Stepped-up police patrolling in Southwest Berkeley following two recent shootings has led to the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Ronald Easiley, a 19-year-old who was shot to death on Jan. 14 on Harmon Street in Berkeley. Desmen Lankford, 19, was arrested Tuesday evening after leading police on a foot chase to the 1400 block of Alcatraz Avenue in Oakland.  

Since the June 17 and 18 shootings of two men—one on Alcatraz Street near California Street and another on the 1600 block of Russell—the Berkeley Police Department has added six officers to patrol Southwest Berkeley neighborhoods exclusively. Department spokesperson Mary Kusmiss said police are using “proactive” tactics to avert future violence, including pulling people over for traffic violations and detaining and searching known parolees and probationers. The increased activity, most of it carried out by the department’s nine-person violence suppression unit, has led to the arrest of several parole and probation violators, the retrieval of crack cocaine and the confiscation of eight guns, including two assault rifles. 

In another incident, Berkeley police on June 21 at 11:55 a.m. attempted to pull over a 1992 blue Buick, believing that one of the riders was Lankford. A short pursuit ended up on 60th street near Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Three of the four people in the car escaped. Police confiscated a Mac 10 firearm. 

Oakland police have also stepped up patrols, both in response to the Berkeley shootings and to the increased gunfire in areas near Oakland’s border with South Berkeley. One Oakland incident stands out: On June 19 at 11:30 a.m., a man opened fire at Aileen and Dover, spraying five houses with gunfire and almost hitting a woman holding a baby. 

There were also two shootings in Oakland on June 17: one at 11:35 a.m. in front of 6106 Shattuck Ave., and a second at 10 p.m. on the corner of Genoa and 53rd streets.  

Oakland Lt. Lawrence Green, who oversees community policing for North Oakland, is warning residents to stay out of certain areas along the border of Oakland and Berkeley, saying the recent wave of violence is a result of a feud between rival factions battling over drug trade territory. In an e-mail to a listserv that includes dozens of North Oakland residents, Green wrote, “It appears inevitable that there will be continued violence in North Oakland and South Berkeley,” adding that “the bottom line is that North Oakland drug dealers are responsible for multiple murders and shootings in Berkeley, and Berkeley drug dealers are banding together to ‘take out’ the North Oakland dealers.” 

In that same e-mail, Green identified seven spots that may be vulnerable to drug-related crime. In Berkeley, those hot spots are Prince and California streets, Russell and Sacramento streets, San Pablo Park and the 1600 block of 62nd street. In Oakland, the areas include the Alcatraz Street corridor, Shattuck Avenue and 62nd street near the Berkeley border. 

Green said he got the information about a possible link to a drug turf war from Berkeley police. But Kusmiss declined to confirm that theory. “Clearly if there’s violence going on there has to be some kind of catalyst,” she said. “But absent having people in custody to interview in order to confirm that, we can’t say for certain. It could be a feud over a relationship or some other reason. We just can’t be 100 percent sure.” 

Kusmiss also said the Berkeley Police Department is not issuing such “stay-away” warnings. “Certainly we think that you should put out crime information to protect people, but the [Berkeley Police] Department would never tell people to avoid an area. We don’t want to incite panic or fear,” she said. 

Some Southwest Berkeley residents say they are fearful anyway. Laura Menard is a retired massage therapist and mother of two who has lived in Southwest Berkeley for 25 years. She was at her Russell Street home having dinner with a friend on the evening of June 18 when she heard gunshots. She later learned that a 31-year-old Oakland man had been shot on the 1600 block of Russell, two blocks from her house. 

“This is not unusual,” she said, adding that she sees drug dealing and hears gunfire on a regular basis, and has witnessed shootings of people on at least two occasions, including once with her child. “It’s unnerving. The threat of assault weapons in the neighborhood has me constantly concerned about my kids’ safety,” she said. “People in the rest of Berkeley don’t understand how different it is in this neighborhood than the rest of Berkeley.” 

Menard said she and her neighbors are planning to develop a proposal to revamp the city’s community policing model to look more like Oakland’s and will present it at the July 17 South Berkeley Police town hall meeting. Those changes include looking at trends over a broader area rather than just block by block, meeting with neighbors more often to discuss solutions and establishing a Web site and hotline to increase communication between police and residents. 

Ozzie Vincent is a longtime Berkeley resident who lives on Alcatraz between Martin Luther King Blvd. and Shattuck Avenue. Living on the border, Vincent has worked with both Berkeley police and Oakland police in getting crime problems addressed in his neighborhood. He said Berkeley police could learn from Oakland’s community policing system. “With Oakland, it’s a real problem solving give-and-take. You never see anything like that in Berkeley,” he said. 

Another resident, who didn’t want her name published, said one of the problems is that many neighbors are afraid to report crime to police. She said a particularly useful tool is the court-ordered, stay-away order, which bans parolees from being in certain drug trafficking areas. “A lot of people won’t talk to police, and they pretend they don’t care when they see drug dealing on the street, even when in private they admit it does bother them,” she said. “They think I’m crazy for making it known.” 

FRIDAY, JUNE 27 

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

wibberkeley@yahoo.com,  

548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

International Association for the Study of Dreams Conference: “Dreaming by the Bay” A three-day conference  

on the psychological, medical, artistic and spiritual perspectives of dreams. Members of the public may register for the  

conference on a space-available basis by calling 1-866-DREAM12. www.ASDreams.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 

Memorial for Kevin Lee Freeman, resident of Berkeley’s streets, who was murdered on May 9 in Santa Rita Jail. March at noon in People’s Park, followed by a Memorial at the Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 845-2248. 

Howard Dean House Party at 6 p.m. at 2933 Benvenue Ave., corner of Ashby. Conference call with Howard Dean at 7 p.m. Learn about Dean’s campaign for President, his record as Governor of Vermont, why we are supporting him, and how he is the most progressive electable Democrat running to defeat George W. Bush. Please bring your checkbooks and questions to ask Howard Dean. For information or to confirm your attendance call Paul  

Hogarth, 666-1260.  

Awarding Social Responsibility Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility present their 21st annual Lewis Mumford Awards for Peace, Development, and Environment to MoveOn. 

org, Rebuilding Homes, and the Center for Environmental Health, at 6 p.m. in the Peralta Community Gardens, Peralta and Hopkins Sts. For more information call 415-974-1306. 

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Exercise The public is invited to observe the Northern Alameda County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services in a nationwide test from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ber- 

keley’s Emergency Operations Center at 997 Cedar St. For more information call Ron Jacobs at 525-0212. 

Kids’ Garden Club: Bread Learn about bread, mill wild wheat, and bake bread. For children age 7 - 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Sudden Oak Death in California, a two-day class with UC researcher Matteo Garbeletto and Botanical Garden Director Ellen Simms who will provide an up-to-date account of the research and status of the epidemic. Cost is $200. To register, call the Jepson Herbarium at 643-7008. 

National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay Chapter, celebrates its 36th anniversary at noon at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck. The keynote speaker will be Ruth Rosen, author of “The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America.” Cost for the luncheon is $30, $20 for students. 287-8948. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 29 

Gardening With Kids, A Workshop for Adults Whether you’re starting a school or home garden or have one already and want to get kids involved, this is the workshop for you, from 1 to 4:30 p.m in Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $10 for Berkeley residents, $12 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

“History of Nyingma” with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 30 

LBNL Development, Public Scoping Meeting on the proposed six-story 65,000 sq. ft. Research Office Building on Cyclotron Rd., at 6:30 p.m., North Berkeley Senior Center. 

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

TUESDAY, JULY 1 

Celebrate David Brower Day and Help Restore The Bay Join Earth Island Institute, Save The Bay, and Earth Team in celebrating the third annual David Brower Day with a community wetlands restoration project, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Oakland’s Arrowhead Marsh on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Shoreline. Guest speakers will include Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, Save The Bay co-founder Sylvia McLaughlin, and the Brower family. For more information call Marilyn Latta at 452-9261. mlatta@savesfbay.org 

Wine Tasting at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. 

Alternatives to Action Discussion Group with Robert Berend at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 527-5332. 

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2 

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

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. 

I Spy! Come undercover in a disquise and visit our spy training stations. Make a gadget, decode a secret message and network with other spies in training, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. 643-5961. www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

THURSDAY, JULY 3 

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

FRIDAY, JULY 4 

Independence Day, City of Berkeley Offices Closed 

July 4 at the Berkeley Marina, sponsored by the City of Berkeley. Free celebration from noon to 10 p.m. with two stages for live music, arts and crafts, free sailboat rides, bicycle parade at 7 p.m. and a fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. “Operation Kidprint,” a program of the Berkeley Police Department will provide parents with their children’s fingerprints at no cost. Valet bicycle parking will be available free of charge. Personal fireworks and alcohol are forbidden. Cars must be in by 7 p.m., and will not be permitted out until after 10 p.m. 981-7000. 

Evening Canoe Outing with Save the Bay Celebrate the 4th away from the crowds, paddling through Oakland’s serene Arrowhead Marsh, from 7 to 10 p.m. Cost is $25 for STB members, $30 for non-members. To register or for more information call 542-9261.  

www.savesfbay.org 

World One Festival, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Cerrito Park, El Cerrito. Music includes classical Indian dance, global fusion, bluegrass, reggae, capoeira, roots, African and capoeira. Sponsored by the City of El Cerrito, and 88.1 KeCg 97.7. For information contact  

worldone@worldoneradio.org 

ONGOING 

Summer Fun Camps for Children and Teens, from age five and up are offered at Berkeley recreation centers and include such activities as arts and crafts, swimming and tennis lessons, yoga, organized sports and games, and field trips. The Summer Fun Camp Program runs June 30 through August 22, Mon. - Fri., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The fee, including lunch and snack, is $77 per week for Berkeley residents. Extended morning and afternoon sessions are also available at an additional cost. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley’s Parks Recreation and Waterfront Department. Applications for the camps can be picked up at the Camps Office, located at 2016 Center St., or can be mailed upon request. 981-5150. 

Echo Lake Youth Camp for ages 6 - 12 at Echo Lake, near South Lake Tahoe. One week sessions are offered between July 7 and August 22. Cost is $235 per session. For registration information please visit the City of Berkeley’s Recreation Programs Office at 2016 Center St., or call 981-5150. 

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 assistance is available. For information call 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

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. Free orientations on July 2 and 9, classes start July 14. For information call 451-7300, ext. 604. www.baytec.org 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 26-28 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. Take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of paint, stain, varnish; auto products such as old fuel and motor oil; household batteries, cleaners and sprays; garden products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Monday, June 30, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wednesday, July 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wednesday, July 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

School Board meets Wednesday July 2, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320.

Gray Davis is a pretty unattractive fellow, even to many Democrats. He has a history of cozy relationships with unsavory campaign contributors, like the prison guards’ union. He has enthusiastically promoted their agenda, building more and more prisons at the expense of social programs which might prevent incarceration. His detractors on the left have ugly anecdotes going back to the days when Jerry Brown was governor, when he served as enforcer for shadowy deals that Jerry didn’t want to have on his public record. He’s a jerk, but face it, he’s our jerk. 

Recall signature gatherers are everywhere, even at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, where they have been observed in spirited debate with the people who regularly work the market crowd for reliable Berkeley signatures on certifiably good causes like stopping pollution. One of the regulars articulated the two best arguments against signing the recall petition: (1) An election would cost a fortune, and California hasn’t got the money, and (2) we’d get someone even worse. And that’s the whole story. 

As bad as Davis is, most of the potential opponents are even less appealing, and with the cuckoo legal setup for choosing a successor, the worst candidate with the most money, whoever he is, will certainly win. That’s why erstwhile Green candidate Peter Camejo, who got a lot of votes in Berkeley, is making a big mistake identifying himself with the recall campaign. He’s saying that his reasons for opposing Davis are different from those advanced by the organization funded by Darrell Issa, but the message doesn’t get through. Recall advocates blame Davis for California’s fiscal crisis, which is primarily caused by the disastrous economic policies of the Bush administration. They pander to the racist segment of the California electorate which passed initiatives opposing immigration and affirmative action. Camejo’s endorsement of the recall will inevitably taint the Green party with these ideas and tactics. Berkeley Green leaders have been trying to head off Camejo’s suicidal maneuvers, but at press time they still hadn’t talked him out of supporting the recall. Their back-up tactic is to run a Green anti-recall candidate against Camejo in the election, but by that time it will really be too late. 

Prominent Democrats have pointedly removed themselves from contention to avoid aiding the Issa campaign. There’s one more thing which would keep disaffected voters on the left from supporting recall. That would be for an attractive Democratic candidate with better values than Davis to announce, now, the intention of running for governor in the next regular election. The Bay Area could offer Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who is smart, liberal and an effective campaigner. Or how about the many able termed-out former legislators who know their way around Sacramento? Berkeley’s own Dion Aroner, who worked in the Assembly for close to 30 years both as an aide and as a representative, would make an excellent candidate for governor, and if she started now she would be able to build a good base before the 2006 election. A vigorous anti-Davis candidacy would attract better candidates to Democratic legislative primaries for all offices in the interim. 

The new Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, which attracted a standing room only crowd to its recent Berkeley meeting, has an anyone-but-Bush agenda for the next national election. It should also take as part of its mission finding better Democrats for California races, so that we won’t continue to be stuck with embarrassments like Davis in the future. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Berkeley Daily Planet.

FRIDAY, JUNE 27 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory's “Kids OnStage” presents a free mini-musical at 7:30 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5939. StageDoorCamp@aol.com 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “Written on the Wind” at 7:30 p.m. and “Magnificent Obsession” at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Wisdom, Experience, Humor, and Whatever” with City Club members. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, open mic at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 

526-2925, 665-9020. 

Edward Tenner explores how technology has shaped our bodies in “Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Big Brutha Soul at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

U.D.I., 11/5, Da Duke Boys, ADR La Vey, Pho-Ba’la perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontele 

graph.com 

Suzanne Pittson in concert at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Doraflood, Sushirobo and Love is Chemicals perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Shana Morrison, celtic/blues fusion 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 

Sean Powers Shadow Puppetry and the Bent Antennae Puppet Troupe at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

O-Maya fuses Latin music with Hip Hop at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

Missing 23rd, Breath In, Members of the Yellow Press, Clampdown, The Filthy Vagrants perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 

CHILDREN 

Golden Gate International Children’s Choral Festival Choirs from Jakarta, Indonesia, Vladivostok and Nakhodka, Russia, Havana, Cuba and the United States will perform “Sing All Ye Joyful” at 7.30 p.m. in Zeller-bach Hall. Tickets are $10-26, available from 642-9988. www.piedmontchoirs.org 

Take a Seat for Habitot, an exhibition of chairs designed and decorated by Michael Chabon, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Isaak, Frederica von Stade, Robin Williams, Lucas Film, Oakland Athletics, SF Giants and 49ers, and others, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Ethan Allen, 5717 Christie Ave., Emeryville. Chairs will be auctioned on Sept. 5 in a benefit for Berkeley’s Habitot Children’s Museum. 841-4034 or 841-0440. 

Dance Jammies, a multi-generational event presented by Orches, a non-profit dance/art organization from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at 2525 8th St. Reservations advised. 832-3835. orches@earthlink.net 

Audrey Coleman reads her new book, “Francine, Francine the Beach Party Queen,” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “Tarnished Angels” at 4:30 and 8:40 p.m. and “Shockproof” 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 

Allan Sekula, conceptual photographer, in converstaion with Kaja Silverman, on his recent work, including “Waiting for Tear Gas,” at 1 p.m. in Dwinnelle 142, UC Campus. More information is available at www.NewScreenMedia.com 

Rhythm and Muse Poetry reading at the Berkeley Art Center. Open mic sign-up at 6:30 p.m., reading at 7 p.m. 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Admission is free. 527-9753 or 569-5364. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Baghdad and Beyond: Healing the Wounds of War” with Cameron Powers and other musicians who played Arab music in Baghdad during the war, at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Don Carlos with Reggae Angels and Jah Light Music at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Mark Growden and the Electric Pinata and Molehill Orchestra perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.www.starryploughpub.com 

Psychokenetics, Kirby Dominant perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

House Jacks, a cappella over-drive, at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jesus Diaz y su QBA, Afro-Cuban dance music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

www.lapena.org  

Famous Last Words performs at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

Babyland, Replicator, Brilliant Red Lights, 8-Bit 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 29 

FILM 

“Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel” will be sceened at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, Arch and Vine. Facilitated discussion groups will follow. Admission is free. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel-Berkeley. For information call June Brott at 636-9639 or Seymour Kessler at 525-1526. 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Audacious Imaginations: A Tribute to Berkeley Poet Barbara Guest, at 3:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poets Eliot Figman and Judith Taylor at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jupiter String Quartet, with Victor Romasevich, violin, performs Tchaikovsky, Andriasov and Mozart at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, children under 12 are free.  

644-6893. 

ReminEssence in a performance of music, poetry and dance to benefit Destiny Art Center, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8 in advance, $10-$25 at the door. For tickets call 306-0236. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus at 7 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Arin Simonian, contemporary singer-songwriter, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $14.50 in advance, $15.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet performs at 5 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Flamenco Open Stage with Alicia and Roberto Zamora at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Landrus Project, Johnny Sketch perform funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ursula K. LeGuin reads from her new novel, “Changing Places,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Lincoln Cushing introduces a unique graphic art in “¡Revolución!: Cuban Poster Art,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

TUESDAY, JULY 1 

FILM 

Sarunas Bartas: “Three Days” 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 

Berkeley Summer Poetry from 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. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jonathan Wilson reads from his new novel, “A Palestine Affair,” set in British-occupied Palestine, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

K. K. Ottensen discusses her new book “Great Americans: Famous Names, Real People,” of interviews and photographs of ordinary people with famous names, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ronnie Gilbert Celebrates Gay Pride in song at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Libby Kirkpatrick, singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

DP and the Rhythm Riders at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “God Told Me To” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, with Larry Cohen in person. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Christine Wicker discusses “Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Happy Turtle performs Latin jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Reeltime Travelers and Bluegrass Intentions perform traditional and original dance songs at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jules Broussard and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Angel of Thorns, Half-Seas-Over, Superlarry, Anna Oxygen perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.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. 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 through 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 call 558-1381. 

