A downtown Berkeley bank robbery ended Friday with the arrest of the dye-smeared suspect aboard a packed AC Transit bus in rush hour traffic. 

The robbery at Washington Mutual at 2150 Shattuck Ave. was reported at 5:58 p.m. Friday. 

According to police, the suspect fled with the cash bag into the downtown Berkeley BART Station rotunda in front of the bank. 

Before he could board a train, though, the bag’s ink pack exploded, staining his hands and clothes with red and releasing fumes into the underground station. 

About half a dozen people were treated at the station for inhaling the fumes, according to police. 

The man abandoned the money and ran upstairs from the station. Back at the street, he then opted for an AC Transit bus as a get-away vehicle. 

As the crowded 40 L bus made its way through rush-hour traffic south on Shattuck Avenue, then east, and then south again on Telegraph Avenue, the bus driver noticed that she had a special passenger aboard, one strangely decorated with red paint. She had heard an announcement about the bank robbery broadcast moments earlier. 

The bus driver, who wished to remain anonymous, alerted police that she was carrying the possible suspect and dozens of police cars sped towards Telegraph Avenue to intercept her bus.  

At the corner of Telegraph and Russell Street, police cars surrounded bus number 3128 in the early dusk light. Sgt. Kevin Schofield jumped aboard the bus and took the seated man off, ordering all other passengers to remain aboard. 

“The bus was packed, which presents a huge hazard,” Schofield said. “Knowing that a bank robbery is on a bus full of people is definitely worrisome. We knew we had to get him off the bus right away.” 

Schofield said that when he stepped on the bus, the suspect was calmly sitting down and complied when told to stand and leave the bus. The man had no weapon, Schofield said. 

Police arrested the man, Darius Shadzad, 34, on charges of bank robbery. 

As the passengers debarked and walked across Russell Street to an awaiting bus to take them the remainder of their journey, they passed the bus driver on the sidewalk giving her account to police. 

A man yelled out, “Thank you miss bus driver,” and many of the other passengers joined in a round of applause. 

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board has greenlighted the most controversial building yet in the downtown area, the nine-story luxury Seagate apartment—or is it condo?—on Center Street. 

Only Carrie Sprague and recent appointee Dean Metzger voted against the project. ZAB’s newest member, former Planning Commissioner Tim Perry, voted with the majority. 

The only remaining obstacle to the proposed building at 2941-67 Center St., at this point only theoretical, would be a challenge lodged with the city council. 

Opponents have 14 days to appeal after the ZAB issues its formal notice of decision.  

ZAB also approved the demolition of several West Berkeley buildings and shot down a Sixth Street project opposed by neighbors. 

The demolition and use permits approved for Seagate Thursday night call for: 

• Leveling of four existing buildings; 

• Construction of a 181,151-square-foot tower opposite the new Vista College site, with 149 apartments; 

• 5765-square-feet of ground floor retail; 

• 12,067 feet of cultural space, and 

• 160 underground parking spaces in two levels. 

The project of Seagate Properties, a San Rafael development firm with real estate interests throughout the West, the structure would tower four stories above the five-floor limit specified in the city’s downtown plan. 

The building was able to evade the height restrictions because Seagate took advantage of two city provisions, one incorporating a state mandate that grants greater densities to buildings that include so-called inclusionary units reserved for low- and lower-income tenants, and another granting higher densities to buildings that provide spaces for so-called cultural uses. 

“People are going to have the nicest inclusionary units in the city of Berkeley,” said City Housing Director Steven Barton. “The direct construction costs are far above the cost for inclusionary units as set up by the ordinance. The developer has made no reductions in quality and fitting.” 

“I really like this project,” said ZAB member David Allen. “By leaps and bounds it’s the best designed project I’ve seen.” 

The most unusual aspect of the project is the developer’s expected minimal rate of return. According to projections worked out by Barton and Darrel De Tienne, Seagate’s representative, the building will yield a return of only one percent a year. 

Under the city’s interpretation of state density bonus law, the minuscule profits could have justified Seagate building an additional 86 units to make up for the losses on the low-income units, said Berkeley Principal Planner Debbie Sanderson. 

Instead, Seagate only asked for a ninth floor with 11 units. 

Several board members had objected earlier in the approval process at Seagate’s plans to concentrate the inclusionary apartments in the lower levels. 

Under the plans submitted Thursday, the units are now found on six of the eight housing floors, excluding the eighth and ninth floors and units with terraces and the most desirable views. 

Barton said including the low-income units on the upper floor would have cut still deeper into Seagate’s small profit margin. 

“The project makes sense only if there’s a 20- to 40-year holding period,” Barton said. “It’s a luxury building but a very costly one. It would have reduced their rate of return for an even distribution” of the inclusionary units. 

De Tienne said Monday that he was surprised at how quickly the project cleared its final hurdle, acknowledging with a chuckle that in Berkeley, a challenge could still be lurking in the wings. 

Opponents have 14 days after the project’s Notice of Decision appears to appeal. 

Neighbors’ Challenge Wins  

ZAB members denied a warehouse and live/work project at 1340-1346 Sixth St. after neighbors mounted a campaign to block the three-story project. 

The board did authorize the demolition of an existing duplex on the site. 

Developer Daniel K. David and architect/contractor Edward J. Levitch submitted their original plans two years ago, and won preliminary approvals before neighbors—who charged that they hadn’t received adequate notice—rebelled. 

The project has gone through several subsequent design iterations, none to the liking of the neighbors or city staffers. 

Levitch insists that the neighbors’ complaints should have no bearing on the project because they live in a residential zone across the street from the site, which lies in a Mixed Use Light Industrial zoning area. 

The architect faulted the opponents for offering their own design for the project. “They have absolutely no right to be involved,” he fumed. “They had the audacity to bring you another project altogether. This is not a design competition.” 

But both the commissioners, the Design Review Commission and city staffers liked the plan created by two architects in the neighborhood, who offered them to David at no cost. 

“We want you to work with the neighborhood,” said ZAB Chair Andy Katz. 

“The neighbors have no right,” declared Levitch. 

“It’s still part of the neighborhood,” Katz replied.  

Both neighbors and city staffers pointed to a collection of problems in Levitch’s designs, and the architect and his client finally stormed out of the meeting, their angry voices echoing in the second floor hallway of old City Hall. 

“You have witnessed the kind of contempt and condescension you and we have had to live with,” said neighbor Gary Parsons. “We decided with talented help to show how this transitional site could be handled in a sensitive way. We’re still game. We hope the lot is developed, and we hope a building is developed.” 

Several ZAB members pointed to what they called specific misrepresentations in Levitch’s remarks, but he and his client never returned to answer them. 

“The neighbors have acted in absolute good faith,” said member Christina Tiedemann. “We’re not going to ignore the neighbors’ concerns. Speaking for myself, one side is being unreasonable as evidenced by the fact that they walked out tonight.” 

By a unanimous vote, the board approved the demolition and denied the building permit. 

The project now moves to the City Council. 

Gutted Hulks Gone 

ZAB members also voted unanimously to approve the demolition of fire-gutted buildings at 2318-2332 Sixth St. and 2325 Third St. 

The complex had been ravaged by two major blazes in the past four years, most recently a July 14 blaze apparently started by homeless squatters. 

The demolition permit authorized by ZAB requires Kavah Massih Architects to replace the structures a combination of office and light industrial uses that approximate what existed before the fires. 

Emily Brown, who appeared as a representative of the firm, agreed.?

With its final meeting before Election Day scheduled for Tuesday, city councilmembers insist they won’t duck quite possibly the most controversial issue of the year.  

On their agenda is a recommendation from the city’s planning department that calls for overhauling the city’s creek ordinance. 

“There are going to be a lot of angry voters if we don’t do something,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he plans to offer a compromise plan to bridge the gap between creek advocates who want a task force to revise the ordinance and a homeowners’ group that wants the issue to go to the Planning Commission. 

The creek law, passed in 1989, limits new construction within 30 feet from the centerline of the city’s 75,000 linear square feet of open creeks and concrete culverts which redirect creeks underground. 

Both creek advocates who want to strengthen the law and the homeowner group, Neighbors on Urban Creeks, which wants to weaken it, are demanding the council take action.  

Most of the approximately 2,400 property owners affected by the law didn’t even know it existed until this year when the city released electronically-generated maps that outlined creeks and culverts. 

Not only do the homeowners now face restrictions on new construction, but according to city policy if they live above a culvert, most of which are nearly a century old and nearing the end of their usefulness, they are responsible for repairing it. 

Already, the city is facing roughly $30 million for immediate repairs to culverts under public land and a lawsuit from a group of neighbors who claim the city should pick up the estimated $1.6 million price tag to repair one collapsing culvert under their homes. 

To the disappointment of both creek advocates and their opponents, the recommendation from Planning Director Dan Marks avoided the issue of responsibility for repairing culverts. Instead, it called for dramatic changes to restrictions on development.  

Marks proposed a three-phase process to be undertaken by the city’s Planning Commission that would begin with a directive from the council to eliminate the 30-foot set-back requirement for new construction.  

Over the following years, as the city sought the estimated $500,000 needed to perform a detailed analysis of the problem, the commission would establish new creek protection policies. It would also conduct a study of the feasibility of unearthing creeks that have been buried underneath public property. 

Creek supporters have lambasted the plan, which they say would effectively dismantle the ordinance before conducting any research. 

“It’s a slick manipulation to make it sound like they’re reforming it, when really they’re gutting the whole damn thing,” said Councilmember Dona Spring. 

Marks said the proposal leaves plenty of safeguards for creeks. Instead of the arbitrary 30-foot setback, any new construction near a creek would require a developer to present a “Creek Impact Report” and any proposed project near a culvert would require a private engineering report showing that the culvert was strong enough to support the new construction. 

“We’re giving people the opportunity to make a case that what they’re proposing to do with the property is viable,” Marks said. 

Marks hasn’t proposed standards for determining impacts on creeks or culverts, but he said new construction within the 30-foot setback area would likely require a public hearing and a use permit. 

Creek advocate Phil Price fears that without clear standards for impacts every proposal to build near a creek would “become another argument.” He prefers that the city council appoint a taskforce to study the issues before making any changes to the ordinance. 

Neighbors on Urban Creeks is backing Marks’ recommendation to send the issue to the Planning Commission, but is calling for the Commission to receive it without any directive from the council to eliminate the setbacks. 

The council appears fragmented on the issue.  

Councilmember Olds wants to send the item to the Planning Commission with a directive to eliminate the setback requirements for culverts, but not for open creeks. Councilmember Wozniak, who like Olds represents areas of the Berkeley hills where most of the affected homeowners live, also favors taking the issue to city commissions including the planning commission, but supports eliminating setbacks for both culverts and open creeks. 

Councilmembers Spring and Worthington support forming a task force, but don’t want any changes to the ordinance until the city finds the money for a detailed analysis. 

Amid the divergence of opinion, Mayor Tom Bates said he will propose a compromise calling for a taskforce under the supervision of the Planning Commission. 

Also on the agenda is an update on negotiations with the firefighters union. Firefighters have offered to accept a $300,000 one-time reduction in scheduled salary increases in return for a one-year contract extension with a six percent raise. City Manager Phil Kamlarz has said that if the two sides are not close to an agreement Tuesday the city would proceed with closing a truck company during evening hours this winter to save the $300,000. 

The council will also decide the fate of Jubilee Village, a proposed 110-unit affordable housing complex at 2612 San Pablo Avenue. The developer, Jubilee Restoration, is asking that the council approve city participation in a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development loan guarantee program. Loans to Jubilee for the purchase of the site, to be guaranteed by the city, would amount to roughly $3 million dollars.  

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With Berkeley voters set to decide the fate of $8 million in proposed tax increases, Mayor Tom Bates publicized Monday a preliminary report claiming that the city on average offers more services for about the same price than comparable California cities. 

The report, first released as a draft two weeks ago by City Manager Phil Kamlarz, claims that compared to eight other California cities Berkeley is near the top in providing police, firefighters, senior centers, library branches and swimming pools and just above average in spending and the size of its workforce. 

Opponents of the tax hikes have staked their opposition in part on claims that neighboring cities, such as Hayward and Oakland, spend comparatively less money and employ fewer city workers than Berkeley.  

The eight cities included in the study are Concord, Fremont, Hayward, Richmond, Oakland, Pasadena, Palo Alto and Santa Monica. 

On the survey, Berkeley finished fourth in the number of residents per firefighter and third in the number of residents per police officers, library branches, senior centers and swimming pools.  

When including all city funds, Berkeley spent $2,931 per resident, fourth on the list, less than Palo Alto at $7,311, Santa Monica at $4,934 and Pasadena at $4,029. The report also found that Berkeley has 91 residents per city employee, fourth on the list, more than Pasadena at 69, Palo Alto at 76 and Santa Monica at 88. Employee figures were adjusted to exclude employees who work in services not typically found in other cities like airports and seaports. 

“This punches a hole in the argument that we have a bloated bureaucracy,” said Mayor Bates.  

Bates is backing the tax measures as a remedy for the city’s structural budget deficit which stands at $7.5 million for the coming year. 

“It says to me that we pay a little more, but we get a lot more for our money than other cities,” he added. 

Former Mayor Shirley Dean, who presided over a series of generous union contracts during her second term and is now a member of the city watchdog group Budget Watch, questioned the validity of the report. 

