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LAURA OFTEDAHL and her dog Victor use a Bank of America ATM in Berkeley that is formatted for the visually-impaired.
LAURA OFTEDAHL and her dog Victor use a Bank of America ATM in Berkeley that is formatted for the visually-impaired.
 

News

Berkeley is Livable City for the Blind

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 11, 2003

The television cameras were rolling, a photographer snapped away and all eyes were on Anthony Candela. But Candela, speaking before City Council Tuesday night, didn’t see any of it. 

Candela, a national program associate for the American Foundation for the Blind, is himself blind. But that didn’t stop him from making his way to the podium Tuesday night, as the news cameras rolled, to officially proclaim Berkeley the second most “livable” city in the nation for the blind and visually-impaired. 

Candela listed a number of reasons for the honor— jobs for the blind are plentiful, public transportation and post offices are accessible, walking is safe and there are a host of recreation opportunities for those who can’t see. 

But Candela, who has lived in Berkeley for three-and-a-half years, said the city’s culture —its acceptance of the blind and disabled in general— is the most important benefit. 

“The sense of feeling an integrated part of Berkeley, a feeling of normalcy,” he said. “The openness and welcome feeling ranked very highly.” 

The foundation, based in New York City, originally announced the country’s six most livable communities in mid-April and has been staging events around the country to draw attention to the issue. 

The media blitz has paid dividends. A press conference hailing New York City as the fourth most livable city in the nation for the blind made its way into the pages of the July 7 edition of the New Yorker magazine. 

The foundation, established in 1921, selected the winners based on a set of 250 surveys filled out by blind and visually-impaired citizens across the country, laying out the factors that made a city “livable” and nominating municipalities for the honor. 

A panel of 17 experts, after culling through the surveys, named Charlotte, NC the top city, followed by Berkeley, then Kalamazoo, MI, New York City and Lacrosse, WI and Louisville, KY, tied for fifth place. 

“I believe the only difference between Berkeley and Charlotte that mattered was cost of living. Members of City Council, Mayor [Tom] Bates, I hope you will do something to get Berkeley to number one,” said Candela, to laughs. 

“We’re really, really honored that you have bestowed this award on us,” said Bates, accepting a plaque from Candela. “The people here care.” 

The city has a history of disability activism. Berkeley’s Center for Independent Living, established in 1972, was the first such center in the world — providing services and advocacy for the disabled, spinning off a number of other local organizations and helping mold new attitudes toward the disabled among the general public. 

The city has continued to make strides in recent years. After talks with local advocates for the blind, five local banks, beginning in the fall of 1999, installed the nation’s first talking automated teller machines, with earpiece hook-ups for privacy, along Shattuck Avenue. 

There are now 8,000 such machines around the country and thousands more on the way, according to attorney Linda Dardarian of the Oakland firm of Goldstein Demchak Baller Borgen & Dardarian, which helped negotiate the Shattuck Avenue changes. 

But the city is not perfect. Candela said Berkeley needs to do a better job of maintaining sidewalks and cutting back foliage that intrude on walkways. 

Still, Laura Oftedahl, a blind consultant who moved to Berkeley three years ago, praised the city Tuesday night for its talking voting machines and accessible banking and said she doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. 

“This is the first place where I’ve walked into a grocery store and they come up to me and offer help,” she said. “I feel good about myself living in Berkeley...I don’t have to explain myself.” 

 

 

 


Berkeley This Week

Friday July 11, 2003

FRIDAY, JULY 11 

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

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

SATURDAY, JULY 12 

Women’s Freedom Fair, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in MLK Jr. Civic Center Park. There will be women from many different organizations representing freedom in different ways. There will be food and beverage vendors, activities, music. www.womensfreedomfair.org 

SF Mime Troupe addresses militarism and empire in “Vero- 

nique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rose Park. www.sfmt.org 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster Mental Health, for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th Sts. Register at www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Educator’s Academy: Rock ‘n’ Roll at Wildcat Creek  

from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Explore a streambed, gather stones and discover their origins. Concepts and activities will match K-5 California Earth Science Content Standards. $45 for Berkeley residents, $51 for non-residents. For information call 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Peach/Stone Fruit Tasting at the Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Demonstra- 

tions with Becky Smith of Frog Hollow Farm. 548-3333.  

Compost Critters What do you get if you put lunchtime leftovers, leaves, and creepy crawlers together? A chance to explore our compost, meet our worms and even take some home! From 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Free. 525-2233.  

Farms in Berkeley? A walk to visit innovative community gardens in North Berkeley and part of the Ohlone Greenway. From 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Accessible by public transit. Reservations required, call 415-255-3233. http://greenbelt.org/getinvol 

ved/outings/green_reservation 

Summer Gardening with East Bay Native Plants, a class in restoration gardening using plants adapted to our climate. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a local garden with Lyn Talkovsky, an East Bay landscape gardener and Glen Schneider who is writing a Natural History Field Guide to the East Bay. Pre-registration is required, cost is $15 Ecology Center members, $25 general, low-income spots by arrangement. 548-2220 ext. 233. erc@ecologycenter.org  

California Wildflower Show A profusion of native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. Oakland Museum of CA, 1000 Oak St, at 10th St, Oakland. Admission is $6, $4 seniors and youth. 238-2200.  

SUNDAY, JULY 13 

Sixth Annual Bay to Barkers Dog Walk and Festival, at the Berkeley Marina, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Benefits the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. Contests, prizes, demonstrations, vendors and other events for canines and humans. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., walk begins at 10 a.m. 845-7735.  

SF Mime Troupe addresses militarism and empire in “Veroni- 

que of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rose Park. www.sfmt.org 

UC Berkeley Walking Tour with architectural historian Sally Woodbridge. Meet at the Campanile at 11 a.m. Cost is $5, re- 

gistration required. 642-9828. 

California Wildflower Show See listing for July 12.  

MONDAY, JULY 14 

September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows will show and speak about their video “Civilian Casualties,” the story of civilian deaths in Afghan 

istan as seen by four Americans who lost family members on September 11. At 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave, Oakland, between Grandlake and Lakeshore, under 580. Wheelchair accessible. Suggested donation $1. Sponsored by East Bay Communities Against the War, 658-8994. 

What’s Wrong with Geneti- 

cally Engineered Food and Crops Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative Meeting and Potluck. Drinks and utensils supplied. David Henson, director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, will speak on the strange things happening with genetically engineered foods. At 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. Wheelchair accessible. 883-9096.  

Home Owners Support Group Learn about window in- 

stallation and energy conservation at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. graypanthersberk@aol.com 

TUESDAY, JULY 15 

Free Emergency Prepared- 

ness Class on Disaster First Aid, for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St., be- 

tween 8th and 9th Sts. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Peach/Stone Fruit Tasting at the Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333.  

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

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16 

Twilight Tour: Magnificent Monocots Anthony Garza talks about interesting and unusual grasses and succulents, at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

Aquatic Park Natural Habitat and Lagoon Water Quality Study by Laurel Marcus & Associates, will be discussed on Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Public comments welcome! For information call Brad Ricards, 981-6437. 

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

Free Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class Learn how to detect and remedy lead hazards and conduct lead-safe re- 

novations for your older home, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Temes- 

cal Branch Library, 5205 Tele- 

graph Ave, North Oakland. For information or to register call the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at 567-8280.  

Community Dances, traditional English and American dances, 8 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Cost is $9. 233-5065. www.bacds.org 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

THURSDAY, JULY 17 

EBMUD Water Tunnel Construction Project Informational Meeting at 7 p.m. at Chabot Canyon Racquet Club, 7040 Chabot Rd, Oakland. 287-1301. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM meets at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190.  

Lawyers in the Library, at 6 p.m. in the Claremont Branch, Benvenue at Ashby, 981-6280. 

ONGOING 

Marine Biology Classes for students age 8 to 10, from Tues., July 15 to Fri., July 18, 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave, at the Marina. Cost is $45. For information call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina  

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 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. Pick up applications at the Camps Office, 2016 Center St. 981-5150. 

Echo Lake Youth Camp for ages 6 - 12 at Echo Lake, near South Lake Tahoe. One week sessions are offered through August 22. Cost is $235 per session. For registration information please visit the Camps Office at 2016 Center St., or call 981-5150. 

Summer Science Weeks: Mammals and Birds Pick apart an owl pellet, prepare a mammal baby announcement, and discover your home range. For ages 9 to 12 years. Monday, July 14 – Friday, July 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $150 for Berkeley residents, $166 for non-residents. Financial assistance is available. Registration required. For information call 636-1684.  

Free Energy Conservation Retrofits for Berkeley Residents CA Youth Energy Services is a nonprofit sponsored by the City of Berkeley that trains and employs high school students to provide conservation retrofits. Work includes weatherstripping, replacing lightbulbs with CFLs, cleaning refrigerator coils, replacing faucet aerators and showerheads with low-flow devices, installing earthquake preparedness measures, and a comprehensive audit. Available to home owners and renters. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 11-12 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland.Take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of paint, stain, varnish, thinner and adhesives; auto products; household batteries, cleaners and sprays; and garden products. Please do NOT bring asbestos, medical waste, most compressed gasses, CRTs and TVs, computers & electronic equipment. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/ 

fsrecycle. For information on what to do with other items, call 800-606-6606, or visit http://householdhazwaste.org/oakland 

Free Quit Smoking Class on six Monday evenings, from 6 to 8 p.m., starting July 14th, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. To register or for more information contact the Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Program, 981-5330 or QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

National HIV Testing Month The City of Berkeley offers free HIV testing. Drop in Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Wednesdays 6 to 8:30 p.m., during July, at 830 University Ave. at 6th St. For other days and times call the HIV Testing Information Line at 981-5380.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Monday, July 14, 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Monday, July 14, at 4 p.m. at 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud, 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

City Council meets Tuesday, July 15, at 7 p.m. in City Council hambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tuesday, July 15 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, July 16, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wednesday, July 16, meets at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/aging 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wednesday, July 16, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thursday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thursday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950.  

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

Transportation Commission meets Thursday, July 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation


Letters to the Editor

Friday July 11, 2003

CULTURE APLENTY  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You statement about the cultural offerings of the University of California would be laughable if it weren’t so sadly mistaken. As a regular subscriber to Cal Performances I have seen this year The Bolshoi Ballet, Mikael Baryshnikov, and numerous world class performances. Last year I saw Yo Yo Ma, the New York City Ballet, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and other performances too numerous to mention here. These “traveling attractions” are hardly institutional fare and would be seen in neither Bloomington nor Lubbock. Obviously you were trying to make a point (which seems to be that you love Paris) but your statements regarding cultural offerings at the University of California are ludicrous. (I do not represent UC Berkeley). 

Rocky Hill 

 

• 

NOT SO SMART  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Attention fellow citizens of Berkeley: Our quality of life is about to be compromised by those who feel that we can save open space in outlying communities by increasing the density of our fine city. The proponents of “smart growth” envision a city of people walking, riding bicycles, riding public transportation and not needing a car in their lives. As soon as a place exists like that in this country, I’ll be glad to live there; but when public transit is being reduced because of budget cuts and fares are increasing for AC Transit and BART, I see a problem. Walking is not safe in all neighborhoods, and bike riding can be a life-threatening activity in city traffic. Berkeley’s history of being unfriendly to business will continue to force people in their cars, as a majority of jobs are accessible only by car. 

Because Mayor Bates and City Council are pushing to provide homes for up to 40,000 more residents, this is not a good time for the school district's plan to close West Campus and build new structures that cannot be used as a school again. 

I too would like to see development of open space curtailed, but instead of allowing Berkeley to become more crowded than it already is, why not create a city fund that would donate money to The Nature Conservancy or The Trust for Public Land. Instead of sister cities, we could have “sister open-spaces”-- another great Berkeley first! (I'm joking, but if someone wants to run with it, count me in for $20.) 

Planning for the future of Berkeley should be much more than increasing the tax revenues for the city. More money doesn't fix all the woes of city life. Increases in the population also create needs for increases in city services, and soon the money is not enough, yet again. 

Art Adamson 

 

• 

MOCKING THE LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Thanks to Angela Rowen for reporting the news of Sprint antennae on the roof of Cafe de la Paz at 1600 Shattuck Ave. Allowing the installation of antennae is yet another illegal action by the Planning Department. Most probably this plan has been approved by Mark Rhoades, who had been with the wireless industry before joining the Zoning Department. He makes his own laws when necessary. The so called mock antennae do not have a permit. Any structure to be erected should have a permit. 

What is happening to Berkeley? The Mayor steals copies of Daily Cal, the Planning Department allows Sprint to install antennae illegally before the public hearing is held, etc. Should Berkeley citizens break the laws and when caught claim that they were fatigued? The antennae are mock; so are the laws improvised by the Planning Department. If Mayor Tom Bates adheres to laws, then he must have Sprint remove the antennae. 

Afrida Free 

 

• 

UNSAFE SHELTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you are a bus rider in Berkeley who depends upon public transportation for shopping and for getting to places, you may have noticed the shiny new bus shelters in some locations in our city. It is said that 125 of these new shelters have been ordered from a company that donates, assembles, sets the shelters in place and pays our city “for the right of way.” 

If you don’t drive a car, have heavy packages to carry, and cannot afford or don’t qualify for the expensive Berkeley Taxi Scrip, you may need to occasionally relax at a bus stop.  

Recently, while waiting for a bus outside my favorite produce market, I sat down in a new shelter to rest my back, and slid down into and got stuck in a thirteen-inch gap between the seat and the back panel. Several complaints have been made of discomfort by bus riders while trying to sit in a new bus shelter in Berkeley. If a shelter has a back panel (not all of them do), why can it not be near enough to the seats to be safe? 

Surely, bus shelters could be tailored to the safety of users. 

Arlene Merryman 

 

• 

MEXICAN TUNNEL 

Dear Editor: 

Will you elaborate more on “True Threats at Home” (Daily Planet, June 13)? What is with the so-called Mexican Tunnel from Mexico to Canada? Is it the same thing as the International Highway from Mexico to Canada? The so-called Underground Railroad of the 1800s was not a literal railroad, as we well know, but, because of the secrecy involved in slave escape routes, the route got such a name. 

How does the so-called Mexican International Highway from Mexico to Canada compare with the Underground Railroad of Harriet Tubman’s day? Are the Hispanics encountering enough turmoil in their displacement to warrant enactment of such laws as the Fugitive Slave Law of the 1800s?  

With the influx of Latinos being made east of the Mississippi, are the Latinos considered to be more free in the U.S. than the Mexicans entering west of the Mississippi or south of the border? 

Estella Davis 

El Cerrito 

 

• 

RISING VACANCY RATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was baffled by Robert R. Piper's claim (Daily Planet, July 4) that this region is on a long-term growth trend. For several months now, there have been articles in local newspapers about jobs and people leaving the Bay Area. 

With respect to growth, Berkeley is unique. The population reached 113,805 by 1950 and remained close to that figure through the 1970s. The population then dropped to about 103,000, with no reduction in housing units (in fact there was a net increase in units during each subsequent decade). 

The policy which caused Berkeley’s ample housing stock to be underutilized for two decades is now over. If developers and their entourage of trusting supporters would remove their heads from the sand long enough to look around, they might see signs of a growing vacancy rate, particularly in multi-unit buildings. Tenants who have choices generally prefer to live in smaller buildings with open space (without neighbors above, below and sharing their walls), and on quiet streets rather than “transit corridors.” 

When the cement and metal behemoth at Acton Street and University Avenue opens in August, I suggest that everyone keep an eye on whether it becomes fully occupied soon...or ever. If not, we must ponder the fate of the many similar buildings which have just broken ground. 

By the way, Dr. Piper, people love cities like San Francisco, Paris, London and Boston for their historic buildings which have been preserved, not for the holes left when landmarks are turned into rubble, nor for gigantic monuments wrapped in white plastic in the heart of downtown. 

Gale Garcia 

 

• 

EARNING AN EDUCATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really do not understand the problem with instituting the exit exam. Well, sure, some (or a LOT) of people will fail it (even though it is geared to the sophomore/freshman level). 

So? So what? They fail. They have to repeat the grade. They have to go to adult school They have to go to a junior college. Is this any worse than giving them a diploma verifying that they are “competent” to go to college, and then having them go to a four-year college (such as CSUH) and having CSUH put up with remedial education? If they cannot qualify for a sophomore/freshman level of learning, they really do not deserve a diploma.  

A diploma should be earned. Some people just have to take longer to earn it. 

Paulina Miner 

 

• 

SHAMEFUL TAX CUT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Regarding the recent tax cut: It is shameful. The tax breaks previously given to the super rich should have been repealed as a matter of simple social justice. 

I’ve seen estimates saying multi-millionaires will get $90,000 to each $100 “the poorest half of us get.” Extend that to four years, and you have a disparity of $360,000 to $400. And this is just the beginning: It goes on and on. If it stands, the super rich will become a permanent wealthy class such as has never previously existed in this country. Even subsidized farmers in the Middle West should rise up against it. 

When, by the way, will you list Jimmy Olson on the masthead? 

Phil McCardle


Arts Calendar

Friday July 11, 2003

FRIDAY, JULY 11 

CHILDREN 

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

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “Drifting Clouds” at 7:30 p.m. and “Ariel” at 9:25 p.m. at 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 

Jane Gotesman introduces her new book of photographs, “Gameface: What does a Fe- 

male Athlete Look Like?” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Rafael Manriquez in a new CD release concert at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Rose Street House of Music fund-raiser concert for Irina Rivkin’s debut full-length CD, plus Rebecca Crump and special guests, at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, a grassroots musical community featuring women singer-songwriters, 1839 Rose St. Sliding scale donations, no one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687. 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit and Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers perform East Coast swing and lindy hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Crater and Japonize Elephants perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Blame Sally, singer/songwriter group 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 

Geoffrey Keezer, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Kim Nalley at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Shotwell, Grabass Charlestons, Billy Reese Peters, Tiltwheel 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. 

V Soul performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Solemite, KGB perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7.848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 12 

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “I Hired a Contract Killer” at 5:20 and 9 p.m. and “La Vie de Bohème” 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 

Michele Anna Jordan introduces her new book, “The BLT Cookbook: America’s Favorite Sandwich,” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alex de Grassi, guitar virtuoso, celebrates the release of his CD, “Now and Then: Folk Songs for the 21st Century,” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Tickets are $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wig Salad, Sangano, Naresh perform World Funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Fito Reynoso’s Ritmo y Armonía perform Afro-Cuban favorites at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Donald “Duck” Baily and the “Duck” Quactet perform improvisational jazz at 2 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

The Lafleur et Basile Band and the Creole Belles perform traditional and original French Cajun music at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pocket, 7th Direction and Spindrift perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Vince Lateano at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Subincision, Link, The Effection, The Mona Reels, The Librarians perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5, $1 if wearing prom clothes! 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 13 

FILM 

“Nasty Girl,” followed by Morley Safer’s taped interview with Anne Rosmus, the film’s Nasty Girl, who struggled to reveal the truth about the Third Reich in her Bavarian hometown, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. In German with English subtitles. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

Aki Kaurismäki: “The Match Factory Girl” at 5:30 p.m. and “Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana” 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 

Guided Tour: “Paul Kos: Everything Matters” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

MATRIX/Anna Von Mertens, artist’s talk and reception at 3 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Vicki Noble discusses her study of the double goddess, a Neo- 

lithic and Stone Age icon, “The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Zine Reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. Vegan dinner available for $3-$5. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s with Ruth Daigon and Andrena Zawinski at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz at Coventry Grove with pianist Benny Green, a musical afternoon at a private residence in Kensington. Tax-deductible donation of $125 benefits the Jazzschool. For more information, or to register, call 845-5373.  

Carol Elizabeth Jones and Laurel Bliss, old-time folk and bluegrass duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight- 

andsalvage.org 

Five Year Space Effort, Moziac, Feral Moan perform Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dave Ellis Quintet performs pop, blues and funk at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JULY 14 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ivan Richard considers his early life in a Buddhist monastery 

in “Silence and Noise,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Gregory Mone reads from his new novel, “The Wages of Genius,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Gender Studies Book Group discusses “Don’t Bet on the Prince,” by Jack Zipes, at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Poetry Express, featuring Shailja Patel, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

TUESDAY, JULY 15 

FILM 

Sarunas Bartas: “Few of Us” 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 

Tom Stone recounts his misadventures in “The Summer of My Greek Taverna,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Stephen Hall talks about difficult questions in “Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension,“ at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Kurt Popke, Sue Owens Wright and Kathleen Antrim present their new suspense and mystery books at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Summer Poetry 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cena de Despedida, a fare- 

well dinner for La Peña founder Hugo Brenni, with Chilean folk music, from 6 to 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. For reservations call 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau perform traditional Cajun and zydeco two-steps and waltzes at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Smog and Joanna Newsom perform at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10 . 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.org 

Duncan James, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “Incubus” at 7:30 p.m., with Producer An- 

thony M. Taylor in person, 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 

Gail Tsukiyama reads from “Dreaming Water” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Christopher M. Sterba discusses his new book, “Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants in the First World War,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

www.starryploughpub.com 

Roger Mitchell introduces his new series of books, “SUV Trails,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Tongues United open mic hosted by Brownfist Collective at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

An Evening with Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary at 7:30 p.m. at Downtown Oakland Unitarian Church, 685 14th St. near MLK. Concert and reception benefits One Heart for Kids, Streetcats Foundation and Teen-Anon. Tickets for this solo concert are limited. Student advance tickets are $14, regular advance tickets $19.50, special advance reception and concert tickets are $40. For ticket information email oneheartforkids@ 

yahoo.com or call 464-4677.  

