Alarmed by news that American manufacturers have run out of flu vaccine, people showed up starting at 5 a.m. Saturday for the flu shot clinic at Longs Drug Store at 5100 Broadway in Oakland. 

Co-sponsored by Longs and by Sutter VNA & Health, Saturday’s clinic was officially open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and had 680 doses of vaccine available.  

When a reporter arrived at 10 a.m., several hundred people were already standing in line outside the store waiting to sign up and receive a numbered slip. It took about an hour to get to the front of the number line and another hour to get a shot. 

Standing in the check-in queue, Matt Garber, an engineer who lives in Oakland, said he was there because his doctor had run out of the vaccine. Pamela Lindsey, also from Oakland, had gotten to Kaiser on Friday “thirty minutes after they ran out.” Jorge Maezono of Berkeley had gone to the Over Sixty Health Center in Berkeley, where he was told to go to Longs before 10 a.m. Saturday morning.  

“We thought maybe a thousand people would show up,” said Longs store manager Gerry Otto. By noon, Otto had checked in 550 people, and the line had dwindled to a handful. 

By mid-afternoon, all 680 doses of the vaccine had been administered. 

Some parents were disappointed to find that children aged 9-13 could get shots only if their parents brought in a signed note from their doctor, and that no shots were available to anyone under the age of 9. 

Thanks to good organization by the Longs staff, who called out numbers in batches of 20 over the store’s public address system, people could wander about after receiving a slip. Inside, four Sutter nurses and other personnel dispensed advice and vaccine with patience, efficiency and good humor. This will be the last flu shot clinic at Longs until next fall.  

A “Vaccination Information Statement” distributed at the clinic and prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said protection from the flu develops about two weeks after getting the shot and may last up to a year. “Influenza vaccine is expected to be plentiful in 2003, so no one should have to wait to get the shot.” 

The flyer is dated May 6, 2003.  

“The Alameda County Public Health Department is making every effort to secure as much additional vaccine as possible,” said Sherri Willis, the agency’s Public Information Officer. “We are hoping to get 400 additional doses from the State of California Health Department.” 

That vaccine, Willis said, will be provided only to high-risk populations—people over 60 with chronic illnesses and children, assuming that pediatric vaccine is available. She emphasized that so far most of this season’s flu cases in California have occurred in the Central Valley.  

For more information, call the Alameda County’s Immunization Assistance Project, 267-3230, the County Health Department’s main number, 267-8000, or go to www.cdc.gov/flu.

TUESDAY, DEC. 16 

Wellstone Democratic Club meets at 6 p.m. for a pot luck and social hour, followed by a meeting at 7 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 24th and Harrison. 733-0996.  

Radio For Peace International at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Cedar and Bonita Sts. Join James Latham, Co-Founder and Director of Radio For Peace International, a shortwave station based in Costa Rica that was recently shut down. $5 - $10 sliding scale; no one turned away for lack of funds.  

Sauerkraut-Making Demonstration, with Sandor Ellix Katz, at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. www.ecologycenter.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sharon Stalkfleet will speak about her ministry in local nursing homes at 11 a.m. 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 check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/~teachme99/tildenwalkers.html  

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. 17 

Holiday Blood Drive Hosted by Berkeley Rep The Red Cross Blood Mobile will be parked in front of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, but you can also can sign up online by logging on www.BeADonor.com (sponsor code: BRT) or by calling 1-800-GiveLife. 

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. 

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

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

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

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

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

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

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

THURSDAY, DEC. 18 

Public Meeting on the Santa Fe Right-of-Way Bike and Pedestrian Path which runs from Delaware to University, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. For information call Niran at 981-6396 or Michael at 981-2490.  

Environmental Resource Center Open House Come visit your local environmental center for a warm winter get-together. There will be music, food, games, and a free raffle of environmental books and products. From 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Amphibians After School The wet weather brings out the frogs and salamanders. Let’s learn about them and look for them. For young naturalists, age 8-10, without their parents. From 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233.  

Wheels of Justice Benefit at  

9 p.m. at the Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave., with Bands Against Occupation, the Singing CIA Agent, WoJ participants including John Farrell/Voices, and Uda Walker/ MECA. $10-$20 donation. 548-0542. www.mecaforpeace.org 

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.  

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Practice public speaking with out-of-this-world subjects, at 6:15 p.m. at 2515 Hillegass Ave. 898-1993. www.MetaphysicallySpeaking.org 

FRIDAY, DEC. 19 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Tom Hughes, “An Artist in Action.” Hughes will offer commentary while painting a portrait. Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives, Blue and Gold Basketball Tournament, 13 years and under Division, Dec. 19-21, at the Emery High School Gym, Emeryville. Team fee is $75, individual fee $15. For information call 845-9066. 

Kol Hadash Hanukkah Shabbat Pot Luck Dinner with Rabbi Kai Eckstein at 6:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Come light the first candle of Hanukkah and enjoy the music of the Klezhumanists with Kol Hadash, the Bay Area’s only Jewish Humanistic Congregation. Call 428-1492 or email kolhadash@aol.com for information and pot luck assignment. We also collect non-perishable food for the needy. 

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

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

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

SATURDAY, DEC. 20 

Café de la Paz Holiday Craft Sale with handmade items from artisans in Borneo, Tibet, Burma and Afghanistan, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1600 Shattuck at Cedar. 547-4258. 

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair between Bancroft and Dwight, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 649-9500. www.telegraphberkeley.org  

Holidays on Solano Ave. with photos with Santa from 1 to 3 p.m. at Peralta Park, 1561 Solano. 

Holiday Sing-A-Long, a candlelight community ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. at Ray’s Christmas Tree Lot, 1245 Solano Ave. 527-5358. 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 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. 845-2612. www.berkeley.artisans.com  

Amsterdam Art Studios Holiday Sale, with a dozen artists’ paintings and crafts, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1007 University Ave., between 9th and 10th Sts. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Craft Fair A variety of handcrafted gifts, including jewelry, fabric arts, leather, ceramics, hats, dolls, fine art, photos, soaps and herbal potions. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. 548-3333 www.ecologycenter.org  

Albany Bowl Path Walk sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers. Meet at the end of Buchanan St. in Albany at 10 a.m. For more information call Susan Schwartz, 848-9358.  

Carpentry Basics for Women An introduction to basic carpentry tools and skills for women with little or no previous hands-on experience. After a morning lecture and demonstration, you will build your own bookshelf unit (we provide the materials). Students are asked to bring their own hand tools. From 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $195. 525-7610.  

The Life of Mary Magdalene Workshop, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Oakland. Suggested donation $25, no one turned away. For more information and location call 635-7286. www.orderofchristsophia.org 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. For further information and to register, call Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

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

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

SUNDAY, DEC. 21 

“Revolution Will Not Be Televised” at 7 p.m. with a discussion following the film with Michael Parenti, at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar St. at Bonita. 528-5403. 

Shut Down Bush and Co. Inc., an anarchist campaign to stop war, with Rod Coronado speaking about direct action and campaigns. At 6 p.m. at the Long Haul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

Winter Solstice Early Morning Hike and Breakfast Meet at 8 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area for beverages and buns and a brief look at the cultural history of the solstice, followed by a hike to see nature in action on the shortest day of the year. We’ll finish with a smorgasbord and music. Registration required. Cost is $5 residents, $7 nonresidents. 525-2233.  

Winter Solstice Gathering Meet at 4 p.m. at the Solar Calendar in Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina. Dress warmly. www.solarcalendar.org 

Magic Wand-Making Workshop at Gravity Feed Gallery, 1959 Shattuck Ave., From 4 to 6 p.m. Hosted by Berkeley psychic Jessica Rabbit. Come make a wand and be your own fairy godmother in 2004! All necessary materials provided. $10 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds. Please RSVP 548-4814 or divarabbit@aol.com  

Café de la Paz Holiday Craft Sale with handmade items from artisans in Borneo, Tibet, Burma and Afghanistan, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1600 Shattuck at Cedar. 547-4258. 

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair between Bancroft and Dwight, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 649-9500. www.telegraphberkeley.org  

Holidays on Solano Ave. with photos with Santa from 1 to 3 p.m. at Sweet Potatoes, 1224 Solano. 

Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 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. 845-2612. www.berkeley.artisans.com  

Amsterdam Art Studios Holiday Sale, with a dozen artists’ paintings and crafts, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1007 University Ave., between 9th and 10th Sts. 

Epic Arts Channukah Party with musicians, performers, puppets, latkes, dreidels, storytelling, and revelry, at 7 p.m. at the 1923 Teahouse. Feel free to bring something to eat, drink, and share. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

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

MONDAY, DEC. 22 

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. 

Grief Information Session at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center. If you have lost someone you love to cancer, come for gentle guidance through the basic steps of grieving. RSVP 420-7900. For more information call or visit www.wcrc.org 

ONGOING 

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 

The Berkeley School Board is now accepting applications for Board Committees and Commissions. Applicants interested in representing a Board Member will find information and applications on the BUSD web site www.berkeleypublicschools.org or by contacting the Public Information Officer at 644-6320. Applications can also be picked up in the Superintendent’s office. 

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 

CITY MEETINGS  

City Council meets Tues., Dec. 16, at 7 p.m., with a special session on the budget at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

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

commissions/housingauthority 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/humane 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/civicarts 

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

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

Energy Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

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

commissions/welfare 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/mentalhealth  

School Board meets Wed. Dec. 3, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Dec. 18, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/transportation

First off, you could start a pretty good argument about the title of the Shotgun Players’ new production—and brand new it is—The Death of Meyerhold. 

It’s a great title all right, short and dramatic and all that, and the play certainly does get around to that issue in the very end, but, aside from seeming a bit gloomy, it’s just not what the play is really about. You’ve got three acts in which only the last one gets to anything about killing the poor guy—and, after all, he was about 66 by then. 

It would be more accurate to call it something like Meyerhold and the Modern Theater or Early 20th Century Theater in Russia, or best of all: Meyerhold, Modern Theater and the Rise of the Soviet Union. Granted, these sound more like thesis titles than they do an evening’s entertainment; however, there’s no question but that they may strike you as a lot more interesting after you see the play than they do right now. 

This play, this production, is an act of love—love for the theater, love for its history, love for its potential. You could almost view it as a duet warbled between Mark Jackson, who both wrote and directed the play, and the Shotgun Players Company, which has unhesitatingly poured into Meyerhold double the money it has ever invested in a previous production. 

Patrick Dooley, founder and artistic director of the company’s productions (and an actor in this one) and who has carefully nursed the company from its vagabond beginnings 12 years ago, made a most astonishing statement. He said that he “didn’t care about the risk” the company is taking. He “just wants people to see the play.” He figures that “we’ll make it up somehow.” 

That’s love. 

(You might want to check the schedule for Thursday’s $10 performances). 

So who is this Meyerhold? Probably most theatergoers have at least heard about Stanislavsky, the Russian who laid the foundation for what we consider modern acting. Meyerhold is a different matter. But he was Stanislavsky’s contemporary, and something of a rival. Meyerhold was his student who broke away and developed his own distinctive philosophy and style of acting. 

In the early part of the twentieth century, Meyerhold became equally as important and as influential as Stanislavsky in the Russian theater but had less opportunity to influence the West. An early Bolshevik, Meyerhold’s career flourished into Stalin’s era, until he challenged Stalin’s ideas about what theater should be. For reasons that this play does not elaborate, Meyerhold was arrested and murdered by the Soviets in 1940. 

A successful effort was then made to wipe out all traces of his life and work. His wife was immediately killed, and, within a week, his apartment had a new tenant. It was not until “The Wall” went down in East Germany in 1960 that Meyerhold’s very existence, as much as his work and extraordinary ideas, were reintroduced into the theater world.  

It’s still new stuff—rather like finding an untouched diamond mine. So the excitement with which the playwright, the artistic director, and the actors have greeted this play is certainly understandable. 

While the theater community’s fascination with the work is almost guaranteed, there remains the question of the play’s relevance for a more general audience. For that there is the background creation of the world of the Soviet Union (it can be startling to realize how much of that horror has receded from memory). It would have been helpful to have these themes fleshed out, particularly since Meyerhold’s murder is left unexplained—as it was in real life, of course. Here it seems almost perfunctory. 

Among them, the 12 talented actors who comprise the cast successfully create some 40 characters. Even Cassidy Brown, who does a fine job as Meyerhold—obviously a lengthy part—has one other small role. The acting thought the production is fascinating: quite stylized. 

According to Patrick Dooley, there are only a few places in the play where Meyerhold’s acting methods are actually used. 

The material, by the way, contains what must be the most extraordinary number of famous characters from the 30s artistic scene that have ever been collected in one evening’s performance. One entire scene is devoted to the Group Theatre in New York—Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Stella Adler, Elia Kazan and on and on—who add a sense of universality to a text which has been saturated with such names as Chekov and Shostakovich and their ilk. 

The net result of portraying the brutality of the Soviet regime largely as a background to artistic issues is interesting: This play provides a peephole in which the audience can get a glimpse of what it must be like to try to continue a private life with its own concerns in a world ruled by authoritarians. 

May we never get closer to that knowledge. 

The Death of Meyerhold, through Dec. 28 Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., at the Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman in Berkeley. Tickets $10-$18 at the box office or at www.shotgunplayers.org/current/curr.cfm. 

TUESDAY, DEC. 16 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theatre Lab, “Heavy Days,” a collaborative ensemble piece about four women who resist and succumb to madness, at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, at Hearst. Cost is $10. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Kindness of Strangers” edited by Don George, an anthology of stories from those who have experienced an unexpected act of compassion, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chanticleer Christmas, 12-man a cappella ensemble performs medieval and Renaissance music, spirituals and traditional carols at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $25-$37 and are available on-line at www.chanticleer.org or from 415-392-4400 or 800-407-1400. 

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

Creoles Belles at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8:00 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Independent Voices Tour with Shawn Smith and Happy Chichester at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17 

FILM 

Cuban Film: “Strawberry and Chocolate” at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$15, benefit for Pastors for Peace. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Early Spring” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Images of Mary in Art: The Pregnant Virgin” with Pamela Thomas, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

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

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hot Club Sandwich at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8:00 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Supplicants perform Afro-Kosmic-Indian-Jazz improv at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Dazed and Confused and Green Hell at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Jazz Mine from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Il Porcino Restaurant, 1403 Solano Ave., in Albany. 528-1237. 

Whiskey Brothers performs oldtime bluegrass at 9 p.m. at at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

Crowsong at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, DEC. 18 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Pro Arts Gallery, “Annual Juried Exhibition,” featuring 15 local artists. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at 461 Ninth St., Oakland. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theatre Lab, “Heavy Days,” a collaborative ensemble piece about four women who resist and succumb to madness, at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, at Hearst. Cost is $10. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice” at 7 p.m. and “Equinox Flower” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Scott Hill, “BustaNutCracker,” modern jazz, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Chelsea Beauchamp, The Tiny and Roberta Chevrette 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 

Guilding the Lily, Fojimoto, Ear Rotator, in a benefit for the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour and Middle East Children’s Alliance at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10-$20. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Box Set, contemporary folk duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

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

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

FRIDAY, DEC. 19 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

ACCI Gallery, “Peace on Earth” Ornament show reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Show runs to Jan 3. 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 

THEATER 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17-$35 and are available from www.calrevels.org or by calling Frantix at 415-621-1216.  

Shotgun Theatre Lab, “Heavy Days,” a collaborative ensemble piece about four women who resist and succumb to the allure of madness, at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, at Hearst. Cost is $10. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Tokyo Twilight” at 7 p.m. and “The Munekata Sisters” at 9:40 p.m.at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

BHS Jazz Lab Band Winter Concert at 7:30 pm at Florence Schwimley Little Theatre. $5 for students/seniors/BHS staff and $10 general admission. 

SONiA of Disappear Fear at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, a house concert and grassroots musical community featuring women singer/songwriters. 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Women's Antique Vocal Ensemble presents a concert of Christmas music at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Admission is $5-$10. 233-1479. 

Let’s Go Bowling, Aggrolites, Soul Captives at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Palenque performs Cuban Son at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Avotcja and Modupue, perfrom Afro-Asian Jazz at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dynamic, Freeway Planet and Bambu at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Eggplant Casino performs lounge, tango, polka at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Hot Buttered Rum String Band performs high altitude bluegrass at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Julie Kelly at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Brainoil, Street Trash, Slit Wrists, Bury the Living, Friday Night Youth Service 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. 

Millicent Wood, jazz vocalist performs a Christmas Celebration at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation of $10 requested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Anton Schwartz, saxophonist, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Jazz Mine from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Il Porcino Restaurant, 1403 Solano Ave., in Albany. 528-1237. 

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

Syncrosystem at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 20 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Dimensions in Fiber” at the Assison Street Windows Gallery, with textile works by George-Ann Bowers, Nina Jacobs, Beth Shipley and Andrea Tucker-Hody. Reception for the artists at 6:30 p.m., 2018 Addison St., between Shattuck and Milvia. 981-7533. 

THEATER 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $17-$35, available from www.calrevels.org or by calling Frantix at 415-621-1216.  

FILM 

Ysaujiro Ozu: “Good Morning” at 2 and 7 p.m. and “Late Autumn” at 4 and 8:55 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Geoffrey Blum, author of many new adventures involving the classic Disney character, Uncle Scrooge, at 2 p.m. at Dr Comics and Mr Games, 4014 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 601-7800. And at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra perform Handel’s “Messiah” at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 964-0665. www.bcco.org 

Bart Davenport, Thom & Nedelle, Dave Gleason, Snowpark& Sam Keener in concert at 9 p.m. at the Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway at 2nd St., Oakland. Tickets are $7. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mikey Dread, performs reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $16 in advance, $18 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Tom Rush, legendary folk singer, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50 in advance, $21.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Holiday Bluegrass Celebration with David Thom and Homespun Row at 4 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $8-15, sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Angel of Thorns, Hidden Tracks and Truckasaurus Sex at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Monkey Knife Fight at 9 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 

Sylvia and the Silvertones at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Plan 9, Tabaltix, Ashtray, Live Ammo, Brutal Death at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 21 

THEATER 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $17-$35 and are available from www.calrevels.org or by calling Frantix at 415-621-1216.  

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Floating Weeds” at 2:30 and 7:35 p.m. and “The End of Summer” at at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at 4:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Donations requested. 845-0888. 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, with violinist Andrew Manze, new Music Director of the English Concert, in an all-Bach Christmas programat 7:30 p.m. at the First Congragational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$60 and are available from 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

ACME Observatory Contem- 

porary Performance Series presents EKG, the duo of Kyle Bruckmann and Ernst Karel, and the Matt Volla ensemble at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Admission is free, donations accepted. 649-8744. http://music.acme.com 

Winter Solstice Ritual with Caroline Casey, KPFA host at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Oka Road, The Latrells, and Melissa Rapp Band at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Laurie Lewis’ Holiday Revue and Freight Fundraiser at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a continuing series by UC Berkeley students on the paths of Berkeley. 

An empty 40-ounce bottle of Mickey’s malt liquor, Styrofoam burger boxes and a variety of disposable cups fill the top of a five-foot tall concrete urn at the foot of Indian Trail in the Berkeley neighborhood of Thousand Oaks. But the trail remains almost pristine.  

Alternating between stone steps and stretches of packed earth, the trail climbs from The Alameda to Yosemite Street, linking the neighborhood and its history and leading to the possible site of an ancient burial ground. 

Nearly a century ago, decorative urns adorned the top of the trail and the rest of the area to demark the new subdivision, said local historian Trish Hawthorne in a phone conversation.  

