Katherine Case and Andrew Moore hope their third attempt to move to Berkeley is the charm. In 1999 the housing crunch forced them to Lake Merritt and in 2001 to Richmond in their quest for affordable housing. 

“Before it was ridiculous. There wasn’t a one-bedroom for under a thousand dollars,” said Case, scanning apartment listings at Berkeley-based rental service eHousing. 

This year, the couple might be in luck. Among the company’s 644 Berkeley listings—up three-fold from two years ago—are nearly a dozen one-bedrooms under $800. 

“That would have been impossible two years ago,” said eHousing President Davin Wong. “Now $800 can get you a one-bedroom and it’s not necessarily by the Bayer Warehouse [in West Berkeley].” 

The low prices signify what landlords, tenants and rental professionals say is a 180-degree turnaround in the local rental market since prices peaked in 2001. 

In 1998 and 1999 waves of tech boom transplants coupled with the elimination of rent control on vacant units sent shock waves through Berkeley’s rental housing market, catapulting prices for vacant units more than 40 percent in three years. 

Now, according to figures compiled by UC Berkeley rental service Cal Rentals, Berkeley rents this year have sunk more than 10 percent to 2000 levels. The drop is not as big as in nearby cities, but a sea change from a few years ago when an open house could attract a line of renters outside the door all scribbling down their references in hopes they would be the chosen ones. 

In June the average Berkeley studio rented for about $850, down from $1,000 in June 2001, according to Cal Rentals. One-bedrooms dropped $220 to $1,130; two-bedrooms dropped $180 to $1,580; and three-bedroom houses fell $300 to $2,400. 

“The rental market is the best for tenants that I have ever seen,” said Cal Rentals Director Becky White, who noted that many landlords were pricing rentals well below the recorded averages. “I thought I’d never see the day when a two-bedroom apartment in Berkeley would go for $1200.” 

The driving force behind the plunge, experts agree, is the retreat of the tech boom transplants. The loss of young workers flocking to Berkeley along with new student and residential housing and a static student population have left landlords—who rushed to put dormant units on the market during the boom—awash in vacancies. 

According to the Berkeley Property Owners Association, the average Berkeley landlord owns six apartment units. Recently, however, large developers—led by Panoramic Interests—have started building large apartment complexes downtown and along major transit corridors. 

Since 1998, Panoramic Interests has built four buildings, adding 239 one- and two-bedroom apartments to the city’s housing stock. The firm plans to complete three more complexes downtown next year, adding an additional 177 apartment units. 

Panoramic Interests Chairman Patrick Kennedy said he had only seven vacancies, but was unsure what the market what the market would bear when his next wave of development hits the market next August. 

“That’s when I’ll sweat the big drop,” he said. 

The abundance of options means tenants now have the hammer in dealing with their landlords. Wong said tenants are demanding rent reductions to stay at their homes and will shop around for the best deal. 

“Two years ago if you were offered a place, you’d have better biked over with the rent check right away,” said Wong. “Now landlords are competing against each other.” 

Despite improved negotiating leverage and a number of desperate landlords offering bargains, Berkeley prices, compared to other East Bay cities, remain stubbornly high. 

Oakland’s Lake Merritt neighborhood saw prices leap almost as high as Berkeley’s during the boom, but in the bust they have fallen quicker. 

According to Berkeley-based rental service Homefinders, in the last three months the average Lake Merritt studio rented for $742; one-bedroom $955; two-bedroom $1,317 and three-bedroom $1,837. 

Berkeley Rent Board Executive Director Jay Kelekian attributes the price gap to Berkeley’s reputation as a safe and progressive community with many charming homes, making the city attractive to tenants even in a slow economy. 

Property owners don’t discount Kelekian’s assumption, but they say the city’s contentious history of rent control has had the psychological effect of keeping some landlords from dropping rents down to the market rate. 

“In Berkeley owners are far less inclined to reduce rents than they are in Oakland,” said Wayne Rowland, president of the Rental Housing Association of Northern Alameda. 

Rowland said that even though Oakland voters last year barred landlords from evicting tenants without just cause—bringing the city’s rent control laws closer in line with Berkeley’s—Oakland landlords were more willing to cut rents because they weren’t traumatized by a long history of battling with a rent board they view as hostile. 

Since Berkeley instituted rent control in 1980, landlords have complained that—except for a few years when they controlled the popularly elected board—the Rent Board has favored tenants, locking them into antiquated rents for as long as they stayed in their apartment. 

Owners bristled last October when the Rent Board voted to deny them a rent increase for this year, and the two sides have tussled in court previously over permissible rent hikes. 

Now many say they are holding out, fearing that if they drop prices and the market goes back up, they will be stuck with below-market rents until the unit is again vacated. 

“I don’t know how Berkeley landlords manage to stick it out with vacancies month after month, said Dana Goodell at Homefinders. “They absolutely don’t want to rent it at a lower rent if the market is going back up so they often think in terms of 10 or 20 years.” She added that for some landlords the decision seemed based more on emotion than the state of the market. 

Kelekian insisted that under rent control, even landlords who have long-term tenants are guaranteed a profit on the unit, and that if they can prove they are losing money they can petition the Rent Board for a rent increase. “They want a windfall on the windfall,” he said. 

Berkeley Property Owner Association President Michael Wilson said many landlord holdouts were following simple mathematics. “If you lower rent $100 just for a year, that makes sense. But that loss begins to compound itself over time and you’re locked into the lowest rent of the worst market forever.” 

Kelekian second-guessed the landlord’s logic, noting about 25 percent of rental units turnover every year, and that by keeping units vacant and denying themselves rental income, they stand to lose more than if they acquiesce to market rates. “I’d like to hear their math because I don’t understand it, Kelekian said. “What they’re saying is that the market isn’t good enough.” 

Not all Berkeley landlords can afford to wait for the next boom. For small-time owners who bought their property within the past few years and must pay hefty mortgages or who otherwise need a steady flow of rental income, Wilson said they feel more pressure to drop rents until they find a taker. 

“There’s an incredible disparity in rents right now,” said White, noting that two-bedroom apartments in the same neighborhoods can be priced several hundred dollars apart. 

Looking ahead, though, Goodell thinks the holdouts will have to adjust to the new market. She expects prices to stabilize soon, but with developers building apartment complexes downtown and new university housing on line, she expects prices to hold steady indefinitely. 

Case and Moore, though, don’t want to risk falling victim to another housing crunch. “The good thing about Berkeley is, if you get in at a low rent, you’re golden for as long as you live there,” Case said.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16 

Jesse Jackson will be on Upper Sproul Plaza, UC Campus at noon. 

Tribute to Roger “Bob” Gilmore, for his 80th birthday and honoring his 56 years of service to the community, at 5:30 p.m. at Shen Hua Restaurant, 2914 College Ave. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door, and are available at many Elmwood merchants. No gifts necessary, but if you have pictures, cards, or stories, we will be assembling a memory album for Bob. For information please call Tad at 843-3794 or email bolfings@pacbell.net 

The People’s Park meeting about acacia trees’ safety issues at 6 p.m. in People’s Park. The arborist’s report will be available at the People’s Park office and the UC Berkeley Office of Community Relations. For information contact Glenda Rubin, UC Community Relations, 642-7860 or e-mail pplspark@ 

uclink.berkeley.edu 

Proposition 54, a public forum, sponsored by the Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy. Speakers are Ward Connerly, initiative sponsor and UC Regent, Eva Patterson, Director, Equal Justice Society, speaking in opposition. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Booth Audtorium, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. For more information on this event, please contact Sharon Zarkin at 642-4670 or Kate Anderson at 642-5116. 

Berkeley Garden Club, “Autumn, the Second Spring” Kristin Yanker-Hansen, garden designer and owner of Kristin's Gardens will talk about and show plants for autumn bloom at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

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.  

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 

Free Prostate Screening Program, Sept. 16-17, for uninsured, low-income men over 45, or high risk men over 35. Sponsored by Alta Bates Summit. For information and registration call 869-8833. 

“Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish Calendar - Multiple Beginnings, Many Opportunities,” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 112. www.brjcc.org 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17 

Genetically Engineered Foods and Your Health, with Jeffrey M. Smith, author of “Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating,” at 7 p.m. at Marriott at the Oakland City Center, Oakland. Free. bgerner2@comcast.net  

“Theological Education: First World and Third World Creative Dialogue” by Dwight Hopkins, associate professor of theology at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, at the GTU Convocation, at 3:30 p.m. at University Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte Avenue. 649-2464.  

Prose Writers Workshop Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Community sponsored, no fee. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

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 

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. 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 

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 848-0237. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18 

Berkeley Fair Elections Coalition meets at 7:10 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 693-5779. 

BOSS Celebration, for volunteers, donors and community supporters, at 6:30 p.m. at Spengers Restaurant. RSVP to Syreeta or Janny at 649-1930. 

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 848-4008 or janet@earthlink.net or jennifemaryphd@hotmail.com or 987-0668. 

“Hidden Walks in the Bay Area,” a talk by Stephen Altchuler, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Ave. at Arch. Sponsored by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Assoc. and the Hillside Club. www.berkeleypaths.org 

UC Botanical Garden Docent Training from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Call 643-1924 to sign up! 

Fight Back Rally to Defeat Prop. 54, sponsored by the Black Radical Congress, with speaker Eva J. Patterson, from  

the Equal Justice Society, at 6:30 p.m. at SEIU 250, 560 20th St., Oakland. For more information, call 527-4099, or email fmbeal@igc.org 

“Venezuela: A Nation on Edge,” a KQED Frontline/World Series Event, reception at 6:45 p.m., screening and town meeting at 7:30 p.m. at International House, Sproul Room, Piedmont at Bancroft. 642-9460. 

So How’d You Become An Activist with Kris Welch of KPFA and Ed Holmes of the SF Mime Troupe, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 528-5403. 

A Conversation About the Peace Process in Northern Ireland and the Role of Civil Service with Sir Joseph Pilling, Permanent Under Secretary, Northern Ireland Office, at noon at 201 Moses Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for British Studies. 643-2115.  

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

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

FRIDAY, SEPT. 19 

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

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Roy Meisner, Chief, Berkeley Police Department, “Keeping the Peace.” Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 20 

Coastal Clean Up Day Meet at 9 a.m. behind the Seabreeze Market at the corner of University and Frontage Rd. Everyone needs to sign waivers, and we will give you trash /recycle bags, pencils, tally cards and a map of the areas we need to clean. For information call Patty Donald at 644-8623. pdonald@ci.berkeley.ca.us or visit ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/ 

marinaexp/cleanup 

Grasshopper Hunt Predictions this spring were for a LOT of Orthoptera. We will search for grasshoppers, their relatives and other insects for a close-up look at locomotion by the six-leggers among us. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Berkeley Association of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. City Manager Weldon Rucker will join us to discuss interfacing with City Depts. such as Planning, Neighborhood Liaisons, Code Enforcement Unit and the Police. 587-3257. www.berkeleycna.com 

Nabisco Hall of Fame All-Stars versus Safeway Executives Charity Softball Game. The All-Star players include Pete Rose, Brooks Robinson, Vida Blue, Ozzie Smith, Ryne Sandberg, Steve Carlton, and Andre Dawson. They also include U.S. Olympic champion softball pitcher Lisa Fernandez. Evans Field, UC Campus. Gates open at 11 a.m., game starts at noon. Raffle prizes during the game include $1,000 of free groceries, a chance to hit against Lisa Fernandez, and signed memorabilia. Tickets are $5 each, available in advance from 925-467-3755 and also at the gate. All proceeds go to CaPCURE to fight against prostate cancer. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour in commemoration of the North Berkeley fire of 1923. Begins at 10 a.m. Reservations and a donation of $8 required. Please make check payable to Berkeley Historical Society, and mail it to P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701-1190. 848-0181. 

Foliage Color in the Garden, a free class with Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-1992. 

Identifying Native Shrubs with botanist Glen Keator, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Visitor Center, Botanic Garden, Tilden Park, followed by a day in the field on Sun. Cost is $65 members, $75 non-members. Sponsored by the East Bay Regional Park’s Botanic Garden and the Native Plant Society. To register call 925-935-8871 or 925-820-1021. www.nativeplants.org 

Fall Permaculture: Introduction Come find out about using permaculture principles in your garden in this introductory class. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wildheart Gardens, 463 61st Street, at Telegraph. Cost is $10 for Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away. For information call Beck at 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Pet Adoptions, sponsored by Home at Last, from noon to 5 p.m., Hearst and 4th St. 548-9223. 

California Writers Club meets at 9:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. Bring pencil and paper for hands-on writing activities. Free and open to all. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

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

ca.us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Game Festival of new board , card and online games based on imaginative themes, from noon to 5 p.m.,at Dr Comics and Mr Games is located at 4014 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland. 601-7800. 

Workshop on communication, anger, and identity in adolescent females, sponsored by Bay Area Children First, a local nonprofit organization working to reunify families. From 10 a.m. to noon at Bay Area Children First’s Berkeley office, 1400 Shattuck Ave., Suite 7. Fee is $30 at the door. 883-9312 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 21 

Run for Peace, sponsored by the Unted Nations Association, East bay Chapter. Meet at 9 a.m. at Berkeley Marina Cesar Chaves Park for a 10k or 5k run/walk. Registration is $20. For information call Alma at 849-1752. 

International Indian Treaty Council, a report back on the summer activities of several youth groups, with music, spoken word and vendors, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation of $5 requested. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Herb Walk in the Berkeley Hills 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. Sponsored by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. $6-$25 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. 845-4028. www.pshm.org 

Turnings Great and Small: Where the Global and the Local Meet A talk by teacher and author Joanna Macy to benefit Berkeley EcoHouse, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater on Allston Way between MLK and Milvia. Tickets are $20 and are available at Cody’s Books on 4th Street or Telegraph Avenue, Black Oak Books on Shattuck Avenue, or at the door. 

Willard Community Peace Labyrinth Dedication, at 2 p.m., at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Avenue between Derby and Stuart. Celebration includes song, refreshments, and a guided labyrinth peace walk. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

Treasure Sale Benefit for Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 845.8542 ext. 376.  

Hands-on Bicycle Repair Clinic from 11 a.m. to noon, at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

12th Annual Nude and Breast Freedom Day at noon at People’s Park, Haste above Telegraph. For more information call Debbie 848-1985 or email debbiemoore@xplicitplayers.com 

Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Palzang on “The Buddha’s Eight-fold Noble Path,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

“Growing Up Gay and Jewish in Germany,” with Rabbi Kai Eckstein at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0327, ext. 112. www.brjcc.org 

Introduction to Tango Start correctly by learning from a master, Paulo Araujo, founder of the Instituto Brasileiro do Tango in Rio de Janeiro, 10:30-11:45 a.m. Cost is $15. Teen rates available. The Berkeley Tango Studio.Registration and directions email smling@msn.com 

MONDAY, SEPT. 22 

UC Berkeley’s 2020 Land Use EIR, Public Scoping Session, from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Krutch Theater, Clark Kerr Campus. Community members encouraged to attend. 643-9310. 

League of Women Voters, Fall General Meeting from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Northbrea Community Church, 941 The Alameda. The speaker will be John W. Ellwood on “California After the Recall: Will Anything Change?” Cost is $15 and includes dinner. For reservations call 843-8824. 

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  

People's Park Community Advisory Board is seeking members. The board reviews and makes recommendations on park policies, programs and improvements, and guides the implementation of the park's long-term plan. Current projects include a peace garden and the improvement of the children's play area. Meetings are held the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Applications will be accepted until Sept. 30. They are available at the People's Park office, 642-3255; the UC Office of Community Relations, 643-5299; and via e-mail to plspark@uclink.berkeley.edu. 

Free Smoke Detectors for City residents and UC Berkeley students who live off-campus. Applications are available from the Environment, Health & Safety office of UC Berkeley, at any Berkeley Fire Station, or at the Fire Admin. Office located at 2100 MLK, 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 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

City Council meets Tues., Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. in City Council hambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

School Board meets Wed. Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley Work-Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Sept. 18, 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., Sept. 18, 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., Sept. 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/transportation 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Sept. 22, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Sept. 22, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste

RACHEL CORRIE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wish to commend the Berkeley City Council for the action it took to press for an independent investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, run over by an Israeli military-operated Caterpillar bulldozer while protecting a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza on March 16. The City Council added its voice to nearly 50 congress members in asking that this be done, as was promised to the Corrie family by our government, but as yet unfulfilled.  

I wish to respond to those who asked that all deaths be investigated. Why is Rachel’s case special? Regarding Rachel, the U.S Department of State has stated that “the case is not closed” and have raised a series of questions about the report completed by the Israeli authorities. In contrast, in the case of others, our opponents presented no evidence that they have not been sufficiently investigated already. Certainly their family members were not forced to be content with an incomplete report from those who are accused of causing the death of a loved one.  

It has nothing to do with valuing one life over another, we most emphatically do not. It has to do with keeping the promises made by our government to all our citizens to protect us in other lands, and in the event of our death, to seek answers.  

September 16 is the six month anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. We will commemorate that sad anniversary by thanking the City Council for their support of a fair investigation, and holding a brief vigil outside City Hall. Rachel’s parents will spend that time in Rafah, Gaza, still seeking answers.  

Jim Harris  

Volunteer with International Solidarity Movement 

• 

NICE PLANET  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just moved back to Berkeley, and discovered your wonderful revised Berkeley Daily Planet. I do have one problem with the paper, however: Somehow, each compact publication contains so many excellent articles, on subjects vital to Berkeley and beyond, I can’t throw the issues away!  

Thank you!  

Gerta Farber  

• 

TYRANNY 

This letter was addressed to Berkeley City Council. 

It is time to put an end to the environmental tyranny put forth by Norman LaForce and others. The request for sixteen acres of playing fields in a 270 acre, built on landfill, Eastshore State Park were met with cries of environmental disaster and outright lies published in the Sierra Club Newsletter. The BHS rowing team wants to row boats in aquatic park. Again, according to the environmental community, allowing this to happen is nothing short of ecological catastrophe. You see the birds would have to fly to another spot, perhaps the same Eastshore State Park, now a nature preserve, that is on the other side of the freeway from Aquatic Park.  

And where is our city council on all of this? Do they as a body stand up to this bullying and point out that they just supported the creation of one of the largest nature preserves in Northern California across the street from Aquatic Park? No, they look toward “other locations” outside the City of Berkeley, delaying the BHS use even longer and making volunteers work even harder. So what if these other locations have pollution spewing vehicles taking children to other cities, no harm in that.  

I may be wrong but it is my understanding that I and my friends can take the same boats used by BHS, put them in the water at Aquatic Park, and row to our hearts content. So why is the Berkeley City Council persecuting BHS rowers, who unlike me, are willing to do some environmental remediation? Why? 

Doug Fielding  

Chairperson,  

Association of Sports Field Users 

• 

OASIS CREATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a south Berkeley resident who participated with others in the creation of a small peace garden in the aftermath of the bombing in Iraq. Time has passed since this event, but its spirit forges on. 

On May 1, 2003 a small group of neighbors and friends gathered to celebrate spring and International Labor Day. They gathered on the grass of a vacant median strip on Stanford Avenue in Berkeley. A widely unused space, without a park bench or inviting atmosphere. 

The celebration unfolded into the creation of a small garden. People began by laying down recent war story newspapers with messages of hope and release they had written on them. Then a layer of local compost was added to create a garden bed, and thus the peace garden was born. 

The small, circular garden enclosed with wooden logs was home to sunflowers sprouts, purple beans from Chiapas Mexico, and a scattering of herbs and flowers. 

It was a humble offering for peace, a food source for those with only a liquor store near by, and a civic improvement adding beauty to a median strip framed by traffic. The peace garden grew steadily for about three weeks, and was watered by locals who did so of their own accord. Sunflowers leaves grew hearty and small bean tendrils reached for light. Then, the peace garden was torn down in the course of a day. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, a routine reaction to an ‘unpermitted’ garden, or perhaps to someone, sunflowers are perceived as a danger to our neighborhoods? 

As time has passed, the peace gardeners have regrouped and we have been putting our heads together about how to streamline the creation of “beautiful space” in our vacant lots, median strips. 

A simple plan between neighbors and city officials would allow careful and thoughtful civic improvement projects to flourish without costly permits or threat of destruction.  

Amidst traffic, freeway noise and cement there can exist marvelous “place making” that invites the community to come out of their houses, cars, and into a new notion of public spaces.  

Indeed, we need more of these random acts of oasis creation! 

Jennifer Miller 

• 

BAD PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m writing to urge the editors and staff of the new Berkeley Daily Planet to maintain the more open, balanced attitude a community newspaper for a town like Berkeley needs and deserves, especially when covering decisions made by the administrators of our public schools.  

Today was to be the Berkeley/Oakland Tech football game. It was canceled. Instead of the fairly matter-of-fact headline in today’s Berkeley Voice, “Berkeley-Oakland Tech Canceled” our Daily Planet announces, “District Thwarts New Game Plan” with the article lead-in “The Berkeley Unified School District has killed plans to reschedule today’s beleaguered Berkeley High-Oakland Tech football game amid continuing questions as to why the game was put off in the first place.” In contrast, the Voice’s lead, “The football game between Berkeley and Oakland Tech high schools scheduled for tonight has been canceled because of talk of potential violence from people who could show up at the game” was simple and to the point.  

The Planet’s coverage was unprofessional, unbalanced, and seems intended to make a difficult situation even harder. Principal Jim Slemp made a decision based on information from the Police and the School Community. To officially second-guess our new principal, on his first public “judgment call” is to explain, in part, why no self-respecting, competent administrator has been willing to take this job on—permanently—until now. I hope you will support those who make tough decisions in our community, in the future, unless you actually have reasons not to, and a lot of information to back up your reasons.  

Heather Jacobsen  

• 

MIDEAST COMMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With respect to Paul Kilduff’s comment stating that sf.indymedia.org “is dedicated to free speech and does not edit the content provided by contributors” (“Google Site Bans Slurs Against Israelis, Not Arabs,” Daily Planet, Sept. 12-15): This is simply untrue. 

I have personally posted approximately three dozen comments, 75 percent of which have disappeared from their site within less than two hours from posting. The overwhelming majority of these comments have been pro-Israel—they are wiped off the site. As are any anti-Palestine comments. But an anti-Israel comment—that will stay up forever.  

