Berkeley City Council asked citizens to come out to the regular meeting last Tuesday to air their opinions on the proposed March, 2004, parcel tax increase ballot measure. A large number of Berkeley citizens complied, packing Council chambers Tuesday night, and pretty much telling Council to take their tax and shove it. 

The city faces an $8 million to $10 million budget deficit next year, projected to rise to as high as $20 million within five years. Council has proposed a parcel tax measure for next spring’s ballot that would make up half that projected deficit, hoping to institute budget cuts to make up the rest. 

The proposed tax would raise property taxes in Berkeley a little over nine cents a square foot, which would add about $110 to the tax bill for a 1,200-square-foot of property, up to a $913 increase for 10,000 square feet. 

Implementation of the measure requires approval by two-thirds of the voters. 

According to city Budget Manager Paul Navazio, without a new source of revenue, the city faces a 10 percent across-the-board cut next year of all city services. If no cuts are made to fire or police services, those necessary cuts would balloon to between 20 percent to 30 percent of the remaining city budget. 

In anticipation of the pending cuts, Mayor Tom Bates and three members of City Council (Linda Maio, Miriam Hawley, and Gordon Wozniak) have proposed a “budget crisis recovery plan” for debate before Council at its Nov. 25 meeting. Included in the proposed plan are a freeze on most new hiring by the city and a moratorium on all new city expenditures. 

Meanwhile, at the request of the mayor, the city manager’s office will do some more tweaking of the proposed parcel tax before putting it to Council for a final approval of the ballot language Nov. 25. 

Bates asked City Manager Phil Kamlarz to cap the proposed tax at $7 million, eliminating the trigger that would allow the tax to increase in proportion to any potential state cuts to Berkeley’s budget. Bates also requested that the proposed tax be automatically resubmitted to voters for approval in four years, rather than the original six. 

If Tuesday night’s hearing is any indication, however, those alterations may be a case of too little, too late. Some 30 residents spoke their minds to Council, almost all in opposition to the proposed tax, and none citing any previous Council concessions on the measure. 

Berkeley resident Patrick Finley—stressing that he isn’t a landlord—summed up the position of many when he told Council, “The structure [of the proposed parcel tax] is proposed so that the majority can impose on a minority a property tax, so only the few will carry the burden to benefit the many. I say shame on you for your divisive proposal, and your failure to fulfill the trust to manage the city’s revenue.” 

Dorothy Adriennes, an artist, an unemployed single mother, and a Berkeley property owner since 1985, told council she was at her “wit’s end” because of a property tax bill that was already more than $4,000 a year. “I’m one of those persons who is at my limit,” she said. “I need some relief here. The Berkeley artists can’t afford to live in Berkeley.” 

Bob McDow, a Berkeley homeowner and taxi driver, said “a lot of us are fed up. Last November, three of four Berkeley tax measures were voted down, with no significant opposition. This time, there’s organized opposition.” McDow said that if Council did not make significant revisions to the tax proposal, “we will fight it, we will oppose it, and we will defeat it. There is no doubt.” 

Three more Berkeley neighborhood associations—the McKinley Addison Allston Grant Neighborhood Association, the Willard Neighborhood Association, and the Blake and California Streets Neighborhood Association—came out in opposition Tuesday night, bringing to five the number of Berkeley neighborhood groups against the tax. In addition, the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA), an umbrella coalition, has announced opposition to the parcel tax. 

Many speakers questioned why Council didn’t propose other fund-raising measures rather than the parcel tax. 

But to the complaint of some speakers that the proposed parcel tax was a “regressive tax based upon the square footage rather than the value of the property,” City Manager Phil Kamlarz said that state law “limits the types of taxes we can implement. Few, if any, progressive tax raises are possible.” 

A clearly frustrated Mayor Tom Bates took aim at some of the public speakers, saying, “A lot of misinformation was put out tonight [about the nature of the Berkeley budget and the proposed tax cut]. It’s very frustrating to sit here and listen to this misinformation.” 

But Bates seemed almost resigned to the possible—some might say probable—defeat of the measure next March, stating that while he didn’t want to preside over layoffs and radical budget cuts, he would do so if that was the will of the voters. 

Bates, in fact, seemed to be almost publicly preparing for an imminent loss. “We’re trying to craft something that we can present to the voters, and if they turn it down, they turn it down. I used to play football up at Cal,” he added. “I know how to lose. It’s not like it’s the end of the world.” 

The remark got one of the few laughs of the night. 

Council got more bad budget news during an earlier 5 p.m. hearing on the city’s labor contracts. While Council has floated the idea of renegotiating the labor pacts as a way of cutting the budget deficit, representatives of several of the city’s major labor unions flatly rejected the notion during the public hearing. 

The city is presently locked into contracts with fire personnel until 2006, with police personnel until 2007, and with all other union-represented city staff until 2008. 

City staff and union representatives both said they were continuing negotiations over several labor cost-cutting proposals that would not involve renegotiating contracts.  

The only good news for the city on the labor front on Tuesday was the announcement that city department heads had agreed to a voluntary three percent pay cut to help in the budget crisis.

FRIDAY, NOV. 21 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eric Stover, Director, Human Rights Center, “My Neighbor, My Enemy.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

Family Literacy Night at the Berkeley YMCA, 7 to 9 p.m. Activities include veggie art, pumpkin writing, storytelling. 665-3271. 

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

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 

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 22 

Graffitti Paint Out, sponsored by the City of Berkeley. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center, 2180 Milvia St. The City will provide the paint and other supplies. Teams will be dispatched to areas throughout the City and each participant will receive a free “Berkeley Paint Out” T-shirt. It is strongly suggested that any clothing worn to the Berkeley “Paint Out” be suitable for painting and cleaning. For more information, call David Burruto at 981-7003 or email DBurruto@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Dyeing Naturally Discover natural dyes from your backyard. We’ll learn techniques and sources for easy and unusual dyes. For ages 8 and up. From 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club Learn about the power of seeds and plant a new hillside of the Kids Garden. For ages 7to 12 registration required. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3. 525-2233.  

Greens at Work A local action to improve the health of the planet! Clean up, plant, restore! Meet at 10 a.m. at the southern end of Aquatic Park. Sponsored by Northwest Berkeley Greens and Strawberry Creek Affinity Group. All are welcome. 622-4515. 

Green Living Series: Alternative Cleaning Recipes and Methods A workshop on methods and recipes for cleaning your house with such items as baking soda, vinegar, and borax, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. Cost is $10 EC members, $15 general, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

Eastshore State Park Walk Through Time Citizens for the Eastshore State Park and Save the Bay will offer a walk along the Bay beginning at 9 a.m. at Seabreeze Café off of University Ave. Learn about the history of this greatly transformed Bay shoreline. 452-926. jparsons@savesfbay.org 

Gardening: The Colorful Camellia Sasanqua at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

March to Support Grocery Workers Meet at the Rockridge BART, 5660 College Ave. Oakland, at 1 p.m. for a march on Safeway. Sponsored by the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, AFL-CIO. 632-4242. 

Rights of the Child in the Middle East, a conference with discussions on the role of the United Nations, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Peacemaking, Refugees, and Children’s Education, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. Donations will benefit UNICEF projects in the region. 540-0830. Iameva@aol.com 

Goalball Invitational Tournament for visually impaired athletes, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Recreational Sports Facility, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program. For information call 849-4663, ext. 304.  

Lavender Seniors of the East Bay Honors “Lavender Pioneers” from 1 to 4 p.m. in the San Leandro Community Church, 1395 Bancroft Ave., San Leandro. Admission is $25 sliding scale. 667-9655. www.lavenderseniors.org 

Get into the Swing at the Club Swing dance and open house at the Berkeley City Club from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Featuring live music from the 16-piece Class Act Traditional Swing Band, a full bar, and silent auction. Cost is $10. 848-7800. 

Dance for Lesbians and Their Allies, a benefit for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and La Lesbian, at 9 p.m. at La Peña, 3015 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $20. 849-2568. 

Berkeley African Student Association Fall Banquet, “Problems and Politics Behind Educational Practices in Africa” at 6:30 p.m. in the Lippman Room, Barrows Hall. For details email basaofficers@ 

uclink.berkeley.edu, ww.ocf. 

berkeley.edu/~basa/home 

Alexander Technique Workshop on tension reduction, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley YWCA, 2600 Bancroft Way. Pre-registration recommended. 848-6370. 

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 by calling 981-5506. 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8.00 per class. For further information and to register, call Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 23 

Plant a Winter Garden, for children and adults, from 1 to 3 p.m. Meet in the West End Community Garden in People’s Park. Heavy rain cancels. 658-9178.  

Peace Garden Harvest Festival Join us for a day of harvesting vegetables, cooking and eating! Listen to speakers from local food groups and join in discussions of the importance of creating sustainable local food systems. Participate in mural painting, the vegetable grill, and kids’ activitiesfrom 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fellowship of Humanity Hall, 390 27th St. and 411 28th St, between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. 393-5685.  

Hope Rises From the Ashes, Vietnam veteran Mike Boehm will describe 11 years of rebuilding and the rebirth of hope in My Lai, at 3 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland. 

Basic Computer Use and The Berkeley Public Library Catalog will be taught from 1 to 2 p.m. and Getting and Using a Free E-Mail Account will be taught from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Central Library’s 3rd floor Electronic Classroom. Reservations are required. Sign up at the 3rd floor Paging Desk or call 981-6221. 

Haiti, a Celebration of the Bi-Centennial of Independence at 3 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Girl Army Cafe Night benefit for women’s self-defense at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Donation of $3-$5 requested, no one turned away. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Amdo on “Meditation and the Four Noble Truths,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

St. Paul AME Church will celebrate 70 years in the Berkeley community at 9:30 a.m. Newly appointed pastor Rev. Dr. Allen L. Williams will speak. Thanksgiving lunch will follow the worship service. 2024 Ashby Ave. 

MONDAY, NOV. 24 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim and learn their cultural and natural history. Then take a walk to see wintering birds and dormant lady- 

beetles, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5 for residents, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Grief Information Session at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. If you have lost someone you love to cancer, come for gentle guidance through the basic steps of grieving. 5741 Telegraph. Please RSVP, 420-7900.  

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. 

13th Medicine Lodge, a gathering for shamanically inclined individuals, from 7 to 10 p.m. Please call 707-367-2282 for location. 

TUESDAY, NOV. 25 

“The Face of Occupation” a presentation by Penny Rosenwasser, of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Community Meeting Room, 3rd floor, 2090 Kittredge. Sponsored by Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil and Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace.  

Berkeley Special Education Parents Network meets from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ala Costa Center, 1300 Rose St., at Cedar-Rose Park. Guest speakers will be Lisa Noshay Petro and Nina Ghiselli of the East Bay Learning Disabilities Association. For information call 525-9262 or email BSPED@mcads.com 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Charles Fitch will show travel slides, and we will have a Thanksgiving lunch at noon. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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 or email teachme99@comcast.net 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 26 

“The World Community and International Human Rights: Are Things Getting Any Better?” with Maurice Copithorne, Professor of Law, University of British Columbia, at 7:30 p.m. at International House, Home Room, Piedmont at Bancroft. 642-9460. 

Youth Radio “Give Thanks and Party!” Come dance and donate a can of food to feed the hungry this holiday season, at 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. You must bring a can of food to enter. Youth Radio Cafe, 1801 University Ave. 841-5123. 

Multi-Faith Thanksgiving Service led by Berkeley clergy of all faiths with choir members of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley & Beth El Junior Choir, at 7:30 p.m. Reception to follow. Congregation Beth El, 2301 Vine St. 848-3988. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 27 

Thanksgiving Day - City Offices are Closed 

Food Not Bombs Thanksgiving Vegetarian Feast, community potluck, with music, food and games at 6 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Please bring a vegetarian dish to share. Call Terri for more information, 658-9178. www.ebfnb.org  

ONGOING 

We Give Thanks Month, Berkeley restaurants, Bar-Ristorante Raphael, Cold Stone Creamery, Downtown, La Note, Semi-Freddi’s, Skates, and Spengers will donate a portion of their proceeds to Berkeley Food and Housing Project during the month of November. 

Holiday Food Drive Help the Alameda County Community Food Bank help people in need. Offer to run a food drive, or donate healthy nonperishable food at Safeway stores, Berkeley Bowl and Bay Street Emeryville. For more information call 834-3663. www.accfb.org 

City of Berkeley Commissioners Sought If you are interested in serving on a commission, applications can be downloaded from www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/general.htm#applications or contact the City Clerk, 981-6900.  

The Online Civilian Conservation Corps Museum is seeking the stories about the CCCs, CCC Enrollees, Staff, or Technical Advisors for publication to this online historical resource. If you would like to participate please send your stories, with name company number and location if known, to CCC Collection, PO Box 5, Woodbury NJ 08096 or email to JFJmuseum@aol.com 

Personnel Commissioner Sought for Alameda County School Board Responsibilities include administration of the Merit System. Meetings once a month. Applications must be received by Nov. 28. For details please contact Alameda County Office of Education, 670-7703. 

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 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Nov. 24, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 25, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Nov. 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning

There are two ways to balance a budget, earn more or spend less. Berkeley’s mayor and city Council have decided to “earn more.” For you or I, “earn more” means work more; for city government it means charge higher fees and create new taxes.  

Recently the Council conducted a symbolic public hearing regarding its proposed parcel tax. Several issues and questions were brought to the Council’s attention. None were addressed. After listening to citizen objections the mayor proceeded to discount the public comment asserting that raising property taxes is the only way for the city to function. 

I would like the mayor and Council to respond to the following concerns: 

1.) Berkeley property owners pay more fees and taxes than any other bay area city. Do we receive better services? 

2.) Why is the ratio of public employees to citizens in Berkeley higher than in any other bay area city? 

3.) Why are city employees paid more and receive greater benefits than their counter parts in cities of similar size? 

4.) What about all the public money given to or lent (at low or no interest) to fund large “non-profit” housing projects in the city? How carefully is this money followed and monitored? Does the community receive a fair ”return” for it’s profound contribution? 

5.) Is the $3,000,000 per year spent to sustain the rent board worth it? Why does its budget keep going up when the number of units it administers goes down? 

6.) Did the city just buy a new recycling truck? How much did it cost? Is the curbside recycling program self-sustaining? In my neighborhood recycling bins are emptied the night before the truck arrives by a grocery cart recycling brigade. Why doesn’t the city stop this or simply turn the program over to this industrious group?! 

7.) How much did those yellow pedestrian flags cost? How many lives did they save? How many times have they been replaced? Why are they displayed on a frat house on Dwight Way? Was this a wise use of public money? How many other equally effective “solutions” does the city fund? 

8.) As a highly taxed, self-employed homeowner without retirement, pension, or medical benefits, I pay for my own use of the YMCA. Why do you think it is my responsibility to pay for city employee to use the YMCA?  

Even though the city has recently increased fees and fines across the board (including garbage collection, building permits, parking permits and parking tickets), the mayor thinks homeowners should cough up an additional $250.00 a year simply on the faith that our government is without waste or excess. Experience tells us that waste is eliminated only when increased revenue is denied. 

There are simply too many unanswered questions and questionable city expenditures to allow for further property tax increases. Besides, it is the most unfair tax in Berkeley. Why should homeowners flip the bill for the tens of thousands of untaxed tenants in the city? Don’t tenants drive on our streets, use the sewers, call the police when they are mugged?  

The problem is not “taxation without representation” but rather “representation without taxation.” The tenant population can vote for every property tax increase, enjoy the ensuing services but never bear the burden of the additional cost. 

The mayor asserts that property tax is the only source of new revenue. This is not true. Considering the unfairness of placing the entire burden on property owners why not institute one of the following: 

1.) Annual Tenant Use Fee? 

2.) Citywide “sin” tax (city tax on alcohol & cigarettes)? 

3.) A general sales tax? 

But before raising any additional revenues the public must demand absolute accountability from our government. The mayor and City Council must understand that there is a limit to what we can or will pay for. We are near that limit now! 

John Koenigshofer is a poet, a painter and builder of small condominium projects in Berkeley.

UC Berkeley plans to develop a downtown hotel and convention center which Mayor Tom Bates hopes will capture both millions in tax revenue in the near future and the imagination of residents by restoring Strawberry Creek sometime later. 

But many remain skeptical about the mega-development, which the mayor said is estimated to cost $150-200 million. 

“This could be a wonderful contribution to the city or a horrendous nightmare,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

The university has a tentative agreement—brokered in part by Mayor Bates—to buy the Bank of America branch at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street and turn it into the centerpiece of a radically different downtown core as early as 2007. 

On the bank’s property would stand the hotel/convention center with between 175 and 200 rooms, a 15,000-square-foot conference center and room for a new Bank of America branch—all above an underground parking garage. 

Next door, the university would evict its printing press and demolish the parking lot at Addison and Oxford streets to transplant three of its highest-profile museums—the Pacific Film Archive, the Kroeber Center, and the Berkeley Art Museum—to the heart of the city’s arts district. 

UC Berkeley issued a Request for Qualification on the property last week, inviting developers to present past plans as the university looks to find a partner for the project. 

The hotel would be the second largest in town and offers tantalizing hotel tax revenues expected to run upwards of $1 million per year for a cash-strapped city facing an estimated $8-10 million budget shortfall next year. 

A survey conducted by the city’s Office of Economic Development found strong demand for a downtown hotel from visitors to the campus who now cluster in hotels and motels around Emeryville. 

What the city would lose in the deal is property tax revenue, which UC Berkeley—a state entity—doesn’t pay. Just how much property tax the bank is currently paying couldn’t be determined by presstime. 

Bates said Berkeley would receive possesory interest taxes, which local governments levy on private companies that posses exclusive use of tax-exempt properties. 

The mayor called the lost property taxes “a drop in the bucket” compared to the hotel tax revenue the city stands to gain—but with a proposed citywide parcel tax hike making property taxes a political hot potato, Bates’ colleagues in Council were leery of allowing another parcel to escape the tax rolls. 

“We in no way should sacrifice that land,” Councilmember Dona Spring said. “We can’t afford to give free rides anymore.” 

Under the terms of the deal, UC Berkeley would own the land but lease the property to a private developer to build and manage. The university refused to divulge the sale price or their financing for the purchase. 

UC Berkeley’s central role in the development worries some officials because it’s immune to Berkeley development rules. 

“The city loses leverage as soon as the university becomes the owner of something,” said Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn. “UC doesn’t have to pay attention to anything.” 

Bates, though, said only the university had the economic interest and clout to complete the deal, adding that he thought the development would “come to all of our commissions.” UC Berkeley spokesperson Kathleen Maclay said “public comment would be solicited.” 

Maclay also said the university was committed to abiding by the city’s downtown plan which calls for the hotel/convention center to be built to “green” building standards. She said the university had no objections to transforming that block of Center Street into a pedestrian walkway—with the added possibility that Strawberry Creek might once again be daylighted on the site. 

Creek supporters have long cast their gaze on the Bank of America site as the home of a future environmentally friendly convention center that could anchor a “green” block highlighted by the restored creek. “That’s been the vision for quite some time,” Spring said, acknowledging that the plan does not call for or provide money for the creek project. 

Some obvious issues remain. Building underground parking in downtown Berkeley has never proven feasible, and the driveway for the lot would likely have to encroach the future pedestrian area of Center Street. Also, without a waiver from the current zoning laws, the development would have to fit its rooms and convention space into five stories. University and city officials refused to comment on the height of the proposed building. 

“The general concept is not bad at all,” Wrenn said. “It’s all a question of how it’s done.”

To Berkeley City Council: 

The power to tax is the power to destroy. Increasing taxes traditionally forces older, retired, limited income citizens to sell their homes. Many of these people may have voted for you. Will they do so again? 

At the same time you are decreasing city real estate taxes by giving non profits land to build housing that is not needed or wanted. And causing scandal by enriching developers. 

At the same time you are decreasing sales tax revenue by removing parking from downtown. You have just rehabilitated the downtown. We come to the movies and the library. We eat at Mel’s. Where are we going to park when you close the garages and build housing on the lots? 

If people cannot park, they will not come. The result will be decreased sales taxes and decreased property value, as stores move away. You will ruin what you have accomplished. 

Already passed are school district and library bonds, which will soon be adding another $500 to the average parcel owner's tax bill. On top of this, the City is issuing Certificates of Participation without asking for voter approval, for $28 million to purchase and rehab 1947 Center Street. This debt will also be passed along to parcel owners. 

Total proposed tax increases are now approaching $1000 apiece for the average home owner. Increases will be larger for large homes and for apartment buildings. There will be unpleasant consequences for many. There will be many property sales and a forced change over in population. This is what tax increases have always done. Taxpayers are not going to like this. 

Despite the city’s blatant politics in calling this a FIRE PROTECTION TAX, it seems most likely that the citizens will vote down the tax, and maybe, in the next election, vote out Council members. In the last election the citizens voted DOWN 75% s of the tax increases.  

Over the past decade Berkeley has off loaded general fund taxes on the public six times as special taxes: sewer, library etc. This is about $50 million a year now in extra taxes.  

Berkeley has the highest taxes in the state. This is not a secret. See data attached re a few similar sized cities. These cities have not had to raise taxes this year. What is the matter with Berkeley? 

These taxes are caused by a series of City Councils wanting to help everyone and deny no one. 

In the very same agenda as this tax is a list of nearly one million dollars of expenses. There are no alternatives. There is no cost benefit analysis. Any family or business that ran like this would rapidly fail. So will the city. A Council that is on the ball would JUST SAY NO! 

If you pass this tax proposal now, the City will just keeping eating at the public trough, getting fatter and fatter until it will burst when the citizens turn down the tax. Bankruptcy is on the horizon.  

Mr. Kamlarz is a very able man and he certainly knows where the dollars are hidden. Why doesn’t the City Council direct him to balance the budget and report back in a couple of weeks without a tax increase. He can do it and he can do it without cutting the cops and firemen. He can do it by either reopening the MOU or laying off people. 

Items that the casual observer has noted.  

• There are 250 people working in a city hall that used to hold 400. The city has purchased (on time) a $28 million building for the overflow. Why not cut staff, compress space, and get everyone back under one roof. 

• Berkeley is no bigger now that it was 20 years ago. Why does the bureaucracy need to expand—aahh, the extra programs added by Council after Council. Time to cut back, folks. 

• The Housing Dept. has 54 employees and a budget of $15,000,000. This in a town with a housing surplus. They have identified $33,000 in savings for next year according to the budget. I’ll bet Mr. Kamlarz can add a couple of zeros to that number. Who is kidding who here? 

• Prior to the last election the Council approved a pay and pension package rivaled in America only by Congress. It was clear at that time that this was going to cause severe future problems. Perhaps it would be a help for the city to go bankrupt so that a judge can abrogate this ill considered action. I wonder how many of Berkeley’s citizens have such high pay and benefits. One could re-staff city hall with intelligent motivated out of work Berkeleyans at half the current cost.  

• While Berkeley is handing out 8% increases, San Francisco's employees agreed to a 7.5% wage cut. The State of California negotiated a two-year wage freeze with its largest union, and a similar two-year wage freeze and moratorium on step increases was accepted by San Francisco Community College instructors. A two-year wage freeze would go a long way to solving Berkeley’s budget crisis 

• Every neighborhood organization with which I have checked is opposing this new tax. Hard to win an election if the citizens don’t want the tax. 

The Council can show that it cares about this city by 

• Voting not to put this tax on the ballot. 

• Start efficiently managing the city.  

• Stop fooling with a pie in the sky taxes and other destructive ideas like unneeded housing and eliminating needed parking. 

George Oram, Chair, Berkeley Can do Better, Homeowner, Parent, Commercial Tenant Businessman and Employer of over 30 people.  

Critics of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) gave lab officials an earful Monday, arguing that planned expansion at the lab threatens to pollute their lungs, clog their streets and devour their tax dollars. 

“The lab should never have been built there, but it doesn’t have to keep growing,” said Susan Cerny, a local preservationist. 

The occasion of the complaints was a legally mandated Scoping Session that allowed the roughly 40 residents in attendance to weigh in on the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) that will guide development at the 200-acre Berkeley Hills campus through 2025. 

The plan projects increasing the daily population at the lab by 1,200 to 5,500 and boosting building space by 800,000 square feet to 2.56 million square feet.  

Residents offered a litany of criticisms and suggestions that, by law, the lab must address in the Environmental Impact Report that will accompany the LRDP. Lab officials declined to address the speaker’s concerns, but said in private interviews that it would be difficult to satisfy them. 

The lab’s most promising new field of research—nanotechnology—also proved its most controversial. 

Nanoparticles are 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair, but when effectively manipulated exhibit dynamic properties that proponents say can revolutionize nearly every scientific field from medicine to weaponry. 

Neighbors, though, fear the particles and fibers are so small that they’ll float through standard lab filters and land in their lungs, causing unknown health risks. 

“Not even the Environmental Protection Agency knows the impact of these things, but we’re ready to let them loose in Berkeley,” said Tom Kelly of the Commission on Health. 

Lab officials said most nanotechnology research has been performed in liquid solutions or with the particles bound to other materials—which sharply reduce the risk of emissions. 

Residents called for a review of the future home for nanotechnology research—the Molecular Foundry— which they claimed lab officials snuck through environmental review before unveiling the long range plan. 

Jeffrey Philliber, a lab facilities manager, said that since the foundry had already met all state environmental standards, it won’t be incorporated into the Environmental Impact Report—which, however, will address health concerns about nanotechnology. 

On Tuesday, City Council tabled a recommendation from the city’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission to ask the lab to submit to annual studies on potential nanotechnology health risks from an independent board of scientists. 

Other residents feared that the military would ultimately reap the benefits of the lab’s nanotechnology research, but lab spokesperson Terry Powell said only two percent of the lab’s budget is sponsored by the Department of Defense, none of it classified. 

