By Matthew Artz 

At a meeting on Thursday, organic farmers, graduate students and Albany neighbors criticized a planned UC Development that threatens to uproot the area’s last farmland, demolish the university’s most affordable housing stock and create a 72,000 square foot supermarket and neighboring shops. 

“This is an end run around democracy,” said Jan Hitchcock, president of the Dartmouth Avenue Neighborhood Association. “God knows UC needs the money, but they’re using their tax-exempt status to do anything they want and we’re stuck with it.” 

Hitchcock was among about 30 opponents to speak at a scoping session on UC Berkeley’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the redevelopment of University Village. The 77-acre plot along San Pablo Avenue has for decades been home to housing for graduate students and agricultural research on nearly ten acres of farmland. 

The project—in the works since 1998—would move two baseball fields to the agricultural land, known as the Gill Tract, restore Cordornices Creek, near where the baseball fields currently sit, and tear down 564 units of aging student housing in favor of 1,333 new apartment units for faculty and graduate students—some on San Pablo Avenue above the new storefronts. 

The retail component of the plan is indicative of UC’s thrust into commercial development to boost revenues. Like the proposed hotel and convention center in Berkeley, UC plans to lease the land to a developer, allowing Albany to claim sales tax revenue, but insulating it from property taxes. UC estimates ground lease revenue for the commercial development at $250,000 per year. 

Albany officials say they are happy with the proposed supermarket, which they estimate will bring in $30,000 a year in sales tax, but fear the plan will leave them footing the bill for essential services.  

“This exceeds our preferred density by a longshot, said Planning Manager Dave Dowswell. “The impact on our fire services will be major and right now we’re not getting compensated for it.” 

A final EIR, including responses to the comments made Thursday and others submitted before the March 17 deadline, will go before the Regents in July. 

Though the plan satisfies Albany and UC objectives, Professor Miguel Altieri, who has tilled a steadily decreasing share of the soil at the Gill Tract since 1981, smells a rat. 

“The university is yielding to corporate research,” he said. “Corporate money has biased research towards biotechnology so the university thinks it doesn’t need fields, just labs to manipulate genes.” If the project goes through, he added, the university would move his organic farming research to Orinda or Pinole, making research nearly impossible for most of his students who commute by bike. 

That move was scheduled to happen this year, but concerns over the financing model have forced UC to push back construction work to 2005, granting the farmers a year reprieve. 

Altieri and many of his students have banded together to save the Gill Tract, going so far as to offer an alternative site plan that keeps the farmland and scales back the housing. 

UC Berkeley Capital Projects Planner Jeff Bond sees little chance the current plan would change. “The Regents have made it clear the priority is to provide student housing,” he said. 

But the plan for housing is also steeped in controversy. The plan would demolish 412 units built for students with children that currently rent for $768 and replace them with more than one thousand new units estimated to rent at $1,366—slightly less than the maximum amount student loans provide for housing. Construction would be funded through bonds repaid by increased student rents.  

Residents warned UC officials Thursday that they couldn’t afford the higher rents and that if UC didn’t opt for a cheaper plan to refurbish the buildings they might have to drop out of school.  

But UC Director of Housing Facilities Operations and Services Bob Jacobs said low interest rates and a soft construction market made this a prime opportunity to build new housing and that the students’ plan would only be a short-term fix. 

“If we just fixed up the units, we could keep rents lower for 15 years and then we’d be faced with the same problem again,” he said. 

Construction of the new housing for families would start in 2004, while the commercial and housing development on San Pablo and the relocation of the ball fields to the Gill Tract would begin in 2005. 

The demise of affordable housing has more than just students worried. Last year the Albany Board of Education voted to oppose the plan, based both on the loss of the Gill Tract farmland and the potential loss of students to the district. 

“We’re afraid this plan means fewer students with children could afford University Village, which means lower enrollment and less money from the state,” said Albany Board of Education member Miriam Walden, who added that enrollment in Albany schools has declined in the few years since UC demolished other affordable housing units at the site. 

Berkeley City Council has passed a resolution opposing the plan, but its Albany counterpart has remained silent. Albany Councilmember Alan Maris said he is satisfied with the proposal and didn’t know if there was a point in arguing about its merits because the university will have the final word. “We’re really not in a very strong position here,” he said.›

TUESDAY, MARCH 2 

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.  

National Nutrition Month “Eat in Season” from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK. Cooking demonstrations, recipes and nutrition education. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Wildflowers of the East Bay” with Glenn Keator on Tuesdays to March 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost for the program is $145, $125 for members. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“Kayaking With Whales Off Vancouver Island” a slide presentation with whale research biologist David Briggs at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Minorities in Israel” with Prof. Zeidan Atashi, an Israeli Druz Arab at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. The Writing Class will read from their recent works at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 

Great Decisions 2004: “U.S. and Europe” with Prof. Anthony Adamthwaite, History Dept., UCB, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. Briefing booklets are available. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

George Soros, “The Bubble of American Supremacy” at 7:30 p.m. at Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are available from 642-9988. 

Palestine and Iraq: A Panel Discussion on Opposing the US Empire, with Shireen Qaru and Mohamad Raad, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jobert Poblete, Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, at 7 p.m. at 110 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. 928-1503. 

Refuse and Resist presents a documentary film, “A Life Matters: The Story of an Illegal Abortionist” at 6 p.m. at Rockridge Branch Library, 5366 College Ave. Donations welcome. 704-5293. 

“Free Trade, National Sovereignty, and Environmental Health in the Balance?” Featuring Sheila Foster, Fordham Univ. School of Law, at 12:45 p.m. Vegetarian lunch served. Room 121, 122, or 123 in Boalt Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by The Boalt Environmental Law Society. sarale@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Post-Primary Meet-up for Howard Dean Join supporters of Howard Dean to discuss next steps in this grassroots campaign to take back our country. At 7 p.m. at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. and Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant, 1736 Solano Ave. For more information contact East Bay for Dean at 267-3796. 

Northbrae Community Church Monthly Dinner, with a presentation on Alaska by the Berkeley Camera Club, at 6 p.m. at 941 The Alameda. Dinner cost is $7.50 for adults, $3.50 for children. For reservations call 526-3805.  

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

Prose Writers Workshop Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in 255 Dwinelle, UC Campus. www.berkeleystopthewar.org  

“The Image of Christ Through the Ages” with Fr. Andrew Walmiseley, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

Buddhist Studies Lecture on “The Concept of Compassion” with Prof. Wakahara of Ryukoku Univ. Kyoto, at 2 p.m. at 2717 Haste St. 650-938-7192. 

“Assassination Tango” video followed by dance presentation with Paulo Araujo from Brazil at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Tango Studio. 655-3538. 

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

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

THURSDAY, MARCH 4 

“Travel to Cuba” a discussion with Fred Burkes, the interpreter and journalist who is challenging the Cuba travel ban, at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by the Berkeley-Palma Soriano Sister City Association. 644-9260. 

Writers’ Room Coach Training is offered from 7 to 9:30 p.m. for volunteers who would like to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. To attend please call Terry Bloomburgh at 849-4134 or email Bloomburgh@sbcglobal.net 

“Faith, Work and Justice Forum” at 6:30 p.m. at the GTU Dinner Boardroom, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. 

“Cidade de Deus/City of God,” the housing project in Rio de Janeiro, with Paulo Lins at 4 p.m. at Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

Host an International Student Let Europe come to you this summer. SWIFT Student Exchange program is bringing Spanish and French middle and high school students to the Bay Area for 3-4 week stays. Informational evening, from 6-8 p.m. at the SWIFT office in Oakland. Call 433-0414 for directions and more information. 

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.  

FRIDAY, MARCH 5 

The Oakland Bird Club open meeting with Roaber Hewitt who is involved in planning birding festivals at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, Upstairs Meeting Room, 5366 College Ave. 444-0355.  

“Tales of the San Joaquin: A River Journey” A documentary on the San Joaquin River and its role in the statewide water system at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of CA, 1000 Oak St. at 10th St, Oakland. 238-2200.  

“Karate for Kids” a free introductory class with Dara Connolly at 5:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave., for ages 4 and up. 847-2400. 

Shambhala Buddhist Workshop on “A Life in Consort: Integrating Feminine and Masculine Principles” at 7:30 p.m. and continuing throughout the weekend at the Berkeley Shambhala Center, 2288 Fulton St. Fir. lecture is $20, full weekend fee is $120. 841-3242. www.bayarea.shambhala.org 

American Social Gospel Lecture with Chris Evans on “Retrieving the Legacies of Walter Rauchenbusch” at 3:30 p.m. at the Bade Museum, Pacific School of religion, 1798 Senic Ave. 849-8221. 

“The Under-reported Human Tragedy of Chechnya” a session on Humanitarian Aid at 3 p.m. and “Stories from the Front Line” at 7 p.m. at 159 Mulford Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the Chechen Advocacy Network, and the Muslim Student Association. All are welcome to attend. For further information contact didishka@yahoo.com 

Anarchist BookfairMovie Night with videographer Jay Finneburgh, at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. Donation $5. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

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, MARCH 6 

Sick Plant Clinic from 9 a.m. to noon, the first Sat. of every month, UC plant apthologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants. Free. at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

Kids Garden Club Join us as we discover the science of the kitchen and feast on garden goodies. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For ages 7 - 10 years. Cost is $3, non-resident $4. Registration required, 525-2233. 

Orchid Collection Tour and Workshop Treat yourself to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Botanical Garden’s orchid collection, normally closed to the public, and a rare sale of unusual orchid species from the Garden collection. Workshop and tour led by Garden horticulturist and orchid expert, Jerry Parsons who will help you gain confidence with the basic skills of orchid ID and culture. Workshop covers the major groups of orchids, how to divide and mount them, and their care and culture. From 9 a.m. to noon at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $50, $40 members. To register call 643-2755. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Cerrito Creek Restoration Meet at 10 a.m. at the south edge of El Cerrito Plaza (near EC BART, just east of San Pablo, Albany/El Cerrito border). We’ll re-plant salvaged native plants, plant new, and perhaps spread more chips on the trail. f5creeks@aol.com 

Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame awards ceremony at the Marriot Hotel, Oakland at 12:30 p.m. 535-7414. 

“In Song and Struggle” An International Women’s Day event featuring Copper Wimmin, Libby Kirkpatrick, Gwen Avery, Rebecca Riots and Rachel Garlin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Cost is $10 to $20 sliding scale. A benefit for Berkeley Copwatch. 548-0425. 

“Street Skills for Cyclists” a lecture and discussion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave. Sponsored by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. Free, but registration required 433-7433. 

35th Annual UC Open Taekwondo Championship, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Haas Pavilion. Tickets are $5-$7. 642-3268. www.ucmap.org 

Cal FIT 5K Race/Fun Run/Walk UC Campus, Start/Finish at Sater Gate, Check-in starts at 9 a.m., race at 10 a.m. Cost is $10. 847-7633. www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~calfit 

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. 848-7800. 

SUNDAY, MARCH 7 

Aquatic Park EGRET and the Berkeley Rowing Club will plant coastal wildflowers and native shrubs in the circle at Aquatic Park's south entrance beginning at 9:30 a.m. Further information at egret@lmi.net or 549-0818. 

Breakfast with the Birds from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Bring your own beverage and we’ll watch what is feathered down at the lake. Cost is $3, $4 non-resident. Registration required. 525-2233. 

“On Her Own Terms: Annie Montague Alexander and the Rise of Science in the American West” with author Barbara Stein at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian physician and leading human rights activist, at 7 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $20. Benefit for The Middle East Children’s Alliance. 548-0542. www.mecaforpeace.org 

“Dividing Walls” a close-up view of the Israel/Palestine conflict by Chris Brown at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar. Sliding scale donation of $5-$15, benefit for the Palestinian program of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. 785-9509. 

Death Penalty Update at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine Street at Walnut, in the Education Building. Update with Eric Moon, American Friends Service Committee staff person on death penalty and prison issues. Includes short video, “Interview with an Executioner.” All are welcome. 528-7784. 

Non-Violent Communication with Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer, Social Change and Project Coordinator for the Center for Nonviolent Communication in Berkeley at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Purim Carnival from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Dance Party with the Mowtown Megillah at 7 p.m. at Beth-El, 2301 Vine St. Tickets for the dance party are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. Please RSVP to 848-3988, ext. 11. www.bethelberkeley.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Robin Canton on “Meditation and Creativity” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MARCH 8 

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. 

Forum on “The Passion of Christ,” a Jewish-Christian conversation, hosted by the Graduate Theological Union, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom, Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2482. 

“Photography, Melancholy and the Conception of Brazilian Nationalism” with Natalia Brizuela at noon at the Center for Latin American Studies, 2334 Bowditch St.  

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthing at 1:15 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call Emily at 601-4040, ext. 109. emily@wcrc.org 

ONGOING 

Family Activist Resource Center A small group of East Bay parents is meeting monthly to set up a drop-in center where parents and caregivers can come with their children and do their political work while their children are cared for in a creative, respectful and nurturing manner. For information on the next meeting, contact Erica at ericadavid@earthlink.net or call 841-3204. 

Free Income Tax Help is available on Tuesday mornings between 10 a.m. and 12 noon at St. John’s Presbyterian Church Prime Timers, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. Ozzie Olson, AARP trained tax preparer is available by appointment. 845-6830.  

Auditions for Showtime at the Apollo will be held Sat. March 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Whether you’re part of a gospel group, a chorus line, a barbershop quartet, or a jazz ensemble; if you’re a magician, a female impersonator or a one-man band; if you’ve dreamed of thousands applauding your talent at the piano, tuba or didgeridoo, you’ll have your shot at the “Big Time.” Amateur performers and groups wishing to audition may call Laura Abrams at 642-0212 or e-mail apollo@calperfs.berkeley.edu to receive an audition application and to schedule an audition. 

Find a loving animal companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center, open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Medical care for your pet at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Spring Bulb Bonanza at the Botanical Garden, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., March 15 to April 15, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanical 

garden.berkeley.edu 

Starbucks Grants for Giving is offering $375,000 to local non-profits in Berkeley and other East Bay cities. Eligibility and application information can be obtained from any Northern California Starbucks location, by visiting www.starbucks.com/ 

grantsforgiving or by calling 1-866-535-GIVE.  

CITY MEETINGS 

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

eley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Mar. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs. Mar. 4, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

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

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Mar. 8, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon. Mar. 8 at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Housing Authority, 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

The deposed President of the Caribbean island nation of Haiti has charged that he was forced out of office by a United States-orchestrated coup d’etat, and that view has been affirmed by Bay Area Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). On Sunday of this week, under pressure from a rebel army which Lee characterized as “thugs,” Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti under U.S. military escort. From temporary asylum in the Central African Republic, Aristide told CNN that “I was told that to avoid bloodshed, I’d better leave.” Aristide repeated that charge in telephone conversations Congressmembers Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel (both members of the Congressional Black Caucus) as well as with Randall Robinson, a respected African-American expert on African affairs. 

Earlier this month, while Aristide was still in power but with rebel forces causing chaos throughout the country, Congressmember Lee wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, charging that the Bush Administration was supporting the overthrow of a democratically-elected government. “Our failure to support the democratic process and help restore order looks like a covert effort to overthrow a government. There is a violent coup d’etat in the making, and it appears that the United States is aiding and abetting the attempt to violently topple the Aristide Government. With all due respect, this looks like ‘regime change.’ How can we call for democracy in Iraq and not say very clearly that we support democratic elections as the only option in Haiti?” 

On Monday, with rebels moving on the Haitian capital and rioting and looting beginning to engulf several cities in the Caribbean nation, members of the Congressional Black Caucus met in New York with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to see what could be done to stabilize the situation. Following that meeting, U.S. Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), spoke by telephone with the Daily Planet about the Haitian crisis. 

Q. What was the purpose of the meeting with the Secretary General today, and what was the result? 

A. We wanted to talk to him about the international community’s role leading up to the coup and then moving forward. It’s very important that the UN provide that kind of security and humanitarian assistance, development assistance. I’m one of the greatest supporters of the United Nations. But personally told the Secretary General that I was extremely disappointed that the United Nations did not come in earlier and pass a security council resolution authorizing international security forces to nip this stuff in the bud before it got any further. 

Q. What was his response? 

A. His response was that he has member states [in the United Nations that he has to answer to]. But he did say that I was correct. 

Q. Is what we’re seeing in Haiti a U.S.-sponsored military coup? 

A. That’s my assessment. And I’ve watched this, not only last week and the week before, but for the past several years. I co-chaired the Haiti Task Force of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I’m on the [House of Representatives] International Relations Committee. So this is an issue that I know fairly well. I think that by giving a wink and a nod to these thugs—and that’s what they are—murderers and paramilitary folks carrying U.S.-made weapons, then I think we have a responsibility in [these events]. I think we did help overthrow [the Aristide] government. 

Q. I read that the leader of the rebel military forces is a U.S. citizen. 

A. Yes. Andy Apaid. Yes. He has a U.S. passport. He’s presently a U.S. citizen. If you look at who [his associates] are [the Group of 184], they’re very unsavory, all of them. They have ties to the drug industry. They are very, very scary kind of people. And the White House [has] circled the wagons around Aristide, not recently, but years ago, as the Bush Administration moved forward on this. 

Q. Did Aristide resign? 

A. The House International Affairs Committee is going to have a hearing on [the Haitian situation], beginning on Wednesday. We have to get to the bottom of this. I talked to President Aristide last week, and Mrs. Aristide—Mildred—also, and they indicated to me then that under no circumstances were they resigning. Under no circumstances. 

Q. So you weren’t part of that telephone conversation with him today? 

A. No. But I talked to Congresswoman Waters right after that. And she told me [that he denied resigning]. And I also talked to Congressman Rangel. And then I heard Secretary Powell and Rumsfeld and their spokespeople saying that these were conspiracy theories. So hopefully these hearings that we’re going to have, and these investigations, [will uncover the truth]. We’ve got to move forward and make sure that the Haitian people don’t suffer any more because of the lack of food and humanitarian assistance. But we’ve got to see what happened and what our country was engaged in. 

Q. When the rebels started their attack around the first of February, in your opinion, what should the Bush Adminstration have done at that point? 

A. Let’s go back to before February 1, because for the last three years, the Bush Administration has embargoed and squeezed Haiti on a humanitarian basis. The Administration blocked the release of their funds that they had negotiated, for infrastructure. They made the Aristide government jump through hoops. I’ve seen the Aristide government live up to almost every request that the United States government made before a nickel went down there. It was unbelievable. They really forced the Haitian government into a situation where they were desperate, and the people were desperate. Fast forward to February 1. The rebels, of course, see that this is now their moment. The politican opposition gives them a nod. What should have happened right then is that the Bush Administration should have gone down to Haiti and stopped it right there. [Secretary of State] Colin Powell should have gone down there and told them we were not going to let them do this. 

Q. If we go to this weekend, when the Haitian police forces were collapsing and the rebels had taken over half of the country, what should the Administration have done then? 

A. When I talked to President Aristide last week, [he said that] his request of the Bush Administration was that they needed some international security forces to help secure the country, to beat back these rebels. That didn’t happen. No-one came to their assistance. I told President [Bush] when we met with him last Wednesday that our country should be actively engaged in helping to forge a ceasefire right away. Not just talking about it, but doing it. And making sure that the rule of law was upheld and the Haitian Constitution would be the guiding force as we moved forward. And his response to the entire Congressional Black Caucus was that he couldn’t make a decision on the fly. It was quite unbelievable. 

Q. Do you think that we should have intervened militarily in support of President Aristide? 

A. I don’t think it would have taken military intervention. It would have taken an international security force. I think we could have discouraged the rebels. 

Q. How? 

A. By telling them that we weren’t going to encourage them. They never heard that. I wrote Colin Powell a letter and asked him if the U.S. was destabilizing Haiti, if we were funding the opposition. Didn’t he realize this was a coup in the making? And he publicly said, “We don’t support the overthrow of the President.” And so if that’s the case, why didn’t [the Administration] communicate that to these people to lay down their arms? Now, we’re talking about negotiating with the rebels. And so I said, Mr. Secretary, why are you negotiating with people like this? 

Q. Isn’t that an encouragement of military coups against democratically-elected governments? 

A. Certainly. The Bush Administration has it central in their foreign policy—regime change. This is not isolated. We’re seeing the Bush Administration’s foreign policy play out, right now. Haiti today. Cuba tomorrow, maybe? Venezuela. [The Bush Administration] taps and spouts democracy in areas where they want to see democracy for their interests to prevail, and in other areas, they undermine democracy. This is what they did in Haiti. They undermined democracy. 

Q. Has there been any evidence that any elements in the U.S. government have been giving financial or military aid to the rebels? 

A. No hard evidence. That’s the question. I hope Wednesday that we can uncover some of this. But you know how covert activities go. This is going to take unraveling and unraveling and unraveling. ›

Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, which owns many of the greatest recordings from the Golden Age of jazz, is for sale, according to a report in Billboard magazine. 

Fantasy executives refused to comment on the story published Friday, but one source confirmed the label was on the market. 

Billboard quoted an anonymous source that said the label, which generated sales of about $30 million in 2002, is being offered at $100 million, though a sale price will likely range from $64 million to $85 million, depending on yet unreleased 2003 earnings data. 

Fantasy—the largest record label in Northern California, with about 80 employees—owns legendary recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. It is also home to Creedence Clearwater Revival, a famous rock group. The company is the product of decades of record label acquisitions that allowed it to amass one of the largest troves of jazz and rhythm and blues music in world. Much of the company’s profits come from the repackaging of its catalog and selling songs for commercials or compilation albums, though the label does maintain an active roster of performers, including Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Scott and Berkeley High graduate Dave Ellis. 

Typically when a record label is sold, the buyer keeps the operation in place to preserve relations with its musicians, said David Card, media analyst for Jupiter Research. But Fantasy’s emphasis on its catalog business has some wondering if a sale would mean the label would leave Berkeley. 

Fantasy spokesperson Terri Hinte said, “It was way too premature” to talk about what would happen to employees if a sale went through. 

Possible suitors include the label’s distributor, Beverly, Mass.-based Rykodisc, Beverly Hills-based Concord Records and New York-based Redux Records, Billboard reported. None of those companies returned phone calls Monday. 

Fantasy is a private company, and sorting through its financial data could be messy. Billboard speculated that this could result in a long due diligence period and a soft sales price. 

Fantasy also owns music studios located at its Berkeley headquarters. The company is headed by Saul Zaentz who has produced several movies, including The English Patient. 

A few years ago Fantasy backed out of a deal to sell its record business, said former Oakland Tribune Music Critic and Down Home Music Store employee Larry Kelp. He guessed that declining CD sales and the rapidly changing music business was driving their renewed interest in a sale. 