Joe Francisco 

• 

REPORT CARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is simply no justification for the number of failing grades received by the BUSD from FCMAT (“Many Failings in BUSD Report Card,” Daily Planet Sept. 12-15). It’s time for the School Board to shut up and start performing. And if they can’t, they should turn the job over to someone who can. In the world of business, where people are actually held responsible for the quality of their work (what a refreshing idea!), these people would have been fired years ago. If students are increasingly held accountable for their achievements, it seems only fair that those who “administer” our schools be also. Since good old-fashioned pride in a job well-done seems unable to motivate these folks, perhaps external standards are the only alternative. It does seem, though, that a good motto for the school board, which, if followed, would make external monitoring a moot point, would be “just shut up and do your job!” 

James Ward 

• 

XXXXXXXX  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am wiring in support of the Berkeley High School Women’s’ Crew Team’s wish to utilize Aquatic Park for rowing, as the team had been doing until quite recently. I am the hard-working single mother of the disabled single mother of the rower. Obviously trips to and from Aquatic Park, as opposed to Lake Merritt, would be much easier for the three of us.  

Crew has played an invaluable role in my granddaughter’s high school experience with its team work, responsibility, discipline and healthy dose of the right kind of competition.  

Our family is very sensitive to environmental issues and carefully assesses the pros and cons of our lifestyle activities. In this case, since we are talking about only two hours a day and since the birds in question would be able to find suitable resting spots nearby, we feel the advantages to the girls definitely outweigh the ecological consideration. 

Name witheld 

• 

XXXXXXXX  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve shopped at Bolfing Elmwood Hardware for many years because there the clerks look you in the eye, smile and actually show you what you’re looking for. This is so unlike most of the chains where a clerk will point a languid finger and say, “It’s on the back wall, if we have it.” At Bolfing I’ve had a clerk spend five minutes looking for the kind of nails I wanted. Total sale: $.10. 

Nancy Ward 

• 

XXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the $89 BILLION Bush has requested: 

Population of US = 292,032,144 (approx) 

Population of the World= 6,316,680,114 

That 89 billion (89,000,000,000) represents $14 per person IN THE WORLD or $304 from EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the United States. 

Blood from a turnip!! Where is all that money going to come FROM? And why should I send $304 to Iraq when I can barely pay my rent? 

He said “sacrifices”. You know WHO is going to have to make the SACRIFICES -- me, that’s who. And you too. 

Sincerely, Paulina Miner 

Impeach Bush 

Jeff and Paulina Miner 

• 

XXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I marvel at the skill of high ranking military men (!) in using the Pollyanna mode to answer the questions of journalists. Here is an accurate but not literal exchange between CBS’s on-the-spot Dan Rather and Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, chief of operations in Iraq. 

Dan: What’s wrong, General, in your view? 

Ricardo: What’s wrong is the way our successful operations are reported by the press. 

Dan: Can you give me one example? 

Ricardo (smiling): I can give you a hundred. 

Dan: One will do. 

Ricarco: All right. The bombing last week of the mosque in Najaf…. 

Whoa, Nelly!  

To be fair, the good general went on to praise his troops for voluntarily assisting with the wounded (which the press reported). I marvel that he actually said and presumably believes the mass murder of over one hundred worshipers at a religious shrine was the occasion for a successful military operation. 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

The gorgeous staging alone is worth the price of admission to “Much Ado About Nothing,” the final production of the season at Cal Shakespeare. The costumes, with a good deal of flamboyant silk, place us in a vaguely but not obtrusively modern Italy (there is one silly joke about a cell phone, however). 

The set features a series of handsome gold and red pillars. Along with a glowing pink railing, these form a perfect background for a dazzling array of white in the two wedding scenes.  

The other great pleasure of this production is the truly inspired comic pair of Ron Campbell and Joan Mankin as the Constable Dogberry and his assistant Verges. Campbell serves up Dogberry’s famous malapropisms with an air of demented triumph. His legs seem to have an equally demented mind of their own, as they prance or bend with hilarious unpredictability. Decked out in fatigues and an antique helmet, Mankin makes the choice of a woman to play Verges look inspired. When the two of them are on stage or even as they leave it, arm in arm, the production comes alive. 

There are other strong performances from L. Peter Callender, who makes Leonato’s pain and rage over the supposed shame of his daughter vivid and disturbing, James Carpenter, who brings out the sadness and latent envy in Don Pedro, and Joaquin Torres, who makes an appealingly vigorous Claudio. I also admired Warren David Keith as Leonato’s brother Antonio and as the friar who comes to Hero’s rescue with some common sense. 

Unfortunately, the Beatrice and Benedick, who should be the emotional and moral center of the play, are less than outstanding. Julie Eccles is an adequate Beatrice, but Charles Shaw Robinson’s Benedick seems bland and baffled. His erotically charged sparring with Beatrice, which ought to provide a grown-up alternative to Claudio’s puppy love for Hero (and to its ugly underside), never catches fire. At moments when we long for a ringing affirmation (even if touched by irony)—“The world must be peopled,” for example—he sounds too much like Mr. Rogers.  

The result is an unbalanced version of the play.  

“Much Ado” is perfect for Indian summer, when there’s still plenty of warmth but the shorter days point toward winter darkness. The play has similar warnings of the darkness in Shakespeare’s later work. The venomous Don John is a warmup for the more effective poison of Iago and Edmund. The fear of sexual betrayal that is expressed but dispelled in “Much Ado” looks ahead to more catastrophic explosions of irrational jealousy in “Othello” and “The Winter’s Tale.” 

Without a convincing portrayal of mature, self-conscious sexuality in Beatrice and Benedick, the play is tilted toward its darker elements. We pay more attention to Don Pedro’s disappointment that he is too old for Hero or Beatrice, to Claudio’s and Don Pedro’s and her own father’s readiness to believe that the virginal Hero is a “stale”—that is, a whore—and to the savage misogyny that goes with such beliefs.  

This is a disappointment but not a disaster. All of these elements are important to Shakespeare’s play and powerfully presented. The production is less moving than it might be with more electricity between its central figures. It could also do with less distracting physical comedy; the sight gags sometimes cover important lines. In spite of these problems, director Peter DuBois gives us an absorbing, hilarious, and visually satisfying evening.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Hy Hirsh and the Fifties: Jazz and Abstraction in Beat Era Film 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 

Maira Kalman, author of a dozen children’s books, introduces the latest adventures of Pete the Dog, “Smartypants: Pete in School,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Jeffrey and Rhoda Makoff discuss how to make big decisions in their new book, “Get off the Fence,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Steve Martinot will discuss “The Rule of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance,” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Comedy Showcase, with Tony Sparks, Phil Puthumana, “The Curry Comic,” Ian Jensen, Kevin Avery and Tessie Chua at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Fear of Fear” at 5:30 and 9:10 p.m. and “Chinese Roulette” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Stauber, investigative reporter and founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy, discusses “Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau discuss “The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Calligraphy Lecture and Demonstration with Georgianna Greenwood and Carla Tenret, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 528-1709. www.friendsofcalligraphy.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert Mozart Clarinet Quintet, at the Chevron Auditorium at International House, corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

Christopher O’Riley’s “Radiohead” Innovative pianist performs a program of music by British rock group Radiohead, transcribed by O'Riley for solo piano. At 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $14-$28. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Creole Belles at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Da Vinci’s Notebook, comedic a cappella quartet, 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 

Patrick Greene Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jules Broussard, Bing Nathan and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Love Rhino, Electric Jesus, 3 Prayers at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848- 

0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. becketts- 

irishpub.com 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18 

FILM 

Genetic Screenings: “Gattaca” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Art Center Film Festival: Exploring Relationships and Aging, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Mai’s America,” A documentary about a Vietnamese exchange student by Marlo Poras, will be shown at 7 p.m. at 2060 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asia Studies. 642-3609. cseas@uclink.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Curator’s Talk on Gene(sis) with Constance Lewallen, Senior Curator for Exhibitions, at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, and Guided Tour at 5:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. tctorres@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Tony Cohan discusses “Native State,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Amelia Warren Tyagi on “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading at 7 p.m. featuring David Gollub and Sparrow 13, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Tony Rowell, son of Galen Rowell, introduces Barbara Rowell’s “Flying South: A Pilot’s Inner Journey,” her 25,000-mile 57-leg journey through Latin America, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose, 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Slaid Cleaves, Texas folk-roots at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

James Mathis Knockdown Society at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough.Cost of $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Autana at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. beckettsirishpub.com 

Porch Life performs at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 19 

CHILDREN 

Dog Days of Summer stories and songs at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Fox and His Friends,” at 7 and 9:25 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 

“They Live,” John Carpenter’s cult classic, at 8 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 

Berkeley Art Center Film Festival: Political and Social Commentary, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

William Greider discusses “The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy,” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Michael Parenti reveals the secret life of the empire in “The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People’s History of Ancient Rome,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Mary Watkins is featured at Fellowship Cafe & Open Mic at 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita Sts. Poets, singers, and performance artists are invited to sign up for the open mic. A donation of $5-10 is requested.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ravi Shankar The legendary sitarist performs with his daughter, Anoushka, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jazz Singer’s Collective, with Walter Bankovitch, piano, Bill Douglass, bass, and Steve Robertson, drums, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $7-$12 and are available from 507-2498. 

Donna the Buffalo performs roots rock at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kris Delmhorst, contemporary songcraft, 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 

CWK Trio performs acoustic modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $8-$12 sliding scale. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.org 

Redmeat and The Bellyachers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Michael Bluestein Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

JND, Bray, and Thriving Ivory at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Municipal Waste, Capitalist Casualties, Caustic Christ, Voetsek, Agents of Satan, Strung Up 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. 

Woman at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. beckettsirishpub.com 

Reorchestra at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

Mokai and MarQue at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 20 

Euripides’ “Medea,” performed by the National Theatre of Greece at 8 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. Pre-performance talk with UC Berkeley Dept. of Classics Professor Mark Griffith at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $32 and $62. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

EXHIBITION 

Photographs of Inner Mongolia by Michael Sun, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the 3rd Floor Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 

CHILDREN 

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

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Mother Goes to Heaven,” at 7 and 9:15 p.m., at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Art Center Film Festival: Bums’ Paradise, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joe Conason, political columnist, reveals the right-wing in “Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Early Music Society presents Anne Azema, soprano, and Shira Kammen, vielles and harp, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $22 for SFEMS members and Seniors, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts, with Tom Rose, clarinet, and Miles Graber, perform an all English music program, at 8 p.m. at Trininy Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Admission by donation, $12 general, $8 students, senoirs, disabled. No one turned away. 549-3864. 

Remember Shakti with John McLaughlin, guitar, and Zakir Hassain, tabla, members of the original Shakti fusion ensemble of the 1970s, are joined by U. Shrinivas, electric mandolin and V. Selvaganesh, ghatam and kanjira, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$56 and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Good Night! An Evening of Spirituals at Hamilton Hall, 14th and Castro Sts, Oakland. Tickets are $25-$50, and benefit the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, a liberal religious congregation serving Oakland since 1869. For more information call 524-1417. 

Women Singing Out! presented by Rose Street House of Music and East Bay Pride at 8 p.m. at the Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway at 2nd in Jack London Square. Tickets are $8-15 sliding scale. 594-4000 ext. 687. 

“Jah Music for the People” at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Suzy Thompson and Friends at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. www.downhomemusic.com 

Barry and Alice Oliver, contemporary folk 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 

Brightback, Joanna Newsom, Sean Hayes at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Pietro Lusvardi on the contrabasso at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org  

Steve Smith-Mike Zilber Group with special guests Dave Liebman and Fareed Haque at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $20-$25. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Alphabet Soup, El Jefe at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Reggae Angels and Amandala Poets CD release party at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Post Junk Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter 848-8277. 

Scott Amendola with Nat Su and Devin Hoff at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. beckettsirishpub.com 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 21 

Euripides’ “Medea,” performed by the National Theatre of Greece. at 7 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. Pre-performance talk with UC Berkeley Dept. of Classics Professor Mark Griffith at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $32 and $62. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Oliver Ranch Tour, to benefit the Richmond Art Center. A special opportunity to visit a private reserve dedicated to site-specific sculpture. Cost is $95 per person, which includes a $50 donation to the Richmond Art Center. Reservations required. Call A New Leaf Gallery at 525-7621, or email info@sculpturesite.com 

CHILDREN 

Café Rumba, Afro-Cuban folkloric drums at 3:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Kids of the Dayton Tribune Meet Vanessa Thill and Kelly Reed, the 12-year-old founders of the Bay Area annual literary magazine, at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

FILM 

“Homage to Chagall,” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. Peer led discussion following the film. 848-0327. www.brjcc.org 

The Films of Germaine Dulac: “Ame d’Artiste” 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 

Jim Campbell/Matrix 208: “Memory Array” at 3 p.m. in Gallery 1, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. tctorres@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 2 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry at Cody’s with Jennifer Arin, Katherine Case, Y. Morales, Annie Stenzel, Jennifer Sweeney and Virginia Westover at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Tom Farber reads from his novels “The Beholder” and “A Lover’s Quarrel: On Writing and the Writing Life” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pebble Theory, Cilantro, Sun Chasing Shadows at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

All Shoko Night, featuring the Natto Quartet and the Hikage-Segel Duo, at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Free, donations accepted. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Paula West at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz-school. Cost is $20-$25. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lucy Kaplansky with Nina Gerber, vocals with guitar accompaniment, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50 in advance, $20.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

The People with LZ Phoenix, Sol Americano and Dr. Masseuse at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Indian Classical Music with Jyoti Rout, Pandit Habib Khan, and Prof. Mohini Mohan Pattnaik at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $15-$20 available from 925-798-1300.  

Kaarka seismic gypsy jazz at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Americana Unplugged Series: The Whiskey Brothers at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.

A three-judge federal panel Monday postponed next month’s election because it would involve the use of outdated and unreliable punch card ballots by almost half the state’s voters. 

The three justices from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said their ruling would not go into effect until Monday of next week, pending a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their ruling on the Oct. 7 election won’t have any immediate effect on people running the voting process in the city of Berkeley or Alameda County. 

The effect on taxpayers and on the people running the various voting campaigns is another matter. 

Assistant Alameda County Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold said the county stands to lose all but approximately $80,000 of the $675,000 already spent on the election. 

Ginnold said that most of the expenditures were for the printing of ballots and voter pamphlets, mailings to voters, and staff overtime costs, none of which can be carried over to a new election. Ginnold said if the election is postponed, all of the costs will have to be absorbed by the county, and will not be passed on to city governments. 

Another spokesperson for Ginnold’s office—who declined to be identified—said, “It’s business as usual. We have early voting, and people are still voting.” 

Berkeley City Clerk Sherry Kelly also said nothing has yet changed for the Oct. 7 election. 

“I’ve talked to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, and he has requested that all city clerks who are conducting early voting continue with early voting. It’s his understanding that there’s going to be an appeal filed and there’s going to be no action for at least seven days. 

“There was quite a flow of people coming in (to Berkeley City Hall) to vote this morning. We will continue to accept people for voting for this election until we hear different from the county registrar, who will probably not do anything different until he hears something different from the secretary of State.” 

While people operating the voting booths were not affected by the uncertainty over the postponement, people running the campaigns clearly were. The main concerns appeared to be guarding against both a letdown and a loss of focus on the campaigns. 

“It makes it very difficult on all sides to plan any kind of campaign with this kind of a decision,” said Diane Schaehterle, state coordinator for the Yes On Prop 54 campaign. “But we’re not going to expend too much energy on (figuring what to do about) this until the appeal is complete. 

“We’re going forward. We still have a bunch of speakers and forums to meet at. We just hope that it’s resolved very quickly.” 

Asked if Prop 54 proponents would prefer an Oct. 7 election or a postponement until next March, Schaeterle said with a small laugh, “That’s the kind of energy I’m not going to expend on this. When they make the decision, then we’ll deal with it.” Schaeterle said she felt the uncertainty of the postponement was equally bad for people on both sides of the issue. 

That sentiment was echoed by the Defeat 54 campaign, which called on its campaign supporters to keep on working in a prepared statement on its Web site entitled “The election is STILL ON for October 7th.” 

“Given the uncertainty in this situation,” the statement read, “we must not relax our efforts... If the Supreme Court decides to allow the election to proceed, we will (then) only have two weeks (more) to get our voters to the polls...” 

A debate between UC Regent Ward Connerly, the author of Proposition 54, and Eva Jefferson Paterson, director of the Equal Justice Society and a Prop 54 opponent, was scheduled to go forward at Booth Auditorium in Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday evening. 

At the same time, gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington delayed the filing of what she called a Clean Money Initiative because of the ruling. The filing of the Huffington initiative had been originally scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 16 in Sacramento.

To my progressive friends: 

  Let me remind everyone as to why we are all once again drawn to national politics, some of us after a lapse of many years. Things are terribly wrong in this country and in the world. The Bush “New American Century” crowd is determined to rule the world, to create a Pax Americana, to transfer wealth in this country from the poor to the rich and to devastate the operations of government that constitute a safety net for the poor in favor of military spending and corporate welfare. 

  That frightens and troubles us greatly. I think every one of us wants to move the political dialogue in this country to the left. We want an internationalization of international problems, an end to U.S. meddling in the internal affairs of countries that do not constitute a threat to the security of the United States, universal health care, fair wages and decent conditions for workers, clean air and water, alternate energy, available housing, an end to poverty, etc. That means moving the political dialogue leftward. That seems to me to be a given; but most of us also agree that our first priority is to act so that the Bush crowd will not have four more years to rule the world and impoverish its citizens for the benefit of a few.  

  Many of us have tried working to accomplish that in other venues over many years or (in my case, decades), but without much success. So it was agreed by those of us in the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and other venues, that an attempt would be made to do that in what looks like the only viable game in town: the Democratic Party.  

  That does not mean we like or accept all Democrats; after all, what we are seeking to do is to change the Democratic Party for the better. But it does mean that we can’t expect to demand perfection in all politicians who seek our support or endorsement. And it means that we must realize that our ability to move the dialogue leftward inside the Democratic Party will be leveraged in direct proportion to the work that we do to get Democrats elected.  

  As Joseph Stalin once said, “How many divisions has the Pope?” At the risk of that being misunderstood by people with no sense of humor, let me point to the California Democratic Council (late 1950s and 60s) and its example for us. Democratic politicians had to address the issues that the Council advanced (and they were progressive issues) because the Council provided the footsoldiers of the party.  

  The current Democratic Party has few footsoldiers (that is why Labor is so important to the party, and Labor doesn’t provide many troops very often); now, after an absence of many years, new progressive Democratic Clubs are forming, or gaining strength. If we now act to elect reasonable Democrats, we will have to be listened to on issues. Democratic candidates won’t always agree with us; but they will, more and more, have to address our issues! That is how the political dialogue moves leftward—just as right wing ideologues have moved the dialogue steadily rightward by providing the troops for the Republicans for 20 or more years. 

  None of that happens overnight. And the recall provides an anomalous incident on which to focus. No one picked the candidates, and there was no chance to affect the political dialogue in the short time we have for this election. And our movement is new, can field relatively few troops, and has little influence as yet. But this gives us the chance to start building our cachet with the party, while we also seek to expand our numbers here and in other locations. Progressives mostly agree that this recall, used against a governor elected not even a year ago, who has committed since no act of misconduct, is anti-democratic. It is bad public policy, on a par with term limits and three strikes. Furthermore, it appears to be part of the right wing scenario to steal government despite elections that started with the Clinton impeachment, shifted to the stolen 2000 election, moved to Texas where the Republicans are seeking to redistrict to gain new Republican House seats even though the state was reapportioned in 2001, and now is focused on California, where the Republicans are seeking to steal the governor’s office in a traditionally low-turnout election. 

  In these circumstances, to oppose the recall is morally right and politically correct. If the recall succeeds, Bustamante is the constitutionally appointed successor of the governor, like him or not. He is a Democrat, opposes the recall and is our best chance to thwart Republican efforts to seize this governorship. If Bustamante is elected, the Republicans will not be appointing our judges, vetoing legislation passed by the Democratic majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate and the Republicans will have less of a chance to prevent an honest budget from being adopted in this state.  

  Though he is not our candidate, there was no primary in which we could have supported a better candidate. And note that Bustamante has become a minor league populist recently (as has Davis). 

  For all those reasons, for me there is little choice but to oppose the recall, support Bustamante and seek to build up our progressive influence by earning it in the Democratic Party. Were we to adopt the purist’s approach of “give with one hand, take away with the other” we might as well disband as a Democratic club and reconstitute ourselves as another example of how not to accomplish anything at all. The history of the left has been too full of such groups, organizations and clubs, and I’ve been a member of too many of them myself. The bottom line for me (in my dotage) is: “Does what I am doing help advance the cause of civil rights, civil liberties, the fight against growing economic disparities among our people, the battle for a cleaner and less polluted earth and the struggle against the increasing religious bigotry we see in public life in this country?”  

Mal Burnstein is a retired Berkeley attorney and longtime civil rights activist. He is also a member of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, to which this letter was originally addressed.

Berkeley Rep’s new Roda Theater is a winner: Handsome and comfortable auditorium, good sight lines, a lobby with polished concrete floors and an elegant bar. There is a book shop. Even the bathrooms are pleasant.  

The current production adds other pleasures. The clever set is a dream version of Leonardo da Vinci’s study, with what looks like a giant wooden filing cabinet that frames the stage. The large drawers open up to provide unexpected exits and entrances for the actors and various other surprises, including a staircase. Enhanced by excellent lighting, the visual effect is intriguing. The eight actors speak well and use the set resourcefully.  

The only thing missing is a play.  

Except for an embarrassing bit of invented dialogue, spoken entirely in Berlitz Italian, “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” is made up entirely of brief excerpts from the actual notebooks. These, the program tells us with admirable candor, are more than 5,000 pages in length and “fragmentary.” Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation is fragmentary too. She gives us musings, often with no connection at all, about several of the artist’s many interests: painting, optics, mechanics, sculpture, birds, flying. For the sake of variety (or something), she also includes a few diary entries about Leonardo’s troubles with a boy he hired as servant and model.  