Shotgun Players “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. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org

Drivers will pay more for parking violations and homeowners and businessmen will pay more in property taxes under a final 2003-2004 budget passed by City Council Wednesday night. 

Council approved the $280 million budget on a 7-1 vote, with one abstention, after five months of meetings and public hearings. The city closed a $9 million deficit with a selective hiring freeze, cuts to administration and social services, and increases in various fees and taxes. 

“It’s been a difficult process, but I think we’ve got a very good budget,” said Mayor Tom Bates. 

Starting July 1, the fine for an expired meter will jump from $23 to $30, and drivers will pay $51 for parking in a red curb or tow-away zone, up from the current $34.  

Next year, the average homeowner will pay $118 more in property taxes to fund parks, sewers, libraries and other city services. The largest portion of the increase will cover library services, with the average homeowner paying $30 more per year and the average business owner forking over $238 more annually. 

Victor Bull, owner of Thunderware, a high tech company in West Berkeley that recently shut its doors, showed up at the council meeting Tuesday night to object to the 13.9 percent jump in library taxes. 

“I love libraries and I love to support them, but it’s becoming a back-breaking situation for me,” said Bull, who said he still pays $10,000 in property taxes on his West Berkeley building, even though his business has closed. “We are not a bottomless pit of revenue.” 

But councilmembers said raising property taxes and fines was necessary to save vital city services. 

“Without [those services], we just won’t have the kind of city we want to live in,” said councilmember Linda Maio.  

The council, concerned about further cuts from the state, also adopted a $3.66 million contingency plan that would chop youth and senior services and let the assistant fire chief go, if necessary. 

The budget picture only promises to get worse in 2004-2005, when the city will face a projected $8 to $10 million deficit. An initial list of possible cuts, prepared by the city manager’s office, includes heavy reductions in police and fire, which largely avoided the budget axe this year.  

Bates, elected in November, presided over a largely civil budget process this year. The measured debate differed sharply from the brutal spending fights of recent years that pitted a slim “progressive” majority against the “moderates” led by former Mayor Shirley Dean. 

But the new mayor, who now heads a 6-3 progressive majority, did not avoid controversy altogether. On Tuesday night, moderate Councilmembers Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley and progressive Councilmember Maudelle Shirek raised concerns about $685,000 in last-minute spending put forth by Bates and ultimately approved by the council. 

“I think it was a backroom deal,” said Olds, the lone vote against the budget. 

Olds said the mayor should have consulted with a series of citizen commissions — concerned with a variety of issues, such as the arts and homelessness—which normally review budget proposals and make recommendations before the council votes.  

But Bates said the recent emergence of $800,000 in new revenue did not allow time to confer with the commissions on the new spending, which focused on the arts, health programs, homeless services and youth activities.  

Bates cobbled together the spending package over the course of the last two weeks when it became clear that the council was willing to raise parking fines by more than the 30 percent originally recommended by City Manager Weldon Rucker. 

Rucker’s plan would have yielded $2 million in new revenue. But the parking ticket schedule ultimately passed by council Tuesday night, which raised some fines by 30 percent and others by 50 percent, is expected to generate $2.8 million for the city —providing the council with an $800,000 windfall, on top of $115,000 in other unallocated funds.  

With $915,000 to play with, Bates allocated about $685,000 to new spending and set aside a $230,000 reserve in anticipation of further cuts from the state. 

The package included several recommendations made by other councilmembers, but also highlighted the mayor’s priorities. Bates, who focused heavily on education and youth services in his campaign, earmarked $70,000 for a new program, Berkeley Champions for Kids, that would recruit volunteers for libraries, recreation centers and after-school programs. 

Moderate councilmember Miriam Hawley, who had concerns about circumventing the commissions, nonetheless praised Bates for putting together an even-handed spending package that weighed all the councilmembers’ priorities. 

“He looked at them all and everybody was a winner on some things and a loser on others,” she said.  

But Sherry Smith, an aide to Hawley and an Olds appointee to the Civic Arts Commission, said the arts groups that benefited from the last-minute spending package had an unfair advantage over the organizations that competed for city funds before the commission at the start of the budget process. 

“We think these organizations are fine, splendid organizations, and worthy of city support,” Smith said. “But 68 other arts organizations have played by the rules.” 

Bates noted that the new spending plan includes a provision allowing the city manager and commissions to review the package over the next 60 days and make recommendations to the council for changes. 

But Smith said the weight of the existing City Council vote will make it politically impossible for the commissions to recommend taking money away from projects like Totland, a children’s play center near downtown Berkeley, which received $25,000 in the new plan. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we had 100 tots show up at the meeting,” she said. 

“There is a certain amount of truth [in that argument],” Bates said.  

But the mayor said the commissions are “independent” entities that won’t be afraid to recommend adjustments and added that he council will be “open-minded” about any proposed funding shifts. 

The other major budget controversy in recent weeks was the library tax. The public library had pushed for a 36 percent hike, but the city’s legal office determined that 13.9 percent was the maximum allowable increase under the law. 

Councilmembers, citing the legal opinion, went for the 13.9 percent jump. 

“I think it’s what we can do now,” said Maio. 

Jorge Garcia, of the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees, said he understood the city’s position and could accept the 13.9 percent increase, which is significantly higher than the 4 percent increase originally proposed by Rucker. 

“It’s better than the worst case scenario and worse than the best case scemario,” said Garcia. 

Garcia said it is too early to say how library services may be affected next year, but cautioned that the 13.9 percent increase, expected to generate $1.3 million in new revenue, may not be enough to prevent a reduction in services for the cash-strapped library. 

The city’s $9 million 2003-2004 deficit included a $4.7 million shortfall in the general fund and a $4.3 million hole in the city’s other funds. 

NEW BUS ROUTE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe you are throwing the hills into an unnecessary panic. I read the AC Transit description of the new 65 route, and it appears to say—granted, the language is less than easy to decipher—that the 65 will run on weekdays alternately out to the Hall of Science and on the old 8 route, in a loop around Senior, Campus and Shasta.  

It does not say what you reported it to say, that the bus will only run up Euclid, and proceed along Grizzly on “every other weekday.” Common sense should have persuaded Ms. Greenwell, and her editor, to have questioned this “bus every other day” concept. I hope I am correct on this, as I have one person in my family who does not drive and relies on the 65 to get home after work.  

Marian Simpson  

• 

HARMFUL CONCESSIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In order to balance its budget, one of our city’s best sources of revenue should be sales tax. But our left-leaning City Council majority discourages business by rapidly eliminating parking from our commercial areas. They are preparing to give away city-owned parking lots, worth millions, to their favorite developers. Of course they themselves have free parking downtown, and many city staff have special citywide parking permits.  

Berkeleyans have come up with great suggestions for a better budget. But “the (BCA) powers that be” always do the same old thing—impose fees, fines and taxes, even a tax on our PGE and phone bill. Our taxes and assessments are already the highest in the state! If you feel discouraged about living here and sell your home, expect a hefty property “transfer tax.” 

The politicians waive fees for their favorite developers, who pay no “impact fees” for schools or traffic mitigation as they do in other cities. So our developer fees are among the lowest in the state. Favored developers are also usually given every possible concession such as reduced or no parking, lower setbacks, less open space and increased building height. These concessions are usually harmful to the community.  

You can read about the origins of the BCA’s strategies for controlling Berkeley in the 1976 book by Eve Bach, et al, “The Cities Wealth, Programs for Community Economic Control in Berkeley, California.” Another must read is the 1987 version of “Ecocity Berkeley” by Richard Register (and endorsed by Loni Hancock), whose theorems are now being used to push massive development projects. The book has some good ideas, some humorous ideas and some “Cities Wealth” type ideas clothed in eco-green, but which are mostly about politicians’ and developers’ monetary green.  

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

SUPPORT THEATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for running the review of “The Bacchae” in your June 24-26 edition. As a member of the cast, I was delighted with the effusive praise from Betsy Hunton. As an actor, I’m delighted whenever a newspaper covers the small theater productions in the Bay Area. While we usually operate with a fraction of a fraction of the budget of a Berkeley Rep or an ACT, I think that, often, the audiences get just as much entertainment and satisfaction from—and are moved just as much by—performances put on by small, local theater companies. That’s a lot of bang for the buck!  

Please continue to cover productions by small, local theater companies and encourage the people of Berkeley and the rest of the Bay Area to share in the magic of live theater. 

Brian Buckley Smith 

• 

MODEL FOR A NATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rather than get depressed over the Bush tax cuts, why not collectively redirect the $400 tax break into local services? That would make the Republican idea of local control work for Berkeley, where a majority believe in education and public transportation over war and corporate subsidies.  

I’m pledging $400 to the local schools because I believe in their mission. If we all gave the tax break back to a public service of our choice, we could shed the sense of victimization and again be a model for the nation. 

Eliot Schain 

• 

ABORTION LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With the bill banning late-term abortion becoming law, it shows that the Democratic Party is taking women voters for granted. In the Senate, the bill to ban later-term abortion was passed with the help of several Democrats, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle. In the House of Representatives, the same bill was passed with the help of several Democrats. All President Bush needs to do is sign it. 

The Democrats didn’t have to defend this procedure. Everyone can agree that it is gruesome. All they needed to do was defend it as a decision that should be up to a woman and her doctor, not anti-choice politicians such as Joseph Pitts, Christopher Smith and Rick Santorum. That’s why I quit the Democratic Party in 1999 and became a registered Green, so I can expose how fake the anti-choice folks in Congress are on their stand on reproductive rights. 

Billy Trice Jr. 

Oakland 

• 

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Mr. Koenigshofer’s letter to the editor 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 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Chris Kavanagh (of the Berkeley Rent Board) continues to expose his grandiose self-dellusions in his letter of June 20 when he asserts that the “Rent Board is perhaps the city’s most critical elected body.” Critical indeed if the great function of government is to build useless and counter productive bureaucracies that create and enforce random and unfair regulations.  

Kavanagh, like any good Orwellian Bureaucrat, speaks from the platform of regulatory minutia but never addresses the larger issues of fairness or justice. He never explains the logic of a rent subsidy program that makes no effort to determine whether or not its recipients need or deserve such subsidies. He is apparently indifferent to the terrible injustices arising from the program he enforces and assumes the case by case abuse of citizens is excusable in the service of the board’s ideological predisposition.  

Explain Chris how you justify forcing a landlord to subsidize the housing costs for a tenant who has a higher income than that landlord?  

Explain why you are indifferent to the fact that the policies you enforce have prompted a decrease in small scale, “mom and pop” rental housing and promote a consolidation of such housing in the hands of large, impersonal, corporate type owners?  

Explain Chris why it doesn’t bother you that citizens, relying on their own character and discernment, are prevented by your agency from negotiating agreements with one another and instead subjected to Draconian governmental intrusion?  

Chris, do you not find it ironic and unjust that a senior citizen on a fixed income can be compelled by your agency to provide subsidized housing to an individual who is younger, earns more and comes from a privileged background?  

Do you not comprehend how such ironies and injustices hurt not only their immediate victims but also the broader social contract between government and citizen?  

Lastly, Chris, I am curious, do you or any of the other Rent Board members enjoy benefits of the program you so actively enforce and defend? Simply Chris, how many of you live in rent controlled units? 

John Koenigshofer

With Green Party leader Peter Camejo set to formally announce his candidacy for governor Monday, local party members are attacking him for taking advantage of an “undemocratic” Republican-led effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis. 

“Peter is a little blinded by opportunity and isn’t seeing the bigger picture,” said Berkeley Board of Education Director John Selawsky, a county councilor with the Green Party of Alameda County. “I don’t think this is a democratic election, and I don’t think we should be encouraging it.” 

But Camejo said Davis is a “corrupt” figure who deserves to lose his job, even if it is conservatives who push him out of office. 

“This is the right of the public, the right of the voters,” he said. “We are critical of the reasons ... but not critical of the recall.” 

Still, local party members said their standard-bearer will do long-term damage to the Greens by running for governor. 

“It would make the Greens more unpopular,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring. “It would look opportunistic.” 

The local opposition to Camejo’s candidacy is emblematic of widespread concern among California’s 157,000 Greens over the party’s role in a recall campaign bankrolled largely by a $1.15 million contribution from Republican Congressman and gubernatorial hopeful Darrell Issa. 

Issa’s organization, Rescue California, must gather about 900,000 valid signatures by Sept. 2 to get the recall on the March 2004 ballot. But the March ballot will feature the Democratic presidential primary and is likely to draw liberals to the polls in droves, which would not bode well for the recall vote. So Rescue California is hoping to collect the required signatures by July, possibly triggering a special election in the fall. 

The secretary of state reported Tuesday that recall supporters had gathered 376,008 unverified signatures statewide as of June 16. 

If the recall qualifies, voters will decide whether to dump Davis and will select a candidate to replace him should the recall pass. On Monday, Camejo will join Issa as the only two declared candidates. But actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in November, and state Sen. Tom McClintock are considered possible Republican candidates in the wide open election. 

Prominent Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Treasurer Phil Angelides have rallied around the deeply unpopular Davis, denouncing the recall and saying they will not appear on the ballot. 

The Green Party’s ambivalence over the recall effort came to the forefront in early May at its latest plenary session in Sacramento. Many Greens voiced opposition to Davis, labeling him a money-hungry conservative in Democratic disguise who has led the state into a record-setting $38 billion deficit. Others said recall proponents are misusing a tool that should be reserved for blatant corruption and argued that Green support for ousting Davis could help a Republican get elected.  

Unable to come to a consensus on the issue, the statewide party decided to remain officially neutral on the recall. 

“While we have great disdain for Governor Davis ... we did not want to seem ostensibly to be in a partnership with Darrell Issa and the Republican Party,” said Green Party spokesperson Ross Mirkarimi. 

Left to their own devices, a handful of the party’s county organizations, including the Alameda County outfit, have come out in formal opposition to the recall. The local county council also met personally with Camejo last week to express its concerns.  

“The Greens are divided,” Camejo acknowledged. “There’s a whole spectrum of opinion.” 

But Camejo, who won 5 percent of the vote in the 2002 gubernatorial race, finishing third behind Davis and Simon, predicted the party faithful will rally behind him if the recall qualifies for the ballot. 

“I think 95 percent of the rank-and-file will support me,” he said.  

Greens make up just 1 percent of California’s electorate. But Camejo said he will be in a unique position to win Democratic votes in a recall election, given that leading Democrats have bowed out of the race. 

“It will be an enormous opportunity to get the Greens’ message out,” he said. “I will be the only well-known [progressive] candidate running against the Republicans.” 

UC Berkeley political science professor Jack Citrin predicted that Democratic voters, while generally unhappy with Davis, will probably rally around the governor and defeat the recall—especially if there is no Democratic alternative on the ballot. 

But, if voters do approve the recall, he said, Camejo will have a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to get elected. 

“If there are a couple of Republican candidates and a Green candidate, you might have an interesting situation,” Citrin said. “Democrats might choose the lesser of two evils.” 

Still, some party activists say they want no part in a recall effort that could oust Governor Davis in favor of a Governor Issa or Governor Schwarzenegger. 

“We certainly don’t want to, in any way, aid their election,” said Selawsky. 

But there is division in the party’s local ranks over the best course of action. 

“We are a political party, we’re not just an adjunct of the Democratic Party,” said Suzanne Baker of Oakland, who serves on party’s county council. “It seems rather suicidal not to run a candidate.” 

Mirkarimi, the party spokesperson, said the Greens face a delicate dance ahead, balancing their own opportunities against the specter of a Republican governor. 

“It’s not just walking the line, it’s a whole pirouette,” he said. “I’m not sure if we’re going to do it gracefully, or be absolutely clumsy about it.”

I’m not the first to observe, with some trepidation, that the Bush administration is rapidly erasing the line that separates church from state. Never before so many prayer breakfasts in the White House, never before public money transferred to “faith-based” social programs offered by proselytizing churches. But I see a greater issue still, something that’s making rational political discourse impossible. Policies are becoming articles of faith. 

Take Bush economic policy. The dogma is that tax cuts will heal a depressed economy. There’s no proof this is happening; even Alan Greenspan is skeptical. Nevertheless, George Bush remains committed to Hooveresque trickle-down principles that find no support in the historical record. For how could cutting the taxes of the well-to-do possibly undermine the economic health of the nation, even if it produces deficits that make spendthrift liberals cringe? Faith that reaches extremes like this vies with Tertullian’s heroically inane declaration: “I believe because it’s absurd.” 

One could go on. Weapons of mass destruction? They must exist, because the CIA says they once did. Isn’t that as good as the Bible telling us so? Besides, Saddam was an evil man. Wouldn’t an evil man possess evil weapons? Isn’t that sufficient for true patriots? Must we, like doubting Thomas, lay hands on these weapons before we believe they exist? Global warming? Can’t be true. Would God create a world that wasn’t SUV-friendly? Anti-ballistic missile system? Why even bother to test it? Just build it and pray that it works.  

Does this mode of thinking sound familiar? It does to me. It reminds me of the catechism I learned in my religious instructions. The resurrection of Jesus, original sin, the immaculate soul of Mary needed no proof. As matters of faith, they would be true even if there were facts that spoke against them. Why? Because faith is the evidence of things unseen. To believe in the absence of facts—or better still, to believe in the teeth of the facts—is a spiritual virtue on which one’s salvation depends.  

I suspect such exercises in blind faith result from Mr. Bush’s intimate association with fervent evangelical supporters. The messianic certitude that has come to characterize his foreign and domestic agenda is grounded in the evangelical belief system that rescued him from alcoholism and saved his marriage.  