Many residents were just as concerned about the traffic heading to and from the lab. 

Claiming that Centennial Drive and other commuter roadways were already carrying maximum traffic loads, neighbors urged the lab to work with AC Transit to establish bus service and establish an Eco Pass program to give incentives for workers to ditch their cars. 

Powell said the lab planned to add just 600 new parking spaces for the projected 1200 new workers. But, he said, lab officials had previously rejected Eco Passes because many employees commute from Contra Costa County and therefore wouldn’t benefit from the program. The lab does run a shuttle service every ten minutes from downtown Berkeley. 

“We can’t mitigate the traffic problem by ourselves,” Philliber said, citing a 1998 study that showed the lab accounted for a small portion of rush hour traffic heading through the South Berkeley Hills. 

Lab officials were also quick to reject the city’s plan to seek compensation for city services, including maintaining sewers and access roads. 

Powell said the lab already provides roughly $1 million annually to the city by fielding a fire department that provides first call service to neighborhoods around the lab. Last year, Powell said, the firefighters responded to 650 calls, 70 percent of them from off-campus neighbors. 

Jeff Sherwood, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy, said Department policy precluded it from paying Berkeley for services because the lab rents its property from the University of California. 

Berkeley Assistant City Manager Arrieta Chakos said the city remained undeterred and would seek compensation either from the Department of Energy or the UC Board of Regents after staffers complete a report on the extent of the city’s expenditures towards maintaining the lab. 

Meanwhile, the city is funding a study of expenses related to UC Berkeley, which is also in the process of finalizing its own Long Range Development Plan. 

“It’s our responsibility to develop every type of avenue we can to work with the lab and campus,” Chakos said. “We really feel obliged to push this very early in the process.”

It is time to start thinking about and discussing the renewal of our Berkeley Schools Educational Excellence Project (BSEP). For almost 18 years, in two different measures, Berkeley voters have authorized an additional special tax (a rate per square footage, both residential and commercial, with different rates assigned to each). The current BSEP measure sunsets in 2006; it is likely that the measure will be brought back to the voters much sooner than that 2006 sunset date. 

There are numerous reasons for this; I will enumerate some here. 

1) The money generated from the BSEP special tax is relatively static from year to year. Because it is based on a square-footage formula on developed 

property in Berkeley, annual proceeds do not significantly change from year to year. There is merely a modest Cost of Living Adjustment built into the measure. The result is that over the years the number of teachers and materials the measure is able to contribute has declined as salaries and cost of materials inevitably increase. 

2) There is a willingness and even a will to bring the measure back before the 2006 sunset date by many people involved in BSEP oversight and/or BSEP funded programs. This in part because many in the community would like to see a redistribution of the funds as well as a possible increase in the annual proceeds. 

3) Because of chronic underfunding from the state and federal government, local district’s budgets are severely restricted at this time. There is little or no “wiggle room” for teacher and other employee-salary increases, program expansion, or containment of class sizes. Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has been in a cost-cutting fiscal crisis for three years, and the prospects from the state and federal government do not look any better for the foreseeable future. 

The BSEP measure has been a model of participatory democracy for the District and for the City of Berkeley. Representatives chosen at each site meet regularly at the District Planning and Oversight Committee to annually review, recommend, and oversee budget allocations from the current BSEP measure, which totals about $10 million. This money has funded an elementary music program, hired over 70 teachers each year, furnished library books, videos, band and orchestra sheet music, musical instruments, and art supplies. The sites have a pool of discretionary funds that they prepare an annual expenditure plan for; sites have funded resource specialists, athletics, tutoring services, art and science teachers, conflict resolution services, library services, and playground supervision, among many other things over the years. 

Over the life of the measure the demands on the BSEP funds increase (BSEP is an essentially static parcel tax), class sizes rise, teachers’ salaries increase, and the funds in BSEP buy fewer and fewer teachers and staff, and have less and less buying power toward instructional materials and other real goods. Some of this is inevitable in a twelve-year tax measure, but the trend has been exasperated due to the severe nature of California’s budget crisis and the severe fiscal constraints this budget crisis has caused the district. Now that there is a Republican governor in Sacramento the prospects for adequate public school funding are even more uncertain, and perhaps more unlikely. We can and must control as much of the fate of our local schools as possible; equitable measures such as BSEP (all students are served, and the site allocation is based on a per-pupil formula) are one way to ensure at least some local control in our classrooms.  

John Selawsky is Vice-president of the Berkeley School Board.

Oop, she did it again. Berkeley developer Christina Sun violated a stop work order issued by the Planning Department when under the guise of weatherizing the roof at her 3045 Shattuck Ave. building, she had construction workers proceed towards finalizing the project. 

City inspectors slapped Sun with a notice of violation last week, after they determined that instead of installing plywood boards with plastic sheathing above to fend off winter rains as authorized, she attached black felt paper to the plywood, which is not used for weathering but as a base for laying shingles. 

Neighbors contend Sun did even more to her unfinished roof including reworking and leveling rafters and finalizing the framing, but when building inspectors responded they only found evidence of the black felt paper. 

The city won’t order her to take down any of the improvements to her roof, said City Planner Debra Sanderson. 

To guard against future violations, Sanderson gave one neighbor a building inspector’s cell phone number to immediately report any future violations. 

“There’s been a problem with her truthfulness or lack thereof,” Sanderson said. “We want this all out in the public.” 

The property entered Berkeley’s pantheon of disputed developments earlier this year when neighbors—concerned that Sun had jacked up her 1.5-story house to three stories with a ground floor shop without a use permit—fought the development. 

An investigation showed that Sun had lied on her application, classifying the building as a single-family dwelling, instead of a group living accommodation, for which remodeling would have required a use permit. 

In July, the Zoning Adjustment Board declared the building—presently a cottage perched above two stories of wooden beams—a public nuisance. Sun has appealed that ruling to City Council which will hear the case in December. 

Should Council rule against her, Sun could either file suit against the city, or submit new development plans. She did not return telephone calls to the Daily Planet. 

Robert Lauriston, a neighbor and opponent of the project, said he was annoyed the city failed to stop Sun from completing the improvements, but thought that the issue was minor. 

“It doesn’t really make a difference,” he said. “If she wins in Council she can finish the project. If she loses she’ll have to take most of it down anyway. It’s just that this sort of thing keeps happening.”

Strawberry Canyon is in the city’s backyard, and for many of us, it’s as if it isn’t even there. How else to explain that in the span of less than a year, a six-story nanotechnology research facility was approved without the benefit of a public hearing, the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone was selected as the preferred location for six-story Building 49, and a water distribution upgrade project was deemed exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) despite significantly denuding the landscape?  

The natural environment of Strawberry Canyon is rapidly disappearing. In the 1990s alone, LBNL built the Human Genome Center (now part of the Joint Genome Institute with Livermore and Los Alamos Labs) and the Hazardous Waste Storage Handling Facility (HWSHF). UC Berkeley built the impermeable surface of the pictured parking lot. What appears to be clear-cutting is presumably an effort at vegetation management to reduce the risk of fire next to the facility that stores and sometimes treats hazardous and radioactive waste. In the lower right corner is the UCB Botanical Garden hanging on by a thread.  

The LBNL qualifies as a Superfund site with a Hazard Ranking Score (HRS) of 50.35 while meanwhile the Livermore Lab Site 300 Explosive Testing and Waste Dump Site has a lower HRS of 31.58. Rather than cleaning up the core Berkeley Lab site, new construction is pushed out to the perimeter. Infill development is apparently irrelevant to an expansionistic Department of Energy facility operating with the UC Regents’ blessing.  

The lab seeks at this time to prepare a 20-year development plan, known as the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and per CEQA law solicits public input. The initial study for the LRDP reports that the 200-acre LBNL site in the Hill area presently includes 1.76 million gross square feet (gsf) of building space and that 25 percent of the site is impermeable surface area. Implementation of the LRDP would increase the lab’s main Hill site total building area to approximately 2.5 million gsf. Estimated impermeable surface area is to be determined. The initial study is available online at www.lbl.gov/Community/env-rev-docs.html.lbl.gov. 

Unless there is a widespread and diverse community-based movement, Strawberry Canyon will be lost to us. If you believe that nature is irreplaceable and that wildlands should be in walking distance rather than driving distance, then you might want to become involved. Discover Strawberry Canyon while it’s still beautiful open space and habitat for wildlife. Our very own backyard is a treasure.  

The 30-day comment period on the Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report on the LRDP ends Nov. 26, 2003. Comments can be e-mailed to LRDP-EIR@lbl.gov or mailed to Jeff Philliber, Environmental Planning Group Coordinator, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS 90K, Berkeley, CA 94720.  

Janice Thomas is President of the Panoramic Hill Association, former Chair of the City of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission, and former Co-Chair of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste.  

UC Berkeley’s Dean of Students Karen Kenney this week issued her ruling on the fates of three students charged with violating the student code of conduct during an anti-war sit-in at Sproul Hall last March. 

After deliberating more than two weeks, Kenney ordered a reportable letter of warning inserted into the files of Rachel Odes and Snehal Shingavi. She also ruled that they must perform 20 hours of community service. 

She gave the third defendant, Michael Smith, a one-semester suspension that would start this spring—a punishment that will be stayed if he follows the panel’s recommendations and successfully completes an anger management course at the on-campus Tang Medical Center. Kenney also ordered that he receive a reportable letter of warning and perform 30 hours of community service. 

The students’ supporters greeted the recommendation to stay Smith’s suspension as a partial victory, but said they are outraged by the recommendation for anger management. 

“For a political offense this is really an unprecedented use of psychological treatment,” said Todd Chretien, a member of the Committee to Defend Student Civil Liberties, an ad-hoc political group formed to defend the students.  

“They are basically slandering Smith as an out-of-control, violent, reckless individual, and we believe the university is trying to smear his character in order to avoid what everybody agrees are political charges.” 

Smith said he wasn’t surprised about the dean’s decision but was taken aback by the suggestion for him to attend anger management classes.  

“I think the motivation that led [the campus judicial officer] to bring charges was the same thing that motivated the dean,” said Smith. “They want to silence dissent on campus and don’t want to see students exercise their right to protest.” 

“I was a little shocked by the decision. It’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so serious. I will fully admit however, to being quite angry about the war and the way the university has reacted to protest. I think we have the right to protest and to let our voices be heard and any time that the university tries to take that away is going to make me angry.” 

The students now have 15 days to appeal the decision to Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla, whose decision is final. 

Of the 122 students arrested during the Sproul Hall sit-in, the university charged only the three defendants, citing prior conduct records. 

Smith’s charges were the most severe because of his involvement in what the university labeled a “racially motivated” incident involving a group of Asian men. 

Smith hotly disputed the school’s version of the incident during an Oct. 28 hearing, contending that he had confronted a campus police officer because he thought the officer was harassing the Asians. 

Smith and his codefendants claimed the incident was maliciously raised by campus judicial officer Neal Rajmaira to bolster a weak case. 

In the end, the campus tribunal which heard the students’ case rejected the arguments of both Rajmaira and Smith. Panel chair and Physics Professor Bob Jacobson entered only the written report of the incident as evidence.  

The students have consistently assailed the university as the only institution to charge students for actions during the wave of anti-war protests that erupted on campuses across the country when the war in Iraq broke out.  

In her official statement, Dean Kenney said her review of the recommendations was meant to ensure charges are fair and consistent with other cases. Students disagreed, saying the move to target three students out of the 119 arrested was selective, an example-setting repression of free speech rights. 

The defendants also claim their due process right were violated. The students, who initially expected to receive the panel recommendations within a week of the Oct. 28 hearing, had to wait over two weeks. They have 15 days to appeal, but Chretien said that period also includes the time needed by the vice chancellor to review the case and decide, limiting the time they will have to draft their letter. 

The students aren’t allowed to appeal in person, and only written statements will be considered. 

Chretien said he and his fellow codefendants thought they would have the chance to appeal to Kenney before her decision.  

Ann Weilles, a National Lawyers Guild attorney handling the students’ appeal, says she is concerned both with the decision to force Smith into anger management courses and with the consequences of a reportable letter of warning that stays in the student’s file and can be accessed by government agencies and other schools. 

“Snehal might not be hurt that much because he is a graduate student, but if Rachel or Michael want to transfer to a graduate program, they might be denied,” she said. 

Dean Kenney’s decision to authorize the letters coincides with a university report on changes to the student code of conduct that would bar lawyers from speaking for students during disciplinary hearings. University representatives say the decision to amend the code was part of regularly scheduled review already underway before the current case. 

The convicted students say the timing is too close to be coincidental and constitutes proof that the university is trying to rewrite the rules in its favor. They say they’re also worried about the university’s ability to press charges that stay in their file when they are unable to exercise due process rights, including the right to representation by a lawyer. 

As the appeal deadline approaches, the students and their supporters are asking supporters to write the vice-chancellor and demand dismissal of the charges. They’ve also been in contact with Amy Goodman, host of the radio and TV show Democracy Now, who has agreed to address the issue when she receives the Mario Savio Free Speech Award from the University on Thursday. 

“We believe the university’s intent has all along been to impose as harsh a punishment as possible,” said Chretien. “And we feel that they are going to go ahead with these punishments unless they feel community and student heat.”

BOWL BOYCOTT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve shopped at Berkeley Bowl for years when it was non-union, even though I support workers’ right to unionize. But the fact that the owner paid a union busting firm customers’ good money and succeeded in reversing the votes of enough workers who signed union cards to change the outcome is quite disturbing, given the anti-union, anti workers’ rights climate all over the country. I called management a few months ago and said that if they persisted in trying to break the union drive with fake fear tactics that I’d stop shopping there. They did; I will. 

Let it be known that I’m withdrawing the thousands of dollars that I spend each year at Berkeley Bowl. I’ll shop elsewhere for a few years. Even though I know the workforce there is young and inexperienced I’m also angry at the false consciousness that would cause some of these young workers to betray their own friends and comrades and change their votes after supporting unionization earlier. As in all of these situations it’s likely that some of the strongest union supporters will be fired or pressured out. The dogs of war, violence, and intimidation who currently have the upper hand in our country will take us down the road to hell if working people can’t stick together in defense of their own lives, let alone defending the rights of people imprisoned or invaded by the U.S. government. If you stop shopping at the Bowl let the management know.  

Marc Sapir MD 

• 

LOOMING DRAFT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In regards to your “Dead-Soldier-a-Day Calendar” cartoon (Daily Planet, Nov. 18-20), I find it compelling to respond to this short-sighted comical depiction. It’s missing the inscription of “Former Berkeley Student.” Despite the fact the military is all volunteer, it is likely probable that a draft will ensue based on our ever increasing presence in Iraq and other places in the world. So, I ask, “Why are CAL students not raising hell?” CAL was a fertile ground in the mid-60s into the mid-70s for significant opposition to the war in Viet Nam. As Stephen Stills wrote in the song For What It’s Worth: “It’s time we stop...Hey..What’s that sound...everybody look what’s going ‘round.....Paranoia strikes deep..into your hearts it will creep...It starts when you’re always afraid..Step out of line....” 

So CAL students, wake up and “hip-hop” into the real world that may cost you your lives. 

Jonathan M. Dietz 

San Rafael 

• 

NO NEW TAXES 

The following letter was addressed to Councilmember Maio. 

Thank you for soliciting my opinion on the proposed ballot measure to increase our property taxes. 

My property taxes for the year 1999-2000 were $2,636. My property taxes for the year 2003-2004 are $4, 663. That is a slightly over 75 percent increase in just four years. How can I possibly be in favor of any further tax increases? 

From my observations as both a temporary staff member and recent consultant for the city, I believe that Berkeley’s fiscal problems stem from sometimes 

throwing money at organizations and groups that have nothing to do with maintaining city functions and facilities, funding items with little hard information about the project, a union contract that does not allow any real layoffs as instead undesirable and incompetent staff are simply placed in another job in another department. 

During my time working for the city I observed at close hand staff that spent the day at personal pursuits, staff that were not at work at all but claimed 

that they were and were paid, staff that said they were too busy to do their job and then spent the entire morning in personal conversation, staff that couldn’t handle simple job responsibilities—such as basic ccomputer functions, filling out forms, etc.—but were paid over $60,000 annually. I literally ran into full-time staff, whose hours I knew, out jogging or at the YMCA taking classes during work hours not remotely near lunch break. 

I observed City Council vote to approve a bond measure one week and during the second and final approval of that same bond measure add 50 percent to the bond measure without noticing their mistake. I observed bond measures that have been funded, that we are charged additional taxes for, and yet the money is not used for what it was intended. 

We now also know that there are people who have property for which they get no tax bill or are under-billed. 

To give you a touch of personal background, I moved to Berkeley over 20 years ago as a staunch advocate of unions and rent control—even while then and previously owning rental property. In other words, I am hardly “conservative.” I still approve rent control and unions, just not Berkeley’s. 

In response to your proposal, I simply cannot afford additional increases in Berkeley city services or property taxes. Home owners and small property owners need a tax rollback and more care and efficiency in their city government, not yet another tax increase. 

Sorry, 

Sasha Futran 

• 

OUT OF TOUCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The City Council is woefully out of touch with reality. Reality for many Berkeley residents means real or impending layoffs or cutbacks on hours worked. Yet while the city council proposes yet another parcel tax on the upcoming budget, they are also proposing to pay city employees wages and benefits for volunteering.  

The program, Berkeley Champions, would allow city employees up to 40 hours per year of paid leave to volunteer for Berkeley’s youth. It requires that employees use an equal amount of their own time prior to requesting paid leave through the program. This still amounts to being paid half normal wages and benefits for 80 total hours of volunteer time. The program lists fiscal impacts such as “improved image and reputation” for the city and “retention” of city employees.  

Many residents are worried about retaining their jobs and the roof over their heads. City employees receive adequate compensation and benefits. These include paid fitness club memberships to the tune of over $272,000 for 513 employees. I doubt if retention is much of an issue when budget problems will lead to likely layoffs. A reduced staff with more employees out on paid volunteer time could add to problems. Surely it would be more appropriate during our fiscal crisis that employees use vacation time and free time for volunteer activities like the rest of us do. If the city and councilmembers are concerned about their image and reputation among the voters they will rethink this program. Now is not the time for this well intentioned program. 

Do I support volunteering and mentoring for Berkeley’s kids? Absolutely! Without financial compensation, in true community spirit. 

Robin Wright 

• 

ESCAPED TAXES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the so-called “escaped taxes,” It seems that Anne Marie Hogan, Berkeley City Auditor, has not done her job. Ms. Hogan states she was aware of possible problems with the computer program used for identifying commercial properties subject to these taxes, which could result in some escaping taxation through omission. She says she sent a memorandum to city authorities stating her concern. 

Apparently that was the end of her concern. These questions should be asked: To whom was the memo sent and when? Why has a copy of the memo not been made public? What was the reply, if any, and from whom? What efforts, if any, were undertaken to correct the problem? And last, did Auditor Hogan follow up her own memo, and if not, why not? 

Evelyn Giardina 

• 

13 THINGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Here are 13 things I love about living in Berkeley, or the reasons I’m willing to pay more parcel tax.  

1) Totland, and other well-equipped, clean parks for my daughter to play in.  

2) The well-trained, sympathetic police officer who came to my house to take a vandalism report. 

3) Libraries with long hours and enthusiastic librarians. 

4) Having someone on city staff to call when there’s graffiti in my neighborhood. 

5) The nurses and health educators at Berkeley High who patiently deal with big and small problems everyday.  

6) The health department services for the uninsured, and the public health benefits for all of us that come from taking care of those in need. 

7) Being able to call a planner about zoning violations, and proposed projects. 

8) Commissions and staff to listen to all of our citizen input. 

9) The bike bridge, traffic calming, and the new bus shelters. 

10) Efficient trash pick-up and street cleaning. 

11) Berkeley Arts Center and the Senior Centers. 

12) Youth recreation and sports programs; low-cost summer camps. 

13) The tool lending library.  

These are just a few of the things that make our city special and livable for people of all ages. It takes staff to run them, and I think as citizens we should appreciate all that they do, and avoid cutting staff.  

Carol Dorf  

• 

BUDGETARY ISSUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Naive, hopeful me; I thought with a decisive (self-styled) progressive Council majority, I’d see pro-active leadership staking out budgetary issues that would provide a lever for some necessary, fundamental reforms. The situation is dire. We needed leadership to rise to the occasion. 

Council had plenty of time. They knew Berkeley’s budget would face a serious deficit. But instead of committing their authority to fighting for closing state tax loop holes that allow oil companies to avoid paying billions, fighting for high income earners paying as much taxes as lower earning payers, and fighting for the reduction of the prison complex budget, Council instead chose to preserve the status quo and tax Berkeley homeowners. 

Fighting for equity might have threatened Council’s Democratic Party credentials, financial support, and job security. In addition, the property tax has  

churned up anger and resentment against unionized city workers. Council is responsible for the current anti-union resentment. Council has played into the hands of Berkeley’s Right.  

We no longer have a progressive Berkeley City Council. (The centrists have won out again.) What we have instead are accountants, adept at jiggling and selling unfair taxes, amounting to another short-sighted, short-term bailout. 

Maris Arnold 

• 

PC DUNCES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In regards to your cute, little, upbeat article “Latino Youth Prevail in Central Valley” (Daily Planet, Nov. 18-20), wouldn’t a more accurate headline have been “Over-breeding Latino Hordes on Verge of Permanently Ruining the Quality of Life in California”? 

Because you know as well as I that that’s exactly what’s going on. The only difference is, you politically correct dunces won’t actually speak the truth until it’s 20 years too late. And then, only to check in with your useless “solutions” to all the unsolvable problems that you helped to create in the first place. 

Be sure to check back with me in 20 years, baby, if only for a sick laugh at what’s left of California. (And I guarantee you will still remember this letter 20 years from now, unfortunately, as opposed to most of the forgettable drivel you publish.) 

Peter Labriola 

• 

FIREFIGHTER FAUX PAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Berkeley resident and a San Francisco firefighter. In 2000, I also co-founded a camp for young women to teach about leadership and the fire service called Camp Blaze. 

I am frustrated with your word choice in your Nov. 11-13 article entitled “Firemen Describe Inferno.” As you well know there are a number of women working in the fire service around the Bay Area (yes, in Berkeley too) and throughout California. Using the word firemen, though while accurate to describe the gender of the Berkeley firefighters’ mentioned in your article, excludes firefighting women from public awareness. 

Women make up a small percentage of the firefighters nationwide, but that proportion is much higher here in California and higher still in the Bay Area. The citizens of our city and our state need to know that all firefighters are not men. Many young women still have no idea it is a career path option, and media representations such as yours continue to shroud our profession in mystery. 

Not all firefighters are men. Can we refer to what it is we do and not our gender? 

Alissa Van Nort 

• 

EDUCATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Michele Lawrence sees a right-wing political agenda aimed at undermining public education! How is that Michele? Is it by exposing the failed policies and teaching method experiments championed by the left-wing dominated school system in this country for the past 40 years? Is it by expecting a teacher to exhibit some basic knowledge of the subjects which they are teaching? Is it by testing the children to see if they can pass an exit exam by their senior year which is written on a ninth and tenth grade level? Is It giving parents a choice to opt out of this failed system? 

The schools are constantly crying that they have no money and that the class size is too large. The real problem is political correctness. The warped notion that we should mainstream everyone and that all classes must be “diverse” has resulted in dumbing down and an inability for teachers to control the classroom. Too much time and energy is diverted from teaching motivated and interested students. Students who do not want to learn or behave should be put into “special” classes as they were when I went to school. We had 35 to 40 students in a room and somehow we learned. 

The “small schools” program will not work because it must reflect the make up of the larger student body as a criteria.  

Michele Lawrence says “we’re robbing underachieving kids of their social capital.” What these “underachieving kids” really need is discipline (bad right-wing word) and to learn some manners and study skills, which does not take a lot of money. They are robbing normal achieving kids of an education! I know many public school teachers who send their children to private school for this very reason. It is like a chef who will not eat in his own restaurant. 

Michele Lawrence seems obsessed with her hatred for the political right, while it is the left who has destroyed our educational system. They are being exposed and are looking to cast blame else where. 

MIchael Larrick 

One of y’all out there has got to help me out with this one—you really do—cause I’m a little bit puzzled here. 

I was working on a story about FCMAT, the Financial Crisis Management Assistance Team, the Bakersfield-based public group which got started by the legislature in 1991 to help the Richmond schools get out of a financial crisis, and has sort of grown like Topsy ever since. Now they’ve got their hands in school districts all over the state, including Oakland and Berkeley. The state is now doing an audit of FCMAT, partly because the group has gotten so big, nobody up in Sacramento seems to know exactly what it’s actually doing. Or supposed to do. 

Anyways, I was reading over FCMAT’s “comprehensive assessment” of the Berkeley Unified School District from July of this year, and under the section concerning “empower staff and community,” the FCMAT folks wrote: “Of paramount importance is the community’s role of local governance. … A key to success in the Berkeley Unified School District is the re-engagement of parents, teachers, and support staff. Berkeley parents care deeply about their children’s future and want to participate in improving the school district and enhancing student learning.” 

Well, ha!, says I, I bet they didn’t say that when the evaluated the Oakland Unified School District. (If you believe former Oakland Superintendent Dennis Chaconas, Robert Gammon of the Oakland Tribune, and just about everybody on the Oakland School Board, FCMAT was instrumental in taking participation away from parents in Oakland. In fact, partly due to FCMAT’s diddling while Oakland schools burned, Oakland’s elected School Board was stripped of all power by the state legislature, and the Oakland schools are being run by a state-selected administrator.) 