“My first impression is that they handpicked the cities to make their case for the taxes,” she said. Dean questioned why the city report didn’t include the same cities the city uses when negotiating labor contracts. 

Budget Watch and other groups opposed to the tax hikes have long called for a comparison like the one provided by the city manager. 

Kamlarz said Berkeley has traditionally compared itself to the cities in the report because they are either neighbors, similar in size, offer similar services or host major universities. 

Berkeley provides some services and sponsors certain programs not found in many neighboring cities. The city has its own health department, refuse service and camps and operates a marina and a rent board, all of which add to city expenses. The three cities in the report found to spend more per resident than Berkeley—Palo Alto, Pasadena and Santa Monica—all operate their own public utility and Santa Monica maintains its own transportation system. 

Rob Wrenn, chair of Berkeley’s Transportation Commission, said the report essentially “compares apples to oranges” and misses the essential issue behind the proposed tax hikes: the balance between employee salaries and resident taxes. 

Beginning in 2001 the city negotiated long-term contracts with city unions that improved retirement benefits and provided fixed raises far higher than cost of living increases. The contract with police offers alone, Wrenn said, has cost the city $30 million. 

“The contracts have made tax increases inevitable,” Wrenn said. “Voters are going to lose either way. Either we lose services or our taxes go up.” 

Although the charts produced by the mayor’s office were released to the public Monday, Laurie Capitelli, the mayor’s choice in the upcoming City Council District 5, apparently received an advance copy. At a candidate forum hosted by the Northeast Berkeley Neighborhood Association last week, he produced copies of the charts and referred to them in a defense of the city’s handling of its budget crisis. 

Zoning Adjustments Board members voted Thursday to allow an upscale Shattuck Avenue pasta eatery to sell take-out vino along with their penne and linguini. 

Neighbors turned out to support Carole and Eric Sartenaer, the owners of Phoenix Pastificio at 1786-1788 Shattuck Ave., and plead with the board to grant the extension.  

The vote was one of two actions the board took loosening restrictions on liquor sales. 

The board also voted to extend the on-site liquor sales hours at Kip’s, a popular bar at 2439 Durant Ave. frequented by UC Berkeley students. 

Phoenix Pastificio’s bill of fare drew rave reviews from neighbors who often buy takeout meals to eat at home and yearned for a chance to bring home an offering from the restaurant’s wine list to compliment the gustatory treats. 

ZAB members were reluctant to allow the restaurant to advertise or display the beer and wines so they would be visible from the street, and the Sartenaers agreed. 

The board also mandated that alcohol sales must be accompanied by a food purchase. 

Member David Blake worried that allowing takeout sales would set a precedent for other Berkeley restaurants. “We’d be creating a new use,” he said. 

Colleague Deborah Matthews countered that ZAB can regulate each use at each establishment. 

New member Tim Perry pointed out that at least two delicatessens offer wine and beer on display. 

Only Blake and Carrie Sprague opposed the plan. 

Representing Kip’s owner Calvin Wong, Oakland attorney Rena Rickles assembled a sizable complement of Cal students to sing the praises of her client’s establishment—including Jesse Arreguin, a candidate for the city’s Rent Control Board.  

Unlike other taverns near the campus, Kip’s had to sound “last call” before 1 a.m. rather than the usual 2 a.m. allowed at most other watering holes. 

The 1 a.m. closing time had been decreed decades ago, then ignored by all the previous owners who had kept open until 2 a.m. The Wongs adopted the same hours when they bought the tavern four years ago, and continued to do so until May 2003, when the owner of another area bar alerted city officials to the original use permit and the city ordered compliance. 

Since the new closing hours were enforced, revenues have dropped 40 percent and three employees have been laid off, said a representative of the owners. 

“Kip’s is only asking you to legalize what Kip’s has been doing for 40 years,” Rickles said. 

Arreguin, the first of the students to speak for the owners, said that the extended hours would serve as a deterrent to crimes against women and as an opportunity for students to socialize. 

Precisely how sales of more alcohol would prevent abuse of women wasn’t clear, considering that alcohol is cited as a factor in many assaults, rapes and sexual batteries. 

Also testifying for the additional hour was Elizabeth Hall, ASUC Vice President for External Affairs. 

Rickles also sought and won permission for the establishment to serve alcohol to customers at weekend brunch between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. 

The Berkeley Police Department had opposed both proposals. ›

Berkeley native Ulysses Ellis never imagined that failing to buckle his safety belt could land him in a legal morass. 

But earlier this year when Oakland police stopped his friend’s car and gave Ellis the citation it set off a chain reaction all too common for homeless people like Ellis. 

When Ellis didn’t pay the fine he was ordered to traffic court. When he didn’t show up in traffic court, his case went to Alameda County Superior Court. And when he didn’t appear there his citation turned into a warrant. 

On Friday, Ellis finally caught a break. 

He was one of 85 homeless people to have his warrant and fine dismissed at the inaugural proceeding of the Alameda County Homeless Court. 

“Now I can finally move on and be productive,” said Ellis, who volunteers at a homeless drop-in center and works part-time as a security guard. 

Instead of ordering homeless people to court for fines they can’t pay, the homeless court comes to the homeless and guarantees those with non-violent, low-level misdemeanors a clean slate if they can show they are cleaning up their act. 

The court made its debut Friday at the Champion Guidance Center in Oakland, with Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco presiding. Baranco was quick to reassure the defendants they had nothing to fear from him. 

“This is not some way of rounding people up and taking them to jail,” he said. “No one here is getting arrested today...unless you act up.”  

Ellis said many homeless people have a fear of the court system. “We don’t have money to pay fines and you never know if a judge is going to be mad from the last case and take it out on you.” 

As dangerous as the streets can be for the homeless, winding up in jail is also perilous, as in the case of Kevin Freeman, a well-known homeless man on Telegraph Avenue, who was murdered by his cellmate last year in Alameda County’s Santa Rita prison after receiving a 30-day sentence for public drunkenness. 

The cases that wind up in the homeless court are vetted by public defenders and assistant district attorneys, and recommended for dismissal before they reach Judge Baranco.  

Defendants are recommended to the public defender by county homeless service providers, who must show that the defendants are using services and working to solve their problems. The court only accepts non-violent misdemeanors like traffic violations and public drunkenness, and limits defendants to one appearance. 

The model was initiated 15 years ago in San Diego and has since taken root in Ventura and Kern counties. 

Friday’s session, and the next one scheduled for December at Berkeley’s Trinity Church, are part of a pilot program in Alameda County. A grant from the California Bar Association funded months of planning and policy development, while court officers, including Judge Baranco, Public Defender Diane Bellas and Assistant District Attorney Stuart Hing have agreed to donate their time. 

If the program receives permanent funding—about $20,000 a year—Megan Schatz, Coordinator of the Alameda County-wide Homeless Continuum of Care Council, said the court would be in session about every two months at homeless service providers throughout the county. 

“This is the best thing I have ever seen for the homeless,” said Stephen Krank, director of the Oakland drop-in center where the session was held. “You can get them clean and sober, but if they have warrants hanging over their head it’s like running into a freight train.” 

Not only can outstanding warrants land homeless people in jail, but because of the welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton, they also disqualify them from receiving disability benefits. 

Diane Bellas, the county public defender, didn’t have statistics on how many homeless defendants fail to appear for their court date, but said a sizable percentage never show. 

“What’s the point if they have no income and can’t pay the fine?” she said. 

Steven Binder, the San Diego deputy public defender who designed the first homeless court, said the San Diego homeless court had an attendance rate between 80 and 85 percent. “The court strengthens the service provider and sends a message to the defendant that the county is happy with his progress and doesn’t see him as a criminal.” 

Mario Gaspard, who is a regular at the Oakland drop-in center where the court convened Friday, said the sight of a county judge in the center didn’t faze him. “It’s a lot less stressful than facing him at the courthouse,” he said. 

Gaspard had several violations cleared Friday, but not everybody was so lucky. Judge Baranco was powerless to dismiss a series of parking tickets amassed by Berkeley resident William Myers because the tickets are under city jurisdiction and so far cities have refused to designate them to the court. 

Also because of the high number of cases, several men were left outside the center Friday and told their case might wouldn’t be heard until this week. 

Gary Brown, who has a warrant stemming from a charge of drinking in public, said he would definitely be back. 

“I don’t want to end up in Santa Rita,” he said. “All I can tell you now is I won’t be jaywalking this weekend.” 

While the three candidates for the Albany Unified School District agreed that overcoming fiscal challenges is one of the top two priorities in the district, they divided over what they believe is the other most important issue. 

Charlie Blanchard wants to come to grips with state and federal mandates that sometimes conflict with local goals, while both Nadine Ghammache and David Glasser want to increase parent participation in district decision-making. 

Charlie Blanchard 

Charlie Blanchard is a longtime school volunteer who was appointed to an unexpired term on the Albany School Board in April of this year. Among others he lists the Alameda County Democratic Party, the Alameda County Green Party, Mayor John Ely, and Councilmembers Allan Maris and Jewel Okawachi as his endorsers. 

“There is the question about how do we continue to provide quality education locally in the face of continued mandates from the state and federal governments,” Blanchard said. He listed the federal No Child Left Behind law as one such mandate, saying that it “tended to push toward a junior high model rather than a middle school model,” which is not necessarily what Albany wants. Blanchard explained that in Albany’s middle school model, students are brought gradually from a single classroom throughout the day to separate classrooms for each subject from the 6th through the 8th grades. But he said that with the No Child Left Behind law’s mandate of a “qualified teacher” in every class, 6th grade teachers are unable to teach all of the necessary courses in a single class, and that is forcing schools to adopt the junior high model of starting 6th grade immediately with “moving students from class to class, with a different teacher in each class.” Blanchard called reconciling Albany’s gradual model with the federal government’s mandates would be one of the Albany School Board’s most significant challenges in the coming years. 

Nadine Ghammache 

Nadine Ghammache has taught elementary and middle school in Lebanon, as well as Arabic at the University of California. She has been endorsed by School Board members Miriam Walden, Michael Barnes, and Sherri Moradi, as well as by Albany Teachers Association President Diana Lamson and Vice President Joanie Wichstom. 

School Board Vice President Walden, who serves as Ghammache’s campaign manager, said that Ghammache’s “primary reason for running is to reach out and create structured and long-term ways that parents can participate in decision-making at the school district across the usual boundaries of participation.”  

“What we tend to have is certain groups of parents who are able to participate and are active, and lots of parents who are not able to participate or else feel left out of the process,” Walden said. “Nadine wants to do constructive outreach and creating sustainable ways for parents to participate in their children’s education and participate in the decision-making as to how their schools are run across all the barriers that exist.” Walden called those barriers “language and culture and time and energy and the many things that families are dealing with today.” 

Walden also said that Ghammache wants to “maintain and develop good working relationships with teachers and staff in the district. [While she believes] it’s important to maintain fiscal control, she also wants to look at what we are going to do with the district’s surplus in a way that respects teachers’ expertise and involves parents.” 

David Glasser 

David Glasser has worked in public finance for the past 21 years, including stints as Finance Director for Alameda County and vice president in charge of the Public Finance Department for the Bank of the West. “I think my long history in public administration—specifically in the financing, budget, and debt areas—uniquely qualifies me for the board of education. We really need to have a board that is vigilant in the fiscal area.” Glasser is endorsed by the Alameda County Green Party, Albany City Councilmembers Allan Maris and Jewel Okawachi, and Albany-Berkeley Chinese School Director Anthony Wang. 

“The Board should be more open in its decision-making,” Glasser said. “They tend to have a lot of closed session items that they discuss and then bring the decisions to the public. I’m an advocate of having those discussions in public and making sure that they include and make more outreach to the community when they’re making those decisions. We need open decision-making and the outreach for that decision-making, not just to people who show up to the board meeting, but reaching out to communities that don’t come to the meeting. Immigrant communities—people who don’t speak English—people that work during the week and can’t make the board meetings.”

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—formerly the Radiation Laboratory—will hold a Wednesday evening public hearing on the proposed 10-year hazardous waste facility permit for the site. 

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

The permit, if approved, would allow the facility to continue to store 23,320 gallons of hazardous and mixed wastes on Building 85 at the site. 

Hazardous wastes include a variety of chemicals as well a batteries, metal sludges, PCB-contaminated equipment, oily rags, paints and other substances. Mixed waste is defined as hazardous waste containing low levels of radioactivity. 

Neighbors and environmentalists have protested the storage and treatment of waste at the facility, citing potential dangers to themselves and the Strawberry Creek watershed. 

The permit would allow treatment of up to 1,158 gallons of waste daily. 

The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has also identified 174 areas on LBNL properties where toxics have been released. The eight locations where radiation has been released are being cleaned up by the U.S. Department of Energy and 45 of the other 166 sites are being cleaned up under state supervision. 

The remaining 122 locations were identified as non-threatening and needing no additional cleanup. 

With two of its five members up for re-election in two weeks, the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education has set a light agenda for Wednesday night, its last scheduled meeting before the Nov. 2 vote. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Only non-controversial items will be considered on the board’s action agenda: a temporary transfer of funds for cash flow purposes, refunding of Series A bonds, and a second reading on the adoption of the Measure BB maintenance and grounds plan. 

Much of the agenda is filled with routine construction and maintenance items on the consent calendar, including the Oxford Playground renovation, asphalt installation at Malcolm X, Emerson, LeConte, and Longfellow schools, new flooring at Emerson, John Muir, Oxford, and 1810 Hopkins St., completion of the Berkeley High Health Center, and the hiring of WLC Architects to supervise demolition and design a new field at East Campus. 