As a matter of personal choice, he has every right to cling to the creed that shaped his life. He is not, after all, the first born-again Christian to inhabit the West Wing. But one need only recall Jimmy Carter to see how gracefully the presidency and personal faith can be combined. Given the obvious sincerity of Carter’s piety, one might have expected evangelicals to give him their whole-hearted support back in 1980. But they preferred Ronald Reagan, because Reagan wore his religiosity on his sleeve. That’s what many politicized evangelical groups want. At the Pat Robertson extreme this becomes an outright demand that the United States become, by constitutional amendment, a Christian nation. 

George Bush is treating us to a strong dose of religiously correct politics. He would rather cater to his evangelical base than make even a few strategic concessions to the liberal public that gave Al Gore and Ralph Nader 2,300,000 more votes in 2000. True believers don’t compromise with error.  

In a March 10 “Newsweek” feature titled “Bush and God,” Howard Fineman reports that Mr. Bush spends his mornings reading Oswald Chambers, an evangelical preacher, circa 1920. Here’s a taste of what our chief executive is learning from Chambers: “If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is over for you. ... Be reckless immediately, totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything by casting your all upon him. ... You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessly being willing to risk your all.” 

Recently, while researching a novel about evangelicals, I discovered the strangest things being preached in evangelical churches—things I’d debate a lot longer than a second: obscure old prophecies about the second coming and the third temple and the rapture and the tribulation and, oh yes, that perfect red heifer. Well, I’m sure there are things I believe that look every bit as bizarre; but nobody is turning my eccentricities into policies of war and peace.  

In the novel, I employ Danny Silverman, a gay, Jewish novelist from San Francisco, to spoof the cultural agenda of the 70 million fundamentalists whose politics have more to do with the Book of Revelation than the New York Times. That’s easy to do on paper. But all the while I wrote, I knew the man in the West Wing views these matters in a more serious light. Because, after all, he believes he’s been appointed to do God’s will, and the more recklessly, the better. 

To which I’m sure Danny Silverman could only say “Oy!” 

Theodore Roszak is a Berkeley writer whose latest book is “The Devil and Daniel Silverman.” He will be speaking on “Surviving Fundamentalism”at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Library.

The face of Berkeley is changing. Vacant lots, former gas stations, parking lots and one-story commercial buildings are being replaced with infill, housing projects, often above ground floor retail. 

Construction sites are popping up all over on Berkeley’s major thoroughfares. On Shattuck, north and south; on University; on Telegraph, and on Bancroft.  

Berkeley is in the midst of a housing boom. Housing is being produced at a more rapid pace than at any time since the passage of the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance (NPO) in 1973. 

Adding density 

In the past two years, the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) has approved 17 housing projects that have at least 10 units of housing. Ranging in size from 15 units to 176 units, these projects include a total of 930 units. Almost all are located in the downtown and/or on major commercial corridors with transit service. 

Berkeley’s current boom is far from over. Hundreds of additional units are working their way toward the ZAB for approval.  

What kind of housing is being built? 

• Two of the 17 projects have a majority of affordable units; 15 are market rate projects, but also include affordable “inclusionary” units. 

• Altogether, 25 percent of the approved units are affordable to low- and very low-income households. A majority of Berkeley’s current tenants are low or very low income according to surveys. According to the 2000 Census, the median income of Berkeley’s tenant households was only $27,341 in 1999. 

• Very few units, market rate or affordable, are being built for families. Only four out of 930 approved units are three-bedroom units.  

• All but two projects are rental housing projects. 

• All but one approved project is four or five stories in height. 

The Zoning Board and the City Council have shown strong support for building housing on commercial corridors. How successful are developers in getting housing approved? 

• Only one larger housing project was rejected by the ZAB while 17 were approved 

More than two-thirds of housing projects approved by the ZAB are appealed, but appeals have been almost totally unsuccessful. Only one appeal was even partially successful.  

• Opponents have turned to litigation to stop projects in four cases with no success. 

• The ZAB and City Council have balked at only two projects. Both were located in the middle of residential blocks rather than on transit corridors, and both encountered widespread, well-organized neighborhood opposition. 

• Developers are routinely receiving concessions that allow them to exceed what is permitted by development standards for the area. Reduced setbacks are common, while some projects get approved with reduced open space, reducing parking, increased lot coverage and, in four cases, an extra floor. 

Housing myths 

Some people seem to believe that until recently nothing had been built in Berkeley for decades. But while the pace has picked up sharply, construction of new housing has occurred steadily for the last 30 years. 

The last major housing boom in the city occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s. More than 7,000 units of new housing were built between 1960 and 1974. On neighborhood streets, especially near the UC campus, single-family homes were torn down and replaced with apartment buildings, many of them ugly, motel-style eyesores. Many of these building are soft-story buildings, with parking at ground level, and are in need of seismic retrofit.  

Much of the housing development in the 1950s and 1960s was in response to the post-war growth of UC. The university housed only a minority of its students. This continues to be the case. Today, about one-third of UC students live in dorms, fraternities, sororities and co-ops; the remaining two-thirds have to fend for themselves on the private housing market. 

The NPO put a stop to the trend of demolishing housing on residential streets. Most of the housing built in the 1980s and 1990s was built on major streets; residentially zoned areas saw little change.  

In the eighties, about 740 units were built; more than 60 percent of this housing were subsidized units built for low- and very low-income residents. Major affordable housing projects built in the 1980s include the Savo Island Co-operative Homes at Adeline and Stuart; the U/A Housing Co-op at University and Sacramento, and Redwood Gardens senior housing on Derby.  

The city also built 61 units of scattered-site, low-income housing in the 1980s. The 61 units were located on 10 different sites and generated a lot of opposition. Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA) had an 8-1 majority on the City Council at the time and their decision to build this housing contributed to a political backlash that led to voter approval of district elections in Berkeley. 

In the 1990s, the pace of housing production increased somewhat. Between 1990 and 2000, there was a net gain of 1,140 units. For-profit developers, notably Patrick Kennedy, became more active and the percentage of affordable, below-market units produced was lower than in the 1980s as a greater number of market-rate units were produced. For the first time in many years, housing was built in and near Berkeley's downtown.  

Neighborhood battles 

Nonprofit developers encountered stiff resistance in several cases. Resources for Community Development (RCD), one of the city’s leading nonprofit developers, faced uphill battles as it attempted to build low-income housing at the Bel Air Hotel site on University, on Rose Street in North Berkeley and on the Berkeley Inn site at Telegraph and Haste.  

In the first two cases, neighborhood opinion was divided, with active groups of neighborhood residents vigorously opposing the projects. RCD prevailed at the Bel Air site, where Erna P. Harris Court is now located. The Telegraph project generated no neighborhood opposition, but both it and the Rose Street project, which was slated for people with AIDS, were killed because they lacked the support of Mayor Shirley Dean and her allies who constituted a majority on the City Council at the time. 

School District staff appear to be proposing a giant game of musical chairs whereby (a) the Adult School would be moved from the West Campus to the Franklin School site; (b) the district’s administrative offices and storage and maintenance functions would be relocated from Old City Hall, and from the district’s Russell Street building, to the West Campus, and (c) the Rusell site would be redeveloped for housing. 

Though this complex set of proposals does offer some advantages for the district per se, it also raises major issues that affect the broader community. For example, students of the popular Adult School would be inconvenienced by that facility’s move to a less central, less widely accessible site, while the neighborhood around Franklin School would get impacted by new daytime and evening traffic. 

There is great danger that the Board of Education will quietly okay its staff’s scheme piece by piece, starting this summer, without Berkeley citizens’ grasping the full implications. And amazingly, it seems that nobody has seriously consulted two crucial city documents bearing on such issues: the Zoning Ordinance and the General Plan. 

The employee at the zoning counter who recently remarked to me, sweepingly, that the School District is “exempt” from zoning was uninformed. People should read the California Government Code’s article (Sections 53090 et seq.) entitled “Regulation of Local Agencies by Counties and Cities.” While that article’s Section 53094 gives a procedure whereby a school board may, by a two-thirds vote, exempt proposed uses from zoning, it clearly indicates that the exemption procedure cannot be used for “nonclassroom facilities, including, but not limited to, warehouses, administrative buildings, automotive storage and repair buildings.”  

So it appears that zoning will in any case apply to such proposals as redevelopment of the Russell Street site for housing, and reuse of the West Campus for district administrative headquarters—which, be it noted, the Berkeley Zoning Ordinance appears to classify as “offices” rather than “schools.” Note as well that although its University Avenue frontage per se is commercially zoned, the West Campus is mostly in residential zones (R-2A and R-2) whose lists of permitted uses do not include offices. (As for the potential housing site on Russell, it should be borne in mind that this is now in the R-2A and R-2 Districts—in which allowable density is rather limited.) 

Highly relevant to the West Campus is a General Plan component called the University Avenue Strategic Plan, which the City Council adopted in 1996. That strategic plan treats the Adult School as an important anchor of University Avenue, and calls for supporting and improving it there. So moving the Adult School to the Franklin site would squarely conflict with the city’s plan. 

Quite pertinent to the West Campus and Franklin sites (and potentially to the Russell site) is the General Plan’s citywide Open Space and Recreation Element. That element calls for zealously protecting existing open spaces (as well as seizing appropriate opportunities to create new recreation areas). 

The city shouldn’t idly sit by and let its zoning and its General Plan be ignored. Although it’s conceivable that the city might eventually choose to amend those to accommodate the School District’s proposals, the city shouldn’t do so unless it’s truly convinced of the proposals’ appropriateness, after rigorous evaluation and full public involvement. And rather than just thinking about a short-term fiscal fix for the School District, the city should look to the long-term best interest of Berkeleyans as a whole. 

In any case the City Council and the Planning Commission should actively address this whole matter—right now, before it’s too late. 

John English is a planner by profession and has lived in Berkeley most of his life.

Enrique Lessa’s advanced genetics class at UC Berkeley this summer teaches the same material a similar class would during the academic year. The only difference? Lessa’s students are not formally enrolled at UC Berkeley—they are between 12 and 17 years old. 

Lessa’s class is part of the annual Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP), a summer session that offers gifted elementary and secondary school students the chance to take advanced courses on a college campus. The program, now in its 23rd year, prides itself on providing increased educational opportunities for young students who might not otherwise have them. 

As director of ATDP, Nina Hersch Gabelko is in charge of coordinating classes for 2,400 young students this summer. The program, which began in 1981, offers participants the chance to take courses ranging from marine biology to advanced fiction writing, French literature, physics and computer programming. 

ATDP is split into two divisions: elementary, for students in first through sixth grades, and secondary, for seventh- through 11th-graders. The secondary division has been in session since June 16, while the elementary students will arrive on campus July 7. Both programs will conclude July 25. 

“The amazing thing is that they cover 182 days of work in just 18 class sessions,” Gabelko said. “They work so hard because they all really love to learn.” 

Though Gabelko emphasized the program is not designed exclusively for children who have been identified as “gifted,” admission standards are high. 

The program’s brochure says applicants will be evaluated based on their “grades, achievement test scores, an essay and a teacher recommendation,” a tough set of requirements for the average second-grader. But Gabelko said the key trait of an ATDP-eligible student is motivation. 

“We realize that some students will look better on paper because of the school they come out of,” she said. “But if the kids look like they can do the work and want to do it, they should be fine.” 

Though the course fees are high—around $400 for most classes—ATDP coordinators pride themselves on their ability to provide scholarships to those who need them. This summer, like the past 15 years, a group of academically motivated students from the Central Valley—many of whom are the children of migrant farm workers—are studying at ATDP on partial or complete scholarships. 

The teachers come from backgrounds almost as diverse as the students. Though some UC Berkeley professors teach the summer classes, the majority of the instructors hail from local public or private schools. 

“Every teacher I have seen in the program is great,” said John Shin, a UC Berkeley junior who has worked as a teacher aide for ATDP the last two summers. “If kids were getting this kind of instruction all year, I don’t think we’d be lamenting the demise of public schools.” 

ATDP participants and their parents have historically been similarly pleased with the quality of education—Gabelko said many students return year after year, and some of this year’s 11th-graders have been involved in the program for 10 years.  

Julia Simpson, 12, who took introduction to Japanese through ATDP last year, said the program allowed her to take a fun class she would not otherwise have taken. 

“My school doesn’t offer Japanese, but I wanted to learn it, so the class let me do that,” Simpson said. 

Other students had loftier goals. “It’ll be really good when I apply to college,” said 9-year-old Timothy Morris.  

Gabelko said the goal driving ATDP is inspiring students. 

“We want the students to find out what it is about a discipline that sets them so on fire that they want to devote their working life to it,” she said.

Ignacio Chapela has a teaching position at UC Berkeley for at least another year, but his concern about the “secretive” tenure review process he has undergone has led to a very public display of his dissatisfaction. 

From 6 a.m. Thursday to midnight Monday, Chapela is holding office hours in a “transparent office” around the clock outside California Hall, the building that houses the ofices of University Chancellor Robert Berdahl and the Budget Committee of the Academic Senate, the two offices that are in charge of Chapela’s tenure file. The question of his tenure has been under review for the past year, and Chapela said that he has been told that a decision will not come until after July 1. Chapela has said that the process has taken twice as long as usual, a claim that some university administrators refute. 

“That’s not at all unusual,” said George Strait, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs. “Tenure is a very, very serious issue at this university, and we conduct thorough reviews no matter how long it takes.”  

Chapela, an assistant professor of environmental science, has become one of the leading critics of biotech agriculture. In 1998 he led a fight against a proposed research partnership between UC Berkeley’s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and Novartis, a biotech firm, a plan that attracted national attention to the issue of universities forming corporate partnerships. 

Now, some say that Chapela's position against the university’s plan is keeping him from receiving a fair tenure review process. 

At the heart of the dispute is Jasper Rine, a professor of genetics and developmental biology and a member of the nine-person tenure review committee. In 1995, Rine co-founded a biotech company called Acacia Biosciences, a company that maintained a professional relationship with Novartis. Many Chapela allies say that this association raises serious questions regarding Rine’s ability to objectively evaluate Chapela’s tenure file.  

"[It] is purely a conflict of interest," said David Noble, a science historian at York University in Toronto. 

Chapela himself refuses to speculate on reasons behind the delay in his tenure process because he does not know enough about the workings of the committee. He says that it is precisely this lack of information that he is protesting. 

“It’s a black box in there,” Chapela said, gesturing toward California Hall from the site of his sit-in. “I don’t know when they started my case, I don’t know how much progress they’ve made on my case, and I don’t know when they plan to finish my case. They don’t tell me anything about it.” 

In response to his concerns about secrecy among top academic administrators, Chapela has taken the opposite extreme: setting up his office outside so that the general public can see exactly what he is doing all the time. 

Chapela’s relocated office features all the necessities: food, water, a large tree for shade, a shelf full of books, his laptop computer complete with wireless internet access, and a constant stream of colleagues, students, friends, and strangers stopping by to offer their support. He sent a mass e-mail Thursday morning to everyone he could think of, and has since received responses from every corner of the globe. 

“I got cell phone calls from my friends in London, in Latin America,” Chapela said.  

Though Chapela’s contract with the university was scheduled to expire Monday, he received a letter Thursday morning extending his contract until July 2004, a move that came as a “total surprise.” Chapela said that the letter was dated June 19th, but that he had heard nothing about a possible extension until Thursday. 

But administrators emphasized the need for confidentiality when dealing with personnel issues.  

“There are matters that are kept private because there are only very few people who need to know about them,” Strait said. 

For now, Chapela is voicing his disagreement through his transparent office. After this, he said, it remains to be seen what will happen in terms of his tenure case and the issue of academic secrecy. 

“I’m among those working for change,” he said. “We’re going to keep working.”

Kevin Freeman memorial and march set for Saturday 

Homeless advocates will stage a march and memorial Saturday in honor of Kevin Lee Freeman, a well-known Berkeley transient who was allegedly murdered by his cell mate at Santa Rita Jail in May. 

The march will begin at noon at People’s Park on Dwight Way, south of the UC Berkeley campus, and will conclude at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists at 1924 Cedar St., where a 1 p.m. memorial will take place. 

Freeman, 55, an alcoholic who was repeatedly picked up for public drunkeness, allegedly died at the hands of his cell mate Ryan Lee Raper, 20, who had a history of violence. The brutal murder has raised questions about Santa Rita’s decision to place an alcoholic in the same cell with a violent criminal. 

—David Scharfenberg 

Most city vehicles convert to 100 percent Biodiesel fuel 

Berkeley converted to 100 percent Biodiesel fuel for almost all public works, parks, fire, and police vehicles on Tuesday. Berkeley is the first city of its size to convert its entire fleet of diesel vehicles to the cleaner fuel. 

Biodiesel is made from virgin soybean oil and recycled vegetable oil from restaurants such as McDonald's, KFC, and Dunkin' Donuts. This mixture drastically reduces the emissions produced by the vehicle compared to petroleum-based diesel, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Though the city has been using 20 percent Biodiesel for several years, public works staff members began working on the switch to 100 percent Biodiesel about six months ago, due in part to encouragement from the Ecology Center, which made the switch about a year ago. 

The initial cost of the fuel is 50 percent more than that of traditional diesel, though the Ecology Center says the opportunity to reduce pollution is worth the extra cost. Proponents also said that the price would end up being reduced because of the bulk quantities the city will now be buying.  

As of Tuesday, the city had implemented 100 percent Biodiesel fuel systems in 180 of its 200 diesel vehicles. The remaining 20 vehicles belong to the Fire Department, which is working to find means of transporting the fuel to its fire stations. 

—Megan Greenwell

An amendment proposed by Congresswoman Barbara Lee that would have ordered an investigation into recent revelations that the Bush administration may have distorted or withheld information regarding Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction fell 33 votes shy of passage Wednesday. 