But only this one remains. Residents are making an “urn fund” to bring the vessels back to Thousand Oaks, an area north of Marin Avenue, where Berkeley juts between Kensington and Albany, neighborhood association president Zelda Bronstein said by phone.  

The Indian Trail opens across from the Great Stoneface Park, whose namesake is a natural rock formation said to be an Indian burial ground, said Richard Schwartz, a local historian and author. 

“In those days, that was a way to sell real estate,” said Schwarz in a telephone interview. But it could be true, he added. The area around the rock had the burial ground reputation before development, he said. And though little research has been done about it, there was once a sizable Indian population in what is now north Berkeley, he said 

Paths like the Indian Trail were built by developers as shortcuts through long streets that followed the natural contours of the hills, said Tom Edwards, member of the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association during a phone interview. “The paths were a way for the developers to market easy access to the rail system,” he said.  

But before development, as early as the 1890s, the Great Stoneface was a popular picnic destination, Schwartz said. With its shaded table and grill, the park still draws people carrying baskets of food. 

The Indian Trail, itself, seems to be somewhere other than in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Past jutting boulders and weathered stone walls, the path at one point offers three choices — steps to the park, a trail to a private home, or straight into a shallow cave. 

Michaela Reyman, a local resident, says the trail feels “woodsy” and makes a good shortcut.  

“It’s kind of like a little fairyland,” she said.

One of the University of California’s best-heeled rivals for the contract to manage Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has dropped out of the competition before it even began. 

“The Berkeley lab is so integrated with Cal Berkeley we don’t think it’s in our interest to compete that straight up,” said William Madia, Executive Vice President for Laboratory Operations at Battelle Corp, a nonprofit that already manages four Energy Department labs. 

Madia doubted that other companies and institutions would battle UC for the Berkeley Lab, but he said Battelle is one of several companies and institutions considering bids for UC’s other two federal labs—Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos—set for open competition when UC’s management contracts expire in 2005. 

Representatives for the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin—UC’s two other most publicized rivals—declined comment on their potential interest in the UC labs. 

Two weeks ago, with the stroke of a pen, President Bush ended UC’s more than half-century stranglehold over its three national laboratories. A provision tucked into a $27 billion energy bill calls for the Department of Energy to hold competitive bidding for lab contracts not contested for over 50 years.  

In addition to the UC labs, the bill affects three other labs—one operated by Iowa State University and the other two operated by the University of Chicago. 

The legislation comes amid repeated allegations of UC mismanagement at Los Alamos and Livermore—the nation’s premier nuclear weapons labs.  

UC faces tough decisions on whether to bid on all three laboratories, the operations of which UC spokesperson Chris Harrington estimated could cost more than $25 million—paid for primarily with lab management fees from the Energy Department.  

While university advisors question the wisdom of retaining Livermore—about 30 miles from UC headquarters—and far-flung Los Alamos—nestled on a high plateau in the New Mexico desert—they insist that LBNL, situated on UC Berkeley grounds and home to hundreds of UC Berkeley faculty and students, must remain with the school. 

“It’s a no-brainer,” said California Institute of Technology Provost Steven Koonin, who advises UC on its labs. “From an institutional sense it’s hard to imagine anyone else able to compete or doing an effective job managing it.” 

Lawrence Berkeley Lab was founded in 1931 and despite becoming a federal lab in 1942, it retains close ties to the university. Among the lab’s 1250 scientists and engineers, 241 are members of the UC Berkeley faculty. Additionally the lab employs 447 graduate students and 67 undergraduates, said Lab spokesperson Ron Kolb said. 

“A lot of what makes the lab work so well is the coordination with UC,” said Staff Scientist Robert Clear. “Bringing in [the University of] Texas could break that special relationship and that would hurt tremendously.” 

Although UC’s contract to run LBNL expires in January, the legislation allows the Department of Energy to delay bidding for up to two years, and UC advisors expect the competition for Berkeley Lab to follow those of Livermore and Los Alamos whose contracts expire in September, 2005. 

The UC Board of Regents will make the final call on whether it will bid for all three labs, Harrington said, based in part on the university’s financial resources and an electronic vote by the Academic Senate scheduled for May. 

Academic Senate Vice Chair George Blumenthal is conducting the poll and said the tough call will be what to do with Livermore and Los Alamos.  

“Everyone wants Berkeley to stay with UC, but there are many questions on the other two.” Some faculty members, he said, have expressed concern that with the mission of Livermore and, especially, Los Alamos shifting towards design and manufacture of next-generation nuclear weapons, it was time for the university to relinquish control. Berkeley lab does not perform weapons research. 

Blumenthal said he hoped that unlike previous polls taken in 1990 and 1996, which most professors skipped, the May vote will accurately reflect the will of the 13,000 member faculty. 

“The Board of Regents stakes its reputation on the prestige of its faculty,” he said. “If the faculty are opposed to bidding to retain the labs, the Regents should know about it and the Department of Energy should know about it.” 

Future UC management of Livermore and Los Alamos will likely include a corporate partner to handle financial management, Koonin said. 

Los Alamos has been plagued by scandal in recent years, which led to the dismissal of the lab director and 18 other officials, and just last week lab officials acknowledged that they had lost 10 disks with classified data. In October, LBNL suspended its chief financial officer after an audit uncovered faulty bookkeeping practices, but found no sign of fraud. 

The Department of Energy has awarded two of their last three lab management contracts to university-corporate partnerships, but Koonin said that since Berkeley lab is so different from the weapons labs, “it was not obvious that UC would need or want corporate partners.” 

Kolb didn’t expect major staff turnover in the event UC lost control of Berkeley lab, but feared that transferring retirement benefits could be tricky. 

Asked if the government might just move the whole operation out of Berkeley, Koonin replied that the lab is “so closely tied to the expertise of Berkeley faculty and has such a huge physical plant, I don’t see how the government could pick it up and move it elsewhere.”

Saddam Hussein’s capture and eventual trial, if properly conducted, could begin a new and more positive phase in the saga of the United States and Iraq. Or it could devolve into a continuation of the pattern of exploitation of Saddam’s monster image that the Bush administration has adopted throughout the conflict to justify its actions.  

Saddam Hussein was the most useful kind of villain—maximally useful to his enemies as a symbol of evil even as they destroyed him.  

If there is any doubt about this, one need only witness the near-universal judgment that while Saddam Hussein’s capture is a military victory, it is primarily a political victory for President George W. Bush. Mere hours after the news of the capture, pollsters moved to gauge the effect of the event on the president’s popularity. The news media immediately turned from discussion of Saddam to the length of the “boost” that Bush would get from the capture.  

In and of itself, Saddam’s capture has little real effect on the ongoing Iraqi conflict—it is an afterthought to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Saddam had ceased to have any real significance almost immediately after the first tanks rolled over the border from Kuwait. In subsequent months his sons and heirs had been killed, and his military infrastructure scattered in disarray.  

Despite his terrible crimes, Saddam had been so weakened in the last decade that he was no longer a danger to the world, although he continued to oppress the Iraqi people. He had been contained so tightly that he would likely never have been able to deploy his purported weapons of mass destruction—if they even exist. He was easily toppled in March, and on Dec. 14, just as easily captured.  

Saddam’s earlier, highly publicized crimes allowed the U.S. administration to exploit him as a bogeyman with impunity. Not only was invective and violence directed against him for his real crimes, but also for crimes he did not commit—most prominently the terrible tragedy of the attack against the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.  

When the U.S. occupation began to go sour, with attacks against troops resulting in more deaths after the invasion than during, Saddam was conveniently blamed for masterminding the opposition in spirit, if not in person. In fact, there are many disparate opposition groups fighting U.S. troops, largely without central control. As even U.S. officials now acknowledge, the attacks will continue for the immediate future.  

Finally, U.S. administration officials and supporters tried immediately to squeeze the last drop of political juice from his capture in a manner particularly patronizing to the long-suffering Iraqi citizens. The picture they painted was one of an entire population cowering in fear and unable to move forward for fear that Saddam would return.  

In the best of all possible worlds, Saddam would be tried by Iraqis in open court, where every mystery concerning his rule would be revealed to the world. Such an event would have a cleansing effect, allowing the Iraqi people and the world to move forward. It would show the world that the United States was committed to the rule of law, advocating treatment of even the worst criminals with equanimity. To his credit, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has called for just such a trial.  

However, Saddam may know so much that the United States will try to control the proceedings. The ghost of Hermann Goering, who revealed every embarrassing skeleton in the Nazi closet at Nuremberg, hangs heavy over Saddam’s trial.  

Having him alive and talking to the world may implicate his captors in a particularly uncomfortable manner. The decade-long Iran-Iraq conflict of the 1980s is one particularly thorny event, in which the United States is complicit in supplying intelligence support—and perhaps weaponry—to Iraq. The conduct of current U.S. government figures, such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, and indeed, President George H. W. Bush during this period is especially problematic. Saddam can easily make the case that if he had not been boosted by the United States, he would never have been the international threat he was purported to be.  

Providing Saddam with an open speaker’s platform in court will undoubtedly be uncomfortable, but it is the right way to proceed. The world will then see the real Hussein, rather than the symbolic villain the United States has been fighting for the past two years. The United States will survive the embarrassment arising from its past intemperate behavior. However, more important is for Iraqi society to experience the healing of the “truth and reconciliation” that will come from such an event.  

William Beeman teaches anthropology and directs Middle East Studies at Brown University. He is author of the forthcoming book, Iraq: State in Search of a Nation.

Berkeley citizens tired of hearing about the city’s ongoing budget problems will certainly want to skip tonight’s (Tuesday, Dec. 16) City Council meeting, which features two sessions on the subject. 

The 5 p.m. work session includes discussions of City Manager Kamlarz’ proposed Budget Crisis Recovery Strategy, his recommendations for dispersal of some $69 million in carryover funds from the last fiscal year. Council action on both items are scheduled to be taken at the 7 p.m. regular session. 

Kamlarz has proposed a nine-point program to cut $4.9 million in funds that will be lost to Berkeley in the next fiscal year due to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rescinding of the Vehicle License Fee (VLF). 

Along with giving a timeline for preparing final cuts for the Fiscal Year 2004-05 budget, the city manager has recommended a “hard hiring freeze” (the quotations are Kamlarz’), a moratorium on all new expenditures, “aggressively” pursuing cost recovery from nonprofit landowners, and recovering the infamous “escaped” property taxes and fees. 

The most controversial part of Kamlarz’ budget-cutting plan may be in the area of what he calls “labor saving programs.” Mayor Tom Bates has already publicly indicated that such programs may include closing city fire stations on a rotating basis. 

Berkeley firefighters reacted immediately, announcing plans for an informational picket and protest rally against the proposed cuts at tonight’s Council meeting. 

Over the weekend, members of Berkeley Firefighters Association Local 1227—the union credited with striking the death blow to the mayor’s proposed parcel tax—also stood on city streetcorners passing out slick, two-color handouts featuring a picture of a firefighter holding a presumably rescued infant and proclaiming “The City wants to close your fire station. They call it ‘brownouts.’ We call it response time roulette.” 

The firefighters local also issued a press statement opposing the proposed rotating closures, stating that “station closures of any type will increase response time and make our citizens less safe” and calling on Council to “cut the fat, not the fire department.” 

Kamlarz has recommended that City Council hold back $2.8 million of the approximately $43 million in funds from this year’s budget that were not tied up in contracts and are not yet spent. His proposal will almost certainly come under attack from both ends of the spectrum: those who want the city to hold back more, and those who want to preserve items already budgeted. 

Under pressure of the budget crunch, several councilmembers are expected to ask Kamlarz to increase the projected $2.8 million holdback. At the same time, some councilmembers will oppose some of the cuts already proposed. Opposition to Kamlarz’ recommendations is expected to center around the city’s disabled community. 

In an op-ed article published today in the Daily Planet (see Page Seven), Councilmember Dona Spring calls for restoration of budgeted funds for the city’s warm water pool and sidewalk curb cuts, two projects earmarked for disabled citizens that Kamlarz wants to postpone. 

“No other community group is being targeted with cuts of this magnitude,” Spring writes. “These cuts will not solve the structural budget deficit problems connected to employee cost-of-living increases and retirement benefits.” 

In other action tonight, council will hold a public hearing on implementing an automated, photo traffic light enforcement system in Berkeley. If approved, the proposal would authorize a contract with an outside agency to place cameras at several city intersections to catch drivers running red lights. The cost of the contract is expected to be more than made up by the extra revenue generated from fines. A controversial portion of the proposed contract sets aside 10% of the fine for each ticket to the private company operating the cameras. 

Council will also take its first look at the report of the Mayor’s Permit Task Force, though no more than that. Implementation of the task force’s recommendations is not expected to be discussed until sometime next year.

DISAPPOINTED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was disappointed in the coverage of the events inside and outside of Mr. Mopps (Daily Planet, Dec. 12-15). Your reporter appears more interested in condemning the police than in finding out what happened. 

The report begins by stating that “a woman inexplicably attacked two shoppers with her bare hands...at Mr. Mopps Children’s Books.” That’s the only explanation readers get for why police were called to the scene. 

And yet, we are told that the Daily Planet’s photographer believes “excessive force” was used by the police on the scene. A woman at a nearby bus stop is said to have believed “excessive force” was used. (It’s unclear from the article whether the phrase was used by the witness herself or by the reporter’s prompt, as in “Do you believe the police used excessive force?” Given the obvious slant of the article, I would not be surprised if this were the case.) 

The reporter appears to have made no effort to question witnesses inside the store. Or if he did, he did not include this in his report.  

If it’s true that the woman in the photograph attacked people without provocation in a toy store, why wouldn’t the police assume that she was a danger?  

Rosemary Graham 

• 

BUSD FOOD SERVICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Unified School District’s Food Services is slated to lose at least another $600,000 this year. This would total a loss of $2.4 million over the last three years. This loss has contributed to teacher layoffs and severe over crowding of classes at the high school. Half of the classes for my sophomore at BHS have over 40 students in each class.  

Three years ago, Michele Lawrence was asked at a meeting how long it is reasonable for taxpayers to endure incompetence in Food Service management. She didn’t answer the question. I guess three years is not too long; $2.4 million is not too much to lose. A state report from FCMAT this July stated that as of July no one in the administration had instructed Food Services to stop losing money. Unbelievable! To add insult to injury, the Food Services administrator, who is paid a six-figure salary, received a 7.5 percent raise this past summer, courtesy of Nancy Riddle, John Selawsky, and Terry Doran. Only Shirley Issel and Joaquin Rivera expressed the common sense to oppose this raise.  

This fall, the School Board wants to put a school parcel tax on the ballot asking us for tax money. Before the school board does so, please tell us, how long will BUSD use tax payers money to pay for incompetent administrators at the expense of teachers in the classroom.  

John Selawsky, you’re the new board president. You stated publicly before you voted for the pay raise that “hard work deserves reward.” Tell us how this incompetent administrator deserved a raise, and why hasn’t this administrator been held accountable for her incompetence? Let’s see a reply in this paper.  

Yolanda Huang  

• 

LIKE ALL THE REST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet has sunk to the quality of the rest of the media with Becky O’Malley’s editorial (“Anatomy of a Failed Tax Vote,” Daily Planet, Dec. 5-8). Ms. O’Malley generalized that the higher hills are increasingly populated by rich people who shop in San Francisco and Walnut Creek, read the New York Times, summer on Cape Cod and send their kids to private school. She further opined that “Hill People” don’t care about school closings, big box invasions and fast food culture because we don’t read the Planet. 

Ms. O’Malley needs correcting. We’ve lived in the “higher hills” for more than 15 years. Our kids steadfastly attend Berkeley public schools and so do most of our neighbors’ kids. In fact, we’re proud of our oldest son’s observation (a Berkeley High graduate) of his alma mater, “our strongest institutions recognize that everyone has something to contribute.” 

Ms. O’Malley could learn something from that sentiment before she alienates people who generally oppose big-box, fast-food culture; oppose the Bush administration’s exploitative attitude towards the rest of the planet; generously support Berkeley’s public schools with money and time; and who support sustainability through organic farming and buying local whenever possible. Some of our neighbors are retired, and live on fixed incomes; and almost everyone we know up here has to be frugal to make it to the next paycheck. Our youngest son, a Berkeley High student, is curious why a newspaper with such liberal credentials would engage in such stereotypes in the first place! 

Don’t generalize about us, because you obviously don’t know us, and, for heaven’s sake, don’t alienate us. In the spirit of marshaling Berkeley’s meager resources in an increasingly hostile America, we need each other.  

By the way, we avidly read the Daily Planet. We love Berkeley and its diversity, and we’ve been proud of the way our “daily” knits our community together by provoking thought and dialogue, and by standing apart from the rest of the media. Editorials like “Anatomy...” however, simply provoke! 

Bryan Sheridan 

• 

SCAPEGOAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was reported in the local media that City Council voted down the appeal of neighbors to stop construction at the city’s Corporation Yard. Council blamed the budget difficulties for their decision. This is very disturbing and alarming because it shows City Council is willing to sacrifice truth and justice for the sake of budget. Or, perhaps, the city is now using the budget problem as a scapegoat to push for its pro-development agenda by voting down appeals by neighbors. It appears that the city is offering Berkeley on a silver platter to developers and corporations. The city is now run by Kennedy, Starbucks, AT&T, etc. Residents and local businesses are being sacrificed for such entities. Not long ago, people in Berkeley had power, and there were UC Theater, Shambhala Book-store, etc. Mayor Bates and Councilmembers, could you be fair to the people of Berkeley, please? Honorable mayor, according to the news, you plan to file a lawsuit against the governor for his repeal of the vehicle license fee increase. If you believe what the governor has done is unfair, then look how unfair rulings of City Council or other city offices affect lives of Berkeley residents. 

Mina Davenport 

• 

GETTING COZY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This year’s annual membership dinner for AIPAC was held at the Oakland Marriot on Dec. 8. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is the premier lobby group that convinces Congress to give $5 billion every year to fund the military occupation of Palestine.  

Outside this gathering was a picket line, with a demand for a foreign policy of peace and justice, and money for human needs, not occupation.  

This did not deter many of the guests from attending, however. Among them were Mayor Tom Bates and his wife, Assemblymember Loni Hancock. Why, in the midst of dealing with a city budget crisis, does Mr. Bates feel the need to cozy up to a lobby that insists that U.S. taxpayers fund this brutal occupation?  

Berkeley is a city known worldwide for its questioning of U.S. policy, most of us have outgrown that kind of blind allegiance to U.S. government policy that we know is really destructive to the well-being of our planet, and the real interests of our own country. So why does Mayor Bates support this gathering that Jewish Weekly described as an “Israel pep rally,” showing that same kind of destructive devotion to the policies of the Israeli government?  

Just what were you thinking, Mr. Bates?  

We are organizing a write-in to Mr. Bates, demanding that he listen to the other side for a few hours, to those of us who are desire an end to occupation, and U.S. funding of this tragedy. More information can be found at www.tomjoad.org.  

James F. Harris  

• 

CODY’S BOOKS  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I so enjoyed Dorothy Bryant’s article about Pat Cody (“Cody’s Books Co-founder Leads an Activist’s Life,” Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11). Well written and really useful to those of us who live in Berkeley and care about its historical legacy as a center of real change. 

The article, however, left out an important source on Pat and Fred Cody, Pat and Fred’s own book: Cody’s Books, made of up letters by Fred and commentary by Pat, covering the years 1956-1977, published in 1992 by Chronicle Books. Cody’s is sure to have some copies of this important document of Berkeley history. 

