“Let your hair down, roll your sleeves up and let’s praise the Lord,” Rev. Allen L. Williams told his congregation at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church. Williams had a special reason to rejoice. Last Sunday, he and churchgoers celebrated St. Paul’s 70th anniversary in Berkeley.  

“It’s wonderful to have history when you can look back and see what God has done,” Williams said to the Sunday morning worshipers. 

The African American Episcopal Church has 7,000 congregations in more than 30 nations, according to the AME Church website, but only one site in Berkeley—St. Paul. It’s a distinction that is a source of pride to many of its members.  

Today St. Paul has almost 1,000 members who gather to worship in its $1.5 million sanctuary. But 70 years ago St. Paul was a very different place. Called the Berkeley Mission, the church began with just five members in a modest building at the corner of Grove and Russell streets.  

By 1935 the church boasted more than 70 members and the following year moved into a larger building at 1630 Fairview St. In 1937, the church received official incorporation from the African Methodist Episcopal church and became St. Paul.  

In 1953, St. Paul moved to its current location at 2024 Ashby Ave. and in 1995 a wing was added to the church to accommodate a growing congregation and multiple community outreach programs. 

Many of St. Paul’s members, like Sarah Robinson, have been a part of the church for decades. Robinson has been a member for 29 years. She said that while St. Paul has seen different pastors and different members, different locations and different music over the years, no matter how St. Paul changes, she’s not going anywhere.  

“I am dedicated to this church,” Robinson said. “This is my church.” 

Doris Tabor, 85, echoed Robinson’s sentiment. Tabor has been a member of St. Paul since 1943, and is known around the church as “Granma Tabor.” In her Ward Street home in Berkeley, Tabor has boxes of old pictures and yellowed programs from services that date back as far as the 1960s.  

Tabor said she has never once thought about leaving St. Paul. “It has been a haven,” she said, adding that St. Paul gives people a chance to worship God through self-expression. 

At St. Paul, self-expression often means singing and dancing. On the church’s 70th anniversary, St. Paul members worshiped God throughout the Sunday service with music and movement. 

“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it,” the choir sang as churchgoers stood to their feet and clapped their hands. Dancers moved through the aisles dressed in black leotards and long skirts with their waists wrapped in Afro-centric fabric. 

But St. Paul members are quick to make it known that their church is not just about singing, dancing and preaching on Sunday mornings. Doris Floyd, Tabor’s daughter and a lifelong member of St. Paul, said they are proud of their church mostly because of what it has meant to the Berkeley community. 

“We can’t just do our work within our walls,” said Floyd, who works as the church’s public-relations officer. “Patting ourselves on the back about what we did in the church just won’t do it.” 

In a proclamation of recognition that Berkeley gave to the church on Sunday, city officials praised St. Paul for feeding 5,000 people each year through its Tuesday Community Feeding Program, a service that gives free meals to the hungry and homeless in Berkeley.  

“Part of the AME creed is to feed the hungry,” Floyd said. 

According to the official website for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME church was started in the late 1700s. The first congregation, Bethel, was started in Philadelphia and led by a former slave, pastor Richard Allen, from Delaware. Allen and others began organizing the church after officials at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church didn’t allow blacks to participate in services.  

The AME Church has about two million members today. Some of the AME Church’s missions include “feeding the hungry,” “clothing the naked” and “housing the homeless.” 

Floyd said St. Paul is also committed to helping youth in the community. For example, in the late 1980s, after some members noticed that some black students in Berkeley city schools were not performing well on standardized tests, St. Paul developed a Saturday school program that offered free tutoring to students in various subjects, including mathematics and language.  

“Our kids were slipping through the cracks,” Floyd said. The program continued through the 1990s until the church began to develop other education programs like the Academic Center for Excellence. This program, which St. Paul runs through a partnership with the University of California Office of the President, aims to prepare high school students for college, Floyd said. 

“Our youth are our most precious commodity,” Floyd said. 

Floyd said St. Paul is even taking on issues that have traditionally been considered taboo in the church. St. Paul has a Teen Pregnancy Prevention/Teen Parenting program that works on preventing teen pregnancy by teaching abstinence through health education and programs that seek to build self-esteem. The program also offers help for teen parents.  

“The church is not there to condemn people for whatever choices they make,” Floyd said. “But we are here to be an education center.” 

St. Paul also has an HIV/AIDS Awareness program and hosts a Narcotics Anonymous group that meets every Saturday, Floyd said.  

“In St. Paul there has always been a willing spirit to help,” Floyd said. She added, however, that St. Paul’s commitment to outreach is one that has evolved over time.  

“We’ve moved more toward meeting the needs of the community,” she said. And to meet those needs, Floyd said, St. Paul has had to become more contemporary in various areas—even down to the type of music played during Sunday morning services. Floyd said services at St. Paul have traditionally been more quiet and subdued. But now, St. Paul has a music ministry that has musicians who play everything from the flute and saxophone to drums and bass. 

Granma Tabor said sometimes she wishes the choir would sing more traditional hymns like the ones she grew up singing. “But everybody wants to move,” she said of the church’s younger generation of members, who want more upbeat music. “I have to remind myself not to be jealous just because I can’t move,” she said laughing. 

Tabor said she doesn’t really mind the changes, because she knows they’re necessary to keep the church alive.  

One change that Tabor is excited about is St. Paul’s newly appointed pastor. Tabor got up extra early on the morning of Nov. 16, the day Williams gave his first sermon as St. Paul’s pastor. 

“My body felt like it was a cushion and my aches felt they was pins,” she said. “But I just wanted to be there when Reverend Williams came back for his first service.” 

Becoming pastor of St. Paul was a sort of homecoming for Williams, who attended the church when he was a young boy while his father, E.P. Williams, served as pastor in the early 1960s. 

Tabor said she’s delighted to see Williams follow in his father’s footsteps and feels that with his return, great and new things are going to happen in the church.  

Last week Williams was busy visiting the sick, preparing for the church’s annual revival and anniversary celebration and planning a trip back to Kansas City to complete his move from that city to Berkeley. Yet he still managed to kick off St. Paul’s new radio ministry. The Abundant Light Radio Ministry will broadcast on KYDA 1190 AM on Saturdays from 10:30 to 11 a.m.  

Williams said he hopes listeners will be inspired by the Saturday broadcast and motivated to visit St. Paul the following morning.  

Floyd said this is just one example of how Williams plans to increase St. Paul’s community outreach. She said he also plans to develop a program to help find permanent housing for the homeless individuals that the church serves.  

On Sunday, Williams asked his congregation to pray for him and his family and be patient as he gets settled in his new role. He said he might do some things differently from former pastors such as the order of service. Williams and his congregation seemed to stumble through parts of the service, unsure if the collection of tithes and offering was to come before church announcements or not.  

“Will you bear with me?” Williams asked. “Yes,” the congregations answered in unison.  

“I promise it won’t be uncomfortable for long,” Williams said and then urged the crowd to be excited about what the future holds.  

“I believe,” Williams said to Sunday’s crowd “that the best is yet to come.”

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 

Thanksgiving Holiday - City Offices are Closed 

Bay Area Women in Black will hold a silent walking vigil to supposrt the new Palestine-Israel Geneva Peace Initiative and to protest US occupation of Iraq. Assemble at 11:50 a.m. at the Bank of America across from the Powell Street BART. Please wear black. Everyone welcome. bayareawomeninblack@earthlink.net 

Bead Artistry: An Exploration of Creativity Nov 28 to 30. Off-loom beading art objects including jewelry sale by featured artists. Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893 www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

Oakland Glass Artists Holiday Exhibit and Sale, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2680 Union St. Oakland. Also on Sat. and Sun. 832-8380.  

Holiday Kwanzaa and Christmas Gift Show to encourage patronage of black businesses at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center, 550-10th Street, Oakland, Fri. - Sun. 1 to 8 p.m. Admission $5, children free. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 29 

Women of Color Arts and Crafts Fair, featuring paintings, clay sculptures, textiles, jewelry, quilts, decorative functional furniture and wearable art. From 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios every weekend through Dec. 21. 100 professional artists and craftspeople at studio buildings in Berkeley open their doors to the public. Crafts include blown glass, functional and decorative ceramics, ornaments, Menorahs, clocks, lamps and lighting, painted and custom furniture, garden art, bird houses, egg dioramas, floor cloths, clothing, textiles, jewelry, sculpture, photography, paintings, original prints, and other works on paper. All work is handcrafted, many pieces are one-of-a-kind. A self-guided tour presents opportunities to meet the artists and see working craft studios. For a map of participating studios call 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Soapmaking Do you know where soap comes from? Learn how to make all natural soap from olive, coconut, and palm oils. For ages 12 and older, registration required. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost $10, $12 for non-residents. 525-2233. 

Strawberry Creek Work Party We'll be planting and putting down erosion control material on the creek bank. We also have a small shady spot that needs the ivy removed and the soil prepared for a small native garden that we'll plant in December. Meet at the Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison at 10 a.m. Please bring sturdy shoes and water, and gloves, if you have them. Everything else will be supplied.  

Shamanic Journeying Meditation, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Free. For information and directions call 525-1272. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 30 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios For a map of participating studios call 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

She Made Holiday Arts Bazaar, with a silent auction to benefit the Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 461 Ninth St. Oakland. www.she-made.com 

Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 10th Anniversary, with food refreshments, music and more. From 4 to 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Walk Around Middle Pond” with Aquatic Park EGRET’s rangers to see habitat restoration work. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Cabin on the eastern shore of Middle Pond at the northern terminus of Shellmound Street. 549-0818. egret@lmi.net 

Prisoner Visitation and Support, an introduction to the interfaith independent visitation program at 12:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2152 Vine St. at the corner of Walnut. For more information call Arden Pierce at 650-494-1631. 

“The Witness,” a one-woman play which follows the journey of a young woman onto the streets, followed by a discussion of Faithful Fools Ministry, at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations suggested to benefit Fools Street Ministry. 528-5403. 

“Pills Profits and Protest: Voices of Global AIDS Activists” a documentary, followed by discussion at 3 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park St. A World AIDS Day benefit for Health GAP, ACT UP East bay and Action=Life Film Collective. Donation $8. For information call 841-4339. www.pillsprofitsprotest.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, Abbe Blum on “Personal Transitions as New Beginnings” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, DEC. 1 

ACCI Gallery, Holiday Arts and Crafts Show Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527.  

www.accigallery.com 

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 ladybeetles, 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. 

“Rally for Africa's Right to Health” at the Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, from noon to 1:00 p.m. Demand that President Bush and Congress allocate the $15 billion for AIDS services in Africa that the president promised in his January 2003 State of the Union Address. The event will feature speakers, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and the display of 300 pairs of shoes to symbolize the Africans who will die of AIDS-related causes in the hour that the rally takes place. For more information, call 527-4099. 

Report Back From Occupied Palestine with John Ross at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement. 

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. 

Berkeley Biodiesel Cooperative Orientation at 7:30 p.m. Call for location 594-4000, ext. 777. berkeleybiodiesel@ 

yahoo.com 

TUESDAY, DEC. 2 

Writer’s Room needs volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Volunteer trainings will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. tonight, and also on Dec. 9. please call Terry, 849-4134 or email Bloomburgh@sbcglobal.net to sign up.  

Holiday Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-8155. www.mip.berkeley. 

edu/garden  

The Science Behind Genetically Engineered Plants A lecture with Dr. Andrew Gutierrez, Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Graduate Theological Union, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. www.gtu.edu/studentgroups/trees 

Sustainable Development in Cuba Slide show and discussion based on ECOTECTURE Editor Philip S. Wenz’s trip to Cuba, at 7 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Donation $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. Benefits the Building Education Center and Global Exchange Cuba Program. 525-7610.  

Dine Out for AIDS Advocacy at Unicorn Pan Asian Cuisine, 2533 Telegraph Ave. from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Benefits HealthGAP and ACT UP East Bay. Wheelchair accessible. Reservations are suggested. 841-4339. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Jackie Hetman will show slides of Northern Sweden and Lapland at 11 a.m. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 3 

Zapatistas Turn 20, a benefit celebration for the Chiapas Support Committee, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Meet Up for Howard Dean at three Berkeley locations: Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave.; Raleigh’s (Generation Dean youth meeting), 2438 Telegraph Ave.; Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant, 1736 Solano Ave. Free. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8724. 

Dick Penniman’s Avalanche Safety, slide lecture and video presentation on the fundamentals: avalanche phenomena, meteorology, snowpack formation, route selection, stability evaluation and rescue techniques, at 6 p.m. at at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $20. 527-4140. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

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

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

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-0237.  

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

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

THURSDAY, DEC. 4 

“In Conversation with Political Authors: In Search of Weapons of Mass Deception” Panelists include Ishmael Reed, Iris Chang, Daniel Ellsberg and Dori Maynard, moderated by Normon Solomon. At 6 p.m. at Twist Restaurant, 495 10th St. Oakland. Tickets are $35, dinner and panel, $10 panel only, available from 525-3948. www.penoakland.org 

Read the Night Sky! Beginners guide to finding planets and constellations using an astrological calendar, at 7:30 p.m. at Ancient Ways, 4075 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. Cost is $5-10. 658-9178.  

Snowcamping, an introduction at 7 pm, at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley Venture Crew 24 Open House We are an inclusive Scout group for high schoolers-college boys and girls. Come see our scuba diving, backpacking or camping pictures, at 7:30 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 525-6058. 

9/11 Truth Alliance Forum at 7 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 925-798-3698. 

UC Botanical Garden Docent Training at 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Fee and registration required. Call 643-1924 to sign up! 

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

St. John's Prime Timers Tap Dancing class meets on Thursday mornings at 9:15 a.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church at 2717 Garber St. Class is free and open to anyone over 50. 527-0167. 

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 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/zoning   

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/firesafety 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 4, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 

CHILDREN 

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. 

THEATER 

Wilde Irish Productions, “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett, opens at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $25, with champagne reception. Runs through Dec. 21. 644-9940. 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Tokyo Story” at 3:30, 6:40, and 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Grown and Tremolo perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com  

Jamie Davis at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Diana Darby and Sonya Hunter 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 

Broun Fellinis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Reilly and Maloney, contemporary folk duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

S.T.F.U., The Lewd, Words That Burn, Crop Knox, Eskapo at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

3rd Rail, Fellatia, Jynx at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 29 

CHILDREN  

Dan Zanes & Friends perform roots music for the entire family at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

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: “Late Spring”at 2 and 7 p.m. and “An Autumn Afternoon” at 4:10 and 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

A Cornucopia Concert for Thanksgiving, 17th century music, performed on period instruments by Tekla Cunningham and Anthony Martin, baroque violins, and Jonathan Shane Davis, harpsichord, at 8 p.m. at MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, at Marin. Tickets are $10-$15. 528-1685. 

Chamber Music Sundaes, San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends perform Beethoven Trio, Debussy and Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Vaughan Williams Quintet at 3:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$18 at the door. 415-584-5946. 

Early Music with Healing Muses Eileen Hadidian, recorder and flute, Maureen Brennan, celtic harp, Natalie Cox, renaissance and celtic harp, with Dan Reiter, cello, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Cost is $15-$18. 524-5661. 

Carl McDonald with Blazing Fire Band, the Caribbean Groovers Steel Band, with special guests Mr. Major-P and Razor Blade at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Moore Brothers and Golden Shoulders at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Geoff Muldaur with Fritz Richmond and Tony Marcus, American roots, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freight-andsalvage.org 

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

Frank Johnson at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Embrace the End, Animosity, 30 Years War, Killing the Dream at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Corner Pocket at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

KGB, Solemite, Limbeck at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 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 

SUNDAY, NOV. 30 

CHILDREN 

Dan Zanes & Friends at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. See listing for Nov. 29. 

Princess Moxie, puppetry and storytelling from 3 to 4 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Adults $4, children $3, children under 1, free. 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: “Tokyo Story”at 2 p.m. and “I Was Born, But ...” at 5:30 p.m. and “Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?” at 7:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

A Cornucopia Concert for Thanksgiving, See listing for Nov. 29. 

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

The Bobs, a cappella, with special guest Bob Malone, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Small Brown Bike, The Orange Band, Scissorhands at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Soundwave Studios Acoustic Showcase at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, DEC. 1 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Bay Area Blues: Blues Musicians on Site” a digital photography display at Berkeley Public Library opens today and runs through the month of December. 981-6100. 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” in collaboration with Pacific Mozart Ensemble at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church, 2300 Bancroft. Tickets are $22-$24. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Series presents Garrett Murphy and Marianne Robinson from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

TUESDAY, DEC. 2 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” See listing for Dec. 1. 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “Superior Elegy” and “Sneak Preview” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why” with editor Larry Habegger, tales of trouble on the road at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Chamber Performances, Wolford-Rosenblum, saxophone/piano duo at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 525-5211. www. 

berkeleychamberperform.org  

“Edessa and Brass Menagerie” at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 3  

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” See listing for Dec. 1. 

FILM 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

June Jordan’s Poetry for the People annual exibition of student poets at 7 p.m. in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-2743. 

“Images of Mary in Art: The Black Madonna” with China Galland, director of the Images of Divinity project at the Center for Arts, Education and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

Loic Wacquant introduces “Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer” at 5:30 p.m. University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Noon Concert with the University Chorus at International House, at the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

Community Drumming Circle from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pris, Go Ahead perform Indy Rock and Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

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

Vince Wallace Jazz Machine at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, DEC. 4 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” See listing for Dec. 1. 

FILM 

“Effaced” and “Jenin, Jenin” at 7 p.m. at 340 Stephens Hall. Sponsored by Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 642-8208. 

“Voices From the Edge” and “The Favela Goes to the World Social Forum” and discussion with Brazilian filmmakers Daniela Broitman and Fernando Salis, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$18. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Woman of Tokyo” at 5:30 p.m. “Walk Cheerfully” at 7 p.m. and “I flunked, But...” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Robert Hass. After hosting Lunch Poems for eight years, Professor Hass has finally been prevailed upon to read his own poems. Admission is free. 642-0137.  

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

“The Call to Hawaii: A Wellness Vacation Guidebook” with Betsy and Laura Crites, co-authors, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Concert for Dignity and clothing drive to benefit Operation Dignity and their homeless services at 7:30 p.m. at iMusicast, 5429 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. www.operationdignity. 

org/benefitconcert.htm  

“Maybe Monday” improvisational response to Helen Mirra’s MATRIX exhibition at 6 p.m. in Gallery 1, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Daniel Mille at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Wendy DeRosa and guests at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Good for Cows and Karla Kihlstedt perform modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Ellis Paul and Vance Gilbert, New England singer-songwriters, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

George Pederson and His Pretty Good Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Bizar Bazaar at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 5 

THEATER 

Berkeley High School, “You Can’t Take it With You,” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, directed by Rachel Rudy, at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater. Tickets are $10, $5 with student i.d. 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” See listing for Dec. 1. 

“Arcadia,” by Tom Stoppard, performed by Maybeck High School, at 7 p.m. at Oakland Box Theater, 1928 Telegraph Ave. between 19th and 20th Sts. Tickets are adults $15 in advance, $18 at the door, students $7 in advance, $10 at door. 841-8489.  