Brenda Boykin and Big Soul Country perform blues and jazz for West Coast swing at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jack Williams, folk 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 

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

Growth of Alliance, Gorilla Math, Stiletta and KOI perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 17 

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “Juha” 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 

Kavita Daswani draws on her multi-cultural life in India and the United States in her first novel, “For Matrimonial Purposes,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Nicholas Howe, Professor of English at UC Berkeley, reads from his new book, “Across an Inland Sea: Writing in Place from Buffalo to Berlin,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with Los Soneros de la Bahia, traditional Mexican music and dance, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

Jamie Laval, celtic fiddler, 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 

Ian Moore, Steve Turner and Marc Olsen perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni el Lebrijano Flamenco Guitar at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

AT THE THEATER 

Aurora Theater Company, “Thérèse Raquin,” by Emile Zola, directed by Tom Ross. A sinister tale set among the lo- 

wer classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Runs through July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.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 27, Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 5 p.m. No performance July 24. At the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations call 558-1381. 

foolsFury, “Attempts on her Life,” by Martin Crimp, directed by Ben Yalom, July 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. at LaVal’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid at Hearst. Tickets are $20 general, $15 students, seniors. 1-866- 

GOT-FURY. www.foolsfury.org 

SF Mime Troupe, “Veronique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” addresses militarism and empire July 12 and 13, at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rose Park. www.sfmt.org 

Woman’s Will Shakespeare Company, “The Rover,” a restoration comedy by Aphra Behn. July 12 and 13 in John Hinkle Park and July 19 and 20 in Live Oak Park. All performan- 

ces are at 1 p.m. and are free. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

ACCI Gallery, “Barococo” ceramics by Tony Natsoulas. Exhibition runs until July 14. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave.  

843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Addison Street Windows, “Windows” An all-media exhibit by San Francisco Women Artists, through August 11. 2018 Addison St. 658-0585. For information on the artists call 524-8538.  

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

Berkeley Art Center, “Unbound and Under Covers,” Visual writing: spoken word performances and book exhibition runs to July 27. Cura- 

ted by Jaime Robles. Work and performance by Indigo Som, Meredith Stricker, Dale Going and Marie Carbone, Susan King and Lisa Kokin. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley” A photo- 

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

848-0181.  

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part I The Kala Fellowships are awarded annually to eight innovative artists working in printmaking, book arts, video and digital media. Part I features the work of May Chan, Taro Hattori, Amanda Knowles and Andrew Mamo. Runs until July 31. Call for gallery hours.1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

A New Leaf Gallery, “Four Elements of Sculpture: Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” Exhibition runs to August 31. 1286 Gilman St. Call for gallery hours. 527-7621.  

www.sculpturesite.com 

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

www.photolaboratory.com  

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

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


‘It’s Chaos, It’s Theater’ — Mime Troupe Returns

By FRED DODSWORTH
Friday July 11, 2003

There are few modern aspirants to Berthold Brecht's throne of thorns, the proudly avowed political, comic opera. This is both a matter of pride and of concern to Berkeley's Ed Holmes, a 17-year member of San Francisco Mime Troupe. 

As it has since 1963, the Mime Troupe will perform for free in local parks this Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, at Cedar Rose Park in Berkeley.  

“I’m a physical comedian,” said Holmes. “I like to satirize the powers that be and the Mime Troupe is the only company that does it. That's the combination—left wing, physical comedy and outdoor theater. It's magic. I've done normal theater but it just doesn't compare." 

Even the process of writing an opera unfolds uniquely with the Mime Troupe, although the story line usually develops from the news of the day. The current show, “Veronica of the Mounties,” explores (loosely) America's obsessive and militant fixation with national security through armed conflict. 

As each enemy nation is defeated a new one leaps out of the shadows until even Canada becomes a reasonable suspect (in fiction mirroring reality, such a scenario was actually explored several months ago by a nationally circulated conservative magazine published out of Washington, D.C.). 

“Basically, everybody sits in on the meetings and we throw things out,” Holmes said. “Because it’s a collective process it has to go through everybody’s brain a couple of times, so it’s very slow. It’s a pain in the ass but I like it that way. It's chaos. It's theater.  

“We go from zero to an opening in two months, which is idiotic and sometimes it shows. Our opening days are real rough—sets are falling apart, costumes aren't there, people don't know their lines yet because their lines just got changed that day. So it's a real crude process. There are people who come to our opening day show just to see us spin out, to see the crashes, to see the flaming fireballs of missed cues. Then they'll come and see it at the end. In a month it gets tight. It becomes a well-oiled comedy and satire machine. We had 3,000 people on opening day in Dolores Park. It's like an event for a lot of people. How to spend a patriotic Fourth of July? Political satire.” 

When Holmes first joined the Mime Troupe, there were 15 members. Today there are eight. The collective is looking for new and younger members. 

“There's a four to one schlep-to-show ratio in the Troupe; for every one hour of show on stage, performing, you have four hours of loading and unloading. We get these young people in and they trade us their backs and we trade them our Mime minds, we teach them the style,” he said. “They're burning with political passion. They want to do theater but they can't live in San Francisco. It's too expensive to hang out and work themselves into the Troupe. So the collective is shrinking and getting older because there's no young blood coming in.” 

Holmes plays three different characters in Veronica: Vice President Dick Cheney, General Preston, and a homeless war veteran. 

“One of my favorite things to talk about when we first start a show every year is, we've got to have heads on sticks,” said Holmes. “It’s like that Utah Phillips quote: ‘The Earth isn’t dying, it's being murdered. And those who are doing it have names, addresses and faces.’ So that’s what I want to do. Let's put the heads up on the sticks and say who they are. We're doing these little fictional stories so you can see who is who.” 

Every year the Mime Troupe takes the show on the road, around the bay, across the country and at times, around the world.  

“I've been to Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, Jerusalem, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Cuba, Nicaragua. God, where else?” Holmes recalled. “In a lot of places we've been to, like in Germany, everybody speaks English so there's been no problem, [but] we played audiences in Korea that didn't know English, but they loved our physical slapstick. They could follow our story. We were doing a story about the health care crisis in America, and we're doing it Commedia-style, with the masks and those old Italian clown characters. They loved it. It transcends language. Something about it, the physical character, gets across to anybody. Last year we went to Fresno. We played to 800 people in Fresno. Eight hundred people hungry for our kind of thing. That’s really encouraging.” 

 

The SF Mime Troupe presents Veronique of the Mounties, the latest in nearly a half century long tradition of political musical comedies, for free in a park near you. 

July 12, 13 (Sat, Sun) at CEDAR ROSE PARK, 1300 Rose Street, a block from Cedar & Chestnut, Berkeley 

July 26 (Sat) at MOSSWOOD PARK, MacArthur & Broadway, Oakland 

July 30 (Wed) at MONTCLAIR PARK, 6300 Moraga Ave., Montclair 

August 9, 10 (Sat, Sun) at LIVE OAK PARK, Shattuck & Berryman, Berkeley 

August 13, 14 (Weds, Thurs) LAKESIDE PARK at Lakeside Drive at Lake Merritt, Oakland 

August 23 (Sat)at PEOPLE1S PARK at Telegraph & Haste, Berkeley 

August 24 (Sun) at WILLARD PARK/HO CHI MINH at Hillegass & Derby, Berkeley 

Music at 6:30pm, Show at 7:00pm 

Call (415) 285-1717 for more information or visit the Mime Troupe on the web at http://www.sfmt.org. 

 


Journalist Held In Indonesia

By PAUL KILDUFF Special to the Planet
Friday July 11, 2003

A former Berkeley political activist turned investigative journalist is under arrest in Indonesia. William “Billy” Nessen, who was filing reports for the San Francisco Chronicle and England’s Observer newspaper on the movement to establish a free state in the Aceh province of northern Indonesia, is being held by the country’s army. 

Nessen surrendered in the presence of U.S. officials earlier this week. He had been with guerrillas in the free-Aceh campaign, known as GAB, since last May’s crackdown on the rebels by the Indonesian government.  

Nessen had contacted the military and offered to turn himself in if he wasn’t killed, arrested or interrogated. But the country’s military commander in Aceh, Bambang Dharmono, has agreed only to ensure Nessen’s personal safety. Major General Endang Suwarya, head of the martial law administration in Aceh, has threatened to charge Nessen with spying— a death penalty offense.  

First active in the successful effort to get the UC system to divest from South Africa in the mid-1980s, Nessen, 46, went on to work for anti-nuclear weapons campaigns with the Livermore Action Group and for human rights in Central America. In the late 80s he received his masters from the Columbia School of Journalism. He has worked as a freelancer since graduating on stories such as East Timor’s recent successful battle for independence. 

Going from being an advocate for political change to covering those movements as a journalist was a natural transition for Nessen, say his former Berkeley activist colleagues. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that he would be traveling with the guerrillas,” said Michael Sherman, who first met Nessen during the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s and now sits on Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Committee. “He was certainly sympathetic to the human rights situation that the people of Aceh were facing from the Indonesian army, which is notorious for human rights violations.” 

For his longtime friends in Berkeley, Nessen’s plight is a major concern. Another member of the Peace and Justice Commission, John Lavine, is helping to circulate a letter that calls for the release of Nessen and his safe passage out of Indonesia. Lavine is also encouraging people to call the Indonesian embassy in Washington, D.C. on Nessen’s behalf. If he’s not freed by the time the commission meets again in September, Lavine says the commission will recommend to the city council that they adopt a resolution calling for Nessen’s release. 

In addition to these local efforts, the Committee to Protect Journalists, faculty and staff at the Columbia School of Journalism, the San Francisco Local of the National 

Writer’s Union and Media Alliance are all demanding Nessen be let go. His parents are currently in Indonesia trying to work out a deal with the government. Nessen’s wife, Shadia Marhaban, is an Aceh rights activist and interpreter. She was not with him while he was reporting from Aceh province.  

Andrew Ross, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Executive Foreign and National Editor, said that while the paper is concerned about Nessen and supports all efforts to have him released, they haven’t had any contact with him since his last story on the conflict in December, 2002. 

“It would be difficult for us to take the lead because probably the Indonesian authorities might say ‘Well, who the hell are you?” said Ross. However, Ross did say that as far as the Chronicle was aware, Nessen was not working as a spy. 

“In all the dealings we’ve had with Bill that never came up,” says Ross. “We know that it is a little dodgy right now for journalists there and that the government is, shall we say, somewhat sensitive about Aceh. We’ve also written stories about how unpleasant the situation is in Aceh there now and how there have been allegations of human rights violations by the Indonesian authorities.”  

Nessen was reported to have been writing a book on the conflict. In several telephone interviews over the past few weeks from the jungle of Aceh over his satellite phone, Nessen had said that he feared for his life if the Indonesian Army caught him. The Army also made it clear that they wanted to question him about his relationship with GAB and the location of their camps, according to news reports. 

The efforts to free Nessen appear to be paying off. According to Lavine, Senator Richard Lugar, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has contacted the Indonesian government calling for Nessen’s release.  

As of now there is no evidence that Nessen is being mistreated. 

“The Indonesians have kept their word so far that he would not be harmed,” said Lin Neumann, the Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who has discussed Nessen’s situation with the Indonesian military. “The next step is to allow him to leave the country as soon as possible.” 

That couldn’t happen soon enough for Sherman. “It’s a very, very scary situation for him and I’m very worried about him,” he said. “Let’s get this man home safe and sound.” 


Bush’s Africa Trip: Substance or Scam?

By MAUDELLE SHIREK and NUNU KIDANE
Friday July 11, 2003

Bush’s trip to Africa is being heralded by the U.S. media as if he is the Messiah who will solve all of Africa’s problems.  

Indeed it is a good gesture when a President decides to visit the continent which has never been the top agenda of the U.S. government. In fact, the United States has a historic obligation to Africa which it has failed to meet. 

For many of us, this is just another trip that is intended by the Republican administration to boost its image on compassionate conservatism and increase potential for re-election in November. We would like to believe that it is more than rhetoric, but the facts seem to prove otherwise. 

For real and substantive changes to be made in Africa, the U.S. needs to make a commitment to at least two areas: 

1. Debt cancellation 

Every year, the poorest African nations are forced to pay billions of dollars in debt servicing, paying the interest on bilateral and multilateral loans. How did this happen? Multinational institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, plus major commercial loans, have been used to buy allies in Africa. It did not matter to these countries or institutions that the leaders were not democratically elected or that the funds were not being used for development purposes. Continued lending with no accountability has resulted in enormous debts which are beyond the capability of most African governments to meet. A majority of African countries are paying more to servicing the debt than for their national health and education budgets combined. National organizations like Africa Action and the Jubilee USA Network have been calling for the total cancellation of what are considered illegitimate debts. South Africa is a good example. For decades, the White-minority led apartheid government took out loans to boost its military to suppress the majority voices of the country. Today’s democratically elected government of South Africa is burdened with apartheid debt which the IMF and the World Bank do not want to consider canceling. 

2. Funding to fight HIV/AIDS 

Africa is the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. The entire continent has only 10% of the global population at some 800 million people. Yet 70% of people living with HIV and dying of AIDS are on the continent.  

We all saw the headlines following President Bush’s State of the Union address promising $15 billion over five years for fighting AIDS in Africa. Yet, the D.C.-based Washington Office on Africa states, “While $3 billion a year has been authorized by Congress, the president has requested no additional funds for this fiscal year and less than $2 billion for fiscal year 2004, including only $200 million, instead of $1 billion, for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. News reports say Republicans in the House of Representatives are planning to approve even less than the president’s low request.” 

On Thursday, July 19th, the House Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee will propose the actual amount the U.S. will give to fight global AIDS in 2004. Advocates all over the U.S. are calling for the subcommittee to provide at least $3.5 billion, of which $1.7 should go to the Global Fund. 

There are many more issues of small arms and the “blood diamonds” which continue to fuel conflicts and divisions in Africa. Africa is not ridden with problems, as suggested by its image as presented in the media; it is also a continent rich with resources and positive changes and contributions that take place every day.  

The top headline topics that we see accompanying the Bush trip to Africa are Liberia and Zimbabwe. The discussions about these countries are reduced to leaders Charles Taylor and the controversial President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. But the problems of Africa are a whole lot more complex than just leadership. For real and substantive changes to be made, it is necessary to examine the deep history of injustice that has taken place over the past centuries and propose changes to current policies which continue to undermine Africa’s right to development. 

Bay Area residents are proud to have been part of the history of the anti-apartheid movement. Many thought it was not a struggle that could be won, but the support of people in the U.S., working closely with people in Africa toppled the apartheid regime. We can do this again with the AIDS issue — lest we look back and regret our inaction. 

Maudelle Shirek is Vice-Mayor of Berkeley. Nunu Kidane is a member of 

Priority Africa Network of Berkeley.


Arts Funding Threatened By Two State Assembly Bills

By ANGELA ROWEN
Friday July 11, 2003

Artists and advocates for the arts plan to gather on the steps of city hall in San Francisco on Wednesday to protest the proposed gutting of the California Arts Commission, the state agency that gives about $17 million per year to artists and arts organizations throughout the state. 

Two Assembly bills now being considered to either cut funding to the agency— from about $18.2 million to about $750,000— or eliminate the agency altogether to help close the state’s $38 billion budget shortfall. 

Established 27 years ago during Governor Jerry Brown’s administration, the Arts Council largely funds local organizations that bring arts into the classroom. Last year, the agency gave a total of $1.5 million to arts organizations in Alameda County and about $426,000 to Contra Costa artists. Among the local grantees are the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, which got about $26,000 this year, the Berkeley Arts Magnet, which got about $11,000, and La Pena Cultural Center, which received $50,000. 

Eliminating the agency will also mean the loss of federal arts dollars: In order to receive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a state must have an arts agency to administer those funds. According to Arts Council spokesperson Adam Gottleib, about $1 million in NEA funds is funneled through the Arts Council. If California eliminates the council, it would be the first state in the country to eliminate its arts agency, Gottleib said. 

Patrick Dooley is the executive director of Shotgun Players, a Berkeley-based theater group that received about $4,000 this year from the council. He said the loss won’t break the organization’s back, but is still significant. “We only charge $10 per ticket,” Dooley said. “That means we have to sell a lot of tickets to make up for that $4000.” 

Although funding for the agency has dropped significantly in the last three years— from $30 million in 2000 to $17 million in 2002— artists and other advocates for the arts say the consequences of gutting the agency will reach beyond the loss of actual dollars.  

“The message it sends to people is that the arts are disposable, that they can just be removed. It’s pretty scary and shortsighted,” said Dooley, adding that the Berkeley city council and mayor’s decision to create an arts commission was important in promoting arts locally. “It sends a really strong signal to people about the importance of the arts.” 

Jennifer Easton is director of development and marketing for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, a $1.2 million organization that received $5,600 this year for a program that brings orchestras into schools and allows students to attend free concerts.  

“If you zero out the California Arts Council, it sends out a message saying that the legislature doesn’t believe funding the arts is part of the government’s responsibility,” she said. Easton said eliminating the Arts Council would also mean the loss of economic activity generated by the arts, as well as the more subtle, indirect benefits of arts on the culture. “It makes smarter kids, more creative thinkers,” she said.


Workers’ Comp Claims Skyrocket

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 11, 2003

Spiraling workers’ compensation costs are threatening the city’s bottom line and raising questions about workplace safety, city officials said this week. 

In fiscal year 2003, which ended in June, the city paid at least $6.8 million in workers’ compensation costs, a 23 percent jump over the $5.5 million doled out in fiscal year 2002, according to a new report presented to City Council Tuesday night. 

“That’s a big number,” said Dave Hodgkins, acting deputy director of human resources. 

The problem is particularly acute for a city that, despite raising taxes and cutting services in recent months to close a $9 million deficit for fiscal year 2004, still faces an $8 to $10 million shortfall in 2005.  

City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who worked on safety issues during his career as a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, gave city staff a tongue-lashing on the economic and ethical dimensions of the issue Tuesday night. 

“We have a moral obligation as a city to provide a safe work environment,” said Wozniak. “I think the city manager needs to go to the head of public works and say ‘this is unacceptable, what are you going to do about it?’...I want to hear some urgency on this.” 

City Manager Weldon Rucker defended the city’s approach, noting that a new training program for supervisors, with a focus on prevention, is underway and that workers’ compensation has gained a more prominent place in the evaluation of managerial staff. 

“I am holding department heads accountable,” he said. 

According to a study by the Sacramento-based firm of Bickmore Risk Services, Berkeley has 47 percent higher costs than the average of several local cities and towns participating in the Bay Cities Joint Powers Insurance Authority, administered by Bickmore. 

Berkeley’s highest losses, as is typical for most cities, have come in the police, fire and public works departments, where workers face the most dangerous jobs. 

City officials, union leaders and everyday workers say they are unsure about what lies behind the soaring workers’ compensation rates. But the city has hired the Berkeley-based Lindy West and Associates to conduct the first full audit of the city’s system in years. 

In the meantime, a host of theories abound. Hodgkins said, for instance, that Berkeley provides a few services, like solid waste collection, that many municipalities do not— opening the door for more injuries. 

Rucker said there’s a larger cultural problem in the city’s ranks. 

“People have taken for granted the entitlement of workers’ comp,” he said. “There’s been a culture of, kind of, it’s OK to get hurt. No, it’s not OK to get hurt.” 

Hodgkins points to a unique provision in the city’s labor contracts that allows all workers to receive full pay for a year if they are out on workers’ compensation. State law requires a full year’s pay for sworn employees— police officers and firefighters— but does not require Berkeley to extend the provision to all its employees. 

John Burton, Jr., an economist and professor at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations in New Jersey, said the contract language, which dates back at least 30 years, encourages workers to take advantage of the system and stay off the job longer than needed. 

“I don’t want to call that fraud, it’s simply a rational reaction,” he said. “I think you’re inviting a problem.” 