One or another of the actors declaims each fragment with great solemnity—this is Leonardo speaking, the portentous tone reminds us, so listen up. At the same time, other cast members perform a collection of workshop movement exercises: dance steps, gymnastics, bits of mime. Most last only a minute or two, but some develop into a sort of mimed skit, such as the oddly macabre business performed while we hear about Leonardo’s experiments with dissection.  

There is no attempt to create a drama, an action of any sustained coherence, or even to suggest anything much about the artist’s character. As a result, the whole thing is a terrible bore. Who would have thought that Leonardo’s private thoughts could be so dull? 

The production is full of technical invention, and the actors carry off the various bits with energy and flair. One cannot help wondering why so much effort and talent have been thrown away on something so resolutely undramatic. Perhaps the idea is to prove that anything at all can make good theater. 

If so, I’m not convinced.  

“The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” runs through Oct. 19 at the Rhoda Theater, 2025 Addison St. 

www.berkeleyrep.org.

NAACP National Chairman Julian Bond addressed an early Saturday morning City Hall civil rights breakfast meeting mistakenly billed briefly as an anti-Prop 54 rally. 

Co-sponsored by the NAACP national office and the organization’s California Conference of Branches, the meeting went off without a hitch—and apparently without breaking state law. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the gathering, held in the city’s Milvia Street City Hall conference room with some 40 participants, was held to have Bond publicly sign a copy of the 1963 Civil Rights Pledge. Hundreds of Berkeley residents signed the pledge at Civic Center Park in August during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington. 

Worthington said that a week before the Saturday breakfast event, an event organizer sent out an e-mail advertising it as an anti-Prop 54 rally. Proposition 54 is the Ward Connerly-sponsored initiative that would ban the collection of race-based data in the state of California. 

“I don’t think we can have an anti-proposition rally at City Hall,” Worthington said. Queried by Worthington, Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan agreed, advising that use of City Hall facilities to campaign for or against a state proposition was contrary to both state law and state court rulings. 

“The original e-mail was a mistake,” Worthington said. “The breakfast meeting was never intended to be an anti-Prop 54 rally. But we had to spend a week straightening it out, sending out a new e-mail and making sure none of the literature mentioned the proposition.” 

Aside from signing the Civil Rights Pledge, the impeccably-dressed Bond did talk against Connerly’s measure, telling participants that “I don’t have to go into details; all of you know why it should be opposed,” calling the proposition “insidious” and calling Connerly “the California terminator.” 

In a rambling speech, Bond also denounced the gubernatorial recall as part of a “national nullification of the needy” and a “rehearsal for next year’s national elections.” The longtime civil rights activist and former Georgia assemblymember and state senator devoted much of his talk to his ties to Berkeley, revealing that he attended high school in Pennsylvania with former mayor and present Assemblymember Loni Hancock, and adding that he had a sister living in the city. And he saved most of his passion for a plea for statehood for the District of Columbia, where he presently lives. 

Mayor Tom Bates also made brief remarks, calling Bond “one of my heroes.” 

Bond left the Berkeley event early in order to attend an actual anti-Prop 54 event, keynoting an Oakland rally sponsored by several local labor organizations.

I’m writing in response to some recent sensationalized headlines in the Planet that conveyed a very different story about what BOSS is going through than what I know the reality to be.  

Established in 1971, BOSS has provided housing, jobs, education, and multiple support services to Berkeley’s homeless and poor for over thirty years. In 1994, BOSS employees organized to form a union. BOSS fully respects all unions, including our own, with the deep understanding that they exist to protect workers and to ensure safe and supportive working conditions. But the marriages of unions and nonprofits have inescapable differences from traditional union-company marriages. Are some of these differences irreconcilable? We prefer to think not. But hard facts remain at the foundation of nonprofit existence. By definition, nonprofits do not generate profit, but raise revenue to cover costs. And when revenues dip (public funding, private grants, donations), as they have for BOSS and so many nonprofits in our community, the only recourse for responsibly maintaining a balanced budget is to make cuts – cuts in staffing, cuts in services, cuts in operating expenditures. But the union-nonprofit marriage can make it difficult to pursue this course, even when the fallout is red ink and financial instability.  

All workers have rights, not just unionized workers. And BOSS has striven to respect the rights and needs of all our employees. BOSS has a long tradition of hiring from our target population – homeless and low-income workers who often come to us with lower skill or education levels than other applicants. Yet for each job description, we have not matched wages to skill or education levels, and because BOSS’s mission is to create opportunity and equity for our constituents, wage increases have followed from accomplishment, progress, or longevity (anniversaries) rather than having a headstart on the playing field. 

The fact is, despite the difficult period BOSS is going through right now in terms of funding and procedural changes, we have done our best to manage the organization while inflicting minimal harm on our employees. Thus far nothing has changed for them except for a higher health plan co-payment that saved the organization thousands of dollars in its operating budget while still ensuring that all employees have health care, and two delays distributing paychecks due to cash flow. In each instance, employees received advance notice. 

The funding environment will remain difficult for the foreseeable future, and some procedural shifts we are making will take a while. At the same time, our employee union is here to stay, and so is the press. As BOSS has done throughout its thirty-two year history, we will continue to do our best to manage the organization responsibly while supporting our employees as best we can, and we hope local headlines will do the same justice to this steady if unsensational effort that they do to publicize bumps in the road.  

boona cheema is Executive Director of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS). 

Monday’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to delay California’s recall election was a victory, though perhaps short-lived, for UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Henry Brady’s two-year crusade against punch card voting machines. 

Brady’s research into inequities caused by the use of punched cards was the linchpin in the suit brought against the state of California by a group of public interest legal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

In a Monday afternoon press conference at UC’s Institute of Government Studies, Brady said he started looking into how punch cards compared with other voting systems after the 2000 presidential elections. Then, they played a key role in the election which became the U.S. Supreme Court case of Bush vs. Gore, which caused George W. Bush to become President. 

He called punch cards “a lousy system for voting” which causes the voice of poor people to go unheard when they come to the polls. 

His research results, which were submitted to the court by the plaintiff-appellants as a declaration, showed that in the six California counties which use punch cards, a significant number of votes cast by minority members were not counted because of systematic errors created by the technology’s flaws. 

The appeals court’s opinion agreed with his contentions that the rate of uncounted votes—which he calls “residual votes”— was significantly higher for minority voters than for non-minorities, and more than 2.5 times worse than for any other voting system, including electronic systems. 

Brady said that, in his estimation, the appeals judges confronted two competing interests. 

On one hand, the court said, “this is a classic voting rights equal protection claim.” Minority voters face the prospect of losing a significant percentage of their total votes because they live in punch card counties in disparate proportions. 

On the other hand, courts never like to delay elections. 

This election, however, does not pose the usual risk of leaving an office vacant, which is usually cited as the problem with postponing elections. Votes on the two propositions on the ballot will also be delayed, but they were previously scheduled for March anyway. 

The state of California, represented by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, can appeal either to the U.S. Supreme Court or to the Ninth Circuit sitting as a group “en banc”—with at least half of the venue’s 25 judges in attendance. 

Brady was unwilling to hazard a guess on the outcome of such an appeal. 

Ted Costa of the pro-recall group Peoples’ Advocates, who filed a brief in support of the trial court decision, might also appeal, Brady said. 

Stephen R. Barnett, a constitutional law professor at UC’s Boalt Hall, told the Daily Planet that he thinks that the state “has an uphill battle” in pursuing their appeal. They must first persuade either Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on behalf of the U.S. Supreme Court, or the more liberal 9th Circuit, to take the case. He thought some decision would be made quickly under the circumstances, perhaps within a week.  

Professor Brady’s research did not address potential problems which could be created by electronic voting systems which have recently been raised by computer scientists and others. 

At his press conference, however, in answer to a question, he pointed out that all modern non-paper voting systems, including punch cards, scanned votes and touch-screen methods, utilize computer vote counting, and thus are subject to being hacked or rigged if proper safeguards are not in place.

Polling only three percent in the runup to the on-again, off-again California gubernatorial recall and election campaign, conservative-turned leftist candidate Arianna Huffington has been waging an uphill battle. 

Even in Berkeley, a bastion of progressivism, she couldn’t muster a large turnout for her rally on Thursday at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. Passionate supporters held signs and shouted approval—but it was readily apparent that there was lots of open space for supporters who didn’t come. 

Still, Huffington is currently on what analysts are calling the top five list. Along with Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock, and Peter Camejo from the Green Party, she continues to make a name for herself as the only woman with a chance of winning. 

Huffington’s case is arguably unique, almost a political U-turn, changing sides and taking up many of the most important issues that concern liberal voters. 

A well-known author and columnist with nine books currently in print, she appears to aim simultaneously to garner votes and to push for reform and burnish her image.  

Thursday’s speech at Cal covered a number of her core issues, including public financing of elections, universal health care, the California state budget, renewable energy, enhanced funding for public education, and medical marijuana. In particular, she champions the budget, health care and public financing for elections—while allowing for ample time for book-signing and plenty of PR work. 

Huffington’s Berkeley appearance came as part of a tour of college campuses to turn out the vote among students. Her grassroots campaign director Van Jones said she looks at students as part of a swing vote. 

Many issues she supports strike a chord with students organizing around the same theme—evident in the turnout Thursday of several Berkeley organizations at the rally. 

Rebecca Saltzman, a member of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, one of the groups sponsoring Huffington’s Berkeley appearance, says that while she supports Huffington’s drug policy, she knows her candidate doesn’t stand much of a chance. 

“She’s the best candidate on drug policy in general, especially because Davis has been so poor on issues concerning drugs and criminal justice,” Saltzman said. “But people are scared [of the recall] so they’re voting for candidates like Bustamante.” 

Other groups on stage while Huffington spoke included the campus No on 54 Coalition and the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition. Representatives from No on 54 said they made an appearance because Huffington has come out against the proposition, but said the group was not making an endorsement.  

Huffington gave the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition representative a warm hug after her speech, which demanded the U.S. stop financing the war and occupation in Iraq. Afterwards however, Michael Smith from the coalition had a few words for Huffington, who, he said, is more talk than action. 

“She got so much mileage from putting her arm around our person,” said Smith. “She talks a lot about being anti-war but we’ll see what she does.” 

Unlike some of the other students at the rally, Smith expressed doubts about Huffington and her appeal to students. 

“They talk a lot about the students being central to the fight but that’s sort of patronizing to the students. I want to see her match her deeds to her actions,” he said.  

Alan Ross, a professor at UC Berkeley who teaches the wildly popular Politics 179 class that invites political speakers to guest lecture every week, invited Huffington to his class but says her campaign was too disorganized to make it. He said he hasn’t sensed much support for Huffington among students, nor voters across the state. 

“People thought that maybe with so many candidates running, someone with as little as 10 percent of the vote could win,” he said. “It’s a shame in the sense that the recall could have been an opportunity to look beyond the normal candidates, yet it’s coming down to Bustamante and Schwarzenegger.” 

However and whenever the vote turns out, Huffington will have succeeded in boosting her appeal and capturing some of the media limelight, a helpful boost for an already successful author.

School officials are scurrying to relocate about 30 three- and four-year-old pupils after a suspicious fire roared through a wing of their preschool Saturday, one of two suspected arson-caused fires set just blocks apart. 

Fire inspectors and Berkeley Unified District School officials who toured the charred grounds at Franklin Preschool at 1460 Eigth St. Monday declared that two of the school’s five classrooms would be off-limits indefinitely. 

David Eastman, a BUSD project manager, said the north wing of the building, home to two classrooms that housed about 50 students, would likely have to be demolished. 

The other three classrooms will be re-opened Wednesday, accommodating 90 of the school’s 125 students, said BUSD Spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

At press time Monday, school officials said they still hadn’t determined the status of one class with about 30 students and a special education class with two students. 

Coplan said the district planned to move the two special education students into similar programs in the district’s two other preschools and that the 30-student class would either be housed in an open classroom at Rosa Parks Elementary School, or be dispersed into other preschool classes. 

“The fire appears to be arson,” said Berkeley Fire Department Spokesman Assistant Chief David Orth. 

He said the one-alarm blaze was apparently started shortly before noon by somebody burning combustibles—possibly paper—outside the north wing of the building. 

Orth said firefighters spotted the fire as they were refilling their tanker at a nearby hydrant after responding to another suspected arson a few blocks away. 

The firefighters managed to keep the fire from jumping into the south wing of the C-shaped building, which only sustained broken windows and cosmetic damage. 

Three firefighters suffered injuries at the blaze, which Orth said was tricky to extinguish because of an east wind blowing hot dry air onto the scene. One firefighter fell through a burnt floor, another suffered burns to his face and a third keeled over from heat exhaustion. 

Orth said all three were back at work Monday. 

The other fire ignited a fence on the 2000 block of Tenth Street; Orth could not confirm if the two incidents were related. 

Firefighters originally estimated the damage at $115,000, but Coplan said that after the inspection, officials believed the final tally would run far higher. 

The school’s insurance policy is expected to pay for the damages. 

Franklin Preschool is available only to students whose parents work during the school day. All of the school’s students stayed home Monday, but Berkeley Early Childhood Education Principal John Santoro said that students and their families needed to return as soon as possible. “If they don’t go to school, their parents can’t go to work,” he said. 

Berkeley police are investigating the incident, but did not return telephone calls Monday evening. 

Erik Olson contributed to this story.

Governor Gray Davis now controls the fate of Berkeley residents who one day hope to zip to work along the waves of San Francisco Bay. 

The Assembly and Senate passed legislation to fund Berkeley Ferry Service to the San Francisco Ferry Building last week, along with a laundry list of 36 Bay Area transit projects aimed at reducing bridge congestion with money reaped from a $1 fare hike on seven Bay Area bridges. 

Davis has skirted questions about his support for the project, and Monday his aide Russ Lopez said the governor had “not taken a position.” 

The legislation, sponsored by State Sen. Don Perata D-Oakland, would raise an estimated $140 million annually to fund—among other projects—ferry service, BART extensions deeper into Contra Costa County, a retrofit of BART’s transbay tube, a regional bus rapid transit system and a fourth bore to the Caldecott Tunnel linking Alameda and Contra Costa Counties underneath the Berkeley Hills. 

The plan for Berkeley devised by the state-mandated Water Transit Authority includes a two-ferry system to be completed by 2010 that would carry as many as 350 people across the bay every thirty minutes during rush hour. 

Fares would be competitive with BART, which costs about $3 to cross the Bay, and the boats would leave from either the Berkeley or Albany coast, preferably the Berkeley Marina, said Heidi Machen, spokesperson for the Water Transit Authority, which developed the plan under a state mandate.  

The bill would allocate $107 million to buy the boats and get the entire system running and $3.2 million to operate the Berkeley service. The plan would also subsidize ferry service connecting South San Francisco with the Ferry Building and pay for boats for five other non-subsidized routes throughout the Bay Area. 

The WTA envisions the Berkeley ferries attracting up to 2300 commuters by 2025, passengers who currently prefer to drive across the Bay Bridge rather than take AC Transit or BART. 

“Our studies show that 50 percent of our riders would be coming directly from cars,” Machen said. “If ferries are not available, they’ll keep driving.”  

Critics argue that money would be better spent improving established services rather than reintroducing ferries. 

“I’m opposed to throwing tons of money away when it’s not being done in an environmentally and economically responsible way,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Worthington fears that ferries potentially jetting as fast as 30 mph across the Bay would do more environmental harm releasing diesel emissions into the water than motorists on the bridge, adding that proposed parking lots for an estimated 590 and 890 cars would congest shoreline neighborhoods without reducing air pollution. 

“If people drive their car to the ferry that defeats the purpose [of limiting pollution] because most of the air pollution comes from starting the car.” 

The WTA insisted that they have mandated stringent environmental regulations for boats, which Machen said must be built to be 85 percent cleaner than the Environmental Protection Agency 2007 emission standards. The agency is also committed to building some non-diesel boats. 

Paul Kamen, a Berkeley Waterfront Commissioner and naval architect, supports ferry service and says that a slow ferry, traveling about 17 knots per hour, would use about the same power per passenger as a moped during its 20-minute ride across the bay. He said the Marina already had enough parking to accommodate a scaled back ferry service, but the service projected by the WTA and might have to go to Albany in order to find enough parking. 

Worthington insisted the $140 million earmarked would be better spent on AC Transit, which he said served more people. 

The AC Transit Board of Directors endorsed the legislation, which provides the cash-strapped agency with funds for rapid service programs. Also AC Transit Deputy General Manager Jim Gleich said the agency is excited to get first crack at operating the ferry service.  

“There’s an interest here for sure,” he said. “It would improve the ability to make a good land-water system.” 

Berkeley last had ferry service after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, but that service was halted in 1990 after commuters abandoned the service when the Bay Bridge was repaired. 

Mass transit advocates initially hailed the bill as giant leap forward for providing viable alternatives to car traffic, but support has cooled recently due to projects added to help get the bill through the Assembly.  

Chief among the complaints was the last-second addition of $50 million to help fund the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, which Perata spokesperson Tom Martinez said was essential to win support from Contra Costa County representatives.  

Amber Crabbe of the Oakland-based Transportation and Land Commission, said the TLC was “not terribly happy” about funding the Caldecott expansion, but that the bill still offered “a pretty exceptional program on how to fund transit in the future.” 

Despite the multiple programs included in the bill, local politicians are curious to see if Gov. Davis signs on with a recall vote looming. “If he thinks he can appeal to environmentalists and anti-tax people maybe he’ll think [vetoing the bill] will be popular,” Worthington said. 

The legislation must leap several more hurdles before it goes into effect. If Gov. Davis signs on, the bill will go to the ballot in the seven counties affected by the plan—Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano. A majority vote in four out of the seven counties is needed for passage. 

Sen. Diane Feinstein has authored federal legislation that would amend rules for allocating toll hikes so that the funding could proceed as planned. WTA officials said they expected Feinstein’s bill to pass without difficulty.

Berkeley corporate accountability activists and coffee drinkers alike will be pleased to hear that a large coalition of organizations, including San Francisco-based Global Exchange, has won their campaign to force Procter and Gamble, the largest seller of coffee in the U.S., to start carrying Fair Trade Certified coffee. 

The two-year-old campaign, according to Valerie Orth from Global Exchange, is a giant step towards helping 25 million coffee-growing families around the world receive a fair price for their product. 

Berkeley is well versed on the issue of fair trade coffee as a result of last year’s Measure O, which proposed that Berkeley coffee vendors only carry fair trade coffee. Though voters ultimately rejected the measure, Orth said the media coverage generated by the election “was instrumental in raising awareness about fair-trade coffee.” 

Fair Trade Certification insures that farmers receive at least $1.26 a pound for their harvest, compared to last month’s industrial average of $0.52 as computed by the International Coffee Organization. Activists say higher prices will create sustainability for small farmers, many of whom have already been driven out of business by large coffee growing companies that use chemicals and unconventional means to increase their productivity. 

Orth said the agreement will eventually result in Proctor and Gamble carrying up to three million pounds of Fair Trade coffee a year, adding that until then “[the coalition] is certainly watching Proctor and Gamble to make sure that they hold to their commitment.”  

Global Exchange and the other organizations involved in the campaign are encouraging people to call or fax in a letter to Proctor and Gamble before the company’s Oct. 14 shareholder meeting to let the firm know that they appreciate their commitment. 

For more information on the campaign or on how to contact Proctor and Gamble please visit the Global Exchange website at www.globalexchange.org.

Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Michele Lawrence Board Meeting, will submit the final 2002-2003 budget Wednesday for the school board approval. 

The board will will then begin work on the 2003-2004 budget, which must be finalized by June. 

The board will also vote on the tentative labor agreement with the 

International Union of Stationary Engineers Local 39, which represents workers who maintain the school’s furnaces and boilers and other heating devices. 

The meeting is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

—Matthew Artz

Gallery renaming proposed 

Following the Aug. 15 death of noted Berkeley photographer and curator of the Addison Street Windows Gallery, the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission has voted to rename the public exhibition space she headed as “The Addison Street Windows Gallery in Honor of Brenda Praeger.” 

The action requires the approval City Council, and the commission is now preparing a motion to that effect. 

Praeger, nationally known as a photographer of the disabled, was vice chair of the Civic Arts Commission and belonged to the city’s Public Art Committee. She founded the gallery 13 years ago and had served as curator until her death. 

Disabled recreation access meet 

Gaining the fullest access to outdoor recreational opportunities for the disabled will be the topic of a discussion by a series of speakers during a special meeting from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the third floor conference room of the Berkeley Main Library at 2090 Kittredge St. 

Speakers will include representatives of the East Bay Regional and California State Parks, the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, and the Sierra Club. 

Advance registration is required. For more information call Access Northern California, 524-2026. 

Those attending should not wear scented products. 

Artist tackles recall 

A 17-year-old Berkeley artist offers his own skewed take on California’s gubernatorial recall in the form of twelve satirical posters that manage to include every one of the 137 candidates whose names are slated to appear on the ballot—whenever the election is eventually held. 

A student at St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley, Michael Sun incorporates the would-be chief executives in a movie poster format, offered on display at his website: www.recallposter.com. 

UC Regents settle lawsuit 

University of California Regents have agreed to pay nearly a million dollars to settle the whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Michelle Doggett. 

The settlement, reached Friday and announced Monday, ends the need for a trial in the workplace retaliation suit Doggett filed after she left the lab three years ago. She filed her lawsuit in August of 2000. 

The $990,000 settlement awards Doggett $33,000 in lost wages, $264,000 in medical expenses, and $264,000 in unspecified damages. Her lawyer, Gary Gwilliam, will receive the balance of the settlement, $428,000. 

Asian Indians in seven San Francisco Bay Area counties have a median family income of $88,540—24 percent higher than the total population and the highest of any Asian group—but there are severe pockets of poverty in the South Asian community in the region. 

These are two highlights in Asian Outlook, a new report issued by the San Francisco-based Asian Pacific Fund, an organization that connects donors to needs in the Asian American community. 

The report offers the first detailed look at age, income and employment data from Census 2000 for the various Asian American populations in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin and Solano counties. 

“Contrary to popular belief, many Asians are struggling to support themselves and their families,” said Cora M. Tellez, chairman of the Asian Pacific Fund board of directors. “Disputing the widely regarded notion that all Asians are faring well, the facts are especially troubling given the Bay Area’s stagnant economy and the high unemployment rates among Asians.” 

