Berkeley lost a legend this week. Frank “Buddy” Spenger Jr. died of natural causes Sunday in the apartment in which he was raised, one flight above the seafood restaurant he helped make a Berkeley institution. He was 87. 

“It’s like the end of an era,” said local historian Stephanie Manning. “He was the last of the old school of Berkeley industrialists.” 

Buddy was the grandson of Johann Spenger, an immigrant from Germany, who settled in West Berkeley in the 1860s. Johann first made a living as a hook and line fisherman on Lake Merritt before eventually opening a clam stand at 1919 Fourth St. in 1890. 

Buddy’s father, Frank Sr., also a fisherman, welcomed the repeal of prohibition in 1933 by adding a restaurant and tavern, Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto, to the site. But it was Buddy who would become synonymous with the business, managing it from 1940 through 1998, when failing health and falling profits forced him to hand over control to McCormick & Schmick, a Portland, Ore. seafood restaurant chain. 

Like his father and grandfather, Buddy was drawn to the sea. As a sixteen-year-old fresh out of Berkeley High School, Buddy owned a fishing boat, the Marcella, named after his mother, and fished the Bay for halibut, striper and other fish to be sold at his father’s shop. 

By age 25, Buddy managed the restaurant, never relinquishing control until he was 82. 

“He’d work 14-16 hours a day, said his wife, Milly. “Every morning he’d get up at 6:30 a.m. to make the clam chowder.”  

Spenger’s hard work paid off. His restaurant was arguably the most famous seafood establishment in the Bay Area, attracting fish lovers from throughout the state, including celebrities such as Clark Gable, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. 

By the 50s Spenger’s claimed to serve roughly 3,500 pounds of fish daily, more than any restaurant west of the Mississippi. For years it paid more in taxes to Berkeley than any other restaurant. 

Though Buddy reveled in the famous faces that passed through Spenger’s, he remained a private person. “Buddy was a loner,” Millie said. The couple spent nearly all of their time together, making daily round trips to Tomales Bay where they harvested oysters, clams and mussels to be cooked at the restaurant. In his spare time, Milly said Buddy liked to fish in the waters off Tomales Bay and hunt ducks at a country estate in Colusa. 

Those who knew Buddy, remember him as a feisty, straight shooter, who above all else honored loyalty.  

Muriel Burnham, an 18-year employee at the restaurant remembered how the Spengers supported her when she needed to take two months leave to care for her ailing adult daughter. “They called me ten times to make sure everything was okay and said to stay as long as I needed.” Burnham was one of eight former employees who still work at the new Spenger’s. 

Retired Assistant Fire Chief Paul Burastero recalled Buddy taking a personal interest in members of his crew. “Whenever someone got promoted they’d have breakfast at Spenger’s and he’d show up and pat you on the back in his very direct way,” he said. 

Later Burastero got to know Buddy on a more personal level. When the restaurant closed temporarily in 1998, Burastero and other firefighters from the local station made frequent rounds to check on the Spengers out of fear that their apartment above the vacant restaurant would be prone to fires. 

It was a tough time for Buddy. He was suffering the effects of a 1995 stroke that impaired his ability to walk, his restaurant had been in steady decline for fifteen years under stiff competition from upstarts serving lighter “California cuisine” and he was witness to labor strife as his 150 union employees fought to keep their jobs under the new management. 

Still, Burastero said, Buddy remained spirited. “He was quite a feisty gentleman, very opinionated and likable. He was always coming up with opinions on politics.” 

Some of Buddy’s views, no doubt, would not jive with Berkeley progressive politics of today. But, according to family members, he remained a committed environmentalist, denouncing the pollution of the Bay, where he spent much of his youth fishing. 

He also respected Berkeley history and the history of the land where he spent most of his life. In 2000, when Spenger’s considered building a new parking structure, Manning asked that he first determine if the lot was above a shell mound, the traditional burial plot for the Ohlone Indians of the region. Manning said that Spenger could have fought paying for the study, but instead hired the most respected archeologist to do the work, which uncovered Ohlone remains.  

“He really respected his history,” Manning said. “ I think he really wanted to know what was under there.” 

Buddy Spenger is survived by his wife Millie; son Spanky Spenger; daughter June Ellen Lawal; stepson Robert Wolf; 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. 

The family asks that any donations in his honor be made to: 

Berkeley Firefighters Association 

Attn. Deputy Chief Orth, Station #6 

2100 Martin Luther King Way, 2nd Floor 

Berkeley, CA 94703

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

Caltopia 2003, a festival of fun, music and Cal Spirit, on Fri. and Sat., open to UC Berkeley students, staff, faculty and the community, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with events at the Recreational Sports Facility, Evans Field, Lower Sproul Plaza, and the Haas Pavillion. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/festival/  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com, 548-6310, 845-1143. 

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

“Welcome to BHS” Reception for 9th Grade Families, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Little Theater on Allston Way. “Veteran” parents and students, along with high school staff, will be happy to answer your questions about life at Berkeley High. This is a great opportunity to meet people, get lots of information, and connect with BHS. Students are encouraged to attend with their adults. Please bring a dessert to share. Coffee, tea, and punch will be provided by the PTSA. For more information email boricuastylez13@yahoo.com or cpapermaster@earthlink.net 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

Berkeley High School Volunteer Workday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enter on Allston Way, sign in at the information table, and pick a job to do. The main jobs are weeding, picking up trash, watering, sweeping, and planting. Please bring work gloves, sunscreen, hat, hoses, trowels, weeding tools, push brooms, dust pans, 4” to 1 gallon perennials or annuals in shades of red and yellow. We will supply bottled water, snacks, trash bags, and disposable gloves. For information email cpapermaster@earthlink. 

net or Calysto123@aol.com 

Caltopia 2003, see listing for Fri. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/ 

festival 

Summer Days and Nights in Albany, a small-town street fair, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on So- 

lano and San Pablo Aves. Features live entertainment including music, a lion dance, and jugglers. 525-1771. 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will hold auditions during the first week in Sept., and will offer an audition clinic today at 9 a.m. For information please call Marion Atherton at 525-8484 or email manager@byoweb.org 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale fund raiser held by the UC Berkeley Circle K, a non-profit community service organization run by students. All money raised will go to Pediatric Trauma Prevention, and research for Lou Gehrig’s Disease. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Berkeley ACE Hardware parking lot, 2145 University Ave. 841-2756.  

The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society holds its Annual Plant Show from noon to 4 p.m., at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Many of the world’s most enthusiastic growers of these deadly (to insects), diverse and often stunningly beautiful plants will be displaying their best specimens. For information see the Society's web page at www.bacps.org or call the Garden at 643-2755. 

Alternative Building Materials: Cob and Strawbale workshop on two natural building materials, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cob is an ancient techni- 

que using a mixture of earth, sand and straw; it requires only simple handtools and can easily be shaped into imaginative structures. Strawbales are highly insulative and create an Old World character of thick walls and deepset windows. Cost is $75. Held at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 525-7610.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24  

Historic Kenney Cottage moves from 1725 University Ave. to 1275 University Ave. at 7 a.m. The Cottage, a prefabricated panel house whose design was patented by William H. Wrigley in 1881, may be the oldest existing example of this type of prefab construction in America. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will offer coffee and doughnuts at the new site. 

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. 

Herb Walk Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Call for directions. Cost is $6-$25 sliding scale. Sponsored by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org 

Equity in Affordable Housing, a public dialog hosted by The Oakland Coalition of Congrega- 

tions, from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 27th and Broadway. For information call 625-9490. 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale See listing for Aug. 23.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

“Cuba - What Next?” A Commonwealth Club panel, including three prominent Cuban Americans and a former U.S. mission chief in Havana, will re-examine trade and travel restrictions from noon to 1:30 p.m. at 595 Market Street in SF, with a reception at 11:15 a.m. Cost is $12 or free to students and Commonwealth Club members. For reservations, call 800-847-7730 or 415-597-6700. Co-sponsored by the International Diplomacy Council and the Pan American Society. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets at 7 p.m. in 100 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. Presentation by Max Elbaum, Founder, War Times Newspaper. For more information, please email info@berkeleystopthewar.org or visit www.berkeleystopthewar.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Charles Fitch will show travel slides. 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 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke Seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672 for information or check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/ 

~teachme99/tildenwalkers. 

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

Morris Dancing Workshop Learn the basics of an English ritual dance form that predates Shakespeare, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Oxford. Free and open to all. www.talamasca.com/berkmorris 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27 

Free Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class Learn how to detect and remedy lead hazards and conduct lead-safe renovations for your older home. From 6 to 8 p.m. at the South Berkeley Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. For information or to register call the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at 567-8280.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

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. At 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For information please call 644-2204. 

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) is a coalition of residents, non-profit agencies, community groups, school district and city agencies to increase community food access and help build a healthy regional food system. For information call Penny Leff, 548-3333.  

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

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.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 

40th Anniversary of the National Civil Rights March on Washington, most remembered by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, will be celebrated at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Hall, 2180 Milvia St. Residents who were present 40 years ago will reconfirm their commitment to the March pledge. Civil Rights supporters who could not attend the original event 40 years ago will be invited to take the Civil Rights pledge for the first time. For information contact 981-7170 or berkeleycivilrightsanniversary@yahoo.com 

Fiscal Management for Non-Profits, a technical assistance workshop offered by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Alameda County Confer- 

ence Center, 125 12th St, 4th floor. For information contact Felicia Moore-Jordan, 268-5376. 

Great Paddling Destinations in Baja and No. California with Roger Schumann at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

Berkeley Painters’ Critique Group meets to discuss new concepts and techniques with paint media at 6:30 p.m. at The Art Gym, 1717D Fourth St. 527-0600. www.geocities.com/berkeleypainters 

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 mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

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. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Free Smoke Detectors UC Berkeley and First Alert, Inc. have donated smoke detectors to be made available to City residents and UC Berkeley students who live off-campus. Applications for smoke detectors are available from the Environment, Health & Safety office of UC Berkeley, at any Berkeley Fire Station, or at the Fire Administration Office located at 2100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 981-5585.  

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households pay their gas and electric bills. For applications contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy 

CITY MEETINGS 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Aug. 25, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/com 

missions/solidwaste 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Aug. 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/civicarts 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Aug. 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/com 

missions/energy 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Aug. 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning 

This issue of the Daily Planet is being to distributed to about 20,000 additional readers, including incoming students and their parents who will be attending the University of California’s “Caltopia” event. We’d like to welcome you to our city, and to say a few words about Berkeley present and past. 

First, a few statistics. Berkeley is densely populated, especially in the Flatlands (i.e. the non-Hills) where most students live. It’s the third densest city in the Bay Area—only San Francisco and South San Francisco are more crowded. If you come from Southern California, as many UC students do, you’ll probably experience a lifestyle adjustment. Parking, as you may have noticed, is hard to find. It’s better to leave your car at home, if you have one. The best strategy for getting around Berkeley is walking. Bicycles work for many, though there’s a lot of bike traffic too. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit, the bus company also known as AC, goes many places, even into San Francisco, and is somewhat reliable. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) goes to a few places too, but isn’t much help for getting around Berkeley. 

Berkeley housing is bi-modal. On one hand, our single family houses are increasingly expensive. The median home price here, $536,000, is the highest in Alameda County. But we have a lot of rental housing, in varying price ranges. Close to 1,000 new rental units have been built in Berkeley in the last few years, and for the first time in perhaps a generation “for rent” signs are appearing in windows around Berkeley. What that means is that when you leave the dorms (and you will eventually) you might be able to be a bit picky about what you rent, and you can negotiate somewhat with potential landlords. 

Berkeley offers good options for car-less shoppers. We have three farmers’ markets, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, all within walking distance of campus. The Sunday farmers’ market, by the harbor at Jack London Square in Oakland, is a pleasant excursion from campus on the #51 bus. 

We are also well supplied with that other staple of student life: books. In the Berkeley Daily Planet’s July book issue we listed more than 50 independent bookstores in the Greater Berkeley area, most of them reachable on foot or by bus. That’s not too surprising if you consider that the 2000 census found that about 8 percent of Berkeleyans over 25 have Ph.D.s, the third highest concentration in the country, after Cambridge and Ann Arbor. And you guys had to be pretty smart to be admitted to UCB. 

We’ve got lots of entertainment opportunities easily reached by students. Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley has five major movie houses. The Elmwood Theatre on College has second-runs with bargain prices, and the Pacific Film Archive on campus caters to film buffs. (Sadly, Berkeley’s Fine Arts Theater was demolished last spring for a housing development, though there are promises that it will return when the building is finished.) We have an abundance of unusual live theater. To name just two of many, the Aurora Theater on Addison Street downtown offers professional productions in an intimate setting, and the Shotgun Players, who do several challenging productions every year, have recently found a home in the historic Julia Morgan Theater close to campus on College. In addition to the traveling attractions showcased by Cal Performances at Zellerbach, Berkeley has low-cost music options of all kinds, including jazz, hip-hop, classical and folk. These can be found in the Daily Planet’s Arts Calendar. 

Just walking around is a good cheap entertainment option. For nature walks, buses will take you to the shoreline parks near the Berkeley Marina, or up in the hills to the East Bay Regional Parks, which also come right down to campus in Strawberry Canyon and Claremont Canyon behind the Clark Kerr campus. 

Berkeley experienced an architectural golden age in the teens and twenties of the 20th century, and its monuments are everywhere. Close to campus, the most widely known gem is Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ Scientist next to People’s Park on Dwight Way, now overshadowed a bit by less lovely UC dorms. In addition to famous architecture, Berkeley has interesting history, much of it connected to the University of California. Telegraph Avenue and People’s Park still function as shrines to Berkeley in the sixties. We have a lot of living history, too. Some of the liveliest survivors of the social movements of the 20th century have retired to Berkeley, and can be found in our senior centers still debating the left sectarian issues of the 1930s. 

One of the most exciting things about living in Berkeley is that you don’t have to travel to see the world, because the world comes here. University Avenue is the major center for sari shops and Indian restaurants, but ethnic restaurants of every description ring the campus. Some of them advertise in the Planet’s Dining Out section, but there are many more to be found. 

One last thing: We’re proud to say that the Berkeley Daily Planet is one of a very small number of remaining locally-owned papers in the country. We can keep you in touch with what’s going on in Berkeley, especially off-campus. Just don’t look for us every day. Our name is a historic relic, a tribute to Superman’s paper, the Metropolis Daily Planet, but these days we’re on the stands in a box near you on Tuesdays and Fridays. The most widely read section of our paper (and most papers) is the opinion section, which is open to all kinds of writers. After you’ve been here a while, let us know what you think of Berkeley. We’d love to hear from you. 

Becky O’Malley is Executive Editor of the Daily Planet.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

CHILDREN 

Where the Wild Things Are at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Czech Horror and Fantasy on Film: “Invisible” at 7:30 p.m. and Shorts by Jan Svankmajer at 9:35 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 

Disinformation Film Series: “Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death,” at 7:30 p.m., at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Donations requested. 528-5403.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Belle & Sebastian at 7:30 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

Near East Far West performs Balkan music at at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stephanie Bruce performs jazz-influenced originals at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Muriel Anderson, classical, folk, jazz guitarist, 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 

Paulo Bellinati and Harvey Wainapel, Brazilian guitarist and Bay Area sax/clarinet player, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lisa B., with Murray Low and Alex Baum at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $12-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Whore, Ramona the Pest, She Mob at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Pitt of Fashion Orches- 

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

Fast Times at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Neal Cronin’s World Beat Party at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

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

FILM 

An Evening of International Animation at 7 and 8 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 

“Can Dialectics Break Bricks?” 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. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse with Mack Dennis, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music in the Garden from 10 a.m. to noon at the 59th Street Community Garden, between Market and Adeline Sts. Come for an afternoon of improvisational song, poetry, harmony and rhythms with Sally Rademaker.  

Blues and Beer Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Live music, micro-brewery beer, and crafts fair at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

The Dave Matthews Blues Band performs a free blues concert at 2 p.m. at the corner of Solano Ave. and Santa Fe St. 525-1771. www.davematthewsbluesband.com 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición performs classic Cuban dance music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Great Night of Rumi, celebrating the 13th century Persian poet with spoken word, music and dance, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Red Pocket, My Hero at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Adria, jazz CD release party and benefit for the Jazz House, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $6-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

World Beat Party at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave., across from Ashby BART, between Adeline and MLK Way. Cost is $10. 654-1904. neal@nealcronin.com 

Will Bernard Trio, blues-tinted, electronic-tinged jazz at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Felonious at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

California Brazil Allstar Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Frank Jackson Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Thought Riot, Scattered Fall, Love Songs, Kadena, Eskapo 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, AUGUST 24 

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

FILM 

W. C. Fields: “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Guided Tour of Fred Wilson’s “Aftermath” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Front Row Festival, music, dance, improv, film from noon to 7 p.m. in the Downtown Berkeley Arts District. Featuring an outdoor mainstage and op- 

portunity to visit The Jazzschool, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage and Nevo Education Center, Downtown Restaurant and Capoeira Arts Cafe. Children's art activities, food booths, arts and crafts, a wine and beer garden, and more! Admission to street festival free, admission to indoor venues is $5. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association 654-6346. www.downtownberkeley.org  

Cantus Magnus, directed by Richard Mix will present “Missa De Beata Virgine” by Josquin DesPrez, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6873.  

Where Art Meets Garden: Green Songs, songwriters with an ecological focus, featuring Sam Johnston, Nancy Schim- 

mel, Mokai and Green, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Com- 

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

Gypsy Kings at 5 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

People Love Pie at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Duck Baker, folk and jazz fusion guitarist, 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 

Palenque performs Cuban Son at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jim Hightower returns with his latest commentary, “Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take it Back,” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10, free with purchase of the book, and are available at Cody’s. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Ashura: This Blood Spilled in My Veins” 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 

Fragments From the War on Terror “Civilian Casualties,” a film by September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. A free film series co-sponsored by Ber- 

keley Peace Walk and Vigil. For more information see www.geo- 

cities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Summer Poetry, with Daphne Gotlieb, 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. 

Bruce Moody discusses his new book, “Will Work for Food or $,” about begging by the roadside, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Maria Espinosa reads from her novel, “Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew,” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ilgi, a night of Latvian song, music and games at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “The Blood on Satan’s Claw” 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 

“Converging/Diverging Faiths: Islam and Christianity from the Center,” an evening with Seyed Hossein Nasr and Houston Smith at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Co-sponsored by First Congre- 

gational Church of Berkeley, The Islamic Center of Northern California and 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 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hawaiian Music’s Next Generation with Keoki Kahumoku, Herb Ohta, Jr., Patrick Landeza, and David Kamakahi, 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 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Third World, MC UC BUU at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Tele- 

graph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Supplicants perform at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “A Grin Without a Cat” 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 

Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Curator’s Talk by Alla Efimova, at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Marie Etienne reads from her story of an abused childhood, “Storkbites,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Marguerite Sprague discusses and shows slides of “Bodie’s Gold: Tall Tales and True History From a California Mining Town,” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Omar Faruk Tebilek and Ensemble performs traditional Sufi, folk and contemporary music from the Middle East at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20 in advance, $22 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

((sYncrosYstem)), all-acoustic global groove ensemble performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Grateful Dead DJ Night with Digital Dave at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Boatclub, Moore Brothers, Yuji Oniki, Chicken on a Raft at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Jessica Jones Quartet, jazz saxophone, 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 

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

AT THE THEATER 

Impact Theatre, “Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” an evening of ultra-short comedies, directed by Joy Meads. Runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27, at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Josh Kornbluth’s “Love and Taxes,” a tale of falling in love while wrangling with the Kafkaesque IRS. Runs through Sept. 14. Performances Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 and 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25-$40, available from 647-2949 or 888-4BRT-TIX. www.zspace.org 

Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Hare, directed by Patrick Dooley. Runs Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. in John Hinkle Park, until Sept. 14. Show Sept. 13 is at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 704-8210.  

www.shotgunplayers.org 

Teen Playreaders, “Bizarre Shorts,” a festival of brief and absurd dramas for a mature audience. Sat., Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

EXHIBITIONS  

Berkeley Art Center, 19th National Juried Exhibition: “Works on Paper,” runs to Sept. 13. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. Open Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Art Museum, Matrix 207: Anne Von Mertens “Suggested North Points,” hand-dyed and hand-stiched quilts, to Sept. 7.  

“Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Gennomics” featuring contemporary artists’ visions of a genetically modified future, August 27 through December 7.  

“Turning Corners,” an exhibition of five centuries of innovative art, through the summer of 2004. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is open Wed. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students, and free for the general public the first Thurs. of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

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

848-0181.  

Berkeley Public Library, “The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” photographs by Ben Ailes. Runs until Aug. 30. First Floor Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Graduate Theological Union Library, “Hand-crafted Books by Bay Area Artists,” Zea Morwitz, Mary Eubank, Nance O'Banion, Ted Purves, Susanne Cockrell, Karen Sjoholm, and Lisa Kokin. Each book is accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the work. Exhibition runs until Sept. 30. Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd.  

649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part II Runs until Sept. 6. Call for gallery hours. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

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

Red Oak Realty “Mixed Media,” by Stan Whitehead. Exhibition runs through Oct. 23, Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387. 

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

Sway Gallery, “Secret Summer” paintings, installations, collages, prints, drawings, and mixed media by Nana Hayashi, Greg Moore, Marc Snegg, Gab- 

rielle Wolodarski. Runs to Oct. 5. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. 2569 Telegraph Ave. 489-9054.

Welcome to Berkeley! 

Don’t forget your student body cards: Flashing one at most of the box offices around Berkeley will give you a significant cut in the cost of a ticket for some of the best live theater productions in the Bay Area. You’ve landed in a place that a distinguished director, Lillian Groag, described as having “a pool of the best actors in the United States.” The local theaters are eager to get you to see what they produce. And most of it is first-rate.  

Naturally, they’re glad to have anybody buy a ticket, but they’re making a specific effort to bring in people from your generation. It’s important enough to them to cut their revenue in order to get you into the theater.  

Sure, theater people are notoriously idealistic but their interest in getting you and your friends to see what they have to offer isn’t all altruism. They want to get you hooked. Maybe you’d better be warned: live theater can be addictive. Once they get you get turned on, there’s a good chance you’ll still be toddling into theaters when every hair you have left has turned white.  

That’s what they have in mind. A while back, theater people woke up to the fact that films and television had taken over the audiences that had supported the theater for centuries. Young people just didn’t think about going to live theater. Theater audiences were aging. If there wasn’t some kind of action, the stage, the whole heart of the dramatic world, was literally going to die along with their audiences.  

Voila! Cheap tickets for students arrived. Some places even have date nights. Bring a party to one of the best theaters around and you’ll get a free ticket. Idea after idea is being developed to encourage younger people to come and enjoy. Believe me, you’re welcome.  

And they very much hope you’ll be coming back for the rest of your life. 