Shows what I know. In its overview of its Assessment and Recovery Plans for the Oakland Unified School District, FCMAT writes: “Of paramount importance is the community’s role of local governance. ... A key to success at Oakland is the re-engagement of parents, teachers and support staff. Oakland parents care deeply about their children’s future and want to participate in improving the school district and enhancing student learning.” 

Me being the curious type, I checked around, and it seems like according to FCMAT’s various reports, parents in the West Contra Costa (Richmond) Unified School District and the West Fresno Elementary School District also care deeply about their children’s future, yada-yada, etc. I mean, didn’t they go anywhere where the parents didn’t give a rat’s ass about what went on in their schools? 

Okay, maybe I’m being picky. I know that the FCMAT folks are busy down there, what with having been asked to assist in some 300 local school district and county education offices since they were set up, so sometimes they might have to cut corners by just going to the old paragraphs and sticking in a new school district’s name. And, after all, FCMAT hires a lot of professional-type folks (using our money, of course, not theirs) to go into these various school districts and do comprehensive evaluations and printed reports, and I know they must be doing something, because their reports are so thick, and really difficult to carry around. Like the guy said about the night goggles in “Jurassic Park,” if it’s heavy, it must be important. Or something like that. 

Still, that got me to wondering about what FCMAT is doing in all these places, and why. As far as I can tell, the Alameda County Office of Education appointed FCMAT as Berkeley Unified School District’s fiscal adviser back in 2001 after the county office determined that BUSD was not balancing its budget. Under the enabling legislation FCMAT was asked to conduct a “systematic, comprehensive assessment” of the school district in five areas: 1. Community Relations, 2. Personnel Management, 3. Pupil Achievement, 4. Financial Management, and 5. Facilities Management. Why Berkeley needed help with “community relations” (whatever that is) when their problem only seemed to be some calculators might be a mystery to you. It is to me. Still, FCMAT has been busy in Berkeley ever since, hiring consultants (with our money), making assessments and recommendations in these five areas, and turning out heavy reports. 

So here comes Oakland, poor Oakland, which ran into some budget problems of its own a couple of years ago, causing the Alameda County Education Office to call in FCMAT as Oakland Unified School District’s financial advisers. The enabling legislation that appointed FCMAT required the company to conduct a “systematic, comprehensive assessment” of the school district in five areas: 1. Community Relations, 2. Personnel Management, 3. Pupil Achievement, 4. Financial Management, and 5. Facilities Management. Odd how Oakland needed the same “systematic, comprehensive” help that Berkeley did. You wonder who writes this enabling legislation. 

Gets even more interesting when you discover that the California state legislature decided that both the West Contra Costa (Richmond) Unified School District and the West Fresno Elementary School District also needed help from FCMAT in the exact same five areas, including that intriguing “community relations” thing. All of which FCMAT gets paid to comprehensively report on using somebody’s money, and you can bet it’s not their own. 

Anybody out there got a theory about this?

Six UC Berkeley student photographers say they may sue the Daily Californian for copyright infringement after the independent student-run paper severed ties with them for refusing to sign away all future rights to their pictures. 

“Student newspapers shouldn’t treat students this way,” said UC School of Journalism student David Krantz, who refused to comply with the paper’s demands. “If we’re volunteering time, energy and experience we expect to retain our copyrights.” 

A copyright guarantees freelance photographers ownership of their pictures so that after the picture runs in a newspaper, they can sell it to a different publication. 

Freelancers traditionally have sold one-time use rights to their photos, although some publishers have demanded all domestic rights and others have demanded both domestic and foreign rights. 

“The first golden rule to stay in business as a freelance photographer is: Keep your copyright,” said Dan Krauss, a freelance photographer and former UC Berkeley student who has resold pictures that previously ran in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. 

But Daily Californian attorney Rachel Matteo-Boehn insisted that the photographers are not freelancers, but staffers, and staff photos traditionally are the property of the paper. 

In July, the Daily Californian ordered all photographers to sign right-to-hire contracts, effectively making the paper the sole owner of all pictures taken on assignment—which the paper then stores on compact discs.  

The Daily Californian promised to grant photographers use of the pictures for portfolios, but insisted on keeping the copyright. 

Most photographers complied, but Krantz and the other five refused, insisting that they were freelancers, and should be able to retain their copyright privileges. 

Staff photographers typically agree to surrender ownership of their pictures in return for a steady salary, health benefits, and equipment. Photographers for the nonprofit Daily Californian shoot digital images, either with the paper’s cameras or their own, and are paid according to a sliding scale that tops out at $11 per picture. 

“Student papers worked in the past because there’s pretty much been an understanding: ‘Hey, here’s free labor, in exchange we get published,’” said Jigar Mehta, also a student at the School of Journalism. “But it’s unacceptable asking us to volunteer our time and labor and then also asking for our copyrights.” 

But when it comes to copyrights, professional freelancers warn that the Daily Californian’s policy is quickly becoming the rule, not the exception, in an era of increasing media consolidation. 

“In the past few years more and more newspapers have started demanding exclusive rights from freelancers,” said Mark Loundy of the National Press Photographers Association. “It’s a threat to the very existence of freelance photography as a profession.” 

The Associated Press started the trend several years ago, but since a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Tasini vs. the New York Times, more papers have followed suit. 

In its 7-2 decision, the justices held that fees paid to freelance reporter Jonathan Tasini covered only the printed article, not different forms of the stories the Times offered to computerized databases like LexisNexus. 

The ruling benefited Tasini, but ultimately hurt freelancers. Publishers simply rewrote contracts demanding more copyright privileges, said Victor Pearlman, general counsel for the American Society of Media Photographers. 

“Between the Tasini decision and the consolidation in ownership of the media, publishers are bargaining from a position of strength and asking for more rights.” 

They are not offering more money however. The going rate for a photograph from a major daily is $200 - $350, unchanged from 20 years go, Loundy said. 

He added that large newspaper chains often don’t have uniform policies on copyrights, and many newspapers often demand copyrights initially but then relent if the photographer rebuffs them. 

Locally, ANG—publisher of the Oakland Tribune and other Bay Area dailies—said they don’t demand all-inclusive copyrights, nor does the Daily Planet. The Contra Costa Times, owned by Knight Ridder Inc. said they use only staff photographers in the Bay Area.  

Renowned freelance photographers have taken up the cause of the UC Berkeley six, fearing that if college newspapers demand copyrights, young photographers will learn to accept the same demands from future employers. 

“It’s obscenely wrong in the context of an educational setting,” said Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Rick Rickman. “A college newspaper is the place to educate people, not to give away their property.” 

The students insist the stalemate has hurt them more than the paper. “There’s always a new crop of people who are hungry to see their name in a byline,” Mehta said. “For us the Daily Cal is one of the few consistent jobs in town. It makes it harder when you’re trying to collect clips for a portfolio.” 

Their attorney, Barbara Friedman of San Francisco’s Bingham and McCutchen law firm, said she had offered the paper a host of compromises but none proved satisfactory. “I said give me your dream list—electronic rights, database rights. We’ll give you non-exclusive rights for all time—just don’t take the copyright.” 

But Matteo-Boehn said the offers would cause logistical headaches for the paper that has to manage its files on a tight budget. “If a newspaper has different deals with its photographers it makes it impossible to function.” 

She added that the contract offered to photographers included a licensing agreement that she believes the paper would interpret to allow photographers a cut from any future sales. The Daily Californian issued a statement on the dispute, but would not answer questions about the licensing agreement. 

A student-initiated lawsuit would seek to affirm ownership of the thousands of pictures they have shot for the Daily Californian before the contract flap. Though neither Krantz nor Mehta have resold any of the pictures, they insist those pictures—stored at the paper’s office—belong to them. Matteo-Boehn disagreed saying, “It has always been the policy of the Daily Californian that such materials are owned by the Daily Californian.” 

“The Daily Californian offers students a great deal of opportunity, but they need to be able to manage their facilities and still fulfill their mission as a training paper,” Matteo-Boehn said. 

“If [the students] feel like it’s a bad deal they can market themselves in other places.”

Berkeley officials say the city is owed less than originally estimated from property fees and assessments they say were inadvertently not billed to several buildings in the city. 

The new total is close to $250,000, some $19,000 less than originally estimated by the city manager’s office. 

But City Finance Director Fran David told Berkeley City Council Tuesday night that while the city is still investigating to see if any more properties have been accidentally dropped from the tax rolls, the total “escaped revenue” sums are expected to top out at between $500,000 and $600,000. David indicated that this figure “is much smaller than defined in media.” 

David said in a later interview that she was referring to estimated reports “in the media” that fees and assessments for two million square feet of property had been missed by the City of Berkeley. David said she could not recall which media this estimate appeared in. The Daily Planet has never included such an estimated figure in any of its stories on the “escaped taxes” issue. 

The “escaped taxes” controversy has been growing in Berkeley in recent weeks after a citizen complaint and a follow-up Daily Planet story revealed that several recent property developments had not been billed city fees and assessments. 

Two weeks ago, at Mayor Tom Bates’ request, City Manager Phil Kamlarz released a preliminary list of seven properties owing such back taxes over the past four years. David’s report was intended as a follow-up to Kamlarz’ list. 

Meanwhile, in response to the controversy, Councilmember Dona Spring has called for a full investigation of the taxes billed and paid, fee waivers, and local and federal legal compliance of three of the developments on Kamlarz’ list—the Berkeleyan and the Gaia Building, built by developer Patrick Kennedy, and Oak Court, built by developer Avi Nevo. 

Tuesday night, at the request of Councilmember Betty Olds, Council expanded the investigation to include all city development projects approved since 1997. Kamlarz said he would report back to Council with results of that investigation in two months. 

Assessments were not levied on three of the properties on the list—the Gaia Building, Oak Court, and Acton Courtyard—because the buildings were still operating under temporary certificates of occupancy, in accordance with what was then city policy. 

In her report to Council, Finance Director David said city policy has now been changed so that occupied buildings with temporary permits will be automatically added to the city’s tax rolls. 

David reported that her office has dropped two of the properties from Kamlarz’ “escaped taxes” report. She gave a few more details on two more, and removed more than $19,000 in missed taxes from another. 

David said city staff research showed that the more than $19,000 originally believed to be owed by the Bank of America on its 1536 Shattuck Ave. branch was in error, and that no taxes were owed. A Daily Planet check of records at the Alameda County assessor’s office disclosed that the property is listed under several different adjacent addresses, at least one of which is being billed for Berkeley fees and assessments. 

David also said that the Redwood Gardens senior housing development at 2951 Derby St. was tax-exempt because of nonprofit status, and had been erroneously included in the original list. 

She said the 9,500-square-foot EIDS Electronics Building at 2508 Channing Way, owned by Highway 61 Property Management Company, and the 22,000-square-foot Body Time products and Wilderness Travel warehouse and office complex at 1101 8th St. had not been assessed, and would be billed by the city for back fees and assessments for an amount yet to be calculated. David said in a later interview that staff was still investigating why the city had failed to tax these two buildings.

For those who believe that if something is good for you it has to taste bad, Vital Vittles bakery might be the cure. 

Located at 2810 San Pablo Ave. in what used to be an old fire house, Vital Vittles has been offering up some of Berkeley’s finest organic treats for a quarter century, specializing in whole grain breads baked from flour milledon site. 

They are also proud to announce a new line of sweets that will be unveiled today (Friday) in an open house at the bakery. Tasters are invited to come by and sample the brownies, cookies and cakes all made with the same whole grain flour that has made their bread so popular. 

Started by Kass Schwin and her ex-husband, Vital Vittles originally opened as a flour mill but has come to be known for their quality bread. 

Back when they first opened as a mill, Schwin said a lack of good flour was responsible for plenty of bad bread around the area. As a self-labeled “child of the 70s,” Schwin says she was drawn to quality, healthy products and decided to take the challenge along with her husband to mill organic whole grain flour that she hoped would jazz things up.  

“The idea back in the 70s was to live off the land and live organically,” said Schwin. “No one was making good bread when we started except the Tasajara bakery, which is hard to imagine.” 

Schwin and her husband bought a mill, started importing whole oats and began to distribute the flour around the Berkeley area. The transition to bread didn’t come until later and was unexpected. 

Schwin says the first loaves were actually made as examples to be used at a street fair and represented the quality of breads that could be produced with their flour. Fair goers expressed more interest in the bread than the flour, and after the loaves sold out, customers repeatedly implored the Schwins to bake more. 

That encouragement was enough to convince them to establish a small-scale baking operation that turned out around 200 loaves a day. Success and a lot of hard work have paid off, and the business has grown into a full-scale bakery that now produces around 2,200 loaves daily with a staff of 15-20 employees using a pair of ovens that bake 210 loaves at once. 

Reincarnated as a bakery, Vital Vittles produces hearty, healthy breads that outweigh, literally, most other breads. Their whole grains are milled the day before the dough is mixed, keeping the ingredients fresh and healthy. Unlike other bakeries, says Schwin, the quick turnaround allows them to baked goods to retain nutrients such as wheat germ oils that would otherwise go rancid if stored too long. 

Among their list of achievement is their 2002 taster’s choice award from the San Francisco Chronicle food and wine section. According to the review conducted by several of the Bay Area’s top food critics, other breads “crumbled” next to theirs. 

They’ve also traveled to outer space with astronaut Janice Boss, who took a loaf with her on one mission; been the salivation of one mom who suffered from acute morning sickness; and received countless love letters attesting to their quality. 

“This is a love letter, I have never written one for bread before…,” begins one of the letters hanging in Schwin’s office. 

Creative thinking has led them produce a wide variety of healthy, whole grain products. Everything is vegan and strictly kosher. 

Vital Vittles bread include fruit, multigrain, rye, sourdough—and almost anything else imaginable. Schwin says the most popular loaves are their Holiday Persimmon, Raisin, and Flax Seed Oat—with the raisin bread placing second in an international competition.  

The cookies and sweets—another extension of the original philosophy—have actually been in stores since December, but will officially be unveiled at the open house. Sweet lovers will be glad to know that Schwin had them in mind when she and the bakery tried to produce a product that would allow customers a guilt-free opportunity to indulge their sweet cravings.  

“People only eat so much bread,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to make a healthy chocolate something or other.” 

She didn’t stop at chocolate, and besides producing two kinds of brownies she’s come up with a list of other sweets that include cookies, honey buns and cakes. Many of the cookies are high-fiber, and use only organic oils and raw cane sugar. 

“If people eat my sweets instead of Pepperidge Farms, they’re going to be helping themselves,” Schwin says. 

Just in time for the holiday season, Vital Vittles is offering gift boxes. They’ve also recently updated their website to take credit cards, allowing people to purchase their products around the world. Shoppers can also find their cookies now in local stores, including Berkeley Bowl, Rainbow Grocery, Whole Foods, El Cerrito Natural Grocery, Berkeley Natural Grocery, and Piazza’s. 

Open house visitors can sample the new sweets and a tour of the bakery. The event runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon. For more information please contact them at 644-2022 or at their website at www.vitalvittles.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of this tribute to a veteran Berkeley activist is her daughter-in-law. 

Longtime Berkeley and Mendocino area activist for social change, Anne Weymouth Deirup, died Oct. 30 from cancer. Her understanding of the need for change, her strong principles and her organizing skills made her a mentor for many others. 

She was born in 1918 on the Stanford campus into a family of scientists. Her parents were Frank Weymouth, head of the Physiology department at Stanford, and Alice Jenkins Weymouth, a scientific illustrator.  

She married Torben Deirup in 1937. They soon moved to Berkeley where they attended UC. Anne started out in Architecture, and graduated with a degree in city planning. 

Her main interest in life was pursuing and promoting social change, and in city planning, she saw the potential to facilitate change. After a stint working in a city planning department, she became disillusioned with how decisions were made. She became a draftsperson and worked for many engineering firms over the years. 

She and Torben had four children: Caroline Grimes, Karl, Paul and Nancy Deirup. Karl died in 1972. 

Anne and Torb were active in union organizing and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. 

Anne was very active in Berkeley politics, especially focusing on school improvements. Her involvement in Berkeley public schools started when Caroline was a child. Caroline found racist books in the school library, and together they would work to get those books out of the library. She continued to do whatever she could to promote equality in the school system and was very active in the movement to integrate the schools. 

During the 1950s, Anne was involved in civil rights struggles including integrating Woolworth’s in Berkeley. She was one of the last witnesses in the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in San Francisco, and her speech to the committee was broadcast in the Rotunda of City Hall and over to Civic Center Plaza, where crowds of students were gathered.  

Here is an excerpt from her testimony: 

“I consider the members of this committee to be dedicated people, and I would very much like to cooperate with this committee. But…I’m even more convinced that you’re dedicated to the destruction of the freedom of thought, the freedom to speak and of assembly and of association. You are dedicated to the preservation of white supremacy and of segregation and of lynchings. 

“I, too, am a dedicated, principled individual, dedicated to the preservation of democracy, freedom of thought and association, equality and dignity, for all our people! I am dedicated to the promotion of better education for all of our children. And for peace!”  

As the students became agitated, the riot police came and turned fire hoses on the crowd, including Caroline and Karl, who were washed down the steps of City Hall. 

During the 60s and 70s, she was involved with many progressive political campaigns, including the campaign to elect Louise Stoll to the School Board. She and Torben visited China and Mongolia on a Teachers’ Union tour in 1972.  

Anne was also active in the Gray Panthers and Women for Peace. She was a lifelong feminist. 

In 1980 she moved to Mendocino, where she continued her activism in the Gray Panthers, Save the Redwoods and other groups. She toured the Soviet Union with the Gray Panthers Peace Cruise. 

She is survived by Torben Deirup, Caroline and Joe Grimes, Paul Deirup and Cameron White, Nancy Deirup and Jon Haagen-Smit, and grandchildren Michael Pozos and Brenda Santos, Nathan and Anja Grimes, Kirsten and Keith Deirup, Tora and Sonja Haagen-Smit, and Tristan Peterson, and great-grandchildren Miguel, Marcello and Mireya Pozos and Tassilo Grimes. 

Her many years and experience in various struggles made her a role model. Her friend Mattie Scott wrote in a poem about her:  

Gentle warrior: fierce friend… 

Early in the morning singing your song of justice 

And late at night when the many strong voices are spent, 

Still we hear your music: 

We will hear it in our dreams. 

There will be a memorial service in Mendocino on Sunday, Nov. 30, and another gathering in Berkeley on Jan. 11. Friends should call (707)937-4310 or (510)526-2939 for information.

Road Rage Victim Dies 

George Ronald Barillas, 43, of Berkeley died Tuesday from gunshot wounds sustained last month in what police believe was a road rage incident. Police said the dispute between Barillas and another driver apparently began on I-80 and continued after they left the freeway at Ashby Avenue.  

The pair pulled into a parking lot west of Seventh Street, where the other driver shot and fatally wounded Barillas at approximately 11:25 p.m. on Oct. 24. Investigators say they believe the shooter was driving a late model, full-size dark American-made SUV or pick-up truck, last seen driving west on Ashby towards Interstate 80. He is described as a black male, age 17-20, and possibly muscular or heavyset. Barillas is Berkeley’s fifth murder victim this year. Police encourage anyone with information about the case to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741. 

Carjacking 

Police are seeking the carjacker who robbed an 87-year-old resident of the 1600 block of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and made off with his car. Police said the victim walked into his garage to perform an errand and found the carjacker, who pulled a knife and stole the man’s cash, then forced him back into the house, where he stole more money before taking the victim’s car keys and taking off in his 1991 white Mazda Protege.  

Ohlone Greenway Arrests 

Police arrested two Berkeley youths for attempted robbery after they allegedly pulled a knife on a man walking along the Ohlone Greenway at Cedar Rose Park. Police said the boys sneaked up behind the victim, brandished the weapon and demanded his money. The victim ran towards the street screaming and flailing his arms, flagging down a driver on Cedar Street, who called police. A search turned up the two youths at the intersection of Gilman and Talbot streets, and the victim positively identified both. Police are investigating to see if the pair has any connections to a series of youth assaults perpetrated on the Greenway in recent months.

Honoring UN Convention  

Commemorating the 14th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly, the East Bay chapter of the United Nations Assembly-USA is sponsoring a conference Saturday entitled “The Rights of the Child and the UN Role in the Middle East.” 

The event will take place at Booth Auditorium at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Eva Brook, a member of the East Bay chapter’s board, the UN Assembly is a worldwide organization established to educate people about and promote the work of the United Nations. Conferences such as Saturday’s are scheduled at least twice a year and address current issues facing the international organization. 

She said the convergence of the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the violence now plaguing the Middle East prompted the assembly this year to invite a number of local and national speakers to address an issue she says has generated enormous amounts of concern. 

“The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified UN treaty,” she said. “Only two UN countries haven’t signed it.” 

Invited speakers include Raymond Sommereyns, Director of the Outreach Division for the Department of Public Information for the UN; Maher Nasser, Chief of the New York Liaison Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East; and Saudamnini Siegrist, a project officer for UNICEF’s (UN Children fund) Office of Emergency Programs. Chairing the panel is University of San Francisco Professor Stephen Zunes. 

After the morning presentation by the speakers, there will also be four afternoon workshops. A reception follows at UC Berkeley’s International House from 5 to 7 p.m. 

For more information, contact Eva Brook at (925) 389-7557. 

Church Seeks Early Members  

As it prepares for its 125th anniversary next May 1, St. Joseph the Worker Parish is looking for former parishioners, alumni and alumnae of both St. Joseph the Worker Elementary School and Presentation High School. 

Names and current addresses or questions may be sent to 125th Anniversary Committee, 1640 Addison St., Berkeley 94703 or phoned in to 845-6266, extension 24. 

Protest at Long’s Drugs 

Led by the Berkeley based Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Coalition, a group of concerned citizens and organizations confronted Long’s Drug store at their Walnut Creek headquarters Thursday over what they say are broken promises concerning tobacco sales in the stores. 

According to Ron Freund, a member of the Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Coalition, the event coincided with the national Great American Smokeout Day, a tradition started by the American Cancer Association to commemorate all those who have died from diseases related to smoking. 

Protesters say their main gripe with Long’s is changes to company policy that have re-written store rules concerning tobacco sales. 

Freund said that in May, 2002, several groups received a commitment from the company’s CEO to implement policies to curb tobacco sales at stores—including allowing local store managers to decide whether or not to sell tobacco at their stores, which prompted six branches to discontinue their sales. Stores were also supposed to adhere to a policy that banned in-store cigarette advertising and to publish the number for the California Smoker’s Help line in their advertisements. 

A subsequent management change resulted in the discontinuation of all these policies, Freund said, leading to Thursday’s confrontation. 

At the headquarters, Freund said protesters received an eight-point response that did not directly address any of the issues raised. They also asked to meet with new company CEO Warren Bryant, and were rebuffed. 

Freund said the march is only part of what will be a sustained campaign to reinstate the abandoned policies.

With business booming at the Berkeley Bowl, the battle to unionize store employees that ended with a vote of rejection a few short weeks ago already seems a distant memory to most customers. 

Though the banners, balloons and buttons have vanished, many employees and the union’s lawyer say the fight is far from over. 

David Rosenfeld, the attorney working with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Butcher’s Union Local 120, this week filed a series of unfair labor practice charges against the store, charging that the Berkeley Bowl “engaged in a deliberate and outrageous effort to sabotage the right of its workers to be represented by a union and to bargain a decent collective bargaining agreement.” 

The union claims the store fired union supporters, offered and provided increased benefits to bribe employees, and threatened to reduce hours and/or layoff employees if the union won—all of which Rosenfeld, organizers and pro-union employees say, swayed the vote. 

“The company engaged in a lot of unfair labor practices which caused the workers to vote no,” said Rosenfeld. “[Berkeley Bowl] has nothing to lose because they won the election and can fight the litigation for years.” 

Rosenfeld has asked the National Labor Relations Board to issue an order forcing the Berkeley Bowl to bargain with the union and establish a contract. He said he thinks the charges are substantial enough to force the agreement if the NLRB follows the letter of the law, but added that the litigation process could last two to three years. 

With their defeat in the election, pro-union workers must now wait a year before they can file for a new election. 

Since their defeat, pro-union employees say they’ve taken the down time to catch up on sleep, homework and family time and struggling with the same issues that promoted them to begin organizing for a union.

ROME—The Vittoriano monument in central Rome, towering over the bustling Piazza Venezia, is usually one of the city’s most chaotic traffic areas and foremost tourist destinations. 

The huge white monument, commonly referred to as the ‘wedding cake,’ was transformed into a place of national mourning, solemnity and patriotism this week when the caskets of 19 Italian soldiers killed in a bomb attack in Iraq were placed there for public viewing. 

Tens of thousands lined the streets on Monday to pay their respects to the 19 soldiers, the highest number of Italian military killed abroad in a single attack since World War II. Visitors laid flowers and notes on the massive white steps of the monument, creating a cascade of bouquets, covering the marble steps underneath. 

Thousands more returned to the monument on Tuesday, the day of the state funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Initial speculation that the high number of deaths in a war unpopular with a majority of Italians could fuel anti-war sentiment in the country has not come to pass. In the first few days after the attack it appears the opposite may be true. 

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who sent thousands of soldiers to Iraq this spring after the fall of the government there, pledged this week to keep Italian troops in Iraq. In the past week, Italian flags have become a more common sight hanging from apartment windows around Rome. Rainbow PACE flags, a popular sign of war protest are still visible in large numbers around Rome, but the colors have faded in many of them. 

“I hope the killings could increase the feeling against the war,” said Luciana Milella, 27, a resident of Rome who came to the steps of the Vittoriano monument on Tuesday. “But I think it is possible that it will increase support for it. I have noticed that feelings of country love have broken out at a high level. Nationalism is growing in Italy. I don’t think that’s a good thing. I love my country, but I don’t want to fight in the name of my country and kill other people.” 

