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CAB DRIVER DON AUGUST holds the door for Helen Rippier Wheeler, a recipient of Taxi Scrip.
CAB DRIVER DON AUGUST holds the door for Helen Rippier Wheeler, a recipient of Taxi Scrip.
 

News

Taxi Scrip Service A Mess, Users Say

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 25, 2003

A city program that subsidizes taxi and van rides for the elderly and disabled is in disarray, leaving participants scrambling for transportation to the grocery store and doctor’s office, seniors say.  

“It’s completely messed up,” said Frederick Borden, a resident of Strawberry Creek Lodge in North Berkeley, who said he worried about his ability to get to the hospital if needed. “I’m 94 years old. Anything can happen.” 

The Berkeley Paratransit Program, which dates back almost 25 years, serves up to 900 residents at a time—just under 1 percent of the city’s population. A small portion of the program’s $400,000 annual budget subsidizes van rides for the wheelchair-bound. But low-cost cab vouchers called “taxi scrip” are at the heart of Berkeley Paratransit. 

The cost of the vouchers varies with income level. But the typical participant, according to city officials, spends about $36 quarterly to get $120 worth of scrip—paper “money” that cabbies can then redeem for cash at the city’s customer service center. 

Seniors say applications for taxi scrip sometimes come late or not at all. And when they apply, participants say, they can go months without receiving the vouchers. 

Berkeley’s Housing Director Stephen Barton, who oversees the program, said a staffing shortage is largely to blame. The department has only one full-time administrator and one part-time clerical employee to process hundreds of applications, he said. 

Barton added there may also be a problem with how the Housing Department’s limited staff handles the paperwork.  

“The first thing we have to do is go back and re-look at our procedures and try to find out how to not have this happen again,” he said. 

The Berkeley Paratransit Program has come under fire in the past. Before January 2002, the city had contracts with just a handful of local taxi companies that would accept scrip. Seniors complained of limited service, rude taxi drivers and cabbies who refused to even pick up patrons using the vouchers. 

City Council responded by requiring all 44 taxi companies working in Berkeley to accept scrip, making it easier for taxi drivers to redeem the vouchers and mandating sensitivity training for cabbies. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler, a low-income senior who lives in the Lawrence Moore Manor in North Berkeley, said taxi service has improved dramatically since the last round of reform. But city officials have done little to fix the broken voucher system in recent months, she said. 

“We seniors, we get a lot of lip service, but we don’t have much clout,” Wheeler said. “It’s a lot of blow and no show.” 

Barton, of the Housing Department, said he may request clerical help from another office, or even a wholesale transfer of the program to another department with adequate staff to handle the program. 

“It’s fine with me wherever the city manager wants to put it,” he said. “My feelings won’t be hurt if it should move.” 

Emily Wilcox, who chairs Berkeley’s Commission on Disability, favors shifting the program elsewhere. 

“I really wonder how many people in Berkeley would like their transportation needs handled in the Housing Department,” she said. “It’s a transportation program and I would like to see it eventually be run by the professionals in the Transportation Department.” 

But moving the program could get sticky. Barton noted that the Transportation Department, like housing, is thin on clerical staff. And, while advocates for the elderly have pushed to lump the program in with the city’s other senior services in the Health and Human Services Department, he said, disabled activists have worried aloud that the move would favor the elderly and hurt their interests. 

Advocates for seniors and the disabled have also squabbled over how much money should be allocated to taxi scrip, which serves a largely elderly population, and how much should go to the van program, which serves the disabled. 

Resources for the Berkeley Paratransit Program are limited, and the aging and disability commissions are considering income caps that would restrict the program to the poor, who make up the bulk of current users. City Council would ultimately have to approve any changes. 

City Councilmember Miriam Hawley said she does not like the idea of cutting off upper-income participants, but suggested that the savings might fund more clerical help for the beleaguered program. 

“If it’s a matter of making the program work at all, we might have to take a look at it,” she said. 

In the meantime, Barton said the city will encourage residents to make greater use of East Bay Paratransit, a federally mandated car and van service operated by AC Transit and BART that provides transportation for the disabled. 

Patrons must call a day in advance to arrange a ride with the service. Barton said it can work well for customers who have made doctors’ appointments months in advance. 

Seniors say the East Bay Paratransit phone menu is difficult to navigate, the drivers are often rude and the buses sometimes don’t show up for return trips from the hospital. Maris Arnold, former chair of the Commission on Aging, added that the elderly simply shouldn’t have to call a day in advance for transportation. 

“When you get older, one of the components of your independence is to be spontaneous,” she said. “Younger people take that for granted.” 

 


Berkeley This Week

Friday July 25, 2003

FRIDAY, JULY 25 

Mayan Calendar New Year Celebration from noon to 9 p.m. at the MLK, Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the New Times Peace Movement. 763-6069. www.tortuga.com 

“Interviews in the Canyons” Film interviews with civilian Zapatista leaders at 7:30 p.m. at the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. 841-4824. 

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

keley@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 

“Humanistic Kaddish - A Text of Life?” Shabbat with Rabbi Kai Eckstein at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring (finger) dessert to share. We also collect non-perishable food for the needy. For more information email kolhadash@aol.com or call 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, JULY 26 

18th Annual Berkeley Kite Festival, at Cesar E. Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fest@HighlineKites.com 

“The Palestinian Crisis: Another Nakba in the Making,” with Anne Gwynne, special correspondent for KPFA’s Flashpoints and volunteer with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, joined by Hatem Bazian of UC Berkeley, and KPFA’s “Flashpoints” host Dennis Bernstein, at 7 p.m. at 155 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley. Donations welcome. For more information call 465-4092. www.flashpoints.net 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives Parent Group is sponsoring a bus trip to River Rock Casino as a fundraiser for fieldtrips and activities for Berkeley youth in the BYA program. The bus will leave 1255 Allston Way at 7:45 a.m. and return by 4 p.m. The cost is $20 per person and you will receive $15 cash back. For additonal information please call 845-0155.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Basic Personal Preparedness, 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.ber- 

keley.ca.us/fire/oes or by calling 981-5506. 

Tour de Fat: Bike & Beer Community Festival from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the Ridge Trail Council and the new Bel- 

dium Brewing Company, maker of Fat Tire Ale. Morning ride from 9 to 11 a.m., bike rodeo, activities for children and beer tastings, festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. www.newbelgium.com  

SUNDAY, JULY 27 

18th Annual Berkeley Kite Festival, at Cesar E. Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fest@HighlineKites.com 

“Global Environmental Issues and Solutions” with David Seaborg at 10:30 a.m. at the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. 841-4824. 

“Iraqi Freedom from Debt Act,” a discussion with Marie Clark, national coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, on current legislation before Congress to cancel the international debts of Iraq, at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. at Cedar. 528-0105. 

The 2nd Annual Summer Swim Fest at Willard Pool from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. The United Pool Council and Willard Swimmers Association sponsor this community celebration and swimfest, in support of year-round aquatic programs at Berkeley's pools. We will supply BBQs and a selection of vegetarian and non-vegatarian grilled goodies. Bring additional food for the grill, plus a salad, casserole or dessert to share. We will have demonstrations of water aerobics, diving, and other fun participatory public events, plus lap swim, public swim, and a parent/tots area. For more information call Krista at 540-5342. 

Art Installations in the Peralta Community Garden Tour of the garden’s art work from 2 to 5 p.m. Karl Linn will speak on the concept of the garden. Also tour the Ohlone Greenway mural, EcoHouse and the Karl Linn Community Garden. Wheelchair accessible. Peralta Community Garden, Hopkins and Peralta. kirklumpkin@mac.com 

ReGENERATION - A New Alternative to School Community Learning Service will hold information sessions for this independent study program for learners age 12-17, at 3 p.m. at Cafe Eclectica, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. For more information call 524-0245. www.communitylearningservices.org 

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

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Argentine Tango Lessons with Oscar Mandagaran. Beginners at 11 a.m., intermediate at 2 p.m. Benefit Milonga and class at 8 p.m. Claremont Hotel, 41 Tunnel Rd. 655-3585. 

MONDAY, JULY 28 

Berkeley CopWatch meets at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JULY 29 

Wellstone Domocratic Club “Progressive Democrats and the Gubernatorial Recall” at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 27th and Harrison Sts., Oakland. Speakers include Margaret Hanon Grady, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO; Tim Wohlforth, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, Coordinating Committee; and Jerry Fillingim, Political Dir- 

ector, SEIU 535. For more information call 733- 0996 or e-mail democraticrenewal@california.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30 

Twilight Tour: Godwanaland and Beyond, Jeff Parsons leads a tour of the collections focusing on plants from the Southern Hemisphere at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Botannical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Free for members, $5 for non-members. Res- 

ervations required. 643-2755. www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden 

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 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Meetings are held every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204. 

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

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-5143. 527-5332. 

THURSDAY, JULY 31 

The Sustainable Business Alliance will offer a networking event and presentation on The Natural Step at 6 p.m. at the Gaia Building. Cost is $7 for members, $10 for non members. For more information call 282-5151 or visit www.sustainablebiz.org 

“Coalinga Huron Berkeley House at Berkeley” Nancy Mellor will talk about her work with rural, usually minority, students who come to Berkeley for the summer to study, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine St. Almost all of these students are enrolled in, or have completed college, defying the national and state norms. For information contact Sue Friday, 705-7314. www.quaker.org/berkmm 

Open General Meeting of the United Pool Council at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Berkeley City Council has given us the green light to keep the pools open all year, only if we meet their challenge to raise $60,000 by October in new revenues at the pools. We need your help! Please join us as we launch the Swim Berkeley campaign for year-round aquatic programs. For information call Karen 548-3860. 

ONGOING  

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities. Enrollment in American Sign Language classes are also being accepted. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email Marilyn Clausen at mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Community Food Drive Make a cash or food donation to the Safeway/ABC7 Summer Food Drive, benefiting the Alameda County Community Food Bank and its 300 member agencies. The food drive will help thousands of local low-income children who lose access to school meal programs during summer vacation. Now through August 9, put nutritious, nonperishable food donations in the red food collection barrels in all Alameda County Safeway stores or make a cash donation at Safeway check-out stands. For more information or to sign up to host a barrel, call 834-3663, ext. 318 or visit www.accfb.org  

Summer Fun Camps for Children and Teens, from age five and up, are offered at Berkeley recreation centers and include arts and crafts, swimming and tennis lessons, yoga, organized sports and games, and field trips. 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. Applications available 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. 

Marine Biology Classes for ages 5 to 7, Tues. July 29 through Fri. Aug. 1 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave, at the Berkeley Marina. Adults must accompany 5 year olds. Cost is $45 for four days. To register call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina 

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. 

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.  

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley offers funds to help low-income households in Berkeley, Emery- 

ville and Albany pay their gas and electric bills. For applications and more information, contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Monday, July 28, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715.  

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Monday July 28, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/solidwaste


Town v. Gown in Davis

Becky O’Malley
Friday July 25, 2003

We think we have problems in Berkeley with the University of California. The Planet has been deluged with irate letters from citizens who oppose UC’s newest expansion projects in Strawberry Canyon: a six-story nanotechnology laboratory plus a new office tower, with the excavation debris dumped into a creekbed to form a parking lot. Local residents are fed up with arrogant UC expansion, no question about it, but it’s even worse in Davis. The Sacramento Bee carried an article about a raucous recent meeting between UC Davis administrators, city officials and citizen opponents of UC’s latest project in that formerly sleepy agricultural town. 

There was already controversy about UC’s plan to build a high-security infectious diseases laboratory, as there has been in Berkeley over the planned nanotechnology facility. Davis City Councilman Mike Harrington, as quoted in the Bee, called the project “a big federal secretly controlled facility that would be part of the federal government’s bioterrorism arms race.” In February, the Davis City Council voted unanimously to oppose the lab, familiarly referred to in the dispute as “the germ lab.” 

The latest Davis uproar concerns UC’s plans to build a 4,300-resident subdivision and hook it into Davis’ already overburdened road system. As in Berkeley, the University of California can do whatever it wants on its own land, with no local control, but it needs local approval to connect to local roads. 

The Bee recorded some choice comments from Davis activists. “UC Davis has shown absolute disrespect for the citizens of Davis. ... People feel totally betrayed,” said Mary-Alice Coleman. At a July 10 meeting called by UC and the city of Davis, planners tried to get residents to break into small groups to map out possible street links to the development. “It was like they said—‘Okay, kids, come get your Magic Markers and start coloring on the map,’” the Bee quotes Coleman as saying. Town-gown relations went from bad to worse at that point, according to the Bee: “Residents, many waving signs against the project, shouted angry barbs at university officials. Others chanted slogans. After one angry resident shoved a consultant, who fell to the ground, the university contingent walked out.” 

Here in Berkeley, we saw a bit of citizen insubordination at the meeting on the nanotechnology lab, but it wasn’t that bad—yet. At least, no consultants have been knocked down here. But Davis citizens who spoke to the Bee reporter are predicting more trouble there: “I don’t think we’ve hit the low. I think it’s going to get worse,” said Samantha McCarthy of the grass-roots group Stop UCD Biolab Now. Many Berkeley activists might agree with her judgment that “we have a City Council majority that’s working in cahoots with the university ... and they are dismissive of community input.” 

Fancy footwork by Berkeley’s city planning commissioners averted a confrontation over UC’s ham-handed attempt to control the city’s Southside plan, which had been pushed by Mayor Bates’ appointee to the Planning Commission, former UC development administrator David Stoloff. It’s possible that the council’s decision to designate a city staffer to monitor UC’s expansion plans will have some positive effect, but don’t count on it. A previous council voted to establish a city commission to monitor UC, but the commission was never set up or even funded. 

Towns like ours are close to powerless in the face of the UC juggernaut. In Santa Cruz, UC leased a big hotel, formerly the source of half a million dollars in annual tax revenue to that city, and took it off the tax rolls, though continuing to rent rooms to visitors. As compensation, the university magnanimously offered an in-lieu payment of $100,000. 

Davis community activist Ruben Arevalo compared the University of California to a “sovereign nation that is expanding and trying to push that expansion on the community.” Another comparison might be to the proverbial 2,000-pound elephant, which pretty much sleeps anywhere it wants. 

 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Planet.


Arts Calendar

Friday July 25, 2003

FRIDAY, JULY 25 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory's “Kids OnStage” presents “Spy for a Day,” a free mini-musical by Betty Tracy Huff, at 7:30 p.m. at Epworth United Meth- 

odist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5939.  

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “The Man on the Eiffel Tower” at 7 p.m. and “The Barefoot Contessa” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dan Simmons reads from his new work of science fiction, “Ilium,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Opening Reception at ACCI Gallery with Angel the Harpist from 6 to 8 p.m. for “Taste and Touch” an exhibit with artists Jean Hearst, Ellen Russell, Biliana Stremska and Toby Tover-Krein. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Midsummer Mozart Festival with featured guest Jon Nakamatsu, George Cleve conducting, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$48. 415-292-9624. www.midsummermozart.org  

Moodswing Orchestra performs ballroom-style East Coast swing and lindy hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Celebrate Peruvian Independence Day with De Rompe y Raja at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Smelly Kelly’s Plain High Drifters, Loretta Lynch and Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Eddie Gale performs legendary jazz in a benefit at 8 p.m. for The Jazz House at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Eddie Marshall Quartet performs at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Danny Caron and Friends at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Blueshouse, women’s trio, 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 

What Happens Next, Cut the Shit, Artimus Pile, the Rites, Funeral Shock at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Frontline, Balance, and Omen perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontele- 

graph.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 26 

CHILDREN 

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

FILM 

Local Zine Short Movie Night at 8:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. Free, donations accepted. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

Restoration Pleasures: “The Night of the Hunter” 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 

“The Weather Underground” documentary with filmmaker Sam Green in person at 2 p.m. at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinema, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-FILM. www.LandmarkTheatres.com 

SF Jewish Film Festival, “Manhood” at 8:45 p.m. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Call for additional films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Angela Davis, veteran activist and professor at UC Santa Cruz, will discuss her new book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2502 Harrison St. Tickets are $10 at independent bookstores or by calling 415-255-7296 ext. 200. $12 at the door. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert, Matthew Owens, ‘cello, performs original works, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Junius Courtney Big Band, a tribute to Junius, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

African Drum Workshop with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 10 to 11:30 a.m., experienced from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advanced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

West African Highlife Band performs Ghanaian and West African dance music at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Naked Barbies and The Pete Best Experience perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Aphrodesia, Chocolate Jesus, and Pacific Vibrations perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Altura Brothers perform at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Eddie Gale performs legendary jazz in a benefit for the Jazz House at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Riders of the Purple Sage, classic cowboy harmonies, at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Scott Amendola at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Clarendon Hills, Latterman, Speakeasy, Weak Leads perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 27 

A Tribute to Brenda Prager, and 15th Anniversary of the Addison Street Windows, party and art sale from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2324 Shattuck Ave. between Bancroft and Durant. For more information call 548-8332.  

CHILDREN 

Caribbean Kids’ Show with Asheba from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PoetryFlash at Cody’s with Avotcja and Kathryn Waddell Takara at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Where Art Meets Garden: Creating Here, a discussion of art installations in the garden, with Karl Linn, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Community Gar- 

den on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

Zine Reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. Event is free. Vegan dinner available for $3-$5. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “The Awful Truth” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

SF Jewish Film Festival, “Kedma” at 2:30 p.m. and “Burial Society” at 8:45 p.m. Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for additional films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert, Marvin Sanders, flute, Lena Lubotsky, piano, perform works by Haydn, Griffes and Prokofiev, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, Students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Terry Robb and Phil Kellogg, blues-based acoustic guitarists, 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 

Clairdee sings a tribute to Nat “King” Cole at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

“Red Riot Revue, A People’s USO Show,” an evening of music, spoken word and comedy to celebrate the movement for peace. Featuring spoken word by Shalija Patel, music by Folk This! and Pickin‚ Trix, and a musical tribute to Paul Robeson, featuring members of Allegro Non Troppo Opera company. At 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. For information call 415-431-8485. 

Blue Monday and Mental perform at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Beat Bash Benefit, performances in tap, salsa, tango, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Belly, and Break at 5 p.m. at The Beat, 2580 Ninth St., at Dwight. Donation $15. 548-5348. 

MONDAY, JULY 28 

FILM 

SF Jewish Film Festival, “Forget Bagdad” at 6 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for additional films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art and Activism in These Times,” An Evening with the Creators of the Lysistrata Project, at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., with Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, co-creators of the Lysistrata Project, Randall Stuart director/producer of the Lysistrata Project at the Berkeley Rep. Reservations recommended. Tickets are $15. www.Frantix.net or call 415-621-1216 or 866-372-6849.  

Bruce Moody describes his  

experiences begging by the roadside in “Will Work for Food or $,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

Kristin von Kreisler reads from her new book, “For Bea: The Story of the Beagle Who Changed my Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express theme night: ex’s, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Northern California Songwriter’s Open Mic, professionally judged original song competition, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

TUESDAY, JULY 29 

FILM 

Sarunas Bartas: “Freedom” 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 

“The Chinatown Files,” a doc- 

umentary of seven Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans who faced persecution during the McCarthy period, at 7 p.m., at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. Screening is part of a joint campaign of the ACLU and Amnesty International to prevent Patriot Act II and repeal Patriot I. For more information call 288-7432.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Josh Furst reads from his new collection of short stories, “Short People,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Berkeley Summer Poetry with Steven Johnson Leyba from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Café, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Andrew Carrier and the Cajun Classics perform at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mimi Fox Solo Guitar at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30 

FILM 

Excess of Evil/Restoration Pleasures: “The Night of the Hunter” 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 

“The Weather Underground” documentary showing, benefit for Jericho Movement and Friends of Marilyn Buck, at 7 p.m. at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinema, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-FILM. www.LandmarkTheatres.com 

SF Jewish Film Festival, “My Life Part 2” at 11:30 a.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for additional films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Arthur Phillips discusses his new novel, “Prague,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Wendy Pearlman discusses her interviews with Palestinians under occupation in her new book, “Occupied Voices: Stories of Loss and Longing From the Second Intifada,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Return to Germany?” An evening with authors remembering their pasts in Hitler’s Germany, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

California Music Festival at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$15, available from 925-798-1300. For information on the performances see www.juliamorgan.org 

Young Musicians Program Composition Recital at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-2686.  

