When people hear Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek deliver a public address in the City Council Chambers, they take a second look to make sure the prodigious voice is actually emanating from the elderly woman with the short gray afro and cherubic face. 

Then they straighten a bit in their seats, compelled by her timbre, modulation and eloquence to pay close attention. Shirek, who celebrated her 92nd birthday on Wednesday, has lent her stirring voice to the struggles of the voiceless for the last 60 years. With a tenacious resolve, she has demonstrated, organized and advocated for the rights of workers, seniors, minorities, single parents, the homeless and the disabled. 

The vice mayor’s commitment to her ideals has resulted in what longtime aide Michael Berkowitz characterized as “countless” arrests while championing for human rights. Long after the age when most people retire, Shirek was still chaining herself to the gates of tear gas manufacturing plants and to doorways of hospitals threatening to close AIDS wards. 

Just last year, Shirek was arrested after leading hundreds of hotel workers into an intersection near the exclusive Claremont Resort and Spa for a sit-down protest against the hotel management’s union negotiations. 

During a birthday celebration at her New Light Senior Center on Wednesday, Shirek, the granddaughter of slaves, spoke about her political activism, which began shortly after she arrived in Oakland from rural Arkansas during the Second World War. 

“When I stepped off the train at Seventh and Wood streets in 1943, I thought I was coming to the Promised Land,” said Shirek. Just back from a family reunion, she wore a T-shirt that bore a diagram of her family tree. “I soon found out that you had to struggle here, like you did back there. There’s no running away from it.” 

A Tribute Etched in Stone 

To honor Shirek’s record of public service and political activism, Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced legislation to the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday (Shirek’s birthday) that will designate Berkeley’s downtown Post Office the “Maudelle Shirek Post Office Building.” 

“Maudelle Shirek is one of my political heroes,” said Lee. “Fighting for social justice is no rarity in Berkeley, but Maudelle’s name always stands above the rest because of the uncompromising fidelity to her ideals and compassion for people.” 

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the designation in the coming weeks.  

Shirek, who has received a host of honors, including proclamations from The Alameda County Supervisors, Congresswoman Lee and President George Bush, said the gesture was unnecessary. 

“I haven’t done anything alone, it was with the help of many good people,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’ve done all that much.” 

But she has.  

Shirek’s voice was at the forefront of integrating Berkeley’s schools, breaking discriminatory employment barriers in downtown businesses and dismantling the city’s restrictive real estate covenants that prevented blacks from buying property east of Sacramento Street.  

Her voice has encouraged untold numbers of seniors to eat healthy meals at the two senior centers she founded. 

And her voice has inspired thousands of people to serve their communities and pressed dozens more into political service, including Congresswoman Lee, former U.S. Congressman Ronald Dellums and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. 

While Shirek has slowed a bit, her schedule still impresses people who are half her age. In addition to her council duties, she has spent every Tuesday morning for nearly 30 years shopping and preparing fresh food for the afternoon meals at the Light Senior Center. Each year the center serves more than 5,000 healthy, inexpensive meals to seniors in the center’s dining room and another 11,000 to those too frail to leave their homes. 

Critics of Shirek’s style as a city councilmember say she could be more responsive to her constituents. However, the majority of voters in south Berkeley’s District 3 don’t doubt her commitment to them. They have re-elected her seven times. In her last victory in 2000, she walked away with 74 percent of the vote.  

In recent years, Shirek has put affordable housing, job creation and job training at the top of her agenda. Two years ago, Shirek persuaded City Council to help fund the Cypress Mandela/Women in Skilled Trades Training Center that has a successful record of introducing people into construction-related jobs. 

“We were so glad that Maudelle worked to get Berkeley to contract with the program,” said Gay Plair Cobb, director of Oakland Private Industry, Inc., a nonprofit career center. “The program has helped many people overcome barriers to good paying jobs.” 

The source of her resolve 

Shirek credits her upbringing for her unflagging commitment to community activism. She was raised on a 160-acre farm in rural Arkansas, which was homesteaded by her grandparents, freed Mississippi slaves. Her instinct for political activism and powerful speaking voice was encouraged by her father who was a farmer, school teacher and activist in their rural community.  

“My father was very interested in us speaking clearly at school presentations and family meals,” said Shirek, who is the oldest of 10 children. “Both my dad and mother were very active in the community.” 

Shirek said her early years on the farm were characterized by a cooperative life style in which everybody relied on one another for support. “There was one plow we all shared and everybody exchanged services like tool sharpening, shoe cobbling and so on,” she said.  

It was also on the family farm that Shirek developed a life-long relationship with fresh food. The modest farm produced wild berries, fruit trees, potatoes, peanuts, peas and sugar cane. 

Since she founded the New Light Senior Center in 1976, Shirek has insisted on fresh, healthy ingredients for the mid-day meals. She doesn’t allow any salt, sugar or fried foods. Dessert is always a piece of fruit appropriate for the meal. 

Three days a week, about 50 nicely dressed seniors file into the center, pay $2 and sit down at long tables for a sociable, farm-styled lunch. 

“It is such a great thing, I come here three days a week,” said Gloria Trahan, 77. “I’ve stopped eating salt. You’re just more inclined to pay attention to what you eat because everybody else is eating healthy.” 

According to New Light Senior Center Director Jackie Dubose, the center will lose about 10 percent of its funding over the next two years. “With our limited budget that’s a huge cutback,” she said. “We will continue to serve meals but its going to be much harder.” 

Asked about the cutbacks Shirek said with her venerated voice and a faint smile: “The struggle continues.” 

Those interested in contributing to the New Light Senior Center can call Director Jackie Dubose at 510-549-2666. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 

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 

Butterfly Count Come help with the annual butterfly count. Meet at North Oxford Tract driveway off Walnut St. just north of Delaware St. Call for details. 642-3207. powellj@nature.berkeley.edu 

“Suppressed Histories: Ancient Iraq” Max Dashu presents her slideshow, focusing on Iraqi women, from farming villages 7,000 years ago, to the empires of Sumeria, Babylonia, and Assyria, to the Muslim era, at 7:30 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Cost is $10-15. Wheelchair accessible. 654-9298. 

Farmers’ Market at Bay Street Emeryville, fresh produce, flowers, baked goods, and specialty food items, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 655-4002. www.baystreetemery 

ville.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 

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

Summer Solstice Celebration at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Live music by Clan Dyken and Wake the Dead. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Solar Electricity For Your Home Learn how to design your own solar electrical generator. A short field trip to a functioning house/system and current catalog of available equipment are included. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610.  

Friends of Five Creeks work party to remove (thornless) blackberries at Cerrito Creek on the south edge of Pacific East Mall, 3288 Pierce. Meet at 10 a.m., bring work gloves, shovels, loppers if you can. 848-9358. F5creeks@aol.com 

Forces That Shape the Bay  

A weekend of family-oriented activities and events to celebrate the opening of LHS's permanent science park. Ride earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion, and see the Bay with powerful telescopes. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. 

643-5961.www.lawrencehall 

ofscience.org 

Youth Institute -- Rise Up: Tools to Resist Militarism in Our Schools Join with others who are working on counter-recruitment and other anti-militarism work. Youth especially encouraged to attend. Workshops include Know Your Rights; Poverty Draft (or Military Myths); Peer Resources and Organizing in the Schools; Alternatives to the Military; Combating JROTC. From 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. We are looking for 50 high school students and 20 parents and/or school workers to carry on activities in fall 2003. Registration required. For details, or to register, contact Ron Wooden, 415-565-0201 ext. 27, or email rwooden@afsc.org or erosenberg@afsc.org 

Our Bankrupt Schools 

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock holds a public hearing on the fiscal crisis in public schools, examining why schools go bankrupt, what current mechanisms are in place to avoid bankruptcies, what happens in a bankruptcy and ideas on improving our school system. At 10 a.m. Richmond City Hall North, Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, 2600 Barrett Ave., Richmond. Free. For more information call 559-1478. 

Vegetable Oil Diesel Conversion Workshop, on Sat. June 21 and Sun. June 22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A free workshop on converting diesels to run on vegetable oil using the Elsbet conversion kit. Leading the workshop will be a mechanic from the Elsbet company in Germany. Multiple Mercedes diesels will be converted. Held at 611 Hearst. 841-3607.  

Livermore Action Group Reunion, 20th Anniversary of the International Day of Nuclear Disarmament and book-release party for “Direct Action,” from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Unitarian Fellow- 

ship, at Cedar and Bonita. Free, open to the public. For information contact George Franklin, 415-255-7623 or info@directaction.org, www.directaction.org  

Plastics, Health, and the Environment: A Bay Area Roundtable Share the latest information on plastics, including scientific findings, recycling updates, activist campaigns, and strategies for reducing and preventing packaging waste. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch not included. At the Berkeley Public Library, Central Community Room, 2090 Kittredge. Please RSVP to Carrie Teiken, 527-5555.  

Canoe Outing with Save The Bay Celebrate the first day of summer with a paddle at Goodyear Slough, in Suisun Bay. Explore the tule marsh, 

observe wildlife and discuss wetland ecology and conservation. From 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., $25 for Save The Bay members, $30 for non-members. To register or for more information call 542-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

Volunteers for Kucinich meets for committee formation and team-tabling training at 10 a.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 636-4149. 

Kol Hadash, Family Shabbat with Rabbi Kai Eckstein,  

“Celebrating Our Jewish- 

ness,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring lunch for your family, and dessert to share. We also collect non-perishable food for the needy. 233-6880. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 22 

Native Plants and Insects  

Take a walk to identify native plants and learn about their insect companions and native plant gardening. For children and adults 8 and over, 2 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. tnarea@ 

ebparks.org 

Creating An Ecological House A class with Skip Wenz, author of “Adding To A House and Ecotecture: Designing a Sustainable Future,” on modeling houses on ecosystems, with natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610.  

“What’s Going On at the Livermore Labs?” a teach-in by Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, from 3 to 5 p.m, at 2550 Dana St. Free, but seating is limited. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Register by calling 524-7989. SandyH@iopener.net 

“Healing through Compas- 

sion,” with Erika Rosenberg, at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 23 

Community Orchard Project Public Hearing will be held by the The City of Berkeley’s Parks and Recreation Commission regarding the proposed Community Orchard Project on two blocks of the Santa Fe right-of-way be- 

tween Ward and Carleton, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6715. 

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

unteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 24 

Meet Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and acknowledge the commissioners and non-profit organizations that help make a difference in District 5, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 272-6695. 

Lawyers in the Library at 6 p.m. in the West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6270. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 

Berkeley Partners for Parks Haskell-Mabel Mini-Park Play Area Renovation Meeting, at 7 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St. at San Pablo Park. Contact Landscape Architect Yi-Liang Kao for more information, 981-6435. 

Cerrito Creek Access Final public meeting on plans for pedestrian and bicycle access along Cerrito Creek from the Ohlone Greenway to the Eastshore State Park, at 7 p.m., Albany City Hall. For information contact Friends of Five Creeks, 848-9358 or F5creeks@aol.com 

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. 

For information on the classes call 848-5143. 527-5332. 

Berkeley Food Policy Council meets at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. The Berkeley Food Policy Council is a coalition of residents, non-profit agencies, community groups, school district and city agencies formed in 1999 to in- 

crease community food access and help build a healthy regional food system. Everyone is welcome. 

548-3333.  

“Crisis in the Schools: What Can be Done?” Discussion with Terry Doran, Berkeley School Board member and Teacher Jonah Zern of Edu- 

cation Not Incarceration, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berke- 

ley Senior Center. All welcome. Sponsored by the Ber- 

keley Gray Panthers. 548-9696.  

“Local Heroes: Changing Sustainability Cultures One Company at a Time” Panel discussion on how individuals can change the sustainability culture in their company, from 6 to 7:30 pm, at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Admission is $7 for SBA members, $10 for non-members. Sponsored by the The Sustainable Business Alliance. For information and registration visit www.sustainablebiz.org or call 282-5151. 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Uni- 

tarian Universalist Fellow- 

ship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. Join fellow human rights activists to help promote social justice one individual at a time. 872-0768. 

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 26 

Berkeley NAACP Youth Council Pinning Ceremony and Silent Auction, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive. Cost is $20 per person, $150 for a table of eight, and includes light refreshments and deserts. Your support will help send five Berkeley youth to the 94th Annual NAACP Convention in Miami. 330-8577. berkeleynaacp@hotmail.com,www.naacp.org 

Discussion: Zoot Soot Riots 

A panel discussion on one of the worst race riots in U.S. history, with Jose Montoya and Dr. Jose Cuellar. Film clips will also be shown. At 7:30 p.m. at at La Peña Cul- 

tural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Public Hearing on Ursula Sherman Village, Draft Environmental Impact Report, conducted by the Zoning Adjustments Board, at 7:10 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Written comments should be submitted to Wendy Cosin, Planning Dept., 2118 Milvia St., Berkeley 94704, before 5 p.m. Mon. July 7. 981-7402. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek  

Meeting on Water Quality Arleen Feng, an engineer/ 

scientist with the Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program, will discuss how we can monitor contaminants, limit storm water pollution and generally improve water quality in Strawberry Creek. Danny Akagi or Lorin Jen- 

sen of the Berkeley Public Works Department will also attend, and Bayla Bower, a creekside resident on Allston Way, will share what she has learned about water quality, at 6:30 p.m. at the Corporation Yard Green Room, 1326 Allston Way. For more information, contact at janet@ 

earthlink.net or 848-4008. 

Berkeley Friends Meeting with Catherine Hunter to discuss a new Quaker School in San Francisco, at 7 p.m., at 2151 Vine St. 705-7314. 

ONGOING 

Educators Academy: 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 as- 

sistance is available. For information call 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. 

Summer Science Weeks: Insects and Plants Count butterflies, hunt bugs, and meet common plant families. Mondays, June 30 to July 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for ages 9 to 12, in Tilden Nature Area in Tilden Park. Cost is $150 for Berkeley residents, $166 for non-residents. Financial assistance available for low-income families. For information call 636-1684.  

Bay Area Technology Education Collaborative, a community non-profit offers low-cost training in Computer Information Technology. For information call 451-7300, ext. 604. www.baytec.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Monday, June 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/com 

missions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Monday June 23, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

Civic Arts Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. 

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

Disaster Council meets Wednesday, June 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wednesday, June 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Mental Health Commission 

meets Wednesday, June 25, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213.  

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

Planning Commission meets Wednesday, June 25, 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 25, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. 

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

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thursday, June 26, at 7 p.m., at 1900 Sixth St. Iris Starr, 981-7520. 

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

Zoning Adjustments Board 

meets Thursday, June 26, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/zoning 

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

INDEPENDENT BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a member—and partisan—of former Mayor Shirley Dean’s office staff,  Barbara Gilbert’s June 13 commentary (“Sacred Cow”) assailing the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board budget and operations is not a surprise. 

What is a surprise, however, is Ms. Gilbert’s apparent misreading of the Rent Board’s and the City of Berkeley’s fiscal relationship. 

Ms. Gilbert erroneously states that the Berkeley city manager has “review” authority over the Rent Board budget. She also mistakenly wonders why “city budget documents” do not contain Rent Board budget operations. 

To correct the record: Just like the Berkeley Unified School District budget or the Vista/Peralta Community College District budget, the Rent Stabilization Board maintains an independent, autonomous—and balanced—budget completely separate from the City of Berkeley.  

There is no fiscal or operational connection between the two budgets.  

Also, Ms. Gilbert complains that performing an audit of the Rent Board “is all but impossible.” In fact, an independent, outside auditor conducts an audit every year. C. G. Uhlenberg LLP, a certified public accounting firm, performed the Rent Board’s most recent 2002 audit. 

To address Ms. Gilbert’s point about the number of Rent Board employees: since 1995, the total number of employees (“full-time equivalents” or FTEs) has decreased by 20 percent. 

This 20 percent staff reduction reflects the elected affordable housing Rent Board majority’s successful commitment to increased employee efficiency and streamlined agency operations. Also, despite significant Bay Area inflation rate increases, the Rent Board’s 2003-2004 unit registration fee matches the agency’s 1991-1992 fee level. 

Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board is perhaps the city’s most critical elected body. The board administers the city’s single largest affordable housing public policy program: 19,000 regulated units providing tens of thousands of Berkeley citizens with rent level stability and housing security.  

Without the city’s 1980 voter-approved Rent Board, Berkeley’s unique and vibrant character, diversity and sizable affordable housing stock would have eroded—or disappeared—long ago, given the Bay Area’s explosive real estate market prices over the past two decades. 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

RETIRED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Friday, June 13, I read two articles in your newspaper that prompted me to write. One was about the Berkeley Adult School moving to the Franklin School site, and the other was about the two retirees from Berkeley Unified School District.  

It might be interesting to you that on Friday, June 13, I retired from the Berkeley Adult School. I have taught ESL, computer applications and business English and math. I was the evening ESL coordinator for more than two years. I helped create a wonderful ESL computer lab, which is the plum of our ESL program, along with the more than 35 ESL classes taught daily morning, afternoon and evening. 

Berkeley Adult School has a large group of teachers as qualified as the teachers in other school programs in the Berkeley Unified School District. We have to have a teaching credential, too. The big difference is that teachers are hired as hourly teachers at Berkeley Adult School! This definitely has not been a popular situation with the teachers at BAS, but we enjoy teaching immigrants and other adults to speak our language and learn about our multifaceted cultures.  

My pension will be exceedingly small even though I taught English at College of Alameda for eight years (part-time of course) and several other places around the East Bay (when I was a freeway flyer or, as I like to call it, a Road Scholar). 

Prior to coming to Berkeley in 1988, I taught full-time at the American University of Beirut (1983-1986) and knew the hostages personally. I also taught at Truman College in Chicago, and will be probably be teaching there again in the fall, as I don’t have sufficient retirement equity to really retire. 

Kay Wade 

• 

FOREIGN POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

During “Operation Enduring Freedom,” the aerial bombardments against strongholds like Mazar-e-Sharif (in early November 2001) and those against Kandahar in the south and Tora Bora in the east (after the conquest by Northern Alliance troops of Kabul—the Afghan capital—on Nov. 20, 2001) were intense, but so was the fire of the special units which fought on the ground.  

The United States and its allies have as much to fear from heavy reliance on newfangled gadgets as they do from outmoded military concepts: During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Patriot missiles shot down two coalition aircraft, killing both crews—one aircraft was American, the other British. Any formal Chinese response to the withdrawal from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Korea would be linked with the new strategic framework talks that include National Missile Defense. China’s relations with the United States notably cooled after the Bush Administration notified Russia of its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, in December 2001.  

The Bush Administration partially lifted sanctions against India and Pakistan on Sept. 22, 2001—initially imposed because of the proliferation of nuclear weapons—two days after the ultimatum to the Taliban. Pervez Musharraf, President General of Pakistan, announced his support for Operation Enduring Freedom at that time. In doing so, Musharraf went way out on a limb.  