The district will hold a second public workshop on its Berkeley High South Campus Construction Plan on Thursday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School. The topic will be proposed buildings for the south end of the high school campus, including the warm water pool, and fencing around the playing fields. 

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The on-line Berkeley Police Bulletin for Friday, October 15, reported a homicide at 1:54 a.m. Berkeley Homicide Det. Robert Rittenhouse told the Planet on Monday that the death is considered suspicious and is under investigation. Police did not return subsequent calls about the incident. 

The location for the incident report was listed in the Bulletin as Addison and McKinley, the area of the public service center housing the jail, the police department and the police and fire dispatch center, but Rittenhouse said that the death was not a death in custody.  

There is no police blotter today because the Planet’s repeated calls to the department public information officer on Monday evening were not returned. 



Fire Guts Flower Stand 

An apparent electrical fire destroyed a small flower stand at 1275 Gilman St. minutes before midnight on Oct. 6, reports Acting Fire Chief David Orth. 

The single-alarm blaze destroyed the structure and contents of Moje’s Flowers and Gifts. 

Firefighters said the blaze started in the interior of the small structure and have placed the blame on overloaded electrical circuits, although the case is still listed as suspicious only because of a series of other small blazes in the area dating back several weeks. 

“We don’t think it was arson,” Orth said.

MEASURE L 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Ballot Measure “L,” the library tax proposal, has directed our attention to the Berkeley public library’s services and costs. As even the opponents of this tax tell us, “everybody loves the library,” and indeed Berkeley has built an extraordinary library system in our community. As we consider the wisdom of spending more money it seems like a good idea to examine the services we get for our tax dollars.  

The easiest way to get the facts is to read the California State Library Statistics report on the internet. A comprehensive view of every library function, one can compare Berkeley’s library with dozens of others serving communities of comparable size. Briefly stated, within this group our library is outstanding. We have the most active reference service by far, providing 623,000 answers per year, an average of six per Berkeley resident. Our expenditures for new materials is the highest in the state; our collection is the third largest, our circulation is third, and we have the most children’s materials with the second highest circulation. We spend about nine dollars per capita per year for materials; this compares with Palo Alto $10, San Francisco $8, St. Helena $28 and Carmel $21. Our total library costs per Berkeleyan are $103 per year, compared to Palo Alto $80, St.Helena $150, Carmel $293, and Belvedere $107. Because of the increased services provided, our library staff is larger than most, and the salary range is fairly generous by the modest standards of librarians. We pay more than Richmond, about the same as Marin, and less than Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Daly City. 

A recent letter to the Daily Planet opposing the tax quoted the city auditor’s report on library procedures, characterizing it as “scathing.” The author failed to note that the auditor’s 20 recommendations have all been accepted, 17 completely implemented, and three in the process of implementation. The auditor complemented the library on having requested the audit and on the promptness and cooperativeness of response. 

In short, we are a city of avid readers, eager to use our library for ourselves and our children. We have a civic institution of which we are proud and we have been willing to pay for it. I want the library to continue its high quality of services, its purchasing of new books, and, as soon as possible, a return to seven days a week hours. The tax increase on my house will cost me 14 cents a day; I think that is a bargain. 

Elmer R. Grossman, M.D. 

• 

UNIVERSITY AVE PLANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Oct. 12 the Berkeley City Council moved forward with an update to the University Avenue Strategic plan. This update represented months of hard work by University Avenue neighbors, City planning staff, the Planning Commission, and interested developers, and was purportedly a compromise plan hammered out among competing interests. One of the major concerns of all parties was allowable density and height. 

However, the final plan took no account of the new state “density bonus” law that awards a 35 percent density bonus to developers for certain affordable housing projects (up from 25 percent). Therefore, the plan is inherently flawed and somewhat beside the point. How could it come to pass that all of that work and compromise did not consider the new 35 percent density bonus? 

I conclude that the neighbors were snookered by the other parties to the deal who knew all along about the new bonus. Local politicians, developers, and planners have access to legions of affordable housing and developer associations and lobbyists. The city has a paid Sacramento lobbyist. The mayor’s wife represents the city in Sacramento. The city’s Planning staff, Planning Commission, city manager, and city attorney are regularly updated about pending legislation. Therefore, they all must have known about this legislation and they all must have decided not to share the information with the University Avenue neighbors. In a prior writing, published in the Berkeley Daily Planet, I stated “…while many local politicians and decisionmakers glibly blame state legislation for the sometimes unfortunate and unpopular local land use decisions, when the chance to oppose draconian state regulations arises, they remain quite mute. Is this because many local politicians and decisionmakers are in fact in collusion with the state and the affordable housing lobby…?” 

Barbara Gilbert,  

City Council Candidate, District 5 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I am one of the more than two thousand Berkeley homeowners whose property is on a creek. In my case, my property is bounded by a culverted Strawberry Creek. I, like many others in similar situations, am a strong environmentalist and care very much for the health and well being of this vital waterway.  

I commend the efforts and intentions of those who originally crafted the creek ordinance but I strongly believe that it needs much work to meet the complexity of the issues. I am writing out of my dismay and concern that groups like the “Friends of Strawberry Creek” and “Eco City Builders” are painting the more than six hundred people who signed the ‘Neighbors of Urban Creeks” petition and other homeowners as anti environmentalists who are working to completely repeal the ordinance.  

I feel this is a divisive and frankly wrong message. The reality is that most homeowners on creeks regard themselves as stewards of these creeks and more than any one have the creek’s well-being at heart. I urge all who are concerned about the creeks to refrain from inflammatory language and divisive tactics and to let a rational and informed process proceed.  

Robin McDonnell  

• 

STRAWBERRY CREEK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I live in the Strawberry Creek corridor. Ecocity Builders has recently completed a study titled “The Strawberry Creek Greenway- Putting Creeks in Context with the Built Human Habitat.” This study was funded by taxpayers through a $20,000 grant from the State Coastal Conservancy. 

The study presents a plan for daylighting Strawberry Creek from Oxford Street westward to the Bay, with a rough cost estimate of $57 million dollars for the project. Although the authors warn against possible abuses of eminent domain and stress that finding willing sellers should be policy and practice, over three dozen residential and commercial structures, specifically named by address, are recommended for initial removal as part of the daylighting plan.  

The San Francisco Bay Area Conservancy Program’s 2001–2002 Third Year Report states that this grant project was to have a public education component, but very few, if any, of the residents in the Strawberry Creek corridor were informed of the study or asked to contribute to it. My neighbors and I were never even mailed a notice of availability once the report was completed. Ecocity Builders is now making the report available for $20 through their website, but neighbors here are beginning to circulate xeroxed copies made from a few obtained free of charge from the Coastal Conservancy. 

This was not a model process for building trust and consensus. How do creek advocates believe daylighting Strawberry Creek could ever become a reality if they talk and write about us as if we were not even there, as though we and our investments in our homes and neighborhoods are simply throw-aways?  

Jill Korte 

• 

MEASURE K 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We are supporting measure K, the temporary increase in property transfer tax, in November. As homeowners, this tax only comes due if and when we sell the homes—it's a progressive tax hitting only those with very high value houses. It will finance important youth services that otherwise are currently at risk, and which ought ideally to be expanded. 

Please join us in supporting Measure K.  

Fred Collignon, Martha Cook, Carol Olson, Maureen Katz  

David Stark 

General Director 

Stiles Hall?

I have seen firsthand that while the current board is well intentioned—the board has not been able to engage our community in the open, inclusive, and interest-based dialogue necessary to address student achievement from kindergarten through grade 12 in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable way. After more than ten years, the district has yet to develop a district-wide student achievement plan that addresses students at every academic level and need. Over the years, school communities have been forced to develop plans on their own, without clear district guidelines, data-driven research, training on how to develop adequate plans, or set evaluation standards, which has resulted in a piecemeal, hit or miss approach in addressing the success of our schools and students. 

And the result is staggering, despite the incumbent’s public statements that “progress is being made”—an increasing number of our elementary schools, all of our middle schools, and the Alternative High School are failing federal education standards and last year many schools and specific student communities did not advance in state-based standards. Last year 25-40 percent of Berkeley High students taking core classes needed for college admission were in danger of failing by the end of the first semester and only 66 percent of African American students passed the high school exit exam by the end of the year. Special education, vocational and alternative education, and programs for academically gifted students have been ignored. And, the board has been absolutely unable to deal with the “elephant in the room” which is that the district is failing African American children (30 percent of the district’s students) and that many African American families become disillusioned, disconnected, and feel disenfranchised from the district. 

The role of the School Board in developing a district-wide student achievement plan must be to lead and facilitate the school community as well as the university, community colleges, city, non-profit and the wider Berkeley community in a unified, not divisive process that can tackle the complex and sensitive issues that must be addressed to achieve academic excellence for all students. This requires board members that have or can forge relationships with Berkeley’s many diverse communities and interest groups—within and without the School District—something the incumbents have not done well, especially when it comes to communities of color. The plan must develop initiatives for core subjects, set guidelines for individual school sites to develop specific achievement plans, focus on academic excellence—for students at all academic levels—from struggling students to those ready to achieve at the highest levels, include participation in the arts and athletics as a way of developing student self-esteem, discipline, and joy of learning, and stress the importance of home-school partnerships. 

I am an African American parent of two sons in Berkeley public schools and am a graduate of public schools, Brown University, and U.C. Berkeley. I have been actively involved in the School District for over eight years both at the school site and district-wide levels. I have served on the Washington Elementary School Site Council and African American Unity Council, the Longfellow Middle School Governance Council and Extended Day Program Committee and the District-wide Berkeley School Excellence Program Planning and Oversight and District Advisory Committees. In addition, I have successfully written school grants for teacher training, literacy and garden programs and I am an active member of the PTA. I work as the assistant to the Emeryville City Manager and serve as city clerk, which has provided me with extensive experience in budget, policymaking, organization skills, staff development, facilitating community-based planning efforts and interest based negotiations. And as part of my job, I have been responsible for securing millions of dollars in outside private and public funds and work with various public agencies as well as the business community. Through my position in Emeryville and as a former Berkeley City Council aide, I also have established relationships with our city, county, state and federal elected representatives. All of these experiences, relationships and expertise will greatly aid my ability to be a leader as a School Board Director, if elected and will help the district to successful partner with outside agencies and organizations to bring in needed outside resources available to help our children succeed. 

Please join Congresswoman Barbara Lee, many local and regional elected officials, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, National Women’s Political Caucus: N.A., the Alameda County Democratic Party, former School Board member Pedro Noguera and a host of parents, community/political organizations and neighborhood leaders who believe in my skills and abilities. For more information and a full list of my endorsers, please view my website at www.karenhemphill.home.comcast. 

net or call 467-3049. Thank you. 

—Karen Hemphill 

›

I am running for this office because I believe there is too much politics on the Berkeley School Board. Examples include closing Franklin School and the former adult school, and turning school playgrounds into parking lots (at Franklin School and the Berkeley High tennis courts). The Berkeley Citizen Action (BCA) majority is beginning again the same old plan—closing schools to free up land for development—just as they did in 1984. That was disastrous, and it took years for our schools to begin to recover from it. 

We need serious change on the School Board—less politics, and more possibilities. But these changes are possible only if there is an independent voice. I am the only independent Democrat running for the Berkeley School Board.  

We should provide an excellent education for all our children, in schools where the students feel safe and welcome. Politics must be kept out of our schools. Our students need to learn the critical thinking skills necessary to make informed judgments including their own political opinions. 

We need to listen carefully to the concerns of our teachers and work to create a supportive educational setting. Class size is critical but has been creeping up into the 30s from middle school on up. This is too high for Berkeley Unified School District’s diverse student body. We will lose many of our best teachers, unless we get serious about class size. BUSD does not have to take in all the students it accepts from other school districts. We have a fixed amount of budget money to spend on our students so why allow transfers, which cause larger class size? At Berkeley High School’s “Back to School Night” I was amazed at the number of parents there from Oakland and Alameda!  

We should have quality after-school programs for all students who need them, with fees on a sliding scale. But there is not enough daycare for middle-income families and this forces many into private schools. This situation causes socio-economic and racial imbalances, which may create poorer schools for low-income children.  

The “2X2 Committee” (School Board plus City Council) has been initiating joint ventures, such as plans for massive real estate development or homeless shelters on our school properties. This committee should instead work to improve the quality of life in our school neighborhoods. This is especially important for South and West Berkeley, where conditions can be scary, stressful, or violent, and where polluted air causes asthma in youngsters. 

Our school sites are precious and irreplaceable. They should not be diminished, developed, or leased for other than school purposes. We can use underutilized classrooms for reducing class size, for after-school and tutoring programs, teacher centers, flex space, pregnant minor programs, adult education, senior and exercise programs, and so forth. We should preserve all current school recreational areas for students. We do not have excess open space in our schools, and students need ample space for sports and recreation. School properties are a public trust issue. 

I support Measure B on the ballot, a two-year “bridge” measure mostly for reducing class size in grades four through 12. But this is another parcel tax, which will unfairly burden homeowners and businesses. In 2006, perhaps we can finance the next “Measure B” with a small tax on “think drinks” like coffee and lattés. I’m willing to go to Sacramento if necessary to change the law. Sadly, it appears to me that the school budget was balanced by increasing class size. If you agree, please vote YES on B for the kids, and NO on the School Board incumbents. 