Oakland Opera Theater, “Four Saints in Three Acts,” an opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, at 2nd St. Tickets are $15-$25 and are available from www.oaklandopera.org 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “An Inn at Tokyo” at 7:30 p.m. and “The Only Son” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joe Sacco introduces his graphic novel, “The Fixer,” about war correspondents at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

California Bach Society, “Christmas Vespers” by Francisco Guerrero, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$25, and are available from 415-262-0272 or tickets@calbach.org 

Sweet Honey in the Rock, female a cappella group, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker,” at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 and are available from 848-5698. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Berkeley City Ballet, “The Nutcracker,” at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus. Tickets are $25. 642-9988 www.berkeleycityballet.org 

Moodswing Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Simon Stinger, Castles in Spain, Hazerfan at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

JP Orbit 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 

Jucifer, Bottles and Skulls, Race Bannon at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

“A Context for Peace” new work from Bay Area musicians, authors and poets at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Crater, modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Collective Amnesia at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Peter Case, roots music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Grand Unified Theory, Forget the Jonses, The Apples, The Silence, Static Thought at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Savant Guard at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Berkeley is home to many unique small businesses started by people from all over the world who came to California, liked what they found, and stayed. We’re an international city, and many of our retail stores mirror the countries their owners came from. 

Jutta’s Flowers, on Claremont Avenue next to the Star Grocery, is a perfect example of how the process works. Jutta Singh first came to Delano, California, as a high school exchange student from Berlin. She was thrilled by the wide open spaces there, quite different from Europe, and resolved to come back sometime and make her home here. 

Back in Berlin, she got the dream job of showing international visitors her city’s many cultural attractions, but she never forgot California. When she returned for a high school reunion, she met the man who became her husband and eventually became a Californian herself. The flower shop she started will celebrate its twentieth anniversary on Dec. 9. 

Especially in the pre-Christmas season, the store reminds people who’ve been to Germany of that country’s elegant florists, which carry not only cut flowers but plants, pots, and many small entertaining decorative objects. Jutta dedicates a whole room to her extensive holiday offerings, including the wonderful blown glass animals on her Christmas tree, from which part of the proceeds go to the National Wildlife Federation. 

From Germany, there’s a full orchestra of tiny angels playing musical instruments of all kinds, reflecting Jutta’s passion for classical music.  

She and her associate Todd Itokazu construct extraordinary bouquets for presentation to soloists who appear with the Berkeley Symphony. Maestro Kent Nagano frequently programs unusual compositions by modern composers, often world premieres. If Jutta’s not familiar with the composer’s work, she reads up on it and listens to it, so that the bouquet can symbolize what the piece expresses. For example, a bouquet for a piece about Bluebeard featured twisting branches and flowers representing dangling locks and chains. For an organ soloist, she built an organ out of plant “horse tails” with a flower called Buddha’s fingers reaching inside. Jutta emphasizes that her artistic floral tributes are based on deep emotional appreciation of the music. “Unless I feel it, I can’t connect with it,” she says.  

Jutta’s Flowers. 3078 Claremont Avenue. 547-2293.

It’s happened more than once, but I’m still not used to it: looking down from my dining room window as a Cooper’s hawk flies up the driveway. The driveway seems to be a transit corridor, part of the bird’s (or birds’) hunting territory. The effect—a feathered projectile hurtling past the kitchen window—would be even more startling from ground level. 

We think of hawks as creatures of the wild, but some have adapted handily to city life. Urban areas can serve as breeding or wintering grounds for them. 

I first discovered the local pair of Coopers nesting in a venerable elm a few blocks away. I was concerned for them when the elm succumbed to disease and was taken down, but the hawks relocated to a sweetgum around the corner. I’ve also had a plausible report of a pair nesting south of the UC campus, and others may be around. Their nests are easy to spot in winter, until the trees leaf out and give the hawks some privacy while they incubate their eggs and rear their young. But you can still watch the traffic in and out of the nest tree, and listen to the adults’ nasal “Kek kek kek” calls. 

Cooper’s hawks are the midsize model of the trio of North American accipiters, about crow-sized; smaller than the northern goshawk, larger than the oddly-named sharp-shinned hawk. The Cooper in question was a 19th century naturalist, co-founder of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. To traditionalist falconers, these three species would be true hawks (as opposed to falcons, buzzards, harriers). They’re specialist bird hunters, built for close pursuit of mobile targets in woods and thickets: long-tailed, short-winged avian fighter planes. 

Splendid birds that they are, I’ll admit to some ambivalence about having Cooper’s hawks in the neighborhood. Since they prey on other birds, I’d wondered if I was in fact provisioning a hawk-feeder when I put out seed for the songbirds in my yard. Coopers can handle sizable prey like pheasants, crows, teal, even smaller raptors. But wouldn’t they also take advantage of the smorgasbord of finches and sparrows attracted to bird feeders? 

A recent study by biologists Timothy Roth III and Steven Lima, published in The Condor (the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Society, a group named for the son of the hawk’s namesake) suggests the story is more complicated than that. Roth and Lima set out to document what kind of prey Cooper’s hawks hunted in an urban setting, and how they went about it. Their study area was Terre Haute, Indiana, which, dissimilar as it may be to Berkeley in most respects, does sustain its own population of wintering hawks. 

Roth and Lima live-trapped 13 Cooper’s hawks during two successive seasons and rigged them with radio transmitters. The devices had position-sensitive mercury switches that signaled whether a hawk was perched in its normal upright posture, waiting for something to happen, or in a horizontal pose as it plucked and ate whatever it had killed. The researchers shadowed the hawks daily until early spring and reported that the birds “were unperturbed by the presence of humans in vehicles or other urban disturbances.” 

The hawks turned out to have two main hunting modes. Sometimes they waited in ambush until a smaller bird got within close striking range. But they also used what Roth and Lima called “contour-hugging attacks,” flying a few feet above the ground and using buildings, fences, and vegetation to cover their approach to stationary prey, with a final burst of speed as they came in for the kill. It sounds like this is what’s going on with the hawks that use my driveway. 

The birds in the study often lost visual contact with their targets during these broken-field runs, but seemed to know where they were headed. And the chase was not always triggered by sight of the quarry: Four hawks staged surprise attacks on empty feeders, which must have been productive in the past. It appears the hawks were using fairly sophisticated mental maps to maneuver through their territories. 

As for what they were after, the Terre Haute Cooper’s hawks concentrated on starlings, mourning doves, and feral pigeons. These three species constituted 95 percent of the hawks’ targets. Although ubiquitous, house sparrows tended to be ignored. Sex has some effect on prey size, though. As in many raptors, female Coopers are larger than males. The one male in the study did go after the occasional sparrow, but seemed to prefer bigger game. Roth and Lima suggest that the small fry were just not worth the effort it would have taken to catch them. 

That’s the Cooper’s, though. Its smaller cousin, the sharpshin, takes proportionally smaller prey, and is a definite threat to sparrow-sized birds. But Coopers seem to exclude sharpshins from their hunting territories; only a few sharpies were observed in the Terre Haute study, most at the periphery of the Coopers’ turf. This seems prudent on the smaller hawks’ part. Coopers, remember, will prey on other raptors. To a big female Cooper’s, a small male sharpshin would look a lot like lunch. 

So if you’re within the cruising range of one of Berkeley’s resident Cooper’s hawks, you should be able to keep stocking your feeders without too much guilt about turning your backyard finches into hawk bait. In an indirect way, the small birds may actually benefit from the predators’ presence.

UC Berkeley’s planned downtown hotel and convention center is part of a growing trend for UC campuses that lure cities with the promise of big tax revenues. But in at least one case, university ownership delivered exactly the opposite. 

The trend itself is clear. In Davis, a similar development is in the planning stages, while in San Diego a new hotel and convention center will open next year and in Santa Cruz the university assumed control of a Holiday Inn two years ago. 

The projects arise from the desire of the universities to profit from their steady streams of visitors and the demand for conference space and the hunger for cities to snare room tax money from university land usually exempt from local tax rolls. 

A downtown Berkeley hotel offers the city’s cash-starved government the chance for lucrative 12 percent transient occupancy tax revenues, which Mayor Tom Bates estimates could run as high as $1 million annually. The city also stands to collect possessory interest taxes—a poorer sister to the property taxes that the university, as a state entity, doesn’t have to pay.  

According to the university’s own projections of an average room price of $130 and a 65 percent occupancy rate in 2006, the hotel would generate roughly $730,080 in hotel taxes its first year of operation. 

Other UC developments offer cities the same revenue streams, but the money doesn’t necessarily materialize. 

Santa Cruz offers the worst case scenario, where UCSC signed a long-term lease on a Holiday Inn Hotel. But instead of renting rooms to visiting parents or alums, the university turned most of it into student housing. Since the students live there for more than 30 consecutive days, they aren’t considered transients and the city doesn’t collect the taxes they received from guests during the building’s Holiday Inn-carnation. 

“We’ve certainly lost about $200,000 in revenue,” said Santa Cruz Finance Director David Culver, adding that the hotel brought in as much as $500,000 in taxes for the city in 2000 at the tail end of the economic boom. 

After prolonged negotiations, UCSC eventually paid the city $75,000 to mitigate the lost revenues, he added. 

But Davis City Manager Jim Antonen complimented UC for addressing his city’s concerns. Since the planned hotel will be just outside city limits on county land, the university agreed to downsize the project to lessen the potential loss to Davis’ hotel tax revenues. Davis and Yolo County officials are currently negotiating a split of hotel tax revenue from the project. 

UC Berkeley Senior Planner and Project Manager Kevin Hufferd said the Santa Cruz scenario wouldn’t happen in Berkeley. “We want this to serve the short-term visiting needs of scholars and family members,” he said. 

The Berkeley development would replace the Bank of America branch at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street with a 200-room hotel/convention center, including 15,000 square feet of conference space, a 5,000-square-foot bank and underground parking. The estimated $200 million project would be financed in conjunction with a private developer and could be completed as soon as 2007. 

Additionally, in the second phase of the project, UC would pay to move the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Art Museum and Phoebe Hearst Anthropology Museum to UC-owned buildings just east of the hotel development.  

While a precedent has been set for cities to collect occupancy tax revenue from university-owned hotels, property taxes usually remain out of reach. 

Weldon Smith, a supervisor in the Alameda County Assessors Office, said the downtown hotel would be exempt from property taxes, but as a moneymaking venture, the complex would have to pay a less cumbersome possesory interest tax that taxes the owner on investment income, and not a fixed rate based on the value of the property. 

The longer the lease and the more valuable the property improvements, the closer the possesory tax would approach the standard property tax, Smith said. 

Some state universities have opted to voluntarily place their hotels on the tax rolls. Jim Purdum, general manager of Pennsylvania State University-owned Penn Stater, a hotel and conference center in State College, Penn., said the university had agreed to pay full taxes to “mitigate the burden for the city.” 

Culver said Santa Cruz won a ruling from the Santa Cruz County Assessor to keep the former Holiday Inn hotel on the tax rolls despite the UCSC takeover. 

Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said through a spokesperson that her office was reviewing both hotel tax and property tax law to determine the city’s legal rights. 

Meanwhile Hufferd insisted that the hotel would not offer special deals to university groups that could diminish the city’s hotel tax revenue. “This will be a hopefully affordable market rate hotel,” he said.

“The first time you sleep on the streets you become obnoxiously ill within two weeks. It happens to everyone,” said Marz, one of the many young transients who consistently line Telegraph Avenue. 

Marz, who has been on the Berkeley streets for six months, had his sick spell and says he’s now developed immunities. Nonetheless, he says, it’s become increasingly difficult to survive as the temperature drops and the rain starts. 

It might not sound like much, but this year Marz has an escape—at least for part of the year—at a new shelter called YEAH!, which stands for Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel. Now in it’s second year, YEAH! is a new shelter established specifically to house people ages 18-25 who need overnight shelter during the winter months. 

Funded in part by the City of Berkeley and staffed by a crew of over 75 volunteers, the shelter opens Dec. 1 at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1744 University Ave. Services include overnight shelter from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., along with snacks, breakfast, and physical and mental health programs. There are two separate facilities, one for single women and children, the other co-ed. 

YEAH! Executive Director Sharon Hawkins Leyden, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, says the shelter fills a need for many of Berkeley’s homeless youth who have refused to stay at other shelters around the area, which they say are overrun by other groups. 

“[The other shelters] are usually a little too rowdy and smelly and insane,” said Marz. “They’re just a little nuts.” 

Youths complain that the other shelters are often filled with the mentally disabled and the drugged-out. 

“Around here, a lot of times the older homeless people, not to stereotype them, are on some very hard-core drugs,” said Sean, who has been on the streets of Berkeley for seven months. “It’s hard to deal with them.” 

YEAH! also provides another perk certain to attract younger people in need. The shelter will allow animals, usually forbidden at the other shelters. 

“We know that the youth are really attached to their animals,” said Leyden. “We didn’t want them to be a barrier.” 

Leyden said last year’s shelter was so successful that they were able to re-open this year with even more support, though with an estimated budget of $60,000 they’re still short $25,000. If they get all their funding, she said, they’ll be open seven days a week through March. 

In the meantime, thanks to a number of large grants, including a $15,000 contribution from the City of Berkeley, they’ll operate at full scale until more money comes in—at least through most of the coldest months. Operating at full capacity, each bed costs $13 a night, much less than other emergency programs. 

Last year’s program prompted the Berkeley chief of police to write a letter thanking the shelter for their help in eliminating one of the city’s largest and most residual problems. And several Telegraph Avenue vendors told Leyden they’d noticed a decline in the numbers of transients on the street. 

Leyden says the center also functions as an intermediary to help their clients get back on their feet during one of the hardest parts of the year. Because they don’t have to worry about finding shelter each night, they can spend their days looking for jobs and other programs to help them find more permanent housing—and for young homeless parents to send their children to school. 

Marz says he’ll head to the shelter once it opens. In the meantime, he says, he’s been sleeping behind buildings and doing his best to stay healthy. 

Joining him at YEAH! may be Jen and Jose, who have been sleeping in their car. Both say they’ve caught pneumonia sleeping on the streets and welcomed a chance to stay at the shelter, especially because they can bring their pooch. 

Jane Micallef, a Community Services Specialist with the City of Berkeley, said there will be other emergency options for those who can’t stay at YEAH!  

Options include the shelter at the old Army Base in West Oakland, which has 50 beds reserved for people from Berkeley. Micallef said the city pays for BART tickets to the West Oakland station and provides a shuttle from there to the shelter. Open since Nov. 10, the facility provides both a general occupancy area and a reserved area for families or people with disabilities. The facility is co-sponsored by the City of Berkeley, City of Oakland and Alameda County. 

The city also provides a motel voucher program for families in need. Budgeted at $45,000, the program provides between five and six families with a room every night at a cost of about $60 per room. 

Micallef says the additional programs are useful for emergency use, but are only a partial fix for the city’s long-running homelessness problem. 

Other programs, including the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, continue to run year-round food and housing projects and conduct emergency services, such as coat and blanket drives. 

People interested in volunteering or making tax deductible donations to YEAH! Can contact Sharon Hawkins Leyden at 848-1424. For more information on other emergency and existing shelters services, contact Jane Micallef with the City of Berkeley.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on the University Avenue strategic plan.  

When Berkeley merchants and residents sat down with city officials to hash out a vision for University Avenue eight years ago, it was supposed to be a break with history. 

Known for being strong on planning but weak on action, the City of Berkeley wanted to create a strategic plan it could actually implement. The city was willing to pay the price—the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent as consultants, residents, merchants and property owners met with city staff over the next two years. 

What they envisioned was a place where people could safely stroll sidewalks and shop in attractive, prosperous stores. Buildings weren’t more than two or three stories tall except in highly concentrated “nodes” where a four-story maximum of retail and affordable housing existed.  

Though many thought the final product was a good thing, since City Council adopted the University Avenue Strategic Plan in November 1996, implementation has dragged, residents and city officials agree. And what has been built—Acton Court, for example—is not what the city had in mind, said Councilmember Linda Maio. 

All it takes is a trip down the avenue to see that many buildings still need a makeover. Traffic whizzes by empty storefronts on a thoroughfare that’s still heavily car-oriented, still relatively anonymous. 

As Maio and others point out, state housing law allowing greater density to bolster financially viable affordable housing development has hamstrung the city’s plans. But the central failure, others say, is Berkeley’s inability to rezone.  

And running beneath all of it, say some residents and Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman, is an ongoing debate about housing in Berkeley. On one side is the city’s Planning Department, supporting dense “Smart Growth” intended to preserve open space on the urban fringe. On the other side are residents who want housing that maintains neighborhood character. 

Despite a recent request by the City Council for a progress report due in January and a commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet in which Maio and Mayor Tom Bates called for zoning regulation changes to implement the University Avenue Plan, residents are frustrated by what they call a lack of leadership. They’re also concerned about what they consider oversized buildings dominating the corridor, which runs west from Oxford Street to Interstate 80 and is bounded by Delaware Street to the north and Allston Way to the south.  

“All the lip service is there, but there isn’t a lot of follow-through right now,” said Robin Kibby, 30, who has lived in the University Avenue corridor for seven years. “One picture is being painted, but the buildings we’re getting are completely different.” 

The reason, said Dave Fogarty, who oversees the University Avenue corridor for the city’s Office of Economic Development, is simple: “The city did not implement the plan.” 

“There are two sides to this. One side is the failure to do what could have been done. The other side is approving a plan that had so many complicated, expensive implementation measures that it was never possible to implement it anyway,” Fogarty said. “But because it sounded good on paper, the city went ahead with it.” 

For merchant Jay Ifshin, whose Ifshin Violins music store has been a University Avenue fixture for over two decades, the city’s failure to implement the plan is more than a source of frustration. He said he is tired of the city treating the corridor as a dumping ground for what more vocal neighborhoods don’t want.  

“No one wants low-income housing in their neighborhood, so it gets dumped on University Avenue,” he said.  

What’s left for the corridor, he said, are buildings that are “junky and funky” or far beyond the scope and size of the neighborhood—and lack of parking keeps strong, anchor away. “If the mayor and councilmembers have to write to the newspaper [about getting the plan implemented,] what are we supposed to do?” asked Ifshin. “They’re saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we should implement this thing.’ Well, do it already. They’ve spent eight years dinking around with the thing.” 

Thomas Myers, acting manager of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development, said much has already been done on University Avenue. The city has rebuilt the median strips along the avenue and is now completing the landscaping. Crime reduction was a major focus of the strategic plan, and conditions improved starting in the late 1990s—though that have resulted more from the overall state of the economy than any city efforts, he said. 

One of the plan’s six goals is to implement crime tracking along the University Avenue corridor. But the police department still hasn’t answered the question planners asked of it: What does crime along the corridor look like and how does it compare to previous years? 

The police are starting to work on their share of the report to City Council, said Berkeley Police Sgt. Steve Odom. The department has already completed some crime analysis along the corridor, but the report now in the works will scrutinize the corridor as a whole. 

Although residents want more small community-oriented business, Myers said, it’s difficult to attract them because of inflated lease rates and property values. Moreover, matching grants for capital improvements have dried up the past couple of years, following the recession.  

“There have been dramatic changes in the community and the economy since [the plan was adopted,]” Myers said. “Funding amounts have changed since then. I think what the city can afford to put in they have been able to put in.” 