Here’s a brief introduction to the theaters in the immediate area. Berkeley has such an active theatrical scene that it can keep you busy on almost every weekend of the year. In addition to the theaters that will be mentioned here, the UC Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, is offering both Mainstage and Student Workshop productions that will be well worth your time—and won’t kill your pocketbook. The city theaters and the UC departments sometimes draw on each other for their mutual enrichment. This list is limited to theaters outside the campus and within the City of Berkeley. 

The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley 

Actors Ensemble doesn’t need to give a student discount; they charge everybody a flat $10. The oldest group in Berkeley, they will perform in the Live Oak Theater at 1301 Shattuck Ave. (at Berryman) in Berryman Park. Their season will open with “Camping with Henry and Tom” (That’s Thomas Edison and Henry Ford) showing on Friday and Saturday evenings, Oct. 24 through Nov. 22. It’s American history taken the easy way. 

The Aurora Theater 

The Aurora is located at 2071 Addison St., a half-block from the Downtown BART on Shattuck Avenue. Half–price tickets for seniors and students half an hour before performances. There are also free tickets for students for previews. Director Tom Ross says that the theater is definitely developing programs with younger audiences in mind. He is directing “Lobby Hero” which he describes as “an outrageous comedy” playing Nov. 14 through Dec. 21. He expects that it will particularly appeal to that audience. Barbara Oliver, the Artistic Director who is one of the founders of the theater, will direct the UC production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Getting Married” on the weekends of Nov. 14 and 21 at the campus Durham Studio Theatre. 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre 

Berkeley Rep, at 2025 Addison St., next door to Aurora, is a 35-year-old Berkeley institution. It now has two theaters, immediately adjacent to each other: the Thrust Stage, wtih 400 seats, and the Roda Theatre, a 600-seat proscenium theater. Special rates for students and for people under age 30. They also have special “nite/OUT” evenings for Lesbian /Gay/Bisexual/Transgender audiences which includes the performance and a reception with food, drink and music at $43 a ticket. The Rep won a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997, and attracts outstanding actors from around the country for their seven annual productions. 

California Shakespeare Theater 

Headquartered in Berkeley, but performing in a beautiful outdoor setting just east of the Caldecott Tunnel, the Bruns Amphitheater is set up to be a terrific evening quite aside from the performance. Look at www.calshakes.org for directions. They provide bus rides to the site for people who take BART. CalShakes includes other plays besides Shakespeare in their season, and provides free lectures, discussions and a multitude of other goodies associated with the current production. Inquire about reduced student rates by calling the box office at 548-9666 or 548-3422. Go early and take your lunch with you. 

Central Works 

In Berkeley, never get the idea that the price of a performance has anything to do with the quality of the production. This group is one of the many who have built their reputation (excellent and innovative) while performing in a room at the Berkeley City Club. They create their own plays by taking ideas from Shakespeare—only the old guy would have trouble recognizing the relationship when they’re through. They frequently have “Pay what you can” performances.  

Impact Theater 

“Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” a set of short and funny pieces, is now playing at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre—the basement of La Val’s Pizza Restaurant, about half a block up Euclid from UC’s North Gate. Don’t let the location turn you off: lots of the Berkeley theater companies have spent good time there. The company bills itself as “Theatre for People who HATE Theatre” and their target audience is 18 to 35. They say that they’re dedicated to keeping their ticket prices down to the cost of a movie ticket. Try them out at www.ImpactTheatre.com.  

Shotgun Theater 

Right now, Shotgun Theater is producing a smashing production of Brecht’s “Mother Courage”—for free, Saturdays and Sundays in John Hinkle Park at 4:00 p.m. until Sept. 14. (The Sept. 13 performance will be at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts at 2640 College Ave.). Call 704-8210 to find out their pricing policy for the coming season when they’ll settle into the Julia Morgan Center for an extended stay. 

Transparent Theater 

The Transparent Theater is a young and innovative group located at the northeast corner of Ashby Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, across the street from the BART parking lot. Thursdays are “Pay What You Can Night.” Their first production for the season is “No Ghost Hamlet” which will play Oct. 17 through Nov. 23. In this production, there is no ghostly material; Hamlet is a woman whose relationship with Ophelia is a lesbian love affair and the whole thing is backed by “a furious rock sound track.” 

Sound innovative enough to you? 

Despite vehement opposition from neighborhood activists and City Hall, the Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday night to move its Adult School from a dilapidated building on University Avenue to an old elementary school site just a few blocks away. 

The vote came after months of heated meetings, a strongly worded letter from City Manager Weldon Rucker and more than an hour of testimony from opponents and supporters Wednesday night—including a rare appearance by a City Councilmember. 

“To get along with your neighbors or anyone else, I think you have to work with them,” said Councilmember Margaret Breland, addressing the school board. 

“I want the...neighbors to know that I’ve weighed this many, many times in many different ways,” said school board Director John Selawsky, before the vote. 

But neighbors of the current Adult School and the old City of Franklin Elementary School on Virginia Street, where it is slated to move, stormed out of the meeting after the vote, declaring that the school board had failed to listen to their concerns. 

“They just steamroll over what other people say,” said Connie McCullah, an Adult School neighbor. “I think it’s very insulting.” 

McCullah and others say the Adult School is a good neighbor and bristle at talk of moving the school district’s administrative and maintenance operations to the University Avenue site, once it is vacated.  

Those who live near the Franklin site say they are worried about an increase in traffic, parking and crime, among other things, once the Adult School moves to their neighborhood. 

Now that the project is approved, one resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said neighbors may tap funds they have raised for a lawsuit against the school district. 

The district plans to select a construction company for a $6.5 million overhaul of Franklin by Oct. 15, with work to begin Nov. 1. Officials hope to finish the project in time to move the Adult School to Franklin in time for the 2004-2005 school year. 

City Manager Rucker raised concerns about the move in a July 29 letter. Citing district studies, arguing that the move is part of a broader building swap that would, among other things, relocate the district’s administrative headquarters to University Avenue once the Adult School leaves. 

Rucker pointed out that the district, in its environmental review of the project, is required to address the impacts of the “full” project and not just one segment. The district’s failure to discuss the future of the University Avenue site, he wrote, meant the environmental review was not valid. 

District officials have made it clear in recent months that they do, indeed, plan to move their administrative headquarters to University Avenue. The top brass currently works out of Berkeley’s Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, but the district’s $1-per-year lease on the building expires in 2009 and the city, which owns the structure, wants it back. 

But district officials argued Wednesday night that there are no solid plans for the University Avenue building and that the environmental review, as a result, did not need to include a discussion of its future. 

About 20 teachers, students and administrators from the Adult School showed up at the board meeting to voice support for the move, telling stories of poor lighting, a broken heating system, inadequate wiring and an antiquated telephone system at the current site. 

Adult School Principal Margaret Kirkpatrick said the school has to buy phones at flea markets because modern models don’t work with the old system. 

George Coates, who teaches a public speaking class at the Adult School, said the program needs a new building as a sign of respect for the institution, which provides English as a Second Language, dance, literature and financial planning courses to more than 1,300 students per day. 

“It’s leaky, it’s creaky, it’s depressing,” he said. “The letters on the front of the building are falling off—people think you can’t spell.” 

School board Director Nancy Riddle, who voted for the project, said she did not find arguments about a broken-down building compelling. The district planned to overhaul the University Avenue site whether the Adult School moved or not, she noted. 

But Riddle said she was concerned that the Adult School would have to move twice if it was to remain in the University Avenue building—once to a temporary home during construction, and then back again. 

Kirkpatrick said two moves would have destroyed the cohesiveness of the school community. 

“If we don’t have this permanent move...I just don’t see how the program can stay as viable,” she said. 

Neighbors said they were concerned about the welfare of the Adult School, but were not convinced that the move made sense for the program. They said district officials listened to this complaint and others at community meetings, but did not truly weigh neighbors’ concerns. 

“The district blew a chance to show that it was really turning over a new leaf,” said Phyllis Orrick. “This signal tells me that it will continue to be business as usual. This does not bode well for the health of the institution.” 

School board Director Shirley Issel said the district and the neighbors ultimately had “irreconcilable differences.” But ultimately, she said, the Adult School move would benefit the neighborhood. 

“I sincerely believe that the worst problem facing the [Franklin] neighborhood is the prospect of an empty site,” she said. “You could have no better neighbor than the Adult School.” 

The final vote was 4-0. Director Terry Doran was absent, dealing with a family emergency.

ANTENNA VIOLATION 

Some city offices are not acting according to local ordinances. Neighbors in North Berkeley have recently discovered that the Planning Department has been violating sections of the Berkeley Telecommunications Ordinance, which states that the department must keep a map and inventory of all existing and proposed wireless telecommunication sites in the city. 

Neighbors of 1600 Shattuck Ave. are fighting antennae planned by Sprint and requested the Planning Department inventory in July 2003. The department did not have an inventory at all and only began preparing one in late July. Neigbors finally examined Aug. 18, finding it incomplete and not in compliance with the ordinance. For instance, it has no information regarding Sprint’s proposed wireless antennae at 1600 Shattuck. 

These antennae were installed without a permit in early June. The neighbors do not know whether these antennae are operating, but they tend to believe that they are. The reason is that the neighbors use an RF detector that shows power densities larger than safe levels when it is pointed toward 1600 Shattuck. Even if the antennae were not operating, the detector reveals an alarming fact: The radiation coming from Downtown Berkeley, the UC Campus, and LBNL is already beyond the safe levels. 

Shahram Shahruz 

• 

URBAN DESIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After traveling to Europe and admiring its intimate, narrow streets, John Kenyon brings back one recommendation to Berkeley: Buildings on commercial streets should be set back from the sidewalk, so trees can be planted in front of them (Daily Planet, Aug. 19-21).  

Yet these setbacks would widen streets visually, giving them even less of the intimate feeling of European streets. Better alternatives are ordinary street trees or the trees-in-parking that we have on University Avenue in downtown. These narrow streets visually, giving them a more intimate feeling and slowing traffic.  

The shopping streets that Kenyon enjoyed in Europe do not have setbacks, nor do the shopping streets that people like most in the Bay Area (such as, College Avenue in Rockridge).  

In fact, New Urbanist designers, such as Andres Duany and Victor Dover, have created development codes that forbid setbacks from the sidewalk on commercial streets, to give them the feel of traditional shopping streets.  

Charles Siegel  

• 

FRANKLIN SCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Franklin School was an excellent school about 50 years ago. Many of our children attended the school, for this area was occupied by mostly young parents at the time. 

Most of that generation of active parents are now deceased. But we have a new generation of young parents with a new generation of children. We need to maintain Franklin School, for we will certainly need it again. 

Asline R. Jones 

• 

BUSTAMANTE BOOSTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Democrat who favors the recall to remove Gov. Davis for the following reasons:  

1. Davis spent $10 million of his campaign money to skew the Republican primary towards the weaker candidate, thus forfeiting his claim that the last election for governor was “fair.”  

2. After several years in which the Republican minority in the State Legislature has blocked all deficit-reducing budgets, Davis still has not shown the leadership to campaign for reducing the necessary approval majority from 67 to 55 percent.  

3. Following the energy crisis, Attorney General Bill Lockyear fought FERC and the big energy companies for restitution while Davis kept silent, unwilling to take the political risk.  

4. Cruz Bustamante has the experience and the program to lead California effectively out of this $38 billion mess.  

Bruce Joffe  

Piedmont

Berkeley’s nonprofit Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) may be reaching out to the homeless, but workers say they are shortchanging their own employees. 

Union officials charged this week that BOSS has improperly frozen annual 3 percent pay hikes and increased employee co-payments for doctors’ visits and prescription drugs without seeking worker approval. 

“We understand there’s financial problems with every agency, but you have to talk about things,” said Chris Graeber, business representative with the Inglewood-based California Professional Employees, Local Union #2345, which represents 85 cooks, counselors and office workers at BOSS. About 20 to 30 percent of employees are former clients, according to the organization’s human resources chief, Paul Sedler. 

In the midst of contract negotiations this week, the union announced that it had filed unfair labor practices charges against BOSS last month with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for making “unilateral” changes to the wage structure and health care program.  

BOSS officials, facing a dip in private grants and public funding this year, say the changes were necessary to cope with an unprecedented $112,000 deficit for the fiscal year that ended in June. 

“I’ve been a union supporter all my life and will continue to support a union at BOSS...but I can’t grow money,” said BOSS Executive Director boona cheema. “We’re going to give as much as we can give without being in a position next year where we have a higher deficit and we have to shut down programs.” 

BOSS, which serves 3,000 homeless in Berkeley, Oakland and Hayward, has already cut loose a pair of Oakland programs—one for homeless teenagers and one for parolees—in the face of declining funding. In both cases, other agencies took over the programs. 

Cheema said BOSS has also issued a handful of layoff notices to union members, chopped three managerial jobs and reduced administrative salaries to deal with the fiscal crisis. cheema herself took a 10 percent pay cut and now makes $86,589 annually, according to BOSS’s human resources department. 

Kenneth Ko, supervisory attorney with the NLRB’s Oakland office, said his office has not yet heard BOSS’s response to the union charges, filed in two separate complaints July 23 and July 24, and has made no determination. But he said the workers appear to have a strong case. 

“If you’re talking about a situation where there’s a recognized union, generally there’s a requirement to notify and bargain with a union,” Ko said. 

The NLRB will collect evidence from both sides, decide if the charges have merit and seek a settlement if they do, according to Ko. If BOSS declines to settle, the case would go before an administrative law judge, probably this fall, he said. 

BOSS, which provides housing, health care and education for the homeless, has an annual budget of $8.5 million. About 80 percent of its funding comes from government sources, including about $800,000 from the City of Berkeley. 

Labor strife might seem like an odd malady for BOSS, a 32 year-old icon of Berkeley liberalism. But the agency is not alone. The Berkeley Bowl grocery store—known for its endless bins of organic fruit and dreadlocked cashiers—is facing an upheaval of its own, with workers pushing to unionize. 

Terri Dunn, a BOSS fiscal specialist who is on the union’s negotiating team, said the organization has generally treated its employees well, but has overstepped its bounds with its recent maneuvers on pay hikes and co-payments. 

The cost-cutting measures “probably can’t be helped” in the long run, she said, but the organization should bargain with the union, which has been in place since 1993. 

Before this year, workers paid nothing for doctors’ visits or prescription drugs. But BOSS’s health care provider, Kaiser, raised co-pays for prescription drugs to $5 on Jan. 1. 

BOSS agreed to swallow the co-payment until July 1, when the workers’ last, three-year contract expired. Starting Sept. 1, under a new plan management decided to join—without union approval—prescriptions will cost employees $10 and co-pays for doctors’ visits will jump to $15. 

Melissa Leonard, a case manager with BOSS, said the hikes will have a serious impact on her family’s finances. Leonard, a wheelchair user, said she has five active prescriptions and must visit a physical therapist once a week. 

“In order for me to work and keep up my physical stamina, I have to go every week,” she said.  

Leonard’s husband and three children, including a son who must see a neurologist four times a year, are also on her plan. 

But the costs will only be an issue if she keeps her job. Leonard said she recently received a layoff notice and is waiting to see if she will be able to “bump” a less experienced worker out of a job, as the union contract allows, and stay employed. 

If she loses her job, Leonard said, her family will probably go homeless. 

“I feel they’re treating us unfair,” she said. “We’re the frontline staff, we’re the ones who keep BOSS running.”

“Let us be honest and ask, at the outset, what it is that we wish to achieve? We have all been impotent in changing the past behaviour and human rights record in Iraq. Let us therefore redouble our efforts to make sure that we are not powerless now. Let us seek results. Let us make a difference a real difference for the people of Iraq. I cannot think of a more noble and worthy cause.” 

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the man who spoke these words—a man I knew and admired—died Tuesday in the bombing of the United Nations Headquarters in Iraq.  

Any death by violence is very sad, but the violent deaths of people who devoted their lives to helping others are truly tragic. 

The world lost more than human lives when that bomb went off Tuesday. The world lost people of passion and compassion, people who put lives of comfort and security aside to live and work in tense and dangerous situations to help others. 

Sergio Vieira de Mello was a human rights advocate who spent the past 30 years working for the United Nations, trying to solve the world’s most difficult humanitarian situations. I met him in the late 1980s when the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was trying to deal with the forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people from Hong Kong. I was the United Nations officer at Whitehead Detention Center in Hong Kong, a maximum security compound run by the Hong Kong Government, holding 24,000 Vietnamese who did not want to return to Vietnam under any circumstances. 

The U.N. had a mandate to protect the refugees, but the British and Hong Kong governments did not consider them to be political refugees, and refused to grant them asylum or permission to stay. 

The British plan was to take the Vietnamese, by force if necessary, load them onto airplanes in the middle of the night, and fly them back to Vietnam. The Vietnamese in Whitehead and the other detention centers in Hong Kong, were panicked, distraught, and began a series of desperate self-immolations and self-mutilations—sometimes resulting in death—in order to avoid being forcibly returned to Vietnam.  

It was an impossible, unwinnable human rights situation. 

As the head of the Asian Region for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sergio was the only diplomat who could help mediate the ugly situation. For those of us working in the detention centers, advocating for the Vietnamese, yet having to live with the horrifying violence, Sergio’s calm, compassionate diplomacy was the assurance we needed to keep on working. 

The United Nations did not win, and by 1997, when Britain handed Hong Kong back to Chinese rule, all the Vietnamese had been sent back to Vietnam. 

Equally horrified at the situation of housing refugees in maximum security detention centers was a New York attorney, Arthur Helton, who came to Hong Kong in the late 1980s to write about the plight of the Vietnamese, and to advocate for more humanitarian policies. 

I met with Arthur several times, as he urged me to document the human rights violations I witnessed every day. He was a mentor and teacher as I prepared my first report on the subject of arbitrary detention of refugees for the United Nations. 

Arthur never stopped pushing for more effective responses to humanitarian crises, particularly those involving refugees and displaced people. He was representing the Council on Foreign Relations and was scheduled to discuss the humanitarian situation in Iraq with Sergio in his office at the United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad at 4:30 p.m.—the time the bomb went off. 

Sergio and Arthur, and the others who died with them, were extraordinary people. Working in the field, in places of great humanitarian need, is a calling to which many may aspire, but few can handle. Living outside one’s country is not easy, but living and working in a situation of personal danger, physical hardship, and extreme emotional stress is very difficult. 

Sergio was one of those unique United Nations employees who spent the majority of his 30 years in the field. From Cambodia to Kosovo to East Timor, Sergio was a tireless advocate for human rights. In September of 2002 his exemplary career was acknowledged with his appointment as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was Kofi Annan’s choice to represent the United Nations in the difficult situation in Iraq, even if it meant taking a leave of absence from his post as High Commissioner in Geneva. 

Sergio was not a supporter of the invasion of Iraq by the United States, but the United Nations had to be there to assist in the reconstruction, and to advocate for the Iraqi people’s human rights. And Arthur came to Baghdad to assess the scope of the humanitarian needs, to determine what could be done to foster justice and human rights. The deaths of Sergio and Arthur are tragedies, but they died for the noble cause they pursued so passionately.  

Let us now redouble our efforts for peace and human rights, as Sergio asked. 

Anne Wagley worked in refugee and humanitarian relief in Asia for ten years before moving to Berkeley. She works for the Berkeley Daily Planet.

The City of Berkeley and the Downtown Berkeley Association will mark the grand opening of the Downtown Arts District with a celebration Sunday Aug. 24 on the 2000 block of Addison Street, between Milvia Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

Events will include an outdoor stage with performances by well-known bands such as Mingus Amungus, an indoor stage with live music and theater performances, as well as arts, crafts, children’s entertainment and food. 

The Addison Street Arts District was financed in part by Measure S, a voter approved bond issue, and has become a nationally recognized model for art-based downtown revitalization. 

A dozen projects have already been installed in the area, including two major sculptures, one near the entrance of the district and the other at the nearby BART station. 

Upcoming projects include an installation of more than 120 iron and ceramic poetry panels that will be placed in the sidewalk with poetry selected by poet laureate Robert Hass.  

Events run all day from noon to 7 p.m. Some are free and the rest can be accessed with a $5 all-day pass. For more information and a full schedule of events, see the insert in today’s Daily Planet.  

—Jakob Schiller

People who adopt do so for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is that nearly all adoptive parents love their adopted children like their own offspring.  

As a white foster and adoptive mother with a black daughter, I’ve learned that in transracial adoption, love is not necessarily enough. 

Transracial (or transcultural) adoption means placing a child of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In recent years, international adoptions from other countries have become common—particularly among well-to-do white couples. These adoptions can cost tens of thousands of dollars, as they usually entail trips to the adoptable child’s country of origin, not to mention lawyers’ and adoption agencies’ fees. 

It is a source of frustration to me that relatively few parents willing to adopt outside their own race will not, or do not consider domestic adoption through county or local foster care agencies (which costs nothing). 

I became a certified foster parent in 1999; not because I was interested in adoption (I was already a contented single mom to a Caucasian son, then nine), but because I recognized that there was a dire need for good foster families. I wanted to help others, and I wanted to help myself spiritually and psychologically by embarking on a venture where I could make a difference. 

I didn’t count on falling head over heals in love with my first foster child, a two-year-old who had been abandoned by her troubled parents. Their rights were soon terminated. I thought long and hard about adopting her, and in the end my heart won out. In the meantime, and to this day, I’ve cared for over a dozen other foster children—a myriad of ethnicities and circumstances—for periods ranging from two days to several months. 

My daughter’s adoption was finalized two years after she was placed in my home, but the learning curve began the day she arrived. I had to learn how best to parent a child whose skin is many, many shades darker than mine; who, in others’ eyes, could not possibly be my biological daughter.  

I think it's extremely important for any transracial or transcultural family to become familiar with the culture and history of their adopted child's country or ethnic background. 

In my case, it means reading or rereading books by such authors as Ralph Wright, Alice Walker, or Aliona Gibson’s quintessential Nappy: Growing Up Black and Female in America. 

It means acquiring multicultural children’s books, multicultural dolls, and movies with black heroes and role models. 

It means talking about black pride and racial issues as soon as my daughter can understand. 

It means cultivating more friendships with African Americans, and it means ensuring that my daughter stay in ethnically diverse schools and communities.  

It means learning how to do cornrows and letting go of my self-consciousness about browsing the aisles of stores that sell black beauty products.  

It means confronting my own prejudices and stereotypes—by not crossing to the other side of the street if an unfamiliar black man is walking toward me, or by accepting that Black English is only an alternative to the way I speak.  

It means learning that race is an issue: that even though some people’s ideal would be for a colorblind society, understanding that this attitude can prevail from a position of white privilege is paramount.  

It means finding humor in the face of misguided comments, like the one at Andronico’s last year: “Oh, are you baby-sitting?” 

Or more difficult to swallow, it meant believing that my decision to adopt across racial lines was the right one after a black acquaintance who objects to transracial adoption filed a bogus complaint against me. 

At a Juneteenth celebration my daughter and I went to a couple of months ago, I was one of only a handful of white attendees. My now six-year-old child  

rocked and rolled in the inflatable jump tent, munched on pizza, and bugged me for cotton candy. When another child about her age noticed me nearby and asked her dubiously, “Is that your mom?” my daughter replied in a confident voice, “Yeah!” 