René Cardinaux, director of public works— which saw a 55 percent jump in employee hours lost this year, according to the new report— used stronger language. 

“It’s just like welfare or anything else,” said Cardinaux, who questions the 55 percent figure. “There’s not a solid citizen around who believes women and children don’t deserve government help...[But] you and I know these things get abused.” 

But workers and union officials said they don’t believe the policy is a major contributor to the city’s workers’ compensation costs. 

“I’ve heard of some people taking advantage, but to my knowledge, [I don’t know anyone] personally,” said Rolando Vargas, a city mechanic in the public works department. “The city’s been cracking down on that sort of thing.” 

Current contracts for non-sworn employees expire in the summer of 2008. Hodgkins declined to say whether the city would ask the unions to drop the full year’s pay provision from their next contracts. 

Eric Landes-Brenman, a senior management analyst who chairs the budget and negotiations committee for Public Employees Union, Local One, which represents 160 employees, was cool to the idea, noting that it was a “very contentious issue” in the last round of negotiations. 

But he said it would be premature to discuss the issue at length at this point, especially since city officials and labor leaders have been meeting for the last six months to come up with strategies for reducing workers’ compensation costs. 

Part of the talks have focused on ironing out the details of a separate contract provision that will provide employees with a one-time, one percent bonus if workers’ compensation costs decline. 

The city is also working to get more aggressive in its “return to work” policy, pushing injured workers to perform light duty until they heal. 

Ed Welch, director of the Workers’ Compensation Center at Michigan State University, said the key to a strong return to work policy is bringing back employees quickly. 

“In the first week or two, workers say they can’t wait to come back to work. They say the walls are closing in on them,” he said. “If you leave people at home for six weeks or six months, their whole attitude changes.” 

Return to work is also a powerful deterrent to fraud, Welch said. 

“If no matter what’s wrong with you, your [employer] is going to find work for you, there’s no reward for being a fraud,” he said. 

But Cardinaux said the policy doesn’t always work in the real world. Most public works jobs involve heavy manual labor and it can be difficult to find low-impact tasks for injured employees, he said. 

“I can only have them sweep the corporation yard for so many hours,” he said, adding that employees hired to do heavy lifting don’t necessarily have the skills to work on a computer or perform other office work. 

Another obstacle is employee perception of workplace safety. A survey conducted by Bickmore for the city found that, in an unusual twist, workers actually have greater confidence in the city’s safety precautions than managers. 

John, a skilled laborer who declined to give his last name, suggested that feeling was well-founded. 

“We all look out for each other,” he said, adding that his supervisors are responsive when workers raise safety concerns. 

Berkeley may have a bigger problem with workers’ compensation than its immediate neighbors. But the city is, by no means, the only employer facing skyrocketing workers’ compensation bills in California. Medical inflation and vague language in the state’s workers’ compensation law— inviting costly lawsuits— have lead to skyrocketing costs for business, nonprofits and government, Burton said. 

The state legislature is currently considering about 20 bills that would address the problem, through a variety of caps on medical costs and restrictions on services available to employees. Hans Hemann, chief of staff for State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), said the legislature will have to walk a fine line between holding down costs for employers and providing full medical care for workers.  

In the meantime, medical bills continue to mount and worries continue to grow in Berkeley. Hodgkins said $1.1 million in overhead expenses means the city actually paid more than $6.8 million on workers’ compensation last year. The city, he said, is likely spending between eight and nine percent of its $95 million payroll on the program, creating serious financial headaches. 

City Councilmember Linda Maio said Tuesday that the city, which has an overall budget of about $280 million, is moving in the right direction with a new emphasis on prevention. But it must act decisively to address the problem, she suggested. 

“We really have to get in front of this,” Maio said.  

 

 

 

 


Republican Budget Proposal Is Demeaning To Women

By BARBARA ELLIS
Friday July 11, 2003

So. The media reports that the GOP offers the State of California a budget. The Democrats turn it down. Let’s see where some of the holes in that GOP proposal might be. Here are just a few. 

$3.4 million cut by eliminating teen-pregnancy prevention programs. This is nuts. For years we’ve known that for every dollar spent on pregnancy prevention, $3 was saved in future health care costs by the state. The amount of those savings in current dollars is $4.48. We know that teen pregnancy rates are lower than they have been in forty years! An investment of this amount equals future savings of $15.23 million! That means that something is working. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.  

The elimination of the Battered Women’s Shelter Program saves $21.8 million. It ends 24-hour crisis hotlines, emergency food, clothing and shelter for victims of domestic violence, counseling, emergency room services and legal assistance with temporary restraining orders. Cold-hearted Republicans apparently disregard the safety of endangered women and children. Do you remember reading lately about women and children in our area that were beaten or killed? It’s a horrible fact of life that fathers and partners brutalize women and children. This cut means they are also to be brutalized by the state.  

Eliminating the California Commission of the Status of Women eliminates a resource where women’s issues are researched, where educational outreach occurs and where remedies to problems facing women’s search for equality are procured. Are the Republicans saying they think women’s issues are unimportant? They are already getting far more value than what they pay for ($443,000) because volunteers throughout the state do so many of these duties.  

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing is another one of those things women have fought to establish and continue to use. Maybe drafters of the GOP budget consider fairness and equity passé. Women continue to need a place to turn to when discrimination in the workplace occurs or when housing is illegally denied them. Funds for enforcement of anti-discrimination laws are critical to women. 

The clearest thing I can tell from this GOP proposal is that Republicans are continuing their campaign of women-hating legislation. They don’t care about teen pregnancy, battered women, fairness in employment and housing, reproductive health care or even a commission to track women’s issues. They’d like to see women return to the kitchen of the 50’s, barefoot and pregnant and without recourse. Women have worked too hard for too long to be so demeaned by such mean-spiritedness. Proponents of this budget should hang their heads in shame. 

Oakland/East Bay NOW is striving to register new voters and to educate all voters on the pitfalls found in GOP priorities. On the national level, those GOP priorities include money for unending wars, tax cuts for the wealthy and elimination of environmental protection laws (among others) with simultaneous decreases in funding for health care, education and local budgets. Clearly that same disregard for women permeates the Republicans in the California Legislature. We give our thanks to those legislators who turned away this disastrous GOP proposal and offer our pledge to replace those who would not protect women and children.  

See you at the polls.  

Barbara Ellis is Past President of the Oakland/East Bay Chapter of the National Organization for Women. She lives with her husband in El Cerrito.


Bringing Organic Food To Poor Neighborhoods

By ANGELA ROWEN
Friday July 11, 2003

When Joy Moore began researching her idea for a farmers market in West and South Berkeley two years ago, she was dismayed, but not shocked, by what she learned. 

At a booth she set up at Ashby Avenue and Sacramento Street, it was nearly impossible to give away whole bags of organic pink lady apples. All a passerby had to do to get a free bag was to fill out a page-long survey about their eating habits that would help Moore tailor a farmer’s market to fit the needs of the community. But, Moore says, the ladies —whose crispy, sweet, and juicy scrumptiousness makes them the candy of the apple family— weren’t incentive enough. 

“People just aren’t conditioned to appreciate fresh, organic produce,” she said. “A lot of people have misconceptions about organic food. It has bugs, it doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t look right. It’s too expensive, it’s hippie food. It’s because we’ve been under the influence of conventional farming for 50 years.” 

Moore said her own prejudices about organic food were shattered four years ago when she had her first taste of an organically grown nectarine. “It was so juicy, so sweet, so perfect,” she said. “That’s when I rediscovered real food.” 

Ever since then, she has been a leading holistic nutrition advocate, getting the word out on a monthly show she hosts on KPFA and getting the food out through a program she runs through the Ecology Center. Farm Fresh Choice, which celebrated its second anniversary on Tuesday, brings organic produce, grown by black and Latino farmers, at below-retail price to the minority neighborhoods of South and West Berkeley, who otherwise have to travel outside their communities to find affordable organic produce and who often have not been educated as to its benefits. 

The aim is to get more minority and low-income communities, which suffer disproportionately from diet-related diseases like heart disease and diabetes, to change their eating habits. 

“The only grocery stores around here is Canned Foods, which doesn’t have fresh produce, and Andronico’s, which is too expensive,” Moore said. “This way, we bring it to the community and we can use it as a vehicle to educate people about the importance of eating fresh fruit and vegetables that are made without pesticides or hormones, and also to remind people about the source of their food.”  

In most community sustainable agriculture programs, participants pay a set price and pick up a pre-boxed assortment of organically and locally produced food. But Moore and other Farm Fresh Choice founders discovered through their surveys that the best model for Berkeley was to place the food in areas where residents had to go anyway, such as recreation centers and child care facilities. 

Farm Fresh Choice has booths set up at four community centers throughout the city on Tuesdays. The Young Adult Project on Oregon Street and the Bay Area Youth Alternative on Allston Way serve primarily African Americans. The Bay Area Hispanic Institute for Advancement on Virginia Street targets the Latino community in that neighborhood. 

The aggressive outreach approach seems to work. Martha Cueva is the site supervisor at BAHIA, a children’s center that includes about 120 families a year. She says she has seen the program’s impact on the families she serves. 

“We have introduced vegetables to a lot of these families, vegetables they are not familiar with because they don’t have them in their homeland,” Cueva said in an interview at the recent Farm Fresh Choice anniversary celebration at the BAHIA center. “They are learning how to use them, and they are learning about their nutritional value. And it has increased awareness of eating food with no pesticides and at the same time it supports local farmers.” 

Karina Serna, co-coordinator of the Farm Fresh Choice program and coordinator of the BAHIA site in particular , says she has seen the program’s impact in the two years since its inception. “There’s no one else bringing pesticide-free, organic produce to these neighborhoods,” she said. “And it is definitely making a change. A lot of these families are eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than they were two years ago.” 

Serna points to Carlos Guerrero, who is busy packing in a box full of healthy goodies, his small daughter buzzing around him. “Carlos is a perfect example,” Serna said. “He’s here every week.” Guerrero lives nearby, on California Street near Dwight Street. “It’s a good program,” he said. “I don’t have a chance to buy it at the store a lot of times.” 

Moore said what she most likes to see is the program’s encouragement of family involvement. “When we have the booths at youth centers, we see that the children will bring their parents over when they pick them up. So they’re shopping together, and hopefully cooking and eating together,” Moore said. “Food is the thing that connects us all. It’s the nexus where everything converges in the social justice movement.” 


City to Keep Closer Tabs On Lawrence National Lab

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 11, 2003

City Council took steps Tuesday night to keep closer tabs on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has clashed with city officials and neighborhood activists in recent months over a pair of large, proposed construction projects that activists say will damage the environment. 

The council voted 6-2, with one abstention, to direct city staff to conduct preliminary analyses of all major planned development projects at the federal lab, which is operated by the University of California. Council also asked City Manager Weldon Rucker to appoint a member of his staff to serve as a liaison responsible for coordinating city and lab relations. 

Mayor Tom Bates, who put the item on the agenda, said before the meeting that it was prompted in part by a sense that the city was caught unaware this year by lab plans to build a six-story, 94,000 square foot molecular foundry in Strawberry Canyon. The $85 million foundry would be dedicated to the study of nanoscience, the manipulation of materials at the molecular level. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring also raised concerns Tuesday night about a recently announced lab proposal to build a separate, six-story office building and fill in part of a valley that includes Cafeteria Creek to make space for a 120-space parking lot. 

Terry Powell, community relations officer for the lab, said she was pleased with the council’s move to put a liaison in place. 

“I actually think it’s going to be helpful,” she said. “It will help us focus and provide information through one single point of contact.” 

Powell said the lab informed city planning staff last fall of its plans for the foundry, but the message did not seem to make its way to City Councilmembers. Having a designated liaison will help, she said. 

But City Councilmember Margaret Breland raised concerns Tuesday night about an-as-yet unnamed, overloaded staffer taking on the large job of monitoring lab activities. Bates and City Manager Weldon Rucker countered that the liaison would simply be a point of contact and would work with many others to do the work of analyzing planned lab projects. 

The council also squabbled over the scope of the measure. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, a former senior scientist at the lab, argued that it should not cover projects planned for the portion of lab-owned land in neighboring Oakland. 

“I...think this is a bad precedent,” said Wozniak, arguing that the city should not be spending inordinate amounts of time studying projects in other jurisdictions. 

Bates joked that Berkeley studies projects all over the world, making reference to the council’s predilection for passing resolutions on international issues practice that has repeatedly won national press attention, not all of it flattering. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said it would be “foolhardy” to study only some of the projects at the lab. 

“Pollution knows no lines,” he said. “Radiation does not stop because there’s a ‘Nuclear Free Berkeley’ sign on the line.” 

In the end, Wozniak and Councilmember Betty Olds voted against the measure with Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek abstaining. 


Scientists Warn of Toxins In San Francisco Bay

By ANGELA ROWAN
Friday July 11, 2003

Bay Area fish lovers could be risking their neurological health, as well as that of their unborn children, says a report released Thursday by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization based in Oakland and Washington, D.C. 

The group released the report at the Berkeley Pier, telling attendees that their study of six kinds of commonly eaten Bay fish shows that the level of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)— neurotoxic chemicals found in fire retardants contained in electronic devices, furniture, cars, and TV sets— has increased by as much as three times since 1997. The study shows that detected PBDE levels doubled in halibut and tripled in striped bass since samples were taken six years ago. 

PBDEs are similar to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cancer-causing chemicals that were banned in 1977. Scientists say PBDEs cause permanent neurological and developmental damage including behavioral changes, delays in sensory-motor development, and deficits in hearing, learning and memory. Most at risk are developing fetuses, infants, young children, and people with hypothryroidism.  

“We don’t have to poison the bay or our bodies for fire safety,” said Sonya Lunder, EWG analyst and principal author of the study. Lunder says the level of PBDEs in people and animals in the bay is 60 percent higher than levels in Europe and Asia. 

The Senate is expected to vote on a bill proposed by Wilma Chan that would ban some types of PBDEs in consumer products in 2008, making California the first state to regulate the chemicals. The bill was passed by the Assembly in May.  

“The United States is the biggest maker and user of chemical flame retardants in the world, and California is the largest market in the nation,” Chan said. “It’s important that we act now to keep these toxins out of our bodies and our environment.”


City Planning Commission Approves Southside Plan

Friday July 11, 2003

The city Planning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday night on a plan charting the future of the area just south of the university campus. The vote was the culmination of five years of debate among city officials, neighborhood activists and UC Berkeley staff. 

“I’m delighted that we’ve taken this step and the city and the university were able to come to an agreement,” said Planning Commission chairperson Zelda Bronstein. 

Now the Southside Plan, which calls for greater development on the commercial corridors of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, while restricting growth in residential areas, must undergo a lengthy environmental impact review, or EIR. 

Berkeley senior planner Janet Homrighausen said the review will cost roughly $230,000, a hefty price tag for a city facing an $8-10 million deficit for the 2004-2005 budget year. 

The city has committed $115,000 to the EIR and is hoping to avoid paying for the rest by collaborating with the university and AC Transit, which is eyeing express bus service in the area and must complete an EIR of its own. 

After the environmental review is finished, the Southside Plan will go back to the Planning Commission before proceeding to City Council for final approval. The whole process is expected to take at least a year. 

--David Scharfenberg


Berkeley Hires New Planning Director

Friday July 11, 2003

The former planning director for the city of Fremont has been appointed Berkeley’s new Interim Director of Planning. 

Dan Marks, who served as Berkeley’s manager of current planning from 1995-1996, will replace Phil Kamlarz, who took over Planning Director Carol Barrett’s position on June 6. In his year with Berkeley, Marks helped to create the city’s permit tracking system. 

“Dan Marks is an innovative public servant with superb credentials,” City Manager Weldon Rucker said, adding that Marks “maintained an excellent working relationship with members of key city boards and commissions.” 

Kamlarz will return to his position in the city manager’s office when Marks assumes his position Aug. 4. 

Marks will serve as interim director until the city manager can hire a permanent director following a recruitment effort. 

--Angela Rowen


BOSS Wins Digital Divide Grant

Friday July 11, 2003

One of Berkeley’s leading homeless services organizations won an $83,500 grant last week to help bridge the “digital divide” separating the computer savvy well-to-do from the technologically-challenged poor. 

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) will use the two-year grant, from the San Francisco-based Community Technology Foundation of California, to train its three-member community organizing team in on-line activism and teach basic computer skills to some of the 3,500 homeless people it serves every year. 

“We’re very excited to get [the grant] because we know that a lot of the information out there is happening on line and a lot of our clients don’t have access to it because they’re low-income,” said Sonja Fitz, grants and budget manager for BOSS. 

BOSS is one of nine Bay Area nonprofits and 31 groups statewide that received $1.9 million in funding this year from the Community Technology Foundation, a four year-old, independent foundation endowed by telecommunications giant SBC after its merger with Pacific Bell. The foundation “promotes social justice, access, and equity through community technology,” according to a release. 

-- David Scharfenberg


A Room of Her Own In New York City

From Susan Parker
Friday July 11, 2003

Before heading to the Edward Albee Foundation’s artist residency program in Montauk, New York, I stopped to visit my friend Marlene. Marlene pulled up stakes and moved from San Francisco to New York City several years ago. Not so remarkable, you may think. People do it all the time. Hell, New York may even be cheaper than San Francisco these days.  

But I want to give Marlene a pat on the back for doing what some people might not have the nerve to do. Sure, kids go back and forth from coast to coast all the time. New graduates show up for awhile and then move on. My 30-year-old friend Amy has moved between New York City and San Francisco a total of four times in the past eight years. My friend Carol escaped from her parent’s home in the New Jersey suburbs to the Bay Area a dozen times when she was in her early twenties and didn’t have a dime. But Marlene was fifty-nine years old when she moved to Manhattan. She’s not a kid anymore. She doesn’t couch surf, cocktail waitress or pick up odd jobs here and there. She isn’t in college. She doesn’t have tattoos, piercings, an MBA, or dotcom experience. She isn’t an artist and she’s not pursuing an acting career. She does not write screenplays. She didn’t know anybody in New York City when she relocated there. I think that takes guts. I’m proud of her. 

“It’s not such a big deal,” Marlene assures me as we sip herbal tea in her tiny apartment on Manhattan’s upper west side. “I had a sellable skill. I knew I’d find work in New York.” 

“Yes, but you did it alone, Marlene,” I argue. “You weren’t transferred here. You didn’t follow a husband or significant other. You weren’t guaranteed work before you came to New York. It would have been easier and safer to stay home in the Bay Area.” 

“You make it sound more challenging than it was, Suzy.” Marlene shrugs and butters her toast. “I had the finances to move here. Many folks don’t.” 

“Yes, of course you did, but you worked hard for that cash. It wasn’t inherited or given to you. It wasn’t somebody else’s money. You’re a self-made person and you should congratulate yourself. Not many people would do what you did.” 

“Court reporters make good money. We can get jobs anywhere. Want more tea?” 

“Marlene, you chose a smart profession. You’ve used it advantageously. I think it’s extraordinary that a woman of your age has started over in New York City. You’re an inspiration. You’re what the song is all about.” 

“What song?” 

“New York, New York. I wanna wake up in a city that never sleeps…” 

“Just wait ‘til you spend the night in this apartment. You won’t be sleeping much yourself.” 

It was true. The pipes in Marlene’s brownstone walk-up banged, clanked and let off steam all night long. Taxicab horns and police sirens filled the hours after midnight and the garbage collectors arrived early in the a.m.  

In the morning Marlene dressed for work as I lay snoozing. 

“I’m off to court,” Marlene said breathlessly as she wrapped a silk scarf around her neck and placed a straw hat over her graying curls. “I’ve laid keys on the dresser for you. Remember, there are five locks and all the keys turn to the left except for the silver one, which turns to the right. Good luck. It only took me a year to figure out how to get into this apartment. I hope you can get out.”  

She paused and smiled. “I’ll see you tonight for dinner.” Then she turned and skipped out of the apartment like a twenty year old. As she was leaving I heard her humming softly to herself, “If I can make it here, I’ll make it anywhere…” “You’ve already made it,” I called out after her, but it was too late. I was safely locked inside.  

Susan Parker is spending the month in Montauk, New York as the guest of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. For information on this artist residency program visit www.pipeline.com/~jtnyc/albeefdtn.html.


President Welcomed in Nigeria, But Nigerians Not Welcome Here

By KAREN POJMANN Pacific News Service
Friday July 11, 2003

As Nigerians prepare to welcome President Bush into their capital on his whirlwind African tour this week, the United States, in contrast, remains inhospitable to many Nigerians.  

My husband, for example, is being kicked out of the United States, his home of seven years.  