There are robust political implications of the withdrawal of American ground troops from the DMZ. In any case, talks with the two Koreas must include Japan, China and Russia. The U.S. Second Infantry Division has moved south of the Han River. This military redeployment is in the wake of the last South Korean election, in which Roh Moo-hyun, then-Member of Parliament from Seoul would have identified the United States with the River Styx to have gained favor with the South Korean electorate.  

In one sense, the North Koreans can claim that the return of the Yongsan military base, situated in downtown Seoul on some of the most valuable real estate in the world, is owed as much to their threats of Armageddon as to the campaign rhetoric of the recently elected President Roh. How much of the $11 billion the United States will now contribute to the Defense of South Korea will be used to tidy up the river near Yongsan, a northern tributary of the Han River, which Roh accuses the American military of polluting? Had anti-Americanism (I was there, I saw it) not been so pronounced in South Korea in the run-up to the election, the American troop’s withdrawal from the DMZ might be compared to “the night the tuans ran” from Singapore during the early stages of World II.  

Richard Thompson 

Former professor  

Honam University, South Korea 

Berkeley summer resident 

• 

HOPE FOR FUTURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The editorial, “Planning for the People,” by Becky O’Malley interested me greatly. My late husband, Jack Kent, who was a professional city planner, served on the Berkeley Planning Commission from 1949 to 1957, at which time he was elected to the Berkeley City Council. He also established the Department of City Planning at the university, and would, I believe, have heartily agreed with the opinions expressed therein. I remember clearly his disagreement with Robert Moses’ approach to the process of city planning. 

I still live in north Berkeley where the streets follow the contours of the land and remember how Jack appreciated this. I think he would have liked Phil Kamlarz very much, and I feel hopeful for the future of this great town where I was born 82 years ago. 

Mary Tolman Kent 

• 

CURB SPENDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While Supervisor Keith Carson performs a valuable service highlighting the costs of the administration’s military incursion into Iraq, after the first few paragraphs he descends into a litany of complaints which imply that California’s record fiscal deficit is somehow related to our nation’s ridiculous military expenditures. In so doing he fails to point Californians back to the path that led us here: profligate spending. Had our elected representatives in Sacramento shown restraint when presented with the bull market riches of the late 1990s, we would not face our current state deficit. 

The electorate (that is, you and I) do not escape blame either. In 2002 we chose to vote in the most expensive bond spending bills ever seen in California: Proposition 40 (Parks) at $2.6 billion, Proposition 46 (Homeless Shelters) at $2.1 billion, Proposition 47 (Education Construction) at $13.6 billion, and Proposition 50 (Wetlands) at $3.4 billion.  

That’s $22 billion in principal, and another $22 billion in interest. Over the next 30 years that’s about $1.5 billion a year just to service the debt from the 2002 election. Just how are you planning to pay for all that anyhow? 

In the face of all of this debt, California’s debt rating has been repeatedly downgraded and hovers two notches above junk rating. The effect? We pay about 0.5 percent more in interest. The bottom line of all of this spending is higher taxes or fewer services as more money goes to servicing our enormous debt. This is true for both the national debt and California’s deficit spending. 

Mr. Carson also cites the devaluation of the dollar and the drop in the DJIA as if these are bad things. But the devaluation of the American dollar has positive economic effects by making our exports cheaper in relation to foreign currencies. More exports, more income; more income, more jobs. And as for the DJIA being down 23 percent, that’s called regression to the mean—a much needed return to fundamental economic values. 

What can we do about all of this debt? Vote fiscally conservative. Oppose omnibus bond spending bills. Force Sacramento to cap its budget increases to the inflation rate. (Although attempts to do this in Albany, N.Y., have apparently caused an increasing number of bills to be presented as “one-time emergencies.”) Stop looking at government services as if someone else is going to pay for them. And finally, quit complaining when the bill comes due! 

John Vinopal 

• 

TITLE 

Dear Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like Jerry Holl’s idea (Daily Planet, May 27) to write “Topple Bush” on every letter we send through the mail. However, my slogan of choice is: “Show Bush the Door in 2004.” Pass it on. 

T. Marcus 

• 

TITLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The following letter was addressed to City Manager Weldon Rucker: 

I am writing on behalf of the Berkeley Council of the Blind, an affiliate of the California Council of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, regarding the city’s having reversed its decision to reorganize the city Disability Compliance Program from the Public Works Department to the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Since its incorporation into city government, the Disability Compliance Program has primarily focused on issues and concerns of individuals with mobility-related disabilities. The city has basically ignored the larger part of the disability community, those with communication-related disabilities, i.e. individuals who are blind and visually impaired, deaf and hearing impaired, cognitively impaired and individuals with certain non-apparent disabilities. A review of the city’s budget patterns shows that 100 percent of all ADA funding has been allocated toward fiscal access issues, i.e. curb ramps, electric doors, ramps and other structural considerations. Conversely, the city has elected to budget zero dollars to enhance access for the much larger portion of its disability community.  

Mr. Rucker, as a tax-paying individual with a disability, I find it absolutely demeaning and personally offensive for the City of Berkeley not to recognize individuals with disabilities as humans, but rather continue to view this population on the same level it views parking meters, street lights and other lifeless objects. It is time for this type of backward thinking to stop. In the year of 2003, it is not acceptable to segregate individuals based on their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Why is the city comfortable in its active participation in the segregation of individuals with disabilities in relationship to programs and services by relegating this population to the narrow confines of a public works department? 

You have an opportunity to right this wrong by exercising your executive prerogative and doing the right thing. If this type of offensive treatment is no longer considered to be acceptable on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, it should not be considered as acceptable simply because the group are individuals with disabilities. 

Angela Griffith, President  

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the letter to the editor, by John Koenigshofer, of June 10-12:   

Mr. Koenigshofer’s main argument against rent control, that it interferes with the freedom to contract, can serve as the basis for opposition to minimum wage laws, workplace safety rules, consumer protection regulations—indeed, any public attempt to curb the socially damaging results of leaving the private market (which, after all, consists of a set of contracts between businesses and others) to its own devices. 

In the early days of the 20th century, some judges used Mr. Koenigshofer’s  rationale to overturn the first versions of social legislation: laws protecting female employees against dangerously long work hours. Later on, the judiciary rejected this notion of the sanctity of contracts and recognized that public welfare justifies government intervention in a wide variety of “private” economic relationships. 

At least Mr. Koenigshofer’s line of thinking places rent control where it belongs, as part of the body of sensible economic regulations that have tamed the savage tendencies of laissez-faire capitalism. 

These regulations are under assault from the extreme right. Accepting Mr. Koenigshofer’s logic would take us where some of the more brazen ideologues surrounding George W. Bush want to go, back to the glorious days when unbridled freedom to contract enabled workers to be paid starvation wages, consumers to be poisoned, and renters to be gouged. 

Randy Silverman 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two years ago, Berkeley Unified hired a new food services director. In the first year of her administration, Food Services lost $800,000. This year, according to BUSD budget reports, Food Services lost $900,000. During this period, food services administrators’ salaries increased by over $100,000 while the entire department has only 35 mainly part-time workers. The three full-time administrators' salaries and benefits total about $250,000. $900,000 would pay for quite a few teachers.  

It’s no secret why Food Services is losing money. In an era where even McDonald’s and Jack in the Box are featuring salads, the new director terminated the popular farmers’ market salad bars as a cost-cutting measure. Instead cottage cheese and cling peaches became staples on the salad bar.  

A very expensive food preparation unit (estimated at $200,000) was purchased and placed on the black top at Berkeley High School. It has cooking facilities, refrigeration, the works. Yet, this food unit only sells pizza, soda, water and juice.  

And in a school of 3,000 students, the director of food services only manages to sell four to six orders of pizza a day. No wonder the department is losing money, hand over fist.  

Two years ago, the director of the very successful Santa Monica program applied for the job, and we didn’t hire him. Santa Monica’s food services has a farmers’ market salad bar in every school. Each school has regular cafeteria staff plus a salad bar manager. The Santa Monica Food Services department is so successful, they fund a school garden volunteer coordinator and a part-time horticulture teacher at their high school.  

How long do we give someone before we decide that this person is not competent. Is two years and a loss of $1.7 million enough? I would much rather have teachers or music or librarians or sports than cottage cheese and cling peaches with a $900,000 bill.  

Yolanda Huang 

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “55 Days at Peking” 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 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Better Shove this Letter into the Stove” with Robert H. Hirst, Ph.D., Professor, Doe  

Library; Director, Mark Twain Project, 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. 

Regina Louise talks about her childhood running away from over 30 foster homes in “Somebody’s Someone” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Carole Terwillenger Meyers will show slides and discuss her updated book, “Weekend Adventures in Northern California,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Legacy Series, with Columna B and the Snake Trio. Panel at 7:30 p.m., performance at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $15 at the door.  

849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Fania, a Senegalese singer, performs at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Irish Ceili Night, with lessons at 7 p.m., dancing at 9 p.m. at the International House, 2299 Piedmont. Cost is $11 for class and dancing, $7 after 9 p.m. 650-326-6265. www.fridaynightwaltz.com 

Wake the Dead, a Celtic tri- 

bute to the Grateful Dead, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Alessandra Belloni, Southern Italian percussionist, singer, and dancer performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Virus 9, The Enemies, The Frisk, Endless Struggle, Contraceptions 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. 

Jucifer, Drunk Horse, and Replicator perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Orixa, The Audrye Sessions, and Fine by Me perform rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 

CHILDREN 

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” Books go on sale at 12:01 a.m. at Cody’s on Fourth St. 559-9500 and Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

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

Youth Music Clinic on Rhythm at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Celebrate Summer with readings of “It’s Summer- 

time” and “How Will We Get to the Beach?” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

“Videodrome,” a film about video, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Douglas Sirk: “All I Desire” at 5 and 8:45 p.m., and “All That Heaven Allows” 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 

“Let’s Face It,” a free screening of the documentary about women exploring their aging faces, featuring Berkeley women, at 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave., at Masonic. 526-5075. www.letsfaceit.tv  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“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 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

Tom Heasley performs on his digitally manipulated tuba, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Suggested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville. Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

Prom Nite with Harvey Sid Fisher, folk-pop lounge crooner, at 10 p.m. at The Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave., Albany. Cost is $7 for singles, $10 for couples. 524-9220. 

New Spirit Talent Show,  

featuring music, dance and comedy, at 7 p.m. at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Cost is $8-$20. 704-7729. 

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

The Servants and special guests perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Hyim Sextet, Thunderpussy and Fiyawata perform pop funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Johnny Nocturne and Mz. Dee perform at 9:30 p.m., with a swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashken- 

az.com 

Under a Dying Sun, Light the Fuse and Run, Transistor Transistor, The November Group, Angry for Life 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 22 

CHILDREN 

Teatro Nahual presents “La Otra Cara del Indio,” en español at 2 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Caribbean Kids’ Show with Asheba from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

“The Frisco Kid,” a humorous look at Jewish pioneers in the American West, with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

Douglas Sirk: “The First Legion” 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 

“Teaching Teo,” a humorous short about raising a child in a lesbian household, by Ber- 

keley resident and former Willard teacher Diane Dodge, at noon at the Castro Theater in SF. 649-9956. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Summer Solstice Gathering of Poets with Adam David Miller, Rita Flores Bogaert, David Shaddock, Carolyn Scarr, Steve Arntson and Dennis Fritzinger, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Community Garden on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

Poets Miriam Sagan and Gary Young at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jerry Zolten chronicles the 75-year history of an important musical group in “Great God A’mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Guided Tour of Paul Kos: “Everything Matters,” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, at 2 p.m. Free for members, UC students, faculty and staff, $5 seniors and disabled, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Beck performs at 3 p.m. at the Greek Theater, Piedmont and Hearst Aves. Tickets for $39.50 are available from www.ticketmaster.com 

Joseph Zitt's Calculating Codes and Naive Melodies, 

works for sextet, and Aaron Bennett's Electro-magnetic 

Trans-personal Orchestra at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Admission is free, donations accepted. 649-8744. http://sfsound.org/acme 

African Drum Workshop, held every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., experienced from 12:30 to 2 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advan- 

ced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Piedmont Youth Bagpipe Band performs at noon at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive near Grizzly Peak. 642-5132.  

Listen and Bayonics perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. ww.blakesontelegraph.com 

Sourdough Slim, humor and music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville. Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

MONDAY, JUNE 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Huston Smith, authority on world religions, discusses his new book, “Buddhism: A Concise Introduction,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Will Ferguson presents his satirical anti-self help manual, “Happiness,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 24 

FILM 

Peter Watkins: “The Jour- 

ney,” episodes 7-13, at 6 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 

Berkeley Summer Poetry 

from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, and short fiction artists welcome. 549-1128. 

Craig Danner introduces his first novel, “Himalayan Dhaba,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Firoozeh Dumas talks about life in Southern California with her extended Iranian family in “Funny in Farsi”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Richard Sterling discusses his new book “World Food in California Cuisine,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

Kathy Sanborn discusses her new book, “The Seasons of Your Career,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tanja Fiechtmair on the Alto Sax at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zeller- 

bach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs. 

berkeley.edu 

D. B. Walker Band plays the blues at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Waikiki Steel Works, Hawaiian-flavored steel guitar at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “The Andromeda Strain” 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 

Robert MacNeil, Canadian-born former co-anchor of  

The MacNeil-Lehrer News 

Hour, discusses his new book, “Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Julie Shigekuni reads from her new novel, “Invisible Gardens,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Diana DeLonzor presents cures for the punctually challenged in “Never be Late Again” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zeller- 

bach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs. 

berkeley.edu 

Paul Thorn, one-man house-rocker, 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 

Susie Ibarra, improv drummer, performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Cocodril performs traditional Lousiana fare at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 26 

FILM 

Peter Watkins: “The Jour- 

ney,” episodes 14-19, at 6 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 

Cecil Brown uncovers the story of a legendary crime in “Stagolee Shot Billy” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Darren Shan returns with his latest adventures in the Cir- 

que du Freak series, “Vampire Prince,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500.www.codysbooks.com 

Nancy Rawles reads from her new novel about a Creole matriarch, “Crawfish Dreams,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mario Jimenez Castillo reveals the meaning of dreams in “Diccionario de Los Suenos.” Presentation in Spanish and English at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with Voz e Vento, a Brazilian jazz emsemble, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Assoc. 549-2230. 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zeller- 

bach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs. 

berkeley.edu 

Belle de Gama, Low Flying Owls and Liz Anah Band perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Ruthie Foster, Texas blues and gospel singer, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Sal- 

vage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Sarah Luella/Local Love Enforcement and CitiZen One at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

AT THE THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “The Bacchae,” directed by David Stein. Euripedes’ play about Dionysus and his revenge against a hateful king. Sat. and Sun., June 21 through July 6, at 5:30 p.m., outdoors in John Hinkle Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Ave and Somerset Place. 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. Through July 5, Tues. - Sun., call for starting times. $10 - $54. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949.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 dates and times. The Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org  

Central Works Theater Ensemble, “The Wyrd Sisters” directed by Jan Zvaifler. Through 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. Through June 29, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., Sun. June 29 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org

Two weeks after newly appointed Berkeley High School principal Patty Christa abruptly resigned, the school district named the runner-up from this spring’s principal search to the high-profile post Thursday. 

Jim Slemp, assistant superintendent of the Eugene School District 4J in Oregon, will become the fifth Berkeley High principal in six years when he takes the helm in July. 

Board of Education Director Shirley Issel played down any concerns that Slemp is not as strong a candidate as Christa, describing the new appointee as an “exceptionally good listener” who will serve “with a lot of heart and a lot of integrity.” 

Slemp, for his part, said he plans to stick around, bringing stability to the troubled high school.  

“I sort of make decisions four or five years at a time,” said Slemp, 56, in a phone interview Thursday with the Daily Planet. “Nothing could be worse than having someone there a short period of time.” 

But parents and teachers, shaken by Christa’s sudden departure and well-versed in Berkeley High’s tradition of rapid turnover at the top, took a wait-and-see attitude Thursday. 

“I think people are in such shock,” said English teacher Rick Ayers. “We’re always hopeful and we’ll just have to see what happens.” 

Slemp, who earned a Certificate of Theological Studies at Berkeley’s Pacific School of Religion in 1971, worked over the course of 22 years as a principal at four different schools, including the American School in London, England, before becoming an assistant superintendent in Eugene in 2000. 

He was one of three finalists this spring for the top job at Berkeley High, but Christa edged him out. Slemp was weighing another job as principal of Gaithersburg High School in Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C., when Christa quit and Berkeley Superintendent Michele Lawrence asked him if he wanted the position. 

Lawrence said Slemp struck her as a calm, inquisitive figure who might bring stability to the troubled high school. 

“I think it’s perhaps exactly what we need,” she said. 

Slemp said his first priority, when he arrives in Berkeley in mid-July, will be developing a rapport with community and staff. 

“I enjoy bringing people together, talking, having good relationships,” he said. 

Slemp said he will also focus on a major reform effort, approved by the Board of Education June 4, that will place half of Berkeley High’s students in a series of schools-within-a-school by the 2005-2006 school year. 

Slemp, who oversaw a small schools transition in the late-1990s as principal of Eugene’s Winston Churchill High School, said small schools can be effective for many students. But he praised the district for deciding to place only half its pupils in the program. 

“I always worry when you’re talking about high school students and absolutes,” he said, arguing that not all students would thrive in small schools. 

The appointment of Slemp is the latest in a string of high-level changes in the Berkeley Unified School District. In late April and early May, all three of the district’s associate superintendents announced their resignations, two of them to take jobs as superintendents elsewhere.  

The cash-strapped district, in a cost-saving move, replaced only one of its top administrators, hiring Eric Smith to replace Jerry Kurr as associate superintendent of business and operations. 

Then, on May 21, Berkeley High School co-principals Mary Ann Valles and Laura Leventer announced their resignations, sending shock waves through the school. Valles, who took a job as a middle school principal in San Leandro, and Leventer, who is taking a leave to deal with a family medical emergency, were slated to serve as vice principals under Christa next year.  

Eight days later, Christa bailed, just a month after being hired. The move raised doubts about the stability of the high school, which faces continual problems with student safety, scheduling and the “achievement gap” separating white and Asian students from blacks and Hispanics.  

Christa did not comment publicly on her decision, but Lawrence said the erstwhile principal felt overwhelmed by staff and parents who bombarded her with meeting requests and focused heavily on all the problems at the sprawling school. 

Lawrence cautioned parents and staff against overwhelming Slemp. 

“Having him be successful is the responsibility of the entire community,” she said. 