Comprehensive High School and Academic Choice—YES! Excellent small schools like the Computer Academy and Independent Study—YES! Build bridges between the large and small schools by encouraging an open door policy for students and a part-time expert teacher exchange between programs. 

Schools/ city partnerships (Community Centers)—NO! Our schools have problems to solve and divisive politics to diffuse. The city would make both worse. 

I am an independent and not beholden to Berkeley's powerful political interests. Beware of the rumors and last minute attacks on me and on other independent candidates who dare to stand up against the political machine.  

I have lived in Berkeley for 35 years. I have a degree in Zoology, was capped as a nurse, and have been a public school teacher. I’m a mother, grandmother, environmentalist, whistleblower, and do-gooder.  

Please message me with your questions or concerns at 549-1840, or visit my web site at www.merriliemitchell.org 

P.S. While there has been some improvement, we must have zero tolerance for violence and bullying by Berkeley High students, both on campus and in the community. 

—Merrilie Mitchell 

›

I believe improving our educational system must be a top priority in our communities. We need good, dedicated School Board members who are committed to the institution of public education, to inspire our children and to build a better future for ALL young people. That is why I am running for re-election to the School Board. 

Education has always been especially valued in my family. Both of my parents were public school teachers. They taught me the value of a good education, and this is a lesson that I have always kept close to my heart and has served as an inspiration in my life. 

I attended public schools from my first day in kindergarten to the day I earned my Masters Degree in Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley. I feel very fortunate to have received a good, solid education that allowed me to become a teacher. From the very first day I took office I have been working hard to provide the same type of first-rate education I received for ALL of our young people so they can meet the challenges of the future. In addition to serving on many district-wide committees, I have helped shape education policy at the state level through my involvement with the California School Boards Association. 

I am proud of our district’s progress over the years I have been in office. The last four years were very difficult. Faced with reductions in state funding, declining enrollment and increased labor and supply costs, we were forced to make difficult cuts in order to balance our budget. As board president I led us head-on through these challenges, and we adopted a three-year fiscal recovery plan that balanced our budget, avoiding a state takeover, an unfortunate situation that occurred in neighboring districts such as Oakland and Emeryville. Despite these difficult times, we adopted policies and programs that are improving student achievement. I am particularly proud of the key role I played in the funding, implementation and expansion of the district’s literacy plan. 

Closing the achievement gap has been a top priority for me as a board member. Results over the last five years indicate that we have made considerable progress in closing the achievement gap for African American, Latino and low-income students at all elementary schools. This was accomplished through my focus on implementation of strategies to help all students succeed at the elementary grades. Together with a group of parents, administrators and teachers, we developed a comprehensive K-5 literacy plan that served as the catalyst for reform at the elementary schools. In addition to the safety net Reading Recovery (Descubriendo la Lectura for Spanish speaking students), this plan includes literacy coaches and professional development for teachers, reliable student assessments, and accountability. 

Other successes during my tenure on the board include: strengthened fiscal accountability, successful defense of our school integration program, approval of a small schools policy for BHS, hiring of an outstanding high school principal, and successful renovation of facilities. 

Although there is still much to do, I believe we have laid a solid foundation to make our district the best in California. My goals for the next four years include: 

—Development and implementation of a strategic master plan to provide Berkeley students a world-class education 

—Expansion of the successful programs at the elementary schools to the middle and high schools 

—Adoption of new strategies to close the achievement gap while improving the academic performance of all students 

—Increase of parental access to and involvement in their children’s education 

—Fiscal accountability 

—Site accountability for their student achievement plans 

—Quality professional development for teachers to ensure they have the skills necessary to be successful in the classroom 

We need the proven, experienced, knowledgeable and committed leadership that I can provide in order to accomplish these goals and to continue moving the district in the right direction. 

It has been an honor to represent you on the School Board. I continue to listen with an open mind and attempt to find the best solutions for all students. I have been endorsed by the Alameda County Democratic Party, Berkeley Democratic Club, National Organization for Women, Senator Don Perata, School Board Directors Shirley Issel and Nancy Riddle, former School Board Directors Pamela Doolan, Lloyd Lee, Miriam Rokeach (Topel), Ted Schultz and Elizabeth Shaughnessy, City Councilmembers Mim Hawley, Betty Olds, Dona Spring and Gordon Wozniak, former Mayor Shirley Dean, Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, and Alameda County Board of Education Trustee Jacki Fox Ruby, among others.  

Please join me as I continue to work to improve the educational quality of our schools and the fiscal accountability of the district. I have devoted my professional life to serving public education, and I will continue these efforts as your board representative. 

—Joaquín J. Rivera 

›

I am Kalima Rose, a parent of two Berkeley school students, and a CAL alum.  

I’m running for School Board because all of our students deserve a richer educational experience. Berkeley was proud to be the first school district to voluntarily desegregate in the 1968. We can once again be just as proud by ensuring the individual and collective academic success of all of our students. 

A persistent education gap thwarts our success. The science scores of African American and Latino students hover at 25 percent of proficiency, while white students score at 73 percent. Six schools (Cragmont, Jefferson, Rosa Parks, Arts Magnet, King Middle School, and Berkeley High) did not meet 2003 comparable improvement or school-wide growth targets, primarily because of the wide gap in scores between White/Asian students and Latino/African American students. 

I know that none of us want our children educated inequitably. To change our existing course, we need leadership on the School Board that can focus our resources on satisfying the community’s twin values of academic excellence and equity. This requires not only a willingness to reach out to the entire community to develop an understanding of community needs and desires, but also the skills and capacity to create and implement a plan that can meet those desires.  

My number one, URGENT goal is raising academic achievement levels for all students. I will work to create an inclusive academic achievement framework for all grades. It will set benchmarks and give teachers the support they need to teach. This framework will require a balanced community process that will rely on data for decision-making. It will include systematic interviews and analysis with principals, teachers, parents and students. It will use outside experts and draw collaboration from diverse UC, local and national partners. This framework will guide future resource allocation decisions. Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s endorsement demonstrates her confidence that Karen Hemphill and I can accomplish this goal. 

Second, I will focus on making schools to meet the needs of all students and their teachers. With other parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community partners, I have played a leadership role in establishing the process that is now transforming Berkeley High. These efforts are better engaging our kids. They model some of the most sought after private school practices: well-attended classes, close working relationships between faculty and students, internships, service learning placements, and international exchange programs. They are producing broadly successful and college-bound students-students with a lived experience of diversity. By next year, we will offer students this engagement in an arts school, an ecology school, a media school, a community partnerships school, or the large school. The Berkeley teachers’ union (BFT) endorsement shows their confidence in our 12 years of productive working relationships. 

My third goal is to bring new resources into the district from philanthropic sources and through partnerships with other agencies and businesses. I have already helped raise over $1 million for these efforts. This practice of building and maintaining partnerships with the university, city, foundations, and businesses must become a cornerstone for the board to build the future stability of the district. My broad community endorsements demonstrate the rich possibilities for partnership. 

Despite their rhetoric, neither incumbent has shown the ability to work with the many school communities during their terms on the board. Their records (and our children’s report cards and experiences) demonstrate a focus on individual programs and non-academic interests. Latinos Unidos, an organization uniting community service groups, recently published: 

"Closing the gap does not appear to be an urgent priority for the district nor for the two school board members who are up for re-election—Selawsky and Rivera. What they do offer is ill-informed and piecemeal. Their track record demonstrates it...We are convinced that Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose are the best choice this time around."  

I have served on many formal school site, district committees, and research teams in the past 12 years. As a senior professional for PolicyLink, the Ms. Foundation, and the Tides Foundation, I have developed and implemented policies advancing affordable housing, community development, and civil rights for almost 20 years. I know how to scrutinize public budgets, develop organizations, raise resources, and get results.  

Please join these community leaders in voting for me: Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Berkeley Federation of Teachers; Supervisor Keith Carson; Berkeley Council members Linda Maio; Margaret Breland; and Mim Hawley; School Director Terry Doran; NOW; National Women’s Political Caucus; Cal Democratic Club; Paul Wellstone Democratic Club, Fr. George Crespin; Michael Miller; Victor Cary; Santiago Casal; Beatriz Leyva-Cutler; Jean Yonemura Wing; Tracy Matthews, Netsy Firestein, Irma Parker; Alexis Adorador; Dena Belzer; Ann-Marie Callegari; Steve Rasmussen & Felicia Woytak; Phil Catalfo; Stephanie Allan; Ilene Abrams; Carol Wilkins; Mario Rivas; Barbara Coleman; Iris Starr; denise brown; Lisa Bullwinkel; Wanda Stewart; Joe Brooks; Angela Blackwell; Jim Grow. 

—Kalima Rose 

›

I am running for a second term for the Berkeley School Board. It has been a privilege to serve you these last four difficult years; I look forward to serving you another four. I was the only new boardmember when I assumed office in December 2000. I immediately started asking the hard questions. Superintendent McLaughlin would leave by Feb. 1, 2001, and left the district with several administrators in the wrong position or in over their heads, and fiscal, payroll, budget, and personnel systems in complete disarray. We hired an interim superintendent, Steve Goldstone. For several months we conducted a search for a permanent superintendent, eventually hiring Michele Lawrence in July 2001. During the first months of my term we discovered a budget deficit estimated at five to six million; estimated because there was no confidence in the ability of our business office at that time to generate accurate numbers. I am not exaggerating when I say the entire business operations had been neglected, abandoned, and mismanaged for years. 

Facing the imminent prospect of state takeover, we adopted a three-year recovery plan, realizing that making drastic cuts in only one or two years would create unacceptable loss of program. The Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) came in as an advisory auditor to independently monitor our progress. We recently received a positive certification for our 2004-05 budget, and the next two years, by the Alameda County Office of Education because we have successfully completed our three-year recovery plan. 

While all this was occurring, while Superintendent Lawrence and the board ensured that business and budget systems were rebuilt, while the district successfully converted to a better suited data-processing system, while we improved the payroll department, instituted position control, and implemented district-wide evaluations for all staff for the first time in years, I did not lose sight of our educational and instructional needs. In fact I have spent countless hours in meetings and discussions with parents and staff about our classroom needs, about ways in which we can improve our early literacy program, our library services, our music and arts programs, our dual-immersion program, and the high school program. I have monitored not only our budgets but our test scores, our self-assessments, and evaluations. I have frequently and regularly visited our early childhood centers, elementary, middle, high schools, and adult school. I attend meetings with Mayor Bates, city councilmembers, and district and city staff. The people I have worked with the past four years (and more) have overwhelmingly endorsed my re-election; from the arts and music community(Bonnie Hughes, Susan Medak, Barbara Oliver, Michael Kelley, Jesse Anthony, Karen McKie, and Michele Rabkin) to city library staff and boardmembers (Jackie Griffin, Alan Bern, Terry Powell) to Alice Waters at the Chez Panisse Foundation, Zenobia Barlow at the Center for Ecoliteracy, to elected officials such as State Senator Don Perata, County Superintendent of Schools Sheila Jordan, Mayor Tom Bates, School Board Vice-President Nancy Riddle, and School Board Director Shirley Issel, and councilmembers Maio, Shirek, Spring, and Worthington. 

Since my election to the board, test scores, as indicated by the state API, have increased significantly in every one of our elementary schools. In the past month BUSD has been named along with the City of Berkeley as the top ranked city/district in the state in teen services, and has been rated the number one district in the nation on improvements and innovations in school 

lunch program (the Golden Carrot award). I have worked to implement standards-based solar curriculum in our elementary schools, have worked with community members and city staff to implement school traffic safety practices at our schools, have prioritized emergency preparedness, anti-bullying, and am working to ensure the Alternative High School has a top-quality lunch and breakfast program as well as a physical education program. We have stabilized leadership and the environment at Berkeley High, and we successfully defended an attack on our student assignment policy by the Pacific Legal Foundation in California Superior Court. My goal as a boardmember is to improve our district, in all areas, and to make it the best school district in the state. The district has vastly improved in many, many areas since I took office four years ago. Help me build and add to that improvement in the next four years. As the parent of a son, now a senior at Berkeley High, who has seen every level of our schools and has worked since the early 1990s to support and improve our schools, I can offer you my experience the past four years, and my dedication to the health, safety, and educational needs of all of our children. I am a very hard working boardmember on a hard working board. Please also support Measure B, which will add essential classroom and library services to all our schools. 

—John Selawsky 

George W. Bush has been good to me. To call him my savior would be overstating the case, but not by much. I was drifting, with little sense of direction or purpose, when he came to me and showed me the way. It will be difficult to vote against a man who has given me so much. 

As a political cartoonist, it is my job to dwell on the negative, and President Bush has provided me with a seemingly bottomless well of negativity. All I have to do is reach down with cupped hands and drink my fill. A good cartoon channels the artist’s outrage over hypocrisy, arrogance, incompetence and injustice into a clear, simple image which indicts the perpetrators and calls them to account. And I can’t imagine a better muse than George Bush. 

Not that John Kerry wouldn’t provide plenty of fodder, should he be elected. The man’s hair alone is worthy of satire. And with that elongated face and those sad hound-dog eyes, the man is a veritable anthology of caricature clichés.  