When the plan was adopted in 1996, the Planning Commission created a subcommittee to supervise implementation—but when the commission membership changed, the plan fell by the wayside, Fogarty said. Planning for South Berkeley, West Berkeley and the city’s General Plan emerged as more pressing concerns, said Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn, the former chair of the commission. 

Maio and other city officials said that the plan has taken so long to implement because of staff turnover and the plan’s magnitude.  

“What happened [with the strategic plan] happens often in Berkeley,” said Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin. “There’s so much enthusiasm on working on new plans, [but] we don’t have enough staff to work on new plans and do implementation of new plans. It’s a matter of determining priorities.” 

Part Two, Friday: Housing density — who says what’s best for Berkeley 

When Henry Poole met Dennis Kucinich last May, politics fused with passion and technological savvy. What emerged from the meeting was an electronic presidential campaign, run in part from a room in a house that was once Berkeley’s best-known radical commune. 

“We’ve created the basic technological infrastructure for a national campaign, an online fund-raising system, e-mail, and the software for e-mail campaigns,” Poole says. 

Among his creations are Kucinich’s campaign website, www.denniskucinich.us, his electronic bulletin board, us.denniskucinich.us, and a WIKI—a site each user can edit, alter, or otherwise contribute to—www.civicactions.org. 

While the city on the Bay is a long way in time and space from the Oklahoma plains where Poole was born 40 years ago, politics was in his blood from the start. 

“My mother teaches philosophy and religion at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma,” he explains, a liberal arts college 40 miles south of Oklahoma City. 

“Back in the 60s, Oklahoma was going through some of the same political upheaval that was happening everywhere else in the country, so the conservatives decided to get rid of the hippies by sending them to the liberal arts college there,” he explains with a warm smile. 

“The political environment changed and they fired all the professors, so a bunch of them—including my mother—organized a legal battle and fought to get their jobs back.” 

While political activism came from his mother, an understanding of the intrusive nature of the system came from his father, a private investigator. “That woke me up about the lack of privacy we all have,” he says. 

In Oklahoma—a state never known as a vibrant hub of culture—the bright youth with the unconventional parents sought solace in technology. 

“I was interested in software and abstractions, so I got into programming at 14 as an escape form small town thinking. I got very comfortable with the machine.” 

It wasn’t long before he blended his outsider’s passion for connection with his technological gifts. 

“I’m really working on trying to open up communications and create an infrastructure for building up decentralized communities,” he explains. “That takes various forms. With technology you can bring light and connections to people who think they’re alone, so that once they’re together they realize they can have power.” 

Arriving in Berkeley five years ago, he found a grand old house on Ashby Avenue that only later he discovered had once been home to the city’s notorious Red Family commune—the hotbed of revolution presided over by Chicago 7 radical and later Democratic state legislator Tom Hayden. 

Poole’s revolutionary impulses follow a gentler course. Now 40, he’s a longtime member and current boardmember of the Free Software Foundation. “It’s a huge group of people working around the country on free software, which is a very important issue,” he says, quiet enthusiasm evident in his voice. 

“Technology controls so much of our lives, and it’s not healthy to have it all controlled by a few powerful corporations.” 

It was Catherine Fitts, a professional collaborator and fellow activist, who introduced Poole to Herman Gear, Kucinich’s campaign architect. 

“Through our e-mail discussion, I learned that Kucinich was going to be in San Francisco in May, so we went to his town hall meeting on the 24th and I heard him speak. I liked what I heard, but I had a question, so I went up afterwards and asked him. We started talking and we got along really well. Then he asked if I could help him with his web campaign. I started working with Steve Cobble, his campaign strategist who’d had the same role for Nader.” 

The weblog was up and running within two weeks, and the Wiki followed soon afterwards. 

“It’s really been an amazing thing to see the response.” 

Poole cites the supporter who, after he used the web to announce a cross-country walk in support of the candidate, was soon joined by four others, who are now going door-to-door in New York recruiting votes for their candidate. 

The electronic campaigner isn’t discouraged by media portrayals of Cleveland congressman as an outsider with little chance of winning the Democratic nomination. 

“The media’s corrupt. From my personal experiences, when people see this man, they experience a sense of hope that wasn’t there before. They become very supportive, unshakable. 

“Besides, we don’t need that much time. Look at the Governator. Arnold Schwarzenegger took over sixth largest economy in the world in a campaign that lasted just six weeks. 

“Yeah, Dennis is a long shot, but I’m willing to take a long shot. I don’t think the planet will sustain itself if we don’t make a radical change. We need someone we can trust, who doesn’t put corporate interests above human rights. I have two young kids, and I’d hate to see us lose half our planet before they’re in their twenties. As it is, both parties put corporate interests above human rights. 

“All my friends who are progressive voters tell me they are more aligned with Dennis than Howard Dean, but they say they’re putting their energy into Dean because they think he’s electable. In this country, so many people are voting against someone.” 

Poole says the Democrats won’t be able to pick a candidate until the convention, and “there’s a lot going to happen between now and then. He’s the only candidate with an exit strategy for the war, the only one with a real grasp of what’s happening to the environment. Those things might begin to resonate in the next few months, and people could decide they want their civil rights back, that they’re not willing to give them up to become the aggressors of the planet.” 

Whatever happens in the election, Poole’s not about to give up. Another project he’s working on with Catherine Fitts—a former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton Administration—is whereisthemoney.org. 

Based on a 2000 audit of the Defense Department that revealed the Pentagon has a billion dollars a year in unaccounted transaction, the site shows how that money could be used to fund education, children’s healthcare and other programs. 

Poole’s particularly fascinated with Wikis (the word’s an Hawaiian term meaning “quickie”), the increasingly popular user-built website, of which the best known is Wikipedia.com, an encyclopedia written entirely by website visitors. 

“You’d think people would go online and trash the sites, but they don’t. It’s really amazing. And hopeful.” 

So the house once famous for psychedelics and revolutionary politics is hosting another revolution, more sober and less inflammatory perhaps, but no less challenging for all that.

UC Berkeley student instructors plan to strike the week of Dec. 1, just before final exams—potentially leaving students without last-minute instruction or final grades. 

United Auto Workers Local 2865, which represents approximately 13,000 University of California student teachers, graders and tutors (ASEs), most of them graduate students, called for the system-wide strike Monday, claiming the administration has bargained in bad faith. 

Three university unions—the Coalition of University Employees (CUE), the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the University Professional and Technical Employees, (UPTE-CWA)—have called for sympathy strikes, creating still more logistical problems for the university. 

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Carol Hyman said administrators were working on contingency plans, but refused to speculate on potential impacts. 

In October, student instructors staged a hastily planned walkout, catching other university unions and many of its own members off guard and away from picket lines.  

“We’ll be better organized for sure,” said UAW Local spokesperson Rajan Mehta, adding that strikers planned to place a picket line outside the Tang Health Center so “nurses will have something not to cross.” 

ASEs have been without a contract since Oct. 1 and negotiations conducted by a state mediator broke down two weeks ago over university demands that the union pledge not to engage in future sympathy strikes. No talks are scheduled before the end of the semester. 

Mehta said the strike would last through finals, though ASEs would return to work for the spring semester in January even without a new deal. 

Striking at the end of the semester poses extra pains for students. Mehta said striking instructors would refrain from offering review sessions and proctoring and wouldn’t grade final exams. 

Asked about the timing of the strike, Mehta blamed the university and said the interests of the union’s members had to come first. “We realize students will be hurt by this, but the university has continued to break the law and put this on themselves.” 

Just how many ASEs plan to honor picket lines remains unclear. Typically, humanities students who receive less independent funding than science students are more likely to strike. Mehta insisted that more than half of UC Berkeley’s 2,200 ASEs honored picket lines in October—though the university estimated that number at fewer than 50 percent. 

To prepare for the planned strike, UC Berkeley Provost Paul Gray asked professors to hold review sessions that striking GSIs would have conducted and to collect course grade information before the work stoppage begins. 

Professors were also informed that in the case of a strike they would have greater latitude to alter the format of a test. If they are unable to assign grades by the semester’s end, professors may give students either a mark of ‘In Progress (IP) or an option to accept a pass/fail grade, according to an e-mail from Chair of the Committee on Courses of Instruction John Bishop posted on the UC Berkeley website. 

For classes taught by a striking graduate student instructor, the department chair will determine the type of grade given. Grades must be submitted by three days after the test, or Jan. 5 for professors with more than 50 students in a class. 

Of the three unions pledging sympathy strikes, CUE, the university’s largest union representing approximately 2,800 UC Berkeley clerical workers, appears most likely to exacerbate logistical difficulties stemming from the planned student instructor strike. 

“A lot of our folks have roles scheduling finals and finding rooms for finals, so there could be a lot problems for the university,” said CUE President Claudia Horning. 

UAW Local 2865, like other UC unions, has accused the university of negotiating in bad faith, maintaining that UC sends negotiators to the bargaining table who don’t have authority to reach a deal, a claim the university rejects. 

The UAW has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the university, which they insist gives them the right to strike despite neither side declaring an impasse. The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) will ultimately settle the charges.  

ASE’s receive a minimum of $14,200 for a nine-month work year as well as health benefits and student fee waivers for those listed as working 25 percent of their time on instruction—among the better packages in public education according to UC Spokesperson Paul Schwartz. 

Neither side would discuss contract details, but Mehta said that the sticking point remained a university demand that that the UAW agrees to a stipulation barring them from participating in sympathy strikes.  

The university holds that current labor contract language prohibits such actions, but the issue remains a legal gray area, so the school has demanded that other unions follow the example of university lecturers who earlier this year agreed to contract language baring sympathy strikes. 

Student instructors also walked out before finals in 1992. Published accounts of the ensuing six-week strike reported that strikers divided over whether or not to give students grades, with many acquiescing to the university’s urgings and others giving out marks of “In Progress”.  

UC Berkeley undergraduate students seemed miffed at the timing of the strike. 

“We rely a lot on graduate students to learn the material,” said UC Berkeley Senior Megan Thornton. “That could actually affect how some students perform on their final.”

Berkeley City Council quietly put the lid on the coffin of the parcel tax Tuesday night, voting 5-2 to keep it off the March 2004 ballot. 

But while that decision was no surprise—coming, as it did, a day after Mayor Tom Bates announced plans to withdraw support for his own proposal—Bates unexpectedly took the opportunity to accuse the Berkeley Firefighters Local of reneging on an earlier indication that they were supporting the parcel tax. 

In the meantime, City Manager Phil Kamlarz announced that he would present preliminary plans to close Berkeley’s budget deficit at Council’s Dec. 16 meeting. 

Council passed a broad budget crisis recovery strategy proposal co-sponsored by Bates and councilmembers Gordon Wozniak, Linda Maio, and Miriam Hawley that calls for such belt-tightening measures as a “hard hiring freeze” for city employees and a moratorium on all new city expenditures. 

Council also directed City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque to investigate whether Berkeley should join in a lawsuit against Gov. Schwarzenegger for lowering the state Vehicle License Fee (VLF). Money collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles from the VLF has been distributed to California cities and counties, all of which expect to take a huge financial hit from the governor’s action. 

Bates said that both San Diego and Santa Clara counties have announced lawsuits against the State of California for the governor’s actions, while the California League of Cities is also considering similar action. 

At the same meeting, Council voted to place all of the electoral change measures on the March 2004 ballot, including adding filing fees and/or signature requirements to run for office in Berkeley, lowering the percentage needed for a candidate to win, lengthening the time between elections and runoffs, and authorizing Council to adopt Instant Runoff Voting in the city once it becomes legally and economically feasible. 

Councilmember Hawley made a last-minute—and somewhat half-hearted—effort to save the March parcel tax measure, arguing that City Council “has an obligation to the people of this community to let them vote on their options. If we don’t put it on the ballot, we are going to have to cut a lot of services, and there will be no community voice in that.” 

The proposed parcel tax would have made up for something less than half of what has been estimated to be a $15 million to $20 million city budget deficit within five years. Budget cuts will now have to take care of the entire deficit. 

Taking aim at community statements against the proposed tax, many of which were expressed at City Council’s one and only public hearing on the measure last week, Hawley said, “you can’t really gauge the support or lack of support for a measure by the people who come to a single public hearing.” 

Only Councilmember Maude Shirek supported Hawley’s efforts to keep the parcel tax on the March ballot, while Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington, abstained. Councilmembers Wozniak and Maio expressed concern that the tax measure couldn’t pass without a major campaign effort, and neither one said they could imagine how such a campaign could now be generated, given the depth of community opposition. 

“A good campaign needs volunteers who are pretty passionate about the topic,” Maio said. “I don’t see them lining up.” 

Councilmember Betty Olds agreed, calling it “foolish” to put the parcel tax measure on the ballot. “Mim [Hawley] is an optimist,” she said. “I wish I could share her enthusiasm. But if a mule is kicked in the head enough, he suddenly wises up. Frankly, all those folks that Mim says are for it, I haven’t encountered them. To put it on the voters and to spend all that money...If anybody read the Daily Planet today, that’s the kind of publicity we’re going to have all through the campaign. And it’s quite effective, frankly.” 

But it was the mayor who was most disinclined to keep the parcel tax alive. 

“When our firefighters turned around and said ‘We don’t support it,’ I mean, come on,” Bates said, exasperated. “All the people in the opposition have to do is say, ‘Look, even the people you’re going to fund are not for it.’ The logic says we we’re blown out of the water.” The parcel tax would have been earmarked entirely for fire services in Berkeley. 

Bates also questioned both the timing of the firefighters’ decision to oppose the tax, as well as the union local’s contention that they had not been formally informed by city officials that the tax would be set aside for the fire department. 

“Staff met with the firefighters a month ago,” the mayor said, “described what was going on, explained to them what was going on. They’re in favor of it. And suddenly, at the last minute, they pull the rug out from under us.” 

Bates also said that the firefighters opposed the tax “for reasons that are not totally clear to me.” 

A day after the mayor said he was unwilling to consider renewing the parcel tax sometime down the road after March of next year, he left the door open again. “Elections are like trains,” he said. “There’ll be another one before we know it. He could not do so, however, without using the opportunity to take a swipe at critics of the tax measure. 

“We’re going to have to prove to those people who stood up here before the Council and said ‘You tighten your belts. You do the job and we’ll support you in any kind of a tax measure,’” he said. “So we’re going to do that, and we’ll call them on it. If they’re really for real and not just demagogues, and are really interested in seeing the benefit of the city, they’ll see that we’ve really tightened the belt and they’ll help us with this problem.”

An aide to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates says that a proposal to funnel all city commission reports through the City Council Agenda Committee is not as far-reaching as rumor appears to have it, and probably won’t be put into place “if it’s going to be controversial.” 

Last week, the Daily Planet received queries about possible plans by the Agenda Committee to review all commission reports before they land on City Council’s agenda. Currently, commission reports are automatically placed directly on the Council agenda after being examined by the city manager’s office for fiscal impact and the manager’s recommendation. 

The Agenda Committee, originally known as the Rules Committee, manages the agenda for Berkeley City Council. Created by Mayor Bates as part of his program to modify Council rules and policies after his election last November, the committee triggered some initial controversy on City Council. 

Membership consists of the mayor and two councilmembers he appointed, Linda Maio and Miriam Hawley. 

Reports from Berkeley’s 23 citizen commissions can be controversial themselves. Earlier this year, after Council deeply split over a resolution from the Peace and Justice Commission to investigate the Middle East death of American peace worker Rachel Corrie, both Bates and Hawley expressed concern about such “non-Berkeley” issues coming before the Council. 

But Bates aide Cisco De Vries says that while a commission report proposal was discussed during the Nov. 10 Agenda Committee meeting, they didn’t intend to censor the commissions. 

“There has been some discussion about having commission stuff come through the Agenda Committee,” De Vries said, “but in a pretty limited way.” Noting that the discussions occurred during a six-month review of the Agenda Committee, De Vries said one proposal would give the Agenda Committee the ability to move an individual commission report from the Consent Calendar—which is passed with no individual discussion—to the Action Calendar, where questions or debate occur. 

De Vries added that the Agenda Committee may want to look at either speeding up placement of commission reports on the Council agenda, or delaying it “by no more than one week” for the purpose of coordination with other action being taken by Council. 

Council and Agenda Committee member Linda Maio agreed. 

“What was discussed last week was the possibility of the Agenda Committee being able to hold a report over for a week if it looks as if there’s a commission report that was incomplete and questions needed to be answered,” Maio said. She called that “really, a rare occurrence. I don’t think anyone [on the Agenda Committee] has any plans—I certainly don’t—to hold any reports back from the Council. The Agenda Committee hasn’t held anything back. What it’s done is given us a little bit of time to get questions answered about agenda items beforehand, so we don’t have to ask them during the night of the Council meeting. I don’t see [the Agenda Committee]—and I don’t know of anyone else who sees it—as being obstructionist.” 

Maio said she didn’t see any reason why the Agenda Committee would hold over a commission report for more than a week. 

“But I’m just one out of three people [on the committee],” she added. “I don’t know what is going to be discussed [at the next committee meeting].” 

At least one commission member was not mollified. Told about the Agenda Committee proposal regarding commission reports, Planning Commission Chairperson Zelda Bronstein said that “before any such proposal is taken to City Council for discussion, any changes in procedures in how commission reports come before Council ought to be first presented to the commissions themselves. To my knowledge, the commissions have not yet been given the opportunity to discuss this proposal.” 

Bronstein declined further comment. 

The commission report proposal and other suggested changes to Agenda Committee procedures are scheduled to be discussed by the Agenda Committee again Dec. 1. 

The Agenda Committee meets at 2:30 p.m. on the sixth floor of City Hall. An information report for the Agenda Committee proposed changes is scheduled to be presented to City Council at Council’s Dec. 9 meeting. Council itself must make the final decision on any proposed changes.

So we’ve had another drunk-driving-police-chase-“sideshow” automobile injury accident out in East Oakland. How many, now? One loses count. 

The bare facts, as far as they can be pieced together from newspaper accounts, is that 52-year-old Oakland janitor Juan Martinez was critically injured last Saturday night when the car in which he was driving on 98th Avenue in Brookfield Village was struck by a car driven by 27-year-old Randolph Brown. Injury accidents happen all the time in cities, with little notice. This one rated an article in both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune—as well as a column in the Berkeley Daily Planet—because of the incidents preceding. 

In both the Chronicle and the Tribune stories, the California Highway Patrol have been cruising the Oakland streets of late to help Oakland police crackdown on “sideshow” activities. East Oakland—International Boulevard, especially—has been something of a police state of late, with CHP cars cruising up and down the nighttime streets. Come out here on the weekend, and you can see them pulling drivers from the Fruitvale District to the San Leandro border. 

We’d been told that the CHP had been called in by Oakland officials to help out with Oakland’s soaring murder rate, but maybe that’s what they’re doing, on the sly. Stop a thousand cars in East Oakland, after all, and the odds are you’ve got to come up with at least one that contains a driver (or a passenger) who might consider shooting somebody, somewhere, sometime in their life. 

Anyway, the Chronicle and the Tribune agree that CHP officers spotted Brown spinning donuts in his Mustang at 73rd and Bancroft. Both papers implied that there was a “sideshow” going on, though never saying so explicitly, and the Chronicle article also included a helpful explanation of “sideshow” activity for readers west of the Bay not familiar with the practice: They occur (according to the Chronicle) “when drivers rev their engines and wage spinning contests to the delight of crowds that can number in the hundreds.” 

