby Avenue in West Berkeley so long as the design and architecture are tasteful and light industry is also maintained. 

“I’m interested to see if there are some opportunities to make some changes and still protect artisans and light manufacturing,” Bates said. “Obviously we want to have good land use policy, but we need some additional revenue to continue to provide the services people have come to rely on.” 

Despite the warnings that the days may be numbered for light industry in West Berkeley, many artists, artisans and factories still call the area home. 

Ghanbari Design is a small custom woodworking company just opened its doors on the edge of the MULI at 725 Gilman St. They took over the former Tuttle Manufacturing Building, which had been vacant for years and fallen into disrepair. The building was formerly a hot dip galvanizing facility that thrived during Oakland’s ship building boon during the Second World War. 

Ghanbari Design, a custom furniture and design company, recently renovated the building. 

“This building is perfect for what we do,” said owner Mansour Ghanbari. “There is a lot of open space, lots of windows and great sunlight.” 

He said it was also an advantage for his business to have so many other woodworking businesses close by. “The area is just fantastic. There are so many furniture makers around here,” he said. “It’s good for business, customers can in one stop, interview a series of woodworkers. 

Home for artists 

The Durkee Building, named for the former margarine and mayonnaise factory, is a two-story, brick building at 700 Heinz St. It was converted to inexpensive live-work space in the 1970s and a community of artists soon took residence in the building. By the late 1980s, manufacturing space was in demand for bio tech laboratories that were popping up in the area and the owner wanted the artists out.  

After a long battle, during which most of the artists moved out, an agreement was reached with the owner in which he would receive tax credits in exchange for a use permit that guaranteed low rent for artists. 

The building continues to be home to painters, sculptors, architects and dancers. The studios are high-ceilinged and drafty, but they serve as valued work spaces for the artists who could not otherwise afford to live in the Bay Area. 

Sculptor Donald Torahouich said he would probably have to give up his art if he lost his studio. 

“If I lost this place, I’d have to move into an apartment in East Oakland and either throw out all this stuff or put it in storage,” he said gesturing to an array of wood and metal sculpture that dominate the workspace in his studio. 

Painters Ira and Corliss Lesser agreed. Their studio serves as work space and storage for their large canvasses. The Lessers, who have a 12-year-old daughter, said that in addition to the space, the Durkee artist community has provided invaluable support. 

“I’ve never had such good neighbors,” Corliss said. “As an artist you don’t do things in the normal way. You’ll give up buying new clothes for tubes of paint and most people don’t understand that.” 

A balancing act for diversity 

In a effort to maintain the diversity and vitality of West Berkeley — which besides the MULI also includes heavy manufacturing, residential and retail districts — a committee of over 100 community members, planning commissioners and Planning Department staff attended weekly meetings for eight years. Their goal was to create a guiding document that would shape zoning regulations and ultimately maintain a diversity of land uses. The committee has taken pains to preserve businesses that employed blue collar workers, live-work artist studios and crafts businesses, which are typically among most vulnerable in a rising commercial rental market.  

The result of their efforts was the 225-page West Berkeley Plan. After eight years of arguing, lobbying and compromise, the City Council adopted the West Berkeley Plan in 1993.  

“This plan is a remarkable both for its content and for the process which created it,” then Planning Director Gil Kelley wrote in the document’s introduction. “Its policies aim to reinforce and continue the dynamic mix of industrial, office arts and crafts, residential, retail and industrial activities in this vital district of the city.” 

However, nearly 10 years after the plan’s adoption, several Planning Commissioners are contending that some of the plan’s guidelines never made the transition to the zoning ordinance.  

They are worried that a pattern, which has played out many times before in cities like New York, Santa Monica and San Francisco, is about to occur is West Berkeley. Typically after manufacturing moves out, artists and crafts people move in to take advantage of low rents and work spaces that are easily adapted to their studio needs. Then, as the arts and crafts community begins to thrive, professional businesses are attracted to the area because of the cache the artists and crafts people bring to the neighborhood. 

Commercial rents begin to rise because professional businesses interested in office space can often pay top dollar and “these areas thus lose the very characteristics which initially made them attractive to many people,” according to Kelley’s introduction to the West Berkeley Plan.  

Adding offices to the mix 

The law office of Paul, Hanley & Harley LLP is one of several new office oriented business located in the Courtauld Building, a former paint manufacturing plant. The firm recently expanded from 20,000 square feet to 30,000. The office has a warehouse appearance with exposed conduits and heating ducts running along the high ceilings. Many of the attorneys and staff dress casually as they bustle along the hallways between small offices.  

Law Partner Dean Hanley said the west Berkeley location and the loft-style office has been a plus for their business. “Almost invariably our clients are blue collar and the industrial look helps out clients to feel at home. It doesn’t look like a downtown office,” he said. “We also have a lot of young employees who like the stores and the artist studios. We enjoy being around it.” 

He added that the firm had considered other places but they did not find any office space that was as interesting. “If we were in an industrial park, we wouldn’t want to do it,” he said. “Just office space is very boring, very blasé and almost depressing.”  

The public workshop will be held at the North Berkeley Senior Center at 7 p.m. on June 11th and is open to all interested members of the public.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

Celebrate Juneteenth with the Berkeley YMCA with entertainment, African fashions, storytelling with Orunamamu, and arts and crafts, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Downtown YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. 549-4524. 

So How’d You Become an Activist? A discussion with Michael Parenti, lecturer and author, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. Wheelchair accessible. 415-927-1645. 

“Berkeley Reads” Orientation for new volunteer tutors in the Berkeley Public Li- 

brary’s adult literacy program, from 10 a.m. to noon at the West Branch Library, 1125 University Ave. at San Pablo. 981-6299.  

Spring Festival Performance by Oakland’s Destiny Arts Center, at 6:30 p.m. at Long- 

fellow Elementary School, 3877 Lusk Street in North Oakland, off 40th St. be- 

tween Market and MLK Blvd. Dancers and martial artists ages 3-18. $5 to $10 donation will be requested at the door. Destiny Arts Center is a non-profit organization that uses arts education to enable children and youth to develop peaceful solutions to violence and everyday conflicts. For more information call 597-1619. 

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 

Live Oak Park Fair from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Shattuck and Berryman. Over 115 booths with crafts and fine art, entertainment, and diverse food, in a benefit for Camp Winnarainbow and KPFA. Free shuttles from the North Berkeley BART every 20 minutes. 898-3282. www.liveoakparkfair.com 

LeConte Elementary School Yard Sale, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 2241 Russell St., just 2 blocks up from Berke- 

ley Bowl. Great gear, plants, food and beverages, and a good way to support our schools. To donate items in advance, call 649-0419. 

California Writers Club hosts the winners of the 17th Annual Fifth Grade Writing Contest at a luncheon, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reserva- 

tions required, email cwcberk 

@earthlink.net, or visit www. 

berkeleywritersclub.org 

Peace Activist Lynn McMichaels will show slides and talk about her recent trip to Iraq at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Berkeley Path Wanderers leads a Boundary Walk. Meet at the Reservoir, Grizzly Peak and Spruce St. at 10 a.m. 526-8001. www.BerkeleyPaths.org 

Ladybirds and Ladybugs  

We’ll collect and release as many adults and larva forms as we can find, talk about the good these beetles do, and learn about the ones who have turned to the dark side, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Keeping Chickens in the City  

David Morris, chicken keeper for over 20 years, will cover the basics of raising chickens, egg production, and using chickens as part of your recycling and composting. He will also cover the laws regarding keeping chickens in the city. Class will be held at David’s chicken coop in Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call to pre-register and for location. $10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-2220 x233, beck@ecologycenter.org 

California Native Art and Garden Show, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit a native plant demonstration garden created by using the plants that are native here and that you see when walking the trails of local Regional Parks. 

1096 Miller Ave., (go up Ma- 

rin Ave., right on Keeler, left on Miller.) 558-8139.  

Sick Plant Clinic UC Botanical Garden experts diagnose your plant woes the first Saturday of every month from 9 a.m. to noon at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. www.mip.berkeley. 

edu/garden 

History of Tilden Nature Area Walk through time to the lake and back to discover the story of the lost escudo and more, from 10 a.m. to noon in Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Alternative Materials: Cob and Strawbale, a class on natural building methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. For information call 525-7610. 

Walk to Benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation at 8:30 a.m. followed by an afternoon of entertainment, prizes and refreshments, at Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina. To register to walk or for more information call 800-241-0758, or 531- 6764. www.ccfa.org  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour, “The Refurbished City Hall,” led by Allen Stross, 10 a.m. $5 members, $10 non-members. For reservations call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 

Live Oak Park Fair, see listing for June 7.  

California Native Art and Garden Show, see listing for June 7.  

Faith Community Speaks Out Against State Cuts  

A community meeting at 6:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, 1640 Addison. Testimonials, youth group skits, and performance by a multi-congregational choir. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. For more information contact Rev. George Crespin, 843-2244. 

Dried, Salted, Potted and Pickled Learn the cultural and natural history of food preservation while tasting a variety of meats, vegetables, fruit and fish. From noon to 2 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 for non-residents. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Rhythm Workshop: Ta Ke Ti Na, led by Zorina Wolf, a master of Ta Ke Ti Na and local drum and percussion instructor, from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Askenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $35. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Community Health Fair, with free health screenings and information, children’s activities and food, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Missionary Church of God, 1125 Allston Way. 540-6713. 

MONDAY, JUNE 9 

Public Meeting on the Ursula Sherman Village Draft Environmental Impact Re- 

port at 7 p.m. in the West Berkeley Senior Center. Written comments should be submitted to Wendy Cosin, Planning Dept., 2118 Milvia St., Berkeley 94704, before 5 p.m. Mon., July 7. 981-7402. 

Community Meeting about the Berkeley Adult School/ 

Franklin Site from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Ala Costa, 1300 Rose St. This meeting will include a presentation from the project architects. Notes from the May 5 community meeting are available online at http:// 

bas.berkeley.net 644-6130. 

F.C.C. - A Social Injustice 

Join the Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica, Stephen Dunifer of Micropower Radio and Aaron Glantz of Free Speech Radio News in a discussion on taking back our airwaves, at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, Cedar and Bonita. For more information call 669-1842. 

Native People of the East Bay Before the Coming of Europeans Naturalist Norm Kidder will speak about the cultures and way of life of Native People of the East Bay at 8 p.m. at the Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701 Thornhill Rd., Oakland. 

$5 donation requested.  

655-6658. www.close-to-home.org 

Berkeley Adult School registration for Summer 2003 Semester opens today, 1222 University Ave., Mon.-Thurs. 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Fri. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., or at http://bas.ber 

keley.net 

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

unteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 10 

Forest Legislation and Actions, a discussion of current bills in Sacramento, sponsored by the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters at 7:30 p.m. at the rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. 548-3133. 