“Their money is in CDs and CDs might not even exist soon. They might not want to figure out the next step,” said Kelp, adding that Zaentz was no longer actively involved in the record business.  

Despite declining revenues in the record industry, Dave Zaworski, associated editor of Down Beat Magazine said Fantasy would attract heavy interest. “Their stuff will always sell,” he said. “It would be enticing for a lot of labels.” 

Though the record industry has been racing towards consolidation, Zaworski said jazz has experienced an opposite trend. Major labels, including Atlantic and Columbia have dumped their jazz divisions, he said, offering more opportunities for smaller record companies. 

Fantasy was started in 1949 by Max and Sol Weiss. Zaentz bought the company in 1967. After the success of Creedence, he went on a buying spree and purchased top jazz labels, including Milestone, Riverside and Prestige. 

Kelp said that Fantasy maintains a family atmosphere, which makes the prospect of a sale even more unsettling. “There’s probably almost 100 people who have been there most of their lives,” he said. “It’s not a cutthroat company where the management is separate from the people.”  

ˇ

A headline in last Friday’s Commentary section incorrectly stated  

that the League of Women Voters opposes Propositions 57 and 58. The League of Women Voters has taken no position on the two propositions. We regret the error. 

Neighbors of the defunct Franklin Elementary School have reached a tentative settlement with the Berkeley Unified School District, clearing the way for BUSD’s plan to shift its Adult School to the Franklin campus this fall. 

The deal, confirmed by BUSD Director of Facilities and Maintenance Lew Jones and Plaintiff Tim Arai, must still be approved by the school board next week. Neither Jones nor Arai would disclose details until the settlement is final. 

Last September Arai and his wife Carrie Adams, with the backing of several neighbors, filed suit against the district telling the Planet that the lawsuit was “a tool to try to get the district to deal with us in a responsible manner.” The suit charged that the district’s environmental plan for the move underestimated the traffic burden posed to neighbors and purposely ignored the second half of the district’s plan—moving the administrative offices to the West Campus site at 1222 University Ave., which currently houses the Adult School. 

The agreement, signed on Friday, just beat a district-imposed deadline. Neighbors said district officials threatened that if a settlement wasn’t reached by March 1st—the date the district needed to issue change orders to contractors—they would rescind concessions they had made on the site plan. 

Since the lawsuit was filed, district officials have met repeatedly with Franklin neighbors independent of the lawsuit proceedings. As concessions, the BUSD agreed to scrap its site plan for the school in favor of an alternative plan favored by the neighbors that allowed for better traffic flow through residential streets and more privacy for neighbors. 

In addition, the district agreed to perform an environmental study on installing lights on the smaller east parking lot, which would allow students to park there at night and not direct all of their headlights at neighbors facing the west parking lot.  

Arai did not seek an injunction against the district to stop construction which began last November. 

BUSD officials have insisted that that moving the 1,200 student adult school to Franklin, which borders San Pablo Avenue between Virginia and Francisco streets, was not part of a grand plan for reshuffling district facilities. They approved the current shakeup, they say, because the Adult School requires major construction work and moving the Adult School during construction, only to move it back later, would cost too much. 

Though the lawsuit is settled, several issues remain unresolved. A plot on the northeast corner of the property remains slated for a public garden, but, despite assurances from some school board members, the district has made no formal commitment to pay for the project or maintain it. Also neighbors along Francisco Street are pushing for some classrooms to have fogged windows to keep students from looking directly into their properties. 

The simultaneous negotiations among lawyers to settle the lawsuit and between district officials and neighbors over specific items in the district’s plans have left some neighbors questioning the value of the lawsuit. “It was unclear why the settlement talks were being held,” said Brad Smith, an aide to Councilmember Linda Maio and member of a neighborhood site committee that negotiated with the school district. “I would have been upset as a neighbor to have advances in the public process scuttled by the suit.” 

James Day, another member of the Site Committee, said negotiations had improved the plan, but he remained uneasy about the move. “This is still a big gamble for the neighborhood,” he said. “Some people want us to be happy, but how do we know until the cars and students come?” ˇ

The Zoning Adjustment Board gave the green light Thursday to Library Gardens—the largest development ever planned for the city center. But a ruling on the equally controversial Blood House development was postponed for two weeks while city staff analyze an independent proposal to spare a Berkeley landmark. 

By a 6-1 vote, the ZAB approved a use permit for Library Gardens, a 176-unit apartment complex with five street-level shops slated to rise at the site of the current 362-space Kittredge Street Garage, just west of the central library. 

To secure its passage, the developer, TransAction Companies, added one level of underground parking to offset some of the public parking lost by demolishing the garage. 

In January, ZAB rejected a similar proposal that did not include the extra level of parking. 

Thursday’s vote came after TransAction Senior Vice President John DeClerq assured the board that “significantly” more than half of the 130 spaces dedicated for the public will go to short-term parkers, not commuters or residents seeking monthly passes.  

DeClerq hopes to start construction in May. Any delays could cost TransAction millions, but their schedule might still be thrown off if the ZAB ruling is appealed to the city council. 

The Berkeley-Albany YMCA, which broke off negotiations in January to partner with TransAction on the underground parking, has emerged as the project’s chief critic. 

YMCA President and CEO Larry Bush refused comment on a possible appeal, but told the ZAB that TransAction’s original plan, scrapped two years ago, to build two levels of underground parking was feasible, despite TransAction’s claims otherwise.  

Bush also urged board members to follow through on any parking stipulations with the current plan because, “As we learned at the YMCA from our dealings with TransAction in the past that the stipulations are all important.” 

YMCA officials have said that in the early ‘90s, TransAction left them high and dry when it backed out on a deal to develop a downtown parcel the Y had purchased as part of its expansion. 

The ZAB also discussed the planned development at 2526 Durant Ave., even though developer Ruegg & Ellsworth pulled the 44-unit, 18-parking space project from the board’s agenda until the next meeting on March 11. 

In December, the ZAB ordered the developer to present alternative designs that would preserve a 19th-century landmarked Victorian already on the property that the original plan had marked for demolition. 

In a letter to city staff dated Jan. 9, Ruegg & Ellsworth presented four alternative plans, all of which they determined would lose money. 

However, city staff wrote to board members that an alternative proposal submitted by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) appeared to be viable, contingent on further economic and structural analysis. The BAHA plan calls for 38 units of housing, including five units in the preserved Victorian and the rest in an adjacent four-story building. Their plan provides no parking, as is encouraged by Berkeley’s Southside plan.  

The planning staff intends to provide a further review of the BAHA plan in time for the March 11 meeting. 

As a final order of business the board elected former city council candidate in District 8 and UC Berkeley graduate student Andy Katz as its new chair, succeeding Laurie Capitelli whose two-year term expired Thursday. 

Katz becomes the second UC student this year elected to chair a city commission. Leslieann Cachola was chosen to chair the Peace and Justice Commission last month. 

Katz received five votes to two for Deborah Matthews. Board member David Blake was elected Vice Chair.›

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR 

A slate of proposals by Mayor Tom Bates to alter several Berkeley City Council rules has been put on hold while the City seeks further public comment. If approved and implemented by City Council, the most controversial of the proposed changes would significantly limit the abillity of Berkeley citizens to present their views to Council. 

Three of the proposals—one to limit the time allotted to individual public speakers at various Council meetings and hearings, a second to allow the Mayor to “establish overall time limits” for presentations at public hearings, and a third to move contentious or lengthy Council public hearings from Tuesday nights to Thursday—have already drawn fire from several Berkeley citizens. 

Instead of going directly to the City Council, the Council Agenda Committee decided at its Monday, March 1st meeting that the proposed revisions will now be available on the city’s website for the public to review. The Agenda Committee set no time for the proposed revisions to be returned to the committee for further action. 

Councilmember Linda Maio said that the proposal to cut down the time for public speakers from the present three minutes to two was her suggestion. Maio told the Daily Planet that she made the suggestion in order to increase the number of persons who could speak on subjects at Council meetings. “I’ve looked out and seen a lot of disappointed faces [in the audience] because they couldn’t speak,” Maio said. 

But even before Monday’s Agenda Committee meeting, the proposals were drawing fire from some Berkeley citizens. The Daily Planet received copies of several opposition letters addressed to the Mayor and City Council. Among them was a letter from Planning Commission Chairperson Zelda Bronstein, who protested the method in which the proposed changes were brought forward. “In the past year, we have seen a continual effort to strengthen the Berkeley mayoral office through a series of piecemeal changes,” Bronstein wrote, “most notably, the establishment of an Agenda Committee appointed by the Mayor, the creation of Task Forces appointed by the Mayor (a practice that is, I believe, contrary to City law), and now, a proposal to have the Mayor set rules for the procedures to be followed at public hearings. Berkeley has a weak mayor system of government. If the Council or the Mayor or, for that matter, a group of citizens want to institute a strong mayor form of government, then such a change should be formally proposed and vetted in an appropriate public process, not slipped in through a series of incremental changes that are poorly publicized and insufficiently reviewed by the public.” 

Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn also wrote to the Mayor and Council, in part, “I hope you will reject [the] proposal being considered by the Agenda Committee to limit public comment at regular City Council meetings to two minutes. ... To limit [speakers] to only two minutes is a ridiculous idea. Anyone who has spoken at a Council meeting knows that you have to be well organized and concise to say what you want to say in three minutes as it is.” Wrenn also called the Thursday public hearing proposal “a bad idea. ... Putting hearings on any other day [than Tuesday] will make it difficult for some people to participate [because of] conflicts with [Zoning Adjustment Board meetings], other commissions, neighborhood group meetings and meetings of other organizations that have an interest in civic affairs.” 

Mayor Bates made the 9-point proposal in a February 17th memo to the three-member Council Agenda Committee on “Council Rules of Procedure Revisions.” At that time, the Mayor wrote that “After discussion and appropriate changes [by the Agenda Committee], I suggest that we ask the City Clerk to return with specific changes to the Council Rules of Procedure to implement the requested changes. The Agenda Committee would then forward those recommendations to the full Council for review and approval.” Along with the time limit and public hearing changes, the memo also proposed allowing the Agenda Committee to move City Commission-generated items between the Consent and Action calendars on City Council’s agenda, as well as extending the authority of the City Manager to perform certain duties during Council recesses. 

Bates also suggested at last week’s Council meeting that he was considering another speaker proposal: ending the often-used practice of public speakers “ceding” their time to another speaker. Because speakers at Council meetings are chosen by random lottery, organizations often use this tactic in order to ensure that the spokesperson of their choice is the one who actually gets to address Council. The anti-”ceding” proposal, however, was not part of the Maor’s procedure revision proposal. 

City Clerk Sherry Kelly’s detailed workup of the proposed Bates changes were presented to yesterday’s (March 1st) Agenda Committee meeting, as well as posted to the internet at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee/2004/packet/030104/2004-03-01%20AC%20Item%2008.pdf. 

Also opposing the two-minute limit in a letter sent this weekend to the City Council was Berkeley resident Wendy Alfsen. “Many members of the public not well versed in public speaking have trouble completing their comments in less than three minutes,” Alfsen wrote in a letter to Council. “Similarly, speakers on the many complex issues facing the City need a minimum of three minutes to adequately outline the issue presented.” Alfsen added that if the 2-minute speaking limit is adopted, Council should drop the present 30-minute total for all public speakers and “allow everyone who wishes to speak the opportunity to do so. Otherwise, the meaningful opportunity for public verbal input required by the Brown Act is not met.” 

Another Berkeley resident, Judith Scherr, suggested in writing that Berkeley “copy Oakland’s format & let all views be expressed before items come up for a vote on the agenda. The goal of public comment is to get out views on all sides of the issue.” Scherr called Berkeley’s practice of choosing public speakers by lottery “about the dumbest idea I’ve ever seen.” 

And resident Michael Katz wrote “Having occasionally attended Council meetings, I’m aware that sitting through 30 minutes of sometimes contentious, repetitious, or misinformed public comment is not the most enviable aspect of your jobs as Councilmembers. Still, I hope you will agree that receiving complete public comment is one of the Council’s most important roles. When the Council needs to make hard choices, the public will more readily accept those choices if each issue’s most passionate advocates feel they’ve had a chance to be heard.” 

Agenda Committee members were already tinkering with the proposed suggestions at Monday’s meeting, considering a suggestion that Thursday public hearings be limited to nights that the Zoning Adjustment Board is not meeting, and adding a change that the Mayor can establish overall speaking limits at public hearings “subject to authorization by the Council.”›

“I’ve enrolled Jernae in gymnastic class,” I said to my friend David. “I think she has potential.” 

“Are you kidding?” he scolded. “How old is she?” 

“Thirteen.”  

“Thirteen? She’s over the hill. You’ve got to start children in gymnastic lessons when they’re babies. Haven’t you ever watched the Olympics? Those kids are barely out of diapers.” 

“I’m not trying to make her into a champion,” I said. “I just want her to be able to do a few cartwheels and somersaults. You know, build up her self-confidence.” 

“It’s too late,” answered David with conviction. “You’ve missed the boat. I’m not sure you can teach her anything now. Get ready for juvenile delinquency, AA meetings and teenage pregnancy.  

I ignored David. I come from a family that believes in enrolling children in every lesson imaginable. By the time I was 10 years old I’d taken classes in swimming, piano, dance (tap and ballet), ice skating, horseback riding, tennis and golf. I hadn’t excelled at anything, but I had a very good time. 

I met Jernae when she was 8 years old. She did not know how to ride a bicycle or swim. Now, after a few sessions on the sidewalk in front of my house, she can pedal anywhere. She can swim across the short width of the public pool. I was sure she would do well in gymnastics if given the chance. 

But when we arrived at Head Over Heels in Emeryville I could see that she was the oldest child in the beginners class, and the only one wearing a bathing suit. Little girls were doing flips on trampolines and headstands on the balance beam. They were dressed in colorful leotards and they wore serious ace bandages on their tiny wrists.  

I held my breath and hoped that Jernae would stick with the lessons even though she was a foot taller than most of the kids in her class. After the first day she announced that she needed a leotard and bandages.  

I explained to her that the lessons were stretching my budget and that she’d have to continue in her bathing suit, minus the wristbands. She looked at me in disgust, but she went back the next day and the next. By the third week she could do one-handed cartwheels, a front flip on the trampoline and a back flip over the uneven bars. As we walked out of the studio, she did three cartwheels, walked on her hands, then skipped across a high balance beam as if she were strolling through a park. 

“Let’s do cartwheels when we get home,” she said. “How many do you think you can do, Suzy?” 

“Probably three or four,” I answered confidently. 

In the backyard Jernae made it look easy. She did two cartwheels and ended with a perfect somersault. “Your turn,” she said.  

I threw my hands over my head and put my feet in starting position. But suddenly I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do three cartwheels in a row. In fact, I wasn’t going to do even one. I was in shock. 

“I can’t,” I said, hardly able to speak. “What happened? I used to be able to do cartwheels, somersaults and handstands.”  

“You’re too old,” said Jernae. 

“What did you say?” 

“You’re over the hill,” she shouted as she laid on her back, and then pushed upward into a flawless arch.  

“Maybe I just need a leotard and ace bandages,” I said. 

“I doubt it,” she answered, now standing on her hands, her t-shirt covering her face. In one smooth motion she flipped over and stood up, placing her hands on her hips, her back straight, her head high. She looked tall and poised. The lessons were working. She was definitely gaining self-confidence. Now it was time to work on mine. 

h

Attack at King Middle School 

Several students pushed and kicked a fellow student at King Middle School Friday, police said. The victim was not injured, and none of the attackers were arrested. Youth Service detectives are investigating the incident, police spokesperson Kevin Schofield said. 

West Berkeley Fight 

Police arrested two youths Friday morning after receiving calls of a fight on the 2600 block of Ninth Street. Police spokesperson Kevin Schofield said police believe there were three or four people involved in the fight and that the lone victim was not injured.  

Safeway Robbery 

A woman had her purse snatched in the underground parking lot at the Safeway at 1444 Shattuck Place Friday afternoon, police said. The robber then fled in a gold American car that was also parked in the lot. 

Punches at Picante 

An employee of Picante Berkeley restaurant at 1328 Sixth Street was punched on the job Friday. Police spokesperson Kevin Schofield said the assailent was apparently an acquaintance of the victim, who was not seriously hurt. The assailent fled before police arrived, Schofield said..

Climb down the stairs inside La Val’s Subterranean Restaurant on Euclid Avenue (half a block away from the university’s North Gate) and you might think you’ve abruptly space-traveled into one of New York’s Off-Off Broadway theaters. It’s the kind of place where you wouldn’t be overly surprised to see a version of “Hamlet” in which Laertes is played by a golden retriever. (I swear I saw that performed in New York in what could have passed for the Subterranean’s twin sister.) 

The small, oddly shaped, and very black basement has for years been the home for newish theatre companies who’ve made it past their first efforts and are ready to take the next step up into a stable venue. Not surprisingly, the ones who get as far as La Val’s tend to be energetic and innovative and, often, very good. After six seasons of bouncing around from one venue to another, the Impact Theatre company is still jubilant about their first season in a place they can call their own—at least until the lease is up. 

So far, the company, which is currently presenting its second production at La Val’s (“Say You Love Satan” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa), has brought in new material of first quality. 

“Satan” is a light-hearted, often hilarious, gay-themed fantasy which deservedly won first prize in Manhattan’s Fringe Theatre contest. Perhaps one of the nicest things about the play is that it doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of hidden meanings—it’s a bit of a rarity to encounter a new production which seems to be there just for fun. 

What we have are the complications in the love life of a New York graduate student—who is much given to Doesteyevsky. Andrew, played by 

David Ballog, drops a too-nice doctor boyfriend Jerrod (Brian Erlich) for an exciting stranger named Jack (Eric Moore), who admits to being the Devil’s son—but might actually be the devil himself. 

Either way, Jack is very bad news indeed, and it takes a lot of effort by Andrew’s bossy friend Bernadette (Courtney Greenlaw) and a Druid Cultist Martin (played by Ross Pasquale who also appears as yet another of Andrew’s boyfriends) to straighten things up. John Atwood plays a gay bouncer at a club where Andrew and Jack go on their first date, and Nomadicdj is the club’s DJ.  

It would be tedious to go through such a large—and strong—cast and comment on their work individually. It just isn’t necessary—there isn’t a weak performance in the lot.  

Like a great chunk of Impact’s productions, this is a West Coast premier. The company is clearly carrying through on their commitment to produce new plays that an 18 to 35 year-old audience will find compelling. 

What they’re doing is important: If live theater is to survive as an art form, it is critical for younger people to develop an interest in the medium. Over-all, the great majority of theater audiences comes from an aging demographic. Some day it’s bound to go “pop” and disappear completely. So far, Impact has been successful—over 80% of their audience comes from the younger group they’ve set out to woo. We need more companies throughout the country serving the same purpose. 

But it just doesn’t seem fair for the kids to have all the fun. While some of us may be showing a bit of wear and tear, a funny play and a great production is still a funny play and a great production. Can we come, too?  

The good news is that Director Joy Meads, in good Berkeley style, hastily insists that there are no prejudices here. If you’re willing to come down the stairs (and La Val’s has fixed the banister very nicely) they’ll be quite pleased to accept your modest payment. Part of the company’s commitment is to keep the price down to something that their elected demographic can afford—college students, you know.

The UC Berkeley committee overseeing changes to the student code of conduct voted Thursday night to accept revisions that would prevent students from using lawyers to represent them in on-campus cases—unless it was deemed necessary by the University. 

The decision, which many students object to, was offered as a compromise by the committee because its original proposal would have banned lawyers altogether. The decision will allow for student advisors or Dave Madden, the student advocate for the University, to sit in and help students during their case.  

Michael Smith, who along with two other students, was arrested and charged for his participation in an anti-war protest last March and originally faced suspension for a full semester from the University, said the decision was “not a step forward for student rights.” 

“Having to ask for permission [for legal representation] is counterproductive to say the least,” said Smith, who along with the other two students currently has an appeal into the University challenging the ruling against them.  

Smith and the two other students charged said banning a lawyer from a campus hearing would violate their due process rights. Two of them could receive a letter or warning in their file that is reportable if they apply to a government job or waive their rights to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). 

The students say it’s unfair to face such legal consequences without legal representation. 

Committee members said the changes were made to help make the hearing process more educational—and less adversarial—so students can learn from the process, instead of being distracted by a lawyer who they said usually takes over. The decision prevents lawyers from speaking for students but does not prevent students from seeking legal advice. 

Lawyers tend to “stand in for [students]”, said Bob Jacobson, a Physics professor, committee member and the chair of the panel who oversaw Smith’s case, making the process “much less valuable.”  

Madden, the student advocate, said the decision was “not ideal” but better than what was originally put on the table. 

“It’s a large step from where we were when the administration was ready to eliminate representation,” he said.r

TUESDAY, MARCH 2 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “Slumberland” 3-D Projection Performance at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Shermer looks at “The Science of Good and Evil” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Christos Papadimitriou, Prof. of Computer Science, UCB, reads from “Turing: (A Novel about Computation)” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zabava! Izvorno, Late Cift at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival opens at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. 644-6893. www.berkleyartcenter.org 

“Images from the Georgia-Chechnya Border” opens at the Hearst Museum, Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Ave. and College Ave. Cost is $1-$4. 643-7648. 

FILM 

Film 50: “All That Heaven Allows” at 3 p.m. and Meet Your Makers: Open Outcry: Documentaries by Ben Rubin and Jon Else at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER  

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen opens and runs through April 11. 647-2917. www.berkeleyrep.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Susan Douglas takes on “The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with The Streichner Trio, at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. 642-4864.  

Dromedary performs gypsy, klezmer, Andean and Appalach- 

ian music at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Peggy Seeger at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/zydeco dance lesson with Pattie Whitehurst at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

THURSDAY, MARCH 4 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“High Touch Low Tech” a joint art exhibition with Piedmont High School and National Institute of Art and Disabilities, exploring works that visually stimulate the sense of touch, at the Florence Ludins-Katz Gallery, 551 23rd St., near Barrett Ave., Richmond. Reception for the artists from 6 to 8 p.m.  

FILM 

Women of Color Film Festival “Laughter and Activism” at 5:30 at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Lyn Hejinian at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-0137.  

Jo Freeman introduces “At Berkeley in the Sixties” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Ant Farm 1968-1978” Guided Tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Tuscany and Umbria: Cradle of the Renaissance” a video presentation and talk by Jim Hilgendorf at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. 