Lee said the close vote reflects the nation’s desire to see that the truth about the reasons for the war comes out. “I am pleased to see that there is growing support for our effort to receive straight answers from the administration,” she said. 

The amendment would have called on the General Accounting Office to determine whether the Department of Defense and other intelligence agencies gave false information or failed to give information to United Nations weapons inspectors about Iraq’s possession of weapons prior to the invasion. 

Lee said the amendment would have investigated whether intelligence was shared “in a timely” manner. 

“This nation launched a preemptive war based on what it claimed was indisputable evidence,” she said. “If that evidence was not so solid and especially if it was distorted, then we severely undercut our ability to convince the world about future dangers from weapons of mass destruction in other countries.”

This summer my friend, Gloria, is sending her son to space camp at Moffet Field and then hauling him off to Europe to visit distant relatives and musty cathedrals. Another friend’s child is going to music and dance camp, and a third is being coached in crew, lacrosse and golf. I know a kid who is attending an exclusive private camp in the mountains above Santa Cruz where he can rock climb, mountain bike, study Spanish and learn to program a computer.  

The summer activities for kids in my North Oakland neighborhood aren’t quite as exciting or global in scale. Michael, who lives down the street, is hanging out at the Boys Club on Shattuck Avenue. DeShawn is watching television on his grandmother’s living room floor. My nine-year-old friend, Victor, is sitting on my front stoop, counting the cars on the street. No one has made any particular plans for Victor this summer. He’s bored and frustrated and getting a little testy.  

Twenty-six years ago, at the age of 25, I attended summer camp for the first time. I found employment as a counselor at a private all-girls camp in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Six miles down a windy dirt road, the main lodge of Camp Tamarack was nestled among giant Douglas Firs. Rustic tent cabins clustered around a pristine lake. Campers rode horses and played tennis. They paddled canoes lazily across the mirror-smooth water, dove off the dock, hiked in the woods and told ghost stories at the evening campfires. On Sunday mornings the counselors and their charges gathered in a wide, sunny meadow and listened as the camp directors gave inspirational talks. I can still remember gray-haired Vera, Camp Tamarack’s fiery founder, pounding her fists on a picnic table and saying softly but firmly, “You girls can be anything you want to be: doctors, lawyers, auto mechanics, pipe fitters, teachers. You can raise babies, chickens, daschunds and llamas. You can learn to speak French, build a house, throw a pot, fly to the moon, knit a sweater. Follow your dreams; reach for the stars; go out into the world, and make it a better place for all of us.”   

The other day, when I found Victor again perched and idle on my front porch, I remembered my care-free, privileged afternoons at Camp Tamarack. “Come on,” I said. “I’ll take you some place.” 

We went to Lake Temescal, a surprisingly bucolic lake set incongruously beside Highway 24 on the edge of Berkeley and urban Oakland. I put on my bathing suit and Victor stripped down to his red and yellow plaid boxer shorts. We raced across the hot sandy beach and waded into the cool brown shallows. We could hear, see and smell the cars whizzing by on the freeway, but if I squinted my eyes and let my ears fill with water I could imagine Camp Tamarack and Vera’s rousing speeches.  

When Victor and I got out of the water we found ourselves covered in a thin coat of mossy slime, not unlike the neon glob that appeared on every swimmer at pristine, perfect Camp Tamarack. “Suzy,” screamed Victor with genuine terror in his voice. “I’m covered in gross green stuff!”  

“Don’t be scared,” I replied. “It won’t hurt you.” Sensing that Victor was in a vulnerable place, I decided to make my camp counselor pitch, just as Vera had done every Sunday morning at Camp Tamarack. “While you’re covered in that goop, Victor, I want you to listen up. You can be anything you want to be: doctor, lawyer, airplane pilot, policeman, hamburger flipper, fisherman, circus clown. Just do the best that you can, kiddo, and make the world a better place for all of us.” 

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” said Victor as he played with the slime on his thin arm. “But you gotta get this stuff off me. I can’t do nothin’ about the world until it’s gone.” 

Lake Temescal is located off the Broadway Exit of Highway 24 and is open for swimming seven days a week, May 24 to Sept. 1, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information about it and other places to swim contact the East Bay Regional Park District, 510-562-PARK. 

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

Oakland, bless our hearts, approaches the issue of the sideshows like a youngster spinning donuts at the corner of 90th and International ... round and round we chase ourselves, mugging for the reporters and television cameras, always ending up back where we started.  

The new argument being played out in the public is whether we need something that’s loosely being called a “legal alternative to sideshows.” Having defined sideshows as violent, dangerous, antisocial activity, both Councilmembers De La Fuente and Reid say no way. “Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has said [sideshow] alternatives would not work because sideshows are illegal and that’s what draws the crowds,” reports the Oakland Tribune, going on to say: “An officer on the street also expressed his doubts: ‘Part of the excitement,’ the police officer said, ‘is doing something wild and illegal.’”  

In another Tribune article, Oakland Police Lt. Paul Figueroa agrees. “[The sideshow] is extremely oppressive activity and there is just no excuse for it,” he is quoted as saying. “Oftentimes, [the youth will say] there is no alternative venue for them. The police chief is working on coming up with alternative venues for having a nice car show, but we can never condone drunk and reckless driving.”  

Councilmember Brooks says we ought to at least take a look at legal alternatives. This is the same public argument—sometimes with different arguers—that’s been playing out for the past couple of years.  

The problem, I think, comes of saying that the problem is the sideshows. That ain’t it. The problem, as our young people continue to tell us, is that Oakland is a city that provides few things for young people to do.  

If we say the problem is the sideshows, then we only talk about solutions (such as providing activities for our young people) as long as the sideshows bother us. That’s why, in the heat of summer, with kids out on the street in their cars, there’s suddenly all this talk from public officials. Last winter, when the sideshows were dormant, Oakland sat on its ass and did nothing. This is the classic leaky-roof-fixing dilemma. The man cannot fix his leaky roof while it is raining because he doesn’t want to get wet. When the rainy season ends he can’t see the point in fixing his roof because, after all, it’s not leaking at the moment. And so, year after year, the roof never gets fixed, and we never solve our problem with our restless youth.  

And let us dismiss the comment, so often made by our good friend Councilmember Reid, that it’s not the business of the city to provide things for “26- to 30-year-olds to do” (that’s the age by which Mr. Reid somehow defines the sideshowers). Oakland is a city that bends over backward to find things for its citizens to do. We broke the city bank in order to get the Raiders back. A year ago, City Manager Bobb was fighting for the city to develop a “world class golf course.” Reid, himself, led a five-year battle to bring a swimming pool theme park to Brookfield Village (see the fine print of Measure DD). Oakland is always finding things for citizens to do. It’s just, maybe, that some of us don’t define sideshowers as citizens.  

Me, I don’t think there’s a legal alternative to sideshows, and the sooner we realize it, the sooner we can move on to the itch we can actually scratch.  

Most of the young people who are advocating legalized sideshows or a “legal alternative to sideshows” want to recreate the sideshows as they existed in the parking lots of the Eastmont Mall and in the early days at Pac N’ Save. That was in the mid to late 1990s, before they drew police attention and were driven into the streets. That was when thousands of sideshowers gathered after hours, off by themselves, without older adult interference, with little violence, to play music, meet somebody cute and show off their cars.  

But this would be like trying to recreate the Summer of Love on the Haight, or Woodstock, or the early, block party, non-commercial days of rap. All of these—the Eastmont Sideshows included—were magic times, soap bubble times, when social forces converged almost of their own accord, existed for a brief moment in shimmering harmony and then burst almost before the participants realized how important they were. You can never, ever, relive them, except in your dreams.  

The trick, I think, is to try to take the most positive aspects of the original sideshows—the excitement, the music, the dancing, the boys-getting-phone-numbers-from-girls thing, the tight cars—some of the things that even Oakland Police Traffic Division head Dave Kozicki has said, on occasion, that he might be able to support—and out of that create something new and productive that both the city and the youngsters can live with. True, there’s a number of people, nobody knows how many, who are into the sideshows because of the attraction of the illegal. There are also people who want to come to A’s and Raiders games so they can drink and fight and throw batteries at the players. That doesn’t stop the city from providing sports venues.  

Nobody’s blowing up my cell phone asking my opinion on this, but if it were me doing the deciding, I’d stop speculating in the press on what we might be able to do or might not be able to do. I’d treat this issue like we treat all major projects or problems in Oakland. Get the principles behind closed doors—councilmembers, the manager’s office, the police department and, most especially, responsible representatives of the sideshowers themselves—and hash out a program of legalized, sanctioned, older-youth-and-young-adult activities for the city of Oakland.  

I wouldn’t call them legal sideshows.  

I wouldn’t call them alternatives to sideshows.  

I’d just call it citizen service, and leave it at that.

Residents living near the Corporation Yard, a 4.5-acre site located on Bancroft Way near Acton Street, staged a small protest Wednesday to protest the city’s plan to partially demolish one of the buildings on the property and install three portable buildings. Neighbors said the plan will increase the traffic, noise and pollution that already stem from the site, which is used to store city vehicles, including diesel trucks, and includes a gas station. 

“With more trucks on the street there’s going to be more pollution,” said Regina Gurs, a retired teacher who lives across the street from the front entrance of the yard, on Bancroft Street. Gurs said she’s been battling the city over the yard since she moved into her house in 1977. “We had to fight for years to get them to build a noise wall around it,” she said. 

Another neighbor said she thinks the yard’s allowed uses should be scaled back. Tania Schweig, a mother of two children who is five months pregnant, worries the fumes are affecting her children. “At times, I don’t even want my kids outside.” She said she wouldn’t object to a lower level of use at the site. “The city needs to find an option that wouldn’t impact so many vulnerable populations,” she said. “We’re not NIMBY’s. I don’t think anyone would object to some use. It’s the big tankers that’s really the problem.”  

Her husband, Muni, said a tanker hit a parked car last week. “We’re talking about flammable explosive materials,” he said. “That’s a real problem.” 

—Angela Rowen

The third event in the city of Berkeley’s Summer Noon Concert series on Thursday featured a bit of jazz, a bit of funk and a whole lot of dancing and foot tapping despite the unseasonably warm weather. 

Voz e Vento, a six-person Brazilian jazz group, played for a group of downtown patrons, many of whom sat fanning themselves as the thermometer crept up above 90 degrees. The band played songs with strong rhythms and melodic lyrics, many of which were sung in Portuguese. 

The concert series was designed to highlight the best in Bay Area musical offerings and provide a sampling of the types of performances happening nightly in local clubs and performance venues downtown. Thursday’s concert even featured a raffle in which the winner received a pair of tickets to all summer performances at the Jazzschool on Addison Street. 

“This good music is all around here,” said Albert Lee, a representative for the Downtown Berkeley Association. “Get a taste here, then go out and find more.” 

The band, like all of those who perform in the Downtown Berkeley 

Association-sponsored Summer Noon Concert series, is based in the Bay Area, 

and are regulars at venues such as the Jazzschool and Anna’s Bistro on University Avenue. The group is composed of vocalist Sparla Swa, Ben Stolorow on piano, Capital on guitar, Zakk Pitt-Smith on saxophone and flute, Lorenzo Farrell on bass, and Chris Brague on drums. 

Many of those who stopped to watch the performance were eating lunch while they listened. Others were taken by surprise by the stage in the plaza upon exiting the Berkeley BART station. 

“I didn’t know it was here, but once I saw it and I had some free time I figured I’d stick around,” said Berkeley resident Donna Levy. “It’s a fun idea to have these concerts out here for the summer.” 

The Thursday noon concerts will continue on the Berkeley Square through July 31. 

Next week, students from the Capoeira Arts Café on Addison Street. will perform the traditional Brazilian martial art under the direction of the café owner, Mestre Acordeon. Future events will feature Mexican dancers, West Coast blues, and a harmonica and guitar duet. 

On July 31, the concert series will close with SoVoSo, an a capella ensemble composed of former members of jazz musician Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra band. 

“There’s lots more coming up,” Lee reminded Thursday’s audience. “We’re showcasing the best of all types of performance.”

Sen. Gil Cedillo, a stalwart Latino Democrat from Los Angeles, knows an opportunity when he sees it.  

The troubles besetting Calif. Gov. Gray Davis -- a major budget crisis, rock-bottom approval ratings and a powerful recall movement -- give Latinos the chance to push forward an issue foremost on their agenda: driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.  

Last year, Davis vetoed a bill by Cedillo that would have provided licenses for the undocumented, a hot-button issue for many Latinos, who see it as an immigrant rights issue. In the process, Davis lost Cedillo's endorsement and helped depress Latino voter turnout in the state.  

Now, as the governor fights for his political life, Cedillo speaks out against the recall with all the passion of a diehard Davis supporter.  

"This is a movement put together by extremists in the state who want to set back government," Cedillo says. "It's disruptive and it's a bad precedent. We have to commit ourselves to fight it."  

Cedillo knows the governor cannot now afford to alienate Latinos, who, according to polls, are less likely to want to get rid of him, and helped him win re-election last November by a mere five percentage points over Republican Bill Simon.  

The most recent survey of the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 46 percent of Latinos reject the recall and 37 percent support it -- better for Davis than the 51 percent of the general voting population that want him out and the 43 percent who would keep him.  

At first, Cedillo is evasive when asked about the chances for his driver's license bill this year. "The bill is going forward, we'll continue to negotiate," he says. But later: "My expectation is we'll get a bill this year."  

"When the driver's license bill comes up he's going to sign it, and you can thank the recall for that," says political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. "(The recall) is going to influence his behavior, what he signs and what he doesn't. It's driving the whole budget process on both sides."  

The governor knows that he cannot afford to have a Latino appear on the recall ballot, which is why it was so important for the Democratic leadership to convince lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante to bow out of an hypothetical recall election.  

"If Bustamante runs, will Latinos come out in droves to vote Davis out, to get the first Latino governor in modern history?" Jeffe asks. "Maybe."  

If Latinos and other major democratic constituencies were not excited about Davis in November -- his support among Latino voters dropped from 80 percent in his first election to 65 percent in his second -- there's not much to excite them now that budget realities have meant cuts in social programs, the arts and Medical funding.  

But for unions, many of whom represent mostly Latino workers, keeping Davis may be better than risking a Republican governor or one of the two possible democratic candidates who fare better in the polls: Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Bustamante.  

In the event of a recall election "the risk is too great that we'll get somebody that will be less supportive of workers," says Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU). "We can't afford a Republican governor or someone who isn't sympathetic to immigrant rights."  

Most union leadership and legislators like Cedillo would much rather have Davis in a difficult situation and extract concessions from him in exchange for their support than risk the election of others who may not need the Latino vote as much.  

"The senator (Feinstein) ... what can I say?" Medina says. "I don't think she's very pro immigrant." Davis, on the other hand, "may now be in a position to listen better" to the union's concerns.  

Many Latinos remember that when Bustamante was an assemblyman he voted in favor of requiring legal status in order to have a driver's license.  

Sen. Feinstein, considered the best chance for Democrats to keep the governorship should well-financed Republican candidates appear on a recall ballot, has so far said she is not running.  

But if the recall does qualify, and especially if it qualifies for the more Democratic-leaning electorate of the March primary, Davis's people know they have a better chance to win if he is the only Democrat on the ballot. Although risky, their strategy is to label the recall effort a Republican right-wing conspiracy, resurrecting the ghost of infamous former Gov. Pete Wilson and his anti-immigrant Proposition 187.  

Nobody knows how that will work if moderate, moneyed and famous Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Richard Riordan enter the race.  

But one thing is certain: When undocumented immigrants finally get their drivers licenses in the next few months, they'll have the Republicans and the recall leaders to thank.

Berkeley, one of the most liberal cities in California, has not exactly been a hotbed of recall activity. But that didn’t stop the Berkeley College Republicans from setting up a table on the UC Berkeley campus this spring and collecting signatures to oust Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. 

“I honestly believe that Gray Davis has shown very little leadership—not just financially, but in the [overall] direction of the state,” said Andrea Irvin, president of the student group. 

Irvin said the College Republicans collected more than 500 signatures between late April and mid May, when finals began, and submitted them to the county. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters said this week that it had received 4,174 signatures, just over 1 percent of the 376,008 signatures mustered statewide as of June 16. 

Recall supporters, backed by Republican congressman and gubernatorial hopeful Darrell Issa, have until Sept. 2 to collect 900,000 valid signatures to force a recall. 

Issa’s organization, Rescue California, has focused its efforts on the more populous, conservative areas of Southern California. As a result, the chief anti-recall group, a coalition of labor and environmentalist organizations called Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall, has also based its operation in the southern part of the state, according to spokesperson Carroll Wills. 

But Wills said his group, which is collecting signatures for an anti-recall petition, plans to move up to the Bay Area as the campaign wears on, adding to the few anti-recall signature gatherers who now dot Berkeley and the larger Bay Area. 

Wills said his group has collected 600,000 signatures for the anti-recall petition— a symbolic gesture which will have no effect on whether the recall actually reaches the ballot. 

City Councilmember Linda Maio said the relative lack of recall activity in Berkeley has left the locals tuned out. “I don’t think it’s hit people yet,” she said. 

Wills said Berkeley and the entire Bay Area will be critical if the recall qualifies for the ballot. 

“Strong Democratic areas are going to be important if the recall is on the ballot because these are the people who are going to understand what’s at stake,” he said. 

James Hartman, chair of the Alameda County Republican Party, said he is not aware of any organized efforts to collect pro-recall signatures in Berkeley outside of the College Republicans’ push. 

He added that, while the statewide Republican Party has endorsed the recall effort, the county outfit has not thrown its support behind the campaign. 

“I am not a great fan of Governor Davis, but at this stage I’m not convinced that a recall of the governor is appropriate,” Hartman said. 

Davis may be guilty of fiscal mismanagement, Hartman said, but recall should be reserved for clear cases of fraud or corruption. Attempting to oust Davis in the middle of his term with inadequate cause, he said, ultimately could reflect poorly on the Republican Party. 