Hiking the San Francisco Bay Area, slides and talk with author Linda Hamilton at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going 

Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 525-3565. www.ber 

keleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. B. K. Bose will speak on Yoga for Health at 10:30 a.m. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 

World Travel: Why SARS, the Economy and War Shouldn’t Keep You at Home, a panel discussion with Bay Area travel specialists at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. $90 cash prizes. Cost is $7, $5 for students. 841-2082. 

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

Wilderness Weekends: Camping and Backpacking in the Bay Area and Beyond with Matt Heid, author of “101 Hikes in Northern California,” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 12 

Berkeley Farmer’s Market Opens on North Shattuck 

from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar, and continuing every Thursday. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Our Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, with Ann Fagan Ginger, on the new McCar- 

thyism that is sweeping the country, at 7 p.m. at the Friends’ Meetinghouse at the corner of Vine and Walnut Sts. Free, wheelchair accessible. 705-7314. 

Lawyers in the Library, at 6 p.m. in the South Branch, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers, meets at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. Fly tying demonstration at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. rorlando@ 

uclink4.berkeley.edu  

ONGOING 

Technical Assistance for Non-Profits A series of free workshops hosted by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, to be held at the Alameda County Conference Center, 125 12th St., Oakland. For information call Breonna Cole at 272-6060.  

Berkeley Community Media announces the rebirth of the poetry program, “Berkeley Speaks” in June. If you are interested in being a featured artist, call 848-2288, ext. 10. 

Figure Drawing Workshop 

Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, starting June 14. This class is designed to sharpen your observation skills and enhance your drawings. Bring your own dry drawing tools and good paper. In- 

structor is Carol Brighton. Cost is $150 for four sessions. Contact the Berkeley Art Center to sign up, 644-6893. 

Marine Biology Classes for students ages 10 to 13, from Tues., June 17 to Fri., June 27, 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave., at the Marina. Cost is $90 for eight days of classes. For information call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina  

Educators Academy: Project WILD and Project Aquatic WILD Tues., June 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tilden Na- 

ture Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $45 for Berkeley residents and $51 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. Financial assistance is available. Registration required. For information call 636-1684, or email tnarea@ 

ebparks.org 

Educators Academy: Insects and Crawling Creatures  

From Tues., June 24 - Thurs., June 26, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration is required. Cost is $100 for Berkeley residents, $110 for non-residents. Financial assistance is available. Wheelchair accessible. For information call 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Summer Science Weeks: Insects and Plants Count butterflies, hunt bugs, and meet common plant families in California. Monday, June 30 to July 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for ages 9 to 12, in Til- 

den Nature Area in Tilden Park. Cost is $150 for Berkeley residents, $166 for non-residents. Financial assistance available. For information call 636-1684.  

The Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for children 7-13 years of age, in a series of five, 2-week sessions beginning June 16 and ending August 22. The camp will be held at John Hinkel Park, South- 

ampton Place at Arlington Ave. The cost is $340 per session. After-care is also provided for a fee. Scholar- 

ships are available, call 981-5150 for details. To register for the camp, or for more information, please call 415-422-2222, or 800-978-PLAY. 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 12-14 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. For information on what can and cannot be dropped off, please call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee  

meets Monday, June 9, at  

2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

City Council meets Tuesday, June 10, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Individual Rent Adjustment/Annual General Adjustment Committee meets Wednesday, June 11, at 5:30 p.m., at 2001 Center Street, 2nd Floor, Law Library. Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Commission on Disability  

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets  

Thursday, June 12, at 7 p.m., in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation 

Community Health Commission meets Thursday, June 12 at 6:45 p.m., in the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/health 

Homeless Commission meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Workshop on the Protection of Arts and Crafts Uses in West Berkeley at the Planning Commission, Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m., in the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. 

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

Waterfront Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 11, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Zoning Adjustments Board 

meets Thursday, June 12, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/zoning 

Two-by-Two Meeting of two City Council members and two School Board members meets Thursday, June 12, at 12:30 p.m., in the Redwood Room, 6th floor, 2180 Milvia St. 644-6147.

THE REAL PROBLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the Planet’s lead article on the Harrison House Adult Shelter, bad air is not the problem. Families living on the street or in crack houses is the problem.  

Boona cheema, who has spent much of her life working with these people and is aware of all the environmental issues, feels the expansion of the Harrison House facility is needed by the homeless community. If somebody out there has a better idea (land that is available for free and a neighborhood that will be receptive to providing daily services to 130 homeless individuals) we would all be thankful for them to step forward and give us an alternative.  

But if the choice is between having people live on the street or giving them a roof over their heads, I don’t think you will find many of these people—or those who provide them social services—advocating that, due to the air quality, they should continue to live on the street. 

Doug Fielding 

• 

OVERREACTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How can students be expected to deal with the mixed message sent by the co-principals at Berkeley High School? The threatened consequences for streaking may be suspension, expulsion or ... financial reward? The Bushism aside, the draconian measures suggest a serious lack of understanding of young people. And whither proportion and tradition? 

Bonnie Hughes 

• 

LOANS, NOT GIFTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

C. Osborn’s letter (Planet, May 27-29 edition) shook me up with its details that Patrick Kennedy “received $15.3 million in state money for the Gaia building” plus millions more for his other projects. So I logged onto the indicated Abag Web site and discovered to my relief that these monies were loans, not gifts. 

It may be that low-interest funds should not be available to builders of mass construction, but that is a somewhat different topic. If these loans were to be forgiven when not repaid, that would be a hot story. Is there any evidence that this is the case here in Berkeley? 

But thank you, C. Osborn, for telling us about a very interesting Web site.  

Victor Herbert 

• 

TRUE REGRET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Gray Brechin must be the one crying crocodile tears (Letters to the Editor, May 30-June 2 edition) because many people truly do regret the loss of the Doyle House in downtown Berkeley. We are the citizens, merchants, historians and architectural preservationists, among others, who respect the historical and architectural merit of the Doyle family home. Mr. Brechin’s portrayal of the merit of the house is confusing since at least three experts testified that the Doyle House did indeed possess historical and architectural merit. 

Berkeley’s architectural history is not only about the wonderful and sometimes quirky architecture of well-known architects like Maybeck and Morgan. It is also about the builder-designer architecture of the working people and the history that goes along with them. What place more than Berkeley should celebrate both its urbane and inherent architecture and history? 

Mr. Brechin should know that the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) does not oppose appropriate in-fill development. BAHA does oppose wanton destruction of historic resources. BAHA sued the City of Berkeley for failing to conduct an environmental impact report (EIR) when demolition looked imminent. An EIR would have explored the options available to the developer: retention, removal or reduction. Instead, after an attempt at moving the house to a nearby site, the city permitted the developer’s demolition of a building with historic merit and a lively future on another site. 

Moreover, review under CEQA concerns a variety of issues including historic and architectural. The John M. Doyle House was a good, if plain, example of Berkeley’s late 19th-century, vernacular architecture. It was also one of very few remaining in downtown. It was associated with a figure central to the incorporation of Berkeley in 1878, whose 125th anniversary the city is celebrating this year. 

BAHA chose not to appeal the court decision for reasons of good stewardship. BAHA will continue to monitor the City of Berkeley’s environmental review process. 

As for the “financial consequences” imputed to the BAHA directors, I should note that Mr. Kennedy personally threatened me with a lawsuit. Now that is a “SLAPP”—a nuisance suit against public process. 

Berkeley deserves better. 

Austene Hall 

Legal Committee Chairman 

BAHA 

• 

NOT ENOUGH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was saddened to see yet another of Berkeley’s historical buildings bite the dust. When I first moved to the city 30 years ago, I was struck by the fact that there were so few older buildings still intact. Since then awareness of the value of older buildings has grown, but evidently not enough in some cases. 

As a past member of the Environmental Commission I was also dumbfounded that a preservation commissioner who has such an obvious conflict of interest could be allowed to sit on that body. Each commissioner appointed to each commission must sign a no-conflict form stating they or their interests do not stand to benefit from any decision the commission may make; recusal is not an option. On my commission a very valued and knowledgeable individual had to leave because of just that. 

It appears that city staff does not enforce all requirements on all commissioners equally. Does Patrick Kennedy wield undue influence elsewhere? How would we know? 

Dale Smith 

• 

LEASE AMENDMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On June 10, in a tiny line item tucked into an attachment in the back of its annual budget, the Redevelopment Agency is being asked to throw away an incredible opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to low-income housing; to take advantage of new HUD tenant home ownership programs; to comply with the goals of the newly approved Housing Element; to increase the amount of housing funds available to the city; and to bring some of the security and pride of home ownership to a small, established, low-income community. This item, with no detail or description, states simply: “Oceanview Gardens Lease Amendment ... Complete June 10, 2003.” 

The 62 unit Oceanview Gardens housing development was built in 1984 on agency property by a private developer with funding from the Redevelopment Agency and CHFA. The developer was granted a 20-year lease on the land in order to allow a reasonable return on his construction and management costs; and that lease was to expire in 2004, at which time the project would revert back to the agency. The property is exempt from taxes and provides little or no benefit to the agency or the city. The PAC has been aware of the upcoming reversion of ownership for more than two years and, as recently as February and March of this year, had been requesting staff to look into the possibility of converting these units into a tenant-owned and managed limited equity coop. 

The lease amendment, if approved through this budget, would instead give the developer an additional 30-year lease on the property. Redevelopment Code requires that agency leases be adopted by resolution after a properly noticed public hearing, but neither the PAC nor the public was afforded the opportunity to discuss or comment on this long-term lease. The PAC learned of this lease extension just two weeks ago, but was told by staff that it was already a “done deal.” 

Many of Oceanview Gardens’ resident families have lived there since the project was completed in 1984. Most have been there over 10 years. They have proved their commitment and vital interest in the community and are truly major stakeholders in this project. Tenants have expressed a great interest and desire for an ownership opportunity and the chance for more self-determination, but the fear of retaliation has a very chilling effect. As with all project-based Section 8 housing, eviction means not only the loss of a home but also the loss of the ability to find new housing since the subsidized funding belongs to the developer and not to the residents. 

The agency, with no public input, is now faced with the decision to grant one corporate developer a 30-year plum; or to give an existing community a small chance at the great American dream of home ownership and the sense of belonging, the pride and the tiny bit of security that it provides. With HUD’s new Section 8 home ownership programs both the project and the community at large could benefit financially from the return of housing funds to the city instead of to the developer. The community would also reap the rewards of the immeasurable intangibles achieved when people are allowed to have a say in their own future.  

At the very least, the Agency should hold this item over for public notice and comment. Let’s hope they make the right decision. 

Rhiannon 

• 

A BERKELEY TREASURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There’s a proposal to reduce the hours of the Tool Lending Library, particularly by closing it on Thursdays. I realize that budgets are tight, but reducing the lending library’s hours will deprive Berkeley residents of this much needed and much appreciated resource. While no library should have its hours reduced, we do have a main library and four branches from which one can borrow books and reading materials.   