Gator Beat performs a blend of Louisiana Cajun and zydeco at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Patti White- 

hurst at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Open Road, bluegrass and mountain music, 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 

Third World with MC UC BUU perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 31 

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “Casa- 

nova” 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 

SF Jewish Film Festival, Johnny & Jones” at 1 p.m. “Monsieur Batignole” at 6 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Call for additional films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stephen Lestat, formerly homeless in Berkeley, will read from his recent book, “Punk Chicken and Other Tales” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with SoVoSó, a cappella ensemble, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

“Revision,” Ailey Camp students perform at 7 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-9988. 

Early Music Concert with Isabelle Metwalli, soprano, and Trevor Stephenson, harpsicord, at 8 p.m. at the Albany United Methodist Church, 980 Stannage Rd. Suggested donation $15. 547-7974. 

California Music Festival at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$15, available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Spank and Solarz from Groove Complex perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Denny Heines, world guitar, 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  

Eric McFadden Trio and Bonepony perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

AT THE THEATER 

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

er classes in nineteenth-cen- 

tury Parisian society. Through July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822.  

www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Music Theater Company, “Oliver!” Lionel Bart’s musical will be performed July 31, Aug 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 8 p.m. at Albany High School, 603 Key Route, Albany. Tickets are $15 general, $10 seniors, students, children and low-income. 524-1224. 

Berkeley Opera, “Faust,” by Gounod, Jonathan Khuner music director, Ann Woodhead, stage director. July 25, and 26 at 8 p.m., July 27 at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $38 adults, $33 seniors, $16 children, $10 students and are available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.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., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations call 558-1381.


UC Plan Would Convert Cornfields to Ball Fields

By MEGAN GREENWELL
Friday July 25, 2003

Following a series of domino effects set off by the need for more student housing, UC is planning to convert Albany’s Gill Tract urban agriculture plots into Little League diamonds next spring. The farming space is currently used by the university’s College of Natural Resources (CNR) to conduct agriculture research projects. 

The plan to build on the Gill Tract land is part of a larger UC proposal to redevelop the University Village, a 77-acre area devoted primarily to housing for UC students with children. The plans calls for an expansion of the village, which in turn would displace the baseball fields adjacent to the housing complex. Those fields would then move to the Gill Tract lot, on San Pablo Avenue near Marin Avenue, which is also owned by UC. 

The proposal needs only the approval of the UC Board of Regents, a decision expected early this fall pending the results of an environmental impact report. 

“We are trying to strike a balance between all the different needs,” UC Berkeley capital projects planner Jeff Bond said. “As everybody knows, there is a real need for housing and not many possible places to put it.”  

He added that the baseball fields were an essential element of the university plan because of the area’s lack of recreational facilities. 

The proposed future site of the baseball diamonds was acquired by UC in 1929 from the Gill family, under the university’s land grant system. Since 1995, the land has been operated by CNR. 

CNR students and faculty have worked for two years to save at least part of the Gill Tract land for farming, but have been unsuccessful in their attempts. Last year, several concerned students, professors and neighbors formed the Urban Roots coalition to create alternative proposals that would allow for more student housing while retaining the farm land. 

One proposal, designed by Carla Hyman of DSA Architects, was submitted to UC Berkeley’s Capital Projects department earlier this year. Hyman’s plan called for the baseball fields to be relocated to an area south of the Gill Tract, an idea Bond and other university officials rejected because of parking and traffic concerns. 

“We were not presented with any other feasible alternatives,” Bond said. Many students and supporters of urban agriculture projects were dismayed to learn that the farmland would be eliminated. Josh Miner, a graduate student researcher within CNR, said his studies would be inhibited by the development of the area. 

“It shows a tremendous lack of forethought on the part of the university,” Miner said. “I do understand that there are a lot of pressures for that land, but the Gill Tract is the only thing really like it. To get rid of that gets rid of a lot of educational opportunities. There is a great feeling of disappointment that they wouldn’t see it as some kind of resource.”  

But despite the disappointment prevalent among Gill Tract researchers and supporters, most said they had accepted that the redevelopment plan will go on as planned. 

“It’s a done deal,” Miner said. “We know that this year is going to be our last planting season, and that next summer we’ll be out of there. Everything is all set.” 

Miner said the research facilities currently on the Gill Tract land will most likely be moved to a location in West Contra Costa County. 

“We’ll probably be out in Orinda or somewhere out there,” Miner said. “I feel like they’re trading one set of issues for another. And even if the greenhouses are out it’s not going to be the same type of setup. It will be inferior to what we have now.” 

 


Letters to the Editor

Friday July 25, 2003

ANOTHER BIG BOX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A 44,000-square-foot Berkeley Bowl market on Ninth and Heinz would be a typical freeway-oriented big-box retailer —a Home Depot for food.  

Twice as big as a supermarket and right near a freeway exit, it would draw customers from all over the East Bay. It would pull users away from neighborhood-serving supermarkets such as Andronico’s, which do not have as much parking or as easy freeway access. Big-box retailers are driving neighborhood supermarkets out of business now, just as the supermarkets drove corner stores out of business 50 years ago.  

Environmentalists oppose this sort of freeway-oriented development, because it generates more long-distance automobile use—which means more traffic congestion and more pollution. In this case, the city would not even get the sales-tax revenue that big box stores usually generate, because food is not taxed.  

I urge the city not to allow Berkeley Bowl to build a store larger than the city’s usual 20,000-square-foot limit, which is large enough for a conventional supermarket.  

A 20,000-square-foot store on this site would serve the West Berkeley community, and it would generate fewer long-distance shopping trips on the freeway.  

Charles Siegel  

 

• 

TAXI SCRIP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The grim reality is that seniors who have been relying on the city of Berkeley for taxi scrip have received none since the beginning of the current period, July 1. In short, the city appears to have discontinued (crashed) the program without even bothering to notify them or to respond to the plaintive queries of subscribers—most of these taxi-dependent seniors are low-income women, many without families or cars. 

I have heard it said that processing the taxi scrip is a hassle for City Hall. There is no reason why it cannot be processed by and at the city’s three senior centers. Indeed, it might bring more seniors back to the centers; classes have been cut back and there’s dissatisfaction with the lunches. 

I have heard it said that seniors who don’t have cars can use taxi scrip, the bus and the city’s three senior centers’ van service. I have news, folks: Seniors frequently need transportation to and from physicians and other health-related services; seniors ongoingly need groceries; seniors deserve to be able to get a life, i.e. to access the city’s three senior centers. 

One bus route stops at the North Berkeley Senior Center; one bus route stops at the West Berkeley Senior Center, and none stops at the South Berkeley Senior Center. The senior centers’ van serves frail elderly. Seniors who have cars but are unable to use their cars and seniors who don’t have cars (the majority) need taxi scrip. Purchase of specialized parking permits for use in the North Berkeley Senior Center neighborhood may be down because of several factors. Seniors who have cars and are able to use them are lucky. Seniors with disabled stickers merely have to find a place at a curb; in the words of one city father: “They should all get disabled stickers.” 

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

 

• 

BUSH’S FREE RIDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like to think of Bush’s now infamous 16 state of the union words as a “free ride” deception. Bush’s statement, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” is true because the first phrase is true: Bush did, in fact, learn said intelligence from the Brits. The second phrase, the intelligence itself, does not have to hold water. It gets a free ride.  

Bush has used this free ride deception structure before. In May 2002 Bush was being asked “what he knew and when he knew it” concerning the Sept. 11 attacks. The media had just exposed the subject of his Aug. 6, 2001, Crawford, Texas, security briefing (Al Queda’s intention to attack American targets). There was speculation that the Bush administration knowingly allowed the attacks to take place.  

In defense of his actions Bush said, “The people of this country know this about me, my administration and my national security team: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to attack buildings on that fateful morning I would have done everything in my powers to stop the attacks.” 

The Sept. 11 attacks were the key that unlocked the Bush administration’s policies of empire and repression. Bush’s smoke and mirrors response to Sept. 11 questions is extremely troubling. 

George Palen 

 

• 

A NEW ACRONYM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In her editorial of July 18-21, executive editor O’Malley has given us an excellent new phrase for the massive construction which is engulfing Berkeley, “Big Ugly Boxes,” and the acronym BUB, which I hope will make its way into common usage. 

The only question is how to pronounce it. The obvious phonetic choice would be rhyming it with tub or rub. Another possibility would be using the same vowel sound as in blue, but the image evoked is all wrong—much too curvaceous. My personal choice is to pronounce it to rhyme with cube. Say it out loud and see if it doesn’t sound just right: Big, all square angles and beginning to smell. 

Ed Brodick 

 

• 

HOWARD DEAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There are four letters that describe Howard Dean’s conduct during the great moral challenges of our generation: A.W.O.L.  

He was born to privilege and received the fine education and other advantages that family wealth brings. Yet he absented himself from the great struggles for peace and justice that engaged the real leaders of our time. 

Howard Dean was nowhere to be found when others were putting themselves on the line to end the war in Vietnam, dismantle the apparatus of racial bigotry and fight the encroachment of corporate power and corruption. 

Dean has spent his life in a conventional, comfortable niche that required neither courage nor sacrifice. Now he advertises himself as a person of unusual vision and rectitude. The substance of his past and present actions suggests otherwise. 

As Vermont’s governor, he collaborated with Republicans to loosen environmental regulations and tighten social expenditures, turning his back on Greens and progressive Democrats. He pressured state monitoring agencies to rush approval of massive developments. One of his last acts in office was to reduce Vermont’s education budget. 

His fiscal austerity short-changes the public sector. It is a favorite of Wall Street bankers, but a bane to everyone else—workers, consumers, seniors, students, those protected by police, health and fire departments—whose well-being depends upon adequate public spending. He continues to preach this balanced budget dogma in the current recession, when deficit spending by the federal government is needed to lift the economy from its slump. 

He opposes cuts in military expenditures despite posturing as the peace candidate. He does not distinguish funding for counter-terrorism (a relatively inexpensive item) from bloated spending on weapons systems. 

He refuses to take on health insurance companies, even though their greed increases the cost and threatens the quality and integrity of American medical care. In drafting his health care proposal, he rejected the fairness, simplicity and efficiency of  

the Canadian single-payer model. His plan keeps intact the power of private insurers, and requires moderate-income participants to pay high premiums and deductibles. 

He favors erosion of the most important federal benefits for the elderly. He has stated his willingness to limit Medicare spending and raise the age at which workers become entitled to Social Security. 

He supported NAFTA, which undermines labor, safety and environmental standards throughout North America. He currently proposes tepid reforms to somewhat moderate the misery from global corporate dominance. 

He shies away from demanding that America’s wealthiest 1 or 2 percent give up a greater portion of their wealth to properly fund programs and institutions that could make possible a more secure and decent life for us all. 

Howard Dean does not deserve to be hailed as the best hope of American progressives for one simple reason: he is no progressive. He is an astute political operator. But his opportunism should be recognized and treated with appropriate mistrust. 

Randy Silverman


City Honors Disabled Advocate

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 25, 2003

Ed O’Neill, who lived outside Nevada City, Calif., was visiting his father in San Francisco in April 1977 when he saw the news clips.  

Disability rights advocates, in a bold stroke that placed their movement in the public eye for the first time, had occupied federal office buildings in San Francisco and several other cities across the country, demanding enforcement of the nation’s first major law barring discrimination against the disabled—Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. 

O’Neill, who had suffered from polio since childhood, went downtown to offer a few dollars for the cause, but was quickly drawn into a nearly month-long occupation. There, O’Neill said, he met one of the most remarkable people he would ever encounter—a powerful, 21-year-old quadriplegic activist named Cecilia “CeCe” Weeks who was handling everything from media relations to food distribution. 

“She was very strong and articulate and forceful and she happened to be beautiful,” he said. “She was one of those really special people you meet four or five times in your life. They’re dynamos, they’re beacons.” 

With pressure mounting in San Francisco and Washington, the Carter administration issued regulations enforcing Section 504, a predecessor to the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, on April 28. The disability rights movement had won its first, major national victory and, back in the Bay Area, a local leader was born. 

“CeCe was very young when the 504 demonstration took place ... and she grew into a very important leader in the last few weeks of the sit-in,” said Kitty Cone, a longtime activist who participated in the occupation. “She had a very quiet style of leadership, but it was very strong.” 

Last fall, Weeks died after a prolonged bout with bladder cancer that had restricted the activist, artist and cook to her home for much of the last year and a half of her life. This Sunday, on what would have been her 48th birthday—on a day that City Council has decreed CeCe Weeks Commemoration Day—Weeks’ family and friends will honor her with a private gathering at her old home on Spaulding Avenue and a tree planting in Berkeley’s Ohlone Park. 

Weeks was born in Palmer, Alaska on July 27, 1955, and spent parts of her childhood in California, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as her father, a construction engineer, pursued work around the country. 

“When I was a kid I was really wild,” said Weeks, in a January 1996 interview with There It Is magazine. “My parents didn’t have any control over me as long as I had a window that worked. I’d be on the roof and out of there without anybody knowing.” 

In 1969, at age 14, Weeks leapt off a diving board into a shallow lake in Minnesota and broke her neck, nearly drowning. 

“For the first couple of weeks it was hit or miss whether she was going to make it,” said her brother Stephan Weeks, an East Bay electrical engineer. 

Weeks spent about a year at a hospital in St. Paul, Minn. and a year at a rehabilitation center in Robbinsdale, Minn., where she met an attendant named Bronson West, who would become a long-term romantic partner, according to O’Neill. 

After West moved to the East Bay, Weeks made her way to Berkeley at age 19, eager to soak up the Bay Area birthplace of the Beat culture of the 1950s. 

“I wanted to see the world of Jack Kerouac,” she said in the 1996 interview. “I had to see the Mediterraneum Cafe where Allen Ginsberg washed dishes.” 

In 1974, a young Weeks met and befriended Ed Roberts, a founding father of the disability rights movement, and was soon swept up in local activism, according to the interview. She spent several years doing advocacy work for the Berkeley-based Center for Independent Living and was involved in creating Berkeley’s first emergency attendant program, which provided on-the-spot care for disabled people whose attendants were home sick or unavailable in a crisis. 

In the meantime, friends say, Weeks managed to produce a record by a local band, zip around to punk rock shows in her wheelchair, get heavily involved in American Indian activism, develop an abiding interest in spiritualism and earn degrees in public administration, clinical psychology and fine art at Antioch University West and New College of California in the 1970s and 1980s. 

“She would zoom all over town,” said O’Neill, remembering Weeks coming home from cultural events drenched from the rain. “She’d come in and she was cold and wet, but it wouldn’t stop her.” 

In 1995, Weeks launched Easy Does It, providing the city with its most comprehensive emergency attendant program to date. She served as executive director of the program until 1998. 

“It provides a vital service,” said City Councilmember Dona Spring, who is restricted to a wheelchair. “It’s really life-saving.” 

In addition to her public activism, Weeks was known for her personal generosity. Friends say she turned her home on Spaulding Avenue, which she shared with O’Neill and a rotating cast of roommates, into a community meeting space and a haven for activists, many of them poor, heading through town. 

“She drew people to her,” said Arlene Magarian, a friend and on-and-off caregiver. “People would come to her with their problems. She gave people hope and encouragement.” 

Kari Bradley, 26, an attendant who worked for Weeks in the last year and a half of her life, said her boss had a profound impact on her life. When she took the job, Bradley said, she was leaving behind a corporate position in San Francisco and looking for a new direction. 

“[Weeks] was definitely a catalyst in my life,” said Bradley, who now lives in the Spaulding Avenue home. “She could see so globally. She was about civil rights for all people...My vision of the world or my interest in the world became much bigger.” 

But in the fall of 2002, decades of activism and inspiration came to an end. Weeks died at Berkeley’s Alta Bates Medical Center on Nov. 8 and the house on Spaulding Avenue hasn’t been the same since, according to O’Neill. 

“I can’t describe how it is to lose her,” he said. “It’s like the center is gone. It’s like a great soul is not here.” 

 

 

 

 

 


Let Time Set the Fine: Rewrite Parking Rules So We Have a Chance

By DENNIS KUBY
Friday July 25, 2003

Getting a parking ticket in Berkeley is the psychological equivalent of being mugged by your local government, the same institution that collects a percentage on every dollar you spend within city limits. It’s a twice-inflicted wound because often when shopping you’re victimized by circumstances beyond your control. For example, you’re patronizing our downtown restaurants. The waiter, not wanting to intrude on your conversation, takes an extra few minutes before delivering your check. Then bam, when you get to your car there’s a parking citation on your windshield that exceeds the cost of your lunch. Suddenly, you realize you have been playing with a stacked deck. It’s next to impossible to have lunch and conduct business within the restricted time allotment of one hour in Berkeley. As they say in Las Vegas, the house always wins. In this case, it’s the entrenched bureaucracy in city hall where fringe benefits such as pensions and early retirement come to a whopping, additional 40 percent of a starting salary. It also comes with a guaranteed lifetime employment backed by powerful, public employee labor unions. 

Our City Council by a 7-1 margin (kudos to Betty Olds for her lone, dissenting vote) increased parking fines by 33 percent. Mayor Tom Bates, in a state of inexplicable euphoria, wanted a hike of 40 percent. This was done on the pie in the sky misinformation that the city of Berkeley would take in an extra $2.5 million on an annual basis. This projection is fraudulent and absurd on several counts. 

At any given time, 33 percent of the parking meters are dysfunctional, inaccurate and jammed. I got this information from three of the technicians who collect the money from the meters. The antagonism among Berkeley residents will intensify with the city’s exorbitant parking fines. Many will flock to the local malls (El Cerrito and Emeryville) where parking is free and panhandling is minimal. Thus, revenue to the city of Berkeley will decline, not increase. Also, vandalism against parking meters, which is rampant in the university areas, will rise to the level reminiscent of guerilla warfare. More police surveillance will be needed. 

The five new parking enforcers that Mayor Bates wants to hire will each have a starting salary of $60,000 (adding fringe benefits). After five years and if you’re 55 years old, you can retire on 60 percent of your salary. Wow. Tell that to a teacher with a master’s degree applying to the Berkeley Unified School District or a journalist writing for a local newspaper.  

Years ago I got a parking ticket at Yosemite National Park during the Christmas season and I kept it as a cherished souvenir. It was called a courtesy tag and was issued by none other than Smokey the Bear. There was no fine but a gentle admonition to observe parking rules so that Smokey and his wildlife friends could exist in harmony with Homo sapiens and their gas guzzlers. 