It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, that she’s asked that question. 

It might be delusional on my part to assume she’ll always be so accepting of me. But I know I’ll do everything I can to instill in her a sense of pride—in herself and her culture, and pride in our transracial family. 

Because for me my daughter is a gift, and I feel privileged to be her mom. Love is only the beginning of what I hope we’ll share as she grows.  

Annie Kassof is a Berkeley resident. 

A former Berkeley schools employee who allegedly doubled as a hooker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of soliciting prostitution. 

Sharon Williams, 37, a former activities director for the Berkeley Unified School District’s Independent Study program, entered her plea in Alameda County Superior Court and is scheduled for an Aug. 27 pre-trial hearing. 

Williams was arrested Aug. 13 by an undercover Oakland police officer after he arranged for a one-hour sex session for $250, according to Oakland Police Department spokesperson Officer Danielle Ashford. 

Oakland police say they set up the sting after getting a tip about a steady stream of men filing in an out of an apartment in Oakland’s Rose Garden neighborhood near Lake Merritt. 

Ashford said Williams had been leasing the apartment for about a year and did not appear to live there. 

“When [the undercover officer] got there he found the apartment was very sparsely furnished and it appeared that no one stayed there at night,” she said. 

Oakland police say Williams told the arresting officer she needed the money to supplement her school income, but Williams has denied the account. 

Berkeley school officials have indicated that Williams resigned in June.  

—David Scharfenberg

Berkeley Police are asking the public’s help in locating the hit-and-run driver who fled after striking a motorcycle officer Wednesday on Ashby Avenue. 

The officer, Ben Cardoza, 26, was in good condition Thursday morning after surgery, but no arrests have been made in the case, police said. 

The motorcycle officer was driving westbound on Ashby Avenue at 12:42 p.m. Wednesday with his lights and sirens on when a white sedan, described as a late-1980s Chevrolet Caprice Classic, broadsided Cardoza’s Harley-Davidson before fleeing the scene, according to police and witnesses. 

Cardoza told the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Thursday morning that he got a good look at the motorist, describing him as a black male in his early- to mid-20s. 

Police are treating the incident as a felony hit-and-run. 

Paramedics took Cardoza, a five-year veteran of the force, to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he was diagnosed with a compound fracture in his right leg, three broken bones in his right foot and a large gash in his left arm, according to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield. 

Cardoza got out of surgery at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said. 

“He’s doing well,” said Schofield who visited Cardoza, a personal friend, Thursday morning. “He was looking pretty beat up...[But] he’s looking forward to getting back to work and getting right back on his motorcycle.” 

Cardoza was on his way to an accident involving a car and a motorcycle about 10 blocks away at Ashby Avenue and Mabel Street when he was hit. 

Police have pulled out all the stops to find the person who struck Cardoza. CHP and every available Berkeley officer swarmed the crime scene Wednesday afternoon, as a CHP patrol plane flew overhead and police pulled over several white sedans, coming up empty.  

CHP and Berkeley police asked for the public’s help at a Thursday afternoon press conference in Oakland and six officers, from both departments, stopped drivers on Ashby Avenue and handed out flyers. 

“When someone goes flying and the guy doesn’t have the integrity to stop, that’s the kind of guy you want to find,” said CHP Traffic Officer Chris Konstantino, who was doling out flyers. 

According to witness accounts, the suspect came to a stop at the corner of Wheeler Street and Ashby Avenue in South Berkeley, and then pulled out and struck the officer, Ziese said. 

Justin Rosenthal-Kambic of Pleasant Hill was driving westbound on Ashby Avenue behind Cardoza when he saw the collision. He said it appeared that the bike may have struck the car. 

“It seemed pretty bad,” said Rosethal-Kambic. “It seemed like the bike just fell apart.” 

Another witness, who described himself as a Downtown Berkeley businessman but asked to remain nameless, had harsh words for the car driver. 

“As we approached the intersection, some a------- came...really fast and hit him really hard,” the witness said. “It was a really horrific impact. To say it was airborne may be an exaggeration. But it was off the ground.” 

Ziese said Cordoza nearly had a head-on collision with another vehicle as a result of the collision. 

Berkeley Captain Douglas Hambleton described Cardoza as a dedicated officer who has focused on reducing drunk driving. The officer recently won a $200,000 grant from the state’s Office of Traffic Safety to help curb the problem, Hambleton said. 

Schofield said Berkeley police brought parts of the car to a Richmond auto parts distributor who identified them as pieces of a 1987 to 1990 white Chevrolet Caprice Classic. But police say the parts are sometimes used on other General Motors cars from that era. 

Schofield said the vehicle likely has front end damage, concentrated on the left side of the car. 

CHP is the lead agency in the investigation. Berkeley police turn over major injury cases involving their own officers to CHP to ensure an independent investigation, Schofield said. 

Anyone with information should call CHP at 450-3821 or (888) 301-4247. 

Daily Planet reporter Matt Artz contributed to this report.

Every college campus ‘cross the country is infested with street-side greasy spoons and fast food-product storefronts. Fortunately for Cal students, North Berkeley is also home to the California cuisine revolution, which features fine locally produced foods at reasonable prices.  

If you’re one of those folks who’s not human until they’ve had a cuppa joe, ideally a café machiatto with a fresh-baked, still hot pecan “snail” breakfast roll—both for just $3 total; and if you want to enjoy your java at a sidewalk café table sharing news of the day with many of Berkeley’s most interesting and famous folks, the Cheese Board’s morning café is for you. While the “cheese” part of the internationally renowned Cheese Board is closed Mondays and doesn’t open ‘til 10 a.m. the rest of the week, that doesn’t stop several hundred folks from stumbling in for their “wake up” sacramental every weekday morning. Even when the Cheese Board ain’t open for cheese, the worker collective members still manage to get up extra early to bake fresh snail rolls and scones and muffins and breads and brew fresh coffee and steam up all sorts of specialty drinks Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.-10 a.m. Then it’s over. Unless you want cheese. Located at 1504 Shattuck Ave. in North Berkeley.  

Nearby resides the original Peet’s Coffees and Teas, birthing place of the Neo-American barista movement. Stop by the corner of Vine and Walnut to see where Starbucks stole their best ideas and in the process created the new world java-order. Fresh coffee ground and brewed all day long. Also close by is the North Berkeley French Hotel. A nice place to stay and not too expensive, but the best part of the French Hotel is it’s café downstairs, a great place to people watch, study or just sip coffee. Ask Angelo to decorate your cappuccino with one of his trademark foam creations. 

If you’re still there around 11:30 a.m., the Cheese Board Pizza Collective opens for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Not only do they make the finest, fresh baked vegetarian pizza you’ll find anywhere, the Pizza Collective also features the hottest free live jazz show you’ll find short of the jazz boat nightclubs floating on the River Seine—without the expense and trouble of flying to Paris. Scat singers, piano and vocals, piano and bass, trios, quartets—it’s all happening here and it’s totally free. The crowd on the listening from the sidewalk is often larger than the crowd inside chowin’ down. If you’re a jazz fiend, this is the hot spot for what’s cool in jazz (and of course, they have great pizza). 1512 Shattuck Ave. in North Berkeley, open 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4:30-7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. 

After all that eatin’ you’re probably suffering a little energy slump. Fortunately Masse’s Pastry Shop is close by and Wednesday through Monday you can get a cappuccino and a cappuccine, or maybe a fresh fruit tart, or one of their pastry filled cannelloni to perk up your energy level. When you see another one of their incredible bridal cakes leaving the shop you know you’ve made the right decision. Forget school and order a special cake to celebrate your decision to become a local food critic! Masse’s makes cakes for every occasion. Recently they baked a cake for Chevrolet’s 50th anniversary of the Corvette with spun sugar Corvettes. For a UC neurologist’s celebration they made a cake that looked like a human brain. And of course they make wedding cakes—Paul and Marsha Masse’s favorite was a three-dimensional pirate ship with billowing sails. Traditional wedding cakes are actually la specialité de la maison, but why limit yourself? Located at 1469 Shattuck Ave. in North Berkeley, open from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. every day but Tuesday. 

Sometimes you need a little food to go with your sugar. If you like sushi good and cheap and if you like your décor over-the-top plastic and tacky, featuring life size figures of Betty Boop and Godzilla, palm trees and god knows what else dripping off the ceiling and hanging off the walls, Party Sushi at 1776 Shattuck Ave. is your jungle in the dining department. The food is delightfully inexpensive: two pieces of Nigiri from $1.75 to $3.45, with most around $2; three pieces of sashimi from $1.95 to $3.75, averaging around $2.50. They also serve reasonably priced teriyaki plates, tempura rolls, party platters, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and desserts. The food’s fresh, tasty and inexpensive but the décor is the kicker—it’s hilarious. Open 5:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., closed Tuesday. 

Some folks won’t eat meat. Some folks won’t even eat anything derived from an animal. I’m not one of those folks but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying a great vegan meal. Cha-ya Vegetarian Japanese Cuisine at 1686 Shattuck Ave. offers food so good you’ll forget that it’s politically correct and good for you, too. No faux meat products here—they’ve mastered the art of making vegetables taste both filling and delicious. Kozara (small dishes) from $4 to $5; sushi from $3 to $4; udon and soba noodle plates from $6 to $8; and full on combination dinner plates from $13 to $17. This place is tiny, so don’t bring a big crowd. And expect to wait a bit. But it’s worth it. Open 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m., closed Monday.  

For great beer and burgers everyday of the year, Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse at 1920 Shattuck Ave. near University Avenue can’t be beat. The game is playing (any game) on the large screen TVs hanging from the ceiling, there’s shuffleboard in the back, and there’s peace and quiet upstairs on the rooftop garden. This place is easily big enough to accommodate the entire slate of clowns and candidates currently running for California governor (remember to recall whoever wins) plus the Rock has great beers in nearly every style, fresh brewed on premise and on tap. Student pricing is the rule here.  

Got a hot date and want to pretend you’re a great cook? Stop by Gregoire Take Out Restaurant at 2105 Cedar St. at Shattuck ten minutes before she shows up and serve her four-star-quality, cooked-to-order, fresh French food. We’re talking Freedom Food here, the kind of freedom that allows you to dash home from school at the very last minute and still be able to pull off a full blown dinner without raising a sweat. There’s no place like Gregoire. After calling in your order you can pick up everything including appetizers and desserts and drinks and have it on your table just few minutes after you get home. Chef Gregoire Jacquet, formerly of SF’s Ritz Carlton, uses fresh, locally grown, organic, natural ingredients in his daily selection of 12 different entrées that includes everything from red meat to fish to vegetarian. Try the marinated Montana New York steak in anchovy butter ($16) or the baked Sea of Cortez scallops in puff pastry torte with tomato sauce ($15). And don’t forget dessert—the bread pudding ($3.50) is to die for. It ain’t the cheapest but it’s certainly the best. Open 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. for lunch and 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m. for dinner. Closed Sundays. Call 883-1893 to order in advance. 

When mom and dad are picking up the tab, or if you’ve decided to pop the big question, or if you’ve just been accepted to Boalt or Hastings Law School with a full scholarship, there’s only one place to go: Chez Panisse. Frankly you can’t afford it otherwise. Downstairs dinner with wine averages $100 to $150 a person but then again this place is world famous for it’s food. Upstairs, the café runs a little cheaper but it’s never inexpensive. After all, this is the restaurant that Alice Waters built, the very birthplace of California cuisine. Reservations nearly always required. Located at 1517 Shattuck Ave. 548-5525.

I still remember the taste of my first scone. It was in 1969 at a bed and breakfast in the south of England. Like my first kiss, the scone was a bit dry but, nonetheless, a thrill. 

Alas, when I returned to Berkeley, a decent scone was not to be found. There were, however, other charms that kept me here. Cars that screeched to a halt the instant I stepped out in a crosswalk, affordable rents and home prices, and pretty co-eds who greeted my stares with smiles. Then, of course, there was the weather, one gorgeous, sunny day after another, with me allergy-free. Whether my Brooklyn-bred immune system was too confused or too happy to make trouble, I wouldn’t know. But being able to enjoy a beautiful day without itchy eyes and a dysfunctional sneeze alarm was rapturous. 

In 21st century Berkeley, polite drivers are scarce, the co-eds pay me scant attention and I don’ t have to tell you about the cost of housing. However, the miraculous procession of sunny, allergy-free days persists and scones are ubiquitous—with Berkeley surely in the running for Scone Capital of the World. 

For those new to the city and ensconced residents less avid in their pursuit of scones than myself, below are several of my favorite scone purveyors. 

Sconehenge Bakery & Café 

Sconehenge patrons generally show up for the Mexican-influenced, homestyle breakfasts and lunches and the major portion of the bakery’ s business is wholesale (look for their stuff at the Berkeley Bowl and other markets). However, below a big blowup photo of the Neolithic Stonehenge monoliths (who stand not far from the site of my scone initiation), there is a case of baked goods for onsite consumption or takeout. Scan the case for scones and there will usually be a few of the fruit and berry persuasion that won’ t disappoint. Yet, more often than not, I’ ll sample one of the whole wheat creations, which lets me indulge somewhat guilt-free. 

Cheese Board Collective 

Any list of what makes Berkeley Berkeley would certainly have the Cheese Board near (or at) the top. A worker-owned collective, its roots go back to the fall of 1967, following the Summer of Love. Together with its comrade in comestibles, the Pizza Collective, the Cheese Board worker-owners continue to provide the masses with countless varieties of cheese, sensational sui generis pizzas, superb breads and sweet treats, including superior scones. On their pastry racks, you’ ll regularly find their trademark currant, oat and corn-cherry scones, as well as a scone of the day, featuring such wonders as pear-ginger and chocolate chip. If you’ re plagued by ambivalence, I suggest to simply seize the scone that looks largest. 

Nabolom Bakery 

Another of Berkeley’ s worker-owned collectives, Nabolom was founded in 1976 and has hung on through various travails as an Elmwood neighborhood treasure. Nabolom is perhaps most famous for its transcendent challah, consciousness-raising cinnamon twists and legendary cheese danishes, but the collective does offer an assortment of excellent scones definitely worth a try. Specialties include blackberry, blueberry lemon, cranberry orange and a unique graham scone, rumored to be the sacrament of a local sconehead cult. 

Phoenix Pastificio 

Particularly renown for its artisan pastas, pasta sauces and popular, lunch-only restaurant, the Phoenix also carries a distinctive selection of breads and quality pastries. And, inspired perfectionist that he is, Eric Sartenaer, Master of The Phoenix, doubtless left no scone unturned in his search for a specimen worthy of his establishment. What he’ s presented us with as his signature scone is a deluxe line of hazelnut concoctions which clearly rise to the high standards of Gourmet Ghetto gastronomes. 

Fourth Street Scones 

The Fourth Street shopping district is Berkeley at its classiest. But, although I belong to the shop-a-phobic class, I will frequent Fourth Street for the noshing and people-watching possibilities. On Fourth, my two habitual scone suppliers are Bette’ s-To-Go (the takeout annex of Bette’ s Oceanview Diner) and The Pasta Shop. 

Want to experience a Berkeley moment of bliss? Transport yourself down to Fourth and buy a copy of the “American Splendor” anthology at Cody’s, pick up one of Bette’ s classic currant scones or a cornmeal blueberry scone at The Pasta Shop (or maybe both), get a cup of Peet’ s brew of the day (be sure to bring your own ceramic mug, preferably bearing the logo of a surviving dotcom), snag a prime spot to sit and savor the schadenfreude of East Coasters’ tsuris. 

Cheese Board Collective: 1504 Shattuck Ave., 

549-3183 

Nabolom Bakery: 2708 Russell St. (near College), 

845-2253 

Phoenix Pastificio: 1786 Shattuck Ave., 883-0783 

Sconehenge Bakery & Café: 787 Shattuck Ave., 

845-5168 

Bette’ s-To-Go: 1807 Fourth St., 548-9494 

The Pasta Shop: 1786 Fourth St., 528-1786

Starting college is adventure enough without the added complications that come from mastering the ins and outs of a strange new community. We just don’t know the spots: where to get the best slice of pizza, who’s got the best vinyl selection, or where to find the best three-dollar breakfast. 

Since I’m something of a newcomer myself, the powers that be at the Daily Planet teamed me up with a Berkeley veteran, photographer Erik Olsen, who gave me an insider’s look at some favorite hangouts and resources. 

Call it an insider’s guide of sorts. 

Food of course is usually the main concern. And, like any good college town, Berkeley has a variety of good, cheap places to eat. 

For breakfast try Café Durant. Open since 1987, Café Durant is the regular’s spot. Many Café Durant habitues have been coming for years, drawn to the incredible variety on the menu and the price. Besides the traditional egg-and-toast breakfasts, the cafe also offers things like fresh strawberry and honey crepes, and a plate called the Breakfast Deluxe, which comes with fruit salad, two banana and chocolate chip pancakes, a strawberry banana crepe and a veggie omelet, all for $5.25. Readers of the UC’s Daily Californian have voted Durant’s the city’s leading breakfast spot for eight straight years.  

Across the street from Café Durant, La Val’s Pizza holds the unofficial title as Berkeley’s prime Game Day spot. With a large screen TV, lots of space, some of the best pizza in town and beer on tap, the place is packed for Cal football and basketball away games. Besides pizza, the menu offers an encyclopedic array of sandwiches, Italian food, burgers, fries, barbeque and salads that serve between 10 and 20 people. Packed with video games and toy dispensers, La Val’s begs people to be loud and rowdy.  

When it comes to pizza however, nobody beats Zachary’s deep dish Chicago style pizza, with one restaurant on Solano and the other on College. Zagat’s, the well-known restaurant review guide, tells its readers: “Dishing up the best stuffed pizza this side of Chicago (some argue, in the universe), the widely popular Italian twins inspire fierce loyalty from pie partisans.” To say that they’ve won their share of awards is an understatement. The walls are covered from floor to ceiling with plaques and rave reviews from some of the Daily Planet’s lesser rivals like the San Francisco Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal, all attesting to Zachary’s undeniable dominance. The pizza takes a while to cook, and the place is packed on Friday and Saturday nights but management encourages you not to get discouraged. They’ve devised a system where you can order your pizza, go next door and peruse through one of two well-stocked used bookstores, and by the time you get a table, your pizza is ready, fresh and hot. And to add the perfect Berkeley touch, the owners have deeded the restaurant to their employees, making Berkeley’s best pie a truly cooperative offering. 

If you’re into healthier eats, but still on a budget, try Café Intermezzo on Telegraph. The menu itself isn’t very big but you can’t go wrong. Everything is fresh including the thick, dense homemade bread, and their claim to fame are salads so big you usually can’t finish them. 

Time is always something a student never has enough of, so if you want something quick, good and affordable, the new sandwich shop Grub n’ Go is the place. Located just south of campus on Allston, Grub n’ Go has a variety of hot sandwiches including the turkey and cranberry, made with turkey they roast themselves in the back of the shop. Started by Cal Alumni, Grub ‘n Go is the easy, healthy and smart alternative to the conventional quick lunch. 

Late night food spots are like cult classics in college towns. The number one late night eatery in Berkeley is the Smokehouse on Telegraph. Open until 1:20 a.m. Monday through Saturday, they offer burgers, chill cheese fries and milkshakes tasty enough to attract lines of customers that last until closing time. They also offer a mean veggie burger.  

At some point you are going to have to study. Instead of locking yourself in the library, try a coffee shop. There are several around campus but one in particular stands out. Brewed Awakening on Euclid Street north of campus is one of the largest and offers all varieties of coffee, smoothies, fresh juices, and sandwiches. With exposed brick walls, a high ceiling, large tables that facilitate group meetings, and wireless internet, Brewed Awakening has inspired great work, including several books that list the cafe in their authors’ acknowledgments. There is no time limit and always an open table. Owners Samir and Georgette Nassar take pride in making the shop as comfortable as possible. The service is quick and the couches are soft, making the shop what Samir calls, “the student’s home away from home.” 

And for those of you who avoid eating so you can spend your money on vinyl and CDs, Berkeley has two premier record stores. Between Rasputin and Amoeba, both on Telegraph Avenue, you can find almost anything. Both have deep vinyl crates, great reggae sections and Amoeba has one of the best jazz collections around. Both promote local labels, and both have great used sections. Music lovers, you’re in luck. 

And last but not least, a suggestion for all who appreciate good art. Instead of having blank, ugly walls in your dorm rooms, drop by Reprint Mint on Telegraph, the largest print and poster shop in the country. The selection is incredible and the prices are affordable, with stacks of larger prints and posters under $15.  

There are of course more places than can be listed, especially concerning Berkeley’s great selection of local bookstores. Check out Cody’s Books and Moe’s Books, both on Telegraph. Between the two you can’t go wrong. Should your tastes incline toward the New Age and mystical, there’s Shambala Books on the same block, while just across the street Shakespeare and Co. offers the best in used and rare volumes.  

Most of these places are within walking distance of campus. Zachary’s is a little farther away but worth the trip. Most restaurants have menus packed with items under $6 and many have items under $5. See below for a list of addresses. 

Once, when I was in my early 20’s, I borrowed a friend’s Camaro, drove it out to a country road and took it up to 100 miles per hour, not for any special reason other than to find out what it felt like to go 100 miles per hour. It was not an experience I have ever felt the need to repeat. I don’t do roller coasters or bungee jumps, either. Speed, I have discovered, is not one of my addictions.  

But speed—particularly in its most easily accessible urban form, the speeding car—is addictive, and we ought to keep that fact in mind as we go about making social policy and trying to keep our streets safe.  

Driving around the East Bay this summer, it’s hard to miss the increasing incidents of speed-related activity, mostly by our young folk. Often you’ll see them punch the pedal and take off as if somebody flipped a switch inside their heads, roaring down International or San Pablo Avenue for blocks and blocks, whipping around in the parking lanes to pass the cars in front, springs bouncing, arms waving, music blasting, tires throwing rocks in their wake. Sometimes in groups of twos and threes, it looks like a rolling party, or a parade. I’m sure it’s infectious for certain other young folk. It can be awfully scary for many of the rest of us.  

The Oakland police, bless their hearts, have in recent years tended to blame things combining speed and cars in that city on the sideshows or “sideshow-related activity,” whatever that is, which tends, therefore, to overlook the driving force behind their own colleagues gearing up for the thrill and rush of high-speed chases after those high-speeders. So perhaps we ought to look for other aggravating factors.  

One is our advertising policy. An oddity of American society is the special interest we often take in encouraging our friends and neighbors to purchase items for the use in activities that we thereafter expressly discourage and/or forbid (I’ll wait while you read that over again, if you need to).  

The folks at Toyota, normally a sedate bunch, have taken to running television commercials where they speed a Camry down empty highways, every once in a while turning backward circles. The country roads of my youth being far away in both space and time, there are at present no empty highways in the proximate vicinity down which to speed a Camry. But that’s not the concern of the folks at Toyota, is it?  