Was there a “spinning contest” going on at 73rd and Bancroft on Saturday night? Were there hundreds of people out in a crowd, there, watching? Or was Mr. Brown simply out there spinning a donut on his own (which East Oaklanders have been doing for a couple of decades, by the way, most often unrelated to what people define as sideshows)? On this point, both newspapers are silent. 

In any event, both newspapers agree that when he saw the Highway Patrol officers, Mr. Brown sped away. The CHP “briefly gave chase (according to the Chronicle) but CHP supervisors quickly called off the pursuit because it was too dangerous on city streets.” 

Officers saw Mr. Brown’s Mustang again at 87th and International “but again Brown took off at speeds exceeding 70 mph (according to the Chronicle, again) and the pursuit was dropped (again according to CHP officials). Just two minutes later, officers (Which officers? The same ones who originally saw Mr. Brown at 73rd and Bancroft? One is left to speculate…) encountered the accident scene on 98th Avenue near Interstate 880, authorities said.” The Tribune gives the last moments before the crash a slightly different take, saying that the CHP officers “canceled the pursuit at 98th Avenue and San Leandro Street.” For those of you unfamiliar with Brookfield Village, that is within easy walking distance—almost within sight, in fact, though it’s around a bit of a curve—of the accident scene at Denslowe and 98th. 

In any event, Mr. Brown was arrested by officers at the accident, and charged with felony drunk driving. 

This has become a ghastly familiar story out here in this end of Oakland. We have three distinct problems that often get interrelated—by the police, the public, and the press. One is drinking and driving. One is high-speed police auto chases. One is the spinning of donuts in an automobile in the middle of an intersection. 

The dangers of drinking and driving need not be explained to the average American adult. Despite our best efforts, we have not gotten it in to the heads of many of our friends and neighbors that the two are a deadly mixture. How many die from drunk driving accidents in a year? Look it up yourself. It’s an enormous problem. 

High-speed, injury-accident police auto chases are a growing concern in this country. Several police chases resulting in horrific traffic deaths recently shocked the City of Los Angeles, which is not easily shocked. In response, the L.A. City Council instituted a temporary ban on police chases for minor traffic violations.  

And then we have the Oakland practice of spinning donuts in a car in the middle of an intersection. Noisy and annoying, yes. Maybe a little dangerous, too. But according to Oakland Police Chief Richard Word—a man not given to public falsehoods—the spinning of donuts has not directly caused a single death in this city. The only deaths have occurred after drivers have raced away from police rolling up on the events. And which one of these three problems, do you think, does the City of Oakland consider so dangerous that upon it must be instituted a continuing crackdown? Donuts, of course. 

Priorities. Priorities.

The officer slipped out of his black-and-white police cruiser and strode up to a South Berkeley home. In his mouth, a caramel, sour apple lollipop, in his hands a 10-pound oven-stuffer turkey. 

Needless to say, the woman of the house was happy to see him. “This is a blessing for me,” Ruby Evans said. “It’s hard to have a nice holiday when you can’t afford a turkey.” 

On Tuesday, Berkeley Police, for the nineteenth consecutive year, put the service back into “To Protect and Serve,” handing out 250 Thanksgiving dinners to families in need throughout Berkeley—all earned by the blood, sweat and quadriceps of 11 officers on bikes. 

“This is the best day of the year,” said Lt. Bruce Agnew, who, along with Sgt. Alec Boga, founded the annual BPD Turkey Ride in 1994—a three-day, 216-mile September journey to South Lake Tahoe that raises money to feed Berkeley families on Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

It’s a long way from the winding mountain roads of the Sierras to the Public Safety building, where by 7 a.m. Tuesday about 60 volunteers including city workers, Berkeley Boosters, and high school students formed a half-block long assembly line, stuffing boxes with yams, onions, bread, canned food, stuffing and marshmallows to compliment the main course. 

The meals were enough to feed eight, with the fixings paid for by the $8,000 raised by the 11 bike riders from the Berkeley and UC Berkeley police departments and the turkeys donated by Safeway.  

Berkeley beat officers nominate the recipients, who are reviewed by the department’s Special Enforcement Unit to ensure that everyone is deserving. 

Going door-to-door can sometimes give police more than just a sense of satisfaction. 

Capt. Bobby Miller who has ridden on 16 of the 19 rides recalled one house several years ago where he found three young children “totally neglected,” while their mother “partied with her new boyfriend.”  

He sent Child Protective Services to remove the children for a few weeks, and came back around to check up after they returned. “I felt fortunate to know that the Turkey Ride had made life better for three small children,” he said. 

Tuesday’s scene was especially gratifying for the cyclists who got off to a tough start on this year’s ride. Before they made it to Martinez, retired Lt. Tom Grant tumbled from his bike, opening a gash on his leg that needed stitches. Later that day, a Ford Probe sideswiped Lt. Agnew, knocking off the car’s sideview mirror and bruising his hip.  

Officers must use vacation time to cover the ride, and they pay the $125 expenses out of their own pockets, but it’s all worth it when they get to hand out the meals. 

“It’s nice to drive up in a police car and give something to somebody,” Agnew said. “It’s not something we get to usually do.” 

And it’s much appreciated. “That they go through the trouble to do all that work and drive the turkey here, that’s a beautiful thing,” Evans said.

EXCITING POTENTIAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The hotel and convention center proposed by UC and the mayor of Berkeley holds exciting potential for downtown Berkeley. I read both the article (“Mayor, University Set Downtown Hotel Plan,” Daily Planet, Nov. 21-24”) and the letter by Steve Geller with interest.  

Kriss Worthington was quoted as saying it could be a wonderful contribution or a horrendous nightmare. If, as suggested in the article, the transformation includes museums, and, as mentioned by Dona Spring, daylighting of Strawberry Creek, it could be phenomenal. If parking is foregone, in favor of demonstrating how well public transit can serve such a center, it could be a bold, world-class vision and model.  

The site’s yard-stick proximity to the downtown BART station, and frequent service by AC Transit make it is easy to see how a relationship between local transit, the hotel and it’s visitors would be readily established. Bus passes and BART tickets could be dispensed right at the center, along with a kiosk of clear transit information, resources and popular Bay Area destinations. Visitors could be educated and inspired by their Berkeley experience when they return home. 

The image of a “babbling brook,” mentioned by Steve Geller in his letter, on the hotel grounds, and Center Street restaurants being creek side is an oasis-like mirage in this metropolitan area. And it wouldn’t be a phony Las Vegas-like water “feature.” It would be a natural feature long covered by a busy street. This would truly be a retreat. The opportunity is too good to pass up. The university and the future developer could be recognized as visionaries world-wide, if it was designed with green principles built in; not just in the building materials, but how the hotel and convention center is operated. 

Now, when I juxtapose that image with a “traditional” or “conventional” hotel and convention center with underground parking, I lose hope, get discouraged and want to stay away. Far away. If a parking lot is built with no thought or encouragement given toward transit, it will be another car-culture frenzy. The thought of the increase in car volume resulting from this potential underground parking lot is unbearable. As it is, I bicycle, BART or walk downtown. How anyone could plan to build such a huge structure downtown Berkeley in the image of the car-dominant paradigm is beyond me. Thinking must be done outside the box for this one, or the downtown environment will be destroyed by car culture. 

Here’s another perspective: One underground parking space costs $40,000! How many parking spaces will be needed? Besides the $40k per space, what cost would there be to the environment from pollutants? To the health of pedestrians? To the dining pleasure of the cafe patrons across the street? What would underground parking do to the creek? What would the creek do to underground parking?  

Imagine if that money were spent to educate and promote available transit to travelers. Imagine if that money were invested to improve transit and to daylight the creek! What if the money were invested in a local shuttle? What if all downtown travelers benefited from this diversion of parking money, so that transit improved for everyone, and downtown automobile congestion decreased overall as a result of this project?  

I know details are yet to be worked out, but I hope that in Berkeley, we can work together to create a vision to be emulated elsewhere; a cutting-edge environment for hotel and convention-goers. Building parking spaces is the no-brainer, default position. This new project can help solve the traffic congestion problems downtown, not add to them. The challenge would be to create a model vision, a pedestrian oasis and retreat for business travelers, tourists and the rest of us.  

Marcy Greenhut, President 

Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation  

• 

MISPLACED BLAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading that Mayor Tom Bates blames editorials and letters to the editor for the flame-out of the deceptive parcel tax (“Mayor Kills Parcel Tax Vote After Firefighters’ Rejection,” Daily Planet, Nov. 25-27). Meanwhile, up on Telegraph Avenue, everybody’s spare-changing for fire safety. 

Carol Denney 

• 

ROLLING BACK THE CLOCK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was stunned at Tuesday night’s Berkeley City Council meeting when Councilman Gordon Wosniak, in a 12-minute attack against IRV, suggested that had IRV been in effect when Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen Douglas, Douglas would have won. 

What he failed to mention was that women and blacks were not allowed to vote. Is this councilman suggesting we roll back to the days when only white male landowners have the right to vote? 

David Heller 

• 

GIVING IT AWAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a Nov. 25 letter, Steve Geller praises UC’s proposed hotel/convention/museum megaplex on Center Street. But he wants to omit its underground garage, bring Strawberry Creek to the surface, and close off Center Street as a “pedestrian mall.” 

I think most Berkeley residents would agree that these preferences are precisely upside-down. In particular: 

First, UC absolutely must conserve its printing press building at Center and Oxford, even if it’s reused to house the museums. This is a significant Art Deco structure—and the U.N. Charter was printed there. Its destruction would represent an irreplaceable loss of history. 

Second, the underground garage is essential: UC must replace the parking it would remove by destroying its Addison/Oxford parking structure. And it must provide parking for the new traffic that its megaplex would generate. 

Third, it’s time for city leaders to finally drive a silver stake through the unworkable notion of “daylighting” Strawberry Creek. This would be an unimaginably costly, disruptive, and uncertain undertaking for a city government that is (a) broke and (b) incapable of keeping even small public works projects within schedules or budgets. 

At best, it would open the creek to fast food waste and toxic runoff. Creek fans should go see Strawberry Creek upstream on the UC campus (where it runs above ground for everyone’s enjoyment). 

Note how much trash the creek suffers even in this sheltered environment. Let’s hear a plan to better clean up and protect the creek’s exposed portion—not to endanger its safe underground stretch. 

Fourth, closing off Center Street should also be forever forgotten. Center Street is a transit corridor, a gateway to the UC campus, and an essential pressure-relief valve for a downtown that’s already too congested. 

Finally, UC should not own the hotel property—Mr. Geller seems to agree with me here—and the hotel should rise no higher than the Downtown Plan’s allowed five to seven stories. UC ownership would deny the city important property tax revenue. And UC’s exemption from local zoning would deny the public any control over the parcel’s future development. 

Let’s hope city officials have finally learned their lesson from UC’s past encroachments elsewhere. It’s time to take our city back—not give more of it away. 

Tom Brown 

• 

WISHFUL THINKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Steve Geller’s letter (“Planning Ahead,” Daily Planet, Nov. 25-27) makes some good points about the exciting new possibilities for a hotel, conference center, art museums, etc. in downtown Berkeley. But on one point he reveals some wishful thinking, shared, I’m afraid, by too many of our fellow citizens. 

Mr. Geller suggests that “The conference center shouldn’t need much parking...... visitors arriving by air can ride BART directly from either OAK or SFO.” He thinks “Maybe the hotel can get by with minimal parking.” And he believes that in due course Berkeley residents will free up spaces “by using transit instead of monthly passes. Evening restaurant and theater -goers will come by bus.”  

If we follow through on this line of thought, I suggest we’re in for a disaster. First, no one coming to a conference from Fresno, Modesto, San Jose, Santa Cruz, or Santa Rosa is going to fly. They’ll drive. So will many from Sacramento and even Los Angeles, especially if family members are with them. Second, Berkeley theaters and restaurants can say goodbye to their patrons from Walnut Creek, Alameda, the Oakland hills, Marin County and countless other places if they’re expected (especially at night) to wait for a dwindling, sometimes unreliable or even non-existent bus service.  

For the past three decades I’ve heard well-meaning people suggest less reliance on cars and more on public transit. During all that time, things have gone in the wrong direction. Transit has faced increasing challenges, required more and more subsidies, and been compelled to reduce service. Goodness knows it’s a necessary part of our lives, but except in a few limited instances, public transit is never going to be a serious rival to the private car (least of all at night), and the sooner we realize that, the better. Mr. Geller lives in an urban part of town, on a major bus route. So do most people who prescribe the bus for others. I can only suggest they come to terms with the fact that cars have been around for well over a century, that good reasons exist for their popularity, and that regrettably, the way to a achieve an exciting downtown is not by wishful thinking.  

Revan Tranter 

• 

ANIMAL SHELTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was delighted to read that Mayor Tom Bates agrees with animal shelter supporters, shelter staff and members of the community that an animal shelter “would be great” on the southern portion of the two-acre site at Sixth and Gilman streets—the old Urban Ore site. (“Red Tape Snares Animal Shelter,” Daily Planet, Nov. 25-27). 

Those of us who always envisaged the new animal shelter there did so because of the high visibility without encroaching on a residential area. On the Council Sub Committee and at the Humane Commission, we are very aware of the traditional image of animal shelters as nothing more than warehouses to store and kill unwanted animals. Our alternate view—of an exceptionally well designed, landscaped, family friendly, living, community resource—is gaining momentum as more municipalities are taking pride in their animal shelters and putting in place reform policies to end the tragedy of pet overpopulation and high euthanasia. 

I wish to correct the suggestion in the article that animal shelter supporters have rejected other sites for scant reason.  

One of the sites, 15 feet from the railroad tracks, was so noisy that the realtor suggested we put in triple glazing and keep the windows permanently closed. Another site is earmarked to be part of a new bike trail linking Emeryville and Berkeley and requires a substantial swath of the land, and the site on Carlton Street, west of Seventh Street near the railroad tracks, is so close to the Bayer plant that many people felt the proximity to a company engaged in live animal testing would present an image problem for the Berkeley animal shelter. 

As to the comment attributed to me, that the land swap could have been accomplished with more political support, reporter Matt Artz misunderstood me. I told him I agreed with Mr. Cowan’s assessment that the deal was too complex.  

I do stand by my remark that it takes guts to put the animal shelter with it’s affordable ‘well-pet’ clinic where it should go—at Sixth and Gilman, and hope that the city will be able to craft a deal with BUSD to facilitate the bus yard moving elsewhere and for the animal shelter to be built there. It can become the centerpiece of an energized neighborhood, to the benefit of the local communities and every Berkeleyan. Animal shelters are part of our community, they enhance an area, they encourage children to learn about animals. In short: An animal shelter is a good neighbor.  

Jill Posener 

Chair, Council Sub Committee on the New Animal Shelter 

• 

NOT OUT OF SIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am puzzled by the claim that an animal shelter on University and Third Street would be “out of sight, out of mind,” and that this “hidden location” would mean fewer volunteers and less connection to the community. (“Red Tape Snares Animal Shelter,” Daily Planet, Nov. 25-27). 

Just build it with a sign on the roof that says it is the animal shelter and calls for volunteers. The sign would be visible to everyone using the University Avenue freeway entrance—and this would be one of the most visible buildings in Berkeley. 

This is not brilliant urban design, but it is an obvious way to end the current impasse and get the shelter built. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

VOTERS NOT STINGY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I deeply resent Mr. Artz’s uncalled-for editorial comment about “Berkeley’s increasingly stingy voters” in a purported news story about the woes of the animal shelter. Berkeley’s homeowners pay some of the highest property taxes in the state. Perhaps Mr. Artz should try paying property taxes on a limited income before he makes any more snide remarks about Berkeley voters. Maybe he should also give up trying to report news and confine his opinions to the editorial page. 

Helen Ettlinger 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his op-ed commentary (“Public Demands Tax Accountability For Tax Payments,” Daily Planet, Nov. 21-24), John Koenigshofer again perpetuates the myth of thousands of “untaxed” Berkeley renters who don’t contribute to owner property tax obligations. 

Also, in an earlier letter (Daily Planet, Nov. 17-20), Mr. Koenigshofer assails the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board’s annual citywide rent increase/adjustment process, or Annual General Adjustment (AGA), as “unfair.” 

As a real estate industry professional associated with a Berkeley-based firm, I can appreciate what apparently motivates Mr. Koenigshofer’s ad hominin polemical attacks against both the elected rent board’s policies, and the city’s 1980 voter-approved Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which regulates nearly 20,000 rent controlled units citywide. 

The rent board’s AGA calculation includes 27 separate rental property owner expenses, taxes, fees, utility costs, etc. To cite several components: During 2002-03, the Peralta Community College and East Bay Regional Park tax assessments both declined by—12.30 percent respectively. 

During the same period, for example, the following AGA components remained flat or increased: city business license (0 percent), street lighting (0 percent), lead abatement (0 percent), insurance (1.6 percent), school bonds (1.6 percent) and property taxes (2 percent), to list a few items. 

As required by the California Supreme Court and the city’s rent ordinance, rental property owners in Berkeley are entitled to a constitutionally mandated “fair return” from their property investment. Accordingly, a one percent AGA rent increase (plus an additional $3 per unit per month) was provided for all units that already receive the state Costa-Hawkins vacancy decontrol—or full market rent—increase (the average rent for these units is now $1,220 per month).  

Since 1980, AGA adjustments have kept pace with Bay Area inflation, and maintained the constitutionally mandated ”net operating income” (or profit) level for all rent controlled units in Berkeley.  

Omitted from Mr. Koenigshofer’s letter is any mention of the years 1990 to 1994: During that time, a real estate industry-backed rent board majority increased Berkeley’s rent levels by an unprecedented 50 percent across the board leading to extreme hardship for many renters. 

If Mr. Koenigshofer feels passionately that the current rent board or the rent ordinance is ”unfair,” I urge him again to devote his time and energy to campaigning on behalf of—and democratically electing—candidates who better reflect his views rather than complaining. 

Chris Kavanagh 

Carjacking and Sexual Assault 

Police are searching for the knife-wielding man who forced his way into a woman’s car Tuesday morning car and sexually assaulted her before releasing her in Oakland. 

Police said the assailant approached the woman while she was parking her car in the area of Stuart Street and Shattuck Avenue, then climbed into the vehicle and sexually assaulted her. He then drove to Oakland. 

Police withheld further details. The suspect is described as a black male, 25-30 years old, approximately six feet, 170 pounds with short hair, an unshaven face, a mustache, and dark, possibly decayed, front teeth. He was wearing a navy blue windbreaker. Police ask that anyone with information about the crime call the Sex Crimes Unit at 981-5735. 

Attempted Robbery 

Two men attacked a Berkeley resident Sunday night, only to find his wallet was empty. According to police, the victim was walking along the 1900 block of Woolsey Street when the pair raced up behind him. One man punched the victim in the face sending him to the pavement. When the victim got up and showed them the empty wallet, the would-be robbers fled.

The gardeners of the Greater Berkeley area are doubly fortunate. They enjoy the blessings of nature—a climate that is exceptionally congenial to horticultural pursuits—and the blessings of commerce—an uncommon number of first-rate, one-of-a-kind, locally owned gardening supply stores.  