Obviously, Berkeley is not programmed for courtesy tags, but let’s use our imagination. Redesign and calibrate our parking meters so that fines are determined by the expired time on the meter. A corollary would be a speeding ticket. You pay according to the number of miles over the posted speed limit. Go five miles over and the traffic fine is modest. If the radar catches you going 85 miles on the Bay Bridge, you pay a heftier fine. Likewise in parking; every minute over the first five minutes of expiration on the meter, it’s one dollar per minute with a maximum of $100 for the first offense. So, let the time determine the fine. At least it’s a start to make our parking enforcement gentler, kinder and most important of all, it lessens the seething resentment of the motorist and makes things appear morally more equitable. 

Here’s how this program would work. Instead of hiring five parking enforcers at $60,000, hire 10 at $30,000. Divide the work force into those who give “The Berkeley Bear Courtesy Tag” and those who write regular citations. The courtesy tag on the car would indicate that a parking violation has already occurred. It would make it a lot easier and less stressful to write the ticket since it establishes that the motorist was initially warned (an equivalent to his Miranda rights) and treated with deference. 

 

Dennis Kuby is a Unitarian Minister and resident of Berkeley since 1967. He directs the local Salon group.


Berkeley Merchants Serious About Play

By MEGAN GREENWELL
Friday July 25, 2003

In an age when electronic games have replaced classic wooden toys and independent toy stores have made way for mega-marts, Berkeley remains a haven for parents searching for traditional playthings for their children. 

While many towns of comparable size have seen their small toy stores close when a new Toys ‘R Us or KB Toys moves in, Berkeley has retained at least half a dozen old-style stores for toys, games and books. Berkeley also boasts several toy manufacturers and is home to a national expert on the power of play—a woman appropriately nicknamed “Dr. Toy.” 

Berkeley’s Mr. Mopps’ Children’s Books and Toys remains one of the premiere destinations in the Bay Area for all children’s products. The family-run store at 1405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. has housed Mr. Mopps’ for 40 years, a period during which many of the toys it sells have remained unchanged. 

“My son and I used to come in on Saturday afternoons and buy Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys,” said Berkeley resident Laurel Girard while holding her five-year-old grandson, Sam, by the hand. “Now I bring Sam in here and I buy him the same toys. He loves Lincoln Logs.” 

Though the store can be a bit expensive for thrifty shoppers, many parents say the products’ high quality and the good selection keeps Mr. Mopps’ among their favorite places to shop. Children are drawn into the store by the huge stuffed lion that has occupied the front window from the beginning. 

“We can’t walk by unless we have time to go in,” said North Berkeley resident Mary Hart, who was pushing her three-year-old daughter Rachel in a stroller. “Every time she sees that lion she begs to go play inside.” 

In addition to Mr. Mopps’ and other high-end toy shops, the Berkeley area is also home to a number of second-hand stores for children’s products. Toy Go Round, which is located at 1361 Solano Ave. in Albany, is one of the Bay Area’s best destinations for used toys. The store, which has been in the Bay Area since 1976, offers parents the chance to sell back toys that their children have outgrown and buy high-quality used toys for discounted prices. 

Many Berkeley parents say the unique selection and low prices attract them to Toy Go Round: “You can’t usually go in looking for a specific product,” said Michael Felton, who was shopping for a birthday present for his six-year-old nephew. “But if you’re just looking for any fun toy, it’s a great place to discover something new.” 

Some of the best-kept secrets about the Berkeley toy scene are the several toy manufacturers that operate out of the area. One of the biggest and most well-known of these toy makers is Pamela Drake, Inc. (PDI), the company that makes the popular Woodkins toys that have won many “Best Toy” and “Toy of the Year” awards since their inception in 1998. 

Berkeley resident Pamela Drake launched her company with a “Paint-a-Snake” craft kit in 1994. The wooden snakes with the simple design soon gave way to the Woodkins dolls, which PDI public relations manager Pat Linn said became more popular than anyone involved had predicted. 

Though the Woodkins dolls are made from little more than two pieces of wood and a few scraps of brightly colored fabric, the design became a favorite with young children—first in the Bay Area and more recently across the country. The dolls use a sandwich board design with a cutout of a person on the bottom piece of wood. Children can place squares of fabric between the boards to create several types of clothing for the dolls. The Woodkins kits also come with different magnetic faces, which Linn said helps children with comprehension of emotion and feeling. 

“My daughter hardly plays with anything but her Woodkins,” said Berkeley mother Patricia Sanchez while standing in line with a new Woodkins toy at Mr. Mopps’. “They’re wonderful toys.” 

Berkeley resident Dr. Stevanne Auerbach, known as Dr. Toy, emphasized Woodkins’ simple premise as a quality that makes it an award-winning product. 

“Woodkins are colorful, lightweight and easy to play with,” Auerbach said in her “100 Best Toys” report in 2002. “They offer a new form of play with a classic feel.”  

Auerbach’s recommendations come with a lifetime of study about toys to support them. After earning a degree in education and psychology from Queens College in New York, she worked toward a doctorate in child development and child psychology at the Union Institute at Antioch College in Ohio. Auerbach worked in the U.S. Department of Education under presidents Johnson and Nixon, and continues her work today at her Institute of Childhood Resources, a Berkeley-based nonprofit she founded in 1975. 

Auerbach has since become one of the foremost national authorities on the best toys for children. She is a regular on national talk shows and in parenting magazines, especially near the holiday season. Her “100 Best Toys” and “Best Classic Toys” lists are perennial favorites with parents around the country. 

Auerbach said the high numbers of toy manufacturers and classic toy stores in Berkeley is in part attributable to its role as a college town with many young families. 

“Berkeley offers what every community that has a strong mix of university and diversity offers, but is just better than most,” she said. 

Most parents agreed. 

“Berkeley is such a great place for toys,” Girard said. “It’s so refreshing to see a place that has gotten away from the huge Toys ‘R Us stores.”


Developers Have Hijacked Berkeley Planning Process

By STEVE WOLLMER
Friday July 25, 2003

I applaud Rob Wrenn’s series on Berkeley housing. I would like to add a few comments that may make the recent changes in Berkeley housing patterns more understandable. Berkelely’s preferred mode of new housing production is mixed-use developments that combine ground floor retail/commercial with upper stories of housing, thus furthering two important development goals, revitalizing our commercial/retail base and providing needed housing. To achieve these goals the city zoning ordinance permits significant increases in density, lessened project resident amenities (in particular open space and housing) and significantly weakened protections for neighboring residential zones. The laudable goals of mixed-use projects have been hijacked by clever developers and winked at by a complacent zoning administration that apparently has never met a project they didn’t like.  

In today’s market the mixed-use distortion of the zoning ordinance takes the form of having a retail fig leaf covering an incredibly dense residential development. The most egregious examples of the mixed-use shell game are Mr. Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests’ projects. For example, their 1950 MLK project totals 120,000 square feet, of which only 5,000 (4 percent) is slated to be commercial or retail. The residential density that results is truly mind-boggling; in standard land use terms it amounts to 190 dwelling units per acre.  

To make clear how dense this project is, let us consider what could be built if it was proposed as a R3 project instead of mixed-use. The zoning code gives examples of the residential density permitted for this district—for example, if Mr. Kennedy was building a Group Living Accommodation (e.g. a dormitory or a jail) the project could have no more than 125 residents. But after waving the wand of mixed-use over the project, he is requesting use permits to build 191 units, with more than 300 bedrooms and, given the projects proximity to UC Berkeley, in all likelihood, a truly startling number of residents. Compare this result with the goals for the R3 district described in the zoning ordinance as “relatively high density residential areas; ... for persons who desire both convenience of location and a reasonable amount of Usable Open Space.” While we can all wonder what life will be like for the residents of these new developments given their density, the other main zoning concessions to mixed-use projects, the reduction in open space and parking will affect all who live, work or visit Berkeley.  

The 1950 MLK project provides only one-third of the required open space (12,570 feet squared of open space vs. 38,500 feet squared). For comparison, the ever popular Ohlone dog park a block north of the project on Hearst Street provides our canine friends more than 30,0000 square feet, and I am reasonably sure there are never anywhere near 190 dogs running around the park at one time. This type of zero-setback, open space on the roof type of development will have detrimental effects on the surrounding residential neighborhood and on the city in general through even greater demand on the existing public open spaces. To my knowledge the city has never required a developer to contribute to public open space enhancements to mitigate for their lack of project-provided open space.  

The reduction in parking below already low requirements will be noticeable to anyone who attempts to drive downtown once this and other projects similar to it are completed. For the residential portion of its project, 1950 MLK will provide only 100 out of the required 140 spaces. As we all know that Berkeley apartments are more likely to host two cars than none, expect a minimum of 100 cars circling in ever wider radiuses, looking for the elusive free parking space—they may even be parking in front of your house before long. The city is silent when asked where the residents will park, and if they will be eligible to participate in the residential parking permit program, but you, the reader will surely notice the radical diminishment of street parking the next time you attempt to park anywhere close to downtown in the evenings or the weekend.  

To my knowledge the city has never required a developer to contribute to public transportation, CarShare cars or improvements to public parking in the neighborhood to mitigate for their lack of project-provided parking.  

It is quite clear that control of development can only come through political leadership. Whether it will come from our city councilmembers or through yet another initiative the next few months will tell. There have been recent moves on the part of the Planning Department to resurrect the University Avenue plan from its unenforceable status as part of the general plan. We all need to ask, is this the type of housing the city needs or are we building the slums of the future? What is the effect on the livability of our city when we allow residential developments to be built with almost no useable open space. What will happen when the city finally reaches parking gridlock from its refusal to require projects to provide sufficient parking for their residents? Above all, remember your Psych 101 lab rat experiments and what happens when living space is reduced below even a rat’s minimal standards.  

 

Stephen Wollmer is a cartographer who lives on Berkeley Way. He has lived in the University/MLK neighborhood off and on for the last 30 years.


UC Students Sue Regents, Seek Millions Over Fee Hike

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 25, 2003

Claiming that last-minute student fee hikes represent a breach of contract, a group of University of California students are asking for millions of dollars in tuition refunds in a class action lawsuit filed Thursday. 

The suit comes a week after the UC Board of Regents raised student fees 25 percent, effective this summer. Seven months prior to that the Regents, in the thick of the state budget crisis, approved a mid-year, 11.2 percent fee hike effective in the spring 2003 semester. 

Students from four UC campuses, including UC Berkeley, say the university notified them of fee hikes for the spring and summer sessions after they had already registered for classes and received bills in the mail. 

“There is a certain requirement of fair dealing here,” said Jonathan Weissglass, one of the students’ attorneys. “They raised [fees] after folks had already committed and didn’t have time to change their plans.” 

A refund of the spring 2003 tuition hike would cost the university $28.5 million, according to UC documents. The price tag for a summer 2003 refund was unclear at press time. 

UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman said the university will fight the lawsuit. 

“The budget crisis has forced UC to make very difficult choices about student fees in a very short period of time,” he said. “The University of California tried to notify students, and we believe successfully, about the likelihood of fee increases.”  

The lawsuit also claims that the university promised, in an on-line message, that law students, medical students and others enrolled in professional programs would not face fee hikes during their time at the university.  

The UC Board of Regents’ July 17 decision to hike professional school fees for the 2003-2004 academic year is a breach of contract, the lawsuit contends, and the university should not be allowed to proceed with the jump. 

Berkeley students were notified of fee increases five days before summer school started. 

“My bill for this fall will be $2,500 higher than last fall, most of which is for a fee the university had promised not to raise,” said Mo Kashmiri, a third-year law student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, who joined the suit. “The Regents need to live up to their promises.” 

Ten students from UC Berkeley, UCSF, UC Davis and UCLA are involved in this suit.


KQED Premieres Garden Documentary

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Friday July 25, 2003

A documentary about the construction of Berkeley’s Peralta Community Garden and the community organizer behind it will make its television debut Sunday at noon on KQED, Channel 9. 

“A Lot in Common,” a 56-minute film, begins in 1997 when the North Berkeley garden was just an overgrown patch of dirt owned by BART. The documentary builds slowly, tracing a core group of community activists who survive city politics, a brouhaha over a bunny rabbit and a friend’s battle with cancer to build the garden. 

At the center of the story is Karl Linn, an 80-year-old Jewish psychologist and landscape architect who escaped Nazi Germany as a child and has spent decades building community gardens around the United States. 

“All I’m doing to contribute to the growth of community among people has to do with my experiences with racism,” Linn told the Daily Planet in April. 

The film includes interviews with PBS reporter Ray Suarez, urban planner Jane Jacobs and British scholar David Crouch, among others, to lend it context. 

A 76-minute version of the film screened May 1 at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists. But Sunday’s showing will be the first on television. 

Producer-director Rick Bacigalupi said he is pleased to see the documentary air after seven years of planning, filming and editing. 

“It’s very exciting that this important story will reach a wide audience,” he said. “I hope people will enjoy it.”


When Shoobies Came to Town

From Susan Parker
Friday July 25, 2003

On day 11 of my trip back east I took the Long Island railroad from Montauk to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, then walked to the Port Authority and caught a casino bus to Atlantic City. 

The bus dropped me off at the Tropicana and I hauled my luggage along the famous boardwalk to Caesar’s, where I met my parents under the naked statue by the nickel slot machines.  

The Atlantic City boardwalk is old and wide and the surrounding air smells like salt water, funnel cakes, hotdogs and homemade fudge. Seagulls and pigeons hover overhead. As I walked the boards I recalled one of my earliest memories: dancing with Mr. Peanut in front of the old Planter’s Peanut shop at the end of Georgia Avenue. My parents watched me as I twirled, dipped and bowed with the large, bow-legged, bespeckled creature. 

Later, as my folks and I reminisced about family summers at the Jersey shore, my father recounted some of his childhood memories of Atlantic City.  

“When I was a kid your grandfather rented a unit in a boathouse along Gardiner’s Basin at the corner of Casper and Rhode Island avenues. Do you know what a boathouse is?” he asked. 

“An expensive piece of real estate on the Sausalito waterfront.” 

“No,” said Dad. “These were rickety wooden structures built on a pier. There were 10 units, five on each side lining a wooden walkway that led to the water. We were in the middle unit; three small rooms, one on top of another. There was no electricity. We had gas lamps and an icebox. Everyday the iceman and the numbers man came by.” 

“A numbers man?” I asked. 

“Yes,” he said. “He was always dressed in black and he rode a bicycle. Your grandmother played the numbers. Everybody did. If you won, he came back the next day with your winnings. If you didn’t win he came back anyway so that you could place another bet. Back then Atlantic City was run by Nookie Johnson.” My dad looked at me meaningfully. “He wore a top hat and he had a lot of girlfriends.” 

I nodded. 

“We walked everywhere,” continued Dad. “To the beach and the boardwalk. I made fun of the ‘pickle juicers’ and ‘shoobies,’ people who came to town for day trips.”  

I interrupted again. “Pickle juicers and shoobies?” 

“Yes,” said Dad. “People who packed lunches in shoeboxes and took them to the boardwalk with them. When they bit into their pickles, juice splashed all over. My friends and I were summer people, a big step up from those damn pickle juicers.” 

“Go on,” I said. 

“Every Saturday your grandmom packed me a lunch and sent me to Steel Pier where I saw Abbott and Costello so many times I knew their jokes by heart. I watched Olga Katrina do handstands on top of a high pole and I musta seen that beautiful blonde girl on the horse dive into the ocean a million times.” 

“You saw Abbott and Costello live?”  

“Of course,” he said. “On Saturday nights my father would drive down from Philadelphia. He parked our old Ford at the boatyard and walked to our unit. I could hear him whistling before I could see him. But I always knew it was him because the tune was the same: Nelson Eddy’s Indian Love Song. You know who Nelson Eddy is, don’t you?” 

“No,” I answered.  

“What?” shouted Dad incredulously. “Nelson Eddy was the handsome dude who played a Canadian Mountie and Jeanette McDonald was his girlfriend.” 

I shrugged.  

“That’s too bad,” said Dad. “Nelson Eddy is dead, Jeanette McDonald is dead. Abbott and Costello, Olga Katrina, the blonde girl and her horse, Nookie Johnson and his girlfriends, the iceman, the numbers man, even the boathouses are gone.” 

“But not Mr. Peanut,” I say. “Mr. Peanut is alive and well, dancing in Beach Blanket Babylon and living at Club Fugazi in San Francisco.” 

“Figures,” said Dad.  

 

Oakland resident 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


City’s Art Community Honors Brenda Prager

Daily Planet staff
Friday July 25, 2003

The Berkeley art community will celebrate the life and work of artist and arts commissioner Brenda Prager at a party in her honor Sunday. 

“A Tribute to Brenda Prager & 15th Anniversary of the Addison Street Windows Party and Art Sale” is open to the public from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2324 Shattuck Avenue. 

Prager joined the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission in 1988 and within a few months she created the Addison Street Window Gallery, a free sidewalk art gallery in Downtown Berkeley. She has curated the gallery for the last 15 years. 

Last month Prager was diagnosed with terminal, end-stage cancer. 

Prager said she plans to attend Sunday’s show and party. 

“I'm not looking backward on my life, not one minute,” she said. “I don’t have yesterday, I only have tomorrow. . .I only have what’s now.” 

Arts commissioner Bonnie Hughes planned Sunday’s event for Prager. 

“Artwork is coming in not just from people who’ve shown in the windows but from people who know Brenda from all over the world,” Hughes said “It gives people a chance to do something. When one of your friends is dying you feel pretty useless and here’s something you can do to make it a little easier.” 

Prager has won national recognition for her photographic images of disabled persons expressing their sexuality. The Berkeley Art Center is currently negotiating to exhibit a career retrospective of Prager’s hand-worked photographs in September.  

—Daily Planet staff


Having a Choice on Recall Election Day

J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Friday July 25, 2003

AC Transit Board and Green Party member Rebecca Kaplan has been circulating an e-mail this summer, calling on Gov. Gray Davis to resign ahead of the impending recall election. 

“We need to make it clear that Davis can win by stepping down,” Ms. Kaplan writes. “In fact, this is the only way he can win. By doing this, Davis can take the moral high road—stepping aside for the sake of his state and his party—saving the taxpayers millions of dollars, and defeating the Republicans who have spent a great deal of their own money to attempt a recall. … For this to work, it must be made clear that it is in Davis’ self-interest to step aside. Let him save face, as someone who ‘saw the light’ and decided to do something for the public.” 

Ms. Kaplan, a politician of intelligence, has not heretofore been known for her sense of humor, but this is a good start. On the day Gray Davis resigns the governorship for the good of the California public ... well ... gee ... I can’t imagine what extraordinary event might happen on that day. The judging of the quick and the dead? A return to 30 cents a gallon gas? No, this seems a to-the-bitter-end kind of guy, at least where his own future is concerned.  

Like a retreating army setting fires and wrecking railroad trestles in its wake, the Davis camp has been using interesting arguments to delay and confuse its pursuers. One such argument is a serpent with multiple heads: the recall is bad because it is a waste of the taxpayers’ money; the recall is bad because you should only recall a governor with just cause; the recall is bad because it comes so soon after the voters of California made their choice. All of these are not really arguments against recalling Gray Davis; they are arguments against the recall process itself. California progressives ought to be beware of repeating such, under the theory that words uttered now might be gleefully used against them at some unforeseen, later time. Recall is the ultimate, popular check-and-balance on unresponsive government. Someday, progressives might want to use it themselves.  

The second Davisite argument against the recall is that the recent petition-signing campaign did not reflect the actual will of California voters, but merely reflected the ability of Republicans (particularly Congressmember Darryl Issa) to pump in gobs of money to distort the political process. In other words, this is a “bought” recall. Coming from the Davis camp, which has perfected the art of buying elections, this is particularly amusing.  

But all of this is smokescreen for Davis’ real recall strategy.  