Nanos Valaoritis and Thanasis Maskaleris introduce their new anthology, “Modern Greek Poetry” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Phillip T. Nails and Charselle, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

Poetry at the Albany Library, featuring Jack and Adelle Foley from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar, at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

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

The Uptones and La Plebe perform in a benefit for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen perform traditional and contemporary folk at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

FRIDAY, MARCH 5 

CHILDREN 

Poetry for Children at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre, “Man of Destiny” by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Barbara Oliver at 8 p.m. Through March 7. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Les Waters, 2025 Addison St. Through March 7. For ticket information call 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen, at 8 p.m. and runs through April 11. 647-2917. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Everyday Theater, “The Bright River,” a show by Tim Barsky, at 8 p.m. at the Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through March 20. Tickets are $12-$20 available from 644-2204. 

Impact Theatre, “Say You Love Satan” at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, and runs through March 13. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Central Works, “The Duel” a new play adapted from Chekhov’s novella, at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through March 27. Tickets are $8-$20. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

“Marat/Sade,” by Peter Weiss, directed by Philip Charles Sneed at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Also March 6, 12, 13 at 8 p.m. and March 7 and 14 at 2 p.m. UC Dept. of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. Tickets are $8-$10. 866-468-3399. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Asian American Film Fesitval: “Invisible Light” at at 7 p.m. and “See You Off to the Edge of Town” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Surplus” a Swedish documentary in a visual critique of consumerism at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Caroline Kraus describes “Borderlines,” the dark side of relationships between women, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar, at 7 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Johannes Brahms: Sacred and Secular Choral Music” with the California Bach Society at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $12-$25. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org 

University Symphony, under the direction of David Milnes at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu/comcerts.html 

An Evening of Shipyard Blues from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, at Oak and 10th Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Guitars for Life” Benefit Concert for the Progeria Project Foundation, with Eddie Money and The Tubes, at Berkeley Community Theater. 644-8957. 

Humble Soul, Native Elements, Marty Dread in a Hawaiian Roots Reggae concert at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Phil Roy and Julian Coreal at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Triple Play, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Latin Music Calendar Party at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Joshi Marhall, modern jazz saxophone, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Fruit, Australian jazz quintet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Against Me!, Lucero, Grabass Charlestons, Mike Park, Love Songs 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. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 6 

CHILDREN  

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

Wild About Books with the Shahrzad Dance Academy at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Art of Living Black” tour of over 40 galleries and studios in Berkeley, Albany, Oakland and Richmond. For a list of locations see www.therichmondartcenter.org or call 620-6772. 

“Super Six: Live in Berkeley” paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Cassie Davis, Megan DeArmond, John Poole, Matthew Scheatzle, Mark Seely and Becca Jo Young. Reception at 6 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. 

THEATER 

Berkeley Opera, “The Legend of the Ring” at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$40 available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Lucky Dog Theater, “Full Spectrum Improvisation,” directed by Joya Cory, at 8 p.m. at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $12 available from 415-564-4115. www.joyacory.com 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival: “A Good Lawyer’s Wife” at 7 p.m. and “15” at at 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Bend it Like Beckham” at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kevin Odegard describes “A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading, 3 to 5 p.m., at the South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell St. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Palm Wine Boys at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

University Symphony, under the direction of David Milnes at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu/comcerts.html 

“In Song and Struggle” An International Women’s Day event featuring Copper Wimmin, Libby Kirkpatrick, Gwen Avery, Rebecca Riots and Rachel Garlin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Cost is $10 to $20 sliding scale. A benefit for Berkeley Copwatch. 548-0425. 

The Stanford University Early Music Singers, under the direction of William Mahrt, perform Missa Fortuna Desperata at 8 p.m. at All Soul’s Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St., at Oxford St. Suggested donation $12. 848-1755. 

Holly Near at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $18 in advance, $20 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Purim Party with Adama at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10 for memebrs, $20 general. Co-sponsored by Aquarian Minyan and Kehilla Synagogue. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Robin and Linda Williams, roots country originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Po’ Girl, Chris Brown and Kate Fenner at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Sylvia and the Silvertones, songs of the 30s and 40s, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Tree Leyburn and Samantha Raven at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rock and Roll with Nicole at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Prefixo De Verago, live Brazilian music at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

The Bananas, Shotwell, Defiance, Ohio, Before the Fall, Bastards of Young 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, MARCH 7 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Art of Living Black” tour of over 40 galleries and studios in Berkeley, Albany, Oakland and Richmond. For a list of locations see www.therichmondartcenter.org or call 620-6772. 

FILM 

“924 Gilman St.” a film by Jack Curran, premieres at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Asian American Film Festival: “The Other Final” at 3:20 p.m., “Travellers and Magicians” at 5 p.m. and “Bright Future” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rinzler’s Return #2, a workshop for writers at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Leonard Nathan and Peter Klappert at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

“Ant Farm 1968-1978” Guided Tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert with Jupiter String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra presents Under Construction No. 14, at 8 p.m. St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Ave. Free. 841-2800. 

“Dancing in the Isles” with Musica Pacifica performing Baroque folk music at 7:30 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20 and are available at the door. 444-4113. www.musicapacifica.org  

Pacific Mozart Ensemble, “Monk in the Cathedral,” vocal music from the 16th to the 21st Century at 5 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-705-0848. wwwpacificmozart.org 

Novello Quartet performs Haydn’s Seven Last Words and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at 3 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Basilica, 1109 Chestnut St., Alameda. 522-0181. Admission $10-$15. www.novelloquartet.org 

Lonnie Lazar & The Vaporizers, Jam Planet featuring Berkeley High students Andrew Harris and Julian Clark with Ethan Culler-Mayeno and Mike Ruby, at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale, $5 age 17 and under. Benefit for Greenaction. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Submerge 2g Tour with Galapagos 4 and Secluded Journalist at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

International Women’s Day Celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Hot Club of San Francisco at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

John Schott and Ben Goldberg from 4 to 6:30 at Spasso Cafe, 6021 College Ave. at Claremont.

For two weeks running the Daily Planet has run sensational and inflammatory headlines about the Berkeley Public Schools while, in my mind, burying the real stories. Is it the Daily Planet’s intention to turn our community against the Berkeley public schools or is it to try and constructively report the conditions under which public education must exist in this time of declining revenues and state and federal support? On Feb. 20 you ran a story about the schools, “BUSD Kills Program For Teen Mothers.” Then on Feb. 27 your story reads “ BUSD Losing Big Bucks On Food Service Program.” Both stories highlight and focus on one aspect of what happened and fails miserably to give the public the main thrust of the events being reported. 

The Feb. 20 story was about the fact that the school board had to cut $3.1 million from the school’s budget for next year, a very important issue for our community. However, the elimination of the Vera Casey Center for pregnant teens and teen mothers, one of many cuts we were forced to make, while certainly part of the story, should be described, in my opinion, in light of the overall budget crisis in the Berkeley schools.  

Despite the sad fact that we had to cut $3.1 million more from our budget, the district was able to do so without laying off any permanent teachers or cutting class sizes for over 9,000 students. Rather than emphasize the positive, the Daily Planet devoted nine inflammatory paragraphs to a program that serves eighteen students.  

Buried deep in your story (paragraph 16!) is the key point about the budget crisis: “In contrast to budget battles from the previous two years, this year’s cuts, which targeted mostly non-teachers, sparked little citizen outrage. Class sizes are scheduled to remain stable and lost teacher jobs due to an estimated decline in enrollment of 176 students are forecast to be offset by retirements and resignations.” Why wasn’t this statement in your opening paragraph? 

And the Feb. 27 story and headline about a School Board Workshop held Wednesday, Feb. 25 completely missed what happened. Here you had Alice Waters from Chez Panisse, Zenobia Barlow from the Center for Ecoliteracy, and Dr. Bert Lubin, head of the Pediatric Department of Children’s Hospital describing how they are forming a partnership with the food service department of the school district to help make possible healthy, nutritious food for all our school children. But the Daily Planet writes a story about old news, discussed a week before during the school board’s budget deliberations, that the food department cannot live within the meager budget provided by the Federal government. 

If this partnership is successful, as even the Daily Planet described in it’s story; “…it would be the first district to free itself from the mass produced food cycle forced on districts by stingy federal and state school lunch programs that act as subsidies for large corporate food processors to provide food that offers little flavor or nutritional value.” 

Again, why wasn’t this the highlight of your story?  

I am committed to finding alternative funding sources for the Vera Casey Center and creatively striving to improve the quality of food for our school children. But let’s not forget that budget cuts are painful and worthy programs are being eliminated or reduced because the state and federal governments continue to starve our public schools.  

Terry Doran is a member of the Berkeley School Board. 

t

Six cowhide trivets. Five napkin rings. Four serving trays, three yearbooks, two end tables…and a photograph of Yosemite. 

That’s some of what I bought at the last Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale.  

Commonly shortened to “WES,” the event might be call ed with equal accuracy the Mother of All Garage Sales. Held in a warehouse on the Oakland Estuary, the sale has grown to gargantuan proportions during the 40-plus years since it was born as a modest fundraiser in an East Bay garage. The 2004 edition of th e WES takes place this coming Saturday, March 6 (9 a.m.-4 p.m.), and Sunday, March 7 (11 a.m.-4 p.m.), at 333 Lancaster St. in Oakland. 

Reputed to be the largest sale of its type in the world, the WES draws thousands of customers eager to cull through yesterday’s treasures and pay bottom dollar for them. The event raises more than a million dollars a year for the Oakland Museum of California. 

The WES has become not only a local tradition but a cross section of the oddity and excess of American material culture. Generations of useful and useless objects past their time eventually wash up here as flotsam on the shores of our cultural sea, ready for another chance to shine on the bric-a-brac shelves or disappear into the cluttered garages of Bay Area resid ents. 

The scale of the sale is staggering. Thousands of objects are priced as little as 25 cents or 50 cents and or just a dollar or two. Prices for some of the larger or rarer items—such as Persian carpets and antique furniture—can run up to several hun dred dollars. 

Among the items for sale every year are a few hair-raising aesthetic atrocities and a large number of things that were must-haves for the stylish contemporary home of anywhere from two to six or eight decades ago. (Visit the lamp section; y ou’ll understand.) Any adult will recognize (or, perhaps, cringe) at the familiar gewgaws of past generations arranged here for sale at pennies on the original dollar.  

Many items have made the transition from trendy or stylish to kitschy (remember Rubik’s Cubes? Wooden salad bowls carved in the shape of tropical fruit? Giant ornamental clusters of plastic grapes? 1970s furniture designed to make your home look like the captain’s cabin of a pirate ship? Any sort of decorative candle? Anything avocado green or burnt orange…oh, wait, that’s trendy again). 

Some WES goods are on their way to being “collectible” and there are true treasures hiding here and there. Other things you’ll just want because you didn’t buy them when they were new a few decades ago, and thank goodness that you didn’t, since you’d have paid full price then! Some objects you’ll remember from childhood and just have to have for nostalgia’s sake. 

That’s not at all to say that everything at the WES is a decorative object. There are many finds of great value, practical and inexpensive items, from attractive and/or serviceable furniture to luggage, small appliances, sewing machines, perfectly worthwhile clothing, lamps, tools, home medical equipment such as walkers and crutches, dishes, an d endless aisles of good hardcover books. You could outfit a college apartment, campsite, or even a permanent home here, if you had the time and the truck to haul away all your second-hand loot. 

Here’s how the WES works.  

The sale is staffed by volunteers from the Oakland Museum Women’s Board and their friends and husbands. They’re the friendly people with badges and white cloth coats. Many of them labor throughout the year to get the sale items properly prepared. One volunteer has supposedly worked at more than 40 consecutive sales; others are said to represent three generations of the same family. And they’re fun to talk with. At one checkout counter a volunteer packing up my purchases delivered a mini-lecture on the history of basketry.  

Items for sale are meticulously organized; furniture and other largish items crowd the center of the warehouse, and smaller objects are grouped by type in bays around the perimeter. There are extensive sections for books, art, clothes, housewares, electronics, toys, and several other categories.  

Each section is further subdivided. In one section you may wander past the multitude of wicker baskets, alcoves filled with decorations arranged by holiday, brassware, miscellaneous office supplies, shelves burdened with bric-a-brac and, oh yes, a case of genuine white elephants (the latter not for sale). 

Let’s say you pause in the large area devoted to decorative glass. Around you are tables and shelves occupied by a bewildering variety of blue glass, brown glass, glass vases, glass jars, glass ashtrays, glass lanterns, stained glass, in every conceivable molded, blown, cut and poured shape. And, there’s more! Investigate other sections of the warehouse and you’ll find areas with fine glass (crystal vases and what not), mirrors, glass dishware, punch bowls, wineglasses, picture glass in frames, glass sculptures and old-style glass aquariums. 

As you lug your treasures away you may spot the disclaimer posted on the wall saying the Oakland Museum Women’s Board does not war rant that objects purchased at the WES “can be used for any particular purpose.” Don’t let that deter you. It’s essentially the lawyer’s definition of a white elephant. You’re still having fun, participating in a local tradition, and making room in the warehouse for all the donations for next year’s sale.

By freeway from Berkeley, take I-880 south past Downtown Oakland and exit at the Fruitvale/29th Avenue ramp. As you reach the bottom of the exit make a hard right onto Derby. The WES warehouse is two blocks ahead (and a block long) at the edge of the water. Parking is very limited. Quite possibly you’ll need to walk blocks. Make sure you park legally, and don’t block driveways or other cars. 

There’s also a free shuttle that runs to the WES from the Fruitvale BART Station. 

It’s up to you to cart your purchases away, same day. So make sure that you have a suitable vehicle if you have any inclination to buy floor lamps, extension ladders, couches, or armoires.

• Dedicated shoppers arrive early to get close-in parking and good places in the line, which can swell to hundreds before the doors open. You can come later and avoid the long line, although the selection will be smaller. Just be sure to give yourself a few hours inside because the place is big. 

• Dress appropriately for an outdoor wait (if you’re going to stand in line) and also for spending time indoors in an unheated, windowless, space built of metal and concrete.  

• Travel light and wear comfortable shoes. There are few places to sit down outside or in (except on furniture for sale), and you’ll quickly be burdened with objects you’d like to buy. 

• The sale is going to be crowded. The aisles are often narrow. Move around in a determined, but considerate, way. 

• You must pay for your purchases before you leave a section; you cannot cart books next door to buy in the lamps and electronics area, for instance. The section clerks will box or bag your purchases, seal them up, and tape or staple a receipt to the container. Don’t lose the receipt! You can’t get your purchases out the exit without it. 

• If you really want something or the price seems too good to pass up, get it now. If you wander away and come back, chances are someone else will have snapped it up (except for that picture frame ornamented with someone’s collection of wine corks in the art section). 

• Use the free checkstand/holding area at the north end of the warehouse (and make sure to keep track of your claim tickets). Remember that as the end of the sale nears, there may be long, slow, lines to pick up items at the holding area and to leave the building. 

• If at all possible, convince a friend or family member to come along. Trade off taking new purchases to the holding area, waiting in lines, or going back to get the car once you’re ready to leave but need someone to watch your pile of purchases at the exit. 

• Amenities are few; this is a warehouse in an industrial neighborhood. Port-a-potties are found outside. A snack is a good thing to bring if you’re waiting in line. But no food inside. 

• Don’t bring your own carrying containers. Bags and boxes are provided inside. You also cannot enter with strollers or shopping carts or baskets. 

• Everything you buy is As Is, Buyer Beware, No Returns. Most items are used, although generally clean and in good condition. There are no warranties. So if you fall in love with something, make sure you check for small dings, chips, stains, missing small parts, or other subtle wear and tear before you buy it. 

• Bring sufficient cash, and/or a checkbook. It’s pay as you go. 

• Don’t carp about the prices. The money is for a good cause, and most of the items are very inexpensive, even compared to flea markets, junk shops, and many yard sales. 

• For more information, visit the Oakland Museum website (www.museumca.org) and click on the news updates on the WES. 

• Finally, if you want to shop early next year, ask about becoming a volunteer or plan on the preview sale in February. You pay $12.50 in advance or $15 at the door, but you get to shop a month before the free sale. Also, if you make a modest donation of goods to sell, you get a free shopping day between the preview sale and main sale in March.

El Cerrito resident Charles Amirkhanian is a composer with an impressive resume. He’s been at it a long time, and has broken new ground along the way. He’s also one of those rare artists who acts as more than a champion of his own work. His considerable skills as a communicator and organizer have been harnessed to advance a great deal of daring music by others. As director of the Speaking of Music series at the Exploratorium in San Francisco from 1983 to 1992, then as music director of KPFA from ‘69 to ‘92, he’s been in the trenches for a long time, fighting the good fight. In other words, he’s in favor of music that doesn’t sound like everything else. And that’s what the Other Minds Festival is all about. 

The standards at the Other Minds Festival have been very high all during its 10-year run, and that’s a vital component when you’re hoping to bring in people who may be skeptical, or gun-shy, about new music. Amirkhanian has pulled it together this year in style. There is an impressive array of offerings at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this Thursday through Saturday. The players are superb, and the music that is programmed looks to be what we hope for in a festival of new music: It’s daring and it’s extremely varied. 

Opening night, Thursday March 4, features premieres by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, and by composer Hanna Kulenty—the latter for quarter-tone flute and chamber orchestra. Amirkhanian tells me he’s also excited about the premiere of “The Hear and Now,” by composer Jon Raskin of the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, for that ensemble. That’s also on Thursday night. This piece throws ROVA together with an acclaimed ensemble of musicians from Asia, featuring Kyaw Kyaw Naing on pat waing. The Bay Area’s own Gino Robair conducts. 

On Friday, March 5, there is a special 4 p.m. performance arranged with composer Stanley Shaff, who is creating a “total sensory experience” in the darkness of the Audium, at 1616 Bush St. in San Francisco, this being a salute to the composer’s seventy-fifth birthday.  

The evening concert at Yerba Buena on Friday features the U.S. premiere of “Ashtayama,” by Italy’s Amelia Cuni, one of the few Western women to have mastered the classical Indian dhrupad vocal style. Her multi-media piece, which Amirkhanian says is a not-to-be-missed event, is called Song of Hours. Ms. Cuni has toured with Terry Riley and has been mowing them down, apparently, in the U.K. On Friday evening you can also hear accordionist Stefan Hussong performing transcriptions of John Cage’s keyboard music, with dance accompaniment by “stilt choreographer” Pamela Wunderlich. There are several other U.S. premieres for accordion. 

There’s more. Also on Friday, a premiere from Oakland-based composer Mark Grey, with Joan Jeanrenaud the featured soloist on cello. I know Mark Grey a bit, and have heard his music. He’s a heavy-hitter. An associate of Philip Glass, his own music is an adventurous exploration of the color and fire found where acoustic and electronic instruments meet.  

The closing program on Saturday is really three events: Joan Jeanrenaud returns to perform a piece of her own for cello and electronis, a world premiere commissioned for the festival (I bet she’s getting tired of hearing “Formerly of the Kronos Quartet,” but there you have it. If you think you don’t know Ms. Jeanrenaud, you’re probably wrong. Next up, Francis Dhomont surrounds the audience with a 12-piece “loudspeaker orchestra.” Then, answering the question “How do you follow that?” bassist Alex Blake appears with his quintet. Panamanian-born Blake, long a sideman with Sun Ra, Dizzy Gillespie and McCoy Tyner, cites Jimi Hendrix as a primary influence.  

There’s a panel discussion at 7 p.m. on each night of the festival for those who want to hear from these artists about what they’re doing. 

And there’s more happening around the edges… 

Women in Music: a panel discussion on Saturday, March 6, 9 a.m.-noon, YBC Forum. Presented by the Women’s Philharmonic, it’s free and it features Israeli-American composer Shulamit Ran as special guest. (www.womensphil.org.) 

Film: Also Saturday, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., “My Cinema for the Ears.” YBC Forum. As regards the musique concrète of Francis Dhomont and Paul Lansky. Tickets: $5; Other Minds 10 pass holders free. 

Also Saturday, but this at 3 p.m., a screening of “Khachaturian,” a new documentary on the composer’s life and music during the great Soviet Experiment. The film, which premiered in New York in October, was recently named Best Documentary at the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival. A short program follows the screening, featuring pianist Dora Serviarian-Kuhn, composer Tigran Mansurian, who appears in the film, and Other Minds director Charles Amirkhanian. Tickets: $10; Other Minds 10 pass holders free. 

There’s an exhibition and sale of original scores in the YBC Theater Lobby, featuring original musical manuscripts by Other Minds 10 Festival composers. 

And—last but not least—a photography exhibition; a selection of John Fago’s black-and-white photographs from past Other Minds Festivals on exhibit in the YBC Forum (701 Mission St. ) during Other Minds 10.  

Tickets to Other Minds Festival 10 you can get at the Yerba Buena Center Box Office, 701 Mission St., open from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. for walk-up sales (the box office at 700 Howard St. opens 90 minutes prior to all events). Or you can order by telephone: (415) 978-ARTS; daily 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Or online at www.YerbaBuenaArts.org; $5 per-order service fee (except films). Individual concert tickets are $35 Premium; $27 Regular; $18 Budget. Festival passes to all public events: $80 Premium; $65 Regular; $45 (for budget student discount deduct $3 Premium; $2 Regular; $1 Budget off concert tickets and passes). The Friday 4 p.m. program at Audium is $12, sliding scale for students. Audium has limited seating, so if you plan to attend, call to reserve at (415) 771-1616. And the films work like this: My Cinema for the Ears, is $5, and the Khachaturian is $10. 

So what’s the upshot of all this? Well, for a few days this weekend, the odds of your hearing something unique, strange, unprecedented, perhaps even beautiful and unforgettable, are vastly increased. Hats off to Charles Amirkhanian. There have been others in the Bay Area who have curated new music as well as created it: trail-blazer Henry Cowell, for instance, founded the New Music Society in 1925.  

While Henry Cowell has gone on to the big Festival in the Sky, Charles Amirkhanian is very much with us. In the company of Kent Nagano, Sarah Cahill, Stuart Canin, Paul Dresher, and a handful of other area artists, Mr. Amirkhanian seems willing to attempt the unlikely again and again, in this case pulling together scant resources to present the flip side of popular music. The flip-side of popular music, of course, is not unpopular music. It is the music that we’re rarely, if ever, given a chance to hear.  

›

The Scottish seaside town of Stonehaven, birthplace of the deep-fried Mars bar, now has a second claim to fame. Mike Newman, an Aberdeen bus driver and amateur palaeontologist, recently discovered the fossil remains of the oldest known land animal there. The half-inch-long creature has been named Pneumodesmas newmani in his honor. Although some might not consider it an honor: P. newmani is, after all, a millipede. 

How do we know it lived on land? It’s well enough preserved to show tiny spiracles—intake vents for air. These would not have worked at all under water. 