For the 2003 holidays, these shops have gathered a wide array of distinctive quality goods likely to please the discerning plantspersons on your gift list.  

Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, 1310 McGee Ave. 526-4704.  

• This fanciful, 10-liter watering can in the shape of a frog will make you smile. From Germany, of bright green plastic. $31.99.  

• Vegan fertilizer (no s---!). Organic alfalfa meal: high in nitrogen, but with a fresh, sweet smell. Gardeners, especially rose gardeners, love it. The only fertilizer you’d want to find under your Christmas tree. 3-lb. box, $6.99; 12-lb. sack, $14.99.  

• Sweeten the season with Sasanqua camellias: fragrant, winter-blooming, pink, white, or rose-colored flowers. 3 and 5 gallons. Morning sun. $34.95-$43.95. 

• Versatile Asian hand cultivator. This versatile digger has a hand-forged 7” curved iron blade that resembles a small plough and can be used to mound, to level, to weed, to cut furrows, and to tamp down newly planted seeds and plants. A superb one-stop hand tool for vegetable and flower beds. $16.99.  

• Bare root pear trees (partridges not included). Seckel, Bartlett, and 6-in-1 espaliers, varieties suited to local growing conditions. Reserve plants now; their arrival in January will chase away the post-holiday blahs and conjure up the coming, bountiful season. Seckels and Bartletts, about $30; 6-in-1 espaliers, $50.  

The Dry Garden, 6556 Shattuck Ave. 547-3564.  

Drought-tolerant, rare and unusual plants, many notable for their striking, e.g. elegant, amusing, just plain weird, form and color.  

•Mother-in-law’s Chair. A large (18” diameter) lethal golden pincushion studded with 2” long spikes. $275.  

• Winter-blooming (in our winter) South African bulbs. One that stands out is Lachenalia viridiflora, with astonishing turquoise flowers that make you want to get up close. 4” pot. $4.95.  

• Elephant’s foot (Crested Pachypodium). From Madagascar, this wonderfully bizarre plant grows in a fanlike shape with a finely textured, silvery-green, almost iridescent surface, topped with a leafy green fringe. $50.  

• Alluandia ascendans. Lemurs like to jump on this plant’s thick stem, which grows to 6 feet and is covered with little green heart-shaped leaves growing in vertical rows amidst substantial spines. $100-$150.  

• Ficus petiolaris. Beautiful, sun-loving plant with deep green, red-rimmed leaves (like those of a fig tree), deep pink stems and veins. Up to 2 feet tall. $20-$40.  

• Great selection of succulents and agaves. Stiff-leaved, rosettaed plants. Two eye-catchers among many: Euphorbia obesa. Resembles a living golfball; and Astrophytum myriostigma: A miniaturized, pale green version that evokes its common name, Bishop’s Mitre. $3.95-$40.  

East Bay Nursery, 2332 San Pablo Ave. 845-6490.  

• Cool-looking cyclist-designed gardening gloves made by West County Gardener afford exceptional dexterity and tactility. They come in bright colors (avocado, gold, electric blue, and burgundy), so you’ll always be able to find them. Men’s and women’s sizes. $18.  

• Handsome harvesting baskets. Sturdy wire mesh coated with green plastic, walnut handle, pine body. Two sizes. 12” x 18”, $38.50; 8” x 14”, $33.50.  

• River rock vases. The insides of these water-smoothed granite rocks have been hollowed out and sealed. $25-$60.  

• Good-looking garden tote bag w/tools. Forest green nylon fabric with wooden handles and durable leather look-alike brown trim. Comes with a stainless steel trowel, fork, and three-tined cultivator, all with red oak handles. Lots of pockets plus room inside for plenty of other garden supplies. Lifetime guarantee from Monrovia. $25.  

The Gardener, 1836 Fourth St. 548-6116.  

• Top-size (17 cm.) paperwhites and accessories. Watch fragrant flowers bloom in your home this winter. (A dollar per bulb) Mount them on Japanese river stones ($4.50/lb.) or tumbled glass—beautiful, rounded, icy-pale aqua or white pieces of glass ($4.15/lb.), in a vessel of your choice. Or buy The Gardener’s Paperwhite Kit that includes bulbs, pebbles, a green ceramic dish and instructions. $24.  

• Handblown glass hummingbird feeders. Hang one or more gorgeous, multicolored globes on your Christmas tree before setting them outside for the birds. Blue, green, yellow, with a metal feeding tube whose red tip will lure the hummers—the kind with wings. $34.  

• Molded garden totes from Germany have a clean, modern design. Sling one over your arm or shoulder in the garden, just hose it off. Orange, aqua, white. $16.  

• Hang your garden tools on pretty rubber straps that screw into the wall. Almost a yard wide, in raspberry, citron, grass green. $22.  

Hida Tool & Hardware, 1333 San Pablo Ave. 524-3700.  

Fine Japanese tools and supplies. Now through Christmas: from now until Christmas, at least 10 percent off everything in the store.  

• This picturesque yet utilitarian rustic bamboo broom sweeps up leaves, even wet ones, with ease. It could double as a great home dec accent and/or Halloween accessory for the witch(es) in your life. $8.80.  

• Long-reach pruners, 1 to 8 feet long, plus extendable handles that add up to two feet, will enable you to reach that elusive fruit at the top of the tree. The cut-and-hold model keeps the harvest from falling onto the ground and getting bruised or broken. Smooth, trigger action feels good in the hand. $50-$100.  

• Elegant, high-carbon garden shears for bonsai and flower arranging are each fashioned by a single craftsperson. With their elegantly curved handles, they could be displayed as art objects in their own right. $20-$50.  

• Sickles for cutting grass and brush are better than your electric weed whip: no cord, no utility bills. Their laminated, high-carbon steel blades will stay nice and sharp. Light in the hand. $23.  

• Hoes with nice balance, very sharp blades, oak handles 1-5 feet long, are made by small companies in Japan. $14-$20.  

Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351.  

• For a really green Christmas, get a living spruce, cypress or cedar Christmas tree. A December 13 class at the nursery will teach you how to choose the right tree for your needs, how to decorate its container, and how to keep your tree in good health. $100.  

• Onyx planter pots turn opalescent in the sun. Filled with a variety of succulents that will spill over the edge, they make a simple but dramatic planting. $15-$60.  

• Large ceramic pots in jewel tones—mustard, cobalt, deep jade—look good with the spiky leaves of phormiums. Nursery staff will help you match plant to pot. Pots, $20-$160; Phormiums, 1 gallon $12.95; 5 gallon, $34.95.  

• Set several of these utterly charming moss stone frog musicians from Indonesia, and you have the makings of a frog gamelan (Balinese musical ensemble) for your garden. Figures include a drummer, a flutist, a cymbalist and other instrumentalists. Watered, they get covered with moss. 5 – 12” high. $7-$28.  

UC Botanical Garden Garden Shop, 200 Centennial Drive. 642-3343.  

In good time for the holidays, the Bot Garden’s next plant sale will be on Saturday, Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature an interesting selection of indoor and outdoor plants, all propagated by volunteer horticulturalists. Some of the choice offerings:  

Outdoor plants: 

• Coreopsis giganta, Channel Island Tree Coreopsis. With its substantial trunk and mophead of yellow daisies, this California native—three feet high at maturity—would be right at home in a Dr. Seuss illustration. Planted right after the holidays, it will get established over the winter so that it’s ready to go and grow in the spring. Drought tolerant. 4-inch pot, $7. 

• Lapageria rosea, Chilean bellflower, is the national flower of Chile and would make a very special gift for a true plant connoisseur. Because it’s hard to propagate, it’s hard to find in nurseries. Its flowers are shaped like elongated, rosy red bells about three inches long. Stunning. $50. 

Indoor plants  

• Lovely Begonia fuchsiodes sports beautiful, deep red, fuchscia-like flowers. $7. 

• Bemuse a good vegetarian friend with a gift of the carniverous, vaguely sinister-looking Sarracenia alata consists of a green stem, about a foot and a half long, that ends in a cobra shaped head. Set in water water, it will attract the gnats it likes to eat. Indoor/outdoor. $15-$20.  

• Mounted bromeliads would make lovely and unusual gifts for lovers of houseplants. The Botanical Garden has Tillandsias, small bromeliads that grow on the trunks of trees in the jungle, placed on special clay mountings that can be hung on the wall. $12-$20.  

• Rosarians (the fancy name for rose gardeners) will really appreciate “The American Beauty,” Tahoe Gloves’ long leather and nylon gauntlets. Unlike many other rose pruning gloves, this pair, in green and cream, really protects arms from the nastiest thorns and longest canes. $37.  

Westbrae Nursery and Gift, 1271 Gilman St. 526-7606.  

• Metallica gazing balls reflect a garden (and its onlooker), inviting contemplation and providing an intriguing accent to flora and foliage of all sorts. Westbrae has gazing balls in silver (the most popular color because it provides the best reflection), gold, green, red, teal and puprle. 12-16” in diameter. $54-$69.  

• Garden gnomes got popular at Westbrae after one appeared in the movie Amelie. The ones at the nursery this year are imported ceramic reproductions of European gnomes that were originally produced in France, Germany or England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 10-12” high. $30-$60.  

• Ceramic toadstools from England and from the United States add a beautiful touch of whimsy to a garden. Many colors and sizes. $5-$20.  

• Choose from a wide assortment of Buddhas and Kwan Yis (the female form of the Buddha of compassion), available in architectural resin, cement or laval rock, in varied colors. $18-$150.  

• Colormark’s metal watering wands come in rainbow hues that recall the aluminum tumblers of the 1950s. Designed to be screwed onto a hose, they are made in Wisconsin and have brass fittings, an on-off shut-off valve, and a heavy-to-light spray feature. Parts are replaceable. 8-10” long, $13; 30” long, $25.

Getting gifts makes me miserable. 

I’ve convinced myself my aversion to the present has its roots in the past. Specifically, following my Bar Mitzvah, at which I received a half-dozen wristwatches, I had far too much time on my hands. Bar Mitzvah lessons no longer needed, I wound up spending my newly-freed Friday afternoons at the Brooklyn Public Library. And, if memory serves, it was one windy, fall day that I literally stumbled over Proust and my life changed. 

Marcel Proust was notorious for manipulating his friends through gift-giving. And I’m sure it was during the hours I filled turning the pages of À la recherche du temps perdu that I became acutely aware of the malevolent intentions of gift-givers. Undeniably, their sole purpose is to control the lives of the recipients of their largesse. Thus, if somebody gives me a sweater or a book as a gift, it’s my gut reaction they’re telling me what to wear and what to read. A pair of slippers clearly means they want me to walk in their shoes. A necktie with an Edward Munch print—could it be more obvious? They want me screaming for their love. Yes, evil gift-givers are conspiring to transform me from who I am to who they want me to be. 

When I was a Berkeley tenant activist in the 1970s and 1980s, I was regularly the target of landlord curses and frequently found death threats left on my answering machine. If, instead, the landlords had showered me with gifts they would have quickly driven me out of town. 

These days my gift-receiving phobia isn’t much of a problem. Mainly, because I hardly ever get any. Actually, there’s only a single individual who persists in plying me with presumed tokens of her affection, mon significant amour, La C. Over the years, she’s learned edible gifts are least likely to drive me up the wall. Perhaps, it’s that my gift paranoia is outweighed by my free food mania. And when it comes to edible gifts, nothing beats chocolate. 

If there’s a member of your crowd tormented by an affliction similar to mine, let me suggest a few chocolate delicacies to consider for holiday gift-giving. 

Chocolate Bars 

I’ve always envied people with short last names. And, on occasion, have contemplated bidding hasta la vista to the latter part of my own polysyllabic patronym. Lately, however, Big Namen have acquired a distinct cachet and I’m less discontented with my lengthy appellation. By cachet, I’m thinking not so much of our Governator but of Berkeley’s very own world class chocolatier, John Scharffenberger. 

Scharffenberger and partner Robert Steinberg moved their doubly eponymous Scharffen Berger Chocolate business to Berkeley a couple of years ago and their pure dark chocolate rivals that fabricated by the creme de la creme of continental chocolatiers. 

Scharffen Berger chocolate bars come in various sizes and blends and are widely available locally, from the Elmwood Pharmacy (at Russell & College, where I get my fix) to the company’s factory store (914 Heinz Ave.). 

Here’s an idea. Buy an assortment of premium European chocolate bars and include them in a gift basket along with Scharffen Berger selections. This thought in mind, I consulted my Personal Chocolate Trainer (PCT) to put together a list of such imports: Bernard Castelain, Valrhona and Michel Cluizel (France), Slitti and Venchi (Italy), Lindt, Rapunzel and Toblerone (Switzerland), Callebaut and Cote d’Or (Belgium), Droste (Holland), Valor (Spain), Hachez (Germany), Green & Black (U.K., but chocolate made in Italy). Of this illustrious lot, my PCT reserves her highest accolades for Cote d’Or, which she claims is not just palate-pleasing but a powerful antidepressant (she should know, as in her spare time she’s a shrink). 

Hot Chocolate 

Guess which is healthier for you: red wine, green tea or hot chocolate? 

Yup, it’s hot chocolate. 

Researchers at Cornell University recently compared the three beverages and determined hot chocolate had almost twice the antioxidant concentration of red wine and two to three times the concentration of green tea. Antioxidants, as every Berkeley citizen has undoubtedly heard, help fight heart disease and cancer as well as slow aging by exterminating pesky free radicals. 

Three organic, hot chocolate brands that caught my eye while browsing shop shelves are Dagoba, Lake Champlain and Ah!Laska. All use Fair Trade cocoa and Ah!Laska donates a percentage of the company’s profits to Alaska wildlife organizations. 

Another excellent choice is Ibarra’s traditional Mexican hot chocolate product. Ibarra’s cinnamon-laden chocolate discs are packaged in a pretty, hexagonal, red and yellow box, so you can save on gift-wrap. 

I’d be disloyal if I didn’t pay homage to the pride of Brooklyn, Fox’s U-bet chocolate syrup. Famous as the indispensable chocolate egg cream ingredient, the legendary syrup is also terrific for concocting yummy hot chocolate. 

In addition, a number of chocolate bar manufacturers sell hot chocolate mixes. These include Scharffen Berger, Droste, Valrhona, Green & Black and San Francisco’s popular Ghiardelli. However, according to my PCT, the planet’s preeminent hot chocolate is served at Chez Angelina Rumpelmayer in Paris—where Proust himself plotted his conquests. (The nearest supplier of authentic Angelina’s hot chocolate mix I could find was the Café Society in Napa; 1000 Main St., (707)256-3232.) 

Chocolate-Covered Stuff 

Decades ago I had a girlfriend who had a passion for chocolate-covered halvah bars—or, more precisely, she had a passion for the chocolate on chocolate-covered halvah bars. She’d methodically pick the chocolate off the bar, joyfully ingest it, then dump the halvah into the trash. I never understood why consuming chocolate in this unique fashion gave my former girlfriend such satisfaction. But, I suppose, there are lots of things about my girlfriends I’ve never understood. 

Anyway, it seems the yen for stuff covered with chocolate is universal, from chocolate-covered matzohs to chocolate-covered crickets. And cruising local markets, I spotted an embarrassment of chocolate-covered riches, including: raisins, cranberries, cherries, strawberries, almonds, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, ginger, espresso beans, pretzels, malt balls and licorice. 

And let’s not forget the vast cookie, cracker, biscuit and biscotti categories, with even madeleines available chocolate-dipped. But I’ll limit myself to noting a single personal addiction here: McVitie’s Chocolate-covered Digestive Crackers. Imported from England, the crumbly karma of these British Browncoats never fails to flash me back to the American Revolution. No, not the one in 1770s, the one in the 1960s when I discovered McVitie’s while in a transcendent state. (I rediscovered them when they were La C.’s holiday gift last year.) But, beware, only McVitie’s Plain Chocolate (not milk) Digestives are worth the pounds. 

There are, of course, multitudes of other chocolate wonders for sale. You’ve got truffles, puddings (Kozy Shack deserves kudos), brownies, ice cream and gelato, fudge, confections, spreads (e.g., Nutella), sauces, liqueurs, cigars and kisses, to list a few. Plus, there’s your basic cut pieces of bulk chocolate (I’m told the Coffee Market on Gilman Street is a neighborhood shop with decent bulk prices) and, not to mention, edible chocolate products intended to enhance creative erotic practices (e.g., check Good Vibrations on San Pablo Avenue.) 

So, use a little imagination and it should be easy to find a chocolate treat that won’t trigger a tantrum in your gift-phobic recipient. And, with luck, you might elicit a glimmer of gratitude. 

Final tips: To a chocolate snob, which I’m rapidly becoming, milk chocolate is tres uncool. As for white chocolate, my PCT says it’s fine if you enjoy the taste of suntan lotion. In case you don’t catch my drift, dark chocolate is de rigueur!

Berkeley’s proposed parcel tax plan died Monday night, almost exactly 24 hours before City Council was scheduled to approve final language to place the measure on the March, 2004 ballot. 

The decision came shortly after the union representing city’s firefighters—depicted as primary beneficiaries of the controversial measure—declared against the tax.  

Mayor Tom Bates officially killed the $7 million tax around 6 p.m., when he publicly announced that he was requesting that City Council withdraw his proposal. 

“Over the past several weeks,” Bates wrote, “I heard from members of the public, neighborhood groups, unions, and others that the tax measure does not enjoy the support necessary to achieve a two-thirds majority in the March election.” 

It was a severe political defeat for Bates, who had counted on the tax as the centerpiece of his plan to offset a major portion of the city’s looming and rising budget deficit. The decision leaves Council only layoffs and other severe budget-cutting measures to close the gap, which is set at $8 million to $10 million next year and is scheduled to rise as high as $20 million in five years. 

And that is without factoring in the local impact of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reduction in the state’s Vehicle License Fees. 

The mayor is already floating one cost-cutting proposal before the city’s labor unions: closing City Hall for a week between Christmas and New Years. 

Five Berkeley neighborhood associations as well as a coalition of neighborhood groups—the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations—had already announced their opposition to the proposed parcel tax by last Tuesday’s City Council public hearing on the measure. 

But while it was Bates who pulled the plug on the parcel tax, it was the city’s firefighters who dealt the death blow an hour earlier when the executive committee of the 120-member Berkeley Fire Fighters Local 1227 declared its opposition. Given that the parcel measure was officially titled the “Special Tax To Fund Fire Prevention And Protection Services,” and was structured specifically to “maintain [current] staffing levels at Berkeley fire stations,” opposition by the firefighters was a political embarrassment that supporters of the tax could not hope to overcome. 

In a telephone interview Monday evening, Bates said the firefighters’ opposition was “particularly troublesome. ... Since the money was going for the fire service, and they’re not in favor of it, there’s no way this can pass. To pass a two-thirds tax, if you have organized opposition, it’s exceedingly difficult. And if you don’t have some sort of unity in your ability to pass the measure, in terms of a campaign and cohesiveness, it renders it dead on arrival.” 

Bates and the council got the bad news in a blunt e-mail from Fire Fighters president Marc Mestrovich, who wrote that “the executive board feels that the City of Berkeley is using the reputation of the firefighters to get a tax measure passed with language that we feel is not fully truthful to the citizens of Berkeley.” 