For example, the report said that 20,744 of the 143,932 South Asians sampled in the Bay Area, those for whom data was available, live in poverty, a rate of 14.4 percent. (Some South Asian groups could not be included in the income data—Bangladeshis in all the Bay Area counties except Alameda and Santa Clara, for example—because they did not meet the population threshold of 100 families in a given geographical area). 

Cambodians, with a median family income of $39,167 (45 percent less than the total population) and Laotians with $45,833 (-36 percent), had the lowest family incomes among Asian populations. Hmongs in the Bay Area had a poverty rate of 96.4 percent, followed by Cambodians at 54.5 percent and Laotians, 49.9 percent. 

Koreans and Chinese had poverty rates of 23.8 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively, while those for Japanese and Filipinos were 13 percent and 12 percent. 

“Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Filipinos have extremely low incomes when there is no employed worker. The income for these groups, when there is no employed family member, ranges from $9000 to $15,000, in some cases half to nearly one-fourth of the general population figures,” the report said. 

“These are likely families ineligible for income assistance or who are eligible but do not want to apply. They may also be new immigrants who have not worked long enough to qualify for social security.” 

Regarding per capita income, Japanese had the highest at $38,451, reflecting the fact that they were in an earlier immigration wave. Japanese also have the highest percentage of elderly at 8.1 percent, compared to 5.3 percent for the general population. 

Asian Indians were second among Asians in per capita income at $35,370, followed by Chinese ($28,743), Pakistani ($25,862) and Korean $25,608). “The number of Asians in the Bay Area is larger than previously reported, representing 23 percent of the total Bay Area population. Previous Census figures did not include Asians mixed with another race,” the Asian Pacific Fund said. 

“Our report shows that there are an additional 120,473 Asians mixed with one other race living in the Bay Area. This new figure, up from 21 percent, more accurately represents the Asian population growth.” 

The number of elderly Asians (75+ years old) more than doubled in size during that same period, from 25,204 to 50,476. About 1.2 percent of the South Asian population are 75+. 

From 1990 to 2000, the number of Asian children (0-18 years old) grew at a rate of 23.4 percent, compared to 14.9 percent in the general population. 

Asian unemployment in California doubled in the last seven years, while unemployment declined in the general population in the same period by 4.7 percent. “It is important to target specific Asian ethnic groups in need,” said Gail Kong, executive director of the Asian Pacific Fund. “We want other foundations and community or government agencies to take heed as well, refocusing their resources and committing themselves to helping these populations.” 

For more information, visit www.asianpacificfund.org.

My thirteen-year old friend Jernae wanted to open a lemonade stand on my front porch.  

“I need lemons,” she announced, rummaging through the drawers of our refrigerator. 

“I only have one,” I replied. “That’s not enough to make lemonade with.” 

“It’ll work,” she said. “How about sugar, you got any?” 

“Yes,” I answered. “I’ve got sugar, but one lemon will not cut it.” 

“You’ll see,” she answered. “I just need somethin’ that looks like lemonade.”  

She searched through the cupboards. A few moments later she exclaimed, “Here it is!” She held up a jug of yellow Gatorade. “This will work just fine.” 

“Jernae,” I said. “You can’t sell Gatorade and claim it’s lemonade.” 

“Why not?” 

“It’s called false advertising. You can’t pass one product off as another.” 

She paused for only a second. “I’m gonna call it ‘Almost Real Lemonade,’” she said. “Cuz it’s almost real.” 

“But you can’t.” 

“Look,” she said, giving me a serious glance. “I’m gonna add sugar. Then I’m gonna slice the lemon real thin and add it to the pitcher of lemonade. Then I’m gonna throw in ice cubes. It’ll be cold and refreshing. My customers will love it.” 

She poured the Gatorade into a glass pitcher on the kitchen countertop. She added heaping spoonfuls of white sugar and stirred it with a wooden spoon until the sugar disappeared within the yellow liquid. Then she sliced the lemon into four large portions and threw it into the pitcher. 

“You could at least remove the seeds,” I said.  

“That’s what helps make it REAL,” she replied, looking at the chunks of lemon swirling in the sweetened Gatorade. 

“Ice cubes,” she exclaimed. “I need a lot of them. And cups. Do you got any cups?” 

“I only have small Dixie cups, the kind that people use to take their medications. They aren’t big enough to serve Gatorade in.” 

“‘Almost Real Lemonade,’” she corrected. “That will work perfect. Small cups means I’ll make more money.” 

She got the Dixie cups out of the bathroom medicine closet and took them outside, along with a pile of napkins. She returned for the pitcher of “Almost Real Lemonade.”  

“I need signs,” she shouted. “I can’t sell lemonade without signs. I need paper, tape and crayons.” 

She ran upstairs to my bedroom and returned with four sheets of computer paper taped together to form one big square. With a marker she wrote quickly: All Most Real Lemon Aid 10 cent for 1, 2 for 25 cent. 

“Jernae,” I said. “You can’t sell one cup for ten cents and two for twenty-five cents!” 

“Why not?” she asked. 

“Because it’s not a deal. It costs more for two cups then for one.” 

“Of course,” she said. “Two cups is always gonna cost more than one.” She went outside to tape her sign on the porch railing. But she returned moments later. 

“I need incentives,” she announced. “I need coupons that say two for one, buy one get one free, or somethin’ like that. Or I need to give away somethin’ so people will buy the ‘Almost Lemonade.’ Can you help me?” 

“No,” I answered, “I’m not going to be a part of this. Everything you are doing reeks of false advertising. You are ripping off your public.” 

“No I’m not,” she answered.  

“Yes, you are,” I said. 

“Whatever,” she replied, and returned to the porch.  

Thirty minutes later she came back inside.  

“How’s business?” I asked.  

“Not good,” she said. “I only made 25 cents so far and there aren’t any other customers around. I need more signs to put up on 53rd and 54th streets. Nobody knows I’m open for business. Will you help me, please?” 

“No,” I said. “You can’t spell and you can’t add and you are defrauding the public. I cannot be a part of this scheme, kiddo.” 

“Tweener,” she said. 

“What?” 

“I’m not a kid. I’m a tweener. You know, like almost a teenager. 

“You mean like ‘Almost Real Lemonade?’” 

“Exactly,” she answered.

Mix a rich ersatz cowboy and politics and you might get George Bush. Use a real cowboy who’s not so rich and you might get Jim Hightower, one of the nation’s leading progressive political commentators, and a real Texas cowboy in his own right. 

Hightower came through Berkeley Sunday to speak at an event sponsored by the East Bay chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), leaving the cheering crowd of almost 600 rolling in their seats as he delivered a call to action well laced with political humor. 

Wearing his trademark ten-gallon topper and speaking with his Texas drawl, Hightower lashed out at Bush and his administration’s approach to America’s civil liberties—issues of real importance to a crowd heavily sprinkled with card-carrying ACLU members. 

“It makes me happier than a flea at a dog show to see you Ashcroft arrogance busters here,” he said as he took the mike. 

Hightower—whose latest book, “Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take it Back,” just recently made the New York Times bestseller list—is a true Texas grassroots organizer who got his start as an aide to Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas. 

Co-founder of the Agribusiness Accountability Project, a public interest project that organized around corporate power in the food economy, Hightower went on to serve two terms as the Texas Agricultural Commissioner. 

Defeated for reelection in a campaign masterminded by Bush political advisor Karl Rove, Hightower now has his own radio show, a column in The Nation magazine, and runs a newsletter that is the fastest growing political publication in the country. 

All of his work, according to a statement on his Web site, is part of his commitment to “battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be—consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.” 

Barbara Macnab, the chair of the East Bay ACLU, said that she invited Hightower to speak not only because he represents many of the issues that are important to the chapter but also because of his “ability to galvanize the ACLU forces.” 

“He has spontaneous energy and it really helps when just day-to-day living takes all your energy,” Macnab said. “In a war, you need leaders.” 

One example of Hightower effectiveness came during the question and answer session following his talk when audience member Leonard Slape rose to thank Hightower for his commitment to everyday working people. 

A furloughed United Airlines mechanic, Slape said he has been battling the company who he says is siphoning money out of his retirement plan to pay for their own business problems. When the company started going after his Social Security, Slape said he approached a number of local representatives including Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi—of whom only Boxer responded, with a “thank you for your concern” letter. 

Hightower’s office did respond, he said, leaving him with some hope that his fight will succeed. 

“[Hightower] is the only person who is willing to pick up a baseball bat and swing it for me,” said Slope. 

Another person at the meeting who drew applause was Representative Barbara Lee. Like Hightower, she was praised for standing up for California’s working people. 

Lee addressed a number of issues including health care, education, the recall and Proposition 54. She left the podium encouraging the audience to “to take back the White House and the government in the name of the people of the United States.”  

Hightower laced his talked with one-liners and wisecracks that kept the event energized and upbeat.  

He concluded with a plea for involvement, asking the audience to follow the slogan developed by a his favorite local Texas moving company: “If we can get it loose, we can move it.” 

The crowd also left him with a plea, asking when he was going to run for president. Hightower chuckled, answering, “I’m going to keep running my mouth instead of running for president.”

When I migrated from the East Coast to the Bay Area in 1983 I wound up living in a communal household on Margarido Street along the border of Berkeley and Oakland. Among my housemates was a graphic artist/raft guide/old car aficionado/baseball nut named Steve Kowalski. 

Steve was famous for a lot of things but he was absolutely notorious for the way he lived within his bedroom. I’ve seen very messy living quarters in my life, places that the health department, if they dared to go inside, would declare dangerous to one’s safety, but Steve took messiness to an esoteric, artistic level. When Steve was away my roommates and I showed his bedroom to visitors, but we kept his door shut if potential renters came by. No one would have moved in if they had seen the catastrophe upstairs.   

But times have changed. Steve went on to run a very successful graphic arts firm located on Fifth Street in Berkeley. Then he transitioned into clock making. 

His one-of-a-kind, quirky, high-end timepieces, lovingly assembled from antique airplane, plumbing, ship and car parts, sold for $500 to $8,000 at galleries in San Francisco and New York. 

In 1995, Steve and his brother John, who was working for the Paris branch of Nintendo, decided to join forces hand-building small batches of clocks behind an old shop at Sixth Street and Austin Way. Soon thereafter, brother Dan joined in and together they formed Timeworks, Inc. with the goal of making historically authentic and attractive timepieces that are affordable and functional. 

“There is so much that should be said about … the fact that we have not killed one another,” says youngest brother, Dan. “I think that a family working together is both a blessing and a mistake. There is such a great dynamic that sizzles when the three of us are having fun, but when the pressure of business comes into play, it makes it hard to feel synergistic! 

“Steve was such a big influence on my childhood, and that of my three brothers,” enthuses Dan. “He made operating mechanical tanks that all five of us would sit in. We’d hold on to exposed nuts and bolts for dear life and travel down long hills, often until the thing hit a curb and we would go flying. I think all of us have a few sets of stitches on our noggins, yet our wild childhood produced some creativity. We’re all self-employed.” He laughs for a moment and then continues. 

“Steve made some of the finest small scale hand-built models I ever remember seeing. He was a celebrity as a teenager at Paul Freiler’s model shop in Torrance, where even the oldest fine model craftsmen would be amazed at his work.” 

Now located off Ashby Avenue in Southwest Berkeley, Timeworks has grown from the three brothers doing everything to over sixty employees. 

The original tiny 250-square-foot space has given way to the 50,000-square-foot warehouse located in one of the large buildings formerly occupied by Whole Earth Access. The selection of fine clocks has expanded from four originals to over 200. Also available is a line of adorable nursery room décor.  

The clocks are manufactured, assembled, tested and shipped from the Berkeley warehouse.  

Steve favors a new model called the Museum Stradivarius. It is based on an original sculptural timepiece Steve created years ago using parts from an 18th Century violin in combination with antique clock parts from the 1890s.  

Most Timeworks clocks sell in retail stores for between $60 and $200. The new museum line, of which the Stradivarius model is the first, will retail from $150 upwards to $400.  

Like most businesses with a good idea, Timeworks has recently been plagued with copycats: low-end, offshore manufacturing companies that have plagiarized Timeworks’ designs but not the Kowalski brothers’ pursuit of superior quality. Combined with the downturn in the economy, Timeworks recently dropped from $13 million in sales to $10 million. But the brothers have no plans to compromise on craftsmanship. 

“Our clocks are the best in the marketplace,” says Steve. “We’ll continue to maintain our high standards and niche market.” Adds Dan, “We’re going to be exploring other products yet to be determined, but with Steve's ingenuity, John’s savvy and my approach to presenting our product to the public, we can make interesting things the public will love.” 

Steve has been able to combine his fondness for antique cars, ships and baseball with his love of clock making. Timeworks manufactures logo-branded clocks for every major league baseball team, a line of authentic nautical timepieces, and a tinplate collection of children’s clocks, mirrors, picture frames, coat racks and chalkboards that feature whimsical depictions of old fashioned automobiles, trucks, airplanes, and fire engines. 

A rabid Giants fan, Steve has season tickets to PacBell Stadium and can be found there with his wife Patti and baby daughter Stephanie just a few feet behind first base during almost every home game. Not only does he have a great view of his favorite team and players, but he can look across the ballpark from where he sits and see the huge clock above the scoreboard. It’s a clock he designed for the Giants. Below it are large metal letters that spell out the word Timeworks.

What might happen to California if we adopt Prop 54 and its race privacy?  

The history of Mexico provides an advance look. 

Race was a central issue in Mexico’s 1810-1821 war for independence from Spain. Mexican freedom fighters demanded the abolition of the Spanish caste system of legal segregation and discrimination. 

The February 1821 peace plan of Iguala that led to the war’s end included a clause which read, “All inhabitants... without distinction to their being Europeans, Africans, or Indians, are citizens... with the option to seek all employment according to their merits and virtues.” 

A law of the first congress of free Mexico declared equality of all citizens, “irrespective of which ever of the four corners of the world from which they come.” 

The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Mexico quickly met up with the spirit of Ward Connerly—author of California’s Prop 54. 

The Mexican Congress followed its equality law with a statute that prohibited mention of race in any government document, or in the records of the parish church. 

A second statute barred congressional delegates from speaking disparagingly of anyone’s race or ethnicity. This law was interpreted to mean no one should speak of race, either positively or negatively. However, mention of Indios was still being made in Congress, so one congressman proposed that congressmembers be prohibited from uttering the word “Indio” in debate. Congress decided members should only use the word by saying “those who are called Indios.” 

As Connerly appears to draw strong support from the well-to-do, so too, was the congress that passed race privacy in Mexico a thoroughly wealthy group, and almost exclusively European in physical appearance. As supporters of Prop 54 claim to be following Dr. King, so, too, did the congress of Mexico declare its initial race privacy law was “in honor of Iguala,” the plan with the equality clause. 

The liberal African American Dr. King pushed equality before conservatives got around to the race privacy ploy here, and it Mexico was the “precursor of socialism” in his country, the African and Indigenous Vicente Guerrero, who used his position of Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican army to push the equality clause in the Plan of Iguala. 

One effect of the silence on race laws in Mexico is that standard histories typically leave out discussion of either the equality or privacy legislation. 

Did race privacy keep race out of Mexican politics? A case in point is the 1828 presidential campaign of General Guerrero, during which the opposition put out anonymous fliers and unsigned editorials that warned against Guerrero “the black,” “the mulatto,” and “the Indio.” 

Guerrero had acknowledged his roots during the war with Spain, but he was merely “citizen Guerrero” during his political campaign, and his lieutenants complained about the opposition injecting race. 

“Can you imagine, the General was actually called a black!” wrote one Guerreroista journalist. 

Meanwhile, the General made sure there was wide distribution of an unsigned pamphlet he wrote which called upon the Indios to participate in politics and through majority rule reclaim their rightful domination of the country. 

Guerrero came to office amidst a near race war of riots and one large pitched battle. Three months into office, he issued his nation’s presidential slavery abolition decree, and three months after that he was overthrown, money for the uprising coming heavily from Campeche slave plantation owners. 

How has race privacy in Mexico affected the disadvantaged? 

This is hard to answer, because race has only been taken in the census three times since independence. 

We can note a near disappearance of a once sizable minority. A census taken by Spaniards just before independence showed African-mestizos were 10.1%, pure Africans 0.1%. A 1950 census reduced the descendants of the few hundred thousand enslaved Africans of colonial times to only 1 1/2 percent. Afro-Mexico amalgamated away in the manner of the Hungarian-Americans, or the Polish American Grabowsky family that is now the Garbers. 

The handful of overtly African Mexicans remaining have been too few to push for the due credit their ancestors deserve for contributions to nation’s culture, such as “La Bamba” song of slaves in Veracruz who came from the Angolan town of MBamba in that country’s district of Bamba. 

If being Prop 54rd help white wash out Afro-Mexico, the silence hasn’t quite worked with the Native Mexican. While the Indigenous were 60.1% in the Spanish census, their number was down to around 12% a decade ago in a count which defined Indians as those who spoke primarily Indigenous languages in their younger years. 

It is an economically depressed 12% and not much better off are the many extended family members who speak adequate Spanish but lack job histories and skills. 

Prop 54 is feared by many in the education community who feel that race privacy will hurt many programs for disadvantaged students, and Mexico has a long history of education failure in regard to the Indigenous. 

For instance, in 1833 Congressman Juan Rodriguez Puebla, an Indio, offered an amendment to Mexico’s first Federal Public School bill to have early grade instruction in Indigenous languages in those villages where nobody spoke Spanish. The amendment was voted down by opponents who declared that reference to “Indios” was a 

backward step; because, in modern Mexico “it is class not race” that counted. 

Regarding the substitution of “class” for “race,” advocates pushing Prop 54 should think twice. Mexico took the bait and the nation became notorious enough for its class revolutions that in 1871 certain pundits in Europe blamed the Paris Commune on a philosophical infection of ideas from revolutionary Mexico. And this reputation was before the great social revolution of 1910. 

It is said in Mexico that the spirit of “class not race” has helped interracial marriage flourish. And the saying in Mexico is, “Anybody with enough money can marry my daughter." 

However, the romances have been selective and Mexico is said to have ended up with a “pigmentocracy” in which the richer and lighter tend to marry each other and rule. Meanwhile, oppressors in Mexico who in colonial times used race to blame the victims, switched to blaming the downtrodden for not speaking Spanish or speaking it poorly.  

The modern underclass includes the Indian beggar women huddled with their emaciated children on the sidewalks of the nation’s cities as well as the day laborers who speak little or no Spanish and work for starvation wages. It is thus no small irony that we seem to be developing in California an underclass of Spanish speakers who speak little or no English. 

In intellectual life, if Mexico’s racial amnesia is a guide for a Prop 54ed future here, then discourse in California will lose focus. Mexican intellectuals have long lamented their “identity crisis." Octavio Paz describes the people of his nation wandering in a spiritual “labyrinth of solitude.” 

Samuel Ramos is said to have begun the school of lament in his 1934 “Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico” in which Ramos blaimed a lack of identity for tendencies of mistrust and poor self-confidence. A more recent work on identity is Guillermo Bonfil Batalla’s, “Mexico Profundo: Una Civilizacion Negada." The civilization denied is that of Native Mexico. 

Bonfil Batalla’s book is said to have inspired the Indigenous uprising of the Chiapas Zapatistas. The Indigenous rebellion has not spread from Chiapas, in part because no other state is sufficiently Indigenous. In Chiapas, more than other places in Mexico, there is open practice of Indigenous culture, people proudly wear Indigenous clothing, speak Indigenous languages and read magazines and books in Indigenous languages. 

Chiapas was part of Guatemala when Mexico passed its race privacy laws. 

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Mexico has changed since the 1994 uprising. The Zapatiastas of Chiapas appear to have convinced a many Mexicanos that there may be a softer way to settle dispute than class conflict. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to race is being discarded. 

People are now acknowledging Indio roots, and owning up that grandmother’s kinky hair is from her African heritage. Rock groups in Aztec dress and feathered headdress blare electric guitars. Classes in Náhuatl flourish. In little squares in Mexico City, young activists are joined in Aztec dancing by office workers and shoppers who reach into black garbage baggies filled with rattles and bells and proceed to prance to an Indigenous beat. [possible place to end] 

The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico adds more specifically Indigenous dance to the world renown repertoire of Afro-Spanish-Indigenous numbers. Ethnologist/sports enthusiasts are teaching the pre-Columbian basketball game, which is no easy sport in that you must move the ball with parts of the body other than hands or feet. 

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Ventures into race politics after the decades of silence have had strange effects. There was, for example the death threat in the 1999 governor’s election in the state of Guerrero. In 1994 a group living on the Guerrero coast where Afro-mestizos are a still numerous responded to the Zapatistas of Chiapas with a news conference announcing “If the Indios are organizing the blacks should, too.”  

The organized blacks of Guerrero voted for the left-wing Party of Democratic Revolution and won many local offices. In 1999 the ruling Party of Institutional Revolution in Guerrero ran “a black” for governor, Rene Juarez Cisneros. Disputed results gave him the election. There were protests at the state capital. 

On pavement at the capital square a grafitti read, “QUE MUERA, NEGRO ENEMIGO No. 1 DE GUERRERO, USURPADOR,” (Death to the Black, Enemy #1 of Guerrero, Usurper). In the corner of the scribble were the letters “ERP,” Popular Revolutionary Army—an openly violent self-proclaimed left-wing organization that might be but provocateurs. The ERP called for race murder, despite many a “black” Guerreroense working prominently in the opposition to the disputed governor. 

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In California, race privacy may appeal to some individuals who do not want attention drawn to the disproportionate representation of European looking Californians at the top of the socio-economic chain. And some thoroughly interracial individuals may say good riddance to the “nuisance” of filling in a multitude of race and ethnicity squares on forms. But the test case of Mexico shows that race privacy gained little that could not have been gained by other means, created some new problems, and made some older problems difficult to address. 

Perhaps, then, the Mexican experience is one reason the California poll shows Latinos significantly more opposed to Prop 54 than African Americans.

It may have felt like summer last week, but the birds know otherwise. The southbound migrants are on the move. 

Last week in Tilden Park, I spotted a few of the legion of travelers: western tanagers, warbling vireos, Wilson’s, orange-crowned, Townsend’s, yellow, and black-throated gray warblers. And I heard, but just missed seeing, a northern waterthrush, which should have been on another flyway altogether. More exotic strays are being reported from outer Point Reyes and from the Farallon Islands, landing field of last resort. 