If the recall petition signatures are certified as valid—the most likely scenario—then California voters will soon participate in an election that presents us with a two-part ballot. The first part of the ballot will be a yes/no question: Should Gov. Gray Davis be thrown out of office? The second part of the ballot allows the voter to choose a potential replacement (Davis, by the way, cannot be one of those choices). If 50 percent or more of the voters vote “no” on the first part of the ballot, Davis stays in office. If a majority of the voters vote “yes” on the first part, the candidate who gets the most votes in the second part of the ballot takes over as governor.  

Davis’ real strategy, successful so far, is to keep any Democrat from putting his or her name on the ballot to succeed him. Potential powerhouse candidates such as Sen. Diane Feinstein, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Attorney General Bill Lockyer have all declined to run. The theory here is that Democratic voters, who are a majority in the state, have never been that tickled to death about Gray Davis, and might replace him if they had a decent alternative. If these Democratic voters look over the recall ballot and are horrified by the alternate choices (Arnold Schwarzenegger and the aforementioned Mr. Issa, for example, whom the Davisites have spent the spring and summer demonizing), then such Democrats will hold their noses, vote against the recall and live the next three years under Davis.  

This is great strategy for Gray Davis. It is lunacy for progressive Californians, however, since it ensures a bad choice (from progressives’ point of view) if the first part of the ballot succeeds and Davis is recalled.  

The recall ballot, after all, allows voters to hedge their bets. A voter can cast a vote against the recall of Gray Davis on the first part of the ballot (if that’s their pleasure), while at the same time making a choice for a replacement governor, in the event that Davis is recalled.  

Peter Camejo, the Green Party candidate, has been suggested as one alternative for California progressives. Arianna Huffington, the reformed former Republican, is another. I’m not ready to make my choice just yet. But I’d damn sure like to have a choice, come recall election day.


Iraqi Policy Looks Like a Lethal Neocon Job

By WILLIAM O. BEEMAN Pacific News Service
Friday July 25, 2003

Finding Saddam Hussein is “definitely the most important thing we have to do right now,” declared Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in the wake of the killing of Saddam’s sons on July 22.  

But what should be worrying Wolfowitz is not how to find Saddam, but how to contain the disintegration of Iraq that looms even as U.S. forces try to track Hussein down and put a definitive end to his rule.  

From the outset, the neoconservative theory of the Iraqi war promoted by Wolfowitz, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Adviser Richard Pearl, among others, was simplistic. It asserted that Saddam and his sons held the nation in a reign of terror and the removal of these terrible tyrants would be greeted with gratitude and cooperation among the Iraqi people and lead to an instant national solidarity and the rise of a democratic state.  

This theory is not dead, as seen in the White House’s stated belief that eliminating Saddam once and for all is the key to peace and order in Iraq. However, as evil as he was, Saddam paradoxically unified rather than divided Iraq and provided order, albeit repressive.  

Iraq was a misbegotten nation, cobbled together from three provinces of the Ottoman Empire with spit, bailing wire and the British Army after World War I. The Britons crowned as their puppet king the Hashemite son of the Sharif (chief religious official) of Mecca, who had aided Britain against the Turks. The royal house of Iraq lasted only for as long as the British Army was there to hold things together.  

The king was ousted in a revolution in 1958. A succession of hard-line military rulers culminated with Saddam in 1978.  

Saddam, being a member of the minority Sunni Arab community, found he could only rule effectively over the larger ethnic and confessional communities by terror. The unruly majority Shiites, the separatist Kurds and other ethnic groups threatened his rule at every turn. His response was ruthless suppression. Internal political conditions were horrendous, but the nation held together.  

Like Louis XV, Saddam might well have said, “Apres moi, le deluge.” 

Ironically, President Bush’s father, President George Herbert Walker Bush, knew that the United States was ill-prepared to deal with a post-Saddam regime. This was one of the main reasons he decided not to remove Saddam during the first Gulf War.  

Now the United States has utterly obliterated the only force that held the nation together, with not a clue how to put it back together again. The Bush administration has done well to rid the world of a villain, but with no plan for the future, this act is a flirtation with complete chaos.  

The downfall of Saddam Hussein and his family is like the shot of a starter pistol for a mad struggle over the soul of the nation. Large groups, like the Shiites, want to dominate. A countervailing pull for independence by the Kurds in the north threatens to split the country into fragments. This is met by an attempt on the part of the former ruling Sunnis to reassert political and military control.  

Far from promoting unity, the United States’ dramatic efforts to prove that Saddam’s rule is over will only fuel fractionalization and competition between the ethnic and confessional groups. In short, the United States is setting Iraq on a path to civil war.  

Worse yet, our forces on the ground are doing nothing to stop the disintegration of the nation. The American public is fed optimistic statements about the high morale of U.S. troops and the “progress” being made at reconstructing Iraq. But observers on the ground depict a different reality. Our soldiers are being shot every day. We have put corporate America in charge of reconstruction, but these oil-field construction companies are woefully unprepared. To fill the urgent demand for expert positions, Bechtel and other highly paid U.S. contractors have had to grab the first inexperienced people they could find to do the work of seasoned professionals.  

Writer and Iraqi observer William Rivers Pitt notes that policemen from Atlanta, Ga., who speak no Arabic, are put in charge of rebuilding the police. Novice academics from religious colleges in the American South with no experience in the region or in working with Islamic societies are sent out to assess the political climate.  

Meanwhile, the United States cannot turn on the electricity or provide drinking water after four months of occupation.  

Obsession with “getting Saddam” is obviously getting in the way of the real “most important task” in Iraq: getting a grip on a nation that threatens to deteriorate physically and disintegrate politically. The cheers for the deaths of Uday and Qusay, and eventually Saddam, will continue for a day or two, but the horrendous, misbegotten mess of reconstruction will leave an eternal scar of shame on America’s history.  

 

William O. Beeman teaches anthropology and is director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. He is author of “Language, Status and Power in Iran,” and two forthcoming books: “Double Demons: Cultural Impediments to U.S.-Iranian Understanding," and "Iraq: State in Search of a Nation.”


Teens Document Life, Love For Jewish Film Festival

By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet
Friday July 25, 2003

There’s a Yiddish saying, “If you want to understand Jews, look at Christians.” 

The opposite is also true—an examination of Judaism can illuminate other cultures. For the next six days, Saturday, July 26 through Thursday, July 31, wonderfully divergent views of life through a Jewish lens will be shown on the UC Berkeley campus as the 23rd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival comes to Wheeler Auditorium.  

In addition to the more than 30 films and videos ranging from high-end feature films to Indie shorts and documentaries from around the world, this year’s festival offers the world premiere of “Four Short Films About Love,” a candid collection of tales about being young and Jewish in the Bay Area, created by 10 Bay Area teens.  

Produced by Sam Ball of the New Jewish Filmmaker Project, this is the second in a series of “do it yourself” documentaries for Bay Area teenagers that the festival has funded and premiered. 

“For teenagers ... it’s really an amazing way, not only to dive into what’s possible in documentary film making [but] it’s a great opportunity to just dive into Jewish culture as it intersects with all these other cultures around the world,” said Ball. “That’s not something you really get in Hollywood. We’re using the medium to just spark a dialogue and to have the process be part of the product.  

“What’s particularly interesting about working with teenagers is they’re at a time in their life when some of the things we take for granted as adults—like ‘Who am I?’—are still very new and very raw. If you give them the opportunity to talk about those things you get material that’s really fresh and really interesting,” said Ball. 

“Our film [‘Four Short Films About Love’] is about love, but through a Jewish lens,” said Hannah Lesser, a 17-year-old Berkeley High student. “Even though it’s through a Jewish lens, that doesn’t mean that other people couldn’t enjoy it. Anything I say or do or think, is Jewish. Especially anything I think. It’s in the way that I’ve been taught, the way I’ve learned to see things. I guess I could say the same thing [about being a woman]. I would definitely say that anything I see, I see through a ‘Berkeley’ lens.” 

“Looking back I think a lot of people didn’t realize how open they were letting themselves be,” said Leah Whitman-Salkin, a 16-year-old from Kensington. “I think it freaked a lot of people out for so many people to see such a private time in our lives, in such private relationships. I’m kind of interested in seeing the relations of people and the reaction of myself in the audience as people see it.”  

“It took a lot out of us because it’s really honest,” agreed Lesser. “You have to be honest because you want people who are watching the movie to get the gist of it. You can’t keep secrets.”  

Edward Baraona, a 17-year-old from West Oakland, is currently participating in the making of next year’s documentary. An aspiring filmmaker, he also is struggling to integrate the disparate elements of his personal history.  

“My great-grandmother, she’s Jewish,” said Baraona. “Before the Holocaust, in ‘37, she came to America [from Berlin, Germany] looking for refuge, but the United States would not accept her so she was sent back. She came back again, but this time to Latin America. She found refuge in El Salvador. She had her child in ‘39, my grandmother, and she had her daughter in ‘63, my mother. Then they moved to the states and my mom married a native and indigenous man, he grew up in Mexico but he’s actually Peruvian, and they had me. So I have a bunch of mixes in me. I have native Spanish. I have Hebrew blood and I have indigenous blood. I come from different heritages and I’ve inherited all these different cultures but I wouldn’t say I’m unique because there are so many kids just like me.” 

“One of the things we explore is how Jewish identity intersects with other identities,” Ball said. “Sometimes in the same person. That reflects the breadth of Jewish culture. Throw any 10 Jews in a room and you’ll have more than 10 cultures from around the world represented. What it means to be a Jew is to ask yourself a series of questions about who you are, about your values, about your sense of place in the world. Where do I belong? And to have the kind of agility to project yourself in several places at once. To project yourself into the past and the future simultaneously is a very Jewish thing.” 

Laura Salazar, a self-identified Chilean-Jew, lives in East Oakland and studies film at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. She was a member of the Jewish Film Festival’s first documentary project two years ago. 

“How do you define yourself? Like what do you relate to? How have you been raised? Many factors create a personality. It’s deep stuff,” Salazar said, laughing. “We would talk about and it would go on a long time. ‘You can’t be both in all of this stuff.’ That’s what they say. That’s what I’ve heard a lot of. Sometimes people’s feelings would get hurt. It was powerful but I came away from it feeling pretty positive. Being of mixed heritage, I can see both sides, it’s kind of like a portal. I think you can be both. I’m both. I’m more than that actually.” 

“Four Short Films About Love” premieres at Wheeler Auditorium Thursday, July 31, at 8:15 p.m. For a complete schedule of all the films showing in the 23rd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival or information about tickets and prices, phone (925) 275-9490 or visit the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival on the Web at www.sfjff.org.  


Ten Questions for Vice President Cheney

By BERNIE SANDERS, DENNIS KUCINICH and CAROLYN B. MALONEY TomPaine.com
Friday July 25, 2003

The following letter was sent to Vice President Dick Cheney on July 21, 2003: 

 

The Honorable Dick Cheney 

Vice President 

Office of the Vice President of the United States Eisenhower Executive Office Building 

Washington, DC 20501 

 

Dear Mr. Vice President: 

 

While it has been widely reported that the President made a false assertion in his State of the Union address concerning unsubstantiated intelligence that Iraq purchased uranium from Niger, your own role in the dissemination of that disinformation has not been explained by you or the White House. Yet, you reportedly paid direct personal visits to CIA's Iraq analysts; your request for investigation of the Niger uranium claim resulted in an investigation by a former U.S. ambassador, and you made several high-profile public assertions about Iraq's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. We hope that you will take the opportunity to provide responses to the following ten questions. 

 

l. Concerning “unusual” personal visits by the Vice President to CIA analysts. 

 

According to The Washington Post, June 5, 2003, you made “multiple” “unusual” visits to CIA to meet directly with Iraq analysts. The Post reported: “Vice President Cheney and his most senior aide made multiple trips to the CIA over the past year to question analysts studying Iraq’s weapons programs.” 

These visits were unprecedented. Normally, Vice Presidents, yourself included, receive regular briefings from CIA in your office and have a CIA officer on permanent detail. In other words, there is no reason for the Vice President to make personal visits to CIA analysts. 

According to the Post, your unprecedented visits created “an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration's policy objectives.” 

 

Questions: 

 

1) How many visits did you and your chief of staff make to CIA to meet directly with CIA analysts working on Iraq? 2) What was the purpose of each of these visits? 3) Did you or a member of your staff at any time direct or encourage CIA analysts to disseminate unreliable intelligence? 4) Did you or a member of your staff at any time request or demand rewriting of intelligence assessments concerning the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? 

 

II. Concerning a request by the Vice President to investigate intelligence of Niger uranium sale, revealing forgery one year ago. 

 

This alleged sale of uranium to Iraq by Niger was critical to the administration's case that Iraq was reconstituting a nuclear weapons program. During the period of time you reportedly paid visits to CIA, you also requested that CIA investigate intelligence that purported to show Iraqi pursuit of uranium from Niger, and your office received a briefing on the investigation. 

According to The New York Times of May 6, 2003, “more than a year ago the vice president’s office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. Ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger.” 

The ambassador “reported to the CIA and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged,” according to the Times. Indeed, that former U.S. Ambassador, Joseph Wilson, wrote in The New York Times, July 6, 2003, “The vice president’s office asked a serious question. We were asked to help formulate the answer. We did so, and we have every confidence that the answer we provided was circulated to the appropriate officials within our government.” 

Moreover, your chief of staff, Mr. Libby, told Time magazine this week that you did in fact express interest in the report to the CIA briefer. Our understanding is that Standard Operating Procedure is that if a principal asks about a report, he is given a specific answer. 

 

Questions: 

 

5) Who in the office of Vice President was informed of the contents of Ambassador Wilson's report? 6) What efforts were made by your office to disseminate the findings of Ambassador Wilson's investigation to the President, National Security Adviser, and Secretary of Defense? 7) Did your office regard Ambassador Wilson's conclusions as accurate or inaccurate? 

 

III. Assertions by the Vice President and other high ranking members of the Administration claiming Iraqi nuclear weapons program. 

 

The President’s erroneous reference to the faked Niger uranium sale in his State of the Union address was only one example of a pattern of similar assertions by high ranking members of the administration, including yourself. The assertion was made repeatedly in the administration's campaign to win congressional approval of military action against Iraq. 

For instance, you said to the 103d National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002, “they [the Iraqi regime] continue to pursue the nuclear program they began so many years ago... we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons... Should all his ambitions be realized... [he could] subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.” 

In sworn testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, just weeks before the House of Representatives voted to authorize military action against Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified on September 18, 2002: “He [Saddam]... is pursuing nuclear weapons. If he demonstrates the capability to deliver them to our shores, the world would be changed. Our people would be at great risk. Our willingness to be engaged in the world, our willingness to project power to stop aggression, our ability to forge coalitions for multilateral action, could all be under question. And many lives could be lost.” 

 

Questions: 

 

8) Since your address to the VFW occurred nearly 7 months after Ambassador Wilson reported his findings to the CIA and State Department, what evidence did you have for the assertion that Iraq was continuing “to pursue the nuclear program” and that Saddam had “resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons”? 9) Since the Secretary of Defense testified to Congress that Iraq was “pursuing nuclear weapons” nearly 8 months after Ambassador Wilson’s briefing to CIA and the State Department, what effort did you make to determine what evidence the Secretary of Defense had for his assertion to Congress? 

 

Further refutation of the authenticity of the forged Niger documents came from IAEA Director General ElBaradei, when he reported to the UN Security Council on March 7, 2003: “These documents, which formed the basis for reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger, are in fact not authentic. We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded... we have found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons programme in Iraq.” Yet on March 16—nine days afterwards—you again repeated the unfounded assertion on national television (Meet the Press, Sunday, March 16, 2003). You said: 

 

“We think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong,” and “We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” 

 

Question: 

 

10) What was the basis for this assertion made by you on national television? We hope you will take the opportunity to answer these questions about your role in the dissemination of false information about Iraq's nuclear program to justify the war in Iraq. We look forward to a response. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Dennis J. Kucinich, Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations 

 

Carolyn B. Maloney, Member 

Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations 

 

Bernie Sanders, Member 

Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations


Blair Government Attack On BBC is Witch Hunt

By ROBERT SCHEER AlterNet
Friday July 25, 2003

In England, they shot the messenger. True, the death of British biological weapons expert David Kelly was a suicide. But if the reserved scientist took his own life, it was in response to the British Ministry of Defense outing and reprimanding him as the alleged whistle-blower behind the BBC's controversial report that the government “sexed up” its intelligence information to make the case for war. 

The BBC charge against the government in this instance was quite mild, because what Tony Blair did was not merely hype the case for preemptively invading Iraq. Rather, he deliberately lied to his public about the certainty of his claims to frighten the people into sending their children off to war. In this case, the Brits said—wrongly— that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in 45 minutes, a lie also employed by our president as one of his hysterical claims to justify the invasion of Iraq. 

But in England, Kelly's death and the unraveling justifications for war have created a governmental crisis and prompted calls for Blair to resign. 

The prewar confetti of frightening claims about Iraq has been exposed as nothing more than cherry-picked snippets from intelligence reports that generally regarded that nation’s threat to the world as modest and shrinking. Instead of admitting this now obvious fact, the Blair government unleashed a witch hunt against the BBC and anyone in the Blair administration who might have been a source for the news agency’s reporting. 

Kelly was the first victim of the government’s revenge against the British Broadcasting Corporation, which had—until Kelly was found dead—refused to name its source. The BBC has been a target of the Blair-Bush partnership ever since they decided to invade Iraq. 

During the Iraq war, the BBC, in stark contrast to leading U.S. news outlets, distinguished itself for objective coverage of its own government, even during a time of heightened patriotism. This should be a great advertisement for the model of a free society that we claim to be eager to export to, or impose on, the rest of the world. In most countries, publicly subsidized broadcasting is an important source of news, and the BBC serves as the premier example that such reporting can withstand official government assaults on its independence. The BBC’s reporting on the doctored intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction followed its notable report debunking the U.S. military propaganda tale of the battle and rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. 

Remember, the BBC was not taking the safe route that so many news organizations prefer. Yet, time and again, they have been proved right with each new revelation of half-truths, outright lies and data manipulation on the part of the coalition’s leaders-in-chief. 

As Paul Reynolds, a veteran BBC military affairs analyst, said of the British intelligence dossier cited as the source for Bush’s now-repudiated claim about Iraq’s nuclear program: “Of the nine main conclusions in the British government document ‘Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction,’ not one has been shown to be conclusively true.” 

Blair last week told the U.S. Congress that he and Bush were right to invade Iraq even if no weapons of mass destruction are ever found. Left unmentioned is that it was the coalition that chased U.N. weapons inspectors out of Iraq, claiming they weren’t doing their job and that the Iraq threat was growing. Clearly the immediacy of the threat from Hussein was a phony claim that Blair and Bush should have known full well was not backed up by any substantial evidence. 

What’s left is the idea that we are in Iraq to build a democracy by force. Yet the people on both sides of the Atlantic were adamantly opposed to this sort of nation-building, smacking as it does of past disasters, from the collapse of the British Empire to the U.S. war in Vietnam. In essence, we are now told to be happy with a rationale for war that we didn’t find convincing before the war started. 

This is a denigration of the core ideal of representative democracy—rule by an enlightened public—as are vindictive attacks on journalistic watchdogs and whistle-blowers who keep our representatives honest. Last week in his speech, Blair smugly claimed the favorable judgment of future historians, but it is the BBC that history will celebrate for its pursuit of truth.  

Robert Scheer is a Berkeley resident.