Paul Heller 

• 

DISTORTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The article by George Bishwarat (“The Other Diaspora Israelis Must Confront,” Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11) is full of errors and distortions. Palestinians were not “driven out of Israel” in 1948 but left on the advice of the leaders of the Arab states. Israel absorbed over 600,000 of the 900,000 Jews who were driven out Arab lands. The United States supported the UN’s 1947 mandate which established two states, but the Arab states and the Arabs of Palestine rejected it. The combined aries of the Arab states attacked Israel the day after Israel was created.  

Today Arabs are citizens of Israel and serve in the Parliament. More than 1.2 million Arabs live in Israel. If they were driven out in 1948, then where did they come from? 

Professor Bishwarat’s article is full of outright lies and is a pure propaganda piece.  

Sanne DeWitt  

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

George Bisharat’s propaganda piece on the Palestinian refugee problem was so full of twisted “facts” that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with the fact that what Bisharat calls refugees are not really refugees, but rather (unlike any other recognized refugee group in history) these are the children and grandchildren of refugees. All other refugee groups have been taken in by their hosts—just as Israel took in nearly 800,000 Jewish refugees who fled Arab lands after the 1948 war, just as Germany resettled displaced German nationals after World War II, just as India and Pakistan resettled their people after the partition of Pakistan. Only the Arab nations, like Egypt and Syria, refused to patriate the original refugees (and their descendants)—in fact, the Palestinians still may not become citizens of most Arab countries. In truth, the Arabs have kept their brethren in squalid camps for decades as a political ploy—to keep hope alive that the Jews will be defeated and that Arabs will rule what is now Israel.  

James Sinkinson 

Oakland 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding your article by George Bisharat on the Palestinian refugee history and current problem. 

I thought it might be interesting for you and your readers to read what Arab and Palestinian leaders published in the immediate aftermath of the “Nakba”, which I agree was a terrible catastrophy for the Arabs of Palestine. 

“The Arab states do now want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the UN and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die” RUTH GALLOWAY, former head of UNWRO-1956 

“Since 1948, the Arab leaders have approached the Palestinian problem in an irresponsible manner. They have used to Palestinian people for political purposes; this is ridiculous, I might even say criminal...” KING HUSSSEIN 1996 

“Since 1948, it is we who have demanded the return of the refugees, while it is we who made them leave. We brought disaster upon the refugees by inviting them and bringing pressure on them to leave. We have accustomed them to begging...we have participated in lowering their morale and social level...Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson and throwing stones upon men, women and children...all this in the service of political purposes...”  

KHALED AL-AZM Syrian prime mistier after the 1948 War, in his 1972 memoirs. 

“The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequences of the Arab of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously, and they must share in the solution of the problem” 

Emil Ghoury, secretary-general of the Arab Higher Committee - Beirut Telegraph, Sept. 6 1948 

In the historical context Prof. Benny Morris, who Mr. Bisharat refered to as a recognized expert on the subject of the Palestinian refugees, at the end of his book concludes with the comment that had the Palestinian Arabs not rejected the UN partition plan for Palestine and had the Arab League not declared war on Israel, there would have been NO refugee problem  

I trust your news paper, if truly responsible, will share this information with your readers. 

Yoram Getzler 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

[The following is an open letter to Delta Upsilon fraternity. Please run it in your opinion section.] 

December 12, 2003 

Open letter to Delta Upsilon fraternity, 

As members of the Oscar Wilde House, an openly lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) themed co-op, we are outraged by a series of homophobic acts by some residents of the Delta Upsilon (DU) fraternity. These actions have continued despite repeated protests and must stop. 

At 9:40 PM on the night of December 5, Marcio von Muhlen, DU’s new president, was left by his fraternity brothers on our front porch, tied to a chair, and drenched in a nauseating combination of salad dressing, salsa, and beer. This person told us he was DU’s new president and this was the fraternity using its one opportunity to treat him badly before his term started. 

Other incidents of harassment occurred this year as well. This letter does not include more commonplace occurrences of people on the front steps of DU heckling Wilde members entering and leaving our house. On June 28, four men walked into our house uninvited at 3 in the morning, were obnoxiously loud and drunk, and told a female member of our house, “It’s okay. We love lesbians. Show us your pussy—but God hates faggots and we hate faggots.” These men had Irish accents, as did some others in other incidents listed here who identified themselves as residents of DU. 

At 3:40 AM on July 1, five individuals from DU carried a man who was saran-wrapped to a chair across the street to our front porch and left him there. The group returned to the DU lawn, where about ten people yelled at us to “Fuck him up the ass!” among other things, while laughing. 

On the street near our house at 12:30 AM on July 15, a man, accompanied by another man and a woman, hit the buttocks of a member of our house with a purse repeatedly and unprovoked as they passed by. When asked if they were from DU, they replied yes. When our house member replied he was from Wilde, this man said, “You’re gay then.” When the house member said he was not, this man said, “Well, you live there. That’s the gay house. If you live there you are gay. 

After these and other incidents this summer, we spoke with von Muhlen, who was then DU’s house manager, and made clear we felt these incidents were harassment and homophobic. However, the events of December 5 proved that DU has so far refused to change its behavior. 

DU’s idea of humiliating their new president is to tie him up and put him on public display in front of a queer house, as if this would subject him to unwanted gay sexual advances. DU’s ritual is homophobic and based on a dehumanizing stereotype of LGBT people. It is intolerable that prejudice against queer people should be institutionalized in DU’s culture. 

These are not the only incidents of harassment we have received from DU. In October or November of 1999, a friend of a current member of the Wilde House was dropped off in front of our house, when approximately ten men rushed out of DU and ran after him. Two women of our house stepped outside to confront the men. The men left after yelling “dyke” at the two women. 

These incidents have occurred repeatedly, and we can only conclude that there is an anti-queer sentiment in DU and that we have been targeted for harassment because we are an LGBT-themed house. These actions will not be tolerated. 

We are DU’s neighbors and equals, as completely deserving of respect as any other human beings. We want to make the street we both live on a safe and tolerant community for all. 

The Oscar Wilde House is a proud community of queer and straight people who support and recognize the dignity and equality of everyone. We expect DU to make a written apology to our house and to the public for its homophobic actions, and to make a formal commitment to stop harassing LGBT people in the future. 

Sincerely, 

The Oscar Wilde House, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender themed student co-op 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

to: The Mayor and City Council Members, City of Berkeley 

from: The Berkeley Budget Oversight Committee 

re: Reasons for our opposition to the proposed rotating closure of fire companies during daylight hours from Jan. 1, 2004 to June 24, 2004 for an estimated savings of $250,000. 

1. Implementing this City Council proposed cut in fire safety services will potentially negatively impact the response time of a fire truck reaching an incident; a fire or a medical emergency. 

2. If a death or a health hazard to an individual or property damage results from a delayed response time, the city will probably be sued for damage. Since the city is self-insured, it means that tax payers will pay this bill.  

3. The potential delay in response time also a reassessment of the “ISO” fire rates used by insurance companies in assigning home owner’s fire insurance. Therefore, our insurance rates will probably increase. 

4. Can you honestly stand by a proposal to save $250,000 gambling with Berkeley residents lives when you continually fund projects that have no impact on public safety. 

Can you do this in good conscience? Don’t you think that your constituency will remember this when you are up for re-election? We feel that that there is an implied contract between the elected body that represents government and their constituency to provide adequate public safety for it’s constituency. Essential public safety services are fire, police, sewers, clean water and air, and eliminating toxic environmental spills. Almost everything else is secondary. 

In this instance, we would recommend that the need for overtime would best be addressed by filling the vacancies in both the fire and police departments. 

Viki Tamaradze

Nearly 3,000 people packed the Berkeley Community Theater Sunday evening to remember and celebrate the life of Father Bill O’Donnell, Berkeley’s well-known and beloved priest who passed away early last week. 

Before his plain pine coffin draped in a United Farm Workers flag in front of the stage, friends, family and fellow activists of Father Bill spent the evening telling stories, singing songs and recalling their favorite memories of a priest who served Berkeley since 1973.  

The diversity embodied in those assembled attested to the reach of Father Bill, who among other things was known as one of the last activist priests—with over 240 arrests on his record for his participation in pro-peace, pro-labor, and anti-nuclear demonstrations.  

Among the luminaries in the crowd were Mary O’Donnell, Bill’s sister, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Representative Barbara Lee, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, actor Martin Sheen, State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Mayor Tom Bates, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Berkeley City Council Members Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington and Maudelle Shirek, Bishop John Cummins, and UFW President Arturo Rodriquez. 

“Have you nothing better to do with your lives? Why are you at my funeral? That’s what Bill would be asking,” said Mary O’Donnell, first to speak at the event.  

Throughout the night, speakers referred to the priest’s dedication as an activist, many recounting their favorite arrest experiences with the priest they said had inspired and motivated them. 

His list of involvements, like his police record, was long, including work with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the Farm Worker’s movement, his work in Central America, the Middle East, the anti-Apartheid and anti-nuclear movements and at Georgia’s Fort Benning, home to what was formerly known as the School of the Americas. 

Alongside the highlights of his national and international activist career, several speakers talked about the priest’s impact on the local community. 

“We need to figure out how to honor Bill. I suggest we make him the patron saint of Berkeley,” said Mayor Tom bates to cheers. 

Tom Gorom, a recent graduate from Berkeley’s Options Recovery Services—a program Father Bill championed—recalled the mix of humor and compassion Bill embodied.  

“He called me after graduation and asked me if I wanted to go have a drink,” joked Gorom, who before enrolling was also homeless. “Bill was the definition of empathy. I will continue to model my life after this great man. I love you Bill.” 

The event also included a slide show and short movie clips showed Father Bill as a child and during some of his more notorious arrests. Crowd favorites included the shots of him in the back of police vans and behind bars with activist friend Martin Sheen. 

What some found especially moving was the movie made about the UFW grape boycott. Unknowingly, many in the crowd discovered that the sweeping shot of the priest standing on the line with Chavez decades ago while they confronted Teamsters Union thugs was none other than Father Bill. 

Testifying to the death of that old animosity was Teamsters International Vice President Chuck Mack, who with Dolores Huerta in the front row, openly admitted his union had been in the wrong. He along with Huerta, Arturo Rodriguez from the UFW, Judy Goff from the Alameda Central Labor Council, and Fred Ross Jr. from the Service Employees International Union all recalled Father Bill’s work with labor and his dedication to the working people. 

Also present both in the crowd and among the speakers were those who had worked with Bill on anti-nuclear campaigns and Dr. Davida Cody who worked closely with Bill in Berkeley and on his several trips to South America and the Middle East. 

Rounding out the speakers were Martin Sheen and the often-arrested Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the movement working to close the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security. As Bill’s friends, both were present to watch Bill trespass last year during a protest at the Institute of Security, an action that landed him in the Atwater Penitentiary for six months. Bourgeois also watched as Bill called the sentencing judge a “pimp for the Pentagon,” a statement Bourgoisie said defined the life of a man who was never afraid to speak truth to power. 

Following the ceremonies at the Community Theater, a candlelight procession headed from the theater to Father Bill’s church, St. Joseph the Worker. Carrying pictures of the priest and following his coffin, the throng filled the streets singing songs as they went.  

“Que viva Father Bill!,” shouted walkers. “Father Bill, Presente!” 

At the church, the throng passed by the open coffin where with Father Bill lay in his cassock, a simple wooden cross in his hands. Viewers shed tears silently and gathered together to remember the man that touched so many of them, one last time. 

“This was a celebration, that’s the only way it could be,” said Sheen as he made his way out of the church. “Someone like Bill only comes once in a lifetime.”  

John Geluardi contributed to this story.

I took time off from my San Francisco State MFA studies to take my husband, Ralph, to the doctor. It was a routine appointment with his urologist but we had some concerns. Due to his paralysis, Ralph cannot feel pain below his shoulders. But I can tell when he’s sick in a variety of ways: fever, slurred speech, lethargy, sediment in his urine, unpleasant smells. 

It does not take a rocket scientist to know when Ralph is not well. Wait, I need to clarify this statement. Ralph IS a rocket scientist. He holds a PhD in nuclear physics from Cal Tech, but he doesn’t always know when he’s sick. It doesn’t take a medical degree for me to know when Ralph needs help. 

After almost ten years of living with his disabilities and more visits to the emergency room and stays in intensive care unit than I can count, I should get one of those honorary doctorates just for hanging around Kaiser. Hell, Ralph and I may put in more time there then some staff members. 

But the urologist disagreed with the urgency of my urinary track diagnosis. I don’t think he ever actually looked inside the tube inserted directly into Ralph’s bladder and I’m sure he didn’t try to make a diagnosis by smelling its content. He told us, as he has in the past, that Ralph would always have these kinds of problem and that urinary tract infections are routine in a quadriplegic. 

I took Ralph home, put him to bed and attempted to make him as comfortable as possible. What do I know? I thought. I may live with Ralph for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but isn’t it “the doctor who knows best?” 

Throughout the week Ralph grew sicker and sicker, and finally, after 24 hours of his not being able to keep food or liquids down, I called an advice nurse at Kaiser. I explained that I thought he had a urinary tract infection and that he was dehydrated. She advised me to get him to the emergency room as soon as possible. He needed immediate attention.  

Surprisingly, after a few hours in the ER, Ralph’s urologist showed up. He told the attending physician that Ralph always has urinary tract infections. Give him some tests, he advised, and plenty of fluids. Eight hours later we were sent home.  

But Ralph grew sicker. He did not keep down the IV liquids he had been given. By the time I got him back to Kaiser to see his general practitioner his blood pressure had plummeted to an almost unreadable level. 

The doctor looked at Ralph’s massive, eight-inch thick file. “Why didn’t someone read the results of the test he was given on Thursday in the ER?” he asked me. “Why wasn’t your husband given antibiotics?” 

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I don’t actually know how to read those tests and I’m not allowed to prescribe drugs.”  

The GP called the ER and told them to get a room ready for us. Ralph was given antibiotics through tubes in both arms and dopamine to bring up his blood pressure. After 10 hours we were sent to the intensive care unit where he continued to get drugs intravenously. I suppose this was to make up for the antibiotics he should have gotten a week earlier. But hey, what do I know? 

I take that back. I did know. And someone should have listened to me. We could have saved Kaiser a bundle of money. We could of saved ourselves $100, the bill for two visits to the ER (soon to go up to $200 I’m told) and we could have kept Ralph from suffering. Lord (and Kaiser) knows, he has suffered enough already.  

By the light of the green wavy lines from various machines that Ralph is hooked to, and with the sound of his labored breath beside me, I crack open one of my text books from SFSU and try to study. But it seems silly and pointless. Maybe I really should be going to school for a medical degree instead of an MFA.

Some Berkeley restaurant and café goers found closed doors at their favorite spots Friday after employees took the day off to join a statewide strike in support of immigrant rights. 

The strike, called in reaction to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to repeal the law to license undocumented immigrant drivers, helped shut down businesses across the state. But unlike Oakland, where most of International Boulevard was closed, only a handful of shops were affected in Berkeley. 

Adding to the strike here was a protest led by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN. The rally, which drew over a hundred marchers, started at the downtown BART station and proceeded to UC Berkeley. 

“We’re sick and tired of racism and of Schwarzenegger,” said Tania Kappner, BAMN organizer and an Oakland school teacher. “We’re here to say that immigrants should have full rights in this state.” 

Protesters voiced fury over the governor’s decision to repeal the law, which they called a slap in the face to the immigrants they called the backbone of the state’s economy. 

“We harvest your food, we take care of your kids, we clean your houses, so we deserve the same rights as everyone else,” said several protesters. 

Shihaddi Kitani, owner of Razan’s Organic Kitchen on Kittredge, was one of the few employers who closed to show his support. 

“My employees said they wanted to strike, and I’m an immigrant myself, so I said why not,” said Kitani who was born in Jordan. “The strike is a way to show that we can still put pressure on those who are in charge.”

The community should be alerted to the fact that with almost no warning, City Council is currently considering cutting funding for people with disabilities and seniors. On the chopping block at the next Council meeting is $149,000 that is appropriated for the warm water pool and almost $346,000 for new curb cuts. These cuts would be in addition to approximately $212,500 (one third of the overall allocation) that was already cut from this year’s budget for compliance with the federally mandated American Disabilities Act (ADA). No other community group is being targeted with cuts of this magnitude. 

Even though there are many repairs needed for the warm water pool (used by many disabled and seniors for doctor-prescribed physical therapy) this funding has languished. City staff has not wanted to use this allocation because of the voter approved bond money to build a new pool. Unfortunately, it is unknown if and when this bond money can be spent because the school district is half a decade or more away from making a decision as to the future of the old BHS gymnasium building which houses this pool. Taking the funds away now will leave the warm water pool in its current inaccessible and dilapidated condition with no future assistance since the bond money cannot be used for repairs. 

The $346,000 proposed cut would kill the installation of up to 30 curb cuts. Over 212 (unfunded) curb cuts have already been identified as needing replacement. The funding has accumulated because curb cuts are a low priority for the city. In addition, last year, the city staff and council rejected my initiative to require that new curb cuts be located inside of the crosswalks so that wheelchair users would not have to endanger themselves while crossing the street. The response was it is too expensive because it requires bigger crosswalks or two ramps, one at each corner. Many of the city’s curb cuts are dangerously steep and unsafe for electric wheelchair users, which forces them onto the street where they get injured or killed by automobiles. 

The City of Berkeley spends very little general fund money on people with disabilities compared to other constituency groups. The money allocated is mainly for making buildings and facilities accessible. The city will increase its susceptibility to lawsuits under the ADA if it does not make a reasonable attempt at improving accessibility. 

At the last Council meeting, I pleaded (to no avail) with the mayor and council to take these funding allocations off the chopping block so that panicked disabled people would not have to pay for personal-care assistants so they can come out in the cold rainy weather to protest these cuts. These cuts will not solve the structural budget deficit problems connected to employee cost-of-living increases and retirement benefits.  

At the same meeting, Council increased the city manager’s authority to spend (without Council approval) contracts of up to $50,000 for services and $100,000 for capital improvements. In addition, $90,000 was approved for a consultant to just study parking signs—the cost of these signs will be up to an additional $1.4 million—all money that could be shifted into the general fund. At this time the council is currently spending millions of dollars on new city buildings, furnishings and facilities. This council does not need to balance the budget by going after the small funding allocations of the most vulnerable. 

In the memory of Fred Lupke and Ed Roberts (who are no doubt turning over in their graves) members of the community should call and come to the Tuesday Dec. 16 meeting where there will be a 10-minute public comment period around 6 p.m. and a 30-minute public comment at 7 p.m.—not much time given the gravity of the cuts. If the Berkeley City Council cuts the under funded disabled what chance to they have fighting the draconian cuts proposed by the governor?  

Dona Spring is a Berkeley City Councilmember. Anyone interested in more information can contact her at 981-7140. 

Bayer Healthcare AG—Berkeley’s sixth largest employer and the city’s largest corporate job source—announced a 11 percent workforce reduction Thursday, a move that will leave 190 Berkeley employees without a job. 

The move was announced as part of a consolidation and realignment of the German corporation’s biotech research division. 

Clelia Baur, director of public policy and communications for the Berkeley facility, said the changes will transfer Berkeley jobs to sites in West Haven, Conn., and Wuppertal, Germany, where the company is based. 

The facility’s two other divisions—diagnostics, which conducts nucleic acid diagnostics, and manufacturing, the department responsible for producing the leading biotechnology therapy Kogenate, a treatment for hemophilia—won’t be affected, she said. 

According to Baur, changes to the biotech division had been scheduled for some time. According to other reports however, the move to consolidate followed an unsuccessful search for a partner company to aid the struggling division. 