We have only one library which lends tools. Lines at the Tool Lending Library are already long. I understand that there have already been staff reductions. I urge you to keep the staff you now have. The main reason the Tool Lending Library is so wonderful is due to Pete, the library’s founder, and the current staff. They know about tools, they can advise you on how to get a job done, and they do an amazing job of maintaining these tools, so that every tool borrowed works, and works well.    

Without the Tool Lending Library, many Berkeley residents could not perform needed repairs. My neighbor, who is a renter, could not have borrowed the clippers to trim the bushes which block his doorway. I would not have been able to borrow the longer ladders needed to repair my gutters.  

When something breaks, you need the tool then. Do not close the library, even for one day. The Tool Lending Library is a Berkeley treasure. 

Dan Peven 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One thing which does not seem to have changed with the “new” Planet is the constant stream of hilarious word-substitutions and homophones which are not caught by spell checkers (or proofreaders).  

I like to collect these, sometimes adding commentary.  

My favorite from the “old” Planet was the article on the fruitlessness of discussing a recent school board junket, since it was a “fete accompli.”  

So far my favorite from the “new” Planet is in the review of “Under Milkwood” (with peanut butter and gobs of grape jelly?) by the “Welch” poet and sandwich fan, Dylan Thomas.  

I haven’t quite decided if these are deliberate (intellectual humor) or routine editing errors, but if the latter, remember that while some are funny, some may substantively change the leaning (sic) of the article.  

Paul Marcus  

Oakland  

• 

TITLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Chris Kavanagh, member of the Berkeley Rent Board, doesn’t get it. In an effort to explain and defend this unjust, wasteful agency he invokes the obfuscating specter of bureaucratic minutia. 

It is hardly worth responding to his misrepresentations, but it is worth noting that the Rent Board on numerous occasions hired “experts” to determine annual rent increases and then ignored the paid expert’s recommendations, approving significantly lesser rent adjustments. The Rent Board’s commitment to injustice is only outweighed by its willingness to waste public money.  

The facts are simple—rent control is unjust and unfair. 

Because rent control has no means testing (it does not consider the finances of those who receive its benefit) it grants subsidies (artificially low rent) to a random group of citizens. The granting of these subsidies tend to inflate the rent of those not lucky enough to be of this privileged class.  

There are tenants from economically advantaged backgrounds with higher incomes than the property owner(s) compelled to subsidize their rent. The enthusiastic willingness of the Rent Board to administer a system so profoundly unjust further demonstrates the moral bankruptcy at the root of this wasteful agency. 

Rent control is ineffective and counter-productive. It has resulted in the loss of rental housing units contributing to our housing shortage and increasing rents on those not of the random benefactor class. New housing is built in Berkeley only because new housing is exempt from rent control. 

Rent control has reduced the number of small scale (mom-and-pop) type landlords, causing a consolidation of ownership in the hands of large property owners who can afford to “wait out” or legally maneuver this Kafkaesque system. Essentially, rent control promotes the corporate ownership of housing. 

Rent control has created a bureaucracy intent on Orwellian record keeping and engaged in Orwellian intrusions into private lives and homes. This same bureaucracy has wasted 24 million dollars of public money and never created a single housing unit but rather created regulations discouraging the creation of housing. 

Rent control usurps the fundamental right of citizens to negotiate contracts, thus undermining the social weave created by person to person agreements—a weave crucial to the fabric of civilized life. Rent control presumes the inability of the individual to choose and negotiate and opts instead for the imposition of bureaucratic authoritarianism. It is the insulting assumption of citizen as child and government as mommy-daddy. 

As Kavanagh and his cohorts continue on their self-deluded path, imagining they are doing good, they instead do harm, not only to individuals but to the psyche of the Commons. They promote policy that creates polarity. They perpetrate injustice that erodes fundamental faith in government. They lead the assault against the creative on behalf of slothful and wasteful bureaucracy.  

If the Rent Board had any commitment to justice or common sense it would conduct one final vote—it would vote to abolish its own existence. With this Byzantine bureaucracy gone we could redirect the wasted money to a housing fund that provides subsidies to those who need it and allows the creativity of the marketplace to do the rest. 

John Koenigshofer 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really like the Berkeley “Earth Sculptures.” 

The tuning fork is said to be in resonance with one of the vibration 

frequencies of the earth. That’s way below what we can hear, but there’s 

a little bell at the base to make a sound one can hear. Perhaps some day, 

when the Hayward Fault lets go, we’ll see the tines of the tuning fork in full vibration. 

The new sculpture is more mysterious. It looks like a pile of mud. Actually, that’s what it is. The sign says it represents (consists of?) French and German porcelin clays and Dutch ceramic stoneware. To me, it looks like a chunk of ancient earth, dating from before Berkeley land was rolled up from seabed to make our hills. The blues in it look like Serpentinite, the rock formed when clay is put under extreme pressure. 

Steve Geller 

For 26 years, the Berkeley Bowl grocery store has provided customers with a taste of everything Berkeley—organic fruit, upscale orange juice, tattooed cashiers and baggers working their way through college. Now, shoppers are getting a dash of another local flavor: labor strife.  

In the last two weeks, a small group of workers have gone public with their attempt to unionize the South Berkeley supermarket—contacting the press, talking to customers and distributing union authorization cards to the store’s roughly 250 employees. 

The union drive, opposed by management, comes at a critical time for Berkeley Bowl, which is planning to build a second store in West Berkeley on Ninth and Heinz streets next year. 

Tim Hamann, president of the Oakland-based United Food & Commercial Workers Butchers’ Union, Local 120, which will represent Berkeley Bowl workers if they decide to unionize, said the city should not approve a new project for a company that offers “substandard” wages in its existing store. 

“Why would you want a fungus like that to spread?” he asked. 

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said he supports the right of workers to unionize, but will not weigh the effort in any permitting decisions. 

“I’m in favor of unions but I’m not going to have it color my decision on a land use issue,” he said, adding that Berkeley Bowl has provided the city with a “wonderful service” for decades. 

In the meantime, the grocery store’s general manager Dan Kataoka said he is concerned that the publicity surrounding the unionization effort, and management’s opposition, could push away customers in a pro-union town. 

“I’m sure it’s going to have a negative influence on the store,” he said. “I just hope people recognize that there are two sides to the story.” 

Workers complain about a health care policy that requires six months of full-time work before an employee is eligible for coverage. Local unionized grocers like Safeway and Andronico’s, by contrast, offer coverage to full-time and part-time workers after a 60-day probation period. 

But employees say their main concern is pay. The Berkeley Bowl wage scale, which ranges from $7 to $19.50 per hour for non-management employees, is roughly on par with those of union grocers. But workers say that pay hikes at Berkeley Bowl are infrequent and arbitrary. 

“It’s really dictated by favoritism,” said Eric Feezell, a produce clerk who has been active in the union push.  

Store manager Larry Evans acknowledged that the wage scale is erratic and said workers deserve regular evaluations and, for those who are performing at a satisfactory level or better, consistent raises. 

“I think it does need to be a structured system,” he said. “It’s only fair.” 

Evans acknowledged that the pay scale is not the only problem at Berkeley Bowl. He said the growing interest in unionization has made it clear that management has done a poor job of communicating with workers over the years and listening to their concerns. 

“We haven’t done everything right and we recognize that,” said Evans. “We are really taking a good, hard look in the mirror.” 

But managers have made it clear that they don’t believe bringing in a union will help. In recent weeks they have distributed anti-union flyers, held meetings with employees to raise doubts about the union and, in one case, asked workers if they had signed union authorization cards, in an apparent violation of federal law which forbids coercion of employees. 

“It was our error,” said Kataoka, discussing the potential legal violation. “We blundered 100 percent.” 

Workers pushing the union are enlisting the help of high-profile local and national organizers. Last weekend, Father Bill O’Donnell of St. Joseph the Worker’s Church, who has been arrested more than 200 times for civil disobedience, distributed pamphlets to workers at the store. 

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez, made an appearance at Berkeley Bowl Thursday, urging workers to unionize. 

“It’s kind of an anomaly to have a non-union store in Berkeley,” she said. “This is a bastion of liberalism.”  

Several customers interviewed outside Berkeley Bowl this week said they would consider boycotting the store if asked by workers. But Kevin Meyer, a cashier who is helping to organize the movement, said employees are not yet calling for a boycott. 

“I shop there,” he said. “I think it’s a great store.” 

Berkeley Bowl is not the only non-union grocer in the city. Whole Foods and North Berkeley’s Monterey Foods do not have representation either. 

Bill Andronico, president of the unionized Andronico’s, said Whole Foods has shown that a non-union shop can still satisfy workers. 

“If you have the right culture and the employees are involved, it can work,” he said. 

Jayar Pugao, a front end supervisor at Whole Foods on Telegraph Ave., said management was responsive during a recent flare-up over a change in health care coverage. 

“Once we did voice our opinions, they found a way to get us involved,” he said. 

But workers pushing for a union at Berkeley Bowl said they do not trust management to initiate change without a union in place. 

If organizers succeed in getting a union installed, it will not be the first time workers have had representation. Berkeley Bowl employees elected to join the Retail Clerks Union, which later became the United Food & Commercial Workers’ Union, Local 870, shortly after the store’s founding in 1977. But workers rejected the union in 1986. 

John Nunes, assistant to the president at Local 870, said management offered workers false promises of better wages and working conditions in the mid-eighties to coax them into dumping the union. But Kataoka said workers simply believed they could get a better deal negotiating directly with the company. 

I do not share the Daily Planet’s great hope that Phil Kamlarz will turn the Planning Department around. As budget director and deputy city manager, Kamlarz has been one of the most powerful people in Berkeley city government over the past 20 years. As such, he has had a major say not only in hiring Carol Barrett, but also in the hiring of her last four of five predecessors. The major reason planning directors do not get along with Berkeley residents and commissioners is that they come here with an agenda. In the recent past, that agenda has been to build as much and as high as possible—the neighborhoods be damned. 

It is naive to think that planning directors are hired without top city officials knowing their views on development, nor would they be as arrogant if the full weight of the city manager’s office and the City Council was not behind them. The chief planners are chosen precisely because their ideas on overbuilding and density coincide with those of the administration and City Council. 

Phil Kamlarz has known about the dismal state of the Planning Department for years. When I was on the Budget Review Commission in the mid-nineties, we’d ask Phil at every meeting when the new General Plan was coming out. It was only 12 years overdue. The answer was always “soon.” The reason the planners never produced a plan is that they were under orders to have it allow for greater densities and higher buildings than people already living here wanted. At every General Plan meeting I attended the staff repeatedly pushed for greater densities and higher buildings and the public always rejected them. 

Phil was also present when the Budget Commission attempted to reduce the size of the Planning Department and to reorganize it so the public would know what was happening before projects were presented as “done deals.” I’m not certain, but I strongly suspect Phil played a key role in persuading City Council not to make any of the recommended changes. 

So while I like Phil, and think he is very able, I strongly disagree with his approach to development. To continue to build high-rise, high density structures along so-called “transit corridors” that have no transit (AC Transit does not qualify as a modern urban transit system) the results will be disastrous. Streets will become clogged, parking will be a nightmare and police and fire services will be strained. 