Martinez More Than Martinis, DiMaggio

By KATHLEEN HILL Special to the Planet
Friday July 25, 2003

Think beyond the foul oil smell you conjure up when imagining Martinez on a sunny day. It isn’t always there, and a rather historic small town is. Thriving on pride derived from its famous sons, major league baseball’s Vince, Dom and “Joltin” Joe DiMaggio, and the city’s claim that the martini was born here, Martinez offers collectibles and antique stores, great parks and historic sites, of course surrounded by Shell oil tanks. 

A gold rush port from 1849, Martinez was settled by traders who bought, sold and shipped goods on Dr. Robert Semple’s ferry boat to Benicia and beyond. Martinez was declared the county seat in 1850, lacked the required 200 registered voters to incorporate, but finally made it in 1876. The county seat attracted lawyers and judges as permanent residents, and Martinez’s first newspaper, the Contra Costa Gazette, began publication in 1858. Two years later, Martinez became the shipping port preferred by grain growers around Mt. Diablo and the Livermore Valley, with cargos going to and arriving from England, France, Russia and Scandinavia. 

Railroads reached Martinez in 1877, and the Central Pacific linked its “world’s largest ferry boat” from grain wharves lining the shoreline from Martinez to Crockett to transcontinental rail routes.  

The Martinez Museum, located in an 1890 Victorian cottage at Escobar and Court streets, is loaded with maps, photographs, county history, railroad, educational, legal and baseball items. Docents show impressive knowledge of local lore. Shell Oil Company even offers the Shell Oil Alumni Museum, organized by former Shell employees, displaying large machinery, lab equipment and tools, pictures and screens, video tapes on oil processing, chemical testing demonstrations and bus tours. (Pacheco Boulevard and Arreba Street) 

The John Muir National Historic Site at 4202 Alhambra Ave. is worth the whole trip. Underknown and undervisited, the site offers a tour of the 17-room John Muir home (do not miss the library or the Sierra Club Exhibit Room), the Orchard Trail through nine acres of vineyards and orchards, a Victorian garden and a natural area by Franklin Creek. The Martinez Adobe was built by Don Vincente Martinez, son of the commandante of the Presidio of San Francisco. Muir’s father-in-law, Dr. John Strentzel, bought the property in 1874, planted fruit trees and used the adobe for storage. Eventually the Muirs’ eldest daughter, Wanda, and her husband, Thomas Hanna, lived in the home, where Muir played with his grandchildren. The whole site is wheelchair accessible. Be sure to stop in the visitor center for a great collection of John Muir’s writings, environmental publications and loads of children’s books, coloring books, a Kids’ Guide to the John Muir Historic Site and the “Earth Planet Universe” video shown hourly. 

Upcoming Muir events include the two-mile Full Moon Walk across the street at Mt. Wanda Park Aug. 11, the Perseid Meteor Shower Walk Aug. 13, and Ranch Days Sept. 13. Muir fans will enjoy John Muir’s Mountain Days, performed by Willows Theatre Company Aug. 8-31 in the John Muir Amphitheater at the Martinez Regional Shoreline. Call (925) 798-1300 or www.willowstheatre.org.  

The Shoreline, a feat of the city of Martinez and the East Bay Regional Park District at the foot of Ferry Street, includes surprising amenities, such as cycling paths, fishing, walking paths along Pickleweed Trail through the enhanced Marsh, boating, soccer, Waterfront Park with the latest in modern children’s climbing equipment, picnic tables, the Joe DiMaggio Ballfields and Martinez’s local obsession, bocce played on 15 covered courts. Bars, restaurants and other local groups field bocce teams and compete at the national level. 

The old Southern Pacific Station has steam cars on display, and the attractive new station sits just west of the old one. Watch carefully for passing trains. 

Antiques and collectibles shops line Ferry and Main streets, a real find for bargain hunters. Prices here beat anything in sight. 

Food is not an obsession in Martinez, so settle into comfortable country food at the Copper Skillet Courtyard, which does not have a courtyard, or at Victoria’s Café, once the DiMaggio Fine Foods and Bakery.  

The Copper Skillet has an elevated corner loft called “The Jury Box” where Contra Costa County’s judges have lunch every Wednesday. Bountiful breakfast specials begin at $3.99 and weekday lunch specials, such as a chicken Caesar, fish and chips, Greek salad or a grilled Portobello or chicken sandwich with mushrooms or bacon on grilled sourdough top out at $5.99. 

At Victoria’s Café, owner Willie Ebrahimie offers too-cute-named sandwiches such as the “Buttafuoco” and the “Legal Eagle” under $8, with ample salads and burgers under $8. Marilyn Monroe used to hang out here when it was DiMaggio’s. The only good restaurants open in the evening are Bertoli’s Italian Restaurant and Thai Lanna Fine Thai food on Ferry Street and Marina Vista. 

Collectors and garage sale aficionados alert: the Martinez Peddlers’ Faire on Main Street is Saturday, Aug. 2.  

 

The official City of Martinez Gold Rush-era original martini recipe (does not resemble mine): 

Dash of bitters 

2 dashes maraschino liqueur 

1 pony Old Tom gin 

1 wine glass vermouth 

slice lemon 

 

 


Summer Noon Concerts in Downtown Berkeley

Friday July 25, 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


Tribute Planned for Berkeley Arts Advocate

By FRED DODSWORTH Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 22, 2003

For the past 15 years, longtime Berkeley resident Brenda Prager has made community art her public persona, both as a Berkeley arts commissioner and as curator of the Addison Street Windows Gallery. 

Four weeks ago this vibrant and vital artist and arts supporter was diagnosed with terminal, end-stage cancer. The Bay Area’s arts community will host “A Tribute to Brenda Prager & 15th Anniversary of the Addison Street Windows Party and Art Sale” on Sunday afternoon as a small token of its affection and appreciation for Prager’s dedicated years of service. 

“We started on this about 10 days ago,” said fellow arts commissioner Bonnie Hughes. “Brenda and I talked about it; actually it was her idea. Through the wonders of e-mail the word got out very quickly. Artwork is coming in not just from people who’ve shown in the windows but from people who know Brenda from all over the world. It’s really wonderful because it gives people a chance to do something. When one of your friends is dying you feel pretty useless. And here’s something you can do to make it a little easier.” 

“I came here in ‘73,” Prager said. “I moved from Cazadero to Berkeley to open one of the first vegetarian restaurants, Ma Goodness on Shattuck and Emerson. It became omnivore when the menu changed.” 

While she was still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, Prager joined the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission in 1988. Within a few months she created the Addison Street Window Gallery. 

“The City Council sent a letter requesting the arts commission do something with these windows [on the city of Berkeley’s Addison Street Parking Garage] because the Rep was building their first building at that time,” Prager recalled. “For about three months, at every meeting, they’d bring this up: ‘Does anyone want to take over this project?’ No one wanted to do it, so after the third month I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’” 

“Brenda is one of the most wonderful assets of the arts community,” said arts commission secretary Mary Ann Merker. “In the five years I’ve worked for the city of Berkeley, Brenda has just been a tremendous help and asset in all of the ways we have worked to help the arts community.” 

Albany artist Eve Donovan agreed, “She has really given a lot to this community over the years in ways that even she doesn’t know. It’s all about public art, it’s all about public access and she’s been doing all of this, for a lot of people, in a very invisible way. I think that it’s really important that an event like this is happening, to let her know that people really do appreciate what she’s been doing. Who wouldn’t want to know how much they meant to people before they left? It takes courage for everybody, but it’s important.” 

“Brenda not only did the Windows, as an arts commissioner she established policies that have benefited and continue to benefit artists and ordinary people,” said Robbin Henderson, executive director of Berkeley Arts Center. “She’s given opportunities to artists no one else might give them, even persons who might not consider themselves artists. It’s hard to understand how this could happen to such a vibrant, vital person, such a dynamic person.” 

In addition to her work for the public, Prager won national recognition for her photographic images of disabled persons expressing their sexuality. Her civic work kept her from promoting her personal art. 

“She’s been kind of isolated for the last few years because she’s been doing these embroidery photographs,” said Karen Youst, Prager’s daughter. “She hasn’t really shown them yet. She’s been spending years doing these photographs, so I don’t think she’s realized how many people she’s touched, how many friends she had.” 

The Berkeley Art Center is currently negotiating to exhibit a career retrospective of Prager’s hand-worked photographs in September.  

“She’s a really, really good artist that never spent the effort promoting herself,” said Henderson. “She was always focusing the attention on to others.” 

“She’s an extremely community-oriented person. She’s a person of the people,” said Elizabeth Sher, an artist and teacher at California College of Arts and Crafts. “She had her own artwork and she had shows separate from this curating position. She invented this position; she wanted to use a space that people would see when they walked by in a very public place. Now this is the art corridor, but in a way she made it the art corridor. She was there from the beginning.” 

Prager has asked local artist Carol Brighton to pick up the reins as curator of the Addison Street Windows.  

“Brenda put the Windows on pretty firm footing. She brought it to this point,” said Brighton. “It will be very difficult to fill her shoes but it’s important to keep it going.” 

Prager plans to attend Sunday’s show and party. 

“I’m not looking backward on my life, not one minute,” she said. “I don’t have yesterday, I only have tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, I only have what’s now.” 

 

A Tribute to Brenda Prager & 15th Anniversary of the Addison Street Windows Party and Art Sale at 2324 Shattuck Avenue, Sunday, July 27th, from 2 to 5 p.m. 

 


Berkeley This Week

Staff
Tuesday July 22, 2003

TUESDAY, JULY 22 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave.845-6830. 

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

Lawyers in the Library, at 6 p.m. in the West Branch, University above San Pablo, 981-6270.  

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 

Botanical Garden Twilight Tours: A Walk in California with horticulturist Nathan Smith at 5:30 p.m. Free for members, $5 for non-members. UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Registration required. 643-2755. www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden  

Berkeley Food Policy Council meets at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. The Berkeley Food Policy Council (BFPC) works to increase community food access and help build a healthy regional food system. Everyone is welcome. For information call Penny Leff, 548-3333.  

California Power: The Big Picture and How We Fit In, with Nettie Hoge, Executive Director, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Ber- 

keley Gray Panthers. 548-9696. graypanthersberk@aol.com 

South Berkeley Mural Project Community members 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 at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. 644-2204.  

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

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-5143. 527-5332. 

THURSDAY, JULY 24 

Organic Farmers’ Market from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Ele- 

phant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Science in the ‘Hood’” Rich Bolecek will speak about a community based, educational after-school program designed to decrease violence, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine St.  

FRIDAY, JULY 25 

Mayan Calendar New Year Celebration from noon to 9 p.m. at the MLK, Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the New Times Peace Movement. 763-6069. www.tortuga.com 

Interviews in the Canyons Film interviews with civilian Zapatista leaders at 7:30 p.m. at the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. 841-4824. 

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

keley@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 26 

18th Annual Berkeley Kite Festival, at Cesar E. Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fest@HighlineKites.com 

“The Palestinian Crisis: Another Nakba in the Making,” with Anne Gwynne, special correspondent for KPFA’s Flashpoints and volunteer with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, joined by Hatem Bazian of UC Berkeley, and KPFA’s “Flashpoints” host Dennis Bernstein, at 7 p.m. at 155 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley. Donations welcome. For more information call 465-4092. www.flashpoints.net 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives Parent Group is sponsoring a bus trip to River Rock Casino as a fundraiser for fieldtrips and activities for Berkeley youth in the BYA program. The bus will leave BYA located at 1255 Allston Way at 7:45 a.m. and return by 4 p.m. The cost of tickets is $20 per person and you will receive $15 cash back. For additonal information please call 845-0155.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Basic Personal Preparedness, 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.ber- 

keley.ca.us/fire/oes or by calling 981-5506. 

SUNDAY, JULY 27 

18th Annual Berkeley Kite Festival, at Cesar E. Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fest@HighlineKites.com 

Global Environmental Issues and Solutions with David Seaborg at 10:30 a.m. at the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. 841-4824. 

“Iraqi Freedom from Debt Act,” a discussion with Marie Clark, national coordinator for Jubilee USA Network, on current legislation before Congress to cancel the international debts of Iraq, at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. at Cedar. 528-0105. 

Permaculture Workshop Series Ongoing workshops at the Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. 465-9439. 

Art Installations in the Peralta Community Garden Tour of the garden’s art work from 2 to 5 p.m. Karl Linn will speak on the concept of the garden. Also tour the Ohlone Greenway mural, EcoHouse and the Karl Linn Community Garden. Wheelchair accessible. Peralta Community Garden, Hopkins and Peralta. kirklumpkin@mac.com 

ReGENERATION - A New Alternative to School Community Learning Service will hold information sessions for this independent study program for learners age 12-17, at 3 p.m. at Cafe Eclectica, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. For more information call 524-0245. www.communitylearningservices.org 

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

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Argentine Tango Lessons with Oscar Mandagaran. Beginners at 11 a.m., intermediate at 2 p.m. Benefit Milonga and class at 8 p.m. Claremont Hotel, 41 Tunnel Rd. 655-3585. 

MONDAY, JULY 28 

Berkeley CopWatch meets at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING  

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email Marilyn Clausen at mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Community Food Drive Make a cash or food donation to the Safeway/ABC7 Summer Food Drive, benefiting the Alameda County Community Food Bank and its 300 member agencies. The food drive will help thousands of local low-income children who lose access to school meal programs during summer vacation. Now through August 9, put nutritious, nonperishable food donations in the red food collection barrels in all Alameda County Safeway stores or make a cash donation at Safeway check-out stands. For more information or to sign up to host a barrel, call 834-3663, ext. 318 or visit www.accfb.org  

Summer Fun Camps for Children and Teens, from age five and up, are offered at Berkeley recreation centers and include arts and crafts, swimming and tennis lessons, yoga, organized sports and games, and field trips. 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. Applications available 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. 

Marine Biology Classes for ages 5 to 7, Tues. July 29 through Fri. Aug. 1 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave, at the Berkeley Marina. Adults must accompany 5 year olds. Cost is $45 for four days. To register call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina 

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, 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. 

The Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for children 7-13 years of age covering casting, staging, costuming, and performing, in a series of five, 2-week sessions ending August 22. Sponsored by the Bay Area Shakespeare Camp and the Oakland East Bay Shakespeare Festival, in cooperation with the City of Berkeley Parks Recreation & Waterfront Dept. Camp will be held at John Hinkel Park, Southampton Pl. at Arlington Ave. The cost is $340 per session. Scholarships are available for eligible participants. Call 981-5150 for scholarship details. To register for the camp, or for more information, please call 415-422-2222, or 800-978-PLAY. 

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 

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

Civic Arts Commission meets Wednesday, July 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed- 

nesday, July 23, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wednesday, July 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/energy 

Mental Health Commission meets Wednesday, July 23, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/mentalhealth  

Planning Commission meets Wednesday, July 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/ 

commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wednesday, July 23, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/policereview 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m., at 1900 Sixth St. Iris Starr, 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning   

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Monday July 28, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357.


Creeping Texafication

Becky O’Malley
Tuesday July 22, 2003

What is it about epithets that ticks people off? When a Planet correspondent called a city employee a “duplicitous insect” in these pages, we received a couple of tsk-tsk letters from other readers, including at least one who has been known to have even more colorful words in her spoken vocabulary. Now Fremont’s admittedly colorful Congressman Pete Stark, a hearty 72-year-old, has created an uproar in a congressional committee by calling a Republican colleague “a little fruitcake.” Mind you, this was after said colleague had told Stark to “shut up,” a phrase which was considered very rude when we were growing up. An acquaintance who comes from Congressman Innis’ district in Colorado reports that he has always been, shall we say, an eccentric fellow himself. Stark’s “fruitcake” allusion is probably derived from the expression “nutty as a fruitcake,” and could be therefore taken to be merely descriptive, except perhaps the “little” part, since Innis is twice the size of Stark. 

It appears that creative language is what seems unfair to some listeners. If the city employee in question had been characterized as “not exactly candid,” presumably no one would have objected. If Pete Stark had told his fellow congressman that he was crazy if he expected Stark to shut up, possibly the police wouldn’t have been called. Or at least that’s what the Republicans on the committee have been saying. They claim they were genuinely afraid that Stark might be running amok. 

Just to prevent this kind of confrontation, children used to be told that “sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you.” Recent discussions of outlawing “hate speech” have brought forward examples of speech which might do as much damage as actual blows, but that’s a tricky call. The old van which is used by the Berkeley Oakland Support Services Urban Gardens project was towed not too long ago, on the anonymous complaint of someone who reported it as an abandoned vehicle. When BOSS employees tried to find out how something like this could happen, they were told that the city couldn’t release the police report because it was a “hate crime.” Why a hate crime? Because a vandal had scrawled the words “whitey will pay” on the side of the van several days before it was towed. A police spokesperson said that the mere presence of those words made the matter a hate crime. Some might say they are simply a statement of fact, or perhaps even an offer of reparations. In any event, they’re no excuse for keeping BOSS personnel from finding out what happened to their truck. 

There’s a proposal making the rounds to add new rules to the city of Berkeley Commissioners’ Handbook specifying how the commissioners may or may not talk to one another. Even more restrictive rules are proposed  

to control how citizens address commissioners. Presumably the police will not be called to enforce these rules, but the way things are going in this country, you can’t be too sure. 

All of the other Democrats on Stark’s congressional committee were out of the room at the time of the fracas, caucusing in an anteroom to decide what to do about a particularly high-handed Republican power play. They contend that the Republicans actually called the Capitol police to break up their caucus, and the fruitcake story was just a cover-up. If that’s true, it’s more serious. Nancy Pelosi made a statement deploring the use of police power to intervene in the processes of the U.S. congress, and she has a point. 

It’s just one more step in the direction of turning the whole country into Texas. Molly Ivins has kept us posted on the shenanigans of the Texas Legislature over the years, but we thought it couldn’t happen anywhere else. Creeping Texafication now seems to be a real threat in Washington. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Planet.


Arts Calendar

Tuesday July 22, 2003

TUESDAY, JULY 22 

FILM 

Sarunas Bartas: “The House” 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 

Berkeley Summer Poetry, with Sherilyn Connelly from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Café, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, short fiction, amateur and advanced artists welcome. 549-1128. 

Jeff Tamarkin describes “Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cajun Coyotes performs traditional Cajun music at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Patti Whitehurst at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “Simon of the Desert” and “The Lash of the Penitentes” 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 

Eddy Joe Cotton describes his life riding the trains across the country in “Hobo: A Young Man’s Thoughts on Trains and Tramping Across America,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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.starryplough.com 

Café Poetry and Open Mic hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation requested. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Open Mic Poetry with Kathryn Waddell, Kevin Johnson, Deborah Day, Charles E. Patterson, and Steven Kopel at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Candles in the Dark: Poetry and Preaching in Wartime Reading and discussion with Dr. David Randolph, Kirk Lumpkin and David Madgalene from 10 a.m. to noon at Pacific School of Religion, Lower Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Free and open to the public. For information davidjrandolph@aol.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chris Chandler and Anne Feeney, a collage of folk, poetry and politics, 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 

Balkan Cabaret performs traditional dance music from the cafés of Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Wits End, Riddled with Guilt, Jynx, And Ever perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Tele- 

graph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 24 

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “La Maison du Mystère” Episodes 8-10 at 7:30 p.m., with Joel Adlen on piano, 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 

“Macromatrix” Curator’s talk with Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson at 12:15 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Olympia Dukakis presents her autobiography “Ask Me Again Tomorrow” at 12:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Repertory Theater, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Co-sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Barbara Gates describes “Al- 

ready Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Harlyn Aizley discusses her memoir, “Buying Dad: One Woman’s Search for the Perfect Sperm Donor,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Rupert Isaacson discusses his new book “The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

www.easygoing.com 

Haven Logan discusses the  

emotional blocks to physical health in her new book, “Choos- 

ing to be Well,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with Upside Down and Backwards, harmonica and guitar, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

Negritude 2: Bahia Bacheche, music and dance from the African Diaspora, at 8 p.m. at the Black Repertory Theater, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 597-9806. 