At the corner of International and 73rd Avenue, a half a block from the spot where Breeona Mobley died in a high-speed single car collision last spring, there’s a billboard of a car half-tilted to one side next to one of those cans of power drinks that so closely resemble a can of malt liquor, in appearance if not in potency. Down the street they have another billboard, this time featuring a boxer throwing a punch. Throw back a couple while you low-ride and fight. Now that’s a message that’s needed in our inner cities.  

But while we’re giving our young folks a wink and a shove with the one hand, we’re slowly squeezing them with the other.  

To appreciate both the beauty and the genius of the East Bay’s streets as they were originally intended, you’ve got to wait until late at night—after 3 a.m., preferably—during the week, when the traffic thins and the cities are mostly asleep. You can cruise from Albany to Hayward, first down San Pablo and up the long boulevard south of Oakland as it changes from International to East 14th and then, finally, to Mission. Put a little old school traveling music on the CD player (my preference is War’s “City Country City”) and there’s scarcely a red light or another car to slow your way.  

But that was before the population explosion and the car boom of the 50’s, and how many of us can go out cruising at 3 a.m.? Take that same route in the daytime and it’s like driving a forklift down the aisles of a factory—an endless creep broken up by a succession of long stops. Drive in the left lane and invariably, the car in front of you blocks the lane to make a left turn. Swerve over to the right and there’s a UPS truck stopped, or someone waiting for another car to leave their parking space. Or the Oakland choke, somebody just stopped in the car to chat with a friend on the sidewalk.  

It’s frustrating for 50 year-olds. No wonder some of these kids want to speed up, weave through traffic, run red lights, zip around in the bicycle lanes to get a few cars ahead.  

Am I excusing speeding on our city streets? No. I’m only saying that in the same way that cause precedes effect, solution follows understanding of cause. Just something to think about, on a warm East Bay night in August as the cars speed by up on International.

In a joint operation with U.S. Customs officers and Postal Inspectors, Berkeley Police raided an apartment at 1710 Ward St. Thursday afternoon, seizing five and a half pounds of hashish and nearly $8,000 in cash, according to Berkeley Police Narcotics Detective Jack Friedman. 

Police estimated the street value of the drug at $500,000. 

Customs officers discovered the concentrated marijuana plant resins stashed inside toffee candy packaging shipped to Berkeley from an address in the Netherlands, then alerted Postal Inspectors and Berkeley Police. 

A postal carrier then delivered the shipment to the apartment, and Berkeley Special Enforcement Unit officers armed with a search warrant entered soon afterwards, seizing the cash and drugs. 

Two residents of the apartment were arrested and booked into City Jail on multiple charges of importation and possession of controlled substances and conspiracy. 

The drugs were packaged in shrink-wrap and then hidden inside commercial toffee wrappers. 

“If not for the hard work and diligence of the U.S. Customs Service and Postal Service Investigators, this would not have been possible,” said Detective Friedman.

TUCSON, Ariz.—As the number of undocumented, would-be migrant workers found dead in the deserts of the Southwest since last October climbs into the 100s, why does a multi-million dollar European clothing company want me to dress like a Spanish-speaking laborer?  

Earlier this summer, as I read news reports of deadly crossings along the U.S.-Mexican border, I caught a preview for the new fall line from Diesel, the Italian clothing company, on display at one of its New York flagship stores. Mannequins dressed in gray-blue and green uniform-like garments stood with shovels and pickaxes at their sides and stacks of burlap sacks at their feet. Spelled out in the lower left-hand corner of the window was the line’s title: “Trabajadores,” Spanish for “workers.”  

I tried to piece it all together.  

Though Diesel’s jeans are made solely in Italy, many of its other garments are manufactured overseas, where offshore production zones (in Mexico, Guatemala and Taiwan, for example) provide the benefits of low taxes, low wage standards, lax regulations and limited unionization. That meant that some of the workers who had stitched and sewn the clothing in the window had probably labored in countries where they really would be called “trabajadores.” And then there were the hundreds of thousands who have left such jobs in Latin America and migrated to cities like Chicago, Omaha, New York, Rome, and Madrid, where chances are they’re still called “trabajadores.”  

Borrowing (or co-opting) real-life “looks” and marketing them to the masses is standard fashion fare. Remember the ripped-jeans heroin addict and the baggy-pants gangster looks from the 1990s? It’s been hip to look poor for a few years now. But why the toiling attire? I went inside the Diesel store to dig up more.  

“Personally, I think it’s about Communism,” the Diesel sales rep whispered to me. “The shovels, the drab colors, the similar styles for men and women. It’s all very equal. It’s, like, celebrating the worker.”  

Possibly. After all, Diesel clothes, as the company’s subhead proclaims, are “For Successful Living.” But the last time I checked, washing dishes, digging ditches, and sewing garments -- the jobs that trabajadores often do -- weren’t considered glamorous. More important, the illegal status of many immigrants means they are easily exploited and grossly underpaid. If we really want to celebrate the trabajadores, we’ll have to do a lot more than dress like them.  

So maybe this was some new utopian vision. According to the downloadable press pack available on its Web site, Diesel views the world as “a single, borderless macro-culture.” Maybe the sales rep was right. Maybe we are all equal. Or maybe, as advertisers know so well, we just want to pretend we are.  

A few years ago Diesel put out a series of advertisements that aimed to turn everyday media representations of Africa (poverty, AIDS, civil war) upside down. The ads showed black models (hence, Africans) in Diesel clothing frolicking at luxurious parties á la bella gente. Superimposed on the images were faux newspaper headlines reporting strife and financial collapse in America and Europe.  

The point? I’m not sure, but in 2001 the campaign won the Grand Prix for Press and Poster Award in Cannes.  

It’s the kind of advertising that tricks consumers who have a certain dose of social consciousness. It banks on the fact that some of us will eventually relax our commitments to justice in exchange for hip-ness. That we’ll see the drab worker clothing and fall for it: “Sweatshops are sooo passé. Workers unite!”  

The UHC Collective, an organization based in Manchester, England, that makes political art and propaganda, doesn’t agree. They’ve run “subvertisements” mocking Diesel (”Die Sell,” they call it) and hope that the advertising strategies of companies like Diesel will eventually backfire. As one UHC member wrote in an e-mail message, “They sell ‘anarcho-styled’ clothes, so why not take them at their word and organize a mass shop lift? If companies are going to dabble in these kinds of politics they’ll get what’s coming to them.”  

Perhaps. More likely, people will simply buy the “Trabajadores” clothing without much thought. Even if the ads do create a stir, in the end, the success of such campaigns comes from the fact that eventually shoppers forget the controversy and simply remember the brand name.  

After a few weeks the fall preview display came down, leaving me to wait until September to see what comes of the “Trabajadores” line. In the meantime, I wonder if we’re truly moving toward Diesel’s borderless world of cultural equality. Or, to paraphrase a character in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” we’re all equal—but some of us are more equal than others.  

If you’re looking for sports, Berkeley and the surrounding East Bay offer a host of opportunities. And while definitions of what constitutes a work-out vary—from just “a walk in the park” to a full blown adventure—there’s no end to the activities available near campus. 

Here’s a brief list of resources for newcomers and for those who have been here for a while but are just now gearing up to get off the couch. 

Cal Adventures 

Cal Adventures provides information, instruction, trips and rental equipment for students and the general public in the following activities: backpacking, snowshoeing, climbing, wilderness medicine, skateboarding, rafting, sailing, sea kayaking, swimming, boating, and windsurfing. 642-4000 or www.oski.org. 

East Bay Regional Parks 

The hills just above the campus are laced with miles of trails for hiking, running, horseback riding and mountain biking. Closest of the East Bay Parks to campus is Tilden, offering all of the above, plus swimming, fishing, rollerblading, and golfing. Wildcat Canyon and the Nimitz Way, both located within the park, provide some of the best trail activities and are easily accessible from the university. From the trailhead at Inspiration Point off Wildcat Canyon Road, the first two miles of Nimitz Wayare paved, making for an excellent, challenging course for rollerbladers and a smooth, car-less trail for bicyclists. It’s also the starting point for some wonderfully hilly mountain bike loops. Nearby Lake Anza features swimming and fishing, and Tilden Park Golf Course (848-7373), at the intersection of Grizzly Peak and Shasta Road, is an 18-hole course with driving range, putting green and teaching pro. 562-PARK or www.ebparks.org.  

Aquatic Park 

Frisbee Golf and Par Exercise courses are both available at this city park located on Bolivar Way at the foot of Bancroft Way, along with water skiing, canoeing, and rowing in the mile-long lagoon. This is the place to catch the Pedestrian Bike Bridge across I-80 to the Berkeley Marina and Cesar Chavez Park. 644-6530 or www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/parks/parkspages/aquaticpark. 

Cesar Chavez Park 

Located north of the west end of University Avenue, this former city dump (no kidding!) provides wonderful opportunities for strolling, biking, rollerblading, fishing and kiting. With beautiful views of San Francisco, Marin and the Golden Gate, this is a great place for easy workouts or just relaxing. The relatively flat, 1.25 mile trail around the perimeter of the park is a gentle, paved course for those who don’t want to work up too much of a sweat. The park is also a great place for Frisbee throwing, dog walking and picnicking. Just south of Cesar Chavez is the Berkeley Marina with more gorgeous views and a 3000-foot pier that juts out into the Bay.  

Berkeley Ironworks 

Believe it or not, the East Bay has a hosts of rock climbing opportunities, all located near campus. One of the very best resources available is Berkeley Ironworks at 800 Potter St. at Seventh Street. This indoor rock climbing gym provides 14,000 square feet of vertical and horizontal man-made walls, rental equipment, instruction and pro-shop. Open seven days a week, day use and memberships are available, as well as an extensive weight room, spinning and yoga classes and saunas. The folks behind the desk can dish out more information than anyone else on outdoor climbing opportunities, including top roping at Cragmont and urban bouldering at Indian Rock and under the freeway pass on Golden Gate Avenue. 981-9900 or www.touchstoneclimbing.com. 

Berkeley Iceland 

Located within walking distance of campus at 2727 Milvia St., this old-fashioned rink provides open skating, hockey, broomballl and lessons. Thursday night is College Night and it’s only $6 (including equipment) to skate between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. 647-1620 or www.berkeleyiceland.com. 

Oakland Ice Center 

An easy BART ride from Downtown Berkeley, Oakland Ice Center is located just one block from the 19th Street BART Station at 519 18th St. Open skating, speed skating and pick-up hockey games are all available but hours of operation vary so call or check their website. 268-9000 or www.oaklandice.com.

Although best known for his mid-to-late 19th century landscape design work on the East Coast, Frederick Law Olmsted created his first residential subdivision in Berkeley, centered on Piedmont Avenue—the first of his signature curvilinear parkways with divided roadbed and landscaped median.  

Olmsted’s name entered the designer’s pantheon when he and architect Calvert Vaux won the 1857 competition to design Central Park in New York City, and Olmsted supervised the park's construction until the outbreak of the Civil War.  

As the designer of Manhattan’s dominant landscape feature, and the author of numerous articles, Olmsted was highly sought after, and he took a position as supervisor for the Mariposa Mining Estate in California in 1863. 

Among the projects Olmsted worked on during the two years he was in California were the plans for Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Trees, Mountain View Cemetery and the College of California. 

In 1864, Trustees of the College of California asked Olmsted to prepare plans for their new campus and an adjacent residential subdivision on land they had purchased four years earlier. A private school based in Oakland, the college merged in 1868 with the newly created University of California. 

Although Olmsted’s plan for the campus grounds was not realized, the residential subdivision, called the Berkeley Property, was laid out and graded. The area lies between College Avenue on the west, Prospect Street on the east, Dwight Way on the south and Strawberry Creek on the north. Piedmont Avenue (formally Piedmont Way) is the main divided roadway bisecting the residential subdivision and is the most clearly defined surviving feature of Olmsted’s 1865 plan for the College of California.  

While Piedmont Avenue is a curvilinear street, with a planted median, rounded corners, and a large garden circle at Channing Way, Olmsted's street design merges and blends with the existing grid pattern of the streets to the west. 

By the first decade of the 20th Century Piedmont Avenue was lined with impressive houses designed by prominent architects and set in lush gardens. Although today these homes are mostly used for student housing, the appearance of the street, with its green median and some remaining overhanging trees, retains many of the qualities Olmsted envisioned. Today there are plans to replant the two-block medium between Bancroft and Channing that has become an impromptu and unsightly parking strip for UC’s fraternity row.  

Piedmont Avenue is Olmsted’s first divided residential boulevard design. His plans for Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, the Buffalo Parkway system, and Boston parkways had their beginnings here. 

During the next thirty years Olmsted designed hundreds of parks and residential subdivisions where the most important element was the preservation, enhancement, and use of natural features. Olmsted’s legacy can be seen in residential subdivisions across the country.  

Piedmont Way was designated California Historical Landmark No. 986 in May of 1989. A plaque was placed at the intersection of Bancroft and Piedmont in 1990. It is also a city landmark.  

Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny is author of the book “Berkeley Landmarks.”

While Berkeley merchants offer an incomparable range of recorded music from Electronica & House to Dvorak and Vivaldi, serious students can find instruments, sheet music and some of the most obscure ethnic titles. 

Tupper & Reed on Shattuck Avenue has been in business for 80 years, originally in the Tudor building next door—a City of Berkeley Landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Current partner Wayne Anderson began working at Tupper & Reed in 1969 when he was a graduate student in music at Cal, and now uses extras of his 200,000 sheet music titles as wallpaper to decorate his display window walls. 

With only three successive owners, Tupper & Reed sells, rents, and repairs a wide range of instruments, including electric guitars and drums in the basement, where 15 music instructors teach beginners to advanced musicians in seven sound studios. Well known musicians who have either studied or taught there include Lenny Pickett of the Saturday Night Live Band; Mike Wolfe, who played with Cal Tjader and served as musical director of the Arsenio Hall Show; jazz pianist Rodney Franklin; and Chris Solberg, who has played with Santana and Chris Izaak. 

Forrests Music on University was founded by Dutch and Kate Forrest on Kittredge Street. Current owners John and Marilyn Goebel were Forrests repair technicians, and they still feature woodwind and brass instruments, especially oboes and bassoons, saxophones, trumpets, bagpipes, Klutz harmonicas, or anything else one can blow through. Several instructors give lessons (including drums) at Forrests, all instruments are for sale or for rent, and every employee plays woodwinds.  

Across University and down a little is the Bazaar of India, “the first Indian store on University.” Kirpal Khanna founded his shop in 1971, and has been President of the University Avenue Association (UAA) for the past six years. While Khanna offers all things from India, he sells and repairs hundreds of instruments including varieties of sitar, tabla, sarod, harmonium, dholak, tamboura, and santoor. 

Instructors teach tabla and harmonium every Friday from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Classes cost $20 per hour, and you must bring your own or a borrowed instrument. 

Bazaar of India also offers CDs, cassettes, DVDs, instruction books, and sheet music, and repairs instruments on site. Recognizable musicians who have frequented Bazaar of India include Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain. 

Back down the north side of University is a true Berkeley treasure, Ifshin’s Violins, in a two-story brown shingled renovated bungalow. Everything at Ifshin’s epitomizes excellent taste: the restored pine floors, Oriental rugs, an unusually fine collection of vintage international posters featuring violins and violin artists, and, of course, violins. Owner Jay Ifshin studied violin making in Salt Lake City, Utah and Bozeman, Montana, and worked for the store’s previous owner. All sales people play bowed string instruments with Bay Area symphonies or groups. 

Violin experts or beginning learners will find the best Jay Haide student instruments, as well as the occasional Stradivarius. While Ifshin’s has 2,000 violins available for rentals, seven violin makers create Baroque violins in the back for serious players. Thought to be largest on the west coast, this unique shop also carries violas, cellos, basses—and no guitars. Also on offer are lessons, repairs, accessories, gadgets, and Suzuki sheet music. 

Reid’s Music, founded in 1945 by Melvin and Betty Reid, is West Coast headquarters for gospel music CDs, DVDs, videos, gospel music books, and gospel sheet music. David Reid’s uncle, Paul Reid, was the first religious DJ on the West Coast at KDIA and KRE. 

Reid’s focuses on the “Black church experience,” providing choir robes, bibles, song books and church supplies, as well as African American music, blues, and jazz. 

Harder to find but well worth the trip is Boaz Accordions. Boaz and Judy Rubin opened their accordion shop in 1995, after Boaz apprenticed accordion building and repairs with the legendary Gordon Piatanesi. A lifelong musician, Boaz once worked as a machinist and has the patience for the painstaking work required to make the instruments that make almost everyone smile. 

Boaz carries piano accordions and chromatic button accordions in addition to diatonic button, Tex-Mex, Cajun, Irish, Concertina, folk, and Bandorian accordions for tango music. The Rubins’ signature accordion is the famous, top-of-the-line Armando Bugari from Italy. 

KPFA’s Larry Kelp is an “accordion freak” according to Judy Rubin and a frequent visitor. Boaz prefers the “old-fashioned way of doing business”—in person—since accordion selection and playing is so personal.  

Boaz holds Wednesday night drop-in beginners classes at 7:00 p.m., and features CDs, books, music, accessories, stands, and “workshops with visiting geniuses.”  

A final note: Besides the chains, some independent bookstores sell recorded music including Half Price Books, Music, and Magazines at 1849 Solano Ave.; Pegasus Fine books & CDs at 1855 Solano Ave. and 2349 Shattuck Ave. Moe’s Books, at 2476 Telegraph Ave., offers a good selection of new and used sheet music as well as a few carefully selected CDs. 

Sunday August 24th 2003 

Downtown Berkeley's Frint row Festival 

wwwdowntownberkeley.org

Asked what he thought would be Jim Slemp’s biggest challenge as Berkeley High School’s new principal, BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan responded, “managing a small city.” 

“We have almost 3,000 students there. When you add the staff and faculty we have over 3,000 at that location. It’s a small city,” said Coplan. 

In the last four years the task of being both mayor and principal of Berkeley High has overwhelmed everyone who accepted the responsibility. Very few principals in Berkeley High’s history have lasted more than two years. 

It’s been a month since Patricia Christa, the fourth principal to be hired in four years, resigned after just one month on the job; the academic year hadn’t even started yet. 

“It’s really intimidating,” said Frank Lynch, a former Berkeley High principal who left in July 2001 to become District Administrator for Del Norte County. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through the first three days.” 

When BUSD asked him to take the position, Slemp had already agreed to a principal position at Gaithersburg High School in Maryland. But he didn’t think twice; Slemp promptly resigned and headed for Berkeley. 

When asked why he chose Berkeley over Gaithersburg, Slemp said among other things “I like the challenge.” 

Before Slemp could begin the interview he had to tie up a few loose ends, or more accurately squeeze a half-day’s work into ten minutes. He seemed to be everywhere at once; having conferences with staff, speaking with assistant Karen Olsen, and trying to locate other staff—all at the same time. Even after the interview had started Slemp continued to manage the office and his paperwork continued to pile up. 

For 2003-2004, Slemp has a full plate in front of him. Along with attempting to solve Berkeley’s ongoing problems of violence, racial tension, and an ailing budget, Slemp will be kicking off a major reform effort that aims to place half of Berkeley High students in a series of schools-within-a-school by the 2005-2006 academic year. 

First up will be the Communications, Art and Science Academy, which will involve new teachers, new classes, and an application process, which Slemp will create and manage. 

The school has also hired new staff, including two more vice principals, for a total of five. Slemp will be teaching the ropes as he learns them himself. 

Is the heavy workload intimidating or stressful? 

“No,” said Slemp. “I like complexity and I like managing people to solve complex problems.” 

When Slemp finally sat down for the interview he seemed calm, relaxed, even a bit cheery. He sat in his office chair like it was his living room couch; he slumped down so far that his head rested on the top of the back support.  

There wasn’t a drop of sweat on him. 

“Slemp has been down this road before. Nothing is new to him,” said Coplan. “He’s a seasoned professional.” 

“Seasoned” is an understatement. Slemp has over 30 years of experience in the education field. 

His career began in Eugene, Ore. as a Social Studies and History teacher at a middle school. Since then he has been an middle school assistant principal, a principal at both the middle school and high school level, and for several years a Deputy Superintendent for the 4-J School District in Eugene. From 1993-95 he was an administrator for the American School in London. 

Every challenge that Slemp faces seems to be old hat. He has already set up smaller school programs in Eugene, among other alternative education programs. Winston Churchill High School in Eugene had the highest crime rate and lowest enrollment in the 4-J district before he became its principal.  

After six years it had the highest enrollment and its crime rate had virtually disappeared. As he puts it, “I probably have dealt with everything I will face while working here, just on a smaller scale.” 

Slemp is 56 years-old, a towering 6 feet 7 inches, yet speaks more like a customer service representative rather than an authority figure. Every word seems to leave his mouth through a smile. 

Removing the intimidation of authority figures is a critical part of Slemp’s educational philosophy. In his many years of experience Slemp has found that building personal relationships between students and adults creates a better connection to school for students, he said. These relationships are achieved in smaller school programs and that’s why Slemp feels they are successful. 

Slemp also feels that this philosophy can also apply to Berkeley’s violence and crime problems. To Slemp, these problems won’t be solved with more rules, but more adult participation. He hopes he can organize a group of community members to help monitor the hallways, and in turn provide more chances for students to bond with adult figures. He doesn’t want to institute a police state, just bring in more adults that are trained in such matters but also care. 

“Students need to feel positive about what’s happening in the school so they help take ownership and make sure the school is safe,” said Slemp. “Adults can’t do it to students.” 

Slemp’s goal as principal is to “bring every student to a level of success, and take it one higher,” he said. “Berkeley is wonderful place, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get better.”

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sandy Nunn from Hospice will talk about their work and how you may want to volunteer. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

“Good Morning Berkeley!” a networking event, from 7:30 to 9:15 a.m. The speaker will be Cynthia Meyer of Merrill Lynch, Oakland, on “Earn What You Deserve: 5 Practical Strategies for Developing Harmony with Money.” Cost is $10. At The Jazzcaffe, 2085 Addison. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8868.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Native American Games Make and play with traditional games of California Indians, including tule dolls, cricket, Indian football, stick dice and steal the stick, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science. 463-5961. www.lawrencehallofscience.org  

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

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

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

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

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Jennifer Stone and David Solnit at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $5. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 415-927-1645. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the West Berkeley Public Library Community Room, 1125 Uni- 

versity Ave., across from the Adult School. To confirm call 987-0668 or janet@earthlink.net or jennifemaryphd@hotmail.com or 848-7128. 

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

Caltopia 2003, a festival of fun, music and Cal Spirit, on Fri. and Sat., open to UC Berkeley students, staff, faculty and the community, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with events at the Recreational Sports Facility, Evans Field, Lower Sproul Plaza, and the Haas Pavillion. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/festival/  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com, 548-6310, 845-1143. 