If Kamlarz, City Manager Weldon Rucker, Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio pick another development-crazed planning director happy to line the pockets of slippery developers like Patrick Kennedy, the Planning Department door will keep revolving. And if he doesn’t replace Mark Rhodes, the duplicitous insect who runs the Zoning Department (a subdivision of planning) and who specializes in keeping neighbors in the dark, then the community will continue to rise up in protest. 

What is desperately needed is a planning director who knows Berkeley, has lived here for a while, and is in touch with neighborhood and community groups. With a major city planning department at UC Berkeley, that type of person should not be too difficult to find. 

Art Goldberg

The discovery of two submerged fuel tanks beneath the Harrison House Adult Shelter in West Berkeley means another environmental problem for the city-owned property and another cleanup cost for taxpayers. 

Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS), a Berkeley-based nonprofit, operates the homeless shelter, which houses about 80 men and women. On Tuesday, City Council will review a request by BOSS executive director boona cheema to divert $119,000 in emergency service grant funds from other BOSS projects to pay for part of the cost of removing the tanks. 

City officials are planning to remove the two tanks despite a geotechnical report that recommended leaving them in place. Three contractors have submitted proposals to the Department of Public Works for removing the tanks. Their estimates range widely from $86,000 to $266,000. 

A $30,000 geotechnical report, completed in December by an Oakland-based geotechnical survey company, Kleinfelder, Inc., advised a less expensive option. This strategy, which would cost about $20,000, not including future 

monitoring, would be to abandon the underground storage tanks in place after removing any fuels, most likely diesel, in the tanks and surrounding soil. 

“Based on its lower cost, minimal impact to the building, the physical removal of residual tanks’ contents, removal of some impacted soil and reduced disruption to Harrison House residents, abandonment of the [tanks] in place would be the preferred closure alternative,” according to the report. 

However, it is city policy to remove underground storage tanks whenever possible. 

“Abandoning the tanks in place is really not an option,” said Patrick Kelch, acting director of the Department of Public Works while Director Rene Cardinaux is on vacation. “It’s city policy to remove the tanks unless it is exorbitantly more expensive than leaving them in place.” 

Another ongoing environmental problem at the Harrison Field area complicates whatever solution the city chooses. The tanks are completely submerged in a plume of groundwater contaminated with the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, or chrome 6, which originated from an engraving company three blocks to the east. To remove the tanks or abandon them in place, the city would have to pump out the contaminated water, store, analyze and treat it, then dispose of it. 

This process, as the city learned in 2001 during the construction of the Harrison Field Skate Park, can be unpredictable and expensive. Kelch said on Friday that the three contractors’ bids to remove the tanks are still being analyzed and he wasn’t sure if they included appropriate options for dealing with complications arising from the presence of contaminated groundwater. 

When the city purchased the 6.4-acre property from UC Berkeley in 2000, it was mostly undeveloped. Only the shelter structure was in place, but over the last three years, the city has developed four soccer fields that are heavily used by the Albany Berkeley Soccer Club and the popular skate park. Future plans for the site include the construction of BOSS’s Ursula Sherman Village, a multi-service homeless facility that will serve up to 130 people, mostly women and children. 

During the excavation of 8-foot bowls for the skate park, contractors struck groundwater laced with chrome 6 and had to halt construction for over a year. The city spent an additional $400,000 (not including staff time) to treat the contaminated water and redesign the skate park to prevent future exposure to the dangerous carcinogen. However, last December, just two months after the park opened to rave reviews, city workers discovered low levels of chrome 6 in two skate bowl basins after a heavy rainstorm. The Department of Parks and Waterfront immediately closed the park. Last month, City Council approved $57,000 to hire an engineer to recommend possible solutions to the ongoing problem. 

Air quality is also an environmental concern at the Harrison site. A $50,000 air quality study, part of the Ursula Sherman Village environmental impact report, detected elevated levels of particulate matter in the air, most likely from a collection of sources including nearby industry, the Berkeley Solid Waste Transfer Station and Interstate 80. Based on the study results, the city posted signs at the entrance to the soccer fields warning parents and children about possible health effects from the airborne particulates. 

The city paid UC Berkeley $2.8 million for the environmentally plagued property. However, in exchange for a substantially reduced price, the city agreed to an as-is clause, which released the university from any liability for the risks which are now being addressed.

Icons are falling at The New York Times in the wake of its Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal.  

Executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd resigned Thursday. Both had promoted serial plagiarist Blair, ignoring a mounting pile of corrections and other warning signs. Last week, Times feature writer Rick Bragg, one of Raines’ conspicuous favorites, resigned. 

If I had the ear of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. or its new interim executive editor, Joseph Lelyveld, I’d urge them to consider these deeper issues. 

First, although Raines’ departure was overdue (he’d lost the staff’s confidence) and Boyd’s was understandable, Bragg’s is unfortunate. 

Bragg, author of the memoir “All Over But the Shoutin’,” is a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the few Times national staffers who wrote with real style. 

The offense for which he was suspended—putting his byline on a story that had been reported largely by a freelancer who received no credit—was basically Times standard operating procedure. And the Times admitted that Bragg had repeatedly asked to share bylines with his freelancers, but was told it wasn’t Times policy. 

There’s a good case for the Times to give due credit to all the writers who do its legwork, and to honestly tell its readers who’s written what they read. This should be general policy at the Times, too. Instead, the Times arbitrarily provoked one writer—one of the paper’s best—to resign over one story, because he happened to be Raines’ pal. 

I wonder where this will end. What about Verlyn Klinkenborg, the editorial writer whom Raines hired to write staggeringly slow-motion columns about bugs and flora on his upstate New York farm? Did Klinkenborg really see that leaf turn? With his own eyes? 

How do we know he didn’t leave a young stringer to stake it out for a week—sustained only by a Thermos of lukewarm apple cider—then pluck the notes from the kid’s frostbitten hand? Inquiring minds want to know. The leaf’s not talking. 

Stylists like Bragg may not win popularity contests among resentful, less able colleagues. But copy written in a distinct voice like his is black gold for a newspaper industry that’s been steadily losing younger readers. 

Second, readers are the point—and the Times isn’t really managed as if they matter. That’s the paper’s real sin, and it’s more systematic than letting one Jayson Blair run free or treating any number of Rick Braggs with arbitrary fear or disfavor. 

The Gray Lady has a history of imperious executive editors who, upon arrival, slam their “stamp” on the paper without ever addressing longstanding flaws. Raines demoralized much of the staff by promoting favorites to Page One, and by uprooting respected veterans—several of whom then quit, leaving desks short-handed and colleagues exhausted. 

The paper’s longstanding flaws are more consistent: Except for a brief experiment with writing readable leads under Max Frankel in the early nineties, loquacious writers don’t get enough editing to sharpen their reports into cohesive “stories.” Headlines remain laughably awkward and obscure. Leads are murky and baffling. The day’s most important news is often buried on unread inside pages (with an ad shoved in readers’ faces on most right pages). And despite the Times’ slow embrace of color, its front page layouts are still 19th-century relics. 

And, as Bragg’s saga shows in the extreme, the Times’ few really good “writers” don’t tend to end up on the news pages. Why does the nation’s foremost news-gathering institution produce a paper that is such a chore to read? 

Bragg will do okay: He reportedly has a million-dollar contract for his next two books. Blair’s sins and Bragg’s sacrifice may win overdue credit for the anonymous scribes who get “All the News” into the Times and other publications. 

But is the Times starting to think about us readers? Just wondering, Arthur and Joseph.

“Time served—one day!” 

An illicit cheer echoed down the 19th-floor corridor of the San Francisco federal building as the overflow crowd got word that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had gone easy on Ed Rosenthal. Federal prosecutors had asked for a six-and-a-half-year prison term. 

The light sentence meted out by Breyer on Wednesday, June 4, represents a personal victory for the well-known Oakland cannabis cultivator and his family and friends. A political victory could follow if Rosenthal’s felony conviction as a marijuana cultivator and conspirator gets overturned. 

Rosenthal’s attorney, Dennis Riordan, has already notified the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals that he will challenge the conviction. Riordan, who specializes in reviewing trial records for reversible errors, is convinced he found some significant ones in the Rosenthal case. 

For openers: Judge Breyer should have allowed the jury to hear that Rosenthal —who had been authorized to grow marijuana under a program created by an Oakland city ordinance—thought he was acting legally. “If the jury got to hear that,” Riordan told the Planet, “they could have decided Ed was acting in good faith and acquitted him. He was denied the right to present a mental-state defense to the jury.” 

Riordan is also challenging Breyer’s ruling that the Oakland cannabis-distribution program is invalid under federal law. The program relies on the same section of the federal Controlled Substances Act, 885(d), that entitles undercover police officers to obtain, handle and sell illicit drugs.  

Section 885(d) states that “no civil or criminal liability shall be imposed” on any state or local “authorized officer ... who shall be lawfully engaged in the enforcement of any law or municipal ordinance relating to controlled substances.” A creative Oakland lawyer named Robert Raich proposed that the wording of 885(d) could apply to city-appointed officers engaged in obtaining, handling and selling cannabis. The city attorney agreed, and Raich’s client, Jeff Jones, director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Co-op (CBC), was deputized to make the herb available to patients qualified to use it under California law. Jones assigned Rosenthal to grow clones—starter plants of known sex and quality— for distribution to such patients. 

Judge Breyer ruled in the Rosenthal case (and in a previous federal case against Jones and the Oakland CBC) that interpreting section 885(d) as protection for cannabis providers would violate the basic prohibitionist purpose of the Controlled Substances Act. Breyer repeatedly described his interpretation as “the common-sense reading of the statute.” But the Raich/Oakland reading is the literal one. “I think we have an extremely good chance of being vindicated on appeal,” said Riordan. 

During pre-trial hearings in January, when Judge Breyer ruled that the Oakland ordinance could not be cited by the defense, he expressed skepticism that Ed Rosenthal was unfamiliar with his previous ruling that section 885(d) does not protect cannabis providers. But on Tuesday —influenced perhaps by editorials in the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times—Breyer gave Rosenthal the benefit of the doubt. He based his lenient sentence on Rosenthal’s “reasonable belief” that he had been properly authorized to cultivate by the city of Oakland. 

If the 9th Appeals Court rules that 885(d) does indeed apply to city or state-ordained cannabis operations it would be like driving a tank through the Berlin wall of prohibition. Damage control would commence before cities from Arcata to San Diego start grow-ops. Attorney General John Ashcroft would 

appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (Charles Breyer’s older brother, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, would have to recuse himself). Ultimately Congress might have to reword the Controlled Substances Act. And in the process, the question of marijuana’s presence on Schedule I—dangerous drugs with no medical utility—might be debated. Could get interesting. 

Rosenthal’s appeal brief will also challenge the propriety of Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan’s dialog with the grand jury that produced the initial indictment. Unlike the jurors who heard the case in January 2003, the grand jurors were aware that Rosenthal was growing for Bay Area cannabis clubs. 