Belshazzar’s Feast performs for a Ceilidh dance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Beam, Liz Pisco and The Welcome Matt perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Mike Greensill, jazz pianist, 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 

Eileen Hazel, Helen Chaya, Jamie Isman, acoustic folk at 8 p.m. at the Tea House, 1923 Ashby Ave. $10 suggested donation, with no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.folkdiva.com  

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

FRIDAY, JULY 25 

CHILDREN 

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

Dragon Tales at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “The Man on the Eiffel Tower” at 7 p.m. and “The Barefoot Contessa” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dan Simmons reads from his new work of science fiction, “Ilium,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Midsummer Mozart Festival with featured guest Jon Nakamatsu playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595, George Cleve conducting, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$48. 415-292-9624. www.midsummermozart.org  

Moodswing Orchestra performs ballroom style East Coast swing and lindy hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Celebrate Peruvian Independence Day with De Rompe y Raja at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Smelly Kelly’s Plain High Drifters, Loretta Lynch and Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Eddie Gale performs legendary jazz in a benefit for The Jazz House at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Eddie Marshall Quartet performs at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Danny Caron and Friends at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Blueshouse, Australian women’s trio, 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 

What Happens Next, Cut the Shit, Artimus Pile, the Rites, Funeral Shock 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. 

Frontline, Balance, and Omen perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 26 

CHILDREN 

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

FILM 

Local Zine Short Movie Night at 8:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. Free, donations accepted. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

Restoration Pleasures: “The Night of the Hunter” 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 

SF Jewish Film Festival, Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Angela Davis, veteran activist and professor at UC Santa Cruz, will discuss her new book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2502 Harrison St. Tickets are $10 at independent bookstores or by calling 415-255-7296 ext. 200. $12 at the door. For more information call 415-575-5550. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert, Matthew Owens, ‘cello, performs original works, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

African Drum Workshop with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 10 to 11:30 a.m., experienced from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advanced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

West African Highlife Band performs Ghanaian and West African dance music at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Naked Barbies and The Pete Best Experience perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Aphrodesia, Chocolate Jesus, and Pacific Vibrations perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Altura Brothers perform at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Eddie Gale performs legendary jazz in a benefit for the Jazz House at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Riders of the Purple Sage, classic cowboy harmonies, at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Junius Courtney Big Band, a tribute to Junius, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Scott Amendola at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Clarendon Hills, Latterman, Speakeasy, Weak Leads perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 27 

A Tribute to Barbara Prager, and 15th Anniversary of the Addison Street Windows, party and art sale from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2324 Shattuck Ave. between Bancroft and Durant. For more information call 548-8332.  

CHILDREN 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PoetryFlash at Cody’s with Avotcja and Kathryn Waddell Takara at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Where Art Meets Garden: Creating Here, a discussion of art installations in the garden, with Karl Linn, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Community Gar- 

den on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

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 

FILM 

Restoration Pleasures: “The Awful Truth” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

SF Jewish Film Festival, Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert, Marvin Sanders, flute, Lena Lubotsky, piano, perform works by Haydn, Griffes and Porkofiev, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, Students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Terry Robb and Phil Kellogg, blues-based acoustic guitarists, 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 

Clairdee sings a tribute to Nat “King” Cole at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

“Red Riot Revue, A People’s USO Show,” an evening of music, spoken word and comedy to celebrate the movement for peace. Featuring spoken word by Shalija Patel, music by Folk This! and Pickin‚ Trix, and a musical tribute to Paul Robeson, featuring members of Allegro Non Troppo Opera company. At 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. For information call 415-431-8485. 

 

Blue Monday and Mental perform at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Beat Bash Benefit, performances in tap, salsa, tango, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Belly, and Break at 5 p.m. at The Beat, 2580 Ninth St., at Dwight. Donation $15. 548-5348. 

MONDAY, JULY 28 

FILM 

SF Jewish Film Festival, Wheeler Auditorium, UC Cam- 

pus. Call for films and times. 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bruce Moody describes his experiences begging by the roadside in “Will Work for Food or $,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody's Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

Kristin von Kreisler reads from her new book, “For Bea: The Story of the Beagle Who Changed my Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express theme night: ex’s, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Northern California Songwriter’s Open Mic, professionally judged original song competition, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

AT THE THEATER 

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

lower classes in nineteenth- 

century Parisian society. Runs through July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822.  

www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Opera, “Faust,” by Gounod, Jonathan Khuner music director, Ann Woodhead, stage director. July 25, and 26 at 8 p.m., July 27 at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $38 adults, $33 seniors, $16 children, $10 students and are available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.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.


Berkeley Bowl Pulls Expansion Proposal

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 22, 2003

In a surprise move, the Berkeley Bowl grocery store has temporarily withdrawn plans to build a new store and warehouse in West Berkeley, raising questions about whether the politics of a union battle at the store are affecting efforts to expand. 

Berkeley Bowl, known for its fresh produce and long lines, was scheduled to go before the city’s Planning Commission Wednesday night to pitch the new project. But last week the grocer’s Berkeley-based architect, Kava Massih, sent a three-sentence letter to the city’s Planning Department stating that “the owners have decided not to pursue the project in [the originally proposed] form.” 

The withdrawal comes amid a two-month-old union drive that has pitted workers, calling for better pay and benefits, against management, which has argued that organized labor could spoil the “family” atmosphere at the store. The grocer, in the midst of the battle, has consulted with Jackson Lewis, a law firm specializing in “union avoidance,” according to the firm’s Web site. 

The fight has damaged the reputation of the grocer in a pro-union town and raised questions about whether local leaders will approve a new grocery store as long as management opposes the union. 

“There might be some resistance from the city if the Bowl is perceived as an employer that doesn’t treat its employees well,” said Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn. “I’m disappointed that the Bowl feels they have to hire an anti-union consultant and can’t make a decision without outside interference.” 

But Chuck McNally, a chief union organizer, said he does not oppose plans for the new supermarket. A new grocery store could mean quality food for an underserved neighborhood, more jobs for Berkeley residents and more union members, he said. 

Several prominent Berkeley liberals have also come out in favor of the project—including Mayor Tom Bates, City Councilmember Margaret Breland, whose district includes the proposed site at the corner of Ninth and Heinz streets, and progressive stalwart Kriss Worthington, who also sits on City Council. 

“It’s an important community service that West Berkeley urgently needs,” said Councilmember Worthington. “I don’t see any contradiction in strongly supporting the Berkeley Bowl for financial success and expansion and simultaneously supporting the workers’ right to have a union.” 

Berkeley Bowl general manager Dan Kataoka declined to speak at any length about the decision to withdraw the grocery store and warehouse project but said the union issue “may be a factor.” 

Store manager Larry Evans also said political concerns may have played a role. 

“That very possibly could be a factor,” he said. “It’s a very political town.” 

The store’s original proposal called for a grocery store of 44,000 to 45,000 square feet, according to the city’s planning department, far exceeding the current limit of 20,000 square feet. Berkeley Bowl was scheduled to go before the Planning Commission Wednesday night to ask for a rezoning that would allow the larger store. Kataoka said Berkeley Bowl may now scale back plans and propose a grocery store that falls within the existing zoning code. 

The mayor discouraged any downsizing of the project. 

“I think that would be too bad,” said Bates, who argues that the city should not weigh the union issue in making zoning decisions on the new project. “I think we need a full-size market there.” 

Workers have called for a “card check” method of unionization, which would allow a neutral third party to simply verify that a majority of the grocery store’s 250 employees had signed union authorization cards, electing to join the Oakland-based United Food & Commercial Workers Butchers’ Union, Local 120. 

But Evans said management would exercise its right to demand a secret ballot election. The process, administered by the National Labor Relations Board, can take years and Bates has asked both sides to agree to a speedier secret ballot election outside the auspices of the NLRB. 

Kevin Meyer, a cashier active in the union drive, said a quick election would help prevent burnout among union organizers and would give Jackson Lewis, the grocer’s law firm, less time to develop an anti-union strategy. 

“The more time they have to do that, the more effective their campaign might be,” he said. 

Evans said Berkeley Bowl has consulted Jackson Lewis—which has 20 offices across the nation, including one in San Francisco—only because the grocer had used the firm in the past to defend against a sexual harassment suit and for other unrelated issues. 

“[The owners] had no idea they had this horrendous reputation for being a union-busting company,” he said. 

Robert Lazo, an attorney with the San Francisco firm of Employment Lawyers’ Group, which represents workers in job disputes, said Jackson Lewis is “one of the most pre-eminent law firms to represent management in these campaigns.” 

“The Berkeley Bowl did hire the big guns,” he said. 

But Lazo, who has locked horns with Jackson Lewis on a number of occasions, said he had respect for the firm. 

“They’re pretty decent guys and they are quite effective,” he said.  

Bates, who has met with both sides in an effort to resolve the conflict, said the Yasudas appear close to dropping Jackson Lewis and hiring a less controversial lawyer. 


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday July 22, 2003

FISCAL LEADERS NEEDED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to Barbara Gilbert for identifying another area of fiscal mismanagement in our city (“Salary Hikes for City Staff Must Wait for Better Times,” July 18 edition). It is sad, indeed, to see city staff recommending service cuts and tax increases even as they enjoy their own generous perks. Two examples are illustrative: 

  Just two weeks ago, City Council agreed to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars for YMCA fitness club memberships for 513 city employees.  The total amount is paid regardless of how many employees actually use the facilities, and the city didn’t even bother negotiating a discount from the standard public rates. The lucky city employees who will be swimming in the YMCA pool just might be the same ones who are recommending that we close our public pools to save money. 

  On the tax front, the City Council just agreed to create a new tax to hire additional housing inspectors for the city (so much for the alleged hiring freeze). Our Housing Department expects the new employees to perform between 290 and 410 inspections each per year—or just one-quarter of the 1,550 inspections completed by each inspector working for the cities of Richmond, Concord, San Jose and Mountain View. 

  Oakland’s leadership recently made it clear that city jobs would be included in across-the-board budget cuts. In response, the union agreed to give back some generous pay raises, secured when the city was flush, in order to avoid layoffs. Where is Berkeley’s fiscal leadership? Why aren’t similar efforts made in our city? Are we really better off spending more money on bureaucracy? 

  There are many answers, but one in particular is worth highlighting. As long as Berkeley voters—especially those paying Berkeley’s sky-high property taxes and fees—fail to object, the city will continue its profligate ways. 

Michael Wilson 

 

• 

DOING RIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I doubt that Barbara Gilbert would have written her high-minded piece (July 18-21 edition) suggesting that city workers give up our five-year negotiated contract if she were a city employee. 

Our most recent contract (not 6 to 7 percent raise annually as Ms. Gilbert says) makes up for losses we had taken in the past such as the one around 1980, when many library employees voluntarily reduced our hours to avoid layoffs, and in the year when all city employees sacrificed a raise entirely in exchange for an earlier retirement aimed at those whose jobs were unusually demanding physically. Just as our gains will compound yearly, those past losses have compounded negatively. Now, some of us who would have had to work till we dropped can at least see a time when we can think of retiring. 

Yes, we will receive retirement pensions, but Ms. Gilbert’s statement that our health benefits extend after retirement does not give an accurate picture. The benefits extend for those, if they qualify, who retire before medicare age; but after age 65 we will be given a tiny dollar amount to put toward the cost of a choice of two senior HMOs. Yes, our pay and benefits are better than that of many people and not nearly as good as many others’. 

We would be fine and noble if we did the “right thing” but we’ve already done it and continue to do it every day in our hard work. 

Barbara Sargent 

 

• 

JUVENILE BEHAVIOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two of your recent stories (July 15-17 edition) deserve short comments. The page-one story “Bates Suggests Ordinance To Curtail Newspaper Theft” elicits my comment: Mr. Mayor, shut up, grow up or resign or seek counseling. We know that you are a juvenile thief, so why do you have to keep reminding us? What exactly is your problem?  

The second article that interested me was the story entitled “Berkeley Radio Pirates Broadcast Despite FCC Intervention, Threats.” Why are these people still fighting a battle that has already been won? There is free speech galore available on the Internet. Just get a computer, a phone line, a modem and hire an ISP and create your own Internet Radio Station. You can broadcast whatever you want, from obscure music to political rants, 24 hours a day and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can’t and won’t say boo.  

But I guess that tilting at broken windmills is a hard-fought Berkeley tradition. How much “diversity” do we need anyway? We already have KPFA-FM and KALX-FM, plenty for me, thank you. Maybe these guys could also try growing up a little, along with the esteemed mayor.  

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

 

• 

WORKERS’ COMP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Workers’ Compensation is not “like welfare,” as Berkeley Public Works Director Rene Cardineaux is quoted as saying in your front-page workers’ compensation article in the July 11 weekend edition. 

The implication couldn’t be more wrong or more offensive. Compensation to injured workers is not a gift to employees. By law, employers cannot be sued for on-the-job injuries. In return, the legislative scheme requires employers to pay for treatment of workplace injuries and to compensate permanently disabled workers for their “lost value in the marketplace.” Permanent disability awards are small, especially in California, where permanent death on the job costs the employer a whopping $50,000. Several years ago an excellent series of articles in the Sacramento Bee debunked tiresome propaganda that fraud 

is rampant in the workers’ compensation system. In fact, employers’ and insurance carriers’ claims of widespread fraud are themselves fraudulent.  

On a more positive note, the city’s “new” focus on preventing injury and the use of injured workers for “modified [light] duty” that is compatible with their medical restrictions is an idea whose time has come. However, it is not new. Five years ago a coalition of the city’s seven labor unions urged the city, with the City Council’s support, to overhaul its workers’ compensation system, and to change its focus to prevention of injury. I was the author of the unions’ 

recommendations. In labor/management meetings that followed, union representatives urged the city to bring workers who are able to perform modified duty back to work, and the city seemed to accept that as a priority.  

It simply is not true that workers want to be injured (as City Manager Weldon Rucker seemed to say in the article) or to stay off work as long as 

possible. The truth is that the city has a hard-to-change management “culture” of not wanting to be bothered with bringing employees back to work on modified duty. “I can only have them sweep the corporation yard for so many hours,” you quoted Mr. Cardineaux as saying.  

It’s obvious to me that city management is trying to dump all responsibility for its workers’ compensation costs on city employees and their unions. With all due respect, it just ain’t so. 

Claudia Morrow 

 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Jogging on the fire trail in Stawberry Canyon, I often hear UC’s hyenas 

whooping. I wonder if you or readers could clarify for me two areas: How aggressive are these beasts? And what oversight is there? I am sure there is a lot, because Berkeley tries to be so careful about environmental hazards. 

Of course we have lions, bears and tigers in the Oakland hills, but that’s a zoo, and I assume (perhaps naively) there is plenty of thought given to safety there. 

I have read two articles in recent years about hyenas, and both were 

highly interesting and alarming. I know the university is studying them because of there sexual endocrinology, which is bizarre, but an article in The New Yorker described them as quite dangerous and predatory, not simply harmless old scavengers like locals describe them who walk the fire trail. 

I heard a rumor that someone at the local facility had a finger bitten off last year (true or untrue?), and I knew a graduate student who visited the place and someone told him about one of the hyenas biting a hose right off the spigot. 

Richard L. Russell, M. D. 


Zachary’s Staff Inherits Ownership

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 22, 2003

Friday will likely be business as usual, said J.P. LaRussa, general manager at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza. 

If history is any guide, that means the weekend crowds will be overflowing, the staff will be almost impossibly busy and the restaurant’s legendary pizza, which has won just about every “Best of” award in the Bay Area, will be bubbling. 

But it will be a special day for Zachary’s—exactly 20 years after the husband-and-wife team of Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel opened a small pizza place in the Rockridge section of Oakland, just over the Berkeley line. 

“Maybe we’ll jump up and down every once in a while,” said LaRussa, with a chuckle. 

Zachowski and Gabel, who moved to the East Bay from Chicago 20 years ago, say they’ve had a great time in the pizza business. 

“It’s been a hell of a ride and a lot of fun,” said Zachowski, 53. 

But now the couple is ready to retire—and they’re doing it a little differently than the typical business owners. Rather than sell the business to an individual owner, Zachowski and Gabel are turning over the company—which includes both the Rockridge restaurant and a Solano Avenue location in Berkeley—to their 110 employees. 

The owners, who offer higher-than-average pay and benefits for restaurant staff and pride themselves on a family-like atmosphere, said they want to protect what they’ve built. 

“It’s very doubtful we’d find someone who would maintain the culture we have here,” said Gabel. “It wouldn’t feel right to sell it to someone who might take it into the ground.” 

The employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is open to anyone who works at least 1,000 hours per year, which amounts to about 20 hours per week. Employees will receive company stock equal to 25 percent of their salaries—with the program fully vesting in seven years. 

That means employees who make $40,000 annually will get $10,000 per year in stock. Employees will keep accumulating stock until ownership is fully transferred to the workers—a process that is expected to take several years. Workers will get the stock on top of their regular pay, health insurance and a retirement plans. 

“It seems like it’s going to be a really good deal,” said Nathan Morse, who describes himself as a server, host and seater at the restaurant. 

Morse, who has worked at Zachary’s for three and a half years, said he loves his job. 

“Coming to work is like having fun—it’s like hanging out with your friends,” said Morse. “Now I’m definitely not leaving.” 

LaRussa, who has worked for Zachary’s since it opened, said he anticipates some growing pains as Zachowski and Gabel ease their way out of the business over the course of the next few years. But he said over the last two decades the owners have gradually shifted control of the company to a team of 14 managers, preparing the group to take over. 

“We’ve gone from a company that is run day to day, every minute detail, by the owners 20 years ago and today it’s run by the managers,” said LaRussa. “I think that will help the ESOP process.” 

Zachowski said staffers have told him they are nervous about failing once they take over the business. But he said he’s confident that the restaurant will be around for years to come. 

“We have a lot of faith in our crew,” he said. 

One thing the employees will have going for them is a track record of success. Gabel said the business did well from the start, prompting rapid expansion of the Oakland restaurant and a decision to open the Berkeley Zachary’s in September 1984, just a year after the couple set up shop in Rockridge. 

Gabel said the couple kept it simple from the start, focusing on the restaurant’s signature stuffed pizza and a thin crust version. 

“A lot of restaurants try to do too many things,” she said. “We just wanted to focus on one thing.” 

Gabel said the owners plan to retain a small stake in the company and remain active in the transition for as long as it takes. 

“They’re not getting rid of us yet,” she said, with a laugh. “It’s very important to us that this company stay strong.” 

Thinley Wangchuk, a Tibetan immigrant who has worked at Zachary’s for 11 years, serving as a manager for the last three, said the owners have built a company worth preserving. 

“They not only are for the business, they care for all the employees,” he said. “They treat us like family.”  