Osita came here on a valid visa. He has a work permit, a driver’s license and a social security card—all legally issued. He has a wife, a son and a daughter— all U.S. citizens. He pays taxes and rent. He has never committed a crime or been unemployed. And although he’s Nigerian, he has never sent anyone e-mail claiming to be usurped royalty in need of a wire transfer.  

The agency formerly known as INS has even approved our six-year, two-child marriage. Yet, immigration law says Osita must go. And because the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) refuses to process our paperwork, if he goes, he won’t be able to come back.  

These days it’s easy to blame immigration troubles on terrorism fears. But, like those of many Africans, Osita’s problems started long before Sept. 11, 2001, and have continued long after. Is our government’s handling of people like Osita rooted in a much older American prejudice?  

Osita moved to San Francisco from Tokyo in 1996 on a fiancé visa and married his girlfriend, a naturalized U.S. citizen. To his surprise, she immediately spent all of his savings, and when his money ran out, she kicked him out of their apartment and withheld the INS interview notices that came in the mail, propelling him into deportation proceedings. Fearing persecution at the hands of Nigeria’s then-military-dictatorship— notorious for cruelty to Igbos like Osita— he filed for political asylum. He and his wife divorced.  

But then we met, fell in love, got married and had our first baby. Problem solved, right? Instant green card? Not quite. Under U.S. immigration law, an immigrant can’t adjust his or her status from one person’s fiancé petition (K-1 visa), however legal, to another person’s alien-spouse petition (I-130 form). So the court wants Osita to leave the country and apply for a new visa based on our marriage.  

Fair enough. If only he could return.  

The problem: Immigration courts and the BCIS don’t work together. Despite our approved marriage, Osita is still in deportation proceedings and will be booted any time the court sees fit. Meanwhile, BCIS is not processing our documents, a glitch that will leave Osita stranded in Nigeria if he’s forced to take a voluntary departure from the United States. And if he does not leave voluntarily? He’ll be deported and barred from re-entering the United States for 10 years. Our kids will be teenagers by then.  

BCIS is not sympathetic. At each of the semiannual, continued deportation hearings we’ve attended throughout our marriage, an INS/BCIS attorney has argued in favor of Osita’s deportation. When we requested another continuance at last month’s hearing, the lawyer actually said, “I don’t see why he should get special treatment.”  

Osita’s “special treatment”: It took four years and two children for INS to grant us an I-130 interview— an event that usually occurs within eight months of a wedding. We were sent to the Special Investigations Unit, a fear-inspiring division of INS reserved for cases in which fraud is presumed. (Osita is Nigerian, remember.) At the interview, we were approved in minutes.  

We then submitted a request to have Osita’s alien file sent to the U.S. Embassy in Lagos, a process that normally takes five months. If the file is waiting there when the judge orders Osita to leave the United States, he might make it back home in weeks. If it isn’t, he’ll be stuck in Nigeria, and our family will lose our income, our insurance and our home.  

It’s been 18 months, and the file has not moved. But the government cashed our check for the processing fee.  

Recently an aid to our congressman, George Miller, kindly made an inquiry on our behalf. BCIS told him our request to have Osita’s file transferred is inside said file, which is being held by the court and is inaccessible to BCIS. But the court is the entity both requiring Osita to leave the United States and asking BCIS to move the file. Catch 22.  

Osita hasn’t seen his mother, his brothers or his sisters in 13 years, since Japan gave him asylum in 1990. His sister died, and he missed the funeral. His brother got married, and he missed the wedding. His mother is now in her mid-70s in a country where the average life expectancy is 50.  

Most of Osita’s adult relatives, all of whom live in Nigeria, have been applying for U.S. visas for decades and have been turned down. The only exception is Osita’s sister-in-law. It took her only two months to get a visa and fly to Missouri to give birth to our nephew, the only one of Osita’s relatives I’ve met. Recently, she was offered a chance at a green card via the U.S. immigrant “diversity” program— again, an avenue all of the other relatives have tried and failed. What makes her special? She was born in Sweden.  

 

Karen Pojmann (pojmannova@aol.com) is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.


Preserving Oakland’s Preservation Park is Essential

J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday July 11, 2003

You folks will forgive me if I have trouble understanding Oakland City Council’s decision to try to sell Preservation Park. Maybe some of those folks with those nice Urban Planning Degrees from UC Berkeley will write me and make it all plain. Right now, it just don’t make sense to me.  

Preservation Park is one of downtown Oakland’s (few) success stories. It’s a bright little 2 1/2 acre enclave on 12th, just southwest of City Center. Twenty years ago, somebody in city government got the idea to make a historic neighborhood out of some run-down 19th century homes—some of them already there, some of them rolled in from other parts on trailers—paint them up like they used to look in the Roaring 20s, and set them aside for non-profits. The only thing “non-profit” about the deal was the organizations who now make their home there. Unlike some of Oakland’s other recent dabblings in downtown real estate (see Oakland, Fox and rink, skating), which have, at times, been a drain on the treasury, Preservation Park brings in something around between $400,000 and $500,000 in profits each year. Profits, children. Not gross rents.  

So why are we making plans to sell it?  

Because, we are told, the city is in desperate need of money to finance Mayor Brown’s uptown development project (brought to you by the folks from Forest City), part of the Mayor’s plan to bring in 10,000 brand new residents to revitalize Oakland’s downtown, a development that will cost the City of Oakland so much money that no one seems to be able to nail down an exact price. Something in the millions.  

On the surface, trading a half a million a year in proven profits for a development idea that may never get either in the ground or off the ground doesn’t sound like a wise investment.  

Actually it’s much worse, because the proposed sale of Preservation Park threatens to break up what really should be the future of Oakland’s downtown development. For that you have to look south of City Center, toward the estuary, rather than north towards uptown.  

Consider the pieces already in place.  

For all its faults, the second most successful piece of dowtown Oakland is Jack London Square. Off the tops of their heads, most people would rank the Square first, but for retail-housing-entertainment mix, that honor should almost certainly go to Chinatown, which booms night and day.  

In between the Jack London Square and Chinatown is one of downtown’s unexploited treasures: the Produce District.  

In recent years there have been all sorts of ideas to develop this area, most of which involve removing the fruit and vegetable vendors, some of which have even (oh, horror!) called for Hong Kong-style high-rise condominiums. Hopefully, the collapse of the dot-coms has collapsed that idea as well, because this is an area that could certainly be put to more creative use. With its open-air warehouse-style architecture, the Produce District potentially has the kind of feel to it that you get in, say, Old Sacramento or Monterey’s Cannery Row or (dare we hope?) the French Quarter. But let’s save that one for another, more imaginative time.  

What cuts off the nighttime Chinatown and Jack London Square crowds from drifting into the lower area of downtown (around Old Oakland and the Convention Center) is, of course, Government Row. That’s the dreary collection of state, county, and city service buildings (the police department, the jail, the coroner’s office, a couple of courthouses, et al.) that huddle around the 880 underpass near 7th Street between Broadway and Washington. Hard to get people to feel comfortable about walking around and spending their money when the only vendors are a couple of guys passing out cards for bail bondsmen.  

Move those services somewhere else, make lower Broadway into a pedestrian mall, and all of downtown opens up like a flood, all the way from the estuary to Jimmie’s Club on 17th and San Pablo Avenue.  

In later years, when we analyze the administration of Mayor Jerry Brown, I think we will understand its greatest mistake was its failure to tackle the Jack London Square/Chinatown/Downtown Connection in its first two years. That’s when money was still good, interest in Oakland was still high, Jerry Brown was still a national star, and he was still on good terms with the governor. Instead, all that political capital got spent on a couple of charter schools. It’s still where the future of downtown lies.  

In this context, as part of the link between Jack London Square/Chinatown and lower downtown, preserving Preservation Park in its present form suddenly takes on more importance. It’s one of the first areas you get to, walking north from the underpass on your way towards downtown. Try to make more money on it— as a private developer almost certainly would —and you might ruin it. Left just as it is though, with its grassy center court and park benches and fountain, or its banquet room or conference center at Nile Hall, the Park is the perfect little complement to an overall lower downtown development plan.  

Somewhere around Preservation Park— if it’s left as it is —we might even find a home for the long-neglected Jack London Museum, once housed at the now-demolished Jack London Village, and now existing only in our memory and in the promises of city officials to revive it “somewhere.” If that “somewhere” ends up being near Preservation Park, then, along with the Pardee Home on 11th and the African-American Museum on 14th near MLK, Oakland has the beginnings of a museum district. Wow! Another way to attract people downtown, making creative use of things already in place!  

Like I said, selling Preservation Park just don’t make no sense to me, especially in the context of downtown development. But then, don’t listen to me. I don’t have one of those degrees. And I don’t work at City Hall.  

 

 

 

 


Police Blotter

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 11, 2003

 

Alleged crack dealer arrested 

A man with 44 individually-wrapped pieces of crack cocaine was arrested late Monday night in south Berkeley, police said. 

Officers from the police department’s Drug Task Force searched 33 year-old Berkeley resident Jerry Banks at 11:05 p.m. on the 1800 block of Fairview Street and found a crack pipe and several empty small bags in his pockets, according to department spokesperson Officer Mary Kusmiss. 

A search of the grass and bushes surrounding him turned up 15 grams of crack cocaine and three bags of marijuana, with a street value of roughly $450, Kusmiss said. 

“Dealers often hide their stashes nearby — they’ll put them in mailboxes, under the hood of a car, in the bushes,” she said. 

Banks was arrested on suspicion of possession for sales of a controlled substance and a felony probation violation, Kusmiss said. 

 

Berkeley Police leary of linking N. Oakland homicide to border feud 

Berkeley police said they are wary about linking a Tuesday morning murder in North Oakland to an apparent border feud between Oakland and Berkeley drug dealers. 

“According to our detectives, there may be some connection, but they’re just not certain,” said Kusmiss. 

Oakland police found Robert Perry, 19, outside his apartment building on the 500 block of 58th Street with multiple gunshot wounds at about 2 a.m. the morning of July 8. He was pronounced dead at Oakland’s Highland Hospital, the city’s 59th homicide victim of the year. 

Oakland police said they had no suspects Wednesday and issued no official motive in the slaying, but sent an advisory to North Oakland neighbors stating that the shooting might be linked to the ongoing feud. 

Community members who knew Perry said he was a “good kid,” according to an account in the Oakland Tribune, and expressed doubt that he would be involved in any kind of drug war. 

The apparent feud has included bursts of gunfire in Oakland and two brazen, daylight shootings in Berkeley on June 17 and June 18. There were no deaths in either shooting. 

Kusmiss said several known drug dealers appear to be involved, but she was still hesitant to say the feud was driven by drugs. 

“There is some type of feud going on — but what the catalyst is, we still don’t know,” she said.


Shaw’s ‘Arms and the Man’ An Absurd Wartime Farce

By BETSY M. HUNTON Special to the Planet
Friday July 11, 2003

The short version of this review is that everyone needs to drop everything and get out to Orinda to see California Shakespeare’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man.” 

It’s hilarious. As a matter of fact, it would be hard for even a truly devoted nit-picker to find any nits to pick in this piece of pure fun. This is one terrific production of a terrific comedy: a marvelous way to spend a summer’s evening.  

And no, it isn’t dated. It’s just funny. 

Shaw, a famously wordy playwright, restrained himself in this, his first play to be seen by the public. (An earlier one had exactly two performances for a private audience). There are no long speeches here, and the message, if any, seems to be that common sense is a big winner over high-falutin’ theatrics. 

This delightful piece of absurdity concerns itself with the actions of a rather bat-brained upper-class family during a romanticized version of a Balkan war. No one is going to get hurt in the war, mind you. They just get a chance to roam around doing dramatic things. As the play opens, Raina (terrifically played by Stacy Ross) is in rapture over the news that her fiancée has heroically led a charge against the Bulgarians, resulting in their flight. It turns out, of course, that the “hero” didn’t lead anything: His horse ran away with him.  

But that comes later. The immediate problem is that one of the Bulgarian soldiers in flight from the Serbs (Rainia’s side, remember?) climbs through the window into her bedroom. He turns out to be Captain Bluntschli, a professional soldier from Switzerland who simply signed on to the first army that happened to come by. He couldn’t care less about the high falutin’ romantic notions that the other characters claim are such a big deal. 

What with one thing and another, Rainia and her somewhat fluffy-headed mother (a skillful Domenique Lozano) decide to hide the refugee, a situation that is destined to cause endless amounts of trouble when her father, a Serbian Major, ( Brian Keith Russell is definitely papa ) shows up. Oh, and then there’s her Serbian fiancée, the hero home from the wars  

( Dan Hiatt struts most delightfully in the role). He wouldn’t be overly happy about the man in her bedroom, either. 

Down in the kitchen, the maid Louka (Delia MacDougall) and Nicola, the servant (Triney Sandoval, who doubles as a Russian Officer) do a great point-counterpoint to the goings on upstairs: They’re engaged but they both have more pressing goals than their marriage. There’s no question that the ambitious Nicola is going to get his own shop sooner or later—he prefers sooner—and Louka has her own ideas about how to improve her station in life. With their knowledge of the goings on upstairs, their futures look bright. 

Anthony Fusco seems to have been born to play the practical, business-like Captain Bluntschli. Despite his romantic appearance in Rainia’s life, this man’s solid contact with reality baffles the house full of drama kings and queens he’s entered so precipitously. But, as is always the case when such opposites contact, they find that he definitely has his uses.  

California Shakespeare brought Lillian Groag up from Los Angeles to direct this play and it would be nice to see a whole lot more of her work. She has done an extraordinary job. The cast, of course, could hardly be bettered and there is a tremendous use of the huge outdoor stage. She has even succeeded in turning the scene changes into one of the great delights of the evening. An hilarious troop of “chocolate soldiers” dance about the stage doing quite wonderful things that make you regret the fact that they don’t get to stay longer.  

Shaw was annoyed— or pretended to be— with the fact that the play was such a smashing success. He insisted that it really wasn’t supposed to be all that funny. But he was still willing to take the money he made and run: He quit his job as a drama critic. Obviously Shaw suffered terribly over the issue.  

If so, the poor man must be twirling in his grave. 


Iranian Twins’ Death Mirrors Nation’s Identity

By WILLIAM O. BEEMAN Pacific News Service
Friday July 11, 2003

The deaths of two beautiful, intelligent young women would be tragic in any part of the world. However, the death of Ladan and Laleh Bijani, the Siamese twins whom doctors attempted to separate on July 8, carries an especially strong symbolic message for Iranians.  

The twins’ operation in Singapore was reported minute-by-minute in Iran, and mourning for their death was universal. The sisters seemed to embody the flowers they were named for— Laleh, the tulip, sweet and retiring; Ladan, the nasturtium, bold and spicy. Media attention made their personalities well known to the many who watched breathlessly through their operation.  

The public attraction in Iran went beyond personality. The sisters were seen as noble for risking their own lives for the chance to be free and independent. The idea of achieving freedom— spiritual and political— runs deep in Iranian life, and is frequently expressed as a “longing,” an almost palpable need.  

But it is not just the notion of risking one’s own life for freedom that is important in Iran. What really captured the Iranian imagination was the idea that one sister might be sacrificing herself for the other.  

The idea of sacrifice is deeply engrained in Iranian life. It is the highest ideal one can express toward another person— the ultimate expression of affection. Letters are signed with the closing, “May I be your sacrifice.” 

The idea that separation of the twins could result in the death of one for the sake of the other was seen as a tribute to the sisters’ nobility and strength of character. Iranians see the greatest sacrifice as that of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammad, who died in Kerbala in 680 A.D. at the hands of the enemies of the Shi’a Muslim community. All personal sacrifices— including the twins’— are ultimately related to the death of Imam Hussein.  

For young people in Iran today, such a sacrifice is being weighed daily as student protests rage against a government that many feel to be restrictive of personal freedom and ambition. Ladan and Laleh’s bravery is an inspiration to those young women and men.  

Then too, the reasons why the sisters sought independence were themselves an inspiration. Laleh wanted to pursue a career as a journalist. Ladan desired a career in law. For obvious reasons the sisters could not easily pursue the same course of study at the same time. Laleh acquiesced to her sister’s desire to study law, putting aside her dream of a degree in journalism and getting a law degree herself.  

What one almost forgets in this modern age is that for young Middle Eastern women in many nations, such careers were not possible a generation ago. Ladan and Laleh’s optimism and faith in themselves and their ability to pursue these careers were stunning. It should put many over-privileged Western young people to shame.  

The two sisters came from Firuzabad, a small town in Southern Iran. Born into a poor family, they were adopted by the family of a physician in Tehran, who raised them to be the exquisite young women they came to be. Despite their modest origins and physical limitations, they managed to have a full life— a fine education, many friends and relative good health. In their lives and achievements they showed that even with an astonishingly restricting handicap, they could achieve personal success. In so doing, they embodied the highest ideals of modern Iranian women.  

Their desire to undergo the dangerous operation flew in the face of the advice of their relatives and other authority figures, including Ayatollah Khomeini, who advised their father in 1976 not to allow the procedure, claiming it was contrary to the will of God. Thus their bravery was an assertion of their own ethical path, their own course. This is not the view that much of the world has of Iranian women, who are frequently portrayed as helpless victims of male hegemony.  

Ironically then, in death, Ladan and Laleh have given inspiration to many: hope to women who dare to pursue their own course in life; courage to those who contemplate self-sacrifice for the good of others; and support for all who have the courage of their own convictions, flying in the face of even the most formidable authority. Their story has quickly attained legendary status. It will not be soon forgotten.  

William O. Beeman is director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. He has conducted research in the Middle East for 30 years, and is author of “Language, Status and Power in Iran,” and the forthcoming book: “Double Demons: Cultural Impediments to U.S.-Iranian Understanding.”


Over the Russian River and Through Armstrong Woods

By KATHLEEN HILL
Friday July 11, 2003

Guerneville, the Russian River, and Armstrong Woods State Reserve in Sonoma County are perfect for a quick redwood forest fix, and less crowded than Muir Woods. 

Once known as “Stumptown,” Guerneville (pronounced “Gurnvil”) and the whole Russian River area west of Highway 101 have passed through several transitions, currently landing in an interesting, slightly cleaned-up state. In fact, a switch from septic to sewer systems was just approved three weeks ago, and one can still actually buy a “no flood” house here for under $400,000.  

Named “Guernewood Park” by George E. Guerne, an early entrepreneur and saw mill owner from Switzerland, Guerneville is the town center for the “Lower Russian River” community. The mill Guerne built with men named Heald (Healdsburg), Bagley, and Willits was where Fife’s Resort and Safeway now are located.  

As is true in much of California, the first recorded residents here were Pomo Indians. Russians settled at Fort Ross in 1812, and the Ridenhour and Korbel families arrived in the 1850s, the latter fleeing Hungary with a price on their heads. Korbel first cut trees in the valley where their vineyards grow today to plant tobacco, using the milled trees to make tobacco and cigar boxes.  

Cinnabar, used to make mercury, was discovered here in the 1870s. Redwood and other logging enlivened the economy, with lumber ferried along the deep Russian River from Guerneville to Duncans Mills on John King’s steamboats, which then carried the lumber down the Pacific Coast to build San Francisco’s Victorian homes. Later two railroads were built from San Rafael through Petaluma to Guerneville to transport the volume of wood. 

Floods and fires have decimated Guerneville over the last 150 years, but getaway railroad excursions from San Francisco and the Bay Area attracted visitors even during the Great Depression.  

After World War II, Guerneville and surrounding resort communities were so popular that the Big Bands such as Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman played on weekends, precursors to the Jazz and Blues Festivals of today. We just missed the Blues Festival, but the upcoming Jazz on the River (September 6-7) festival will feature Al Jareau and La Vay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. (800-253-8800). 

In the 60s the Russian River suffered one of its downturns in popularity and income, both of which seem to ebb and flow like the river’s waters in winter. In the 80s a new generation of Berkeley and San Francisco residents restored the old family cabins and the resorts began to boom again.  

Tiny downtown Guerneville epitomizes its old and new generations, with a genuine red-and-gold-signed 5 and 10 with everything from needles, snaps and thread to kids’ floating mattresses, glue, sparkles, coloring books, crayons, and that old plastic pyrolace we used to braid into bracelets and skate key necklaces. 

Next door to each other are two restaurants whose décor, staff, and cuisines offer the old and the new — take your pick. Pat’s great greasy coffee shop with sloping vinyl booths, counter, wood paneling covered with old lumbering tools, and a real bar next door with local regulars hanging over their third screwdrivers by 11:00 a.m. Check out the old map of Russian River Fishing Holes from Jenner to Mirabel for some local lore.  