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

“Welcome to BHS” Reception for 9th Grade Families, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Little Theater on Allston Way. “Veteran” parents and students, along with high school staff, will be happy to answer your questions about life at Berkeley High. This is a great opportunity to meet people, get lots of information, and connect with BHS. Students are encouraged to attend with their adults. Please bring a dessert to share. Coffee, tea, and punch will be provided by the PTSA. For more information email boricuastylez13@yahoo.com or cpapermaster@earthlink.net 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

Berkeley High School Volunteer Workday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enter on Allston Way, sign in at the information table, and pick a job to do. The main jobs are weeding, picking up trash, watering, sweeping, and planting. Please bring work gloves, sunscreen, hat, hoses, trowels, weeding tools, push brooms, dust pans, 4” to 1 gallon perennials or annuals in shades of red and yellow. We will supply bottled water, snacks, trash bags, and disposable gloves. For information email cpapermaster@earthlink. 

net or Calysto123@aol.com 

Caltopia 2003, see listing for Fri. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/ 

festival 

Summer Days and Nights in Albany, a small-town street fair, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Features live entertainment including music, a lion dance, jugglers, and more. For more information call 525-1771. 

Sistahs Steppin' in Pride, the second annual East Bay Dyke March, meet at 9:30 a.m. at the pillars at Lake Merritt, El Embarcadero between Grand and Lakeshore. March starts at 10 a.m., ending in a festival with live entertainment from 1 to 5 p.m. at Snow Park, 20th and Harrison Sts. For more information call 551-8330. www.sistahssteppin.org 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale This is a garage sale fund 

raiser held by the UC Berkeley Circle K, a non-profit community service organization run by students in college. All money raised will go towards Pediatric Trauma Prevention, and research for Lou Gehrig’s Disease. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Berkeley ACE Hardware parking lot, 2145 University Ave. 841-2756. cki-fundraising@ 

uclink.berkeley.edu 

The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society will be holding its Annual Plant Show from noon to 4 p.m., at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Many of the world's most enthusiastic growers of these deadly (to insects anyway!), diverse and often stunningly beautiful plants will be displaying their best specimens. For information see the Society's web page at www.bacps.org or call the Garden at 643-2755. 

Alternative Building Materials: Cob and Strawbale workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two natural building methods are currently undergoing renewed popularity. Cob is an ancient technique using a mixture of earth, sand and straw; it requires only simple handtools and can easily be shaped into imaginative structures. Strawbales are highly insulative and create an Old World character of thick walls and deepset windows. The methods are gaining building code approval in many communities. Cost is $75. Held at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 525-7610.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24  

Historic Kenney Cottage moves from 1725 University Ave. to 1275 University Ave. at 7 a.m. The Cottage, a prefabricated panel house whose design was patented by William H. Wrigley in 1881, may be the oldest existing example of this type of prefab construction in America. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will offer coffee and doughnuts at the new site. 

Herb Walk Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Call for directions. Cost is $6-$25 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Sponsored by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org 

Equity in Affordable Housing, a public dialog hosted by The Oakland Coalition of Congrega- 

tions, from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 27th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. For information call 625-9490. 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale See listing for Aug. 23. Berkeley ACE Hardware parking lot, 2145 University Ave. 841-2756.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

“Cuba - What Next?” A Commonwealth Club panel, including three prominent Cuban Americans and a former U.S. mission chief in Havana, will re-examine trade and travel restrictions from noon to 1:30 p.m. at 595 Market Street in SF, with a reception at 11:15 a.m. Cost is $12 or free to students and Commonwealth Club members. For reservations, call 800-847-7730 or 415-597-6700. Co-sponsored by the International Diplomacy Council and the Pan American Society. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 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. Enrollment in American Sign Language classes is also being accepted. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

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. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households 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 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will hold auditions during the first week in September, and will offer an audition clinic on Aug. 23 at 9 a.m. To schedule an audition appointment or to request an application form please call Marion Atherton at 525-8484 or email manager@byoweb.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

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

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Monday, August 25, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste

On my way to the BART station earlier this summer, I noticed an unfamiliar bird skulking in the shrubbery near the tennis courts at the corner of Martin Luther King and Russell. It was pretty nondescript: bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a robin, pale grayish-brown with vague streaking. But it had this furtive look about it. 

The plain brown bird was, in fact, a female brown-headed cowbird, North America’s best-known avian brood parasite. (There are a couple of other cowbird species with similar proclivities in the Southwest and Florida.) Like the cuckoos of the Old World, cowbirds have dispensed with the onerous routine of building nests and feeding chicks. They simply dump their eggs in another bird’s nest and go on their way. 

Brood parasitism is such an energy-saver that it has evolved independently in several unrelated groups of birds: cuckoos, cowbirds, honeyguides, some African finches, and a South American duck. It’s also been documented in many species of bees and wasps, and even one catfish.  

Fans of Walt Kelly’s immortal Pogo strip may recall the pair of cowbirds who were the sole members of the Okefenokee Swamp’s CPUSA cell, and who tried to infiltrate one of the possum’s presidential campaigns. 

Among the cowbirds, the degree of commitment to the parasitic lifestyle varies. The bay-winged cowbird of South America takes over other birds’ nests, but incubates its own eggs and rears its own young. The screaming cowbird specializes in parasitizing bay-winged cowbirds. Brown-headed cowbirds are generalists, having been known to victimize over 200 other species of birds. They’re not as sophisticated about it as some cuckoos, whose eggs mimic a specific host’s in size and color. But they make up in volume what they lack in deceptiveness. 

Female cowbirds rival battery hens in productivity, averaging 40 eggs a year. If even a small percentage of those eggs hatch and if the chicks are reared to fledging by their foster parents, that’s enough to keep the population going. Cowbirds eggs tend to hatch sooner than those of other birds, and the fast-growing chicks dwarf their nestmates.  

The changelings monopolize the food delivered by the harried parent birds, starving out the hosts’ own young. Lately it’s been discovered that some cowbirds improve their odds by killing any nestlings they find in the host’s nests. (Among cuckoos and honeyguides, it’s the young parasite that does the dirty deed.) 

In their original range—the fringes of the Great Plains, where they followed the bison herds to feed on insects stirred up by all those hooves—brown-headed cowbirds have been at this long enough for their hosts to have evolved counter-measures. Some species toss out the alien egg; others roof over the nest—dooming their own eggs along with the cowbird’s—and start a new brood, or rebuild elsewhere for their second attempt. 

But cowbirds have moved far beyond the Plains, expanding eastward into forest clearings during the colonial era and treating cattle herds as surrogate bison. Their arrival in California was a bit later. They had reached the Colorado River by the late 19th century, then the Salton Sea and the Kern River Valley by about 1910. By 1927, when ornithologists Joseph Grinnell and Margaret Wythe published their “Directory of the Bird-Life of the San Francisco Bay Region,” they had made it as far north as the Bay Area. And they kept on moving, up the coast as far as British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. 

Wherever they went, the cowbirds encountered naïve hosts. Grinnell and Wythe described yellow warblers as commonly nesting in city parks and gardens. No more. Thanks in large part to cowbird parasitism, they’re now rare in the urban Bay Area. Other California birds, like the least Bell’s vireo and southwestern willow flycatcher, have been pushed to the edge of extinction. Bird behavior is pretty much hard-wired, and there just has not been enough time for western species to develop effective defenses. 

There’s another odd thing about cowbirds. In his book “Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin,” Alexander Skutch, who has been observing birds for decades in Costa Rica, describes a bit of behavior called the interspecific preening invitation. Preening—grooming the feathers—is an important social lubricant; it seems to strengthen pair bonds and family ties. But most birds preen only their mates or close relatives. 

Cowbirds, though, will go up to total strangers and solicit preening. And I’m talking about birds of other species, not fellow cowbirds—in one instance, even a caged budgerigar. The other birds appear nonplussed, but most eventually give in. When they don’t, the cowbirds become testy, sometimes physically abusive. 

It’s tempting to relate this somehow to brood parasitism. Skutch speculates that it might function to appease hosts whose nests are about to become cowbird nurseries. But both sexes engage in it, and males seem to have nothing to do with the females’ skullduggery; it’s not a team operation. He suggests that maybe it just feels good to a cowbird to have its head scratched. Who knows? It remains a small mystery, and a salutary reminder that not everything in nature is susceptible to a neat explanation.

PROVOCATEUR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

LA Weekly and Nation magazine contributor Marc Cooper apparently relishes playing the role of political provocateur. His commentary (“Five Myths About the Recall,” Daily Planet, Aug. 15-18) dismissing the Green Party of California as a factor in the election gravely underestimates the party’s established statewide infrastructure and political potential. 

Apparently Cooper is unaware that the Green Party holds 63 elected offices across California, including the mayors of Santa Monica, Sebastopol, Menlo Park, Arcata, Vice Mayor of San Luis Obispo and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ presidency among other offices. 

In 2002, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Miguel Camejo achieved California’s highest third party vote in 68 years—since the 1934 election. Camejo’s vote total represented a 400 percent increase over the party’s 1998 gubernatorial results. 

Significantly, the Green Party received unprecedented vote totals across a broad swath of Northern California: From Humboldt County to Santa Cruz County, the party captured from 10 to 17 percent of the vote in a dozen counties, including a historic 15.5 percent—second only to Gray Davis—in San Francisco. 

If the Green Party of California chooses to enter into an electoral alliance with another strong, progressive candidate prior to the Oct. 7 recall election, I would submit that Cooper’s smug assertions about the party’s influence and viability will be seriously tested.  

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

BASTARDIZED BARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I totally agree with writer David Sundelson (“Tarting Up Shakespeare Mars a Lively Comedy,” Daily Planet, Aug. 15-18) about the horrible practice of tarting up Shakespeare. I recently saw “Comedy of Errors” at the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival. The actors spent most of their time riding bicycles and scooters up and down the aisles and on the stage. Directors seem to feel they must do something new in spite of the fact that the power and beauty of the language is lost. 

Another problem is that American actors seldom get he voice training that English ones do. They aren’t taught to project. The result is that when the play is outdoors, the actors, especially the women, shriek their lines. 

Nancy Ward 

• 

A TRULY DAILY PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ben Bagdikian is right about your putting out “one hell of a good community newspaper.” I just wish we could see it six (even five) days a week—but I realize it all has to do with economics. 

You did mean “hail,” and not “hale,” in your Roman farewell salute for Michael Howerton, didn’t you? 

Isabel Escoda 

• 

A MODEST CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hats off to J. Douglas Allen-Taylor to be the only guy in Berkeley who can smell bigotry in our city, as exemplified in the Gary Coleman for governor article.  

Here we have the City of Berkeley which stands foremost in the nation for equality and lack of bigotry and bias, and possibly the foremost newspaper standing for the same, and brother Allen-Taylor, by God, ferrets out potential bigotry.  

When Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal,” which saw the end of Irish starvation by eating plump Irish babies, I thought we all knew that he was using irony and satire to make a serious point. Not so Allen-Taylor, who, having read Swift’s proposal, would have submitted an article to the Dublin Times, decrying this horrible solution to starvation as cruel and insensitive....and an example of English bigotry and pro-cannibalism. 

Robert Blau 

• 

SADNESS, OUTRAGE 

Thank you so much for J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s well written article about the Gary Coleman exhibition in the East Bay Express . He caught my feelings of both sadness and outrage at their printing such a regressive thing.  

Rachel DeCarlo 

• 

BUYING VOTES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yesterday I got my check for $400. It came from the IRS, and it has “Tax Relief For America’s Families” printed across the bottom. That’s a lie. 

First of all, consider the cost of sending such a check to every taxpayer who claimed a dependent child exemption in 2002. Second, think about how many ways the administration could have provided the same amount of relief to the same people at far less cost. Finally, consider that either Deujkmajian or Wilson pulled the exact same stunt, sending a state refund check for $60 or so to everyone in order to purchase a better rating. This isn’t wisdom or benevolence, it’s a Republican campaign mailer sent COD. 

I can use the money of course—I’m out of work at the moment. 

Paul Mackinney 

• 

OCCUPATION OF IRAQ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The recent massive electricity blackout experienced in New York City, the Northeast and Ontario, Canada, may give a brief taste to millions of North Americans of the 24/7 misery that Bush has unleashed in Iraq with his invasion and continuing occupation of that country. Bush has managed to turn Baghdad, Basrah and other Iraqi cities into living hellholes. 

Most every day, we hear about the awful summer desert heat, the lack of air-conditioning, the lack of electrical power, the lack of water and the lack of personal security. Even the supposed “democracy,” “freedom” and “liberation” that Bush has trumpeted are all hollow shells at best.  

Bush’s recent upbeat assessment of the Iraqi situation is as phony as his several stated lies about why we had to invade Iraq in the first place.  

For daily updates on the miserable situation in Iraq, please check the new website, www.occupationwatch.org/. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland  

• 

LUNATIC LEADERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s August. I’m back from vacation. Checking the email. “What’s this? The extreme heat wave caused by global warming is shutting down nuclear power plants all over Europe?” 

What kind of nincompoops are running this planet? That their main answer to global warming is to produce nuclear power plants—which are disabled by global warming? Do the people who run the world think at all? 

Read my lips, world leaders: Space Ship Earth cannot afford to be driven by lunatics who have absolutely failed driver training and have no idea how close they are to crashing us all into a brick wall. 

It is time for the more rational among us to dump the George Bushes and Osama bin Ladens of the world—as well as the various members of the Billionaires’ Club whose only goals seem to be to create Swiss bank accounts and to buy bigger and better war toys at the expense of everyone else. 

It’s time for the human race to dump its lunatic leadership, learn to drive with care and to keep their eyes on the road ahead. 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

GREEN PATCH BLUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The proposal to move the Adult School to Franklin is infested with things that don’t make sense, but one of the strangest is this: How can a group of elected Berkeley officials even consider paving over the last remaining open green space on San Pablo Avenue for miles either way and filling it up with cars? 

The green patch at Franklin doesn’t look like much, but it’s a breezeway for the neighborhood, an absorber of traffic noise and, for kids who climb the chain link fence, a playground. In addition, the open space at the eastern end of the site is important for the people who live there, and most of it will be filled with cars most of the day. 

Instead of shoving the Berkeley Adult School into this space with a plan that lacks all creativity, the school district should make the current BAS site a better campus and use the Franklin site for something that could include an enhanced community green space. That’s the kind of thing this city stands for. Does the school board? 

Jamie Day 

Phyllis Orrick 

• 

CIVIL RIGHTS PLEDGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We still have a dream! 

We remember the eloquence of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. 

We remember the struggle it took to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the 1963 National Civil Rights March on Washington. We remember the Civil Rights Pledge which helped many to commit themselves to march, vote and work for jobs and freedom for all. 

We realize that legislation and litigation which grew out of the March helped reduce discrimination and partially opened the doors of opportunity to schools, businesses and government. We realize too that there is still a long way to go to full equality. 

We see some of those doors slammed in our faces by Propositions 209, 187, and the new threat of Prop. 54’s attempt to ban information on racial discrimination. 

We represent the resumption of the Civil Rights Pledge. High school and college students and people of all ages are now signing the Civil Rights Pledge.  

We represent an approach to the 40th Anniversary as the time for a fitting tribute to those who were there, who are re-committing themselves to the pledge. We see it as equally fitting to welcome new generations, young and old, to become part of history by taking the Civil Rights Pledge now. 

The Pledge can be taken in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and Youthspeaks! Other languages can be added by request to 981-7170 or berkeleycivilrightsanniversary@yahoo.com. 

Over 100 community leaders on the 40th Anniversary Host Committee, and the Berkeley NAACP invite you to come on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. to Berkeley City Hall for this wonderful event. 

Darryl Moore  

• 

LENDING LIBRARY LOST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Tool Lending Library used to be a joy to use. Pete and his crew were friendly. They always had a smile. They were patient. They explained how to use a tool, how to get something repaired. They were the best of “reference” librarians. And I never minded waiting in line, because I knew when it was my turn at the counter, I would also get their wonderful, competent, service. Often, I preferred getting tools from the Tool Lending Library (even with their three day limit, having to reserve popular tools, etc.) rather than renting them from a commercial place, because Pete and his crew always made sure I had all the parts, the tool worked and worked well, and answered all my questions so I felt competent using the tool. For a woman, it was very empowering.  

Now, Pete and his crew are gone! Replacing them are surly, unfriendly staff, who not only don’t smile, they barely look up. I’ve been told by the library management that the City Attorney ruled that Pete and his crew were out of line because they could not legally give advice because they lacked a contractor’s license. And the staff now has been ordered to not give tool library patrons any advice, which I’m sure is contributing to the surliness. “I will look surly, to head off any question you may even be thinking of asking.”  

What idiocy! What the library should have done is encourage Pete and his wonderful crew to get their contractor’s licenses in order to continue this great service. Instead, in a case of bureaucracy not being able to think out of the box, this service has been terminated, there’s surly staff, and the library has lost wonderful employees. I feel really sad, since Pete was the creative passion that led to the development of the Tool Lending Library in the first place.  

The Tool Lending Library needs to change its tack.  

Yolanda Huang  

In 1994 Josh Kornbluth got hit with what was, for him, an enormous tax bill. He suddenly owed Uncle Sam and the state of California a combined total of $27,000. 

For most of his life as an actor/monologist, Kornbluth has been happy to scrape by. He doesn’t drive, his rent was modest and his needs were met by his theatrical successes. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, those same successes sparked interest in Hollywood, and several of his monologues were “optioned.” Dreaming of future Hollywood riches, he spent the original option payments paying off debts he’d accumulated as an actor, without taking into consideration his new tax liabilities. 

But the sad reality is that, for every movie made, hundreds if not thousands more are optioned, and Kornbluth was soon left with nothing more than an expired option and a huge tax bill. 

At the same time his then-girlfriend, a Vallejo public school teacher, was about to become his wife and she wasn’t eager to shoulder Kornbluth’s staggering debt. Scrambling desperately to wriggle out of his tax liabilities before his wife-to-be scrambled out of their relationship, Kornbluth engaged a tax attorney who turned his $27,000 tax liability into a $80,000 tax and legal-fees liability. 

Does this sound like a likely premise for an engaging and funny monologue on the responsibilities of citizenship, family and paying your fair share for the world we live in? 

As unlikely as it sounds, this is exactly what has happened as Josh Kornbluth’s new monologue, “Love and Taxes,” comes from a highly successful world premiere run at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep starting Wednesday, Aug. 20 for a limited four-week engagement. 

Produced by Jonathan Reinis and The Z Space Studio, this is Berkeley-based Reinis’ first foray into theater in Berkeley after a 22-year run in San Francisco, most recently at Theater On The Square. Reinis has been quoted in the press as hoping to purchase the too long closed UC Theater on University Avenue as a new theatrical venue in the East Bay. 

Kornbluth, now 44 and married and living in Berkeley with his wife and their six-year-old son, is eager to perform at Berkeley Rep. For one, he can walk there. Also, although he grew up in New York, Berkeley is a Kornbluth kind of town. 

“The Bay Area and specifically Berkeley, where I live is... and I hate to use a word that is so very un-New York, but it’s nurturing. I just really love it here. I’m very proud to be here and I feel blessed. When I was doing my first piece, ‘Josh Kornbluth’s Daily World,’ about growing up communist, I came to La Val’s Subterranean Northside. But I had laryngitis—the only time I’ve ever had it in my life—and there were a bunch of these revolutionary folk songs in it but I couldn’t sing. So I came in and I told them — though it was obvious because I couldn’t even inflect — ‘But I’m sure you’ll know the songs, so when I get to them, sing it.’ And absolutely every song, they sang. It was really great. It was a really great experience.” 

When he first moved to Berkeley in 1997, Kornbluth was enchanted to see signs posted on the public schools thanking the citizens of Berkeley for their support. 

“That’s a big part of ‘Love and Taxes,’ the idea of public and what is important about things that are public. So the piece starts from that experience but what’s really going on in this is how do I become a citizen? Understanding the dawning of my consciousness as a proud taxpayer.  

“I want to pay taxes. Taxes are really important. Not only that but taxes are under attack, and they have been under attack both here in California and nationally, especially for the last few decades. And very much now under the current presidential administration. So, I was angry about it. They want to destroy everything that I care about. But how ironic and contradictory. I’m laissez faire about how I owe all this money in taxes and I haven’t paid it. And then there are also questions about, ‘are the taxes fair?’ 

“Is it fair that I owed that much when a rich person can hire a fancy lawyer and get out of it? So [I used] the story as an opportunity to bring people along on my journey to learn about taxes and also to learn about my relationship to ‘The System.’ I go from the way I was raised: ‘The Man is behind all the bad stuff. The Man is evil. The System is bad.’ And then my character starts to wonder: ‘Who is The Man? Who are They? And if it’s only They, it doesn’t seem like I have anything to do with it. But if it’s Us, it’s our problem and it’s our responsibility.’ Which is something that started to occur to me very strongly as our son was gestating.  

“To me this is a coming of age story. To me, this idea is, if we’re just talking and complaining and kvetching and bitching, we’re not actually changing anything. We’re not actually taking responsibility for anything. In fact, we’re washing our hands of it. And that’s not what it’s about. That’s not what my dad did. He was active.” 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “A Bibó Reader” at 7:30 p.m. and “Remembrance of Things to Come” at 9 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 

Ishmael Reed presents his new book, “Another Day at the Front,” with his daughters Timothy reading from her new book, “Shouting Out” and Tennessee reading poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Emily Wise Miller presents ”The Food Lover’s Guide to Florence” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

www.easygoing.com 

Harry Potter Discussion Group at 7 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Le Temps des Cerises with accordionists Daniel Thonon and Dominique Dupre at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “Salvation!” 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 

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

Kimberly Snow reads from her new book, “In Buddha’s Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Medita- 

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

“I Should Have Just Stayed Home: Award Winning Tales of Travel Fiascoes” with editors Roger Rapoport and Bob Drews, 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 at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Joseph Itiel reads travel stories from his new book, “Gay Traveler: Sexual, Cultural and Spiritual Encounters,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau 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 

José-Luis Orozco, children’s singer and author, will perform a family concert at 7 p.m. at West Branch Library, 1125 University Ave. 981-6224. 

Nels Cline Singers perform avant, free and improv jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

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

The Herms, Wolf Colonel, Fenway Park, Grand Unified Theory perform Indie Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “For One More Hour With You” 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 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sixth Berkeley Carillon Festival, Thurs. through Sun. at Sather Tower, UC Campus. For information call 642-8454 or see http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/music/FestivalRegistration.html 

Djelimady Tounkara, guitarist with the Super Rail Band of Bamako, from Mali, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight’s Fiddle Summit, with Alasdair Fraser, Bruce Molsky and Ellika Frisell, at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Steve Poltz, Phil Roy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough.Cost of $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Greg Glassman, trumpeter, at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

CHILDREN 

Where the Wild Things Are at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Czech Horror and Fantasy on Film: “Invisible” at 7:30 p.m. and Shorts by Jan Svankmajer at 9:35 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 

Disinformation Film Series: “Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death,” at 7:30 p.m., at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Donations requested. 528-5403.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Belle & Sebastian at 7:30 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

Near East Far West performs Balkan music at at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stephanie Bruce performs jazz-influenced originals at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Muriel Anderson, classical, folk, jazz guitarist, 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 

Paulo Bellinati and Harvey Wainapel, Brazilian guitarist and Bay Area sax/clarinet player, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lisa B., featuring Ian and Eric Holljes at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $12-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Whore, Ramona the Pest, She Mob at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Pitt of Fashion Orches- 

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

Fast Times at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Neal Cronin’s World Beat Party at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

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

FILM 

An Evening of International Animation at 7 and 8 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 

“Can Dialectics Break Bricks?” 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. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse with Mack Dennis, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music in the Garden from 10 a.m. to noon at the 59th Street Community Garden, between Market and Adeline Sts. Come for an afternoon of improvisational song, poetry, harmony and rhythms with Sally Rademaker.  