The defense charges that Bevan misled the grand jurors by seeking to allay any fears that indicting Rosenthal would cut off the supply of cannabis to Californians entitled to use it medicinally. 

A final appeals issue involves Breyer’s ruling that the conduct of jurors Marney Craig and Pam Klarkowski did not constitute grounds for dismissal. Craig had asked a lawyer of her acquaintance whether she could vote her conscience if it clashed with the judge’s instructions. The lawyer-friend’s answer had been an unequivocal “No. You must obey the judge.” Craig relayed this fact to Klarkowski as they drove to court on the morning deliberations were to begin. Under the relevant federal rule of evidence, 606 (b), the improper influencing of jurors during the course of a trial can be grounds for dismissal. 

The 9th circuit is expected to take a year to a year and a half to rule on Rosenthal’s appeal. 

Riordan expects the prosecution to appeal Breyer’s “downward departure” from a mandatory-minimum sentence of six-and-a-half years. The issue would be whether Rosenthal’s status as an employer at the grow-op disqualified him from receiving such leniency. On this matter Riordan does not expect Breyer to get reversed.

A superior court judge on Tuesday suspended criminal proceedings against Ryan Lee Raper until psychiatrists determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial for the murder of Berkeley transient Kevin Lee Freeman. 

Raper, 20, of Calavaras County, was charged with one count of murder for the May 9 slaying of Freeman, 55. The two men had been cellmates for less than 24 hours in Santa Rita Jail’s Behavioral Health Unit when Freeman was discovered beaten to death on the floor of the two-man cell. 

Raper is also being psychologically evaluated for a Union City case in which he is accused of an unprovoked knife attack on a stranger, according to Union City Police.  

Raper’s court appointed attorney, David Byron, said Raper will be examined by two psychiatrists and, based on their reports, the court will decide if Raper will stand trial or be sent to a mental health institution. 

“The reviews will be done in a timely fashion,” Byron said. 

Raper’s case has been assigned to the Hayward Superior Court, where he will appear before Judge Robert Kurtz on June 11. 

Freeman’s murder has triggered an administrative review of the policies and procedures for evaluating inmates for purposes of assigning cellmates, said Alameda County Sheriff Department spokesman Lt. Jim Knudsen. 

“Why those two men were in the same cell is exactly the kind of thing we’ll be looking at,” he said.

Early Thursday morning 64 local, county and federal law enforcement officers served 12 search warrants at locations throughout the Bay Area in relation to a counterfeiting ring that may be responsible for the theft of $6 million. 

The warrants were the result of a two-year, joint investigation between the Berkeley Police Department and the Homeland Security U.S. Secret Service. According to Berkeley Police spokesman Mary Kusmiss, investigators seized thousands of pieces of evidence such as pistols, assault rifles, narcotics and a large quantity of counterfeit travelers checks and personal checks.  

“Investigators also seized a great deal of personal information such as names, birth dates, social security numbers and credit card numbers,” Kusmiss said. “These were the things this particular ring used to carry out identity theft.” 

Kusmiss said two suspects, a 45-year-old Vallejo man and a 49-year-old Berkeley woman, were booked into the Berkeley jail as a result of the warrants. She said the primary goal of the warrants was to collect evidence, which will likely result in many more arrests in the coming weeks.  

Other agencies that participated in serving the warrants were the Internal Revenue Service, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, and the Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward police departments.  

“Investigators are very pleased with the evidence they seized today,” Kusmiss said. “Identity theft is the fastest growing crime internationally and these investigations require a great deal of tedious work, a great deal of time and document analysis.” 

—John Geluardi

Before flying to Washington for my Yale class of ‘68 college reunion dinner at the White House, Lisa and I bought gifts for the Bushes. We picked up an “I love Berkeley” T-shirt for the President, complete with peace sign—he won’t get too many of those, we figured—and a book for Laura. 

In the taxi, after the thrill of telling the driver, “We’re going to the White House,” we were still wondering what to say to him, and also wondering if we were foolish to worry about it. Would he even show up? If he did, would he be there for more than 20 minutes (“Sorry, got to get on the phone to mah buddy Putin”), and would we get anywhere near him? 

Getting in to the White House was a bit like getting on a plane, but with tougher carry-on restrictions. Once inside, an aide relieved us of our gifts, which went into a large envelope, no doubt to be tested for anthrax, radioactivity or unwelcome ideology. (Will we get a thank you note?) Then we were “briefed” by a soldier in full-dress uniform: no photos in the reception line (ah—so we were going to get our 10 seconds with him, at least) and no stopping for autographs. 

Then through another door, around a corner, and ... there they were, just the two of them.  

Your first thought is that the cameras are unkind to George W. Bush: he’s much better looking in person, tanned and fit and utterly at ease. The smile and handshake are warm, he looks you in the eye, and he seems genuinely pleased to see you, even if you’re short, bearded and Berkeleyan. 

Lisa went first. 

“Oh my God,” she said. “This is so exciting: here you are!” 

“Aw,” the president told us, “it’s gonna be fun.” 

Then it was my turn.  

“When you get the T-shirt that says ‘I love Berkeley,’ that’s from us,” I said, shaking the hand. 

He laughed. Wow—I got a laugh out of him.  

“Berkeley, eh. You have any reunions in Berkeley?” 

I had no reply to that one, so it was on to Laura. We mumbled something about the novel we had brought her and we were done. 

And were we charmed? Oh yes. We didn’t cry, as another guest did, telling Dubya how proud she was of him and of our country, but we were thoroughly star-struck. 

After dinner, for a good two or three hours and without looking anything but delighted, Bush stood at the center of a pulsating throng, as people (including Lisa) elbowed their way through for another handshake, a photo, an autograph. When Lisa reached him, he took the camera from her, held it out at arm’s length and snapped a photo. “Do you think Ah cut our heads off?” he asked. (He didn’t.) 

People wanted physical contact with him, and Bush was glad to oblige: everyone got a presidential hug or a presidential arm around the shoulder. Everyone—corporate greyhounds with swept-back silver hair, frumpy or elegant wives, a rabbi with a yarmulke—had the goofy, ecstatic smile of a kid at Disneyland. (“Mommy, Mickey gave me a hug!”)  

The party was scheduled to end at 9, but Mickey seemed tireless: at 10:30, he was still going strong. Then he bounded upstairs, propelled by further applause, and vanished into the private quarters. I applauded, too—it was impossible not to—and I understood that what we said and what he said didn’t matter at all. What mattered was the handshake and the exchange of smiles and of something spoken—it could have been nonsense syllables (and nearly was).  

When the almost inconceivable power of the office is combined with affability, a kind of magic takes place. Call it charisma, call it transference, call it whatever you like. You may be nauseated by bombed civilians and cheap aircraft-carrier theatrics. You may wonder, in your cooler moments, about the missing weapons of mass destruction or grind your teeth over right-wing appointments to the federal bench. 

I defy you to resist the spell when you’re there in the White House and the magic is aimed right at you. I defy you, at that moment, not to feel and behave like a groupie. Presidential magic is a great leveler. The high and mighty I had wanted to avoid were just as eager for their hugs and photos as the humblest of us. I had feared that the reunion would leave me feeling smaller. Instead, I talked to two or three classmates I hadn’t seen for 35 years, found that we still liked each other a lot, and came away grateful and restored.  

Between the hoopla and my old friends, Lisa and I were too excited to sleep until well after midnight. While the flashbulbs were popping, she had turned to me and said, half jokingly, “Do you think we’ll have to vote for him now?” We had returned to our senses by breakfast the next morning, but we really did have fun at his party. There, at least, mah buddy George knew what he was talking about.

High-speed police chases resulting in injury and death, which have become something of an issue in Oakland over the past year, are also becoming a potentially explosive issue throughout the state of California. 

Last year, three women led police on a chase at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour on crowded Highway 101 north of San Francisco, involving several local police cars, two California Highway Patrol vehicles, a Highway Patrol motorcycle and a Highway Patrol airplane. The chase resulted in a crash with another car. The crime for which the police were chasing the women? Shoplifting.  

In Barstow, a 21-year-old man crashed his Ford Bronco into a mobile home while trying to evade police after a stop for a traffic violation. Fortunately, the residents of the mobile home escaped injury. “We can’t figure out why he ran,” a police spokesman said. “He had no warrant or DMV record. He was not drunk and the truck was not stolen.” The spokesman did not explain why, then, the police chose to chase him.  

Early this year, two people were killed and 13 injured in a rural section of San Diego County when a pickup truck flipped over while being chased at high speeds by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The agents suspected that the truck was carrying illegal immigrants.  

Some of the police pursuit actions simply defy reason. In 1997, while seeking to join a stolen auto chase, a Sacramento Police officer learned from a radio broadcast that the driver had been apprehended. Unaccountably, the officer turned off his flashing lights while continuing to race down a city street for several blocks at speeds estimated by police investigators at up to 80 miles per hour. He ultimately rammed into the car of Andy Sorgatz, killing the 50-year-old state employee. The city of Sacramento eventually agreed to a $1.75 million settlement with Sorgatz’s family.  

According to the California Highway Patrol, California law enforcement officers engaged in almost 6,000 auto pursuits in 2001, 10 percent resulting in injury collisions. Twenty-four people died in police-pursuit collisions that year, including two people described by the CHP as “others” (that is, people who were not being chased by the police). Almost 350 of those chases resulted in accident injuries to police. Statewide statistics are not yet available for 2002.  

The problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles. CNN has reported that in the three-year period from 1999 to 2001, Los Angeles averaged more than five auto crashes per week resulting from police pursuits. Earlier this year, after community outrage over several highly publicized accidents, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted for a 12-month ban on police chases of motorists solely for traffic violations.  

But such policies can simply be ignored without California cities, or California police officers, suffering any legal consequences.  

Carol Watson, a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in representing victims of police misconduct, says that, “unfortunately, under California law, officers are given virtually a blanket immunity regardless of how reckless the chase may be.”  

Late last year, a California Court of Appeals “reluctantly” (in its own words) ruled that California cities that adopt a valid police chase policy are immune from liability in resulting accidents, even if the police failed to follow that policy. “[California] law in its current state simply grants a ‘get out of liability free card’ to public entities that go through the formality of adopting such a policy,” the court wrote. The court’s ruling stemmed from a Westminster police chase of a stolen van through a high school parking lot that resulted in the death of a bystander. “There is no requirement the public entity implement the [police chase] policy through training or other means,” the ruling went on. “Unfortunately, the adoption of a policy which may never be implemented is cold comfort to innocent bystanders ...” The Appeals Court urged the California Legislature to change this discrepancy in the police chase liability law.  

A Chico, Calif., couple has proposed a state law change after their 15-year-old daughter, Kristie Priano, was killed last year only weeks before U’Kendra Johnson, and following a high-speed police chase strikingly similar to the one that allegedly resulted in the death of the Oakland woman. “Kristie’s Law” would, among other things, require stricter guidelines for police pursuits in residential neighborhoods throughout California and mandate that an independent agency investigate all accidents resulting from police chases.  