Right next door to Pat’s is Sparks with excellent all-organic vegan fare, co-owned by CIA-trained Chef Alex Bury. Originally located at Cotati’s Inn of the Beginning, Sparks’ name derives from Sonoma People for Animal Rights, one of Alex’s favorite organizations. Rainbow Cattle Co. bar doesn’t sell cattle, but is a great meeting place in the robust gay river scene. Fife’s Guest Ranch and Roadhouse Restaurant welcomes gays and straights for some of the best food on the river. Coffee Bazaar and Twice Told Books adjoin on Armstrong Woods Road, and have the best coffee, veggie chili, and Caesar salads in town. 

A favorite retreat 2.5 miles up Armstrong Woods Road from Guerneville is Armstrong Woods State Reserve, founded by Colonel James Boydston Armstrong, journalist, surveyor, lumberman, banker, and developer. In 1978 Armstrong gave 440 acres to his daughter Kate for “one dollar, love and affection,” to be preserved as an old growth redwood grove. Failing to get the state legislature to help his effort, even with Luther Burbank’s help, and intervening family property divisions and partial sale to Harrison M. LeBaron, Armstrong sold the property for $80,000 to the County of Sonoma in 1917, with the LeBaron and Armstrong families kicking in $5,000 each. In 1934 the State of California bought the grove as part of Sonoma Coast State Park to preserve the reserve’s ecological significance.  

There are nine walks, hikes, and rolls of all difficulties from under one mile to 10 miles on pavement to dirt trails. Maps are available in the visitor center. Enjoy 805 acres in Armstrong Reserve and another 5,683 acres in Austin Creek State Recreation Area north and above the Reserve, with camping at Bullfrog Pond ($12 per night) and a children’s treasure hunt. Admission to Armstrong is $4 per car, $3 for seniors, and an annual pass costs $67. 

Nearby Russian River beaches include Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville, complete with a snack shack selling $1.50 burgers, beer, and pink popcorn, to the quieter non-beer Monte Rio. Inner tube, canoe, kayak, and umbrella rentals range from $4 to $20. 

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 from Globe-Pequot Press.


Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley

Friday July 11, 2003

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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


LBNL Plans to Fill Valley for Parking

By ANGELA ROWEN
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Residents are opposing a proposal by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to construct a six-story office building on a sloping one-acre plot of land and pave over a nearby valley to build a parking lot. Many of those neighbors came out on Monday to take a tour guided by LBNL officials as part of the scoping process, a preliminary step required before a draft environmental impact report can be done on a project. 

During the scoping phase, residents can learn more about a proposed project and offer suggestions as to what factors should be examined in the subsequent environmental analysis, which is required by state law. The project involves the construction of an office building on 65,000 square feet of land and filling in part of a valley that includes the Cafeteria Creek to make room for a 120-space parking lot.  

The tour was attended by about 45 people, including residents, city employees, city commissioners, and LBNL employees. But the most outspoken attendees were environmentalists and neighbors of the proposed site who worry that the project will exacerbate traffic congestion and remove valuable open space. 

Because the site of the proposed office building is located on such a steep hill-- the slope is about 90 feet-- workers will have to dig out up to 26,000 cubic yards-- or more than 2000 truckloads-- of soil to level out the land. The preferred plan is to dump that soil into the nearby creek and build a parking lot on top of it. About 300 linear feet of open creek will be buried. 

LBNL is considering alternatives to burying the creek, including an option to ship the soil out to a landfill, either up Grizzly Peak Road or down University Avenue. But Jeff Philliber, LBNL Environmental Planning Group Coordinator, said the parking lot option was the preferred one because it will save money and provide parking in an area that is in dire need of it. 

Under the parking lot option, 39,000 square feet of land will be covered with asphalt. Philliber, who guided Monday’s tour, admitted that the water quality could be affected by the increased petroleum and other contaminants leaking into the water supply. But he said steps could be taken to mitigate that, such as using devices to separate oil and water. Another resident brought up the question of increased storm water runoff due to the loss of permeable surface. “We will have to look into ways to slow the water down,” Philliber said. 

Pamela Shivola, a North Berkeley resident and a creek restoration advocate, said the plan is misguided. “This is beautiful,” she said, looking out into the valley, lush with brush and willow, oak and eucalyptus trees. “They just want to kill everything that’s alive. The word unconscionable comes to mind.”  

Daniella Thompson is a neighbor who lives on LeConte street and a member of the Native Plant society. She said the proposed development is “totally intolerable. To fill this creek up with soil is a total outrage against nature. I can’t believe they’re even proposing it.” 

Dean Metzger, president of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association and a transportation commissioner, said LBNL should come up with a plan that encourages transit use. “I think what the people of Berkeley are concerned with is changing the culture of driving so that we get people out of their cars and using public transit,” he said. “We are never going to change unless institutions like yours takes a step in that direction.”  

Philliber said transit-friendly alternatives were “certainly being considered in our long-range plan” and said the lab has been more aggressive than most institutions in encouraging the use of public transportation, pointing to the LBNL shuttle buses as an example. 

The city council on Tuesday will consider a proposal by Councilmember Dona Spring to officially oppose LBNL’s plan to pave over the creek. It would call on the city manager to send letters to LBNL, the Regional Water Quality Control board and other state agencies to oppose the plan on the grounds that it would “destroy the ecological integrity of the North Branch area of the Strawberry Creek.” It would instruct him to write a letter to LBNL outlining the city’s policy of prohibiting the removal of live oak trees. 

 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday July 08, 2003

TUESDAY, JULY 8 

Bamboo Building, a class on using timber bamboo in construction, proper tool usage and joinery, with Darrel De- 

Boer, at 7 p.m. at the Buil- 

ding Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $35. For information call 525-7610.  

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 

Twilight Tour: Off the Beaten Path, a walk through some of the more unusual and less-known parts of the Garden with horticulturist Judith Finn, at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden 

South Berkeley Mural Project Join neighbors to create a mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

THURSDAY, JULY 10 

The City of Berkeley Young Adult Project Annual Community-Wide Picnic from  

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Grove Playground located at 1730 Oregon Street. All youth are invited to participate. Group Games at 10 a.m., lunch and prize drawing at noon, KMEL Radio Station Dance Contest for 10-14 year-olds and Magic Show at 1 p.m. 981-6670. 

Norman E. Borlaug, Nobel Prize winner and founder of the “Green Revolution,” will speak on “60 Years of Fighting Hun- 

ger,” at 7:30 p.m. in 145 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley. 643-4200. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers meets at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. at 7:30 p.m. For information contact rorlando@uclink4. 

berkeley.edu  

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

FRIDAY, JULY 11 

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

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

SATURDAY, JULY 12 

Women’s Freedom Fair, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in MLK Jr. Civic Center Park. There will be women from many different organizations representing freedom in different ways: freedom from oppressive media body images, financial freedom, freedom from violence, reproductive freedom and more. The event will celebrate, educate and inspire women and girls. There will be food and beverage vendors, activities, music. www.womensfreedomfair.org 

SF Mime Troupe addresses militarism and empire in “Veronique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rose Park. www.sfmt.org 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster Mental Health, for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th Sts. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Educator’s Academy: Rock ‘n’ Roll at Wildcat Creek  

from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Explore a streambed, gather stones and discover their origins. Concepts and activities will match K-5 California Earth Science Content Standards. $45 for Berkeley residents, $51 for non-residents. For information call 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Peach/Stone Fruit Tasting at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Cooking demonstrations with Becky Smith of Frog Hollow Farm. 548-3333.  

Compost Critters What do you get if you put lunchtime leftovers, leaves, and creepy crawlers together? A chance to explore our compost, meet our worms and even take some home! From 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Free. 525-2233.  

Farms in Berkeley? A walk to visit innovative community gardens in North Berkeley and part of the Ohlone Greenway, then up to Codornices Park for lunch. After a look at the Rose Garden we’ll have an easy walk back downhill. From 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Accessible by public transit. Reservations required, call 415-255-3233. http://green 

belt.org/getinvolved/outings/ 

green_reservation 

Summer Gardening with East Bay Native Plants, a class in restoration gardening using plants adapted to our climate. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a local garden with Lyn Talkovsky, an East Bay landscape gardener who specializes in local native plants and Glen Schneider who is writing a Natural History Field Guide to the East Bay. Pre-registration is required, cost is $15 Ecology Center members, $25 general, low-income spots by arrangement. 548-2220 ext. 233. erc@ecologycenter.org  

California Wildflower Show A profusion of native flowers gathered in the field, brought into the museum and sorted, identified and labeled by botanists. Oakland Museum of CA, 1000 Oak St, at 10th St, Oakland. Museum admission is $6, $4 seniors and youth. 238-2200.  

SUNDAY, JULY 13 

Sixth Annual Bay to Barkers Dog Walk and Festival, at the Berkeley Marina, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Benefits the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. Contests, prizes, demonstrations, vendors and other events for canines and humans. Registration for the walk begins at 8:30 a.m., walk begins at 10 a.m. 845-7735.  

SF Mime Troupe addresses militarism and empire in “Veronique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rose Park. www.sfmt.org 

UC Berkeley Walking Tour with architectural historian Sally Woodbridge. Meet at the Campanile at 11 a.m. Cost is $5, registration required, call 642-9828. 

California Wildflower Show See listing for July 12.  

MONDAY, JULY 14 

September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows will show and speak about their video “Civilian Casualties,” which tells the story of civilian deaths in Afghanistan as seen by four Americans who lost family members on September 11. At 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave, Oakland, be- 

tween Grandlake and Lake- 

shore, under 580. Wheelchair accessible. Suggested donation $1. Sponsored by East Bay Communities Against the War, 658-8994. 

What’s Wrong with Geneti- 

cally Engineered Food and Crops Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative Meeting and Potluck. Drinks and utensils supplied. David Henson, director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, will speak on the strange things happening with genetically engineered foods. At 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. Wheelchair accessible. 883-9096.  

Home Owners Support Group meets to learn about window installation and energy conservation at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. graypanthersberk@aol.com 

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

teers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

National HIV Testing Month The City of Berkeley offers free HIV testing, drop in on Satur- 

days from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Wednesdays 6 to 8:30 p.m., during July, at 830 University Ave. at 6th St. For other days and times call the HIV Testing Information Line at 981-5380.  

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 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. Pick up applications at the Camps Office, 2016 Center St. 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 Camps Office at 2016 Center St., or call 981-5150. 

Free Quit Smoking Class on six Monday evenings, from 6 to 8 p.m., starting July 14th, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. To register or for more information contact the Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Program, 981-5330 or QuitNow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Bay Area Technology Education Collaborative, a community non-profit offers low-cost training in Computer Information Technology. Free orientation on July 9, classes start July 14. For information call 451-7300, ext. 604. www.baytec.org 

Summer Science Weeks: Mammals and Birds Pick apart an owl pellet, prepare a mammal baby announcement, and discover your home range. For ages 9 to 12 years. Monday, July 14 – Friday, July 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $150 for Berkeley residents, $166 for non-residents. Financial assistance is available. Registration required. For information call 636-1684.  

Free Energy Conservation Retrofits for Berkeley Residents CA Youth Energy Services is a nonprofit sponsored by the City of Berkeley that trains and employs high school students to provide conservation retrofits. Work includes weatherstripping, replacing lightbulbs with CFLs, cleaning refrigerator coils, replacing faucet aerators and showerheads with low-flow devices, installing earthquake preparedness measures, and a comprehensive audit. Available to home owners and renters. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 10 - 12 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland.Take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of paint, stain, varnish, thinner and adhesives; auto products such as old fuel, motor oil, oil filters and batteries; household batteries, cleaners and sprays; garden products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Please do NOT bring asbestos, medical waste, most compressed gasses, computer monitors, CRTs and TVs, computers & electronic equipment. Call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/ 

fsrecycle. For information on what to do with other items, call 800-606-6606, or visit http://householdhazwaste.org/oakland 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tuesday, July 8, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Disability meets Wednesday, July 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wednesday, July 9, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission meets Wednesday, July 9, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/planning 

Waterfront Commission meets Wednesday, July 9, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/waterfront 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation  

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Community Health Commission meets Thursday, July 10 at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/health 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thursday, July 10, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5410. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, July 10, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/zoning 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Monday, July 14, 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks


Four Myths About Berkeley

Becky O'Malley
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Discussions about the future of Berkeley are often built around cherished myths, fiercely debated without recourse to fact.  

Let’s look at a few: 

1) Berkeley is a city. In fact, much of Berkeley was designed as suburbs of various kinds. Southeast Berkeley, thousand Oaks and most of the Berkeley Hills were streetcar suburbs, where the streetcars went in first and subdivisions followed. Developers of subdivisions along the streetcar routes made big profits in this era, a pattern which BART development repeated in the seventies. Original residents of these subdivisions commuted first by ferry and then by Key System train to jobs in San Francisco, or rode the streetcar to work at the University of California. In the flats, once home to blue-collar workers, the streets were designed in the urban grid pattern common to American towns at the turn of the century. In the seventies the installation of barriers transformed the flatlands’ urban grid into the prevalent suburban pattern of quiet cul-de-sacs served by fast through streets which move autos around quickly. Berkeley never had much of a downtown shopping district, though it did boast one big department store, Hink’s, and a couple of dime stores in its heyday. At best, Berkeley has been a company town, with one big employer, the University of California, and many interesting quirky small businesses. 

2) If you build dense housing, mass transit will follow. Someone ought to tell that to AC Transit, which is busy reducing routes and raising fares in order to save money, just as big dense projects are being built on bus lines. To be fair, they don’t have much choice, given the lack of commitment on the state and federal level to supporting mass transit with funding. By targeting available income to a few designated rapid transit routes like San Pablo, the transit agency is enabling the old money-making strategy which made fortunes for land-owners in the past: promote new transit routes, buy up property on them and make a killing on development. However, if this development comes at the expense of taking transit away from already built-up areas, and if residents perversely choose to continue to use automobiles anyway, only builders benefit in the long run. Building first and hoping transit will follow, on the other hand, is akin to the cargo cults which supposedly flourished on remote Pacific islands in the past. 

3) Apartment buildings on big streets will turn Berkeley into Paris. Oh sure. Here are a few things Berkeley does not have: Baron Haussman, the 19th century equivalent of Robert Moses, who leveled much of the city and rebuilt it according to his grand plan. Right or wrong, that strategy just wouldn’t play in Berkeley. Also: family-sized apartments. Both the central city of Paris and its suburban ring have large apartments with at least three bedrooms and generous living rooms. The older city apartments are still not very expensive by the standards of New York or San Francisco. (Berkeley residents have been known to buy Paris apartments as second homes.) Even Belleville, Paris’s gritty working class suburbs, has low-rise apartment buildings surrounded by open space with play areas attached. Berkeley built a few nice low-income family developments of this kind in the seventies and eighties, but our new buildings are mostly luxury dorms for well-off students, with a few token less expensive units for elderly or disabled singles or couples. Unlike Paris, we have no big parks or playgrounds downtown for prospective residents to use. 

Berkeley also lacks Paris’s Culture with a capital C. The University of California does offer the institutional fare common to college towns like Bloomington and Lubbock, mostly traveling attractions and student productions. We have a few small university-run museums, none even as grand as Ann Arbor’s, but no city art museum. We provide no large public concert-hall for well-regarded local groups like the Berkeley Symphony, which must pay exhorbitant rates to use UC’s Zellerbach Auditorium. We don’t even have a commercial repertory film house any more. As a suburb, we do have access to San Francisco, but BART stops at midnight. Berkeley restaurants stop serving at ten, because many residents of this bedroom community complain if they stay open later. 

4) Berkeley needs more jobs. Unless we can precisely specify what kind of jobs, more jobs only make things worse. Minimum wage retail chains like Eddie Bauer and Blockbuster Video produce some sales tax revenue, but their employees must commute to work, burdening public services enough to wash out the revenue advantage. The University of California  

increasingly relies on under-paid lecturers and graduate students to teach its growing student body, and these employees can’t afford to live in Berkeley either. It’s a chicken-and-egg proposition. If we build predominantly small market-price apartments, and if prices of single-family houses continue to escalate, and if rent-controlled units increasingly house only current residents because of vacancy de-control, we can’t absorb more workers. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Planet.  

 

 

 


Arts Calendar

Tuesday July 08, 2003

TUESDAY, JULY 8 

FILM 

Sarunas Bartas: “Corridor” 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 

Terry and Stevie Halbert  

discuss their new book “Expedition America: A National Park Odyssey,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

www.easygoing.com 

Ksenija Soster Olmer, Sande Smith and Inez Hollander Lake, authors of “A Cup of Comfort for Mothers and Daughters” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861.  

Berkeley Summer Poetry with Danielle Willis at 7 p.m. at Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. lucifersmuse@hotmail.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Grupa Maistori performs traditional Bulgarian village music at 9 p.m., with a dance lesson with Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi at 7:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

All Strings Considered, hammer dulcimer virtuosos Jamie Janover and Michael Masley with bassists Michael Manring and Jim Prescott, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 

FILM 

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

Labor Fest 10th Anniversary Celebration, “From Piers to Plantations, a Union in Hawaii” by Ian Ruskin. The story of Harry Bridges in Hawaii. Japanese labor songs by Tanbaka Tetsuro. At 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org For more information about the film call 415-642-8066. www.labornet.net 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Heidi Julavits talks about her novel, “The Effect of Living Backwards,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jim Paul reads from his new novel, “Elsewhere in the Land of Parrots,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Café Poetry and open mic hosted by Kira Allen at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation requested. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chris and Cassie Webster with Scott Nygaard, sister harmony with guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in ad 

vance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Tangria Jazz Group presents a free evening of jazz and literature at 7 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.org 

Astash and Shabaz present an evening of qwaali-sufi-world music, at 9 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. 

THURSDAY, JULY 10 

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana” at 7:30 p.m. and “Drifting Clouds” at 8:50 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. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

Melanie Bellah reflects on the death of a child in “Abby and Her Sisters: A Memoir,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Vanishing Tribes of Burma/Myanmar slide show and talk with Philip Hassrick,  

co-founder of Lost Frontiers, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

Merle Updike Davis reads from her memoir and history of social work, “Ties Across Time,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Lesbians Across the Country Project, slide presentation and talk with the photographer Angela Dawn, at 7 p.m. at Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 559-9184. 

Female Rebels and Mavericks Slideshowand talk by Max Dashu of the Suppressed Histories Archives, at 7:30 p.m. at Change Makers Bookstore, 6536 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. Cost is $12-15. Wheelchair accessible. For information call 655-2405. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Charles Wheal Band, a mix of Chicago, Texas and West Coast blues, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

Bandworks Student Recital at 7:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chus Alonzo’s Potingue En- 

semble, contemporary Flamenco and Latin Music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Trailer Park Troubadours, folkabilly originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Leslie Helpert and Reorchestra perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni el Lebrijano Flamenco Guitar at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

FRIDAY, JULY 11 

CHILDREN 

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

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “Drifting Clouds” at 7:30 p.m. and “Ariel” at 9:25 p.m. at 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 

Jane Gotesman introduces her new book of photographs, “Gameface: What does a Fe- 

male Athlete Look Like?” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Rafael Manriquez in a new CD release concert at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Rose Street House of Music fund-raiser concert for Irina Rivkin’s debut full-length CD, plus Rebecca Crump and special guests, at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, a grassroots musical community featuring women singer-songwriters, 1839 Rose St. Sliding scale donations, no one turned away for lack of funds. 594-4000 ext. 687. 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit and Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers perform East Coast swing and lindy hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Crater and Japonize Elephants perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Blame Sally, singer/songwriter group 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 

Geoffrey Keezer, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kim Nalley at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Shotwell, Grabass Charlestons, Billy Reese Peters, Tiltwheel 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. 

V Soul performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

SATURDAY, JULY 12 

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki: “I Hired a Contract Killer” at 5:20 and 9 p.m. and “La Vie de Bohème” 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 

Michele Anna Jordan introduces her new book, “The BLT Cookbook: America’s Favorite Sandwich,” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alex de Grassi, guitar virtuoso, celebrates the release of his new CD, “Now and Then: Folk Songs for the 21st Century,” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Tickets are $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Fito Reynoso’s Ritmo y Armonía perform Afro-Cuban favorites at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Donald “Duck” Baily and the “Duck” Quactet perform improvisational jazz at 2 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

The Lafleur et Basile Band and the Creole Belles perform traditional and original French Cajun music at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pocket, 7th Direction and Spindrift perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Vince Lateano at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Subincision, Link, The Effection, The Mona Reels, The Librarians perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5, $1 if wearing prom clothes! 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 13 

FILM 

“Nasty Girl,” followed by Morley Safer’s taped interview with Anne Rosmus, the film’s Nasty Girl, who struggled to reveal the truth about the Third Reich in her Bavarian hometown, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. In German with English subtitles. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

Aki Kaurismäki: “The Match Factory Girl” at 5:30 p.m. and “Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana” 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 

Guided Tour: “Paul Kos: Everything Matters” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

MATRIX/Anna Von Mertens, artist’s talk and reception at 3 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Vicki Noble discusses her study of the double goddess, a Neolithic and Stone Age icon, “The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Zine Reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. All events are free. Vegan dinner available for $3-$5. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Poetry Flash at Cody’s with Ruth Daigon and Andrena Zawinski at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz at Coventry Grove with pianist Benny Green, a musical afternoon at a private residence in Kensington. Tax-deductible donation of $125 benefits the Jazzschool. For more information, or to register, call 845-5373.  