Parent activist Michael Miller, of Parents of Children of African Descent, agreed that the community must back the new principal. But he chastised the superintendent for failing to heed a recent open letter, signed by Miller and more than 40 other community activists, and published in the June 13 edition of the Daily Planet, that called for an extensive, nationwide search, with heavy community involvement, in the wake of Christa’s departure. 

Lawrence defended the selection process, arguing that Slemp had already been vetted by a parent interview committee during the initial hiring process. But Miller, who served on the committee, said members got scant information about each of the candidates in advance of the brief interviews. 

The mayor has convened an advisory task force taking on the difficult task of trying to make our planning process better. I offer the following comments to spur public input into this process. To me, there are two “big picture” problems with Berkeley’s planning process: 

1—Misapplication of Use Permit Process. Berkeley’s Zoning Code overextends the reach of the use permit into areas that are better served by the combination of a reasonable “by right” envelope and a variance if exceptions are required.  

2—Poor Alignment of Staff and Community. Friction between “professional” planning and Berkeley’s commissions and community members must be overcome. 

Both of these areas have solutions. 

Use Permit Background: A use permit was originally intended to deal with compatible and incompatible “uses.” For example, if you want to have a grocery store, a printing press or a music club, a planning process ensues to determine if this “use” is compatible with the neighborhood in which you want to locate it. Hence the “detriment” finding: the use will not be detrimental to the health, safety, peace, morals, comfort or general welfare of persons residing in the neighborhood.  

A variance is intended to deal with exceptions from a consistent “by right” envelope for physical structures. For example, to build a commercial building, a mixed-use building or a residential building, there is an envelope of height, setbacks, open space and required parking that establishes development consistent with the intended fabric of a neighborhood.  

A discretionary planning process only ensues if you require a variance—an exception to the standard rules. Hence the “exceptional circumstances” finding—there are exceptional or extraordinary circumstances applying that do not apply generally to land, buildings and/or uses in the same district. 

Solution: Revise our Zoning Code to establish reasonable “by right” envelopes for all building types by district, grant exceptions by variance, and limit the use permit process to uses. This need not “take years” —this how planning is done in most cities across the United States. Berkeley has numerous planning documents demonstrating community consensus on what this envelope is. 

Opportunity: Developers and homeowners are looking for a fair, consistent process. The clear rules of a “by right” planning process will spur a blossoming of three- and four-story buildings replacing parking lots and one-story structures on Shattuck, San Pablo and University Avenues (allowing us to build our “fair share” of housing and more). Acrimonious neighborhood battles over partial second stories would be the exception, rather than the rule. ZAB Meetings might even end before midnight! 

Barriers: For reasons that are puzzling, our professional planning staff and a small cadre of activists and developers are at odds with our citizens on the level of density, setbacks and parking that our community finds acceptable.  

Alignment of Staff and Community Background: The management and staffing of the city Planning Department are troubled. During the three years I served on the ZAB, there were five different zoning officers. The planning director (the third to depart in the past five years) trumpeted criticism of our community and commissions as reasons for her departure. Her criticism merits consideration.  

I experienced considerable tension between “professional” planning and our community boards when I was on the ZAB. From where I sat, I found myself dismayed by staff reports that were frequently unprofessional in their writing and biases. I felt bad for applicants who had been drawn through a lengthy process, only to find that the staff’s suggested findings were at odds with previous board decisions, and showed a less sophisticated understanding of the Berkeley Zoning Code than that demonstrated by members of the board.  

Causes: Certainly, the “overworked” staff’s inconsistent interpretation of the code can be attributed to the poor fit between use permit findings and physical construction. A Planning Department culture that can be charitably characterized as indifferent to Berkeley’s citizens and commissioners, and a planning ideology that holds a different vision of our community than that held by what I believe are the majority of its citizens (that we are a low-slung, relatively dense community that values human scale and historical fabric) don’t help.  

Solution: Capable, knowledgeable citizens who are responsive to our community’s values staff our commissions. To improve alignment of the Planning Department with our community, the planning director and city manager should implement a formal process where commissioners are asked for written evaluation of the staff’s performance. An action plan should be jointly developed to improve alignment, and monthly meetings between commission chairs and the zoning officer/planning director should be held to monitor progress. Egregious staff reports should be identified and trigger write-ups that go into the staff planner’s personnel record for evaluation and action during annual performance reviews. 

Opportunity: There is a new planning director with considerable administrative expertise.  

Barriers: Institutional change is never easy… 

Kevin Powell has lived in Berkeley since 1980, and served on the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) from 1996 to 1999. He received his Master’s degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley. 

A recent straw poll taken by the political advocacy group MoveOn.org named Dennis Kucinich, John Kerry and Howard Dean as the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination among its members.  

The three candidates were then invited to write an e-mail introducing their platforms to the online political community. Now, though the country’s first primary is still seven months away, Berkeley-born MoveOn is a few days away from its 48-hour primary, which begins June 24, to determine who will receive its endorsement. 

“The choice will pretty much be set in stone eight months from now,” said Carrie Olson, MoveOn’s chief operating officer. “If we’re involved now, perhaps we can make a change from what otherwise might be handed down based on what the Washington political scene tells us is best for us.” 

The endorsed candidate will receive a significant campaign contribution. In 2002, with membership less than 500,000, the MoveOn.org Political Action Committee—a legally separate entity that solicits contributions for candidates for political office—raised $4.1 million to put toward election campaigns. With 1.4 million members today, the goal is $10 million. 

But endorsement, said Olson, is more than the money: “To have a committed base of people who are willing to volunteer their time and tell their friends and have house parties and do leafleting, write letters to the editor, keep their eyes on the issue as it moves along. That is invaluable to the process and to any candidate.” 

MoveOn.org is a rare breed of advocacy group that works from the ground up. Although members receive e-mails that draw attention to compelling issues, it is their response that determines the shape of MoveOn’s action. Members also write in independently about what concerns them, respond to each other’s suggestions and propose strategies for effecting change. 

Software entrepreneurs and husband-and-wife team Wes Boyd and Joan Blades founded the Internet-based MoveOn in 1999, amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal that paralyzed Congress. They set up a Web site with a petition urging Congress to censure President Clinton, quickly, and move on to more pressing issues. When the House voted to impeach, in December 1999, the nascent group began a pledge drive with the words: We will remember. 

The following year, the MoveOn.org PAC contributed $2.3 million to 30 congressional campaigns in which the candidate ran against someone who had voted to impeach. Thirteen of their candidates won, including four senators. The crucial balance of the Senate almost tipped.  

MoveOn has not looked back since that November, and the stakes have only increased for Americans whose politics run to the left of center. It has provided an outlet for the unease, anger and frustration of an unknown multitude. “There are tens of millions of people out there, each of whom have real talents,” said Boyd. “When put together in a coherent way, they become unstoppable.” 

Although Boyd, Blades and Olson all live and work in Berkeley, the city does not serve as headquarters in any traditional sense. MoveOn has only four paid employees, spread from San Francisco to New York City and Washington, D.C. They rely on the members who log on from across the country to form the group’s collective consciousness. MoveOn follows where the majority leads. 

Where that’s been is into every area of government policy, foreign and domestic. In February they focused on Bush’s reshaping of the judicial branch, flooding Senate offices with calls in support of the filibuster to prevent confirmation of conservative nominee Miguel Estrada. In May they fought media consolidation, overwhelming the FCC with so many phone calls and e-mails that, several days prior to the vote, the commission’s voicemail system and Web site went down. They have, most recently, partnered with Win Without War to purchase a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, asking Congress to establish an independent commission to investigate the distortion of evidence regarding weapons of mass destruction. 

Of late, the overarching message has been clear. Said Olson, who reads much of the member e-mail: “They are angry. They are motivated. They want to be involved.” 

“Folks from all walks of life are waking up and saying we have to do something, or we’re going to get into trouble,” Boyd said. “We all have to take responsibility.” 

The membership surge that has made dreams of regime change possible coincided with MoveOn’s stand on the Iraq controversy, said Olson. MoveOn was already backing candidates for 2002 mid-term elections, and sent members a message in support of those who had stood up and said the country shouldn’t go to war in Iraq. They called them heroes. 

Over the next five days, MoveOn was flooded with tens of thousands of e-mails. “We thought we were taking a stand we’d have to defend,” said Olson. And it turned out it was exactly what a lot of people wanted to hear. 

“It seems that every time we take a strong stand and fight on an issue, our membership grows. Folks are looking for leadership where they’ve seen a vacuum. For too long voter apathy has been seen as a voter problem, a constituent problem, but it’s not,” she said. “It’s a leadership problem. Folks are looking for great leadership. They’re just not seeing it. They’re waiting for it.” 

“Washington, D.C., is a wasteland when it comes to ideas,” said Boyd. “People talk about the same things over and over. There needs to be a process of renewal.” 

Looking ahead, Olson said there may be no ideal candidate who can be all things to everybody. But she hopes people can come together to back the one, whoever that may be: “The mainstream media is definitely looking for divisive game playing,” she said. “They want to be able to say the Democrats can’t get their act together; neither can the Greens, and it’s all going to fall apart. They’d love to be able to run that story for the next year and a half. I would love for us to be able to bring together all of our differences and not feed that monster. And instead work toward true change.” 

China has yet again outdone itself in its legacy of terrorism against humanity—this time by forcefully deporting two weeks ago 18 Tibetans to Tibet from nearby Nepal, which otherwise was for these hopeful refugees their doorstep to the outside world, to freedom in exile. 

One cannot help but take his mind to these Tibetans—many of them sick, more than half a dozen of them in their teens—who are now languishing in a prison somewhere in Tibet. It is not hard to imagine their bodies broken by the harrowing ordeals of escaping over the Himalayas, only to be betrayed by the Nepalese government back into their everyday reality of oppression under Chinese occupation. One shudders to think of how their hopes for freedom were crushed under the weight of China’s naked dance of tyranny, staged before the very eyes of the world? 

There is a picture showing Nepalese policemen dragging away an exile Tibetan woman who had tried to stop the deportation by throwing herself before the bus carrying the refugees. Her act in desperation marks the helplessness surrounding the “Free Tibet” movement today. 

Nothing can be more emblematic of the Tibetan situation than the plight of these 18 Tibetans, and nothing more representative of China’s politics than this blatant disregard to both Tibetan rights to freedom and international covenants in law. Even in the seeming refuge of exile, China’s tentacles of repressive authoritarianism reach out with full viciousness.  

The incident is rendered all the more ironic by the way it unfolded amid hopeful signs of reconciliation between China and the exile Tibetan government as heralded by the latter’s just-concluded second delegation visit to China.  

To say that China’s communism and its illegal occupation of Tibet is the biggest blot on the conscience of every free human being today is an understatement. China’s violent persecution of Tibetan people, and all other peoples suffering under it, ridicules the very aspiration for peace and justice that defines our fundamental likeness as citizens of a free world. 

In a reality gone awry, rage is an open resort. We’ve seen this all too overwhelmingly affect our reality. Where despair is tested beyond endurance, violence all too often finds its bloody mark. The question becomes not of choice, nor even of reason. The question, as well as the answer, becomes a blind explosion of desperation and despair set off by a chilling absence of any choice or reason. In the tormentor’s tool of oppression, therefore, the victim finds the ultimate weapon in self-defense: an inescapable rule of human nature which finds testimonies in charred bodies and destroyed buildings strewn across the ravaged landscapes today from Palestine to Northern Ireland, from Chechnya to Sri Lanka, from the Muslim world and beyond.  

Sometime last year, in seeking to disguise Beijing’s persecution of Tibetan people behind the mask of anti-terrorism, a Chinese spokesperson told reporters about Tibetans stockpiling weapons in Tibet. Considering no shred of evidence was brought forth by a repressive regime that has so overwhelmingly infiltrated into all aspects of Tibetan life today, that statement couldn’t be taken as anything but a lie. But conversely and probably unknowingly, he might well have been addressing a danger that is real. 

On an average, over 3,000 Tibetans choose to risk frostbite, deportation, even death, every year by crossing over the Himalayas into the safety of exile. In 1998, an army-retired exile Tibetan, Thupten Ngodup, self-immolated himself in Delhi when the Indian police forcibly hauled Tibetan hunger strikers into waiting vans under pressure from China. All calls for Unto-Death Hunger Strikes by Tibetan Youth Congress invariably attracts hundreds of Tibetan volunteers, in India as well as in the US.  

In the Tibetans’ choosing of “death and destruction” upon self rather the other in their desperate bid for freedom and justice, only they know with what great hardships they’ve so far preserved the delicate balance which is their cultural heritage in non-violence and compassion. Onlookers rarely notice what they sacrifice in return: the instant gratification of walking, with a bomb strapped to your waist, into a room full of your oppressors and knowing you’ll be taking along with you at least a half of them. 

If the events of recent years have done us any good at all, it is that it has brought us new appreciation of our freedom, its meaning and its strength. Moreover, it has brought us an absolute understanding that if life, peace and compassion are to be preserved, it is only through active defense of one’s belief in them. The recent antiwar protests throughout the world leaves us with one legacy: the need to actively champion non-violence wherever they are being played out against the greatest odds imaginable. 

And it all begins with taking a stand for Tibet and the concept for non-violence and peace it represents. It begins with doing more than nodding your heads upon finishing reading this piece.  

Topden Tsering is the President of San Francisco Bay Area Regional Tibetan Youth Congress.

The evening of Jan. 6, 2003, was supposed to be a homecoming for Jennifer Medina and Omar Khan. The couple, wed only 15 months before, was returning to the States after spending Christmas with Khan’s family in England. Khan is a 26-year-old British citizen who had just been in his homeland to finish up his college coursework. He was to return to his new home in Berkeley to begin building a life with Medina, a UC Berkeley graduate and local soccer celebrity. He had a public relations job lined up at a local startup animation company, and was considering a high school teaching career.  

Those plans went awry last January. Shortly after Khan exited his plane at San Francisco International Airport, a nightmare began. While filling out his landing card, a regular procedure for non-citizens entering the United States, he asked an Immigration and Naturalization Services official how he should complete part of the form, unsure of how he should answer the question that asked if he was a permanent or nonpermanent resident of the U.S. Far from getting the bit of customer service he politely requested, Khan was promptly taken away to an INS office room inside the airport, where he was interrogated by an INS inspector. 

Khan, the son of an Irish woman and an Indian native who immigrated to England at age 16, said the INS official “didn’t believe I was a British citizen. I told him I have the proper forms, they’re at the immigration office. But he was not willing to check them. He was shouting at me and calling me a liar, and telling me I could get five years in jail and that I would be deported. At some point I said this is borderline racism, you are judging me based on the color of my hair, based on my name. He told me to shut up and if I carried on in the insolent manner he would bring me up on charges.” 

Initially able to travel to the United States on a tourist visa, Khan had obtained an I-131 form, which allows non-resident aliens to be in the U.S. pending a change of status. In Khan’s case, he was in the process of changing his status from a regular British citizen to a British citizen who was in the process of applying for a marriage visa. Khan had also obtained a K-3 form to allow him to stay in the UK for three months—from July to October—in order to finish up his studies in England. The couple obtained another K-3 form in October when they decided to extend his stay so that Medina could spend the holidays with Khan and his family in England. 

What may have heightened suspicion was the fact that he did not have his travel documents with him when he entered the country. Because of a snowstorm in England at the time of their scheduled departure a day earlier, the two were forced to take separate flights. All of Khan’s documentation was with Medina, who was scheduled to arrive at SFO an hour after him. That documentation included their marriage certificate and visa forms from the INS that allowed Khan to leave the States in July 2002 and return in January 2003. 

By the time Medina arrived at SFO and found out where Khan was, he had already signed a statement saying he had failed to get the appropriate documentation to leave and return to the U.S. “It basically said it was all my fault,” said Khan, who spoke to the Daily Planet by telephone from London. “I didn’t want to sign it but he said if I didn’t I would be deported, so I signed it. I know, it’s funny, it sounds like Guatemala and not the U.S.” 

Khan was not deported—that would have required him to be brought up on criminal charges. He was denied entry into the country and put on a plane back to the UK the next day. At the conclusion of his four-hour interrogation, Khan and other immigrant and non-citizens who had been snagged by INS officials that day were escorted out of the airport in handcuffs and ankle shackles. Khan said he was driven in an armored van to the Oakland city jail, where he spent the night.  

The next morning, Khan was transferred to the INS holding cell in San Francisco, where he met up with Medina for the last time before being sent on a plane back to London. Medina says she was “treated roughly” by the INS officials there, and could only talk to her husband for 20 minutes through a glass window over a telephone. “I asked them if I could give him a hug. This was the last time I would see him before his flight back to England, and they said, ‘No you can’t, you have to finish up,’” Medina said. “It was unbelievable. At one point I was like, is this real? This is my husband—what has he done? All of our rights were out the window.” 

Medina and Khan don’t doubt that none of this would have happened had it not been for the Sept. 11 tragedy, and that subsequent changes in INS procedure, including the department’s subsumption into the Department of Homeland Security, has created more bureaucratic obstacles for immigrants and their families.  

Since January, Medina has worked tirelessly to figure out why her husband was denied entry despite their having completed what they were told were the proper forms, and how she can get him to legally return. She’s written letters to the INS, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee pleading for their help. So far, only Lee’s district office has given support, providing her with information that she wasn’t able to get from the INS, like where her forms are in the process and when they are likely to be finalized.  

A request for comment from Lee’s office on Medina’s case was forwarded to the Sacramento office. Spokesman Stuart Chapman said it was policy not to “comment on casework” but said Lee’s office is trying to help the couple out of their “terrible situation.”  

Medina is now hoping to obtain a temporary visa that would allow Khan to come to the United States pending attainment of the marriage visa, which will take a minimum of 12 months. But she is told the chances of getting either visa within a year are slim. “Pedro told me that the INS is going through a very draconian period and that the congresswoman’s hands are tied and that I should hire a lawyer” to help slice through the red tape. “That seems unfair. I’m having to go through the whole process again and pay all the fees to get the forms filled out again. Lawyer’s fees are expensive,” said Medina, who had to move in with family members because she could no longer afford to pay rent at the Berkeley residence at which she and Khan were living. 

Medina’s ordeal is complicated by the fact that she suffers from multiple sclerosis, a condition that worsens during times of stress and sometimes involves daily, two- to four-hour administration of intravenous medicine. The fact that Medina is an active person —she’s both a soccer coach and player — makes flare-ups of her condition particularly burdensome. “Sometimes I wake up and I just can’t move. I just feel like I’m moving through quicksand, and I go, oh no, not one of these days,” she said. 

Medina recently returned from a visit with Khan in England. While there, she attempted to go to the U.S. Embassy in London, only to be turned away. “It used to be you walk in and get a ticket and you can go in and talk with someone,” Khan said. “Now it’s guarded by police with guns, which is surprising to see in London, where the police don’t carry guns. Now they give you a number to call, and the number is just some British operator somewhere. I don’t think that Americans realize to what extent their rights are being taken away.” 