Millipedes don’t get a lot of respect or affection. They lack charisma, they’re not cuddly, and most of them smell bad. Many otherwise reasonable people have a strong aversion to them just be cause they have an excessive number of legs. (No millipede has a thousand legs, as you might assume from the name; the champion, a Southeast Asian species, has only 750, or 375 pairs). 

But you have to admire their sheer staying power. P. newmani, recogni zably a millipede, lived 428 million years ago during the Silurian era, when Scotland lay near the Equator as part of the Old Red Sandstone Continent. A lot of flash-in-the-pan lifeforms have come and gone since then, but you can still find creatures a lo t like P. newmani in your flower bed, or in the nearest shady patch of woods. 

The place wouldn’t have looked much like Scotland, though. Sheep and heather had yet to evolve. The barren land had only recently been colonized by algal crusts, lichens, and p rimitive plants like mosses and liverworts. Soil as such was just beginning to develop as these pioneers wore away the rock and added their remains to the first humus.  

Newman’s find may have lived on detritus—dead plant matter—as most millipedes still d o. Its world must have been a kind of arthropod Eden: plenty to eat, no predators. But that didn’t last long.  

Eventually the ancestors of the modern scorpions came ashore and found bountiful hunting grounds. Insects evolved at least 400 milllion years a go, likely from a millipede-like ancestor.(The earliest insect fossil, also found in Scotland, languished in a drawer in the British Museum for 80 years before someone recently recognized it for what it was). Some became formidable hunters as well: dragon flies with the wingspan of a Cooper’s hawk. Then came the first land vertebrates, lumpish toothy horrors. All these would have found the early millipedes fair game. 

Some millipedes, over time, responded by getting big. One line culminated in a behemoth c alled Arthropleura, 6 feet long and a foot and a half wide, likely the largest terrestrial arthropod that ever existed, or could, due to inherent design constraints. You may remember Arthropleura from the coal swamp diorama in the Academy of Science’s Life Through Time exhibit, now somewhere in storage. 

Others went a different route: they got toxic. One such, the clown millipede (Harpaphe haydeniana), inhabits Northern California. It’s striking in its own way, glossy black with a pair of yellow spots on each segment; it has a relatively modest 62 legs. For people with an aversion to both clowns and things with too many legs, this would be a hard animal to love. The coloration is a warning to would-be predators that it’s loaded with cyanide. I’ve never h andled one myself, but the clown millipede is said to give off a definite whiff of almonds. 

In his splendid book For Love of Insects, Thomas Eisner, more or less the founder of the science of chemical ecology, describes his work with a New York millipede, Apheloria, back in the 1950s. (No, millipedes aren’t insects, they’re myriapods. But Eisner’s curiosity transcends taxonomic categories). He verified earlier anecdotal reports that Apheloria did emit hydrogen cyanide, and figured out how its chemical de fense worked. The millipede produces a precursor substance called mandelonitrile, stored in a special reservoir. When threatened, it telescopes its body segments to squeeze the chemical into another chamber containing a catalytic enzyme. The ensuing react ion releases the hydrogen cyanide, which seeps through ducts along the millipede’s side.  

Eisner’s book includes a wonderful photograph of a toad which has just tried to swallow an Apheloria millipede. You wouldn’t think a toad’s face would be capable of much emotional range, but the amphibian’s disgust is palpable. 

The cyanide trick isn’t universal among millipedes. Other species produce benzoquinones. Still another, a chunky, pillbug-like form known as Glomeris, secretes a chemical that sedates predat ors. Wolf spiders that attacked a Glomeris became “motionless, flaccid, and totally unresponsive”, and could take up to 5 or 6 days to recover. The two key chemicals at work here, glomerin and homoglomerin, are quinazolinones, akin to methaqualone, aka Qu aalude. (One of Eisner’s colleagues was able to demonstrate that Quaalude does not knock out spiders, if you were wondering). 

Ground-up millipede was part of the standard pharmacopeia in 17th-century England, along with wolf’s liver, peony root, and stee l syrup. We can only speculate as to what effect this had on the patient.  

In addition to being able to brew poisons and sedatives, some millipedes are luminescent and others fluoresce under ultraviolet light, as do scorpions. No one seems to know what a daptive value this has for the animals. 

Those refinements, though, came long after Pneumodesmas newmani roamed the Scottish tropics. Here’s a salute to that unsung pioneer, or whatever many-legged ancestor first ventured onto terra firma. It was many small steps for a millipede, but one giant leap for animalkind.  

POLICE DOGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Perhaps I am alone in this opinion, but I find the notion absurd that but for the efforts of a few courageous so-called “progressives” on the Berkeley City Council and elsewhere that Berkeley would be overrun with Lynch Mobs and Brown Shirts. Recent views expressed in East Bay papers opposing Police Dogs in Berkeley seem disingenuous at best. 

In my experience Berkeley Police efforts have been hamstrung by “progressive” politicians and other ideologues who have shown re markable tolerance for violent drug crime, battery, and rape, in South Berkeley. 

I believe many youth at risk in Berkeley (including those who have committed brutal crimes) have been neglected, abandoned, and given a pass by the “progressive” power struc ture in Berkeley which is loath to consider even constructive common sense interventions. 

This neglect results in harm to everyone concerned. 

The scores of beatings, shootings and other violent crimes, in my neighborhood alone, (including murder and rap e) perpetrated by criminals of all ages (very often drug related) have been both treated with sarcastic humor and cast as the victims’ responsibility. “Progressives” also seem to have no problem with drug dealers raising vicious pit bulls. 

I believe I ha ve, what should be, an acceptable compromise concerning the police dog issue: Use smaller, lower profile, dogs like Beagles that could accomplish many of the needed and beneficial tasks. Contrary to the clarion call of denial by Berkeley “progressives,” c rime actually does happen in Berkeley. 

John Herbert 

• 

MALCOLM X FLOOD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The drainage problem at Malcolm X is a storm sewer problem at King and Prince streets. That is, there isn’t a storm drain at King and Prince. Sure, there’s a ho le at the corner that fools people into believing it’s a drain. But it doesn’t go anywhere! There is a fine great drain at Ashby, several feet below grade. The City of Berkeley needs to install a real drain at King and Prince that connects to the Ashby pi pe. 

I know more about this than any human deserves. I stood in knee-deep water during El Nino, in 1996, at that intersection and watched the lower depths of Malcolm X flood. Water will not go down a drain, no matter how splendid its engineering, if the a djacent street is inundated over curb level. The architects of the Malcolm X renovation investigated and considered running their own pipe to the Ashby storm drain—and in retrospect probably should have. I probably won’t live to see the city deal properly with this. So BUSD takes a $100,000 hit every time this happens, which is getting to be more than once a year rather than once in five years as formerly. I sqawked to the architects, to the district, to the civil engineers, predicting these recurrences. But I’m only a citizen who doesn’t have time to attend many meetings on the behalf of a mundane public good. 

Lawsuits speak louder than words, I guess. Maybe that’s becoming America’s method of choice for getting action, since common sense doesn’t seem t o have much potency. 

Bruce Wicinas 

• 

MARRIAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Erich Fromm wrote, “To love one’s flesh and blood is no achievement....Only in the love of those who do not serve a purpose, love begins to unfold.” 

It’s not that I disagree with Becky O’Malley’s advocacy of marriage (“Marriage: Good for Spouses, Kids and Community,” Daily Planet, Feb. 17-19), but compared with Fromm’s presentation of the fusion of two who truly love each other as the pathway to the eternal (“Erotic love is exclusive, but it loves in the other person all of mankind, all that is alive”), her perspective comes across as pretty drab and duty-driven. The institution we are given by state or religion is a palliative, and too often a shroud; and it could represent a breach of trust with one’s soul to rest in it too complacently. If we require a legal contract to ‘bind’ our decision to love, we’re lost. 

Pamela Satterwhite 

• 

PUBLIC COMMENT 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Mayor Tom Bates’ proposed changes to public comments and public hearings at city council meetings strike yet another blow at the democratic process. 

A majority of Berkeley voters elected Tom Bates mayor in the misguided belief that he would look after their interests. They are now learning to their sorrow that they have entrusted the chicken coop to the fox. 

Issues brought by the public to the city council often are too complex to cover in three minutes. Reducing public comments from three minutes to two will make it even more difficult to get the message across. 

Moving public hearings to Thursday nights would assure that concerned citizens who follow important developments at the council and ZAB will have to sacrifice one in order to attend the other in two out of four cases. 

Tom Bates, your proposals are bad. I t’s best to withdraw them at once. The least you can do is hold a public hearing, where the people will tell you what you should have learned at the parcel tax hearing. 

It’s time for Tom Bates to ask: “Why am I here, and who am I supposed to serve?” 

Dani ella Thompson 

• 

DEMOCRACY NOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the Bush administration brazenly backs the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Haiti it is once again clear that we in the United States are living under the rule of criminals. 

W e need to impeach this administration; we need to indict this administration; and we need to begin a serious push for democracy in this nation. 

George Palen 

• 

SO WHAT? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read your article and accompanying memo from Mr. Cowan to th e mayor and I’m wondering what all of the brouhaha is about. It reads like a clear and simple explanation of what the city’s possible options are, and not, as Councilmember Spring says, a “plan for how the city can grease the tracks and overcome any citizen concern and input.” 

From the way I read it we’re going to have a fight on our hands anyway and we’ve got to find some common ground (something often in short supply). City center is sadly and slowly hollowing out and to have a large hotel and tourist destiniation (the museum complex) to provide jobs would be great. 

Bill Newton 

• 

MURAL ART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to correct misinformation in an article entitled “Mural’s Sad Fate Spotlights Art Program” in your Feb. 5 issue. It was wonderful article describing the ways in which art, expecially mural art, is so underaprreciated and that the artists are so often unrecognized. The article shows a nice picture of the La Pena Cultural Center mural and then mistakenly credits it to Osha Neumann alone. I wated to write this letter assuming Mr. Neumann would correct this mistake since, in fact, the mural was created by four artists: Anna de Leon, Ray Patlan, O’Brien Thiele and Neumann. 

I know this for two reasons. All four artist’s names are printed on the base of the mural. In addition, I was personally involved since the soaring ceramic birds that represent the condor of Chile, the eagle of Mexico and the quetzal of Guatelmala were created by Anna de Leon and fired in my kiln on Parker Street. As far as I know, this mural is unique in that it combines the painted surface and the more dimensional ceramic, which gives so much vitality and surface interest to the mural. Also, the ceramic withstands ravages of the elements indefinitely, even as the paint fades. 

I believe that when artists come together to make art, they should all, not just the most vocal or the one interviewed, be recognized for their work. I believe that was the point of Jakob Schiller’s article, for which I thank you. 

Francesca Roveda 

• 

TYRANNY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was amazed to see the laughable headline, “Tyranny Seen in the Oakland School Takeover” in the recent article by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor (Daily Planet, Feb. 20-23). I have enjoyed most of your columnist’s previ ous UnderCurrents essays, but now he seems to have gone off the deep end. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) under the leadership of Superintendent Dennis Chaconas has managed to run up many millions of dollars in deficits in the last few years. T he OUSD asked the State of California for a $100,000,000 loan to bail them out of the financial hole that they had managed to dig themselves into.  

State control of the OUSD operations was the price that they had to pay. Now folks are whining about any a nd every cost-cutting measure, including school closures. Its time for protesters and whiner-babies to get a grip and grow up. The OUSD Board members, Superintendent Chaconas and his top administrators failed in their sworn responsibility to keep the (OUS D) in good financial order. Millions and millions of dollars has been looted from the (OUSD) by staff embezzlers, crooks, thieves and just common grafters.  

A recent story in the Oakland Tribune (2/19/04) reported how several former OUSD employees were m iraculously still receiving paychecks long after their employment with the District had ended. 

It is evident that many teachers and staff members showed zero loyalty to the OUSD and happily looted the District budget for as much as they could get away wi th. Endless cell phone calls to friends and 

relatives paid by the District. It was, “Get on board the OUSD reparations train, we’re pulling out of the 

station soon. Bring your friends, relatives and neighbors too. It the biggest party in Oakland ever. Don’t miss out.”  

Tyranny is what Bush has created in Iraq, it is not tyranny for the new State Administrator of the OUSD to balance the District’s budget. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I found your recent BUSD budget article (20-23 Feb 2004) interesting in that the Vera Casey Center budget shortfall is $100k. With 10 students regularly using its services, this amounts to $10,000 per student. According to the article, the Vera Casey Center operates on a state grant, meaning th at its budget is larger than $100,000; unfortunately the center’s budget is not noted in the article. Surely the center’s services can be provided in a more cost-effective manner. 

Peter Zielinski 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the ongoing discus sion about the $72 million dollars in ABAG loans Patrick Kennedy scored, he states, “The general benefits to the city of the additional 425 units of new housing are also there for people to judge (Daily Planet, Feb. 20-23).”  

The buildings LEAK. Many peo ple would consider leaking five-story buildings to be a problem rather than an asset. Maybe Mr. Kennedy will take a moment to tell us what measures are being taken to prevent his three projects under construction from being the next batch of leakers to “benefit” this proud city. 

C. Osborn 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Schwarzenegger’s office gravely warns the public that gay marriages being performed at San Francisco’s City Hall will cause mayhem, that it will “lead to anarchy.” Other foes of gay marriage warn of a “fierce backlash.” 

What now: Will Washington policymakers initiate preemptive military strikes against San Francisco—as they did in Kabul, Khandahar and Baghdad? 

Will Gov. Schwarzenegger or President Bush call in the U.S. military to drop cluster bombs on civilian wedding parties—as in Afghanistan? 

I suppose we should take the warnings seriously. After all, there’s no knowing from one minute to the next what this administration will drop on our heads, or—God forbid—on the heads of others. 

Sheila Newbery 

[Yesterday I e-mailed you a letter responding to Elizabeth Will’s letter in the Daily Planet for 17 Feb; that letter can stand, but if it’s not much trouble I’d replace it with this] 

In the Daily Planet for 17 February, Elizabeth Will wonders whether pilots and/or air traffic controllers have started to zero in on her house near El Cerrito Plaza, and whether “zoning” allows such. Like her, I know nothing about zoning, but Bay Area aeronautical charts don’t show any no-fly zones. I n any case, anyone who spends an hour or two on the BART platform will wonder what the fuss is about. When Oakland Airport is using runway 11, its arrivals from the south and east pass over the Berkeley-to-El Cerrito area westbound at 3000-4000 ft; some a re audible but none are bothersome. Once in a while an equally unobtrusive SFO arrival will appear at 6000 ft. But most of the year Oakland is using runway 29, which means 80-90% of OAK-SFO traffic is miles away from El Cerrito, and the few airliners that do appear are either level at 5000 ft or climbing above 10000 ft. Neither is loud enough to attract attention. 

Tim Zukas 

455 41st St #2  

Oakland CA 94609-2536  

510-653-4585 

I applaud Matthew Artz for writing the article about how “Bush Law  

Sabotage s School’s Effort to Leave No Child Behind” is wrongly giving  

Washington Elementary School a bad reputation. As a mother of a first  

grader at Washington, I felt really bad when I got the School District’s  

letter stating that Washington is a “needs impr ovement” school and I can  

opt to transfer my child to another Berkeley school. By the way, I heard  

from our Leadership Team meeting that not one Washington family opted to  

transfer. Last year, when I was searching for a school for kindergarten, I  

visited four schools in my zone and one private school. We selected  

Washington. Why? Because for my family, it is the best choice. My son is an  

intelligent and confident child, so I knew that he would be fine in public  

school. He had completed three years of Montessori preschool and was a good  

candidate for private school. But, I felt that a private school would be  

too homogenous. Frankly, how many families can afford $9,000 tuition a  

year? Not only am I interested in good academics, I want him in an  

e nvironment that reflects the Bay Area in race, culture and economics,  

because social development is important too. 

Since being at Washington for two years now, I’m impressed with the school.  

I’m part of the Leadership Team, which comprise of the principal, staff,  

teachers and parents. As a group, we help make spending decisions together.  

I like this inclusion. Honestly, I’m learning more about Washington every  

year and I like what I see. Of course, I’m not happy about everything at  

Washington, but that would be unrealistic. Are there better schools than  

Washington? That is a personal question each family needs to search out for  

themselves. It upsets me when I hear that parents avoid Washington because  

of what they hear rather than what they see and experience for themselves. 

We need good parents and kids at all Berkeley schools so I hope that  

families take the time to research schools by visiting them. 

Washington Elementary School Parent, 

Mimi Chin 

Mimi Chin 

Principal Architectural Associa tes, Design Services 

Residential and Student Service Programs 

2610 Channing Way, 4th Floor 

Berkeley, California 94720-2272 

Telephone: 510-643-4338 

Fax: 510-643-1222  

I have one minor correction to make to Lesley Emmington’s wonderful  

article about t he Blood house and the continuing destruction of  

Berkeley’s historic resources. While the Southside, and indeed much of  

the City, did support and benefit from the Neighborhood Preservation  

Ordinance; it was in fact authored by Martha Nicoloff along wit h the  

Oceanview Committee in response to the wholesale bulldozing of houses in  

the West Berkeley Redevelopment Project Area. Committee members threw  

themselves prostrate in front of bulldozers and then unsuccessfully sued  

to force the Redevelopment Ag ency (which at the time was a separate  

board headed by the City Manager) to comply with the newly adopted NPO  

and to stop the razing of some of the oldest houses in the City. It was  

then that the City Council became one of the first in California to  

d eclare itself to be the Redevelopment Agency and they created a plan to  

restore the Oceanview neighborhood. A fragment of the original  

committee continues to exist as the Oceanview Tenant and Neighborhood  

Associations and we’re still waiting for the Ci ty to fulfill the  

promises that it made so long ago.  

Rhiannon 

731 Virginia St 

Berkeley Ca 94710 

510-524-9586 

?

A proposal has emerged that will certainly engage the attention of thoughtful Berkeley residents. Should Jefferson School be renamed because Thomas Jefferson was a slaveholder? 

The shame that is the heritage of those of us whose ancestors held slaves is painful but certainly nothing beside the pain that the heritage of slavery must represent to black Americans. 

Thomas Jefferson struggled throughout his life in the cause of justice, grappling time and again with what he called the “abominable crime” of slavery. He believed deeply, as he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that all of us “are created equal” and he agonized to the end of his life over the “condition of moral and political reprobation” of the slaveholding society he lived in. As a young attorney in the courts of pre-revolutionary Virginia he dared repeatedly to raise questions about the “evil” of slavery. The first legislation he proposed as a new 26-year-old member of Virginia’s colonial legislature in 1769 called for the abolition of slavery. The proposal was resoundingly rejected. In his law practice he regularly declined fees in cases of people seeking their freedom from slavery. Defending such a man in 1770, he stunned the jurists of the Virginia General Court, a dozen of coloni al America’s wealthiest slaveholders, by declaring “Under the law of nature, all men are born free. Everyone comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called per sonal liberty.” He lost the case. 

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in the hot Philadelphia summer of 1776. In that powerful, succinct, and graceful document this 33-year-old radical summarized the case for American independence from Englan d and gathered the principles that have guided our nation in its best moments for over 200 years, principles that resonate with particular force in such dismal days as our own. In Jefferson’s original draft those principles included the abolition of the slave trade, which he called a “cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people” who are captured and carried “into slavery in another hemisphere.” He condemned “this execrable commerce” of “a market where MEN” are “bought and sold.” 

Jefferson was disgusted by the timidity of his fellow delegates to the Second Continental Congress when they insisted on removing his condemnation of slavery from the final document. That rejection of his proposal for a peaceful end to slavery meant, tragically, that the evil institution would persist almost a century more before it was violently abolished in the cataclysm of the Civil War. 

Perhaps Jefferson’s most potent contribution to the cause of emancipation was his authorship of the Northwest Ordinance in 1784, the law that set the terms under which new states were to be admitted to union with the original thirteen. Jefferson’s ordinance abolished slavery in the new territories. Had slavery been extended into the West, our racial history would certainly have been even more brutal than it has been, and the Union would not have possessed the balance of power that finally enabled its victory in the Civil War. 

Today we ask of course how a man s o committed to the eradication of slavery could himself remain a slaveholder. Responding at the age of 71 with his characteristically sturdy optimism to a younger man who had sought his guidance on this subject, Jefferson wrote: “[My views] on . . . slave ry . . . have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of [emancipation], and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have p leaded it so long in vain . . . . From [my own generation] I soon saw that nothing was to be hoped. . . . I had always hoped that the younger generation . . . would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond t heir own share of it. But [they have not] made . . . the progress I had hoped. . . . Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing . . . . It will come . . . This enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to its consumma tion. It shall have all my prayers . . . . My opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, [and] require su ch reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen.” 

Like each of us, Thomas Jefferson was inescapably a man of his time and place. Like each of us, he was handed the conditions of his life. If he had done nothing toward improving those cond itions for his contemporaries and successors, for you and me, few would remember him, let alone honor him with a school bearing his name. 

By today’s standards, he clearly failed to do the obviously right thing: free his slaves. By the standards of his own day, he did his best: he protected within an evil system those for whom he was responsible and fought valiantly to change that system. 

Consider a comparison: We all know that the automobile and the vast infrastructure that supports it have for decades wrought untold damage on our natural environment, the environment that sustains life on earth. It poisons the air we breathe. It destroys the protective ozone layer of our atmosphere. Agricultural lands that we depend on for our food and wild lands that n urture us otherwise are paved and encroached upon by the urban sprawl encouraged by the automobile. Land and sea are scarred and polluted in our frenzy to fuel it. Some thoughtful, visionary, and—like Jefferson—optimistic people work to reverse this behav ior. It is a slow process. In the meantime, most of us go on driving, effectively at a loss to alter behavior we know is destructive. 

Perhaps our teachers—at Jefferson School and elsewhere—can draw some lessons from the example of Jefferson: 

• Doing th e right thing is not always easy. 

• Judging others, especially people in distant times and places, as though they were our contemporaries and neighbors, will probably distort our understanding of them. 

• Doing your best, even against great odds and in the face of repeated failure, is perhaps the truest sign of greatness. 

In a city that many regard as a beacon of civil liberties, perhaps we can still find reason to honor the author of the Declaration of Independence. 

Rob Browning is a longtime Berkeley activist and formerly an editor of UC Berkeley’s Mark Twain Papers. µ

A champion of Berkeley rent control was ordered last week to pay his former tenants more than $100,000 in restitution by the very rent board he campaigned to create. 

By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board found that Michael Berkowitz, a paid aide to Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, had willfully misrepresented his residency status at his 2820 Derby St. property to skirt rent control. Berkowitz also works in a second position as chief of information services and neighborhood planning for the City of San Francisco. 