Hartman said the party should, instead, use the budget fiasco to get more Republicans elected to the state Legislature during next year’s mid-term election. 

“I would prefer that we wait until our day comes in November 2004,” he said.

For Berkeley ice cream lovers, life has been good lately. 

The area has seen an ice cream renaissance in recent months with the addition of two new shops and the reopening of a popular parlor. Now Berkeley residents can enjoy frozen treats whose credentials range from “The Country’s Best Vanilla” to “Best Sorbet in America” and a spot on the list of America’s fastest growing franchises. 

Among Berkeley’s notable scoop shops are Dreyer’s, whose vanilla ice cream was recently named best in the country by Fine Dining magazine, and Double Rainbow, who was found to have the best sorbet by the American Food Critics’ Association. Ben and Jerry’s is another local favorite, but right now the area’s newest ice cream stores are the ones attracting attention. 

One of the new kids on the block is Cold Stone Creamery, at 2204 Shattuck Ave. between Allston and Kittredge streets. Cold Stone, a Scottsdale, Ariz., company with its largest concentration in southern California, claims to be the fastest growing ice cream chain in the country, expanding quickly from independent parlor to large corporation on the scale of Baskin Robbins. Last month, Cold Stone was listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as number 35 on the list of fastest growing franchises. The company opened its Berkeley store last November and has other area stores in Emeryville and El Cerrito. 

Cold Stone employees market ice cream with a twist—one or more toppings of the customer’s choice mixed in with his or her favorite flavor of ice cream. They use a frozen slab of granite—the “cold stone”— to mix traditional toppings with a scoop of ice cream. Popular mixes include cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crumbs and the “Candy Bar,” using vanilla ice cream, M&Ms, Snickers bars, and Butterfingers. 

“Cold Stone is my favorite ice cream place because of the toppings inside,” said 14-year-old David Rosenberg of San Francisco during a visit to the Berkeley shop. “Instead of having my sprinkles all on the top of the scoop they’re mixed in really well, so you get some with each bite.” 

Just two blocks north of Cold Stone at 2106 Shattuck is another new ice cream favorite: Mondo Gelato. Though the store, like Cold Stone, is part of a larger franchise, the Berkeley location is the first Mondo Gelato store in the United States. It opened last August, and staff members said business has consistently increased. 

The company makes and sells traditional Italian gelato as an alternative to classic American ice cream. Gelato, which is the Italian word for “frozen,” is denser than most ice cream and not as sweet. 

The range of flavors reflects the company’s desire to distinguish itself from other ice cream shops. The popular rose gelato, a bright pink flavor similar to traditional bubble gum ice cream, is made from edible rose petals. The coffee gelato is made with a shot of real espresso. 

“It tastes natural and is better for you,” said UC Berkeley student Mollie Taylor. “It’s all the good things about ice cream without the heaviness or the fat.” 

Berkeley’s Mondo Gelato offers three types of dessert: gelato, sorbetto and soya gelato. Gelato, like ice cream, is made with milk but is not frozen as deeply. The sorbetto is non-dairy-based and made from fresh fruit without fat. The seasonal sorbetto flavors include pear, honeydew and strawberry. Soya gelato is the only vegan ice cream product in Berkeley; vegetable products are used to create flavors such as chocolate and vanilla, as well as the unique hazelnut and Vitamin ACE. 

Cold Stone and Mondo Gelato join several old-time ice cream favorites in the area, the most notable of which recently returned to scooping. Fenton’s Creamery, located at 4226 Piedmont Ave., in Oakland, was established in the Bay Area in 1894 but has been closed for the past two years due to a fire set by two former employees. The pair were sentenced in April to two years in state prison, and were ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution to the creamery. It reopened earlier this month. 

Fenton’s is known for more than just ice cream. Its sundaes and classic banana splits—with a whole banana and three scoops of ice cream covered in hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and nuts with a cherry on top—attract crowds, which on some nights overflow into the parking lot. The creamery is also a full restaurant, and the egg and olive sandwiches are a lunchtime favorite. 

“I’m happy now that it’s back,” said 7-year-old Martin Goring recently while sharing a hot fudge sundae with his younger sister. “My mom used to take me there for lunch and ice cream, but then it was burned down. Now I get to go again.” 

Berkeley ice cream aficionados said the trek to Peidmont Avenue is worthwhile, but are glad to have a flourishing ice cream scene within their borders. 

“It’s nice to have the scoop shop-type places right in Berkeley,” said North Berkeley resident Sarah Portrero. “Then when you want the full old-fashioned experience you can come out here every once in a while.”

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

Students at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law staged a rally supporting affirmative action on Monday, hours after the nation’s high court ruled to uphold the basic tenets of race preferences in college admissions. 

But local legal scholars said the Supreme Court’s decision will have little to no effect on California universities. 

“This largely codifies the status quo,” said UC Berkeley law professor Jesse Choper. 

While the court ruled Monday that colleges may consider race in admissions, it did not require the practice. So in California, public institutions like the University of California and California State University will remain subject to the voter-approved Proposition 209, which bans affirmative action in public admissions and hiring.  

Private institutions like Stanford University, which are not subject to Proposition 209, will be allowed to continue with admissions policies that weigh race as one of many factors. 

The Supreme Court, in its most important statement on affirmative action in a generation, upheld a University of Michigan Law School admissions policy that weighed race as one of several considerations, ruling that the state had a “compelling” interest in promoting diversity on campus.  

In a separate decision, however, the court struck down an undergraduate admissions policy at the university which automatically gave minority students 20 points on a 150-point scale that was used to rank prospective students. 

The rulings were in line with the court’s Bakke decision of 1978, which rejected hard-and-fast quotas but allowed the use of race as a “factor” in college admissions and hiring decisions. 

Although the rulings apply only to admissions at public institutions, they are expected to have broad impacts at private universities and businesses across the country.  

UC Regent Ward Connerly, a conservative activist who led the fight to pass Proposition 209 in 1996, lamented the court’s split ruling—supporting the general use of race, but striking down the point-based system. 

“The decisions handed down today by the Supreme Court are, indeed, mixed and ambiguous,” he said in a statement Monday. “These conflicting decisions consign our nation to another generation of litigation and agony about the constitutionally permissible uses of ‘race.’” 

University of California President Richard Atkinson said, in a statement, that he welcomed the court’s ruling on the law school policy “as a supporter of affirmative action.” 

“[But] as president of the University of California, I also respect the decision of the California voters, who in 1996 eliminated consideration of race and ethnicity in state university admissions,” he said. “The University of California will continue to work through other, legal means to achieve excellence and diversity on our campuses.” 

UC’s admissions of “underrepresented minorities” —blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans—dropped from 18.8 percent in 1997 to 16.7 percent in 1998, the first year Proposition 209 went into effect. 

Since then, UC has guaranteed admission to the top 4 percent of students at every California high school, struggling and successful alike, and instituted “comprehensive review” in admissions, weighing intangible factors like success in the face of adversity alongside traditional measures, like grades and SAT scores. With the new policies in place, admissions of underrepresented minorities have jumped every year and now stand at 19.8 percent.  

Opponents of affirmative action say the 4 percent program and comprehensive review represent an attempt to circumvent Proposition 209. But the university contends that it is simply trying to reach out to new communities and get a fuller sense of every applicant. 

Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan said the UC’s outreach programs appear to be race neutral, well within the law and in no need of Supreme Court review. Monday’s decisions, she said, have no bearing on the new policies. 

“A 4 percent plan that is race neutral might not even come within the range of what is being considered here,” Karlan said. 

At the press conference and rally Monday afternoon, a gathering of UC Berkeley students welcoming the court’s decision and rallying the faithful for the fight against Connerly’s next effort, the controversial Racial Privacy Initiative. The measure, slated for the March 2004 ballot, would prevent the state from collecting data on race. 

Proponents say the initiative marks an important step toward a color-blind society. Opponents say it will block vital research and eliminate any evidence of racial discrimination in public health, housing and education. 

“[The Supreme Court ruling] is a great victory for America, but our work is not yet done in California,” said Mohammad Kashmiri, a third-year law student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. “We’ve got to defeat Ward Connerly’s new proposition.” 

Andrea Irvin, president of Berkeley College Republicans, said she was “disappointed” that the Supreme Court upheld the consideration of race in admissions, but vowed to continue the fight for Connerly’s initiative on campus.

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. 

100% Biodiesel Fleet Come celebrate the City of Berkeley’s conversion to 100% biodiesel vehicles. An exhibit and ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 981-7000. 

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. 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 

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. Cost is $7 for SBA members, $10 for non-members. Sponsored by The Sustainable Business Alliance. For information and registration visit www.sustainablebiz.org or call 282-5151. 

University Village Redevelopment, Public Scoping Meeting at 7 p.m. at University Village Community Center, Four Corners Room, 1123 Jackson St., Albany.  

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group 

meets at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 872-0768. 

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 

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

Public Hearing on Ursula Sherman Village, Draft Environmental Impact Report, at 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 to monitor contaminants, limit storm water pollution and generally improve water quality in Strawberry Creek, 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. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 27 

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. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 

Memorial for Kevin Lee Freeman, resident of Berkeley’s streets, who was murdered on May 9 in Santa Rita Jail. March at noon in People’s Park, followed by Memorial at the Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 845-2248. 

Howard Dean House Party at 6 p.m. at 2933 Benvenue Ave., corner of Ashby. Conference call with Howard Dean at 7 p.m. Learn about Dean's campaign for President, his record as Governor of Vermont, why we are supporting him, and how he is the most progressive electable Democrat running to defeat George W. Bush. Please bring your checkbooks, and questions to ask Howard Dean. For information or to confirm your attendance call Paul Hogarth, 666-1260.  

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Exercise The public is invited to ob- 

serve the Northern Alameda County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services in a nationwide test from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Berkeley’s Emergency Operations Center at 997 Cedar St. For more in- 

formation call Ron Jacobs at 525-0212. 

Kids’ Garden Club: Bread  

Learn about bread, mill wild wheat, and bake bread. For children age 7 - 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Sudden Oak Death in California, a two-day class with UC researcher Matteo Garbeletto and Botanical Garden Director Ellen Simms who will provide an up-to-date account of the research and status of the epidemic. Cost is $200. To register, call the Jepson Herbarium at 643-7008. 

National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay chapter, celebrates its 36th anniversary at noon at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck. The keynote speaker will be Ruth Rosen, author of “The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America.” Cost for the luncheon is $30, $20 for students. 287-8948. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 29 

Permaculture Workshop Series Ongoing workshops held every second and last Sunday of each month. Call for information. Berkeley EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St. 465-9439. 

Gardening With Kids, A Workshop for Adults 

Whether you’re starting a school or home garden or have one already and want to get kids involved, this is the workshop for you, from 1 to 4:30 p.m in Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $10 for Berkeley residents, $12 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

“History of Nyingma” with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 30 

LBNL Development, Public Scoping Meeting on the proposed six-story 65,000 sq. ft. Research Office Building on Cyclotron Rd., at 6:30 p.m., North Berkeley Senior Center.  

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

Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

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 

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 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 26-28 at Ala- 

meda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. Take ad- 

vantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of paint, stain, varnish; auto products such as old fuel and motor oil; household batteries, cleaners and sprays; garden products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Monday, June 30, at 

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

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wednesday, June 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Phil Kamlarz, 981-7006.www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/budget 

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 

ANIMAL SHELTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On last November’s ballot, the voters approved just one bond measure—Measure I for a new animal shelter. Measure I was a rare and beautiful phenomenon in Berkeley, with over two-thirds of the voters, then-Mayor Dean and the entire City Council supporting a much needed $7 million new home for the truly voiceless residents of our city. All of us who worked so hard on the campaign were euphoric about the outcome. Berkeley finally seemed to be on track to catch up with other “less enlightened” cities in its care of abandoned animals.   

  Seven months later, we still have no drawings and no site for the new shelter, and our new mayor appears to have little interest in fulfilling the most significant mandate of the last election. Meetings are held regularly to discuss potential sites, but all the sites proposed by city staff are throwaways and every workable site that is brought up seems to be earmarked by the city for some other purpose, even though we all know there is no money available for new projects with the enormous deficits the city is projecting for years.   

Granted, there is not a lot of available land in Berkeley, but many of us are getting the distinct feeling that something is up. At best, the new shelter may simply not be a priority of the new mayor or the city manager. Or, even worse, could the city be stalling so that the approved $7 million won’t be enough to build the shelter and the bond won’t have to be issued? Or, quite possibly, the city plans to load the next ballot with more bond measures and hopes that property owners will forget about the Measure I assessment if the project is stalled, the bonds haven’t been issued and no debt service shows up on our property tax bills. 

I hope I speak for the 68 percent of the voters who passed Measure I in saying that I want to see the mayor and the city manager fast track this project before the $7 million isn’t enough to build a new shelter. How about some accountability to the voters, Mr. Bates? 

Nancy S. Hair 

• 

LOCAL VOICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Who is Calvina L. Fay from St. Petersburg, Fla., and why do we care what she thinks? I thought the Berkeley Daily Planet is supposed to be Berkeley’s local newspaper? Why are we printing flawed and biased “opinions” from 3,000 miles out of state? When someone has an indefensible position (like Ed Rosenthal should have had the book thrown at him for growing marijuana for the city of Oakland) they talk about something else (what’s contained in a book Rosenthal wrote about marijuana cultivation). For Ms. Fay to refer to Ed Rosenthal as a “drug kingpin” is outrageously silly. For Ms. Fay to propose that she speaks for “our children’s future” is a bit presumptuous.  

  Judge Breyer was smart to give Ed Rosenthal a suspended sentence. Judge Breyer knew that he was in big trouble with the people of California for conducting a trial that barred crucial evidence from the jury in order to obtain a conviction (Ed Rosenthal was deputized by the city of Oakland to grow medical marijuana) and playing into the hands of Attorney General John Ashcroft. 

Judge Breyer knew that sentencing Ed Rosenthal to jail time would have set off a firestorm that may have been impossible to put out. There certainly were mitigating circumstances in Ed Rosenthal’s case—the will of the people of California voting that medical marijuana should be legalized, the sanction of the city of Oakland properly was not ignored, and Ed Rosenthal’s not having realized any personal financial gain from his medical marijuana growing for the city of Oakland. 

  I am writing to the Daily Planet because maybe it is the local residents’ fault for not supporting our local newspaper and providing the Daily Planet with enough letters to print that the Planet feels the need to print letters such as Ms. Fay’s 3,000-miles-away letter. Please spare the people of Berkeley the drivel of Ms. Fay’s narrow mind. 

George Collins 

• 

RECONSIDER DECISION 

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 

• 

ILLEGAL ANTENNAS  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The following letter was addressed to Mayor Tom Bates and the City Council:  

On June 17, 2003, the City Council postponed our public hearing till Sept. 16, 2003. 

Today, June 21, we noticed that the antennas are already installed on the roof of 1600 Shattuck Ave. We looked at the photo-simulations provided by Sprint. According to these photos, antennas are now on the roof. Just go to the entrance door of Andronico’s and look at 1600 Shattuck. There are two antennas that look like chimneys. 

How can this happen? Does the city know about this? Does the Planning Department know about this?  

We would like to ask the city to check whether the antennas are installed. If yes, then Sprint has acted illegally. In that case, the antennas should be removed. If they stay there, Sprint may start operating them. 

Shahram Shahruz 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Mr. Koenigshofer’s letter to the editor 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 

Dear Editor, 

Chris Kavanagh (of the Berkeley Rent Board) continues to expose his grandiose self-dellusions in his letter of June 20 when he asserts that the “Rent Board is perhaps the city’s most critical elected body.” Critical indeed if the great function of government is to build useless and counter productive bureaucracies that create and enforce random and unfair regulations.  

Kavanagh, like any good Orwellian Bureaucrat, speaks from the platform of regulatory minutia but never addresses the larger issues of fairness or justice. He never explains the logic of a rent subsidy program that makes no effort to determine whether or not its recipients need or deserve such subsidies. He is apparently indifferent to the terrible injustices arising from the program he enforces and assumes the case by case abuse of citizens is excusable in the service of the board’s ideological predisposition.  

Explain Chris how you justify forcing a landlord to subsidize the housing costs for a tenant who has a higher income than that landlord?  

Explain why you are indifferent to the fact that the policies you enforce have prompted a decrease in small scale, “mom and pop” rental housing and promote a consolidation of such housing in the hands of large, impersonal, corporate type owners?  

Explain Chris why it doesn’t bother you that citizens, relying on their own character and discernment, are prevented by your agency from negotiating agreements with one another and instead subjected to Draconian governmental intrusion?  

Chris, do you not find it ironic and unjust that a senior citizen on a fixed income can be compelled by your agency to provide subsidized housing to an individual who is younger, earns more and comes from a privileged background?  

Do you not comprehend how such ironies and injustices hurt not only their immediate victims but also the broader social contract between government and citizen?  

Lastly, Chris, I am curious, do you or any of the other Rent Board members enjoy benefits of the program you so actively enforce and defend? Simply Chris, how many of you live in rent controlled units? 

John Koenigshofer 

Wow. Just, “Wow.” 

So it’s a Greek tragedy, Euripides’ “The Bacchae,” and the Actors’ Ensemble of Berkeley is providing it for free in a beautifully staged production at the outdoor theater in John Hinkle Park. What more could you want?  

Everybody needs a Greek tragedy sometime, and this looks like an opportunity that won’t come around too often. If there were absolutely nothing else to recommend this production (and there are many good things indeed) it would be worth seeing for the handling of the Chorus alone. This element of Greek drama is always a challenge: While as a modern audience we accept the fantasy that we’re peering at the actors through an invisible “fourth wall,” it can be hard to buy the idea that a bunch of people happen to be hanging around on stage, chanting commentary on the action.  