Viewers of the recent documentary “Winged Migration”—for all its bombastic score and intrusive narration, an impressive film—may have come out with the sense that most of the traffic consists of big showy birds like geese and cranes. (I’m told that when the movie opened in Nevada City, a resident brought two ducks to see it. They were rowdy and raucous, though, and had to be removed from the theater. And I can see how the subject matter might have been disturbing to them.) 

In fact, smaller migrants—songbirds like those warblers, vireos, and tanagers—vastly outnumber the big guys. But since most of them migrate at night, they pose a challenge for the documentarian. 

The journeys they undertake are staggering to think about. The distances alone: from the northern boreal forests to the Amazon, in some cases. Western migrants don’t face the trans-Gulf of Mexico passage that eastern species do, but they still have long and risky routes to travel. 

They run a gantlet of dangers: bad weather, predators (hungry sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks are also moving south), human obstructions. In San Francisco’s Financial District, I’ve found thrushes and warblers dead on the pavement below high-rises, killed by collision with those glass cliffs. The buildings’ lights seem to draw birds, as do those of broadcasting towers where researchers have documented heavy mortality. And our transformation of the landscape has made the stopovers the birds need to rest and refuel fewer and farther between. 

Larger birds like geese learn migration routes from their elders. (They can also learn not to migrate, and hang around parks and golf courses all year). But most songbirds fly alone. They’re born with a genetically hardwired itinerary; some scientists think this involves a a time-distance program, a predisposition to fly along a specific compass bearing for a specific period of time. This has to be supplemented by careful reading of navigational cues: the positions of the stars and the setting sun, landmarks like mountains and rivers, even the Earth’s magnetic field. 

Some birds are dyslexic. That’s likely how the northern waterthrush wound up in Tilden Park. By the same token, every migration season brings a flurry of western strays to the East Coast. In spring and fall, birders in search of rarities haunt “vagrant traps,” like the cypress groves at Point Reyes ranches, where stragglers come to rest. 

If they stay on course, most western migrants reach wintering grounds in western Mexico and Central America. This is where their ancestors evolved before they began commuting north to take advantage of more favorable conditions for nesting. Some are drawn to habitats similar to their spring and summer quarters: black-throated gray warblers to oaks, hermit warblers to pines. Others are generalists. Richard Hutto, who has studied wintering songbirds in Mexico for over 20 years, has found that northern migrants are 

more tolerant of second-growth habitat than native birds. 

Biologists are still learning about the winter ecology of neotropical migrant birds. Their food preferences may shift: insect-eaters up north may become fruit or nectar-feeders down south. Black-headed grosbeaks wintering in Mexico feed on wintering monarch butterflies, being one of the few birds able to stomach the insects’ bitter taste. 

Some migrants stake out territories; in some species, males grab the best real estate, relegating females to less favorable spots. Quality matters: recent studies show that birds with better winter territories produce more chicks the following summer. Others join mixed flocks that may contain over 20 different species. By ganging up, they get access to the turfs of territorial birds, and there are more eyes to watch for predators. Hutto says that within these flocks, black-throated-gray warblers hang out with dusky-capped flycatchers; the flycatcher may benefit by snagging insects that the warbler flushes but misses. 

Although less publicized than the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, the area where western migrants winter is at grave risk. Mexico lost 3 million acres of forest per year over the last decade, a total area about the size of Ireland. Biodiversity advocate Edward O. Wilson says 70% of tropical dry forest, the predominant type in western Mexico, has been lost. Whether the forest is replaced by cornfields or marijuana plantations, the result is a net loss of viable wintering habitat. Hutto is now using satellite images to 

measure changes in habitat types and their impact on wintering migrants. 

Are North America’s neotropical migrants in trouble? Alarming population declines in the late 70’s and 80’s spurred the formation of international bird conservation groups like Partners in Flight. John Faaborg, author of the recent book Saving Migrant Birds, thinks things might not be all that bad, with losses for some species offset by gains for others. He points out that we still don’t have a lot of hard data on migrant numbers, let alone the fates of individual birds. 

Tools that promise to provide better data are being developed, though. Banding has its limitations: of over 140,000 Wilson’s warblers banded in the US and Canada, only three were ever recovered in Mexico and Central America. And with birds weighing only a third of an ounce, radiotelemetry is impractical. 

However, it may be possible to identify a wintering bird’s point of origin from its genetic signature. Analysis of feather chemistry is another promising technique: the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in a bird’s feathers can show how far north it was when those feathers grew in, just before it started its southward journey.

Representatives of UC Berkeley’s student government, landlords of the Daily Californian, an independent paper aimed at UC Berkeley students, have declared war on the paper’s editors, threatening to evict the paper unless editors sign off on editorial stipulations in a draft lease renewal agreement. 

While the paper and the American Civil Liberties Union claim the fracas boils down to an effort to muzzle a free press, student government leaders say they are simply trying to “to address readers’ complaints about issues of race gender and other forms of discriminatory harassment.” 

Under the terms of the proposed lease offered by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC)—which remains unsigned— the paper must establish a code of conduct after discussions with students and hire an ombudsperson to represent reader interests. 

Should the paper fail to comply within the first two years of the five-year agreement, the ASUC can void the lease. 

Calling the provisions an “unacceptable infringement on editorial content,” Daily Californian Editor-in-Chief Eric Schewe set next Thursday as a deadline for signing a stipulation-free lease before the privately funded paper considers filing suit against the ASUC. 

Liberal and Leftist student organizations have long accused the paper of unfair coverage of minorities and of making insensitive editorial and business decisions. 

Two years ago the paper ran a paid advertisement on Feb. 28—the final day of Black History Month—from right-wing stalwart David Horowitz criticizing reparations to Blacks who trace their roots to slavery. 

Last May the paper caught flak for what critics said was biased coverage singling out the arrest of African American football player Michael Gray in connection with a fraternity brawl. The paper apologized for the advertisement but defended the news coverage. 

The Daily Californian, which returned to campus in 1994, has been leasing its office month-to-month since last year. The drive to include code of conduct provisions in the lease began this summer after left-wing undergraduate student party CalServe swept into power and shifted the makeup of the powerful ASUC Store Operations Board—which negotiates leases on behalf of the student government. 

Board members—students, faculty and administrative staff—insist the stipulations are worded gingerly enough so as not to impact editorial content while forcing the paper staff to engage in communication with different campus groups. 

“Many communities are not happy with the paper,” said Graduate Student President and Store Operations Board member Jessica Quindel. “They want the paper to be more responsive to the community.” 

Quindel defended the legality of the lease proposal, insisting that the paper was free to adopt its own code of ethics and choose how it wanted to present it to the campus. She compared the provisions in the lease to recent board efforts to ban the university clothing store from selling clothes manufactured in sweatshops and require campus coffee merchants to offer a fair trade brew. 

Support for the lease stipulations were not limited to only student members of the board. 

In July the board voted unanimously in favor of demanding the code of ethics. A second vote to follow up the code with a mandated discussion by editors with the campus community passed by one vote. 

Board member and Haas School of Business Professor Pete Bucklin said he was confident the board wasn’t violating the paper’s First Amendment rights, adding that “it would have been nice if the [the paper] had volunteered to put the stipulations in [the lease].” 

The local ACLU chapter wrote in a Sept. 2 opinion that the lease provision was “an unacceptable tool of control over the Daily Californian’s editorial content and would operate as a chilling effect on the newspapers’ reporting on the Regents’ activities.” 

The letter’s authors, Barbara McNabb and James Chanin, threatened to sue to prevent the lease provisions from going into effect. 

Schewe said the Daily Californian already follows the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and has a reader’s representative independent from the editorial staff. He said he was also open to scheduling public meetings on campus, but that efforts to reconcile with various campus groups could not be tied to the new lease. 

The lease drama has dragged on partly due to forces outside the control of the paper and the Store Operations Board. 

Board members canceled their September meeting Wednesday after the ASUC Judicial Board disqualified the two graduate school store board members Quindel and Cintya Molina because, contrary to the ASUC Constitution, they had not been ratified by the ASUC Senate. 

They are expected to sail through an ASUC Senate Confirmation next week, but the next board meeting isn’t scheduled until October. 

Schewe said he wanted to stay on campus where it is easier to recruit new students, but that the paper was exploring the private rental market and any further delay on the lease could shut the paper out of prime office space. He has called for an emergency meeting of the Store Operations Board next week to hammer out the lease. 

Schewe said the Daily Cal pays the ASUC $72,000 annually, and the proposed new lease would reduce rent in return for more free advertising space for the ASUC. Nonetheless, Schewe said moving off campus was a “very strong consideration” since he could get a better deal from a private landlord. 

A move off-campus would not necessarily preclude a lawsuit against the ASUC, he said, saying that the decision would be up to the paper’s Board of Directors.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 12 

International Marketplace on San Pablo and University Aves opens at 11 a.m. with a celebration at the Spanish Table, 1814 San Pablo Ave. 981-2490. 

“Israel’s Secret Weapon,” a documentary on Israel’s wea- 

pons of mass destruction and whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. 528-5403 or 548-3048. 

The Freedom Archives will celebrate the release of their new audio documentary CD, “Chile: Promise of Freedom,” commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Chilean coup, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 sliding scale, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Rosemary Mucklow, Executive Director, National Meat Association, “Making Meat Safe for Americans.” Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, SEPT. 13 

Free Emergency Preparedness 

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

Walk and Write by the Berkeley Pier, sponsored by the Solo Sierrans. Meet at 3:30 p.m. on the sidewalk in front of Berkeley Pier, last stop on University Ave M bus. Bring writing supplies, water, snacks, sun protection, and small tarp, cushion, or other seating. 527-3857.  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Walk the historic pathway up Chater Hill. Meet on UC Campus outside Wurster Hall at 10 a.m. stuart60@pacbell.net 

The Great Dog Lick-Off, a benefit for the East Bay Humane Society, sponsored by Alan’s PETzeria, at noon at 843 Gilman St. For $5 you can cover your face with peanut butter and have your dog lick it off. Winner is the dog who licks the longest. 528-2155. 

Agricultural Roots Fair featuring street foods from around the world, farmers’ and agrarian crafts markets, produce tasting, educational displays about healthy eating and local farms, and competitive exhibits, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, at 10th St. 433-9443. www.sagecenter.org 

Creating an Ecological House, with Skip Wenz, on modeling houses on ecosystems, natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. For information call 525-7610.  

Composting in Urban Areas: The Real Dirt, a free class with Kathi Kinney, covering what composting is and its benefits. From 10 a.m. to noon at the 59th St. Community Garden, between Market and Adeline, Oakland. karenjoy@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Trees, Shrubs and the Law, a free class with Judy Thomas, Landscape Horticulture Professor, Merritt College, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-1992. 

Project Completion workshop for writers, with Elizabeth Stark and Nanou Matteson. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Boadecia's Books, 398 Colusa Ave. For information call 527-2234. www.creativeprojectinstitute.com 

Organic Cooking Demon- 

stration and Book Signing with Annie Somerville of Greens at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

The Silence of Our Friends Workshop presented by The UNtraining, a program for untraining white liberal racism. From 1 to 5 p.m. at University of Creation Spirituality, 2141 Broadway, at 22nd, Oakland. Sliding scale $20-$50. For more information call 235-3957. www.untraining.org 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 14 

Solano Avenue Stroll Booths, theme parade with floats, horses, drill teams, marching bands and more. Sidewalk sales, carnival games, hand-made arts and crafts for sale, silent auction and more than 100 entertainers. 527-5358. www.solanostroll.org  

Jim Hightower at the East Bay ACLU Chapter meeting at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 464-1330.  

Slingshot Publishing Collective, volunteer meeting, at 1 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Community Art Day from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Bring supplies or snacks to share. 644-6893. 

Introduction to Tango Start correctly by learning from a master, Paulo Araujo, founder of the Instituto Brasileiro do Tango in Rio de Janeiro. Today and Sept. 21, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. Cost is $15 class or $25 for both classes. The Berkeley Tango Studio. For registration and directions email smling@msn.com 

Tibetan Buddhism, Sylvia Gretchen on "Introducing Tibetan Buddhism," at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, SEPT. 15 

Home Owners Support Group, with Kim Titus of Urban Farmers who will talk about saving water and growing healthy plants with drip irrigation systems, at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Grey Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

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, SEPT. 16 

Tribute to Roger “Bob” Gilmore, for his 80th birthday and honoring his 56 years of service to the community, at 5:30 p.m. at Shen Hua Restaurant, 2914 College Ave. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door, and are available at many Elmwood merchants. No gifts necessary, but if you have pictures, cards, or stories, we will be assembling a memory album for Bob. Sponsored by Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware and The Elmwood Merchants Association. For additional information please call Tad at 843-3794 or email bolfings@pacbell.net 

The People’s Park meeting about acacia trees’ safety issues at 6 p.m. in People’s Park. The arborist’s report will be available at the People’s Park office and the UC Berkeley Office of Community Relations. For information contact Glenda Rubin, UC Community Relations, 642-7860 or e-mail pplspark@ 

uclink.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Garden Club, “Autumn, the Second Spring” Kristin Yanker-Hansen, garden designer and owner of Kristin's Gardens will talk about and show plants for autumn bloom at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. For information call 524-4374. 

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. 

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. 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 

Free Prostate Screening Program, Sept. 16-17, for uninsured, low-income men over 45, or high risk men over 35. Sponsored by Alta Bates Summit. For information and registration call 869-8833. 

“Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish Calendar - Multiple Beginnings, Many Opportunities,” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 112. www.brjcc.org 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17 

Genetically Engineered Foods and Your Health, with Jeffrey M. Smith, author of “Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating,” at 7 p.m. at Marriott at the Oakland City Center, Oakland. Free. bgerner2@comcast.net  

“Theological Education: First World and Third World Creative Dialogue” by Dwight Hopkins, associate professor of theology at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, at the GTU Convocation at 3:30 p.m. at University Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte Avenue. 649-2464.  

Prose Writers Workshop We're a serious but lively bunch whose focus is on issues of craft. Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Community sponsored, no fee. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

Free Marketing Workshops, sponsored by Sisters Headquarters, for women entrepreneurs, every Wed. from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 643 17th St. Oakland. For information call 238-1100. 

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 

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 

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 848-0237. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18 

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 848-4008 or janet@earthlink.net or jennifemaryphd@hotmail.com or 987-0668. 

“Hidden Walks in the Bay Area,” a talk by Stephen Altchuler, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Ave. at Arch. Sponsored by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Assoc. and the Hillside Club. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Fight Back Rally to Defeat Prop. 54, sponsored by the Black Radical Congress, with speaker Eva J. Patterson, from  

the Equal Justice Society, at 6:30 p.m. at SEIU 250, 560 20th St., Oakland. For more information, call 527-4099, or email fmbeal@igc.org 

“Venezuela: A Nation on Edge,” a KQED Frontline/World Series Event, reception at 6:45 p.m., screening and town meeting at 7:30 p.m. at International House, Sproul Room, Piedmont at Bancroft. 642-9460. 

So How’d You Become An Activist with Kris Welch of KPFA and Ed Holmes of the SF Mime Troupe, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. For more information call 528-5403. 

A Conversation About the Peace Process in Northern Ireland and the Role of Civil Service with Sir Joseph Pilling, Permanent Under Secretary, Northern Ireland Office, at noon at 201 Moses Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for British Studies. 643-2115.  

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

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

ONGOING  

UC Botanical Garden Docent Training on Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., commen- 

cing Sept. 18 through February 12, with breaks for holidays. Fee and registration required. Call 643-1924 to sign up. 

Free Smoke Detectors for City residents and UC Berkeley students who live off-campus. Applications are available from the Environment, Health & Safety office of UC Berkeley, at any Berkeley Fire Station, or at the Fire Admin. Office located at 2100 MLK, 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 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets on Mon., Sept. 15, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon. Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. at 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

City Council meets Tues., Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. in City Council hambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley Work-Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

School Board meets Wed. Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thursday, Sept. 18, 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., Sept. 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/transportation 

BORN AGAIN  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I got out! Sold my house and moved out of Berkeley area and to Benicia. Sure is nice not having to walk around all the people on the sidewalk panhandling in front of every store. The Berkeley merchants bring it on themselves. It’s an attitude, not a problem! It’s all the PC crap that rules Berkeley, not the police or the local government. Let the police enforce the laws already on the books, and have the liberal judges enforce it, and part of the problem would go away. 

Get all the drug paraphernalia out of the head shops on Telegraph, and the drug problem would lessen. 

Let the police arrest for pot and crack, and get it off the street. Stop tying their hands! 

The attitude also gets rid of school superintendents and managers in Berkeley. Let them do their job! 

And here I am, up in Benicia becoming a born-again redneck. Love it! 

Allan Munkres 

Benicia 

• 

HEIGHT RULES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Did you know that developers are using tricks in neighborhoods much like those being used on commercial corridors? These tricks give a nod and a wink to oversized and insensitive development. 

Height rules! Not democratic process, nor quiet enjoyment of one’s home and community. The tricks to increase height include using lofts, mezzanines, undefined roof areas, and average height. Under “by right” development, the immediate neighbors have no rights. 

Mayor Tom Bates and his associates (including six of eight City Councilmembers) should be held responsible for the massive redevelopment of Berkeley which they are allowing and encouraging. Bates has actually said: “My priority now is getting Berkeley developed.” But who gave him the right to redesign this city? He said that he told everyone during his campaign about his plans for development. But Bates tells tall tales. I attended all the major political forums during the campaign, including the Greens, Berkeley Democratic Club, BCA, Berkeley Party, November Coalition, and the Rainbow Coalition, and Bates never mentioned his development plans. In fact, he didn’t mention much of anything, except the waterfront and his wife Loni. He usually arrived late and left early. 

“What can we do about out-of-control development and betrayal of the public trust?” I asked someone at City Hall today. “Well, I think we have to take the democratic process back.” he answered. “Just be active. Mobilize!”  

I share this advice with you. 

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

PORTABLE LIGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent letter to the editor communicates contempt for stadium neighbors who annually “whine” about traffic, etc. “Why not move?” is the gist of the letter. 

The writer’s point of view is instructive because it suggests that the real story hasn’t gotten out yet. Concerned neighbors are not whining about the status quo, but about a possible project that stands in limbo. 

In the summer of 1999, UCB’s Athletic Department proposed to install TV broadcast quality lighting. But despite euphoria surrounding the opening of PacBell Park, few wanted our collective backyard lit up like South of Market in San Francisco. 

And yet that is exactly what was proposed. Only with a Public Records Act request did university administrators cough up the details. Prior to our request, we were only told that there would be “nine free-standing light poles...five light assemblies... approximately 60 feet above the stadium rim.” Upon receiving a blueprint in response to the record request, we learned the grizzly details: 282 lights with light assemblies as large as 22’x12’ with the smallest 19.5’x7’.  

The project stands in limbo while the athletic department continues its fundraising to retrofit Memorial Stadium. As many fans are opposed to installing TV lights, the administration has remained strategically ambiguous. If asked, they say they have no plans, which is quite different from making a commitment to their potential donors one way or another.  

The obvious compromise is portable TV lighting. But the only thing standing in the way between portable lighting and concerned neighbors is the administration’s silence on the issue and the public’s necessary reliance on the media for information and dialogue.  

Janice Thomas 

President, Panoramic Hill Association 

• 

RENEW INTEGRITY  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Executive Editor O’Malley’s Editorial (”Hello and Goodbye Mayor, Council.” Daily Planet, Sept. 9-11) voicing concern over the smothering of Berkeley’s once vibrant Council meetings is very welcomed. O’Malley traces this smothering back to the Bates-driven Agenda (nee Rules) Committee. Let’s remember that all of Council except for Dona Spring and Betty Olds supported creation of this committee. This anti-democratic committee, then, was voted in by both moderate and progressive Democrats. At that moment, those who voted for it surrendered their civic vision of Council Agendas/meetings as Berkeley’s main open forum for political discussion. 

Now we have a small Agenda Committee deciding/delaying what city issues the Berkeley citizenry may be informed of. Adding insult to injury, we also now have fewer council meetings scheduled because Bates has other plans for those nights. The mayor’s absence heretofore never prevented council meetings; that’s why we have a vice-mayor. To date, we’ve not heard even murmurs of protest from the other councilpersons.  

Bates’ Agenda Committee and fewer council meetings are logically indefensible with regard to their democratic consequences. With these two maneuvers, Berkeley’s own political process has been undermined. This turn to the right belies whatever larger social justice resolutions City Council may pass.  

I would suggest that the Wellstone Democratic “Renewal” Club direct some of its energy to renew Berkeley’s own political integrity by working to abolish the Agenda Committee and to restore the cut council meetings but, alas, the Wellstone Club was initiated by Bates’ closest advisors.  

Instead, other citizens must input their councilpersons to rescind the Agenda Committee and restore cut council meetings. In addition, there always are the three minutes of public comment at council meetings to voice disapproval and sense of loss. Though it’s a long time to endure Berkeley’s loss of democratic process, there are also the next Berkeley elections to correct the course. 

Maris Arnold 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 12 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

ACCI Gallery, “SensuouS + A Jewelry Exhibition,” 5 to 7 p.m. Exhibition runs to Oct. 4. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Addison Street Windows Gallery, “Sculptures by JP Long,” Opening 7 to 8 p.m. at 2018 Addison St.  

“Ourselves Through the Camera, 2003,” third annual exhibit of photographs of Rockridge by people who live or work around the Rockridge neighborhood, opening 6 p.m. at Rockridge Branch Library, 5366 College Ave. at Manila in Oakland. Exhibition runs through Oct. 12. 