Many employees, including a sizable number of Ph.D.s, according to Baur, will have the opportunity to fill openings in other divisions at the Berkeley facility. 

“This particular group had known for some time that the pharmaceutical group had been looking at different options,” she said. 

Those not rehired will be phased out over either a 3-, 6-, or 12-month period and will be given severance packages.  

“We will be working aggressively to find them other positions either in Bayer or close by,” said Baur. 

Of the 190 affected by the cutbacks, 17 are represented under a contract with the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Worker’s (ILWU) Union Local 6 which represents 500 of facility’s 1700 employees.  

“The impact we hope is minimal,” said Fred Pecker, the Secretary Treasurer for the local. “We’re hopeful that most of [the union employees] are absorbed into other positions.” 

Also affected are 75 people at a Bayer facility in Kyoto, Japan, who will lose their jobs during the first half of 2004 when the company moves their positions to Germany.

NO PROBLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Father Bill and I drove together to get arrested at a Presidio Housing takeover, and I recited a song I’d just written about unconditional love. 

‘You should enroll in the seminary,” he said. 

“I thought they didn’t take women?” I asked. 

“They will someday,” he replied. I told him I didn’t believe in God, and that that might be considered a problem. 

“That doesn’t matter,” he responded. “You’d be perfect.” I think we laughed the rest of the way. And saved the housing. 

Carol Denney 

• 

ORGANIZE! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When I saw the front of your paper the other day my heart sank and I immediately felt a great loss upon thinking of not being able to see Father Bill at the next protest, or trying to catch him at St. Joseph’s when he wasn’t napping. I thought about how one of the last times I saw him was at St. Joseph’s, and how for once he wasn’t wearing his collar and the infamous black jacket, but a simple black t-shirt with “troublemaker” across the front. I also thought about how he was kicked out of Berkeley Bowl last June after I asked him to come down and help encourage Berkeley Bowl workers to form a union. It didn’t take long for management to catch on to him, and he was kicked out of the store that day and told to take his “commie shit” elsewhere. 

But of course we all loved Father Bill for stuff like this, and in true Irish tradition we can’t let ourselves mourn his death for too long, but rather focus on his amazing life and seek to continue to struggle for the things he held dear. I was reminded of this tonight as I went to a rally he would have attended, in support of workers’ rights, had he not passed away on Monday. A friend in the labor community said that the last time she talked to him he asked her when she was going to organize an action at a local Safeway in support of the Southern California grocery workers. So as we celebrate Father Bill’s life in the coming days, let’s make damn sure to continue to fight the bastards he always fought so hard against, and not let Father Bill’s passion for peace and justice die with his body. I think that he would have it no other way. 

Chuck McNally 

Fired Berkeley Bowl Worker and Irish Catholic  

Berkeley and its environs are known as a treasure trove of inimitable shops, each worth a visit. 

Let’s start with the hardware stores, for in Berkeley each one is unique. That’s because they’re Ace Hardware stores, members of a buying cooperative whose collective purchasing power enables its 5,000 participating businesses to get good prices but also allows them to buy from outside vendors, to display their merchandise as they please and to run their stores as they like. That’s a boon to holiday shoppers in search of interesting gifts.  

Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware, 2951 College Ave. at Ashby. 843-3794.  

Where else in town can you get Pétards de Fête—beautifully wrapped favors to set beside each plate on your holiday table? Pull each end, and they open with a burst of sound, spilling out party hats, jokes and riddles and other cheering surprises. Made in Canada, the petards come in red and green for Christmas and blue and white for Chanukah. $18-$24.50 for boxes of eight or 10 in different sizes and colors. 

Everything your favorite environmentalist needs to clean green is in Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Basic Cleaning Kit. In either lavender or lemon verbena scent, this prettily packaged assortment of aromatherapeutic household cleaners includes biodegradable window cleaner, dish soap, furniture polish, all purpose cleaner and a soap bar. All hard-working yet gentle. $24.99. 

Wonderfully whimsical anthropomorphic plastic stands and holders for the kitchen and bath: a Tweety vegetable brush, a dish brush with human feet (must be seen to be fully appreciated), a warrior toothpick holder, among others. From Germany in a range of colors. $5-$14. 

Exceptionally good buys on assorted drill bit sets and driver bit sets by SKIL. $6-$13.  

Pastime Ace Hardware, 10057 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 526-6615.  

It’s cold out there! Help somebody special warm up with the new Longhi electric oil-filled radiator heater. Shorter and wider than the old style, with a built-in GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) that allows bathroom usage, three power settings and a 24-hour programmable timer. Good-looking white metal case on wheels. $89.99. 

Get a foot up (literally). Cute, colorful and convenient: the E-Z Foldz folding step stool in sturdy yellow, green, white, black, blue or red plastic. Bright colors are easy-to-find. Holds up to 300 lbs. $12.99. 

Barbeque anywhere! Weber has just come out with the Q portable gas grill. The large 280 sq. inch cooking surface is covered with a cast aluminum hood and flanked by two shelves that fold out to hold food and utensils. The Q operates on a 14.1 oz. propane cylinder controlled by a regulator that allows cooks to set the temperature just where they want it. $179.99.  

Berkeley Ace Hardware, 2145 University Ave. 845-0410.  

The Panther Vision Handsfree Lighted Eyeglasses, with two ultra-bright high intensity LED bulbs and 1.5 magnification, will put an end to groping when your fixing something under the sink or beneath the car. Handy in case of power outages, too. Includes 3-volt Lithium batteries. $26.99. 

For the gadget-lover who has almost everything, consider the Oregon Scientific Jumbo Exact Set Clock. Made in the U.S.A., this wondrous, radio-controlled invention automatically sets the time, day and date to the United States Atomic clock and displays a U.S. map with time zones. The three-inch-high numbers can be seen across a room. Also displays indoor and outdoor temperature. All this, plus a wake-up alarm and snooze bar. Runs on 4 AA batteries (included), measures 8” x 10”. $69.99. 

Finally—a way to hang pictures without having to climb up and down a ladder: The Black & Decker “Crosshair” Auto Laser Level” automatically provides perfectly vertical (plumb) and horizontal lines. A hanging pin fastens the Laser Level to the wall for hands-free convenience. Comes boxed with a 9V battery and a storage case with a belt loop. $54.99.  

Reprint Mint, 2484 Telegraph Ave. 841-9423.  

Now that you’ve purchased a gift laser level or two, why not get some hangable objects to go with them? You could start with the posters or prints from the Reprint Mint—the biggest bricks-and-mortar poster print and poster store in the country and probably in the world. Choose from among thousands of items in every conceivable category: classics, Asian, old ads, Latino, African-American, autos, music—the list could go on and on—and from among a range of quality and sizes in the same category and even the same prints. Each piece can be beautifully mounted on a sturdy wood backing, sealed with a clear lacquer (so it could go in a bathroom), braced, and fitted with a hanger. The wood backing makes a permanent, reasonably priced alternative to framing. Small mounted pieces start at about $13. Larger ones run from $30 to $100. And while you’re in the shop, you can choose from the Reprint Mint’s huge selection of cards to go with your gifts.  

Talavera Ceramics, 1805 University Ave. 665-6038.  

Here you’ll find more of the famous Talavera hand-crafted folkloric pottery from Mexico than anywhere else in the United States. Twelve different workshops, mostly family-based, and working in traditional designs, create tiles, mugs, pots, pitchers, plates, mirror frames, umbrella stands, urns, platters, fountains, sinks, drawer pulls and more, all hand-painted in rich blue, green, yellow, orange and russet reds. Calla lilies and sunflowers abound. Of special note: whimsical frog planters, curvaceous covered canisters and an exclusive line of tiles decorated with intricate botanical and geometric patterns. Lead-free, dishwasher- and microwave-safe. From $5 for a 2” square tile to $490 for an exceptional mirror, with many items priced under $50.  

Ninepatch, 2001 Hopkins St. 527-1700.  

This charming boutique is stocked with all manner of mermaids—mermaids of cloth, mermaids suspended in deep blue bounce balls, Peruvian pottery mermaids, mermaid mirrors, wind-up mermaids that shimmy forward on their stomachs as they look at their reflection in a mirrors. $2.50-$12. 

Add a peaceable glow to a Christmas tree or embellish a doorway yearlong with a string of dove lights. The sparrow-sized, dove-shaped bulbs cast a soft warm light. $20. 

Ninepatch has a nice assortment of Russian nested dolls (matrioschki) $8-$75. 

Unusual rustic red Chinese wooden boxes, hand-painted with floral motifs, can be used as keepsake boxes or for show. In a range of sizes. $28-$68. 

Bibelots, 2403 San Pablo Ave. 549-1091.  

Another fetching Berkeley boutique that’s off the beaten path, Bibelots has lavender wands made with estate-grown lavender from Sonoma. Victorian women wove such wands and used them to cure a headache or to gently scent a drawer of lingerie. Thirteen inches long, in soft yellow, cream, lavender, pink rose, green, or lavender. $39. 

Beautifully wrapped, embossed and perfumed soaps from Portugal come in a set of various violet or floral scents. The wrapping paper is so lovely that lucky recipients will be tempted to save it. $7 a bar, $40 a box.  

The prettiest neckrolls you’ll ever see are filled with buckwheat and lavender, covered in pale gold silk brocade and buttoned with mother-of-pearl. $20. 

Hand-tooled leather notebooks will delight a tasteful journal-keeper. From India in chestnut, green, brown, deep magenta. $20-$50. For $10, you can fill a notebook with beautiful papers infused with pressed flowers.

FRIDAY, DEC. 12  

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “There Was a Father” at 7:30 p.m. and “The Record of a Tenement Gentleman” at 9:20 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

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. 

Wilde Irish Productions, “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett, at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Runs through Dec. 21. 644-9940. 

Oakland Opera Theater, “Four Saints in Three Acts,” an opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, at 2nd St. Tickets are $15-$25 and are available from www.oaklandopera.org 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17-$35 and are available from www.calrevels.org or by calling Frantix at 415-621-1216.  

“A Night of Drama and Music” presented by Arrowsmith High School at 7:30 p.m. at the Parish Hall, 2300 Bancroft Ave. Tickets are $5 for adults, free for students and children. 540-0440. 

California Shakespeare Student Company, “A Comedy of Errors” at 7 p.m. at Cal Shakes Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Ave. Tickets are $5. 548-3422, ext. 130. www.calshakes.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jean Shinoda Bolen reads from “Crones Don’t Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women,” at 7:30 p.m. at Boadecia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 559-9184. www.bookpride.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group, The Hard Nut at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 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 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Making Waves and Samsara, a cappella trios, with Storm Florez, Inka, and True Margrit at 7:30 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music. For location call 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

“Shining Star” a hip-hop dance concert and fundraising event, featuring performances by the New Style Motherlode Dance Company and Diamond Dance Company, at 8 p.m. at The Regent’s Theatre, Holy Names College, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $25 available from 597-1056. www.newstylemotherlode.com 

Molly Holm, jazz tunes with trombonist Wayne Wallace, pianist Bill Bell, and drummer, Deszon Claiborne, at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jazzschool Student Recitals from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Melanie O’Reilly and Sean O Nuallain, Celtic music and jazz night at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Pick Pocket Ensemble, Married Couple, Odd Shaped Case Ensemble perform modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Stephen Kent and Trance Mission at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hot for Teacher, Damage, Inc. at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Kevin Cadogan, Jesse DeNatale, Noelle Hampton at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Danny Caron at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Due West, contemporary bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Toys That Kill, Frisk, Scattered Fall, Scissorhands, Love Songs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 13 

CHILDREN  

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

Meet Ms. Frizzle at 1 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $4.50 to $8.50. 642-5132. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Hall of Relfections” Remembrances of the Iranian Immigrants of Northern California, a collective art project by Taraneh Hemami, reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Persian Center, 2029 Durant at Shattuck. 848-0264. 

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. 

Destiny Arts Center Youth on the Move “Love in Action,” with dance, martial arts and spoken word at 7 p.m. at McClymonds High School, 2607 Myrtle St., at 26th near Market. This celebration marks the 15th anniversary of Destiny Arts arts education and violence prevention programs. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets are $17-$35 and are available from www.calrevels.org or by calling Frantix at 415-621-1216.  

California Shakespeare Student Company, “A Comedy of Errors” at 2 and 7 p.m. at Cal Shakes Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Ave. Tickets are $5. 548-3422, ext. 130. www.calshakes.org 

“The Wakefield Cycle,” a selection of medieval religious miracle plays at 6 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. A medieval-themed banquet will preceed the performance. Childcare provided. 848-1755. 

Oakland Opera Theater, “Four Saints in Three Acts,” an opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, at 2nd St. Tickets are $15-$25 available from www.oaklandopera.org 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Early Summer” at 4 and 8:45 p.m. and “A Hen in the Wind” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse holds its yearly all-open mic. Sign-up at 6:30 p.m., reading and perfor- 

mance at 7 p.m. Free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker,” at 2 and 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 and are available from 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra’s Winter Concert, Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” narrated by John Grappone, and Holst’s “Jupiter” at 11 a.m. at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. in Oakland. Tickets are $5 at the door. 663-3296. www.byoweb.org 

San Francisco Early Music Society, The Concord Ensemble, performs ancient English carols, plainsong, Renaissance polyphony, and poetry at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing. Tickets are $22 for SFEMS members and seniors, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

Voci, “Voices in Peace III: The Promise of Peace” women’s vocal ensemble presents six centuries of Magnificat settings and other selections celebrating the promise of peace at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana. Tickets are $15-$20, children under 12 free, available at the door or online at www.angelfire.com/la/VOCI 

Slavyanka - San Francisco Men’s Russian Chorus performs “Echoes of the Soul: Songs of Russian Spirit, Season and People” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana. Tickets are $15-$18, available from 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

Kensington Symphony Orchestra Holiday Concert, conducted by Tomothy Smith, performs Strauss, Corelli and Mendelssohn at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave. El Cerrito. Suggested donation is $10; seniors $8. Children admitted free. 534-4335.  

Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus, “I Got Yule, Babe,” at 8 p.m. at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $12 in advance; $15 at the door. 800-706-2389. www.oebgmc.org 

SEVA Foundation 25th Anniversary Benefit Concert, a donor-supported nonprofit foundation that builds partnerships to respond to locally defined problems with culturally sustainable solutions throughout the world, features performances by Jackson Brown, The Dead, Steve Earle and others at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theatre, 1930 Allston Way. Tickets are $50-$75. For information call 845-7382.  

Diana Stork, Holiday Harp Performance at 1 p.m. at Bansuri’s Spring Gallery, 3929 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 415-259-8629. 

Rose Street House of Music with Emily Shore, Irina Rivkin, Maria Quiles, Lily Wilson, Kiki Ebsen, Rebecca Crump at 7:30 p.m. For directions call 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Singing Out Against War and Empire with Robert Temple and Soulfolk Ensemble, Errotator and Paradise Freejahlove at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. Cost is $10, no one turned away. wwwroberttemplemusic.com 

Bolshevik Cafe, a cabaret variety show featuring Bay Area music and comedy acts with and anti-capitalist slant, at 8 p.m. at Finnish Hall, 1819 Tenth St. Dinner available at 6:30 p.m. Come early as the dinner and show always sell out. 

Talent Show featuring Sapo Loco from the Funky Aztecs at the 1923 Teahouse at 9 p.m. All ages welcome. Suggested donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

“Shining Star” a hip-hop dance concert and fundraising event with a holiday theme, featuring performances by the New Style Motherlode Dance Company and Diamond Dance Company, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at The Regent’s Theatre, Holy Names College, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $25 available from 597-1056. www.newstylemotherlode.com 

Married Couple at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jazzschool Student Recitals from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Dmitri Matheny Winterfest at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Suzy Thompson celebrates the release of her solo album, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Maria Marquez, CD release party, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Rogue Wave, Six Eye Columbia, The Red Thread at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Robin Gregory, jazz vocalist at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

Pinback, Aspects of Physics at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Denise Perrier at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Phantom Limbs, Nigel Peppercock, Funeral Shock, Annihilation Time, Case of Emergency at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 14 

THEATER 

“The Christmas Revels” at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 1547 Lakeside Drive, at 1 and 5 p.m. p.m. Tickets are $17-$35 and are available from www.calrevels.org or 415-621-1216.  

California Shakespeare Student Company, “A Comedy of Errors” at 2 p.m. See listing for Dec. 13. 

Oakland Opera Theater, “Four Saints in Three Acts,” an opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, at 2 and 7 p.m See listing for Dec. 13. 

FILM 

Yasujiro Ozu: “Passing Fancy” at 5:30 p.m. and “The Story of Floating Weeds” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aurora Stories, “Stories of the Season” celebrate with readings of great works of wintertime, at 7:30 p.m. $20 suggested donation, first-come, first-served, available at 5 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. 843-4822. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker,” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 and are available from 843-4689. www.berkeleyballet.org 

Christmas Concert with the Chancel Choir and Pro Sonos Chamber Symphony at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, corner of Channing and Dana. Admission is free, child care available. 848-6242. 

Chamber Music Sundaes San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends, perform the Dvorak Quintet, Mendelssohn Quartet, and the Golubev Violin Sonata, at 3:15 p.m. at St John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$18, available at the door. 415-584-5946. 

Organ Recital with Charles Rus performing works of Sweelinck, Boehm and Bach at 6:10 p.m. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Donations requested. 845-0888. 

Live Oak Concert with Gyan Riley on guitar at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $8-$10. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Beethovan’s Birthday Bash at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $12. 559-6910. www.thecrowdenschool.org 

Café de la Paz's 10th Anniversary and Flamenco Celebration at 2 and 5 p.m. Cost is $20-$45. 843-0662. cafedelapaz.net 

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

Gyrlz Will Rock You, Stiletta, Sea of Sorrow, Implied Five at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jazzschool Student Recitals from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz All-Stars and salsa dance party at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Don’t Look Back, acoustic stringband, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $15.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org

Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp plans to keep the controversial Identity and Ethnic Studies (IES) course mandatory for ninth graders despite a petition reportedly signed by more than 1,000 students calling for its demise. 

In a proposal outlined to the high school’s Shared Governance Committee, Slemp recommended bolstering the academic content of the class, including instituting an honors curriculum and ensuring that it meets UC enrollment requirements and state content standards. 

Critics have derided the class for years as a fluff course that only satisfies the district’s penchant for political correctness. But opposition has intensified in recent months because next year BHS must implement a school board policy requiring students graduate with four mandated social science courses instead of the current three.  

To staff all four courses without funds to hire more teachers, Slemp has proposed axing 23 elective sections from at least six departments, including the Good Food Cafe, a cooking program primarily for developmentally disabled students that is one of the school’s last vestiges of vocational study. 

Bradley Johnson, high school senior and student representative on the Board of Education, circulated the petition this semester, calling on the school to dump ISE, which meets neither state standards nor UC admission requirements. He told the Berkeley High Jacket, “I don’t think IES is an academic class. I think students are bored.” 

The class has been controversial since the early 1990s, when a dedicated collection of parents, students and teachers fought to make ethnic studies a district requirement. 

Originally, ninth graders took the one-semester class. But in 2000, the school board moved their three required history classes—which had begun in the freshman year—to start a year later to align them with recommended state standards and corresponding English classes.  

To fill the gap for ninth graders who needed a full-year social science core class so the school could qualify for a grant that kept class sizes low, the board combined ethnic studies and social living—a health class—and mandated it as a fourth social science class. 

But with the cost-saving move last year cutting eight academic periods to six and the requirement for seniors to take American Government and Economics, there is little room for social science electives, which some teachers and parents argue are more useful than IES. 