It’s a challenge that director David Stein has met with enormous success. The Chorus consists of six lovely and talented young actresses who each creates a separate personality. They are a believable group of devotees to the increasingly fanatical ideas introduced to the women in the kingdom by the god, Dionysus (Ross Pasquale). Pasquale turns in a powerful performance as the god who seeks and, through the women, extracts a ghastly revenge on the royal family who denied his heritage as the son of Zeus.  

As the Chorus’ worship darkens from almost amusing hedonism into uglier and more brutal behavior, their performances, even their costuming, becomes frightening. No way could anyone ever think of this group as “hanging around the stage.” They’re doing some excellent acting.  

“The Bacchae” is a source of some controversy in feminist criticism. One camp sees the play as a classic example of the stereotyping of women as hysterics; another views it as the earliest feminist portrayal. It is, after all, the women who follow Dionysus and are the revolutionary force in the kingdom. It is women who bring about the final tragedy, and it is a woman, the queen, Agave (Donna Turner), who suffers the final and cruelest punishment. 

The number of fine performances in so large a cast suggests that Stein may have called in the chips he earned during his own extensive acting career. His debut as a director with Actors’ Ensemble demonstrates a high degree of professionalism and attention to detail. It would be virtually impossible to go through the cast and comment in detail on all the fine acting. Even some relatively minor roles are effectively done—not all, of course, but many.  

However, Bruno Kanter’s superb performance as Pentheus, king of Thebes, must be noted. He arrives on stage with an air of natural authority that could not be bettered. His gradual change as he is duped by Dionysus is almost heartbreaking, leading as it does to the grotesque absurdity of his final appearance on stage. 

Stein has used the outdoor theater to great advantage. The tragedy is introduced by flute music (Carol Albany and Nancy Taylor) as the huge rose-colored drapes that form the background blow in the occasional breeze. At times, actors disappear up the stairs into the forest, or come from behind the audience down onto the stage. The horror of the destruction is made more real by the sound of West African drumming performed by Ozem Roberts and Joha Williams, second year students at the Ethnic Arts Institute.  

This production of “The Bacchae” is a departure for the 45-year-old company; it’s the first time they’ve staged a play outside. The group has been on hold for a year while their usual venue, the Live Oak Theatre, was retrofitted. Unsure of the precise timing of the work’s end, they elected to use the lovely old outdoor theater for this production.  

It was a great choice.

TUESDAY, JUNE 24 

CHILDREN 

Magic School Bus Video Festival, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Seven different Magic School Bus video adventures with Ms. Frizzle on the big Auditorium screen at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. 642-5132. 

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.freight- 

andsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Ensemble performs at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

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 

The Banjo-ologist performs bluegrass and vaudeville at 1 p.m. at The Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. 642-5132. 

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 

Sarah Manning, jazz saxophonist, performs standards and originals at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

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 

Guided Tour of Paul Kos: “Everything Matters,” at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free for members, UC students, faculty and staff, $5 seniors and disabled, $8 adults. 642-1412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

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 Ven- 

to, 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. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 27 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory's “Kids OnStage” presents a free mini-musical at 7:30 p.m. at Epworth United Metho- 

dist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5939. StageDoor- 

Camp@aol.com 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “Written on the Wind” at 7:30 p.m. and “Magnificent Obsession” at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Wisdom, Experience, Humor, and Whatever” with City Club members. 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. 

Edward Tenner explores how technology has shaped our bodies in “Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codys- 

books.com 

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 

Big Brutha Soul at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

U.D.I., 11/5, Da Duke Boys, ADR La Vey, Pho-Ba’la perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Suzanne Pittson in concert at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Doraflood, Sushirobo and Love is Chemicals perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

www.starryploughpub.com  

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House.Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Shana Morrison, celtic/blues fusion 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 

Sean Powers Shadow  

Puppetry and the Bent Antennae Puppet Troupe at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

O-Maya fuses Latin music with Hip Hop at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

Missing 23rd, Breath In, Members of the Yellow Press, Clampdown, The Filthy Vagrants perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 

CHILDREN 

Golden Gate International Children’s Choral Festival Choirs from Jakarta, Indo- 

nesia, Vladivostok and Nakhodka, Russia, Havana, Cuba and the United States will perform “Sing All Ye Joyful” at 7.30 p.m. in Zeller-bach Hall. Tickets are $10-26, available from 642-9988. www.piedmontchoirs.org 

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

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

Audrey Coleman reads her new book, “Francine, Francine the Beach Party Queen,” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “Tarnished Angels” at 4:30 and 8:40 p.m. and “Shockproof” 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 

Allan Sekula, conceptual photographer, in converstaion with Kaja Silverman, on his recent work, including “Waiting for Tear Gas,” at 1 p.m. in Dwinnelle 142, UC Campus. More information is available at www.NewScreen 

Media.com 

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

sion is free. 527-9753 or 569-5364. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Baghdad and Beyond: Healing the Wounds of War” with Cameron Powers and other musicians who played Arab music in Baghdad during the war, 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 

Don Carlos with Reggae Angels and Jah Light Music at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 525-5054. www.ash- 

kenaz.com 

Mark Growden and the Electric Pinata and Molehill Orchestra perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Psychokenetics, Kirby Dominant perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

House Jacks, a cappella over-drive, at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in ad- 

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

Jesus Diaz y su QBA, Afro-Cuban dance music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

Famous Last Words performs at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625. 

Babyland, Replicator, Brilliant Red Lights, 8-Bit 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 29 

FILM 

“Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel” will be sceened at 7 p.m. at Congre- 

gation Beth El, Arch and Vine. Facilitated discussion groups will follow. Admission is free. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel-Berkeley. For information call June Brott at 636-9639 or Seymour Kessler at 525-1526. 

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

berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Audacious Imaginations: A Tribute to Berkeley Poet Barbara Guest, at 3:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poets Eliot Figman and Judith Taylor at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codys- 

books.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jupiter String Quartet, with Victor Romasevich, violin, performs Tchaikovsky, Andriasov and Mozart at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, children under 12 are free. 644-6893. 

ReminEssence in a performance of music, poetry and dance to benefit Destiny Art Center, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8 in advance, $10-$25 at the door. For tickets call 306-0236. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Noche Flamenca from Madrid performs at Zeller- 

bach Playhouse, UC Campus at 7 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs. 

berkeley.edu 

Arin Simonian, contem- 

porary singer-songwriter,  

performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $14.50 in advance, $15.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

LynAnn King with the Vincent Tolliver Quintet performs at 5 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Flamenco Open Stage with Alicia and Roberto Zamora at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  www.ashkenaz.com 

The Landrus Project, Johnny Sketch perform funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ursula K. LeGuin reads from her new novel, “Changing Places” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Lincoln Cushing introduces a unique graphic art in “¡Revolución!: Cuban Poster Art,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www. 

blackoakbooks.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. 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 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. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgun- 

players.org

The City Council will take action on one of two proposed library tax increases Tuesday. Both are designed to help the library bridge a $1.3 million budget deficit.  

The council will choose between the city manager’s proposal to increase the library tax by 13. 9 percent and a request from the Board of Library Trustees for an increase of 27 percent.  

The City Council will take action on one of two proposed library tax increases Tuesday. Both are designed to help the library bridge a $1.3 million budget deficit.  

The council will choose between the city manager’s proposal to increase the library tax by 13. 9 percent and a request from the Board of Library Trustees for an increase of 27 percent.  

Under the Library Tax Relief Act of 1988, City Council can increase property taxes annually according to one of two indexes, the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, which rises by 2.2 percent annually, or the California Per Capita Income Growth Index, which rises by 2.3 percent a year. The city has not increased the library tax consecutively over the last 15 years, and both the city manager’s and the trustees’ proposals call for a retroactive property tax increase.  

Under the city manager’s proposal, the library tax for a 1,900-square-foot residence would be $245 annually—a $30 increase. The trustees’ increase would translate to a $58 increase on the same sized home for an annual total of $273.  

Commercial and industrial space pay a slightly higher rate. For a 10,000-square-foot building, the tax would go up $238 under the city manager’s proposal for an annual total of $1,955. Under the trustees’ proposal, the annual commercial rate would rise by $463 for a total of $2,180. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque issued an undisclosed memorandum on the legality of the trustees’ proposed increase. According to a councilmember, who asked not to be identified, Albuquerque determined the increase was too large and therefore in violation of the Library Tax Relief Act. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he expects the council to approve the city manager’s proposal. 

“I think we’re going to help them as much as is legally possible to do,” he said. “It’s not as much of an increase as the library services had hoped for, but it’s still a substantial increase.” 

Library Deputy Director Mary Lou Mull said the city manager’s proposal will be just enough to keep the library afloat next year but added that the lesser amount makes no provisions for the library’s long-term health. She said, with the 13.9 percent increase, the budget would not allow for inflationary increases for the purchase of new materials or allow the library to create a reserve fund. The tighter budget would also put immediate pressure on the library for the following year’s budget.  

“The city manager’s proposal will allow us to fill our current vacant positions,” Mull said, “but it will also likely mean that we will have to come back to the council again in 2005 and possibly put a measure on the ballot to increase the library’s base funding to something that would keep us stable.” 

According to a city manager’s report, city officials were unable to justify the trustee’s 27 percent increase. “Staff believes that this is an inappropriate application of the personal income growth index for the purpose of calculating inflationary adjustments for this municipal tax,” the report reads.  

The report also claims that the smaller increase will allow the library to increase staffing, fund technology investments and fund an experimental program that would put a public library staff person in a Berkeley public school.  

Mull said she’s waiting to see what the council decides. She added that no matter what decision they make, library employees will do everything in their power to maintain high standards of library service.  

“We’ll do the best we can either way,” she said. “We’ll give the best possible service to our community. That’s where we’re at.”Under the Library Tax Relief Act of 1988, City Council can increase property taxes annually according to one of two indexes, the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, which rises by 2.2 percent annually, or the California Per Capita Income Growth Index, which rises by 2.3 percent a year. The city has not increased the library tax consecutively over the last 15 years, and both the city manager’s and the trustees’ proposals call for a retroactive property tax increase.  

Under the city manager’s proposal, the library tax for a 1,900-square-foot residence would be $245 annually—a $30 increase. The trustees’ increase would translate to a $58 increase on the same sized home for an annual total of $273.  

Commercial and industrial space pay a slightly higher rate. For a 10,000-square-foot building, the tax would go up $238 under the city manager’s proposal for an annual total of $1,955. Under the trustees’ proposal, the annual commercial rate would rise by $463 for a total of $2,180. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque issued an undisclosed memorandum on the legality of the trustees’ proposed increase. According to a councilmember, who asked not to be identified, Albuquerque determined the increase was too large and therefore in violation of the Library Tax Relief Act. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he expects the council to approve the city manager’s proposal. 

“I think we’re going to help them as much as is legally possible to do,” he said. “It’s not as much of an increase as the library services had hoped for, but it’s still a substantial increase.” 

Library Deputy Director Mary Lou Mull said the city manager’s proposal will be just enough to keep the library afloat next year but added that the lesser amount makes no provisions for the library’s long-term health. She said, with the 13.9 percent increase, the budget would not allow for inflationary increases for the purchase of new materials or allow the library to create a reserve fund. The tighter budget would also put immediate pressure on the library for the following year’s budget.  

“The city manager’s proposal will allow us to fill our current vacant positions,” Mull said, “but it will also likely mean that we will have to come back to the council again in 2005 and possibly put a measure on the ballot to increase the library’s base funding to something that would keep us stable.” 

According to a city manager’s report, city officials were unable to justify the trustee’s 27 percent increase. “Staff believes that this is an inappropriate application of the personal income growth index for the purpose of calculating inflationary adjustments for this municipal tax,” the report reads.  

The report also claims that the smaller increase will allow the library to increase staffing, fund technology investments and fund an experimental program that would put a public library staff person in a Berkeley public school.  

Mull said she’s waiting to see what the council decides. She added that no matter what decision they make, library employees will do everything in their power to maintain high standards of library service.  

“We’ll do the best we can either way,” she said. “We’ll give the best possible service to our community. That’s where we’re at.”

The following letter was addressed to Mayor Tom Bates and the Berkeley City Council: 

We, residents of Berkeley, and longtime customers of Berkeley Bowl, and ardent supporters of the basic rights of workers to organize themselves for better pay and working conditions, strongly urge you and the Berkeley City Council to speak out in support of the Berkeley Bowl workers who are attempting to unionize their South Berkeley store. 

At a time in our history where decent jobs with decent pay are fast disappearing from our economy and more of this state’s workers than ever have no health coverage, your unanimous backing of these workers and their families and the greater Berkeley community is indeed the right action to take. 

We are gratified to hear through recent news articles that you are supportive of the rights of workers to organize. We know that others on the council have also expressed their commitment to the aspirations of working people to organize themselves. We urge you to speak out on behalf of these workers and their efforts to unionize and to convey your support to the owners and management of the Berkeley Bowl. 

Members of the Strawberry Creek Affinity Group: Carol Thornton, Jane Kelly, Frances Berges, Dorothy Headley, Eric Roberts, Jane Eiseley, Tom Kelly, Patti Marsh, Chris Walter, Fran Rachel, Chris Kroll, Bob Marsh, Nina Falk

As the debate surrounding proposed AC Transit fare changes and service reductions intensifies, a restructuring plan adopted in February will take effect next week. 

Beginning June 29, the transit organization’s Service Deployment Plan will eliminate five bus lines in northern Alameda and western Contra Costa counties: the 6, 8, 42, 64 and 325. An additional 29 lines will reduce service times or coverage areas. AC Transit public information officer Mike Mills said that the new design will save over $4 million for the company, which is facing a projected $40 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year.  

The most highly touted service change is the addition of the San Pablo Rapid, 72R, which replaces the 72L bus line running from Contra Costa College to Del Norte BART. The Rapid Bus is expected to speed trips along San Pablo Avenue by 20 percent and will feature trips in both directions every 12 minutes from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. 

The San Pablo Rapid will also use a variety of measures to speed up its commute time. New low-floor, multi-door buses are intended to reduce the time spent in loading zones, while traffic signal automation will give Rapid Buses priority at congested intersections.  

AC Transit also increased the intervals between Rapid Bus stops to two-thirds of a mile. The Rapid has been in the works for several years, and has been the subject of several proposals and modifications. AC Transit planners investigated other cities’ express bus lines, including several rapid lines in San Francisco. Mills said that although the new buses were expensive, the increased efficiency would compensate for the extra initial cost. 

The other widely publicized aspect of the Service Deployment Plan, passed by the AC Transit board of directors Feb. 6, is the newly created 19 service line. The 19 bus will run from North Berkeley BART on Sacramento Street, along University Avenue to Sixth Street, continuing along Seventh Street to Peralta Street and West Oakland BART, and then into Alameda. The line will run every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, and will incorporate sections of three lines that will be eliminated or reduced. 

“Several of these changes are not about cost-cutting first and foremost,” Mills said. “They’re about increasing efficiency. We’re taking three lines and making them into one new one with limited negative effect on our riders. It’s a good thing for everybody.” 

But many riders remained unconvinced. 

“The service is going to be a lot slower because the new route is so much bigger,” said Tamara Stevenson, who rides the 6 line from her South Berkeley home to Emeryville. “The driver on the 6 told me that my trip, which normally takes 25 minutes, will probably take closer to 45. That doesn’t make it good for everybody.” 

One of the largest service changes in Berkeley will be the elimination of the 8 line and the reductions in service of the 65. The 65 route, which currently runs from Grizzly Peak to the Berkeley marina, will shorten to run from the downtown Berkeley BART station to Euclid Avenue, with trips every other weekday to Grizzly Peak. 

“I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get to school any more,” said Berkeley High School student Lindsey Thompson. “I ride the bus from Grizzly Peak and Senior [Street] to downtown, but now there won’t be a bus that goes near my house. Without school buses it’s a big problem.” 

Many UC Berkeley students may find themselves with similar problems getting to campus due to service reductions on the 52 line, which runs from University Park on San Pablo Avenue to the edge of the UC Berkeley campus at Bancroft Street and Telegraph Avenue. Under the Service Deployment Plan, that line will only operate from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m and 4:30 to 6 p.m. 

Though AC Transit managers acknowledged that some riders would be hurt by the Service Deployment Plan, they emphasized the gravity of the company’s financial situation as the impetus to cut service. 

“In spite of our best efforts to run a lean and fiscally sound operation, the severe decline in the economy leaves us no choice,” said AC Transit general manager Rick Fernandez. 

Meanwhile, AC Transit is developing a new proposal to further reduce service and adjust fares beginning Sept. 1. Though the board of directors has not yet passed a plan, Mills said a final proposal should come within the next two months. 

At a public hearing June 11, many riders said that any service cuts after the Service Deployment Plan takes effect would be unacceptable because they would impact too many riders. AC Transit initially presented two options for fare changes, but managers returned to the drawing board after riders said they would rather pay higher fares and keep as many current bus lines as possible than face additional service cuts. 

The board of directors will hold another public hearing July 16, though the time and location have yet to be finalized.

For an hour on Friday night, Cody’s Books on Fourth Street sold more than three books a minute. During the same time period, Pegasus Fine Books in downtown Berkeley had a line of 100 people—more than had ever been in the store at one time. 

The cause could only be one thing: Harry Potter mania. 

Over a weekend that saw five million copies of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in the popular series, fly off shelves across the country, Berkeley bookstores were no exception, with store managers reporting thousands of sales and scrambles to buy additional copies to last through this week. 

“We had to get more; we sold them faster than we originally thought we would,” said Pegasus junior buyer Adam Tobin. “We had a batch we intended to last for a while, but we ran through it really quickly.” 

Tobin would not comment on how many books had been sold but said the store’s staff was “thrilled” by the numbers. 

At Cody’s, marketing director Melissa Mytinger said the numbers were similarly high. The company bought 3,000 copies for its two Berkeley stores, and Mytinger said close to half were gone by Monday morning. 