Mestrovich explained in a telephone interview that the local’s executive committee acted because, according to information reported at last Tuesday’s Council meeting, only $2 million of the proposed $7 million tax increase would actually go to fire services. “The wording of the measure just wasn’t correct,” Mestrovich said. He said his local favored working with city staff and other unions to “develop a [tax] measure that will best suit the needs of all involved” and put it on the November, 2004 ballot. “That would give us time to make sure things are right and correct.” 

Shortly before Bates called for the withdrawal of the measure, Councilmember Kriss Worthington told the Daily Planet that the firefighters’ decision sounded the death knell to the parcel tax. “A fire tax that’s not supported by the firefighters has zero chances of getting two-thirds of the vote,” Worthington said. Parcel tax votes require a two-thirds majority. 

In his e-mail to Bates and City Council, Mestrovich said that his organization had heard of recent polls circulating around Berkeley that had the parcel tax losing by an astoundingly wide margin, 35 percent to 65 percent, and said that his own poll of firefighters local members living in the city showed the tax losing 6 to 1. 

And Mestrovich later said that the failure of either the mayor’s office or the Revenue Task Force to even inform firefighters that their unit would be the subject of the proposed tax—much less ask their opinion—was one reason the firefighters local rejected the tax. 

“I had information that there was going to be a fire tax coming around, probably about three to four weeks ago,” Mestrovich said. “Did I personally receive a phone call? No.” 

For his part, Mayor Bates was blunt about life in Berkeley without the projected parcel tax revenue. “We’re going to have some difficult belt-tightening,” he said. “It’s going to be hard. There are going to be services that are going to be cut. There are going to be things that we are going to have to do without.” 

Among the cost-cutting measures likely to be put in place, he said, was closing fire stations on a rotating basis and “more than likely” laying off police officers. “It’s not going to be pretty,” he added. “But I’m sure we can get through it. We’ll try to preserve the services that we really think are important, and we’ll try to keep right on trucking.” 

As for what did the parcel tax in, the mayor did not take any of the blame himself, stating simply that, “My sense of it is that it wasn’t right for us to do. The elements just didn’t come together,” adding that, “[the Daily Planet] and all those articles didn’t help us, either. That was devastating.” Asked to elaborate on what articles he meant, Bates said, “It wasn’t the articles. It was a lot of those editorials. And letters to the editor. They were pretty misleading.” 

Asked if he would consider the firefighters’ proposal to rework the parcel tax for the November, 2004 ballot, Bates sounded like a man just having stepped out of the ring from a professional heavyweight fight, and not especially anxious to get back in again just yet. “We’ll just have to see,” he said.

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. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 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 and 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  

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 

Thanksgiving Holiday - City Offices are Closed 

Bay Area Women in Black will hold a silent walking vigil to support the new Palestine-Israel Geneva Peace Initiative and to protest US occupation of Iraq. Assemble at 11:50 a.m. at the Bank of America across from the Powell Street BART. Please wear black. Everyone welcome. bayareawomeninblack@earthlink.net 

Bead Artistry: An Exploration of Creativity Nov 28 to 30. Off-loom beading art objects including jewelry sale by featured artists. Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893 www.berkeleyartcenter.org  

Oakland Glass Artists Holiday Exhibit and Sale, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2680 Union St. Oakland. Also on Sat. and Sun. 832-8380.  

Holiday Kwanzaa and Christmas Gift Show to encourage patronage of black businesses at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center, 550-10th Street, Oakland, Fri. - Sun. 1 to 8 p.m. Admission $5, children free. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 29 

Women of Color Arts and Crafts Fair, featuring paintings, clay sculptures, textiles, jewelry, quilts, decorative functional furniture and wearable art. From 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios every weekend through Dec. 21. 100 professional artists and craftspeople at studio buildings in Berkeley open their doors to the public. Crafts include blown glass, functional and decorative ceramics, ornaments, Menorahs, clocks, lamps and lighting, painted and custom furniture, garden art, bird houses, egg dioramas, floor cloths, clothing, textiles, jewelry, sculpture, photography, paintings, original prints, and other works on paper. All work is handcrafted, many pieces are one-of-a-kind. A self-guided tour presents opportunities to meet the artists and see working craft studios. For a map of participating studios call 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Soapmaking Do you know where soap comes from? Learn how to make all natural soap from olive, coconut, and palm oils. For ages 12 and older, registration required. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost $10, $12 for non-residents. 525-2233. 

Strawberry Creek Work Party We'll be planting and putting down erosion control material on the creek bank. We also have a small shady spot that needs the ivy removed and the soil prepared for a small native garden that we'll plant in December. Meet at the Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison at 10 a.m. Please bring sturdy shoes and water, and gloves, if you have them. Everything else will be supplied.  

Shamanic Journeying Meditation, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Free. For information and directions call 525-1272. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 30 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios For a map of participating studios call 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

She Made Holiday Arts Bazaar, with a silent auction to benefit the Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 461 Ninth St. Oakland. www.she-made.com 

Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 10th Anniversary, with food refreshments, music and more. From 4 to 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Prisoner Visitation and Support, an introduction to the interfaith independent visitation program at 12:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2152 Vine St. at the corner of Walnut. For more information call Arden Pierce at 650-494-1631. 

“The Witness,” a one-woman play which follows the journey of a young woman onto the streets, followed by a discussion of Faithful Fools Ministry, at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations suggested to benefit Fools Street Ministry. 528-5403. 

“Pills Profits and Protest: Voices of Global AIDS Activists” a documentary, followed by discussion at 3 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park St. A World AIDS Day benefit for Health GAP, ACT UP East bay and Action=Life Film Collective. Donation $8. For information call 841-4339. www.pillsprofitsprotest.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, Abbe Blum on “Personal Transitions as New Beginnings” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, DEC. 1 

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 ladybeetles, 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. 

“Rally for Africa's Right to Health” at the Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, from noon to 1:00 p.m. Demand that President Bush and Congress allocate the $15 billion for AIDS services in Africa that the president promised in his January 2003 State of the Union Address. The event will feature speakers, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and the display of 300 pairs of shoes to symbolize the Africans who will die of AIDS-related causes in the hour that the rally takes place. For more information, call 527-4099. 

ACCI Gallery, Holiday Arts and Crafts Show Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527.  

www.accigallery.com 

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. 

Berkeley Biodiesel Cooperative Orientation at 7:30 p.m. Call for location 594-4000, ext. 777. berkeleybiodiesel@yahoo.com 

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 

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 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Mon., Dec. 1, at 7 p.m.,  

in City Council Chambers.  

Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning 

UC HOTEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regard to the UC Berkeley’s proposed downtown hotel/conference center/museum complex, please note that earlier this year the Planning Commission established a subcommittee under General Plan Policy Land Use 17E, which reads: 

  Convene a Planning Commission task force to evaluate the need for and appropriateness of a new downtown hotel and conference center/ecological demonstration/mixed use project, taking into consideration: 

1. Market demographics 

2. Traffic and transit conditions 

3. Hiring and employment policies 

4. Public amenities and community accessibility 

5. Urban design 

6. Green building principles 

7. Daylighting Strawberry Creek 

8. Special development standards and mitigations. 

The proposed development has the potential to greatly benefit the city. For it to realize that potential, the community at large must have ample opportunity to participate in the planning process. A crucial task of the Planning Commission subcommittee will be ensuring that Berkeley citizens do have such an opportunity. 

As soon as the date, time and location of the subcommittee’s first meeting have been decided, the meeting will be publicly noticed by City of Berkeley staff. 

Zelda Bronstein, Chair 

Berkeley Planning Commission 

• 

UNFAIR ARTICLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have generally found the articles in the Daily Planet to be fair, so I was dismayed to read Mr. Artz’ negative characterization of Ms. Sun today (“Shattuck Developer Violates Order, Council to Take Action,” Daily Planet, Nov. 21-24). The “investigation” he refers to must be the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting, where her permit was temporarily revoked. It was not proven at that time that Ms. Sun intends to create a group living accommodation without a use permit. It is my understanding that she intends to apply for all permits (signage, food service, etc.) required when she is ready to develop to that level, and has, at this time, applied for all necessary permits required for what she is doing at this time. As an architect working with many owner-builders, I often work with people who do not want to carry out their long-term objectives right away, and obtain multiple permits on the same property as the development proceeds. Sometimes these permits are separated by years, sometimes only by months, but each one meets the legal requirements for that phase.  

By the way, it seems that Mr. Lauriston’s objections are to the size and height of the project, not it’s use. The suggestion that Ms. Sun will use it for group living in the future is the only way he found to slow down this project, as the size and height are both within legal boundaries, as was confirmed by the Planning Department in the beginning. As ZAB member, Mr. Robert Allen stated in the July meeting, “this is pre-emptive thinking.” I have to agree with him that there is too much pre-emptive thinking and action going on around here, both globally and locally. 

Andus Brandt, R.A. 

• 

RACIST RANT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In regards to the letter from Mr. Labriola (”PC Dunces,” Daily Planet, Nov. 21-24) wouldn’t a more accurate header for the letter have been “Racist Resident Whines”? Mr. Labriola apparently has a problem with people who do not look like him, or of whom he does not approve. 

If this were my world there would be no wars, no suffering and I would not have to listen to or read letters from people complaining about the realities of the world today. There would also be about 34 million less Californians but that is a topic for another letter. I have reconciled myself to the realities of the world that I don’t care for and I do what I can to either change those realities or learn to live with them as best as I can. Mr. Labriola is unaware of or chooses to ignore the millions of Caucasians who have moved to California in the last four decades. Or, perhaps in his narrow world view, hordes of white people do nothing to affect the quality of life in California. I wonder if Mr. Labriola is a native of California?  

Matt Roman  

• 

PLANNING AHEAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was pleased and surprised to read the joint announcement, by Mayor Bates and UC, of plans to build a hotel and conference center on the Bank of America property. This is part of a larger UC plan which involves moving the art museum, the anthropology museum and the film archive downtown; the museums will replace the UC printing plant and the parking lot at Addison and Oxford streets. I also hear the Magnes Jewish museum is planning a downtown move. Even Freight & Salvage will have a bigger building in the arts district. 

Having all this great stuff close together downtown will be very nice. The whole package—hotel, museums, arts district and restaurants—will make Berkeley a great draw for conferences. 

The new hotel and museum buildings could be demonstration sites for green building and ecological urban design. This project is a great opportunity to do great green things while bringing some business into downtown. 

Before this dream becomes reality, we have to deal with a few political problems: taxes, parking and the creek. 

Why does UC have to own the property? We definitely don’t need another tax-free edifice draining the city’s operating funds. If the hotel will be commercial, let it pay commercial taxes. There will be revenue from the hotel tax; it better turn out to more than cover the loss in property tax revenue. Does UC plan to buy up the Durant and Shattuck hotels too? Maybe UC wants to go into hotel business—maybe offer a major in hotel management like Cornell does? 

The museums could pay taxes too. In their new locations, as tourist traps, they might take in enough money to pay taxes, or pay something in lieu of taxes. 

An underground parking garage was mentioned. Will this be a wet garage? The durable blue line down Center Street reminds us that Strawberry Creek flows nearby, beneath the city. Creek water was going to make trouble for the underground parking once proposed under Civic Center. Won’t the same problem arise at the Bank of America site? 

Let’s bring the creek to the surface. The hotel would look great with a babbling brook in the yard. With big money available for the hotel project, surely a piece of it could be dedicated to the long-desired daylighting of Strawberry Creek. 

The conference center shouldn’t need much parking. Given the center’s location within feet of the downtown BART station, visitors arriving by air can ride BART directly from either OAK or SFO. UC’s bus service is nearby; conference visitors won’t need a car to visit campus. If visitors need a rental car for some side-trip, they can get one at the hotel, from City Car Share, or one of the agencies. 

Maybe the hotel can get by with minimal parking. We sure don’t want to increase Berkeley’s car congestion. I say forget about that underground parking garage. After the city gets done implementing the recommendations of the Traffic Demand Management study, there will be more downtown parking spaces available for the hotel. Berkeley residents will free up the spaces by using transit instead of monthly parking. Evening restaurant and theater goers will come by bus. Maybe the hotel could sell transit passes to visitors. 

Another idea: As part of this project, Center Street could be made into a pedestrian mall. A start has been made; several restaurants in the area have deployed sidewalk tables. The pedestrian mall and the sidewalk cafes would be yet another component of the great Berkeley Visitor Center. 

What a vision: a green, transit-oriented, pedestrian friendly tax-revenue-generating conference and visitor center for Berkeley. 

Steve Geller 

• 

OUTSOURCING 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Although my bumber sticker says “Bring the troops and jobs home,” the fact that my retirement cap was 52 percent of my salary caused me to wonder, should Berkeley “outsource” its jobs to India to balance the budget, rather than continue to support a bloated city staff who have salaries way over the area average by increasing our taxes far beyond the surrounding communities’ average?  

Jeanne Burdette 

Aurora Theatre’s production of Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero turns out to be well worth the three years of somersaults Director Tom Ross had to perform to bring it to Berkeley. 

It’s a funny and seemingly simple production which actually raises enough ethical issues to keep you arguing for a significant time after the last lights have dimmed. Perhaps one of the nicest things about the play is that the ideas aren’t thrust down your throat; it can take a while to realize just how many ethical quandaries are raised during the performance.  

Each of the four quite ordinary New Yorkers who constitute the characters find themselves caught between different rocks and hard places—some of them connected, some not. And the question of what each can or should do about their issues is not one that most of us would wish to face. 

The action takes place at night in the lobby of an upscale New York apartment building. A clever piece of staging gives the illusion that the audience looks directly past the security guard’s desk through a window into the street. This permits the audience to watch and hear some of the action—largely between two police officers—when they are out of the guard’s presence. 

Jeff, the security guard (well-played by T. Edward Webster), is a young guy making some kind of effort to get his life together. He sees his job as a security guard as a step up in the world, although he’s much too much of a fly-weight and far too social to be a good fit as a night guard in a solitary lobby. He’s not really a man you’d want to put too much weight on in an emergency. 

It’s his boss, William, whose integrity and values are most deeply challenged during the night. William ( completely realized by Brent St. Clair) has been the “good son” in his family, the one with ambition and habits of hard work. He’s proud of himself and tough on other people who don’t live up to his standards. Self-righteous is probably the right word for William. 

To his total dismay he finds that his “no-good brother” has been arrested for, and is quite possibly guilty of, a particularly disgusting rape/murder. Even worse for William is that his brother told the police that the two of them were together at the movies at the time of the crime. 

At first William is determined to stick to his own standards of honesty of which he is so proud and to refuse to cover for his brother. Then he discovers that the guy will be represented by an attorney who is so totally incompetent that he actually confuses him with another case. The situation is made the worse in William’s eyes because they are African-Americans. He is convinced that his brother will not get a fair trial. 

It is the play’s first, as well as its central ethical struggle. But the other characters have major issues of their own. 

Howard Swain does a powerful job as Bill, the longtime policeman who is responsible for the training of his partner, the anxious young rookie, Dawn. Bill is absolutely convincing as he switches unhesitatingly from one version of truth to another, completely different one. He is a man who is always convinced that he is right, even righteous. It doesn’t matter that he is clearly creating an entirely new “truth” from the one he pronounced minutes before; it is a terrific portrayal of a man who is completely lacking in insight. 

As played by Arwen Anderson, Dawn is one of the funniest characters in the play. The contrast between Dawn’s small, delicate appearance and her tough guy police style is a delight.  

At three months on the job she tries to make every syllable out of her mouth be absolutely nothing but“police talk” and almost succeeds. Those syllables, by the way, are pronounced in the heaviest New York accent you will ever encounter. Dawn’s hero-worship of her double-dealing partner and total lack of insight traps her into her own “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” quandary. 

In Lobby Hero Kenneth Lonergan has achieved an extraordinary goal—one frequently attempted but almost never beyond nit-picking critical complaint. He has actually succeeded in creating a genuinely funny play—peopled by essentially superficial characters—which raises quite important, and even lingering, philosophical issues. 

Some of us would have sworn that it couldn’t be done.

TUESDAY, NOV. 25 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Giving, Receiving, and Flooring It: The Goddess Show” An evening of food, fun, and art at 4 p.m., 120 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus 642-2582. 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Light on Light Projection Performance at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sandy Polishuk will discuss “Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poets Gone Wild, with Debra Khattub, Julia Vinogrand, Gail Ford, Clive Matson, Allen Young, and Allen Cohen at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of David Milnes, performs Brahms Symphony No. 3 and Barber’s Essay No. 2, Cello Concerto with soloist Alexandra Roedder, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

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

house.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 26 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The Whole Note Poetry Series, Birthday Bash with Mark States, and open mic, at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Vienna Teng, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

The Funky BuuDee Show at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dave Rocha Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 27 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 

CHILDREN 

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. 

THEATER 

Wilde Irish Productions, “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett, opens at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $25, with champagne reception. Runs through Dec. 21. 644-9940. 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Tokyo Story” at 3:30, 6:40, and 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Grown and Tremolo perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com  

Jamie Davis at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Diana Darby and Sonya Hunter 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 

Broun Fellinis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Reilly and Maloney, contemporary folk duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

S.T.F.U., The Lewd, Words That Burn, Crop Knox, Eskapo at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

3rd Rail, Fellatia, Jynx at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 29 

CHILDREN  

A Cornucopia Concert for Thanksgiving, 17th century music, performed on period instruments by Tekla Cunningham and Anthony Martin, baroque violins, and Jonathan Shane Davis,harpsichord, at 8 p.m. at MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, at Marin. Tickets are $10-$15. 528-1685. 

Dan Zanes & Friends performs roots music for the entire family at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

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: “Late Spring”at 2 and 7 p.m. and “An Autumn Afternoon at 4:10 and 9: 10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes, San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends perform Beethoven Trio, Debussy and Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Vaughan Williams Quintet at 3:15 p.m. at St John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$18 and are available at the door. 415-584-5946. 

Early Music with Healing Muses Eileen Hadidian, recorder and flute, Maureen Brennan, celtic harp, Natalie Cox, renaissance and celtic harp, with Dan Reiter, cello, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Cost is $15-$18. 524-5661. 

Carl McDonald with Blazing Fire band, the Caribbean Groovers Steel Band, with special guests Mr. Major-P and Razor Blade at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Moore Brothers and Golden Shoulders at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Geoff Muldaur with Fritz Richmond and Tony Marcus, American roots, 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 

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

Frank Johnson at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Embrace the End, Animosity, 30 Years War, Killing the Dream at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Corner Pocket at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

KGB, Solemite, Limbeck at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 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 

SUNDAY, NOV. 30 

CHILDREN 

Dan Zanes & Friends make their Bay Area debut Thanksgiving weekend, performing roots music for the entire family at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Princess Moxie, puppetry and storytelling from 3 to 4 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Adults $4, children $3, children under 1, free. 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: “Tokyo Story”at 2 p.m. and “I Was Born, But ...” at 5:30 p.m. and “Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?” at 7:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

A Cornucopia Concert for Thanksgiving, 17th century music, performed on period instruments by Tekla Cunningham and Anthony Martin, baroque violins, and Jonathan Shane Davis,harpsichord, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $8-$10, children under 12 free. 644-6893. 