Blues and Beer Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Live music, micro-brewery beer, and crafts fair at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

The Dave Matthews Blues Band performs a free blues concert at 2 p.m. at the corner of Solano Ave. and Santa Fe St. 525-1771. www.davematthewsbluesband.com 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición performs classic Cuban dance music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Great Night of Rumi, celebrating the 13th century Persian poet with spoken word, music and dance, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Red Pocket, My Hero at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Adria, jazz CD release party and benefit for the Jazz House, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $6-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

World Beat Party at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave., across from Ashby BART, between Adeline and MLK Way. Cost is $10. 654-1904. neal@nealcronin.com 

Will Bernard Trio, blues-tinted, electronic-tinged jazz at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Felonious at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

California Brazil Allstar Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Frank Jackson Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Thought Riot, Scattered Fall, Love Songs, Kadena, Eskapo 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, AUGUST 24 

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

FILM 

W. C. Fields: “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Guided Tour of Fred Wilson’s “Aftermath” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Front Row Festival, music, dance, improv, film from noon to 7 p.m. in the Downtown Berkeley Arts District. Featuring an outdoor mainstage and op- 

portunity to visit The Jazzschool, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage and Nevo Education Center, Downtown Restaurant and Capoeira Arts Cafe. Children's art activities, food booths, arts and crafts, a wine and beer garden, and more! Admission to street festival free, admission to indoor venues is $5. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association 654-6346. www.downtownberkeley.org  

Cantus Magnus, directed by Richard Mix will present “Missa De Beata Virgine” by Josquin DesPrez, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6873.  

Where Art Meets Garden: Green Songs, songwriters with an ecological focus, featuring Sam Johnston, Nancy Schim- 

mel, Mokai and Green, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Com- 

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

Gypsy Kings at 5 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

People Love Pie at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Duck Baker, folk and jazz fusion guitarist, 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 

Palenque performs Cuban Son at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jim Hightower returns with his latest commentary, “Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take it Back,” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10, free with purchase of the book, and are available at Cody’s. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

AT THE THEATER 

Impact Theatre, “Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” an evening of ultra-short comedies, directed by Joy Meads. Runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27, at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Josh Kornbluth’s “Love and Taxes,” a tale of falling in love while wrangling with the Kafkaesque IRS. Runs Aug. 20 - Sept. 14. Performances Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 and 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25-$40, available from 647-2949 or 888-4BRT-TIX. www.zspace.org 

Opera Piccola, “The Guests,” Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. An ancient Iranian tale of hope for peace in a world of uncertainty, with traditional and contemporary music. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for seniors, students, available from 925-798-1300.  

Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Hare, directed by Patrick Dooley. Runs Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. in John Hinkle Park, until Sept. 14. No show Aug 9. Show Sept. 13 is at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 704-8210.  

www.shotgunplayers.org 

Teen Playreaders, “Bizarre Shorts,” a festival of brief and absurd dramas for a mature audience. Sat., Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

EXHIBITIONS  

Berkeley Art Center, 19th National Juried Exhibition: “Works on Paper,” runs to Sept. 13. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. Open Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Art Museum, Matrix 207: Anne Von Mertens “Suggested North Points,” hand-dyed and hand-stiched quilts, to Sept. 7.  

“Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Gennomics” featuring contemporary artists’ visions of a genetically modified future, August 27 through December 7.  

“Turning Corners,” an exhibition of five centuries of innovative art, through the summer of 2004. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is open Wed. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students, and free for the general public the first Thurs. of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

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

848-0181.  

Berkeley Public Library, “The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” photographs by Ben Ailes. Runs until Aug. 30. First Floor Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Graduate Theological Union Library, “Hand-crafted Books by Bay Area Artists,” Zea Morwitz, Mary Eubank, Nance O'Banion, Ted Purves, Susanne Cockrell, Karen Sjoholm, and Lisa Kokin. Each book is accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the work. Exhibition runs until Sept. 30. Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd.  

649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part II Runs until Sept. 6. Call for gallery hours. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

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

Red Oak Realty “Mixed Media,” by Stan Whitehead. Exhibition runs through Oct. 23, Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387. 

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

Sway Gallery, “Secret Summer” paintings, installations, collages, prints, drawings, and mixed media by Nana Hayashi, Greg Moore, Marc Snegg, Gab- 

rielle Wolodarski. Runs to Oct. 5. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. 2569 Telegraph Ave. 489-9054.

Rosa Parks Elementary School received failing marks and Washington Elementary School got an incomplete on the latest round of state testing, overshadowing an otherwise solid performance by Berkeley students on the California Standards Test. 

Results of the latest round of tests, required under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, mandate that Rosa Parks Elementary School must rewrite its basic school plan and that Washington Elementary must provide extra tutoring services to struggling students. 

Mirroring a statewide trend, local students, rich and poor, black and white, scored gains on the English language and math portions of the exam, administered last spring to students across California in grades 2 through 11. 

Test results released Friday show that, in many categories, Berkeley students outperformed the rest of the state, cheering top administrators. 

“I think we’re pleased with the measure against the state,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. “But I think our school district, like 85 to 90 percent of the other school districts in the state, is grappling with No Child Left Behind.” 

Under the federal law, schools that repeatedly fail to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), as defined by the state, face increasingly strict reform. Subpar participation in testing or a failure by poor students, English learners or any statistically significant racial group to reach performance goals prevent a school from making “adequate” progress under the law. 

Rosa Parks, a largely Hispanic school, is entering the third year of the process, and has already ramped up teacher training and given parents the choice to send their children elsewhere. 

This year, after black, “socioeconomically disadvantaged” and English learner students failed to meet testing goals, the school faces intervention from district administrators. Carla Bason, the BUSD’s manager of state and federal programs, said intervention will come in the form of a revised education plan for the school. 

Bason said the district would work with Rosa Parks administrators and staff to determine precisely what the overhaul will entail, but he noted that it could, for example, include intervention for black students, who have traditionally struggled at the school. 

Second-year Rosa Parks Principal Shirley Herrera said she was concerned about the test scores. 

“It was really disappointing,” she said. “It’s kind of a bad way to start the year.”  

Herrera said she hopes to improve interventions aimed at struggling students and bring in a consultant to train teachers on test preparation. She said her return for a second year at the helm after years of rapid turnover in the principal’s office should help to stabilize and improve the school. 

Washington, which has large black, Hispanic and Asian student populations, met test targets for every student subgroup, but did not reach the 95 percent test participation rate required by the state. 

Parents and administrators cried foul, noting that, while the state requires lofty participation rates, it also allows parents who object to the state’s testing regimen to opt their students out of the process. 

“If they’re going to give this kind of test, they should give a school credit for the students who take the test instead of penalizing it for the students who opt out,” said Judy Greenspan, a Washington parent. 

Echoing the views expressed by many Berkeley parents, Greenspan derided the state testing system as a high stakes pressure cooker that does not accurately reflect student achievement. 

“I was so disturbed by how incredibly stressful the whole process was,” said Greenspan, who volunteered to help Washington prepare for the last round of tests. 

The number of Berkeley schools that must undergo reform could increase in October with the next batch of test results, said Neil Smith, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction. 

The numbers could balloon even further next year. Twelve of Berkeley’s 16 schools did not meet adequate yearly progress goals this year, setting the stage for possible intervention down the line. All but one of the 12 schools—Rosa Parks—met performance goals but fell short on participation measures. 

Under the law, a school in the fifth year of the reform process can face large-scale replacement of its staff or a state takeover. 

About 4.6 million students statewide took the California Standards Test this year. In addition to the basic English test for grades 2 to 11, and the standard math test for grades 2 to 7, students take exams in everything from world history to chemistry, based on their grade level and courses. 

The California Standards Test is aligned to state curriculum guidelines, but students also took an off-the-shelf national test, called the CAT6, which replaced the Stanford 9 exam they have taken since 1998. 

But the state’s testing system relies on the California Standards Test.  

In Berkeley, the biggest jump in scores came on the fourth- and sixth grade English tests and on the second- and fourth-grade math assessments. 

On the English tests, 49 percent of fourth-grade students scored in the “advanced” and “proficient” categories, up from 39 percent last year. Among sixth-graders, 44 percent were advanced or proficient, versus 36 percent last year. 

In math, the percentages leapt from 47 percent last year to 59 percent this year for second-graders, and from 41 percent to 52 percent in fourth grade. The biggest drop came on the tenth grade English test, where 61 percent tested as “advanced” or “proficient” last year, versus 55 percent this year. 

Smith said it was too early to determine what had lead to the upward and downward shifts at certain grade levels. 

But he did raise concerns about consistently poor participation rates at Berkeley High School. 

“We hear that a lot of students at the high school level do not see the impact on their grades,” Smith said. “It’s not a priority for them.” 

View the test scores at http://star.cde.ca.gov/. 

The Board of Education is poised to formally decide on Aug. 20 whether to move the Berkeley Adult School from its present West Campus location on University Avenue to the School District’s Franklin site on Virginia Street.  

Citizens should also be aware that the Franklin proposal is part of a much broader scheme that could potentially include major land use changes at sites in several other neighborhoods.  

The Big Picture 

For understanding the relevant big picture, one source is the “Facilities Study” that was done for the District in 2002 by California Financial Services, and was described in December by Superintendent Michele Lawrence as “a base document that can support and accompany the District’s traditional Facilities Plan.” The consultants’ report stressed “asset management”—defined as “the utilization of District property for commercial, retail, or residential developments, which may provide the District with revenue to assist in providing educational programs or support the Capital Facilities Program.” It accordingly recommended “aggressively pursu[ing]...the development potential” of the District’s Oregon/Russell Street, Derby Street (East Campus), and Hillside properties--and of the Franklin site. However, it recommended fully retaining the West Campus, to accommodate not only District administrative uses (relocated from elsewhere) but also the Adult School. 

Another pertinent document is the District’s latest official Facilities Construction Plan, which was adopted by the Board in March. While this Plan is coy about the future of some sites, it seems generally compatible with the consultants’ report. It notably departs from that report, though, by positing use of the Franklin site for the Adult School.  

Piecemealing 

On July 29 City Manager Weldon Rucker wrote to comment on the proposed MND (Mitigated Negative Declaration) for the Franklin project. In his strongly worded letter, he characterized the Franklin project as just one part of a much bigger overall project that includes consolidation of the District’s administrative functions at the West Campus as well as reuse of sites elsewhere that those functions would vacate. He concluded that the District appears to be avoiding full analysis by chopping the overall project into smaller pieces--a practice prohibited under CEQA. He therefore urged the District to withdraw the proposed MND, and circulate a revised environmental document disclosing and analyzing “the full scope” of the overall project.  

The Mitigated Negative Declaration’s Inadequate Traffic Analysis 

The traffic analysis in the MND looks almost exclusively at the “level of service” functioning of seven intersections along San Pablo Avenue and Sacramento Street. It pays little attention to impact on minor streets like Kains Avenue and Francisco: quiet residential streets on which increases in traffic volume that might seem insignificant to a traffic engineer could in fact substantially affect neighborhood character and quality of life.  

Arguments Against Moving the Adult School 

Many cogent arguments have been or can be made against moving the Adult School to Franklin.  

For the Adult School and its clientele, the Franklin site would be quite inferior to the present location. It would be less central, less convenient to reach by bus, and much less prominently located. Instead of being right on well-lit, heavily traveled University Avenue--Berkeley’s great east-west spine--the Adult School’s main pedestrian entry would be on a residential side street, hundreds of feet away from San Pablo Avenue. This could pose safety concerns, particularly in the evening for female students.  

And moving the Adult School to Franklin would conflict with the city’s official General Plan. The Plan’s University Avenue component treats the Adult School as an important anchor of the University corridor--and calls for it to stay at the West Campus.  

The area around the Franklin site would suffer in terms of traffic and open space. The District’s proposal would replace large play areas—existing or potential recreation space for people--with parking spaces for cars. That’s hardly a green thing to do. And it seems inconsistent with the General Plan’s Open Space and Recreation Element, which calls for zealously protecting existing open spaces. 

Even the District’s own consultants concluded that the Adult School can and should stay at the West Campus. The consultants’ Facilities Study said that: 

“The site and buildings currently housing the Adult School appears to provide the most favorable location for relocating District Administration and all other support functions, other than transportation, into a single complex. The size of the site and square footage of the buildings is sufficient to accommodate administration, maintenance and operations, food service and other support functions with little or no new construction required...With proper design, the Adult School functions could remain housed on the site with other consolidated District administrative uses. The site is well located and...its highest and best use would be for the above stated purpose.” 

In surprisingly marked contrast, the staff report that was before the Board on Jan. 15 said, “However, staff does not think that the Adult School and administration can fit together if all the functions currently at 1720 Oregon, 1707 Russell and auxiliary space located at the old East Campus are included in administrative needs.”  

But even assuming that that staff contention is valid, why must literally all those alluded-to functions be located together? (For example, couldn’t the Oregon/Russell site’s maintenance-yard function be grouped, instead, with future Transportation Department uses at the District’s property on Sixth Street?) Having them all in one place may indeed be more convenient for administrators, but what about convenience for Adult School pupils? Maybe I’m naive, but shouldn’t student needs come first? 

A possibly revealing passage on page B-46 of the Facilities Construction Plan says that moving the Adult School to Franklin would make the West Campus available for other uses like a central administration building—and then remarks that the West Campus is “more than large enough” to house those functions. Could it be that an unstated reason for kicking out the Adult School is to make it easier to sell off part of the West Campus for private development? Could the West Campus’s ballfield get replaced by one of Patrick Kennedy’s growing chain of big buildings along the avenue? 

Zoning Complications 

The District seems to have overlooked major complications posed by the city’s Zoning Ordinance. Although under the California Government Code a school board may exempt a project from local zoning, it can do so only by a two-thirds vote. Even more to the point, the Code clearly indicates that the exemption procedure can’t be used at all for “nonclassroom” facilities like administrative buildings. The Berkeley Zoning Ordinance evidently classifies such administrative buildings as offices rather than schools. And most of the West Campus is presently zoned in residential districts that don’t permit office buildings. So one implication is that if the District moves the Adult School to Franklin, it could then be nastily surprised to find that a large part of the vacated West Campus space couldn’t be used for offices.  

The present zoning of most of the Franklin site similarly complicates the potential alternative of instead locating the District’s offices there.  

Conceivably the city might amend its zoning so as to facilitate office relocation, if it were convinced that doing so would serve the broad public interest. But that would need to involve much fuller intergovernmental consultation than the District has recently done.  

Referral to the Planning Commission 

Another example of the School District’s failure to consult is that it has never referred the Franklin proposal to the City’s Planning Commission. 

Section 65402(c) of the California Government Code says that agencies such as school districts shall not undertake certain kinds of projects “until the [project’s] location, purpose and extent...have been submitted to and reported upon by the planning agency [of the city or county having a relevant adopted general plan]...as to conformity with said adopted general plan or part thereof....” It’s very arguable that this requirement applies to the proposed relocation of the Adult School. Even if the School District were not legally required to refer the Franklin proposal to the Planning Commission, such referral would still be called for in the interest of good planning, openness, and simple courtesy. 

This Week’s Procedure 

At its Aug. 20 meeting the Board of Education is slated to decide whether to adopt a final MND on the Franklin project and whether to approve the project itself. The District reportedly has arranged for the meeting to include an actual, supposedly hour-long public hearing specifically about the MND and the project itself. I’ve been told that for this purpose, the Board will convene unusually early, at 6:30 PM.  

The Board probably will get quite an earful. 

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

Mark Twain, who chronicled America’s Gilded Age in the 19th century, joined the digital age this month when UC Berkeley researchers put 700 of his letters online. 

The university’s Mark Twain Project placed five volumes of the author’s letters, covering the years 1876 to 1880, on the Palo Alto-based ebrary, Inc. web site on Aug. 4. The letters are available in a page-by-page, printable format at www.discover.ebrary.com and will appear separately as a full-fledged e-book on Amazon.com in the coming weeks. 

“Moving into the electronic arena is a big, big step for us,” said Anh Bui, associate editor with the Mark Twain Project. 

The author’s letters, housed at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, include about 11,000 written by Twain and his immediate family and 17,000 written to them. 

The project has already published six printed volumes of Twain’s letters along with lengthy explanatory notes. The latest, “Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 6,” was published in November.  

The print volumes cover the years 1853 to 1875, and the online letters will pick up where the more traditional books left off—in 1876.  

The speedy move to put the latest batch of letters online means that readers will not have the benefit of the historical notes included in the old print volumes. UC Berkeley researchers say they have some concerns about the public deciphering the letters without annotation. But, in the end, they said, students of the “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” author will benefit from easy access to the new letters long before they can be published in book form. 

“It doesn’t have any of the editorial bells and whistles that the print versions do, so it’s not ideal,” said Bui. “But you don’t need to wait years to see the latest letters.” 

The foray into e-books is the first of several digital projects planned by the Mark Twain Project. This fall, the group is set to join with the University of California Press and the California Digital Library to announce a collaborative effort making a host of Twain resources available online. The project will include private and public writings by Twain and supplementary material about his era, according to a UC Berkeley statement. 

UC Berkeley’s Mark Twain Papers includes the world’s largest collection of Twain’s letters, notebooks, manuscripts, documents and scrapbooks, along with 150 books from his personal library. 

Viewing “Mark Twain’s Letters 1876-1880: An Electronic Edition” through ebrary, Inc.’s web site is free for account holders but will cost 25 cents per page to print. The e-book will go for $9.95.

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a faculty member of the Berkeley Adult School, I support the School District's plan to move the Adult School to the Franklin School site. The present west campus facility is inadequate for teaching courses in some subjects including the course I teach, Public Speaking for the Camera, which must be taught again this fall at a temporary facility provided by Berkeley's public access TV station a mile away.  

The Franklin School is a choice location for adult students seeking to develop skills in communications and electronic media because Franklin includes an oversized multi-purpose room called the Cafetorium, ideal for serving double duty as both classroom space and media sound-stage. With its level floor, windowless walls and high ceiling, students learning English As a Second Language, for example, can monitor their own progress using TelePrompTers mounted on video cameras to improve their public speaking skills.  

With a no cost up-link to the public access cable channels provided by contract agreement with Comcast, student work, neighborhood community meetings, cultural events and class projects taking place at the Adult School can be broadcast throughout the city from west Berkeley's emerging arts district.  

Moving the Berkeley Adult School to the Franklin School with its uniquely flexible Cafetorium provides an opportunity for the adult population in Berkeley to develop media literacy in the growing field of independent media without having to travel off campus to do it. Renovations to the current west campus facility would be too costly to produce the space flexibility that already exists just three blocks away at the Franklin School site.  

Moving the Berkeley Adult School is in the best interest of faculty and students eager to benefit from an improved quality of adult education that the Franklin School site makes possible. And the Franklin School neighborhood will benefit from a vibrant and thriving learning center to replace the abandoned school building and crime sponge that sits there now.  

George Coates

Alameda County’s first West Nile Virus victim has survived her encounter with the deadly disease—contracted not here but in Colorado—say local public officials who remain deeply concerned about the virus’s spread into California. 

The 47 year-old woman, whose name and city have not been disclosed, was released from the hospital Friday in good health, according to Alameda County Public Health Department spokesperson Sherri Willis. She was the first Californian infected this year. 

Public health officials say they are almost certain she acquired the virus last month during a hiking trip in Colorado—a hot spot for the disease this year. 

There is not yet any evidence of infected mosquitoes, which carry the disease, in California. But officials say the virus could reach the state in a matter of weeks. 

West Nile first appeared in New York in 1999, and has moved about a quarter of the way across the country each summer, when the virus peaks. 

“We expect to see it in California this year—this month or next,” said Ken August of the California Department of Health Services. 

Dr. Vicki Alexander, Berkeley’s director of maternal, child and adolescent health, said the Alameda County victim is not a Berkeley resident, to her knowledge, and that city officials have not changed their readiness level. 

“Everybody’s on alert, no matter what,” she said.  

Bruce Kirkpatrick, entomologist with the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District, said his agency set up 11 mosquito traps around the woman’s condominium to make sure that she wasn’t infected locally. Kirkpatrick shipped off captured mosquitoes to UC Davis’ Arbovirus Research Unit Monday for testing. He expects results in about a week. 

“We don’t anticipate anything positive,” he said. “I would guess [the odds are] a million to one. We just want to make sure she didn’t get the virus in California.”  

Last week, the victim was suffering from acute flaccid paralysis, a rare neurological syndrome which has created severe weakness in her legs, according to the state health department. 

The woman reported getting bitten by mosquitoes while traveling in northeast Colorado in late July. She returned to the state July 26, exhibited the first symptoms of the disease July 30 and was hospitalized Aug. 7. But health officials said they did not have enough proof to announce the case until last week. 

Colorado has become the heart of West Nile country, with 247 human cases and six deaths reported as of Monday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the heaviest hit state this year by far. South Dakota was second with 66 cases and no deaths as of Monday. 

Nationwide, there have been 470 reported human cases and 10 deaths this year. Last year, there were 4,156 reported cases and 284 deaths across the country. 

The only California case last year involved a Los Angeles County woman who recovered from the virus. Health officials believe she was infected by a mosquito that arrived in the state by way of car or airplane, since they found no evidence of infected California mosquitoes. 

West Nile is a “flavivirus” commonly found in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East and is closely related to the St. Louis encephalitis virus found in the United States. 

Mosquitoes spread the disease by biting an infected animal—usually a bird or a horse—and passing the virus to a human or another animal.  

August, of the state health department, said mosquitoes cannot pick up the disease by biting an infected person because humans develop antibodies to the virus once infected. The Alameda County woman infected in July and all other human victims, he said, pose no threat to the public health. 

Most people infected with West Nile Virus have no symptoms, but about 20 percent develop a fever, headache or body aches. About one in 150 come down with more severe symptoms, including encephalitis, a life-threatening swelling of the brain. 

Public health officials recommend that residents eliminate standing pools of water, where mosquitoes breed, from their property. They also suggest wearing long sleeves and using insect repellent.

Clusters of tall white wind turbines spin gracefully atop green hillsides. Solar photovoltaics (PVs) are integrated into windows and rooftops of modern homes, factories and office blocks. Even the old renovated seat of government is fitted with solar panels. 

A utopian fancy? No, just Germany today. Remarkable considering that in 1990 Germany had virtually no renewable-energy industry and appeared an unlikely candidate for it. Utility monopolies, entrenched nuclear and coal industries and a general conservatism made Germany appear barren ground for renewable-energy advocates. 