Priano was killed when her family van was struck by a 15-year-old girl whose only offense was taking her mother’s car without permission. Priano’s mother, Candy, who was in the van at the time, says she believes her daughter’s death was caused by a combination of police too focused on a chase and not enough on the safety of bystanders, and with too much time on their hands in a small town.  

“I personally think that they were bored,” Candy Priano says.  

The Priano family is working with Republican state Sen. Sam Aanestad of Grass Valley, who has preserved SB982 as a reform measure on high-speed police officer pursuits. Aanestad’s office plans to meet later this year with representatives of state sheriffs, police chiefs and the CHP to craft new safety guidelines for police auto pursuits, and the Prianos hope that the results will meet their vision of “Kristie’s Law.”  

In addition, Los Angeles County state Sen. Gloria Romero has introduced legislation which would allow police immunity from lawsuits resulting from high-speed chases only if the police were following their agency’s chase guidelines.  

We’ll be watching. 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor is an Oakland resident.  

Whether it’s been gone so long or always on your mind, the sound of “traditional” music is everywhere these days except on commercial radio. Then again, who listens to commercial radio? 

Berkeley’s own Freight and Salvage Coffee House, a rare and enduring stalwart on the traditional music circuit, celebrates 35 years of live acoustic music this month with a special anniversary concert featuring prodigal son Phil Marsh with the long deceased, now resurrected Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band on Saturday, June 14. 

The Skiffle band performed opening night in 1968 and was a local favorite and mainstay of the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms. In their heyday, the group released five albums, including a “superstar” spoof under the nom de guerre Masked Marauders. Greil Marcus touted the album in Rolling Stone magazine. Joining the original Skiffle band members are a veritable hootenanny’s worth of renowned musicians, renegades, mystery guests and other ne’er do wells such as Bruce Barthol, Darryl Henriques, Arthur Holden, Marc Silber, “Dynamite” Annie Johnston and Will Scarlett—promising to turn this into the traditional music event of the season. 

Inadvertently begun back in 1968 as a local clubhouse for friends of Nancy Owens, the Freight, as it’s affectionately called, immediately evolved into an unprofitable music venue. No money meant that everything that needed to be done had to be done by volunteers, a condition formalized by a conversion to nonprofit status in 1983.  

Current executive director and chief bottle washer Steve Baker recalled those times:  

“In 1983 the group of people involved in the club at that time wanted to transform the Freight, whatever it was, into a nonprofit organization, a traditional music organization. A friend of mine asked me if I knew anything about non-profit organizations and how they worked. I knew quite a lot actually,” Baker said. “I’d written some books on the subject and I was working for what’s now called California Lawyers for the Arts. I did the incorporating work and ended up being on the board of directors and here I am. I’m responsible for the entire operation. I’m one of four full-time employees. On the nuts and bolts level I edit the calendar, I oversee the finances, I do the booking. Also, I talk to all the agents and performers and cut the deals. But I’ve done just about everything. It helps me to get the end result that I want.” 

Today the Freight is the performance venue for the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music. 

“We define traditional music as music that’s rooted in and expressive of many of the varieties of cultural and social, ethnic and regional cultures that exist in the world,” said Baker. “It’s a window into another culture. It’s the living, growing product of a culture, not the calcified culture of a century ago or whatever. It’s an on-going process, which connects it with the folk process — the transmission of the oral tradition of art and music, the transmission of a culture from generation to generation. It’s the window that we all have into our own culture and into someone else’s culture.” 

As is only appropriate for a now middle-aged venue, the Freight has grown up.  

“Twenty years ago we were in an 80-seat store front around the corner,” Baker said. “Today we’re in a 220-seat theater. We had a mailing list of less than a thousand when I first got involved in this operation. Today our mailing list is pretty close to 10,000. These are 10,000 very current names of people who haven’t moved, or people who tell us when they move, of people who support the organization. About a third of the people on that list are members, people who have paid dues or made some sort of contribution in the last three years. So it’s grown. It’s a broader demographic, if you want to use that word. The age demographic is broader. I’ve got a daughter who recently graduated from college and I see her friends here now. I see them signing up on the mailing list. I think we’ve expanded the demographics all the way around.” 

Not content with simple survival, the society recently purchased two adjoining buildings (formerly an automotive garage and the current home of the Capoeira Café) in Berkeley’s downtown Arts District in addition to its current home at 1111 Addison St. The organization plans to move into the new 400-plus-seat theater in 2006, after completing a $4.5 million renovation.  

Despite its lack of exposure on commercial radio, traditional music is enjoying growing popularity. 

“It goes in cycles but I think there’s always been a great deal of interest in this music,” Baker said. “Sometimes there are different aspects of it that are more prevalent than others, but I think the interest is deeply rooted, in this society, in this country, and it’s been deeply rooted for decades. It’s always been there.” 

The Freight & Salvage Coffee House is located at 1111 Addison St. in Berkeley. Phone number is 510-548-1761 or e-mail info@freightandsalvage.org. The Freight & Salvage Web site is located at http://www.thefreight.org/.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

FILM 

“The Battle of Algiers,” a film about the uprising of the Algerian people against French colonialists in the 1960’s, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Nicholas Ray: “Party Girl” at 7:30 p.m. and “Hot Blood” at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-0808.www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Mars Revealed,” with Conrad Jung, lecturer, Chabot Space and Science Center. 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 call 526-2925, 665-9020. 

Haiku: A Critical Look at an Ancient Form, with Gabe Winer, creator of the Haiku Wall at Berkeley High; Gar- 

ry Gay, president, Haiku Poets of Northern California; and Ry Belville, translator of Nakahara Chuya, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, third floor Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge Ave. 981-6121. 

Poets Melody Lacina and Laura Horn at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Marguerite Sprague de- 

scribes the rise and fall of a California mining town in “Bodie’s Gold” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, Combos and Lab band perform at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater, 1920 Allston Way. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and BHS staff, available at the door. 548-8026. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

New Age Academy Benefit Performance featuring both student and professional artists, at 2 p.m. at 2921 Adeline St. 848-4664. 

Berkeley Edge Fest The music of Terry Riley at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mike Olmos Quartet, with trumpeters Mike Olmos and Noel Jewkes, bassist Em- 

manuel Vaughn-Lee and drummer Jeff Mars at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Anthony Jeffries and his All Stars, blues band at Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave. 663-0440. 

Pandeiros do Brasil with Karana and Dandara and the Ginga Brasil Dance Troupe at 9:30 p.m., with Brazilian dance lesson at 9 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Bill Horvitz Band, an experimental jazz trio, performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart perform roots country 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 

Weary Boys and PBR Street Gang perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Voces por la Paz, a Concert for Peace, celebrating La Peña’s 28th Anniversary, with Latin American, Afro-Cuban, Chicano and folk music at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Himsa, Beneath the Ashes, The Answer, With Passion, The Harms 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, JUNE 7 

Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios 2003 June 7-8, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For list of participating studios go to www.pro 

artsgallery.org/ebos2003 

CHILDREN 

David Thom Band introduces children to bluegrass music and instruments, at 1 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale, children and students accompanying adults are free. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Oliver’s Urban Twist, a performance by Walden School, set in 1970’s New York, at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Also on Sun. at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12, available at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

New Age Academy Benefit Performance featuring both student and professional artists, at 2 p.m. at 2921 Adeline St. 848-4664. 

FILM 

Superfest XXIII Interna- 

tional Media Festival on Disabilities From 1 to 5p.m., at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. Call 845-5576 for schedule or www.madknight.com/cdt. 

Nicholas Ray: “Wind Across the Everglades” at 4:30 and 8:55 p.m. and “The True Story of Jesse James” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Banned in Berkeley,” a film by five disabled women artists on their sexuality and relationships, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bay Area Poets Coalition presents an open poetry reading from 3 to 5 p.m. at 1527 Virginia St., off of Sacramento St., one block east of the North Berkeley BART station. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

Norman Fischer discusses “Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852. ww.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chanticleer performs at 8 p.m. at the First Congrega- 

tional Church, 2345 Chan- 

ning Way. Tickets are $22-$37. 415-392-4400. www.chanticleer.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

Esfir Ross, solo piano, performs Mozart, Brahms and Chopin at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Sug- 

gested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Berkeley Edge Fest The music of John Adams and Ingram Marshall at 6 p.m., and musicians and composers Steve Lacy, George Lewis and David Wessell at 9 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 

Tickets are $22 for each performance. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Mozart performs a cappella jazz and pop at 7:30 p.m. at the Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $20 general, $15 seniors and students available from 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Indian Classical Music will be performed at 5 p.m. at St. Johns Presbyterian Church,  

2727 College Ave. Tickets are $25-$35 available from  

925-828-6127. www.harmoni- 

ventures.com 

Kotoja performs at 9:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Patrice Pike and Shelley Doty perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

A. J. Roach performs Ap- 

palachian music at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Ponte las Pilas celebrate the style and defiance of the Zoot Suiter, and dance to Dr. Loco’s Rocking Jalapeña Band at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Oak, Ash and Thorn perform a cappella with a Bri- 

tish Isles flavor at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in ad- 

vance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Hellbillies, Iron Lung, The Profits, Face Down in Shit, Case of Emergency 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, JUNE 8 

CHILDREN 

Family Classics: “Fantastic Voyage” at 2 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Winds Across the Bay, the East Bay's youth wind ensemble, celebrates its 10th anniversary with a performance of works by Giu- 

seppi Verdi, Nicholas Rim- 

sky-Korsakov, Johan deMeij and Joseph Willcox Jenkins, at 2 p.m. at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $9 at the door or by calling 925-943-SHOW.  

Oliver’s Urban Twist, a performance by Walden School, see listing for June 7. 

FILM 

Vera Chytilová: “Prefab Stories” at 5:30 p.m. and “Wolf Chalet” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Superfest XXIII Interna- 

tional Media Festival on Disabilities, screening of award winners, from 1 to 5p.m., at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. Reception with filmmakers from 6 to 7 p.m. For schedule, call 845-5576. www.madknight.com/cdt. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, reception for the artists, at 2 p.m. at the Ber- 

keley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Poets Clive Matson and Marc Hofstadter at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

African Drum Workshop every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners at 11 a.m., experienced at 12:30 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15 - $25, advanced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

Berkeley Edge Fest A tribute to Lou Harrison, featuring Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and musicians performing on the gamelan at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall. Tickets are $22. 642.9988. 

Baroque Chorale Guild performs a variety of music from Europe at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing, at Dana. Tickets are $22 general, $17 students and seniors. 650-969-4095. www.bcg.org 

Oakland Civic Orchestra presents “In Light and Shadow,” with works by Albinoni, Gabrieli and Beethoven at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave. in Oakland. The concert is free. 238-3896. 