“I don’t support IES as mandatory for ninth graders,” said Robert McKnight, chair of the African American Studies Department. “Berkeley is one of the most diverse cities in the country. I don’t see a crisis of identity,” He added that Principal Slemp had assured him that his electives would be spared. 

Parent Samuela Evans questioned why the school would keep IES and “cut classes that already meet UC admission requirements that students know and love.” 

The department has cut Women’s History, Sociology and Anthropology, and classes rumored to be targeted for the new round of cuts include Politics and Power, Theoretical Psychology, two sections of English, three of Fine and Performing Arts, three of Physical Education and three others yet to be decided. A spokesperson for Slemp denied that he had settled on any of the seven sections of social science electives slated for cuts. 

Slemp said a solution wasn’t simple. “People think that if we get rid of IES that would magically get rid of the problem. We’d still have 900 ninth graders who need a class. We don’t have the resources to offer everything we ought to be offering.” 

IES starts off exploring notions of culture and then delves into issues of race, immigration, psychology, liberation movements, media literacy and sex education. 

Students interviewed Wednesday were evenly split on the merits of the course, though most agreed it was an easy A or B. 

History teacher Annie Johnston, who helped design the course, insists the curriculum is already rigorous enough to meet UC enrollment requirements, and that complaints about its academic pedigree stem more from administrative neglect than a lack of rigorous course work. 

Budget cuts forced the district to remove Johnston as program coordinator and pink slip many of the teachers she had trained to instruct the class, she said. 

As a result, several teachers assigned to the class express no interest in teaching it. “IES was imposed on some people,” she said. “Certainly we shouldn’t be doing Social Living with history teachers.” 

While the debate over IES rages on the high school campus, parents have remained mostly on the sidelines of late. In November the School Site Council hastily handed on without debate Slemp’s recommendation to Shared Governance, a body of faculty, students and parents which has final say over the plan. 

[The council president] Claudia Wilken introduced the topic saying the site council supported IES and pushed it through in five minutes, said council member Cynthia Papermaster, who added that she wanted the site council to call a public hearing on the course. 

Johnston defended the merits of ISE, saying it helped students entering a racially diverse 2,700-student school develop a better sense of identity and examine delicate issues in a way that doesn’t increase antagonism. 

To protect that mission, Johnston opposes Slemp’s plan to introduce an honors curriculum as well as AP American History and AP or Honors World History because it would further segregate students who would be better served learning alongside each other. 

Many students, especially current freshmen backed ISE. Lawreece Cox, a freshman, said the class “teaches you about how to deal with each other,” and Pete Monfort said it’s the class he looks forward to most every morning. 

Upperclass students tended to recall negative experiences. Junior Chris Hamilton said it was one of his least favorite classes, too similar to the ethnic studies class he took as an eighth grader at King Middle School. 

Slemp’s plan calls for summer staff development time to develop the revised IES curriculum and train the new teachers. If approved at the January Shared Governance meeting, the revised program will be reviewed at the end of the following school year by an outside evaluator. 

“It’s easy to see how the school came to doing [ISE],” Slemp said. “We just need to look and see how we can make it better.”

Bill O’Donnell was no saint. In fact, I think he would object to any pious reference with his name. Why? Because he was one of the most honest human beings who ever walked the earth. 

That’s the thing about a man like Bill O’Donnell: He didn’t have a drop of guile in his blood. And as far as his spiritual side—though I’m really in no position to make this assumption, since I did not know him all that well—but my feeling, my sense was that his was a tormented soul. Yes, that’s right, tormented.  

Why? Because people who are genuinely honest, who can step outside of themselves—men and women who want to be good human beings, who aspire to be pure and honest—they know they are not perfect. They know it because they understand what it means to be perfect: They can actually conceptualize it, something most of us could never even begin to do.  

Yes I believe Bill experienced distressing moments of doubt, and that those moments tormented him. Bill may have even had moments when he questioned his own faith. 

Such incredibly rare individuals deal with their own demons and weaknesses in their own way—and Bill’s way was to fight for social justice, for peace, for love. Yes, love. Father O’Donnell was a man whose heart was overflowing with love—so much so that I would guess it damn near killed him.  

But he was no saint.  

It’s well known that Bill was a outlaw, having been arrested over 300 times. He was a jailbird as well, recently serving a six month sentence for trespassing at the School of the Americas. Prior to doing time at Atwater Penitentiary, at a going-away party, a friend told him, “I’m proud to know a priest that is going to jail for something other than pederasty.”  

I once shared a flask of Irish whiskey with Bill at a friend’s house as we watched a heavyweight fight on television. It was a good fight, though many may be shocked to learn that a man like Bill liked to watch the fights. But he did.  

Bill also had a devilish sense of humor—a wry, tell-it-as-it-is, loving, sarcastic wit that would bring a demagogue to their knees, and lift those up who felt discouraged by the darkness that sometimes seems to have enveloped the world. He would cock his head to one side, his eyes would sparkle, and with a phrase, he would turn the tables on those he believed were hypocrites, thieves, liars, and – what to him were perhaps the greatest sinners of all—the greedy. 

Still Bill had his moments of doubt and pain. But if you ask me, that is the sign of a truly great man. Here was someone who gave his life to the church, to his Savior —a man who believed the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven was a path created by one’s work, by their actual physical and spiritual dedication to people and the earth and the future—here, on this planet, in this world, now… Bill was such a truly incredible, intelligent, honest human being that it seems only natural that he would question everything – even his own faith.  

One thing is for certain—Bill often questioned his own intentions, and whether he did what he did to satisfy his own ego, out of anger, or for honest reasons.  

Personally, I am not a religious man. I’m not devout enough to even consider myself an agnostic. But if there ever lived a man, or a woman, who, by their example, moved me to even consider becoming a religious person, it was Bill O’Donnell. He actually practiced what he preached. 

That is why Bill O’Donnell was more than just a spiritual leader, more than a soldier in the battle for social justice, freedom, and peace – he was a living testament to the power of one’s actions if one follows their heart and thinks about others. Yes, Bill O’Donnell was flesh and blood, all right, and he never pretended to be anything else. In fact, if one had ever told him to his face he was a saint, my guess is that Bill’s eyes would have sparkled, he would have laughed that warm, loving laugh, then say something like “that’s the funniest damn thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life…” 

God bless Father Bill O’Donnell. May he rest in peace.  

James Carter is an Albany resident.

Anyone struggling to get into a holiday mood can find delightful solace in the array of notable musical and theatrical performances taking place this weekend in the greater Berkeley area. 

• The Voci women’s vocal ensemble will perform six centuries of music celebrating the promise of peace at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana Street. 

• The San Francisco Early Music Society is offering a selection of ancient English carols, plainsong and Renaissance polyphony at 8 p.m. Saturday, at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 

• Slavyanka, the San Francisco Men’s Russian Chorus, will present Berkeley with songs of Russia starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana Street. 

• The Kensington Symphony Orchestra will give a traditional holiday concert will be presented by at 8 p.m. Saturday at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave. El Cerrito. 

• For a touch of the lighter side, the Oakland East Bay Men’s Chorus performs “I Got Yule Babe” at 8 p.m. Saturday at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. 

• Berkeley Youth Orchestra’s Winter Concert begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. in Oakland, featuring Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” narrated by John Grappone, and Holst’s “Jupiter.” 

• Berkeley High School students perform “You Can’t Take it With You” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Florence Schwimley Little Theater. 

• Children and families will enjoy the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” performed by Berkeley Ballet Theater in the Julia Morgan Theater on College Ave., at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. 

• The Christmas Revels are at the Scottish Rite Theater at 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturday. 

• Berkeley’s own Bolshevik Café, a cabaret show and dinner kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, at Finn Hall on 1819 Tenth St., and a Sing Out Against War and Empire with Robert Temple and Soulfolk Ensemble begins at 8 that same evening at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. 

Details of these events can be found in our Arts Calendar beginning on Page Sixteen. 

—Anne Wagley 

When some people think of West Berkeley, the first thing that comes to mind is a greasy fried-chicken smell, and that’s enough to make neighbors of Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits on San Pablo Avenue broiling mad. 

Even after Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits at San Pablo and Delaware Street upgraded their odor control system this fall, residents say the smell many of them loathe hasn’t gone away. 

“It is definitely still present,” said Tim Arai, who lives one block away from the restaurant. “It all depends on what the wind is doing now.” 

Since the franchise opened on July 3, neighbors have sent a slew of complaints to the Berkeley City Council about the odors emanating from the restaurant. Arai said he’s been trading e-mails with other neighbors whose territories have also been invaded by the pungent smell. Some people, he said, tell him their houses are “smoked” with it. 

“What the hell is that smell?” Arai mused while sitting outside of a cafe in downtown Berkeley on a recent afternoon. “It’s not only fried chicken. It smells (like) dirty grease!” 

As a vegetarian, Arai finds the odors particularly unbearable. At one point, he said, the odors became “a mixture of grease and fried chicken and some kind of deodorizer.”  

The smell is also unpredictable, he said. “Sometimes it’s faint, sometimes strong. Sometimes it lasts twenty minutes, sometimes a couple of hours.” 

“It’s just fried-chicken smell,” said Larry Velasco, a Popeyes manager who runs a handful of branches in the Bay Area. “It’s kind of normal.” 

The restaurant is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, 363 days a year. Though Velasco acknowledged they had already made technical adjustments to better control the odors, he declined to make any further comment over the ongoing skirmish. 

“What I can tell you now is that we’ll be able to solve the issue,” he said. 

Still, neighbors aren’t convinced. They say the smell travels randomly, wafting between blocks. 

“I’m cultivating a rose garden,” said Elaine Eastman who lives on the corner of Hearst Avenue and Curtis Street, more than a block away from the restaurant. “I want to smell my roses, not fried chicken.” 

Eastman said she enjoys spending a lot of time in her backyard, so even though she only intermittently encounters the odors, she deems it “bothersome.” 

Linda Maio, a Berkeley city councilwoman who represents the area, said the city has been working hard to find a good solution. 

“We want to make sure they’ve done anything possible to control the smell,” Maio said of Popeyes. “We are not going to tolerate any offensive smell in the neighborhood.” 

In a recent letter to the city, Popeyes said the restaurant has installed the best possible odor-reduction unit, given the limited available space on the restaurant’s roof. 

The city has checked out the equipment, said Maio, who was on a similar smell mission in Berkeley almost a decade ago. 

“It seems to me it’s working now, although it really depends on what they’re doing inside and if it’s a windy day,” she added. 

Eastman said neighborhood residents were already worried about the fried-chicken smell when Popeyes first proposed to replace Rich’s Bulky Burger over two years ago.  

“But we were assured by Popeyes that it would not be a problem because they would put in special equipment,” said Eastman. “We thought they were trying to be a good neighbor, so when the zoning adjustment board passed the project, we didn’t appeal it to the City Council.”  

“It must be understood that they promised there would be no smells at all emanating from the restaurant,” said Paul Shain, who lives at the opposite end of the block from Popeyes. Shain said the restaurant’s building permit required it to be odor-free. 

The city permit orders Popeyes to control cooking odors to “prevent complaints from residents in the adjacent neighborhood and to minimize adverse impacts on neighboring properties.” 

“If I were going to buy a house, I certainly wouldn’t buy a house if it smells like that,” said Eastman. “Would you? I wouldn’t.” 

Eastman said she’s never been to the restaurant because she simply doesn’t want to show any support to “such a poor neighbor.” 

To properly document the smell, Maio said, the city has asked the neighbors to report any odors as soon as they smell them. 

“As long as the neighbors are not comfortable about it, we’ll keep on working on it,” she said. “That’s my job.” 

Maio assigned aide Brad Smith to go down and “sniff” whenever the councilwoman gets incoming calls from neighbors—even during off-hours. 

Smith said he’s been unable to smell the odors since the restaurant recently installed the new system. There are “a bunch of different noses” in the neighborhood, he said, and he designates himself an independent “common nose” assigned to help verify the odors. 

Though the city requires residents to log the times and dates when they encounter the odors, Eastman isn’t complying because she said it’s a pain to carry a piece of paper all the time—but Arai is. 

“If it’s not solved, I’d imagine the neighbors will come together to sue the restaurant,” said Arai. “We might start looking into that as an option.” 

Not every neighbor suffers. 

“I made it a point to park a half a block away and walk up to the place, sniffing as I went,” Zan Turner said in an e-mail. “Couldn’t smell a thing until I was inside—and even then it wasn’t disgusting.” 

“I bet neighbors complain about anything new and different,” said Tibet Willis, a Wells Fargo employee who has frequently driven over to Popeyes to buy meals since the branch was open. “My grandmother lives here and she’s never complained.” 

But Arai is determined to fight to the end. 

“We’ll keep on nagging until things get done,” he said.

STREET ARTISTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wish to comment on the state of affairs of the Telegraph Avenue Street Artists, a group of licensed street art and craft vendors to whom the City of Berkeley owes much of its character. 

We are a poor but proud lot, all makers and vendors of handcrafted items ranging from jewelry and leather goods to art, clothing, hats, incense, soaps, candles, pens and much more. The operant word here is “handcrafted.” We spend our lives making these gifts, then enduring all kinds of weather to sell them on the street, the only roof over our heads (and the heads of our customers) is that which we bring with us. Some of us don’t make enough money at our art or craft to make a decent living, eat well, or provide ourselves with good living and working quarters; some of us are more fortunate because we have other sources of income, such as a husband or wife with a steady job, or we have wholesale and website customers. 

Nevertheless, we are real businesses selling products you won’t find anywhere else. Many of our items are one of a kind, many are made in quantity, but all are handmade from raw materials, the old-fashioned way. We have no factories making our wares, no underpaid sweat shop workers laboring to make cheap goods to the masses. We have no marketing department, no advertising budget, no professional association to support our endeavors. We just survive or thrive, depending on the mood of the crowd that day, or that week, or that month. And if sales are good, we eat and pay our rent; if not, we suffer. 

So why write about it? Simple: to get the local media to devote as much attention to us as we can get. To draw crowds of people to our booths, our street stores which we put up and take down every day and night. To support the local economy, the Berkeley economy. To get you people out of the malls, away from the cheap junk that’s sold for fashion, art or beauty, and to get you to stroll by our booths and spend your money on the beautiful crafts we make. You’ll find gifts for your family and friends that you’ll not find anywhere in the world. You’ll not be disappointed and, believe me, neither will we. 

Ed Livingston 

• 

PUBLIC TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Steve Geller writes (Letters, Daily Planet, Dec. 5-8) in praise of public transportation in Berkeley. I would be delighted if that were so, but just look at the schedules. My wife and I just spent a day in San Francisco using public transportation. The bus we rode came every four minutes in mid-day and was crowded. Too many buses in the East Bay seem to come about every 30 minutes in mid-day. San Francisco Muni transfers are free and are good in any direction for a generous period of time. AC Transit charges for transfers. BART, however, is fast, frequent, and comfortable, but then there is a charge to transfer to AC Transit from BART. The infrequent schedules of East Bay buses is discouraging; and when schedules have been revised to be even less frequent, there is even less reason to patronize AC Transit. 

Alan R. Meisel 

• 

HALF OF HISTORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When Gov. Schwarzenegger asked Californian Indians to pay their fair share of taxes, he never once asked the same fairness of wealthy Californians. It seems to me that Mr. Schwarzenegger doesn’t want to offend his wealthy friends who donated millions of dollar to his campaign. I call it hypocrisy at its worst. 

Mr. Schwarzenegger only learned one half of the United States when he was still in his home country of Austria. He wasn’t taught about the other half of the United States which had to do with American Indian sovereignty. While there might be legitimate concern over Indian casinos, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s argument about fairness of taxes in California is one-sided. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland  

• 

ENDORSEMENT 

Dear Council Member Hawley, 

Thank you for announcing your choice of a successor in District 5. Now I definitely know for whom not to vote. 

Your candidate’s willingness to be in consensus with other councilmembers appears to be of great importance in your estimation. I’m so glad he wants to be liked so that his dance card will be full! 

How about a candidate being of good moral character, committed to specific principles, with innovative notions about how a city in a financial crisis should move forward? 

When you ran, you specifically touted your financial expertise. However, now the only solution you have put forward to solve the financial crisis is to burden homeowners with an additional property tax. 

May I suggest that it would be an honorable thing for you to do is to recognize that you no longer represent the views of the majority of voters in District 5. This was demonstrated at the last NEBA meeting. 

You should graciously acknowledge this situation, resign, and let the person who polled the next highest vote assume the remainder of your term of office. This would save the city the cost of a possible recall and another election. 

Viki Tamaradze 

• 

FREE TRADE CHOCOLATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for the yummy info from Marty Schiffenbauer (“Decadent Delights Await the Chocoholic’s Palate,” Daily Planet, Nov. 28-Dec. 1). Here’s my two cents: You can be “chewing good while doing good” by buying free-trade organic chocolate at Global Exchange. They carry three brands from Germany and Switzerland, large and small bars, dark, milk, and bittersweet, powdered cocoa too. Global Exchange is in San Francisco at 24th and Noe and here in Berkeley at 2840 College Ave. Also, Global Exchange is one of the few places you can find organic free-trade coffee; they have a great assortment of handsome items to wear and for the home, most from small village collectives all over the globe. 

Rhoda Slanger 

• 

CONFERENCE CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

UC’s proposal for a conference center and museums does not only include underground parking on the site. It also includes a new parking structure north of Addison Street.  

This parking structure is not really part of the conference center/museum project, and it should be studied separately. I would like to see the main project built as soon as possible, but not the new UC parking structure.  

This parking structure would be used by UC employees and not by the general public. It seems to be part of UC’s long range development plan, which calls for parking to expand more rapidly than the number of people on campus expands—actually promoting a mode shift from other forms of transportation to the automobile.  

On the more general question of whether downtown needs more parking to stimulate business, I think UC’s conference center/museum project shows that we can attract more customers without attracting more cars.  

Almost all of the people coming to conferences will arrive by air, and when they get to Berkeley, they will not need cars. The hotel will actually reduce demand for parking: Many people visiting UC now stay in hotels in Emeryville and drive to Berkeley, because there is not enough hotel space here.  

The museums will draw people whether or not they provide parking, particularly the museum of anthropology, which will be one of the largest museums of its kind in the country.  

Automobile use expands to fill the amount of parking that is available. If UC builds its parking structure north of Addison, more UC employees will commute by car. If the conference/museum center includes more parking than is necessary, more visitors will come by car. All this parking will not bring more people downtown, but it will cause more traffic congestion and leave us with a less livable city.  

In the long run, more parking will make downtown less attractive and less successful. Berkeley’s downtown will never compete successfully with freeway-oriented shopping centers by providing more parking than they do. Downtown will compete successfully by providing the liveliest, most interesting shopping area in the East Bay—and that requires an intensity of use that you can only get with transit-oriented development.  

Charles Siegel  

• 

FAIR TAXATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Developer Patrick Kennedy appears to be saying (Letters, Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11) that vacant space within new buildings in Berkeley isn’t subject to city taxation. If this were true, it would be a powerful argument for immediate cessation of the mixed-use building boom currently in progress. Most of the commercial space in the existing mixed-use projects is empty—due to the lack of parking and to the economy, it is likely to remain empty for a very long time. 

Now that city revenue has been lost, it is time for fairness in taxation to begin. 

Gale Garcia 

• 

AUDITING THE AUDITOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our city auditor has come out of the closet as the chief city policymaker and financial incompetent. In two recent articles in the Daily Planet (Commentary, Dec. 5-8) and Berkeley Voice (Dec. 5), the city auditor told us what cuts we will be making in our city budget and what our public safety services cost. 