Milella said she felt compelled to visit the monument, to take part in the public mourning, to try to understand what had happened to her countrymen and to her country. “I wanted to realize this massacre,” she said. 

The crowd on the sidewalk grew in the late afternoon as school groups arrived and workers stopped by on their way home. The river of flowers on the steps grew deeper by the hour. Teenagers cried into each others arms, parents explained the scene to their children and tourists and Romans mingled silently, some clasping the hands of the guards on duty. 

The deaths of the soldiers left many Italians shaken. The Roman daily newspaper La Repubblica reported the Nov. 12 suicide-bombing in Nassiriya with the headline “La strage degli italiani” (“The Slaughter of the Italians”). Many of the letters attached to flowers left at the Vittoriano in Rome read, “Grazie Eroi” (“Thank You Heroes”) and referred to the dead soldiers as Italy’s “19 Angels.” A few also read “Viva L’Italia,” making the point that this war was now Italy’s battle as well. 

Foreigners also paid their respects at the monument. “To the families of the soldiers lost and the people of Italy, we truly feel your sorrow,” wrote Bill Knoll of Florida on a note attached to a bouquet of flowers. 

“I feel so little in this situation, like I can do so little,” said Fabio Piemonte, 20, a student in Rome. “I just watched the funeral on television and I came here. I felt like there was nothing I could do. I hope these deaths were not in vain. I am against the war. War is evil always. I hope this changes something.”  

Others said the killings will make more Italians see that the war is their fight as well and will persuade the country that the U.S.-led war is justified. 

“The deaths of the soldiers will help unify the right and the left politicians behind the war,” said Antonio Gramoccone, 60, a resident of Rome. “Hopefully it will help Italy to participate more in the war. I am convinced we have to be a friend to America and to the American people.” 

On his way home Tuesday, Piero Gaspa, 42, a hospital psychologist, pulled his motor scooter to the edge of the monument, pulled a stack of cards from his jacket and tucked them beside the flowers on the steps. The 15 cards were made for the soldiers by his 9-year-old daughter and her classmates.  

Gaspa said the war and the deaths of the Italian soldiers had been a constant subject of discussion at family dinners and in his children’s’ classes over the week. While he said that he does not like war, he feels conflicted about the military activity in Iraq. 

“I’m very realistic,” Gaspa said. “I think it was necessary to get rid of Saddam Hussein and to fight for democracy for the people of Iraq. I think that the deaths of the Italian soldiers will likely increase Italian involvement in the war.” 

Michael Howerton is the former managing editor of the Daily Planet.

Lately I’ve been feeling warmly nostalgic for that comfy old Cold War. 

As war goes, it seemed so much more manageable than what we’ve got on our plate today. The moral issues were more easily navigated and actually dying seemed like a pretty vague abstraction. Well, it seemed that way to me at least, but I might have been naïve. After all, I was only 11 years old when President Reagan joked that he’d just outlawed Russia and that the bombing would begin in five minutes. 

On second thought, can you even be naïve when you’re 11? Or is mindless bumbling ignorance just where you ought to be at that developmental stage? 

I was old enough not to have been taught that cowering under my desk would save me from the nuke, but still too young to be allowed to watch The Day After. The night it came on I played cards in the bedroom with my mom and tried to catch the little snippets of dramatized Armageddon that were floating up through the heat grate from the TV downstairs. 

The problem with the current state of affairs is that I can actually imagine dying from terrorism. 

I grew up in the age of AIDS and crack cocaine, so biological and chemical warfare don’t seem so far-fetched. And suicide bombings? Please. Who among us hasn’t joked about which of our colleagues might “go postal?” We’re already primed and ready to expect suicide attacks at our schools and workplaces. Death by nuclear bomb, on the other hand, is too much of an abstraction to scare me. It’s the kind of fire and brimstone fairy tale that us secular seventies children were taught to firmly ignore.  

I much prefer total human annihilation via nuclear vaporization to the current state of piecemeal terrorism and the war against it. Much better to go out in a bang alongside the entire human race than to wait around for the bombings, lose your mother one day, maybe your internal organs the next. I remember thinking that if I did happen to survive the nuclear winter at least I wouldn’t ever be picked last for the dodgeball game again. Plus I’d get to kill squirrels with slingshots. 

The trouble is that when George Bush and Osama bin Laden say “God is on my side,” I think they really believe their own rhetoric. By contrast the old Soviet/American animosity felt a little contrived. I’m sure the average Russian and the average American disagreed over who would get the upper hand if Lincoln and Lenin came up on each other in a dark alley, but that was fairly tame jingoism. The Sputnik thing was a bummer, but nobody was willing to kill or die for it. Instead, we just started taking more science classes.  

Mostly I imagine the Russian and American military planners of the day trying to say the right things so that they could hang on to their mid-level bureaucratic jobs and go home in the evening to a vodka or a Bud. It was kind of like the A’s and the Yankees: sure, we hated each other, but nobody had to actually be Satan. I guess the Russians loved their children too. Nowadays I can imagine Osama bin Laden murdering his favorite just because he thinks it would confuse the heck out of us. 

The Cold War was also nice because it reined us in. I’m sure that there was a Middle Eastern country or two that we wouldn’t have minded invading in the eighties, but it simply wasn’t done. Would have upset the whole balance of power. I know, I know—we did lots of secret nasty stuff all over the world. But that’s just it: It was secret and I didn’t have to feel guilty that the taxes coming out of my paper route were funding an occupying army. Now it’s all out in the open and even though I try to pretend I’m Canadian whenever Paul Wolfowitz comes on TV, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m tainted by association. 

So I guess the bottom line is: Up with the Wall! Man your missile silos! It was a kinder time, a gentler age, when the world was dominated by two essentially sane superpowers, neither of whom wanted to be the first to push the button that would bomb us back to the swamp age. 

Back then bin Laden would have been small time. What’s that you say? You’ve got some airplanes and an inter-office envelope full of white powder? I’m shaking in my lead-lined boots. Back in the day we would have given a creep like him a few million dollars, or the Soviets would have, and he would have gone back to his palace and slaughtered a couple hundred of his closest friends. 

Ah, the good old days.

ORANGE COUNTY—Rachel Walters is among 71,000 Southern California grocery workers who are either on strike or locked out at Albertson’s, Ralphs and Vons supermarkets as they fight to keep company-paid health care, the best and often only reason for putting up with erratic part-time hours and low wages.  

If the nationwide supermarket chains get the 50 percent cut in health benefits they now want, Walters says, the cost of employee premiums for family care will shoot up from $0 to $95 per week over three years. Walters says she will have to pay at least $700 per month for medication to treat her multiple sclerosis, which she says would make it pointless to continue working as a Vons grocery clerk.  

“It’s not worth it to me to work only part-time hours so that I have to scrounge for the rest of the money for my health care,” she says.  

Walter’s departure wouldn’t bother supermarket owners, however, because the purpose of another one of their contract proposals—a two-tiered wage system—is to gradually weed out experienced and union-savvy workers like her and replace them with much lower-paid workers who will have even fewer health benefits.  

Strikes or threats of strikes against the grocery store chains, also over the issue of heath care, have also occurred recently in Oregon, Arizona, Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana and parts of Canada.  

Walter’s situation exposes one of corporate America’s most successful union-busting strategies since Congress gave it the Taft-Hartly Act in 1947: draining the limited resources of unions with entrenched battles over health benefits in order to win concessions on wages, pensions and job security. As long as Americans and their unions remain addicted to a for-profit health care system with its skyrocketing premiums and co-payments, corporate employers will maintain the upper hand in future contract negotiations.  

As Greg Congers, president of UFCW Local 324, representing 25,000 grocery workers in and around Orange County pointed out recently on a Los Angeles radio talk show, “Until politicians get the guts to ... discuss this incredible problem of 44 million Americans who have no health care coverage at all ... these kinds of (union-busting) things are going to be happening to union members across the country.”  

A little over a half-century ago, most union leaders supported a single-payer system that would provide quality and affordable health care for all, while freeing up union resources to fight for higher wages and better working conditions. But any chance for a tax based single-payer health care system was squelched by a corporate backlash against a surge in union membership from 1932 to 1947 and accompanying social reforms. Fearful of Red-baiting cries of “creeping socialism” that came with the Cold War, labor leaders and their Democratic Party allies dropped single-payer health care like a hot Commie potato and have been loyal to company-provided health benefits ever since.  

By 1980 that loyalty resulted in an inflationary whirlwind of health care costs way out of proportion to inflationary trends. It also split workers into two factions: those who had health care and those who did not, a division that corporations, including the supermarket chains, have adroitly exploited.  

After the start of the strikes and lockout on Oct. 11, the supermarket chains quickly published full-page advertisements in major Southern California newspapers that implied to thousands of regular customers now honoring picket lines that greedy grocery workers were to blame for their shopping inconveniences. The supermarkets, the ads said, were “more than fair” to ask their employees, who make “as much as $17.90 an hour,” to “pay a very small portion of their own health care coverage” so that “skyrocketing” costs won’t be passed on to customers.  

The ads were deceitful. Most grocery clerks are part-timers working for about $13 an hour and the supermarket chains’ drastic cuts in health benefits and other regressive contract proposals weren’t mentioned. But the recent decision of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union to redirect picket lines from Ralphs to other stores reflects the employers’ ability to use our for-profit health system to gradually erode public support for the union and wear down strikers, many of whom have left picket lines for other work due to lost wages and forthcoming cancellation of their health benefits.  

Universal single-payer health care would take away that corporate sledgehammer, unite all workers, fortify their right to organize and increase union bargaining power. A recent ABC-Washington Post poll shows that a majority of Americans support single-payer heath care. With presidential elections coming, there is no better time to push for it than now.  

But instead of organizing union members to fight for real health care reform, most union leaders continue to waste precious resources on Democratic Party presidential candidates tied to special interests. Their costly “universal” health care schemes not only aren’t universal but also would enrich insurance providers and increase America’s dependency upon them.  

It’s time for rank and file union members to steer organized labor away from continued self-destruction.  

John Earl is a freelance writer and union organizer and reformer.

If you tuned into radio-station KECG recently, you may have caught an interview with the woman who runs the cafeteria at El Cerrito High. Some students at the school were complaining that food quality had fallen off, so they had “The Cafeteria Lady” in to give her side of the story. 

Or maybe you heard the KECG show on teenage sexuality and sexually-transmitted disease. Or the one on the experiences of students recently immigrated to the United States. Or the broadcast that dealt with homicide in Richmond. 

Or maybe you’ve never heard of KECG. I hadn’t. 

KECG is the radio station that operates out of El Cerrito High School, also known as “Radio One.” 

Their antenna is right there on the roof of the school, and they’ve had an FCC license for twenty-five years. You’ll find them at 88.1. 

KECG programs are planned and coordinated with students, and (mostly) broadcast by students, focusing on what students think about and care about while giving airtime to adult concerns (school board elections, for instance, and city council meetings). There’s also vocational training that dovetails with the station’s activities. 

KECG alums have gone on to land jobs in public radio, at other local stations, and in the movie and audio industries. Broadcasting both on the Internet and over the airwaves, the station routinely field calls from as far away as Minnesota, and the most common question asked is how to set up a student station like KECG. 

So a question arises. Since Bay Area high schools have a standing invitation to broadcast their own programming through KECG, why don’t they do it? 

If you guessed money (usually a safe answer when it comes to education in California), you’re wrong. Berkeley High—which has an audio studio in their music building—was briefly connected to KECG five years ago. Then the staff and principal changed, and somehow, despite the whirring, well-intentioned machine that is the Berkeley School District, the signal was lost. Since then, no one has answered Phil Morgan’s calls. 

Philip Morgan manages the station. He grew up in Pasadena and Los Angeles, where his mother was an elementary school principal and his father a Seventh Day Adventist minister. He’s bearish, lumbering, with an easy smile. He seems to move without fear of deadlines, and when he speaks, it’s obvious that he’s not so interested in quick execution and delivery as in a clear thought, a well-crafted sentence. 

“The piece of equipment that a school would need to be a part of what we do here, it’s called a Hotline,” Phil tells me, pointing to a thin, black box with a few blinking lights. “It costs $2800. With that, a microphone, a stand, a pair of headphones, any school around here could pipe in their own programming. Announcements, interviews, live sports coverage of school athletic events, concerts in their auditorium, whatever they wanted to do.” 

“Is it worth it?” I ask him. “Would anyone hear the broadcast?” 

“We’ve got a signal that reaches all the way down to Oakland, over to San Francisco, to Mill Valley. I’ve picked it up in Sebastopol. We go as far north as Pinole on our second frequency, 97.7.” 

“And you’d like to broadcast programming from other schools?” 

“We already do it. Pinole uses our station for their morning announcements, so parents can hear what’s going on at the school. We’ve had Richmond, too, and North Campus.” 

“Where’s that?” 

“Hercules. We’ll be broadcasting for Hercules High School pretty soon. Believe me, we’re trying not to be secret. We want the community to know we’re here.” 

“Okay,” I say, “so why aren’t schools lined up to do this? Just to get coverage on who’s running for school board in a particular town—that’s free publicity. Then there’s kids who want to talk about what they’re excited about, what’s tormenting them, get some job-training at the same time … this seems like a whole lot more than free coffee and donuts you’re offering.” 

“Tell me about it. We went to Albany High a few years ago to talk about the station. The kids were excited, of course. Who wouldn’t be? But we never heard from the school.”  

“Have you hooked up with other schools?” 

“Fremont. But their studio was broken into and they never came back to us after that.” 

“But any Bay Area school could broadcast through your station without charge. Just the couple of thousand for the modem connection, which it sounds like some schools, like Berkeley High School, already have.” 

“Our studio here, this is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not to mention the license from the FCC. Our situation would be almost impossible to replicate. But getting programming on the air from kids, from schools—that’s what we’re here for. We don’t charge for that.” 

I ask him how he pays for his own station’s activities. In these days of draconian budget cuts it seems a little too good to be true. 

“It’s a basket of funds,” Phil says. “It’s not just one thing. We’ve got monies through something called R.O.P.—that’s Regional Occupational Programming. Then contributions from corporations and businesses. Other funds from the school district. The district decides how they want to spend what they’ve got, and, you know, I think they see this is something that more than justifies itself.” 

I teach an after-school program myself, one day a week, at Berkeley High. It’s a class in composition, funded by the American Composers Forum. In the five years I’ve been teaching it, I’ve been struck by the inability of the school to absorb the fact that we exist. Once or twice a year, I have to visit the main office when we’re locked out of the classroom. I am always met by the same bafflement. Who am I? Do I belong here? 

To an extent, it’s understandable. Berkeley High’s a big school. They have their hands full, and we’re beyond the periphery of their day-to-day concerns. Yet, hearing Phil tell how KECG fell through the cracks and reflecting on my own experience, I had to wonder if this is a system that is inadvertently chasing away valuable programs because it doesn’t know what to do with them. 

Is it possible that the school district—and not just ours—is it possible that they are inadvertently discouraging people and programs that would be invaluable adjuncts to our educational system, a system that everyone agrees is struggling to be viable? Could it be that these extracurricular activities are being set up to fail? 

Phil Morgan responds like the pragmatist he is. “I’ve got a background in school administration,” he told me. “When I make calls, pay a visit, and nothing happens I move on.” 

I call Albany High School. Principal Ron Rosenbaum has never heard of KECG. I tell him about it, then ask who’s assigned to work in something that’s not a standard part of the curriculum. 

“I don’t know whose job it was in the last administration,” he says. “But in this one, it’s my job.” 

Would he be interested in hooking up Albany High with KECG? 

“We would certainly be open to that,” he says. 

Berkeley High is a tougher nut to crack. I get Assistant Principal Mike Hassett on the phone. He’s clearly not interested in talking to either me or KECG. “Rick Ayers has some idea about doing something with the studio in the New Year,” he tells me. “You’d have to talk to him.” I get a number. [Later, neither Mr. Ayers nor Mark Copland, the Public Information Officer, return my calls.] 

“Is the studio being used at all right now?” I ask Hassett. 

“As a classroom.” 

How, I ask, are new programs worked in at Berkeley High? 

Hasset says there’s something called a “Shared Governance Team” that meets twice a month and reviews ideas like this. It’s made up of teachers, union reps, and administration. I allow as how this isn’t really what I’m asking. I want to know if there’s someone who makes sure new programs are welcomed, integrated into the school’s activities. 

“Look, guy, I’m busy here,” Hassett says. “I don’t know what else to tell you.” 

Though many claims are made for the Bush Administration’s shake-down of public education—the so-called “No Child Left Behind” law—anyone who wades through the website at edu.gov will notice a void where there might be a call for fresh ideas. Programs that haven’t been tried and deemed worthy aren’t invited to the party. This is a curious omission unless one presumes, as those who crafted this initiative must have done, that the era of trying new things is over, that all the necessary experiments have been made; that, in fact, innovation is problematic. 

Watching the struggle for simple day-to-day survival that seems to rule our local schools, it’s hard to avoid the notion that this aversion to change, to adding new pieces to the curriculum, has become esconced at our own schools. 

At KECG, the excitement of the control room environment speaks for itself. Philip Morgan gives his broadcasting class from 8:15 to noon every day at El Cerrito High, and once students are ready, they’re put before the microphone. Perhaps the last word should go to one of Phil’s students Tashiana Scott-Cochran, who, with a partner, created and hosted a blues program for KECG in the late nineties: 

“On Tuesdays from 9: 32 -10:32, my partner, Frederika Valle, and I conduct a lesson in the blues. Our show consists of musicians such as Big Mama Thorton, Elder Roma Wilson, Katie Webster, and Clifton Chenier. Each Tuesday we try harder to bring our listeners something better than the week before. I feel that is why our show has been a success. 

“Many of the older people who listen to KECG find it hard to believe two seventeen-year-olds find old time jazz and blues so uplifting. Well, for all of those in doubt, the Tashi and Rikki show is serious business and we treat jazz and blues with the utmost respect. For me, the jazz and blues segment of KECG is the most universal aspect of the radio station. Everyone knows what it is to ‘have the Blues.’ When you hear songs like Katie Webster’s ‘When Something’s Wrong with My Baby,’ you feel her heartache. We all love and feel loss and music helps to heal us. That is why I feel our show is so important. 

“We discover hidden secrets about ourselves, such as that music moves us and calls us to dance and that music can also make us want to cry… I told my mother about our blues show at school, mentioning Big Mama Thorton. My mother exclaimed, “I know her! She used to play on the corner of West Grand Avenue by the California Hotel. She sung the blues.” These are life’s hidden treasures which are found at KECG.” 

PULL QUOTE: 

Believe me, we’re trying not to be secret. We want the community to know we’re here.” Phil Morgan, KECG Station Manager 

The Jul. 22 story “Waterfront Artwork: An East Bay Tradition” mistakenly reported that statues of Snoopy and his nemesis the Red Baron built last year by local youth had fallen into San Francisco Bay. The statues remain nailed to posts in the waters by the Berkeley Marina. 

Dave Williamson took the photograph that appears on page 11 of the Nov. 18 edition, rather than Erik Olson.

On the eve of the first (and only) scheduled City Council hearing on the proposed March parcel tax increase, a loose federation of Berkeley neighborhood associations declared their opposition to the tax. 

It is the third Berkeley community organization to do so in recent weeks. 

Meanwhile, hoping to forestall a renegotiation of the city’s labor contracts, representatives of three of the city’s major city employee unions—Local One of the Public Employees Union, Local 535 of the Service Employees International Union, and Local 1245 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers—held a Monday noontime press conference on the steps of City Hall to reveal proposed cost-cutting strategies. 

A union spokesperson says the strategies were distilled from a comprehensive budget reduction package which the three unions presented to the City Manager at the beginning of the summer, and which have been the subject of continuous negotiations with the city manager’s office since that time. 

Without corrective action, Berkeley faces an estimated $9.5 million city budget deficit in fiscal year 2005, which could rise to $19.5 million in five years. Council has structured its proposed March, 2004, parcel tax increase ballot measure to wipe out half of the projected deficit, and intends to use budget cuts to take care of the rest. 

Organized opposition from significant numbers of the city’s neighborhood groups could make passage of the parcel tax measure difficult. A city-sponsored survey of Berkeley voters taken last summer showed that support for a parcel tax increase hovered between 65 percent and 69 percent, depending on how the measure was presented to voters. A 67 percent approval vote is needed to pass the measure. 

In a Nov. 15 memo addressed to Mayor Bates, City Council, and the city manager, the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) wrote that it is “opposed to the proposed property tax increase ballot measure and urge you not to place this measure on the ballot at this time. We believe that a full and fair discussion of the causes and cures for the City’s financial problems has not yet been undertaken.” 

The organization added that “having just one public hearing on the tax measure and one discussion of the city labor contracts, both on very short notice, is completely unacceptable.” 

BANA urged its affiliated organizations to take similar positions on the proposed parcel tax, and the LeConte and Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Associations previously announced opposition to the tax hike. 

In its memo, BANA cited its concern about what it called “excessive cost of the city’s labor contracts.” The alliance also suggested other “belt-tightening measures that the city can and should undertake” in lieu of a parcel tax increase, such as requiring “educational and wealthy nonprofit organizations, including UC” to “pay for the negative impacts they create and for all of the city services they use” and imposing “development impact fees” on both profit-making and nonprofit organizations. 

Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the parcel tax at today’s regular 8 p.m. meeting (Nov. 18th). Council has also scheduled a public report on the content of its city labor contracts at a special 5 p.m. meeting today, and then will break into private session to discuss negotiation strategies in asking city labor unions for budget cuts. 

Council must finalize language for the proposed parcel tax measure by its Nov. 25 meeting if the tax measure is to appear on the March, 2004 ballot. 

Mindful of a growing willingness of Council, the mayor’s and city manager’s offices, and citizen representatives to look at layoffs and cutting employee salaries as one way of attacking Berkeley’s budget deficit, city workers tied up city Landscape Equipment Operator James Wallace in red tape at their Monday press conference, and then descended the steps to cut him free with scissors. A handout said that the unions were symbolically cutting “needless red tape and bureaucratic inefficiencies, offering more citizen-friendly, streamlined and cost-effective services.” 

Called the “Three R’s” Initiative (representing “RightSize, Reduce, and Restructure), the union cost-cutting proposal committed its members to “working with management together on behalf of the Berkeley community to improve service delivery, restructure the organization and to reduce operating costs” and using “attrition and accelerating retirements...[to] reach sustainable, target personnel levels without requiring layoffs or wage and benefit cutbacks.” 

The unions presented a number of specific proposed cost-cutting measures, including a Safe Workplace Action Plan that they say will save the city $1 million annually in Workers Compensation costs. 

Eric Landes-Brenman, president of Public Employees Union Local One and a Senior Management Analyst with the Mental Health Division of Berkeley’s Department of Health and Human Services, said that the press conference and demonstration were also timed to coincide with the Sacramento inauguration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “who is going to have a profound effect on city of Berkeley finances.” 

Landes-Breneman said that representatives of the three unions originally presented seven pages of budget-cutting proposals to then-City Manager Weldon Rucker last January, and have been holding periodic meetings on the proposal with representatives of the city manager’s office since that time. 

The three unions present at the City Hall demonstration represent most of the city’s civilian, non-sworn employees. Members of the SEIU Local 790, which represents the city’s clerical workers, were not present at the press conference and have not taken a position on the proposals. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington has maintained during City Council meetings that a review of the city’s labor contracts would show that city unions have already assisted in cutting Berkeley’s labor costs during the past several years. 

In response to citizen complaints that city workers had been recently granted higher-than-sustainable wage and benefit increases, City Manager Phil Kamlarz included a “Public Presentation and Council Questions Regarding Wages and Benefits in Existing Labor Agreements” with Council’s Nov. 18 agenda packet. 

The memo outlined the city’s recent negotiations with its safety and non-safety employee unions, and compared Berkeley’s recent labor contract salary increases with similar increases in several Bay Area cities. 

However, the Kamlarz memo failed to state the actual salaries of city employees in any of the listed cities, including Berkeley, making it difficult to determine how Berkeley city salaries compare to those of its neighbors.

TUESDAY, NOV. 18 

Public Hearing on Proposed Tax Measure, at the City Council Meeting, 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. 

Berkeley Garden Club, “Plant Ahead for the Winter Months” Jeff Small and John Hauser, owners of CityLeaf, will speak about indoor gardening, focusing on choosing plants, their placement and care at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

Ed Rosenthal, “The State of Medical Marijuana in California” at 6 p.m. at 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. stopdrugwarnow@cs.com  

Identity Theft panel discussion at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, with Alameda County Consumer Affairs Commission, Dept. of Justice, District Attorney, Dept. of Motor Vehicles, Social Security, Post Office and VISA offices. 981-5190. 

New California Media Awards Ceremony, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Westin St. Francis, SF. For information contact David Park at 323-954-0415. 

“Channel Change of the Colorado River: A Mandate for Restoration?” with John C. Schmidt, Associate Professor of Aquatic, Watershed & Earth Resources, Utah State Univer- 

sity, at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

Safety at Berkeley High, a forum by the PTSA and Safety Committee at 7 p.m. in the Florence Schwimley Little Theatre. Childcare, translation, and special accomodations by reservation, email cpapermaster@earthlink.net 

“Jewish Women from Muslim Societies: Reflecting on Life in Islamic Lands,” with Gina Waldman, at 7 p.m. at 2040 Valley Life Sciences, UC Campus. Sponsored by Jewish Student Union. iac@berkeleyhillel.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Glenn Stevenson will present an “Overview of Mature Driving Techniques.” We offer ongoing classes and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. 215-7672.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Ernie Braun will speak on “Nature and Creative Slides.” 525-3565. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19 

“The Gift of Responsibility: Fostering Global Social Contracts,” with Lewis S. Mudge, Robert Leighton Stuart Professor of Systematic Theology (Emeritus) at SFTS, at 7 p.m. in the Hewlett Library, at the Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. The Faculty Publications Fair and reception follows the lecture. 649-2464. 