Carol Elizabeth Jones and Laurel Bliss, old-time folk and bluegrass duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight- 

andsalvage.org 

Dave Ellis Quintet performs at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JULY 14 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ivan Richard considers his early life in a Buddhist monastery in “Silence and Noise,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Gregory Mone reads from his new novel, “The Wages of Genius,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Gender Studies Book Group discusses “Don’t Bet on the Prince,” by Jack Zipes, at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Poetry Express, featuring Shailja Patel, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

AT THE THEATER 

Aurora Theater Company, “Thérèse Raquin,” by Emile Zola, directed by Tom Ross. A sinister tale set among the lo- 

wer classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Runs through July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.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 27, Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 5 p.m. No performance July 4 or 24. At the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations call 558-1381. 

foolsFury, “Attempts on her Life,” by Martin Crimp, directed by Ben Yalom, July 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. at LaVal’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid at Hearst. Tickets are $20 general, $15 students, seniors. 1-866- 

GOT-FURY. www.foolsfury.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

ACCI Gallery, “Barococo” ceramics by Tony Natsoulas. Exhibition runs until July 14. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave.  

843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Addison Street Windows, “Windows” An all-media exhibit by San Francisco Women Artists, July 10 through August 11. 2018 Addison St. 658-0585. For information on the artists call 524-8538.  

Albany Community Center Arts Foyer Gallery, “Many Faces of the Middle East” Photographs by Ed Kinney, through July 11. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. 524-9283. 

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

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

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

848-0181.  

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part I The Kala Fellowships are awarded annually to eight innovative arts working in printmaking, book arts, video and digital media. Part I features the work of May Chan, Taro Hattori, Amanda Knowles and Andrew Mamo. Runs until July 31. Call for gallery hours.1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

A New Leaf Gallery, “Four Elements of Sculpture: Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” Exhibition runs to August 31. 1286 Gilman St. Call for gallery hours. 527-7621.  

www.sculpturesite.com 

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

www.photolaboratory.com  

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

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


Disabled Kids Thrive in Sports Program

By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

If laughter heals all wounds then children's laughter is the most magical of elixirs. Watching a few dozen boys and girls laughing, shouting, flirting and chasing each other around on a basketball court can cure whatever ails you. Such laughter can heal children as well. For the last 20 years or so, Berkeley-based BORP (Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program) has been providing a hefty dose of Saturday feel-good medicine for hundreds of Bay Area children with physical disabilities. 

“It's kind of a chance to be like everybody around you,” said Sarah Marks, a Contra Costa teenager. “Some people have trouble fitting in with their disabilities. Not really for me, really. I have a lot of friends in this program.” 

Marks' favorite sports included wheelchair basketball and track, including the 1500-meter singles race where she holds the national track record.  

“We've been coming for at least five years,” said Sarah's mother, Laura Marks. “She really wanted to play sports. We started coming to play wheelchair basketball and then they got her in a track chair.” 

Every Saturday children come from all over the greater Bay Area, from as far away as Santa Cruz and Sacramento, to Berkeley's James Kenney Recreation Center to compete on a level playing field. 

“We're really the only program that does all the stuff we do in the whole Bay Area,” said Tim Orr, BORP's Youth Program Coordinator. “There is a program similar to ours in San Jose, but they don't serve teenagers.” 

Orr started working with BORP as a fundraiser and administrative specialist. 

“My roommate, a guy in an electric wheelchair, asked me to get involved in 1984,” he said. “I met some parents and some kids who were involved in Special Olympics. They really didn't like it because they thought they were getting treated as if they had mental disabilities. A little too special.” 

Founded in 1976, BORP served the unmet activity and social needs of folks with disabilities, mainly adults. In 1986 Orr secured grants which allowed BORP to start serving the physical activity needs of disabled children as well. Today BORP's revenues come from a wide variety of sources, predominantly foundation grants, corporate donations, individual donations and fundraisers but not government entitlement programs. 

Orr believes the biggest struggle BORP has yet to overcome is outreach. On average 50 to 60 children attend each Saturday session, but Orr believes the number of Bay Area children eligible to benefit from BORP's weekend program may run as high as 5,000 

“The reason there are so few wheelchair sports programs in the whole country [is because] outreach is very hard to do,” Orr said. “It's hard to get people, and their parents, to commit to coming out on a regular basis. And a lot of them need help with transportation and stuff to be able to do it. There are so many kids with Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Bifida. A lot of kids are amputees, like our big guy Marcus. He walks all the time but he has a disability that doesn't allow him to run or jump so he can't play against able-bodied high school sports.” 

Lamile Perry, 20, lives in Berkeley and studies at Laney Community College. 

“I was the national track champion last year,” Perry said with pride. “My specialty is in track. I'm a sprinter. I also play a little bit of basketball. I've been involved in BORP since I was about five or six. Right here in my hometown. I only live about 15 minutes away from here actually. Last year we had a guy that came all the way from Oregon. We get people from all over." 

Perry was born with Cerebral Palsy. Although he has had numerous operations, he said the surgeries have actually increased his mobility problems. 

“I don't even look at myself as being disabled. If I can do whatever an able bodied person can do, this chair don't stop me. I think [BORP] really helps people in wheelchairs because it gives them a chance to do sports. At all the schools it seems as though you've got to be able-bodied to play sports but here everybody is the same. You get a chance to do what everybody else is doing. You get to play sports. You get to travel. We get to live life like every other athlete is doing. If they get to play sports and travel, why can't we?” 

“It's a great program because you get to know other people and you get to know what they go through,” said Antonia Gutierrez, 15, of Oakland. “It’s fun ‘cause you get to meet people that have your problems. They understand what you're going through and they don't make fun of you. You know?” 

Hugo Lopez is the parent of Jason Lopez, a 15 year-old Junior at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. When Jason was three he suffered a spinal cord injury. 

“We got him in here when he was about 6. He loves it and I think it's fabulous,” said the senior Lopez. “It's the only time he gets to interact with his peers, people in wheelchairs, and it's good exercise for him. He plays basketball and he's in track and field. It's really the only physical activity he gets during the week. He goes to school but it's just a lot of class work. They don't let him really participate with the school [physical exercise] programs.” 

Lopez's enthusiasm is echoed by fellow parent Laura Marks, who also teaches in the public school system. 

“This is a group that's accepting of everybody which I don't see as much in our public schools,” Marks said. “This is such a great education for Sarah, not only for the sports, but [for the] kids with different abilities, backgrounds, different places where they live, different family situations. The diversity here is nowhere else. We struggle with the kids and have disappointments because they have struggles. It feels good to see them succeed here and it carries over into other areas of their lives. [One of the]moms said to me, ‘You know I can't tell you how wonderful this has been. His grades are better. His attitude is better. And it's all because he's coming to play wheelchair basketball on Saturday.’” 

 

Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program BORP  

830 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 

Phone (510) 849-4663  

http://www.borp.org/ 

 

 


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday July 08, 2003

INFILL PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding LBNL’s plans to fill part of a seasonal tributary to the North Fork of Strawberry Creek in order to assist in disposing of construction dirt by building a parking lot, I am very skeptical as to whether all options have been duly studied. Please consider me opposed to this plan, and willing to fight against it, until you have shown that there is no way to avoid destroying yet another of our tiny, remaining natural areas.  

I expect that our local politicians will assist in opposing this plan, when they realize the strength of community opposition. 

Judy Forrest 

 

• 

REPRESENTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Taxpayers in Berkeley, Emeryville, North Oakland, and Piedmont should be interested that they have a representative on the Alameda County Board of Education. Probably not one person out of 1000 knows what this body is. It has a budget of over $30 million.  

Jacki Fox Ruby was elected to represent the citizens in that area. She defeated the incumbent, Jerome Wiggins, who had served with distinction on the board for many years trying to allocate more money to students at risk. Ruby was supported by an infusion of $17,000 to her campaign by the county superintendent of schools, Sheila Jordan. After taking office, Ruby voted Jordan a 66% raise.  

You can contact Ruby at the county office of education, 313 W. Winton Ave., Hayward, 94544 or by email at rubyfox@lmi.net. 

Ernest A. Avellar 

Hayward 

 

• 

CORPORATION YARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am responding to Angela Rowen’s article in the June 27 issue titled “Neighbors protest at the Corporation Yard Site.” 

I appreciate your coverage of how, in our eyes, the City of Berkeley that has treated this neighborhood irresponsibly. 

Horse and buggies visiting the Corporation Yard (established in 1916) have given way to diesel trucks and the latter include 18 wheel tractor/trailers. You note that I have personally witnessed (though some time ago, not “last week”) one such 18 wheel truck back into my neighbors’ parked car (right in front of my living room window) as it made multi-point turns (all the while blocking traffic) in attempting to negotiate the too narrow Corporation Yard entrance (the neighbors were arbitrarily denied damage compensation for their car). However, to set the record straight, in the interview I stated that it was a flatbed truck and mused apocalyptically “What if the flatbed truck had been an 18 wheel gasoline tanker with an explosive/flammable load (such trucks regularly visit the Corporation Yard to service the gas station which was installed without a permit a few years ago)?”  

In sum, this neighborhood continues to be seriously jeopardized by such activity. Further,the city has fostered the development of recreational facilities and parks on all adjacent sides of the Yard (Strawberry Creek Park, Charlie Dorr Tot Park, Berkeley Lawn Bowling, and BYA organic gardens). We love the park space, but not the fact that our children (ages 2 and 4, with another on the way) are exercising strenuously in the midst of diesel fumes and dust pollution. In addition, there are no stop signs or crosswalks for us to access Strawberry Creek Park from Bancroft Way -- we are forced to wait or stop traffic ourselves in order to cross the street. 

Instead of wasting money on temporary modular buildings, the operations from the Ratcliff building should be permanently transferred to other sites, with the remaining Corporation Yard operations transferred over time as funds become available. Everyone on the Zoning Adjustment Board, it seemed to me, agreed that the Corporation Yard should be moved out of the neighborhood.  

Give us a central Berkeley park instead of heavy industry! 

Muni Schweig 

 

• 

LOS ALAMOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Bay area U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, maintains that UC is a competent manager for the Los Alamos weapons lab. In introducing her July 1 to a University audience, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl said that she recognized that the university plays a role in maintaining national security. Tauscher then went on to say that it was the President who “cooked the books,” and not the University. Unless the bid proposal has already been written off, this is calculated the wrong way.  

UC Interim Vice President Bruce Darling said that it was important to remember that UC Berkeley combined science and technology to help develop the atomic bomb during World War II. I would remind the “audience” that 400 scientists at the Los Alamos government laboratory warned in a statement signed October 13, 1945 --two months after Hiroshima and Nagasaki-- that to keep the secrets of nuclear fission would lead to “unending war more savage than the last.”  

Sincerely, 

Richard Thompson,  

Cal alumnus  

 

• 

LETHAL PATRIOTISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When municipal budgets are going up in smoke, why do cities still sponsor fireworks that scare pets and pollute the air? It’s time to put the remnants of lethal patriotism into the dust bin.  

Bob Gable 

 

• 

TIMID GOVERNOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you, Robert Scheer (”Recall Bush, not Davis”), for reminding Californians that the cause of our state’s financial problems came from the Bush Administration’s release of energy manipulators, like Enron, who had their way with California’s energy markets. It was the energy crisis that precipitated the economic downturn, which reduced tax revenues, that landed us in a Very Deep Debt. Perhaps this recap of recent history will wake up some of the anti-Davis Republicans who slept through the energy crisis the first time.  

Perhaps it will also awaken Gray Davis, albeit too late, to the deregulation problem as well. It was Davis who kept his well-coifed head down and quiet while Attorney General Bill Lockyer challenged the energy company manipulations at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The full weight and force of California’s government, and its political establishment, might have pressured them into doing the right thing. And it is just that kind of Davis timidity, bordering on Republicanism, that has angered Democratic voters enough to want to replace this Governor with a real Democrat.  

Bruce Joffe  

Piedmont 

 

• 

URBAN LEGACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A July 1 letter estimated that during the 1990s, Berkeley was “building housing at not much more than one-fifth of the rate of the 1960s.” A good thing, too -- given the awful architectural legacy that the 1960s left Berkeley. 

That legacy includes UC’s monstrous “unit” high-rise dorms in Southside, and ugly, cheaply built “tilt-up” apartment buildings all over town. Meanwhile, neighboring cities like El Cerrito, Albany and Richmond built little but single-family housing. And they’ve continued in that pattern of inefficient, low-density land use to this day. 

Berkeley residents learned from what UC and developers did to us in the 1960s. We’re gradually building a more livable city, now that neighborhood groups and City officials demand that new structures fit in with their surroundings -- and demand that adjacent cities provide their fair share of needed housing. 

Tom Brown 

 

• 

ENCOURAGING WORDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just want to pass along a positive word -- I like the paper. The first thing I look for is the Outdoors article or a gardening related story. I also work on the crossword for speed. Preferrably while sitting outside. Of course the paper’s mix of articles is to be commended. A good blend of progressive news and happenings that matter. 

More later. Keep it up.  

Alan Tong 

 

• 

TAXI SCRIP SERVICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley City Council watchers note the diminishing regard for the weal of Berkeley seniors, attributable not just to budget-cutting. The latest is taxi scrip abuse. 

It has been Berkeley Paratransit Services (based, for some reason in the Housing Department) practice to periodically mail (no over the counter service) forms containing latest pricing information and application, to be returned by mail with payment. The senior citizen can then only wait and watch for the mail carrier. Clearly, this exchange process requires an allocation of at least a month and staff supervision. 

The current scrip period began July 1. Recipients needed confidence in receipt by mid-June. It is difficult to schedule appointments with specialized health services; it is costly to have to cancel them. Phone calls are counterproductive; the senior citizen who reports phoning at about 2:30 p.m. on a Monday is told by taped response that “We only answer the phone on Mondays between 1 and 4 PM.” 

It would be different if taxi scrip were a mere nicety in our lives. Many Berkeley seniors, like myself (low-income, without family,) depend on taxi scrip for transportation to and from health-related services. Most low-income seniors are women. 

I am aware of Council Districts 2 and 4 seniors who became alarmed by mid-June and contacted their Councilmembers. Some desperately mailed in checks without current application forms and information. I also alerted the Commission on Aging, Senior Services, and the Housing Department. My June 26 attempt to reach the city manager and mayor presumably resulted in a phone message the following afternoon from a Housing Department peacemaker who compounded a bad situation with the news that the taxi scrip person wasn’t there that day, acknowledged that they could “do better,” and misinformed me by declaring that in the meantime “East Bay Paratransit [a service for disabled persons, requiring advance scheduling and processing into their computer] is also available.” He concluded with the useless bureaucratic “If you have any questions” blah blah. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

 

• 

A HEALTHY SIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is a healthy sign for the Berkeley community that you are back in circulation. Your coverage of Berkeley issues is more thorough and more fair-minded than any other Bay Area publications that take an erratic swipe at reporting on Berkeley.  

As examples among many other, your recent articles on residential development and the tenure protest of UC professor Iganacio Chapela are not likely to be matched elsewhere in the Bay Area press. The Theodore Roszak column on Bush’s blind faith is a gem, and your editorial on the recall of Davis, “It Could Get Worse,” is a reminder that intemperate political anger often worsens rather than improves government.  

On cultural matters, you carried the only review I have seen of the recent outstanding production of Euiripedes’ “The Bacchae” in John Hinckel Park. 

It would be great if you could resume daily publication! 

Norman K. Gottwald 

 


Southside Plan Deal in Works

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 08, 2003

After five years of debate and dozens of public meetings, UC Berkeley and the city planning staff have come to a tentative agreement on the future of the area just south of the university campus, according to a Planning Department memorandum. 

The Southside Plan, which goes to the Planning Commission for a vote Wednesday night, would clear the way for new office and housing development amid the restaurants and record shops of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, while restricting growth in the residential areas to the south. 

The university, as a state entity, is not required to follow the plan but has pledged to use it as a guide. 

If approved by the Planning Commission Wednesday, the new plan will undergo a lengthy environmental review and probably won’t make it to City Council for final ratification for at least a year, according to Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington raised concerns about the university’s successful push for a series of new concessions that allow a mix of housing and office space on three university properties along Channing Way instead of requiring housing alone. 

“The university has fought every step of the way to try to undermine the construction of housing,” said Worthington. “It’s absurd.” 

Students need more options in an expensive housing market, Worthington said, and placing students near campus promotes travel by foot and by bicycle, limiting the number of cars that flood the area. 

But Tom Lollini, UC Berkeley’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Physical and Environmental Planning, said the university has sunk almost $250 million into Southside housing in recent years.  

The marquee project, four new residence halls between College Avenue and Bowditch Street, known collectively as Unit 1 and Unit 2, will provide 890 new beds when they open in 2005 at a cost of roughly $123 million, according to the university. 

Lollini promised more housing in the near future, but said the university does have other needs. UC Berkeley is considering a number of new research and staff support facilities along Bancroft Way, he said.  

The recent amendments to the Southside Plan, which also include increased building heights in commercial areas, have their roots in a controversial push by new Planning Commissioner David Stoloff to bring the university’s concerns with the plan front and center. 

Mayor Tom Bates, elected in the fall, appointed Stoloff, a former UC Berkeley planning official, in an attempt to repair what he called a poor relationship between the university and the commission. 

Stoloff then called for a special meeting with university officials in February, allowing them to voice their concerns. Several commissioners, who had already passed a draft of the Southside Plan in June 2002 considered the move an affront. Nonetheless, the meeting went forward and Lollini followed up with a March 20 letter to the city outlining the university’s proposed amendments. 

Wrenn, who heads a sub-committee on the Southside Plan, expressed disdain for the university’s methods, but said he was generally satisfied with the outcome. 

“If at first you don’t succeed, just come back again and take another shot—take advantage of some new commissioners,” he said, describing the university’s tactics. “But I don’t care, as long as we get a good plan.” 

Lollini said the university felt left out of the process in recent months and praised Bates and Stoloff for moving the document forward. 

“I think the change in leadership in the city has been very helpful on this,” he said. “An opening was created in this conversation and it served all of us well.” 

Bates said he was pleased with the outcome. 

“We’re very happy that we’ve reached an agreement that seems to resolve the problems that have been festering for a long time,” said Bates. “I think this bodes well for working with the university in a positive way.” 

John English, a Hillegass Avenue resident who has followed the process closely, said the city wound up with a solid plan after years and years of endless debate. 

“I think it basically is going in the right direction,” he said. “ [But] I’m almost bored with the subject, I’ve been with it for so long.” 


Oxford Street Housing Project Will Not Satisfy Family Needs

By SUE FISCHER
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Although I had heard some rumors about a building going up on the Oxford Street Parking Lot in downtown Berkeley, it was not until I read the article by Rob Wrenn that I knew what was being planned. Mr. Wrenn wrote: “Resources for Community Development (RCD) together with Equity Community Builders, has been selected as the developer for the City of Berkeley’s Oxford Street surface parking lot. The planned mixed-use project will include approximately 90 apartments, a majority of them below-market units. The plan includes 28 three-bedroom units and one four-bedroom. If built as planned this would be the largest amount of affordable family-oriented housing built in Berkeley for many years.” 

With 29 out of 90 apartments being 3 or 4 bedrooms, this means that the majority of the units (68%) will be smaller (studio, 1 & 2 bedrooms) and probably not for families. The building being planned for Oxford Street, no matter how nice, will not be in a location that will naturally attract families. The proposed building will be in the center of downtown Berkeley, across the street from the UC Campus and surrounded by restaurants, retail, movie theaters, and other apartments. Low-income families might find the neighborhood of this building to be a stressful place, with heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic and the majority of nearby services dependent on “disposable income” which they don’t possess. Building more affordable housing close to public transportation is a laudable goal. However, families with two or more children often find that having a car is more cost-effective than public transportation, and if they can’t afford a car (even one that doesn’t run well), they don’t usually venture far from their homes.  