CHILDREN 

Biscuit Dog and storyteller at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Beware of a Holy Whore” at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“September 11” A collection of short films at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 464-5980. www.LandmarkTheatres.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Margo Adair introduces her book on meditation, “Working Inside Out,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group, featuring a world premiere set to the music of Bartok; Grand Duo and Serenade, both set to works by Lou Harrison; and Going Away Party, set to recorded songs by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, violin, Marvin Sanders, flute, Amy Brodo, gamba and ‘cello, Paul Rhodes, ‘cello, Katherine Heater, harpsichord, performing works by Bach, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

The Boneless Children Foundation, Hello Donkey and Liz Setzer perform eclectica at the 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Trio Caminante, Latin American music in a special appearance for the documentary “Chile: Promise of Freedom,” at 7 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation of $10-$20 requested, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Native Elements with Dub Congress and Pacific Vibrations at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

O’Maya performs gaucho gypsy jazz at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

Collective Amnesia at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Waybacks, acoustic mayhem, 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 

Linn Brown, CD Release celebration, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Carolyn Mark and the Room-mates, The Lise Marr Experiment at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Growth of Alliance, The Caps, Toxic Possum at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Woman, live indy rock, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. beckettsirishpub.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 13  

The Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, at 4 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Photolab Gallery, Recent Pinhole Photographs by S. McGrath Ryan, reception at 6 p.m. at 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs until Oct. 25. 644-1400. 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Effi Briest” at 6:30 and 9:10 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 

“Landfill,” a local documentary about the homeless community that developed at the Albany Bulb, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gail Sheehy, reads from her new book, “Middletown, America,” about a New Jersey community devastated by the events of September 11th, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Rhythm and Muse with Seth Augustus, Tuvan singer/songwriter at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Gimmicks vs. Lyrics,” a discussion of Hip Hop theater aesthetics at 1 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque performs Handel’s final oratorio, “Jephtha,” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$60 available from City Box Office 415-392-4400, or on-line at www.philharmonia.org.  

The White Stripes, at 8 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

Mark Morris Dance Group, featuring a world premiere set to the music of Bartok; Grand Duo and Serenade, both set to works by Lou Harrison; and Going Away Party, set to recorded songs by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Homage to Victor Jara with Rafael Manriquez and Trio Quijerema at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Waybacks, acoustic mayhem, and Jack Cassidy, bassist from the Jefferson Airplane, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Samba Ngo, Congolese singer, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Creation performs Caribbean Reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Celtic Meltdown with Wild Hunt, Blue on Green and Ian Butler at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Mark Growden, multi-instrumentalist, performs at the 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby, at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Midnightmare, S.C.A. 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. 

Joshi Marshall and Friends at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 14 

FILM 

The Films of Germaine Dulac: “La Mort du Soleil” 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: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 2 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Making Worlds: Artists, Scientists, and Genomics,” a panel discussion by three innovative artists together with three noted scientists on the interrelations between art and genetics, at 3 p.m. in the Museum Theater, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $8, Free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. tctorres@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Poetry at Cody’s with Diane Di Prima and Maria Mazziotti Gillan at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group, featuring a world premiere set to the music of Bartok; Grand Duo and Serenade, both set to works by Lou Harrison; and Going Away Party, set to recorded songs by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Live Oak Concert with David Cheng, violin, Marvin Sanders, flute, Amy Brodo, viola da gamba and ‘cello, Paul Rhodes, ‘cello, Katherine Heater, harpsichord, performing works by Bach, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, Students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Philharmonia Baroque performs Handel’s final oratorio, “Jephtha,” at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$60 available from City Box Office 415-392-4400, or on-line at www.philharmonia.org.  

Nawal performs Indo-Arabian-Persian music from the Como- 

ros Islands, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8 in advance, $10 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cafe Bellie: Belly Dance Showcase at 7:30 p.m., with a class at 6:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mary Gauthier, American gothic originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Margins, Los Burbanks at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Americana Unplugged Series: The Donner Mountain Band at 4 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 15 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ted Nace reads from “Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Demoocracy” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

www.blackoakbooks.com 

Christopher Marquis reads from his novel, “A Hole in the Heart,” about a young woman who must rebuild her life after losing her husband, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express, open mic featuring Selene Steese, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dervish, traditional band from Ireland, 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 

Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Hy Hirsh and the Fifties: Jazz and Abstraction in Beat Era Film 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 

Maira Kalman, author of a dozen children’s books, introduces the latest adventures of Pete the Dog, “Smartypants: Pete in School,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Jeffrey and Rhoda Makoff discuss how to make big decisions in their new book, “Get off the Fence,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Steve Martinot will discuss “The Rule of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance,” at 7:30 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Comedy Showcase, with Tony Sparks, Phil Puthumana, “The Curry Comic,” Ian Jensen, Kevin Avery and Tessie Chua at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17 

FILM 

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Fear of Fear” at 5:30 and 9:10 p.m. and “Chinese Roulette” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Stauber, investigative reporter, and founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy, discusses “Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau discuss “The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jeffrey M. Smith introduces his new book, “Seeds of Deception,” at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Marriot City Center, across the street from 12th St. BART station. Co-sponsored by Berkeley Natural Grocery, Rainbow Grocery Co-op, and Ecology Center. 526-0205 ext. 101. 

Calligraphy Lecture and Demonstration with Georgianna Greenwood and Carla Tenret, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 528-1709. www.friendsofcalligraphy.org 

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

Travel Book Series, with Susan Alcorn, author of “We’re in the Mountains, Not Over the Hill,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert Mozart Clarinet Quintet, at the Chevron Auditorium at International House, corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

Christopher O’Riley’s “Radiohead” Innovative pianist performs a program of music by British rock group Radiohead, transcribed by O'Riley for solo piano. At 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $14-$28. 642-0212. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Creole Belles at 8:30 p.m., with a Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Da Vinci’s Notebook, comedic a cappella quartet, 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 

Patrick Greene Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck Ave. 848-8277. 

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

Love Rhino, Electric Jesus, 3 Prayers at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848- 

0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. becketts- 

irishpub.com 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18 

FILM 

Genetic Screenings: “Gattaca” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Art Center Film Festival: Exploring Relationships and Aging, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Mai's America,” A documentary about a Vietnamese exchange  

student, by Marlo Poras, will be shown at 7 p.m. at 2060 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asia Studies. 642-3609. cseas@uclink.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Curator’s Talk on Gene(sis) with Constance Lewallen, Senior Curator for Exhibitions, at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, and Guided Tour at 5:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students. 643-6494. tctorres@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Tony Cohan discusses “Native State,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Amelia Warren Tyagi on “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading at 7 p.m. featuring David Gollub and Sparrow 13, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Tony Rowell, son of Galen Rowell, introduces Barbara Rowell’s “Flying South: A Pilot’s Inner Journey,” her 25,000-mile 57-leg journey through Latin America, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose, 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Slaid Cleaves, Texas folk-roots at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

James Mathis Knockdown Society at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough.Cost of $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Autana at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. beckettsirishpub.com 

Porch Life performs at the 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby, at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org

What do the NBA and campaign finance reform have in common? 

According to Adonal Foyle, everything. 

Foyle, the well known 6’10”, 265-pound center for the Golden State Warriors, is quickly making a name for himself as one of the leading activists promoting campaign finance reform. 

As part of his drive to build a movement centered around reform, he came to UC Berkeley Wednesday to ask students in Dr. Alan Ross’s Political Science 179 class to help him “take the money out of politics and put people back in.” 

Foyle is the founder of Democracy Matters, a growing national organization that targets young people and helps them become involved in the movement to reform campaign spending. The organization has chapters across the nation, including a budding one at UC Berkeley. 

Socially involved throughout his life, Foyle said the idea to promote campaign finance reform came after he started playing in the NBA. Finding himself surrounded by money, he asked himself, “How should I use my wealth?” 

Sudden wealth and frustration with the political system started him thinking about the role money plays in politics. He decided to put his money where his mind was. 

“When you see an injustice you can turn your back to it or you can try and do something about it,” said Foyle. 

In an essay on his Web site, Foyle argues his point about campaign finance reform by comparing the process by which someone is drafted to the NBA to the election process. 

“The only criterion for entrance [into the NBA] is athletic prowess. So long as he or she is deemed able to play at the highest level, they will get that chance,” he wrote.  

“In very much the same way, politics should give all of our gifted and talented citizens an equal chance to compete to serve in political life… However, in politics today this is not the case. In the current system of campaign financing, having the desire or the ability to be a good political leader is not enough. 

“This system is not fair because it requires so much money to run for office, thus giving an unfair advantage to wealthy candidates, or to people willing to sell themselves to wealthy donors.”  

His basketball career has helped him promote his political involvement, but he admits political involvement has probably affected his NBA career, risking lost endorsements and facing the danger of losing popularity, he said. 

But Foyle said he’s not worried about the impact political involvement has on his image. If anything he says it helps him perform his duties as a role model. 

He said he targets young people because they’re still open to change and have the ability to act on it, and he took on campaign finance reform because he says it’s the basic change needed before any other social project can proceed. 

Anne Hadreas, Campus Coordinator for the UC Berkeley Democracy Matters chapter, said she joined because she was working on several social justice issues but didn’t feel like she was accomplishing anything. Realizing the potential that campaign finance reform has to clear away some of the barriers that were blocking the projects she was involved in, she decided to throw her full efforts behind the movement. 

“[Campaign finance reform] makes other reforms possible. Whether it be women’s issues, labor issues, environmental issues, etc.,” she said. 

Along with other students in Democracy Matters, Hadreas has been working toward campaign finance reform on campus, focusing on student government laws that allow for candidates to spend up to $3,000 on their campaign. 

“Who has an extra $3,000 dollars to spend?” asked fellow member Abe Gardner, who belongs to several other on-campus organizations concerned with electoral politics. 

Both Hadreas and Gardner attended the reception after Foyle’s presentation to Ross’ class. 

Rosssaid that, to him, the California recall election isn’t a right-wing conspiracy but a movement by people who were fed up with Gray Davis’ practice of “money for play,” or action based on money. 

“Money in politics is the central issue,” said Ross. “I think that Gray Davis has really angered people through his fundraising efforts.” 

Foyle, who is working towards his Masters degree in Sports Psychology, runs a tight schedule in order to juggle all his involvements, cutting back when basketball season starts. But he’s at it every chance he has. 

He enjoys being active and thinks he lives a balanced life. 

“It’s this constant juggling that is truly living,” he said. 

The only thing he says that could make things better, “would be if [the Warriors] make the playoffs.”

The following letter was addressed to City Clerk Sherry Kelly. 

Dear Ms. Kelly, 

Members of the Strawberry Creek Affinity Group (SCAG) have been discussing our personal perspectives on the upcoming California recall. While we generally agree among ourselves that the recall is another dangerous expression of the un-democratic nature of today’s political shenanigans, we are not all in agreement on who we should select after we press “No” on the video screen on the question of whether Gray Davis should be recalled.  

We are in agreement, however, on one aspect of this process. We are all deeply concerned about how our votes are recorded. We would ask that you comment on the fact that the electronic ballot used in Berkeley does not provide a paper copy for the voter. 

Our concern in this matter has been heightened because of reports of software failures and allegations of vote manipulation occurring during a period in our history when the election process has been rife with misconduct. We note that both Wisconsin and New York State have made efforts at requiring the electronic voting system to provide better protection against abuse or human error, as have the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Communications Workers of America. Generally, these demands include a requirement that a paper trail be established that allows for a post-vote audit. 

We would like to ask you what assurances you can provide that Berkeley’s voting equipment is secure and tamper-proof. Is there a mechanism to allow a post-vote audit? Can a voter request and receive a paper copy of his or her ballot? 

We would also ask that you provide the members of City Council with a copy of this letter and your response. Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Kelly. 

Sincerely, 

Members of the Strawberry Creek Affinity Group 

Carol Thornton, Jane Eiseley, Fran Rachel, Jane Kelly, Tom Kelly, Chris Kroll, Frances Berges, Patti Marsh, Bob Marsh, Dorothy Headley, Chris Walter, Nina Falk, Eric Roberts

The Berkeley Unified School District has killed plans to reschedule today’s beleaguered Berkeley High-Oakland Tech football game amid continuing questions as to why the game was put off in the first place. 

In a prepared statement released through the BUSD information office, Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp said a plan to hold the game at one of the Peralta Community Colleges came “very close...but all of the publicity about the game may have interfered with our options.” 

Slemp unilaterally canceled the BHS-Tech game last week after Berkeley Police warned him of reports about possible violence planned between non-students at the game. Oakland Tech Athletic Director Karen Jones later complained that Slemp had not involved her in the decision to cancel the game, nor had she been included in discussions about where and when the game might be rescheduled. 

BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan said that the Peralta Community Colleges “gave us a field” for the game, but efforts to reschedule the game ultimately fell through “because of all the logistical nightmares of pulling it all together.” 

Coplan said he also worried that numerous broadcast vans from local television outlets would show up at the game, much as they showed up on Berkeley High’s campus last Friday following announcement of the game’s cancellation. 

“We were trying to keep this as low key as possible,” Coplan said, adding that there was no possibility that the BHS-Tech game could be rescheduled for later in the year. 

Coplan also took issue with the charge, published in last Tuesday’s Daily Planet, that Oakland Tech officials had not been included in the discussions to reschedule the game. 

He said that earlier this week, BUSD administration officials, along with the athletic directors of the two schools and Oakland Tech Vice Principal Marty Price, all participated in a meeting with Peralta Community College officials to secure a Peralta field. 

However, that meeting took place after the complaints from Tech Athletic Director Jones were published in the Daily Planet. 

Also this week, a South Bay athletic director revealed that at least two other local schools were involved in an attempt to help BHS and Tech play someone this week, if not each other. Neal Fromson, athletic director at James Logan High School in Union City, said that “McClymonds High School made a call to our school seeing if we would want to play Berkeley and if [McClymonds], then, could play Oakland Tech. It was an informal conversation between my football coach and the coach at McClymonds who played college ball together to see if they could make it work.” 

Logan and BHS last played each other in 1996. 

Fromson said that the arrangement was eventually nixed by Logan athletic officials because they did not have enough time to scout the Berkeley High team. 

Meanwhile, an Oakland Athletic League (OAL) coach (Oakland Tech is an OAL member), said he was “shocked” when he read about the cancellation in last week’s San Francisco Chronicle, and did not agree with the cancellation. The coach is not affiliated with Oakland Tech. 

“Canceling the game makes no sense to me,” the coach, who asked not to be identified, said in a telephone interview. “If you can’t have a secure game at Berkeley with the police department across the street...I’m sorry...there’s something just not adding up.” 

He said he didn’t understand why a game between Tech and Berkeley would be more dangerous than games regularly held between Tech and McClymonds and Skyline and Castlemont, which involve East Oakland-West Oakland-North Oakland community rivalries that are far older and have generated far more violence than has occurred recently in South Berkeley-North Oakland. 

The coach said he could only think of two OAL football games in recent years that had to be canceled because of violence. 

“One involved a series of fights among the players,” the coach explained, “one involved a series of fights in the stands. Both times, the game was almost completed before it was called, and one of the teams was far ahead.” 

Asked what would cause his team to cancel a game in advance, he said, “we would if there was a series of actual incidents leading up to the game, involving student bodies. Not peripheral violence, and not just kids talking smack. Kids in Oakland talk smack all the time. 

The coach also said that the BHS-Tech cancellation was already having a ripple effect on Berkeley High. “I was talking with a number of other coaches down in the South Bay after the Chronicle article came out, and they were all asking, ‘Is Berkeley that bad?’ And I had to tell them no, it wasn’t.”

On Sept. 9, at City Council, Tom Bates acted in a way that will damage his political career as mayor of Berkeley. Before this date, few will remember that Bates, with former Mayor Hancock, U.S. Senator Cranston, and then-Legislative honcho Willie Brown—all key Democrats—worked hard to defeat a Palestinian West Bank sister city resolution in Berkeley in 1988. Backed by big money, some of it from the Rightist American-Israeli lobby which unquestioningly supports all Israeli policy no matter how egregious, the Democratic Party machine interfered in Berkeley politics to trash the Jabaliyah resolution put on the ballot by 19,000 citizens. “We have a better way” to peace, they wrote in their glossy mailers. But the rest of us—whether Jews, Palestinians or other Americans of goodwill—are still waiting for the party’s “better way.” That fraud reminds one of Bush’s Iraq policies. As we wait, presidential front-runner Howard Dean has said his views are closer to the Rightist Israeli lobby—which has given over $120 million to the Democrats in a decade—than to the broad Israeli peace movement which seeks a just two-state solution.  

We have been waiting to hear when the Democratic leaders here in Berkeley will stop being the sycophants of the Israeli Right and call for an even-handed approach against impunity and in support of the rights of all peoples there through a U.N.-enforced peace rather than a yearly $8 billion blank check in U.S. tax dollars that supports State terror against the Palestinians.  

Now, 15 years later, Bates, who claims he wants to stay out of such “divisive” issues, emerges to “meddle in foreign policy” on the side of impunity. Bates opposed the City Council resolution endorsing Congressional House Resolution 111 that seeks a full U.S. investigation of the death of peace activist Rachel Corrie by a U.S.-supplied Israeli Army bulldozer. Then he turned around and voted in support of an Olds-Hawley resolution, backed by Israeli government supporters. The defeated resolution called for amending the Congressional resolution to investigate the deaths of all Americans in that region, an action one councilmember pointed out could assure that Corrie’s death not be investigated in our lifetime.  

Tom Bates, in voting for that latter resolution rather than abstaining or voting against both seemed to contradict his statements that he doesn’t want such “divisive” and “external” issues to damage the effectiveness of Berkeley’s City Council. But the sense that Bates was in contradiction is a mirage. We want to believe that people like Bates and Hancock have more political independence and integrity than, say, Bush or Clinton, and can vote their consciences. We expect more from local politicians than from state and national figures who depend upon tens of millions in campaign contributions. And we should.  

But it ain’t so.  

Mr. Bates, like Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, who fraudulently promote war at incalculable cost to the world, is duplicitous and should resign. You know he won’t. But Tom will later have to face reelection on a record that endorses the Israeli right wing and fails to speak out against the policies of U.S. neo-fascists like Kissinger, Wolfowitz, Perle, and other Bush Rightists. Those policies are causing incalculable suffering to the Palestinian and Iraqi people, and to our nation. We are responsible. As Max Anderson, describing a horrifying experience as a GI in Vietnam told City Council, it’s just like what I saw in Vietnam.  

Note: Hon. Barbara Lee is one of the signers of HR 111 which City Council voted to endorse 5:4 over the mayor’s opposition.  

After an hour-long closed door session Thursday evening, the Berkeley City Council emerged to announce they had picked Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz as the interim replacement for retiring City Manager Weldon Rucker. 

The appointment begins Nov. 1, and will be re-evaluated on May 1, with preliminary indications that the permanent City Manager’s position is Kalmarz’ unless either he doesn’t want it or Council changes its mind.  

Councilmember Betty Olds said there are no current plans by Council to search for another applicant, and Mayor Tom Bates had said earlier that the six-month interim period was designed to see if Kalmarz and Council were “happy with each other” on a permanent basis. 

Kamlarz is a 27-year veteran of Berkeley city government. He has served 10 years as assistant City Manager, six years as Deputy City Manager, and a brief period this year as interim director of the city’s Planning Department.

The school board has bristled at receiving a “report card.” However, report cards are important tools to help us assess how well students and the school district are doing. Unfortunately for the students and community, the California’s Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team, (FCMAT) gave the school board and district administration failing marks in major areas of responsibility, including maintenance.  

FCMAT has developed standards for school districts which cover five major areas: community relations, personnel management, student achievement, financial management, and facilities management. Grades are given on a scale of 0 to 10.  

Our community’s primary concern is safety. In the Year 2000, we passed Measure BB, the $4 million parcel tax for maintenance to make our schools safe and in good repair. Broken facilities lead to injuries. Of the 27 criteria for safety, only 4 standards received a passing grade of 7 or above. Twenty standards received 4 or below—clearly failing. What is troubling about this is that the problems identified in FCMAT were cited by the fire marshall and the district’s consultants reports in 1999. These include electrical panels without doors, missing exit signs, fire hazards, and violations of toxic and flammable materials and chemical standards. Despite adequate funding, BUSD has not hired the recommended key personnel to maintain the fire alarm system. BUSD needs to fix all safety problems now and report back in January. Have the fire marshall reinspect all schools so staff and students are safe. 

Maintain New Construction  

All new construction must be maintained. This was the guiding principle of the citizens’ Maintenance Advisory Committee (MAC). When MAC was first formed, we were appalled at how taxpayers’ money was wasted. Boilers, which were to last 25 years, lasted less than five because they were not maintained. Water leaks in new schools were not repaired and became $20,000 bills for dry rot. MAC told the Board that BUSD had to maintain our community’s $250 million dollar investment in new school construction. Yet, even on the simple issue of maintaining boilers, FCMAT gave BUSD a 3 out of 10—a failing grade. BUSD lacks a planned maintenance program. FCMAT said a planned maintenance program begins with school board leadership. BUSD needs a policy, a developed budget and timelines, articulated priorities, and a separate financial account. None of this is in place.  

Grounds 

All schools should have beautiful grounds. For the 65 percent of Berkeley without children in our schools, the grounds are what affects them. FCMAT said our school grounds do not look good. The current staffing for the grounds crew matches the staffing recommended by the district’s consultants. The problem is the need for improved organization, scheduling and deployment of the staff to produce greater effectiveness. Skilled administrators play an important role.  

Our community sustains five major garden nurseries, a world class botanical garden, and a renowned rose garden. Most Berkeleyans agree that the standards applied by BUSD’s Maintenance Department are lower than our community’s standards. BUSD, please understand: 

a) You must respect the work of parents and community in our school gardens. 

b) Bare dirt is not a landscape design goal. 

c) Garden tools used should not only be chain saws, weed whackers and mowers. 

d) Trees, especially Coast Live Oak, should not be pruned into lollipops. 

Custodial  

FCMAT points out what we all know: some schools are clean and some are not. Principals are supposed to focus on students and learning, not on the cleaning of 25 classrooms and 12 bathrooms every day, not on chemical usage, not on maintenance and repairs. Principals are not even at school in the evenings, when most of the cleaning takes place. Custodians are the first line of defense in maintenance because clean facilities, with routine minor maintenance, work better and last longer. A custodial supervisor was hired pursuant to the citizens’ recommendations. But then the custodial supervisor and custodians were pink slipped. Principals are supervising custodians, and we are back to unclean schools. If BUSD can’t adequately keep the existing school facilities clean now, what will happen when the additional new building at Berkeley High School opens? BUSD needs consistent progress and adherence to policies even with frequent change of administrators. 