“We bought a high number originally because we wanted to have enough to last for a week or so,” Mytinger said. “Now, people are coming to us because other places have run out.” 

The Cody’s store on Fourth Street and the Pegasus location on Shattuck Avenue, like bookselling giant Barnes and Noble across the street from Pegasus, began selling the books at precisely 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. Both stores said the turnout was larger than expected. 

“We figured we’d do it for the die-hard fans who couldn’t possibly wait until eight the next morning,” laughed Mytinger. 

In fact, many of those at Cody’s on Friday night could not wait until they got home to begin reading the book, a hefty tome at 870 pages. Most of the people in line were already engrossed in the early sections of the book, and many stayed in the store to continue reading. 

“Please Daddy, let’s just read the first chapter before we leave,” pleaded 7-year-old Jessica Kilpatrick. After Jessica’s father, Doug Kilpatrick, protested with an argument about bedtimes, he gave up and sat down to read. 

“She’s got me, because she knows I’m as anxious to start as she is,” the older Kilpatrick said. 

While people stood outside waiting for Cody’s to open, Pegasus held a release party for the book’s opening, featuring Harry Potter balloons, costumes, goody bags and lots of candy. The store stayed open until 1 a.m., and Tobin said the staff sold more than 100 books in the first hour. 

But Tobin acknowledged that Pegasus was hurt by its location across the street from Barnes and Noble, which began teeming with people at 10 p.m. and closed around 1 a.m. 

“We absolutely lost a lot of business to them,” Tobin said. 

The primary reason for the difference in turnout between Pegasus and Barnes and Noble was the price each store charged for the book. Pegasus customers paid the list price, $29.99, while Barnes and Noble offered the book for 40 percent off. 

“I’d like to support the independent chain, but here I can get the book for 12 bucks less,” said Berkeley resident Jesse Farmer while standing in line with his copy at Barnes and Noble. “It’s hard to turn that down.” 

The Barnes and Noble Harry Potter release party featured a costume contest, trivia contest and face-painting artist, who entertained children and adults while staff members rushed around to finalize selling procedures. The event drew between 400 and 500 people, many of whom wore the Harry Potter glasses they were handed at the door. 

Although Barnes and Noble has not yet released its selling numbers for the weekend, community relations director Schuyler Morgan said the release party was “a huge success.” Morgan said the store was able to accommodate the demand of all of its pre-orders, and sold many additional books on the spot, though people who arrived later in the evening did not get a book. Barnes and Noble received a new shipment on Tuesday. 

“We pre-ordered ours two months ago to make sure we were going to get one,” said Barnes and Noble customer Marlene Hagen, who held the new book in one hand and her costumed, face-painted daughter, Emily, in the other. “My family wouldn’t have been able to wait until Monday or even tomorrow. We’re going to start reading as soon as we get home—it’s late, but this is a special occasion.”

The city manager’s next report on the ongoing neighborhood dispute over the 3045 Shattuck Ave. house expansion is expected to address the issue of backyard space, a debate which has pitted two city commissioners against the city’s planning staff.  

Project opponents recently succeeded in getting the city to issue a stop work order on the project based on misstatements by property owner Christina Sun on her permit application. However, they are still urging the city to call a public hearing for the project and have not backed down from their claim that Sun’s plans to pave over virtually all of her rear yard, leaving only about 6 inches of space, violate the zoning ordinance’s requirement that there be at least 15 feet of rear yard space. They point out that the definition of yard prohibits obstruction of a yard by parking spaces and say this means Sun should have to obtain a use permit and go through a public hearing before reducing the amount of rear yard with parking space.  

In a June 17 memo to the City Council, City Manager Weldon Rucker defended the Planning Department’s decision to allow the parking spaces. Planning staff has argued that the definition of yard to which project opponents refer was inadvertently added to the ordinance when it was amended in 1999. He said city staff has not changed its pre-1999 policy of approving parking spaces in yards.  

“Since the 1999 zoning ordinance revision, staff has not altered its long-standing practice of allowing off-street parking in rear and side yards without discretionary permits unless the side yard abuts the street,” Rucker said. 

But at least two city officials who were members of the Planning Commission in 1999—commissioner Gene Poschman and Zoning Adjustments Board Chair Laurie Capitelli—say the current language is correct and that it was, in fact, the intent of the city to prohibit parking in rear yards.  

In a June 10 memo to Mayor Tom Bates, Capitelli wrote, “The revision of the zoning ordinance was careful, deliberate and precise in precluding the locating of parking in a required rear yard.” 

Some councilmembers say they worry the department’s interpretation will lead to unrestricted paving over of parking lots.  

“What we need to know is, how much paving of backyards can people do without getting a permit? Even though we’re talking about little backyards all over the city, it would have a cumulative effect on storm drainage,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington.  

“If there’s no ground for it to go in then it goes over to the street and causes flooding. There should be a certain percentage you can pave over without a permit. It shouldn’t be unlimited.”

Two recent resignations have hamstrung the Transporation Department’s ability to keep up with pending projects, according to Deputy City Manager of Transportation Peter Hillier. 

Associate Transportation Planner Carolyn Helmke resigned Friday. Associate Traffic Engineer Si Lau resigned three weeks ago after working for the city of Berkeley for less than a year. 

“We are falling behind on complaints, projects and inquiries,” Hillier said. “The result is frustration from neighborhood groups and frustration from the City Council, although they have been very understanding.” 

According to Hillier, Lau accepted a job with the city of Oakland. And Helmke accepted a job at Stanford University as the campus bicycle coordinator. 

Despite the city’s selective hiring freeze, City Manager Weldon Rucker has approved filling the vacant positions.  

“We have to have some flexibility because some positions are more important than others,” Rucker said. “We have a backlog of projects that neighborhoods are concerned about and we’re right at the point where we can implement them once staff is stabilized.” 

Rucker said some of the projects include the installation of traffic circles, traffic lights and Santa Rosa-styled lighted crosswalks. 

The city’s traffic department has been plagued with resignations in recent years. In 2000, city traffic engineer Jeff Knolls quit after working for less than eight months. In 2001, the city’s first traffic planner, Joe Kott, quit three weeks after he was hired.  

Both Kott and Knolls cited internal conflict between the Department of Planning and Development, Public Works and at least three transportation- and traffic-oriented commissions as partial reasons for their departures.  

To address ongoing staffing problems, Rucker established the Office of Transportation in his office and in 2002 hired Hillier, who was the manager of operational planning and policy for the city of Toronto.  

One of the main goals of the Office of Transportation was to deal with traffic safety. In a 2000, 119-page report, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Task Force determined that Berkeley ranks number one in the state for bicycle and pedestrian deaths and injuries.  

Mayor Tom Bates said the recent resignations are a disappointment but that he is committed to supporting the Office of Transportation. 

“It’s a difficult department to work in because there are a myriad of problems to deal with,” Bates said. “Peter Hillier is doing a good job and I want to support his efforts.”

After two shootings in two days last week, Berkeley police increased patrols throughout southwest Berkeley, resulting in 15 arrests, including six for illegal possession of a firearm. Other arrests were for probation, parole and drug violations.  

In addition, police on Thursday arrested a man suspected in the April killing of East Palo Alto diner owner Kenneth Hamel III. Berkeley police spotted suspect Kevin Edward Clark, 39, of Vallejo walking in the 1400 block of Harmon Street and recognized him from a wanted poster. 

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department took custody of Clark, who was then booked into the San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of murder. 

Police spokesperson Mary Kusmiss said the increased patrols will be maintained at least through next week. 

Last Tuesday a 27-year-old Berkeley man was shot on Alcatraz Street near California Street at 2 p.m. The following day, a 31-year-old Oakland man was shot on the 1600 block of Russell Street. In that shooting, the window of a corner grocery store and two vehicles were shot out. No bystanders were injured. 

Kusmiss said police are unsure if the two shootings are related.  

Neighbors in South Berkeley said the shootings were disturbing, but added that the Berkeley and Oakland police have been doing a good job of patrolling the area. “They’re doing an excellent job of catching the bad guys,” said South Berkeley resident Sam Herbert. “When this kind of thing happens the neighbors circle the wagons. We look out for each other because we will not be victims.” 

—John Geluardi

KARACHI, Pakistan—U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials have reportedly met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to an escalating guerrilla war in Afghanistan. 

According to a Pakistani jihadi leader who played a role in setting up the communication, a recent meeting took place between representatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Taliban leaders at the Pakistan Air Force base of Samungli, near Quetta.  

The source told Asia Times Online that four conditions were put to the Taliban before any form of reconciliation could take place that could potentially lead to a Taliban role in the Kabul government:  

• Mullah Omar must be removed as supreme leader of the Taliban.  

• All Pakistani, Arab and other foreign fighters currently engaged in operations against international troops in Afghanistan must be thrown out of the country.  

• Any U.S. or allied soldiers held captive must be released.  

• Afghans currently living abroad, notably in the United States and England, must be given a part in the government, through being allowed to contest elections.  

Apparently, the Taliban refused the first condition point-blank, but showed some flexibility on the others. As such, this first preliminary contact made little headway.  

The channels for the contact have been set up by Taliban who fled to Pakistan when the government collapsed in Kabul and were sheltered in ISI safe houses. These people, working with Pakistani jihadis who know how to approach the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan, are acting as go-betweens.  

Violence against U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan has been increasing. Small hit-and-run attacks are a daily feature in most parts of the country, while face-to-face skirmishes are common in the former Taliban stronghold around Kandahar in the south.  

Observers familiar with Afghan resistance movements say the one that has emerged since Taliban’s fall is stronger than the movement that opposed Soviet invaders for nearly a decade starting in 1979.  

A key reason for this is that the previous Taliban government—which dispersed almost intact after capitulating to advancing Northern Alliance forces without a fight—is backed by the most powerful force in Afghanistan: clerics and religious students.  

For centuries, clerics were the most respected segment of Afghan society. But before 1979 they never participated in politics; their role was one of reconciliation of conflicts. Things changed during the Afghan resistance movement against the USSR. Clerics threw their weight behind the mujahedeen struggle, but, with a few exceptions, they were not in command.  

With the withdrawal of the Soviets and the emergence of the Taliban in the early 1990s, however, the situation once again changed. The Taliban, taking advantage of the power struggles among bitterly divided militias in Kabul, consolidated themselves into an effective political movement led by clerics. In 1996, they seized power in Kabul. Part of their success lay in the fact that, initially, many Afghans were reluctant to take up the gun against clerics.  

Now, in the renewed guerrilla war against foreign troops, the clerics are calling the shots. Hafiz Rahim, for instance, is the most respected cleric in the Kandahar region.  

U.S. forces have employed maximum air support and advanced technology in an attempt to curtail attacks, but without the help of local Afghan forces they have been unable to track down Rahim, who has targeted U.S. convoys scores of times. The United States has admitted a few U.S. casualties; the Taliban claim to have killed many more. For funds, the Taliban use money they looted from the central bank before abandoning Kabul, estimated in excess of $110 million, in addition to money received from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.  

At the same time, famed warlord Gulbbudin Hekmatyar has joined the resistance after returning from exile in Iran. His Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) is the most organized force in the country, and it has added real muscle to the resistance. Many top slots in the Kabul administration are occupied by former HIA members who, although they were once anti-Taliban, are loyal to the Islamic cause and anti-U.S. Also, several provincial governors and top officials are former HIA commanders. They are suspect in the eyes of the Americans, but cannot be removed because of their huge political clout.  

With this groundswell of support—even if in places it is only passive—and with Kabul’s influence restricted to the capital, the Americans and their allies will remain vulnerable targets. In fact, many experts on Afghanistan argue that traditionally, similar situations have spawned insurrections in the Afghan army against foreign administrators.  

At present, Kabul is divided into two main factions. The first is pro-U.S., represented by U.S. and allied troops and those loyal to President Hamid Karzai. The second is pro-Russian and pro-Iranian, represented by Defense Minister General Qasim Fahim and his Northern Alliance forces.  

Although the camps are cooperating at present, they are silently building their support bases to make a grab for full power once the present interim administration runs its course, a process that is due to begin in October with a loya jirga (grand council).  

Syed Saleem Shahzad is a reporter for Asia Times Online, where this article originally appeared.

Money buys happiness for some, but misery for others, according to a new UC Berkeley study. 

The study, published in the June edition of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, finds that people who enter the workforce looking for a hefty salary are happy when they get it. But those who are interested in meaning or fulfillment on the job actually feel worse as they move up the ladder. 

The study comes to no definitive conclusions as to why values-driven people become less and less happy as they rake in more and more dough. But Ariel Malka, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate in psychology and co-author of the study, said they may become upset about forgoing fulfillment and creative self-expression to make the big bucks. 

“If you were the type of person who back in the day said, ‘Oh yeah, I value a job for intrinsic values,’ then you effectively sold out ... your happiness takes a hit,” he said. 

Malka, citing studies that found that people have less fun pursuing hobbies if they are paid for it, added that fattening the wallet may just take the enjoyment out of a beloved job. 

“Perhaps making a lot of money in your job can actually cause you to question why you are working at the particular job you have,” he said.  

The study, co-authored by professor Jennifer Chatman, of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, followed 124 men and women from graduate school to the professional world over a nine-year period. 

Participants filled out lengthy surveys while studying business at Haas between 1986 and 1991. In 1995, four to nine years after completing the initial surveys, participants checked in again, recording their annual income and rating their well-being and job satisfaction. 

While the study identifies differences in job satisfaction between those motivated by money and those motivated by loftier goals, it found, on average, that income has no impact on happiness. 

“In a capitalistic society, people generally believe that—all other things being equal—being rich is better,” said Chatman. “But that is not what we found.” 

Previous studies, he said, have shown that pay hikes make a real difference in the happiness of lower-income workers. “At those income levels, having more money [means] knowing where you’re going to live next month or whether you’re going to have enough groceries for dinner,” he said. 

Malka, for his part, said he’s a pretty happy guy, even though he envisions years of work as a researcher and junior professor who won’t make much money. “My family laughs at me—they say I do this research to justify going into a low-paying job,” he said.

The City Council meetings of June 17 were a nightmare. 

Despite the generally outstanding budget work of the city manager and his staff and despite earlier mayoral and council declarations of budget rectitude, fairness and council team spirit, and despite the as-yet-undetermined recommendations of the Citizens Revenue Task Force, the city’s budget discussions have now regressed into chaos and bad old ways. And, I am very sorry to say, that despite an impressive growth in leadership qualities and commitment to democratic process that emerged from the poor start of Papergate, Mayor Bates now appears to have relapsed into his bad old ways. He is behaving in an alarming, inappropriate and arrogant manner, and engaging in Sacramento-style strong-arming and ramrodding with respect to his favored agendas. 

The immediate precipitating substantive cause of the June 17 council disaster was the Berkeley library’s unprecedented request that council approve a 36 percent library assessment increase on Berkeley property owners. More about this shortly. 

With respect to democratic process, there was little in evidence at the June 17 meetings. Despite the fact that the city now has a Rules/Agenda Committee which is supposed to advance preview council items for completeness, despite the existence of a Revenue Task Force which has yet to make recommendations, and despite the city clerk’s honorable commitment to letting the sun shine on public decision making, critical budget materials were delivered at the last minute and they were not posted on the city’s Web site, even by the next morning at 11 a.m. Not only was the interested public and the press shortchanged, so were our councilmembers. How could council possibly review these complex materials in the scant hour or even minutes prior to the meeting? 

Furthermore, certain vital materials relating to the library, to which only the library director, Mayor Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio were apparently privy, were literally waved in the air during the meeting. No copies of this new document were initially available for other councilmembers, the public or the press.  

The process also broke down when the chair, that is the mayor, let his advocacy for certain ideas overwhelm his chairmanship obligations. Councilmembers were speaking out of turn, certain councilmembers were favored and others ignored, Councilmember Maio acted as unauthorized and unelected co-mayor, premature motions were made, assertions were put forth as facts and non-existent “compromises” were stated as fact by Mayor Bates. These “compromises” were simply wishful thinking. 

As a person who has attended or viewed almost every council meeting in the last four-and-a-half years, I can honestly state that this was among the most disgraceful. 

As for the Berkeley library issue, this is a complex issue that deserves a separate discussion. For now, here is my summarized version.  

The library has asked the council to approve a huge property assessment increase of marginal or no legality that would mostly fund substantial “cost-of-living” increases for library staff and substantial library services for non-Berkeley residents. There has been an unseemly and out-of-character haste by the library, as a cherished Berkeley institution, to grab all that it can even before it needs it and to stonewall council requests for information that could negatively impact its grandiose budget plans. And there has been an unseemly effort by Mayor Bates and Councilmember Maio, who support the library on this matter, to force a premature and unnecessary council vote for the whole enchilada. The city attorney and city manager have advised that the maximum legal assessment increase would be about 13 percent, and they actually recommend a much smaller amount. So we are not only dealing with unwarranted library budget increases, we are also dealing with potential taxpayer rebellion and lawsuits. 

The library budget and assessment needs to be a part of the full budget process. That is, it needs to be looked at in the context of all new tax assessments and all program needs. What I saw on the part of the library director, the mayor and Councilmember Maio was an alarming disrespect for the budget process, the city manager and his staff, other councilmembers, the press and the interested public. 

I certainly hope that this meeting was an aberration and that the mayor, council, library and other stakeholders in our city will return to the sane and thoughtful approach to our budget crisis on which I once thought they had embarked. 

Barbara Gilbert is a Berkeley resident and a frequent contributor to the Planet’s editorial pages.

Berkeley’s City Hall and Corporation Yard were once located at Sacramento and University avenues. City Hall was moved to an appropriate, prominent location in the heart of the city. The Corporation Yard moved to an established residential neighborhood at Allston, Acton and Bancroft. Houses were moved to accommodate the yard.  

The city’s first architect, Walter Ratcliff, designed the main L-shaped building in 1913. Grassy fields and brick walls separated the new home for horses and wagons from neighboring homes.  