The award reflects the total amount Berkowitz overcharged his tenants each month since 1992. 

Asked to comment at a city council meeting several days after the Rent Stabilization Board’s decision, Shirek said she had not heard about the case against her aide. 

Berkowitz says he made no intentional attempt to avoid rent control. 

“I made a mistake. I thought I was covered, but it was not willful or malicious or anything like that,” he told the rent board. He added in an interview Wednesday he was unsure if he would appeal the decision to the Alameda County Superior Court.  

But the fact that the Rent Board dinged Berkowitz for the entire amount of the back rent means that it found his actions intentional. If the Rent Board had found the increases unintentional, the landlord could have been found liable for only three years’ back rent. 

The $112,382.40 total award will be held in escrow while all of the former tenants are located. 

Berkowitz sold the house after a Rent Board hearing officer initially ruled against him in the matter last October. Last week’s full Rent Board decision was on an appeal from that initial finding.  

None of the tenants involved in the complaint chose to comment for this story. All moved out of the house shortly after the hearing examiner’s decision in October.  

Berkowitz campaigned for the passage of Berkeley’s rent control ordinance and worked for the rent board briefly in addition to serving on the Zoning Adjustment Board. Rent Board sources said privately that Berkowitz is seen as a trusted ally by the nine-member pro-tenant board, which served as his jury, and that he had close relationships with several board members.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that if the findings were true, “Such charges would be extremely ironic and perceived by many people to be hypocritical considering [Berkowitz is] a longtime progressive activist who has benefited thousands of tenants by his advocacy.” 

Former rent board commissioner Bob Migdal, who served on a landlord majority board, applauded the rent board’s decision. “Hats off to them for not caving into their political buddies,” he said, adding that during his time on the board, the landlord majority found a fellow landlord liable for nearly $100,000 damages. 

Berkowitz’ Derby Street tenants filed a complaint against him with the rent board last August when Berkowitz announced he was raising the rent on the five-bedroom house by $375 a month to $3,500—the second large rent increase in two years. The house also has a back cottage. 

Rent board records showed that when Berkowitz bought the house in 1992, he removed it from city rent control restrictions by declaring the home as his principal residence. That was a claim that both current and former tenants contested. Berkowitz owned two other Berkeley homes as well. 

Berkowitz rented the house in September of 1992 to four tenants, charging them a total of $2,600 a month. In November of that same year, he was notified by the Rent Board that this was almost twice the maximum amount he could charge under Berkeley’s rent control ordinance at the time. A month later, Berkowitz filed a claim that the Derby Street residence was his permanent home, exempting it from rent control. 

According to last week’s ruling by the rent board, that was not true. 

In an interview with the Daily Planet, Berkowitz said he was “bouncing around” at the time he bought the Derby Street home, but did intend to live there, and resided in the house from June 1994 until November 1995 and from late 1999 until September 2001.  

In rent board papers, the tenants confirmed that the landlord used the house during that period, but argued Berkowitz was never a full-time resident. 

Rent Board Counsel Brian Kelly acknowledged Berkowitz received mail at the address including bank statements, Dissolution of Marriage papers and a voter registration card, but did not offer copies of his automobile registration, driver’s license or house insurance as he had in 1990 to prove a different address as his principal residence. “If the appellant had, indeed, changed his principal residence…it is reasonable to expect this change would have been reflected…on these documents,” Kelly wrote. 

The Berkeley rent board sues between 40-50 landlords a year for not registering their properties and hears about 20 tenant-initiated complaints about landlords not registering with the rent board to avoid rent control. 

FRIDAY, FEB. 27 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eman Assi, Prof. of Architecture, An-Najah National Univ. Nablus, West Bank, “Destruction of Historical Sites in Nablus and Jenin, Palestine” 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. 

California Steps for Peace At 4:20 p.m. walk from Berkeley City Hall to People’s Park. Part of a 4-day Peace Walk Across America. 

Friends of Willard School Evening of Jazz and Silent Auction at 7 p.m. at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison. Tickets are $25 available from 845-5373. 

Get Out the Vote a pre-primary evening of political music, humor and discussion at Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at 7 p.m.  

“Invasion of Iraq: An Eyewitness Account” with Waratah Rose Gillespie, at 6:30 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

“The Evolution from Africa” An African American History lesson given through spoken word, music, song, dance and dialogue by the afterschool students and their families at 7 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Tickets are $1-$3 at the door. All proceeds go directly to the students and staff of the afterschool program. 

“Academic Freedom After 9/11” A conference exploring how the Bush administration’s legislation has impacted institutions of higher learning, at 8 a.m. at International House, Piedmont at Bancroft Ave. Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 642-8208. cmes@uclink.berkeley.edu 

“Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War” and “Imagine America” will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Kucinich for President office, 3362 Adeline, near Alcatraz. 420-0772. 

“Literacy and Beyond” Celebrate Black History month at the Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way from 7 to 9 p.m. Books, poetry and art projects. 665-3271. 

Bay Area Children First Open House at 5 p.m. at Shattuck Commons, 1400 Shattuck Ave., Suite 7. Auction, foods and crafts. Keynote speakers will include children’s book author and illustrator Thatcher Hurd. 883-9312, ext. 4. www.baychild.org 

Literary Friends, “How Women Can Effect Social Change” from 1:15 to 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 232-1351. 

A Toast to Crew, benefit for the Berkeley Men’s Crew from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the historical Maybeck home of Evelyn Larsen and Bill deCarion. Suggested donation to attend: $35 individual or $50 family. RSVP to Evelyn Larsen erlarsen@arthlink.net 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

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

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 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, FEB. 28 

Mini-Gardeners: Water We'll learn about the water cycle, give our plants a drink, and make watering cans to take home. For ages 4 to 6. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park Cost is $3. Registration required. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org  

Creating Your Garden Paradise with Aerin Moore. We will provide you with tools for using the elements of design to make your garden your personal expression of creativity. At 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Saturday Night Sing-Along An evening of campfire classics, silly and serious songs, rounds and movement activities at 7 p.m. at 1216 Solano Ave. at Talbot. Appropriate for all ages. Cost is $3 for adults, $2 for children. Sponsored by the Albany YMCA. 525-1130.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster Mental Health for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes or by calling 981-5506. 

Wine Tasting Benefit for Walden School at 7 p.m. at METRO Lighting & Crafts, 2121 San Pablo Ave. Tickets are $35 available from 841-7248, and at the door.  

Get Out the Vote for Kucinich Meet at 10 a.m. at 3362 Adeline for music and precinct walking. 333-7307. 

South Africa: Workers Struggle Against ANC Neo-Apartheid Rule, Spartacist League Black History Month Forum, 2 p.m., Rockridge Branch Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland (south of Rockridge BART). Free. 839-0851. 

Home Buying Process Workshop offered by the Unity Council, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1900 Fruitvale Ave. Oakland. This comprehensive workshop will cover all the elements involved in the home buying process, from establishing a budget, how to improve credit, buying power, working with realtors and the approval at the lender’s level. The workshop is free, but registration is requested. 535-6943.  

“How to Buy a Home on a Limited Budget” a fee seminar providing unbiased advice for first-time buyers who aren’t sure if they can afford to buy in the Berkeley area. Held at 180B 4th St. For reservations call 540-7808.  

“The Gifts of Grief” an educational documentary about the transformational power of loss at 7 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Donation $20. 547-5004. www.giftsofgrief.com 

California College of the Arts Open House Prospective students can tour studios, meet faculty, and view student work. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 5212 Broadway, Oakland. 594-3712. 

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. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 29 

Early Morning Birdwalk at Tilden Nature Area at 8 a.m. Once every four years we get to go birding on this day. Every new bird you see counts double for your life bird list. 525-2233. 

Leap Year at Tilden Nature Area. Learn about the history of Leap Day, with calendar customs and folklore from around the world. From 2 to 4 p.m. 525-2233. 

Save The Bay is seeking volunteers who are passionate about the environment and have some paddling experience in canoes and/or sea kayaks to be volunteer guides for our on-the-water outings program, Discover The Bay. From 10a.m. to 3 p.m. Free. For more information, contact Jessica Parsons, Outings Coordinator, at 452-9261, or jparsons@savesfbay.org  

Sensational Salvias for the Mediterranean Garden at 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $45, $40 for members. To register call 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Fred Lupke: A Celebration of His Life and Work from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Community Room, Third Floor, Main Branch, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 

“Patriots Act: Fighting the Good Fight - The Next Generation” Annual Reunion of The Veterans & Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at 1 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theater, 10 Tenth St. Oakland. Speakers include Peter Glazer, Medea Benjamin, Bruce Barthol and members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Tickets are $30, and are available from 548-3088 or at the door. Proceeds will go to MoveOn.org 

“What is Buddha Nature?” workshop with Dunyu Lamon Dorje Rinpoche from 2:30 at 5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd. $20 donation requested. 527-4931. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack van der Meulen on “Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga) in Theory and Practice” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com  

MONDAY, MARCH 1 

Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative monthly meeting will feature a slide show on “School Gardens Around the World” at 6 p.m. Potluck dinner, drinks provided. The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Neighborhood Watch Monthly Meeting at the Public Safety Building, 2100 MLK, Jr. Way from 6:30 to 8 p.m. (Late comers enter through jail door.) Block Captains are especially invited but anyone interested in starting a neighborhood program is welcome. Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Berkeley Safe Neighborhoods Committee (BSNC). For more information please call BPD Community Services Bureau at 981-5808. 

“Regional Transportation 101” a presentation sponsored by Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation, a 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Main Library, Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 652-9462. 

National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. the first Monday of each month at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. 287-8948.  

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthing at 1:15 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, MARCH 2 

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.  

National Nutrition Month “Eat in Season” from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK. Cooking demonstrations, recipes and nutrition education. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Wildflowers of the East Bay” with Glenn Keator on Tuesdays to March 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost for the program is $145, $125 for members. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“Kayaking With Whales Off Vancouver Island” a slide presentation with whale research biologist David Briggs at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Minorities in Israel” with Prof. Zeidan Atashi, an Israeli Druz Arab at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Sponsored by Bridges to Israel.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. The Writing Class will read from thier recent works at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 234-4783. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 

Great Decisions 2004: “U.S. and Europe” with Prof. Anthony Adamthwaite, History Dept., UCB, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. Briefing booklets are available. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Refuse and Resist presents a documentary film, “A Life Matters: The Story of an Illegal Abortionist” at 6 p.m. at Rockridge Branch Library, 5366 College Ave. Donations welcome. 704-5293. 

“Free Trade, National Sovereignty, and Environmental Health in the Balance?” Featuring Sheila Foster, Fordham Univ. School of Law, at 12:45 p.m. Vegetarian lunch served. Room 121, 122, or 123 in Boalt Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by The Boalt Environmental Law Society. sarale@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Post-Primary Meet-up for Howard Dean Join supporters of Howard Dean to discuss next steps in this grassroots campaign to take back our country. At 7 p.m. at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. and Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant, 1736 Solano Ave. For more information contact East Bay for Dean at 267-3796. 

Northbrae Community Church Monthly Dinner, with a presentation on Alaska by the Berkeley Camera Club, at 6 p.m. at 941 The Alameda. Dinner cost is $7.50 for adults, $3.50 for children. For reservations call 526-3805.  

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

Prose Writers Workshop Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in 255 Dwinelle, UC Campus. www.berkeleystopthewar.org  

“The Image of Christ Through the Ages” with Fr. Andrew Walmiseley, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

Buddhist Studies Lecture on “The Concept of Compassion” with Prof. Wakahara of Ryukoku Univ. Kyoto, at 2 p.m. at 2717 Haste St. 650-938-7192. 

“Assassination Tango” video presentation followed by dance presentation with Paulo Araujo from Brazil at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Tango Studio. 655-3538. 

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

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

THURSDAY, MARCH 4 

“Travel to Cuba” a discussion with Fred Burkes, the interpreter and journalist who is challenging the Cuba travel ban, at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by the Berkeley-Palma Soriano Sister City Association. 644-9260. 

Writers’ Room Coach Training is offered from 7 to 9:30 p.m. for volunteers who would like to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. To attend please call Terry Bloomburgh at 849-4134 or email Bloomburgh@sbcglobal.net 

“Faith, Work and Justice Forum” at 6:30 p.m. at the GTU Dinner Boardroom, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. 

“Cidade de Deus/City of God,” the housing project in Rio de Janeiro, with Paulo Lins at 4 p.m. at Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

Host an International Student Let Europe come to you this summer. SWIFT Student Exchange program is bringing Spanish and French middle and high school students to the Bay Area for 3-4 week stays with Bay Area families. Informational evening, from 6-8 p.m. at the SWIFT office in Oakland. Call 433-0414 for directions and more information. 

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

ONGOING 

Family Activist Resource Center A small group of East Bay parents is meeting monthly to set up a drop-in center where parents and caregivers can come with their children and do their political work while their children are cared for in a creative, respectful and nurturing manner. For information on the next meeting, contact Erica at ericadavid@earthlink.net or call 841-3204. 

Free Income Tax Help is available on Tuesday mornings between 10 a.m. and 12 noon at St. John's Presbyterian Church Prime Timers, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. Ozzie Olson, AARP trained tax preparer is available by appointment. 845-6830.  

Auditions for Showtime at the Apollo will be held Sat. March 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Whether you’re part of a gospel group, a chorus line, a barbershop quartet, or a jazz ensemble; if you’re a magician, a female impersonator or a one-man band; if you’ve dreamed of thousands applauding your talent at the piano, tuba or didgeridoo, you’ll have your shot at the “Big Time.” Amateur performers and groups wishing to audition may call Laura Abrams at 642-0212 or e-mail apollo@calperfs.berkeley.edu to receive an audition application and to schedule an audition. 

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center, open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Starbucks Grants for Giving is offering $375,000 to local non-profits in Berkeley and other East Bay cities. Eligibility and application information can be obtained from any Northern California Starbucks location, by visiting www.starbucks.com/ 

grantsforgiving or by calling 1-866-535-GIVE.  

CITY MEETINGS 

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

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Mar. 1,  

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

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon. Mar. 1, 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/landmarks 

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

us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., Mar. 1, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

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

eley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Mar. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

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

PROPER CREDIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for giving generous space to outstanding questions regarding the future of the historic Blood House. I regret failing to acknowledge the contributions made by Daniella Thompson to the opinion piece under my name. 

Lesley Emmington Jones 

• 

NOT JUST A BAND-AID 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Proposition 56 is the beginning of real reform of state budget making. The state budget has been late 17 of the last 25 years while special loopholes or expenditures are included to buy the hold-out votes needed to reach a two-thirds majority. We cannot afford being held hostage by a minority. 

Since Prop. 13, the state has exercised control over local revenues. When the budget is late every local government and agency is also in limbo, often handing out pink slips while they try to guess what resources will return to them from the state. We cannot afford this uncertainty at all levels of government. 

Prop. 56 will move us towards majority rule and focus legislators completing the budget before the deadline (or no pay). Prop. 56 will provide for building up five percent reserves during times of surplus. Prop. 56 gives voters access to information on state expenditures and voting records at election time and discourages partisan intimidation of centrist legislators. 

Prop. 56 is a reform assembled with care by organizations interested in good government, not a last minute Band-Aid. Proposition 56 deserves our vote.  

Eva Alexis, President,  

League of Women Voters of the Bay Area 

• 

DEANIACS FOR EDWARDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Howard Dean has re-energized the Democratic party by revolutionizing fundraising, starting the process of meaningfully criticizing the president, and bringing in hordes of passionate citizens new to the political process. After his recent withdrawal from the race, Dean’s supporters may be looking for a new candidate to carry on their cause. That candidate is Sen. John Edwards. 

Senator Edwards opposed NAFTA (which Sen. Kerry voted for) and is strongly pro-union. Like Dean, he regularly talks about ending poverty, having health care for all children, creating new jobs in the bleeding manufacturing sector, and healing racial divides. And very much unlike Dean, Sen. Edwards’ main rival John Kerry has taken more money from lobbyists than anyone else in the Senate during the past 15 years. The Nation magazine gave many more reasons why “Progressives Should Vote Edwards” in a recent article. 

For most progressives, this election is about defeating George Bush. Exit polls from the open primaries so far show that Edwards has a strong lead over Sen. Kerry amongst Independents and conservative-leaning voters, and those who chose their candidate based on the issues. This means he will be the most electable candidate against Bush in the swing states in the Midwest and South. Perhaps this is why most of the Cal Berkeley Democrats who previously followed Dean now support Edwards, and why Dean himself said recently that Sen. Edwards was a stronger candidate than Sen. Kerry. On March 2, the real test of electability will lie with the voters of California. 

Samit Dasgupta 

UC Berkeley Students for Edwards 

• 

WEST BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Back in the July 8-10, 2003 edition of the Berkeley Daily Planet you published my letter regarding how “the City of Berkeley has treated our West Berkeley neighborhood irresponsibly, leaving us seriously jeopardized in a number of respects—including the fact that “there are no stop signs or crosswalks for us to access Strawberry Creek Park from the south side of Bancroft Way— we are forced to wait or stop traffic ourselves in order to cross the street.” This letter represented the tip of the iceberg in terms of my numerous complaints to the City of Berkeley, pleas that consistently fell on deaf ears. 

My complaints to the city pointed out there are several blocks on Bancroft Way between Acton Street and Browning Street without stop signs or crosswalks: Trucks and cars use this stretch at speeds totally unacceptable in a residential neighborhood. There is no safe crossing from the Berkeley Youth Alternatives Organic Garden to the Strawberry Creek recreation area on the opposite side of the street, putting us and our three children in jeopardy on an almost daily basis. I consider it imperative to install stop signs and crosswalks, especially at West Street and Bancroft Way, and also at Bonar Street and Bancroft Way. 

What if the city had responsibly addressed this issue of unsafe traffic conditions in a residential and recreational neighborhood? What if the city had not been negligent, in other words? Perhaps the tragic death of Miguel Caicedo could have been prevented. 

Muni Schweig  

• 

OVERDUE STOP SIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

About 20 years ago we asked that the stop sign at Acton Street and Allston Way be changed from two-way to four-way, citing many minor accidents and near misses. A city staffer told us there were “too few accidents to justify our request.” Many years later, a city employee was injured when his city vehicle was broadsided at the intersection. We finally got the stop sign. 

We, the Corporation Yard Neighbors, requested a stop sign at “Bancroft/West/Strawberry Creek entrance” in a list of mitigations we asked for in July, 2003. From the long list, so far we have seen only one item done: planting of trees along Allston Way city employee parking lot.  

Bancroft Way has no stop signs for a three-block length between Acton and Browning streets. Perhaps after this tragic accident someone will believe our contention that Bancroft Way and Allston Way are dangerous. 

Toni Horodysky 

• 

CITY CAN SAVE LIVES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One split second and the lives of two families are devastated. One family loses a son and another man bears the heavy burden of having been the driver of the vehicle. Could this awful accident have been avoided?  

As reported in your Feb. 24-26 issue, Miguel Caicedo was hit and killed Friday, Feb. 20 on Bancroft Way as he came out of the exit from Strawberry Creek Park. The residents of this neighborhood have been begging the City of Berkeley to install a stop sign along this stretch of road, specifically at Bancroft Way and West Street. I live at that intersection. I hear cars zooming down the street all the time. It is so bad that, when I am outside, I sometimes yell at drivers to slow down. Even if the driver who hit Miguel was not speeding, had there been a stop sign, perhaps he would have been going slowly enough and had enough reaction time to avoid the accident.  

Now that someone has died, will the City of Berkeley please install a stop sign at Bancroft Way and West Street? 

Patricia Jones 

• 

ENFORCE THE LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read the article about the go-cart accident and it seems to miss the obvious. 

A few of the bystanders who are residents told me that the kid(s) had been driving the go-cart on the streets for a while (not just the day of the accident), and that the police had been present and not said anything about it. I do think the officers who saw kids operating a go-cart on the street should have stopped them. Go-carts are not street-legal. I was walking my dog at the park that day and I saw a kid driving a go-cart around on the streets and thought it extremely dangerous. A few minutes later I heard the accident and thought, “I hope that wasn’t the kid.” It was. 

If the police had stopped the go-cart activity they could have saved a life—something for the common good. 

Whether of not the police have been harassing the teens seems a separate issue, albeit important. The amount of court time spent on obstruction of justice and resisting arrest charges, and the obvious waste of shrinking revenue, is a travesty deserving of its own story. 

Georgette Wrigley 

• 

MEASURE 2 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Stuart Cohen’s Feb. 20 letter (responding to my earlier commentary) mischaracterizes who supports and opposes regional Measure 2, the March 2 ballot proposal to raise bridge tolls to $3. 

Opponents include many environmentalists dismayed by the measure’s wasteful and, in some respects, destructive expenditure plan. A prominent example is San Francisco BART director Tom Radulovich, who may be the BART board’s “greenest” voice. 

Measure 2’s real advocate is its author, State Senator Don Perata. Perata has long sought to subsidize costly and polluting diesel ferries, as advocated by a key backer of his—whose core business happens to be developing major waterfront properties. This is why Measure 2 would waste fully 21 percent of its (our) funds on those wasteful ferries, whose few riders should pay their full costs. 

The Yes on 2 campaign is as tainted as the measure itself. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in two recent front-page articles (Feb. 17 and 19) how Perata has earmarked $22,000 in Yes on 2 donations—and $291,000 in donations to other Perata initiatives, many from large corporate donors—for an old friend of his. Perata’s friend has, in turn, paid Perata some $100,000 a year in “consulting fees.” This closed-circle arrangement looks enough like influence peddling that the state Senate is conducting an ethics investigation of Perata. 

Then there’s the unwelcome Caldecott Tunnel fourth bore, toward which Measure 2 allocates $50 million. Stuart (like Chris Douglas’ Feb. 24 letter) downplays its impact. But a widened tunnel would encourage more East County commuters to abandon BART and instead drive to Berkeley. That would surely mean more cars on our streets—particularly on already choked access corridors like Tunnel Road, Ashby Avenue, and College Avenue. 

I’m disappointed that my old friend Stuart Cohen has chosen to make deals with perhaps the sleaziest legislator in Sacramento. While Stuart has certainly negotiated some good projects into Measure 2, he now feels obligated to defend a rotten overall package. 

Voters, however, are free to strike a blow for clean, transparent government by rejecting Measure 2. There’s no environmental downside to this. Regional officials can always enact a better toll-hike measure—or better still, propose a regional gas tax—that funds real transit needs, with no 21 percent ferry commission off the top for Perata and his ferry godfather. 