As a parent, I know that most parents want to live in a neighborhood where other families live, where traffic is minimal, and where there are places nearby for children to play. Venturing outside the proposed building with young children will mean being confronted daily with their questions about “why can’t we eat here?” and “will you buy me that?” This puts additional burdens on the low-income parent. Although Berkeley High School is nearby and the main library is two blocks away, there is no playground, ball field or park within easy walking distance. Kids could cross Oxford Street and play on the UC campus, although it is not really a park. Washington School is about four blocks away but requires crossing both busy Shattuck Avenue and MLK Jr. Way, and a low-income family might be tempted to use the dismal and unsafe playground at Civic Center Park.  

Perhaps the building’s plans include a courtyard with swings or a climbing structure, but the liability issues for the developers and/or building owners might prevent this. My guess is that young single adults will be the majority of tenants in this new building, and UC students wanting a shared housing arrangement will probably be those most interested in the larger units. If the City of Berkeley and its non-profit developers want to build more housing for low-income families, they need to think about the location of such a development and how that location can enhance the quality of life for those families. UC Berkeley has been offering affordable housing for students with children for many years, and those housing complexes include open space, parking and traffic controls, and play areas for children. The construction of a high-rise housing development for low-income families in the city center sounds vaguely like the disastrous urban development projects in Chicago and Detroit that were built in the 1960’s. I hope that our city planners and local government officials will carefully think through the long-term effects of such a project before proceeding with it.  

Sue Fischer is a Berkeley resident.


Exit Exam Protest Set for Capitol

By ANGELA ROWEN
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Hundreds of students, teachers, parents and education advocates will converge on Sacramento on Wednesday to pressure the state board of education to hold off on administering the high school exit exam, which they say unfairly punishes students who do not have access to quality education. 

The exit exam requirement was established as part of Gov. Gray Davis’s education reform package. It requires that high school graduates—beginning with the class of 2004— pass the exam in order to receive a diploma. But many of the 172,000 students who have been given multiple chances to pass the exam since 2001 have still not passed. Students from minority and low-income communities have traditionally been less likely to pass the exam than other groups. 

In response to concerns about the level of student preparedness, Jack O’Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction, wrote a letter last month urging the board to vote for a two-year delay of the test. The board is expected to approve the delay, but critics say the board should vote to hold off on the adminstration of the test indefinitely until quality education is assured for all of the state’s students. Activists with the Campaign for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of education and civil rights groups calling for education reform, will participate in rallies, testify before the board, and meet with state legislators to make their case. 

“What we really want is for the state to delay the exit exam until they can ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn,” said Mike Chaves, spokesperson with Californians for Justice, a community-based group that advocates for low-income and minority students. “The first focus should be on addressing those schools that are providing a substandard education and fixing the real problems in schools and to make sure that students have a fair opportunity to learn.” 

The rally, which will include a speech by Assemblymember Loni Hancock, will begin at 10 a.m. in front of the State Education Building on the corner of 15th and N streets in Sacramento. The board is expected to discuss the exit exam issue at around 10:30 a.m.


Democrats Have No Easy Answers in Election

By MATTHEW HALLINAN and SANDRA CHELNOV
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Your June 27 editorial “It Could Get Worse” closes by urging the newly formed Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club to take “as part of its mission finding better Democrats for California races, so that we won’t be stuck with embarrassments like (Governor) Davis in the future.” We certainly intend to do our best to meet such a challenge. But you, like us, know this will be no easy matter. The challenge in getting better politicians into office lies in organizing and mobilizing a majority that will elect them. This might be relatively easy in Alameda County, but we’re not doing as well at the statewide level, or in most of the country. Indeed, we are witnessing a rightward shift that is fueled by an administration that is masterful at manipulating people’s fears and obfuscating the issues. 

On the one hand, we are faced with the most dangerous and destructive right-wing government in our country’s history. Every day it extends and consolidates its hold over our national life. It has immense resources, a carefully thought-out strategy, and the misplaced trust of a frightened public. On the other hand, we have a Democratic opposition that in spite of all its weaknesses is committed to the preservation of our basic constitutional liberties, respects what remains of our social contract, and seems to recoil from the Bush Administration’s proclivity for military adventure. However, this opposition is largely bereft of a clear, alternative direction for the country: a deficiency that has been one of the political right’s greatest strengths. 

While we must do everything we can to keep the right from gaining more power, we must also understand that we cannot stave it off for long by electing Democratic politicians who validate its message by retreating or, indeed, embracing its issues. 

We must do two different things at the same time. We must do what it takes to defeat the right at the polls and we have to find a way out of the ‘lesser evil’ trap. We have to create a progressive force that can present a vision of a new path forward for America, a vision that is serious, convincing, and practical. It must be capable of generating the moral capital and organizational energy to overcome the vast resources at the disposal of the right. We believe we see the seeds of such a movement in the progressive insurgency that is presently taking shape in the Democratic Party. Indeed, the impetus for our new Democratic Club came from a desire to participate in this process. 

As progressives we must recognize that our failure to elaborate a positive and realistic alternative vision for the development of our national community contributed to the appeal of the right’s message. Yes, we have had some good ideas. But we are divided up into single-issue groups, more often than not saying no to something – opposing changes and policies we don’t like. That’s not sufficient. We need an inspiring vision of America’s future. Not pie in the sky – but a serious, comprehensive proposal for improving life in our country. We, as a people, need to renew our collective covenant; we must invest in our social infrastructure (health, education, retirement), rebuild the sinews of our industrial economy and learn to better care for our planet that is home to all. We must reject the costly, destructive, and shameful pretensions to empire, recognizing that our nation’s security can only be achieved by working with – not against – the international community. 

We know of no shortcuts or easy answers. We have to think deeply, organize better, and put aside old formulas and pat answers. Most importantly, we must not despair. It seems to us that the right has lost faith in humanity’s future, searching for meaning in boundless acquisition and in the exercise of untrammeled power. Pessimism and disillusionment nourish the soil in which the right flourishes. In a world perceived as ‘zero-sum,’ where one person’s gain is another’s loss, where there are no possibilities of a brighter collective future, the politics of greed, and naked, cynical power win out.  

Our greatest strength is our love for our national community – our resolve to build an America that will be safer, more prosperous, and that will work better for all of us. 

As the Planet editorial noted, the WDRC had a standing room only crowd (160 persons) at its June meeting. Our next general meeting will be July 29 at 7 p.m. in larger quarters: the First Congregational Church at 27th and Harrison in Oakland. The agenda will focus on why and how progressives should fight the recall of Governor Gray Davis. 

 

Matthew Hallinan and Sandra Chelnov are co-chairs of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.


Code Violation Unit to Aid Appeals

By ANGELA ROWEN
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Residents who are cited for code violations—from parking junkers on city streets to illegally converting their garages—will now be able to appeal their citations a lot sooner. But they may also face higher fines if they’re found guilty. 

“It gives us more discretion in dealing with how penalities are doled out,” said Supervisor Gregory Daniel said. “The state law might establish a penalty at $100 or $150, but with an adminstrative review process you can get that up to $1,000.” 

The city recently announced the establishment of a zoning code enforcement unit within the city’s Office of Neighborhood Services. The new team will consist of four full-time city employees—three code enforcement officers and one supervisor—devoted to investigating community complaints about potential violations and expediting resolution to problems. The new unit specifically deals with building and zoning issues like storm water discharge and dumping, street vending violations, and public right-of-way issues. The code enforcement officers will also tip off other departments to violations of other codes, including health, environmental, housing, and fire laws. 

Supervisor Gregory Daniel likened the new unit to a swat team. “You send the regular cops out to the daily routine patrols. But if there’s a problem where you need skill, you need a marksman with special training,” he said. 

Daniel said under the previous system, there was only one code enforcer within the zoning department who handled complaints from neighbors or investigated violations. The aim of the new system, he said, is to improve the quality of life for all residents by cracking down on law-breakers and, in some cases, helping residents come into compliance with city law. 

“There are a lot of provisions saying what you can and can’t do. But the flip side of what we want to do is help you do what you want legally. So, for example, if a person spent ten grand to illegally convert their garage, we want to search out those resources that will help you bring the project into compliance. It would be pretty ugly if we made you tear it down and throw away $10,000.” 

Another component of the new system is the establishment of an adminstrative hearing process, which will allow residents to have their cases heard before an internal hearing body within the city manager’s office instead of going into municipal court, which often takes months or even years to resolve, Daniel said. The new appeals process for neighborhood complaints is similar to that used for parking tickets and business license issues. 

“Other cities are going toward this system,” said Daniel. “It cuts down on a lot of waste. We don’t have to spend a whole lot of staff time and resources sitting in a courtroom dealing with attorneys.” 

Daniel said the hearing officers are supplied by a private company with whom the city contracts. The two hearing officers will hear cases two days per week and be equipped to hear a total of 40 cases per week. 

The administrative hearing will also give the city more leeway on what types of penalties to impose because it is not limited by the parameters established by state criminal law. Under an administrative system, the city council establishes penalties for certain violations.  

“It gives us more discretion in dealing with how penalities are doled out,” Daniel said. “The state law might establish a penalty at $100 or $150, but with an adminstrative review process you can get that up to $1,000.” 


Academia and Opera Give Way to the Pen

By DOROTHY BRYANT Special to the Planet Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

Jim Schevill was born in 1920, in a woodsy hillside Berkeley home that barely survived the great fire of 1923. His father was creator and chair of the romance languages department at UC, his mother an artist and a scholar of Navaho culture and mythology. Despite the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler, Jim might have been expected to live a quiet life, like his father and his neighbors, in the security of academia, or, at most, deviating from that path to a career in opera. (“A dream. I had a light baritone, and asthma.”) In either case, a fortunate birth, a comfortable, if not wealthy future.   

According to Jim, three experiences took him forever off the smooth path that seemed laid out for him. 

The first exploded on him when he was 17, visiting Europe with his mother. He went to Freiburg, Germany, to hook up with his friend Jack Kent (later UC City Planning Department, Berkeley City Council). That night their sleep was broken by strange street noises, fires, cries, the shattering of glass. It was what came to be known as Kristallnacht, the nationwide riots against the Jews, opening shot in the Holocaust. The next morning, sick with horror and disgust, Jim wrote his first poem (“a bad one, too angry”) and suddenly knew who he was. Since then he has written hundreds of poems, 30-odd plays, a novel, two biographies, scores of essays and lectures, and has edited several books. 

The second crisis came during World War II, after Jim had already survived two years in the army. In 1944, he was assigned to a German prisoner of war camp in Colorado. After learning that the prisoners in the camp were dominated, indeed terrorized, by the fervent Nazis among them, Eleanor Roosevelt proposed a secret “Nazi re-education” program, and Jim (at 24) was one of the officers assigned to design and implement the program. For Jim, this became another horrifying lesson in the persistence of evil in the minds of men. His one novel “The Arena of Ants” (1976) came out of this experience. 

The third experience took place when he was home again, five years later, and had just landed his first teaching job, at UC Extension. It was the time of the infamous Loyalty Oath—the stakes were high, a lifetime career perhaps—and the Oath destroyed relationships, cut deep wounds into the university a decade before the Civil Rights and FSM movements. Jim says, “How could I sign, after what I’d seen in Germany, and in that POW camp?” He refused, with a curt, blistering letter, and was promptly fired, effectively black-balled from public institutions indefinitely. “Best thing that ever happened to me. I was hired to teach humanities at California College of Arts and Crafts [1951-1957], met Diebenkorn, all those great artists.” Jim’s Loyalty Oath experience shines in his most widely produced play, “The Bloody Tenet,” (1957) about the trial of Roger Williams, also banished for “disloyalty.” 

As McCarthyism loosened its hold, Jim was hired at SF State (where he served on my MA orals committee, and I became one of the many people to whom he offered his loyal friendship—which might include advice on manuscripts, references for a job, housing—you name it). Until 1968 he wrote plays for the distinguished Actors Workshop (1955-1967, founded by SF State colleagues Jules Irving and Herbert Blau), and ran the SF State Poetry Center, which played a central role in what is now called the San Francisco Renaissance. “The important—and rare—thing we did was to make sure all kinds of poets were included in our public readings.” 

The Actors Workshop produced the first reading of the “Stalingrad Elegies” on KPFA (1965), a series of poems based on actual letters written by German soldiers dying in the snow under Hitler’s insane orders to attack Stalingrad in winter. These award-winning poems, which continue to move audiences, “came out of my concern about our country entering a new bloody conflict—Vietnam.”  

In 1968 Jim went to teach at Brown University, continuing to write poems that critically probed his country’s soul, many of them collected in “Ambiguous Dancers of Fame” (1987) and “The American Fantasies” (1983). Many more plays, short and long, were produced, including “Lovecraft’s Follies,” a dark satire on the scientific-military-industrial complex. “That was a high point, an excellent production in Providence, Rhode Island.” (1970) 

In 1988 Jim retired from Brown and moved back to Berkeley, where he lives with his wife Margot, former singer with the San Francisco Opera, now anthropologist and authority on Guatemalan textiles.  

When I asked Jim what he is working on now, his gentle eyes turned steely. “Some poems on the theme of Bush’s concept of evil.” 

You can hear James Schevill read some of his new poems at Berkeley Art Center (in Live Oak Park) on Saturday, July 19. The 6:30 reception is followed by a 7:30 reading. 

 


Merging Books and Literature With the Visual Arts

By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

“I think I’m predisposed to really love books,” said Indigo Som. “I mean, we’re in Berkeley, right? One of the reasons I live here is because you walk down the street and you look in everybody’s windows and you see massive bookshelves and books overflowing. Right? You can see people walking down the street, reading as they’re walking down the street. You know? I love that.” 

Beyond loving books, Som, 37, makes books unlike any you’ll find in your mother’s library. Currently, two of Som’s books flutter as you walk past them, their pages mere stained gossamer silk and thread, pinned to the walls at the Berkeley Art Center. They are part of an exhibit, running through July 27, entitled “Unbound and Under Covers: Experiments in Visual Writing.”  

Exhibit curator and Oakland resident Jaime Robles explains Unbound’s perspective on the bookmaker’s art. 

“There’s no crossover between the visual and the verbal in western art, generally. Literature [is] on one side and then you have paintings and sculpture on the other side. You don’t have this kind of mix like you do in Asian cultures,” Robles said. “The show wasn’t meant to be about book arts, it’s more visual artists who are into the book form or who are interested in using it as a vehicle for the visual arts. What I wanted was people who had a very strong connection to writing, who either were writers or who were artists that had such a close connection to text and were such good writers that they could be considered writers primarily.”  

Robles, who edits the literary magazine Five Fingers Review, selected one of her own pieces for the show. Sheets of poetry, dipped in beeswax, are suspended over flickering candles. The pages seem to melt. The poem is a eulogy to her mother, whose cremains lay in an open dish beside the poem.  

Death, nature and family are themes that Unbound examines. Eight of the nine writer-artists in the show are women.  

“There certainly is a lot of work here that refers to family and mothers,” Robles acknowledged. “It’s primarily women artists. There’s a lot of things about mothers and home and family.” 

“Book arts is full of women,” Som agreed. “I’ll speculate that it has something to do with women being more trained or more accustomed to multi-tasking. Also there’s a lot of fine handwork involved and there’s a lot of crossover between the textile world and the book world, although we have our fair share of hot shot boys.”  

She laughed softly: “Mostly the women are in charge of a lot of it.” 

White haired and sturdy, Jerry Grigsby is neither female nor a book artist. A Berkeley hills resident, he regularly attends Berkeley Art Center events.  

“This is my second time through [this show] and every time I talk to somebody I tell them all about it,” Grigsby said. “It’s really beautiful, physically, without even going into the content of the word. Some of these pieces remind me of ‘Concrete Poetry,’ the kind of poetry that is just about the color and the shape of the sentences and the phrases just sort of carry something without even knowing what the words mean or what they’re saying. It becomes verbal on a personal level. As you see the objects they mean something or they bring up some kind of a memory.” 

Robles, who teaches creative writing and critical theory at New College in San Francisco and St. Mary’s in Orinda, deliberately elicited an evocative atmosphere for her exhibit.  

“It was meant to have an erotic side to it,” she said. “It also is meant to have a sleuth-like quality to it. When you say somebody is under cover, it’s not just under covers, but it has that quality of being subversive. I wanted it to have all of those word connotations.” 

That ambiguity worked for Som. In an art exhibit purporting to be about text and books, neither of Som’s two pieces have legible words or identifiable narrative.  

“There’s a lot of personal stuff that I didn’t think was necessary for a viewer to appreciate it. I wanted to communicate a feeling and not the specifics of what made me have that feeling,” she said. “They’re more about handwriting and the gestures of handwriting. I’ve always been interested in everything to do with the written word and so this was a way for me to draw and write at the same time but not say anything specific. 

“I think my fascination with language has a lot to do with the fact that I learned Chinese as a first language. There was a little lag time when I was monolingual, and I think that I became just really hyperaware of language, of the thing itself. I think the hyperawareness of language just makes you want to write and participate in the language that way.” 

When asked how her fluttering silk flags with indecipherable words can be called a book she replied: 

“It’s a book because there’s text, there’s sequence, there’re pages and because ...” she fades to a quiet murmur, “because I make a lot of books and I say it is a book.” 

 

Berkeley Art Center Web site: http://www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

"Unbound and Under Covers: Experiments in Visual Writing" is open through July 27, 2003 


New Political Cartoon Collection Presents Muslim Perspective

By SUSAN PARKER Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

 

IT BECAME NECESSARY TO DESTROY THE PLANET IN ORDER TO SAVE IT 

By Khalil Bendib 

Plan Nine Publishing, 160 pages, $15.95 

 

Berkeley resident Khalil Bendib, a cartoonist, sculptor and news commentator (KPFA “Voices of the Middle East”) has just published a collection of cartoons called “It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet In Order to Save It.” Described as the “first ever book of political cartoons written from a Muslim-American perspective,” Bendib works hard to demystify widely held beliefs about Arabs and Muslims, including the notion that “Muslims don’t have a sense of humor.” 

A naturalized citizen born and raised in North Africa, at the age of 15 his first cartoons appeared in Algeria’s national weekly, Les Actualities. His initial (but not final) brush with censorship occurred at the Daily Trojan, the student newspaper at USC where he earned a master’s degree in Japanese language and culture. He then went on to a full-time job as a political cartoonist with the San Bernardino Sun. While there he received national attention for his work.  

Since leaving the Gannett newspaper chain, his cartoons have been featured in hundreds of small and mid-sized Muslim, Arab, African-American, Jewish and progressive on-line and print publications, including the Daily Planet. “It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet In Order to Save It” contains cartoons previously published and many that have not yet been in print. 

The book is divided into 10 chapters that comment on elections, Sept. 11, the Middle East, social justice, militarism, government, economy, environment, sin and the almighty media. The chapters that worked best were sin and economy. The election cartoons were dated, the environment section overwhelming and the chapter on the Middle East was both thought-provoking and disturbing. 

Humor is subjective. And political humor can be downright dangerous. Bendib’s little book of cartoons will find an audience of enthusiastic fans as well as vigorous detractors, but as is stated in his energetic press releases, Bendib “has discovered that he fits perfectly within an America that has traditionally espoused the ideals of freedom of speech and tolerance and he would dream of living nowhere else on this planet.” 

 

Visit Bendib’s website at www.bendib.com/book. His book is available at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, and at City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Ave., in San Francisco.


A Cartoon Culture War: Soiling Disney’s Image

By CHRISTIAN NEWTON Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

 

THE PIRATES AND THE MOUSE: 

Disney’s War Against the Counterculture 

By Bob Levin 

Fantagraphics Press, 266 pages, $24 

 

Tearing down symbols is an evolutional inevitability of civilization. If you’re a symbol, whether a statue in Baghdad or a Connecticut WASP who’s made a fortune marketing lifestyle products to insecure homemakers, sooner or later, you’re coming down. And apparently, cartoon mice are not immune to this phenomenon. 

Berkeley author Bob Levin’s new book, “The Pirates and The Mouse: Disney’s War Against the Counterculture” faithfully documents the story of a group of young outlaw cartoonists calling themselves the Air Pirates who set about tearing down, what must be for every cartoonist, the ultimate symbol of corporate domination in their medium—Mickey Mouse. 

The book follows Dan O’Neill, a comic strip prodigy who, in the early 1960s at the age of 21, had a nationally syndicated comic strip and a home at the San Francisco Chronicle. As the sixties progressed O’Neill became more and more submersed in the exploding counterculture of the Bay Area, and his strip “Odd Bodkins” became stranger and stranger. Eventually O’Neill offended or alienated everybody in mainstream publishing, was fired from the Chronicle and had his strip dropped from every newspaper in the country. (It is now published weekly in the Berkeley Daily Planet.) 

Undeterred by his career setbacks, O’Neill, who by the late sixties had become a sort of hippie Hunter S. Thompson for the comic book set, formed the Air Pirates and dedicated them to attacking Mickey Mouse as a corporate raider of the American psyche and a symbol of cultural imperialism. 