Transmission Trio and Patrick Cress’s Telepathy perform unconventional jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Vox Populi performs songs of love and desire at 4 p.m. in Gallery A of the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Dann Zinn Band performs a blend of processed and original jazz and world music at the Jazzschool at 4:30 p.m. 

Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Carol Fran, Carmen Getit, Wendy DeWitt and Sue Palmer, Queens of the Boogie Woogie perform 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 

MONDAY, JUNE 9 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bob Cushman shares stories of his sister, Barbara Cush- 

man Rowell, and her husband, Galen Rowell, in “Flying South: A Pilot’s Inner Journey” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Maureen Murdock discusses her new book “Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 10 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Confessions of a Sociopath” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sherman Alexie, chronicler of the Native American experience, presents “Ten Little Indians” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are free with the purchase of the book, available in both Cody’s Bookstores. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Cynthia Kaufman addresses the growing number of people who are unhappy with the status quo in her new book “Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Deborah Day explains the use of poetry to educate in her book “Mindful Messages: Healing Thoughts for the Hip Hop Descendants from the Motherland” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sol Americano and The Mara Connection, in a benefit performance for the non-profit Center for Educational Research and Development at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jimmy Bruno, John Palme and Carol Denney offer an evening of song artistry at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight-andsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “All the Hitchcock You Can Repeat” at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Scoop Nisker returns at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freight-andsalvage.org 

Kevin Sweeny discusses his new book “Father Figures: A Boy Goes Searching” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bridget Connelly discusses her memoire, “Forgetting Ireland,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Laila Halaby, daughter of a Jordanian and an American, discusses the difficulty of growing up in two cultures in her new novel, “West of the Jordan,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

peAktimes, a performance project mixing today’s news with experimental music and dance at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Already Dead, Astral Realm, Puddingstone, Scribe perform punk and rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Juan Diego Flórez, tenor, performs at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

La Peña Recital with students from Rafael Manriquez’ Latin American Music Ensembles and Josh Jones’ Latin Jazz Ensembles at 7 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

THURSDAY, JUNE 12 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “We Can’t Go Home Again” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Target Iraq: What the News Media is not Telling You,” with Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Isabel Allende describes her exile from her homeland in her new book “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Noah Levine discusses his transformation from a skateboarding punk in Santa Cruz in his memoire “Dharma Punx,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Lynn Bobby Band at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Assoc. 549-2230. 

Jackie Greene, folk and blues prodigy, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jesse Legé with Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hannah Marcus, The Oblivion Seeker and Ultra Lash at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Black Repertory Group “A Peep Under The Hood !”  

A comedy about a family in conflict over control of their autodealership. Written by Bay Area native Bobby Clements. June 6 at 8 p.m. June 7 at 2:30 and 8 p.m., June 8 at 2:30 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $17 at the door, or $15 in advance. At 3201 Adeline St., 1/2 block south of the Asby BART station. 652-2120, 685-7180.  

Transparent Theater “Night and Day,” a world premiere stage adaptation by Tom Clyde. Until June 8, Thurs. - Sat., 8 p.m. $20. Sun, 7 p.m. pay what you can. 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305. www.transparenttheater.org

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

FILM 

“The Battle of Algiers,” a film about the uprising of the Algerian people against French colonialists in the 1960’s, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Nicholas Ray: “Party Girl” at 7:30 p.m. and “Hot Blood” at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-0808.www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Mars Revealed,” with Conrad Jung, lecturer, Chabot Space and Science Center. 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 call 526-2925, 665-9020. 

Haiku: A Critical Look at an Ancient Form, with Gabe Winer, creator of the Haiku Wall at Berkeley High; Gar- 

ry Gay, president, Haiku Poets of Northern California; and Ry Belville, translator of Nakahara Chuya, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, third floor Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge Ave. 981-6121. 

Poets Melody Lacina and Laura Horn at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Marguerite Sprague de- 

scribes the rise and fall of a California mining town in “Bodie’s Gold” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, Combos and Lab band perform at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater, 1920 Allston Way. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and BHS staff, available at the door. 548-8026. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

New Age Academy Benefit Performance featuring both student and professional artists, at 2 p.m. at 2921 Adeline St. 848-4664. 

Berkeley Edge Fest The music of Terry Riley at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Mike Olmos Quartet, with trumpeters Mike Olmos and Noel Jewkes, bassist Em- 

manuel Vaughn-Lee and drummer Jeff Mars at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Anthony Jeffries and his All Stars, blues band at Rountree’s, 2618 San Pablo Ave. 663-0440. 

Pandeiros do Brasil with Karana and Dandara and the Ginga Brasil Dance Troupe at 9:30 p.m., with Brazilian dance lesson at 9 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Bill Horvitz Band, an experimental jazz trio, performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart perform roots country 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 

Weary Boys and PBR Street Gang perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Voces por la Paz, a Concert for Peace, celebrating La Peña’s 28th Anniversary, with Latin American, Afro-Cuban, Chicano and folk music at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Himsa, Beneath the Ashes, The Answer, With Passion, The Harms 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, JUNE 7 

Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios 2003 June 7-8, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For list of participating studios go to www.pro 

artsgallery.org/ebos2003 

CHILDREN 

David Thom Band introduces children to bluegrass music and instruments, at 1 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale, children and students accompanying adults are free. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Oliver’s Urban Twist, a performance by Walden School, set in 1970’s New York, at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Also on Sun. at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12, available at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

New Age Academy Benefit Performance featuring both student and professional artists, at 2 p.m. at 2921 Adeline St. 848-4664. 

FILM 

Superfest XXIII Interna- 

tional Media Festival on Disabilities From 1 to 5p.m., at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. Call 845-5576 for schedule or www.madknight.com/cdt. 

Nicholas Ray: “Wind Across the Everglades” at 4:30 and 8:55 p.m. and “The True Story of Jesse James” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students; $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth; $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Banned in Berkeley,” a film by five disabled women artists on their sexuality and relationships, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bay Area Poets Coalition presents an open poetry reading from 3 to 5 p.m. at 1527 Virginia St., off of Sacramento St., one block east of the North Berkeley BART station. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

Norman Fischer discusses “Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852. ww.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chanticleer performs at 8 p.m. at the First Congrega- 

tional Church, 2345 Chan- 

ning Way. Tickets are $22-$37. 415-392-4400. www.chanticleer.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

Esfir Ross, solo piano, performs Mozart, Brahms and Chopin at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Sug- 

gested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Berkeley Edge Fest The music of John Adams and Ingram Marshall at 6 p.m., and musicians and composers Steve Lacy, George Lewis and David Wessell at 9 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 

Tickets are $22 for each performance. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Mozart performs a cappella jazz and pop at 7:30 p.m. at the Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $20 general, $15 seniors and students available from 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Indian Classical Music will be performed at 5 p.m. at St. Johns Presbyterian Church,  

2727 College Ave. Tickets are $25-$35 available from  

925-828-6127. www.harmoni- 

ventures.com 

Kotoja performs at 9:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Patrice Pike and Shelley Doty perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

A. J. Roach performs Ap- 

palachian music at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Ponte las Pilas celebrate the style and defiance of the Zoot Suiter, and dance to Dr. Loco’s Rocking Jalapeña Band at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Oak, Ash and Thorn perform a cappella with a Bri- 

tish Isles flavor at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in ad- 

vance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Hellbillies, Iron Lung, The Profits, Face Down in Shit, Case of Emergency 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, JUNE 8 

CHILDREN 

Family Classics: “Fantastic Voyage” at 2 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Winds Across the Bay, the East Bay's youth wind ensemble, celebrates its 10th anniversary with a performance of works by Giu- 

seppi Verdi, Nicholas Rim- 

sky-Korsakov, Johan deMeij and Joseph Willcox Jenkins, at 2 p.m. at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $9 at the door or by calling 925-943-SHOW.  

Oliver’s Urban Twist, a performance by Walden School, see listing for June 7. 

FILM 

Vera Chytilová: “Prefab Stories” at 5:30 p.m. and “Wolf Chalet” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Superfest XXIII Interna- 

tional Media Festival on Disabilities, screening of award winners, from 1 to 5p.m., at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. Reception with filmmakers from 6 to 7 p.m. For schedule, call 845-5576. www.madknight.com/cdt. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, reception for the artists, at 2 p.m. at the Ber- 

keley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Poets Clive Matson and Marc Hofstadter at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

African Drum Workshop every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners at 11 a.m., experienced at 12:30 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15 - $25, advanced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

Berkeley Edge Fest A tribute to Lou Harrison, featuring Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and musicians performing on the gamelan at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall. Tickets are $22. 642.9988. 

Baroque Chorale Guild performs a variety of music from Europe at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing, at Dana. Tickets are $22 general, $17 students and seniors. 650-969-4095. www.bcg.org 

Oakland Civic Orchestra presents “In Light and Shadow,” with works by Albinoni, Gabrieli and Beethoven at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave. in Oakland. The concert is free. 238-3896. 

Transmission Trio and Patrick Cress’s Telepathy perform unconventional jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Vox Populi performs songs of love and desire at 4 p.m. in Gallery A of the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Dann Zinn Band performs a blend of processed and original jazz and world music at the Jazzschool at 4:30 p.m. 

Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Carol Fran, Carmen Getit, Wendy DeWitt and Sue Palmer, Queens of the Boogie Woogie perform 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 

MONDAY, JUNE 9 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bob Cushman shares stories of his sister, Barbara Cush- 

man Rowell, and her husband, Galen Rowell, in “Flying South: A Pilot’s Inner Journey” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Maureen Murdock discusses her new book “Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 10 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Confessions of a Sociopath” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sherman Alexie, chronicler of the Native American experience, presents “Ten Little Indians” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are free with the purchase of the book, available in both Cody’s Bookstores. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Cynthia Kaufman addresses the growing number of people who are unhappy with the status quo in her new book “Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Deborah Day explains the use of poetry to educate in her book “Mindful Messages: Healing Thoughts for the Hip Hop Descendants from the Motherland” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sol Americano and The Mara Connection, in a benefit performance for the non-profit Center for Educational Research and Development at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jimmy Bruno, John Palme and Carol Denney offer an evening of song artistry at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight-andsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “All the Hitchcock You Can Repeat” at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Scoop Nisker returns at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freight-andsalvage.org 

Kevin Sweeny discusses his new book “Father Figures: A Boy Goes Searching” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bridget Connelly discusses her memoire, “Forgetting Ireland,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Laila Halaby, daughter of a Jordanian and an American, discusses the difficulty of growing up in two cultures in her new novel, “West of the Jordan,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

peAktimes, a performance project mixing today’s news with experimental music and dance at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Already Dead, Astral Realm, Puddingstone, Scribe perform punk and rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Juan Diego Flórez, tenor, performs at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

La Peña Recital with students from Rafael Manriquez’ Latin American Music Ensembles and Josh Jones’ Latin Jazz Ensembles at 7 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

THURSDAY, JUNE 12 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “We Can’t Go Home Again” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Target Iraq: What the News Media is not Telling You,” with Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Isabel Allende describes her exile from her homeland in her new book “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Noah Levine discusses his transformation from a skateboarding punk in Santa Cruz in his memoire “Dharma Punx,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Lynn Bobby Band at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Assoc. 549-2230. 