And his politics, of course, would provide ample material; it is a testament to the extremism of Bush’s policies that Kerry is in many quarters considered liberal. The New Democrat mentality, once Republican Lite, has been redefined as leftist, and leftist redefined as radical. More troops in Iraq; a harder line against Palestine; a pandering “right into the camera” pledge of no new taxes on a middle class redefined as those making less than $200,000—if this is liberalism, perhaps it’s time I trade in my beard for a hammer and sickle.  

So in a sense, I can’t lose; the field of candidates guarantees me some measure of job security. But George Bush is special. What’s bad for the country is good for the cartoonist, and Bush is evidently steadfast in his determination to revitalize the art of political cartooning.  

When I began my post-collegiate cartooning career, the nation’s biggest scandal, speaking figuratively, was in Bill Clinton’s pants. And that wasn’t a topic I found particularly inspiring.  

Otherwise, things were pretty dull—it was a time of relative peace and prosperity, with most of the public debate centered on an absurd and petty soap opera of sex, lies and Linda’s Tripp wire, designed to send the president stumbling into impeachment. This may sound like fertile ground for a cartoonist, and for many it was, but I did not get into this business to make penis jokes. That was, and remains, merely a personal hobby. 

Political cartooning, already on a steady downward path from the heights of Watergate and the Reagan years, had taken another precipitous drop, reducing itself to a series of jokes and one-liners on current events, rather than statements of opinion and principle. Humor, once viewed as just one of many tools in the cartoonist’s toolbox, had become the objective, rendering the editorial cartoon nothing more than a humorous diversion from the serious topics otherwise discussed with sobriety on the editorial page. Editorial cartoonists across the country seemed content to play court jester, attempting to line their pockets with the meager reprint fees shelled out by a nation of editors hell-bent on not challenging their readers. It was difficult enough for me to make my way as a freelancer; I didn’t want to add to the cacophony of trite cartoons vying for the reader’s eye.  

Then the 2000 election fiasco came along and gave me something worth drawing about: fraud, corruption, voter disenfranchisement, stolen elections, a deposed family dynasty on the march. Things were looking up.  

And after the inauguration, the hits just kept on coming: the Healthy Forests Initiative that wasn’t; the Clear Skies Act that didn’t—the Orwellian turns of phrase were abundant, transparent, maddening and inspiring. These were good times. 

Then 9/11 came along, and with it a brief period of national unity, during which many of the nation’s cartoonists embarrassed themselves with fawning portraits of Bush as a giant among men, a bold and statuesque leader who had grown in office—despite the fact that his administration had been caught with its pants down in a position far more compromising than any conceived in Bill Clinton’s naughtiest fantasies. But the love-fest would be short-lived. 

The conventional wisdom was that the 9/11 attacks had changed everything, but its true effects were far more insidious than anyone could have predicted: It transformed the bumbling presidency of George W. Bush into a seemingly unstoppable neo-conservative juggernaut, a focused and determined political machine that would ruthlessly channel the confusion and anguish of 9/11 toward a radical conservative agenda. And it gave me–and political cartooning in general–a second wind.  

The administration used 9/11 to justify a series of outrageous and egregious policies, steamrolling over the Democrats and the nation in pursuit of the neo-con wet dream that had lain dormant for more than a decade, and culminating in the attempt to establish Iraq as a bright shining example of laissez faire Utopia. They demanded the unfathomable and settled for the unthinkable, making Orwell’s nightmares seem like acceptable compromises by comparison. There is no more hospitable climate for a cartoonist. 

And though I’m sure President Kerry could be depended upon to carry the torch and continue much of the ongoing circus of folly and hypocrisy, I’m not sure what will become of me if he doesn’t. If worse comes to worst and I’m left without material, I may just be forced to use my considerable salary to finance another California recall. 

In the meantime, while the optimist in me hopes for change, the opportunist in me is cheering for President Bush. The man came to me in my time of need and he’s given me some good years. And it’s hard to turn your back on a friend like that.  

Justin DeFreitas is the editorial cartoonist for the Berkeley Daily Planet. His work is reprinted in a dozen Northern California newspapers and magazines and online at www.jfdefreitas.com. 

Slogging onward towards Babylon on a diet of fast food politics, I cannot bring myself to wear a Kerry button or put his bumper sticker on my car. I cannot support him, but I would, if I have to, vote for him.  

My law office is on the corner of Woolsey and Martin Luther King, just south of the Ashby BART station. I’ve been here since 1984. Nothing much has changed in those years. The drug deals, the discarded wine bottles, the special enforcement unit rounding up black men at night, the unemployment, the wrenching poverty, the transfer of property from black owners to white—through Reagan, Bush the First, Clinton, and Bush the Second, things have only gotten worse. Throughout all these years the two great parties have served the interests of their corporate masters, the rich have gotten richer, the poor poorer and down in my neighborhood, and in neighborhoods all over the world that I care about—Palestine for one—it has not made, in the words of Alexander Cockburn and the Counterpunch crowd, “a dime’s worth of difference” who’s in power.  

Towering corporate giants dominate the landscape of our lives. At their feet we slither, and occasionally at election time permit ourselves to imagine, like the emperor in the fable, that we are clothed in the garments of citizenship, while in fact we are naked and shivering in their shadow.  

And yet, and yet: It makes a difference which strategy the powers that be, our corporate rulers, adopt in furthering their interests. There’s a difference, to put it in the starkest terms, between fascism and corporate liberalism. And I would rather struggle in the landscape of corporate liberalism than the proto-fascistic, or neo-fascistic or post-modern fascistic moonscape of the Bush administration. 

Perhaps fascism has always lurked beneath the liberal surface of United States politics. But under Bush the Second it has emerged, resplendent and unrepentant. The brazenness of this regime is what distinguishes it from all previous atrocious administrations that have ministered to the whims of their corporate masters. Bush and his crew have discarded all pretense of adherence to universal principles that apply equally to all countries and peoples. The rule of law is for the weak. Girlie-men. Impotent moralizers. The Republicans have mobilized in support of policies dictated by their corporate clients—a fundamentalist nativist, culturally reactionary constituency which hates the modern world for its impieties and promiscuities. They have conjured up a perpetual enemy against whom we must wage war without end at home and abroad. They have legitimized torture. They have fertilized the political landscape with fear and terror, rendering thought all but impossible. They are suspicious of thought which puts fear in perspective, creates distance, and, as reason, strives towards the universal. Thought is their enemy.  

Four more years of Bush scares the bejesus out of me, and there isn’t a lot of bejesus in me to begin with. Therefore, without illusion, I will vote for Kerry, if I have to. A general does not choose a battlefield for the beauty of the landscape but for the advantage it affords the troops who will trample the flowers. We choose to vote for one party’s candidate not because of the beauty of his politics, not to pledge allegiance to him, but because we prefer the terrain of battle his administration may provide.  

I would vote for Kerry even though he might very well make a better custodian of the interests of our corporate masters than Bush. The Bush gang has entangled us in a costly war, which has no legitimacy and from which we cannot extricate ourselves. They have busted the budget, and shredded alliances with longstanding allies. They have provoked an unprecedented world-wide revolt against United States hegemony. They have destabilized the world and conjured up threats to the empire that the more moderate corporate liberalism of the democrats might have avoided. Corporate liberalism, will, if necessary, throw a few scraps to those excluded from the banquet of greed. It will, if necessary, devote a pittance of this country’s enormous wealth to mollifying those who sweat for a living and those who chill on the stoops of the unemployed and increasingly unemployable. It is willing to make gestures of inclusion, incorporating and co-opting potentially progressive forces.  

We need to be concerned, not only with how quickly the system collapses, but also with how it collapses, and how much havoc it reeks in the process. We have responsibility for collateral damage just as armies, lobbing missiles into crowded slums, can not shrug off responsibility for the piles of dismembered corpses, the bloody pulp of the innocent they leave behind. I worry that this fascistic regime, sensing the collapse of its dream of empire, facing a withdrawal of support from capitalist classes world wide and economic deterioration at home, watching its fantasy of cheap oil turning into a nightmare of sabotaged pipe lines might respond like a crazed cornered animal, one that could in fact rend the planet apart with its claws. 

I do not believe that the worse it gets the better it is for us who oppose the system. I distrust our ability to foresee the future. Too often we have predicted prematurely the collapse of capitalism, and it might well be that this blatantly fascistic administration, could lock up possibilities of change for years to come, and we would all be Palestinians, endlessly dreaming of the homes we left behind  

So I will vote for Kerry if I have to. But do I have to? Here’s where it gets tricky. If I were in a swing state there’d be no question. I’d vote for the guy with the horse face. But the polls tell me California is not in play. That means I can keep my hands clean, avoid voting for a person whose policy on Palestine is obscene, and rely on other people with fewer scruples than I have to do the dirty work of voting for Kerry. That doesn’t strike me as a particularly principled position. Is there a principled position on how a progressive person should cast a vote for president in California vote? One school of thought counsels us to consider the counterfactual “if.” in determining the morality of an action. We should ask: “If everyone acted as I did, then what kind of a world would we have?” I don’t subscribe to that school. If everyone farted at the same time we would have a very smelly world. So what? If everyone voted for Ralph Nader, or David Cobb, or Leonard Peltier there’d be a revolution. That’s not going to happen. The value of our actions can not be divorced from their consequences. Does the size of the vote for Kerry in California matter as long as he wins? I’m not sure it does. Is there a practical value in casting a protest vote for a sure looser? Is it the seed out of which a movement can grow? I doubt it. Does it send a message? Not very far. In these circumstances, and because I am unwilling to rely on other people doing for me what I am unwilling to do for myself, I will—nose firmly held—vote for Kerry.  

And if he’s elected, I will breathe just a tiny bit easier for a day, and then begin painting picket signs denouncing his policies. 

La Lucha continua!  

The struggle continues. 

i

Editors, Daily Planet:  

At a newspaper endorsement meeting last week regarding Measure B, I finally met the lead ballot signer against the measure and letter writer to the Planet, and now comprehend how she and associates could make arguments that so misunderstand Measure B. Let me clarify the issue. 

She was led to believe, incorrectly, that Measure B was an end run around BSEP's democratic institutions—a power play by school officials to overturn BSEP. She mistakenly thought that Measure B would replace BSEP rather than just supplement it for two years, until a new BSEP comes before the voters in 2006. She was concerned that Measure B would abolish BSEP's elected Planning and Oversight (P&O) Committee and not have its own appropriate citizen oversight.  

Her concern for maintaining democratic institutions are important and ones I share, but they have nothing to do with Measure B.  

As we've tried to make clear, Measure B does nothing to BSEP. Every aspect of BSEP remains untouched until the current BSEP ends in June 2007. This includes the elected school site committees (I’m a member) as well as the elected P&O Committee (which I co-chair). Moreover, Measure B explicitly calls for a Planning and Oversight Committee. 

Where the confusion apparently arose is from the language of Measure B. Measure B states: “The district shall assign an Oversight Committee the responsibility to monitor the expenditures of the monies generated from this Measure.” She read this to mean that the district would appoint its own overseers rather than an independent citizen’s oversight group like BSEP’s P&O committee. In fact, the Board publicly stated that they intended the BSEP P&O Committee to oversee the measure and that they would “assign” this responsibility to the P&O committee. 

Why didn’t the board just say what they meant? When the final Measure B language was drafted, one board member (a stickler for proper legal procedures—a good thing) pointed out that current BSEP by-laws didn’t mention Measure B and would have to be modified to allow for this additional P&O role. It was her view that the language should not specifically mention the P&O committee until the by-laws were changed (following approval of the measure). As a result, while the board publicly stated that they intended the BSEP P&O Committee to oversee the measure, they left in the general language to meet this legalistic by-law argument. 

Bottom line: (1) there is no end run around BSEP; (2) there is no disagreement about oversight of Measure B. BSEP will continue as is until it comes before the voters in 2006 for reauthorization. The elected P&O committee will be the oversight committee for Measure B.  

Unfortunately, no one anticipated the possibility of confusion on this point. 

Measure B is the one chance we have to reduce class sizes, staff school libraries and resuscitate our music program. Vote Yes on Measure B. 

Dan Lindheim 

Co-Chair, BSEP Planning and Oversight (P&O) Committee 

Co-Chair, Yes on B Campaign 

›

The real debate story was not President Bush’s poor performance or the fact that John Kerry’s skill changed the dynamics of the election. What will be discussed long after the election is over, and these events fade in our memories, is the fact that Bush agreed to the debates at all. 

Coming into the debates the Bush campaign had momentum and the president led in all the polls. Now these advantages are gone; the race is even and Kerry has retaken the momentum. Give this abrupt turn of events it’s useful to question why Bush took the risk of debating Kerry. It’s not like he had to.  

One week before the first debate, the Bush campaign had not agreed to participate. There were rumors that Karl Rove, and other key Bush advisers, were scurrying to find an excuse for backing out; for example, a new terrorist alert that would justify Bush retreating to an undisclosed location to direct the defense of the nation. There was historical precedence for this expectation; in Bush’s second campaign for governor of Texas, where he ran against Democrat Garry Mauro, George W. resisted debating until the last possible moment—when his victory was assured. But in this instance, the Bush campaign agreed to three 90-minute debates after negotiating terms that they thought would favor the president. 

Given the cloak of secrecy that shrouds all aspects of the Bush regime, it is doubtful that we will ever learn the entire story. What we do know is that the Bush campaign made a major political error. They agreed to have the president debate a challenger who was widely reputed to be the finest debater in contemporary American politics.  