The Pirates started producing and distributing comic books that portrayed Mickey and his pals engaging in vivid sex acts, swearing like sailors and doing or dealing large amounts of various drugs. Disney found out about the comic books, and having spent 30 years cultivating a squeaky clean image, was not amused at seeing Minnie performing oral sex on Mickey. The Mouse House laid down a copyright infringement lawsuit the size of Magic Mountain and tied up the Pirates in court for a decade. The ensuing battle changed the lives of everyone involved. 

Levin’s book, which contains several pages of original Air Pirates artwork, covers a lot of ground. He weaves his tale around a well-detailed backdrop of the social state of the nation and Bay Area during the1960s, throwing in a history of the comic book industry, a synopsis of Disney’s evolution as a media conglomerate and an insightful snapshot of copyright law.  

However, while following the Pirates’ case as it meanders through the courts, Levin goes a bit off course. Levin is an author and an attorney. And it shows. At times the detailing of legal minutia asks the reader to share the same love of the law that Levin possesses, and ultimately that draws away from the narrative.  

Otherwise, the book hums along nicely, with particularly astute observations regarding the way Disney, while cornering the global market on the childhood dreams, had “appropriated, emasculated and sugar coated not only America’s folklore, but the world’s fairytales and myths.” 

In fact, Disney did seem to have a hand in every child extortion scheme going back then. The Mouse had his little white gloves in everything from major motion pictures to apparel like Davy Crockett hats. (Licensing agreements were the major source of revenue for the company at the time.) From television shows like “The Mickey Mouse Club” to theme parks like Disneyland, Mickey was truly a corporate titan. As such, for 1960s revolutionaries, baby boomers raised on the Magic Kingdom, Mickey Mouse was a near perfect symbol of middle-class conformity and intellectual homogenization. 

Bob Levin has written a good, fair, detailed account of Dan O’Neill and the Air Pirates self-destructive obsession with ripping off, and tearing down, Disney. (And after all the dust settles, their rationalization for doing so almost holds up.) 

Levin’s book nearly becomes a cautionary tale of what happens when people are foolish enough to cross the powers that be. But in the end, it doesn’t matter who lost or who won the legal case; Disney went on to generate enormous profits in the eighties under the leadership of Michael Eisner, and the Air Pirates went on to become legends of the comic book underground. Today, original Air Pirates artwork fetches outrageous sums of money at comic book conventions all over the nation.  

The emotions that incubated and fueled the counterculture movement of the sixties have long since flamed out; but the Air Pirates, by taking direct aim at the heart of an American icon, did nothing less than claim their place in a revolution.


Silverman’s Midwest Journey a Social Critique

By ALYCE MILLER Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 08, 2003

 

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL SILVERMAN 

By Theodore Roszak 

Leap Frog Press, 329 pages, $15.95 

 

 

For starters, what is a gay, Jewish humanist writer named Daniel Silverman, from San Francisco, doing accepting a speaking engagement at the evangelical Faith College in North Fork, Minn.? 

According to Silverman’s no-nonsense agent Hanna, it’s all for a badly needed twelve grand, that’s what, a fee he doesn’t dare refuse now that his cachet has fallen in the literary world. About the speech, Hanna cautions, “Just make it not so Jewish ... A little Jewish is okay.” And, she reminds him, Silverman’s sequin-chemise wearing black boyfriend Marty of many years is absolutely out!  

Not unlike a fairytale, wherein interdictions are introduced only later to be violated, Berkeley author Theodore Roszak sets the trap of searing social critique about the dark, myopic side of religion, taking on with guns loaded the zealotry of the religious right that relies on a party line of intolerance and hatred.  

Silverman’s hosts, the Swensons, at first appear to be genuinely interested in exchanging ideas, but not so, Silverman discovers, with the rest of the Free Reformed Evangelical Brethren in Christ who ferociously adhere to a single-minded notion of a vengeful God. Their way is the only right way, and everyone else is going to hell. Not surprisingly, the premise means that Silverman is ambushed by a lineup of characters, including homophobes and Holocaust deniers, not the least of which are embodied in the avid gay-hater Mrs. Blore and the virulent Jew-hater the Reverend Apfel, who informs Silverman the Holocaust has been grossly over-exaggerated and an invention of the “liberal Jewish media.” In fact, the Holocaust, for many at Faith College, refers to aborted fetuses, pictures of whom are presented like the slaughter of the innocents. 

So as our rough beast from Sin City slouches toward the podium to deliver his talk, every wary eye in the house is on him. Given his rising dismay and anger to the verbal assaults he’s endured, Silverman, who was never the “good Jew” his religious Grandpa Zvi had always hoped he would be, feels compelled now to confront the savagery of his audience’s bigotry toward Jews, toward gays, et cetera. I won’t give the delicious text of the speech away, but let’s just say that afterward, pandemonium breaks out, with a near riot. 

But Silverman, poised for quick flight, is in for another surprise. The overnight has been turned upside down by the Minnesota weather gods, who now conspire with a blizzard of Wagnerian proportions that makes escape impossible. Post-speech, the instant pariah Silverman is consigned to his room and the library, a virtual prisoner of Faith College. Desperate, he debates his options when three students, known as the committee for the Religious Humanism Studies Program, cautiously approach Silverman to praise him for his bravery. They fear for themselves and ask for his help in escaping the college. “You think I’m running an underground railroad?” says Silverman. “Give me a break.” (p 245) 

Inflected with humor, the book functions as a contemporary parable about intolerance and bigotry, and the dangers of subscribing to any philosophy that insists you cease to think broadly and critically. 

Its scathing indictment of the nasty power of the Christian right hits the bull’s-eye in today’s political climate. It is a timely story, openly challenging notions of what passes for “religion.” Roszak doesn’t hesitate to meet mean-spirited, narrow-minded bigotry head on, taking the opportunity to explore also the tenets of Judaism and Silverman’s conflicts with his own humanist vision. The moral of the tale is underscored throughout with bumper sticker conciseness: “There is no room for intolerance.” 

At times Roszak seems to push too hard to make his point, and the characters occasionally lapse into the allegorical, more like embodiments of abstract ideas, without sufficient complexity. At times the deck is so stacked, particularly in his representation of the Christian Midwest, that the story loses some of the power it might have gained if we were seduced at first by the “banality of evil,” a picturesque small town, which perhaps might have initially invoked nostalgic Rockwell-esque images. The premise seems pitched to an “already enlightened,” reader (presumably someone from the Bay Area whose cue is to nod in agreement, but who is never really implicated the way, say, the reader in a Flannery O’Connor story is. As a result, the higher moral ground is too easily reached. Having lived in both the Bay Area and the Midwest (and there is arguably a good deal of anti-gay, racist sentiment floating around), I think Roszak missed an opportunity to explore the converse of stereotypes associated with each locale. Certainly the Bay Area has its share of the religious right, and the Midwest has plenty of leftist activists. 

While the Swenson character obviously is meant to stand in some contrast to the openly bigoted zealotry of other characters at Faith College, a more balanced exploration of systems of belief might have yielded an even more terrifying cautionary tale. Openly hate-filled bigots wielding signs with aborted fetuses, as disturbing as that image is, are not nearly as frightening as those whose bigotry and intolerance manifest themselves in far more subtle and insidious ways, often under the guise of liberal or carefully thought-out attitudes. It is why a well-spoken, figure like Ralph Reed, the father of the religious right, was ultimately more worrisome than the small-town preacher who periodically brings his tribe to Bloomington, where I now live, to rant that “God hate fags.” Even in his own small, conservative Indiana town, this particular person is considered a fringe lunatic. 

A comic relief sub-plot of the book comments on the act of writing itself, and what it means to be a writer in the age of corporate control and the primacy of the Internet. Silverman fears he may be a has-been and experiments mentally with various story lines that could lead to a rebirth. Over and over, his active imagination conjures up figures from literature and Jewish folktales, as well as his patriarchal Grandpa Zvi, with whom he holds conversations and dialogs, all of which will eventually lead to a “new book.” Mentally narrating his life as he goes, Silverman makes an observant outsider, simultaneously confronting his own demons, both of the writing and spiritual variety.  

Even at one of the most crucial moments in the book, after a desperate escape attempt that results in near-death, Silverman resorts to the refuge of imagination, “Click! Went his writer’s memory, quickly capturing the moment of truth that was flying by. But when am I ever going to stick that in a novel? he wondered.” 

And, more importantly, perhaps, how will “homo-terrorist” Silverman ever find his way home, Auntie Em? Perhaps, Roszak seems to be saying, we can all find our way there by recognizing an all-encompassing God who embraces the pluralistic products of His imagination with equal love. 

 

Alyce Miller is a Bay Area transplant to the Midwest, where she has been a professor of English for eight years in the graduate creative writing program at Indiana University in Bloomington. She is the author of two books of fiction, and more than 100 stories, poems, and essays. Her work has won the Flannery O’Connor Award, Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence in Fiction, and the Lawrence Prize. She just completed a J.D. at the Indiana University School of Law.  


A Dark Turn For Harry Potter

By MEGAN GREENWELL
Tuesday July 08, 2003

 

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX 

By JK Rowling 

Scholastic, 870 pages, $29.95 

 

It was worth the wait. 

The fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, released last month, takes a darker, more adult approach to the story of the young wizard. Harry is, after all, 15 years old by the time the book begins, and author JK Rowling paints the title character as a rapidly maturing young adult with a more advanced set of challenges and ideas to face. But though the tone of the book changes in “The Order of the Phoenix,” the best parts of the first four books remain, creating a story that is just as good as the first four—but with a new twist. 

The darker mood that pervades the book may come as a shock to its younger readers, but it is exactly what Rowling needed to prevent her latest offering from becoming derivative from the first four. There are only so many times a young wizard can come face-to-face with pure evil without thinking about the link between the two. In “Order of the Phoenix,” Harry does exactly that, and in time learns about a tangled web of familial relations, wizarding feuds and ancient prophesies that have put him in position to fight Lord Voldemort on behalf of the entire magical community. 

The best parts, then, are not the many action sequences but the descriptions of Harry’s internal struggle. He experiences a series of frightening dreams about walking alone down a dark hallway, only to find a locked door. He escapes his home with his awful Muggle relatives, only to find that the best parts of his life at school have all but disappeared. Most of all, Harry grapples with the same ideas that every young teenager does: he realizes his parents, teachers and heroes are, in fact, fallible. 

“The world is not split up into good people and Death Eaters,” Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, says, blurring lines the younger Harry would not have thought to question. 

It is precisely this depiction of Harry’s transition into adulthood that makes readers keep turning the pages in anticipation of the next adventure. If the highlights of the book are the exciting scenes—the vivid dreams, duels with Voldemort and Quidditch matches—the backbone of the story is Harry’s position as a (mostly) typical teenage boy. He develops a crush on a girl, then suffers the humiliation of botching their first date. He fights with his friends, stresses over exams and most often would rather be flying on his broomstick than studying potions or charms. 

The book begins slowly, with a sequence of events that make little sense as they happen. The action picks up as the reader gradually learns more background information. But about two-thirds of the way in, the story starts to drag, losing itself in a seemingly endless string of educational decrees designed to control wizarding students. 

The plot structure has become formulaic by now, and devotees can predict exactly when Harry will make his crucial mistake; when he will engage in the climactic battle with Voldemort; when his fellow students will come to revere him as a hero. But rather than making the book feel like a carbon copy of its predecessors, the familiar structure gives it the feeling of a classic. Rowling’s strength as a writer is her storytelling; plot construction is a secondary issue. 

Though younger readers may get lost in the book’s complexities and dark themes, the familiarity of the characters and story line will keep them reading. But the target audiencehas aged alongside Harry. Those who started with the first book upon its release in 1998 are now five years older, making the 10-year-old crowd a mature group of high schoolers in 2003. Those young teens are the ones who will best relate to Harry’s challenges, and as Harry grows another year older by the time the next book comes out, readers can look for the sixth book to continue the maturing trend.


Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley

Tuesday July 08, 2003

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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


Opinion

Editorials

Pace of City’s Construction Not Likely to Subside Soon

By ROB WRENN Special to the Planet
Friday July 11, 2003

This is the last in a three-part series on Berkeley’s housing boom.  

 

The current housing boom in Berkeley shows no signs of letting up. There are at least 600 units more being planned by for-profit and non-profit developers that have not yet come before the Zoning Adjustment Board for approval.  

Panoramic Interests, Patrick Kennedy’s development company, has plans to build a 190-unit mixed-use project at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and University Avenue to replace the unsightly Kragen Auto Parts strip mall.  

If built as planned, this project would be the largest housing development in Berkeley, surpassing Redwood Gardens, the housing development for seniors on Derby Street above College, which has 169 units. 

The City has also done a feasibility study to analyze the possibility of building housing for teachers and other public employees on the western part of the Ashby BART parking lot. Unions representing school district, city and UC workers prompted the proposal to look into developing the site. 

In the Southside, the city has agreed to waive liens if the owner of the Berkeley Inn site at Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street obtains permits to build housing there and housing is planned for Durant Avenue near Telegraph. 

Berkeley’s for-profit and non-profit developers are not the only ones building more housing. The University of California is also adding more housing to ease the crunch that students have faced in recent years and to accommodate the expansion of the student body that is under way.  

The University has added 100 beds with newly constructed housing at College Avenue and Durant and is in the process of constructing an additional 931 beds and 191 student apartments on Channing Way as additions to the high-rise Units 1 and 2 dorms in the Southside.  

Nor is this the end of UC’s housing development plans. The New Century Plan identifies three more sites in the Southside for future housing development, including the Tang Center parking lot on Bancroft Avenue and the Anna Head surface parking lot on Channing near Telegraph. 

 

 

ABAG demands more housing 

 

With the building boom now under way, Berkeley will have little difficulty meeting Berkeley’s share of the “regional housing need” as determined by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). Berkeley was asked to produce 1,269 units of housing during the seven and a half years between July 1, 1999 and December 31, 2006.  

In response to the concerns of state housing officials related to the Housing Element of the city’s 2002 General Plan, city staff assembled housing data that showed that the number of units built or approved between July 1, 1999 and December 1, 2002 or in the pipeline as of the end of that period, totalled more than the required 1,269 units due by December 2006. 

ABAG’s “Regional Housing Needs Determination” calculates housing needed to accommodate projected growth. But in addition to that, there is a clear need for more affordable housing to address the needs of current residents who are paying much more than they can afford in rent to live here. The Bay Area has some of the highest housing costs in the country, which has created a crisis for people with lower incomes. 

To meet this need, it has been estimated that approximately 5,600 units of housing would be needed. According to the General Plan housing element, that’s how many “very low-income non-student households” there are in “privately owned, unsubsidized housing.” Virtually all of these are overpaying for rent and “would be eligible for some form of rental assistance if it were available.” 

And there are also many people working in Berkeley at low pay retail, clerical, service, and blue-collar jobs, but living elsewhere, who might like to live nearer to where they work if they could afford it. 

While the City is producing more than enough market-rate housing, it is falling short of meeting the need for affordable below-market units. The city’s General Plan has set an ambitious, but very difficult-to-achieve goal of “providing an additional 6,400 permanently affordable housing units for low- and very-low-income households through acquisition of existing housing and new construction.” 

And what the city is achieving with respect to producing affordable units is threatened by possible legal challenges to the inclusionary zoning ordinance.  

TransAction Companies, developers of the planned Library Gardens project, whose vice-president is Chamber of Commerce president John DeClerq, filed a challenge to the city’s inclusionary housing requirement in October 2001. But the company withdrew its appeal in February 2002.  

In response to a referral from City Council, the city’s Housing Advisory Commission proposed giving affordable housing proposals higher priority treatment over other development proposals before the Design Review Committee and the ZAB. But City Council has yet to adopt any policy for priority processing for low-income housing projects. 

 

 

How development has changed 

In the 1980s, a majority of the units being produced were affordable units. For-profit developers accounted for a relatively small share of the housing being produced. Contrast this with the last two years when only 25% of the units are below-market affordable units and only two projects are by non-profit affordable housing developers. For-profit developers today account for a large majority of the units being produced, and also account for a majority of the below market units produced in the two year period from May 2001 to May 2003. 

While the percentage of affordable units being produced has fallen, the absolute number of affordable units being produced now is greater than the number in any two-year period in the 1980s. 

The apartment projects being built now are, on average, denser than the housing that was produced in the 1980s. Compare Savo Island, the U/A coops or the scattered site low-income housing from the 1980s with the projects being approved today. Instead of two or three stories, buildings today are typically four or five stories. Of the 17 projects approved by ZAB, 10 will be five stories in height; six will be four stories; and one will be three stories, but will be 50 feet tall with loft units.  

Developers are also receiving concessions and bonus units under the state density bonus law and are taking advantage of the flexibility in development standards in certain zoning districts (notably C-SA, the city’s “South Area” zoning, in South Berkeley). 

Developers are getting extra stories, reduced setbacks, reduced open space, increased lot coverage and reduced parking. Of the 17 projects approved by ZAB, 13 received at least one concession that allowed them to exceed development standards.  

Four projects received an extra floor. Residential parking requirements have been reduced for several projects, in some cases with a provision that residents will not be eligible for residential parking permits in the adjacent residential neighborhoods. 

While projects are denser, units are, in some cases, on the small side, though there is considerable variation. Some have studio units with as little as 340 square feet (visualize 17 x 20 feet). Units over 1,000 square feet are relatively scarce.  

 

Housing in the neighborhoods 

Since the passage of the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance in 1973, almost all of the new apartments that have been built are located on commercial corridors. This is also true of a large majority of housing approved by ZAB in the last two years. 

The two cases where ZAB and City Council have balked at approving new housing have both involved projects in the middle of residential blocks that would have displaced existing housing.  

Sixteen of the 18 projects considered by ZAB since May 2001 are located either in the Downtown close to Shattuck Avenue and within easy walking distance of the BART station, or on a “transit corridor,” a street served by at least two bus lines. Almost all of these projects are on commercially zoned parcels. Sites include vacant lots, the former Fine Arts Theater, a former gas station on North Shattuck, the Hinks parking garage, and sites with one- or two-story commercial buildings. 

The other two are the proposed projects at 2500-2514 Benvenue Avenue and at 1155-63 Hearst Avenue. Both locations are in the middle of residentially-zoned blocks in established residential neighborhoods. 

Both projects would have replaced existing housing with taller, denser buildings. Both projects generated strong and well-organized opposition from immediate neighbors. ZAB rejected the project at 1155-63 Hearst by a vote of five to zero with three abstentions, and the council subsequently upheld ZAB by a 6-3 vote. 

The Benvenue project was narrowly approved by ZAB with the five vote minimum. The Benvenue Neighbors Association appealed. City Council heard the appeal and decided to approve a portion of the proposed project that involved retrofitting two existing buildings to create more, smaller units in place of the existing apartments.  

The council called on the developer to do an environmental review of the most controversial portion of the project that called for construction of a five-story building in place of two existing turn-of-the-century homes, one two-story, the other one-story. The building would have been taller than any existing housing on the block and would have included classroom and office space along with housing. 

 

Rob Wrenn has lived in Berkeley for the last 21 years and is member of Berkeley’s Planning Commission. 

 

 


City Weighs Closer Watch on LBNL

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 08, 2003

City Council will consider on Tuesday keeping closer tabs on Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and weigh new ordinances that would allow speedy approval of “in-law” housing units—the small backyard cottages or above-garage apartments that dot the city. 

Under a measure put forth by Mayor Tom Bates, city staff would conduct a preliminary analysis of all major planned development projects at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, a federal facility operated by the University of California. Under Bates’ proposal, Berkeley City Manager Weldon Rucker would also appoint a “lab liaison” from existing city staff to coordinate relations between the city and the national science center. 

Bates said the measure was prompted in part by the lab’s announcement this year of a plan to build a six-story, 94,000 square foot molecular foundry in Strawberry Canyon. The $85 million foundry would be dedicated to the study of nanoscience, the manipulation of materials at the molecular level. 

Community activists and city officials say they were caught unaware by the lab’s proposal to expand. 

“I feel like the city has not been prepared to deal with the larger problems,” Bates said, in reference to the project. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the late notice on the molecular foundry project is part of a larger pattern. 

“When the lab does something, we usually find out about it from the community groups protesting the lab and not the lab itself,” he said. 

But Worthington raised doubts about whether one person, the proposed “lab liaison,” could keep tabs on the entire lab, especially if that liaison has another job. 

 

“In-law” units 

City Council will also conduct a first reading of an ordinance that would allow for speedy approval of “in-law” units. The state legislature, attempting to address California’s shortage of rental properties, passed a law last year requiring municipalities to streamline the process for approval. 

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall. A special meeting on the city’s workers’ compensation costs will be held at 5 p.m.