Long Range Facilities Master Plan  

With the hundreds of millions spent on school facilities, FCMAT gave BUSD a zero—utter failure—for not having a long-range school facilities master plan. Projects are now designed on a piecemeal basis, which leads to expensive litigation, conflicts and mistakes. This reflects some of the concerns raised by the City of Berkeley and neighbors of the current Adult and Franklin schools. BUSD must gauge what is the best use of public funds and public facilities and that requires a long-range plan. 

Audits and Accountability  

The school board and superintendent have flagrantly refused and failed to comply with the terms of Measure BB itself. Measure BB calls for an annual independent audit to ensure that all Measure BB funds are spent in compliance with the terms of the measure. BUSD is it its third year spending the funds and has not conducted an audit. As Ann Marie Hogan, the city’s auditor, states: A performance auditor’s function is to “speak truth to power.” Instead of circling the wagons around a fading campfire, the school board members need to adopt the FCMAT audit recommendations and fully comply with Measure BB’s audit requirements. 

School Board Leadership  

The lack of school board leadership was cited by FCMAT in over 33 standards. This has led to the unpleasant situation where the school board, instead of providing leadership and guidance, follows the lead of a superintendent. This results in a system without checks and balances.  

Without the $13 million a year from BESP, the $4 million a year from Measure BB and without the over $250 million to rebuild and repair schools, Berkeley would be bankrupt, just like Oakland. Don’t waste our money. Do a good job.  

Sally Reyes is a native Berkeleyan. Her two children attended Berkeley public schools. She was a staff member of the BUSD Maintenance Department from 1978 to 1994 and a citizen member of the Maintenance Advisory Committee from 2002-2002. She was not reappointed this year. 

Copies of the FCMAT report are available from the Berkeley Public Library’s Central reference desk.

The Berkeley firefighters got to test out what could be new and important fire safety equipment Thursday: high-tech gadgetry developed by a UC professor and a handful of students to prevent recurrences of events that led to the deaths of so many at the World Trade Center two years ago.  

The technology, which incorporates several different technological advances, will help firefighters overcome some of the biggest barriers they now face including locating a fire, navigating a building and helping rescue operations find injured or trapped firefighters. 

The idea and the technology were originally developed in a UC Berkeley Engineering class called “High Tech Product Design and Rapid Manufacturing,” taught by professor Paul Wright. 

The teacher said the class is intended to allow students to build their own products, which usually means new designs for already developed consumer products. After Sept. 11, he said, some students began to re-think their product designs, motivating one team to try and design communication and information systems that they thought would facilitate the work of firefighters. 

“We began using information technology in the interest of society,” said Wright. “The students began to refocus their attention.” 

The results were designs for several new devices, including a firefighter’s Heads Up Display, or HUD, and the prototype for a new fire alarm/detector system. Together, the new technologies will allow the firefighters to access information that will help save lives and enable them to battle blazes more effectively.  

The project took flight after the team contacted several fire departments, including Berkeley’s, where firefighters were quick to realize the potential of the project. They have been enthusiastic participants throughout. 

Thursday’s demonstration marked only the second time the fire crews got a close look at the prototype, developed with the help of funds from Ford Motor Company, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society, the National Science Foundation and Intel Corp.  

The Heads Up Display is a stamp-sized panel that fits into the firefighter’s mask and provides what Wright calls a “you are here map”—floor plans similar to those shoppers use to navigate a mall. 

One of the main concerns was keeping the panel small but effective, so the information is transmitted to a panel located in a position that doesn’t obscure vision. The display features clear, high-contrast graphics and fonts, giving firefighters exact positions of exits, stairs, walls, doors and other critical architectural features. 

Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said that being able to know where you are going in a cloud of smoke where you can’t see six inches in front of you will be an enormous help to firefighters. 

“Until you’ve been in a burning building you don’t know how hard it is,” said Orth. “Anything that gives us the ability to navigate in that situation is really helpful.” 

Orth says that currently the only way firefighters can navigate through thick smoke is by using a wall as a point of reference and following it until they come to the next object, though sometimes they’ve been able to consult floor plans before going in or they’ve walked the building before during fire safety programs. 

The HUDs will also give firefighters information on oxygen levels as well as text messages transmitted from the incident commander outside the building via a wireless laptop. 

Another part of the technology consists of new fire directors, wireless platforms now under development involving red and green lights that will be mounted on doorways, functioning as stoplights. 

Firefighters in a stairwell will be able to see the directors on the door and know whether there is fire on the other side, as will firefighters moving from one of the floors into the stairwell. 

The directors also serve as wireless beacons that communicate information about the fire to the firefighters and to the command chief outside. In addition, they will function as tracking beacons, that keep tabs on the location of fire crews at all times. Because current satellite global positioning systems don’t work in buildings, the students had to design their own system. 

Orth praised the new system, saying it will save lives by enabling rescuers to quickly locate firefighters who get lost or stranded inside burning structures. Radios now in use sometimes don’t work in the chaos of a fire. 

When a floor or roof collapses, Orth said, “and you’re sending people back in to find someone, the trapped person probably only has about five minutes of air. Anything that makes that better is a good thing.” 

During Thursday’s test at the Berkeley Fire Tower, Wright cautioned that it will be about a year until they have “a fully robust system.”  

“We’re very happy to be able to accommodate the project,” said Craig Green, the Assistant Fire Chief and the Director of the Berkeley Fire Department’s Training Center, as he stood by and watched the UC Berkeley team working with the firefighters. “I can envision this being a real help in the future.”

The Berkeley High School Girls Crew Team, desperate to make Aquatic Park the new venue to race their rowboats, squared off at the City Council meeting Tuesday against an environmentalist determined to defend the migrating seabird habitat at the park. 

After listening to impassioned pleas from one environmentalist and several members of the 48-girl team—whose days are numbered at their Lake Merritt practice facility—the council showed little will to take sides, finally voting to postpone a $10,000 environmental study, a prerequisite for granting the team access to the park—while city officials make a last-ditch effort to find the team a different practice site.  

“We are looking at the options,” said Mayor Tom Bates, who asked for and was given a one week delay on the vote. “I want to talk to people in Oakland and find out why they can’t stay.”  

Until environmentalists raised objections in March, the planned move to the main lagoon in Aquatic Park seemed like a slam dunk. The city has recently sought new tenants for the West Berkeley park, which has suffered from a seedy reputation as Berkeley’s hotbed for illicit sex. 

After years of discussions with the Parks and Recreation Department, the team agreed to refurbish and run the derelict boathouse at the lagoon for a token annual rent of $100. 

“We felt confident the city wanted us there until the environmentalists sandbagged it,” said Chuck Knoll, team board member and father of a former rower. 

Environmentalists insist the team would disrupt migratory seabirds, especially open water birds like ducks and geese that call the park home from September through April, the same months the girls would hold daily afternoon practices. 

Boats frighten the birds, which then move to different locations, said Norman LaForce, of the Sierra Club. “That’s not good because then they expend tremendous amounts of energy when they should be feeding, and so they have less energy for migration.”  

An independent study commissioned by the city this summer backed up LaForce’s claim. Richmond-based environmental firm LSA Associates found that the crew team would pose a greater threat to the birds than kayakers who already traverse the 1500-foot lagoon because the team’s 8-person boats travel faster and their oars reach further out into the water. The LSA report did offer suggestions to lessen the impact on the birds. 

Despite the team’s 20-year run at Lake Merritt, leased for $7,000 a year, both Oakland politics and logistical issues have clouded their future there. Noll said the team agreed last year to leave by this fall after former Oakland Parks Director Harry Edwards pressured the Lake Merritt Rowing Club to find an Oakland tenant for the slot.  

Edwards’ recent resignation has bought the team some time. Jim Ryugo, his interim replacement, said he had no immediate plans to force them out, but that he would have to give Oakland tenants priority. 

Team members say that Lake Merritt is too far away and too small to accommodate the growing team. The boathouse only has space for one of their four boats, said Board President Karen Graul, so they keep their other $20,000 boats in storage and borrows boats from the rowing club. And since the team can only practice in the morning at the lake, there isn’t enough time to carpool the team to Oakland and get in a two-hour practice before the girls’ 8:30 a.m. class, Graul said. 

Team officials call Aquatic Park their best and only hope. The Jack London Aquatics Center at the Oakland Estuary charges $20,000 per year and is booked solid, said Executive Director Dede Birch. The Berkeley Boys Crew team practices there, but has too much equipment to share their slot with the girls.  

Efforts to lease a Port of Oakland facility for both teams have fallen through, according to Noll, and a proposed East Bay Regional Park development in San Leandro would cost more than the estuary, he said. 

“Aquatic Park is best”, said Graul, “because kids can walk or bike there and it will be more accessible to those who can’t carpool to Lake Merritt at 6:30 a.m.” 

The team had started to repair the boathouse early this year in anticipation of occupying it for this fall, but have stopped until Council gives them the go-ahead. The team is willing to abide by the recommendations in the LSA report and is offering to team up with EGRET to grow plants along the west shoreline to block encroachment from dogs and people when the birds are flushed to the edges of the lagoon during practice. 

“We don’t want to hurt the birds, but we certainly think that rowers and birds can co-exist,” said Graul. 

LaForce said LSA’s recommendations, which include prohibiting users in smaller nearby lagoons during practice and restricting visitors to the main lagoon shoreline, are unrealistic and won’t protect the birds.  

He insists that by law the city must scrap its proposed environmental study and perform a full Environmental Impact Report to see if the city could implement mitigations to provide for both the needs of the rowers and the birds. Such reports usually cost up to $100,000 and could make any deal with the team cost prohibitive. 

Jesse Douglas-Allen Taylor contributed to this report.

The Berkeley City Council approved a HUD Section 108 loan guarantee of up to $4 million for the Jubilee Village development Tuesday after first readjusting the amount which the project’s developers must come up with. The loan is planned for the purchase of the property only, and will not go towards the development itself. 

Jubilee Village is a planned 125-unit affordable housing project to be built on property bounded by San Pablo Avenue and 10th Street and Carleton and Parker streets. The project is being developed jointly by Jubilee Restoration, a non-profit arm of the Missionary Church of God in Christ, and the Related Companies of California, which has developed several affordable and urban multifamily housing projects in California. 

The council initially voted to use the HUD Section 108 loan monies to assume 90 percent of the cost of the land purchase or $4 million, whichever is lower. When Councilmember Miriam Hawley, who initially supported those numbers, changed her vote and defeated the measure, the developers agreed to accept 20 percent of the liability for the land purchase. The measure then passed. 

Hawley said afterwards that her decision to change her vote on the liability issue was not based upon concerns about either Jubilee Restoration or the Related Companies of California, but was merely a “fiscally sound” measure to keep the city from risking all of its HUD loan monies on one project. 

Construction of the project is estimated for March of 2005. Plans for the project have not yet gone through the city’s planning process.

One of Berkeley’s signature streets hosts one of the area’s signature street festivals Sunday—the always rambunctious Solano Stroll. 

An estimated 150,000 strollers will jaunt down Solano Avenue Sunday reveling in a zany sea of food, games and more than 100 entertainers, some with talents no one knew existed. 

Highlighting the event, as always, is the parade down Solano Avenue, open to anyone willing to fork over the $10 entrance fee and find a way to jive with the annual theme. 

This year’s event organizer, Lisa Bullwinkel threw participants a curve ball with the theme Imagine: Blooms of Hope. 

“I like to throw a theme out and see what people will do with it,” she said. Complicating matters for long-time parade entrants, Bullwinkel has imagined a parade without gas powered vehicles.  

Instead of decorating her trademark truck, Sandy Ashley, owner of a San Pablo Avenue sign shop will make two eight-foot long digital red truck photo prints and drag them down the street. “It was a desperate moment,” she said. “But they wouldn’t let me have my truck. 

While anyone can enter the parade, first prize has been less egalitarian. For the past three years the winner’s circle has been the private domain of Crestmont Elementary School. The kids and parents at the 66-student private school in Richmond will work all day Saturday building a cart—if all goes well, a Radio Flyer wagon—covered in hand-made flowers.  

Last year the school wowed spectators by configuring one thousand origami cranes in their truck. 

Without the truck, school Day Care Director David Wharton said the kids will have to pull their load this year, but that if all goes right “it should be pretty spectacular. 

The parade lasts from 11 a. m. until about 12:30 p.m. when grandstand performances kick off. As with the festival itself, the acts will veer from the straight and narrow.  

The Devil-Ettes, a San Francisco based all-woman synchronized go-go dancer troupe, will make their Berkeley debut. Wearing their trademark horns, the troupe will put their spin on 60s dance classics including the Bird, the Shake, the Shimmy, and the Jerk. 

Also on the main stage Freight and Salvage veterans SoVoSo will display their vocal prowess. The five-piece a cappella group replicates the drums, horns, strings and beats of Reggae, Funk, Latin and Jazz using only their voice boxes. 

No Berkeley festival would be complete without Pink Man, the town’s foremost unicyclist, but joining him at this year’s stroll will be Twisty Man, a balloon sculpture specialist; Bubble Man, a bubble blowing guru; and Zip Code Man, a local with a photographic memory who can name the corresponding zip code to any address thrown his way. 

The stroll first started in 1974 in the upper blocks of the avenue, expanding through the years to San Pablo while garnering a reputation as one of the East Bay’s most cherished events. 

“People come back home for the stroll,” Bullwinkel said. “I get phone calls for weddings an class reunions asking what day is the stroll this year.” 

The day begins at 8 a.m. with the traditional pancake breakfast at Veterans’ Memorial Park. Stroll booths open at 10 a.m. Free shuttles are scheduled to run from the North Berkeley BART station and along the parallel Marin Avenue.

Middle Eastern politics dominated Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting as audience and Council polarized over two competing resolutions calling for Congressional investigations of deaths in the Israeli-Palestinean conflict. 

When the dust settled four hours later, the council had narrowly passed one of the motions, with the second back on the agenda for the elected officials’ next session on the Sept. 16. 

The failed “all American deaths inquiry” resolution was the competing measure to the successful “Rachel Corrie death Congressional inquiry” resolution recommended to Council by the Council’s Peace and Justice Commission and adopted by the council on a 5-4 vote. 

The results of the two votes divided the audience as much as it did the Council, leaving half walking out in angry disappointment and the other half cheering and waving signs. 

Corrie, a 23-year-old Washington state resident and a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was killed last March in the Gaza Strip Palestinian village of Rafah when she was run over by a bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier. She was one of several human shields who had placed themselves in the path of Israeli army units knocking down Palestinian homes. 

The Israeli government said that the Rafah operation was part of a search for terrorist hideouts, while ISM members contend it was part of an Israeli government plan to clear out Palestinian residents. 

An Israeli Army statement at the time called Corrie’s death “a very regrettable accident” involving protesters who were “intentionally placing themselves [in danger] in a combat zone.” But photographs of the incident showed that Corrie was wearing a bright orange vest. Fellow protesters at the scene said she was standing in full view of the bulldozer driver, and was driven over deliberately. 

Ten days after Corrie’s death, a bipartisan group of California Congressmembers, including Barbara Lee, George Miller, and Darrell Issa, joined 39 others in cosponsoring House Concurrent Resolution 111, which called for the U.S. and Israeli governments to cooperate in a “full, fair and expeditious investigation into the death.” 

Four months later, Berkeley City Peace and Justice Commission voted 11-2 to recommend that the Council adopt a resolution in support of Concurrent Resolution 111. At that same July meeting, Commissioners overwhelmingly rejected Commissioner Thom Seaton’s proposed amendment to Concurrent Resolution 111. 

Seaton’s proposal, included in the Commission report to the Council as a minority recommendation, would have asked that the investigation into Corrie’s death be expanded to include recent deaths of Americans killed by Palestinian suicide bombers, including former UC Berkeley student Marla Bennett. 

Emotional debate on the competing proposals dominated the Public Comment period of Tuesday’s Council meeting. 

Supporters of the Corrie resolution said that adding other deaths to the resolution would dilute its effect and doom efforts to force the Israeli government to provide information on Corrie’s death to the United States government and Corrie’s parents. 

Supporters of Seaton’s proposal, which was introduced by Councilmembers Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley, charged that failure to include deaths caused by suicide bombers left the impression that Corrie’s life was more important than the lives of other victims. 

The two sides of the public debate reflected competing positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. 

Mayor Bates opened the debate with a plea to table the two measures indefinitely to keep the Council out of what he called “divisive” foreign policy issues. Bates eventually voted against the measure that would have only investigated the Corrie death and for the measure that would have investigated the deaths of Palestinian suicide bomber deaths as well as Corrie’s. 

While Councilmember Linda Maio voted in favor of the Corrie death investigation, she abstained on the resolution that would have added other deaths to the investigation. 

Maio said later that while voting for the competing resolution would have undercut the effect of the Corrie resolution, she “couldn’t in good conscience vote against a resolution that condemned the deaths of innocent Americans.” 

When the Corrie resolution passed, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who had voted for the Corrie resolution, tried to introduce what he called a “compromise proposal” which would have included all of the Olds-Hawley language calling for a Congressional investigation into the “deaths and/or injuries sustained by all Americans...in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza due to ongoing conflicts,” but would not have asked Congress to amend the Concurrent Resolution 111 to include that language.  

Worthington’s measure would have also required the “all deaths and/or injuries” resolution to go back before the Peace and Justice Commission to “straighten out the language” while the Corrie resolution was passed on directly to Congress.  

Olds and Hawley rejected Worthington’s proposal, as well as requests by other Councilmembers to put their measure off for another week. 

That set the stage for the 4-4 vote which spelled temporary defeat on the Olds-Hawley measure—which the council will consider once again on Sept. 16 under the heading of old business. 

City Clerk Sherry Kelly said later that the request to put the “all American deaths” item on the Sept. 16 agenda was made by Mayor Bates. Kelly also said that Councilmember Hawley confirmed to her following the meeting that she wanted the item brought up again. 

Councilmember Betty Olds said Thursday that there was a possibility that supporters of the “all American deaths” resolution would pull it off the agenda before the September 16th meeting. 

The Corrie resolution vote: Ayes: Maio, Breland, Shirek, Spring, Worthington. 

Nayes: Hawley, Olds, Wozniak, Bates. 

The Olds-Hawley resolution vote:  

Ayes: Hawley, Olds, Wozniak, Bates. 

Nayes: Breland, Shirek, Spring, Worthington. 

Abstain: Maio.

My husband and I were at a crowded party in Berkeley. We were glad to be there. He had been bedridden for eight weeks, but had just been given permission by his doctor to get up for a few hours each day. 

I was leaning against a wall and he was sitting in his electric wheelchair, facing me. His wheelchair blocked the flow of partygoers, much like a big, unmovable Lazy Boy in the middle of heavy traffic. People walked around and in front of him, sometimes stepping between us and over his feet to get to the bar and buffet table.  

I scanned the jam-packed room to see if there was a better place to position ourselves. The only alternative was to wheel Ralph into a corner. I didn’t want to do it. I wanted him to be, as much as possible, a participant in the party.  

A woman sidled up beside me. “You’re the gal who writes about her husband sometimes, aren’t you?” she shouted.  

I balanced my drink in my left hand and introduced myself. “I’m one of them,” I answered. “But there are lots of women who write about their husbands.” 

“I mean you’re the one who writes about her disabled husband, right?” She cast a glance at Ralph.  

“Yes,” I said. “This is Ralph, my husband.” 

She nodded at Ralph and then leaned in closer, toward my ear. “You know, don’t you, that when your articles first appeared in the paper they caused quite a furor in the disabled community?” 

I felt my body go stiff and blood rush to my face. “No,” I said. I glanced at Ralph. I was glad he was unable to hear her words. “What kind of furor?” 

“You don’t know?” she asked. “I was working for a non-profit several years ago when one of your essays was published. No one could believe the things you were saying. You were obviously very angry that your husband had become disabled.” 

I looked down at my feet and up at the ceiling. I took another sip of my drink. 

“Someone copied the article and passed it around the office for everyone to read,” she continued. “We discussed coming over to your house and rescuing your husband. We were worried you might hurt him.” 

I took a bigger gulp of my drink and tried to focus on something. I looked directly at the woman’s face and stared at her nose. It was small and perky. 

“Really?” I said. “I wish you had come over. We could have used some help.” 

She chuckled softly. “We thought you sounded like a crazy person, like you couldn’t handle the situation.” 

“I couldn’t,” I said. “Sometimes I still can’t.”  

“Well, you seem to be doing pretty good now.” She shot another glance at Ralph. He was busy blocking traffic, talking to no one. 

“We were,” I said, “until now.” 

“What?” 

“I didn’t know that anyone wanted to rescue Ralph from me. All those times I took him to doctors’ appointments, therapy sessions and advisory meetings, no one said anything to indicate that they were worried about his safety.” 

I looked at Ralph. He was no longer just in the middle of the crowd. Now the buffet line actually snaked around his wheelchair. The room was growing hot and more congested. I thought it might even be spinning but I wasn’t sure. 

I peered back at the woman. “Do people still feel that way?” I asked. 

“Feel what way?” 

“That Ralph is in danger?” 

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s getting crowded in here. I think I’ll get something to eat.” She scurried off to the end of the food line. 

I turned toward my husband. “Ralph,” I said, leaning down so that he could hear me.  

“I want to go home.” 

“Why?” he asked. 

“Because it feels unsafe in here,” I said. “I think it may be dangerous.”

For the longest time, it’s been my belief that if Mayor Jerry Brown were more like Bill Clinton, Oakland would have a better record of downtown development. But maybe not the way you’re thinking. 

When Brown was running for Mayor in 1998, and during his re-election campaign last year, he promised that downtown development was one of his three top priorities (if you’ve got a good memory, you’ll recall that the other two were education and crime, both of which are probably touchy subjects with the Mayor these days, what with the state takeover of the Oakland Public Schools, problems with both his charter schools, and two years of soaring murder rates…so that brings us back to downtown development). 

Anyway, while downtown development hasn’t been a total disaster under Jerry Brown, the Mayor hasn’t racked up a bundle of successes, either, in five years at the helm. There’s one new development that absolutely, positively would not have come to downtown Oakland if Jerry Brown had not been Mayor, and that’s the Gap store on Broadway. The reason we can say that Gap probably wouldn’t have come to downtown Oakland without Brown is that his girlfriend, Anne Gust, is a Gap executive.  