The cuts: I was not aware that it was in the city auditor’s job description to assume City Council’s role in determining the cuts we may be making in our city budget. Silly me, I thought that was the job of our elected City Council, with input from the city manager and the citizenry. Do we not have numerous meetings and negotiations ahead to discuss such matters? Perhaps, in the interest of saving more money, a worthy goal, we should simply cancel these meetings and ask for the auditor’s royal fiscal decree. 

The arithmetic: I would not trust this auditor with one cent of my money if I had a choice. In her article, written I presume to correct the city’s “failure to communicate”, she stated that the “current year General Fund budget includes over 76 million in police and fire costs.” The truth, as uncovered by Berkeley budget maven Gale Garcia (and acknowledged by Auditor Hogan) is that the current year General Fund costs for police and fire are $48.47 million. So our auditor was off only by $27.5 million (41 percent). 

Recall Hogan! Garcia for auditor! 

Barbara Gilbert 

• 

MIDEAST VIOLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If George Bisharat didn’t have the little credibility he has garnered as a professor of law, he would have no credibility whatsoever. About the kindest thing one could say about his op-ed on the Palestinian “diaspora” is that Bisharat has an astounding capacity to transform real events into fiction. This is hardly surprising, when one remembers that Mr. Bisharat once penned an op-ed published in the San Francisco Chronicle positing the absurd claim that Zionists were the primary influence behind Bush’s invasion of Iraq. 

The reality is the very day the UN declared Israel as a state, it was invaded by armies from five Arab nations. The majority of Palestinians fled as a human and logical response to the terrifying situation of seeing their families caught between an invading Arab army and furious Jews whose very existence was threatened by that force. A smaller number of Palestinians left because, as has been well documented regardless of Bisharat’s denial, they were exhorted to leave by Arab radio. These broadcasts exclaimed that after what was dubbed the easy victory to come, the Palestinians would be able to reclaim both their land and that of the annihilated Jewish infidel as well. 

And finally, yes, a still smaller percentage of Palestinians was forced out by angry Jews whose lives the invading Arab army threatened. 

Mr. Bisharat attempts to butress his case with quotes he deems as factual from those who oppose a Jewish state and fabrications the Palestinians regularly trot out to justify their ceaseless acts of terror against the Israeli civilian populace. 

Indeed, if anyone needs to apologize for unethical acts, it is the Palestinians for homicide bombings of innocent Israelis, the rendering of second class citizenship and honor murders of Palestinian wives and daughters, and the abuse of their own children by teaching them from pre-school on that the most honorable role they could play in the future would be that of a martyr-murderer of Jews. 

Dan Spitzer 

• 

SHAMBHALA BOOKSELLERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was still in mourning over the closure of Shambhala Booksellers—undoubtedly one of the finest independent bookstores in the country, truly a one-of-a-kind jewel right here at our doorstep—until I read Alta Gerrey’s delightful article (“Shambhala Booksellers Closes After 35 Years,” Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11). She cheered me up by reminding us that Berkeley still offers a rich, vibrant and diverse array of many eclectic bookstores and independent publishers. Happily, while the business end of spiritual book selling might be depressed, the vitality of the community is definitely still alive. We in the practicing Buddhist community are still saddened by this irreplaceable loss, but we’re grateful to be living in such splendid and unique places as Berkeley where such bookstores can live such long, fruitful lives and become cultural icons. We’re also quite hopeful that perhaps someday soon we’ll see another reincarnation of Shambhala Booksellers, and we trust Berkeley is the best place for its rebirth. 

Perry Brissette 

Berkeley Shambhala Center 

• 

IMPLEMENT THE PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Acton Court illustrates the future of University Avenue without planning: huge cubic monoliths that present unwelcoming facades to passersby, and that tower over the tidy little bungalows in adjoining neighborhoods. The University Avenue Strategic Plan provides a way to provide high density residential and commercial space that enhances rather than detracts from the quality of life on and around the avenue, and that provides an attractive gateway to our city. I strongly encourage the city to follow the recommendation of Mayor Bates’ Permit and Development Task Force, and implement the University Strategic Plan without delay. 

Judy Stamps 

• 

TRASHCAN GUY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I know who the trashcan artist is (Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11). Or at least I’ve seen him retouching his work on a frequent basis. I never really looked at the trashcan in detail before but the face you show as a possible clue definitely is him. Except I think he doesn’t wear glasses and he wears a baseball hat instead of a knit cap. He hangs out at Nomad Café, which is nearby, and I’ve seen him walking around North Oakland. Unfortunately I’ve never approached him to find out his name but he certainly lives in the area. Sorry I don’t have more information to solve the clues of “Trashcan Guy” but I’ll keep my eyes peeled. 

Chris Douglas 

Oakland 

• 

CLARIFICATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to clarify and correct comments attributed to me in a recent article (“City, UC Disaster Meet Provokes Citizen Complaints,” Daily Planet, Dec. 9-11). 

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry project is proposed for a hill site location approximately 600 meters east of the Alquist-Priolo (A-P) Earthquake Fault Zone, but very close to the East Canyon and the Wildcat Fault Zones. The Molecular Foundry site has a history of landslides and just south of the site is the Strawberry Canyon Fault, a cross fault which connects the Hayward Fault and the faults referred to above. 

However, LBNL’s proposed Building 49, a six-story, 65,000-square-foot office building is located entirely in the A-P Earthquake Fault Zone, as is also Building 88, one of the Lab’s large remaining accelerators. UC Berkeley’s North East Quadrant Project (Stanley Hall replacement) is partially in the A-P Fault Zone as is a section of LBNL’s Donner Lab. 

The Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act, signed into law in December 1972, requires the delineation of zones along active faults in California. The purpose of the Alquist-Priolo Act is to regulate development on or near fault traces to reduce the hazard of fault rupture and to prohibit the location of most structures for human occupancy across these traces. (LBNL’s Draft EIR for Building 49, page IV.E-11) 

It appears that last Friday’s “Community” Forum lacked any discussion related to the ramifications of both UCB’s and LBNL’s proposed developments (of both laboratory and office buildings) within this earthquake fault zone, deemed one of the most dangerous in the state. The city can’t afford to bury its head in the sand, by excluding knowledgeable community groups and commissions from these meetings, but instead must from now on spearhead open, honest, truly community-wide meetings, to address development in the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Zone versus “Promoting a Disaster Resistant Berkeley.” 

Pamela Shilova 

• 

THE OTHER 9/11 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A couple of days ago MSNBC interviewed Henry Kissinger about general political problems. Among his responses was a reference to the “victims of 9/11.” 

I am sure he was not thinking of that Sept. 11 in Chile, when the CIA, with Kissinger’s connivance, overthrew a legal democratic government. That coup caused many more victims that the 9/11 event in New York two years ago and the misery caused by the bloody dictator, Pinochet, lasted several decades. So, there is more than 9/11, but Americans remember only the one that affected them. 

Max Alfert 

Albany 

• 

THE PEOPLE’S GOVERNOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Gov. Schwarzenegger is “going to the people” to win support for his budget proposals. His method of balancing the budget will destroy care for the most helpless in our society. He intendes to suspend the Lanterman Act, which protects the civil rights of people with developmental disabilities. He will also severely cut home services, lunches and transportation for seniors and the elderly and will deeply reduce medical care for the most needy. It’s obvious that he will cause untold hardship to thousands of Californians. Can “the people” he is trying to win over see clearly what is at stake? 

Cynthia Weber

FRIDAY, DEC. 12 

Rally for Undocumented Immigrants at 11:30 a.m. at the Berkeley BART station, followed by a march to UC Campus. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Luanne Linnar-Palmer, RN, PhD, “Who Has the Final Say on Children’s Health?” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Joe MacDonald, veterans advocate, singer and composer and Terri Compost, Food Not Bombs volunteer, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. For more information call 528-5403. 

“Literacy and Beyond” hosts a scholastic book fair from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA., 2001 Allston Way. 665-3271. 

Literary Friends meets at the Berkeley Senior Center at 1:15 p.m. 232-1351. 

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

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART at 5:30 p.m. 

Overeaters Anonymous at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 13 

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant’s Holiday Crafts Fair, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, Channing and Dana. Items are fair trade and most are from indigenous women’s cooperatives in Central America, Asia, Haiti and Africa. Free admission. All proceeds benefit local work with refugees. 524-7989. 

Benefit Holiday Crafts Sale Handicrafts from reused and recycled materials, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1720 Rose St. Backpacks, purses, jewelry, slippers, carved coconut shell containers, and more, made in cooperatives in India and the Philippines. Affordable prices. All proceeds will be distributed by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, www.no-burn.org to communities working to stop waste around the world. 

Artists with Heart, art show benefit from noon to 6 p.m. at 2033 and 2041 Center St. More than 50 artists and community members are donating their work to benefit the individuals and families served by BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency). 649-1930.  

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair between Bancroft and Dwight, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 649-9500. www.telegraphberkeley.org  

Holidays on Solano Ave. with photos with Santa from 1 to 3 p.m. at Peralta Park, 1561 Solano. 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Crafts Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with handcrafted gifts and music at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. 548-333. www.ecologycenter.org  

Amsterdam Art Studios Holiday Sale, with a dozen artists’ paintings and crafts, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1007 University Ave., between 9th and 10th Sts. 

Studio 1509’s Winter Open Studios from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1509 San Pablo Ave. 

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 

33rd Annual KPFA Community Crafts Fair from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at The Concourse, 8th and Brannan, San Francisco.  

High Tea at the Berkeley City Club with holiday decorations, sweets and savories from noon to 2:30 p.m. Cost is $24.95 adults, $14.95 children under 12. Call for reservations, 848-7800. 

East Bay Wetlands Restoration from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Join us for our regular drop-in volunteer days at Arrowhead Marsh, for a chance to learn about the ecology of the Bay and see some of the last remaining wetland habitat in the East Bay. We will be planting for the native plant project. Gloves, tools and snacks are provided. Please dress in layers and bring sunscreen and water. All ages and physical abilities are welcome. Please RSVP groups with 10 or more. Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. 452-9261. mlatta@savesfbay.org  

Greens at Work will be volunteering for the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We will be clearing ivy and other invasive plants from the Tamalpais Path. Meet at the intersection of Euclid at Eunice. Bring gloves, study shoes, and water.  

Winter Tonics and Herbal Remedies from the Kitchen and Yard Stay healthy this winter with the aid of common plants from your kitchen and yard. Learn how to boost your immune system with herbs, spices and weeds. Leave the class with a homemade remedy. The class is taught by naturalist Terri Compost. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. Cost is $10 EC members, $15 general, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

Conifers, with Garth Jacober at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Small Press Distribution Open House and Book Sale from noon to 4 p.m. at 1341 7th St. at Gilman. 524-1668. www.spdbooks.org 

Kol Hadash Brown Bag Family Shabbat with Rabbi Kai Eckstein, on “King Solomon,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Come and find out why King Solomon was special. Please bring lunch for your family, and (finger) dessert to share; juice provided. We also collect non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. kolhadash@aol.com 

Shamanic Journeying Meditation, starts at noon. Free. For information and directions call 525-1272. 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. For further information and to register, call Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

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

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

SUNDAY, DEC. 14 

Celebration of the Life of Fr. Bill O’Donnell at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High Campus. Candlelight procession at 6 p.m. to St. Joseph the Worker Church for a vigil at the church.  

Bamboo Building Strong as steel in tension, timber bamboo can grow three feet in a day, be sustainably harvested every year and uses a small fraction of the land required by trees. We will cover proper tool usage and joinery as well as design ideas that avoid the more difficult, time-consuming joints. From 7 to 10 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $35. 525-7610.  

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant’s Holiday Crafts Fair, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, Channing and Dana. Items are fair trade and most are from indigenous women’s cooperatives in Central America, Asia, Haiti and Africa. Free admission. All proceeds benefit local work with refugees. 524-7989. 

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair between Bancroft and Dwight, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 649-9500. www.telegraphberkeley.org  

Studio 1509’s Winter Open Studios from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1509 San Pablo Ave. 

Amsterdam Art Studios Holiday Sale, with a dozen artists’ paintings and crafts, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1007 University Ave., between 9th and 10th Sts. 

Holidays on Solano Ave. with photos with Santa from 1 to 3 p.m. at Sweet Potatoes, 1224 Solano. 

Teach-in on Militarism from 4 to 6 p.m., followed by spoken word, speakout on militarism, art, dancing and music. Admission is $5-$15 sliding scale or free with a donation for homeless veterans shelter (blankets, gloves, hats, warm clothes, socks, shoes, etc.) No one turned away for lack of funds. Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. 547-7486. 

Anti-Militarist Festival of Resistance, with poetry and music by Lynx, International Maggot Theatre, Six Pack Four, Live Ammo, and Tragedians of the City, at 6 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway. 547-7486.  

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. Bring warm, waterproof clothes - it can be wet! At the Cal Sailing Club at the Berkeley Marina 287-5905. www.cal-sailing.org  

Chanukah Celebration for the entire community. Activities, music, storytelling and, of course, latkes, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 112. www.brjcc.org 

MONDAY, DEC. 15 

City of Berkeley Budget Work Session and discussion of Implementation Plan for Budget Crisis Recovery at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-7000. 

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. 

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

TUESDAY, DEC. 16 

Wellstone Democratic Club meets at 6 p.m. for a pot luck and social hour, followed by a meeting at 7 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 24th and Harrison. 733-0996.  

Sauerkraut-Making Demonstration, with Sandor Ellix Katz, at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. www.ecologycenter.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sharon Stalkfleet will speak about her ministry in local nursing homes at 11 a.m. 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.  

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. 17 

Holiday Blood Drive Hosted by Berkeley Rep The Red Cross Blood Mobile will be parked in front of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, but you can also can sign up online by logging on www.BeADonor.com (sponsor code: BRT) or by calling 1-800-GiveLife. 

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. 

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

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

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

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

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

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

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

THURSDAY, DEC. 18 

Public Meeting on the Santa Fe Right-of-Way Bike and Pedestrian Path which runs from Delaware to University, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. For information call Niran at 981-6396 or Michael at 981-2490.  

Environmental Resource Center Open House Come visit your local environmental center for a warm winter get-together. There will be music, food, games, and a free raffle of environmental books and products. From 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Amphibians After School The wet weather brings out the frogs and salamanders. Let’s learn about them and look for them. For young naturalists, age 8-10, without their parents. From 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233.  

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.  

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Practice public speaking with out-of-this-world subjects, at 6:15 p.m. at 2515 Hillegass Ave. 898-1993. www.MetaphysicallySpeaking.org 

ONGOING 

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 

The Berkeley School Board is now accepting applications for Board Committees and Commissions. Applicants interested in representing a Board Member will find information and applications on the BUSD web site www.berkeleypublicschools.org or by contacting the Public Information Officer at 644-6320. Applications can also be picked up in the Superintendent’s office. 

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 

CITY MEETINGS  

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Dec. 15,  

at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Design Review Committee meets Mon. Dec. 15, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/designreview 

City Council meets Tues., Dec. 16, at 7 p.m., with a special session on the budget at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

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

commissions/housingauthority 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/humane 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/civicarts 

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

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

Energy Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

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

commissions/welfare 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/mentalhealth  

School Board meets Wed. Dec. 3, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Dec. 18, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/transportation

Nine years after a fire burnt down their first home, Berkeley Montessori School is moving to the flatlands—hoping that at their new address they can breath life into a Berkeley landmark and surrounding neighborhood fighting to improve its image and maintain its character. 

Come February, the school’s 270 students will move from their rented space at the Hillside School building to 1310 University Ave., beside Congregation Netivot Shalom, also under construction at the site of the former Jayvee Liquors. “The whole setting in the hills is beautiful, but it’s pretty isolated,” said Will Travis, a Montessori parent. “I think it will be exciting for the kids to be in the midst of the Berkeley community.” 

Besides wanting a home of their own, parents were eager to leave Hillside School—still owned by the Berkeley Unified School District—which sits directly over the Hayward Fault and was prohibited by state law from remaining a public school. 

Lew Jones, director of facilities and maintenance for the district, said no decision has been made about the fate of the site, which is rented by other groups as well.  

Parents secured a $7.9 million bond to pay the Catellus Corporation for the University Avenue site, home to the historic Berkeley Santa Fe Railroad Depot—up until the 1960s one of Berkeley’s two passenger stations and most recently a restaurant. 

An additional $1.3 million fundraising drive will make the new school an environmental marvel that keeps room temperatures comfortable while actually producing power for the neighbors. 

Local neighborhood groups have found themselves at the center of several land use fights this year, but they said they’re happy about the school’s arrival. The same groups have struggled to hold on to the Berkeley Adult School (which they say helps deter crime), banish the Berkeley Corporation Yard to an industrial site, and oppose development of Panoramic Interests’ new Acton Courtyard apartments, which several called a “five-story monstrosity.” 

The school and synagogue are a step in the right direction, said neighbor Sharleen Hardy. “They kind of fit in and when things fit in no one complains.” 

Parents and school officials insist that students will feel at home along the busy thoroughfare that has a seedy reputation. 

“All of our kids live closer to that part of town, so there’s not much we need to teach them,” said school spokesperson Sharline Chiang.  

The school will have fences and gates to keep children from wandering onto University Avenue. 

Getting to school will be easier for parents and children who’ve been force to rely on cars to reach the previous site. Located on bus lines, the school has also donated a ten-foot swath of land for a planned bike trail to traverse the site linking the Ohlone Greenway to Bay Trail. 

Montessori schools mix environmental stewardship with some unorthodox teaching methods, and the school will cater to both. 

Since younger students do most of their learning on the floor, rooms will be heated through radiant tubes underneath the floors made of Plyboo, a soft, durable surface made of bamboo. 

Architects have outfitted the school with a dimming system that senses the amount of natural light in a classroom and adjusts the electric lighting accordingly. The lights themselves are powered by solar panels connected to the PG&E grid and yield a surplus of electricity for the school and neighbors. 

Outside, the school will plant an organic garden for each class. 

In addition to two new buildings comprising 14,000 square feet of teaching space, the school is doing its best to restore the train depot, built in 1904, as a library. “It won’t be the jewel in the crown,” said Douglas Burnham, a parent and architect, but the school is working with a historian to replace the stucco exterior and repaint the depot to its original color. 

“Now our kids can have a better sense of history by living in it,” Travis said.

Long-struggling advocates of democratic governance for the Pacifica Network and its member stations chalked up one more small victory last Friday with the expiration of the deadline for candidate applications for the upcoming board elections. 

The election, which ends Feb. 5, resulted from a years-long battle over the future of the popular listener-funded Pacifica stations. When the smoke clears, the resulting new governance structure will feature a democratically elected advisory board at the network’s five members station: KPFA here in Berkeley, WBAI in New York City, WPFW in Washington D.C., KPFT in Houston and KPFK in Los Angeles. 

Under the new model, listener members and staff will elect candidates to the 24 slots on each station board. Each of the five boards will then pick four of their own members to sit on the national Pacifica board. 

Pacifica’s 53 affiliate stations will elect an additional two members. 

“It’s democracy not in a passive sense but in an active sense,” said KPFA election supervisor Les Radke during a press conference to announce the elections Monday. Joining Radke at the conference were a handful of the approximately 50 preliminary candidates vying for a spot on KPFA’s board. 

Though the station widely publicized the press conference, this writer was the only non-Pacifica reporter in attendance. 

Radke said the structural changes were enacted to ensure that the station continues to model the type of progressive and democratic organization that has governed the network and its content since its founding back in 1946. 

The latest round of changes were sparked when the old Pacifica board moved to consolidate and centralize power, prompting protesters to fill the streets outside KPFA and other member stations across the nation. 