Michael Katz 

The Peralta Community College District and the City of Berkeley have reached a settlement on parking mitigations owed to the city by Peralta, giving the district the green light to start construction on its new downtown Vista College campus. 

Peralta, which counts Vista among its four member schools, will pay the city $3.6 million to offset the expected parking crunch of putting the six-story, 165,000-square-foot building at the 2050 Center St. location where a 54-space parking lot once sat. 

Construction had originally been scheduled to start two weeks ago, but was blocked after the city denied construction permits to close off parts of Center Street. 

Two years after former City Manager Weldon Rucker proposed the $3.6 million as the mitigation fee in a letter to Peralta, current City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Mayor Tom Bates tried to reopen negotiations with the college district two months ago with a figure of $6 million. 

Though Bates insisted the Rucker letter was not legally binding, he added that he didn’t want to hold up construction any further on the project. The estimated completion date has already been pushed back from August, 2005 to January, 2006. 

“Weldon wrote an unfortunate letter,” Bates said. “We’ve been upset about that and have wanted to negotiate, but the project is an important asset to the community and we want this to go forward.” 

Vista did meet one city demand, agreeing to safeguard the money in an escrow account. Berkeley officials were concerned that the mitigation money, which is earmarked from 2002’s Measure E, could dry up if construction costs exceeded estimates. 

With the parking permits in hand, Vista President John Garmon expected construction to begin immediately. He added that a published report of Vista losing $2,500 a day in contractor fees during the stalemate was false, since the penalty would only have applied had construction already began and was then halted. 

Bates said the mitigation money would be spent on improving downtown transportation. A portion will go towards the estimated $18 million reconstruction and expansion of the 420-space Center Street garage and the rest to fund transportation alternatives to driving.l

As someone who has lived in Berkeley for 29 years, I am annoyed by the continuing manipulation of our local electoral system. Berkeley ballot measures in recent years have changed the election date, replaced at-large city council elections with district elections, changed the vote total needed to win from 50 percent to 45 percent, and changed council terms from four years to two years and back to four years again. But of all these changes, the Instant Runoff Voting proposal—Measure I on the ballot, is the most sinister and anti-democratic. 

Under Measure I, voters would select their second choice as well as their first choice for an office. If no one got a majority, a candidate’s votes for second choice would then be counted, in an as yet undetermined way. Thus, someone who did not get the most votes for mayor or city council could still be declared the winner, based on the number of their second choice votes. Do we really want a replay of the 2000 presidential election, with the losing candidate being declared the winner? Just imagine the outrage that the supporters of the candidate with the most first place votes will feel when another candidate is awarded the office.  

Making matters worse, the controversial Diebold Voting Machines would be tallying the second choice votes and determining the winner, based on a secret proprietary software program, and most likely with no paper trail. 

What if the candidates for mayor were Tom Bates, Shirley Dean, and a well-funded Nazi sympathizer? Would Tom Bates’s supporters vote for Shirley 

Dean as their second choice, thus decreasing the Nazi sympathizer’s chances of winning but increasing Dean’s chances? Or would they bullet vote for Bates, thus decreasing Dean’s chances, but increasing the chances a Nazi sympathizer could become the mayor of Berkeley? And would Dean’s supporters vote for Bates as their second choice, and risk Bates being elected? Or would they bullet vote for Dean, increasing the Nazi sympathizer’s chances of winning?  

The reality is that with Instant Runoff voting, whenever two or more candidates have roughly the same level of support, the candidate whose supporters are the least civic-minded will be elected. A civic-minded voter would risk their preferred candidate losing so as to keep an extremist or a clearly unqualified candidate from gaining office. But a hardball, partisan Berkeley voter would bullet vote for their candidate to increase his or her chances, even if it meant increasing an extremist candidate’s chances as well.  

What is so disingenuous about the most vocal proponents of Instant Runoff Voting is that they are the folks most likely to bullet vote for their preferred candidate—to maximize their candidate’s chances of being declared the winner, while not even making a second choice vote. They want Berkeley’s more naïve and civic minded voters to make a second place choice, even though they probably would have no intention of doing so themselves. 

I also urge Berkeley voters to oppose Measure H, which would lower the plurality needed for election (in the interim before Instant Runoff Voting took effect) from 45 percent to 40 percent. Forty percent is simply too low to elect someone. A controversial candidate fiercely opposed by 60 percent of the electorate could still be elected if there were two or more other people on the ballot. If a 40 percent rule had been in effect in San Francisco last fall, there would have been no runoff election between Gavin Newsom and Matt Gonzales, a runoff which Gonzales almost won. It is regrettable that no one wrote an argument against Measure H for the ballot handbook. However, Berkeley voters should be aware that both the Green Party and the Bay Guardian oppose Measure H.  

I don’t understand the Berkeley left’s paranoia of the occasional runoff election. Progressive candidates in Berkeley do no worse in runoff elections than in general elections. If Berkeley’s left insiders really wanted to make it easier to vote, and really wanted to increase voter turnout, they could switch elections to the spring, when the sun sets later and it’s unlikely to be raining. And they could have local elections be held on Sundays, as in done in most countries, when people do not have to work and thus have more time to vote. In the mean time, lets keep our present rational voting system, in which the candidate with the most votes wins. I urge Berkeley residents to take the advise of both Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and City Councilmember Betty Olds and vote against Measure I. 

Clifford Fred was a member of the Berkeley Planning Commission from 1988 to 1996. 

›

Despite misgivings by several commissioners, Berkeley’s Civic Arts Commission voted 6-3 Wednesday night to endorse a major Seagate Properties project for downtown Berkeley. If it eventually passes full city approval, the 149-apartment, mixed-use complex would replace four Center Street buildings between the City Center Garage and the Wells Fargo Annex. 

The proposed project next goes to the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board’s Design Review Committee to look at recent plan revisions, and then, on April 7, to the full ZAB for consideration. 

Though architect Darrell de Tienne and city staff have been hammering out details of the project for 32 months, the arts commissioners only got a look at project specifications two days before Wednesday night’s meeting—a point that clearly rankled. 

Commissioners Jos Sances and Bonnie Hughes, who voted against the project, lamented both the project’s late arrival and the proposed control of the project’s 9000-square-foot performance area by the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Hughes also mourned the absence of a downtown performance space that could accommodate a grand piano.  

Chair David Snippen, while voting to endorse the project, said he was also concerned that the proposal came so late to the commission which is supposed to oversee the city’s public arts. 

Thursday morning, City Economic Development Project Coordinator Ted Burton acknowledged the commission’s complaints about the lateness of their look at the proposal. 

Burton said, “It’s true they only just got it, but until the city staff report was finalized, we couldn’t take it to the commissions, and technical issues had held it up until now.” 

The commission vote followed an outburst from the otherwise tranquil de Tienne after listening to commissioners’ concerns and raise the possibility of a delayed vote. 

“For three-and-a-half years, no one but Berkeley Rep came to me and said we want to do a deal. . .It’s a great project,” the architect said, citing praises from Mayor Tom Bates. “I’ve been playing by the rules, and I’m trying to do the best goddamn job I can do...If you want to rethink, I’ll take it directly to the city council.” De Etienne added that if ground wasn’t broken within six months, the project “will go away.” 

Seagate developers of San Rafael are asking to build the nine-storey, 186,000 square-foot project a full four stories over Berkeley’s General Plan restrictions by qualifying for the additional height under city and state “density bonus” laws. 

Two floors and a half-sized ninth floor came from the state’s inclusionary housing bonus, which allows substantial square footage to developers that include housing for low-income tenants. Low-income in Berkeley is defined as $55,850 for a family of three. 

The other two extra floors came from Berkeley’s “arts density bonus,” which confers additional size on projects that dedicate permanent space to public arts. Because two of the existing buildings presently house rehearsal facilities of the Berkeley Rep, Seagate has signed a 20-year lease with theater group for the specially designed performance space. 

Under their lease with Seagate, Berkeley Rep is obligated to make the space available to other civic performance groups 52 days a year, and Susan Medak, the troupe’s managing director, told the Civic Arts Commission they have committed to 100 days a year. 

Medak acknowledged that the space doesn’t lend itself to live music. 

All the commissioners agreed that the architect’s scale model was a thing of beauty. But to a more cynical eye, it was hard to see how they could think otherwise. The model was light, airy, and—because no inconvenient walls or floors filled the inside, transparent through plastic windows set between carefully crafted strips of balsa wood.  

Adjacent buildings, conversely, were rendered in opaque, solid balsa, devoid of openings, while the buildings across center street were stark, unrelieved foam core hulks. 

While several commissioners had expressed disappointment at the lack of an art gallery on the Center Street frontage—something de Etienne had included in his original design—Burton said the General Plan calls for retail frontage. “We want to get people shopping downtown,” he said. 

Project developer Seagate is a privately held five-member partnership with extensive real estate holdings in the Bay Area and apartments in Colorado. Berkeley holdings listed on their website include the 12-storey building at 2149 Shattuck Ave., site of their local office, and structures at 1950 and 2039-2040 Addison St., 2055 Center St., and 1918 and 1936 University Ave. 

While no dollar figures for the new building were offered Wednesday night, one knowledgeable source told the Daily Planet that conventional building costs of $150 to $200 per square foot would place the value of the proposed Center Street building at $2.8 to $3.7 million.

RAISE TAXES  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Passage of Propositions 57 and 58 will allow the governor to cut needed services now and in the foreseeable future. Former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean (“Propositions 57 and 58 Are a Necessary First Step,” Daily Planet, Feb. 24-26) states that the $15 billion in bonds will be paid back over 9-14 years from one quarter of a cent from state sales tax. This money is part of the General Fund and therefore will take away more money from education, health and other social ser vices. 

The $15 billion bond is also a one-time increase in revenue, while an increase in a tax is an ongoing affair. So her argument that raising taxes will raise only $7 billion dollars is false. It will raise $7 billion dollars every year that the incr eases will be in effect and will not increase the amount the state spends each year since there will be no added interest expense to pay back over a period of 9-14 years. 

The only long or short term answer to the deficit is to raise taxes. If the economy does in fact improve so there is a surplus again, any tax increase imposed now can be reduced as it was when the maximum tax rate on high-income taxpayers was reduced from 11 percent to 9.3 percent and when the tax on motor vehicles was reduced by Gov. Gray Davis. 

Passing Propositions 57 and 58 will allow the governor to further cut education, health and social services because the $15 billion will not lower the deficit in future years. In fact, because of added interest costs incurred the deficit will continue to exist. 

If 57 and 58 are defeated the Legislature and the governor will have to sit down and compromise, which means all of the following: raising taxes, making some cuts and maybe borrow some money. 

Shirley Dean’s analogy of an ordinary citi zen who lives beyond his means and gets into “wrenching debt” is in error. An individual cannot raise taxes. The governor and Legislature can and must do so. The ordinary citizen would not let his children go to inferior schools and refuse medical care fo r his family when he has another way to solve his financial problems.  

Shirley Dean states that Prop. 58 requires that the state set up a reserve using 1-3 percent of the state’s General Fund revenues until the reserves reaches $8 billion. Where does she think this money is going to come from? Since she does not advocate an immediate tax hike, it will only come again from funds that should be going to education, health and social services. 

I keep hearing from the governor that we are in hard times and e veryone must feel the hurt. But why is it the rich are the only ones who do not have to suffer? With the federal tax reductions and the elimination of the vehicle tax (the more expensive the auto the more you pay), they have received enough tax benefits f or them to payback a little to the State of California in this time of fiscal emergency. 

Lawrence H. Gordon  

• 

DON’T BE DECEIVED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Shirley Dean, while acknowledging that Propositions 57 and 58 “will not solve our budget woes,” urges us to approve these two measures as the only “practical, responsible, effective thing to do right now.” 

Is it in the best interests of low- and middle-income Californians to shoulder the burden of repaying what is essentially a credit-card debt of a $15 billion bond over the next 15 years? Add to this figure billions more in interest, as Republican Senator McClintock has stated in his opposition to these measures.  

Is there no alternative? State Treasurer Phil Angelides has recently proposed an alterna tive plan to deal with the deficit over a three-year period. It would use a quarter-cent of the state’s existing sales tax, plus a temporary return to the 10 percent and 11 percent graduated tax brackets for Californians earning more than $140,000 ($280,0 0 for married couples). Prior to 1996, these tax brackets existed during the Reagan and Wilson years.  

Unfortunately, the only ads we see on TV are those of Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose fund-raisers in New York and elsewhere are helping to pay for his mult i-million dollar campaign to sell us Propositions 57 and 58. Don’t be deceived. Vote no on both measures. 

Josephine Arasteh 

• 

GREEN OPPOSITION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Alameda County Green Party is opposed to Propositions 57 and 58. 

This $15 billion hole that we have dug for ourselves is a very big one, over 20 percent of the annual budget. But California already has billions of dollars in debt, which along with our unwillingness to tax ourselves has cost us the lowest credit rating of any state. L ong term bonds are supposed to be used for schools, parks, etc. Some would cut important social programs that they see as waste and we see as important. 

Our solution involves necessary increases in taxes and fees. The governor rescinded the vehicle licen se fee, which added $4 billion to the deficit. This so-called “car tax” is really a fee for use of the roads and the air which vehicles pollute. It was two percent until 1998 when it was reduced. The 2003 increase by Gov. Davis was only restoring it. Because of the environmental damage that cars cause, we would increase it above 1998 levels, though we would make it progressive, charging more for larger, more expensive cars. The governor is raising the "fees" for students and park access, etc., instead of the “fees” for cars. Are cars more important than students!?!? 

We would also increase the income tax on wealthier Californians. The poorest fifth of the state’s non-elderly families, with an average income of $11,100, paid 11.3 percent of their income in state taxes in 2002 (including the sales tax), however the wealthiest one percent, with an average income of $1.6 million, paid only 7.2 percent. 

Our solution also involves cutting “waste.” We would start by reducing management executive salaries and pe rks, including the Legislature’s budget and the governor’s office budget. We would reduce the number of high-paid commission positions that are used to reward friends of legislators or former legislators. Having reduced executive salaries, we would be i n a better position to go the employee unions to ask them to help in some way, especially prison employee unions, which received exorbitant increases under Gov. Davis, in return for over $3 million in campaign contributions. Also we would reduce the numbe r of employees by attrition and not by reducing important services, but by using employee time more efficiently. 

If this bond is defeated, the pain of the high rates on short-term borrowing would motivate quicker resolution of the problem. If Wall Street saw us making large changes in our taxes and spending to do our share, they would likely lend short term money which will be needed while we find and make the changes. 

Prop. 58 is appealing. We want the state to live within its means. However, we fear t hat it would be used to reduce the ability of state government to fund education, health, mass transportation, etc. Far better to enact a fair taxation system, taxing those who can afford it the most. Far better that motor vehicles, especially SUVs, pay t heir true costs to society with higher gas taxes. Please vote no on 57 and 58. 

Budd Dickinson,  

County Council 

Alameda County Green Party 

3!

In what has become a school ritual almost as common as an afternoon assembly, students at Berkeley’s Malcolm X Elementary headed for dry ground upstairs after Wednesday’s torrential downpour flooded their classrooms for the second time in two months. 

Teachers at the school said that water started hurdling sandbags stacked outside Malcolm X at approximately 9:30 a.m., covering six kindergarten and first grade classrooms ankle-deep in water. Four multi-use classrooms housing the after-school program were also flooded, as were the school’s gym and auditorium. 

Neighbors of the school located at Ellis Street and Ashby Avenue said Ellis was “a river” with three-foot high tides of water racing downhill towards the school. 

No students or faculty were injured. Students were taken upstairs, while teachers, parents and older students sought to salvage supplies and sweep water from rooms. 

The kindergarten and first graders had only returned to their classrooms three weeks ago after a Dec. 28 storm caused similar damage, and kept students in makeshift accommodations. 

Malcolm X has a history of minor flooding, said Principal Cheryl Chinn, but the school had not seen flooding of such magnitude until this year. She added that she would hesitate to return students to their regular classrooms until the district has identified and fixed the cause of the flood. The auditorium and gym, however, should be serviceable by next week, she said. 

The district spent $100,000 repairing damage from the December flood, but has still not determined its cause. Maintenance Director Rhonda Bacot said a civil engineer was scheduled to visit the school Wednesday, the day of the second deluge. 

Parents and union officials were both furious the district failed to prevent a second inundation. “Heads should roll,” said Berkeley Federation of Teacher’s President Barry Fike, adding that he had e-mailed the district five times requesting detailed information and an investigation report on the December flood, but had received inadequate replies. “This shows an absolute lack of responsibility by the district. The cause [of the flood] should have been the first thing they looked at.” 

Catherine Lazio, a Malcolm X PTA member said she was “frustrated with the district’s response to prevention. Why am I having bake sales when the district is allowing these expensive mistakes to happen twice?” she asked. 

Pending completion of insurance claims, officials were unsure of the ultimate cost of the two floods to the district. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence defended her staff, saying their top priority was to return students and teachers to classrooms. Bacot said the district had done the best it could to prepare the school for Wednesday’s storm. Maintenance staff cleaned storm drains and stacked sandbags, but “there was just more water than the drains could handle,” she said. 

The cause of the two recent South Berkeley floods remains a mystery. Renee Cardinaux, Berkeley director of Public Works, said his crews were investigating Wednesday’s overflow, but that an investigation into the December flood at Malcolm X cleared the city of any responsibility. “The water was building up in the school even before the streets were flooded,” he said. “We may have added to the severity, but I don’t think we caused it.” 

He added that if the pending investigation finds the city culpable for Wednesday’s flood at the school, the city would have to come up with the money to compensate for the damages. 

Teachers credited students with an orderly retreat from their classrooms Wednesday morning. Kindergarten teacher Hazelle Fortich was using the storm as a spring board to teach the water cycle, when water started racing through the door. “I was explaining how rivers flow into oceans when I looked down and said ‘Kindergardeners, we need to get upstairs.’” Five minutes later, she said, the water was ankle-deep.  

The six classes will return to the same multi-purpose rooms they occupied during the last cleanup. Cynthia Allman will teach her kindergarten class in a section of the drama room with a sliding door between her students and the young thespians. “They’re going to be a little discombobulated for a few days, but we’ll reestablish our routines,” she said.

At a Wednesday night Berkeley School Board meeting this week, with Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters sitting beside board members, district brass pledged to tackle one of their most foul problems—bad food. 

The district that is periodically mistakenly lauded for a long-defunct program to include organic vegetables in school lunches actually serves most of its students prepackaged, airplane style meals, if it offers anything at all, and it’s losing a bundle doing it. 

The cafeteria fund is roughly $600,000 in debt. Though district officials say $460,000 of that is caused by the loss of a general fund subsidy, food service deficits have cost the district’s general fund roughly $1.1 million during the past three years—all that in the midst a budget crisis that has resulted in layoffs and increased class sizes. 

“Everyone agrees the food is terrible,” said Eric Weaver, chair of the district’s Child Nutrition Advisory Committee. “That’s not the issue, but the question is how do you fix it when everyone is broke.” 

Wednesday night the district laid out a vision of Berkeley students munching on fresh, locally grown produce but offered few details how the district could pay for it.  

Superintendent Michele Lawrence called for a school lunch curriculum in which nutrition and food are integrated into every Berkeley school. She gave examples that included elementary students learning about carbohydrates in the lunchroom and high school students reading Fast Food Nation in English class. 

Then there’s the food. The district wants to replace prepackaged, re-heated food with fresh fare cooked on-site, but officials acknowledge that under present circumstances such a shift would push food and staff costs even higher. 

The strategy, district officials say, will be to win funding from foundations and government agencies to cover the added costs. Zenobia Barlow of the Center for Ecoliteracy, which has partnered with the school district on other nutrition programs, presented board members with over a dozen foundations that provide nutrition grants, and said she was confident the money could be found. 

District officials cautioned that when it came to reforming food service, they had no definitive plan, no clear funding and no estimate of how much money was required. 

“We’re not certain yet how this is going to play out,” Lawrence told the board. 

If Berkeley succeeds, officials said it would be the first district to free itself from the mass produced food cycle forced on districts by stingy federal and state school lunch programs that act as subsidies for large corporate food processors to provide food that offers little flavor or nutritional value. 

Karen Candito, the district’s director of nutrition services, said the current system gave Berkeley no alternative to the cheapest options. The district receives $2.32 for every student who qualifies for the free and reduced lunch program. Of that, Candito explained, the majority goes to labor and operational costs. That leaves only 17 cents for milk, 15 cents for fruit and 15 cents for vegetables. 

Insufficient funding has meant few takers at school cafeterias, Weaver said. “Right now the only kids eating the lunch are the ones who get it for free.” 

Weaver and other parents have pushed for better food in the district for years, arguing that attractive meals were the only way to get students to buy the school lunch and plug the budget deficit. 

Candito, though, said her calculations showed that even if every child in the district ate a freshly prepared school lunch, the cafeteria fund would still be in the red. She said high labor costs and cost inefficiencies of operating 11 small, 200-student elementary schools made on-site preparation of fresh food unfeasible without aid.  

“To go from producing 200 meals to four hundred meals wouldn’t cost much more, but the revenue would double,” she said. She added that any funding for fresh food must be sustainable, pointing to the organic vegetable program, sponsored by Chez Panisse, that collapsed after seed funding ran out. 

The push to remake school meals comes as the district faces a turning point in food services. This fall, the high school food court comes on-line offering freshly prepared food to students accustomed to lunching at Shattuck Avenue restaurants.  

In 2005, King Middle School is scheduled to debut its new dining hall—a partnership subsidized in part by Chez Panisse’s Waters—that promises fresh produce for students. Superintendent Lawrence has stated she wants the King program available to all students within five years. 

Currently Longfellow and Willard middle schools are the culinary jewels of the district. Each receives federal grant money to provide international food and salad bars prepared on site. Both elementary schools and King currently serve pre-packaged food. 

The Stationary Engineers, Local 39, which represents district food service workers, cautiously backs the district’s vision, which calls for retaining workers and ultimately hiring additional staff to prepare fresh food. The union has historically butted heads with the district over food service and still remains skeptical of the plan in light of the school board’s decision last month to lay off the equivalent of two food delivery drivers and reduced the hours of its inventory operator. 

“If they’re planning to have fresh produce every day it requires capacity to receive and deliver the food, but Candito has destroyed the infrastructure to serve kids,” said Local 39 Business Representative Stephanie Allen. “It’s my members who have to serve this garbage to students. There’s nothing they would like more than to prepare and serve good food.” 

e

Proposition 55 

The initiative calls for California to sell $12.3 billion in general obligation bonds for construction and renovation of K-12 schools and higher education facilities. 

School districts would have to demonstrate the need for new or modernized facilities.  