 


Citizen Voices Can Influence Coming Changes in Berkeley

By SHARON HUDSON
Tuesday July 22, 2003

Are you like me? Or at least, like I was 18 months ago? I could name all nine of the Supreme Court justices and anticipate how each would vote on many issues. But our own nine City Council members? I could only have named my own and one or two others, and didn’t pay much attention to happenings at City Hall. I was aware that life had become less pleasant in Berkeley over the years, but I attributed it to wider social problems and not to decisions by city government. I was aware that UC Berkeley was becoming ever less warm and fuzzy, but wasn’t overly analytical about its growing impact on my quality of life. Oh yes, I always voted the “right” (meaning left) way—even licked stamps for some issues—but never investigated most of the actions of those I voted for. After all, I was busy with my own priorities, just like you. And then suddenly, one dark day… 

I found that one of my neighbors, the American Baptist Seminary of the West (ABSW), along with the Berkeley Planning Department, had a whopper of a plan for my block, the 2500 block of Benvenue Avenue, a struggling residential street on the front line of institutional creep. What was it? A 65-feet-tall, 40,000-square-foot monster building, loaded with offices and classrooms but rather short on parking.  

Boy, was I ever surprised! And unprepared, big time! What was this “Planning Department,” who were they and why on earth were they trying to ruin my neighborhood? Were they insane? Didn’t they know how difficult life already is on Southside? Why couldn’t I talk to my city councilmember or the mayor about this impending disaster? What is zoning? What are these five “use permits”? What is the “Zoning Adjustments Board” and what do they do? What are the DRC, the LPC, the PSA? What is the California Environmental Quality Act, and later, why doesn’t the city obey it? Why doesn’t the city attorney protect the citizens of Berkeley? Why does the city staff treat me like an enemy, when I pay their salaries with my tax dollars? My naiveté was boundless. But no more. 

Others in my neighborhood were more experienced and already in action, and we quickly accumulated a phalanx of advisers. But meanwhile, even more questions arose: For example, since the ABSW rents out most of its campus to UC Extension, why did the planning staff want to facilitate UC encroachment south of Dwight Way, in direct contradiction to neighborhood preservation and the city’s own upcoming Southside Plan? And then we discovered that the ABSW’s UC rentals are actually illegal, and that they had been caught renting to UC 20 years ago and even promised to stop. But mysteriously, this information was considered irrelevant by both the planning staff and the Zoning Adjustments Board, and inconvenient by the city attorney. Luckily, the City Council has taken a more reasonable view of the matter, but it took an army of neighbors the better part of a year to convince some city decision makers of what is obvious to anyone else after a 20-minute conversation: that this project is absurd and wrong. That we couldn’t have this conversation with the City Council is, of course, part of the problem. 

Are we alone? No, neighborhoods all over town are astonished by the bad ideas foisted on them by the Planning Department. Are we all “opposed to development” or “afraid of change”—easy accusations that are almost universally untrue? No, we just want projects that suit and enhance our neighborhood environments. Most Berkeleyans want sensitive and creative infill, not ham-handed monstrosities guaranteed to make life worse for a citizenry already living with a density that makes most Americans cringe—and then run off to the suburbs. 

Something is very, very wrong when a project as bad as the ABSW’s is vigorously promoted by the city, and when citizens must work thousands of hours to save their neighborhood environments. How did we get here? Progressives and Moderates point fingers, and have a backlog of grievances against each other. But I say, point at least one finger at me—and at you, if you are like me—because I was so preoccupied with national and global events that I ignored what was happening in my own back yard. But the advantage of my local apathy is that I carry no personal or political grudges against anyone in either party, and I will work with everyone to create a more livable urban environment.  

Why do I tell you this? Because state, regional, and city mandates are right now rearranging our city, and this is the critical moment for citizen participation. Berkeley will be redesigned, either with your input or without it. Accommodating more people need not destroy the Berkeley we love, nor will destroying Berkeley save the planet. If the Planning Department and city attorney’s office will not protect Berkeley’s livability, we may have to make fundamental structural changes in city government to remove power from the staff and return it to ourselves and the City Council, and to ensure the accountability of our elected officials. But take it from me: Get involved now. After all, “Il faut cultiver notre jardin.” 

Sharon Hudson is a longtime Berkeley resident, a member of the Benvenue Neighbors Association, a renter and an artist.


Kite Festival to Claim Skies This Weekend

By MEGAN GREENWELL
Tuesday July 22, 2003

With the appearance of a 50-foot-tall flying cat and a 100-foot-long octopus, plus a world record attempt on this weekend’s schedule, the Berkeley Kite Festival promises that for two days, it will “fill the Bay Area skies with more than just summer fog.” 

The 18th annual festival, which will be held Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Cesar E. Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina, is put on in conjunction with the West Coast Kite Championships. The production is one of the largest of its kind in North America and is a popular local activity every summer. 

“Most people think of kites as children’s toys,” festival chair Tom McAlister said. “But many of these are actually flying pieces of art. They’re sophisticated kites for adults.” 

Although much of the weekend will be devoted to exhibitions, the competition among serious kite enthusiasts will be fierce. Festival organizers will sponsor contests for both kite making and kite flying, with participants competing for the grand prize in divisions ranging from individual precision to pairs ballet, team trains and hot tricks. 

One of the main events will be an attempt at a new world record for the longest dual-line kite train. Mix McGraw, who currently holds the record with 219 stacked Hyperkites, will shoot for 260 kites in his first attempt to break his own record. 

Though McGraw’s kites look much like the traditional notion of the high-flying toys, many artists and veteran kite-makers will challenge convention with their new takes on the classic design. Some creations, including a group of kites coming to Berkeley from New Zealand, look more like floats one might see in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But if it flies, McAlister said, it is indeed a kite. 

“Some of them don’t really move around in the sky that much once they’re up there,” he said. “Those are some of the artistic kites that people really like to see, like the giant octopus or the cat.” 

Other festival favorites will include giant windsocks, which spin in the wind, and the Chinese-style creations, including huge dragon kites. All of the kites are extremely colorful, a major attraction for spectators. 

“My favorite are the spinning rainbow ones,” said Julie Martin, who has attended the kite festival for the last six years. “If it’s a clear day they look really beautiful in the sky.” 

Another crowd favorite is kite choreography, which uses several small kites to perform a dance routine in the sky. Though most routines are performed in pairs or teams, Ray Bethell, 75, plans to perform his “One-Man Show,” just as he has for the last several years at the festival. 

Bethell creates intricate dance routines for his kites and performs them by himself. 

“They’re amazing,” McAlister said. “It looks exactly like beautiful dancers are performing it.” 

The kite festival will also feature kite-flying lessons, a sales tent for different kite manufacturers, free kite making for kids and live musical performances. 

“It’s more than just a couple kites floating 10 feet off the ground,” McAlister said. “It’s really quite an event.”


Lab Stewardship Includes Caring for Creek

Daniella Thompson, James M. Sharp
Tuesday July 22, 2003

The following letter was addressed to Jeff Philliber, environmental planning coordinator, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: 

 

Within the last seven months—and with shock and awe—we’ve watched how the lab rapidly secured UC Regent approval for a six-story nanotechnology facility (aka “Molecular Foundry”) in Strawberry Canyon with an absolute minimum of environmental disclosure and public scrutiny.  

Now it’s like déjà vu all over again. At least this time we’ve had a notice of preparation and initial study (NOP/IS) to study and a public scoping meeting (June 30) and site tour (July 7) to attend.  

Yet we still can’t believe that LBNL’s project stewards are truly serious about transforming this latest pair of mega-proposals into reality. After all, the lab still describes itself as a world-class institution, doesn’t it? 

We have no reason to doubt the assertion that many of the lab’s 4,200 employees are cramped for space. Nor do we doubt that many are frustrated by the lack of parking near their job sites. But are these inconveniences sufficient to justify excavating 26,000 cubic yards of material from a steep slope to build an office tower (Building 49) and to dump the residuals into a nearby Strawberry Creek tributary to create a 95-plus-space (G-4) parking lot?  

To us, the underlying rationale for Building 49—that the lab fails to meet federal space allocation requirements—appears bogus. Does LBNL face any penalties if lab space doesn’t match up with the figures recommended by the General Services Administration (GSA)? How much would the lab’s existing space/employee figures be altered by transferring 240 existing employees into the proposed Building 49? How many more such buildings would be required to meet GSA specifications under current conditions? 

The NOP/IS promises that the EIR will examine alternative on-site or off-site locations for this “decompression” office space. If only that were so. In our experience with UC-sponsored CEQA exercises, the alternative “straw men” are routinely flattened by the “preferred alternative”—the one selected before a notice of preparation and initial study are ever drafted.  

Moreover, we wonder how far the lab’s preferred alternative would fly without the “unique” risk-bearing contribution of the consortium of private companies who plan to finance, design, construct, own and manage Building 49.  

As unconscionable as we find the proposal to transform a riparian corridor into a parking lot, we are equally appalled by the precedent emerging here. Will public university land increasingly become the domain of private developers via clever lease-back arrangements?  

Above all, we are struck by the incredible waste of human resources that this whole process represents. Grown (and presumably well-paid) men and women in 21st-century Berkeley are spending inordinate amounts of their time and energy to advance a pair of projects which are at odds with clear thinking and good watershed management.  

It is as if the university is determined to return to the bad old days of the last century when Memorial Stadium blasted its way into the mouth of Strawberry Canyon. Have the intervening 80 years taught UC nothing about the importance of site stewardship? 

Our hope is that public reaction to this NOP/IS stimulates sufficient introspection within UC and LBNL that an EIR won’t be necessary and that the projects as proposed will be withdrawn quietly.  

It’s not impossible. After all, we recall that the NOP/IS for an EIR on LBNL’s long-range development plan (2002) was issued in October 2000. More than 1,000 days later, we have yet to see a follow-on document.  

 

Daniella Thompson, James M. Sharp


UC Study Questions Hydrogen-Fueled Cars

David Scharfenberg
Tuesday July 22, 2003

Embraced by politicians on the left and right, hydrogen-fueled cars may not be the best answer to the nation’s pollution problems, according to a new study by a UC Berkeley researcher. 

In a paper that appeared in the July 18 edition of the journal Science, Alex Farrell, assistant professor of energy and resources at UC Berkeley, and David Keith, associate professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, argue there are simpler, cheaper ways to reduce harmful emissions from vehicles. 

“Hydrogen cars are a poor short-term strategy, and it’s not even clear that they are a good idea in the long term,” said Farrell. “Because the prospects for hydrogen cars are so uncertain, we need to think carefully before we invest this money and all this public effort in one area.” 

President Bush has proposed a five-year, $1.7 billion research effort to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells in an attempt to curb pollution and reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil. Several Democratic candidates for president have also proposed major research efforts. 

But Farrell said current methods of producing hydrogen from oil and coal produce substantial carbon dioxide. That leaves wind and solar power, which are in small supply, and nuclear power, which produces dangerous waste, as the only remaining means of producing hydrogen, he said. 

Farrell said it would also cost $5,000 per vehicle to create a new infrastructure for hydrogen distribution. 

The scientists found that improving current cars and strengthening environmental rules would be 100 times cheaper. 

“You could get a significant reduction in petroleum consumption pretty inexpensively by raising the fuel economy standard or raising fuel prices, or both, which is probably the cheapest strategy,” Farrell said. 

Farrell said hydrogen-powered vehicles may be politically popular because they don’t challenge drivers to change their habits. In addition, he said, the push for new research doesn’t place new requirements on automakers—it simply provides a subsidy for developing better cars. 

 

—David Scharfenberg


Police Blotter

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 22, 2003

 

Juveniles detained in brazen North Berkeley robberies 

 

Police arrested four juveniles Sunday who may be responsible for a wave of brazen mid-day robberies in North Berkeley over the last three weeks, said Berkeley Police Department Sgt. Steve Odom. 

“We think we might have the people responsible for all of them,” he said. 

A group of three to four juveniles allegedly walked into unlocked homes at least 10 times in recent weeks, Odom said, snatching purses and other valuables when they could, and if spotted upon entry, offering to wash residents’ cars. 

Odom said one suspect has typically entered a home, with the others waiting on the street as lookouts. 

Police received a call at 8:26 Sunday night from a man on the 1400 block of Gilman Street reporting that he had seen a suspect reaching for a purse just inside his front door. 

“The suspect pulled his hand away from the purse and said, ‘Um, would you like your car washed?’” Odom said. 

Police responded quickly and arrested four juveniles—two 12-year-olds, a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old—nearby on the 1600 block of Stannage Avenue. Police released the suspects, all of them Berkeley residents, to their parents’ custody pending further investigation. 

 

Gunless hold-up? 

 

A man claiming to have a gun held up a woman on the 1900 block of Sixth Street Thursday night, said Berkeley Police Department Sgt. Steve Odom. 

The suspect, described as a 40- to 45-year-old man, stepped from behind a fence at about 7:56 p.m. and approached the woman, walking home with two young children. 

“I guess you don’t want to be my friend,” he said, according to police. 

“I just want to go home and make dinner,” she replied. 

“I bet you don’t think I have a gun,” he said. 

“I just want to go home and make dinner,” she repeated. 

“Give me your money or I’ll show you my gun,” he said again. 

The woman was frightened, Odom said, and gave him $45. Police have made no arrests in the case. 

 


Wanted: Long-Tailed Berkeley Hill Dweller

By JOE EATON Special to the Planet
Tuesday July 22, 2003

If our city ever adopted an official civic rodent, there would be only one possible choice. No, not who you’re thinking about; I’m referring to the Berkeley kangaroo rat, Dipodomys heermanni berkeleyensis. 

As far as I know, this is the only creature that has Berkeley embedded in its scientific name. It was discovered here about a month before the end of World War I, on a grassy hilltop at the head of Dwight Way, and christened in 1919 by Joseph Grinnell, for decades the doyen of bird and mammal studies at the university. 

We don’t know all that much about the rat’s natural history. Grinnell considered it a new species, but later taxonomists demoted it to the status of a subspecies of the Heermann’s kangaroo rat, which has a wide distribution in central California, from the Sierra to the coast. 

Subspecies is one of those slippery categories that a lot of biologists would like to junk altogether. A subspecies is a population that appears physically distinct from other populations but can still, given the opportunity, interbreed with them. It may, like a full species, be entitled to the protection of the Endangered Species Act. Many of the poster creatures of endangerment, like the infamous northern spotted owl, are subspecies. 

Heermann, incidentally, was Adolphus L. Heermann, a colorful 19th-century frontier physician-naturalist who made it to California at the peak of the Gold Rush, but was more interested in wildlife than wealth. In addition to the kangaroo rat, he’s the namesake of the Heermann’s gull that follows the pelicans up from the Sea of Cortez in summer. 

Kangaroo rats in general are engaging little creatures, with powerful hindlegs for hopping and a long tail ending in a tufted tip. “Rat” is a misnomer; they’re more closely related to squirrels and gophers than to conventional rats. Most of the 22 species are adapted to arid regions and never need to drink, obtaining all the water they need from the plants they eat. The Heermann’s species, though, living north of the deserts, requires free water. Typically, a Heermann’s kangaroo rat spends most of its life underground, either digging its own elaborate tunnel complex or moving into an old ground squirrel burrow. It surfaces after dark for brief foraging bouts, harvesting seeds and green vegetation. 

Not one of your more conspicuous animals, in short. And I have to admit that I had never even heard of the Berkeley kangaroo rat until this spring, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued its draft recovery plan for the chaparral and scrub ecosystems of the East Bay. Rather than focusing on a single endangered species, the plan covers a natural community that’s home to several at-risk plants and animals. The plan’s marquee species is the Alameda whipsnake, a handsome black-and-yellow serpent that’s confined to a few disjunct patches of habitat. But it also encompasses four plants—the pallid manzanita, Contra Costa manzanita, Mount Diablo bird’s-beak, and Mount Diablo buckwheat—and the rat. 

All well and good, except that the rodent appears to be extinct. None have been reliably reported since 1940, when a specimen was collected near the Calaveras Reservoir. (That was also the last year anyone saw the Mount Diablo buckwheat). A recovery plan for the Berkeley kangaroo rat seems, on the face of it, about as useful as a recovery plan for the California grizzly. 

But I wouldn’t be too quick to judge this as another instance of federal foolishness. It’s much easier to misplace a kangaroo rat than a bear. A small, subterranean, nocturnal species can easily go unnoticed. Other secretive mammals have turned up after long absences: the black-footed ferret, for one, which had been given up for lost when a farm dog in Meteetse, Wyo., brought home one of a colony of survivors. 

And there have been intriguing rumors of rats in the last few decades: a report of an apparent kangaroo rat trapped near Mount Diablo in the 1980s, another killed by a Blackhawk resident’s cat. Biologist Gary Beeman, who has been searching for the creature for more than 10 years, believes there may still be a few out there. Beeman has wanted posters up in strategic places; I recently saw one in the visitors’ center at Mount Diablo State Park. 

Being still officially extinct, the Berkeley kangaroo rat is not on the endangered species list and doesn’t merit critical habitat designation. But it makes sense for the federal guardians of the whipsnake and the manzanitas to keep an eye out for the rat, just in case. Or for other evidence of its existence, like suspicious droppings. Someone at the Smithsonian Institution has developed a technique for analyzing mammal scat for genetic markers that, according to the authors of the recovery plan, could be applied to the kangaroo rat. 

I wouldn’t count on the rats still being where Grinnell first found them: there’s been too much development in the Berkeley Hills, too many prowling cats. If you do happen to encounter a long-tailed creature hopping through the chaparral, though, Gary Beeman would like to know about it. You can reach him at (925)284-2602. 

 

 

 

 


Bush’s Self-Serving Policies Undermine America

By ARTHUR I. BLAUSTEIN MotherJones.com
Tuesday July 22, 2003

The president and his party have cooked up the ultimate recipe for keeping political power. A nation in a constant state of anxiety—over the threat of terrorism, or a potential war—is a nation off balance. And that insecurity is the perfect cover to divert public attention from the country’s serious domestic problems and the administration’s political agenda.  

The “Bush doctrine” opens the door to a series of pre-emptive wars against “evil” regimes, ostensibly to protect the United States and bring security, stability, safety and democracy to the citizens of Damascus, Tehran and Pyongyang—as the president claims to be doing in Baghdad and Kabul. Meanwhile, the administration shows little or no concern for the security, stability and safety of the citizens of Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland or thousands of other cities and small towns across America, who are facing enormous economic and social difficulties.  

Just like in the “The Wizard of Oz,” when we finally get to see who is operating the smoke-puffing machine, we find a consummate pitchman. In Bush’s case, the man behind the screen is a flag-waving, lapel-pin wearing, anti-terrorist fear monger who labels his opponents anti-patriotic. He has done a clever job of manipulating the mass media, but in reality his smooth imagery and charming personality are subtly undermining America’s values. While he composes hymns to individualism, Sunday piety, trickle-down economics and family values, he is trying to gut every program providing for social, economic and environmental justice. America’s families need less pious rhetoric, and more policies geared toward a healthy economy, secure jobs, decent health care, affordable housing, quality public education, renewable energy and a sustainable environment. Bush seems unable—or unwilling—to grasp that the government has an important leadership role in this. In fact, the only policy that Bush seems energized by is one of tax giveaways for the rich and for corporate America.  

At present, there is an air of suspended belief over the radical changes of the past two years. That is because the layoffs, shutdowns, cutbacks and reduced paychecks have been obscured by the events of Sept. 11 and the nation’s subsequent focus on terrorist alerts and the Iraq war. But those changes are taking a huge toll. Bush’s economic policy, which in turn determines social policy, is much like the iceberg waiting in the path of a steaming Titanic.  