Khan, who has decided to pursue his teaching certificate during his limbo period in the UK, said, “It’s very distressing, very, very difficult, being separated from the woman I love,” and said the lack of clemency for someone who suffers from MS is “barbaric.” 

Medina takes a somewhat softer tone of U.S. policies, but is no less critical. “Right now, it seems like the terrorists have won. They’ve got what they wanted. They wanted to instill all this fear in people and the effect has been to take all the freedoms away that we’ve worked so hard to get,” she said. “People ask me, ‘Well, why don’t you just go to England to be with him?’ But I want to stay here because to me part of being a citizen is to push this country to be what it set out to be, and to let people know what’s going on.” 

Medina’s commitment to stick it out should comfort the players on the Mavericks, the under-15 soccer team in the Alameda-Contra Costa County soccer league that she has coached for two years. The members of that close-knit club, which went undefeated this season and is preparing to participate in the national 5-aside championships in Anaheim this July, say they worry that Khan’s dilemma will take Medina away from them. One player, Alina Schnake-Mahl, said, “We don’t want her to lose her as a coach. Before she came we had a lot of really bad coaches. She really brought our team together.” 

The City Council Chambers were overflowing on Tuesday with concerned parents, art-toting children and worried non-profit directors during the last public hearing on the city’s budget proposal. 

At next Tuesday’s regular meeting, the council will adopt the proposed budget after making some final adjustments. Prior to the regular meeting, the council will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. to vote on increases to parking fines and the Library tax. Whatever actions the council takes during the special meeting will have a direct impact on any amendments the council will make to the proposed budget. 

The proposed budget balances a $4.7 million deficit by increasing parking fines, maintaining a selective hiring freeze and reducing spending on things like cell phones and travel. 

Complicating the budget process is the uncertainty surrounding the state’s yet unresolved $35 billion deficit. State lawmakers, currently squabbling over solutions to the deficit, are not expected to adopt a final budget until late summer or possibly the fall.  

If the state reduces money currently earmarked for cities, Berkeley will be facing a much tougher fiscal environment. The city manager estimates as many as 150 lost jobs next year if the state adopts a draconian budget. 

During the public hearing, nearly 50 people entreated the council to augment funding for a variety of services such as children’s arts and crafts programs, battered women’s legal assistance and outdoor fairs and festivals. 

About 15 children who attend the Young Artists Workshops were ushered into the chambers and displaying colorful paintings, drawings and crafts they made in the program. Brianca Rico, 6, read from a short speech she prepared for the hearing.  

“I like Janet, my instructor. She has encouraged me when I feel like throwing my art in the trash,” she said haltingly. “If the class is canceled, I would feel furious, mad and sad.” 

A contingent of parents and their teenagers to speak on behalf of the Berkeley Boosters youth programs. Melkamu Yirgu told the council how valuable the program is for his 11-year-old daughter, Gesita. 

“I can’t believe what this program has done for my daughter,” he said. “She goes white water rafting, rock climbing, sailing, all opportunities I never had in my life.” 

Albert Lee of the Downtown Berkeley Association, which represents downtown businesses, asked the council to reconsider cuts to the city’s outdoor event fund, which subsidises a variety of fairs and outdoor events such as the Solano Stroll.  

“I urge the City Council to save some funding for outdoor events,” he said. “They attract visitors to the city, which is crucial for business.” 

Other organizations that asked the council for funds included the student-run Suitcase Clinic, which provides a variety of services to the homeless, members of the Berkeley Folk Dancers and a neighborhood group upset about the cutting of funding for traffic circles on Fulton, Ellsworth, Ward and Stuart streets. 

Several councilmembers have recommended that about $1 million be taken from some programs and redistributed to others. The council will vote on the recommendations prior to approving the budget next Tuesday.  

Two brazen daylight shootings in the past week have shaken Berkeley and prompted police to step up patrols in the area. 

The first incident occurred just before 2 p.m. Tuesday. A 27-year-old Berkeley man was shot multiple times with a large caliber automatic weapon on Alcatraz Street near California Street. According to police spokesperson Mary Kusmiss, the victim was transported to Highland Hospital where doctors determined his wounds were not life-threatening. 

Kusmiss said several stray bullets struck the window of Alcatraz Market, a corner grocery store, and two vehicles, one parked and the other headed east on Alcatraz Avenue.  

“Fortunately no bystanders were injured,” Kusmiss said. “But obviously we are very concerned because daylight shootings increase the possibility of a community member getting caught in the fray.” 

Kusmiss said numerous shell casings were found in the area of the shooting and that no motive or possible suspects have been identified.  

The second incident occurred Wednesday at 7:25 p.m. in the 1600 block of Russell Street. Police received calls reporting possible gunshots and when they arrived at the scene they found a 31-year-old Oakland man with a single gunshot wound.  

The victim was also transported to Highland Hospital where he was treated and released. According to Kusmiss, detectives suspect the shots were fired from a passing vehicle that was heading east on Russell Street.  

Police are not certain if the two incidents are related. Kusmiss said patrols have been increased in the area. 

Police are anxious to solve these cases and are seeking help from anyone who has information about either shooting.  

Those with with information are asked to anonymously contact the homicide bureau at (510) 981-5741. 

At the Grand Lake in Oakland there is still one large theater that has not been chopped down to postage stamp size. Painted on the ceiling above the huge screen is a medallion, tarnished with the breath of decades of expectant audiences. On it is depicted a seated woman wearing a toga. She was a woman with no arms. Or so it seemed to my daughter’s friend, who tells us that as a child she would stare up at the ceiling, searching in the gloom for the missing appendages.  

To entertain us while we waited for “Matrix Reloaded” to begin, management provided an elderly organist who plays 1940’s show tunes. His practiced feet glided over the pedals, and the mighty Wurlitzer’s hidden pipes resonated from curtained balconies on either side of the stage. Then the lights dimmed. The organist continued to play as the platform on which he sat descended into the orchestra pit. The audience applauded. The curtain rose.  

The slow descent of the organist evokes nostalgia for a time when imagination filled in the suggestions of life. Now there is no room for the imagination—either in film or in life. We do not know what happened in Iraq, but the media efficiently foreclosed imagination of what is missing. We do not wonder about the missing arms. 

After the organist it was all down hill. “Matrix Reloaded” been absorbed into the Matrix. “Matrix” could be read as an allegory of what the United States has become in the 21st century—a dream machine producing an illusion which conceals reality and forecloses imagination of alternatives. The movie was a product of that machine. It was, so to speak, the machine tattling on itself. It’s subversive messages were like renegade fortunes baked into fortune cookies by disaffected bakers. But I always suspected that those subversive messages were in fact engineered into the product to make it more palatable. The subversives and the system they subverted were pretty well fused. As Agent Smith said in the first movie, when we made the matrix too perfect, no one believed it. It needed the condiment of truth to make it palatable to jaded appetites.  

“Reloaded” dispenses with that condiment. It substitutes car crashes and murky musings. It’s full of portentous talk about the puzzling coexistence of freedom of choice and the domination of causes over their effects. The talk is an esoteric game. Adolescent boys go through a period where they like to embroil themselves in esoteric games. They escape into them. They’re better at them than adults. They know the passwords, the secret codes. “Reloaded” is an esoteric game for adolescents. The puzzle is not meant to be solved. 

The movie muddles its own metaphors and doesn’t care. Within the matrix and without are no longer clearly differentiated. They are both special effects. Nether are believable. Zion is a Hollywood back lot, left over from some heart-of-darkness epic in which explorers in pith helmets chop their way through the creeping vines to a clearing in the jungle where a heathen ceremony is in progress. Morpheus stands on a ledge above his tribe. He raises his arms. Commands that the revelry begin. Jungle fever. Drums of passion swell. Glimpses of bare breasts, sweaty garments, glistening thighs. The natives prostrate themselves before Neo. They bring him their sick children to heal. He makes love to their drumming. His rail-thin Trinity, all cheek bones and the minimum of flesh lies beneath him. It’s okay again to exoticize the colored masses. Multiculturalism for the era of Bush the 2nd. The Agents can save their strength. Zion will die of embarrassment.  

The original “Matrix” was a movie for the waning days of the Clinton era, when we still struggled to discern inklings of humanity in an administration presided over by a smarmy con man, persecuted for his immoderate lusts, who could feel our pain, while he sold us down the river. His administration was breathtakingly cynical. It was an utterly dispiriting spectacle. Could it get worse? It could. Now all traces of liberalism have vanished. A counter-revolution is in progress. Bomb Iraq. Bomb the electorate. Bomb the audience. 

Oh, the cost of staging these stunts, of manufacturing the illusion—the war on Iraq and “Matrix Reloaded.” Dreary gibberish alternating with paroxysms of violence. Promises of salvation. Reality of hopelessness. Language debased. Total control—“Matrix Reloaded” and the Bush administration. Neo has his Morpheus —Laurence Fishburn, mouthing his lines like he learned them the night before. Bush has his Colin and his Condoleeza, pretending to believe in their great white hope.  

Iraq was a snuff film. We could savor the slogan, but the gory details were expurgated. Instead of reality we get special effects. Now we get “Reloaded,” a terrible movie for terrible times. There’s nothing mystical about the working of the Zeitgeist. The creators of our collective dreams are finely tuned to the vibrations of that spirit that emanate from the humming pitchforks of Washington and its satellites.  

But we are not convinced. Bigger car crashes, bigger bombs, more shock, more awe—it stops working. The failure of the film is instructive. We long for the quiet real, the slender reed, the sound of small waters, the rustle of leaves, night flight, gulls landing in meadows, lizards doing push ups on the hot rocks, the finite, the effect that is special because it is not special, because it is an appearance intimately linked to reality. They cannot make us believe in their confections. In that there is still hope

After a year of heavy cuts, the Board of Education passed a final, $85 million 2003-2004 budget Wednesday night, leaving $6 million to be chopped the following year to balance the books. 

“We’ve come a long way, we’ve made a lot of cuts,” said board President Joaquin Rivera. “[But] there will be at least another round where we have to make more deep cuts that will be quite painful.” 

The board approved $8 million in 2003-2004 reductions and budget shifts in February, laying the groundwork for 70 to 100 teacher layoffs, increasing ninth-grade class sizes and cutting middle school music instruction from five to two days per week. 

Rivera warned that the next round of cuts will hurt even more. 

“Slowly, your creativity runs out and you have to start going deeper and deeper,” he said. 

Associate Superintendent of Business and Operations Eric Smith said he expects the Alameda County Office of Education, which has jurisdiction over the Berkeley schools, to reject the district’s final budget for the third straight year.  

But he predicted that the county office, which assigned a state fiscal adviser to the district two years ago, will not broaden state power over the Berkeley schools. 

“A county office will step it up when the board doesn’t have the wherewithal to make the cuts and this board has demonstrated it has the wherewithal to make the cuts,” he said. 

Under California law, the county office could give the state adviser, the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), the power of “stay and rescind,” allowing it to veto major budgeting decisions by the district. If the district remained in financial trouble, the state could then take over completely, as it has in neighboring Oakland and Emeryville. 

County Associate Superintendent of Business Services Mike Lenahan said Thursday his office has to review the final budget before making any decisions. “I know the board has made some good efforts in the past,” he said. 

Berkeley Unified faces a $3.4 million deficit in its general fund next year and is $2.6 million short of its rainy day reserve requirement— creating the $6 million shortfall. 

State funding cuts, escalating salaries and years of financial mismanagement have all contributed to the deficit. 

The district also faces a $263,000 deficit in its child development fund and a $622,000 shortfall in its cafeteria fund—prompted in part by the loss of a cushy, $300,000 food contract with the Emeryville schools last year. Left unchecked, these deficits could add to the district’s overall shortfall. 

Smith said Berkeley Unified should be able to get the child development deficit under control through layoffs, but added that the cafeteria fund deficit will be more difficult to close.

The Board of Education’s newest member, student representative Bradley Johnson, has been a politician since his freshman year at Berkeley High School. 

“I just enjoy politics,” he said. “I enjoy the art of diplomacy, the art of talking to people ... and the ability you have to change things.” 

Johnson, 17, served as president of the class of 2004 as a freshman and sophomore and helped write a new constitution for the student government. 

“We had a very outdated, very old constitution,” he said. “We made it more formal, more clear, we hope, and we created two new student bodies.” 

This year, as a junior, he served in one of those new bodies —the student senate. 

School board Director Shirley Issel said Johnson’s work on the constitution bodes well for his time as a student representative 

“That was just an extraordinary thing to do,” said Issel. “He told me how much he loved policy and government. He’s just fascinated by it. He wants to learn how to fly that airplane.” 

The student representative does not have an official vote, but can advise the board and serve as a liaison to the students. 

Johnson said he wants to get more involved in substantive policy discussions than his predecessors, and he’s got a couple of initial ideas. “I’m trying to create a system of constructive teacher review, where students can give feedback so teachers can continue to learn and grow,” he said. 

Johnson also wants to improve communication between high school administration and students. The daily student bulletin, he said, is inadequate. 

“It gets out too late, it’s unclear, kids don’t listen to it and teachers don’t read it [aloud],” he said. 

Johnson follows Andy Turner, who joined the board in August 2002 and participated in his last board meeting Wednesday night, five days after graduating from Berkeley High. Turner, who led a mural project at the high school this spring, will attend the University of Pennsylvania next year. He said Johnson will do well in his new position. 

“He’s got a long trail of successful programs behind him and a lot ahead of him,” Turner said. “So he’ll fill my shoes.” 

Once again the local, legendary rock band Metallica is in the news. Last year they made headlines in their lawsuit against Napster. This time they’re in the media because one of their members, James Hetfield, has returned to the band after a year off for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.  

Whenever I see the Metallica name in print I read the article, but not because I’m a big fan of Metallica. In fact, I’m not a fan at all. But reading about them brings back one of my fondest life memories; thoughts of someone who was and is just as legendary as Mr. Hetfield. When I read about Metallica I remember my neighbor and friend, Mrs. Scott.  

You see, years ago Mrs. Scott and I attended a Metallica concert by mistake. We went to the performance because Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Scott’s landlady, is a security guard for the San Francisco Symphony. Whenever she gets free tickets, she shares them with her friends. Mrs. Scott and I didn’t know the symphony was going to perform jointly with Metallica when we arrived at the Berkeley Community Center with our complimentary symphony tickets. 

Mrs. Scott had dressed for the concert as she did for everything else: she was aglow in rhinestones, sequins and gold lamé. But we immediately noticed something was not right with the crowd that had gathered on the center’s front steps. Everyone was clad in black, tattooed and pierced. Mrs. Scott was the only attendee in a full-length mink coat. 

We stood in line as security checked tickets. I was nervous when I saw that concert-goers were being frisked at the entrance. I knew Mrs. Scott always carried for protection a large kitchen knife in her enormous black pocketbook. But she reassured me. “Don’t worry. They won’t dare touch me.”  

She was right. We glided through security and proceeded majestically down the aisle.  

We had seats right in front. “Lord,” said Mrs. Scott, as she looked around the concert hall. “This don’t look like the symphony to me.”  

It was only then, when I opened the program, that I realized we were attending a Metallica concert. The entire performance was being recorded and filmed for a CD and MTV.  

“Do you want to leave?” I asked. 

“And waste good tickets?” she replied. “What’s wrong with you?” 

Slowly the lights dimmed. The crowd roared. Everyone rose to their feet, except for Mrs. Scott and me. The band members stalked on stage like feral animals, then went into a guitar riff that set my ears vibrating. The lights began to change. It felt as if we were swirling around inside a lava lamp. The musicians emitted the squeals of pigs being slaughtered. Mrs. Scott looked at me and rolled her eyes. “This ain’t the symphony,” her lips seemed to be saying, but I could not hear her. 

I tore off the corners of my program and stuffed them into my ears. Someone handed Mrs. Scott earplugs. The kids around us jumped onto their seats and thrust their fists into the air. Mrs. Scott moved her head ever so slightly to the beat. She tapped her cane against the floor.  

Without warning a young man in the seat across from us threw off his T-shirt, hopped onto the stage and did a back flip into the audience. Security guards hauled him away. Mrs. Scott seemed unimpressed. She thumped her cane harder.  

Suddenly, the bass player hurled a guitar pick in our direction. Kids swarmed over seats and crawled on hands and knees underneath us. A pale girl in black polyester tried to worm her way between Mrs. Scott’s legs. Mrs. Scott whacked her on the head with her cane.  

When the concert finally ended we waited until the audience departed. Then we hobbled up the aisle and out the door. “So what did you think?” I asked my glittering friend.  

“Well,” said Mrs. Scott, pausing to remove the earplugs. “You know I like to try new things. But baby, let’s not do that again. I like to dress up and get down and funky, but not for trash. Those boys need their butts whipped, way they be talkin’. Come on now, girl, go get the car. My ears are ringin’ and my feet are all swelled up.”  

Susan Parker is an Oakland resident. Her best friend, Mrs. Gerstine Scott, passed away on Sept. 6, 2001. Metallica performs locally August 10 at Candlestick Park.

I met Gregory Peck once. And of course he did not remember it. That’s how it is for famous people— the moment you meet them is blazoned into your mind, and for them, they cannot remember your face the minute they let go of your hand. This must be doubly true for legends, and Gregory Peck was a legend. 

Gregory Peck moved to Berkeley in 1935, took a place on Haste Street and enrolled at UC in the English department, until, in his second year, he was approached by a drama coach on campus who insisted Peck appear in his play. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

However, Peck’s first run in a Berkeley play was not all glory and roses. In fact, his performance was trashed by the critic who reviewed it. But that critic has long since been forgotten, while Gregory Peck went on to become Gregory Peck—this was always a little source of pride for Peck when he thought of it— which was probably rarely. I know this because, well, as I said, I was lucky enough to meet the man. 

In the late eighties, Peck returned to Berkeley and gave a talk to a film class I was in—hence the brief handshake. 

In 1989 anything in cinema not Spike Lee did not show up on the radar of anyone under the age of 21, and as such it was difficult to get some people to come see the man who was Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the conniving reporter opposite Audrey Hepburn’s first major role in “Roman Holiday.” But after sitting and listening to the man who was nominated for an Academy Award for four of his first five films, the hip-hop kids became silent, aware that they were sitting in the presence of greatness. That’s probably what makes a legend a legend—the ability to command awe from each succeeding generation. And that’s what Peck did. 

During that afternoon in Berkeley, he told us the story of that critic who panned his first performance; he told us of his amused frustration that most of the scripts he got had his “good friend” Cary Grant’s thumbprints all over them; he talked about working with Hitchcock; he talked about working with Audrey Hepburn, and of working on “The Milagro Beanfield War” with “Bob” Redford. 

And as he talked about working with and being part of film projects that are known to everyone, he seemed to grow in stature right before the eyes of the kids in that room. When he rose to leave he seemed eight feet tall. And as he talked about his fondness for Berkeley and his happiness about having lived here for awhile, Berkeley itself seemed to grow taller, too. 