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

The Bobs, a cappella, with special guest Bob Malone, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Small Brown Bike, The Orange Band, Scissorhands at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Soundwave Studios Acoustic Showcase at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, DEC. 1 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Bay Area Blues: Blues Musicians on Site” a digital photography display at Berkeley Public Library opens today and runs through the month of December. 981-6100. 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” in collaboration with Pacific Mozart Ensemble at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church, 2300 Bancroft. Tickets are $22-$24. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Series presents Garrett Murphy and Marianne Robinson from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

TUESDAY, DEC. 2 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Play of Daniel” in collaboration with Pacific Mozart Ensemble at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church, 2300 Bancroft. Tickets are $22-$24. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “Superior Elegy” and “Sneak Preview” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why” with editor Larry Habegger, tales of trouble on the road, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Chamber Performances, Wolford-Rosenblum, saxophone/piano duo at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 525-5211. www. 

berkeleychamberperform.org  

“Edessa and Brass Menagerie” at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Ask anyone on City Council about passing a tax hike in Berkeley these days and they’ll say it’s no easy task. Last year only one cause out of four won the hearts and votes of two-thirds of Berkeley’s increasingly stingy voters: a new animal shelter. 

A year later, with the $6.4 million bond languishing in the bank and with no agreeable future home in the offering, shelter supporters and city officials say mustering the votes was the easy part. 

“We’re pretty much stuck,” said Jim Hynes, the staffer from the city manager’s office who is coordinating the land search. 

Hynes has offered to consider purchasing available parcels at University Avenue and Third Street near the railroad; Ashby Avenue and Ninth Street, adjacent to Urban Ore; and Carleton and Eighth streets, across from the Bayer campus—but shelter supporters have rejected them, arguing that these locations, like its current home, secluded at Addison and Second streets, would put the shelter out of sight and out of mind. 

“I don’t see the point of perpetuating the problem by building a new shelter where nobody knows where it is,” said Jill Posner, chair of the City Council Subcommittee on the New Animal Shelter. 

“Visibility equals use. Every time a shelter is hidden away it means more euthanasia, fewer volunteers and less connection to the community.” 

Posner wants a chunk of one of the city’s most sought after pieces of realty—a two-acre site at Sixth and Gilman streets purchased three years ago by the school district as a future school bus yard, but which some in the city view as prime retail space close to the Target slated to rise a few blocks west on the Albany side of Gilman. 

Shelter supporters tried to engineer a buy-and-swap of the three-acre Carleton Street property for the Gilman site, both valued at approximately $3 million, but that fell through when Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowen opined that, by law, the bond money had to be spent on land for the future shelter, not for an eventual swap. 

That meant that the city would have to purchase and trade of the privately owned Carleton Street property and simultaneously trade it to the school district—a nearly Herculean task considering that a private developer would be needed to build on the part of the Gilman land not used by the shelter.  

Posner, though, thinks the deal could have been consummated had Berkeley politicians shown more support. “The site is going to become available,” she said. “The question is will the politicians have the guts to say this is the right place to put a shelter and we’re going to make it happen?” 

Rumors have swirled around city hall that Mayor Tom Bates wants to transform the frontage along Gilman Street west of San Pablo into a shopping district to snag Target shoppers, and neither an animal shelter nor a bus storage yard could generate the potential revenues of retail shops. 

Bates, however, said in an interview with the Daily Planet Friday that his only commercial designs on Gilman were at the Sixth Street corner, and that an animal shelter occupying the back acre off the street front “would be great”.  

“There’s not a lot of commercial opportunities on Gilman,” Bates said. “But if you have a vacant lot, I’d like to explore the revenue opportunities.” 

School Board member John Selawsky said the board was “absolutely open to a property exchange,” but added a deal must come quickly. “We can’t sit on this for another three years,” he said, noting that the district pays roughly $450,000 to rent space for its buses and other vehicles—and after completing other construction projects, it’s ready to proceed with the bus depot. 

The city can use its control of the permit process to make development difficult for the school district, but Bates said that if a swap isn’t engineered by February, “it would be unfair not to let the district go ahead with the property.” 

Further complicating any swap, the site is zoned for Multi Use Light Industrial (MULI), which allows an animal shelter but precludes retail shops. 

A proposal by David Stoloff, Bates’ appointee to the planning commission, to consider rezoning the street caused an uproar and was pulled, with Bates’ backing, before the Planning Commission met two weeks ago.  

“Gilman should absolutely stay MULI,” said Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein. “If we want to maintain art space, we have to maintain the MULI district.” 

Meanwhile, as the search for a new animal shelter continues, Hynes warned that the longer the delay the less the bond would be worth if there is any inflation. 

Posner, though, insisted she would continue hold out for the right site. “Every project needs standards, otherwise we get mediocrity,” she said. “My role is to carry this to the gold standard.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of two articles on the Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development. This article addresses the task force process; the next article will address the substance of the recommendations. 

As one of thousands of Berkeley citizens who have in recent years been damaged by Berkeley’s runaway development activities, I am finally pleased to report some good news: The Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development, which entered the fray as part of the problem, has emerged as part of the solution. 

The Task Force is now crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s on the final draft of its recommendations to the mayor and City Council. The recommendations, running about 40 pages, were hammered out in about 20 difficult—often contentious—meetings since February. Despite a minor misstep here or there, and barring any errors creeping into the final report, the recommendations will bring Berkeley closer to a more fair, constructive, and transparent development process. Even if the recommendations eventually find themselves collecting dust on a back shelf, as such reports sometimes do, the discussion and process that created them has itself been invaluable. 

As some readers will remember, the 14-member task force, heavily laden with developers and developer-friendly planners, and 100 percent property owners, began its work geared more toward “streamlining” than toward improving the development process. Several developers and “smart growth” advocates entered the task force flush with victory from defeating the height initiative (Measure P) last election, presuming they had a “mandate” to impose big buildings on Berkeley. Though dogged and outspoken, these voices were eventually overridden by the task force majority’s increasingly inclusive and realistic approach to community problem solving. 

Meanwhile, most of Berkeley’s neighborhood leaders, urban quality-of-life advocates, and preservationists, deprived of any official representation on the task force, could only anticipate the worst from such a body, especially given the mayor’s own development agenda. However, what could have been a total disaster for Berkeley became a constructive experience, due to the good will of all parties, and two other important factors.  

First, the mayor wisely required that the task force recommendations be unanimous or near-unanimous. This forced the majority to heed the minority voices representing neighborhood and community interests. While this consensus requirement inevitably diluted the strength of almost all individual policy recommendations, these mostly modest proposals taken together are still plenty to start reforming the development process in a healthy way.  

Second, citizen activists who had not been invited to the party nevertheless showed up—persistently, regularly, vocally, and on the average in greater numbers than task force members. Consigned to the edge of the room and permitted to speak only briefly at certain times, these citizen observers were forced to communicate to the task force mostly in writing and informal discussions. Although most of the task force found this audience to be an annoyance, that dynamic changed over time. Gradually the task force realized that, although these citizens had no official standing from which to speak and therefore frequently “talked out of turn,” they had something important and constructive to contribute. I (and many others) commend Chair Laurie Capitelli and the task force for gradually including these community voices. Chair Capitelli evolved a style of “benign acceptance” and even solicitation of audience comments, judiciously balancing the important audience input against the decision-making and speaking rights of the official task force members. 

As one of these audience members, I learned a great deal from watching the evolution of this mini-community. Here was a group divided into the “voiced” and the “voiceless,” the empowered and the disempowered. In fact, this is not unlike most sociopolitical systems, even supposedly democratic ones. And ironically, it closely mirrors Berkeley’s current flawed development process itself, where the citizens are disempowered and muted by numerous institutionalized and de facto impediments to effective participation.  

But the task force did not just trample over the concerned citizens, though it had the power to do so. Instead, it tolerated and eventually welcomed the excluded voices and their ideas, crafting recommendations that should advance the development process while minimizing the conflict that is ultimately so expensive in time, resources, and bitterness. As for the citizen observers, they never gave up and eventually proved Margaret Mead right: “that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world”—one step at a time. And I think everyone learned that well-intentioned people with good ideas almost always benefit from face-to-face discussions with each other. 

I wish again to compliment both the task force and the observers for their months of difficult and altruistic service to Berkeley. Mayor’s aide Cisco DeVries deserves credit not only for his excellent and hard work, but for his sincerity in welcoming and enabling participation by the whole community. And Chair Capitelli deserves enormous credit for sensitively shepherding this contentious and complex task to completion. Mr. Capitelli will impress the community even further if he shows the same sensitivity when, on the Zoning Adjustments Board, he casts votes on projects that directly affect the lives of hundreds of citizens. I also hope that the consensus-building method of this task force can set an example for others in positions of apparent power: not only developers and the Planning Department on individual projects, but also the mayor and others with development agendas that exceed what the community has thus far endorsed. And yes, even the University of California might benefit from working cooperatively with the citizens of Berkeley. Imagine that! 

Sharon Hudson is a Berkeley resident.

Drivers on upper Ashby Avenue are getting a graphic reminder of just how fast they’re going, legally or otherwise, thanks to a trio of solar-powered signs that flash their speeds on glowing digital panels. 

“We’ve had chronic speed problems on Ashby for a long time,” explained Hamid Mostowfi, an associate traffic engineer for the city. “So we applied for a grant for the signs from the federal Office of Traffic Safety.” 

The $100,000 in federal monies paid for the three signs and for pedestrian-triggered in-pavement crosswalk lights where Piedmont Avenue crosses Ashby. 

While the signs have been up and working for a couple of weeks, the crosswalk lights are still dark. “PG&E says it will take four to six weeks to bring power to them,” Mostowfi said. 

The pedestrian crossing features not only the in-pavement lights but a pair of advance warning signs that will flash to alert motorists when a pedestrian crosses the heavily traveled street that is also state Highway 13 (Cal Trans had to sign off on the new signs before the city could install them). 

The solar-powered signs and the PG&E-powered lights are only the first stage in a local high-tech traffic revolution. 

Next up: cameras at intersections to capture red light-runners. Mostowfi said his department will bring their proposal to City Council on Dec. 16. 

Though Mostowfi didn’t cite the rationale, cash-strapped cities had been turning to cameras, which not only control a major traffic problem but also produce an endless stream of lucrative traffic tickets without the need to hire additional police officers.

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Upon reading Matthew Artz’s article “Neighbors slam LBNL expansion”, Berkeley Daily Planet of Nov. 21-24, 2003, some corrections concerning traffic congestion need to be made. 

Centennial Drive does not go through the City of Berkeley at all. It is entirely within the boundaries of the university and LBNL properties. The concern of the Panoramic neighborhood is the Rimway road. Portions of it go through that neighborhood and are used by LBNL personnel and visitors. It is very narrow and dangerous. The neighborhood feels it is at its capacity now and any increase in its use will be impossible. The Northside neighborhood has similar concerns. Cyclotron road is the main gateway into LBNL, it starts and ends in the neighborhood. The Warren-Derby corridor and Ashby Avenue in the Claremont/Elmwood neighborhood are a continuous parking lot during the commute hours. Everyone knows all of this—the planners at LBNL, University of California, and the City of Berkeley. Yet all of this planning and expansion goes on without concern or proposals of what to do about the congestion. 

All of the streets into and out of LBNL that are in the City of Berkeley are too old and small to safely accommodate the existing parking and traffic loads. Now LBNL wants to add 1,200 more employees with 600 more new parking spaces. The neighborhood and the entire city cannot possibly absorb the additional 900 cars the long range plan will bring with it. When you consider the long range plan of the university and the new downtown hotel plan the mayor and university have apparently agreed to, it makes matters worse. 

I have been a resident of Berkeley since 1963. Over the past 40 years I have seen Berkeley transform into a city of congestion. As a member of the Transportation Commission I have supported the anti-car interests of Berkeley even though I believe the car it here to stay and no matter what we do or say, its use will continue to grow. 

The point is, if those who plan and control our future refuse to bring meaningful solutions to our congestion problems along with their projects, we are all losers. 

This is also true of those who want a denser Berkeley. On the surface it seems high rise development and apartment buildings will help us solve our congestion problems by putting more people on public transit. While it may be somewhat true, the fact is, it will bring more traffic (cars). All of the large cities are congested with cars no matter what kind of public transit is provided—and congestion is getting worse, not better. 

I have tried to suggest to LBNL and the university that they begin planning an Eco Pass program for their employees. Both organizations reject the idea. They would rather the city be responsible for their part of the congestion problems. 

The Draft Environmental Impact Report transportation/traffic element will study the increased traffic load and the capacity of the street system, as well as other factors. What seems strange about this is that our city streets are already at their capacity during the commute hours and during special events. Yet it can be predicted that the study will give a green light to more cars at the lab. 

Our problems have become so severe that solutions need to be offered in detail before these projects are brought to the public. Only then will they get the support from the community they may deserve. 

Dean Metzger 

Chair, Transportation Commission

Berkeley fourth graders—forced by budget cuts to trade in their violins and trumpets for rhythm lessons and recorders—are banking on unwanted CDs to bring the band back together. 

“It’s got a nice ring,” said Ken Sarachan, owner of Rasputin Music. “Save music in the schools by dumping your unwanted music.” 

Through Dec. 17, anyone tired off watching their most played-out CDs, tapes, records, or DVDs collect dust on the shelf can give them to Rasputin. The store will donate the buy-back price plus an extra 10 percent to the Berkeley music program.  

The campaign will help the music store replenish its used music stockpiles, but more important, might resuscitate Berkeley’s elementary and middle school music programs, decimated by district cuts. 

Last year, the school board—facing an $6 million budget deficit—stopped funding its share of the music program—roughly $100,000. 

The net result: Two music teachers fired, no instrument instruction until the fifth grade, and middle school band and orchestra practice scaled back from five to three days per week, though some middle schools have found money to boost instruction. 

Money from a voter-approved 1994 parcel tax still funds the program, but the nearly $500,000 doesn’t go as far as it did 10 years ago said Suzanne McCulloch, the district’s visual and performing arts coordinator. 

“Medical benefits and workman’s compensation have risen astronomically,” she said, noting that in her three years in Berkeley the district has had to cut the number of Full Time Equivalent music teachers from 12 to 9. 

The teachers have become virtual gypsies, driving from school to school for classes. With their ranks depleted, class size in the elementary schools has doubled and this year administrators and parents agreed there was no point teaching fourth graders to play instruments with 32 kids in the class. 

The high school is not affected by the budget cuts because its funding comes from school-site money to pay for electives, and its most renowned ensemble—the jazz band—is self-sufficient. 

To keep the flow of talent reaching the high school, the music committee has sought to offset lost funds, holding a benefit concert last spring that netted them about $6,000 before turning to Rasputin. 

“This could be the biggie,” said Bob Kridle, a parent of a music student and chairman of the BUSD Music Committee. “If we got two or three pieces from every district family that would be about $100,000.” 

Rasputin on average pays between 50 cents to $6 for CDs, a little more for DVDs, and usually less for records and tapes—all based on demand. So far the average donation has fetched about $1. 

To make donating easy, the committee has set up barrels in all public schools and libraries for donors to dump unwanted disks. Rasputin also accepts donations at the store, and anyone with 50 or more pieces can call 486-8192 for a free pick up. 

While used CD’s might save Berkeley music instruction this year, ultimately only property taxes can do the trick, supporters say. The ballot initiative—Berkeley Schools Excellence Project—that has funded most of the music program is set to expire in three years, and the school board is considering putting an extension with more money for music programs on the November ballot. 

“With the state only testing for math and English, that’s where the money’s going,” Kridle said. “If we’re going to have an arts program were going to have to do it ourselves.”

The achievement gap separating white Berkeley public school students from other racial groups remains profound, according to an analysis of test scores unveiled at last week’s meeting of the Berkeley Unified School District board. 

Results from the California Standards Tests measuring reading, math, science and social studies skills for students throughout the district revealed a steady decline in math scores from elementary schools to the high school and poor results in algebra and writing. 

Neil Smith, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, said district officials would use the data analysis to improve instruction, but cautioned that until they get detailed analysis from other standardized tests, they wouldn’t read too much into the results. 

In each subject, whites outscored other groups—often reaching proficiency rates close to four times higher than African American students. 

The breakdown for proficiency rates is as follows: 

• Math—Whites 63 percent, African Americans 19 percent, Asians 58 percent and Latinos 27 percent. 

• Reading—Whites 78 percent, African Americans 21 percent, Asians 54 percent and Latinos 27 percent. 

• Science—Whites 73 percent, African Americans 27 percent, Asians 58 percent, and Latinos 23 percent. 

• Social Science—Whites 71 percent, African Americans 13 percent, Asians 41 percent and Latinos 17 percent. 

More troubling is that for reading and math the achievement gap expanded from lower to higher grades. 

“Something wasn’t being passed on,” said Bradley Johnson, the board’s student representative. 

Students in lower grades scored better in math than higher grades, with algebra posing the biggest problems for district students. While 59 percent of second graders scored as proficient on math tests, only 17 percent of eighth grade algebra students ranked as high. 

Algebra was recently shifted from ninth to eighth grade to comply with state standards, which could explain the poor scores, Johnson said. 

Reading proficiency followed the opposite trend, rising from 42 percent of second graders to 62 percent of 11th-graders, though scores dipped in some grades. 

Writing tests given to elementary and middle school students also showed huge discrepancies between schools, prodding board members to question if the district had a consistent district-wide program. 

Students at Jefferson and John Muir Elementary Schools scored the highest, with 37 and 36 percent of students respectively ranking as proficient. At the other end of the spectrum, only nine percent of Leconte students, and six percent of Malcolm X students scored at the proficient level. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence told the school board that math and writing skills required grade-by-grade structured lessons and that it’s “imperative that the school system have a specific sequence” to guide students.  

She added that it was hard to read too much into test results because the state has repeatedly “tweaked” the test, making trends over time difficult to discern. 

Board member John Selawsky reiterated that the test results were only part of the overall picture of student achievement, but added that it “was an important part” and that the district needed to use the scores to develop strategies to improve instruction.

“If for one week [America] saw the true face of war, war would be eradicated,” broadcaster and activist Amy Goodman told a supportive crowd of several hundred who turned out to see her receive this year’s UC Berkeley Mario Savio Free Speech award at UC Berkeley’s student union.  

The well-known journalist and host of the radio program Democracy Now, Goodman had one important message to deliver: Change the media and you can change the world.  

Her speech left many glued to their seats, mouths agape, as she interlaced hard-hitting facts with riveting personal stories.  

Known as the diva of alternative media, Goodman has hosted Democracy Now, the nation’s leading alternative news broadcast, for the past seven years. Her show is taped at Pacifica member station WBAI in New York City and aired on stations across the nation.  

According to event organizers, she was picked for the Mario Savio Free Speech award for a host of reasons, but principally, they said, “because Goodman has always asked the questions we’ve thought but never articulated.”  

For many, her weekday morning show is their primary news source, providing in-depth coverage of the leading news stories and more. 

Many fans in the Berkeley audience said they stayed glued to her broadcasts during the events of 9/11 and the war in Iraq to avoid the daily barrage of media hype and hyperbole that they say Goodman cuts through so effectively.  

Thursday’s speech summarized what’s she’s seen throughout this time period and focused specifically on what she knows best: the role of the media.  