“Teenagers and Drugs in Berkeley” with Meredith Maran, author of “Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America’s Teen 

age Drug Epidemic” at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Gym at Berkeley High, followed by discussion groups, including one in Spanish. Sponsored by Downtown Berkeley YMCA, Berkeley High School’s Health Center and Parents of Children of African-American Descent. Free and childcare provided with RSVP. 665-3238. 

“Expectations for Next Year: Budget, Politics and Arnold,” with Assemblywoman Loni Hancock at 1:30 p.m. North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

New California Media Expo of multi-ethnic print, TV, radio and online media, from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at San Francisco Exhibition Center, 635 8th St., SF. For information call David Park at 323-954-0415. 

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

Fun with Acting class meets at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome. 985-0373. 

Yoga Holiday Festival, with yoga teacher Rodney Yee from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. Free. 549-9200. 

“Reverse Annuity Mortage” will be discussed by Cherisse Adams from ECHO Housing at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Prose Writers Workshop meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. 524-3034. 

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 20 

The Ecology Center Celebrates 30 years of Curbside Recycling with a reception, dinner and program at 6 p.m. at the Banquet Hall, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. Tickets are $60. Register online at www.ecologycenter.org/30years/ or call 548-2220 ext. 237. 

“Neighborhood in Modern Times” discussion on the neighborhood struggle to Save Ocean View from redevelopment proposed in the 1970s, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Pine Circle School Faculty Arts & Drama Bldg, 2016 7th St. Part of a lecture series commemorating the 150th aniversary Ocean View, Berkeley’s early settlement village. Tickets are $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 841-8562. bahaworks@yahoo.com  

Amy Goodman, “Fomenting Democracy: Independent media in a Time of War and Elections,” Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, at 7:30 p.m. in Pauley Ballroom, MLK,Jr. Student Union, UC Campus.  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association, “Stories of the Paths,” at 7 p.m. at Live Oak Park Rec Center, 1200 Shattuck Ave.  

Berkeley High School Information Night at 7 p.m. in the Berkeley Community Theater. This event is primarily for parents of 8th graders in independent/private schools who are unfamiliar with the Berkeley Unified School District.  

“San Francisco Bay: Portrait of an Estuary,” a new book with text by John Hart, environmental historian, and photographs by David Sanger, will be introduced with a slide presentation at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

Nepal-Woman Sherpa, a KQED-Frontline/World presentation at 7:30 p.m. at International House, Sproul Room, Piedmont and Bancroft Aves. 642-9460. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu 

Simplicity Forum, “Financial Transformation as a Way Out of the Corporate Rat Race,” with Fred Ecks at 7 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509. 

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

FRIDAY, NOV. 21 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eric Stover, Director, Human Rights Center, “My Neighbor, My Enemy.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $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. 

Family Literacy Night at the Berkeley YMCA, 7 to 9 p.m. activities include veggie art, pumpkin writing, storytelling. 665-3271. 

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 

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 22 

Green Living Series: Alternative Cleaning Recipes and Methods A workshop on methods and recipes for cleaning your house with such items as baking soda, vinegar, and borax, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. Cost is $10 EC members, $15 general, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

Eastshore State Park Walk Through Time Citizens for the Eastshore State Park and Save the Bay will offer a walk along the Bay beginning at 9 a.m. at Seabreeze Café off of University Ave. Learn about the history of this greatly transformed Bay shoreline. 452-926. jparsons@savesfbay.org 

Gardening: The Colorful Camellia Sasanqua at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Rights of the Child in the Middle East, a conference with discussion on the role of the United Nations, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Peacemaking, Refugees, and Children’s Education in Conflict Resolution, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. Donations appreciated. Proceeds benefit UNICEF projects in the region. 540-0830. Iameva@aol.com 

Goalball Invitational Tournament for visually impaired athletes, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Recreational Sports Facility, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program. For information call 849-4663, ext. 304.  

Get into the Swing at the Club Swing dance and open house at the Berkeley City Club from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Featuring live music from the 16-piece Class Act Traditional Swing Band, a full bar, and silent auction. Cost is $10. 848-7800. 

Dance for Lesbians and their Allies, a benefit for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and La Lesbian, at 9 p.m. at La Peña, 3015 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $20. 849-2568. 

Berkeley African Student Association Fall Banquet at 7 p.m. in the Lippman Room, Barrows Hall. For details see ww.ocf. 

berkeley.edu/~basa/home 

Alexander Technique Workshop on tension reduction, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley YWCA, 2600 Bancroft Way. Pre-registration recommended. 848-6370. 

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 by calling 981-5506. 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8.00 per class. For further information and to register, call Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

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

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 23 

Plant a Winter Garden, for children and adults, from 1 to 3 p.m. Meet in the West End Community Garden in People’s Park. Heavy rain cancels. 658-9178.  

Hope Rises From the Ashes, Vietnam veteran Mike Boehm will describe eleven years of rebuilding and the rebirth of hope in My Lai, at 3 p.m. at the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland. 

Basic Computer Use and The Berkeley Public Library Catalog will be taught from 1 to 2 p.m. and Getting and Using a Free E-Mail Account will be taught from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Central Library’s 3rd floor Electronic Classroom. Reservations are required. Sign up at the 3rd floor Paging Desk or call 981-6221. 

Haiti, a Celebration of the Bi-Centennial of Independence at 3 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Girl Army Cafe Night benefit for women’s self-defense at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Donation of $3-$5 requested, no one turned away. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Amdo on “Meditation and the Four Noble Truths,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Eckhart Tolle Talks on Video Free gathering at 7:30 p.m. to hear the words of the author of “The Power of Now” at the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. 547-2024.  

MONDAY, NOV. 24 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim and learn their cultural and natural history. Then take a walk to see wintering birds and dormant lady- 

beetles, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5 for residents, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Grief Information Session at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. If you have lost someone you love to cancer, come for gentle guidance through the basic steps of grieving. 5741 Telegraph. Please RSVP, 420-7900.  

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. 

13th Medicine Lodge, a gathering for shamanically inclined individuals, from 7 to 10 p.m. Please call 707-367-2282 for location. 

ONGOING 

Current and Former Department of Energy Employees and Contractor Employees A joint U.S. Dept. of Energy and U.S. Dept. of Labor Traveling Resource Center will be in the Bay Area to assist current and former DOE and DOE contractor employees file claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The Traveling Resource Center will be at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel, 5115 Hopyard Rd., Pleasanton, on Nov. 18 and 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. For further information or to make an appointment to meet with a counselor please call, toll-free, 866-697-0841.  

We Give Thanks Month, Berkeley restaurants, Bar-Ristorante Raphael, Cold Stone Creamery, Downtown, La Note, Semi-Freddi’s, Skates, and Spengers will donate a portion of their proceeds to Berkeley Food and Housing Project during the month of November. 

Holiday Food Drive Help the Alameda County Community Food Bank help people in need. Offer to run a food drive, or donate healthy nonperishable food at Safeway stores, Berkeley Bowl and Bay Street Emeryville. For more information call 834-3663. www.accfb.org 

City of Berkeley Commissioners Sought If you are interested in serving on a commission, applications can be downloaded from www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/general.htm#applications or contact the City Clerk, 981-6900.  

The Online Civilian Conservation Corps Museum is seeking the stories about the CCCs, CCC Enrollees, Staff, or Technical Advisors for publication to this online historical resource. If you would like to participate please send your stories, with name company number and location if known, to CCC Collection, PO Box 5, Woodbury NJ 08096 or email to JFJmuseum@aol.com 

Personnel Commissioner Sought for Alameda County School Board Responsibilities include administration of the Merit System. Meetings once a month. Applications must be received by Nov. 28. For details please contact Alameda County Office of Education, 670-7703. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housingauthority 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/civicarts 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Nov. 19, 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., Nov. 19, at 6:45 p.m., at Berkeley Work-Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/mentalhealth  

School Board meets Wed., Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Nov. 24, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste

MISREPRESENTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your article of Oct. 31 regarding the picketing janitors protesting job conditions at UC Berkeley’s International House misrepresents the situation. I-House officials invited input from the custodial staff and are aware of their concerns about work conditions. The staff submitted a proposed workstation plan, which was taken under advisement. A formal letter of response was submitted to AFSCME in early September, and it was discussed in staff meetings. The supervisors mentioned to staff that they did not agree with implementing the proposed work assignments, but agreed to be receptive to new ideas. The article further implied that some workers were doing less than others. The fact is when assignments are completed, employees are assigned to utility work which equates to everyone working an eight hour day. 

It should be noted that charges of disrespectful treatment on the part of one supervisor are taken seriously and are being investigated. 

The department has continued to work proactively with AFSCME, that staff, and Campus Labor Relations to evaluate the workstation assignments and make changes if deemed necessary. 

Greg Rodolari 

Director of Physical Operations 

International House  

• 

FIERCENESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your timely coverage of local issues. 

I was especially intrigued by the phrase “fierce neighborhood opposition” used in Matthew Artz’s recent article “Neighbors Defeat Disputed Seminary” (Daily Planet, Nov. 7-10). I would like to see some of that fierceness imported to North Berkeley in order to rid the area of the dilapidated bit of Berkeley history known as the Hunrich Grocery on Rose Street between Spruce and Oxford streets. The building was declared a Structure of Merit by BAHA in 1988. Now shrouded in flapping plastic and partially surrounded by a chain link fence with fluorescent caution tape blowing in the wind, this deteriorating structure is a blight to the entire neighborhood. Clearly it is also a safety and health hazard to its immediate neighbors. Are we to wait and watch the ailing building collapse little by little or can something be done to end its slow deterioration? It is painful to watch the walls sag further and shingles disappear. O, for some neighborhood fierceness! 

Andrea Foley 

• 

JUST PLAIN SCOUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was a pleasure to read your news article about Baily Hopkins, “Boy Scout” (“Boy Scout’s Not a Boy,” Daily Planet, Nov. 11-13). To see an upbeat story on the front page is a true delight. Stories about people like Baily, with critical minds and civilized attitudes, inspire more hope in the future that would otherwise be there. I particularly enjoyed learning that our Berkeley Scouts were the first to openly reject the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gays (for evil to flourish good people must remain silent). By the way, I think we could take a page out of the Central American Scout Book by not having our scouting organizations based on gender and just have Scouts.  

Virgil Todd 

• 

PUSHING THE RULES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One commonality between all of us, be one a child, an enterprising real estate developer, or an esteemed editor is that whenever we are given a rule it will be pushed to the limit. I would suggest that it is not necessarily a bad thing and that the problem you have been reporting about alleged underpayment of taxes by certain individuals may lie as much with the rule-makers, and as the investigation is unfolding it is looking more and more that way. In some instances it may be a good idea to build in sufficient financial slack into some of these rules so that desired projects are given more of a chance of succeeding. And further I would suggest that applying foresight by city planners to these matters is no easy matter. I am pleased with your reporting of this matter and would only encourage that you continue with dispassionate resolve and be mindful that the answers you may believe to be correct in the beginning of the investigation could be different than the one that are eventually reached. I never cease to be impressed with the thoughtfulness that permeates every aspect of life in this fine city including this publication, and I trust it will be reflected in the coverage of this matter. 

Steve Pardee 

• 

ABSURDITIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent letter concerning building heights made reference to “a handbook for planners and developers published in June, 2003 by the San Francisco District Council of the Urban Land Institute” which makes recommendations for building heights in “walkable” neighborhoods. 

This leaves me wondering whether the Urban Land Institute recognizes “unwalkable” neighborhoods as legitimate urban/suburban development. That concept is at the heart of the decline of older cities and the failure of repeated revitalization attempts to produce anything resembling sustainability. 

It’s amazing how so many professionals can sing the praises of taxpayer-subsidized “smart growth” and at the same time ignore a state planning code that fails to require all urban/suburban development to be equally accessible to those who cannot, should not, or choose not to drive. Traffic congestion and environmental problems will never be resolved if we continue to allow discriminatory urban/suburban development anywhere. 

New heights of absurdity were reached when the Democrats in Sacramento and Gov. Davis approved SB60, allowing illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses. Now they can have access to jobs that are beyond the reach of citizens who don’t drive and lack adequate alternatives. 

Art Weber 

El Cerrito 

• 

VETERAN’S DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for the excellent article “Moving Veteran’s Day Rites Provide Cause for Reflection” by poet Alta Gerry (Daily Planet, Nov. 14-17). As a life-long peace activist and conscientious objector, I appreciated her sensitive perspective on this often misunderstood holiday. 

Burl Willes 

• 

CULTURAL SPACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve followed with interest the Daily Planet’s coverage of the ways developer Patrick Kennedy and his Panoramic Interests appear to have played fast and loose with the terms of agreements in which he has been granted both extra height and reduced fees and assessments in return, as I understand it, for setting aside 20 percent of the housing units as “affordable,” and providing “cultural space.” 

Lately, Councilmember Dona Spring has called for a full investigation of how major developers (and there seem to be few besides Kennedy) do business in Berkeley. 

I am eager to see this happen, along with continuing investigative articles on this issue. In particular, I’d like to see some details on the “cultural space” matter.  

I subscribe to the Shotgun Players, and had eagerly looked forward to the company moving into its new home in the Gaia Building. For months, a banner hung from a veranda on the façade, promising this. Now it’s gone, and what I’ve heard through the grapevine is that the “cultural space” offered to the company lacked any of the amenities that would allow them to use it for theater. They were supposed to raise funds for lights, seating, etc. themselves—which a cutting edge group like Shotgun could not dream of doing. 

Then I heard that Anna’s, the jazz cafe venue formerly down on University, was going to move in. That sounded tantalizing. I have no information, but am unsure if it’s really happening.  

An old cliché has it that the devil is in the details. Frankly I get the sense that Kennedy is very adept at talking the talk, but when it comes to “walking the walk” of earning breaks from the city by meeting community needs, he plays fast and loose. Then too, his name appears on Shotgun’s contributor list--which might make it hard for them to publicly call him to account. 

So this is a plea to the Planet staff to do some digging. I doubt the paper owes Kennedy any favors. 

Donna Mickleson 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently I’ve been much impressed with the use of public transit for getting to Cal football games. I watch the big AC Transit buses roll by, coming from Rockridge BART and the parking lots out on College. I even see a lot of people who walk in to the stadium from out beyond where I live, at College & Parker. This is great. 

This is in contrast to the complaints I keep hearing about the lack of downtown parking. Berkeley has better bus service than the other Bay Area cities, and there are no less than four BART stations, if one counts Rockridge. In this town, it’s really easy to get downtown by transit. Maybe the people who complain actually don’t know what is available? Maybe transit isn’t advertised enough? I doubt that; it’s very easy to find out anything you need to know. The football game patrons seem to have figured it out. 

People who visit Berkeley’s many fine shops, restaurants and theaters really don’t need much downtown parking. The recent complaint from YMCA members is such an embarrassment. Of all organizations, the YMCA should be encouraging bus riding, not providing free parking. The YMCA office ought to fill the gap left by the closing of the Berkeley TRIPS store, and sell bus passes. 

Merchants complain about losing parking garage space. I even hear rumors that the Arts Commission is saying there isn’t enough parking. All this is really kind of silly, given the great transit we have in Berkeley. 

As a regular bus rider, I know the heady freedom of getting off at a downtown stop and proceeding to my destination, with no concern whatever for parking. I really like that.  

Sure the buses are crowded sometimes, but that’s no real problem. It’s mostly Cal students, flashing their “Class Pass.” One of them usually gives a seat to a senior citizen. 

Sure, buses are late sometimes. Actually, even as a regular rider, I haven’t memorized the schedules of the downtown buses. I just hang around at the nice bus shelter until a bus shows up. Of course I do know what buses go where, and about how often they run. I carry a 31-day pass, and I know where to wait and how to get on and off. Having acquired those urban skills of bus riding, I feel very secure. I can always find a bus to take me home. Maybe twice a year, I’ll get into some situation when I need to use a taxi; Berkeley has plenty of taxis too. 

Berkeley really does have enough parking; we really don’t need to keep clogging the streets by using a car for all trips, and poisoning the air with car exhaust. Bus riding in Berkeley is really convenient and fun. I know. And so do the football fans. 

Steve Geller 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe the widespread frustration with the near zero degree of accountability in Berkeley City government is one factor fueling a growing “no taxation without representation” sentiment even in Berkeley. 

For example, permit parking is at best sporadically enforced in my neighborhood. Students living on my block, with luxury SUVs, without permits, rarely if ever receive tickets. The appropriate city officials will not tell our councilmember, Kriss Worthington, how many times a month the block is patrolled. This is one example of arrogance and lack of accountability.  

In my neighborhood we have tried to get the city to deal with the problem of commercial delivery trucks using residential streets as short cuts instead of staying on the city’s prescribed truck routes. Three and a half years ago in March 2000, City Council referred this problem to city staff calling for a three or four-ton limit on vehicles in residential areas. Three and a half years have gone by and the problem remains. For a while three-ton signs were installed, but city officials did not follow through to make the necessary changes to the city code to codify the change. Instead, Peter Hillier, the new deputy mayor for transportation, removed three-ton truck signs, arguing in part that this could inconvenience Hummers. We are in worse shape than where we started from three and half years ago. The action approved by Council has never been implemented. The truck problem continues. This is another example of arrogance and lack of accountability.  

One way to contribute to reducing the budget deficit and restoring citizen confidence in city government would be to enforce the traffic laws. A rough estimate is that several hundred cars a day speed on my block (and hundreds like it). If even some of them were ticketed, the quality of life would improve and the revenues would rise. I am told this is not a realistic proposal. Has anyone in Berkeley city government heard that there was a recall in the state because among other things the government and its officials were considered to be arrogant and unaccountable?  

Paul Rabinow 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Berkeley resident and a San Francisco firefighter. In 2000, I also co-founded a camp for young women to teach about leadership and the fire service called Camp Blaze. 

I am frustrated with your word choice in your Nov. 11-13 article entitled “Firemen Describe Inferno.” As you well know there are a number of women working in the fire service around the Bay Area (yes, in Berkeley too) and throughout California. Using the word “firemen,” though while accurate to describe the gender of the Berkeley firefighters mentioned in your article, excludes firefighting women from public awareness. 

Women make up a small percentage of the firefighters nationwide, but that proportion is much higher here in California and higher still in the Bay Area. The citizens of our city and our state need to know that all firefighters are not men. Many young women still have no idea it is a career path option, and media representations such as yours continue to shroud our profession in mystery. 

Not all firefighters are men. Can we refer to what it is we do and not our gender? 

Alissa Van Nort 

The Berkeley Repertory Theater has pulled out all the stops (discretely, of course) as well they should, in publicizing its new production “Continental Divide.” 

And, by the way, that title represents two related, but definitely not interdependent, plays—“Daughters of the Revolution” and “Mothers Against”—by the British playwright David Edgar. 

The short version of this review is that they are both well worth seeing and each one makes totally good sense completely by itself. It very probably does make a different kind of sense if you see both of them. And it probably doesn’t matter which one comes first. 

This review is based on seeing both in one day—the Rep does have the thoughtfulness to give the audience time for dinner and a couple breaths of air in between plays—with the “Mothers” first. Rumor has it that your sense of the overall meaning of the productions varies with which one you see first. 

As is perhaps obvious, “Daughters” is tied up with the Democrats, although most of the action concerns events from the lead’s radical past. His journey in the play is his search to find out who among his associates in the old days betrayed him to the FBI, thus shadowing his subsequent career. And, by the way, he is not the Democratic candidate for the governorship. She (the candidate) actually spends very little time on stage, although her presence is a very significant part of the action (and often presented through video and seemingly real television screens). 

“Mothers” is a well-structured play with a single setting in the Republican candidate’s home where he and his family are being prepared for the upcoming debate with the Democratic gubernatorial debate. It is a focused presentation with a straightforward structure: a beginning, a middle and an end. 

The candidate himself, perhaps surprisingly, is presented in as fair and balanced a way as is the liberal from “Daughters.” It’s a fascinating presentation with intelligence—these plays seemingly show no bias. Perhaps it makes sense that a foreign observer is the person who was able to write them. 

With such large casts, and such a high level of acting, it is nearly impossible, or perhaps just unfair, to single out specific actors for the excellence of their achievements. This is particularly true in “Mothers” in which the seemingly supporting roles are about as large and demanding as is the apparent lead. The short version is that there is some excellent acting in these productions. A whole lot of it. 

The playwright, David Edgar is a pretty good sized theatrical fish. You may remember the huge success his musical based on “Nicholas Nickleby” had on Broadway a few years ago. It turns out that he and the Berkeley Repertory Artistic Director Tony Taccone became friends several years back when they were both working in San Francisco. And Edgar, who has both feet firmly planted in his home country, England, brought up an idea about the American political scene that he’s had cooking for years. 

He traveled across the country in 1979 talking to political activists from the 60s—he’d been the same age, and felt a part of the story. The idea stayed in his head for years, along with one for a separate story—that of the issues within the more conservative party, the Republicans. 

When both Berkeley Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival approached him asking for a play, he realized that it could be a joint commission, a cycle of two plays “mapping the inter-generational and inter-party struggle between competing but not always incompatible visions of the American Dream.” The two companies were enthusiastic about the idea, and the first production was recently ended at Oregon. 

Primarily, the plays are connected to each other through their independent involvement in the opposing Republican and Democratic campaigns for the governorship of an unnamed Western state. One has to suspect California, although the playwright says he carefully elected to keep any part of the most recent unpleasantness (to quote Churchill) out of the plays. 

The original Oregon cast for ‘Mothers Against” has transferred to Berkeley. There have, however, been some changes in both cast and the text in “Daughters of the Revolution.” Before opening here, the one springing from the Democratic Party went through at least two rewrites between Ashland and Berkeley; and, although powerful, it still seems somewhat unfinished when seen in immediate juxtaposition with its sister. 

They’re far from twins, but they’re both worth seeing. 

Continental Divide is showing at the Roda Theatre through Dec. 28. Running time is three hours for each of the two plays, including one 15-minute intermission each. For more informaiton, contact the box office at 2025 Addison St. Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. 647-2949 or go to www.berkeleyrep.org/.

TUESDAY, NOV. 18 

CHILDREN 

Todd Parr, Berkeley author and illustrator, will read from his books and draw for children, at 7 p.m. at the Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. Sponsored by Friends of the Berkeley Public Library. 981-6624. 

First Stage Theater, “Time Capsule Blues,” a musical comedy, performed by 8-11 year olds, at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan. Tickets are $4 at the door only.  

FILM 

Alternative Visions: No and Goshogaoka at 7:30 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is  

$4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alice Sebold, author of “The Lovely Bones” will speak on the process of writing, the difference between memoir and fiction, and the issues of violence, loss, hope and faith at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall. Tickets are $18-$28 and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Gerald Torres introduces “The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy” at 4:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Melody Ermachild Chavis introduces, “Meena: Heroine of Afghanistan” about the founder of RAWA, who was assassinated at age thirty, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533.  

“Being Human at Work,” with six authors at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

The Creative and Unconventional Journey of Jake Heggie, composer and pianist, at 7:30 p.m. at The College Preparatory School, Buttner Auditorium, 6100 Broadway (north). 658-5202. www.college-prep.org/livetalk  

Roger Kamenetz will read from his new collection of poetry, “The Lowercase Jew,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Tom Rigney and Flambeau performs 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 

Mark Erelli, singer, songwriter at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19 

CHILDREN 

Todd Parr at 3:30 at the Library Claremont Branch, 2940 Ben- 

venue Ave. See listing for Nov. 18. 

FILM 

Standby: No Technical Difficulties, Program 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Leo Braudy discusses “From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Maargret Schaefer, translator, introduces Arthur Schnitzler’s “Desire and Delusion” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Turning Corners a conversation with Richard Candida Smith and Lucinda Barnes on the influence of process at noon at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Ellen Waterston will read from “Then There Was No Mountain; A Parallel Odyssey of a Mother and Daughter through Addiction” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David Law will show slides and introduce his two California history books, “Steinbeck Country” and “Silicon Valley” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

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

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Conjunto Coyote and Friends CD release party at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ritmozolando, Venezuelan folkloric music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Weepies, Deb Talen and Steve Tannen at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation $10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Gareth Davis, will present a concert of new music with composer Nicola Sani, at 8 p.m. at CNMAT, 1750 Arch St. Free. www.cnmat.berkeley.edu 

Gerry Tenney and California Klezmer 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 

Excelsior, Last of the Juanitas, MASTEMA 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. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

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

Lithium Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 20 

CHILDREN 

Asheba, Caribbean rhythms, at 10:15 a.m. at the Library South Branch, 1901 Russell St. 981-6224. 

Daniel Galvez, muralist and illustrator, inspired by Mexican painting, speaks to elementary school children about his work at 4 p.m. at the Library West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6224. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Karl Seifert’s “Hedonists and Hooligans,” an exhibition of photographs at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

FILM 

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival: “My Flesh and Blood” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gallery Talk: Ecuadorian Arts and Crafts: 1963-1970 with textile collectors Kathleen Mossman-Vitale and Paul Vitale, at noon at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave. Free with museum admission. 643-7648.  

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Steven Frank gives advice to writers at all levels in “Pen Com- 

mandments” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured reader Dhaia Tribe, followed by open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

Michael Pollan, author of “The Botany of Desire” in conversation with Patricia Unterman at 7:30 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, Berkeley Reperatory Theater, 2025 Addison St. Benefit for Park Day School of Oakland. Tickets are $8-$15. 653-0317, ext. 103. 