Bush does not seem to understand that, while it is not a sin to be born to privilege, it is a sin to spend your life defending it. John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt understood that. They knew the narrowness privilege can breed. This administration, despite its early pledges to provide a policy of “compassionate conservatism,” has in fact adopted policies that amount to a war against the poor and the middle class. The tax and budget cuts were not made in order to jumpstart the economy or balance the budget; they were simply massive cash transfers. Social programs are being slashed to pay for tax giveaways for the wealthy and new defense contracts for arms makers who just happen to be big campaign contributors. Moreover, this was accomplished in a policy vacuum. The administration has not provided the American people with a strategic vision as to how this excessive and bloated arms build-up fits into our larger defense, anti-terrorist, or foreign policy. Is it in the national interest to relegate our most precious assets—our human and natural resources—to the junk pile while we increase the pace of an arms race where overkill has long been achieved? Do we really need to spend $9 billion on a missile defense system that doesn’t work?  

Thomas Jefferson warned us that we could be free or ignorant, but not both. We have not taken that warning to heart. We have not had a serious national debate about the Bush administration’s policies because the mass media have treated politics—as well as economic and social policy—as entertainment: a combination of hype and palliative. The political and economic life of the country has been reduced to little more that a struggle for partisan power, the results not unlike the score of a football game: Bush Wins Again or Senate Dems Beaten. There seems to be no sense of higher good, no question of national purpose, no hope for critical judgment. Hype has impoverished our political debate, undermining the very idea that public discourse can be educational and edifying—or that national public policy can grow out of reflective discussion and shared political values. We have sought simplistic answers to complex problems without even beginning to comprehend our loss. 

Which brings us to the difficult and complex issue of the inter-relationship between America’s economic and social policy, and how these policies are shaped by politics in Washington. A fundamental assumption underlies the administration’s domestic approach—an assumption so ill-conceived that it seriously jeopardizes any prospects for solving our nation’s pressing domestic needs. It is the illusion that economic policy can be separated from social policy.  

This is impossible, and the consequences of believing it are grave. By separating economic theory from social policy, and by pursuing the former at the expense of the latter, the administration has adopted a strategy of brinkmanship that could lead to social disaster. The drastic cuts being made in basic social and human service programs will exact painful and immediate social and human costs, and they will also appear as direct financial costs—in terms of illiteracy, incarceration and ill-health, among others—at future times in different ledgers.  

The administration’s contention that renewed economic growth as a consequence of tax cuts for the rich will eventually “trickle down” to the poor flies in the face of everything we know about poverty today. The best research indicates the opposite. Growth in the private economy has had a declining role in reducing poverty, and virtually all of the reduction in poverty since the mid-1960s has been brought about by the expansion of national social insurance and income-transfer programs of the kind now under attack by the Bush administration.  

In addition to the massive tax cuts, the administration proposes to privatize or turn over to the states vast portions of the nation’s social, education, housing and health programs—a move that amounts to reneging on our social and moral commitments as a nation. The real issue is not public versus private or federal versus state; rather, it is the diminution or avoidance of any national standards of responsibility and accountability. Worse than that, Mr. Bush seems to be denying that this responsibility even exists. Successful and effective national programs are being replaced with an inequitable, inconsistent patchwork of systems run by states—a patchwork that is restrictively financed, more bureaucratic, less accountable and subject to intense local, political and fiscal pressures. Instead of the more efficient government that Bush promises, we will have 50 bureaucratic and anachronistic messes: government by provisional catastrophe. The question becomes whether basic human services will be provided at all.  

For true conservatives, the ideological implications behind Bush’s economic policies must be disturbing, in that they depart from the genuine conservative philosophies that have played such an important role in American history. Historically, conservatives have not promised lower taxes or economic privatism. Traditionally, conservative leaders have focused on the underlying problems of the human community—issues of leadership, of equality of opportunity, of continuity and order, of the obligations of the strong to the weak, and of the safeguards needed to keep the privileged from abusing their power.  

By contrast, the Bush administration encourages us to revert to our basest inclinations: Look out for number one; write off those who can’t make it as shiftless, a drag on the economy. Our moral decline deepens as we condone the sheer political power of special and self-serving private economic interests—wealthy campaign contributors and corporate powers—over the legitimate moral authority that represents our nation’s best public interests. Rather than opportunity, equality, justice and vitality, the Bush prescription for economic stimulus amounts to inequality, economic cronyism and acquiescence. People programs are out and tax avoidance schemes are in. Human needs are made subordinated to political and technical arrogance.  

Recently, I took the opportunity to reread Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and the Federalist Papers, and recalled that our founding fathers were well aware that politics and economics were interrelated faces of power, each necessitating its own checks and balances. What impressed me most, though, was their mature leadership, one that was based on a genuine commitment to the struggle for social, political, and environmental justice as well as economic opportunity. A commitment to this sense of public interest is just as important today.  

Only those people have a future, and only those people can be called humane and historic, who have an intuitive sense of what is significant in both their national and public institutions, and who value them. It is this conviction and the continuing belief in the common-sense vision of the American promise that demand that we begin a serious national dialogue over our country’s economic and social policies. The Bush administration’s radical and dangerous changes have occurred without any serious national debate. Mr. Bush seems to think that his electoral “mandate,” as suspect as it was, has changed our government from a representative democracy to economic royalism.  

The Bush economic policies—and the overtly antisocial political priorities driving them—are not based on a commitment to any high principles such as freedom, liberty, equality, justice or opportunity, although such pieties are mouthed at the swivel of a camera. The administration’s policies instead are based on the very narrow personal prejudices and biases of a group of men who have been motivated by the acquisition of money and power. Bush and Cheney have constructed a hypothesis to fit a simple notion: “The plutocracy is good to me, so I’ll be good to the plutocracy.”  

For the past two years I have listened carefully to the president, his chief advisers, and the neo-conservative right. All of it has reminded me of a passage in “The Heart of Darkness.” Joseph Conrad put it this way:  

“Their talk was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight ... in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world.”  

Conrad’s words capture the radical frenzy in Washington; they reflect the mood and the moral nullity of the reactionary enterprise that seeks to tear apart the public good. The Bush administration just doesn’t get it. No country can sustain itself, much less grow, on a fare of smooth one-liners, rerun ideas, hot-house theories, paranoia and official policy pronouncements borrowed from Orwell’s 1984; where recession is recovery, war is peace and a social policy based on aggressive hostility is compassion.  


Waterfront Artwork: An East Bay Tradition

By MEGAN GREENWELL
Tuesday July 22, 2003

In the early 1970s, several unknown artists left their mark in the waters under and around the Bay Bridge. On wooden posts that jutted above the waterline, they mounted a series of wooden boats, trains and other statues. Though the “water art” frequently fell in high winds, or was swept away by large waves, it was often replaced within a few days. 

The space proved ideal: free, with an unlimited audience. “If you found an empty post, you could pretty much do what you wanted on top of it,” one Bay Bridge artist said. “Nobody knew who the other people were, but we were sort of working together anyway—if someone built a blue train, you might create a matching red one. It looked like we were all in on it together.” 

“They looked very pretty out there, rising in the air above the water,” longtime Berkeley resident Ann Corrigan recalled. “You always thought they would get knocked down, but when they did they always came back.” 

The statuary inspired Albany artist Tyler Hoare to add his own pieces to the bay, just off the Berkeley Marina. “I was coming home from an exhibit in Richmond where maybe 200 people had seen my stuff,” Hoare said. “I figured if I put it by the freeway in the water it would catch everybody’s attention and make some people smile.” 

In 1975 Hoare built a green airplane of lumber and canvas as his first addition to the water gallery. The 14-foot-long, six-foot-high plane—a representation of the Sopwith Camel from the Peanuts comic strip—became a popular attraction for residents. Eventually, Hoare added a representation of Snoopy’s Red Baron, so that the two statues appeared to be fighting each other from their different posts. (“I loved it,” said Oakland resident Charles Montgomery, who was about 10 years old when Hoare created his originals. “I would beg my parents to go down to the water so we could see Snoopy versus the Red Baron.”) 

Unsure whose approval he needed to mount the statues, Hoare wrote his own letters of permission, ostensibly from the mayor of Berkeley, the state governor and other area officials. Though no one tried to stop them, Hoare said he and his team were nervous: “The guy we left on shore with the fake letters was sweating bullets,” he said.  

Within a few years, the Berkeley Marina project became a collaborative effort, similar to that at the Bay Bridge, when someone added a doghouse to the Snoopy display. Hoare never found out who did it, but said the person stopped creating new versions when, in 2000, Hoare stopped posting new Red Barons and Sopwith Camels. 

That year, Berkeley resident Joshua Polston used the vacant posts for a new art project. Children from the Berkeley Marina Adventure playground created smaller representations of Snoopy and the airplane as a one-time display. Though the statues fell within a few weeks, Polston said they were a fun project for kids and a fitting memorial to Hoare’s work. 

“For that short time people could remember what it used to look like,” Polston said. “It brought back the nostalgia.” 

Today, most of the posts that held statues near the bridge and in the Berkeley Marina are gone, as is most of the art. Last week, however, the now gray-haired Hoare motored out to an empty post, just off of the Emeryville Shoreline, and amid the pitchings of his boat and the gusts of the wind, mounted a dozen new abstracts. 

But the statuary doesn’t satisfy everyone who remembers the past: “There is still a bit of art left in the water,” said the Bay Bridge artist. “But the glory days are gone—it was a different era, I suppose.”


Nourishing Berkeley’s Horticultural Obsession

By DAVID SCHARFENBERG
Tuesday July 22, 2003

Berkeley may not be the Garden of Eden. But for anyone who loves flowers, exotic trees and whiling the hours away with a shovel and a gardening hose, it doesn’t get much better.  

Backyard gardens—ornate and simple—are aplenty, and Berkeley’s remarkable network of lush, family-owned nurseries have played no small part in building a garden paradise in these parts. 

“Some of the best retail nurseries [in the country] are in the East Bay,” said Anthony Garza, supervisor of horticulture and grounds at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. 

Berkeley, which claims about 100,000 residents, plays host to no fewer than seven nurseries, not including wholesale outfits. Owners say the concentration of flowers, fauna and expertise attracts green thumbs not only from Berkeley, but from all over the Bay Area and beyond. 

“We get a lot of people from the Peninsula,” said Aerin Moore, owner of Magic Gardens Nursery on Heinz Avenue. “We even get people from Sacramento.” 

Paul Doty, president of Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, said locals bring out-of-town guests on Berkeley nursery tours. “It’s kind of like Auto Row,” he said, with a laugh. 

Garza said a Mediterranean-style climate has created ideal growing conditions and helped support the plethora of local nurseries. 

“It never gets extremely hot and it never gets extremely cold,” he said. “The Bay Area is really a mecca for horticulture.” 

But Garza, whose botanical garden is well known for its large sales of rare plants in April and September, said there’s a cultural factor at work as well. “In Berkeley proper, there’s definitely been a move toward more natural and naturalistic lifestyles,” he said. “People try to get closer to nature even in this relatively built-up urban area.” 

Doty’s family has owned the Horticultural Nursery since 1922, when his grandfather George Budgen opened the McGee Avenue business. His father, Ken Doty, was a nurseryman from Oregon who met Budgen’s daughter, Connie, on a sales trip and married her in 1954. 

“She was the boss’ daughter and they just met,” said the younger Doty. 

The family’s long-term ownership of the nursery is not unusual in Berkeley. The Lasagna family has owned the Westbrae Nursery on Gilman Street in North Berkeley since 1911 and the Davis family has owned the East Bay Nursery on San Pablo Avenue in West Berkeley for more than 60 years.  

Remarkably enough, they all seem to be friends. 

“I think all the nurseries here in the East Bay work together,” said Doty. “We’re pretty much good friends.” 

Gerald Acree, a manager at Westbrae, said the long-term friendship spawned a plant-buying cooperative 50 years ago among the three old-time shops that still survives today. 

Still, every outfit tries to differentiate itself. Magic Gardens offers classes, East Bay Nursery specializes in trees and Westbrae carries a large selection of garden arts, from waterfalls to wind sculptures. And, within their specialties, all the nurseries look for something a little out of the ordinary. 

“Berkeley ... appreciates more of the unusual, less of the mass-produced—whether it’s the window on your home or the craftsmanship on your door,” said Rob Davis, general manager at East Bay Nursery. 

A stroll through the East Bay Nursery’s rows and rows of trees and plants turns up everything from a pyramidal limber pine to a leatherleaf sedge, a bronze-brown perennial grass. 

Davis said he hasn’t noticed any drastic changes in buying habits this year. But he said local gardeners have snatched up several new varieties of heuchra, a fern-like perennial with white and pink flowers and all sorts of leaves—from chocolate speckled to lime green with white speckles. 

“It’s appropriate for Berkeley,” he said. “It’s kind of a whimsical flower—a wand-like flower.” 

Just around the corner, at Yabusaki’s Dwight Way Nursery, co-owner Kenneth Yabusaki specializes in bonsai trees ranging from 6 inches to 15 feet. He said customers building Japanese gardens travel from all over the Bay Area to buy supplies from his store. 

The Yabusakis have only been in business for 19 years—neophytes by local standards. But their nursery may be able to claim the deepest Berkeley roots of all the local garden shops. 

A slightly tattered city map hanging on the nursery’s office wall, dated 1891, has a small inset in the lower left-hand corner highlighting the “Dwight Way Nursery.”  

“I believe we have more nurseries in Berkeley than any other city,” said Yabusaki. “Everyone in this town really likes to garden.”


Opinion

Editorials

Swim Berkeley Launches Campaign

Alexis Tonti
Friday July 25, 2003

This Sunday the United Pool Council is launching its Swim Berkeley Campaign with a celebration from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Willard Pool in South Berkeley. 

Swim Berkeley is the joint effort of the United Pool Council and the Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Department to revitalize aquatics in the community. The campaign’s first aim is to prevent the five-month closure of the Willard Pool, a step City Council will take unless pool users raise the $60,000 needed to bridge the budget deficit and keep Willard open year-round.  

Berkeley’s four public pools and the warm-water pool at the high school are under the purview of the aquatics division of the parks department. Concerned pool users formed the United Pool Council five months ago when they recognized the logic of working together to maintain services. 

“If one is closed, it impacts the others,” said Karen Davis, a member of the pool council steering committee. 

“City Council challenged us,” she said. “And we decided the only way to deal with cutbacks is to launch a campaign and expand. We want to add more activities in the fall, more swim lessons, more opportunities for seniors and the disabled. We want people to see the value of these neighborhood services. 

“The pools don’t have to lay empty,” she added. “They can be filled, and are potentially very big profit centers for the community.” 

The Sunday afternoon event includes a barbecue (hamburgers and hot dogs provided, or bring your own food to toss on the grill), sign-ups for fall programs and demonstrations of new activities that will available (including diving, aquatic aerobics and water dance). The regular public swim will take place as scheduled. Cost varies from $2 to $5 depending on age.  

The Willard Pool is located on the southeast corner of Telegraph and Derby. For information about pool hours, swim lessons and other activities, call the city’s new Swim Berkeley hotline at 510-981-SWIM. 

 

—Alexis Tonti


Berkeley Briefs

David Scharfenberg
Tuesday July 22, 2003

Public Hearing Set  

For 3045 Shattuck 

 

A lengthy battle over a Shattuck Avenue house that has been jacked up two stories to allow a pair of new floors below may come to a resolution Thursday night in a public hearing before the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

Neighbors say the 3045 Shattuck Ave. project, which would include both housing and commercial uses, is out of character with the area. They have also taken developer Christina Sun to task for providing “incomplete information” on a building permit application—an error that led the city’s Planning Department to halt construction on the project weeks ago. 

The board will decide whether Sun violated the zoning code by placing false information on the application. If the board rules against Sun, it could declare the project a public nuisance and order the developer to start from scratch with a full public hearing on the matter. 

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

 

—David Scharfenberg 

 

 

Media Scholarships 

For Latino Students 

 

Bay Area Latino students interested in journalism will now have the chance to make their aspirations a reality in this year’s La Raza Media Education Fund scholarship contest. 

The La Raza Fund will award $1,000 and $2,000 scholarships to Latino students who demonstrate financial need, potential for success, scholastic achievement, community involvement and commitment to increasing Latino access to the media. The fund will also offer a variety of paid internships 

that will allow qualified students to work with media professionals. 

The La Raza Media Scholarship Committee was formed in 1975 to increase the number of Latinos in broadcast and print media. In 1996, the committee became the La Raza Media Educational Fund, a donor-advised, nonprofit philanthropic organization based in San Francisco. 

Interested students can download an application from www.hccac.com/laraza or call (510) 881-0757. Deadline for applications is August 22. 

—Megan Greenwell 

 

 

Girls’ Basketball  

Succeeds in Nationals 

 

The East Bay Xplosion, a 14-year-old girls’ basketball team, took third place in the national finals last week in Clarksville, Tenn. 

The team is made up of girls from around the East Bay, including four from St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley. They won four of their six warm-up tournaments prior to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Championships in Tennessee, with both defeats coming against older teams. The Xplosion ranked 13th nationally in their division going into the championships. They beat all but two of a field of 85 teams to finish third in the country on Friday night. Xplosion beat the fourth-ranked Connecticut Shamrocks 70-63 on Friday to earn a trip to the tournament’s Final Four. 

In that evening’s game, Xplosion was beaten by Georgia Magic, 81-60, which earned them the third place award. Georgia Magic went on to win the competition. 

“Georgia was a great team,” said parent Bradley Johnson. “We’re thrilled with this result.” 

With this year’s third place win, Xplosion coach Sean Dulan is showing the beginning of a dynasty for the East Bay team. Last year, the 14-year-olds won the AAU Championships, and many of those players are now stars at high schools around the area. 

A younger group of Xplosion players, the 12-and-unders, finished their season last week with a seventh-place award at the AAU Championships. 

 

—Megan Greenwell 

 

 

Berkeley Canines  

Set World Record 

 

The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society now boasts the world’s greatest number of well-trained dogs—or at least, the best coordinated group of canines. 

Earlier this month, at the annual Bay to Barkers dog walk and festival at the Berkeley Marina, 87 dogs managed to stay in a down position for two full minutes, earning the event the designation of the World’s Largest Simultaneous Dog Down-Stay, smashing the previous record of 76 dogs held by the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in Great Britain. 

The record attempt, which required participants to sit or lie on the ground for two minutes, was the brainchild of Humane Society training manager Nancy Frensly, who organized much of the Bay to Barkers event.  

After trying a smaller down-stay at a previous year’s Bay to Barkers, Frensly decided to aim for 100 dogs this year. She fielded a group of 103 dogs to attempt the feat. Out of that group, 87 dogs made it. 

“One dog failing did not make the effort fail,” Frensly said. “They count the number of dogs who stay. It was amazing that with the huge number of distractions the dogs were so well-trained that they would stay in position.” 

Frensly plans to submit the results of the event to the Guinness Book of World Records for certification, a process that requires witness affidavits, photographs and the presence of a licensed veterinarian. Assuming Guinness deems the process legal, the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society will go into the record books—until someone manages to get an 88th dog to stay in a down position. 

“This may become a yearly thing,” Frensly said with a laugh. “In a few years we may be going for 1,000 dogs.”  

 

—Megan Greenwell 

 

 

Meeting Held On 

Community Policing 

 

More than 100 residents turned out Thursday night for the first of four town meetings on community policing, Odom said. 

After an apparent border feud erupted last month between drug dealers in North Oakland and South Berkeley, some neighbors criticized police for what they deemed inadequate community policing. 

Odom said the department has remained committed to community policing in recent years, but has seen large turnover in the department and in the neighborhood.  

“We have younger officers, we have new people in the community,” he said. “So some are starting from ground zero.” 

The “town hall” meetings, he said, are part of an effort to re-energize community policing. 

The department has not yet finalized dates, times and locations for the next three forums, but Odom said the next session will probably take place in West Berkeley or North Berkeley. 

—David Scharfenberg