Listeners were outraged by policies enacted by a Pacifica board which announced its intent to “mainstream” local stations and their content. Specific gripes included the decision by the national board to self-select its membership, ending the long-standing process that allowed local stations to appoint the majority of the national board members. Protesters also complained of financial mismanagement and censorship. 

The new structure, proponents say, ensures democratic oversight of all the network’s most important functions, effectively forestalling the possibility of another power struggle lead by the board. Nonetheless, they say they don’t expect the transition to be hassle free. 

“I’m actually nervous. Democracy doesn’t solve every problem,” said KPFA General Manager Gus Newport, a former Berkeley mayor. “Hopefully [the elections] will open the door to new ideas and energy and accountability. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”  

Organizers say they’ve tried to democratize the election process as much as possible by employing a “Choice Voting” form of proportional representation. 

Choice Voting, they say, allows voters to rank candidates, preventing power grabs by monolithic slates by preserving minority representation. Instead of winning a majority, each candidate only has to receive a set amount of votes and is automatically elected.  

If a voter’s first choice already has enough votes to win, the vote automatically transfers to their second choice, ensuring that the vote counts. If the voter’s first choice doesn’t have enough support to win a seat by the time the voter casts their ballot, the vote will automatically be transferred to the next choice still in the running. 

At KPFA, 18 of the 24 slots will be filled by the 50-plus candidates who turned in candidacy applications. The remaining six will be filled by paid and unpaid staff. Only listener members can vote on the 18 slots and only staff can vote for staff. A 25th slot on KPFA’s board will be filled by someone from member station KFCF in Fresno. Eligible to vote are listeners who have pledged $25 or more in the last year or performed three hours of volunteer service at the station. 

Around 110,000 ballots are scheduled to go out nationwide, of which 30,000 will go to KPFA members. The election is valid if 10 percent of the registered members cast ballots. 

For more information about KPFA’s election contact Les Radke at 848-6767 ext. 626 or by e-mail at elections@kpfa.org.

Some 75 balloon-wielding demonstrators—including a state assemblymember, a mayor, a city councilmember, a county supervisor, and a seven-foot-tall costumed Grinch—staged a candlelight vigil at an entrance to Hilltop Mall in Richmond Wednesday evening, protesting plans by retail giant Wal-Mart to open a store there. 

While the Grinch wandered through the protest waving Plaster of Paris claws and shouting “I love Wal-Mart! Jobs shouldn’t pay!” to a chorus of hearty boos, protesters chanted “Wal-Mart, No! Richmond, Yes!” and “Keep Them Out!” 

The hour-long demonstration was sponsored by the Central Labor Council of Contra Costa County. 

Richmond City Councilmember Charles Belcher told the crowd that he first attended a meeting at Hilltop on the prospective Wal-Mart move some months ago. “I told them I didn’t want Wal-Mart then, I don’t want them now,” Belcher said. “Richmond is a city of pride and purpose. Wal-Mart doesn’t fit here.” 

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, who led the recent vote on the board of supervisors to ban Wal-Mart from the unincorporated areas of the county, said he was particularly concerned about the retailer’s stand on gun sales. “In New York State, Wal-Mart would not stop the sale of guns to minors, even when they were asked to do so by the local community. We don’t need any more guns in Richmond. We need to demand responsibility from businesses who locate in our city.” 

Richmond Mayor Irma L. Anderson said Wal-Mart officials have already written her office promising not to sell guns in the proposed Richmond store. “We plan to hold them to that.” 

Other short speeches were given by State Assemblymember Loni Hancock and Contra Costa County Central Labor Council Executive Secretary John Dalrymple. 

One demonstrator, a white woman, accused the company of being “slave owners. They pay slave wages to their employees.” 

There is a growing movement in communities throughout the country to discourage Wal-Mart stores from opening in their areas, based on charges that the nation’s largest employer pays low wages, drives out local businesses, shifts the costs of its employee health care to the cities in which it settles, discriminates against women workers, engages in anti-union practices, and exploits overseas sweatshop labor. 

Wal-Mart couldn’t be reached for comment for this article. The company has previously denied such charges in prepared statements, and its website lists such honors as the 2002 Ron Brown Presidential Award (recognizing outstanding achievement in employee relations and community initiatives) and the 2001 and 2002 Billion-Dollar Roundtable Award for spending more than $1 billion with women and minority-owned suppliers. 

The company also says it “require[s] suppliers to ensure that every [overseas] factory conforms to local workplace laws and that there is no illegal child or forced labor.” On the issue of unions, the company says while it “respect[s] the individual rights of our [workers] and encourage them to express their ideas, comments and concerns...we do not believe there is a need for third-party representation.”

A decidedly glum Berkeley City Council took the first tentative steps Tuesday night toward budgeting in the Schwarzenegger era, squirming through a complicated revenue-cutting presentation by Budget Manager Paul Navazio, then putting off any decision until next week’s council meeting. 

At issue is what to do with close to $43 million in already-budgeted but uncontracted unspent funds carried over from fiscal year 2003. The city manager’s office has recommended that some $40 million of that money be spent as Council originally budgeted it, leaving an extra $2.8 million to put towards relieving the deficit. 

At Mayor Tom Bates’ suggestion, council postponed deciding what to cut and what to keep of the 13 pages of carryover budget line items in the city manager’s report—but an emotional protest by Councilmember Dona Spring demonstrated how difficult those choices will eventually be. 

Included in the manager’s proposed cuts was approximately $150,000 for improvements at the Warm Water Pool at Berkeley High. Arguing that the proposed improvements were earmarked for making the pool more accessible to Berkeley’s disabled, Spring said that the pool funds hadn’t been used not because they weren’t needed, but because they were not high on the list of staff priorities. 

Spring’s motion to leave the money in the budget died for lack of a second, while the rest of council looked dejectedly in other directions without saying a word. 

“You’re forcing me to make telephone calls to everyone in the disabled community to come out to the meeting next week to lobby to keep these funds in,” she said. 

“I’m not forcing you to do anything,” Bates answered, more in anguish than in anger. He added that he expected complaints from representatives of any of the city’s constituencies facing cuts. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak also called the city manager’s suggested ratio of $2 million cuts from operating funds and $800,000 from capital expenditures unbalanced, and asked staff to come back with suggestions for $2.5 million to $3 million more in capital cuts. 

Council has scheduled budget discussions for its Dec. 16 meeting both at its 5 p.m. working session and at its regular 7 p.m. meeting time. At that time, City Manager Phil Kamlarz is expected to make a presentation on how the city will make up for a $3 million cut in revenue stemming from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lowering of the state’s Vehicle License Fee (VLF). 

The VLF action automatically lowered legally mandated payments from the state to city and county governments. The governor has said it’s the responsibility of the state legislature to figure out a way to make up the lost money to local governments. 

This week, the state provided less than a third of the monthly approximately $330,000 payment due the City of Berkeley. If state cuts continue, Berkeley will lose $4.6 million in state funds next year. 

Later in the week, Mayor Bates issued a press statement blasting Schwarzenegger. “I am absolutely outraged that the governor would make these unilateral cuts,” Bates said. “Cities throughout the state rely on this funding for police, fire, and other important services.” 

A statement from the mayor’s office said that Schwarzenegger’s action “breaks [his] promise to protect funding to local governments; it also violates the law.” Bates has already asked City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque to investigate Berkeley’s joining other local governments in a lawsuit against the governor’s actions. 

In other action last Tuesday night, Berkeley City Council: 

• Gave the city manager increased authority on his own to purchase supplies up to $50,000 and for construction up to $100,000 (Spring and Worthington voting no). 

• Supported Senator Don Perata’s March 2004 bond referendum to raise local bridge tolls to $3 to support a variety of local transportation projects. (In protest that many of the projects—including the fourth Caldecott Tunnel bore and the extension of BART to Warm Springs—are not supported in Berkeley, Shirek, Spring, Hawley, and Olds all abstained.) 

• Voted down the appeal of neighbors to stop construction at the city’s Corporation Yard. Council also adopted several mitigation requirements authored by Councilmember Margaret Breland, including a ban on Saturday morning construction and requiring street sweeping of the yard three times a week during the construction period. Several councilmembers expressed the desire that the Corporation Yard should eventually be moved out of a residential neighborhood and into an industrial area, but conceded that the present budget difficulties made that impossible at the present time. 

• Approved the formation of the Solano Avenue Business Improvement District (Olds voting no), to join BIDs already established downtown, on Telegraph Avenue, on North Shattuck Avenue, and in West Berkeley. BID fees are mandatory for businesses operating within the districts, collected automatically through the Alameda County treasurer’s assessment bill. Several professional businesses had sought exemptions from the association. Council rejected that appeal, but cut their fees by one-third. 

• Accepted a check for $27,224.98 from the United Pool Council, which the organization gave “in expectation that the city’s pools will remain open.” Members asked that council not freeze out the currently vacant position of Aquatics Pool Coordinator. The United Pool Council also announced formation of the Fred Lupke Pool Fund to raise money for pool access for “disabled and underserved children of Berkeley.” The fund is named for the longtime Berkeley disabled activist who was killed earlier this year when his wheelchair was struck by a car on Ashby Avenue.

Planners Ponder Second Berkeley Bowl 

Berkeley’s Planning Commission took their first look this week at the project that may eventually become a second Berkeley Bowl Supermarket, and their staff told them considerable General Plan and zoning hurdles stand in the way of the proposed West Berkeley store. 

Kava Massih Architects of Berkeley, on behalf of the Berkeley Bowl’s owners, is seeking an amendment to the General Plan that would allow a 55,000-square-foot store at the corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue, some 13,000 square feet larger than the Bowl’s Oregon Street store. 

The Bowl’s owners haven’t indicated any plans to close the original store. 

Currently the West Berkeley Plan and the location’s current Mixed Use-Light Industrial (MU-LI) zoning designation would bar building the second store, which is expected to cater to traffic coming directly off I-80. A proposed 30,000-square-foot warehouse annex to the West Berkeley store would be allowed, however. 

Planning Commissioners expressed some reluctance to amend the General Plan—which covers zoning and development throughout Berkeley—and worried that changing the zoning ordinance to accommodate Berkeley Bowl would leave the project site open for a less desirable supermarket—Safeway was mentioned—should Berkeley Bowl change its mind. 

Commissioners directed staff to come back next month with several alternative scenarios, including changing MU-LI zoning to allow large retail, rezoning the area of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue to another designation that would allow the store, or legalizing the store under a zoning variance. 

—J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 

Edley Named Boalt Hall Dean 

Christopher Edley Jr. became the first African American to lead a top-ranked law school Thursday when the University of California, Berkeley named him dean of Boalt Hall. 

Edley, a Harvard Law School professor, served in both the Clinton and Carter administrations and currently sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 

He is the founding co-director of the Civil Rights Project, a multidisciplinary research and policy think tank whose research was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action at the University of Michigan. 

Under Clinton, Edley served as a special counsel who led the White House’s review of affirmative action. He was also the Office of Management and Budget’s associate director for economics and government. Under Carter he served as the assistant director of the White House domestic policy staff.  

According to a statement released by UC Berkeley, Edley’s research primarily focuses on issues of racial justice and the struggle to define equity, fairness and opportunity in a multi-racial context. 

In addition to his seat on the Commission on Civil Rights he also serves on several panels of the National Research Council, the research section of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. 

Edley is the son of Christopher Edley Sr., a lawyer who headed the United Negro College Fund. His wife, Maria Echaveste, is a well-known lawyer who served as White House deputy chief of staff under Clinton and currently runs a public policy and political strategy consulting firm in Washington D.C. She will be joining Edley at UCB as a researcher and lecturer at Boalt and the Goldman Graduate School of Public Policy. She and Edley are also volunteer policy advisors to Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. 

—Jakob Schiller 

Woman Attacks Two In Bookshop, Ends Up Bloody in the Street 

A woman inexplicably attacked two shoppers with her bare hands at early Tuesday afternoon at Mr. Mopps Children’s Books, 1405 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Police said they arrived at the store to find the woman getting into her car parked outside the store. 

Berkeley BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield said that when police ordered her out of the car, she pulled the car out, striking one officer in the leg. Police at the scene quickly boxed in the car with three patrol cars, then approached her again and demanded she leave her vehicle, Schofield said.  

When she refused and began turning the wheel to the left in the direction of two officers, one smashed open the drivers’ side window and opened the door, Schofield said, enabling two officers to yank her from the car. 

The police spokesman said that when the woman continued to violently resist, several officers pinned her on the pavement and held her there until the could confine her in a velcro binding called The Wrap. 

A witness to the arrest, Julia Klems, who watched from a nearby bus stop bench, said the woman didn’t resist and added that she believed the officers had used “excessive force” in throwing her to the ground. Klems said the “slightly built” woman remained pressed against the pavement for about twenty minutes, bleeding from her forehead and hands.  

“It all seemed really unnecessary,” Klems said. “I thought it was strange that they used so much force. She really wasn’t struggling.” A Daily Planet photographer who witnessed the incident agreed. 

Police arrested Tonita Wiemels, 40, of Albany on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon (her car), two counts of battery and one count of evading a policeman. 

Second Jogger Assaulted While on Bay Trail 

For the second time in a month, a woman was attacked while running alone on the Bay Trail north of University Avenue. At approximately 6:43 a.m. Tuesday, the culprit tackled the woman from behind and shoved her into nearby bushes where he sexually assaulted her, police said. Ultimately the victim managed to escape and run into the street, where she flagged down a passing car and called police from a pay phone at the Seabreeze Market. 

Two people in an SUV also saw the victim and darted out of their car to chase after the assailant but failed to track him down. The attacker is described as an Anglo or Latino male, medium build, late 20s, and between 5’10” and 6’ feet tall. He was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt and dark pants. 

Police suspect he is the same man who attacked a woman jogger on a similar stretch of West Frontage Road—which runs parallel to the Bay Trail—early in the morning of Nov. 9. In that incident the woman was also tackled from behind, but escaped prior to any sexual assault. Police urge any witnesses to contact the Sex Crimes Detail at 981-5735. 

More Dangerous Than Tom Cruise with a Kendo Stick 

An Monday night altercation at a screening of The Last Samurai at the California Theater spread to the street at approximately 11:30 p.m. According to police, a group of three men behaved boorishly during the action flick, causing a different group of moviegoers to complain to management. The three men zipped up, but after the movie, as the other group left the theater, the three men pulled beside them in a Lexus. One of the trio pointed the gun at a man in the group and threatened to shoot him before the car departed.

We’ve heard a lot lately about how the recording industry is increasingly dominated by a few large conglomerates, producing fewer and fewer choices for listeners and less and less income for artists. 

If you’re looking for alternatives to buying music from the big boys, you can find them in and around Berkeley. Here are four selections from many possibilities which illustrate how you can support independent artists with your buying dollar in a variety of ways. 

The most innovative solution to the problem of excessive consolidation in the recording industry is offered by a new Berkeley Internet company, Magnatune, whose first release was in May of this year. I found their website (magnatunes.com/) when I was trying to figure out how to buy baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai’s recently released CD of Bach’s Cello Suites. Carrai, though based in Boston, appears frequently in Berkeley with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. 

Magnatune’s slogan is “we are not evil.” Founder John Buckman explains the whole concept, at great length, on the company website: “The goal is to find a way to run a record label in the Internet Reality: file trading, Internet Radio, musicians’ rights, the whole nine-yards.” What this means is that individual listeners can download uncompressed CD-quality music, and they are asked to pay “what you think this music is worth,” though there is a suggested price. Musicians retain the copyright in their work, and keep half of the buyer’s payment. That’s half of the gross, not a minute percentage of the (usually non-existent) profits, which musicians get from conventional labels. There are also elaborate schemes for licensing for commercial use. 

The Magnatune website tells you much more than you ever expected to know about the way it all works. Clicking on “statistics” gives detailed sales breakdowns for the 75 artists currently represented by 145 albums on the company’s list. They are unusual offerings in a thoroughly eclectic list of genres. Selecting “Sales by Genre for this week” shows what’s selling in ten diverse categories, from Classical at 40.41 percent of sales, through Electronica (11.75 percent) down to Punk: (0.42 percent). 

Of course, if you’re not Internet-savvy (probably not all baroque music fans are!) you can just go down to The Musical Offering at 2430 Bancroft Way and pick up a CD. It’s produced by Britain’s Avie, a similarly artist-friendly company, in partnership with Magnatune. 

Next, there are still a few somewhat independent big labels out there. Dave Ellis, who would deserve the title “Pride of Berkeley High” if there weren’t so many other fine musicians who could also claim it, has an edgy jazz offering on the Milestone label, produced by the legendary Orrin Keepnews, the founder of the label as a New York independent. Milestone was acquired by Berkeley’s own Fantasy in the 1970s, so it now could be considered a local label, though part of a larger enterprise. Dave’s latest CD release is called State of Mind, and it can be purchased directly from Fantasy’s website without going through a distributor, though it is also available in stores. Details at: www.fantasyjazz.com.  

Berkeley has a remarkable number of venues for what’s most often called “roots music,” and many of the leading performers live here. Suzy Thompson has played for more than thirty years in most of the popular groups, such as Any Old Time, Klezmorim, the California Cajun Orchestra, and the Bluegrass Intentions. She’s recently released her first solo fiddle CD, No Mockingbird, which mixes her own compositions with music from a great variety of American roots sources from the 1920s and 1930s. It can be purchased on-line (nativeandfinerecords.com) or by phone (559-8879) from Albany-based Native and Fine Records. For those who want to walk into a locally-owned music store to make their purchases, El Cerrito’s Down Home Music at 10341 San Pablo Ave. is the place to go. On Saturday, Dec. 13, Suzy will be a guest on West Coast Live (KALW 91.7 FM), which will be broadcasting at 10 a.m. before a live audience from Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. You can probably pick up a CD there, too. 

Finally, the simplest route. Many musicians now make their own CDs and sell them at their gigs. Smooth and silky Louisiana-born saxophone player Jules Broussard, who can be heard most Wednesday nights at Berkeley’s Downtown Restaurant, brings along his 1995 CD Love Note, proudly listing his name as copyright holder, which he offers to interested fans for $15 cash on the spot. Just go down to Downtown (2101 Shattuck Ave.), listen to some music, and give Jules your money.

Pivotally located smack between the downtown BART station and the edge of campus, the proposed UC Berkeley hotel/conference center/museums complex could bring important benefits or major headaches—perhaps both. It certainly poses a wide range of difficult, and interrelated, issues. 

The Project’s Basic Features 

The plan would involve redeveloping most of the block bounded by Shattuck, Addison, Oxford, and Center. The university already owns the eastern half of the block—with a parking garage on the Addison side and the old UC Press building (now used by the Printing Services Department) on the Center Street side. UC has a tentative deal to buy the Bank of America property on the block’s southwest quarter, which now houses the bank’s rambling one-story building and sizable open parking lot. The redevelopment’s first phase, likely to occur on the bank land, would include constructing a hotel with roughly 175-225 rooms and some 15,000-20,000 square feet of meeting space, as well as a replacement for the branch bank and considerable enclosed parking. This would entail a long-term ground lease from the university—or possibly resale of the land by UC. The second phase would include constructing, likely on the block’s eastern half or so, new homes for the Berkeley Art Museum, the Pacific Film Archive, and the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.  

The RFQ (Request for Qualifications) sent to potential developers includes a tentative site plan and east-west section drawing showing a “presently preferred” scheme for the block—although this is considered subject to major changes later on, during the project’s detailed planning.  