Leah Levy, trustee of the estate of Jay DeFoo will discuss “Jay DeFoo and The Rose” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Scott Saul presents “Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Drums and Tuba, Go Van Gogh at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Brian Joseph, CD release party for “King of Echo Park” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jackie Greene, folk and blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

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

FRIDAY, NOV. 21 

CHILDREN 

Splash Circus, “In the Magical Forest” at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan. Cost is $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Family Storytime at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Gift of Art,” reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. Exhibition runs to Jan. 25. 549-1018. www.cecilemoochnek.com 

“Creating an Atmosphere” with Elke Behrens, Audrey Kral and Tim Mooney. Reception from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717D 4th St. Exhibit runs to Dec. 5. 527-0600. 

FILM 

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival: “The Lost Rebels of Pancho Villa” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Manufacturing Consent,” Noam Chomsky explains the media’s manipulation of reality, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Louis Bayard introduces his different Christmas story, “Mr. Timothy,” set in 1860’s London, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. www.codysbooks.com 

Lauren Renée Hotchkiss, musician and poet, featured at the Fellowship Café at 7:30 p.m., Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Donation $5-$10. 540-0898. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Falsobordone presents Personent hodie, Yule music from ancient Scandinavia, for voices and instruments, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $12-$15. 486-2803. 

Sensations, Norfolk and Western, and the Winter Blanket at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Ms Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m., with a dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chicano Groove with Hazel, Slowrider, and Quinto Sol at 9 p.m., at La Peña. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Acoustic Singer Songwriter Night with Helen Chaya and Friends, 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 

Baguette Quartette, music of Paris, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Randy Porter at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Holier than Thou, Voetsek, Knife Fight, Strung Up, Covered in Scars, Rabid at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Beth Custer’s Clarinet Thing and Edmund Welles’ Bass Clarinet Ensemble at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Wayside at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Damphibians, Ten Mile Ride, StarShak at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 22 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Cascada de Flores, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Splash Circus, “In the Magical Forest” at 2 p.m. See listing for Nov. 21. 

Mittie Cuetara, author and illustrator, will read from her books and draw for pre-schoolers and those interested in picturebook art at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6224. 

FILM 

La Lesbian, with films “Laughing Matters,” “Teaching Teo” and comic Susan Swift, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“The Manchurian Candidate,” an evening with Greil Marcus, at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sign Language Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 1:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Oliver Chin present his new book, “The Tao of Yao: Insights from Basketball’s Brightest Big man” at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Rosemary Wells will be here to sign copies of her newest books, “Felix and the Worrier,” “The Small World of Binky Braverman,” and “Only You” at 2 p.m. at Cody’s Books. You may also bring her books from home to have them signed. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson introduces us to “The Pig who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

“Kesey’s Jail Journal” will be introduced by Ed McClanahan, editor, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Rhythm & Muse features musician/poet Matundu Makalani at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 527-9753. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

International Taiko Festival at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$36 and are available from 642-9988. www.taikodojo.org 

Musica Antiqua Köln, led by conductor and violinist Reinhard Goebel, at 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Choreographers’ Performance Alliance, “Works in the Works” with host Aileen Kim, at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St. Cost is $10. 644-1788. 

Moments Notice Gala benefit for Cassie Terman’s upcoming solo show “Citizen of Trees” at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio: 2525 8th Street, at Dwight. Tickets are $15-$20. 915-3883. 

Blue Eyed Devils at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave. El Cerrito. 525-2129.  

The Drink Tickets, Love Kills Love, Mommy’s Friend, and Ruby Deville and the Sons of Cocoa Country at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Marley’s Ghost, from Jacob to Bob, a one-band music festival, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Eddie Gale Band performs classic to free jazz and beyond at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Maye Cavallero, contralto, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

CitiZen One, singer/songwriter at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Zydeco Flames at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a dance lesson with Dana DeSimone at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jump/Cut at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Hypnogaja, Fantasia, Blvd. Strays at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Scott Amendola at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Mike Park, Skyflakes, Clarendon Hills, Pete the Genius, Charmin at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 23 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Helen Mirra/Matrix 209 opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

CHILDREN  

Caribbean Kids’ Show with Asheba from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6 for adults, $4 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Splash Circus, “In the Magical Forest” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Days of Youth” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gallery Talk with artist Helen Mirra of Matrix 209: “65 Instants” exploring the threads of Buddhist influence in American artisitc life, at 3 p.m. in Gallery 1, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Guided Tour at 2 p.m. and Lecture with Troy Duster at 3 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Jabez Churchill, Gerald Fleming, George Higgins, Christina Huggins, Diana O'Hehir, David Shaddock, Susan Terris, Julia Vinograd, and Gillian Wegenerp at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2 benefits “Americas Review.” 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Irwin Silber will discuss “Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Leonard Felder introduces his new book, “When Difficult Relatives Happen to Good People” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861.

Berkeley City Council asked citizens to come out to the regular meeting last Tuesday to air their opinions on the proposed March, 2004, parcel tax increase ballot measure. A large number of Berkeley citizens complied, packing Council chambers Tuesday night, and pretty much telling Council to take their tax and shove it. 

The city faces an $8 million to $10 million budget deficit next year, projected to rise to as high as $20 million within five years. Council has proposed a parcel tax measure for next spring’s ballot that would make up half that projected deficit, hoping to institute budget cuts to make up the rest. 

The proposed tax would raise property taxes in Berkeley a little over nine cents a square foot, which would add about $110 to the tax bill for a 1,200-square-foot of property, up to a $913 increase for 10,000 square feet. 

Implementation of the measure requires approval by two-thirds of the voters. 

According to city Budget Manager Paul Navazio, without a new source of revenue, the city faces a 10 percent across-the-board cut next year of all city services. If no cuts are made to fire or police services, those necessary cuts would balloon to between 20 percent to 30 percent of the remaining city budget. 

In anticipation of the pending cuts, Mayor Tom Bates and three members of City Council (Linda Maio, Miriam Hawley, and Gordon Wozniak) have proposed a “budget crisis recovery plan” for debate before Council at its Nov. 25 meeting. Included in the proposed plan are a freeze on most new hiring by the city and a moratorium on all new city expenditures. 

Meanwhile, at the request of the mayor, the city manager’s office will do some more tweaking of the proposed parcel tax before putting it to Council for a final approval of the ballot language Nov. 25. 

Bates asked City Manager Phil Kamlarz to cap the proposed tax at $7 million, eliminating the trigger that would allow the tax to increase in proportion to any potential state cuts to Berkeley’s budget. Bates also requested that the proposed tax be automatically resubmitted to voters for approval in four years, rather than the original six. 

If Tuesday night’s hearing is any indication, however, those alterations may be a case of too little, too late. Some 30 residents spoke their minds to Council, almost all in opposition to the proposed tax, and none citing any previous Council concessions on the measure. 

Berkeley resident Patrick Finley—stressing that he isn’t a landlord—summed up the position of many when he told Council, “The structure [of the proposed parcel tax] is proposed so that the majority can impose on a minority a property tax, so only the few will carry the burden to benefit the many. I say shame on you for your divisive proposal, and your failure to fulfill the trust to manage the city’s revenue.” 

Dorothy Adriennes, an artist, an unemployed single mother, and a Berkeley property owner since 1985, told council she was at her “wit’s end” because of a property tax bill that was already more than $4,000 a year. “I’m one of those persons who is at my limit,” she said. “I need some relief here. The Berkeley artists can’t afford to live in Berkeley.” 

Bob McDow, a Berkeley homeowner and taxi driver, said “a lot of us are fed up. Last November, three of four Berkeley tax measures were voted down, with no significant opposition. This time, there’s organized opposition.” McDow said that if Council did not make significant revisions to the tax proposal, “we will fight it, we will oppose it, and we will defeat it. There is no doubt.” 

Three more Berkeley neighborhood associations—the McKinley Addison Allston Grant Neighborhood Association, the Willard Neighborhood Association, and the Blake and California Streets Neighborhood Association—came out in opposition Tuesday night, bringing to five the number of Berkeley neighborhood groups against the tax. In addition, the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA), an umbrella coalition, has announced opposition to the parcel tax. 

Many speakers questioned why Council didn’t propose other fund-raising measures rather than the parcel tax. 

But to the complaint of some speakers that the proposed parcel tax was a “regressive tax based upon the square footage rather than the value of the property,” City Manager Phil Kamlarz said that state law “limits the types of taxes we can implement. Few, if any, progressive tax raises are possible.” 

A clearly frustrated Mayor Tom Bates took aim at some of the public speakers, saying, “A lot of misinformation was put out tonight [about the nature of the Berkeley budget and the proposed tax cut]. It’s very frustrating to sit here and listen to this misinformation.” 

But Bates seemed almost resigned to the possible—some might say probable—defeat of the measure next March, stating that while he didn’t want to preside over layoffs and radical budget cuts, he would do so if that was the will of the voters. 

Bates, in fact, seemed to be almost publicly preparing for an imminent loss. “We’re trying to craft something that we can present to the voters, and if they turn it down, they turn it down. I used to play football up at Cal,” he added. “I know how to lose. It’s not like it’s the end of the world.” 

The remark got one of the few laughs of the night. 

Council got more bad budget news during an earlier 5 p.m. hearing on the city’s labor contracts. While Council has floated the idea of renegotiating the labor pacts as a way of cutting the budget deficit, representatives of several of the city’s major labor unions flatly rejected the notion during the public hearing. 

The city is presently locked into contracts with fire personnel until 2006, with police personnel until 2007, and with all other union-represented city staff until 2008. 

City staff and union representatives both said they were continuing negotiations over several labor cost-cutting proposals that would not involve renegotiating contracts.  

The only good news for the city on the labor front on Tuesday was the announcement that city department heads had agreed to a voluntary three percent pay cut to help in the budget crisis.

Berkeley Schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence doesn’t pull punches when expressing her disdain for President George W. Bush’s landmark No Child Left Behind law. 

“We’re robbing underachieving kids of their social capital,” she told audience members gathered in Lafayette Saturday for State Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s community forum on the 2002 law that requires rigorous standardized testing of students and harsh punishments for schools and districts that fail to achieve federally mandated goals. 

Lawrence blasted the law on multiple fronts, charging that the legislation places bureaucratic burdens on districts without providing the increased funds to pay for extra paperwork, forwards a right-wing political agenda aimed at undermining public education, and limits instruction in art, music and athletics in favor of a narrow focus on subjects that appear on tests. 

Berkeley has vowed to maintain a balanced curriculum despite the all-important tests that focus nearly exclusively on math and reading—but in separate interviews Berkeley administrators, principals and teachers said that, for better or worse, high stakes test preparation has crept into classroom instruction. 

“There’s no question that math and reading take precedent over other subjects, partly because of the tests and partly because they require more academic time for developing skills,” said Jennifer Adcock, a fifth grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary. 

No Child Left Behind requires reading and math testing for all students in grades 3-8, with science to be added in 2006, and additional tests for high school students up to grade 11. 

Not only must schools demonstrate “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), but each ethnic and socioeconomic group—including English Language Learners and special education students—must likewise meet the standards. Ninety-five percent of each group must be tested and if any one group fails to make AYP, the school as a whole fails.  

While the requirements apply to all schools, punishments for failing only apply to schools that receive federal Title I funds for the instruction of disadvantaged students, which accounts for the majority of Berkeley elementary and middle schools, but not the high school. 

High school teacher Bill Pratt said No Child Left Behind wasn’t a big issue among his colleagues, but Washington Elementary school principal Rita Kimball said the law had “become a part of our lives.” 

She has required teachers to post curriculum standards in classrooms and collaborate on lesson plans to identify which standards will be taught with the accompanying lessons.  

Kimball credited standards-based testing with helping Berkeley rein in renegade teachers, establish stronger curriculum and help schools measure their progress, but said the federal requirements were catching a lot of improving schools in the government’s web. 

Despite gains since California first started testing in 1999, the failure of poorer students at Washington to achieve proficiency coupled with the failure to hit the 95 percent testing quota landed the school in the early stages of program improvement, which, she said, damaged morale. 

“It doesn’t feel good to know some parents might not choose your school because it’s in program improvement.” 

The poster child for No Child Left Behind in Berkeley is Rosa Parks Elementary, which despite some years of strong test score gains, finds itself in Stage Three of program improvement, potentially just two years away from a mandated overhaul. 

To help students pass the tests, the district has pledged additional development opportunities for Rosa Parks staff which will come at the district’s expense. 

That angers Lawrence, who has had to devote dollars and administrative staff time to administering the arsenal of tests as well as sorting through paperwork from overlapping federal and state testing laws.  

Hancock said that during the last legislative session she authored a bill that would have reduced some state testing requirements to ease the burden on school districts, but was told that even though it passed both houses, Gov. Gray Davis planned a veto. 

Lawrence fears the district will take another financial hit next year when all teachers must meet federal qualification standards that require a teacher to have majored in his or her subject or pass a competency exam—meaning that a history major may have to pass a test to teach English. 

Because some teachers, especially middle school teachers who often have multiple subject credentials, don’t always teach subjects aligned to their college majors, Lawrence said that the district might have to pay for additional training or competency exams. 

Lawrence also worries that the law’s unstated goal is to “see public education fall by the wayside.” In providing federally mandated after-school tutoring for struggling Rosa Parks students, the district had to offer students a choice of various private services—all paid for by public Title I money that Lawrence said should be spent in the classroom. 

“There’s a cottage industry cropping up now that’s tapping public school money,” she said. 

Aside from benefiting educational corporations, she feared No Child Left Behind advanced conservative social causes, noting it requires Berkeley to provide student names to military recruiters and certify that it will not interfere with a child’s right to pray on school grounds. 

Elisabeth Woody, a researcher at UC Berkeley-funded Policy Analysis for California Education, said she didn’t think the law had “evil intent,” but said her yet-to-be published study of state elementary schools found that despite forcing districts to focus on educational equity and higher curriculum standards, No Child Left Behind was too confusing and tended to squeeze out instruction for subjects that weren’t tested such as social studies. 

Cragmont Elementary School Principal Jason Lustig credited Berkeley for preserving enrichment programs and selecting less restrictive curriculum options from the state.  

“Berkeley is being pushed to state standards but is doing so in a progressive way,” he said, adding that teachers were still feeling increased pressure and some “are very disturbed by it for sure.” 

Adcock said high stakes testing has left her feeling more monitored, but that hasn’t soured her on the profession and she doesn’t even list it has her biggest concern. “There are 32 students in my class. That’s what kicks your butt.”

• 

LETTER TO THE CHANCELLOR 

Dear Chancellor Berdahl, 

As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, a resident of California, and a U.S. citizen, I write you today to express my very strong support for the No on 54 Coalition. In particular, I approve the Graduate Assembly’s use of student fees to support students’ organizing against Proposition 54. 

As you know, if Prop. 54 had passed, its wide scope would have eventually constrained research in many departments. By funding student efforts to organize against this potentially crippling state constitutional initiative, the Graduate Assembly demonstrated sound judgment and represented effectively the interests of graduate students at Cal. 

By providing funds to the student-organized coalition, the GA enabled students of diverse backgrounds to supplement their conventional education by engaging democracy—thereby refreshing the very best traditions of our country and the University of California. 

I very strongly urge you to support the GA’s decision and look forward to seeing this issue resolved favorably to the No on 54 Coalition. 

Marc-Tizoc González 

UC Berkeley plans to develop a downtown hotel and convention center which Mayor Tom Bates hopes will capture both millions in tax revenue in the near future and the imagination of residents by restoring Strawberry Creek sometime later. 

But many remain skeptical about the mega-development, which the mayor said is estimated to cost $150-200 million. 

“This could be a wonderful contribution to the city or a horrendous nightmare,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

The university has a tentative agreement—brokered in part by Mayor Bates—to buy the Bank of America branch at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street and turn it into the centerpiece of a radically different downtown core as early as 2007. 

On the bank’s property would stand the hotel/convention center with between 175 and 200 rooms, a 15,000-square-foot conference center and room for a new Bank of America branch—all above an underground parking garage. 

Next door, the university would evict its printing press and demolish the parking lot at Addison and Oxford streets to transplant three of its highest-profile museums—the Pacific Film Archive, the Kroeber Center, and the Berkeley Art Museum—to the heart of the city’s arts district. 

UC Berkeley issued a Request for Qualification on the property last week, inviting developers to present past plans as the university looks to find a partner for the project. 

The hotel would be the second largest in town and offers tantalizing hotel tax revenues expected to run upwards of $1 million per year for a cash-strapped city facing an estimated $8-10 million budget shortfall next year. 

A survey conducted by the city’s Office of Economic Development found strong demand for a downtown hotel from visitors to the campus who now cluster in hotels and motels around Emeryville. 

What the city would lose in the deal is property tax revenue, which UC Berkeley—a state entity—doesn’t pay. Just how much property tax the bank is currently paying couldn’t be determined by presstime. 

Bates said Berkeley would receive possesory interest taxes, which local governments levy on private companies that posses exclusive use of tax-exempt properties. 

The mayor called the lost property taxes “a drop in the bucket” compared to the hotel tax revenue the city stands to gain—but with a proposed citywide parcel tax hike making property taxes a political hot potato, Bates’ colleagues in Council were leery of allowing another parcel to escape the tax rolls. 

“We in no way should sacrifice that land,” Councilmember Dona Spring said. “We can’t afford to give free rides anymore.” 

Under the terms of the deal, UC Berkeley would own the land but lease the property to a private developer to build and manage. The university refused to divulge the sale price or their financing for the purchase. 

UC Berkeley’s central role in the development worries some officials because it’s immune to Berkeley development rules. 

“The city loses leverage as soon as the university becomes the owner of something,” said Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn. “UC doesn’t have to pay attention to anything.” 

Bates, though, said only the university had the economic interest and clout to complete the deal, adding that he thought the development would “come to all of our commissions.” UC Berkeley spokesperson Kathleen Maclay said “public comment would be solicited.” 

Maclay also said the university was committed to abiding by the city’s downtown plan which calls for the hotel/convention center to be built to “green” building standards. She said the university had no objections to transforming that block of Center Street into a pedestrian walkway—with the added possibility that Strawberry Creek might once again be daylighted on the site. 

Creek supporters have long cast their gaze on the Bank of America site as the home of a future environmentally friendly convention center that could anchor a “green” block highlighted by the restored creek. “That’s been the vision for quite some time,” Spring said, acknowledging that the plan does not call for or provide money for the creek project. 

Some obvious issues remain. Building underground parking in downtown Berkeley has never proven feasible, and the driveway for the lot would likely have to encroach the future pedestrian area of Center Street. Also, without a waiver from the current zoning laws, the development would have to fit its rooms and convention space into five stories. University and city officials refused to comment on the height of the proposed building. 

“The general concept is not bad at all,” Wrenn said. “It’s all a question of how it’s done.”

While a proposed parcel tax increase has dominated news accounts of Berkeley City Council in recent weeks, it is three proposed election-altering charter amendments that might actually have most significant long-term affects on the city. 

Council has scheduled a public hearing on the three charter amendments for tonight’s (Tuesday, Nov. 18) meeting. 

Language for the proposed ballot measures must be finalized by Council’s Nov. 25 meeting. If approved by Council, the measures will appear on the March, 2004 ballot. 

The runoff charter amendment would lower the percentage a candidate for Berkeley city office needs to get in an election to avoid a runoff. Currently, a candidate must get 45 percent of the vote in order to win on the first ballot. The proposed runoff charter amendment would only require a 40 percent vote to avoid a runoff, making it easier for candidates to win on the first ballot. 

Under existing Berkeley law, for example, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was forced into a runoff with opponent Andy Katz in last November’s District 8 Council race after Wozniak garnered only 44.2 percent in the initial vote. Wozniak beat Katz in the runoff. Under the proposed charter amendment, no runoff would have been needed. 

The proposed runoff charter amendment would also extend the time of the runoff from the December following the November election to the following February. City Clerk Sherry Kelly has told Council that the present short time between elections and runoffs makes it necessary for her office to spend money preparing for runoffs that the county registrar of voters has not yet ruled are necessary. 

The proposed nomination charter amendment would add a $150 filing fee to run for office in Berkeley. Currently, there is no filing fee. The proposed charter amendment would allow a prospective candidate to offset a dollar of the filing fee for each citizen signature submitted on a nominating petition. A candidate submitting 75 names on a nominating petition would only have to pay a $75 filing fee. A candidate submitting 150 names on a nominating petition would be exempt from paying any filing fees. 

If passed by Berkeley voters next March, the two charter amendments would go into effect for the November, 2004 election. 

The most controversial proposed charter amendment—the so-called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)—is also the one provision that will not go into effect for several years under any circumstances. 

IRV, which has the backing of several progressive political organizations in California, eliminates runoffs altogether by allowing voters to rate more than one choice in an election. If there are three candidates running for an office, for example, voters would be able to list one candidate as their first choice, another candidate as their second choice, and the remaining candidate as their third choice. If no candidate got enough votes to win on the first ballot, the Registrar of Voters would declare a winner by tallying up the second and third-choice votes as well. 

Under the language of the proposed IRV charter amendment, Instant Runoff Voting would not go into effect in Berkeley unless and until it is approved and adopted by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. That is not estimated to take place, if at all, for five to ten years. 

The most vocal proponent of IRV on Berkeley City Council is Councilmember Dona Spring. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak has expressed reservations.

To Mayor Bates, City Councilmembers, City Manager: 

The Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) has studied and discussed our city’s fiscal crisis and is eager to be heard in the ongoing discussion about how to restore fiscal stability and a balanced city budget. 

At this time, we are opposed to the proposed property tax increase ballot measure and urge you not to place this measure on the ballot at this time. We believe that a full and fair discussion of the causes and cures for the city’s financial problems has not yet been undertaken. Having just one public hearing on the tax measure and one discussion of the city labor contracts, both on very short notice, is completely unacceptable. 

Please consider the following factors: 

• Berkeley homeowners are already among the most highly-taxed homeowners in a state in which there is already a very high combined tax burden. Our homeowners can no longer afford to be disproportionately responsible for balancing the city budget. It is our understanding that, even without this new tax measure, our property tax and property service bills, which have already risen significantly and rise automatically every year, will also rise to pay for already-approved but unfunded tax measures, such as the new animal shelter and BUSD funding. Many, many homeowners are having financial problems of their own and live on tight budgets. 

• Several other taxes need to be considered that will more fairly spread the cost of government among the entire Berkeley community.  

• We have an extraordinarily large number of educational and wealthy nonprofit organizations, including UC, that continue to expand their real estate and business operations while paying nothing for the services they use. If these organizations have the financial means to expand, then they also have the means to pay for the negative impacts they create and for all of the city services they use.  

• Most cities charge substantial development impact fees, even to large nonprofits. We are not assured that Berkeley is receiving any such fees from either profit-making or nonprofit organizations, to make up for the large impacts of most new development. 

• There are apparently several wealthy developers who for one reason or another have been able to avoid paying their fair share of property taxes. How can we have confidence in the financial abilities of our city government when things like this take place? 

• There are several other tax measures on the horizon. Berkeley voters need to be able to weigh and balance the relative merits of all of these before voting for any one tax measure.  

• We are concerned by the excessive cost of the city’s labor contracts. There appear to be either too many city employees or too high salaries and benefits or both. In good times this might be tolerable, but given the city’s shortage of funds and the diminished resources of city residents, these labor contracts should be changed. Our city workers, most of whom live elsewhere, need to make some sacrifices too.  

• There are certainly additional belt-tightening measures that the city can and should undertake. It is your job to figure out which of these will cause the least damage.  

In sum, the city needs to embark on a full, fair, and active discussion and pursuit of all budget-balancing alternatives and come up with a comprehensive plan that will work for our city and its residents over the next several years. We believe that such a discussion, if undertaken immediately, will take at least six months. While this discussion and planning is occurring and until the format of a comprehensive solution is in place, a freeze should be placed on all new taxes, hiring, expenditures, and city employee wage/benefit increases. 

Sincerely, 

Marie Bowman 

President, Berkeley Alliance of  

Neighborhood Associations

Critics of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) gave lab officials an earful Monday, arguing that planned expansion at the lab threatens to pollute their lungs, clog their streets and devour their tax dollars. 

“The lab should never have been built there, but it doesn’t have to keep growing,” said Susan Cerny, a local preservationist. 

The occasion of the complaints was a legally mandated Scoping Session that allowed the roughly 40 residents in attendance to weigh in on the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) that will guide development at the 200-acre Berkeley Hills campus through 2025. 

The plan projects increasing the daily population at the lab by 1,200 to 5,500 and boosting building space by 800,000 square feet to 2.56 million square feet.  

Residents offered a litany of criticisms and suggestions that, by law, the lab must address in the Environmental Impact Report that will accompany the LRDP. Lab officials declined to address the speaker’s concerns, but said in private interviews that it would be difficult to satisfy them. 

The lab’s most promising new field of research—nanotechnology—also proved its most controversial. 

Nanoparticles are 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair, but when effectively manipulated exhibit dynamic properties that proponents say can revolutionize nearly every scientific field from medicine to weaponry. 

Neighbors, though, fear the particles and fibers are so small that they’ll float through standard lab filters and land in their lungs, causing unknown health risks. 

“Not even the Environmental Protection Agency knows the impact of these things, but we’re ready to let them loose in Berkeley,” said Tom Kelly of the Commission on Health. 

Lab officials said most nanotechnology research has been performed in liquid solutions or with the particles bound to other materials—which sharply reduce the risk of emissions. 

Residents called for a review of the future home for nanotechnology research—the Molecular Foundry— which they claimed lab officials snuck through environmental review before unveiling the long range plan. 