Gregory Peck died last week at the age of 87. 

I like to think that on that day in 1989 he was happy to be back in Berkeley, happy that there is no other place like it, happy to be there with us students of a medium that he had mastered. But something tells me that we got more out of it than he did. 

The Berkeley Community Fund has announced that Berkeley Symphony Orchestra conductor Kent Nagano has been selected as the recipient of this year's Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal. 

The prestigious medal has been awarded since 1929 to individuals selected for outstanding nonpartisan service in any field benefiting a significant number of Berkeley residents. 

President of the BCF Board Narsai David said "Kent has put Berkeley on the international musical map and has given us a cultural dimension that many larger cities envy.'' 

Under Nagano's leadership, the symphony has strengthened community ties through its Music Education Program. The program is a six-week residency of the orchestra in local public elementary schools. 

New works and works-in-progress by Bay Area composers are also premiered by the symphony through the Nagano-led Under Construction program. 

Nagano is currently celebrating his 25th season with the orchestra. 

He will be presented with the award during the fund's annual awards dinner at His Lordship's restaurant in Berkeley Nov. 4. 

—Bay City News

A man in his late teens or early 20s robbed two homes on Wednesday morning, according to police. A resident of the 800 block of Mendicino Avenue reported stolen items valuing $20,000. It was unclear whether anything was missing from the second home, on the 1700 block of San Lorenzo Avenue. 

Witness’ description from both robberies matched. The suspect is described as a white male between the ages of 18 and 22. He is about 5 feet 10 inches, 170 pounds. He has medium length brown hair. Witnesses said it appeared that he had a tan. He wore a dark baseball cap, dark puffy, winter jacket and was carrying an orange, yellow and red backpack. He was riding a gray mountain style bicycle. 

—John Geluardi

Part One: The California Legislature, possibly to ensure the re-election of Gov. Gray Davis in 2002, fails that year to enact that combination of spending cuts and tax increases necessary to deal with the problems of the dot-com bust and the energy company rip-off. As a result of delaying what seemed obvious to the casual observer, the Legislature causes the budget deficit to explode the next year to almost $38 billion. But instead of passing a constitutionally mandated balanced budget by the constitutionally mandated deadline of June 15, the Legislature goes home. 

Part Two: Over Father’s Day weekend, the United States Congress meets in an extraordinary emergency session. Declaring that by violating its own State Constitution the California Legislature has abrogated its right to self-rule, a bipartisan majority of Congress says it has no choice but to enact legislation to seize management of California. President Bush signs the bill into law, and immediately appoints a cabinet-level Secretary of California Affairs to take over all administrative affairs of this state, both legislative and executive. 

Ahhh, you say, you recognize Part One because that is exactly what is happening in Sacramento, even as we speak. But the second, you argue, could never happen. The explosion of political outrage—from conservatives, moderates and liberals—would burst across the nation like a volcanic eruption. If Congress could seize California on such a pretext, what other state would be safe? Front page editorials would scream “Despot!” in 48-point type. The talk shows would burst their decibels. Demonstrators would flood the streets of Washington and Atlanta and, of course, San Francisco, bringing the nation’s business to a halt. Congress couldn’t get away with it, seizing the running of the state of California from the citizens of this state because of the actions of the California Legislature. 

Who then, cries for Oakland, when the state Legislature seizes the running of the public schools from its citizens because of the actions of the Oakland School Board and the OUSD superintendent? 

Poor, sad Oakland. Not a tear shed in her defense.  

In 1998 and 2000, the voters of Oakland elected the School Board that eventually accepted Carol Quan’s resignation as OUSD superintendent and hired Dennis Chaconas in her place. Chaconas and the School Board then launched reforms to upgrade the quality of education in the Oakland schools and to bring them on par with other schools in the Bay Area.  

But at the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year, Chaconas discovered the reforms had put Oakland’s school budget out of balance, something state law does not allow school districts to do. How the budget got out of balance has been much discussed, and is not the point here. The point is that the budget discrepancy was not discovered until after the last School board elections in March of 2002. Therefore there has been no chance for the voters of Oakland to act on this crisis, even if Oakland had wanted to do so by making wholesale changes in the School Board. 

The state Legislature never gave Oakland the opportunity. Instead, while loaning the school district enough money to meet its payroll, the state appointed an administrator to take over the operation of the Oakland schools. When asked why they did not appoint a trustee instead (a trustee would have the power to veto any proposals that went overbudget, but the School Board and superintendent would have been left in place to continue to run things), legislators said they couldn’t do that because an administrator was mandated by the school bailout law previously passed by the Legislature, California Education Code Section 41325 (a) and (b). 

Law, as Thomas Jefferson once said, is often but the tyrant’s will. 

Perhaps as disturbing as the Legislature’s act of administrative usurpation (sorry about the big word, but it’s the only one that seems to fit), was its pointed indifference to discovering either the causes of Oakland’s budget crisis or determining whether the School Board and superintendent were acting on a sound plan to correct the problem.  

Presumably, answers to those questions might go a long ways toward determining whether Oakland was fit to rule its own schools. But when senators at the state Senate Education Committee hearing last April tried to ask Chaconas and School Board President Greg Hodge to go into details, Education Committee Chairman John Vasconcellos pointedly cut them off. There was no time for that. The committee had already put in half a morning on this issue, he said. Half a morning in the cause of self-rule? How inexpedient. The senators stopped asking, and went back to their finger-wagging and scolding, of which they are expert.  

“The true danger” according to Edmund Burke, “is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” 

The true danger is when a state Legislature, which has not balanced its own budget, decides it must take control from Oakland citizens because an Oakland legislative body could not balance its. Where are my conservative friends, constant with their cry of freedom of the vote abroad? Where are the liberals and progressives, so quick to defend civil rights? Where, my civil libertarians? Does Oakland ... being Oakland ... not count in their equations? Or did they simply fail to notice? 

Oakland should shut its mouth, some might say, for the sake of Oakland’s children, and be glad that the Legislature stepped in and saved our burning supper. 

“Experience should teach us,” Justice Brandeis might reply, “to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent.”  

Thus endeth the lesson. Or beginneth.

Sometimes it takes more than a village to raise a child. Sometimes, it takes the Village People. 

That’s the gag at the heart of “Teaching Teo,” a new 15-minute “mockumentary” by first-time Berkeley filmmaker Diane Dodge about raising a baby in the Bay Area’s gay community. 

“We’re just kind of laughing at ourselves,” said Dodge, 43, a San Diego native who has lived in the East Bay for years. 

The short, which premieres Sunday afternoon at the 27th Annual San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, begins with Teo, the real life infant son of a Berkeley lesbian couple, sitting in the laps of his astrology-conscious parents. 

“He’s a special being,” says one of his mothers. “He’s a pale pink being.” 

“I think more rose, actually, than pale pink,” his co-mom says, sparking a testy tit-for-tat on the child’s true “aura.” 

Soon, the gurgling baby is off to absorb the wisdom of his parents’ friends—a style and etiquette coach, a beauty sleep expert, a cross-dresser and a group of civil disobedience specialists. 

If approached by police at a protest, Teo is told, he can either get arrested or “go limp.” 

“Which is good to do this one time,” says a leather-bound Carlos Morales, in a cheeky sexual reference. 

Morales, a friend of Dodge’s, traveled north from San Diego in February to take part in the filming. Almost all the other actors and actresses in the film are Berkeley friends and, according to Dodge, simply play exaggerated versions of themselves.  

Teo’s parents actually do have a psychic, Dodge said. The sleep consultant in the film is, in fact, a sleep consultant. And San Francisco resident Franco Beneduce, the style and etiquette coach who teaches Teo about salad forks and fabrics, is on track to be “the gay Oprah.” 

“We just magnified everything 5,000 percent,” said Dodge, of the largely improvised film. “We kind of did everything over the top.” 

Dodge is one of five Berkeley filmmakers with work in the festival, which began June 12 and concludes June 29. Two of the films have already shown, but Ann Meredith’s short, “Strap ‘Em Down: The World of Drag Kings,” plays Saturday at 1 p.m. at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. Berkeleyan Nancy Kates is the co-director of “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” a documentary on a gay civil rights leader that will show at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco Monday at 6:30 p.m. 

Dodge, who taught English as a Second Language at Berkeley’s Willard Middle School for eight years and served as Associate Executive Director of the Berkeley YMCA for three, is a novice filmmaker. She shot “Teaching in Teo,” with the help of some more experienced friends, after just a weekend of training at San Francisco’s Bay Area Video Coalition in January. 

“At the beginning it was stressful because I was pushing myself to learn fast,” she said. “But then it was fun.” 

Dodge said she came upon the idea for the film, shot on digital video, when her circle of friends began chipping in to care for Teo. She made the short “just wanting to demonstrate this model that happens a lot in other countries and probably should happen more in the straight community here -—a village raising a child,” she said. 

The premier of “Teaching Teo,” which will screen at the Castro Theatre Sunday at noon as part of a series of shorts on gay and lesbian parenthood called “Mamas and Papas.” Tickets are $6. 

Teo, who turns one on Saturday, will be at the screening—but only after receiving another lesson in style from his “village.” The baby, according to Dodge, will roll up to the theatre in a long limousine, sporting a t-shirt tuxedo.

The world has been way, way too much with me lately. I have been rather beset by Issues, the details of which I am not at liberty to discuss (but be sure to ask if you bump into me on the street); I do confess, however, to some tossed curls, stamped feet, slammed doors, perhaps even a tear or two—and that’s just how my therapist has been behaving. The whole situation has left me feeling rather wrought, and longing for an appropriate venue to which I can repair to repair. I want a stylish backdrop that lends itself to the channeling of my inner diva. And, not that I’m picky or anything, but really good food and drink should be offered, too. 

Downtown, an urbane restaurant anchoring the graceful and grandly restored Frances Shattuck building in downtown Berkeley, fits the bill to a T. Indeed, as Mark McLeod, one of the partners in the venture, explains, “I see the restaurant as theater, with each participant, from the chef to the server to the diner, playing a role, and plays within plays within plays unfolding as the evening progresses.” What an ideal spot for an aging prima donna to practice her moves. 

My rapidly acculturating East Coast buddy insists that Downtown is the only restaurant in these parts with a decidedly New York feel. I find it reminiscent of what as a child I imagined adult life would be all about (along with room service and never having to make my bed). A kind of edgy energy, a buzz of deals being made, of assignations being kept, of people seeing and being seen, pervades the place. Berkeley’s movers and shakers mingle with the Ladies who Lunch during the day, while theatergoers make way for jazz aficionados and martini fans in the evening. 

The food can be quite fabulous (unsurprisingly, with alumni of Chez Panisse, Cesar’s and Bay Wolf involved in the operation). Try anything with seafood. The raw bar provides a delicious array of oysters in all their briny glory. A recent plate of succulent steamed mussels with roasted tomato, arugula and croutons had my companion and me mopping up every drop of its marvelous broth with our bread. A dish of roasted halibut, wrapped in a fig leaf with preserved Meyer lemon, served with pecan wild rice salad, organic greens and fig compote, was perfectly cooked and perfectly delectable. 

Meat eaters needn’t worry about being slighted, though. I’ve sampled the Ploughman’s Board, with its smoky house-made sausage, the grilled lamb loin chops on a bed of bulgar salad to soak up the luscious juices, the brick-oven roasted chicken with its crackling-crisp skin: all were exceptional.  

And I could happily end each and every meal for the next couple of months with the brown-sugar goodness of the butterscotch pot de creme. But that would be wrong. 

McLeod, a habitué of the late, lamented Keystone Corner, decided in the early eighties that he would eventually like to do something that combined his love of jazz with his love of food. Music is now featured Tuesday through Saturday nights (check out the Web site www.downtownrestaurant.com for the schedule), contributing to Downtown’s already convivial bar scene. The long zinc bar, presided over by a truly impressive mirror, is crowded with nattily dressed folks drinking concoctions like cosmopolitans (yes, here, in Berkeley) and listening to good music.  

And we’ll all have even more reason to venture downtown this summer. McLeod is helping to spearhead a summer film fest (with themes like Food on Film and Music on Film) using the Berkeley Rep space, and plans to tie Downtown’s food and live entertainment to the cinema fare being presented.  

For the column, Downtown contributed an elegant seafood recipe from its kitchen.

It may not be the next Paris. Or even the next Rockridge. 

“I don’t even think it’ll be the next Albany,” cracked Michael Kuchkovsky, a customer at North Oakland’s newly opened Nomad Cafe. 

But the eight-block stretch of Shattuck Avenue from Nomad Cafe at 65th Street to South Berkeley’s recently renovated Sole, just north of Ashby Avenue, has become the East Bay’s latest cafe row—drawing an unfamiliar crowd to the neighborhood. 

“It’s kind of a hip, younger, with-it group,” said Don Link, a longtime North Oakland resident and neighborhood activist. 

The strip still includes its fair share of auto repair shops and rundown storefronts, but Nomad, Sole and Jumpin’ Java, a small coffee shop with free Internet connections and modern art on the walls, have created a new feel. 

“It’s kind of a happening place to be,” said Thomas Myers, acting manager of Berkeley’s economic development office. 

Nomad, the most recent addition, is also the most striking. Located at 6500 Shattuck Ave., the month-old shop has a shiny, chrome exterior, silver tables and chairs and a tall ceiling. A pair of rust-colored leather chairs and a small, colorful children’s area offset the modern architecture. 

Owner Christopher Waters said he opened the cafe, which features jazz performance and rotating local art, as an extension of his Web site, www.gypsyspiritmission.com—a global community of artists and writers. 

“The Nomad is just sort of an outgrowth of that in real time and space,” he said. “That was the kernel at least—the reality is slinging espressos all day.” 

Coffee is not the only offering at Nomad. The cafe also offers free Internet connections, fruit smoothies, pastries and three sandwiches—grilled eggplant, spicy chicken and grilled focaccia—that go for about $5 each. 

“I really like it,” said Kuchkovsky, a Claremont resident who noticed the cafe on a recent trip to church. “It’s comfortable. It’s a nice place to be in.” 

Waters said his shop, which replaced a boxy, often-shuttered thrift store, is part of a larger transformation of a neighborhood that was plagued by gun shots and prostitution just 10 years ago. 

“In the six years that I’ve lived here the community policing groups have formed and fought tirelessly to improve the community, and crime has receded, and it’s turned into a pretty desirable place to live,” he said. “In the next 10 or 20 years, this part of the Shattuck corridor won’t be recognizable.” 

Mike Dawoud, owner of Jumpin’ Java, two blocks to the north, said the improving neighborhood was a major factor in his decision to run his own place after 12 years of managing local coffee shops. 

“I thought it was an up-and-coming area,” said Dawoud, who took over Jumpin’ Java a year ago, shortly after it opened. 

The cafe has an attractive exterior of wood, glass and steel and a smaller, more intimate feel than Nomad. Jumpin’ Java sells bagels, but its focus is on beverages like hot cider, mocha and espresso, with prices in the $1 to $3 range. 

Dawoud said he’s not concerned about competition from Nomad, arguing that it just adds to the overall allure of Shattuck Avenue. But Bill Bahou, owner of Roxie Delicatessen, an old convenience store and deli at the corner of Shattuck and Ashby avenues, said he is worried that the area cannot support a ballooning number of cafes. 

“We have seven coffee shops within a mile with the same population, the same customers,” he said. “It’s too many.” 

Raymond Lee, owner of Sole, agrees. 

“I believe the cafe market is saturated,” he said. 

Over the last two months, Lee spent $85,000 to remodel his business, transforming it from a walk-up cafe to a sit-down restaurant with dark wood, mirrors and a textured, deep yellow paint on the walls. 

“Some people, they’re still not used to it—they’re a little intimidated by the decor,” said Lee, who changed the name of his business from Cafe Sole to Sole with the remodeling. “But I’m a true believer, in this day and age, that people deserve better.” 

Lee, who has owned the space since December 2001, said he keeps his prices low so he can attract blue collar workers, along with the doctors and architects who have set up shop in the neighborhood. 

Sole, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serves a B.L.T. for $5.95, burgers for $6.75 and Cajun-inspired seafood and gumbo in the $6.50 to $7.75 range. 

Lee said the cafes and restaurants in the area, which are already tapping a new group of young, affluent homeowners, will only do a booming business if they can convince more of the locals to shake off the neighborhood’s bad reputation and stay local in their leisure time. 

“I want people to feel like, hey, my neighborhood’s coming up,” he said.

BDP Website Info for Downtown Berkeley Association 

Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley (Headline) 

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 

Most Berkeley High School seniors who graduated last week will begin their studies at a college or university this fall. Others will work or travel. One will study ballet in Russia, another plans to move to India and a third will try his luck auditioning for Broadway plays in New York. 

In his commencement speech at the Greek Theater on Friday, graduate David Chernicoff spoke of the shared experience of his classmates: “Trying to explain the Berkeley High experience to an outsider is like trying to explain color to a blind person, or music to a deaf person,” he said. “There will always be elements whose essence you just can’t convey no matter which words you choose.” 

Chernicoff, who wrote for the school newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, acted in several school plays and musicals and was president of the Berkeley High Music Collective, begins his freshman year at Yale University in September. 

But though the 700 graduates shared the same hallways for four years, the graduates’ journey to center stage of the Greek Theater on Friday took various paths. 

Tina Walker, a member of the graduating class, watched as her six younger siblings bounced from foster home to foster home. When her parents divorced, Walker stayed with her mother, living out of relatives’ homes until they eventually ended up homeless on the streets of Sacramento. 

Walker eventually moved in with her uncle and his family while her siblings lived in many different places. She began at Berkeley High as a ninth-grader and excelled, often relying on her teachers and friends as the stabilizing forces in her life. She begins studies at Langston University in Oklahoma this fall. 

“You put a smile on your face and put all the issues away,” Walker said. 

Walker’s classmate, Gabby Miller, devoted the majority of her energy to art during her high school career. As a junior, Miller took a semester off from Berkeley High to study at The Oxbow School in Napa, a boarding school that provides an intensive semester in the visual arts for high school juniors and seniors. Though Miller had painted since she was young, her semester at Oxbow taught her formal techniques and the use of different media, she said. 

“It’s the way I filter the world,” Miller said. “It’s given me a much better understanding of who I am.” 

For her final project at Oxbow, Miller made a mural out of sheets of paper on which she wrote her stream of consciousness for five hours a day for two weeks. She combined the writings with a painting at the bottom. 

“It was about everything that was happening,” Miller said about her piece. “That was a very empowering experience.” 

Miller, who will attend Reed College in Oregon in the fall, recently was legally ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church. This summer, she will preside over the ceremony to renew her parents’ wedding vows on their 30th anniversary. 