Joschen Twele, a wind-energy expert recalls: ‘When I started my job in wind energy [in the 1980s] I thought it had only a chance in remote areas of developing countries. So I concentrated on Africa.’ 

Yet by the end of the 1990s, Germany had transformed itself into a renewable-energy leader. With a fraction of the wind and solar resources of the U.S., Germany now has almost three times as much installed wind capacity (38 percent of global capacity) and is a world leader in solar photovoltaics as well. 

And it has created a new, multibillion-dollar industry and tens of thousands of new jobs. The German wind industry now employs more people than nuclear power (an industry that provides 30 percent of the nation’s electricity) without a commensurate increase in electricity costs. 

Germany now generates 4.5 per cent of its electricity with the wind and appears on track to meet government targets of 25 per cent by 2025. The government also considers solar photovoltaics an option for future large-scale power generation. 

What’s more, the government recently pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, much of this to be achieved by switching to renewable energy. Not quite the 60 percent many climate-change experts say is required worldwide, but vastly more impressive than commitments made thus far under the Kyoto Protocol. 

How has Germany done it? 

The main obstacles that keep renewables from producing more than a small share of energy in most of the world are lack of access to the transmission grid, high up-front costs, lack of information, and biased, inappropriate and inconsistent government policies. 

Germany’s dramatic success has been achieved through a combination of consistent, ambitious policies designed to address these barriers and create a market for renewable energy. These policies were driven by the public’s rising concerns about global climate change, risks associated with nuclear power, and a need to reduce dependence on imported fuels. 

Most significant has been the grid access and standard pricing law, enacted in 1991 and inspired by effective Danish policies. Under this law, renewable energy producers receive above-market payments for power they feed into the grid and the costs are shared among all electricity consumers in Germany. These preferential payments for renewables are not considered subsidies, but means of internalizing the social and environmental costs of conventional energy and providing compensation for the benefits of renewables. 

But some barriers remained. For example, as the number of wind turbines skyrocketed in some regions, local opposition and lengthy, complex siting procedures had the effect of stalling the development of new projects. The government responded by encouraging communities to zone specific areas for wind energy—a step that addressed concerns such as noise and aesthetic impacts and assured prospective turbine owners that they would find sites for their machines. 

To address the start-up costs barrier, the German government has offered long-term, low-interest loans and income tax credits to projects and equipment that meet specified standards. 

These initiatives have drawn billions of dollars to the renewable energy industry, while technology standards have reduced risk and created confidence by keeping out substandard machinery. The government has also promoted awareness of renewable technologies and available subsidies through publications and training programs. 

Such rock-solid policies ended uncertainties about whether producers could sell their electricity into the grid and at what price. They also provided investor confidence—attracting investment money and making it easier for even small renewable power producers to obtain bank loans. Germans from diverse backgrounds and income levels have been able to invest in renewable energy projects, leading to a surge in installed capacity and associated jobs, and reinforcing political support. 

Increased investment has also driven improvements in technology, advanced learning and experience, and produced economies of scale resulting in dramatic cost reductions. Between 1990 and 2000 the average cost of manufacturing wind turbines in Germany fell by 43 percent. Between 1992 and 2001, PV capacity experienced an average annual growth rate of nearly 49 percent. German PV manufacturers plan to expand their facilities significantly over the coming years to meet rapidly rising demand, a step that will further reduce costs and increase employment. 

Germany has demonstrated not only that it is possible for renewable energy increasingly to meet the energy needs of industrialized society but also that the transition to a more sustainable energy future can happen rapidly with political will and the right policies. To begin with, policies must be consistent and long-term. On-and-off policies in the US have created market cycles of boom and bust, making it difficult to develop strong domestic industries. As a result, the U.S. is the only country where total wind-generating capacity has actually declined in some years. 

Market creation must also be prioritized. Germany began funding research and development of renewable energy in the 1970s but saw little commercial development until market incentives were enacted two decades later. Today at least 300 companies are involved in supplying solar panels. Last year Germans installed more than 2,000 new wind projects, all of them feeding into the grid. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Germans own shares in wind energy projects, while many own shares in solar PV and other renewable projects as well. 

The issue of who owns the production and distribution of electricity is highly significant. When a nation’s electric system is centralized and utility-owned, power is concentrated in the hands of a few, both literally and politically. In the U.S., for example, some of the most politically powerful voices are those of the various energy-related industries. But when almost anyone can be an energy producer, as in Germany, the public can play a greater role in decision making, creating a more democratic society. 

Renewables now generate eight percent of Germany’s electricity and the country has nearly two-fifths of the world’s wind capacity. But the share of total wind capacity owned by large companies is also rising, as the sizes of machines and projects—and thus costs—increase. 

The advantages of shifting away from conventional energy and towards greater reliance on renewables are numerous and enormous: climate stability, air quality, health, job creation, political and economic security, to name but a few. Renewable energy also offers models for diverse and democratic ways of producing, buying and selling power. Yet change is never easy and there are strong forces globally—including politically powerful industries—that wish to maintain the status quo. While resistance to change is inevitable, the world cannot afford to be held back by those who are wedded to energy systems of the past. 

Janet L Sawin is an energy and climate change writer and researcher based at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC.

All you recall junkies, listen up.  

UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) has launched a web site on California’s recall effort at www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/htRecall2003.htm. 

The site covers the history and legal basis of the state’s recall provisions, an overview of the key developments in the effort to oust Gov. Gray Davis, links to websites and polls, information on candidates and a summary of the legal challenges to the recall effort. 

The first version of the site appeared in April 2003, when the recall seemed far-fetched, and has been continually updated. 

—David Scharfenberg

Ah, this is the life. To be on vacation near the ocean, sunning on the beach by day, and, by night, hearing Hardball’s Chris Matthews, of all people, repeatedly liken Bush to Ted Baxter, the obtuse anchorman on the old “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” As I eat fried calamari and striped bass, I get to see Matthews, hardly a friend of progressives, hammer Team Bush over their serial lying about weapons of mass destruction and yellowcake. Was Bush such a clueless puppet, sputters Matthews, that he simply read whatever Cheney or Rumsfeld put in front of him and told him to sell to the nation? Why, I must be in Margaritaville. 

Since Team Bush came to power, those of us lucky enough to have the time and money to go on vacation have tried to escape from, or forget, however briefly, the totalitarian and imperialistic schemes of our in-house American Taliban. Nonetheless, it was difficult to shake the sense of doom unleashed by the forces of darkness, and some of us spent previous vacations looking longingly at maps of Canada, fantasizing about where to move. A supine media reinforced our sense that we were exiles in our own land. 

But this summer, the worm is turning. The inside story of how and why so many in the press have finally begun to ask hard questions remains to be told. But cracks in the edifice are everywhere. And while, understandably, we on the left are prone to seeing the political glass as always half empty—or less—it is summer, things are falling apart for Team Bush, and we need to appreciate that, for now, the glass is starting to look half full. 

As the days pass, my vacation gets better all the time. First off, Jamie McIntyre of CNN, clearly weary of denials and evasions, reads the dictionary definition of “guerrilla war” out loud at a Rumsfeld press conference to drive home the point that whatever the administration says, our troops are, in fact, engulfed by a guerrilla war. I can barely believe my eyes when, after a day of sun and surf, I turn on ABC News to see Jeffrey Kofman’s now infamous interviews with soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in Fallujah who had been told three times they were going home, only to have their reprieve rescinded. “If Donald Rumsfeld were sitting here. . .what would you say to him,” Kofman asks. “I don ‘t know if I can really say that on camera,” responds one soldier. Another was more forceful, “I’d ask him for his resignation.” I nearly drop the tequila—is ABC really airing this? Even better, “Good Morning America” replays the interviews the next morning. 

The next night, when ABC News learns that the army might discipline those soldiers who spoke out, the network airs portions of the interviews yet again, and then puts on some of the soldiers’ middle-America, young blonde wives who demand to know why their husbands suddenly have no free speech rights. Then, cut to adorable African-American kids holding up signs asking when their daddies are coming home. Peter Jennings closes the segment by quoting a commanding officer who said, “We are in Iraq to defend democracy, not to practice it.” Jennings gives a slight but telling grimace. 

In this same week I can read, on the beach, the Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt write about the “Fog of Deceit” and demand an investigation into Team Bush’s “pervasive pattern of exaggeration and distortion.” Next I can turn to the Boston Globe’s truly brilliant op-ed piece by James Carroll ironically titled “Bush’s War Against Evil” that makes clear how all-out campaigns to allegedly purge the world of evil have always deeply corrupted the crusaders, leading to “the most ignoble deeds.” He asks whether “ridding of the world of evil,” as Bush promised, justifies torture, the killing of children, the “launching of dubious wars,” and the “militarization of civil society.” Of Bush, Carroll writes, “there is nothing at the core of this man but visceral meanness.” After that, I can flip through a Time magazine whose cover shows Bush giving the State of the Union address under a huge headline reading “Untruth & Consequences.” 

Even the latest Harry Potter book takes on the consequences of creeping totalitarianism. Harry and Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, insist that the Dark Lord Voldemort is back, and is recruiting followers to his evil cause. But the Ministry of Magic, in total denial, refuses to believe this, and sends a “high inquisitor” to the school to silence dissent, suppress certain kinds of knowledge, and identify and punish traitors. The official newspaper, the Daily Prophet, toes the Ministry of Magic line until its deceptions can no longer stand scrutiny. Millions of kids, through the book, feel the infuriating injustices of autocracy. And in theaters, the movie “Seabiscuit” sneaks in paeans to FDR and the importance of government social welfare programs in between dramatic horse races. 

Yes, the Dark Lord is still president. Ann Coulter’s book is still on the bestseller list. But maybe in the wake of Jayson Blair’s plagiarisms, the Private Lynch fictions, Bush’s inadvertent admission of how highly he regards the lives of Iraqis (and even our own troops) by daring Iraqis to “bring ‘em on,” and the mounting evidence of repeated bald-faced lying, the press and others in the media will rediscover that portion of the body known as a spine. I know one thing—along with millions of others I’m having a much better summer this year than those hunkered down in the “beloved ranch” in Crawford. 

Margaritas, anyone? 

Susan Douglas is a columnist with In These Times.

After my husband’s bicycling accident on Claremont Avenue, our lives turned topsy-turvy. I spent six months at home taking care of him, but to pay our bills, I had to go back to work. Five years later, after his health stabilized and the stock market went gangbusters, I quit my job and set out to make our house more wheelchair accessible. 

Then the economy took a nose dive. I needed to return to work, or I needed a really good excuse for why I couldn’t.  

“Why don’t you go to school?” suggested my friend Corrie. “I’m applying to San Francisco State. We can go together.”  

It sounded like a good idea. 

Corrie was applying because she couldn’t return to work after recuperating from a back injury. I didn’t want to look for employment because I didn’t think I could find an employer who wanted me. But most of all we both wanted to write.  

We applied to the MFA Program in Creative Writing at SF State. It’s reasonably priced; a semester there doesn’t mean we have to mortgage our homes.  

Applying was easy. It was the waiting to find out if we were admitted that was terrifying. 

But, lo and behold we got in without ever having set foot on campus. 

It was a far cry from 32 years ago when I was looking at colleges. With my parents in tow, I visited universities up and down the East Coast. I read brochures, corresponded with students already enrolled on campus, and had personal interviews. This time around I didn’t have time to look at brochures. I didn’t even know it was a three-year program until after I was accepted. 

“No way,” I said to Corrie. “We gotta finish this degree in two years.” 

“Suzy,” said Corrie, “you can’t do it in two years. It’s not set up that way. It’s so hard to get the required classes, we’ll be lucky if we finish in seven.” 

She was right. Registration, which took place on my home computer at the assigned time of 6:40 p.m. two weeks ago, proved to be more difficult than actually getting into school. I was able to enroll in two of the five classes I wanted. I reconfigured my schedule and got another class. After an hour of frantically punching in numbers and looking for courses that I had a slim glimmer of interest in, I finally had four confirmations. I was waitlisted for a fifth. 

“During the drop/add session we have to beg the profs to let us in the classes we really want,” advised Corrie. 

“Beg?” I asked. “Back in ‘72 I got into everything I wanted. Even when I transferred, forgot to register, and showed up a week late, I was able to enroll in Pottery 101, Ballet 101 and Fairy Tales and the Meaning of Life, my all-time favorite class.” 

“Suzy, times have changed.” 

Yes they have. When I tell people I’m going back to school at the age of fifty-one, most are excited for me. My neighbors, some who have yet to get their GEDs, yell “You go girl. We’re proud of you.” I get hugs, pats on the back and encouragement from almost everyone.  

A friend who finished up an MFA degree not long ago at Yale said that graduate school was difficult. “It’s a lot of hard work,” she advised. “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.” 

“A lot of work?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be any work at all. After what’s been going on in my life for the past nine years, I can’t imagine that graduate school will be anything but fun. 

My friend Jernae was also less than encouraging. “Why can’t you wait six years so we can go together?” she asked. “I’ll be finished with high school by then and I’ll need a ride to class.” 

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “There’s a good chance I’ll still be there when you arrive on campus. It’ll be a lot of hard work, but it will also be  

As the Silicon Valley economy sputters, the ubiquitous H1-B engineers who came to the United States on temporary work visas have become a vanishing breed. Their impact on the cultural landscape, however, is here to stay.  

Not so long ago, industry titans lobbied Congress to raise the cap on H1-B engineers every year, to meet the software industry’s ravenous appetite. Young, eager engineers streamed into the Valley, particularly from India, which in 2001 alone gobbled up 77,000 visas.  

Those H1-Bs were easy to spot, particularly for us blasé, cosmopolitan types who had lived in the United States for a few years and learned not to call erasers “rubbers.” They moved in packs, drove only Honda Accords or Toyota Corollas and did all their “India shopping” at Walmart. The dead giveaway: shiny-white Reeboks or Nike sneakers, often worn with formal black trousers.  

How quickly things change. Last year, for the first time, more than half of 195,000 possible H1-B visas remained unclaimed. This year, with little fanfare, the H1-B visa cap will slip back to 65,000—the number it had been before the onset of dot-com fever.  

But the H1-Bs have left a cultural legacy that will likely endure in California and nationwide.  

By the crest of the dot-com wave, Bay Area cities like Sunnyvale and Fremont had turned from a string of strip malls baking in the California sun into Little Indias. Enterprising Indian housewives started catering services that dished up home-cooked food for the lonely engineers, mostly men with rudimentary cooking skills. Failing movie theaters showing Hollywood films switched over to the latest Hindi film hits, with samosas and chai during intermission.  

Suddenly, instead of complaining that Indian food was just too spicy, everyone could name their favorite lunch buffet. The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, better known for massage parlors and drug deals, became a hub for tandoori, as over half a dozen restaurants sprang up within a block of each other. On weekends they would be buzzing with twenty- and thirty-something Indians tearing into naan and chicken tikka before they hit the freeway back to the suburbs.  

Now “For Rent” signs hang on the sprawling cookie cutter apartment complexes that dot cities like Milpitas and Mountainview. But the restaurants are still there. “The engineers might have gone back to India, but the taste of India remains,” says one of the owners. “They introduced their co-workers to this food before they left.”  

In many ways, the H1-Bs were able to introduce Indian culture to America more successfully than the Indian surgeons and high-flying software entrepreneurs who had come before them. All of us had starry-eyed dreams of being the next Sabeer Bhatia and founding a little upstart company called Hotmail. But while Sabeer Bhatia might best represent the American dream, it was the nondescript H1-B engineer worker bees dotting the Valley who put Indian Americans on the cultural map.  

Their appetite for the food they were used to made restaurants veer from old faithfuls like tandoori to offer up regional delicacies, like the giant rice crepes of South India or the lentil stews from Gujarat. Their need to stock their kitchens made Indian shopping bazaars pop up in old drugstores and pawnshops. Their hunger for entertainment made Indian soaps and comedies show up on satellite television. Fox Searchlight pictures just decided to expand Gurinder Chadha’s hit comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” to 1,200 screens after a 19-week limited release, taking the Indian experience into the American heartland.  

Now those engineering jobs are gone, often outsourced back to the mothership. Some 40,000 H1-B visa holders returned to India in the past two years, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Companies like Oracle and Intel are opening mega-research facilities back in India. There is no need to ship the H1-B engineers over here anymore. They can do the work back in India, often for a third of the cost.  

Not many people remember the Ranganathans and Reddys who shared cubicles next to them. But when they turn on their television in the fall and tune into NBC’s hospital drama ER, they will see for the first time a regular Indian character on national TV. Parminder Nagra, of “Bend it Like Beckham” fame, joins the cast as an intern. And though Rajiv Ranganathan, formerly H1-B programmer, may not realize it as he eats his mutton Maharaja Mac back at the McDonalds in Bangalore, India, he helped engineer that revolution.  

As the Silicon Valley economy sputters, the ubiquitous H1-B engineers who came to the United States on temporary work visas have become a vanishing breed. Their impact on the cultural landscape, however, is here to stay.  

Not so long ago, industry titans lobbied Congress to raise the cap on H1-B engineers every year, to meet the software industry’s ravenous appetite. Young, eager engineers streamed into the Valley, particularly from India, which in 2001 alone gobbled up 77,000 visas.  

Those H1-Bs were easy to spot, particularly for us blasé, cosmopolitan types who had lived in the United States for a few years and learned not to call erasers “rubbers.” They moved in packs, drove only Honda Accords or Toyota Corollas and did all their “India shopping” at Walmart. The dead giveaway: shiny-white Reeboks or Nike sneakers, often worn with formal black trousers.  

How quickly things change. Last year, for the first time, more than half of 195,000 possible H1-B visas remained unclaimed. This year, with little fanfare, the H1-B visa cap will slip back to 65,000—the number it had been before the onset of dot-com fever.  

But the H1-Bs have left a cultural legacy that will likely endure in California and nationwide.  

By the crest of the dot-com wave, Bay Area cities like Sunnyvale and Fremont had turned from a string of strip malls baking in the California sun into Little Indias. Enterprising Indian housewives started catering services that dished up home-cooked food for the lonely engineers, mostly men with rudimentary cooking skills. Failing movie theaters showing Hollywood films switched over to the latest Hindi film hits, with samosas and chai during intermission.  

Suddenly, instead of complaining that Indian food was just too spicy, everyone could name their favorite lunch buffet. The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, better known for massage parlors and drug deals, became a hub for tandoori, as over half a dozen restaurants sprang up within a block of each other. On weekends they would be buzzing with twenty- and thirty-something Indians tearing into naan and chicken tikka before they hit the freeway back to the suburbs.  

Now “For Rent” signs hang on the sprawling cookie cutter apartment complexes that dot cities like Milpitas and Mountainview. But the restaurants are still there. “The engineers might have gone back to India, but the taste of India remains,” says one of the owners. “They introduced their co-workers to this food before they left.”  

In many ways, the H1-Bs were able to introduce Indian culture to America more successfully than the Indian surgeons and high-flying software entrepreneurs who had come before them. All of us had starry-eyed dreams of being the next Sabeer Bhatia and founding a little upstart company called Hotmail. But while Sabeer Bhatia might best represent the American dream, it was the nondescript H1-B engineer worker bees dotting the Valley who put Indian Americans on the cultural map.  

Their appetite for the food they were used to made restaurants veer from old faithfuls like tandoori to offer up regional delicacies, like the giant rice crepes of South India or the lentil stews from Gujarat. Their need to stock their kitchens made Indian shopping bazaars pop up in old drugstores and pawnshops. Their hunger for entertainment made Indian soaps and comedies show up on satellite television. Fox Searchlight pictures just decided to expand Gurinder Chadha’s hit comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” to 1,200 screens after a 19-week limited release, taking the Indian experience into the American heartland.  

Now those engineering jobs are gone, often outsourced back to the mothership. Some 40,000 H1-B visa holders returned to India in the past two years, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Companies like Oracle and Intel are opening mega-research facilities back in India. There is no need to ship the H1-B engineers over here anymore. They can do the work back in India, often for a third of the cost.  

Not many people remember the Ranganathans and Reddys who shared cubicles next to them. But when they turn on their television in the fall and tune into NBC’s hospital drama ER, they will see for the first time a regular Indian character on national TV. Parminder Nagra, of “Bend it Like Beckham” fame, joins the cast as an intern. And though Rajiv Ranganathan, formerly H1-B programmer, may not realize it as he eats his mutton Maharaja Mac back at the McDonalds in Bangalore, India, he helped engineer that revolution.  

After three years rooted in leafy North Berkeley, with occasional escapes to even leafier Seattle, a week in Paris and four more in small-town Britain proved a salutary shock to the system for a commentator on East Bay buildings. 

A few impressions might be of interest in our present heated debate on appropriate development, for even though it’s a stretch to compare Shattuck Avenue to the Boulevard Saint Germain, some useful lessons can be learned from the Parisian centuries-old experience of crowded urban life.  

One is the importance of big street-trees. 

Lining the main avenues, elegant cliffs of apartments—typically six floors plus penthouse levels—are almost always accompanied by huge deciduous trees on generously wide sidewalks, often with a double row down the center strip, 

As a result, five or more stories are shaded for half the year by lush greenery, while the top—privileged—levels look down on a veritable linear park. 

Here in Berkeley, new and proposed apartment blocks like those on University Avenue at Martin Luther King and Acton respectively, could have similar sun control if the developer, in a fit of public spirit, would step his buildings back just a few feet. 

Small market towns in the still-extensive rural stretches of Britain offer myriad comparisons with our urban East Bay, particularly in the realm of traffic. Lovely old paved-over plazas—“market squares” in England—have become problematic parking lots, while the narrow streets through the old center are a test of nerve and skill even for natives. 

Saddest of all, the charmingly narrow roads contained between flowering hedges that weave over and around bright green toy hills are no longer safe to walk along or even cross, so that to go for a relaxed country stroll you must drive, just like here, to some distant regional park. 

And even on the narrowest roads—about one and a half cars wide—traffic goes mercilessly fast, making our driving up around, say, Point Reyes or Bodega Bay, seem absolutely quaint. 

Hay on Wye, an ancient stone-built town on the Eastern border of Wales 22 miles from Hereford, could hardly be more different from our East Bay garden suburbs. Locally famous these days as the “second-hand book capital of Britain,” Hay is an overgrown village of two-story row houses and dignified Georgian terraces, occupying a ridge parallel to the River Wye. Everything is part of a larger harmonious whole. You walk between gray stone blocks that contain apartments, shops, cafes and the ubiquitous bookstores, down alleys too narrow for urban trees, yet you feel no lack of greenery—for everywhere, over and between buildings, you see great wooded hills or the lush banks of the river. 

Here on our gentle East Bay shelf, the situation is reversed. Everywhere, a rectilinear grid of wide streets is bordered by small wood-frame houses in fussy gardens. Typically, it’s the city’s street trees, aided by huge off-street pines, redwoods and cedars, that constitute the real architecture. 

Except for the telephone poles! 

More often than not, the American suburban grid—no mean cultural achievement—has coexisted with utility poles and their sagging wires. Indeed, as neighborhood photographs reveal, we unconsciously block them out. 