Jackie Greene, folk and blues prodigy, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jesse Legé with Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hannah Marcus, The Oblivion Seeker and Ultra Lash at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Black Repertory Group “A Peep Under The Hood !”  

A comedy about a family in conflict over control of their autodealership. Written by Bay Area native Bobby Clements. June 6 at 8 p.m. June 7 at 2:30 and 8 p.m., June 8 at 2:30 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $17 at the door, or $15 in advance. At 3201 Adeline St., 1/2 block south of the Asby BART station. 652-2120, 685-7180.  

Transparent Theater “Night and Day,” a world premiere stage adaptation by Tom Clyde. Until June 8, Thurs. - Sat., 8 p.m. $20. Sun, 7 p.m. pay what you can. 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305. www.transparenttheater.org

On Tuesday, June 10, PBS Channel 9 will air “Daddy & Papa,” a film by Oakland independent filmmaker Johnny Symons. I caught up with Johnny and his partner William at their comfortable craftsman bungalow a few blocks from the Daily Planet office. Actually, I did more than catch up with them. I weeded their garden. (Like most wildly successful writers in the Bay Area, I do a little gardening, babysitting, housecleaning and light hauling on the side.)  

And believe me, their garden needed tending. Johnny and William have been too busy lately to pay much attention to their yard. They are the parents of two rambunctious little boys, Zach and Kenyon, and Johnny’s film is getting lots of national and international attention.  

In fact, while I was wrestling with the wild blackberry vines in their backyard, Johnny was showing “Daddy & Papa” at a film festival in Denmark and William was at his full-time job as director of policy, administration and program development for the Berkeley Public Health Department. Johnny’s mother and stepfather, Susie Symons and John Glick, were visiting from Michigan and watching over Zach (almost four) and Kenyon (18 months). 

After pulling weeds for seven hours I got a chance to watch “Daddy & Papa.” It’s a warm, heartfelt documentary that explores the personal, cultural and political ramifications of gay men making the decision to become dads. “Daddy & Papa” follows four gay male families and examines the issues they face: marriage and divorce, the legalities of gay parenthood, surrogacy and interracial adoption. It also highlights the ways in which their households resemble more traditional families: sleepless nights, soccer games, messy bedrooms, picnics, homework and non-stop togetherness. And it underlines the additional challenges that gay dads encounter including conservatives who regard them as the antithesis of family, antipathy from parts of the gay community and discrimination from the law. (In 2000 Utah and Mississippi joined Florida in banning gay adoption.)  

Kelly Wallace is a 38-year-old single white gay man who lives in the Castro district of San Francisco. In 1998 he adopted a pair of biracial brothers, ages two and three, from the foster care system. Over 500,000 children are currently in foster care; one-fifth of them are awaiting adoption. The majority of these are children of color and labeled “hard to place.” Kelly is open and honest about his desire for a family, and also painfully candid about the difficulties of raising two boys alone in a neighborhood that is not family-oriented.  

Doug Houghton is a nurse in Miami and a classical pianist. He first met Oscar, a homeless, abandoned African-American boy five years ago when Oscar visited his out-patient clinic. Shortly thereafter Doug became Oscar’s legal guardian and, at the invitation of the ACLU, he joined a lawsuit to sue the state of Florida and legally establish his parental rights. In “Daddy & Papa,” eight-year old Oscar tries with difficulty to explain what it’s like not to have a mother and to have a father who is single and white.  

Phillip Himburg and Jim Ballantine arranged with Phillip’s high school sweetheart, Cathy Smith, to have a child. The result is Fanny Ballantine-Himburg, an adorable, precocious little girl who wrestles a decade later with the break-up of her fathers and the complexity of adjusting to their new partners. Fanny’s biggest problem is not that her fathers are gay, but that they are divorced.  

Filmmaker Johnny and his partner, William, are also profiled in the film, which shows them dealing with a lot of bureaucratic and emotional baggage. William complains about the adoption process to his partner’s camera: “It was tedious. I mean, they have to ask you every question about every aspect of your life. All straight people have to do is fuck and they get a kid. We have to be grilled. It’s ridiculous!” Zachary’s foster mom, Dora Dean Bradley, an active member of Oakland’s Mingleton Temple of God in Christ Church, had difficulty accepting Johnny and William’s sexual orientation and was, at first, reluctant to give nine-month-old Zachary to the gay couple. 

Through interviews, on-location shooting around the country, archival footage and photos and personal narrative, “Daddy & Papa” uncovers the struggles, challenges and triumphs of gay fathers and their children. A backyard with weeds three feet high and in desperate need of a lawnmower are predictable side effects of being the kind of busy, devoted, extraordinary activist-parents William and Johnny are.  

“Daddy & Papa,” hosted by Angela Bassett on the weekly series Independent Lens, airs locally on Tuesday, June 10, on Channel 9 at 10 p.m.. For a complete list of national viewing go to the Web site: www.daddyandpapa.com.

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 

Gov. Gray Davis’ plan to soften the blow to public schools by $700 million next year will have little effect on the Berkeley Unified School District, the district’s top budget official said last week. 

“We take some pluses and we take some minuses,” said Associate Superintendent of Business and Operations Eric Smith, who made a presentation on the governor’s proposal before the Board of Education Wednesday night. “Overall, it’s going to be a wash.” 

Smith said the district will continue with plans to cut about 70 to 100 teaching positions and will not reverse other recently approved cuts, including the elimination of two high school guidance counselors and a jump in some ninth-grade class sizes. 

In fact, with a district-wide projected deficit of $3 million next year, parents, teachers and students can expect a new package of heavy cuts as early as this fall, Smith said. 

Davis announced the $700 million relief package last month as part of the May revision to his annual budget, but is still calling for a $1.5 billion overall cut to public schools next year. 

Berkeley Schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence said a proposed 41 percent cut in state funding for instructional materials would mean fewer new books, and reductions in summer school funding could lead to consolidation of individual elementary school programs into a few “hubs.” 

Cuts in after-school funding would touch all but four of the district’s 14 elementary and middle schools, added Associate Superintendent of Educational Service Christine Lim. The district has not yet determined how, exactly, the reductions will affect each program. 

Lawrence said a proposed 67 percent cut in state funding for maintenance should not hit Berkeley as hard as other districts. In 2000, local voters approved an estimated $48 million in parcel taxes, over 12 years, to fund school maintenance. 

Davis’ $1.5 billion in K-12 cuts are part of a larger budget package, including a half-percentage point jump in the sales tax and an increase in vehicle license fees, that seeks to erase a $38.2 billion state shortfall. 

The state Senate and Assembly, controlled by Democrats, have passed budgets similar to the Davis plan and leaders of the two houses are meeting in conference committee to iron out their differences. 

But California state law requires a two-thirds vote to pass a budget and Republicans have vowed to block the tax and fee increases at the heart of the Senate and Assembly proposals. 

State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) said education could face further cuts if Republicans remain stubborn on taxes. 

“Our schools are all being held hostage at this point,” she said. 

But if Republicans succeed in blocking tax hikes, said Jodie Day, chief of staff for State Sen. Bob Margett (R-Diamond Bar), the GOP will not seek further cuts in the public schools. 

“Education is a priority for both parties,” she said. “Education doesn’t have a political affiliation.” 

The state has a June 30 deadline to pass a final budget, but has gone well beyond the deadline in years past. 

In recent press reports, legislators in both the Democratic and Republican parties, unable to reach an agreement, have suggested that they may pass a budget that is balanced on paper, but pushes the tough decisions on taxes and cuts into next year. 

Davis’ January budget proposal called for across-the-board cuts to all state-funded education programs. But, after lobbying from education leaders, the governor took a more targeted approach, chopping heavily from some programs while preserving funding in others. 

Despite the cuts to maintenance, books, summer school and after school programs, Smith said the new approach, on the whole, favors Berkeley. 

“A lot of the targeted cuts that were identified are things we don’t have,” he said. “So we were sort of spared the sword.” 

Kevin Gordon, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials, said the public schools fared well in the governor’s May budget revision. Given that the state’s projected deficit jumped from a January estimate of $34.6 billion to a May forecast of $38.2 billion, most observers expected more cuts for K-12 education. 

“The real good news in the budget is things didn’t get worse,” Gordon said. 

But Robert Manwaring, K-12 director for the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office in Sacramento, said public education still took a significant hit and is not yet out of the woods. 

“It’s probably one of many difficult years,” he said, noting that the governor’s proposal includes $2.4 billion in deferred payments to school districts that may not be repaid, in full, until 2006-2007.

Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto now has an organic option. 

On Thursday, local farmers and neighbors celebrated the opening of the North Berkeley Farmers’ Market, the city’s third and the first to feature only organic products. The new market will be held Thursdays in the parking lot of the Elephant Pharmacy at Shattuck Avenue and Cedar Street, an area organizers said was well-suited to host a farmers’ market. 

“The community in this area has been very supportive,” said Penny Leff, the manager of the farmers’ markets division of the Ecology Center. “Their enthusiasm has been encouraging.” 

The market, like its predecessors, will emphasize fresh produce from Northern California farms. At Thursday’s opening, many farmers brought seasonal fruit including peaches, strawberries and nectarines, and several tables featured Swiss chard, kale, arugula and other greens. Next week’s market will feature a fresh fish stand as well.  

The farmers’ market is the product of a partnership between the Ecology Center, Elephant Pharmacy and the North Shattuck Neighborhood Association. Elephant Pharmacy plans to donate its parking lot to the event each week, and has created fliers and advertisements in its newsletters to promote the market.  

“The market is a good way to let people know we’re here for the community,” Elephant Pharmacy founder and chairman Stuart Skorman said. “Plus, it brings more business to Elephant Pharmacy and to the businesses in the neighborhood.” 

The new market is smaller than the other two — at Derby Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way on Tuesdays and at Center Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way on Saturdays.  

Because of space constraints in the North Shattuck area, the new market is limited to between 15 and 20 stands. Skorman said that although the location is small, it provides a unique opportunity for organic farmers to sell their products.  

Elephant Pharmacy recently created an organic foods section within its store, and Skorman said that the farmers’ market creates a more visible organic presence in the area. 

The newest market will operate each Thursday in June as a four-week trial basis. At a public hearing on Thursday, June 12, the Zoning Adjustments Board will determine the impact of the market on the surrounding neighborhood and decide if it can remain in the parking lot on a weekly basis. 

“Hopefully it won’t mess up the parking situation on Thursdays,” Leff said. “If it doesn’t we should be good to go on a permanent basis.” 

The neighbors who turned out for opening day said they were grateful for the area market because of the convenience and the organic offerings. 

“More organic options are always good,” said area resident Tom Nettles. “Plus, this is within walking distance for anyone who lives in North Berkeley. It’s great to have.”