“We’ve got to take control of the institutions that feed this war machine, and the most important is the media.” 

As part of the event, the university also awarded the annual young activist award to 20-year-old Rocio Nieves, a member of the Oakland-based Youth Force Coalition, a group working to stop the growth of the prison industrial complex.  

The award, given yearly to young activists, was presented to Nieves for her work with the coalition during their campaign that ended with the halving of Alameda County’s proposed new “superjail” youth detention center.  

“To think that health care sucks in this country and we want to put money into locking people up. . .come on, we have no shame,” Nieves told the crowd as she fought to hold back tears. “To know that we don’t just live in this fucked up society, we try to change it is truly inspiring.” 

The event proved especially meaningful for three UC Berkeley students convicted by a campus tribunal for their actions during an anti-war protest last March. The students, who have been fighting the charges, were asked to stand and received a roaring round of applause after Goodman acknowledged their fight.  

“[Their participation] is a tremendous community service and they should be honored,” said Goodman, a not so subtle dig at the suggested punishment for the students—which includes between 20 and 30 hours of mandatory community service.  

For those interested Goodman’s show, Democracy Now, airs every week day on KPFA 94.1 FM from 6-7 a.m. and again from 9-10 a.m. Information on this week’s shows and other upcoming programming can also be found at the program’s website: www.democracynow.org.

Just days after UC Berkeley released money to pay more than $30,000 in student government (ASUC) expenses from a campaign to oppose Proposition 54, the ASUC has frozen the funds. 

ASUC Judicial Chair Mike Davis ordered the freeze Monday, along with a gag order after right-leaning Senator Paul LaFata lodged a complaint against the Graduate Student Assembly (GA), which in September had earmarked $35,000 to the No on 54 campaign. 

The university has faced heat from both sides of the political divide after agreeing to assume responsibility for student government funds spent on the campaign, but uphold its ban on student governments to participate in partisan politics. 

The ruling, announced last week by Chancellor Robert Berdahl, infuriated both conservatives—who wanted student leaders to pay a price for ostensibly violating university rules by spending mandatory student fees on the campaign—and student government leaders—who argued the university’s interpretation of its rules denied them the right to lobby on issues of concern to students. 

“To say we can’t do political advocacy, that’s outrageous,” said GA president Jessica Quindel, adding that her organization was considering suing the university. “Governments are supposed to be political, we’re not social clubs.” 

The university froze the funds after the Berkeley College Republicans complained to the administration in September that while the school had barred them from using student money to help cover expenses for a visit by UC Regent and Proposition 54 sponsor Ward Connerly, the student government had funded the No on 54 campaign. 

An ensuing university audit of the campaign found $31,187.32 in receipts and $6,662.70 in reimbursements paid for by mandated student fees. 

University counsel Michael Smith said the expenditures violated university policy because student governments, unlike student clubs, are a unit of the university and were thus required to abide by regulations barring them from funding partisan political activities. 

Since the administration determined that the student government received bad advice from its oversight body, the ASUC Auxiliary, it decided to cover expenses owed vendors for campaign propaganda and services from funds generated by ASUC business operations like the student bookstore and the Bear’s Lair. 

Smith said he hopes that by using student business revenue instead of mandatory student fees to cover the debts, the university can head off a lawsuit threatened by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation. 

PLF attorney Greg Broderick said late Monday that he hadn’t received a copy of the university’s ruling. 

Smith acknowledged that the university’s legal reasoning would make funding a political campaign illegal whether funds came from mandated student fees or business operations. 

“The emphasis is on compulsory fees because of recent lawsuits from students [opposing their fee money spent on issues they oppose], but the bottom line principle would apply to any university money, not just compulsory fees.” 

LaFata fears that if ASUC money—even from business revenue—is used to pay the vendors, student government will be vulnerable to lawsuits from outside interests, said one person close to the ASUC. 

Ultimately, the university faces its fiercest opposition from the Graduate Assembly. In an opinion written to Smith, GA attorney Michael Sorgen charged that past California Supreme Court cases held that student governments were not “units of the university,” and even if they were, they retained the right to fund lobbying on partisan issues so long as both sides of the issue had the opportunity to receive funding. 

“Certainly the university defines lobbying more narrowly than the student government,” Smith said.

Every November, I test my memory cells by trying to recall where I’ve spent Thanksgiving for the past 30 years. I do okay for the most recent ten, and then things get blurry. I vaguely remember Thanksgivings at Uncle Bill’s and Aunt Alma’s during the 50s and 60s, but I don’t recall any Thanksgivings between the years of 1970 and 1974. This lapse can’t be attributed entirely to over-indulging in turkey, but can be blamed, in part, on a wayward cousin who always provided me with something to stimulate my appetite (though I never inhaled). 

This year, like the past three, I’ll be spending Thanksgiving at home with my husband, Ralph, and my brother John and his family. The Thanksgiving four years ago, when Ralph and I spent the day in the emergency room at Kaiser, and then went back again that evening, is indelibly stamped into the painful part of my brain. I put the turkey in the oven as the paramedics arrived, and took it out when we came home. Three hours later, before I could serve the pumpkin pie, we were headed again to Kaiser.  

I remember spending several Thanksgivings alone with my brother. Ralph’s twin came up from San Diego to stay with him. I took off guilt-free, knowing that Ralph was in capable, loving hands. 

John and I usually went to Yosemite Valley. Sometimes it would rain while we were there and sometimes it would snow. It was almost never sunny. Ever the optimists, each year we brought skis, climbing gear and rollerblades with us, on the pretense that we would do something other than lie around in the tent. But we never did. 

John would lug his veterinary textbooks along and I’d bring all the paperbacks I’d been meaning to read for the past 10 years. We’d search for the least damp, most level spot at Sunnyside campground. I’d put up the tent while John made a fire. We stashed our instant oatmeal, tuna fish cans and GORP in the anti-bear locker, gulped down a bowl of chicken-flavored Top Raman, crawled into the tent, rolled out our bags, and went to sleep. We didn’t wake up until the next morning. We tried to outwait each other until one of us had to use the outhouse. That’s the person who had to make the coffee outside on the frost-covered picnic table. 

The first year we went to Yosemite I cried when I crawled into the tent. It reminded me too much of Ralph and the good times we once shared inside that little green nylon space before his accident. The tent smelled like Ralph and my sleeping bag smelled like Ralph and my brother’s bag, the one that had once belonged to Ralph, smelled like my husband too. Not the way Ralph smells now in his wheelchair, but the way he smelled when he was healthy and energetic, pitching the tent, gathering firewood, cooking dinner, and drinking beer. But now, after a decade, the tent doesn’t smell of Ralph. It smells like me and my brother and the garage where it is stored the rest of the year. 

One Thanksgiving, my brother couldn’t go to Yosemite. He had too much work to do in his final year of veterinary school He didn’t want to deal with the rain and the snow and the bad smell of the tent. He needed lots of room to spread out his pig, horse and cow textbooks.  

“Think of it this way,” he said on the phone a few days before Thanksgiving when he suggested that I spend the holiday with him in Davis. “You won’t have water dripping down your neck while you sleep. You won’t have cold socks, stiff gloves or frozen underwear in the morning. You won’t have bad coffee or noodles served with twigs. You’ll have a comfortable bed, a microwave oven and a flush toilet.” 

“Can we pitch the tent in your backyard?” I asked. 

“If you want to,” he said. “but I’ll be in the house drinking a hearty Cabernet, studying equestrian parasites and watching a Blockbuster video.” 

I drove reluctantly to Davis. I spread my paperbacks across John’s living room floor and found a horizontal spot on his couch. On Thanksgiving night we ordered Domino’s pepperoni and sausage pizza to be delivered to the house. I made my brother get on the couch with me and eat it in the dark with a flashlight on his head to simulate camping. We balanced the pizza box between us, on our knees. 

“Isn’t this fun?” I asked, shoving another wedge of pizza into my mouth. 

“You betcha,” answered John. Then he got up, went into the bathroom and flushed the toilet, just to prove how much fun it really was.

Striking Southern California grocery workers who set up picket lines at Bay Area grocers last week in solidarity with their Southern California companions returned in force Saturday with over 1,000 supporters to rally outside the Safeway at 51st and Broadway. 

The workers, all members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, were joined by community supporters and members from almost every union in the Bay on their march from the Rockridge BART back to the store in north Oakland. 

Carrying signs and an effigy of Safeway CEO Steve Burd, and with the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Worker Union drill team leading the way, the group stood outside the store demanding that the grocery industry stop what they say is a full scale attack on the health plans of over 70,000 workers. 

Protesters, who successfully blocked the entrance to the store while they rallied, were joined by elected officials including California senate majority leader Don Perata, Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, and Oakland City Council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Jane Brunner. 

Workers say they will walk the Northern California picket lines until the fight in Southern California is over, and they expect to be marching picket lines here again this summer when local grocery contracts expire. 

—Jakob Schiller

Berkeley City Council gets a last chance to finalize language for three election law ballot measures at tonight’s regular Council meeting (7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25). The proposed changes would add filing fee and/or signature requirements to run for office in Berkeley, lower the percentage needed for a candidate to win, lengthen the time between elections and runoffs, and authorize Council to adopt Instant Runoff Voting in the city once it becomes legally and economically feasible. 

Council will consider fixing the city’s paratransit services problem and authorizing permits for wheelchair accessible taxis during tonight’s 5 p.m. working session. 

Last June, the Daily Planet reported that Berkeley’s paratransit services—which provide several transportation programs for seniors and residents with disabilities—was in “disarray,” with seniors in particular complaining of “limited service, rude taxi drivers and cabbies who refuse to pick up patrons.” 

The city’s Commission on Disability and Commission on Aging has asked the city to issue 10 permits specifically for taxis capable of carrying wheelchair-riding passengers. No such taxis-on-call currently operate in Berkeley, and residents in wheelchairs must reserve rides 24 hours in advance. 

In an information report to be discussed by Council at tonight’s working meeting, City Manager Phil Kamlarz agrees that Berkeley’s paratransit program has “never had sufficient resources to meet the need.” 

Kamlarz’ memo suggests several alternative fixes. The most controversial proposal to be discussed will be a proposal limiting Berkeley’s paratransit services either to “only those people with extremely low incomes” or providing service only to persons certified by East Bay Paratransit, a joint project co-operated by AC Transit and the Bay Area Rapid Transit District.  

Council will also consider, on first reading, an ordinance establishing five permits for wheelchair-accessible taxis in the city, halving the number sought by the Commission on Disability and the Commission on Aging. 

At the 7 p.m. session, Council is also scheduled to re-open its discussion of complaints from neighborhood residents concerning the controversial industrial-strength communications tower currently sitting atop the city’s downtown Public Safety Building. 

Neighbors complain that the communications tower, constructed in 2000, was put up without proper notice and is out of character for their neighborhood and they want it replaced with a smaller structure. While the city manager’s office has conceded that the current configuration of the communications tower “was not included as part of the original design” of the Public Safety Building, Berkeley public safety officials have argued that the tower should stay because it eliminates “dead spots” in communication with mobile police units in certain areas of Berkeley.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of an ongoing series of articles by UC Berkeley journalism students on the paths of Berkeley. 

Tamalpais Path’s 183 concrete steps, from Codornices Park on Euclid Avenue to Tamalpais Road, are paved with history. 

The path starts a few yards from the house where Depression Era documentary photographer Dorothea Lange lived and worked with her husband, economist Paul Taylor. Tamalpais Road resident Paul Schwarz says the steps have been trod by figures with names that adorn the University of California—Sproul, Wurster, Lawrence. 

Like many of the paths in the North Berkeley hills, Tamalpais was laid out in the early 1920s.  

Helen Dixon, who lives in what was once her mother-in-law Dorothea Lange’s studio, said the byway was originally used for residents to descend the hill to the Euclid Avenue streetcar, which stopped running in the 1940s, along with other electric streetcars in Berkeley. 

These days, she hears schoolchildren use it to get to and from their buses on Euclid. “But I’m protected here by the trees, so I don’t see a lot of the traffic,” she said. 

At the top of the path’s first flight of stairs, a worn wooden gate hangs from an ivy-covered fence. The gate guards a trail across Emily Benner’s land, and a section of the north fork of Codornices Creek, a waterfall, the remains of a fern grotto, and a small canyon.  

“My in-laws purchased the property in 1933, or ’34, in the middle of the Depression, when if you had even a little money, it went a long way,” said Benner, 67, a long-time Sierra Club member. 

Her sense of stewardship owes something to memories of her late neighbor, David Brower—former director of the Sierra Club and founder of the Earth Island Institute—who lived up the hill on Stevenson Road.  

In the Sierra Club tradition, she preserves her land as open space. Though it is private property, neighbors sometimes use its paths to reach the Tamalpais steps from Keith Road above the north side of the canyon and creek.  

The sound of the creek and the sight of the canyon offer a respite to those who climb the path. Toward the top, the steps become steep and narrow, where a handrail offers assistance. The ascent is worth the effort, however, for the top offers a view through redwood trees to Mount Tamalpais itself. That is, of course, as long as the fog cooperates.

There’s a best-selling book with a title something like Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. As far as I’m concerned, I learned most of what I need to know in my ninth grade English class. One semester of ninth grade English in my school was devoted to what we called “Mythology,” that is, the stories that the ancient Greeks and Romans used to explain the universe. It never fails to amaze me how often contemporary human behavior can be described in terms of what I can remember from the old stories I learned fifty years ago. People haven’t changed much since ancient times. 

A quick Google search reveals that publications all around the world have had experience with newsmakers blaming the press for reporting bad news. The articles on this phenomenon inevitably refer to the Greek custom of killing the messenger who brought the news. Berkeley’s mayor seems not to be immune from this historic human tendency. 

He told the Daily Planet’s reporter that articles about opposition to the proposed parcel tax were responsible for the decision not to put it on the March ballot. When pressed, he amended his statement to include just “editorials” and “letters,” not news articles per se.  

First, we here at the Planet would like to make it clear that we have never come out in opposition to the parcel tax, either for the March ballot or for the November ballot. We have, Cassandra-like, suggested in editorials that things were not going well for tax supporters. Our correspondents have been much more forthright with their opinions.  

We print almost every letter and commentary piece we get that’s not completely illiterate or overwhelmingly obscene, and during the whole discussion of the tax proposal we received no more that two or three letters favoring the tax, plus a commentary from Revenue Task Force Chair Dion Aroner. We printed all of them. 

We also received and printed a lot of letters opposing the tax. Like many others in Berkeley who are on e-mail trees, we got even more letters from opponents reluctant to have their names appear in print because they feared (rightly or wrongly) retaliation from city officials.  

The citizens of Berkeley need to pull together to solve our fiscal problems. Here are a few suggestions for where we should go from here: 

First, having the main discussion of the revenue shortfall in the unpublicized venue of the Mayor’s Revenue Task Force was a lousy idea. Public hearings should have been at the beginning, not at the end of the process. We can start, now, with more and better open public conversations about what’s gone wrong.  

And this whole discussion started much too late anyway. The Santa Cruz city council was warned in late 2001, maybe earlier, that declining state revenues would require substantial cuts, so they went right to work on trying to figure out what to do. 

Berkeley, on the other hand, went on believing that the future was rosy for much too long. A UC pundit, with cooperation from official sources, authored a glowing description of Berkeley’s purported budget surplus which was widely and approvingly reprinted in the progressive press. Behind the scenes, among Berkeley progressives who understood what was really going on, that piece was greeting with much gnashing of teeth. The Daily Planet received first drafts of two different commentaries which attempted to set the record straight, from local activist writers who later withdrew the pieces, again because they feared political retaliation.  

City unions are getting a major share of the blame from tax opponents. Whether that’s justified or not should be openly evaluated in the public arena. There was a very modest discussion of whether or not contracts should be re-negotiated, but it took place in the Council’s afternoon rump session, mostly behind closed doors, with a very short public session held only after Councilmember Worthington insisted.  

So here we are, late in the game, with no game plan. Killing the messenger isn’t going to make the crisis go away. (Don’t even think about stealing this paper!) There’s no way that the city won’t have to go to local taxpayers for more money, probably in November 2004, in competition with the schools, who are also suffering. But between now and next November, let’s talk. The pages of this paper are open to all points of view. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.

The Feet of Clay award for this week is shared by two recipients, Sen. Diane Feinstein and the American Association of Retired Persons, for supporting the bogus Medicare bill which the Republicans have already shoved through the House with support from some Democrats. Senator Diane’s presence on any list of sellouts comes as no surprise to those who have followed her career, but if you’re too young to have encountered the AARP first-hand, you might wonder what’s gone wrong there. 

Some blame administrator Bill Novelli, a PR man who took the helm at AARP two years ago. But that’s too simple. 

Many outraged commentators (all the usual suspects, from Paul Krugman on down) have pointed out that the organization has been captured by its money-making schemes, notably prescription drug and insurance sales. The Medicare bill which is now being debated in the Senate gives generous payoffs to insurance vendors and privately-owned HMOs. (The Republican majority leader, Sen. Frist of Tennessee, is funded by a family fortune gleaned from ownership of one of the biggest private HMO chains.)  

What is not generally understood is that the AARP has built up a big business selling insurance to members who tend to believe what the organization tells them because of its carefully cultivated do-goody aura. For many who are starting to worry about an unprotected old age, it seems like a known quantity—a safe source for a little added protection which just might come in handy some day. 

That’s what my late mother-in-law thought when she signed up for an AARP hospitalization policy to supplement her well-funded University of California faculty medical benefits. She was a smart woman who successfully managed her own finances throughout her long life, but she got fooled on this one.  

When my husband took over her financial tasks, after she reached 88, he asked what the AARP policy covered that Medicare and UC didn’t. She didn’t know. It didn’t cost much, about five dollars a month, and she thought it must be good for something. Since she could no longer hear well on the phone, he called AARP to ask. They wouldn’t talk to him about it—“confidentiality,” they said. So she sent them a signed letter authorizing them to talk to him. They still wouldn’t say what the policy covered—“only in writing,” they said. So she wrote to them and asked them to write back. After many months had passed, they sent a printed document which purported to outline the conditions under which the policy would pay off. A number of family members, boasting among them many advanced degrees, membership in the California bar, and years of business experience, read it and tried to figure out what it meant. No luck. It seemed to be gibberish. 

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law was undergoing repeated hospitalizations under varying circumstances. Every time she was treated, the hospital sent the bill first to AARP, which always declined to pay, so then either UC’s carrier or Medicare eventually paid it. AARP never could find exactly the right circumstances for her coverage to kick in, and she finally died without having received a penny of benefits from her 20 years or more of payments.  

The AARP has no strong motivation to strengthen government insurance like Medicare. Doing so might mean that worried old people could rely on Medicare to pay all their medical bills, with no incentive to buy this kind of expensive supplemental “protection” from private insurers.  

Five dollars a month doesn’t seem like much, but when you multiply it by many, many AARP members paying in over possibly 20 or 30 years, and taking very little out, it begins to add up to big money for the organization. An insurance company which is hyped as an advocacy group enjoys a privileged position in the marketplace. This translates into supporting a fat AARP bureaucracy with big salaries for executives. An efficient single-payer government health care system would markedly reduce insurance company revenues. There would be no room for lucrative little scams like my mother-in-law’s hospitalization policy. It’s no wonder the AARP likes the current proposal better. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.