Tania Lown-Hecht had every excuse not to graduate on time. She was diagnosed with leukemia during her junior year and missed all of second semester while undergoing chemotherapy. But Lown-Hecht put her studies first throughout her ordeal, propping her heavy textbook for Advanced Placement Biology on the table by her hospital bed to continue to study. 

“I wasn’t going to lay there feeling sorry for myself,” Lown-Hecht said. “I wasn’t going to give up.” 

Lown-Hecht, who is now in remission from cancer, continued to study during the summer and used outside tutors to keep on pace with her classmates. 

She took classes through Berkeley High’s Independent Studies program this year and did much of her schoolwork from home while working as opinion editor of the Berkeley High Jacket. Lown-Hecht will attend Whitman College in Washington this fall. 

About 90 percent of each Berkeley High graduating class has gone on to college in past years. 

The most popular college choice for the class of 2003 was the University of California at Santa Cruz, with 25 students reporting enrollment there. Last year, an all-time high 47 graduates from Berkeley High enrolled at the school.  

Other University of California schools drew high numbers of graduates as well, with 21 reporting UC Davis as their college choice and 16 picking UC Berkeley. Ten students will attend UCLA, and four will head off to UC San Diego. 

Ten students will attend Laney College in Oakland and 14 will attend Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. The most popular private college for the class of 2003 was New York University, which attracted nine students. 

Berkeley High School Dean Meg Matan said the unique experiences that the members of the class of 2003 bring to Berkeley High is what makes the school so special. 

“They’re what keeps the place running in the face of budget problems and principals leaving and everything else,” Matan said. “This class is amazing. I’m going to miss them.”

CRUCIAL COOPERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for your continuing coverage of the Franklin School proposals. Your reporter characterizes the current site of the Berkeley Adult School as a “beleaguered building on University Avenue.” The current site (at Bonar) is actually known as “West Campus.” Yes, it does need work, but it does function well as a central location for a crucial activity of the BUSD. It is on a major transit corridor; the 51 bus is one of the best and most reliable of ACs in Berkeley.  

Your reporter correctly highlights the very real problems the BUSD has in re-aligning and restoring its facilities with these limited bond funds and pinched budgets. 

Paul Shain (June 10 edition) makes an excellent case for careful and comprehensive planning. The involvement with the community is absolutely crucial, and will continue Tuesday night, June 17, at 7 p.m. at the Ala Costa building (Cedar/Rose Park, corner of Rose and Chestnut); the neighbors will gather to select a committee to work with the School Board over the what, if, when and how of the Franklin School site. Serious issues of site capacity and security, traffic flow and parking remain on the table. How to make a former elementary school in the middle of a residential neighborhood work for both the neighborhood and the district is not easy. That the school also borders San Pablo Avenue adds to the dilemma. 

Residents of West Berkeley should note that this proposal is but one of those “cumulative impacts” (the notorious phrase of many an EIR) emerging in this corner of Berkeley. A four-story, mixed-use building (51 units, with ground-floor retail) is proposed for the corner of San Pablo and Delaware (currently an auto-shop/used car lot, converted from a nursery/flower shop in the mid-nineties). Further large developments are likely along San Pablo Avenue, described in city plans as a “transit corridor.” 

Peter Hillier, the city’s traffic planner, is proposing serious changes along Delaware Street west of San Pablo Avenue, including the removal of the diverter at 9th Street which currently forces traffic back to University Avenue. With the installation of the new light at Virginia and Sixth, and the gridlock now seen on University Avenue both at San Pablo and at Sixth, one wonders if a new traffic funnel on Delaware Street west from the BART (at Sacramento) is being prepared to parallel University Avenue. 

These proposed projects will affect each other. AC Transit plans to cut bus service in a time when the city has allowed for large-scale development along so-called “transit corridors.” Residents can demand that the city’s planners and engineers provide the best for the neighborhood, as well as the commuters currently zipping through these streets. 

John McBride 

• 

GROWING CHAOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The latest principal debacle at Berkeley High—a new, record-short tenure of one month—along with the resignations of both co-principals and all three district associate superintendents, reveals in breathtaking clarity the biggest achievement gap in the Berkeley Unified School District: the yawning chasm between the School Board’s pie-in-the-sky dreams for making everything better and the on-the-ground reality of growing chaos. 

No wonder disadvantaged students in the district can’t learn the basics, when the board itself endlessly condones the same dumb mistakes—now having chopped through four principals hired from the outside in almost as many years. In fact, the only principals/administrators who’ve been willing to stick with the school were those “temporarily” promoted through the ranks, such as Larry Lee a few years ago and Laura Leventer, both of whom came from the math department and provided adequate leadership. 

But instead of sticking with these insiders, who had some commitment to the institution, the board casts about for some outside “star” to implement yet more endless reforms, like the schools-within-a-school plan, distracting teachers’ precious time and energy. With the exception of Theresa Saunders (Remember her? She was going to save Berkeley High back in about 1999, but was forced out) these transient principals are no fools—as soon as they realize what working under this School Board is like, they’re outta here. And I haven’t even mentioned next year’s multi-million-dollar budget deficit. 

I lost my bid for School Board last election, opposing the School Board pay hike which passed; Berkeley voters now reap what they sowed. 

Lance Montauk  

• 

HUMANE SOCIETY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his report about the June 11 Berkeley Planning Commission meeting, John Geluardi omitted an important issue raised that evening. The purpose of the meeting was discussion about the West Berkeley Plan. The plan includes protection of artists’ work spaces. 

Mr. Geluardi did not mention that supporters of the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society were in attendance. The Humane Society for many years has rented space in its building, at below market rate, to an arts group. Because of provisions in the West Berkeley Plan, the Humane Society may be required either to relinquish control of the space and abandon any plans to expand the animal shelter or to pay for an alternative comparable space to house the arts group.  

Representatives from the Humane Society explained that it has been a struggling community-based nonprofit for 70 years and that provisions intended to protect West Berkeley from commercial exploitation may not be appropriate to be applied to the society. 

I wonder why Mr. Geluardi made no mention of this aspect of the meeting in his report. 

Mary Milton 

• 

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Blues (to the tune of “Making Whoopee”): 

Another meeting,  

On the sixth floor,  

And when it’s over,  

They meet some more,  

In Tom Bates’ office,  

Without notice,  

They close the door.  

This song refers to the March 2003 meeting of the Two by Two Committee, but it could be about many meetings that occur in the Redwood Room in City Hall.  

The Two by Two is made up of two School Board members and two city councilmembers. All current members are endorsed by the same political slate, the left-leaning BCA. Because the school superintendent, city manager, mayor and various VIP city employees participate in the Two by Two, former Councilmember John Denton once aptly described the Two by Two as “a promiscuous use of staff.”  

The March Two by Two meeting included discussions on developing several Berkeley Unified School District playgrounds for other uses. Mayor Bates asked if the Berkeley High tennis courts might be used for a joint city and school district parking facility. Doesn’t he know that Berkeley High students deserve to have their courts back when construction ends? How could Mayor Bates miss the hypocrisy of taking school property to build parking lots while his City Council majority plans to give developers city-owned downtown parking lots such as those at Oxford and at Berkeley Way? (Note: The Oxford lot is valued at $10 million to $20 million dollars, generates a lot of cash for the city and allows people to park and shop locally, which in turn, generates taxes for the city.) 

Later in the meeting, Linda Maio raised the bizarre idea of building an extension to the West Berkeley Library on the grassy field (baseball diamond) of the Adult School.  

The sorriest idea of all was moving the Adult School, with more than 1,200 students, to Franklin Elementary School and converting Franklin’s new playgrounds and grassy field to an inadequate parking lot. Hundreds of students and personnel would need to circle the fragile and formerly quiet neighborhood to find parking.  

Some proposals put forth at this meeting were insensitive, mean-spirited or downright deceptive. Mayor Bates said he would like to put apartment buildings—20 stories high—at one school site. A participant said to Bates: “You’re lucky there is no reporter here! What you really mean is apartments 10 stories high, don’t you?”  

There have been many other important, but unpublicized, city meetings in addition to the Two by Two. Subjects of these meetings included: replacing small AC Transit buses with big, noisy, diesel buses in North Berkeley residential neighborhoods, encouraging huge housing developments, streamlining development permits by the mayor’s task force, redeveloping Berkeley as a high-rise urban environment and calling it “Livable Berkeley,” and much more!  

The effect of attending so many of these meetings in a few weeks was devastating for me. I got a clear vision of what the “powers that be” are planning for Berkeley and it’s ugly, noisy, polluted, unsafe and uncaring for the people who live here. I’ve lived here over 30 years and sometimes feel a kinship with those who lived on this wonderful land before us.  

I see our current politicians as the “Manifest Destiny Gang,” who think they can do whatever they want. But they do not dare show us their vision for the city, because we would not accept it. There are, after all, only about 100 of them, whereas there are more than 100,000 of us.  

Merrilie Mitchell  

Dear Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like Jerry Holl’s idea (Daily Planet, May 27) to write “Topple Bush” on every letter we send through the mail. However, my slogan of choice is: “Show Bush the Door in 2004.” Pass it on. 

T. Marcus 

A Bay Area basketball team, including four girls from St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, is on its way to the national basketball championship next month in Tennessee if the players can raise enough money to get there. 

The East Bay Xplosion team of 14 year olds--one of seven age brackets in the Xplosion program--has won four of their six tournaments this year, with the two defeats coming against teams of older girls. They are ranked 13th in the country heading into nationals, which will be held in Clarksville, Tenn., on July 10. 

But while Xplosion teams have been successful nationally, the program still has financial needs. A sponsorship deal with Adidas provides equipment and apparel, but money for travel comes mostly from parents and fund-raising. Coach Sean Dulan estimates the team needs to raise $10,000 to make the national tournament trip. 

Players are planning a soft-cloth hand car wash at Rossmoor Chevron in Walnut Creek on over the next two weekends. 

Now in its sixth year, the Xplosion is an Amateur Athletic Union program. This year’s team of 14 year old girls has some imposing shoes to fill after their predecessors, now in an older bracket, won the national title last year. 

Last year’s championship team featured Piedmont’s Paris twins, Courtney and Ashley, as well as St. Mary’s Shantrell Sneed and several other players who are now attracting national recruiting attention. Xplosion’s best shot at a national title this year will be the current group of 14-year-old girls—a group that may not be as heralded as last year’s, but has played some outstanding basketball. 

“This is a different type of team. We like to get into the transition game, a real tendency to go out and get it,” said Dulan, who also coached last year’s championship team. “This is a great group of kids. They’ll scrape and fight to win every game.” 

And if following in the footsteps of national champions wasn’t hard enough, this year’s 14-year-olds face those reigning champions in practice every week. While it can often be frustrating, players said, the full-speed scrimmages provide valuable experience for the younger group. 

“t’s a privilege to play them, a chance to help our games,” says St. Mary’s freshman Christina Johnson. “They’re so good already, it gives us something to shoot for and help reach our goals.” 

Fifty girls tried out for this summer’s 14-year-old team, the biggest tryout ever for the program. 

“We have the most elite group of kids in the area,” said Dulan, who is also the co-coach of the girls varsity team at St. Mary’s. The St. Mary’s-Xplosion connection is strong, with three coaches and 13 players from the Berkeley school among the various Xplosion age-bracket teams. 

St. Mary’s freshman Courtney Dunn is a good example of the Xplosion’s success. Dunn was playing for another team two years ago and impressed the Xplosion coaches who invited her to switch programs. 

Playing against the other talented players in the program, such as the Paris twins, on a regular basis has done wonders for the 6-foot-2 Dunn, her coaches said. Her improvement over the past year has been nothing short of remarkable. She is now an aggressive force on the court. 

“Even (Xplosion) practices are way more physical than high school games,” Dunn says. “You have to play hard all the time just to get on the floor here.” 

Dunn’s mother, Monika, sees a difference in her daughter that extends beyond the playing floor. 

“There’s most definitely a difference in Courtney,” she says. “She’s more confident and sure of herself. I don’t have to hold her hand all the time anymore.” 

Nathan Fripp, Xplosion assistant coach and the junior varsity boys’ coach at St. Mary’s, said the girls play an aggressive brand of basketball. His sister Nateanah, a St. Mary’s sophomore, is a member of the 14-year-old girls’ team. 

“I didn’t know it was going to be like this,” Nathan said. “We’ve got some egos out there just like the boys, but these girls are more competitive than the boys I coach. I see girls crying when we lose, just angry.” 

Despite the program’s success, finding enough money for travel and team expenses remains a challenge, said Mark Anger, founder and director of Xplosion. A former coach at Miramonte High and Holy Names College, Anger oversees all seven teams in the program. 

“The ideal is for each team to compete at a national level,” Anger said. “That was my whole vision when I started this thing, and we’re finally reaching that point.” 

For information about sponsorship or donations, call Mark Anger at (209) 579-0151.

Faced with heavy teacher layoffs and cuts in sports and music programs, a series of parent-led fund-raising groups are asking the city’s heavily taxed residents to pour more money into the schools. 

“We’re going to go to the entire community,” said Zasa Swanson, co-founder of a new group called Berkeley Schools Now! which hopes to raise $500,000. “We figure there isn’t one person in this community who doesn’t feel compelled to save education, even if they don’t have children.” 

Berkeley homeowners already contribute about $14 million annually in special, voter-approved taxes that fund everything from maintenance to class size reduction. Local voters have also approved almost $275 million in bonds for various school construction projects since 1992. 

But parents and foundation officials say they are confident that the community, even in the midst of an economic downturn, will make large donations to save treasured education programs. 

“The people I talk to just want good schools,” said Trina Ostrander, executive director of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which raises more than $600,000 annually for the public schools. “If they have to rally, they rally.” 

Matt O’Grady, associate executive director for the San Francisco-based Management Center, which provides nonprofits with management advice, said advocates will likely face a divided public. 

“I think that, for the right audience, including parents of students who are in those schools, it would be a very compelling issue,” he said. “Others might say, ‘Well, I already pay taxes.’ And people in Berkeley might say, ‘It should be covered through tax dollars and not private philanthropy.’” 

The early returns have been mixed. A Berkeley High School concert featuring blues music and Afro-Haitian dance over Memorial Day weekend netted about $5,000 for the music program, falling well short of a goal of $10,000 to $20,000. 

“It wasn’t what we hoped for, but it certainly was a beginning,” said music advocate Karen McKie, who helped organize the event. 

Parents have now raised about $8,500 for the music program, according to organizer Bob Kridle, whose daughter will attend Berkeley High School next year. This summer, he said, parents hope to top $24,000 and restore a middle school band and orchestra program that has been chopped from five to two days per week.  

The music cuts are part of an $8 million package of reductions and fund transfers, approved by the Board of Education in February, that will eliminate 70 to 100 teaching positions next year, boost some class sizes and possibly eliminate freshman sports at Berkeley High. 

The cuts will go deeper next year when the board must chop an additional $3 million to balance the books, and $3 million more to meet a state requirement for a budget reserve. 

There is a precedent for successful, community-based fundraising. In 1994, advocates raised more than $300,000 to save the district’s fourth-grade music program—pulling in about $120,000 at a Grateful Dead benefit concert arranged by bassist Phil Lesh, who attended the Berkeley public schools. 

This year, parents are turning from tie-dyed T-shirts to tax receipts. Berkeley Schools Now! is asking Berkeley residents to contribute tax relief checks, of up to $400 per child, that the federal government will send in late July and early August to middle-income families with children under age 17. 

The money raised by the organization will not be targeted for any specific program. Instead, it will be distributed proportionately to each school based upon enrollment. Parents, teachers and administrators at each site will decide how to spend the cash. 

Meanwhile, members of the nonprofit Berkeley Athletic Fund are calling for a voluntary athletic fee next year. Under the proposal, parents of student athletes would have the option to contribute $75 or more annually to support Berkeley High School’s extensive sports program, which faces $127,500 in cuts next year. 

“There are concerns,” acknowledged Kathy Dervin, of the Athletic Fund. “Even if you do it voluntarily, does it put off people from participating in sports?” 

Parents and school officials said their biggest worry is that residents and businessmen may feel overwhelmed by appeals for money from multiple fund-raising groups. 

“To go out to the community and ask for dollars over a lot of different issues ... is probably not in our best interest,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

With that in mind, parents from Berkeley Schools Now!, music advocates, sports enthusiasts and others met June 10 to trade ideas and develop some sort of unified strategy. 

“People who were raising the money were starting to get worried that they would compete with each other,” said Ostrander, of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which participated in the meeting. 

Ostrander said the foundation, in its fall newsletter, will probably allow each group to make its case for donations, providing readers with an easy way to pick and choose. 

The foundation is also working out an agreement to serve as fiscal sponsor for Berkeley Schools Now! and the music advocates, allowing the foundation to accept checks on behalf of both groups. Other organizations, like the Berkeley Athletic Fund, are official nonprofits and do not need sponsorship. 

Lawrence said the Board of Education, scheduled to approve a final 2003-2004 budget Wednesday night, cannot restore programs at this point based on fundraising that may or may not materialize. But, she said, the district can make adjustments next year if parents collect heavy donations. 

Those interested in donating should call the Berkeley Public Education Foundation at 644-4865. Checks can be mailed to the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, 1835 Allston way, Berkeley, California 94703, with notations in the memo section if the money is to be allocated for any specific cause.

1963 became a watershed year in American History.  

Most notable was Nov. 22 as President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, Texas. In 1963, a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four young black girls. Ironically, the murder of those young girls was just two weeks after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King told the world about his “dream.”  

It was 40 years ago, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school.  

While these events are indelibly etched in our collective minds, we must also remember June 12, 1963. On June 12, 1963, as he was returning home, Medgar Evers was killed by an assassin’s bullet.  

Medgar Evers was one of the first martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. He was born in 1925 in Decatur, Miss., to James and Jessie Evers. After a short stint in the army, he enrolled in Alcorn A&M College, graduating in 1952. His first job out of college was traveling around rural Mississippi selling insurance. He soon grew enraged at the despicable conditions of poor black families in his state, and joined the NAACP. In 1954, he was appointed Mississippi's first field secretary.  

Evers was outspoken, and his demands were radical for his rigidly segregated state. He fought for the enforcement of the 1954 court decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which outlawed school segregation; he fought for the right to vote, and he advocated boycotting merchants who discriminated. He worked unceasingly despite the threats of violence that his speeches engendered. He gave much of himself to this struggle, and in 1963, he gave his life.  

Yet rather than snuffing out a fledgling civil rights movement, the death of Medgar Evers focused attention on the plight of blacks across the South and reverberated across the nation and the world. 

All of us, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or class stand on the shoulders of Medgar Evers and countless others who would not be denied the rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. It is tragic commentary on U.S. history that Medgar Evers has yet to assume his rightful place among those who moved the land of the free and the home of brave a bit closer to authenticating the American experiment.  