If the measure passes by the needed two-thirds majority, Berkeley Unified will seek $4 million for renovation work on the high school. UC Berkeley will seek money towards the retrofit of Giannini Hall and Davis Hall and the replacement of Campbell Hall. 

The LAO estimates the bonds would cost $24.7 billion to pay off over 30 years, with an average annual payment for principal and interest of $823 million. 

The ballot measure has been endorsed by the California Teachers Association, the California State PTA, the California Chamber of Commerce, Sen. Barbara Boxer and the California Taxpayers’ Association. The National Tax-Limitation Committee and State Senator Rico Oller have officially oppose it. 

Proposition 56 

Proposition 56, known as the Budget Accountability Act, is proposed to ensure on-time budgets from the California government. Whether it actually would, of course, is subject to debate. 

The largest change that the measure proposes is a reduction of the percentage of votes needed in both houses of the State Legislature to pass the budget and any budget-related tax and appropriation bills. Currently a budget must be passed by a two-thirds vote in both houses. Prop. 56 proposes that the number be dropped to 55 percent.  

Prop. 56 also requires the Legislature to set up a 25 percent reserve fund, to be spent only in case of certain emergencies.  

As a punishment for not passing the budget on time, Prop. 56 will require the Legislature to stay in session until the budget is passed, and both the Legislature and governor would permanently lose their salaries and expenses for each day the budget is late. The proposition prohibits legislators from punishing or threatening other legislators for their budget votes, though how that could be enforced is difficult to see. The proposition also calls for a link to a website with the voting records of each legislator on budget-related issues. Presumably, Prop. 56 proponents believe that alone would be punishment enough. 

Proposition 57 

Proposition 57 is Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed $15 billion economic recovery bond to pay off the state’s General Fund deficit. The bond is considered a one-time fix to get the state out of its present economic hole. The measure replaces former Gov. Davis’ $12 billion bond proposal, later held by the courts because it did not go before the voters. 

Prop. 57 will not increase taxes and instead will be re-paid over a nine to 14-year period using one-quarter cent of existing sales tax revenue. Prop. 57 is also closely tied to Prop. 58 and both have to pass together to go into affect. 

Proposition 58 

Proposition 58 amends the California constitution to require that it enact a balanced budget. Currently, the governor is required to propose a balanced budget but there’s no law to make the Legislature pass one. The measure also includes a clause that would explicitly prevent most bond financing of any future deficits. 

The second part of the measure requires the establishment of a reserve called the Budget Stabilization Account which will help repay the $15 billion bond proposed by Prop. 57. Funds for the Budget Stabilization Act will be taken from revenues slotted for the General Fund.  

Proposition 58 proponents say it will help to ensure that Prop. 57 is successful.  

Measure A 

The initiative would increase the county sales tax by a half-cent to raise an estimated $90 million a year for health services. If approved by a two-thirds majority, the county sales tax would rise to 8.75 percent—the highest in the state. The tax would sunset in 2019. 

Seventy-five percent would go to the Alameda County Medical System—the public hospital and health care network that includes Highland Hospital, with the remaining 25 percent divided among facilities that offer uncompensated public health services and community health clinics, including Berkeley-based Lifelong Medical. 

Supporters of the measure, including Supervisor Keith Carson, the Alameda County Taxpayers Association and the Alameda County Fire Department, argue that without the tax hike, the county would be forced to further reduce emergency services for all residents and primary care for poor and uninsured children and families. 

Dr. Lance Montauk argues the medical center mismanaged funds and was late in alerting county supervisors of the mounting debt. He pointed to improving economic fortunes in the county that could make a $90 million a year tax hike unnecessary.m

Those observers who believe in the old Thomas Jefferson adage that “the government is best which governs least” would have been tickled to death with Berkeley City Council last Tuesday night. The council managed to adjourn before 8 p.m., with the bulk of the hour-long meeting taken up by public comment. And if Councilmember Miriam Hawley had not stopped to ask a couple of questions about an off-street parking ordinance, the council would have gotten by without discussing a single item. 

The evening began with the cancellation of the 5 p.m. study session on future budget reduction impacts when a council quorum did not show up, and the building elevator broke down. The use of the elevator is necessary for disabled citizens to be able to reach the second-floor council chambers, where city council meetings are held. There were only three items up for discussion on the 7 p.m. meeting agenda. One of them—adding requirements for appeals from a Zoning Adjustments Board decision—immediately got moved to the non-discussion “consent” part of the agenda. A second item—a recommendation by the Citizens Humane Commission for changes in the city’s animal care budget—was pulled from the calendar by the city manager. And after Councilmember Hawley got her questions answered about the off-street parking ordinance, the council passed it unanimously on Hawley’s motion with no discussion. 

Still, even in the absence of talk, at least one item of citywide interest was passed at Tuesday’s meeting. The council passed, on first reading, an ordinance banning smoking within 20 feet of bus stops. Like many California cities, Berkeley already bans smoking in many public places, as well as within 20 feet of building entrances and air vents. Violation of the bus stop no-smoking ordinance will be an infraction, subject to fines from $100 for the first offense to $500 for multiple offenses within the same year.y

Friends of Fred Lupke—the Berkeley disabled activist killed in a traffic accident last year—will gather at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at the third floor Community Room of the Berkeley Library’s Main Branch, 2090 Kittredge St. to celebrate his life and work. 

Among other projects, Lupke led the fight to install a therapeutic warm water pool at Berkeley High School, and shortly before his death was involved in the opposition to the proposed Library Gardens housing development behind the central library. The development is slated to replace a parking lot, and Lupke had expressed fear that it would hinder downtown access for disabled residents. 

Lupke was killed last September when a car struck his wheelchair on Ashby Avenue between Harper and Ellis streets. The driver of the car was not charged in the accident since Lupke was prohibited by California law to ride his motorized wheelchair in the street. Many of the city’s disabled activists bitterly complained following his death that the impassable condition of the sidewalk gave him no choice. Wheelchair riders said they avoided that stretch of sidewalk because of numerous potholes and a defunct driveway that that sloped the narrow pavement, making passage almost impossible. 

The city recently completed repairs to the stretch of sidewalk. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who is disabled herself and uses a motorized wheelchair, said she was heartened by the stepped-up city sidewalk repairs, but notes that there are still many locations where wheelchair riders are not able to go. She pointed to one of them directly across from the old City Hall on Milvia Street, the sidewalk on the west side of Civic Center Park that is too narrow to permit wheelchair travel. The sidewalk is directly in sight of windows from the chambers where Berkeley City Council does its weekly deliberation. 

The celebration will include live music, food from Cafe De La Paz, a photographic tribute and an opportunity for friends to share their memories of Lupke. A brief program will begin at 2:15 p.m. highlighted by a Berkeley City Council proclamation declaring the former Oakland resident an honorary resident of Berkeley. 

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Police Review Commission Holds Off On Police Dog Vote 

The Police Review Commission opted Wednesday night to take no position on a Berkeley Police Department proposal to establish a canine unit. The commission requested further information about planned procedures and asked for additional language to be included before taking a vote. 

Armed Robbery At Berkeley High 

A person was robbed at gunpoint at Berkeley High School last Thursday. The three suspects were last seen running towards Channing Way, BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield said. Schofield did not have information on whether the victim was a student or what was robbed.  

Elementary School Theft 

A BMX bicycle valued at more than $400 was stolen from Washington Elementary school Monday. 

Stolen Wallet 

An 18-year old male reported that someone stole his wallet at around 4 a.m. at North Aquatic Park.Ã

I have often said that in the 16 years since I’ve been back in my home town—almost all of them living in Oakland’s District 7—I have never actually seen my councilmember inside the boundaries of my district. That takes in three separate councilmembers: L eo Bazile, Dezzie Woods-Jones, and now Larry Reid. For the record, I am not claiming that none of my councilmembers have never set foot in the district. Just not in the places where I frequent, during the times that I frequent them. And I am also not clai ming that they are purposely avoiding me. It just so happens that I ain’t happened up on them, is all. 

You can say the same thing, I suppose, for my mayor and my at-Large city councilmember. Except that I can now see Mayor Brown on television every night, if I want, urging me to buy my car at Oakland’s Auto Row. And for the last several days, At-Large City Councilmember Henry Chang has been showing up on enormous billboards along International and MacArthur, peaceful, benevolent, smiling down upon me as I drive by, reassuring me that he is out there, somewhere, helping Oakland to move forward. Since this cannot be a message of common accomplishment—Oakland east of the Fruitvale seems, after all, to be moving in a distinctly backward direction these days—one can only assume that the Chang billboards are a parent admonition for me and my neighbors to just hustle and catch up, now, or we are going to have to be left behind. 

That my at-large city councilmember is normally so invisible—his own way of describ ing himself, by the way—is apparently by design. We learn from this morning’s Oakland Tribune, and I quote extensively, that: “Councilmember Danny Wan, who is helping to orchestrate Chang’s campaign, said his colleague is not comfortable trumpeting his ac complishments and worries about stepping on the toes of the other council members, who are elected by district.” 

“He’s quiet,” Mr. Wan is quoted in the Tribune as saying, “but speaks up when it matters.” The operative “when it matters,” one might suppos e, is when Mr. Chang must come back before the voters for re-election. And having known and studied politicians much of my adult life, it is my distinct impression that the only time this category of citizen does not trumpet its own accomplishments is whe n it simply has no notes to play. 

Meanwhile, in a matter totally unrelated to Mr. Chang, one notes with some concern the reports in the Los Angeles Times coming out of the recent California state convention of our good friends, the Republicans, in Burlingame. Each political party is allowed to pick its own issues to highlight and, not being a registered Republican myself, I leave it to my Republican brothers and sisters to decide upon their own. Still, it is the way in which they choose to present those issues that is somewhat disturbing. 

In speaking about the reluctance of Attorney General Lockyer to be dictated to on the issue of gay marriages by Gov. Schwarzenegger, Mr. Howard Kaloogian remarked “I don’t know where the attorney general stands on this. Perhaps he stands in line.” The line to which Mr. Kaloogian refers, presumably, is the recent gathering of gay and lesbian couples lining up to marry in the city and county of San Francisco. It’s one’s right to take a position on one side or the other o n gay and lesbian marriages, of course, but this takes us back to the old, locker room days when calling someone a “fag” was a proper and acceptable put-down. The Los Angeles Times certainly saw it that way, characterizing Mr. Kaloogian’s remarks as “ques tion[ing] the sexual orientation” of Mr. Lockyer. That Mr. Kaloogian is no fringe demonstrator standing on the convention steps, but rather one of the three candidates in the Republican primary for the United States Senate, makes it all the more disturbi ng. 

Mr. Kaloogian, the former state assemblymember from Encinitas and the former chairperson of the Recall Gray Davis Committee (I suppose he prefers “assemblyman” and “chairman”, but since it’s my column, I’ll call him what I want), also figured promine ntly in the other incidents of baiting at the Republican convention, aimed at illegal immigrant workers. 

At a Kaloogian rally just outside the convention hotel, the L.A. Times reports two boys wearing “Kaloogian For Senate” T-shirts carrying posters read ing “No Terrorist Driver’s License” (referring, one might remember, to the law—passed by the California legislature and later rescinded under pressure of the election of Gov. Schwarzenegger—to grant drivers licenses to illegal immigrants). The posters, th e Times also reported, had photographs of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

These are people who feel, I suppose, that the sweet little Ecuadorean ladies cleaning toilets for a living over in those Marin County mansions hide explosive devices up their dra wers. 

Also at the Kaloogian rally, the chairperson of the Glenn County Republican Party complained that “the main street in our little town (some 100 miles north of Sacramento) looks like Tijuana.” As in, a lot of Mexicans, one wonders? 

Republican Unite d States Congressmember Tom Tancredo, who came out for the activities from his home in Colorado, blasted Republican President Bush’s proposal to legalize some of our presently-illegal immigrant workers, stating that “People are still coming across our bor ders with the intent to do terrible things to us,” though one might think that the terrible occurrence might be if that Ecuadorean woman stops cleaning those Marin County toilets, forcing their lovely employers to get down on their knees and do it themselves. 

And another Republican delegate, this one from Millbrae, simply cut to the chase, hanging a sign around his neck reading “No Way Jose.” 

How far a step is that, one wonders, from “Nigger Go Home?” One wonders. One worries. A beast seems about to be unleashed. 

›

Three measures touted as electoral reforms will greet Berkeley voters when they confront their electronic voting machine touchscreens next Tuesday: two propositions designed to transform the way they vote and a third that would change the way candidates make it on the ballot. 

Under current city law, a runoff election is required within 28 days of the regular November city election if no candidate for mayor, city council or city auditor receives 45 percent of the votes (the current threshold for victory). Measure H reduces the threshold for mandating a runoff to 40 percent and delays the runoff election until the following February. 

Measure J imposes a $150 filing fee on candidates for all city offices, a fee which would be offset at the rate of one dol lar for every eligible signature collected, up to the total amount of the filing fee. Candidates would still have to pay $35 toward printing costs for their statements. Also under the changes proposed in Measure J, candidates for city council could only b e nominated by signatures of eligible voters within their council district. 

Both Measures H and J were put on the ballot by Berkeley City Council with no city councilmembers dissenting. 

The most controversial local issue on Tuesday’s ballot is Measure I, which would give the city instant runoff voting (IRV), otherwise known as rank-ordered voting—a method of voting that eliminates the need for separate runoff elections. 

The system is used in nationwide legislative races in Australia and in the London m ayoral elections and was adopted by San Francisco voters two years ago for implementation in this November’s city election.  

IRV would end runoffs by having voters rank candidates by order of preference. Measure I leaves the ultimate decision on impleme nting IRV to the city council if members decide implementation is practical given existing technology and procedures and doesn’t create additional costs–and if it doesn’t conflict with consolidation of a city election with a county election. 

The proposal prompted heated city council debates, notably between opponent Gordon Wozniak and supporter Dona Spring. Wozniak offered a sample chart showing how the same vote could end in three different outcomes, depending on the particular form of IRV employed.  

T hough proponents hail IRV as a means of bolstering democracy and saving costs on runoffs, opponents predict passage would discourage voters, increase electoral complexity, and lead to greater costs.  

City council has split over Measure I. Councilmember Miriam Hawley signed the argument for I, while H support and Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek signed the argument against. H supporter and Peralta Community College Trustee Darryl Moore supports I, while Wozniak, an H supporter, has been one of Measure I’s most vocal foes. 

Other I supporters include Berkeley school board president John Selawsky, the League of Women Voters, Helen Burke of the Sierra Club and Assemblymember Loni Hancock. Signatories against I include the presidents of the Elmwood Neighborhood and Panoramic Hill associations and Jesse Gabriel, last year’s UC Berkeley ASUC president. 

Proponents of Measure I, backed by national and state organizations, have raised over $16,000 to fund their campaign. The Center for Voting and Democracy of Takoma Pa rk, Maryland, has been the largest contributor to the IRV for Berkeley committee, giving $6,500 so far.  

Headed by John B. Anderson, a 1980 independent presidential candidate who won six million votes, the center has been a major force in pushing for IRV laws, taking a lead role in the March 5, 2002, election that brought IRV to San Francisco. 

Two affiliated organizations also chipped in for the Berkeley campaign: Californians for Electoral Reform, another major player in the San Francisco election, don ated $200 and Citizens for Proportional Representation donated $300. 

The largest individual donor, Rufus Browning, gave $1,000. A Berkeley resident, he is the director of the Public Research Institute at San Francisco State University. 

Another major IRV supporter is the Green Party. 

IRV proponents have mounted an impressive website to bolster the campaign (www.irv4berkeley.org), listing endorsement from 20 organizations, 29 elected and appointed officials, and 98 individuals (including such diverse fol k as columnist and former gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington, author Michael Parenti and singer Jello Biafra). 

The one false note on the IRV website accompanies a plea for at least $20,000 in donations “[b]ecause of our well-funded opponents.” Bu t if anyone with deep pockets is giving cash to oppose Measure I, it’s news to Sherry Kelly, Berkeley city clerk, who has yet to receive a single legally required report of anyone putting up anything to fund an opposition campaign. 

H has been endorsed by all members of the city council, and no one filed an argument against the proposal, although some opposition has surfaced since the ballot arguments were finalized. The city attorney’s analysis said that any elections eliminated by the lower win percenta ges would save the city $100,000 on a council district runoff and $100,000 for a city-wide mayoral or auditor’s race. 

Proponents of Measure J—including Mayor Tom Bates, Zoning Adjustments Board chair Laurie Capitelli, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, school board president John Selawsky, Assemblymember Hancock, librarian and union activist Jane Scantlebury, and former ASUC vice president for external affairs James Bryant—say the change will make elections more representative, attract more serious candidates and provide a modest contribution to offset city ballot printing costs. 

Measure J opponents—Councilmember Kriss Worthington, former Councilmember Diane Woolley, Peace and Justice commissioner Elliot Cohen, Transportation Commission chair Dean Metzger, activist Stephanie Manning, Council of Neighborhood Associations President Marie Bowman, Commission on Aging and Disability vice chair Charlie Betcher, former council candidate Budd Dickinson, and musician Hali Hammer—say the changes will discourage would-be candidates and give prospective officeholders less time to campaign.›

Wondering what to do with all those unwanted holiday presents? Tired of negotiating the clustered clutter that’s filling up your garage? Wondering what to do with your old camera now that you’ve gone digital? 

And does peddling the stuff on eBay seem like too much of a hassle, even though you could use the cash? 

Then consider Picture It Sold!, one of the newest additions to the ranks of Ashby Avenue merchants, operating from a storefront just a couple of doors west of College.  

Kevin McGinnis would love it if you did. 

The 37-year-old Oakland journalist raised the cash for opening his shop in a decidedly politically incorrect manner, at least for Berkeley—by betting on the hazards of war. 

When the U.S. invaded Iraq last March, McGinnis found himself secretly hoping some of Iraq’s oil fields would go up in flames so could make a bundle when the company he’d sunk his savings into, Boots & Coots International Well Control, put its oil field fire team to work.  

“Everyone was afraid he [Saddam Hussein] was going to torch all those wells,” McGinnis said. “So I bought it at about 60 cents a share, and it got as high as about $2.50, but I sold it at $2.25. So I took all the money and ran.”  

Armed with his windfall, last August McGinnis and his wife Erin opened Picture It Sold, their eBay consignment shop, joining the ranks of a new breed of entrepreneurs who ride the coattails of one of e-commerce’s most phenomenal successes. 

Founded in 1995, eBay lets users log on to buy or sell just about anything, from rare collector’s items to computers. After selling $14.87 billion in merchandise in 2002, the fast-growing San Jose firm saw net revenues climb 60 percent in 2003, reaching an astonishing $24 billion.  

By charging a percentage of the merchandises’ sales price, eBay has made more than enough cash to flood the media with ads. 

For many would-be sellers, the notion of holding an e-auction seems daunting. That old velvet Elvis painting in the basement may no longer be wanted, but is it worth the time and effort required to auction it off?  

For those who answer no, enter the McGinnisses. 

At their small Elmwood shop, the couple and their staff of seven receive unwanted possessions, research their value, and take digital photos they use to run a seven-day eBay auction from the small bank of computers in the rear of the shop. 

Once an item sells, the McGinnisses package it up and ship it off to the buyer, then cut the seller a check after deducting a 35 percent commission on the first $500, and 25 percent on anything above that. 

Asked to name the most interesting item they’ve sold, they point to a vintage collection of Life magazines, dating from the 1930s to the 1980s. 

The McGinnisses’ concept isn’t entirely new. eBay runs a ‘trading assistant’ program, allowing some 27,000 registered users—most working from home—to advertise their selling services to those without the time or inclination to do it themselves. The McGinnisses took the concept a step further by opening a bricks-and-mortar storefront. 

Their primary Bay Area competitor is San Carlos-based AuctionDrop, which opened a string of stores around the region during the past year. 

McGinnis quit his job as a news editor at KGO Channel 7 two years ago to strike out on his own. “I was putting in some really long hours, working hard, and I just remember telling myself every day that life is too short,” he said. 

Opening an online jewelry shop, he found it difficult to draw in traffic—so he turned to eBay and local consignment shops to make sales, and both worked well, and the idea behind Picture It Sold was born. 

McGinniss says 25 to 30 customers come to his storefront daily, toting items worth anywhere from $50 to thousands. Though declining to give numbers, the McGinnisses say they’re taking in twice the cash they’d anticipated at this point. 

A combination of heavy traffic at the Ashby and College intersection in front of their shop plus the billboard they ran during the autumn next to Interstate 880 in Emeryville have generated a healthy flow of walk-in customers. 

One recent afternoon found the store bustling. Ted Little turned up to sell a vintage surfboard, after he spotted the big banner out front (‘Bring us Your Stuff. We’ll Sell it on eBay!’) and figured, “why not?” 

“I’ll try this out and see how it works,” Little said at the time, “I know what [eBay] is, but I’ve never thought about using it.” 

A few weeks later Little was something of a convert. His surfboard fetched $150, double his expectation, leading to many return visits. “I was impressed with their service,” he said. A salvaged, 97-year-old sword found inside the wall of a house he’d been reconstructing fetched an impressive $500.  

Little, who owns a small steel fabrication shop, said the time saved by using Picture it Sold more than justified their fees. “I can make money with my time, so I don’t want to cut into it,” he said. “If I had to take responsibility to enter an item and ship it and all that, it wouldn’t be worth it.” 

Bob Marsh, real estate agent and consumer electronics collector, said that since spotting their billboard in September, he’s sold 20-plus items, mostly used stereo equipment. “The process is about as easy as can be,” Marsh said, “You do nothing but wait for a check in the mail.” 

Marsh said he’d found running an eBay auction—contacting the buyer, packing , shipping, and arranging payment—forbiddingly time-consuming, and vows to continue using the shop “as long as they keep sending me the checks.” 

Greg Smith, an analyst who covers eBay for Merrill Lynch in San Francisco, said it’s a bit early to know how bricks-and-mortar trading assistants like Picture it Sold will affect the company itself. While “a significant amount of volume is people selling on behalf of others” through the trading assistant program, he said only a “tiny proportion” comes through shops like Picture it Sold. 

Jennifer Chu Caukins, an eBay spokesperson, said the company’s been pleasantly surprised by the advent of businesses like McGiniss’. “A lot of this just happened on its own,” she said. “We’re thrilled about it, and we’re supportive of it.” 

Though the McGinnisses hope to expand, AuctionDrop is already on the move—opened in March of 2003, it’s backed by $3 million in venture capital from Mobius Venture Capital and Draper Associates of Silicon Valley.  

Corporate spokesperson Andrea Roesch said a fifth AuctionDrop store will opened in San Jose this month, augmenting current outlets in San Carlos, San Rafael, Los Altos and Menlo Park. The company plans to move into Los Angeles later in the year and eventually attempt “the development of a national brand” by reaching the East Coast before 2005. 