There seem to be three possible explanations for what turned out to be a debacle for the Bush campaign. The first is hubris: Bush and his advisers may have believed that he would prove to be a better debater than Kerry. Perhaps they deceived themselves by remembering his track record; George W. bested both Ann Richards and Al Gore after Bush came into each of those debates a decided underdog. Before the first debate with Kerry there were rumors that the focus had been shifted to foreign policy and national security, because this was, supposedly, Bush’s strong suit. It was reported that Karl Rove felt that George W. would finish off Kerry in this debate. Given the challenger’s decisive victory, this was a monumental miscalculation. 

The second explanation is that Bush entered the debates against the advice of Karl Rove and Karen Hughes and other campaign insiders. They may have warned him that he would be overmatched and therefore should avoid what would likely be a defeat. Perhaps George W. overruled them because he was arrogant due to his success in a score of staged town meetings with the Republican faithful. Bush performed well in this carefully orchestrated format where he was only subjected to softball questions. 

My favorite explanation, for what may well prove to be the pivotal political decision of the 2004 race, is that the Bush campaign made a critical strategic error. After the Democratic convention, Bush supporters orchestrated a sweeping attack on Kerry’s military record with the scurrilous “swift boat” ads and the accompanying book, “Unfit for Command.” This negatively impacted Kerry’s poll numbers overall, and his support among veterans and “security moms,” in particular. However, what initially appeared to be a brilliant strategy had a side effect, it called attention to Bush’s poor military record. Democrats were never fully effective in pointing out that Bush had used his connections to get into the Texas Air National Guard and then had not completed his service obligation after he relocated to Alabama. Nonetheless, the voting public was made aware that the president and his opponent had made two starkly different choices: Bush avoided active duty in Vietnam while Kerry volunteered for combat. 

Thus, what appeared to be an effective negative campaign against Kerry ultimately impacted the decision on whether to participate in the debates. Karl Rove, and the key Bush campaign insiders, probably concluded that if Bush refused to debate Kerry then the Democrats would link this to his service record and accuse him of cowardice. In effect, they were “hoist by their own petard,” as the saying goes; they were done in by the consequences of their own evil doing. 

Rather than risk the negative impact of the president being labeled a coward, the Bush campaign reluctantly agreed to debate the challenger. They then attempted to structure the debates in such a way that would favor Bush, but there was no way to protect George W. from a debater with the skill of John Kerry. It was a monumental miscalculation from a team that hasn’t made very many errors. 

In a couple of weeks we’ll know whether the debates were the decisive moment of the 2004 campaign. In the meantime, it’s encouraging to see the Bush campaign floundering. 

›

At its Oct. 12, 2004 meeting, the City Council passed the first reading of a recommendation from the Rent Board for an amendment to the Ellis Implementation Ordinance. The three reasons given for the increase of the fixed relocation payment from $4,500 to $7,000 were: 1) what Berkeley has done in the past, 2) what other rent-controlled communities have done, and 3) analogy to the state and federal eminent domain laws, which are designed to protect the constitutional rights of tenants and others.  

The first two of these reasons are horizontal, while the third is vertical. Just because Berkeley has done it in the past or other communities have done it, doesn’t mean it is legal or constitutional. As for the third reason, the information provided by the Rent Board was essentially false.  

The first false statement was the following: “Thus both the state and federal government currently provide relocation assistance to displaced tenants that is significantly greater than the assistance provided under BMC Section 13.77.055.” 

In fact, neither state nor federal government doles out a fixed amount regardless of entitlement. The payment amount is determined strictly according to the actual value of the leasehold, which is the difference between the rent that the tenant will have to pay (after vacancy decontrol) and the rent that the tenant had been paying (under rent control), with one exception: if the tenant is currently paying more than 30 percent of his or her income in rent, then the payment to the tenant is increased by the difference. This procedure is established unambiguously in 49 CFR 24.402.(b), which is cited, but not adhered to, by the Rent Board.  

The second false statement was the following: “Currently, federal relocation guidelines provide relocation assistance up to a maximum of $5,250 to compensate for the rent increase a displaced tenant is likely to incur.” 

In fact, both state and federal programs are open-ended, as they must be to comply with constitutional requirements. If comparable housing at a comparable rent is not available for any reason, then the evicting agency must provide comparable housing at any cost or forfeit the right of eminent domain. These open-ended programs are established by 42 U.S.C. 4626 and Government Code §7264.5. 

Therefore, the right thing to do is to require the compensation of the tenant for the loss of his leasehold right, to the full extent of its value for 42 or 48 months, as it is done in the eminent domain law. The leasehold right is a very well-established and undeniable constitutional right. On the other hand, there is simply no legal or constitutional ground for giving all tenants who have to move a fixed relocation payment, apart from moving expenses, simply because it is “inconvenient” to have to move. 

The legally valid alternative measure would actually be better for tenants. It would eliminate the most pernicious aspect of the Ellis Act, namely that it can be used to circumvent rent control by threatening eviction and then buying out tenants on the cheap. The motivation for this is to eliminate tenants under original rent control, but their valuable leasehold rights would be protected by the alternative measure. 

Landlords could not retaliate against tenants under original rent control, because they are already in their apartments, but landlords could and would retaliate against the low-income, elderly, and disabled persons, who alone would receive the fixed payment, by refusing to rent to them. Those persons certainly deserve all the money they can get, but it is unconstitutional to turn landlords into welfare agencies—that is the responsibility of society collectively. 

›

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have lived here for 33 years and have witnessed my much-loved city at its worst and at its best. On Sept. 24, my son Azad Ariel, age 33, died. He was bi-polar and often scared of becoming homeless in this city which he saw as polarized by the very issue that I have committed my life to. He was my guide in so many decisions that I have made to find the best care for those of our sons and daughters who are mentally ill and homeless or near homeless. 

In the outpouring of support for me and his five-year old son Marcus and his soul-mate Stephanie, Berkeley showed its best side. The letters, the flowers, the cards, the phone calls came from all sides of the political spectrum—the anarchists, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Peace and Freedom, communists. Prayers were said by Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Native Americans, Quakers, Sikhs, and Unitarians—people of all ages, classes, genders, and colors came together to give my family peace and love, and to say good-bye to a shining light in Berkeley—Azad. 

This was the first time that Azad had registered to vote, and will not be able to cast that vote. His wish for those of us who are going to vote would be that we vote for excellence and not politics, reality not dreams, creativity not mediocrity—his values. 

I deeply appreciate the love you have given us in the last few weeks and after a break to heal and renew, I look forward to working with this city with greater resolve and clearer purpose. 

boona cheema

It’s hard to believe that I was jealous of a man who could not move his arms or legs, or breathe on his own, but I was. You see, in 1995 Christopher Reeve became paralyzed from the neck down, just as my husband Ralph did in a Claremont Avenue bicycling accident in 1994. But Reeve was less fortunate than Ralph. His injury was higher up on his spinal chord, and he was forced to use a ventilator in order to move his lungs. Even so, I was suspicious that because of his celebrity, Christopher Reeve received better treatment from his doctors than Ralph experienced at our HMO.  

Despite Reeve’s obvious physical frailties, and incredible difficulties, I was unjustly angry at him because I knew that in addition to his insurance coverage, he could afford to remodel his home and hire assistants out-of-pocket to provide additional, much needed care. I once saw a photograph of Reeve in a swimming pool surrounded by eight people holding him upright and performing physical therapy. 

Since his accident, Ralph has not been in a swimming pool, in part because I don’t know where I could find eight warm bodies willing to get in the water with him. I reluctantly read Christopher Reeve’s first memoir, envious that he had written a book shortly after becoming disabled. While I struggled with putting sentences together in order to tell my husband’s story, Christopher Reeve’s memoir was already in print and he was working on a follow-up manuscript. 

I learned that when Reeve was transferred from the University of Virginia Medical Center, one of his doctors volunteered to follow him to the next hospital, to ensure that his care was consistent and correct. No doctor at Kaiser has ever followed Ralph anywhere. I concluded bitterly that because of his fame, Christopher Reeve got more attention and superior treatment than other quadriplegics.  

For nine years I have listened for, read about, and watched Christopher Reeves’ battle against quadriplegia. Sometimes I didn’t want to know how he was faring; other times I had a morbid curiosity about his welfare. I looked for his photograph on the magazine rack at the Safeway check-out line, I watched for updates on the evening news about his experimental medical treatments, I stalked his wife when she came to the Bay Area to promote a book she had written about her husband’s situation. I gazed with both horror and fascination when he showed up on the Academy Awards, when his image appeared in an advertisement during the 2000 Super Bowl, when he spoke before congress, acted in movies, and directed a film.  

But this opinion on the advantages of fame and fortune has changed, now that I know that Reeve has died of the same complications most quads succumb to: a pressure wound on his body became severely infected, resulting in a systemic infection. Reeve fell into a coma and went into cardiac arrest. Only at this moment do I fully understand that Christopher Reeve suffered just as much as my husband, and that despite his round-the-clock, professional staff of 12, a fully wheelchair-accessible home, and a fan base of thousands praying for him, he is dead and my husband is still alive.  

Years ago, a live-in attendant who took good care of Ralph, (despite a minor crack habit and severe gambling problem) tried to sell me a bag of chicken wings he had either stolen or found on the street. When I told him no and lamented that Mrs. Reeve didn’t have to put up with such ludicrous and ridiculous behavior, he said, “You don’t appreciate nothin’ I do for you or Ralph.” It has taken the death of Christopher Reeve, a courageous man, to make me appreciate the things that I have.  

3

26. Education for All 

One purpose of the U.S. Constitution, found in the Preamble, is to “promote the general Welfare.” In 1979, Congress echoed these words in its passage of the United States Department of Education Organization Act, to establish a Department of Education so as to “promote the general welfare of the United States, [to] help ensure that education issues receive proper treatment at the Federal level, and [to] enable the Federal Government to coordinate its education activities more effectively.” 

The right to education includes the right to attend high-quality public schools (K-12), including in low-income neighborhoods, community colleges, efficient facilities for training and rehabilitation of first offenders and parolees, and workable schools for disabled students. 

Report 26.1 

Budget Cut 475,000 Kids Out of After School Programs (Jesse Jackson, “In Rush to Rebuild Iraq, Bush Leaves Poor Children Behind,” Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 30, 2003, p. 33.) 

Report 26.2  

Funding Cut for Ghetto Schools, Community Colleges (Committee on Education and the Workforce, “FY2004 Bush Budget Shortchanging Education Reform,” U.S. House Representatives, Feb. 3, 2003.) 

Report 26.3 

Funding Cut for Training, Rehabilitation, and Special Education (“FY 2004 ED Budget summary: Programs Proposed for Elimination,” U.S. Dept. of Education, Feb. 3, 2003.) 

Report 26.4 

D.C. Schools Run by the Federal Government (“Protecting Quality Public Education -- The Issue: D.C. Vouchers,” People For the American Way, March 10, 2004.) 

Report 26.5 

Bush Administration Promotes Religious Education and School Vouchers (Committee on Education and the Workforce, “Bush Administration Cuts Public School Funding to Pay for New Private School Voucher Scheme,” U.S. House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 2003.) 

Report 26.6 

Bush Jeopardizes Programs against Gender Discrimination in Schools (“Legislative Update Special Report: Bush Commission Weakens Title IX in Sports,” NOW.org, Feb. 2003.) 

27. Environmental Protection 

9/11 in one morning created an environmental disaster for many years to come, and human disasters without end. 9/11 changed many Government policies. It did not change the policies of the Bush Administration concerning environmental protection. 

In February 2004, twenty Nobel laureates, 19 recipients of the National Medal of Science, and 20 other prominent scientists, issued a statement. 

They detailed examples of the Administration’s relentless abuse of science: censoring Government studies, gagging agency scientists, refusing to confer with or ignoring independent experts, misinterpreting information to fit its predetermined policy objectives, appointing unqualified and industry-connected individuals to federal advisory committees, and disbanding those government panels for offering unwanted information. (“Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Science for Political Gains,” National Resources Defense Council, February 18, 2004; Bruce Barcott, “Changing All the Rules,” New York Times Magazine, April 4, 2004.)  

In the face of all of these challenges, Julia Butterfly Hill and others have taken to the trees. Concerned environmentalists are increasingly joining forces with concerned immigrants’ rights advocates to preserve natural resources, including human beings.  

All the numerous paths for action require a little training in how to be an effective lobbyist for preservation of all natural resources, and how to help the media give coverage of events as they are happening, so that catastrophes can be averted. 

Report 27.1 

Bush Charged with Replacing Government Science with Corporate Science (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “The Junk Science of George W. Bush,” The Nation, March 8, 2004.) 

Report 27.2 

U.S. Department of Energy Weakens Standards for Nuclear Waste Storage (“Bush cleanup plan could leave behind more nuclear waste,” Natural Resources Defense Council, July 19, 2002.) 

Report 27.3 

Bush Administration Cut Clean Air Act Protections; EPA Leader Resigned (Christine Kraly, “Study: EPA Knowingly Underreports Toxic Air Emissions from Refineries” Galveston Houston-Association for Smog Prevention, June 22, 2004.) 

Report 27.4 

Bush Administration Ignored Global Warming and the Kyoto Protocol (“Secret Pentagon Report Details Global Warming Threat,” National Resources Defense Council, Feb. 22, 2004.) 

Report 27.5 

U.S. Inaction on Global Warming Threatens Inuit Cultural Extinction (Paul Brown, “Global Warming Is Killing Us Too, Say Inuit,” The Guardian, Dec. 11, 2003.) 