The grassy fields are long gone; the horses replaced by big diesel trucks pulling trailers. The Corporation Yard is in an R-2 Residential Zone, and constitutes the largest non-conforming use in the city. It generates unbelievable noise, dust, fumes and traffic.  

Public Works wants to demolish the “L” of the Ratcliff Building and install three portable buildings and 15 more storage containers (each 40 feet by 8 feet). They didn’t bother presenting this plan to the neighbors, but sent it directly to the Zoning Board, which will consider it on Thursday, June 26.  

Although neighbors understand and fully support the need to move city employees out of the un-reinforced masonry Ratcliff building, we believe the proposed project will create even more noise, pollution and traffic in our already greatly overburdened neighborhood.  

We disagree with the Negative Declaration and believe an Environmental Impact Report is necessary, including considering the cumulative impact of the school district plan to move offices, maintenance and vehicles within two blocks of the yard.  

The proposed modular buildings are close to homes, and will put congregations of people where sound will disturb neighbors. This project wastes valuable tax dollars on temporary buildings, temporary utility lines and the uncalculated costs of employee inefficiency due to working in an overcrowded facility.  

The proposal states surplus vehicles now stored at the yard will be sold. The history of the yard shows that those vehicles will be quickly replaced by an unending stream of damaged or over-age vehicles, kept for spare parts or awaiting sale.  

Neighbors are understandably wary after their 1987 experience. The city proposed to demolish part of one building, and replace it elsewhere. As mitigation, they would build a sound wall and expand off-street employee parking. Neighbors were shocked when a new 24-hour gas station appeared almost outside their living rooms, something never mentioned at the public hearings. It took nearly 10 years of protests to get the sound wall; the rest of the mitigation was never done. Instead, the city added 21 ugly storage containers in violation of their Use Permit.  

According to the 1987 master plan for the Corporation Yard:  

• When improvements occur they do so in a piecemeal fashion. 

• The 4.5-acre site is too small to accommodate all of the present operations.  

• Site location is incompatible with residential use.  

• General building layout is awkward, cramped and not designed for the functions of the Corporation Yard.  

• Facilities for divisions are scattered throughout the yard with no apparent organization.  

• Insufficient amount of off-street employee parking (at least 85 employee cars park on the street). 

• Equipment vehicles generate excessive noise pollution during day and night time hours. Volume of traffic to and from yard increases potential safety hazards and air pollution in the neighborhood.  

• The overall yard productivity suffers when work space is inadequate for the efficient performance of job activities, resulting in higher operational cost to the city.  

The Public Works and Parks departments need to look at the logic of keeping all of the current activities at the yard. Placing the Parks Department or Streets Division near the transfer station would make good sense, since their vehicles visit the transfer station nearly daily. There is city and private land in the industrial section of Berkeley that could easily accommodate one or more divisions on a temporary or permanent basis.  

In January 2003, Public Works claimed a new 6-acre Corporation Yard would cost $16 million, but days later, with no factual basis for either figure, claimed $25 million dollars. This was the foundation of their argument to City Council to allow demolition of the “L” of the historic Ratcliff Building. Public Works denigrated the “L” as “The Shed.” It is not a shed, but an integral part of the original building, which the Landmarks Commission considered worthy of landmark status.  

Over the past 30 years Public Works has not dealt in good faith with its neighbors. Their promises are hollow and forgotten quickly. They make little effort to reduce trips, obey traffic laws, limit noise and air pollution. They have yet to create an emergency evacuation plan for the neighborhood.  

The Zoning Board should consider that if they approve the proposed demolition and modular buildings, they are actually approving future construction of five permanent, new buildings at the Corporation Yard to replace existing buildings. The Zoning Board should not support this bad neighbor.  

This commentary piece was submitted by the Corporation Yard Neighbors, an informal group of area residents, who did not want their individual names published.

Spiritual enlightenment can hurt sometimes. A man meditating in a tree in the Berkeley hills learned this the hard way Sunday, June 22, when he fell 30 feet to the ground, then tumbled 50 feet down a steep ravine, said Chief Mike Migliore of the Berkeley Fire Department. 

"This is a first for me,'' Migliore said. 

Around 2 a.m., Ben Mann, 18, fell from a tree he had perched in to meditate, said Migliore. Mann had been in the tree since about 10 p.m. Saturday. 

An early-morning hiker heard Mann calling for help around 2:30 a.m. and called 911. Rescuers arrived on scene near 100 Stonewall Dr. at 2:45 a.m. and, using a rope and rescue basket, were able to remove Mann two hours later, Migliore said. 

According to Migliore, paramedics took Mann to Highland Hospital, where he was treated for minor leg and back injuries and a possible head injury. 

Migliore said that Mann told rescuers he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when the incident occurred. 

—Bay City News

On Tuesday, the City Council will finalize the budget, vote on a contract with a parking meter parts company and consider a new fountain on the Berkeley-Kensington border. 

The final, final budget 

The council will finalize next year’s budget Tuesday after some massaging and tweaking. The budget is expected to bridge a $4.7 million deficit.  

In addition, the council is expected to adopt increased parking fines and approve a library tax hike at a special 5 p.m. meeting immediately before the regular meeting at 7. 

Both increases will have a direct bearing on the final budget the council will adopt later in the evening. 

The council has already approved increases on a variety of fees including the residential parking permit fees, ambulance fees and fire inspections fees.  

The final budget seeks to fund the city’s $4.7 million deficit through a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in parking fines, a selective hiring freeze and cuts in expenditures such as travel.  

Keeping up with meter vandals 

The council will consider increasing the city’s contract with Dunchan Industries for parking meter replacement parts for the repair of hundreds of broken city meters. 

The new contract will add $146,000 to the existing $33,700 contract. The revised contract would be good until June 2004 and will not exceed $180,000. 

According to a Department of Public Works report, 30 percent of the city’s 3,000 meters are in need of repair because of vandalism.  

The new contract would include new vandal resistant coin slots which is expected to reduce the approximately 100 requests for repairs the department currently fields each week.  

Fountain on Arlington 

The council will consider a recommendation from Councilmember Miriam Hawley to approve a new fountain on Berkeley’s northern border with the un-incorporated town of Kensington. 

The small fountain will be placed on the median strip on Arlington Avenue near the intersection of Amherst Street.  

Funds for the fountain will come from the Kensington Improvement Association, which will raise money from dues, donations and Contra Costa County. According to project coordinators, no estimate for the cost of the fountain is available yet.  

Berkeley will contribute a bit of land, some water and electricity. Hawley did not include an estimate of the cost to the city of Berkeley in her agenda item.  

The fountain will be circular in shape, similar to the fountain in the Marin Circle in Berkeley, although smaller. 

“We are very hopeful Berkeley agrees to the project,” said Kensington Improvement Association project coordinator Lorraine Osmandson. “We don’t want Berkeley to be the only city around here with a fountain.”

On Saturday night around 11 p.m. police received a call from a motorist who said he was driving eastbound on Marin Avenue near Santa Barbara Street when he heard something hit the right rear window of his car.  

When officers arrived at the scene, they heard a pellet gun fired on the hill above them.  

One officer went to investigate and several pellets were shot in his direction although he was not struck.  

The officer saw two young boys and ordered them not to move. Both ran off. At the same time two other motorists were struck by BBs, one on his forehead through an open window.  

Police detained two teenage boys, 15 and 16, one of whom immediately confessed to the shootings. Both boys are residents of the Berkeley Hills. They were taken into custody, charged with assault with a deadly weapon and then released to their parents.  

—John Geluardi 

Meditation monkey style 

Spiritual enlightenment can hurt sometimes. A man meditating in a tree in the Berkeley hills learned this the hard way today when he fell to the ground 30-feet below, then tumbled 50-feet down a steep ravine, said Chief Mike Migliore of the Berkeley Fire Department. 

"This is a first for me,'' Migliore said. 

Around 2 a.m. today, Ben Mann, 18, fell 30-feet from a tree he had perched in to meditate, said Migliore. Mann, who had been in the tree since about 10 p.m. Saturday, fell to the ground, then tumbled another 50-feet down a steep ravine located in a wooded section of the Berkeley hills.  

An early-morning hiker heard Mann calling for help around 2:30 a.m. and called 911. Rescuers arrived on scene near 100 Stonewall Dr. at 2:45 a.m. and, using a rope and rescue basket, were able to remove Mann two hours later, Migliore said. 

According to Migliore, paramedics took Mann to Highland Hospital where he was treated for minor leg and back injuries and a possible head injury. 

Migliore said that Mann told rescuers he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when the incident occurred. 

- Bay City News 

Benicia is well worth exploring, partly because no one else is exploring it.  

Connected to mainland East Bay by the Benicia-Martinez (George Miller, Jr. Memorial) Bridge and by Benicia Transit’s bus from the Pleasant Hill BART Station, Benicia is a quiet, historic village masked as a lower-cost commuter hub that once served as California’s third state capital. 

Benicia does not translate to “upwind from Martinez oil refineries.” It was actually the favored name of Maria Felipa Benicia Carrillo de Vallejo, wife of the Mexican commandant of Alta California, Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.  

As Bear Flag Party member Dr. Robert Semple transported Vallejo as a prisoner from Sonoma to Sutter’s Fort in 1846, he eyed the picturesque site which Vallejo happened to own as a Mexican land grant. By the end of the trip, Semple co-owned the five square miles, with the condition that he would name it after Vallejo’s wife.  

Semple and Thomas O. Larkin, former American Consul to Monterey, built the brick building at First and G streets as a city hall and offered it to the state, which used it as the state capitol for 13 months during 1853 and 1854. The state Treasury was located here as well, as no wooden building was deemed safe enough to house it. Restored to its finery and now a historical park, it houses the upstairs Assembly chambers and downstairs Senate chambers, with feather pens in ink wells, gentlemen’s hats on desks and brass spittoons within convenient range of every legislator’s seat. 

Benicia was the first California city to incorporate, and most buildings on First Street are historic. First Street itself has been dubbed “Main Street,” a nod to Benicia’s participation as one of 40 cities in the California Main Street Program to revitalize historic towns. 

At the foot of First Street is the Transcontinental Railroad Depot, built in 1879, First Street Green and the former ferry pier with an unusual view of the Benicia and Martinez bridges. Here trains transferred onto the Solano and Contra Costa ferry boats for Port Costa, where they continued trips toward San Francisco until the Southern Pacific built a bridge between Benicia and Martinez in 1930. President Taft campaigned from his train here in 1912. Captain Blyther’s seafood and steak restaurant nearby is an old-time local favorite. 

Benicia is now a Mecca for artistic glass-blowing, with a few studios near or on First Street, and many others at the Old Arsenal, now a near industrial park. At First and F streets, David L. Lindsay displays his bright colored glass objects and blows glass in the back, where the oven cooks at 2,000 degrees and the air temperature hits 140 in the summer. Manager and wife Ann Lindsay says, “That’s when he makes things that don’t take any thinking.” 

About a one-mile stroll or roll, First Street is loaded with informal antiques and used book stores, some of which are not open on Sunday. Yesterdaze Books at 501 First St. is the former Lido Club, a onetime hangout of Jack London.  

Breakfast and lunch on the weekends are best at First Street Café, an oasis of great casual food from Acme bread and homemade scones to here-made desserts and jams. Omelets are out of sight. Dinner is equally great and under $20. 

The Camellia Tearoom, once the Mona Lisa Club, is owned and overseen by local Mary Ellen Hayes, whose husband is the very Democratic and very preservationist immediate past mayor of Benicia. Mary Ellen serves true afternoon tea, sandwiches and salads, including a sampler of chicken-artichoke, Italian tuna and curry chicken. As the house cook, Mary Ellen says, “I cook by ear, and my daughter Casey bakes by formula, so we can’t be in the kitchen at the same time!” The results, though, work well together. 

Other restaurants worth sampling on First Street are Victor’s Italian Restaurant, Sala Thai and its sister restaurant Petals, and Kaigan Sushi. Coffee stops include In the Company of Wolves—so named for the previous owner who kept two pet wolves in his camper, parked across the street, while tending the café—and Benicia Bay Company, whose café is in the back of the shop and features Peet’s Coffee and Joseph Schmidt truffles. 

Camels do not live in the Camel barns, but they did in the 1850s and 1860s when the U.S. Army used them as pack animals, an experiment abandoned after the Civil War. The remaining camels were shipped to the Benicia Arsenal, where they were auctioned off to the public. 

As home to artists such as Robert Arneson and Manuel Neri, Benicia’s Arsenal art studios now host 100 artists, Bradbury and Bradbury Art Wallpaper, the National Neon Institute, the Benicia Ballet and the Benicia Historical Museum. Benicia Glass Studios include Nourot Glass Studio, Smyers Glass and Zellique Art Glass, all close together at 675 and 701 East H Street. 

If your mother, like mine, told you not to go to Benicia, try it now. 

Kathleen Hill writes a series of six Hill Guides to the West Coast with her husband Gerald Hill, including “Sonoma Valley—The Secret Wine Country.”

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

In a primary that will shape the future of the 2004 presidential campaign, more than 300,000 MoveOn.org members voted on-line Tuesday and Wednesday to endorse a candidate for the Democratic nomination.  

With the Federal Election Commission second quarter fund-raising deadline set for June 30, a Friday morning endorsement may come early enough to affect this quarter’s contribution receipts. Last fall MoveOn members donated $1 million in five days to the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone’s struggling reelection campaign. But MoveOn’s presidential endorsement only will come if a candidate commands a 50 percent majority vote; otherwise the Berkeley-born political advocacy Internet group will carry the process into July.  

MoveOn Chief Operating Officer Carrie Olson compared the number of voters who participated in the 48-hour primary to the number of likely voters in the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus combined. 

“It is a phenomenal number for a primary and a significant number of passionate folks,” Olson said Thursday. “The grassroots we represent have been the traditional organizers of campaigns in the past—folks who get out and hold meetings, tell their friends, tell their family and acquaintances. They work to get out the vote, and they need to be engaged by all the candidates.” 

For candidates such as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, earning MoveOn’s financial support would narrow the margin between their campaigns and the party’s leading fundraisers. Sen. John Edwards and Sen. John Kerry, at $7.4 million and $7 million, led the field in first quarter fundraising, far surpassing Dean at $2.6 million and Lieberman at $3 million.  

During the 2002 election cycle, with 500,000 members, the MoveOn.org PAC raised $4.1 million for congressional campaigns. With today’s membership of 1.4 million, the goal for the 2004 elections is $10 million. 

The MoveOn endorsement process engendered discontent among some of the candidates, who said recently that MoveOn gave an unfair advantage to Dean, Kerry and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the organization’s leading candidates in an early straw poll. In the week before the primary, the three were allowed to send e-mails introducing their platforms to the on-line political community. 

A spokesman for the Dick Gephardt campaign went so far as to insinuate the endorsement process was rigged, according to an Associated Press report. A Washington Post article Wednesday quoted Jennifer Palmieri, a spokesman for the Edwards campaign, addressing the process: “Three candidates were given a head start. It’s like the equivalent of asking all of the candidates to attend a forum in which only three of them are allowed to give opening statements.”  

Neither campaign returned phone calls from the Planet on Thursday. 

The direct line to membership for the top finishers, however, was part of the endorsement process outlined to the nine candidates before any agreed to participate. And all were invited to answer member-generated questions and write letters, which were then posted on the MoveOn Web site along with links to the candidates’ Web sites, said Olson.  

“We went out of our way to make sure all the candidates were equally represented on the site,” said Olson. “To marginalize us and say we’re not honest is disrespectful. We represent our members. The sentiment comes from the bottom up. I am sure the election results will be representative of which candidates are best expressing what our folks feel is important. 

“We recognize that any of the nine might be the eventual candidate, and MoveOn will hopefully have the will of its membership behind that nominee, whoever it is.”

Windmills that pumped water from wells up to a holding tank were once common backyard structures, not just in the countryside but also in urban settings such as Berkeley, and they appear in many old photographs.  

The earliest modern European windmills appeared in the 12th century and over time were adapted to a variety of tasks including pumping water, sawing wood and grinding grains. 

The water-pumping windmill does not actually pump the water but rather pushes it up a pipe. The rotation of the windmill blades causes a rod (that is inside a cylinder below the water level) to move up and down, pushing water up the pipe to a holding tank. The windmill is mechanically simple and dependable. 

Water-pumping windmills were essential to the settlement of the western United States and permitted farming far from streams and rivers. Windmills were used to pump water for the steam railroad trains, once the primary source of transportation across the continent. Other sources of domestic water—before large municipal water companies such as East Bay Municipal Water District—were wells with hand pumps and water piped from hillside reservoirs or springs. 

In 1870 lighter and more efficient steel blades were developed, and in the 1890s small wind turbine generators supplied electricity to rural areas. With the enactment after World War II of the Rural Electrification Act, federal funds were used to construct utility power lines in rural areas, bringing an end to the use of wind for generating electricity. However, with the need to reduce fossil fuel dependence interest in wind power has been renewed.  

The windmill pictured here is located behind a two-story, corner-grocery-styled building at 1201 6th St., but can best be seen from around the corner on Harrison Street. The building has a sign on its south wall proclaiming it to be the Grand Food Market, but the market has been gone for decades.  

The building was built in 1908 and once housed Arcieri Dairy, the last dairy in Berkeley. Cows actually grazed in the fields across the street until the early 1950s, but now there is a starkly new U.S. Postal Service building on the former field.  

This is the last intact windmill and water tank structure in Berkeley. In 2001, another long-standing windmill—located at 1129 Francisco St. and dating from about 1892—collapsed onto its water tank in a winter storm. Hidden behind a few houses lurk remnants of windmill structures whose bases have been converted to other uses. The remnants of three can be seen behind 1830 Delaware, 1141-3 Hearst and 705 Delaware. These windmill bases are recognizable because their walls are angled inwardly so they could carry the weight of the water saved in the tank above.  

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