This peaceful man, who had constantly urged that “violence is not the way” but who paid for his beliefs with his life, was a prominent voice in the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi. Evers refusal to forego his efforts for equality in the face of danger further radicalized the Civil Rights Movement.  

Whether one is deemed radical is measured by the times in which they live. Was not the Apple Mac Classic considered radical in the early 1980s? Therefore, the challenge today is to embrace the spirit of Medgar Evers 1963 radicalism with the reality of 2003. 

The 21st-century struggle against injustice does not bring the comforts and conveniences of reducing everything to black and white. It is a far more complicated struggle that places more emphasis on one’s condition than the percentage of melanin in their skin. 

The injustices that still exist against low income workers, cuts in public education, declining government services for the elderly and youth, civic participation and AIDS services, especially for people of color, requires an unrelenting radicalism that is not afraid to speak truth to power, a radicalism that was demonstrated by Medgar Evers some 40 years ago. 

Denisha M. DeLane, 24, is a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and a resident of Berkeley. She represents Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as the countries of Japan, and Korea.

Berkeley celebrated its 17th annual Juneteenth festival on Sunday. Sponsored by the Adeline-Alcatraz Merchants Association, the day was one of both celebration and education. 

“Any event that brings black people together to stimulate them to think about our present, past and future is a good thing. If we can do it for one day, we can do it for the next 364,” said festival goer Rasheedah Mwongozi. 

The festival commemorates President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863. But reform, in the midst of a bloodied war that divided a country, was not immediate. News was slow to spread, and it was not until June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, that the last slaves learned they were free. 

On Sunday, vendors stretched along Adeline Street, from Alcatraz to Ashby avenue, selling items that ranged from paintings and crafts to African instruments, crafts and Negro Baseball League memorabilia. Copies of the Emancipation Proclamation were also on display. Attendees roamed between two stages—the youth stage, hosted by Sean Vaughn Scott of the Black Reporatory Theater, and the main stage, hosted by local businessman and actor Lothorio Lotho. The hosts quizzed the crowd, which numbered in the thousands, about black history and interjected uplifting messages between acts. 

The Buffalo Soldiers occupied a prominent space on the Alcatraz side, where tents were set up across from horses that kids and adults could pet. Men dressed in period uniforms were eager to tell the story of an ignored contingent in the United States Army, which served from 1866 to 1912, in peacetime and in war both along the western frontier and in conflict overseas.  

Tables manned by local organizations included PeaceAction, the Berkeley Black Fire Fighters Association, East Bay Track & Field Club, African American History and Alameda County State of Emergency African American (AIDS) Task Force.  

For Los Angelean Frank Harris Sr., 84, attending the event has become a tradition. His grandson, Robert Haney, said:  

“The music is great, the ambiance wonderful. There’s a good vibe here, so we just continued to come each year and sit in the same spot.” 

Harris reflected that in Ferriday, La., where he was born, the black population celebrated Juneteenth on July 4, not June 19, because that was the day the plantation owner traditionally would “kill a cow and give the sharecroppers ice cream.” 

Joy Holland, a Berkeley resident, said what this year’s Juneteenth lacked was a sense of the ritual, customs and ceremonies associated with the 138-year-old holiday celebrated in most states across the country. 

“Juneteenth is an institution in Texas,” Holland said. “It recalls the horrors of slavery, a history that is being lost on our children when we’re one step from being slaves again with Homeland Security, homelessness, miseducation, unemployment.”

In the first week of June, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a conference on taking back America from the radical Right. I went in search of signs that progressives are capable of mounting a serious challenge to the Republican gang that’s ravaging our country. One such sign, I’d become convinced, would be evidence of a concerted effort to move the Democratic Party to the left.  

This thought was a new one for me. I’d always registered Democratic and almost always voted Democratic. I’d volunteered for many Democratic candidates. But for over 30 years, working within the Democratic Party proper had seemed to me like a waste of time—and worse: a betrayal of my left-liberal principles. It took the Republican seizure of the White House in 2000 and its chilling aftermath to change my mind. Polls show that Bush’s policies are far less popular than his persona, and that given the choice, many—perhaps even most—Americans would support a progressive alternative to those policies. But first they must have that alternative. I now believe that our only hope of offering it to them is a Democratic Party that’s returned to its democratic roots.  

Early in May I was invited to the first meeting of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Though the meeting had been publicized solely through personal e-mail lists, more than 70 people showed up at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The conveners told us that they were angry and scared, and that they wanted to stop moaning and start taking effective action. Their short-term goal was to beat Bush in 2004. But their larger purpose looked past 2004 and, for that matter, past all elections, toward the creation of a broad-based progressive movement with political clout. The message was right; the style was engaging; the meeting was well-run. I gladly paid the $25 membership fee, as did 40-odd others.  

At the Wellstone Club meeting I also learned that the Campaign for America’s Future was sponsoring a June conference dedicated to the same goal as our club. Presenters would include John Sweeney, Barbara Ehrenreich, Carl Pope, Arianna Huffington, Bill Moyers and Berkeley’s own Wes Boyd. All the would-be Democratic presidential nominees had been invited. A few local Wellstoneites were planning to attend. I decided to go, too. 

For somebody yearning for a progressive resurgence, the conference to Take Back America gave cause for cautious optimism. To begin, there was the fact that it happened at all. It had been a long time since representatives of the liberal left had come together in a gathering like this. Most of the 1,500-plus participants who thronged the Omni Sheraton represented one of the conference’s sponsors, who included Move.On.org, the Sierra Club, the NAACP, Working Assets, ACORN, the NEA and many unions—AFL-CIO, SEIU, United Steelworkers of America, among others. 

Also encouraging was the tone: progressive and pragmatic. Fringey groups like the DraftGore folks had a table in the hallway and little more. Speaker after speaker joined familiar liberal demands to issues that have too long been ceded to the Right. The most striking and, for me, most reassuring example: We heard repeated calls for civil liberties and real security. I was thrilled by the Apollo Project, a bold plan advanced by a coalition of organized labor and environmental groups, aiming at energy independence by 2015 and stimulating the economy with the creation of 2 million new jobs in construction, technology and public infrastructure. Braun, Dean, Edwards, Kerry, Kucinich and Sharpton all gave speeches that drew standing ovations (some more ardent than others). And Kerry’s address demonstrated that a show of progressive strength could draw wayward Democrats to the left.  

But the conference also had its frustrations. Missing was an overarching progressive agenda. The elements were certainly present, but they remained unassembled into a larger vision and strategy. More worrisome was the neglect of organizing. Many speakers closed with an exhortation to mobilize; only a few indicated what mobilization would involve on the ground. There was no chance to caucus with others from the same state. The program was so tightly scheduled there wasn’t even much opportunity to shmooze in the halls.  

Maybe grass-roots organizing has to start at the grassroots. On the last morning, veteran community organizer Heather Booth warned that if we wanted profound political change, we would have to alter our own lives accordingly. That would mean a lot more than writing checks (or op-ed pieces). For people living in progressives bastions such as the East Bay, it might well mean working far from home.  

I think I’m ready. I’m hoping others are, too. 

For more information: Campaign for America's Future, www.ourfuture.org, (202)955-5665; the Apollo Project, www.apolloalliance.org, (202)955-5445; the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, vlcandy@comcast.net, 733-0996. The next general meeting of the WRDC is Tuesday, June 17, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Berkeley Alternative High School. 

Zelda Bronstein is chair of the Planning Commission and a Berkeley resident.

If the AC Transit board of directors votes to eliminate discount monthly passes, Charles Menton said he will stop riding the bus. 

But Menton’s seatmate on the 43 line, Regina Phillips, has no other way to get to and from work. The problem is, Phillips said, she’s unsure if she will be able to afford the regular rate. 

“If they get rid of the discount pass, I’m going to be in a real bind,” Phillips said. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do.” 

The board of directors will vote on the fare changes on Thursday. They will consider two options: one that would lower regular fares to $1 but eliminate all discount passes and transfers, and another that would retain the current $1.50 regular fare, keep discount passes for seniors, and maintain a limited transfer option. Adult and youth monthly passes would be eliminated in either option. 

Bus riders expressed their concerns at a series of public hearings last Thursday. AC Transit public information officer Mike Mills said the board was receptive to people’s complaints, but is at a loss for alternative measures to ease a projected $40 million deficit. 

“Ideally we’d like to keep everything, but with the budget deficit we need to find ways to increase revenue,” Mills said. 

But some riders said the transit organization is going about the problem the wrong way. “You can’t just cut the passes that make it possible for people to get around,” said Lenny Smart while riding the Number 43 to work. “That would affect so many people and it would hurt the poor people first. That’s not fair. They’re a service provider.” 

Some were more sympathetic to AC Transit’s struggle to combat its budget problems.  

“They’re doing everything they can,” said Patricia Fernandez, who said she would continue to ride the bus regardless of whether the monthly pass is cut. “They cut administrators and staffers first, and this is kind of a last resort. They don’t want this any more than we do, but in this economy something has to give.”  

Menton sees the fare changes as a “necessary evil” that might backfire if people stop riding the bus. 

“I don’t know how much they’re going to be able to increase revenue, because people will stop riding all together,” Menton said. “I understand why they would do it, but they’ve got to know there will be a lot more carpooling, a lot more biking to work or whatever to avoid the buses.”

One of former Mayor Shirley Dean’s clean-up events took place at the corner of San Pablo and University avenues, where brooms and trash bags were handed out to mostly non-area participants for a highly photographed moment. Blockbuster Video was just laying its controversial foundation. 

A handful of us stood with a sign that read “7,600 parts per billion benzene” and caused a stir. One campus researcher stopped his car to ask where we got our numbers, and we told him they were from the latest test of the wells that dot the intersection, mapping the spread of an underground plume from an old gas station storage tank. 

Blockbuster Video, the neighborhood was promised, would take up only a third of the building on the corner, leaving room for neighborhood retail services; would have an elaborate air ventilation system so that the benzene, which percolates upward, would be re-routed to the roof to protect the employees, and would have severely limited hours. 

Those promises became jokes for us locals, as one by one they were tossed like fast food wrappers and Blockbuster video bags. Blockbuster demanded more retail space, and the building was reconfigured so that the adjacent retail sites were ridiculously long and thin, and stood empty for months. 

Now Blockbuster is gone, leaving behind arguably the ugliest building at the prom thanks to architect Marcie Wong, whose sign proudly claiming responsibility used to hang on the outside wall, and District Rep. Linda Maio, the fifth vote whose excuse for supporting the compromised project was that no one else would build there if the opportunity wasn’t taken. 

The intersection that decades ago hosted the historic gateway to town has had asphalt dumped on its pretty brick walks rather than any honest repair, had two of its best retail spaces stunted by the imposition of zone-inappropriate nonprofits with ties to city council representatives and runs the risk of having its parking lanes turned into freeway on-ramps if the transportation planner gets his way. 

I doubt my neighbors are sorry to see Blockbuster go, since it proved our contention that its patrons had no interest in visiting the other neighborhood shops, and still insists on the ghastly practice of editing the films it rents to the public. It will be interesting to see if the space tailored to Blockbuster’s fussy demands can suit any other business. 

In the meantime, a few of us continue to wish the whole episode never happened, since the whole-hearted consensus of the Calthorpe “University Avenue Strategic Plan” sessions was that we needed our historic gateway rebuilt and a park. The relatively few vacant lots in town, most of which are burdened by unaddressed underground storage tanks, may garner little respect from a city teeming with energetic planners, but at least they’re not Berkeley’s lowest common denominator while they’re still an honest  

expanse of fennel and horizon. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley resident and a frequent contributor to the Planet’s editorial pages.

Tuesday is the last opportunity for the public to sound off on next year’s proposed budget, which seeks to counter a $4.7 million deficit by raising parking fines and continuing a city hiring freeze.  

City Council holds its final public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall. Afterward, the council will consider increasing most of the city’s 135 parking fines by 40 percent in an effort to raise $2.5 million for the general fund. Also up for discussion is the 2004-2005 budget, for which city officials forecast a much larger deficit. While officials are confident the city will survive the coming fiscal year without too much pain, they are talking about opening up the city’s five union contracts the following year to avoid widespread layoffs. 

Council will adopt the final budget for fiscal year 2003-2004 at its meeting next week, on June 24.  

The fiscal year 2004 budget proposal calls for the elimination of 22.5 full-time jobs. Sixteen of those positions are currently vacant and the remainder are expected to be vacated through attrition by the end of the year. In addition to the proposed parking fine increase, the council approved a bundle of city fees on May 20. Some of the fees included ambulance user fees, garbage fees, recreation fees and annual fire inspection fees.  

Complicating the city’s budget planning is uncertainty regarding the state Legislature’s response to a statewide shortfall of $35 billion. If the Legislature adopts a draconian budget, Berkeley could lose an additional $3.6 million in fiscal year 2004. 

To contend with this uncertainty, council will likely adopt an alternative budget, which calls for the elimination, mostly through layoffs, of an additional 28.8 full-time city positions.  

The council will also take steps to prepare for fiscal year 2004-2005. The deficit is expected to soar to at least $8 million the year after next largely due to $5 million to $6 million in increased city employee retirement costs and $2 million to $3 million in reduced tax revenues due to the depressed economy.  

The unknown factor in fiscal year 2005 remains the state budget. Berkeley’s deficit could climb to $12 million depending on reductions in state funding. At that point, the city will consider closing city hall one day a week, rotating the closure of one fire station and laying off as many as 150 city workers. If the fiscal year 2005 budget forecast worsens and massive layoffs are considered, some officials have discussed renegotiating the five union contracts signed by the city in 2002. 

Mayor Tom Bates said the unions might be interested in renegotiating benefits and scheduled salary increases to avoid heavy layoffs. He said the city is feeling pressure from a statewide retirement benefit that gives police and fire personnel the option of retiring at age 50 with enhanced pensions. 

“Contracts cannot be opened unilaterally, the unions have to agree,” Bates said. “But I think public employees want to see people keep their jobs and avoid layoffs.” 

However, Sandra Lewis, president of the clerical chapter of Service Employees International Union Local 790, said she would have to know a lot more about the budget before she would consider reopening her union’s contract. For example, she said, she would have to know how many people would lose their jobs compared to vacancies created by attrition. 

“There has been no talk that has come to me formerly about opening up the contracts,” she said. “No union likes to hear that. We’re not even a year into the new contract and I’m not inclined to open it up, as chapter president.” 

The public hearing will be held during the regular City Council meeting at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall located at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 

Students who have still not passed both sections of the high school exit exam may soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Under intense pressure from teachers and civil rights advocates who say the high-stakes exam unfairly punishes students for the inequalities in the educational system, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced that he was canceling the July administration of the test and recommending that the State Board of Education vote to postpone the requirement until 2006. 

In a June 12 letter to county and district administrators, O’Connell said his decision to cancel the test this year and all future years was based on complaints from administrators who said the test didn’t coincide with their summer schools.  

But the most notable part of the letter was O’Connell’s decision to push the state board to vote for a two-year delay. O’Connell authored the 1999 education reform legislation that established the exit exam requirement. Under that legislation, all high school students, beginning with the class of 2004, would be required to pass the exam in order to receive a diploma. 

Proponents of the legislation say the exit exam is necessary to ensure that students have learned basic skills upon graduation. But critics of the requirement say it is unfair to expect students who are disabled, English learners or from schools that are poorly funded or have unqualified teachers to pass the exam. 

Opponents in Florida have waged a successful legal battle in Florida against the exit exam requirement there, and a similar case is pending in Massachusetts. 

According to data provided by the California Department of Education, as of January more than 172,000 high school juniors—38 percent of the class of 2004—still had not passed the math portion of the exam. More than 86,000, or 19 percent of the class, had not passed the English portion. 

A recent study of the state’s exit exam by an independent research firm found that the requirement was forcing steady increases in standards-based learning but that students from poorer communities were less likely to pass the exam. Other groups, including Californians for Justice, have found similar disparities. 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) said O’Connell’s decision “showed good judgment” and that she hopes the state board follows his lead and votes for the two-year delay.  

“For me it’s important that we give our young people adequate opportunity to learn,” she said. “We are below the national median and we’re cutting in this current budget crisis. Before we hold our young people accountable for passing a high-stakes exam we need to hold ourselves as adults accountable to adequately fund education and give our kids a realistic opportunity to meet our expectations.” 

Hancock is currently sponsoring legislation that would eliminate the state exit exam requirement and leave it up to individual districts to decide whether they want to use the test as a criterion for getting a diploma.  

Ann Bancroft, spokesman for Secretary of Education Kerry Mazonni, who is a strong proponent for the exit exam and standards-based curriculum, said O’Connell’s move doesn’t mean the administration has cooled down its enthusiasm for the test. She said the governor supported legislation that called for the independent study on the exit exam and left it open for the board to decide whether to delay the full implementation based on the information from the study. “The most important thing to this administration and O’Connell is that the test remain legally sustainable so that it can help students improve, which it has done,” she said. 

The Salvation Army dissolved its Berkeley Board of Advisers last Tuesday, a few months after the board recommended the organization sell their University Avenue property to a nonprofit agency that would either develop a senior service center or affordable housing. 

The Salvation Army’s facility at 1535 University Ave., near Sacramento Street, hosts social services such as church meetings and distribution of food and clothing vouchers. 

The 27,500-square-foot property has been listed with Emeryville-based Cornish & Carey Commercial Realtors since December for $3 million. A Cornish & Carey Realtor said there has been a lot of interest in the property although he wouldn’t comment on whether it was from nonprofit developers. 

The property is located in an area that has been identified by the City Council as preferred for housing development, which makes it highly attractive to developers who can pay high asking prices.  

Regional Salvation Army representative Patty Brooke told the Board of Advisers during its Tuesday meeting that, effective immediately, the board was dissolved. The board, which consisted of five community members, has advised the Salvation Army on local social service issues for the last 15 years. 

Salvation Army Capt. Douglas Reily and regional representative Maj. Eda Hokom, both of the army’s regional headquarters in Sacramento, did not return calls to the Daily Planet about the board’s dissolution.  

It was unclear whether the move was connected to the sale of the building, though some board members suspected it was. 

“It was abrupt and surprised everybody,” said former board member Bill White. “I was not prepared to hear what I heard at [Tuesday’s] meeting.” 

White said he thinks the Salvation Army wants to sell the property for top dollar, which probably would mean selling to a for-profit developer who would be less likely to develop affordable housing or a social services oriented facility. 

Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Rachel Ruppert has been on the Salvation Army Board of Advisers for 15 years. She said the Salvation Army lost a vital connection to the community by dissolving the board.  

“It was very important to the Berkeley community to feel like the Salvation Army was connected to the area,” she said. “By disbanding the Board of Advisers ... the Salvation Army is losing the pulse of the community.” 

Other board members included Peggy Casey, Barbara Garrett, Ove Whittstock and Berkeley police Sgt. David White. 