Report 27.6 

U.S. Military Ignores Environmental/Cultural Standards in Hawaii (“Community Impact Statement on the Stryker Brigade Combat Team,” DMZ Hawaii Aloha Aina, July 6, 2004.)  

Report 27.7  

U.S. Further Endangers Endangered Species (Letter from Jane Goodall and 358 other scientists to Chris Nolan, Chief of the Division of Conservation and Classification of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, March 4, 2004.) 

Report 27.8 

U.S. Farm Subsidies Are Starving the World (World Bank Press, “Aid Irrelevant Unless Rich Countries Cut Subsidies,” World, Oct. 11, 2002.) 

Report 27.9 

Bush Administration Allows Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Unabated (“Pollution from Giant Livestock Farms Threatens Public Health: Waste lagoons and manure spray-fields—two widespread and environmentally hazardous technologies—are poorly regulated,” National Resources Defense Council, July 24, 2001; “EPA Secretly Considering Amnesty for Livestock Farm Polluters,” National Resources Defense Council, May 05, 2003.) 

To be continued... 

Berkeley resident Ann Fagan Ginger is a lawyer, teacher, activist and the author of 24 books. She won a civil liberties case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1959. She is the founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley-based center for human rights and peace law. 

Contents excerpted from Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11, edited by Ann Fagan Ginger (© 2004 Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute; Prometheus Books 2005) Readers can go to www.mcli.org for a complete listing of reports and sources, with web links.

G. B. Shaw famously quipped, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” He obviously had never met anyone like Jerry Kuderna, for whom the acts of performing, teaching, and learning blend irresistibly, growing from the same root of almost religious devotion. 

Most people who have attended his piano concerts have their favorite stories of his concern that we get the best possible listening experience: “Now, this phrase, I’ll play it for you, get that? It will recur at the start of the second movement, and there’ll be a little breath of it at the end—like this. It’s amazing! Listen for it.” 

Then there are stories of his unflappable absorption in the music, as when, during one concert, loose sheets of music fell and scattered all around him on the floor. Jerry, of course, went on playing as audience members scrambled to pick up the pages and place them in front of him again. People attend his classes year after year—I heard one of them describe himself, with a laugh, as “part of Jerry’s cult following.” 

Kuderna’s teaching instincts go into reviews he writes of other performers, into his serving as one of the judges at the Junior Bach Festival (2002), into his DVC classes and his DVC Emeritus College classes, and into their off-shoot private classes. His performing goes beyond his frequent solo concertizing here, to solo work with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, to playing music for a film (whose title he can’t quite recall) made by Xiao-Yen Wang. 

Jerry was born in Chicago, but has been all over the map of the U.S. ever since. He spent his childhood in Modesto, went east at 16 to study at Julliard, then back to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, then back east to teach at Princeton, then later at Louisville University. He completed his Ph.D. at New York University. In 1980, it was back to Modesto again (where he still has family), then to Berkeley, his base since 1992. 

At DVC Jerry teaches classes titled “Music Literature,” which fulfill part of the English requirement. He invites students to express in narrative, in images, and in stories whatever they hear in the music. “Other teachers tell me, you don’t have to assign papers—give a multiple-choice exam! But I treasure these extraordinary written responses. They inspire me!” 

Through the DVC Emeritus College, which meets in various locations off-campus, he teaches courses like (currently) “The Magic of Opera.” When I mention a friend of mine who has become a long-term student-disciple, he says, “Ah, yes, Janet, a great person. You know, the class she was taking started from DVC Emeritus, but then the place where we met wanted rent, and DVC couldn’t pay. The class almost folded because, you see, I need the right kind of space, and a good piano. Janet took it upon herself, and got us invited to use Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek, where they have a wonderful Baldwin.” There, Kuderna teaches a class titled “Piano Literature.” He laughs. “A pretty open-ended title, so I can change all the time, from one composer to another, whatever strikes me.” 

I asked what he thought was the source of the energy that sustains his long-term enthusiasm for performing and teaching. He hesitated for a moment. “You know, the great composers were and are modestly aware of their music as a live thing passing through performers to listeners. A live thing,” he emphasizes. “Ephemeral, but alive. It passes through me to listeners. Then the listeners pass their response, their feelings back to me. It’s a mutual process of nurturing.” 

He pauses, then says, “Do you know that wonderful line of Whitman? ‘The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him, it cannot fail.’ That’s it.” 

Jerry Kuderna has been playing noon and afternoon piano concerts for the Berkeley Arts Festival. His next concert, on the fabulous 10-foot Fazioli piano loaned by Piedmont Piano to the Festival, will be music by Frederic Mampou (1893-1987), four series of short pieces that Jerry calls, “music of silence, music of quiet. Mampou wrote these in the 1960s. Imagine, he was pushing 80. All his life, stripped of any ego or ambition or vanity, went into them. Mampou described them as having ‘no air or light, emotion in secret. . .reaching not to the heights but . . . to the profound depths of . . .’”  

I couldn’t manage to set down the entire quotation, but, not to worry, Jerry will recite it to us before he starts playing on Sunday, Oct. 24, 3 p.m., Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. 

When Sana Makhoul started studying for her master’s degree in art history at San Jose State University, she noticed that her native Arab culture was either unexamined or misrepresented in all the books she used for class and decided to find out why. 

After two years chronicling the history of art portraying Arabs and Muslims, from 19th Century paintings to modern movies, she’s put together a show called Somewhere Elsewhere, which opens today (Tuesday) at UC Berkeley’s Worth Ryder Gallery. 

The show features eight different Arab and Iranian artists who work in various art genres including painting, sculpture and film. Each artist’s piece is meant to confront stereotypes and misrepresentations about Arab and Muslims in the Middle East. 

“I decided [that] instead of writing another thesis to sit on the shelf I wanted to do something that I could interact with,” said Makhoul, an Arab-Palestinian who grew up in Israel. 

Makhoul said her research was heavily influenced by Edward Said, and especially by his book, Orientalism, about the assumptions and inaccuracies in some Western portrayals of the Middle East. Said, a Palestine-American professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, died last year. There will be a screening of a movie about Said as part of the show. 

Many of the pieces in the show look at stereotypes about the Middle East. Others examine the particular forms of discrimination that Arabs and Muslims faced after Sept. 11. 

In one of her sculpture pieces, Iranian artist Haleh Niazmand places several circular pieces on the wall, each with a small picture of a woman’s body part. They are meant to represent peep-holes through which the western world sees women. 

“We are very used to a fragmented view of women,” said Niazmand. Western advertising has reduced women to their individual body parts, she said. This is also the case when Westerners consider the plight of women in the Middle East, she said, such as when people assume that veils are ubiquitous and must be a form of oppression. Niazmand said those assumptions are incorrect and a second sculpture by her mocks that notion by showing the bodice of a woman that is covered by a veil. 

Another piece of Niazmand’s is a sculpture of a vagina. She says it depicts Westerners' obsession with virgins in the Middle East. 

“There are a lot of assumptions,” said Niazmand. “The traditional notion that the girls in the Middle East have to be virgins until the time of their marriage, it’s a stereotype.” 

Dorris Bittar’s two paintings in the show both use the American flag as their background with patterns and images imposed on them. In one, “Stars and Stripes: From Zaragosa to Shiraz,” Bittar paints the flag with patterns associated with the Middle East, using an Islamic design from Zaragoza, Spain, as well as a design from Shiraz, Iran. 

The piece forces the viewer to acknowledge the diversity of the Middle East, said Bittar, who is Lebanese but was born in Iraq and now lives in San Diego. The different patterns are proof of a geographic diversity and an artistic diversity, which contradicts the one-dimensional image of an “Arab” or the “Middle East.” 

The backdrop of the American flag is meant to show America’s own emphasis on diversity, Bittar said. 

“I wanted to put the most starred and striped culture, which is the Middle Eastern culture, with the most patterned flag in the world and draw similarities about how they have dealt with diversity,” she said. 

Some of the pieces are narratives but are also open for interpretation. Abdelali Dahrouch’s “Yellow Citizen” is a multimedia piece that shows images of Japanese people in internment camps during World War II and images of Arabs and Muslims after Sept. 11. The juxtaposition, he said, is meant to remind the viewer that the United States often forgets its own history. 

But beyond the connection, Dahrouch leaves the rest up to the viewer. 

“I want a space where those connections are manifest,” said Dahrouch, not “didactic.” Dahrouch was born in Algeria, grew up in France and moved to United States about 20 years ago. “I like to create poetry through my art with that ambivalence.” 

›

TUESDAY, OCT. 19 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Somewhere Else” An exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern artists. Reception from 4 to 7 p.m. Worth Ryder Art Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 642-2582.  

FILM 

JPEX: “Expanded Visions” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Writers Harvest Readings by Tobias Wolff, Gail Tsukiyama, and Jervey Tervalon at 7 p.m. in the Student Union at Mills College. Donation $5-$20. Benefits the Alameda County Community Food Bank. 430-3250. 

Glenn W. Smith introduces “The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy From Extinction” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Ernesto Quióonez talks about the gentrification of Spanish Harlem in “Chango’s Fire” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Wayne Bernhardson introduces “Moon Handbook: Argentina” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Songs of Donald Rumsfeld” with Bryant Kong, composer and pianist, and Ellender Wall, soprano at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazz House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Madeleine Peyroux at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Peter Barshay & Murray Low at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 

FILM 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Nightmare Alley” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Café Poetry at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jennifer Traig describes “Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

As’ad AbuKhalil discusses “The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

Lit Glass Presentation by artist Eliot K. Daughtry at 6:30 p.m. at 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Billy Dunn & Bluesway at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Erik Jekabson Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bluegrass Concert Benefit for Allison Fisher at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Whiskey Brothers at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473.  

Josh Workman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 21 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Bella Feldman and Katherine Westerhout, sculpture and photography. Presentation by the artists at 7 p.m. at the State Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St. 622-8190. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Threshold: Byron Kim” Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Casting Pebble, Flying Kite” Reception for artists Joyce Hsu and Chen-Ju Pan at 5 p.m. at 555 12th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Jan. 5. 238-6836. 

“l'Art de Vivre” Sculptures, bronzes and ceramics by Khalil Bendib. Reception at 5 p.m. at 340 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 642-8208. 

FILM 

Documentary Voices: “In the Name of God” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Power of Giving” with artists W. A. Ehren Tool, Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

“Mexico at the Hearst Museum” with Ira Jacknis at noon at Phoebe Hearst Museum, UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 643-7648.  

Gerard Jones introduces “Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat at 7 p.m. with Stan Millard and Alice Templeton, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Bruce Molesky, Appalachian fiddling, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Megan Skalard Band at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Pladdohg at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Eric Schrifrin, solo piano at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Rick Braun at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, OCT. 22 

THEATER 

Acme Players Ensemble, “Ghost in the Machine” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., call for Sun. times., through Nov. 7, at APE Space, 2525 Eighth St. Suggested donation $5-$20. 332-1931. 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Present Laughter” by Noel Coward at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Through Nov. 20. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Eurydice” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Nov. 14. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Central Works, “A Step Away” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Through Nov. 21. Tickets are $8-$20. 558-1381. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “Noises Off” Fri.-Sat., selected Sun., through Nov. 20, at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10-$15. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Magical Acts Ritual Theater, “Heretics, Harlots and Heroes,” at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16-$26. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Un-Scripted Theater Company, “Fear,” a full-length improvised horror story, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. through Oct. 30. Tickets are $7-$12. 869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

“U.S. Provisional Authority” A musical set in the year 2014, at 8 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist, 2362 Bancroft Way, enter on Dana St. Cost is $5-$8.  

Woman’s Will, “Lord of the Flies” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 Eighth St., through Oct. 24. Every performance followed by a discussion on democracy, violence cessation, and preservation of just societies. Free, donations encouraged. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Swimming Through Air and Time” Paintings by Marsha Balian and Judy Levit. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5714 Telegraph Ave. Exhibition runs through Dec. 17. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Free. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Documentary Voices: “Father, Son and Holy War” at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kevin Starr talks about “Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

California Bach Society at 8 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org  

Dick Hindman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Jim Ryan’s Hideous Dream & Subjects of Desire, free jazz improv, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $6-$12. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Sidewinders at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Christine Kane, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Grapefruit Ed at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

The Look, Butane at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Drink Tickets, Cellofane at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Christy Dana Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Katie Garibaldi, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Brown Baggin’ at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Barbary Coast by Night at 7 p.m. at Cafe Raphael's, 10064 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-4227. 

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

Science of Yobra, Try Falling at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, OCT. 23 

CHILDREN  

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

“Wild About Books” storytime at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Berkeley Arts Festival Bus Tours, depart the Berkeley Marina on the hour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free. For details see www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

“Earthy Delights“ Sculptures and ceramics by Ralph Holker, Peter Voulkos and others, Opening reception, noon to 7 p.m., at Osceola Gallery, 4053 Harlan St. Suite 305, Emeryville. Show runs to Nov. 19. 658-1440. 

FILM 

Documentary Voices “War and Peace” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse featuring John Rowe & Rita Bregman at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753. 

Kay Redfield Jamison on “Exuberance: the Passion for Life” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Poetry By Women Of China’s Golden Age A reading and discussion with translators Bannie Chow & Thomas Cleary at 4 p.m. at What The Traveller Saw, 1880 Solano Ave. 527-1775. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Spirit of Africa African music and dance ensemble, directed by C.K. Ladzekpo, at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10 at the door. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Trinity Chamber Concert with Daniel Reiter, cello and Miles Graber, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www. 