The McGinnisses feel their approach is distinct enough from AuctionDrop’s that they’ll be able to carve out their own niche, and grow at their own pace without taking on outside investors. 

“We pride ourselves on trying to bring the culture of eBay into our store—it’s kind of folksy,” Erin said, while their competitor’s rapid expansion gives them the aura of a big-budget chain compared to the cozy mom-and-pop aura of Picture it Sold.  

One pressing question for everyone out to capitalize on the growing popularity of eBay is whether or not their current customers will remain unwilling (and sufficiently tech-wary) to auction their possessions themselves. 

McGinnis hopes to avoid undue dependence on his current customer base by convincing merchants to use his services to market excess to other businesses—a course eBay itself is pursuing. Chu Caukins said that similar transactions on eBay totaled over $1 billion in 2002, making them “an increased focus for us.” 

“There’s potential in people’s garages,” McGinnis said, “but there’s so much more in these business-to-business relationships.” Confident that the move to a business-to-business model will help ensure the firm’s healthy growth, he and Erin have decided to sell the dry cleaning business they’d also been running, and focus solely on Picture it Sold. 

And how will they sell that business? That’s right: on eBay.›

Jesus Diaz pats a callused palm on the smooth, stretched head of a drum. The sound of it, a single beat, reverberates across the mostly-empty La Peña rehearsal space. It is answered, almost immediately, with booming percussion from the flock of accompanying drummers. 

“You can’t play music by yourself,” Diaz says with a broad smile. “Well you can,” he quickly adds. But when you’re playing in a group “for every action there is a reaction.” He taps again, and his fellow Cuban drummers answer with an infectious, multi-rhythmic beat. It makes even a reporter want to drop the pen and notepad and get up and shake something. Newton’s law proven once more, Diaz concludes with the whole purpose of the exercise. “And that’s what makes it interesting.” 

“Interesting” is probably an understatement for what these drummers will be showcasing this coming weekend at La Peña Cultural Center on south Shattuck Avenue. Co-presented by Diaz and La Peña “De Aquí P’Allá Con Clave” will feature several musicians from the growing Cuban population that is quickly making the Bay Area one of the hearts of the United States’ Cuban music scene.  

For Diaz, a Cuban-born Bay-Area percussionist and singer/songwriter, music is an expression of his surroundings, part of vibrant music tradition that he learned growing up in Cuba. Diaz, who has lived in the US since 1980, and for several other Bay Area Cuban musicians, have carried Cuba with them, creating a closely-knit music community that continues to inspire and create a culturally rich music that blends the cultures of both nations. 

For more than 20 years, La Peña has been promoting shows by local Cuban artists but not until now have they been able to create a show as large and broad as “De Aquí P’Allá Con Clave,” which translates into “from here to there” and refers to the continuity of Cuban music from the Bay Area to Cuba and vice-versa.  

“In Cuba they are so isolated that the culture has been really preserved,” said Sylvia Sherman, the development director for La Peña. “Here in the Bay Area they want to create an environment that will also preserve that tradition.” 

Brought together by Diaz, the show will feature a variety of Cuban artists that represent the various music genres played in Cuba, all of which are based on the traditional Afro-Cuban folklore music that is infused with both African and Spanish influences. 

“The show is about building community, it doesn’t help for everyone to be so spread out,” said Diaz, whose band QBA plays Cuban timba, a music based on the traditional Cuban folklore music and influenced by jazz, funk and hip-hop. 

“It’s almost like going to visit your grandmother,” said Diaz about the ability of the show to help strengthen the Bay Area’s Cuban community. 

Many or all of the musicians in the show came to United States as economic refugees who were struggling under the United States’ embargo against Cuba. The musicians say the embargo has helped them create a culturally rich music, but has also limited their scope, and the move to the United States, they say, was necessary as a way to re-energize the music. 

The musicians however, never forgot their island roots, and the show at La Peña is meant to showcase both sides of the 90-mile gulf between the two countries. Sandy Perez, for example, who is only 33 years old and dresses in baggy jeans and a baseball cap, is well-known as one of the most talented Cuban folklore musicians from Matanzas. That is one of several provinces which have helped preserve the Afro-Cuban roots of the folklore music. 

Diaz is also grounded in a folklore tradition, taking cues from both the “street” music he saw everyday and the religious and classical music both his parents played. 

“If you live in Cuba and you like music you can’t get away from it,” he said.  

Isolation also works in reverse, said Diaz, forcing Cuban musicians to constantly recreate their sounds to stay original. 

“Here they drill the same type of song over and over again on the radio,” he said. “Cuban music is a lot different, it’s mandatory for you to create your own voice, we [QBA] do not sound like anyone else.”  

Los Angeles musicians Gustavo Ramirez, who plays piano, and Jorge “El Sagua” Perez, who plays bass, say that back in Cuba it was a constant struggle to even find instruments to practice on, much less find new music from outside Cuba to listen to. Both say they respect the Cuban roots and both are well-grounded in traditional folklore music. But because they have struggled to branch out, they’ve also become some of the leading innovators in the newly resurfacing Cuban jazz scene. 

“We’re here to represent the roots of Cuban music, ‘el movimiento de la musica Cubana,’” said Ramirez.  

According to Diaz, Cuban music is very participatory “The number one goal,” he said, “is to engage the audience.” The upcoming shows, he adds, will be no exception, when La Peña opens up the dance floor for several of the performances. Feet tapping, this reporter agrees. 

Performances will take place this coming Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the La Peña Cultural Center located at 3105 Shattuck Ave. On Saturday night there will also be a discussion with the musicians. Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 at the door. For advanced tickets or for more information, contact the La Peña box office at 849-2568, ext. 20, or at www.lapena.org.  

e

FRIDAY, FEB. 27 

THEATER 

“The Evolution from Africa” An African American history lesson given through spoken word, music, song, dance and dialogue, at 7 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School Auditorium 1500 Derby St. Tickets are $1-$3. All proceeds go directly to the afterschool programs. 

Aurora Theatre, “Man of Destiny” by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Barbara Oliver at 8 p.m. Through March 7. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Les Waters, 2025 Addison St. Through March 7. For ticket information call 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Everyday Theater, “The Bright River,” a show by Tim Barsky, at 8 p.m. at the Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through March 20. Tickets are $12-$20 and are available from 644-2204. 

A Traveling Jewish Theater, “Times Like These” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $20-$28. 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

Central Works, “The Duel” a new play adapted from Chekhov’s novella, opens at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Runs Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. through March 27. Tickets are $8-$20. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Impact Theatre, “Say You Love Satan” at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Runs through March 13. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theater, “Street Soldier The Play” a benefit for Omega Boys Club and celebrating Black History month at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $20. 1-800-SOLDIER. 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch Film Festival “War Takes” at 7 p.m. and “Ford Transit” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Independent Exposure, “Love and Other Difficulties” at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 449B 23rd St. betwen Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Abani tells the story of a sixteen-year-old Nigerian struggling to escape his life in Lagos by impersonating Elvis, in “Graceland” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“De Aquí P’ Allá Con Clave” a new work of Cuban music and dance directed by Jesus Diaz, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $16 in advance, $20 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Get Out the Vote a pre-primary evening of political music, humor and discussion at Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at 7 p.m.  

Strings Attached: What We Live, featuring Fred Frith, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

CNMAT with Bertram Turetzky performing works for double bass, multi-channel tape, electronics and video at 8 p.m. at 1750 Arch St. Donation $10. 643-9990. 

Alvin Youngblood Hart, acoustic blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50 in advance, $20.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Hip Hop/Funk Mardi Gras Party with the People and LZ Phoeniz at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. $10 if wearing costume. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mike Jung and Mike Mood perform at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Otis Goodnight, Stymie, and Monkey Knife Fight at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Nels Kline Singers, Marika Hughes and Eric McFadden, Odd Bodkins at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Michael Bluestein Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Sarah Manning Trio at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Mutual Abuse, Collateral Damage, Second Opinion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, FEB. 28 

CHILDREN 

“Wild About Books” storytime at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Ingrid Noyes’s “Rosie and the Railroaders” at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Level of Abstraction” featuring Asha Menghrajani, Mark Popple, E. Taylor, at 4th Street Studio, 1717d 4th St. Opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

Life Magazine Photographers, Jon Brenneis, Loomis Dean, Wayne Miller, and Joe Munroe at 4 p.m. at Pacific Center for the Photographic Arts, 4221 Hollis St. Emeryville. 428-9169. 

THEATER 

A Traveling Jewish Theater, “Times Like These” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $20-$28. 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theater, “Street Soldier The Play” a benefit for Omega Boys Club and celebrating Black History month at 2:30 and 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $20. 1-800-SOLDIER. 

“Full Spectrum Improvisation,” by Lucky Dog Theater, featuring Joya Cory, at 8 p.m. at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 8th St. 415-564-4115. 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch Film Festival “Balseros” at 1 and 8 p.m. and “S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Shaolin Soccer” at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert L. Allen, author of “The Port Chicago Mutiny” speaks at 1:30 p.m. at the Salem Lutheran Home, 2361 East 29th Street in Oakland. 534-3637. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ballet Flamenco Eva Yerbabuena at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Bryan Baker, piano recital, at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $15-$20 at the door. 525-0302, ext. 302. www.uucb.org 

“De Aquí P’ Allá Con Clave” a new work of Cuban music and dance directed by Jesus Diaz, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. tickets are $16 in advance, $20 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

World Heart Beat, a benefit concert and dance party in support of Berkeley’s Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade and Celebration with Stephen Kent, composer and multi-instrumentalist, at 8 p.m. at 2525 Eighth St., at Dwight Way. Cost is $13-$20, sliding scale. All ages welcome. 649-6051. www.paganparade.org 

Stew, Afro-Baroque cabaret, at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $11 in advance, $13 at the door. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Strings Attached: What we Live, featuring Nels Cline, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

KGB, Hypnogaja, Keysersoze at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Naked Barbies, Penelope Houston and Pat Johnson at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Victims of the Groove, jazz fusion of world music, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Frank Wakefield Band, bluegrass mandolin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Za’atar performs Middle Eastern music 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 

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

Singer-Songwriter Night featuring Brian Lazarus and guests at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

From Monument to Masses, Caesura Free Verse, The Yellow Press, The Drogues 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. 

Drunken Cat Paws at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 29 

CHILDREN 

“Dragons Never Laugh” puppet adventures with Princess Moxie at 2 and 4 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $4 for children $6 for adults. 644-2204. 

Picture Book Circle at the Magnes Museum Children ages 4-8 and their families will read and look at classic, illustrated books and discuss Jewish values. Dr. Ellen Handler Spitz, the acclaimed author of Inside, Picture Books, developed the program exclusively for the Magnes. The six Sundays is $50 per child for members and $60 for non-members at meets at 2 p.m. To register please call 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

THEATER 

A Traveling Jewish Theater: “Times Like These” at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $20-$28. 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theater, “Street Soldier The Play” a benefit for Omega Boys Club and celebrating Black History month at 3 and 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $20. 1-800-SOLDIER. 

FILM 

Victor Sjostrom: “The Scarlet Letter” at 2 p.m. and “Under the Red Robe” at 4:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Luke Breit and Jack Hirschman at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ballet Flamenco Eva Yerbabuena at 7 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Chamber Music Sundaes The Navarro Piano Trio performs Schubert, Bruch, and Danielpur 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. 

“3, 4, 6, 8 Hands, 1 & 2 Pianos” presented by the Holy Names College Music Department with works by Alkan, Rachmaninoff, Schickele, Schubert and Smetana at 3 p.m. at Regents’ Theatre, Valley Center for the Performing Arts, Holy Names College, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $6-$12 available at the door.  

56th Annual Festival of the Oaks, a day long celebration of international music and dance sponsored by Laney College Dance Dept., Berkeley Folk Dance Club and California Folk Dance Federation. Held at the Laney College gym from 10 a.m. For information call 527-2177. 

Flamenco Open Stage with Alicia and Roberto Zamora at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

John Schott’s Typical Orchestra at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart, roots country originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

John Schott, guitar and voice, Ben Goldberg, clarinet, and their friends from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Spasso Cafe, 6021 College Ave. at Claremont.  

Big Band Bonanza at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $4-$8. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, MARCH 1 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Page to Stage: Acting Ibsen” at 7 p.m. at Trust Stage, Berkeley Rep., with Ellen McLaughlin, René Augesen, James Carpenter, Jonathan Moscone, and Paul Walsh. Free. 647-2949. 

Mark Bittner introduces us to “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (A Love Story with Wings)” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Last Word Poetry Series with Elizabeth Iannacci and Brendan Constantine at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave.  

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

TUESDAY, MARCH 2 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Shermer looks at “The Science of Good and Evil” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zabava! Izvorno, Late Cift at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesso with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival opens at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. 644-6893. www.berkleyartcenter.org 

“Images from the Georgia-Chechnya Border” open at the Hearst Museum, Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Ave. and College Ave. Gallery hours are Wed.- Sat. 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sun. noon to 4 p.m. Cost is $1-$4. 643-7648. 

THEATER  

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen opens and runs through April 11. 647-2917. www.berkeleyrep.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Susan Douglas takes on “The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7,  

$5 with student i.d. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with The Streichner Trio, Katherine Kyme, violin, Charlene Brendler, fortepiano, Joanna Blendulf, cello at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. 642-4864.  

Dromedary performs gypsy, klezmer, Andean and Appalacian music at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/zydeco dance lesso with Pattie Whitehurst at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

THURSDAY, MARCH 4 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“High Touch Low Tech” a joint art exhibition with Piedmont High School and National Institute of Art and Disabilities, exploring works that visually stimulate the sense of touch, at the Florence Ludins-Katz Gallery, 551 23rd St., near Barrett Ave., Richmond. Reception for the artists from 6 to 8 p.m.  

FILM 

Women of Color Film Festival “Laughter and Activism” at 5:30 at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Lyn Hejinian at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-0137. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Jo Freeman introduces “At Berkeley in the Sixties” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Tuscany and Umbria: Cradle of the Renaissance” a video presentation and talk by Jim Hilgendorf at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Phillip T. Nails and Charselle, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. For information call 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Poetry at the Albany Library, featuring Jack and Adelle Foley from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar, at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

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

The Uptones and La Plebe perform in a benefit for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

ˇ

Rosario Marín is betting that the California Republican Party is ready to nominate a pro-choice, anti-illegal immigration and anti-tax hike Mexican immigrant to go against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in November. After all, Californians just elected a pro-choice immigrant Republican governor.  

But Arnold Schwarzenegger, it seems, was another story.  

Usually it’s not easy being a moderate Republican in California. You must jump through hoops to court an extremely conservative party base in the primaries, without losing the wide appeal that could make you successful in a statewide race. Marín, a former U.S. Treasurer and mayor of Huntington Park, a city teeming with Latino Democrats who voted for her several times, is finding that out as she vies for her party’s nod.  

None of the potential Republican nominees seems likely to win against Boxer in November (polls continue to show her beating each of them), but Marín’s nomination could make it a little harder for the senator who, instead of running against a typical anti-choice white male, would have to battle a pro-choice immigrant woman.  

As Marín has said, the “typical anti-choice white male” is what Barbara Boxer has for breakfast. Defeating such a candidate is a cinch for Boxer in California’s political environment. Most important, Marín could help dilute the extreme right-wing, anti-immigrant image that her party has been burdened with since the mid-1990s.  

But Marín is losing in all the polls, and she received no support from the state’s GOP leadership. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former governors George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson are backing traditional conservative former secretary of state Bill Jones, even though Marín has raised nearly $1 million dollars in campaign funds to Jones’ $310,000, according to the latest report.  

She also has an impressive list of supporters from grass-roots Republican organizations, more than 50 of them, like the California Congress of Republicans and California Republican League. The candidate also has the support of dozens of local elected officials and a quarter of the Republicans in the state assembly, including all five women GOP legislators.  

Republican party leadership argues that Bill Jones, who spent more than two decades in public life, first in the assembly and then as secretary of state, will be a better candidate and senator even though party members rejected him in the 2000 gubernatorial primary and he’s more conservative than most Californians.  

Fernando Guerra, professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University, says Jones “would be easy prey for Barbara Boxer.” Marín could really give Boxer a run for her money, he says. As a Mexican immigrant, she could potentially raise the votes Republicans usually get from Latinos to more than 40 percent.  

As Ken Khachigian, Marín’s campaign consultant argues, “If Bill Simon had received 40 percent of California’s Latino vote in 2002, and then won a mere one percent more from women, he would be governor today. He got only 24 percent of Latino voters and 37 percent of women voters, according to exit polls. Similarly, in Matt Fong’s 1998 loss to Boxer, he won only 23 percent of Latino voters.”  

Khachigian argues that Marín is the only candidate who could easily reach that 40 percent threshold and “combine that with the ability to deprive Boxer of the gender superiority she has enjoyed in elections past.”  

Marín, who came with her family to California from Mexico City when she was 14, talks tough on immigration, pledging that “stopping illegal immigration” would be among her top priorities, but also arguing for deep reforms. “More attention must be paid to the core causes of illegal immigration rather than the symptoms, such as drivers’ licenses and Proposition 187,” she has said. She proposes to “make” Mexico reform its economy to make it stop sending “its unemployment line to the United States.”  

She has also shown her most conservative side, supporting an outright ban on gay marriages and criticizing Jones on his role in passing a tax increase when he was in the legislature, saying she would “never” raise taxes.  

Republicans will probably continue the string of losses statewide that has made them the minority in California offices --there are no Republican constitutional officers, except the new governor; Democrats are the majority in both houses of the legislature.  

The demographic diversity of the state—a growing Latino vote that, according to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), registers 60 percent Democratic, 19 percent independent and only 20 percent Republican—is not going to make it any easier for conservative Anglo Republicans to win statewide.  

Candidates like Marín could be the exception. If only they could get through the primaries.  

Pilar Marrero is metropolitan news editor and political columnist for La Opinión Newspaper in Los Angeles. .

Armed with a camera and a curious eye, Daily Planet reporter Richard Brenneman strolled along four blocks of a Berkeley street recently week in search of interesting visual discoveries that might escape the ordinary hurried pedestrian. The photographs on this page represent the first selection of his findings, and more will follow in future editions. Guess as many as you can. Free Berkeley Daily Planet T-shirts await the first five readers to correctly identify the street addresses where each photograph was taken. Send your responses to the Daily Planet Photo Contest, Berkeley Daily Planet, 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley 94705, or e-mail to news@berkeleydailyplanet.com. Deadline is 5 p.m., March 12.

Alice Strang spoke last Sunday at the Berkeley community memorial for her late brother, Fred Lupke. It was held at the Berkeley Public Library, one of the many good causes he supported. Lupke, also a dedicated volunteer for the Berkeley Daily Planet, was killed last September when a car struck his wheelchair as he traveled in the street on Ashby between Harper and Ellis. Disabled activists charged at the time that he had been forced into the street because the sidewalk on that block was sloping and badly cracked. The city of Berkeley has recently completed repairs to the sidewalk.

How to vote in the primary on Tuesday? Here’s a simple algorithm: If Kerry is way ahead, vote for Kucinich, because In Your Heart You Know He’s Right. (If you’re under 50, that was Barry Goldwater’s old slogan, and it worked for him. Well, not exactly. If you’re under 30, it’s too hard to explain who Goldwater was.)  

If Kerry and Edwards are closer (plus or minus eight percentage points apart), vote for Edwards, so that Kerry will be forced to listen to Edwards’ message on NAFTA. If you’re a Green, next time remember to switch to the Democratic Party in time to vote in the primary. You can always switch back later. Then again, if the Greens can’t do any better than Nader, why bother? (If you’re a Republican, move to Danville if you can afford it, and if you can’t afford it you really ought to be a Democrat.) 

And then there are the Berkeley ballot measures. Do you want to keep the wrong people off the ballot? Vote for Measure J, and at least you’ll exclude the ones who can’t afford to pay $150 to file. That might not be all of the wrong people, of course…. 

Want to save the city a hundred thousand bucks or so from time to time? Vote for Measure H, and there will be fewer runoffs. It’s great for incumbents, since incumbents almost never get less than 40 percent. Makes it harder to be a challenger, though. 

Another potential cash-saver is Instant Runoff Voting, supported by John Anderson, the former Republican congressman who tried to run for president as an independent in 1980. (When I was canvassing precincts for Democrats in my youth, I learned that “independents” were people who often didn’t vote and seldom knew what was going on. They mostly disapproved of politics and elections.) His national organization is the major funder ($6,500) of the pro-Measure I campaign. 

Here in Berkeley, Measure I seems to me to add up to a pro-incumbent Move to the Independent Middle (acronym MIM), though the list of its contributors is all over the map. Many progressives, especially Greens, believe it will make the world safe for progress. Many moderates believe the reverse. Could be they’re both wrong. The devil is always in the details, and one problem with Measure I is that it leaves the details up to the incumbent councilpersons. 

If all three Berkeley measures pass, we might just count on electing Councilpersons-for-Life. We might even be able to do away with elections altogether and really save money. 

Speaking of homogenization, by the way, a Social Note from All Over: sometime Progressive Mayor Tom Bates, the proud owner of an $85,000 campaign debt from the mayoral election, was the beneficiary of a High-Hills fundraiser last weekend. The hosts were stalwarts of The Faction Formerly Known as Moderate: Miriam Hawley, Harry Weininger, Maggy Gee, Gordon Wozniak and Fred Collignon, Mr. and Ms. Nice Guys all. (The guest/contributor list was not released to the press.) 

Have they changed stripes, or has Tom? Or perhaps none of them have…. It’s a new Era of Good Feeling, with Mayor Tom enacting the role of President Monroe, who was elected with all but one vote in the Electoral College.  

Which is why cynical curmudgeons like me will be tempted to vote no on All Of The Above. 

Even on the Bailout Bonds, Props. 57 and 58? The Schwarzenegger proposal is for the citizens to borrow about $430 per person this year, and even more next year. If the vehicle tax (a progressive tax under which those who can afford more pay more) were reinstated, the net shortfall would be $300 per person. We’d pay back $500 per person for that $300. 

Why not just raise taxes now, progressively more on those who can afford it, and save money in the long run? The best thing about this plan is that it doesn’t rescue Arnie, so we might be able to get rid of him in the next election.  

Because it’s the prudent solution, it’s unlikely to be adopted by the idiots in the Legislature. The poor will suffer while they’re arguing about it. Catch 22. But if Prop. 56 passes, they might do better. You have until 8 p.m. Tuesday night to make up your mind, and I can’t help you.  

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.