Last March, the Board of Advisers recommended that the Salvation Army not sell the property and continue to maintain services at the location that many have come to rely on. 

Furthermore, the board made a secondary recommendation that if they had to sell the property for financial reasons, it should sell it to a nonprofit developer who would develop either a senior services center or affordable housing on the site. 

Councilmember Linda Maio, who represents District 2 where the property is located, said she would be surprised if the Salvation Army sold the property to a for-profit developer when there is such critical need for affordable housing in Berkeley. 

“We have no idea why they’ve short-circuited the community process,” she said. “We’re dismayed because the recommendation the advisory board came up with would be totally consistent with the Salvation Army’s mission.”

On Monday at noon, a big white moving truck stopped in front of the downtown offices of public radio station KPFA, 94.1 FM, and unloaded 11 nondescript boxes and a whole lot of symbolism.  

KPFA’s parent organization, the Pacifica Radio Foundation, is moving its national headquarters back to Berkeley this summer after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus in Washington, D.C., a period which featured a bruising battle with its rebellious Bay Area affiliate, KPFA. 

“They have come back to Berkeley,” said Valerie van Isler, director of administration for the new Pacifica headquarters at 1925 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, next door to KPFA. “This is terrifically important for the tradition and legacy we’re trying to build here.” 

Pacifica and KPFA clashed in recent years over programming and local control. On the evening of Jan. 5, 2000, in the midst of the fight, Pacifica packed up its Berkeley headquarters and shipped out to Washington D.C. At the time, foundation officials said the move had been planned for three months, but KPFA staffers said they were surprised by the late-night exodus. 

In December 2001, the squabble—which included a 23-day lockout of KPFA staff in July 1999—ended with a legal settlement that left local control intact and forced a reconstitution of the Pacifica board. The next month an interim board, composed of partisans from both sides of the struggle, voted to return the national headquarters to Berkeley. 

Van Isler said Monday’s shipment, in broad daylight, signaled a shift away from the late-night move out of Berkeley in the winter of 2000. 

“It’s an indication of the integrity we’re trying to build, the transparency we’re trying to build,” she said. 

Lonnie Hicks, Pacifica’s first chief financial officer, said he opened the doors to the new office March 15. A skeleton staff has spent the last three months fixing up the space, transferring the foundation’s computer system to the new office and arranging a roughly $200,000 move of documents and other materials from Washington, D.C., to Berkeley. 

Movers arrived with more than 300 boxes of Pacifica papers Monday, dropping off 11 at the new headquarters in a symbolic move and unloading the rest at a storage facility in Oakland. A second shipment is expected in late June or early July. 

“This move is not just symbolic,” said Hicks. “We’re moving in a new direction.” 

In the coming months Pacifica, which operates five stations around the country and provides programming to 90 others, plans to syndicate more of its shows, expand its Web-based broadcasting outfit and build the capacity for a digital signal, Hicks said. 

An open house and official welcoming for new KPFA general manager and former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport is scheduled for July 20.

The potential demolition of the historic Ellen Blood House on Durant Avenue was supposed to be addressed at last Thursday’s Zoning Appeals Board meeting, but the matter was misstated on the agenda and postponed until next week. 

The board had planned to consider whether to approve the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the project, but the agenda incorrectly stated that the board was considering the use permits for the project. The discussion of the final EIR will be held June 26. 

Opponents of a plan to remove the historic house to make way for the construction of a 31,000-square-foot, mixed-use project on Durant Avenue say the EIR for the development is dated and insufficient. They contend that the EIR for the Durant Apartments project was done so long ago that it lacks pertinent data concerning recent housing developments in the area surrounding the project. 

They say this information is important because the city, before approving a use permit to remove a designated city landmark, must issue a Statement of Overriding Considerations. The statement gives a reason or reasons why the benefit of a new development outweighs the loss of a historic resource. In this case, such a reason might be the city’s need to build more housing in order to meet regionally mandated housing production goals. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Blood House a structure of merit in 1999. At the June 12 meeting of ZAB, Carrie Olson, commission president, said the October 2002 EIR fails to mention the fact that the University of California has added about 1,000 units of housing in the Southside Area in the three years since the developer initially applied for a permit in May 2000. Those units are either already built or in the pipeline, Olson said. 

“When the project was initially proposed, there was a need for housing. But to say it’s needed now is not based on the current situation,” she told the Daily Planet. She added that the city has identified three areas—along University, South Shattuck and San Pablo avenues—in which housing should be created. “The Southside is not a location that has been called out to be built on,” she said. 

Durant Apartments developer Ruegg & Ellsworth proposes to replace the two-story, 19th-century, Queen Anne style house with a five-story development that would include two ground-floor retail establishments and 44 units of housing.  

“We think the EIR is adequate,” said Paul Dyer, project manager for Ruegg & Ellsworth. He said the developer is willing to relocate the building rather than demolish it if an appropriate site can be found. 

The ZAB and City Council must “certify” the final EIR—that is, agree that it adequately addresses all the environmental issues as outlined by state law--before it can consider whether to issue a use permit.  

Observant neighbor spots thief 

On Saturday around 5 a.m., a 55-year-old resident of Edith Street opened her living room blinds and noticed a man peering in car windows and trying their doors. He approached a white Acura, found the door to be unlocked and began rifling through the inside of the vehicle.  

The resident called police who later detained a man who resembled the resident’s description. The woman identified the suspect. Officers searched the man and discovered burglar tools and a gram of methamphetamine.  

He was booked into Berkeley jail for a felony count of auto burglary, another felony count of possession of methamphetamine and a misdemeanor count of possession of burglary tools. He is being held on $31,000 bail. 

Couple finds stranger in their truck 

A couple who had parked their truck at Fifth and Gilman streets while they went shopping in the area returned to find a man inside rumaging through their vehicle. 

The car owner noticed the passenger window had been broken and confronted the man, who began to walk away and warned them to not follow him because he had a gun. 

The owner followed him anyway and after a short foot chase, wrestled the fleeing man to the ground. The car owner searched a plastic shopping bag that the man was carrying and determined he had not stolen anything from his truck.  

The car owner told police that he let the man go despite his truck’s broken window.

First, let’s make it clear that “The Wyrd Sisters,” which opened June 13 at the Berkeley City Club, couldn’t be any newer or more modern in its creation. This is important to remember since the play itself is so strongly reminiscent of an earlier period of playwriting.  

“The Sisters” is the product of Central Works, the Berkeley theater company that’s been creating its own plays with great success for the last 12 years, usually grabbing an idea or characters from some literary golden calf as a starting point. When they’re through working it over, the mama cow herself might have trouble claiming the relationship. Last year, for example, they took the three sisters from “King Lear” and ended up with a comedy—a successful comedy. 

So it shouldn’t be too surprising that “The Wyrd Sisters,” despite its Shakespearean genesis—very probably in “Macbeth”—is a long, long way from anything the Bard himself would have recognized. What we have here is a comedy which could have come straight out of the 1930s or 1940s: the kind of plays and movies people used to make before everybody went off to film school on their way to Sundance to do “meaningful” and “symbolic” (and totally incomprehensible) works requiring a really good grasp of the term “post-modern.” Whatever “The Sisters” is, it isn’t post-modern. Heck, it isn’t even modern. 

But it certainly is fun. 

In hallowed fashion, it’s a dark and stormy night and two sisters (Rica Anderson and Claudia Rosa), very modern young businesswomen, lose their way in the woods. In the best tradition of these things, they find a huge, old, spooky house and a mysterious old lady--who looks a little like a witch in a fairy tale—who lives there all by herself.  

Naturally (what else?), the sisters decide to spend the night. Ring in the thunder and the lightning and the cackling of their scary hostess (Sandra Schlechter), who says strange things and seems to have mysterious powers. 

So then we get to the middle of the night. Like all respectable ghost stories this one involves people getting out of bed and wandering around downstairs in order to get into trouble. And indeed they do. Things get properly harrowing as the old lady starts practicing black magic and the increasingly berserk older sister begins to think up new ways to get rid of the boss who stands in the way of her corporate climb.  

It would be unfair to go into further detail—but it involves a watermelon.  

By the start of the second act, things have become hysterical enough to warrant the appearance of that standard British figure, the proper detective: suit, vest, white shirt, tie, overcoat and all.  

It’s rather nice, and an interesting change in tone. (Nothing else about the play is particularly British, but who cares?)  

All in all, there’s a very satisfying ending to a very nice piece of fluff.  

Not surprisingly, Central Works, which makes a philosophy of offering affordable prices as well as occasional free or “pay what you can” performances, has not yet acquired its own theater. The productions frequently appear at the Berkeley City Club, and, for this play, the Julia Morgan building could not be bettered. The room is large with a high ceiling and an impressive fireplace—for this performance, draped with the kind of gewgaws one would expect to have accumulated over long years. 

It may be hard for some of us to go into that room in the future without half-expecting a witch to appear.

EXHIBITIONS 

ACCI Gallery, “Midstream” 

A photography exhibition of artists Alex Ambrose, Bar- 

bara Bobes, Dafna Kory, and Catherine Stone. Exhibition runs until June 24. “Barococo” ceramics by Tony Natsoulas. Exhibition runs until July 14. 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. 

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 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 

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 until 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  

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. 

Slater/Marinoff & Co., “All Animal Art” Forty photographers and artists have donated works to help fund the spay-neuter and food costs of the Milo Foundation’s work in finding new homes for abandoned dogs and cats. Exhibition runs until August 31. Hours are Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1823 Fourth St. 548-2001. 

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. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org  

TUESDAY, JUNE 17 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Meditations on Revolution” 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 

Lillian Rubin, Ph.D., gives insights into what makes therapy work, in her new book, “The Man with the Beautiful Voice, and More Stories from the Other Side of the Couch,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, a discussion with Marie Arana, editor-in-chief of The Washington Post Book World; Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner and Berkeley resident; and Mark Danner, professor at UCB’s Graduate School of Journal- 

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

Francine Ward dicusses her new book, “Esteemable Acts,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Summer Poetry 

7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, short fiction, amateur and advanced artists welcome. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Fling Ding: All Wrecked Up and Bluegrass Intentions at  

8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazzschool Ensemble performs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck. 843-7625. www.jupiter 

beer.com 

Bang performs at 9:30 p.m.  

at The Starry Plough. Cost  

is $7. 841-2082. www.starry 

ploughpub.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “About a Girl,” works by Julie Zando and Joan Baderman at 7:30 p.m. at the Paci- 

fic 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 

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

Steve Jones, British science writer and host of a popular BBC series, reads from “Y: The Descent of Man”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Ariel Gore discusses her memoir “Atlas of the Human Heart,” on travelling through Asia and Europe as a teen-ager, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Brown Fist Collective at Café Poetry at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sarman Apt Russell reads from “An Obsession with Butterflies” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Brian Gore and Dusan Bogdanovic, acoustic guitar masters, 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 

The Fuzz, The Influents, and The Effection perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 19 

FILM 

Peter Watkins: “The Jour- 

ney,” episodes 1-6, at 6 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 

Michael Hirsh, a senior editor in Newsweek’s Washing- 

ton bureau, discusses his new book “At War With Our- 

selves: Why America is Squandering Its Chance to Build a Better World,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.black 

oakbooks.com 

Patricia Unterman presents her updated and revised “The San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide”at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Guided Tour of “Everything Matters: Paul Kos” at 5:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

Joel Kovel, former Green Party candidate for President, discusses his latest book, “The Enemy of Na- 

ture: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lauralee Summer reads from her memoir, “Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 

845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

William C. Miller discusses his new thriller, “Long Pig,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Verbal Tea, an evening of original poetry with David Ari, Ed Aust, and Terence Keane, at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby at MLK. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Spirit of ‘29 Dixieland Jazz, a Berkeley tradition since 1982, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

John Keawe, Hawaiian slack key guitar and vocals, 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 

Odessa Chen, vocalist with classical and indie influences, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Steve Poltz performs at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 

CHILDREN 

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” special release party with trivia contest, costume contest, magic show and other events from 10 p.m. Books go on sale at 12:01 a.m. Barnes and Noble.  

644-0861. 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “55 Days at Peking” 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 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Better Shove this Letter into the Stove” with Robert H. Hirst, Ph.D., Professor, Doe Library; Director, Mark Twain Project, 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. 

Regina Louise talks about her childhood running away from over 30 foster homes in “Somebody’s Someone” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Carole Terwillenger Meyers will show slides and discuss her updated book, “Weekend Adventures in Northern California,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Fania, a Senegalese singer, performs at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Latin Jazz Legacy Series, with Columna B and the Snake Trio. Panel at 7:30 p.m., performance at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $15 at the door.  

849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Wake the Dead, a Celtic tri- 

bute to the Grateful Dead, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Alessandra Belloni, Southern Italian percussionist, singer, and dancer performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Virus 9, The Enemies, The Frisk, Endless Struggle, Contraceptions 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. 

Jucifer, Drunk Horse, and Replicator perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Orixa, The Audrye Sessions, and Fine by Me perform rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 

CHILDREN 

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

Youth Music Clinic on Rhythm at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Celebrate Summer with readings of “It’s Summer- 

time” and “How Will We Get to the Beach?” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

“Videodrome,” a film about video, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Douglas Sirk: “All I Desire” at 5 and 8:45 p.m., and “All That Heaven Allows” 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 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

Tom Heasley performs on his digitally manipulated tuba, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Suggested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities area, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville. Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

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

The Servants and special guests perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Hyim Sextet, Thunderpussy and Fiyawata perform pop funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Johnny Nocturne and Mz. Dee perform at 9:30 p.m., with a swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashken- 

az.com 

Under a Dying Sun, Light the Fuse and Run, Transistor Transistor, The November Group, Angry for Life 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 22 

CHILDREN 

Caribbean Kids’ Show with Asheba from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

“The Frisco Kid,” a humorous look at Jewish pioneers in the American West, with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

Douglas Sirk: “The First Legion” 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 

“Teaching Teo,” a humorous short about raising a child in a lesbian household, by Ber- 

keley resident and former Willard teacher Diane Dodge, at noon at the Castro Theater in SF. 649-9956. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Summer Solstice Gathering of Poets with Adam David Miller, Rita Flores Bogaert, David Shaddock, Carolyn Scarr, Steve Arntson and Dennis Fritzinger, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Community Garden on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

Poets Miriam Sagan and Gary Young at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jerry Zolten chronicles the 75-year history of an important musical group in “Great God A’mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities area, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville.Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

Beck at 3 p.m. at the Greek Theater, Piedmont and Hearst Aves. Tickets are $39.50. 642-9988. 

Joseph Zitt's Calculating Codes and Naive Melodies, 

works for sextet, and Aaron Bennett's Electro-magnetic 

Trans-personal Orchestra at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House, 

3192 Adeline at MLK, Jr. Way. Admission is free, donations accepted. 649-8744. http://sfsound.org/acme 

African Drum Workshop, held every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., experienced from 12:30 to 2 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advan- 

ced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Piedmont Youth Bagpipe Band performs from noon to 4 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive near Grizzly Peak. 642-5132.  

Listen and Bayonics perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Teatro Nahual presents “La Otra Cara del Indio,” en español at 2 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sourdough Slim, humor and music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Huston Smith, a leading authority on world religions, discusses his new book, “Buddism: A Concise Intro- 

duction,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Will Ferguson presents his satirical anti-self help manual “Happiness” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “The Bacchae,” directed by David Stein. Euripedes’ play about Dionysus and his revenge against a hateful king. Sat. and Sun., June 21 through July 6, at 5:30 p.m., outdoors in John Hinkle Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Ave and Somerset Place. 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.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 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 29, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org

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!

Laurie Wilkie’s UC Berkeley Summer Session class does not take place in a lecture hall. 

Instead, Wilkie, an associate professor of anthropology, is leading her students in a more hands-on project: an archaeological dig to uncover the remains of two historic campus buildings. 

The students set out in the beginning of June to excavate the remnants of the Students’ Observatory, which was built in the 1880s and demolished in 1973, and the University Conservatory, which was constructed in 1891 and destroyed in 1924. The two sites contain some of the oldest remains of institutional buildings in Berkeley. 

“We’re trying to recreate the architectural and social landscape between 1890 and 1925,” Wilkie said, noting that that data could help document the university’s history. 

The conservatory was similar to the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and both were built by the same company. The students involved in the project visited the Golden Gate Park site, and park conservatory officials came on campus to inspect the students' dig. 

The observatory, which was torn down in order to build a more modern version with new equipment, was one of the first astronomy study centers on the west coast.  

The students’ project, which was sponsored by the Archaeological Research Facility and the Department of Capital Projects, marked the first time the foundations of the buildings have been exposed after remaining underground for as many as 120 years. 

Although the Department of Capital Projects is generally in charge of all demolition and construction projects on campus, the department sponsored the students’ project to contribute to the historical research. 

But the time that the students have to study the remains is very limited. 

Soon construction crews will begin building the Chang-Lin Tien East Asian Library on the site of the former buildings, completely covering any remains. So by Friday the team, which has been excavating the site for the past five weeks, will refill the gaping holes in the ground. 

The students will, however, have many artifacts left as historical remains of the former buildings. Aside from the cement foundations of the conservatory and the observatory, Wilkie and her students have found china plates, old Dr. Pepper bottles, piping, flower pots, a pen cap, and a cow bone. Some of these objects date as far back as 1900. 

“It looks like they would have had social events at the conservatory from the china and food remains,” Wilkie said. “It was probably a very beautiful place for something like that.”

Berkeley may soon have the most expensive neighborhood parking in the Bay Area. 

As part of its meeting Tuesday, City Council will hold a public hearing for those who live and work in Berkeley to give their opinions about a proposal to increase residential parking fees. 

If approved, the cost for parking in one of the city’s 14 residential parking zones will go from $21 to $30, making Berkeley’s permits more expensive than Oakland, which charges $25, and San Francisco, which charges $27. 

The city manager is also proposing that one-day visitor permits be increased from 50 cents to $2 and that two-week visitor permits be increased from $2 to $20.  

For people who work in residential parking areas, the fees are also expected to be raised. For people working at a community-serving facility such as a retirement home or a hospice, the annual fee will go from $21 to $100. Merchant permits will be increased from $78 to $100. 

According to a report from the city manager’s office, the fee increases will raise an additional $250,000, which will go directly into the city’s general fund. The total revenue raised from the program will be about $590,000. 

In recent years, many residents have complained to City Council that the parking permit ordinance is not enforced. On June 24, along with the city budget, the council is expected to approve five additional parking enforcement officers to increase enforcement. 

The city first adopted the Residential Parking Permit Ordinance in 1980. The purpose was to protect neighborhoods from an influx of non-resident vehicles and create more available parking for neighborhood residents. 

If approved, the fee increase will be the first since the ordinance was instituted in 1981. 

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.  

—John Geluardi