Jeffrey Philliber, a lab facilities manager, said that since the foundry had already met all state environmental standards, it won’t be incorporated into the Environmental Impact Report—which, however, will address health concerns about nanotechnology. 

On Tuesday, City Council tabled a recommendation from the city’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission to ask the lab to submit to annual studies on potential nanotechnology health risks from an independent board of scientists. 

Other residents feared that the military would ultimately reap the benefits of the lab’s nanotechnology research, but lab spokesperson Terry Powell said only two percent of the lab’s budget is sponsored by the Department of Defense, none of it classified. 

Many residents were just as concerned about the traffic heading to and from the lab. 

Claiming that Centennial Drive and other commuter roadways were already carrying maximum traffic loads, neighbors urged the lab to work with AC Transit to establish bus service and establish an Eco Pass program to give incentives for workers to ditch their cars. 

Powell said the lab planned to add just 600 new parking spaces for the projected 1200 new workers. But, he said, lab officials had previously rejected Eco Passes because many employees commute from Contra Costa County and therefore wouldn’t benefit from the program. The lab does run a shuttle service every ten minutes from downtown Berkeley. 

“We can’t mitigate the traffic problem by ourselves,” Philliber said, citing a 1998 study that showed the lab accounted for a small portion of rush hour traffic heading through the South Berkeley Hills. 

Lab officials were also quick to reject the city’s plan to seek compensation for city services, including maintaining sewers and access roads. 

Powell said the lab already provides roughly $1 million annually to the city by fielding a fire department that provides first call service to neighborhoods around the lab. Last year, Powell said, the firefighters responded to 650 calls, 70 percent of them from off-campus neighbors. 

Jeff Sherwood, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy, said Department policy precluded it from paying Berkeley for services because the lab rents its property from the University of California. 

Berkeley Assistant City Manager Arrieta Chakos said the city remained undeterred and would seek compensation either from the Department of Energy or the UC Board of Regents after staffers complete a report on the extent of the city’s expenditures towards maintaining the lab. 

Meanwhile, the city is funding a study of expenses related to UC Berkeley, which is also in the process of finalizing its own Long Range Development Plan. 

“It’s our responsibility to develop every type of avenue we can to work with the lab and campus,” Chakos said. “We really feel obliged to push this very early in the process.”

Vista College is ushering in a new era by bringing down the house—in this case, the old Berkeley City Services Center at 2020 Center St. 

Starting this morning (Nov. 18) demolition workers will break out their jackhammers and wrecking balls, paving the way for construction of a six-story downtown campus for Berkeley’s community college—long maligned as the stepchild of the Peralta Community College district. 

“I think it’s going to have a profound impact,” said Daryl Moore, of the Peralta Board of Trustees. “This gives us a permanent home.” 

Vista, the only one of Peralta’s four schools without a home, has been renting downtown classroom space to the tune of $1.5 million per year.  

When the new campus is completed in the Summer of 2005, Vista’s 4,500+ students will enjoy educational opportunities inconceivable at their current spaces, said Vista spokesperson Shirley Fogarino. 

“The facilities will be so updated,” she said, adding that students accustomed to outdated computers and snail-paced networks will have access to multimedia labs, digital video production studios and animation equipment. 

The building features an atrium with space to hold art exhibits, a ground floor 250-person conference center open for public use, and 40-50 classrooms on the floors above—enough to meet the needs of the 7,500 students projected to attend the school by 2016. 

Some residents, though, have scoffed at the design which calls for exterior glass paneling, which critics say makes it look more like a suburban bank than a college. 

“Anyone who has seen the design has to gasp,” said Landmarks Commissioner Leslie Emmington. “This is a very dark, unattractive, sad building.” 

Because it’s an Alameda County project, Vista was exempted from the city’s Design Review process.  

The new building is rooted in the “de-annexation” movement of the mid- and late 1990s. At the time, Vista advocates, including now-Mayor Tom Bates, accused Peralta of underfunding the college and threatened to abandon the district. 

A final settlement brokered by the state in 1998 included pledges to hire two new faculty members per year for 10 years and find the school a permanent home. 

Vista officials acquired the Center Street building and adjacent parking lot through eminent domain after failing to negotiate a price with the owner. City services have since been relocated to 1947 Center St. 

The district will finance the $65 million project through a series of voter-approved bonds. Fogarino said the district is getting $50 million from two previous district bonds approved by county voters in 1998 and 2000 and $25 million from Proposition 47, a statewide ballot initiative approved last year. 

Moore said the funding was coming from three district bonds as well as Proposition 47, amounting to $75 million—$10 million more than the current cost estimate. 

Berkeley wants the district to compensate it for the loss of 50 parking spaces at the former lot. Transportation Director Peter Hillier said the city and district are still negotiating, adding that the cost of replacing one downtown parking space ranged from $25,000-$40,000. 

Berkeley parking lots have maintained vacancies since Vista closed the lot last year, but city officials fear that with the planned closure of the Kittredge Street lot and an improving economy, downtown lots might fill up during peak early afternoon hours. 

Vista will provide parking spaces for 80 bicycles, and officials say most students will commute to class by BART or AC Transit.  

The ultimate impact on the downtown will likely depend on the school’s enrollment. After 10 years of steady growth, state funding cuts forced administrators to cancel 21 percent of classes, costing the school about 10 percent of its enrollment, Fogarino said. 

More cuts are expected for the spring semester, but Moore said he was optimistic that, despite the school’s being “under a dark cloud,” Vista will benefit from a rebounding economy and grow into the facility. 

Tuesday’s demolition also serves as the kickoff for a school fundraising drive aimed at matching $2.1 million offered by the state for computers, lab equipment, desks and chairs not covered by the bonds.

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The future for University Avenue cannot be wall-to-wall five-story buildings. Eight years ago, merchants, property-owners, and residents came together and created the University Avenue Strategic Plan. It calls for four-story buildings at certain “nodes” and three-story buildings on most of the avenue. It envisions an improved streetscape with landscaping and pedestrian amenities. It is sensitive to adjacent residential neighborhoods, directing that the height of University Avenue buildings should step down near adjacent smaller houses and that those buildings be designed to respect their neighbors’ privacy. The plan got a lot right. However, the plan was written before the State Affordable Housing Density Bonus law.  

The State Density Bonus was enacted to stimulate affordable housing in cities that skirted the need to build such housing. The law requires cities to loosen zoning rules to encourage the building of affordable housing. Berkeley is a town that supports affordable housing. Long before the state passed the density bonus law, we were working to encourage affordable housing. But the density bonus law applies to us the same as it does any other city. In some cases, the result is large, blocky buildings which are too big for the lot and overwhelming to neighbors and the street. 

Our town is as lovely as it is because we pay attention to how our buildings look and feel. We have a design review committee. We pay attention to aesthetics, to architectural design, to amenities like trees and landscaping, to blending with the neighborhood context, to the interface between commercial and residential, to how a building impacts the streetscape. That is why we labored over the University Avenue Strategic Plan.  

We need attractive new buildings on University Avenue and other major corridors where development is likely. New buildings in Berkeley need to respect adjacent homes and protect their sunlight and privacy—not loom above and overwhelm their neighbors. Several things have to happen make sure this happens.  

First, we need to incorporate the University Avenue Plan into the zoning ordinance. We will work closely with city staff and the Planning Commission to accomplish that in the coming months.  

Second, we are examining changes to our permit process to provide greater neighborhood notification of proposed buildings and to strengthen design review. 

Third, we will carefully scrutinize the state density bonus law. It was designed for cities that are skirting their affordable housing requirements. Berkeley should not be penalized for having done the right thing to begin with. 

We should all realize that our major corridors are where new affordable housing can and should be built. But we must respect the context of the street and neighborhood and ensure that new buildings do not make a significant imposition on their neighbors. 

Mayor Tom Bates 

Council Member Linda Maio 

Oakland shoppers were surprised to encounter what many thought was only a Southern California phenomenon when they tried to enter one local Safeway Friday and were met by a group of 30 striking workers. 

The workers, all from Southern California, battled rain as they tried to dissuade people from entering the store at Broadway and 51st Street.  

All belonged to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UCFW) and had been walking picket lines for almost five weeks before they boarded a bus and came north as part of what they said was a two-fold strategy meant to increase the geographical areas affected by the strike and to alert and prepare northern California workers—whose contract expires next year—that they could be in for a similar fight. 

Strikers say their biggest concern is a change in the health care package proposed by Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger, who employ the 70,000-plus UFCW members walking the lines. 

Under the current contract, for every hour on the job, the employers pay four dollars into a pool to fund health care coverage. The new management proposal would be cut the payout to $1.35 for new hires—which strikers say would destroy the package. 

Existing employees would still receive four dollars, but they contend that as their hours are reduced as more new hires are made, the balance would shift and then crumble. 

Alexander Winslow, a spokesperson for Safeway, said the move follows industry standards and is not what strikers make it out to be. 

“What we’re doing is simply asking workers to share in their health care costs,” he said.  

According to the UFCW International office, however, the moves would force workers to pay for a much higher portion of the package. For example, employees who currently make $10 co-payments for doctor visits would be forced to pay up to $95 a week to maintain their benefits—an impossibility for many, they say. 

While none of the Oakland employees joined the local picket line, several voiced support for the strikers, who carried signs and chanted slogans such as “Safeway the wrong way” and “Stop the greediest corporation in the world.”  

Aneesah Shelbourne, a checker at the Oakland store, said that even though she makes $19.08 an hour, she works only 24 to 32 a week. A single mother, she says she couldn’t afford the possible $95 additional payments to cover herself and her two daughters.  

“To have [my benefits package] taken away would mean that I would have to get on some kind of aid,” said Shelbourne. 

She says she is afraid of a strike coming to her store but if it happens she said she would support it. “I think it’s worth it,” she said. 

Strikers say they have been walking Southern California picket lines for up to 16 hours a day and they scheduled 12 hours at the Oakland store. 

Additional demonstrations are planned for Safeway stores in cities around the Bay Area including Hayward, San Jose and Castro Valley. 

On Friday, with rain drenching their clothes and sometimes drowning out their chants, they said they were resolute about their fight, saying that—win or lose—they know their fight will be key in determining whether workers across the country will be able to protect their health benefits in the face of strong anti-union campaigns and rising insurance premiums. 

Stephanie Massey led the Friday demonstration. An employee at a Safeway-owned Vons market in Anaheim and a strike captain, Massey—who makes $7.40 an hour—said she’d been willing to come north for the week to protect the health benefits she says are necessary to start the family she and her husband are planning.  

She and her husband—who is out of work with an injury—have been struggling to survive on her salary alone, and she says that without benefits, they couldn’t make a family work.  

“I barely make enough to pay rent,” she said. “Scraping by here is the key word.” 

She says she took the low pay because there are chances to advance in the supermarket industry. Without a benefits package, however, she would have to look for a second job which is difficult at best because of her shifting schedule. 

Shoppers greeted the pickets with mixed reactions outside the store, with some turning away to respect the line and others walking past, ignoring the entire event. 

“I find it very annoying,” was all Oakland resident Joe Bochniak had to say as he rushed off. 

Robert Masolele, also from Oakland, said he felt bad crossing the line, but said he needed groceries.  

“I support these people and I think their demands are reasonable, but I need food on the table,” he said. 

Workers say they’ve chosen to target Safeway stores in particular because CEO Steve Burd formulated the proposed benefits cut.  

“He is the ringleader in a full scale attack on the health benefits of these workers,” said Jill Cashen, media representative for the UFCW. 

According to Cashen, the 30 pickets will eventually return home, but another group will replace them. The cycle, she said, will continue until the fight is over. 

“There is a waiting list of people who want to come up,” said Cashen. “What people up here don’t realize is that this is not a one day thing. We’re not going away.”

California Nursing Association (CNA) organizers and member registered nurses (RNs) met outside Alta Bates and Summit Medical centers Friday to protest what they call a scheme to sidestep a new law that takes effect on Jan. 1 mandating patient-to-nurse staffing ratios. 

AB 395, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, establishes a ratio of six patients per nurse, with even lower numbers in intensive care units. But CNA charges that hospitals are skirting the law by hiring Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) who must be supervised by RNs and can’t perform many of the duties required in patient care. 

CNA organizers point out that LVNs can’t assess patient conditions, which must happen at least once every 24 hours. Thus, an RN already assigned to cover six patients might still have to perform assessments of other patients assigned to LVNs, increasing and possibly doubling their workloads. 

CNA says this is also a violation of the Nursing Practice Act and have filed a complaint with the California Board of Registered Nursing. 

“We fear an attempt to replace RNs with LVNs,” said Vicki Bermudez, a regulatory specialist with CNA. “This is not an effective care model.” 

CNA organizers cite research recently released by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science that conclusively links RN staff levels to positive patient outcomes and hospital safety. Hiring more LVNs they say, is just a way to meet the quotas without providing the best possible care. 

“Does the public realize what this means?” asked an Alta Bates nurse who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “They are going to be expecting a certain level of care and they’re not going to get it.” 

Legally, LVNs can comprise up to half of the nurses assigned to patient care on any unit minus those requiring RNs only. 

According to Vicki Ardito, chief nursing officer at Alta Bates, her hospital and Summit plan to hire a total of 200 new nurses to meet the ratios. She expects that number will include a ratio of 80 percent RNs to 20 percent LVNs.  

The new jobs, she said, will be added to the already existing 1400 at the two hospitals and will come at a cost of $18 million. 

“No matter how you slice it, it’s more licensed people,” said Ardito. 

CNA charges that the decision to hire LVNs—who require less training and receive lower salaries—proves the decision is market-driven. 

They say both Alta Bates and Summit have been evasive and unwilling to schedule a meeting as the first step in the establishment of a system to monitor the hospital’s move towards meeting the quotas. 

In the meantime, CNA organizers say RNs already face the dilemma of scheduling assessments of LVN patients. During the meeting, they advised RNs to cite safety concerns, refuse increased workloads, and form a committee as a way to insure better outcomes. 

“Remember, the public is on our side,” said Donna Carter, an RN at Alta Bates. “People are concerned about the care they are going to get.”

Not sure how many burglaries occurred on your block last month? Neither are the police. 

A $700,000 hi-tech dispatch program purchased three years ago to bring Berkeley Police into the 20th century has proven less effective than carbon paper. 

Named HTE after its manufacturer, HTE Incorporated, the system promised to zip information from dispatch to Berkeley’s records management system so police could instantly map crimes at various city locations. 

But the system never worked, so the BPD must manage with its 13-year-old Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, which Capt. Doug Hambleton said prevents officers from generating accurate up-to-date crime reports. 

CAD data is based on information received in the initial call to police, not the final police report, so if a burglary call turns out to be just only a case of trespassing, CAD still shows burglary—and any police report compiled from it would reflect the wrong offense. 

Police must then manually input the correct data into the records system, which Hambleton said means a lag time of several weeks to months. 

“Our information is not 100 percent accurate and we can’t make it 100 percent accurate,” he said. 

Among a multitude of problems, Berkeley Director of Information Technology Chris Mead said that HTE couldn’t support several dispatchers simultaneously. 

“This system works well for a smaller police department, but couldn’t handle what we needed it to do,” he said. 

Former Chief Dash Butler opted for the program—which was paid for entirely by a federal grant—but Mead said that in retrospect the department needed a more sophisticated model. 

When Butler made the purchase, the BPD had its own technology department, and did not need to consult with city technology staff while shopping for systems. The city changed that arrangement last year, placing both police and fire technical personnel under the city auspices. 

The city is currently negotiating with HTE Incorporated on a refund for the system. 

HTE did not respond to the Planet’s telephone calls. 

In the meantime, city officials are drafting federal grant requests to help pay for a new system Mead estimates will cost between $1.2 and $1.5 million. 

Time is of the essence, Mead said, because the supplier of their current system, Tiburon Inc., has given notice that it intends to stop supporting the product after 2006. 

Further hampering the BPD’s ability to dispense data is the fact that department brass have yet to assign anyone to update the crime data on its website. That project was abandoned in September when previous Public Information Officer Mary Kusmiss was promoted to patrol sergeant. Her replacement Officer Kevin Schofield said the task will “probably fall on me, but we’re working on that.”

Identity Theft Forum 

Have you ever had your identity stolen? Do you know when you might be at risk? 

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S. with 9.9 million people affected in 2002. Here in Alameda county, according to County Supervisor Keith Carson, the numbers were even higher because of the area’s urban setting. 

That’s why Carson, along with the Alameda County Consumer Affairs Commission will be sponsoring a free forum today (Tuesday, Nov. 18) to help educate local resident about how to prevent and, if need be, deal with identity theft. 

Representatives from the FTC, Department of Justice, Department of Motor Vehicles, Social Security Administration, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the Post Office will be available to answer questions at the event, which starts at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., and is free to the public. 

For more information, contact Tahera Kapasi in Keith Carson’s office at 208-9599.  

Turkey Call 

The Berkeley Food and Housing project has put out an urgent call for turkeys, asking people to donate so they can have enough birds for their annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Trinity Church and the Men and Women’s shelters. 

Due to funding problems, the program has received fewer than normal turkeys from the local food bank and instead has had to turn the community for donations. 

Right now they only have four of the 50 turkeys they say are needed for the holiday meals. 

Donations can be dropped at either the Trinity Church, 2362 Bancroft Way, or at the program office, 2140 Dwight Way. Both locations are open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. 

For more information contact Jamie Boreen at 649-4965 ext. 302.

The high wind country sends its strong gusts roaring through the 20 acres of loblolly pines that are up to 14 feet since their harvesting in 1990. Raising trees is a big business in this part of Texas. The pines grow a foot and a half a year, and the wind’s sound increases as they get higher. The trees are in rows as they grow.  

Someday they will be for Malcolm Perry’s grandchildren, who are now 6 and 8. In a grove alongside the property, pine trees grow to 100 feet into the wind. The hardwood trees on the property, maple and oak, are scattered on hills and run down to a pond. Many of them have not been harvested. They grow 60 and 70 feet high and one tree shading the house is 75 feet. All the trees will grow, slowly, almost unnoticeably until they are high in the sky and in this place where time is measured by a tree’s step from the earth.  

Malcolm Perry listens to the wind coming through the trees with a low roar, or a whistle, or suddenly, a shriek that sometimes is familiar with him.  

The shrieks of Parkland Memorial Hospital have run through all the hallways and rooms and arenas of all the years, softening now, diminishing, but burrowing into the wind and reaching the unwilling consciousness of Dr. Malcolm Perry. He was working on John F. Kennedy’s heart when he died in Parkland Hospital on the fall day in 1963.  

“It was a bad weekend,” he remembers. Kennedy was on Friday. On Sunday, he operated on Lee Harvey Oswald. “A bad weekend and a bad aftermath.”  

The trouble at the end came when he walked into a large, writhing news conference, something in which he never had been involved. And for good reason, this was the only one like it since Lincoln.  

He observed that a throat hole looked like an entrance wound. He had qualified the observation in the next sentence but virtually nobody paid attention. They took that throat wound and carried it over the years into proof of a conspiracy. Somebody shot Kennedy from the front, in the throat. Somebody else shot him in the back of the head. So many wanted to believe the worst.  

Malcolm Perry then slipped away from questioning and walked into his own world of surgery and silence. He never spoke to news reporters. He mentioned his experience to practically nobody. He wanted to be known as a fine doctor. From 1978 until 1988 he was chief of vascular surgery at New York-Cornell Hospital in Manhattan. He lived at 15 Villa Lane in the elegant suburb of Larchmont. Apparently, nobody at the hospital who knew him ever mentioned anything about the Kennedy shooting. It was the same in Larchmont.  

“They were wonderful neighbors,” he says. “Nobody ever said, ‘Are you that person?’ I was discreet. I said little about those things. I played golf at Winged Foot, but nobody there brought it up.”  

He got up at 5 in the morning to drive to the hospital and got home at 9 or 10. He and his wife liked to walk on First and Second avenues and try new restaurants. For a full decade, he moved on boulevards where the people and the prints and screens scream for a new great name and he left without leaving a phone number. He had been in the vortex of American history and found it unwelcome.  

The wind speaks by rattling trees and bringing up that day for Malcolm Perry. He was having salmon croquettes for lunch in the doctor’s cafeteria at Parkland Hospital when the call came over the page.  

“Dr. Tom Shires STAT,” the woman’s voice said.  

Nobody ever called Tom Shires, who was the hospital’s chief resident in surgery, for an emergency. And Shires was out of town for the day. Perry put down his fork and went to the phone.  

“This is Dr. Perry taking Dr. Shires’ page.”  

“President Kennedy has been shot. STAT,” the operator said. “They are bringing him into the emergency room right now.”  

Perry walked out of the cafeteria, down a flight of stairs and pushed through a brown door, and a nurse pointed to Emergency Room One. Perry walked into it. The room was narrow and had gray-tiled walls and a cream-colored ceiling.  

In the center, on an aluminum hospital cart, the president of the United States was on his back and dying with a huge lamp glaring on his face.  

Jack Kennedy had been stripped of his jacket, shirt and T-shirt. A staff doctor was starting to place a tube called an endotrach down the throat. Oxygen would be forced down the tube. Breathing had to be fought for. The president was not breathing.  

Malcolm Perry, 34, at 6-2 and red-haired, threw his dark blue glen-plaid jacket on the floor. He held out his hands while the nurse helped him put on gloves. He looked at Kennedy. The president, he thought, he’s bigger than I thought.  

He noticed the dark-haired woman in the doorway with her husband’s blood all over the front of her skirt.  

Then he stepped up to the aluminum cart for the hopeless job of keeping John Kennedy alive. The chest was not moving and there was no heartbeat. The wound in the throat was small and neat. But blood was running out of it too fast. There was a wound in the back of the head that had a huge flap. Blood covered the floor. Air and blood were being packed together in the chest.  

Perry called for a scalpel. He was going to do a tracheotomy, opening the throat and inserting a tube into the windpipe. There was no anesthesia. Kennedy could feel nothing now.  

Other doctors and nurses were in the room now, but Perry saw only the throat with the hole in it, and the chest, shining under the huge light.  

As he finished the tracheotomy, Perry saw Dr. Kemp Clark, chief of neurosurgery, coming through the door. Clark looked at Kennedy. He looked at Malcolm Perry. His look told Perry something he already knew. There was no way to save the patient.  

Perry started to massage the chest. He has long fingers, and he used them to try to force the body to a heartbeat. The aluminum cart was too high. Perry was up on his toes for leverage.  

“Will somebody please get me a stool?” he said.  

One was placed under him. For 10 minutes, he massaged the chest. Over in a corner of the room, Dr. Kemp Clark kept watching the electrocardiogram. There was no action. He turned from the electrocardiogram.  

“It’s too late, Mac,” he said to Malcolm Perry.  

The IBM clock on the wall said it was 1 p.m. of Nov. 22, 1963.  

Afterward, the sound that follows him began with the caterwauling and clatter of a mob in a conference room. He said that he thought that the small hole in Kennedy’s throat looked like an entrance wound.  

Right after his entrance-wound statement, Perry said, “Neither Dr. Clark nor I know how many bullets there were or where they came from.”  

Right away, so many took the entrance wound at the throat to mean the shot had come from the front, not the rear, which was the Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald fired out of a sixth-floor window.  

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Malcolm Perry remembers today. “I was naive. I didn’t know how much trouble I could get into. I shouldn’t have surmised. If I hadn’t said that, there wouldn’t have been a conspiracy theory.”  

The exams later showed it was an exit wound. No matter now. The conspiracy theories clutched the throat wound.  

That was on Friday. On Sunday he was back in the hospital operating on Lee Harvey Oswald, shot in the Dallas police station by Jack Ruby.  

For the conference after Oswald’s death, Perry had his statements typed out and this time there was no dangerous confusion.  

“I had a bad weekend and a bad aftermath,” he says.  

Perry testified for a day at the Warren Commission.  

He wonders if any reporters read the report.  

For the cry of conspiracy was raised by the jackals.  

And now all these years later, Malcolm Perry where he raises trees and once a week flies his Beechcraft plane to Dallas, where he is professor emeritus at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.  

To start the week when all news organizations try to make hard fresh news out of a story that is so old, Malcolm Perry, doctor at the end of the lives of Jack Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, will take no calls from anybody in news. He was good with the Nebraska-Kansas State game, and wind coming through his trees.

FRESNO—The scene at the Rainbow Ballroom on a crisp fall evening three years ago wasn’t unlike that offered at other popular nightspots in Fresno. 

Couples whispered at tables barely lit by fluorescent lights. Packs of young men hovered near the stage, casually speaking English while awaiting the arrival of the featured musical acts. English was the language of choice for the crowd of more than 1,000 who packed into the downtown dance hall for a night of music and dancing. 

Once the acts—rockeros like Jaguares, Julieta Venegas, Jumbo, Lysa Flores and La Gusana Ciega—jumped onstage, the concert-goers sang in unison to the Spanish-language songs. 

A week later at the same dance hall, Spanish is the only language heard as an equally young crowd waits for a concert featuring a collection of accordion-packing norteño groups. 

Welcome to the San Joaquín Valley of today. 

It’s a valley that is embracing a Latino accent thanks to the huge growth of a Latino population that is overwhelmingly young. 

Thus, when Latino politicians say the future is in the hands of the children, they couldn’t be more correct. 

It is the Latino youth that demographers are keeping an eye on as that segment of the population matures. Already, Latinos represent about 60 percent of the kindergarten enrollment in Fresno, Tulare, Madera and Kings counties that make up the Central Valley, the state’s agricultural heartland. Ten years ago, that percentage was less than 50 percent. 

That wave, which has been rapidly increasing in the past 10 years, sets the stage for further impacts on the Central Valley’s education, health, governmental, environmental and economic climate. The California Department of Finance estimates that Latinos will make up more than 1.6 million of the population—or 55.3 percent of the overall population—in the same counties in less than four decades when today’s kindergarten students will be approaching middle age. 