Here in Berkeley, however, we can no longer achieve this visual denial, for almost suddenly, increased power demands plus improvement in wire protection and insulation have doubled the number of overhead lines and introduced cables that are thicker, blacker and uglier than ever—cables that, in the opinion of PG&E and the City of Berkeley, take undisputed precedence over trees (as the utility company makes clear in its flier on “reasons why we trim trees”). 

Looking through the stack of photos in my desk from my weeks in Britain of canal scenes, old market towns, etc., I find at most an isolated telephone pole out in the fields, but none at all in the town views. Presumably they’ve all been undergrounded, for the inhabitants of, for instance, Hay on Wye, enjoy exactly the same “high tech” as we do. 

One last observation for Anglophile friends who pine for thatched cottages and limestone farmhouses. To live in such harmonious pre-industrial settings, protected as lovingly as any BAHA Victorian, is to be under constant siege from the modern developer world of dull housing estates, huge edge-of-town Home Depots and even glassy office parks. Here, in our garden suburbs, with nothing to protect earlier than about 1880—other than endangered street trees—we might even be better off!

Peter Jennings has tossed a Molotov cocktail into a bitter Upper West Side real-estate battle. The ABC newsman is charging that Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in America, is pulling strings to destroy the character of his neighborhood by erecting a 14-story residential building on West 70th Street next door to its synagogue on Central Park West. 

“The synagogue gives the impression of having worked to bypass the neighbors, to have its way whatever the neighbors think,” Mr. Jennings wrote in a July 1 letter to the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “I realize we may all be a bit paranoid at the moment, but I must tell you that those of us who harbor productive feelings about government—and the governing process—feel that in this instance our rights—yes, it is not too strong a word—are being ignored by people who wish to serve their own interests at the expense of the community.” 

The strong words from Mr. Jennings have riled the congregation, which argues it needs the proceeds from the apartment building to finance renovations on its landmark synagogue. 

But opponents charge that the proposed tower—whose height would exceed zoning restrictions by over 80 feet—is out of character with the rest of the low-lying brownstone buildings on the block. 

And despite a public debate on the issue that has stretched back almost a year, many neighborhood residents and advocacy groups are arguing that the congregation has been working behind closed doors to gain the city’s approval for the project—a claim that the congregation dismissed as specious. 

But that’s the gist of the letter that Mr. Jennings, a nine-year resident of 101 Central Park West, which is across the street from the proposed building, wrote to Robert Tierney, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

“Here’s what else I hear on the street,” his letter continues. “That people have lost faith in the process—the governing process—because they believe ‘the fix is in.’ It’s a horrible phrase, but many of my neighbors are convinced it is true.” 

It’s a characterization that Congregation Shearith vigorously denies. 

“We have provided well over a dozen presentations; we have gone to co-op meetings, neighborhood meetings … we have briefed elected officials,” said the congregation’s attorney, Shelly Friedman, one of the city’s most effective real-estate lawyers and the go-to guy for institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center when they meet resistance to construction plans. “We have gone well beyond any requirement to at least make sure people are informed about what Shearith Israel is proposing, and why it’s proposing it.” 

Shearith Israel’s neo-classical synagogue on the corner of Central Park West and 70th Street has been the congregation’s home since 1897, but the congregation’s roots in the city stretch back to its founding in 1654; it remained the only Jewish congregation in New York City until 1825. Presently, the synagogue and its “community house,” on the south side of 70th Street, are home to its twice-a-week Hebrew school, a toddlers’ program, cultural events and a Shearith Sisterhood. The community house, a non-landmark four-story building built in 1954, would be razed to make room for the 14-story apartment building. The bottom four stories would be used as a new community center, and the remaining 10 stories would be high-end condominiums, which would hit the market as sale units. The congregation plans to split the profits with the developer and use its share to finance ongoing renovations at the synagogue. 

To date, the congregation has spent $8 million restoring the synagogue, and much work remains: a new copper roof, grates and grillwork, glazing the Tiffany stained-glass windows and a complete overhaul of a parsonage townhouse directly south of the synagogue on Central Park West. 

Mr. Friedman said the congregation’s proposed 14-story building would provide an “economic engine” for the renovation work. To erect it, however, the congregation needs a zoning variance, because the 157-foot building would be over double the height allowed on that block, which is part of the Upper West Side–Central Park Historic District. 

In fact, this is a battle that Congregation Shearith has been waging for more than 20 years. In 1983, it proposed erecting a 42-story tower that would cantilever directly above the existing synagogue. It abandoned that plan in face of widespread public opposition. In 1995, the synagogue proposed building a 33-story tower, but the Landmarks Commission dealt an early death blow to that plan, calling it equally unrealistic. 

Then as now, most of the plan’s opponents object to the building because they say it’s grossly inappropriate for a brownstone-laden block. But Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and the New York Landmarks Conservancy disagree with that assessment, noting that the proposed building is so close to the end of the block that it’s practically a Central Park West building; the block is already home to two relatively tall buildings, No. 18 West 70th St., a nine-story apartment building, and No. 30, a 10-story building. 

“We thought it was a reasonable height and design,” said Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy. “It would have a minimal impact on the historic district, as it would be at the end of the block.” 

Only the City Planning Commission can grant a building variance. But before that happens, the congregation must get an OK from the Landmarks Commission. The agency last held a hearing on the issue on July 1—and officials there said they don’t plan to take the matter up again until September. When they do, it will be the commission’s fourth public hearing on the matter. The synagogue’s attorney, Mr. Friedman, cites that—and about a dozen other meetings the congregation has held with community members—as evidence of the synagogue’s determination to give the public its fair say in the process. 

But critics of the project, including elected officials and community-advocacy groups, note that Mr. Friedman and the synagogue began meeting privately with members of the Landmarks Commission about a year before they first publicly announced their plans in October 2002. This has fueled speculation that the commission may have informally greenlighted the project before it was ever subject to public scrutiny. 

“It’s incredibly frustrating when an advocacy group reviews a project and spends time and intelligence and energy to influence the process, only to discover that the project is already way down in the pipeline and a lot of the decisions have already been made—so all you’re managing to affect is the color of the paint,” said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, which opposes the project. “That does not exactly inspire faith in the public process.” 

Mr. Friedman doesn’t dispute that he and the synagogue participated in private meetings with the Landmarks Commission prior to October 2002, but he and the commission both called those meetings “standard operating procedure” for an application of this nature. 

“It’s in the nature of these things for an applicant to work very hard before putting its case before the public,” he said. “That requires a bit of time, and invariably a community can say, ‘Why didn’t you come to us sooner?’ The simple response to that is: How can we come before we know precisely what we want to say and what it’s going to look like?” 

State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who has been a vocal opponent of the project, said he sees a double standard in the city’s allowance of such private meetings. 

“If a community group said, ‘So-and-so developer got to meet with the Mayor, and we’d like to do that,’ they’d look at you like you had two heads,” he said. “In a criminal case, if the defense attorney—or the district attorney—worked on that basis with the judge, it would be a constitutional outrage.” 

Kate Wood, executive director of Landmarks West, a local preservation group that opposes the project, said that while she believes the public has been given ample time to react to the project, she is beginning to wonder if those arguments haven’t been falling on deaf ears. 

Since the synagogue first publicly announced its intentions of seeking the variance in October of 2002, hundreds of neighborhood residents, elected officials, community-advocacy groups and historic-preservation organizations have come out in vocal opposition to the plan. 

Along with Mr. Jennings, they include the historian Robert Caro, the former New York City Opera director Julius Rudel, City Council member Gale Brewer, State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, State Senator Tom Duane, the preservation groups Landmark West and the Historic Districts Council, and hundreds of neighborhood residents. 

In his letter, Mr. Jennings wrote that many of his neighbors “believe that people over whom they have no influence have been working against the best interest of the neighborhood, even though the neighborhood is overwhelmingly opposed to the project.” 

He proceeded to single out developer Jack Rudin, a Shearith honorary trustee, as being a congregation member who is spoken of as trying to push the project through over the objections of concerned residents. 

“Jack Rudin’s name comes up a lot,” Mr. Jennings wrote. “He’s done a great deal for New York City, but in this neighborhood these days I hear him discussed as a member of the synagogue who wishes to have his way, and the synagogue’s, no matter what the neighbors think.” 

Mr. Rudin, for his part, denied having any formal or informal involvement with the project aside from having once spoken in favor of the project at a November 2002 Landmarks meeting, and his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, took issue with Mr. Jennings’ characterization of his actions. 

“Jack Rudin is concerned about his neighbors’ opinions,” said Mr. Rubenstein. “He sat in on three and a half hours of his neighbor’s opinions. He believes many of the neighbors are in the belief that [the project] is a good thing for the community.” 

Mr. Friedman said that the community’s reservations have indeed made their impact on the congregation’s plans. 

“This project was proposed in an excess of 40 stories, and that was cut down to 33 stories, and now it stands at 14 stories,” he said. “That is, over the longitudinal view, attributable to the fact that the community made its views known, and the Landmarks Commission reacted to it.” 

The project does have its supporters. Aside from the congregation members themselves, they include Manhattan Borough President Fields, who originally opposed the project but reversed herself last month after reviewing updated building plans; the New York Landmark Conservancy, a prominent preservation group; and, according to the congregation, many residents citywide. 

Still, even the plan’s supporters concede that the opposition has been well organized and has done a good job drafting some prominent New Yorkers into its cause. Mr. Caro, for example, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Power Broker made issues like zoning and neighborhood preservation sexy, wrote a letter in February to the Landmarks Commission about his fear that the proposed building would set a dangerous precedent for the future of the city’s historic districts. 

“If you walk along Central Park West today, there are a number of low-rise religious buildings whose membership could, for the same reasons, request the same series of ‘waivers,’ ‘variances’ and ‘special permits,’” wrote Mr. Caro. “Setting a precedent is often only the first step in changing existing rules and regulations.”

With its curvy shape, sleek long neck and rounded butt, a wine bottle kind of looks like a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe. But there’s more than meets the eye—there’s utility. 

Starting in the 17th century, people began storing wine in glass bottles and using cork as a stopper. Before that, everything from animal skins to ceramic jugs housed the people’s favorite beverage. After years of trying to establish uniform bottle size, capacity and shape, wine producers agreed on a tall, cylindrical shape for easy stackability during transportation. Sideways storage also helped keep the cork moist to prevent leakage. 

By the mid-18th century, different wine regions invented signature-style bottles to mark their wine-growing territory, as well as adjust for needs according to the regions’ grapes. In the United States and around the world, wineries still use these bottle styles, bottling according to the originating grapes in the wine. For instance, because the Riesling grape comes from Germany, a Washington state Riesling comes in a tall, thin German-style bottle known as a “flute.” Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc, all grapes derived from the Bordeaux region of France, come bottled in containers with wide, stern shoulders. The bottles were designed this way because these wines, after several years of aging, can generate sediment and the shoulders trap some of the gunk before it flows into your glass. 

Burgundy-type bottles, which all Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs come in, have a shapelier, tapered neck since the Burgundian founding fathers didn’t seem to think they needed a trap for the dregs. Rhone varietals, such as Syrah and Viognier, also use the Burgundy-shape bottle. 

For Champagne, wineries want a thicker, heavier container to battle the tremendous pressure of carbon dioxide inside. The deep, concave indentation in the bottle’s butt is called a “punt.” The punt works to diffuse pressure and helps balance the gas as well. Normal wine bottles don’t really need the punt for any special reason, but fine wine producers keep the deep dent for tradition. Punts date back to when glass blowers produced bottles by hand, using a wooden stick to hold the glass from the neck end. After forming the bottle, the glass blower would pull out the stick, creating the punched-in bottom. 

Then there’s bottle color. Like beer bottles, wine bottles are often colored glass—especially those meant for aging to prevent light from spoiling the wine inside. Bordeaux red wines are always in green glass, whereas the whites from this region have clear bottles. Burgundy has its signature green as well, but the area is not quite as stringent as Bordeaux. The Germans, often the contrarians, use brown glass for wines from the Rhine region and green from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region. 

Of course, there are always the other fun, nontraditional bottle colors, such as bright blue, orange and red. Those producers are trying to get your attention—and it often works. 

A Stanford dropout who won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, John Steinbeck began his life in Salinas on February 27, 1902. His life’s journey ended when his wife Elaine and his son Thom took his ashes to the shore at Whalers Bay south of Monterey for a last visit to his favorite place and a memorial service on Christmas Eve, 1968.  

Steinbeck’s entire life is chronicled artfully and humorously at the National Steinbeck Center, a valiant and entertaining effort to honor one of America’s best known writers and an attempt to revitalize downtown Salinas. Ironically, among the donors whose money built the Center are many descendants of the leading local farmers who wanted Steinbeck’s books banned and once burned copies on Main Street. 

Seven themed interactive, multi-sensory galleries depict scenes from Steinbeck’s novels: You can feel the cool air of an “East of Eden” lettuce boxcar, smell the fish and hear the seagulls in “Cannery Row,” and listen to classical music in Ed “Doc” Ricketts’ lab. 

Seven theaters show Steinbeck’s films—which together chalked up 29 Academy Award nominations—and you can walk around “Rocinante,” the green camper that plays a central role in “Travels with Charley,” before stopping off at the center’s superb gift shop, which offers nearly every book in print by or about the writer. 

For serious scholars, the Steinbeck Center offers its invaluable archival collection of Steinbeck’s original manuscripts, rare editions, correspondence, photographs, taped interviews, and other memorabilia recently donated by the John Steinbeck Library. You may access all of these materials from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday by calling ahead for an appointment. 

And when it all gets to be too much, you can take a break at the restful café on site. (1 Main St., Salinas; 831-775-4720 or 831-796-3833 to reach living bodies; open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; www.steinbeck.org) 

Steinbeck House (1897), where Steinbeck was born and lived for 19 years, is maintained and run by the Valley Guild, and includes a rather old-fashioned dining room where you can enjoy a tearoom-like luncheon served by volunteers. Docents lead tours of the rooms in which Steinbeck wrote his first stories and worked on parts of “The Red Pony,” “Tortilla Flat,” “The White Quail,” and “The Chrysanthemums.” In the basement, The Best Cellar gift shop offers rare editions and memorabilia as well as the lunchroom’s recipes. (132 Central Ave., Salinas; 831-424-2635; open Monday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.) 

To visit Steinbeck in his final home, go to the Garden of Memories Cemetery, where his ashes are buried in his mother’s Hamilton family plot No. 1, surrounded by his parents, sister Mary, William “Uncle Will” Hamilton, friends, and neighbors, many of whom appear in East of Eden. To get there, drive south on Main Street, turn left on East Romie Lane, continue longer than you think you should, make the rather difficult right turn onto Abbott Street, then right again onto the cemetery’s Memory Lane, and right again after the mausoleum. Follow the signs. 

My favorite restaurant in Salinas is Spado’s, which offers an antipasto bar and excellent polenta, delicate pizza, crisp innovative salads, stuffed grilled Portobello mushrooms, pastas, an irresistible five-clove garlic chicken sandwich, sand dabs, lamb shanks, and daily Italian stews and pastas, at very reasonable prices. (66 West Alisal, Salinas; 831-424-4139; open from 11 a.m. daily). 

To walk off your repast, try a stroll down Main Street—a journey back in time, with the occasional gallery and a few new restaurants to ponder if you decide to linger. 

Steinbeck made frequent trips to Carmel, often to visit muckraker Lincoln Steffens in his home on San Antonio, south of Ocean Avenue, where the two writers chewed the fat with an eclectic collection of radicals, liberals, and humanitarians, as well as farm labor activists who inspired The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious Battle. 

One of Steinbeck’s favorite hangouts—and the place where he met Elaine Scott, his third wife and love of his life—is the Pine Inn on Carmel’s Ocean Avenue. 831-624-3851 or 800-228-3851.) 

Another Carmel compatriot, Robinson Jeffers, was one of the few contemporary poets Steinbeck admired and respected, and the author made many memorable visits to Jeffers’ Tor House, south of Carmel Point. Jeffers built both the house and the adjacent Hawk Tower stone-by-stone, decorating them with pottery and artifacts donated by interesting characters from around the world. Usually there’s a lovely garden party the first Sunday in May, as well as a Tor House Festival on Columbus Day weekend in October for a fascinating poetry walk. Call for tour reservations. (26304 Ocean View Ave., Carmel; 831-624-1813 or 831-624-1840; open for tours every hour 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday-Saturday.) 

For lunch or dinner in Carmel try Grasing’s, right across the street from the Carmel Fire Station. The baby of Narsai David and Chef Kurt Grasing, Grasing’s presents a simple and impressive menu based on Central Coast harvests and the best of the Monterey Peninsula wines. Specialties might include Roast Rack of Lamb Narsai, marinated with pomegranate and red wine over ratatouille, seared duck breast with figs, pearl onions and star anise, or grilled swordfish with baby bok choy. The lunchtime bronzed salmon salad is divine if on the menu, as are the medallions of pork with shiitake mushrooms. Medium-expensive. (Sixth Avenue near Mission; 831-624-6562). 

Kathleen Hill writes a series of Hill Guides to the West Coast with her husband Gerald Hill, including “Monterey & Carmel--Eden by the Sea.”  

If your parents are springing for tuition and room and board during your first semester at Cal but not for a Honda Element, don’t be bummed—Berkeley’s many public transportation options combined with the city’s bicycle friendly atmosphere make driving seem so 20th century you might even consider joining the Green party.  

The time-honored choice for the wheel-less student has always been the bus, and Berkeley is no exception--especially when it’s free. As part of Cal’s “Class Pass” program, all enrolled students can ride AC transit anytime, anywhere gratis. All you have to do is pick up a “Class Pass” at Cal’s photo ID office located in the student union. AC transit estimates that Cal students take three million trips a year on its lines. 

Affectionately referred to as “Aunt Clara” by locals, AC Transit gets its name from the counties it serves, Alameda and Contra Costa. The AC lifeline for most Cal students is the legendary 51. It stops right in front of Sproul Plaza for service to Downtown Berkeley and points north. Just a block south on Durant you can catch the 51 as it heads south to Oakland. Another popular choice for students is the 40 line that makes its way to Oakland via Telegraph Avenue. 

If you’re out clubbing, AC Transit offers its owl service from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. nightly, but the buses only run once an hour. There is also an owl bus from San Francisco into downtown Oakland.  

Nearly all AC Transit buses are equipped with easy-to-use bicycle racks mounted on the front of the bus. You can bring your bicycle along any time of day without an extra fare or permit. 

For more information on AC Transit services, schedules, routes and fares, visit their website at www.actransit.org. 

You probably already know about Berkeley’s other public transportation option, BART. But, did you know that the rail line passes through its three Berkeley stops entirely underground because of the insistence of Berkeley officials at the time BART was being designed in the early 1960s? No other Bay Area city can make that claim and few are as well served by the transit line. 

BART stops in Berkeley near the Oakland border on Ashby between Adeline and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way; in downtown Berkeley at Shattuck and Allston Way; and in north Berkeley along Sacramento between Virginia and Delaware.  

One-way fares to and from all the Berkeley stations are a reasonable $1.15. A one-way fare to downtown San Francisco from the downtown Berkeley station is $2.75 and $5.15 to the new San Francisco Airport station. At $1.75 BART is also an affordable option for getting to the Oakland airport—just get off at the Coliseum station and take the bus shuttle service to the nearby airport.  

The only downside to BART is that it shuts its gates at midnight, but if you make it to the station before then you won’t turn into a pumpkin, as trains continue to run past midnight.  

Bikes are also welcome on BART, but not during commute hours or on crowded cars. The Downtown Berkeley station is particularly bike friendly and offers a free, attended bike parking lot weekdays from 7:30 to 8 p.m. For more information visit BART’s website at www.bart.gov/. 

With its relatively flat terrain, most of Berkeley is readily accessible by bike. Thanks to several dedicated bike lanes near campus, it’s also a safer option than in other communities. However, it’s not like a Critical Mass rally everyday out on the streets of Berkeley either. Cycling is not allowed on campus (remember to walk your bike) and the Berkeley police have been known to pull over and cite bicyclists that fail to stop at stoplights.  

While bikes have gotten more technologically advanced and pricier in recent years, there are still two-wheeled bargains to be had. Downtown Berkeley’s venerable Missing Link bike store offers not only a wide selection of new street and mountain bikes, but used ones they’ve refurbished as well. Prices on used bikes range from $150 to $300. And, if you just need a bike for the day, rentals are available from $25 to $35. For more information, visit the store’s website at www.missinglink.org. 

If you absolutely have to get somewhere by car, Cal’s radio station KALX 90.7 FM offers the “Ridefinder”--a unique alternative to renting a car or borrowing your roommate’s hatchback. The Ridefinder, read everyday at 3 p.m. by the on-air DJ, is a listing of rides being offered and requested by KALX listeners. A name and phone number is given, then it’s up to you. The service is mostly used for people needing longer rides such as to Los Angeles.  

Strong-arm Robbery 

Five or six men strong-armed a victim out of his black leather jacket at 2 a.m. Friday at the intersection of Sacramento and Ashby. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said the suspects, aged 18 to 20 and wearing sports jerseys and baseball caps, fled on foot. Police had not made any arrests as of Monday afternoon. 

Grand Theft of Earrings 

A middle-aged man entered a store on the 3300 block of Adeline at 1:54 p.m. Friday, grabbed a case of earrings valued at over $800, and sprinted out the door, according to Berkeley Police. Officers apprehended the suspect, 52-year-old Lavell West of Oakland, on 61st Street, recovering the earrings. West was taken into custody. 

Burglary Through Unlocked Door 

Entering through an unlocked rear door, a burglar entered a residence on the 2400 block of Prospect Street Friday and made off with a bicycle. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield cautioned residents to keep their doors and windows locked since they provide access to many residential burglaries in the city. 

Car-Jacking at Marina 

A gunman carjacked an Oakland resident at the Berkeley Marina early Saturday morning as the victim was sitting in a parked rental car. The robber broke a window and pointed a gun at the victim, who fled on foot. The suspect got in the car and drove away at 3:43 a.m. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said several officers responded, but the car and suspect have not been located. The gunman is described as an Hispanic male in his late teens or early twenties, 5’6”, 165 pounds. He was wearing a dark knit cap, gray sweatshirt, and dark blue pants. 

Robbery by Simulated Weapon 

A robber pretending to have a weapon in his pocket entered a business on the 1500 block of San Pablo Ave. at 9 p.m. Sunday, demanded that an employee hand over all the cash, then fled on foot with a small amount of cash. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said responding officers captured the suspect, Damien Stuart, 21, of Berkeley, six blocks from the crime scene. He was taken into custody. 

Fleeing Felon Caught 

Officers from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department chased an armed parole violator into Berkeley Thursday night. Multiple units from Berkeley Police joined in the chase, along with a helicopter. The pursuit entered Berkeley on University Avenue and ended when the suspect was surrounded and captured at McGee Avenue and Delaware Street. 

Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Kevin Schofield said the helicopter was brought in by the Contra Costa County Sheriff.