Mind you, I absolutely do not see anything either illegal, unethical, or improper about this type of arrangement, having the mayor’s girlfriend help out in development. In fact, I would like to encourage it, if I could. The problem is that unlike Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown appears to be a one-girlfriend kind of guy. Admirable quality, yes, but it sort of stunts Oakland’s progress, don’t you think?—because more mayoral girlfriends might mean more businesses coming into town. For a while I was thinking about getting local residents to sponsor a dating service for the mayor, just to get him started in the right direction, but a better idea has recently intervened. 

Last spring, the mayor left his Jack London neighborhood loft and moved in with Gust at her place in the converted Sears building at Telegraph and 26th Street, in a community commonly known as Koreatown. If you know anything about the neighborhood, it’s one of the rougher major street areas of the city after dark, with open air drug dealing, and more than it’s share of auto break-ins, fighting, and other assorted bad stuff. No surprise to anyone who drives through the area on a late summer evening, but, then, maybe, north on Telegraph was not one of the directions that the mayor liked to drive on late summer evenings. 

We can make that assertion because fighting crime and blight and generally improving the Koreatown community was not known as one of Mayor Brown’s priorities—not, at least, until he moved into the neighborhood.  

Now, of course, it is.  

“Since moving … into the … Sears Building,” the Tribune reported last month, the mayor “has been prowling the neighborhood…. When he doesn’t like what he sees, he picks up the phone and gives bureaucrats an earful until something gets done. So far, the mayor has helped get two buildings condemned, talked the housing authority into canceling its Section 8 contracts with one building owner, increased police patrols and helped the owner of a bar he frequents obtain a permit for karaoke.”  

In explaining if the police and other city officials are giving the Koreatown neighborhood special attention because it is, after all, the mayor’s new neighborhood, the Tribune quoted a police representative as saying, “I can’t say we are acting differently than we are in any other neighborhood, but when the mayor shows up, people tend to pay attention.”  

This has caused some grumbling from other neighborhoods about preferential treatment, but it is my belief that rather than whining and complaining, Oaklanders ought to recognize the potential in this situation and capitalize. 

If the mayor is more likely to be concerned about crime and blight and development in a neighborhood in which he lives, and if police and other city officials are more likely to respond to complaints and suggestions from the mayor than they are to complaints and suggestions from ordinary citizens, then the solution is obvious—concerned Oakland residents must induce the mayor to move into their neighborhoods, if only for a brief moment.  

I propose, therefore, that the City of Oakland set up an Rent-The-Mayor program, in which, for a nominal fee and the providing of a vacant room, apartment, house, or even a spare church pew, neighborhoods can obtain the services of the mayor for periods of a week up to a month. During that period, it will be the mayor’s responsibility to roam the local streets on foot, reporting blight and crime whenever he sees it and clearing red tape for frustrated citizens and business owners. Police and other city officials will quickly respond, criminals will be rousted, trashed cleaned, permits granted, the mayor can move on to the next neighborhood, and within a period of a couple of years, we can turn this city around.  

If Tom Bates can sleep for a night on the Berkeley streets, surely Jerry Brown can sleep in Dogtown and the Twomps.

Pacific Gas & Electric is moving its Berkeley customer service office on Sept. 29 from 2111 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to 1900 Addison St. 

PG&E spokesman Jason Alderman said the company was making the move because the exisiting office couldn’t meet the PG&E’s standards for handicapped accessibility. 

The new quarters are level with the sidewalk and easily accessible by wheelchair, he said. “All the services we offered in the MLK office will be available in the new one. Customers can still drop off their payments and handle billing situations.”

For anyone looking for a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning, the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association invites ones and all to join in a climb up historic Charter Hill behind the UC campus. 

Hikers will learn about a century of Berkeley history while enjoying spectacular views and a late summer’s day in the Berkeley Hills. 

I’ll be leading the walk in my role as a local historian, starting at 10 a.m. Our walk starts on the UC campus with a stroll through a former 19th century residential neighborhood, including a home visited by Jack London. 

Next stop is the Greek Theatre, 100 years old this month, where tourgoers will learn about the history of Berkeley’s first great performance space and, in particular, the memorial marble chairs dedicated to figures from Berkeley’s past, from Phoebe Hearst to Frank Norris. 

The walk then climbs along the historic “Big C Trail” route overlooking Memorial Stadium and Strawberry Canyon and, finally, reaches the Big “C” itself, built as a symbol of student unity in 1905; the giant concrete letter overlooking Berkeley is the oldest feature of its type in the Western American landscape. 

Along the way we’ll learn about past uses of the Berkeley Hills from student hijinks to Sierra Club Easter services. 

The tour is free and no reservations are required. Gather by 10 a.m. sharp in the plaza west of Wurster Hall on the UC Campus. Look for the triangular wooden sculpture. 

Bring water and good climbing shoes. The walk goes up a steep dirt trail, and quickly gains 400 feet in elevation. The walk will last two to three hours. It is not wheelchair accessible. 

Parking is on your own. The UC Foothill Parking Lot ($7 public parking) is closest to the end of the walk. Drive up Hearst Avenue to above Gayley and follow the signs to the lot entrance on the right, double--checking the signs to avoid parking in restricted spaces. 

For more information on this and the other hikes offered by the Berkeley Path Wanderers—including a selection of self-guided tours—see their Web site: www.internettime.com/bpwa/.

While the corporate record industry files lawsuits against 12-year-olds and Cal students for downloading music from the web, O-Maya, a group of former Berkeley and St. Mary’s high school students, offers their music for free on the Web and for sale on their debut CD this weekend. 

More than just a band, O-Maya is a Berkeley-based nine-man, one-woman musical aggregation that mixes up everything from classic Mexican corridos to funky Afro-American soul to contemporary hip hop—all with a big beat you can dance to and a message of anger, hope and inclusion. 

Thirty-four-year-old B. Quincy Griffin describes himself as the “old man of the group.” A Berkeley High graduate [class of 1987] with a shaved head, Griffin recently won the Sundance Audience Award for his musical score to the film “My Flesh and Blood” and was nominated for an Oscar for his score for “My Daughter From Danang.” 

When asked to define O-Maya’s sound, the band’s ringleader faltered. 

“It’s a real problem trying to label it,” Griffin said. “We came up with Afro-Latin-hip-hop but that just describes what it is. I would call it a certain type of fusion but everybody thinks of jazz-fusion when you use the word fusion. It’s a lot of different cultures coming together.” 

“I would describe it as a good time,” said lead vocalist Destani Wolf. “[It’s music that has] a spicy vibe, that has hip-hop, has the urban elements but still has a message. It’s just acknowledging the current situation. 

“How this country deals with the world. How this country deals with itself, with the righteousness of understanding what’s out there and what needs to be changed in our education system, police brutality, going out and attacking countries that get left with nothing. In the name of what?” 

Wolf, a 1994 Berkeley High graduate, earned her B.A. in music from San Francisco State. She spent four years recording three albums and touring the world with local a cappella group SoVoSo. 

“We did a show a week after Sept. 11 [two years ago] that was probably one of our most emotional shows to me,” said Wolf. 

“Within our music, within our lyrics you can’t avoid the realities. It’s not just an escape. It’s fun to just get away but it feels good to understand what’s real. People are feeling the hope, there’s an undercurrent of that.” 

One of the youngest members of the group is 23-year-old drummer Valentino Pelizzer. He and Wolf met at Berkeley High and played together in several local bands. 

After returning from a year at the New School for Social Research in New York, Pelizzer’s planning on continuing his education at San Francisco State. He credits his musical classes at Berkeley High [class of 1998] as inspirational and decries the current climate of cutbacks in arts education. 

“I was in the Berkeley High band ensemble for three years,” said the pony-tailed Pelizzer. “Any music program, not just Berkeley High, but any music program should be supported because it gives kids an outlet that they would otherwise not get, especially kids who don’t have instruments at home. 

“They could come to school and play and let out their emotions or whatever’s going on in their heads. Music is very healing. 

“Teaching them to read is important just like teaching mathematics is important, but what music does is it ties all that in,” Pelizzer continued. 

“It ties mathematics to a very real situation. Math sometimes tends to be kind of out there in equations and formulas and stuff. Music is very real and tangible. 

“You can touch it and it lasts. It’s reading, it’s not reading the English language but it’s reading a language. It also helps you to develop self-esteem as a child: I can do something that people like.” 

Steve Hogan, O-Maya’s bassist agreed. A former St. Mary’s High student, Hogan played with Bay Area hip-hop legends The Coup and Goapele, who’s debut album was just re-released by Sony. 

“Music takes people to a higher plane,” the 24-year-old UC graduate said. “ I like playing dance music because I like the energy you provide the dancers they provide put back to you. It’s sort of like this positive cycle that increases the energy level.  

O-Maya plays tonight at Jupiter in downtown Berkeley. Their CD Release Party is Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, and you can also hear them Sunday, Sept. 28 at the How Berkeley Can You Be Festival. 

On the Web: www.o-maya.com/. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last of a three-part series on the history of Memorial Stadium.  

The building of Memorial Stadium was an enormous undertaking which began in November of 1922 and was rapidly completed by November of 1923. Building Review magazine reported that the first phase of the project was the excavation of approximately “...280,000 cubic yards of material by hydraulicking (sic) and by steam shovels...it was an extremely interesting sight to see.” 

The stadium was financed by subscription from alumni, faculty and students. For each $100 dollar donation, the subscriber would receive “script” worth $10 per year for ten years toward the purchase of tickets to the football games. 

The reason given for the selection of the Strawberry Canyon site over the previously announced alternative closer to downtown was that this was land the university already owned and therefore would not have to pay out additional funds for its purchase. 

Just why the University hadn’t considered this before announcing and soliciting funds for the other site remains a mystery. 

Neighbors feared that the stadium would be used for events other than university football games and events such as graduations, but were assured by Robert Gordon Sproul that the stadium would only be used for school-related activities—which proved to be the case for many decades thereafter.  

Then, suddenly in 1972—and despite regulations prohibiting use of university facilities by commercial enterprises—the UC Regents approved a three-year contract with the Oakland Raiders. 

Though the Raiders deal was the first violation of Sproul’s promise, it wasn’t to be the last: rock concerts came next. 

The new crowds—a different mix altogether from the more sedate university student and alumni community—overwhelmed the city, its services and especially the areas closest to the stadium. 

After two years, the City Council cried foul, passing a resolution disapproving of the leasing of Memorial Stadium for commercial use. 

The era of professional football games and other events in the stadium finally ended but only after much public complaint.  

To paraphrase a familiar quotation: If we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past we are bound to repeat them.  

One final note: The accompanying photograph was discovered at Urban Ore in an old family photo album someone had discarded. Among the many photos were six of the stadium under construction. If you have such photographic treasures, don’t throw them away. Donate them to the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association or Berkeley Historical Society.  

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

MoveOn—the Berkeley based activist organization that’s been using the Internet to shake up the political scene—is calling together a flash mob to register voters in Berkeley Saturday. 

“Flash mobs” are rapidly organized gatherings called together by the Internet and mobile phone, and originally began as a form of high tech pranking, with crowds called together to perform absurd acts then quickly disperse. 

Of late, the phenomenon has been taking on a more serious tone, sparked in part by a recent Doonesbury series about flash-mobbing for Democratic Presidential hopeful Howard Dean. 

MoveOn—founded during Clinton’s impeachment in 1999 by software entrepreneurs Wes Boyd and Joan Blades—takes the next step, using the practice to get out the vote. 

For Saturday’s event, volunteers—anyone in Berkeley who wants to join in is welcome—will gather on at 2 p.m. on Shattuck Avenue between Berkeley Bowl and Walgreens.

I’ve encountered coyotes in odd places—the men’s room of a park in Tucson, for one—but never, unlike a friend who knows his wildlife, in downtown Berkeley. He says it was crossing Shattuck Avenue, early in the morning before significant traffic. This shouldn’t have surprised me: I knew they were in the East Bay Hills (Tilden Park and Briones), and it was only a matter of time until they came to town. 

The coyote is one of the few medium-to-large predatory mammals that have prospered since the European settlement of North America. 

We think of them as Southwestern: the iconic baying-at-the-moon-beneath-a-saguaro pose, Chuck Jones’s maladroit schemer pursuing the Roadrunner through canyons and mesas. But they were also native to the Plains, and they’ve now wandered far beyond their original range, filling the niche of the timber wolf in the Northeast. 

We’ve shot, trapped, and poisoned them, but they keep coming back. 

They’ve inhabited the cultures and belief systems of North Americans for a long time, from Mexico (“coyote” comes from the Nahuatl coyotl) to the Arctic. Coyote—trickster, worldmaker, shapeshifter—features in thousands of creation myths and bawdy stories: see Malcolm Margolin’s “The Way We Lived” for a California sample. 

The coyote’s image is everywhere--Harry Fonseca’s paintings, Santa Fe kitsch—and its song, thanks to all those Westerns, is part of our collective soundtrack. 

What concerns me here, though, is their role as predators. Wile E. Coyote is atypical; most coyotes are very good at what they do. They’re opportunistic, scavenging carrion, eating fruit, taking insects, frogs, snakes, rodents, pronghorn, deer. Mostly solitary, they’ll join forces to run down an antelope, or follow a badger around to see what it flushes. 

As predators, coyotes are major architects of natural communities. There’s a sizable body of research showing how predators regulate ecosystems. Everyone knows that hunters keep the numbers of the hunted in check: The canonical story is of the deer on Arizona’s Kaibab Plateau, whose population exploded past sustainable levels when wolves and mountain lions were killed off. 

But it’s more complicated than that. 

Predation is also a force for biodiversity. Without predators, some species in a natural community would outcompete others and come to dominate. This seems to work the same way for starfish in a tidepool (keeping the mussels from taking over) as for tigers in a jungle. 

In a Texas study, coyotes were removed from test plots of grassland with multiple species of rodents. Nine months later, rodent diversity had declined; after a year, only one species of kangaroo rat was left. 

It also appears that predators don’t just regulate prey: they regulate other predators. 

Predators come in all sizes. Most terrestrial ecosystems have “mesopredators,” in the weasel-to-fox range. Larger predators like coyotes may either compete with mesopredators or prey on them directly. When top predators are eliminated, the smaller guys experience what conservation biologist Michael Soule dubbed “mesopredator release.”  

Their populations increase, and so does their impact on their prey base. 

Soule described the process in 1988, in a study of chaparral “islands” in the canyons around San Diego. He found that fragments without coyotes had fewer ground-nesting birds: quail, roadrunners, thrashers, towhees. The variable seemed to be the abundance of foxes, domestic cats, and other bird predators in the coyoteless areas. 

Indirectly, it seems, the coyote is a benefactor of the roadrunner. 

Since then, other researchers have supported this notion. Recent surveys of riparian corridors among Sonoma County vineyards found more large predators (coyotes, bobcats) and fewer small predators in the wider, better-vegetated patches. 

In the prairie pothole country, North America's duck factory, the presence of coyotes seems to reduce red fox predation on duck nests. A similar dynamic involving lynxes, mongooses, and rabbits was described in a Spanish national park. 

Soule and Kevin Crooks revisited coastal southern California a few years ago for a closer look at competition among predators and how prey species were affected. They found a strong positive correlation between coyote presence and chaparral-nesting bird diversity, and strong negative correlations between both of these and the abundance of gray foxes, opossums, raccoons, and domestic cats. 

Crooks and Soule wrote in the journal Nature: “The interactions between coyotes, cats and birds probably have the strongest impact on the decline and extinction of scrub-breeding birds.” 

Basically, coyotes kill cats. About a quarter of the coyote scat specimens collected in their study area contained cat remains. 

I can hear the Cat Lobby already: cats, house or feral, get a bad rap, they’re not really destructive predators, they didn’t wipe out the quail in Golden Gate Park. 

Let me cite the classic paper by P. B. Churcher and J. H. Lawton. Churcher and Lawton persuaded the cat owners of the English village of Felmersham to keep track of what their pets brought home in a year’s time. The village’s 70-odd cats accounted for a total of 1090 prey items, mostly mice, voles, and shrews, but about 300 birds. (And this doesn’t include whatever the cats ate on the spot). 

Interestingly, individual success varied: six feline slackers brought in nothing at all, while one overachiever accounted for 95 kills.  

So it seems straightforward: more coyotes, fewer cats, more birds. 

But roles can change; sometimes a top predator gets demoted. The coyotes of Yellowstone had a good thing going, with pronghorn antelope fawns a prominent item on their menu. Then the wolves returned, and wolves have zero tolerance for coyotes. Last year, according to pronghorn authority John Byers, antelope numbers increased for the first time in years. Byers credits the exclusion of coyotes by wolves: “It’s likely the wolves are going to be the single-most-important force to save the pronghorn of Yellowstone.”

How to make up a $1.43 million Berkeley General Fund shortfall caused by the 2003-04 state budget? That’s the gloomy and wholly expected task the Berkeley City Council will take up at tonight’s regular 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Old City Hall. 

Also on the agenda will be a public hearing on changes in the city’s Rental Housing Safety Program fees and on the proposed building of a Sprint Wireless Communication Facility (to include three rooftop antennas) on the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Cedar Street. Council also plans to discuss two items held over from its Sept. 9 meeting: a proposed study on the environmental effects of the use of the Aquatic Park Lagoon by the Berkeley High Women’s Crew team, and a second look at the defeated Olds-Hawley resolution calling for an inquiry into the deaths of all American citizens in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza over the past three years. 

The city officials knew a general fund gap was imminent this fiscal year, the only question being how large it would be. The council finally learned the exact size of it during a public workshop session held with City Manager Weldon Rucker and Budget Manager Paul Navazio before last week’s Council meeting. 

Rucker and Navazio have recommended that the city make up the deficit from three quarters of a million unspent dollars carried over from last year’s budget and a quarter of a million unallocated dollars from this year’s increase in parking fees. 

The two managers have also recommended close to a half million dollars in actual budget cuts, the most significant being elimination of an unfilled assistant fire chief’s position and a $50,500 cut in police overtime. 

At the same working session last week, Council also received long-term bad news from its budget experts. Unless Council enacts some combination of tax increases or spending cuts or the state economic picture magically brightens, Berkeley can expect a projected structural deficit of $8 million to $10 million next year, growing $2 million to $3 million per year . 

EMH Market Research firm of Sacramento is already conducting a City of Berkeley-ordered survey of 400 Berkeley registered voters to assess support for a possible city bond measure next spring to make up part of this deficit. Council expects the results of the survey by early October, and plans to discuss a possible spring bond measure during its first meeting in November.

When searching a mainstream news Web site don’t be surprised if you find Muslims described as “ragheads” and “Islamofascists.” Just don’t expect Israelis to be subjected to the same sort of ethnic slurs—articles that contain derogatory terms about Israelis are forbidden. 

SF.indymedia.org, a San Francisco-based independent news Web site, recently found about this policy the hard way. Google News, the news compilation site of the popular search engine, has banned all references to sf.indymedia.org material on its Web site because of a flap over the description of Israeli soldiers as “zionazis.” 

The term appeared in a posting to sf.indymedia.org last May in regard to an attack by Israeli soldiers on a Palestinian home in the West Bank that left a young child dead. The post was essentially a letter to the editor, but according to Ryan Bagded of Berkeley, an editorial staffer with sf.indymedia.org and a freelance journalist, Google News should not have referred its users to the posting in the first place.  

Due to Google News’ concerns about the freewheeling style at sf.indymedia.org (the site is dedicated to free speech and does not edit the content provided by contributors) Bagded says sf.indymedia.org agreed to set up a special link for stories that had been approved for Google News. It was a system that was supposed to catch phrases like “zionazi”—a term Bagded admits would not be suitable for a news Web site. 

“There’s still no explanation about how that happened,” says Bagded. “It could very well be a technical error on our end. I don’t think so, because we set up a special page for them. But then maybe the technical error’s on their end. Maybe their spider technology goes too far.” 

Google News uses “spider” technology to search for stories to include on its site—automated programs that grab the contents of various news organizations such as the New York Times’ Web site and then create an index for the stories. 

Sf.indymedia.org runs reports produced by volunteer producers on the anti-war movement, labor issues, forest preservation efforts and other stories often ignored or underreported by the mainstream press. The San Francisco Web site is one of many located around the world. 

A spokesman for Google said the company had no comment “at this time.”  

Google first took sf.indymedia.org off its index last March after determining that the site did not have proper editorial review of its articles. The special page was then developed, but in May the term “zionazi” was discovered and Google took sf.indymedia.org off its index for good. 

At the time, Marissa Mayer, who runs Google News, referred to “zionazi” as a “degrading, hateful slur.” In hopes that they could work something out, sf.indymedia.org refrained from reporting their removal from Google News until earlier this month when the group posted a notice about the action written by Bagded, available at www.sf.indymedia.org/news/. 

“We wanted to work it out with them and so we held off on saying anything publicly about it for a long time,” says Bagded. He says in May the site received anonymous e-mails from people claiming they would “make sure” that sf.indymedia.org would be removed from Google News. 

Further muddying the waters is that racial slurs directed at Arabs and Muslims seem to be allowed by Google News. 

Bagded recently searched the site for news about the Iraq war and came across references to “Islamofascists” and other terms. In a search of “green beretiraq” Bagded found an article written by a U.S. soldier that referred to Muslims as “ragheads” and included the following quote: “Instead of being sitting ducks for the ragheads we now are going after the worthless pieces of fecal matter.” 

“Their policy is inconsistent,” says Bagded. “They are extremely hardline about taking words like “zionazi” out, but you can go to the site right now and search for “Islamofascist” and find that.” He writes on sf.indymedia.org that he believes “Google News needs to take responsibility for their seemingly one-sided tolerance of what is and is not ‘hate speech.’”  

Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit dedicated to, among other things, protecting free speech and music downloading on the Web, isn’t sure Google’s action against sf.indymedia.org is censorship. 

“They clearly have a right to do it, but is it wise?” says Tien. 

Ultimately for Bagded, Google News’ removal of sf.indymedia.org is about accountability. “Google News is the most famous news aggregation service. It’s a widespread thing,” says Bagded. “Where I work lots of people use it. To me it’s important that right now people hold sites like this accountable because it’s the new form of media. I use Google News more than I read the newspaper or watch TV news and I know that almost all my friends are the same way.”