The Latino youth wave has been fueled by documented and undocumented immigration and high birth rates. 

The overwhelming need for Latino students is education, say experts. National studies show that Latinos make up three-quarters of all students enrolled in Limited English Proficient programs, although not all Latino students have limited English proficiency. 

Additionally, fewer Latinos than other students have access to a computer at home (18 percent compared to 52 percent of whites), there are fewer Latino teachers in comparison to Latino enrollment (four percent Latino instructors to 15 percent Latino enrollment) and Latinos under age five are less likely to be enrolled in early childhood education programs than other groups (20 percent compared to 42 percent of whites). 

Despite the shortcomings, there are success stories that are often written by motivated students. 

“Education is important to me because my mom had no education, neither have my brothers,” said Roosevelt High School graduate Fabiola Quiñonez in 2001. “I see the life we have had. It hasn’t been all that glorious. I want to give a better life to me and my kids. 

The rise of second-generation Latinos—those born in the United States with at least one foreign-born parent—will continue to shape the landscape for decades, says demographer Roberto Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center. 

“Hispanic births in the United States are outpacing immigration as the key source of growth,” says Suro, in a national study released earlier this month. “Over the next 20 years, this will produce an important shift in the makeup of the Hispanic population.” 

That impact, Suro says, will have a big impact on public schools and the work force. He estimates that one in seven of the new students enrolling in U.S. schools over the next 20 years will be second-generation Latino. And, the number of Latino workers will increase faster than the non-Latino labor force.  

The second-generation Latino will also tend to be more bilingual than first-generation Latinos (47 percent compared to 24 percent). 

Interestingly, says Suro, there are differences in intermarriage between native-born Latinos and immigrants. 

“First-generation Latinos, like immigrants in general, tend to marry within their ethnic/racial group,” says Suro. “That is not true of second- and third-generation Latinos.” 

He cites estimates showing that only eight percent of foreign-born Latinos intermarry, compared to 32 percent of the second-generation and 57 percent of the third-generation or older population. 

Most Latino parents, when asked, will say that in addition to education, they want their children to remember their roots, whether it’s dance, music or traditions. That spurred the creation of Centro Bellas Artes and Arte Américas in the late 1980s, and numerous Mexican folkloric dance groups at area schools. 

Robert Arroyo, a retired educator and former board member of Arte Américas, credits the immigration flow for keeping the Mexican culture alive. 

“It is the immigrant kid that is keeping our culture alive for those of us here who are desirous of keeping it alive,” says Arroyo, who remembers growing up in Illinois where Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day festivities were private celebrations. 

Overt discrimination in the 1960s kept many Latino students from speaking Spanish at school, says Arroyo. The population growth has led to an embrace of Mexican culture and the Spanish language, he says. 

Mexican folk artists say Latinos in the United States are bigger supporters of Mexican culture than Mexicans. 

“Mexican art is appreciated more on this side than in México,” said Tomás Velásquez, a Mexican folk dance instructor from Sonora, México. “They admire it and they even perform it. 

“I have seen many good groups in Fresno. They dance as well or better than we do in México. Frankly, I am surprised.” 

Ask local people about the future for Latinos in the Valley and you get difference responses. 

Mark Lozada, director of the Central Valley Opportunity Center in Madera County: “There are many opportunities for us to develop, but we don’t take advantage of them. There are numerous programs to help Latinos prepare themselves, but the people either are afraid or too lazy to become informed.” 

Rufino Domínguez, binational coordinator of the Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional: “The arrival of immigrants won’t slow down. We will continue to come because of the lack of opportunities in México. I believe that in a very short time, we’ll become citizens and that will translate into more participation.” 

Orange Cove Mayor Víctor López: “I see a change. Many people in the state already know that they must work with us, that they must make decisions with us in mind. Slavery has ended. We are now very different and they see us differently. But we must be more united, more educated and more prepared. I believe that in that way we can move mountains if we want to.” 

Tulare County Supervisor Lali Moheno: “One thing is certain: The population will continue to grow and we must get educated, get prepared. If the population grows, needs grow. During an economic crisis like the one we have right now in California, the most affected are the poor. And many of those poor are Latino.” 

The final word comes from Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center. 

“Regardless of whether immigration flows from Latin America increase, decrease or stay the same, a great change in the composition of the Hispanic population is underway,” says Suro. 

Much is still to be determined about the children emerging from immigrant households, he says. 

“Their cultural and political identities are likely to respond to their parents’ experiences and to contemporary influences that are different from those that shaped past Latino generations,” says Suro. 

“One prediction about second-generation Latinos, however, seems safe: Given their numbers, their future will be a matter of national interest.”

The security of nuclear power plants against terrorist attack has been hotly debated since 9/11. Less has been said about another threat that could compromise the viability of nuclear plants and seriously damage their surroundings. It is a menace largely ignored by power plant designers, utility companies and the U.S. government. 

That menace was felt in France this past August, when a devastating heat wave killed more than 14,000 people and left the French nuclear power industry under a cloud of questions. 

Nuclear power plants need an abundant supply of cool water to operate. After a week of scorching temperatures, the French power company Electricité de France (EDF) instituted emergency measures—at one point using garden sprinklers to hose down the exterior of a plant in the Alsace region—saying hot weather and lack of rainfall had severely reduced supplies of river water cold enough to sufficiently cool reactors. 

In the end, rather than cut back power generation, EDF was allowed to discharge hot water into rivers and streams, which can destroy aquatic life. 

Could what happened in France happen here? There are 103 nuclear power plants operating across the United States, by all accounts an aging fleet. Most plants date back to the 1970s, the same period as French reactors. All were designed using historical temperature data from their specific locations rather than anticipating an increasingly warmer climate. 

Experts on climate change say that in coming years, nuclear plants will likely be subject to similar environmental conditions that plagued Europe this summer. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules require a plant licensee to submit an environmental site assessment covering a 40-year period. Scott Burnell, a spokesman with the NRC, says new plant guidelines are unnecessary. “Global warming occurs on such a slow scale that we would be able to deal with any changes at an operational level as opposed to a policy level,” Burnell says. 

But climate scientists say the natural world may be on a different timetable. 

“We’ve known since 1984 that the main way we will feel the presence of global warming is through the increased probability of cracking extreme threshold events,” says Stephen Schneider, co-director of the Center for Environmental Science at Stanford University. Schneider and colleagues estimate that during the next 50 to 100 years there is at least a 90 percent probability of higher temperatures, more heat waves, greater risk of drought and increased demands on electricity supply systems. 

“If we had that sort of extreme event today, we would probably respond in a similar way to France,” says Per Peterson, director of the Nuclear Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. “You either reduce the power output from the plant, which will have societal consequences, or you get an exception from the regulatory agencies to allow discharged water to come out warmer.” 

In France, hospitals overflowed with heat-stricken elderly, and refrigerated trucks were turned into impromptu morgues. Cutting power was a last resort, and officials opted to discharge hot water. Environmentalists were outraged. 

In the future, overheated water from power plants could be released into an already heat-stressed and drought-ridden environment. “Global warming will make it more likely that operation of power plants will lead to thermal discharges that exceed mandated limits,” says Dr. Peter Gleick, Director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security.  

Lance Vail, Senior Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has studied salmon habitat in the Yakima River in Washington state. “There is a temperature at which water becomes lethal for salmon,” Vail says. “If you have five or six consecutive years of lethal temperatures in a particular location, they may simply go extinct.” 

In addition to a license from the NRC, plant owners must obtain a discharge permit from the Environmental Protection Agency. Under the Clean Water Act, temperature can be considered a pollutant. That may be small comfort to those concerned about protecting water systems anytime soon. The Bush administration’s new EPA director is Utah governor Michael Leavitt, whose state was declared by the EPA in February to be guilty of significant non-compliance with the Clean Water Act. 

Power plant designers are planning no hardware changes. Vaughn Gilbert of Westinghouse, a nuclear power plant manufacturer, said that their newest reactor will operate at high temperatures but, “to my knowledge we did not take global warming as such into account during the design phase of the plant.” 

Essentially moribund since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, nuclear power is being resurrected by the Bush administration, which has pledged millions in federal subsidies and a streamlined licensing process. 

Peterson says he expects that the U.S. nuclear power industry may react to what happened in Europe by re-examining operating limits in order to obtain license amendments, which will allow plants to operate at higher temperatures. “Environmental limits are a policy decision between how much you like your water and how much you like having electricity,” Peterson said.  

Scientist Peter Gleick sees little reason for optimism. “I am afraid that as climate change continues to manifest itself, we will see growing impacts on rivers, growing pressure on power plants, and a risk that governments will move away from environmental protections in the name of economic protection.” 

Paul Schwartz is an American freelance journalist currently working in Europe.

Recently I attended a going away party for a friend. At the age of 52, Karen is heading for New York City. She’s given up her wonderful Potrero Hill apartment with its city and Bay views and is moving to a ground-floor, furnished sublet on the corner of 145th and St. Nicolas Avenue in the middle of Harlem. The company she writes for, Dance Magazine, is leaving Oakland and finally putting down roots in Manhattan. It makes sense, I suppose. Still, I’m going to miss her. 

A part of me is envious. To pull up stakes at our age, to start over in a city arguably one of the most exciting in the world... well, sometimes I think I’d like to do that too. Then I hear stories of the recent blackout, the continued repercussions of 9/11, the price of an almost mandatory pair of pointy, uncomfortable shoes and I wonder. Maybe I don’t want to move there after all. 

The young daughter of a friend of mine is going to school at Barnard, located at Broadway and 116th Street in Manhattan. She called home recently and told her Dad, “You know, it’s so horribly hot and muggy here, it feels like I’m walking around in a big ball of phlegm.” A rather graphic description, but, hey, I’ve been there and it does feel like that sometimes. 

But I envy Karen for making such a significant change in her life when others might not do so out of habit or fear of the unknown. I know it won’t be easy. She might get lonely. Her feet will start to hurt if she buys a pair of Manolo Blahnics. There will be things about the Bay Area she’s going to miss, like Trader Joes, good coffee, soft tacos and earthquakes. We tried not to point this out to her during our get together, but it was hard not to mention the sound of the cable cars, the amazing light at sunset, the sea breeze, the fog, the Transamerica Building. 

At the end of the party one of our friends, Doug, pulled out his 35-year-old, six-string Martin guitar and serenaded us. 

“I left my heart in San Francisco,” he softly crooned, “high on a hill, it calls to me. 

“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars, the morning fog may chill the air, I don’t care.” 

Karen began to sob and the rest of us wiped away tears as Doug continued, “My love waits there in San Francisco, above the blue and windy sea. When I come home to you, San Francisco, your golden sun will shine for me.” 

Slowly we rose from our seats, gave Karen a hug and made her promise that she would come back and visit soon. My friend Martha and I headed for the Bay Bridge but all the onramps were blocked by police cars and red flares. We learned that the highway and bridge had been shut down by a dangerous truck fire. We scooted around the city, but finally realized that the only way home was to drive south on Interstate 101 to the San Mateo Bridge. The roads were jammed with everyone else who was trying to make it back to the East Bay. 

Two hours later, weary and frustrated, I arrived home. The fog had beat me across the Bay, of course, and my little house on Dover Street was engulfed in a blanket of misty, sparkling gauze. It was nothing like the big ball of phlegm my friend’s daughter had described as sometimes covering New York City. I realized that I was more than just happy to be home in the East Bay. I was positively grateful.

Now that the nation’s schools have had a year to adjust to President Bush’s much vaunted education law, the No Child Left Behind Act, its real consequences are beginning to surface—and it’s not looking good. Various governors and state officials, including those from Republican-leaning states such as Florida, West Virginia and Tennessee, are noticing that the president has treated them to the ultimate bait-and-switch: He has demanded more of their schools while cutting the money needed to do the job. 

In California, Roy Romer, the superintendent of Los Angeles schools, has found the law’s definitions of academic progress so arbitrary that he’s told his underlings to ignore them. Further north, San Lorenzo superintendent Arnie Glassberg is wondering how he, or any other superintendent, is going to get 100 percent of students proficient in math and reading by 2014, as Bush’s law requires. 

More than half the schools in many states are already failing to meet the law’s new standards. And things look like they will only get worse. Each year, new students pour in, including some from other countries who have language obstacles. Yet the federal bar indicating “adequate yearly progress” continually gets higher. 

Meanwhile, thanks in part to the president’s tax cuts, government revenues—and thus, school funding—will continue shrinking. The San Lorenzo district, for instance, already lost $2 million this year. “As time goes on, the failure list will get bigger and bigger,” Glassberg said. “It will look like schools aren’t doing their job, and that’s not true.” 

Before the pressure to fund Bush’s education law more generously becomes unbearable, let’s pause to think about exactly what definition of academic progress we’re buying. 

In some schools, wise principals and teachers have used the law’s new testing standards to leverage more profound understanding of the “three Rs.” The vast majority, though, are so desperate to pass these tests that they’re ignoring valuable subjects that aren’t being tested—principally foreign languages and the arts, the latter being a domain that science has shown can develop broad, creative, even analytical skills. Meanwhile, obsession with standardized tests has reached nearly absurd proportions.  

A particularly graphic example has occurred in Texas, where the president’s ideas about education obviously hatched. Pressures to excel on this state’s exam, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), have been so intense that they’ve created a whole new industry. 

There are “TAAS camps,” instructional videos for teachers, cram booklets and tutorial software such as “HeartBeeps for TAAS,” which, by mid-2000, an estimated 1,000 schools had purchased at $4,200 a copy. In many schools, class work has been largely given over to test preparation from New Year’s through April. 

Texas students have of course raised their scores as a result. But evaluations by college admissions officers and groups such as the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy group, indicate the students haven’t learned much in the process. 

This should come as no surprise. Standardized testing is such an oversimplified science that even experts who support it suggest its results be used only as a guide, not as a final scholastic judgment. Learning, imagination, and student potential are fundamentally human challenges, and trying to evaluate these attributes with crude numbers consistently yields false judgments. 

One new study of 20 states, by the University of Oregon’s Center for Educational Policy Research, found that standardized high school exams are providing a poor indication of students’ readiness for college. 

“Tests tend to test how one individual performs on that kind of test,” on that given day, says education reformer Theodore Sizer, founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a system funded by Bill Gates that aims at smaller classes and focuses on essential academic subjects. “It’s like taking a temperature in the hospital. It’s one important index, but it’s only one. We’re judging kids on the basis of their temperatures.” 

William F. Goodling, a former Pennsylvania Congressman and chair of the House committee on education and the workforce, once put it this way: “If testing is the answer to our educational problems, it would have solved them a long time ago.” 

Meanwhile, the number of testing inaccuracies have increased tenfold in recent years, as states across the country rush to process more tests than the testing industry can reliably produce and grade. California, for example, is one state that offers cash bonuses to high-performing schools. 

Yet, a recent investigation by the Orange County Register found that differences in school size, fluctuating enrollment, and the exclusion of some students from testing are making test results unreliable—so much so that a third of the millions of dollars in bonuses are going to California schools that may have simply gotten lucky. 

If political leaders want to put more money into education, they should be able to come up with something better than leaning even more heavily on these exams. If we want real change in the schools, we could start by revitalizing teacher training, coupled with a meaningful raise in teacher salaries. After all, it’s a little strange to watch politicians, who repeatedly say education is their top priority, pay the people in charge of that job half of what other professionals earn. 

Todd Oppenheimer, winner of a National Magazine Award, is the author of The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved, published this fall by Random House (www.flickeringmind.net).

As he awoke for the first time as chief executive of the largest state in the greatest country in the world, The Governator smiled his famous smile, lighting up the room. 

But when he reached for the mirror to be sure his teeth were still perfect, he found his body was so strongly fastened and wrapped in what felt like slender threads that he could not move. 

Soon, he felt something moving on his left leg toward his face. Unable to move his head, The Governator saw a human creature, about as big as his thumb. 

The man was carrying a cheap black stick pen stamped “State of California.” He wore a grey suit of some slightly shiny material, and eyeglasses. He looked vaguely familiar, and The Governator, unable to contain his curiosity, strained forward and broke many of the threads holding him down. 

But as he struggled to sit up, he felt an extremely unpleasant sensation on his right hand—as if a thousand dull darts were being thrown at him. Struggling to look, he saw a phalanx of men and women firing pens into his flesh with a sort of sling made form rubber bands. Each had a considerable supply, and The Governator decided it would be a good time to rest. 

Waving his white silk handkerchief—a sign they seemed to recognize, for the shooting soon stopped—he lay back down to consider his situation. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some of the gray-clad figures in the distance holding large flowers as if they were golf clubs. 

“What are they doing?” he asked aloud. 

And a voice—the first man had now ascended The Governator’s chin—replied, “Practicing their putting.” 

“With flowers?” asked The Governator. 

“They’re lily-putters,” came the reply. 

“Aha! So this is Lilliput, I suppose, and you are all part of an elaborate practical joke,” said The Governator. “Well, you can stop now. I’m not that gullible.” 

“Which Gullible are you, then?” asked the man, now accompanied by about a hundred others. 

Suddenly, The Governator realized why they seemed so familiar. “You all look like the last governor, the one I terminated,” he said. “Are you all Gray Davis?” 

“Oh, no,” came a dozen voices, and a dozen or more men and women paraded by, saying their names. 

“Gary Davids.” 

“Davis Gray.” 

“Grace Davey.” 

“Darvis Gay.”  

“Ray G. Avids.” 

Until The Governator could stand it no longer. 

“Stop!” he shouted, and just then a man in a suit unlike the others appeared, and held out his hand. “FItchmoody Dow,” he said. “Here to see you about your ratings.” 

“Oh, they’re excellent,” said The Governator. “I had 16 pints with a 22 share last time out.” 

“But your bonds aren’t drawing that kind of interest,” said Dow, “so we may have to downgrade them, especially if you cut taxes. You did promise to cut taxes, didn’t you?” 

“I don’t recall,” said The Governator. 

One member of the group that had been firing into his hands now appeared, shooter at the ready. “We are from the rubber band of the Keno group of Palm Beach Indians,” he said, “and want to see how you feel about our proposal to build a casino on our property.” 

“I don’t recall,” said The Governator. 

And the parade continued for some time, until they formed in front of him. 

“Who are you, anyway?” said The Governator. 

“We’re your host of problems,” came the answer in unison. 

And from somewhere in the back of the crowd came a voice. “And we recall.” 

“Enough!” said The Governator, reaching for his ultrahigh powered laser-guided shooter, which had made him the toast of box offices from Anaheim to Annapurna. 

But it wasn’t there. Inside the case was only a slip of paper with the words “You’re not in the movies anymore.” 

The Governator’s smile slowly faded, and the room grew dark.

Vox populi is out in full throat after the proposed parcel tax, as anyone who reads the opinion pages of this paper will know by now. City Council’s hearing on Tuesday gave public voice to sentiments which have been circulating in small meetings and on the Internet for two months or more. 

Why should this be so? Have Berkeley voters, three decades after Proposition 13, suddenly become cheapskates? Has the economic downturn hit harder here than elsewhere? Has the rise in property values (the median home is now worth at least half-a-million) brought a flood of Republicans to town?  

The interesting thing about the current anti-tax outcry is the great variety of voices which have joined the chorus. The usual suspects—formerly known as the Grumpy Old Men, but now joined by a few women— are singing their usual refrain: taxes are too high, waste is everywhere, we’re coddling slackers, and we won’t put up with it. This is not new. What is new are the increasingly loud, though still sotto voce, comments from people who regard themselves as dedicated progressives, who have always been willing to pay the piper in order to buy government services which they regard as necessary. Why are such people lending their covert or overt support to criticisms of the proposed tax hike?  

First and foremost, the city’s current union contracts are regarded as ridiculously generous by those who understand such things. The Daily Planet has received spreadsheet after spreadsheet from people with local government experience and/or academic background in economics, designed to demonstrate that the built-in union wage increases over the next five years are what’s breaking the back of the budget. The consensus seems to be that city employees, even at middle management levels, have negotiated sweetheart deals for themselves, instead of representing the public interest in the employer-employee relationship. At last Tuesday’s Council meeting, one councilmember wailed that “we can’t do anything about it now.” Layoffs, of course, would bring the issue to the table in an unpleasant way. 

Berkeley employees, unlike those in other cities such as Oakland, maintain in the face of this criticism that they won the bargaining fair and square, and now the city will have to stick with it, regardless of reductions in state funding. The unions have come up with a package of proposals, as yet unexamined, which are supposed to balance the budget and still allow the wage increase deals to go forward. We’ll see how well they work. 

Another strong critical chorus comes from what an old City Hall reporter used to call “the Berkeley 400” (they probably number more like 2,000). These are the citizens who take a strong and active interest in what government is doing. They populate the city’s boards and commissions and turn out in droves for public hearings. They vote in every election, make generous campaign contributions, and talk to their friends and neighbors. Every city has people like this, but cities with well-educated populations like Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz produce more of them per capita. 

People in this group have for at least 10 years been very annoyed with the ongoing culture of the city’s planning department (and its supporters in the city attorney’s office) which they have gotten to know intimately because of their involvement in a succession of controversies. Many of them believe that they have expended an enormous effort to take the creation of Berkeley’s General Plan and areas plans away from a city manager and a succession of planning directors who wanted to use Berkeley as a lab for the latest development trends. Some of them have clashed with the planning department or the city attorney’s office over particular development projects.  

Such critics may be adherents of either of Berkeley’s two putative parties, the Progs and the Mods, or they may disdain both. Some spearheaded the drive to draft Tom Bates for mayor and now regret it.  

The mayor’s Sacramento-style Government by Task Force bears a good deal of the responsibility for the angry mutterings now emanating from the Berkeley 2000. Planning groupies smoked out the developer-loaded Permitting and Development Task Force and have been making their voices heard. But the Task Force on Revenue managed to meet largely in private with few citizens in attendance, and with few discordant voices solicited. The results are predictable.  

And the stakes are high. If pressed, few angry citizens really want to shut down essential city programs. But they’re tired of being dissed by politicians and city employees, and opposing the parcel tax is one of the few ways they can express their frustrations. Recent revelations that the city hasn’t bothered to collect taxes on properties owned by well-wired developers didn’t help. If something isn’t done, and soon, to restore public confidence in government, we risk throwing out the baby with the bath water in the next election, if the parcel tax even makes it on to the ballot. 

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

In 1970, recycling was one of those odd things that granola heads did, schlepping their newspapers and maybe their bottles and tin cans to a site behind a co-op market and tossing it all into marked bins. 

You can still do that, if you’re so inclined, at Dwight and Martin Luther King Jr. Way—at least until the site is sold and some new apartment block or other “dense-use” building goes up; or at Second and Gilman. But recycling has gone mainstream in the last 30 years, and in Berkeley as in many places you can just put the recyclables out once a week, next to the garbage, in those handy blue bins.  

The Ecology Center was in on the start of that trend, with one of the first curbside pick-up recycling programs in the country. Oddly, it’s become a survivor of sorts: one of the last nonprofits that still do the work.  

In 1973, working with a modest federal grant, leased trucks, and wooden boxes, a few good women and men started picking up bundled newspapers at curbside and delivering them to an egg carton maker. Old-timers might remember the converted Lucky Beer truck and its motley crew. 

In 1980, they added cans and bottles to the list for collection in biodegradable—sometimes a bit too biodegradable—waxed cardboard crates. The blue bins with the odd motto about “Heart of the Green Valley” (not a product of the Ecology Center’s prose mill) came later, and are still one of regrettably few actual uses for “recycled” plastic. 

The program had to weather at least two little wars to get this far. 

First was the campaign against the waste-to-energy incinerator that was proposed for West Berkeley in the 70s and finally defeated at the polls in 1982. This sounded like a good idea until people noticed that it would encourage more waste—more to be burned, including recyclables like paper, for more revenue-producing energy—and would dump dioxin and other pollutants on its neighbors, while producing toxic ash that would still need disposal.  

The other internecine battle was over the City of Berkeley’s recycling contract: Engineered Waste Control of Emeryville versus a coalition of the Ecology Center, Urban Ore, and Community Conservation Center, which was doing separation and bundling of waste for processing by then. 

When the smoke cleared and what was actually being offered was taken into account, the coalition was still doing the work. Berkeley voters confirmed the arrangement in 1984.  

Some wars aren’t over yet. In 2000, the recyclers grudgingly started picking up plastics; they’re still reminding people that plastics can’t be recycled indefinitely like metal and glass; plastics degrade as polymer chains break when the stuff is melted. 

Also, what markets exist for used plastic are largely in places like China, and no one here has been able to find out what they’re doing with the stuff there, under what working conditions.  

Recycling’s not all about grouchy foot-dragging. The Ecology Center’s recycling arm started experimenting with 100 percent biodiesel in 2001, and now the whole fleet runs on it, which is why you smell French fries when the truck goes by in the morning. 

They’re setting up a 200-gallon-a-day processor to make fuel out of stuff like eucalyptus oil—at last, a use for invasive exotics!—and to experiment with locally produced agricultural oils as well as restaurant grease. 

The center will celebrates its 30th anniversary Thursday night with a reception and dinner program starting at 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. 

With environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill serving as emcee, the Ecology Center fete features an organic vegetarian dinner and remarks from Martin Bourke, the center’s executive director, and Beverly Thorpe, co-founder of Clean Production Action—a nonprofit that promotes the creation of non-hazardous products. 

Tickets are $60, and proceeds will support biodiesel fuel promotion and the campaign to battle construction of six new trash incinerators in the state—including installations planned for Alameda and Santa Cruz. 

For more information call 548-2220 ext. 237 or see www.ecologycenter.org/30years/.