Less widely known is that the project would also involve redeveloping much of the next block to the north, including the UC open parking along the north side of Addison, the one- or two-story parts of University Hall, and the one-story commercial building at 2154-60 University Ave. that UC is presently acquiring. In their place, the plan currently foresees “a parking structure primarily for university use, ground floor retail, and perhaps office space for university users.” 

Urban Design and Preservation 

The Berkeley General Plan says it’s very important to maintain the special physical character of our historic downtown and ensure that new construction is compatible. 

One aspect of that involves protecting specific historic buildings. Of particular concern here is that the Moderne-styled UC Press building is on the SHRI (State Historic Resources Inventory). Could at least parts of this quite notable building be incorporated into the new complex? Also of direct concern is the 1911-vintage structure at 2154-60 University Ave., which is listed as a “significant building” by the city’s Downtown Berkeley Design Guidelines.  

Furthermore, many historic buildings closely adjoin the project site, and could be seriously affected by what happens on it.  

As for the project’s new buildings, how should they be massed? For what it’s worth, the RFQ’s section drawing shows something 12 stories high at the corner of Shattuck and Center. Would a narrow tower that high be acceptable at this particular corner, partly because of precedent set by the nearby historic Wells Fargo tower? Or should the hotel be much lower and wider? Should the project’s tall elements be elsewhere on the block, even partly over museum space? Should building form be terraced, with a series of roof gardens? All these options need exploring. 

Would the project create huge monolithic structures clashing with downtown’s “grain” of mostly moderate-scaled buildings and storefronts? How could the new construction be massed—and detailed—to avoid undue mismatch? 

Would the museums be designed as a nowadays typically grandstanding, idiosyncratic Big Statement? Or would they—in addition to embodying green building principles—seek excellence and uniqueness by instead graciously fitting into, and reinforcing the character of, a unique historic downtown? 

The RFQ’s site plan shows an “arts courtyard” apparently rather hidden at second-floor level within the southern block’s interior. But what about public open space where it’s most useful, namely, at street level adjoining the sidewalk? According to the site plan Bank of America’s current plaza on Shattuck would disappear, and the block’s only real street-level open space would be a tiny, and likely sunshine-challenged, plaza at the northeast corner.  

Would the new buildings’ ground-floor usage enhance the pedestrian experience? The situation could be bleak along the north side of Center Street, where the RFQ drawings don’t specify any use directly relevant to foot traffic except for the bank at the Shattuck end and a “museum cafe” at the Oxford end. Along the rest of this crucial frontage, would pedestrians find only the Berkeley Art Museum’s doorless sidewall and the face of a sprawling parking garage? Also of special concern is the future pedestrian experience on the project-impacted north side of Addison and south side of University Avenue.  

Parking and Transit 

The RFQ seems to envision a large amount of parking even within the project’s southern block. The section drawing shows beneath the new bank office a presumably dedicated basement garage, served by a driveway evidently descending from Center Street: a driveway arguably inconsistent with the potential (which interests Mayor Tom Bates) for converting that street into pedestrian open space. And east of the driveway, it shows an apparently huge garage that—partly at ground level and then partly below grade—would continue, below the museums, all the way to Oxford. 

Many Berkeleyans will likely object strenuously to having so much parking right beside the downtown BART station, at the heart of a city supposedly committed to minimizing use of the private automobile. They’ll probably argue that, instead, the project should be conceived and designed to actively support use of public transit. 

As just one example, could the hotel/conference center give a transit-friendly strong hint by having its main entrance feed directly to and from a bus stop with ample shelter and seating? As another, could there be a direct underground passageway from inside the project to the BART station’s mezzanine?  

Strawberry Creek 

At a Dec. 2 meeting, several attendees urged that the project should include daylighting Strawberry Creek. Though sympathetic to creek restoration, the Mayor felt that the hotel/conference center/museums project shouldn’t be asked to pay for it. Daylighting advocates responded by suggesting that the project should include extra uses so as to enable such payment.  

Fiscal Concerns 

The hotel/conference center evidently would pay transient occupancy tax to the city. However, UC and apparently the mayor assume that (at least if UC retains fee ownership) it would be exempt from ad valorem property tax and would, instead, be subject to a less burdensome relative called “possessory interest” tax. At the Dec. 2 meeting Mayor Bates said it appears the latter would at least equal the property tax that Bank of America currently pays. But as the bank’s land is now very underbuilt, shouldn’t the comparison be made, instead, with the property tax the bank might pay if it retained the land and fully developed it? Furthermore, it seems that the city attorney’s office has been seriously reviewing the city’s legal situation on the property tax. 

Relevant in any case is Measure N, enacted by Berkeley voters in 1988. That measure declares as city policy that all development by public agencies should pay taxes and fees, comparable to those paid by private citizens and businesses, to support their fair share of city services. It is supplemented by General Plan statements like the Land Use Element’s call to “[s]eek ways and means, and commit additional resources, to ensure that the University of California complies with voter-approved Measure N.”  

This concern extends to even the transportation-services and other “impact fees” called for by the General Plan. For instance, the Housing Element says to “[a]pply [housing mitigation] impact fees to new hotel or conference center uses as well as to office, retail, and industrial uses.”  

Role of the City and Community 

The RFQ says nothing at all about the city’s role in the project planning process. In contrast, it prominently cites—supposedly as an advantage for developers—the university’s “exempt status as a state agency.” Will the city and citizens be relegated to what, in the last analysis, amounts to mere commenting?  

But would the hotel/conference center really be exempt from city regulations? It’s not clear that it would be, and it seems that the city attorney’s office has been studying this question. 

Measure N mandates that all land use plans, development, and expansion by public agencies should follow city laws. This theme is supported by General Plan statements such as “Use all available means to ensure that the university and other public agencies abide by the rules and laws of the city.” 

Whatever the ultimate legal situation, the city has now activated General Plan language calling for a “Planning Commission task force” regarding the project. The council has asked the commission for an initial report, including recommended project criteria, to be submitted by May. 

In a recent letter to the Berkeley Daily Planet, Planning Commission chair Zelda Bronstein emphasized that in order for the project to greatly benefit Berkeley, “the community at large must have ample opportunity to participate in the planning process.”

I was sitting in my desk in my second grade classroom, I think, at Highland Elementary in Oakland—which takes this back a ways, I know—when an earthquake came and split a crack so wide in the school’s administration building that you could stick your fingers in it. That summer, they tore down the administration building and put up a new one. Eight years later, when I had just entered Castlemont, Oakland built a high school for the rich kids up in the hills. 

In the spring of 2002, voters in Oakland passed Measure A, the $303 million bond referendum allowing school construction and facilities improvement in the city. As far as I can determine, between 1963 and 2002—a period of some 40 years—Oakland built no new schools. Quite the contrary. During that period, while a need for school facilities increased with a rising population, popular support for school financing plummeted after the hope generated during the administration of Superintendent Marcus Foster. Following Mr. Foster’s assassination, Oakland wallowed in a long, meandering period that drifted between scandal, corruption, resignation, and despair. 

All of which one needs to keep in mind if one wishes to understand the passage of Measure A and the brief administration of Superintendent Dennis Chaconas—a brief and shining moment of hope in Oakland when we began to believe in ourselves again and our power to transform our circumstances—and how much we lost when those greedy bastards took it all out of our hands. 

I’m probably understating my point. If so, I offer my apologies. But I’m awfully angry about this, and when you’re angry, you tend not to stutter and not express yourself so well. 

For the months leading up to the state takeover of the Oakland schools, we heard a string of accusations—from both politicians and the press—on how the School Board and Mr. Chaconas had screwed up the schools, and education in Oakland could only be saved if responsibility was taken out of their hands. An essential point was missed, here. The antiquated computer and accounting system that hid Oakland’s financial problems preceded Mr. Chaconas and every present sitting member of the school board by several years. So long as Oakland’s various school administrations marked time, took their paychecks, and allowed the city’s public schools to wallow in mediocrity, the problems of the accounting system never saw the light of day. It was only when Mr. Chaconas—under the direction of the School Board and with the support of the Oakland public—began clearing out the dead weight in the administration building, shaking out nonfunctioning or underfunctioning teachers and administrators and—most important—brought teacher salaries in the city up to a competitive standard, that Mr. Chaconas and the school board discovered the house of cards upon which our schools’ finances were constructed. 

Okay. You can make a case, if you want, that they should have figured that out earlier. 

But even for those who take that position—and I don’t happen to be one of them—the prudent next step should have been to rally around our elected school representatives and hired superintendent, go to Sacramento as a united front, and worked our way out of this mess as a united community. 

Instead, Mayor Brown and State Senator Don Perata and Alameda County School Superintendent Sheila Jordan merrily stirred the pot of dissent, conspired with the folks at the Fiscal Crisis And Management Team—if you are to believe Robert Gammon of the Oakland Tribune—and helped pave the way for the State of California to seize the Oakland Unified School District. 

We are told that sometime, somewhere, in the unforeseen future—based upon conditions that are far outside of our control—the state will give us back our schools. There are people in this city who are willing to wait that long. I don’t think we can. Before our eyes, we can see the collapsing of Oakland people’s confidence in the Oakland public schools, as enrollment spirals downwards, and parents seek education solutions elsewhere. Developers have long had their eyes on the downtown administration building. We now hear from the overseer—Dr. Ward—that schools may be forced to close. Think of that, my friends. Three years after Oakland voters approved the first Oakland school construction in a generation, our assets are going to be parceled out like this was a yard sale. Wonder whose got their eyes on those parcels? 

Forty years ago, Oakland would have stormed the legislature with demonstrators, sat down in the halls up in Sacramento and blocked the doors. We would have pulled our children out of the schools en masse and opened up Freedom Schools in synagogues and churches and community centers and garages, and stayed out until we forced the legislature to give us our schools back. But maybe Oakland has grown old, and lost its heart. Or maybe—as the block boys like to say—Oakland’s heart is still there somewhere, but it’s just pumping Kool-Aide.  

Last year and this, we built a new, two story-classroom wing at Highland with the Measure A money, my old elementary, the first capital improvements to the school since I was in the second grade. The new building replaced the dilapidated, wooden portables where I spent my fifth and sixth grades. A new building, put up by Oakland people, with Oakland money, for Oakland children. 

If we don’t do something, and do it soon, that’s the sort of legacy that will be lost, and there will be nothing but scraps left for us after the pigs finish gorging themselves on the meal that is Oakland.

Christmas, 1849: not a joyous time for a party of gold seekers led by a Vermonter named William Lewis Manly. An alleged shortcut from Salt Lake City to California has left them stranded in Death Valley. They’ve slaughtered their draft oxen and dismantled their wagons for firewood. They’re hungry enough to try anything, however unpromising. 

Up a canyon, in niches set in a high cliff, Manly’s group finds what he describes in his journal as “balls of a glistening substance looking something like varigated [sic] candy stuck together” the size of small pumpkins. Concluding it “evidently food of some sort,” they break off pieces and share them around. Manly records the taste as “sweet but sickish.” Those who sample it have a touch of nausea afterward, but no lasting ill effects. 

Manly believed they had discovered an Indian food cache, and was apprehensive about the consequences of raiding it. The pioneers apparently thought the “glistening substance” was some kind of Native American rock candy. But it had been left not by the local Paiutes, but by packrats. 

Although some might consider the packrat my totem animal, I’ve only seen a couple: a trophy brought home by one of my late cats, another treed by a friend’s dog. But they’re common enough in the right places, and it’s easy to find evidence of their presence. They’re more properly called woodrats, although only a few of the 21 species (10 in North America) live in forests; most inhabit the Southwestern deserts. In the Bay Area, the dusky-footed woodrat is widespread in woodland and oak scrub. It’s smaller than a Norway rat, from which it’s also distinguishable by its furry tail. 

Packrats are secretive, but their homes are hard to miss. Called “houses,” their dwelling are massive stick constructions, conical in shape. Biologist Elden Vestal, who studied the dusky-footed woodrat in Strawberry Canyon in the 1930s, measured over 300 houses: They averaged 4 feet in height (maximum 6 feet 7 inches) and 5 feet in diameter (maximum 7.5 feet). Rat houses often harbor smaller creatures: mice, voles, shrews, alligator lizards, tree frogs, three species of salamander. A typical house has sunporches, internal passageways, a nest chamber deep inside, and storage space for food. The exterior may be decorated with objects that catch the rat’s fancy. Vestal found one house adorned with a great horned owl’s skull, another with two golf balls. 

These are short-lived creatures, but their houses may be occupied by generation after generation. A good home is never empty for long. Solitary except during the mating season, neighbors communicate by rattling their tails to signal potential danger. 

Dusky-footed woodrats will take a wide variety of plant matter; field work at UC’s Hastings Reservation in the Carmel Valley tallied 73 species. But a few plants, mainly live oak and California laurel, are staples. The rats eat both acorns, which they stash in impressive quantities (one house contained 20 pounds), and oak leaves. Other mammals, including lab rats, are unable to handle the toxic tannins in oak foliage. Woodrats, though, thrive on it. Peter Atsatt and Trudy Ingram, biologists at UC Irvine, found that captives maintained their weight on a strict oakleaf diet, and theorized that the rats rely on specialized bacteria in their digestive tracts to break down the tannins. 

Anything the rat brings home but doesn’t eat goes into the midden, an accumulating trash heap just outside the house and often downslope. The midden also serves as a latrine. And it’s this behavioral trait, shared by most packrat species, that’s made these rodents a valuable resource for the study of climate change. 

What the Manly party unwittingly ate was dried packrat urine. Climatologists call it “amberat,” which has a nice ring. In our area, with its winter rains, dusky-footed woodrats don’t produce amberat. But their desert relatives do, and the substance is a potent preservative. 

Just how potent was discovered by botanist Philip Wells and zoologist Clive Jorgensen in 1961. Near Frenchman Flat in the Nevada Test Site, the scientists broke off a chunk of packrat midden and found it full of juniper. There was no juniper anywhere in sight. Wells and Jorgensen sampled eight more middens, all containing juniper, one with the skull of a marmot, a resident of alpine tundra. Carbon 14 testing showed the skull was 12,700 years old, and the juniper bits ranged from 7,800 to at least 40,000 years in age, as far back as the dating method was effective. The middens had evidently been used by successive generations of rats, stretching back into the Pleistocene Era, and the juniper and marmot remains dated from a time when southern Nevada was cooler and wetter. 

When they published their findings in Science, Wells and Jorgensen suggested further study of packrat middens as a secondary source of evidence in climate studies, along with pollen analysis. It’s become a lot more than that. Several university labs are now devoted to middenology. Teasing the datable bits out of the viscous rat urine is tedious work. But the result is a detailed, site-specific history—site-specific because the rats are homebodies—of local vegetation, and thus of local climate. And it’s possible to measure how rapidly plant life changed when the great ice sheets melted, or during later cycles of drought, like the one that may have driven the Anasazi from their cities. 

Our local woodrats may not have made a major contribution to science, but desert rats have left a record enabling us to reconstruct ancient climates and project the likely impact of changes to come. Not bad for a rodent. 

And yes, the Manly party made it out alive. Manly and a companion scouted an escape route and came back for the others. When they reached the pass leading out of their encampment, they doffed their hats and shouted “Goodbye, Death Valley!” to the silent desert. And the name stuck.

Cash-strapped AC Transit is set to implement its second major service cut of the year Monday, slashing service on six Berkeley routes and laying off over 100 drivers and mechanics just four days before Christmas. 

System-wide, 45 lines are slated for elimination with an additional 48 facing service alterations. 

In all, nearly 10 percent of service will be discontinued—paring $16 million from the transit agency’s $50 million budget shortfall. 

As in the first round of cuts this summer, Berkeley emerges relatively unscathed. Most of the affected routes travel to San Francisco, with Route HX discontinued and service on Routes E, G and H scaled back from every 20 minutes to every half hour. 

Of the local lines, Route 17—which crossed Alcatraz Avenue on its way from Rockridge Bart to Emeryville—will be discontinued, while Route 9—which snakes around Berkeley from Ashby and Claremont Avenue to the Marina—will scale back afternoon service to every half hour. 

In June, Berkeley lost Route 8, which served the Hills, and suffered service cuts on Routes 65 and 52. In September, the transit agency raised prices for bus passes and stopped offering free rides to poor schoolchildren. 

AC Transit Spokesperson Mike Mills blamed the budget shortfall on the sluggish economy and said that if revenue didn’t pick up soon, further service cuts could come as early as June. 

Though Mills couldn’t provide ridership statistics, Dean Metzger, chair of Berkeley’s Transportation Commission, said Berkeley has the highest percentage of riders in the system, which insulates the city from more severe cuts. 

“[Service] has been pretty stable,” he said. “I’m not hearing a lot of people complaining.” 

With UC Berkeley student activity fees paying for student bus passes, Berkeley offers the system a base of loyal riders and guaranteed income. 

Metzger hopes to one day expand the bus pass system citywide by combining a parcel tax hike with business subsidies to offer any Berkeley resident unlimited free service on AC Transit. 

He criticized AC Transit for failing to flex the necessary political muscle to win such concessions as dedicated bus lanes that could improve service and draw more customers. “If they were reliable and got fares down more people would ride it,” he said. 

To minimize layoffs, AC Transit is temporarily offering added early retirement incentives starting at age 53. 

While it’s too early gauge the success of the program, Christine Zook, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192, said 112 of her members have received pink slips—about five percent of union membership. 

“Anytime you have 100 people getting laid off the week of Christmas, you can’t be happy,” she said. 

Zook blamed the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for the service cuts arguing the regional transportation power broker favors BART, which caters to a more affluent clientele.  

Union activists protested outside MTC headquarters Friday, demanding increased long-term funding for a project to provide service for low income neighborhoods bringing people to schools and jobs. 

“AC Transit is a little fish,” she said. “The MTC is making planning decisions 20 years out that disadvantage poor people.” 

Mills insisted AC Transit’s future was not all gloom and doom. He touted the new rapid bus service along San Pablo Avenue and other expansions better linking the system to BART. 

“We’re still building towards a bright future,” he said. “This is just a bump in the road.”

I was in St. Joseph the Worker church most recently on Sunday evening, the night before Father Bill O’Donnell died. It was that most Berkeley of events, the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra’s holiday special: Handel’s Messiah, sung by an enormous assemblage of unauditioned but well-rehearsed community members who rattled the stained glass windows with glorious sound. The orchestra was splendid. The soloists were thrilling. The audience enthusiastically stood up to join in singing the Hallelujah Chorus. BCCO performances bring out all kinds of Berkeleyans, people who probably couldn’t sit down at the same dinner table for conversation (or even agree on the choice of a restaurant), but who manage to get together harmoniously a few times every year. 

My favorite part of Messiah is the triumphant trumpet solo, accompanying this text: 

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 

I thought of it when we got the news at the Daily Planet that Father Bill had died with his boots on, at his desk after saying the eight o’clock mass. I also thought of another scriptural text: In the midst of life, we are in death. It’s all too easy, these days, to be dead to what’s going on in the world around you. People like Bill O’Donnell are the trumpeters, letting us know that we need to wake up and do the right thing.  

A few years ago, some Berkeley politicians came up with the precursor of Gavin Newsom’s Care Not Cash initiative. They put together a meeting for religious leaders, hoping to get their endorsement for a ballot measure. Father Bill showed up, and with a few well-chosen remarks put the proposal in context, and most decided not to go along with the plan. This is a role he played many times, jolting people who were tempted to close their eyes to moral decisions out of their complacency. He didn’t always win the battles he engaged in (his side lost the election on that one, though they won in court), but he raised many of us from sleeping and changed many of our hearts and minds. 

Hundreds of people in Berkeley have their favorite stories about The O’Donnell. We’ve got a few of them on these pages, and there will be more to come. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.