TrinityChamberConcerts.com 

Kensington Symphony Orchestra, Geoffrey Gallegos, conductor, Seth Montfort, piano, at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $8-$10. 524-4335. 

Alexander String Quartet at 10 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 415-392-2545. 

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Native Elements, Dr. Masseuse at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

David Matela, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Times 4 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, California Celtic, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Misturada, Latin jazz, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Guitarra y Cajón Folk song celebration at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Communique, benefit for Jesse Townley, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

The Catholic Comb, The Audrye Sessions, The Cushion Theory at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Giselle Fahrbach, Brazilian jazz vocals, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 24 

CHILDREN  

Asheba plays Caribbean music at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Samora Pinderhughes, age 13 on piano and Elana Pinderhughes, age 9 on flute perform classic jazz, Latin and Brazillian tunes at 7 p.m. at at La Peña. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Day of the Dead Family Day at the Richmond Art Center from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

THEATER 

“Ghostlands of an Urban NDN” at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

FILM 

Documentary Voices: “Bombay: Our City” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Road to the Winter War” an English language playreading of a 1989 Finnish historical docudrama by Dr. Heikki Ylikangas, at 2 p.m. at Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $3. 849-0125. latoja86@hotmail.com 

Poetry Flash with Joanne Kyger and Michael Rothenberg at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Within Small See Large” Guided tour at 2 p.m. and lecture with Susan Handler at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jerry Kuderna Piano Concert performing work of Catalan composer Federico Mompou including “Musica Callada” at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Mark Morris Dance Group at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Julian White, pianist, performs works of Beethoven, Copland, and Schumann at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Suggested donation $15-$20. 528-4959.  

Jupiter String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. 

Quartet San Francisco performs at 4 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Cost is $12, children free. 559-6910. 

Chamber Music Sundaes with cellist David Goldblatt and oboist Gonzalo Ruiz, at 3:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$19 at the door. 415-584-5946. www.chambermusicsundaes.org 

Friends of Big Band Jazz with Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$18. 845-8542. www.juliamorgan.org 

“Imagining a Map of the World” solo dance performance by Evangel King at 11 a.m. at 1374 Francisco St. Donation $7-$15. 841-9441. 

Americana Unplugged: Mondo Mando Madness at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Le Jazz Hot at 4:30 at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Shelly Burgon and Trevor Dunn, harp and bass, at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations accepted. www.thejazz- 

house.com 

“Drum Journeys” A benefit concert for Spirit Drumz and Afia Walking Tree’s Afraka 2005 Project from 3 to 5 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $15. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws  

Táncház Band, Hungarian world music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

µ

Boas in Berkeley? Unlikely as it seems, we do have a native species of boa. But this isn’t one of the giant constrictors of the tropics, big enough to swallow a deer. Rubber boas max out around 26 inches in length, prey on small vertebrates, and are among the most inoffensive of serpents. 

One of two North American boa species, the rubber boa was discovered by Paulo Emilio Botta, one of those polymath 19th-century naturalists. Botta was the surgeon about the French merchant ship Heros when it docked in Central California in 1827. In addition to collecting the rubber boa, he was the first European to describe the Anna’s hummingbird and introduced the roadrunner to Parisian science. Botta went on to become personal physician to the Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali and French consul in Iraq (then part of the Ottoman Empire), where he excavated the Assyrian ruins of Khorsabad. He’s immortalized in the snake’s Latin binomial, Charina bottae. 

My only encounter with a wild rubber boa wasn’t in Berkeley. Some years ago I met a young one on a field trip in the Sierra, near UC’s Sagehen Creek research station. It was basking on a rockpile in the late afternoon sun. On first impression, it was hard to tell whether the snake was coming or going: it had a narrow head, small eyes, no neck to speak of (yes, snakes have necks) and a blunt-tipped tail. And its smooth skin was in fact rubbery to the touch. When Roger, the trip leader, picked it up, it coiled around his wrist and seemed reluctant to disengage. But there was no hostile intent; it was just getting a grip. 

It’s not surprising that I haven’t seen one since. Rubber boas are secretive snakes, hiding out under rocks, fallen logs, and tree bark and hunting at night or in twilight. Unlike some of their kin, which are ambush predators, our local boas actively seek out their prey, exploring the burrows and tunnel systems of mice, shrews, and pocket gophers. They’ll also eat salamanders, lizards, and (lacking a sense of professional courtesy) smaller snakes, as well as eggs. When they invade rodent nests, they’re reported to use their clublike tails to fend off parental counterattacks. Wild-caught rubber boas often bear the scars of mouse bites on their tails. If they’re attacked by a larger predator, they roll up in a ball with the tail-tip protruding; they may even feint with the tail, faking a strike.  

Boas and their close relatives, the pythons, are an ancient snake lineage, one of the first groups to diverge from the ancestral lizard stock. They’ve retained some anatomical vestiges, like paired lungs (typical snakes have only one) and rudimentary hind legs, which males use as claspers when mating. But it would be a mistake to consider them primitive—a loaded word, anyway; scientists prefer “basal”—since members of the group have diversified to exploit a wide range of environments, from rain forests to deserts. 

What’s the difference between a boa and a python? One is anatomical: pythons have teeth on their premaxillary bones, directly under the snout; boas don’t. The other involves reproductive strategy: all pythons bear living young, while most boas (the exception being the Calabar burrowing boa of West Africa) lay eggs. Collectively, they’re an old Gondwana family that evolved in the southern supercontinent during the time of the dinosaurs. Pythons seem to have originated in Australia, then spread to southern Asia and Africa. Typical boas are most diverse in the Central and South American tropics, with outliers in Madagascar and the islands of the Southwest Pacific. The closest relatives of our rubber boa and the southwestern rosy boa are the desert-dwelling sand boas of the Middle East and North Africa, plus that one oddball West African species. 

All boas and pythons are constrictors, a trait that has evolved independently in several snake families. Lacking venom, they need to subdue their prey quickly by brute force, looping their coils around the victim and squeezing to block its breathing and blood circulation. With their slow, thermally driven metabolism, they can get by with widely spaced meals. One study of rubber boas found that their rate of digestion varies with ambient temperature; it can take them twice as long to digest a mouse in spring as in summer. 

Rubber boas mate in spring, but the offspring (as few as two, as many as eight) aren’t hatched until late summer or fall. Although I haven’t been able to find any references documenting parental care, I wouldn’t want to rule it out; snakes in general are more attentive mothers than you might think. After winter hibernation, the young boas disperse to find their own territories.  

The snake literature consistently describes the rubber boa as gentle and easy to handle, like the one I met at Sagehen Creek. One web site suggests it as an ideal snake for therapeutic desensitization of the ophidiophobic. But if the fear of snakes is as deep-seated as some (E. O. Wilson, for one) speculate, I doubt that even a therapy boa would help with some people.  

Interestingly, there’s evidence that snake fear is partly innate and partly acquired. In a study by behavioral psychologist Susan Mineka, lab-reared monkeys had no aversive reaction to snakes until they saw wild-caught monkeys freaking out. Then they displayed fright the next time they were exposed to a snake. However, showing them doctored film of a monkey recoiling in fear from a flower did not induce fear of flowers. The snake response seems to be latent until triggered by the behavior of a role model. Remember that if you meet a rubber boa on your next family outing.  

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TUESDAY, OCT. 19 

School Board Candidates Forum at 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School, Florence Schwimley Little Theater on Allston Way. Co-sponsored by Berkeley High School PTSA and League of Women Voters. Questions for candidates will be collected during the forum or may be emailed in advance to colemanbarbara@comcast.net  

Morning Bird Walk: Inspiration Point Meet at 7 a.m. at Inspiration Point to see the resident birds of the grassland and chaparral. Call for directions or to reserve binoculars. 525-2233.  

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang and Tuesday Tilden Walkers meet for a joint hike at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Mini-Rangers Join us for an active afternoon of nature study, conservation and rambling through woods and waters. Dress to get dirty, bring a healthy snack to share, for 8-12 year old girls and boys, unaccompanied by their parents. Fee is $6-$8. 525-2233. 

Fall Fruit Tasting Discover the many varieties of apples and pears, at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market from 2 to 7 -.m. at Derby at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org  

Berkeley Garden Club “The Gardens at Filoli,” a talk by Grover Cleveland, Filoli docent. Meeting at 1 p.m., program at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Guests $2. 524-4374. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek with Kirstin Miller on “Daylighting Strawberry Creek as a Centerpiece for the University’s Plan” at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Community Room. 419-0850. 

Get Ready for Winter Cycling with bike specialist james Lanham at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream” a film at 6:30 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

“Slavery in Early Modern West Africa” with Ugo Nwokeji of the Dept. of African Studies at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa  

“Time to Learn About Children: Parenting Through the Ages” with Dr. Mike Riera, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave., Oakland. For reservations call 534-0804. 

Financial Planning Workshop: Investing 101 with Jarrett Topel, Certified Financial Planner at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. Free. 526-7512.  

“Introduction to Judaism” Explore Jewish spirituality and ethics with David Cooper at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. from 3 to 7 p.m. 843-1307. 

Family Story Time at the Kensington Branch Library, at 7 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors offered by Stagebridge, at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Classes are held at 10 a.m. Tues.-Fri. For more information call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. 524-3765. 

Lawrence Berkeley Lab Public Hearing on the renewal of the Lab’s Hazardous Waste Handling Facility Permit for storage of hazardous and mixed waste in their Strawberry Canyon facility, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 1-866-495-5651. 

Tilden Tots A Halloween treasure hunt for 3 and 4 year olds each accompanied by an adult. From 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Jimmy Rutledge Award for Service to the Community The Berkeley Police Assoc. will honor Bay Area Outreach Recreational Program with the annual Award at 2:30 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Way. 981-5900, ext. 4084. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“A World Without the United Nations?” Discussion and Q/A with UCB Professors Nezar Al Sayyad, Richard Buxbaum and Urs Cipolat at 7 p.m. at 22 Warren Hall, Oxford and Berkeley Way. Sponsored by UCB Model UN, United Nations Association-USA East Bay and others. 540-8017. 

“Matías” a documentary about people trying to cross the US-Mexican border at 4 p.m. at Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“The Framing of Mumia” a documentary at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $3-$5. Sponsored by the International Council for Humanity. 419-1405.  

“The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future” with Dr. Elizabeth Economy at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Will Durst will speak on why so many young people look to television comedians for their political news at 3 p.m. at 109 Moses Hall, UC Campus. http://politics.berkeley.edu 

Gray Panthers Wednesday Night Gathering A teach-in on Leo Strauss, pholosopher behind the neo-conservative movement at 7 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Tradition and Change: Conservative Judaism 101 at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 110.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

Writing Project with special guest Jane Juska at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop An ongoing group focused on issues of craft at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m., Peace Walk at 7 p.m.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 21 

Tilden Tots A Holloween treasure hunt for 3 and 4 year olds each accompanied by an adult. From 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Tilden Explorers A nature ad- 

venture program for 5-7 year olds who may be accompanied by an adult, no younger siblings, please. From 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Candidate Night for City Council District 3 at at 7:30 in the cafeteria, LeConte School, 2241 Russell St. 843-2602. 

Berkeley Marina Volunteer Training from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Shorebird Park Nature Center, 160 University Ave. Also on Fridays. 981-6720. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/ 

marinaexp/volunteer 

“Survival by Deception: Butterfly Mimicry” with Dr. Nipam Patel at 12:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Foods of the Americas An exhibit of the abundance of the fall harvest from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 27 at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“The State of the State of California” with Loni Hancock, Assemblymember at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. To register call 848-0237, ext. 110.  

“Perspectives on Immigration” A panel discussion with Gilbert Cedillo, CA State Sen. Maria Echaveste, Boalt Hall, Philip Martin, Prof. of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UCD, Harley Shaiken, Prof. of Education and Geography, UCB and Lucas Guttentag, Director, ACLU National Immigrants’ Rights Project at 4 p.m. in the Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu  

“After the War on Crime: Race, Democracy and a New Reconstruction” Panel discussions through Sun. at Boalt Hall, UC Campus. All are free and open to the public. For details see www.law.berkeley.edu/socialjustice 

Backpack Safety Evaluations for school-age children at 6:30 p.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, 828 San Pablo Ave., Albany. 526-1559. 

Simplicity Forum “Proceeding on the Path Toward a Simpler Life, Even in the Presence of Fear and Political Uncertainty” at 6:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 526-6596.  

“The Silent Cross” a film on the human toll of the militarization of the US-Mexico Border at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

“Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary” a documentary at 6:30 p.m. at Havens School Multi-Use Room 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. Discussion follows. 763-9301. mosesc@diversity works.org  

FRIDAY, OCT. 22 

Job Fair from 3 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 1255 Allston Way. 647-0719. 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Annie Pflager, Phil Pflager, George Johnson & Diane Rejman at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 528-5403. 

“Misery” The Stephen King film for teens only at 7 p.m. at the Community Meeting Room, Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6121. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

“Many Faiths, Many Forms: Dancing the Sacred Together” Workshops on Fri. and Sat. by the Sacred Dance Guild at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-0788. www.sacreddanceguild.org  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Xuerang Sherry Zhang on “The Story of Falun Gong: Is Anyone Listening?” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

A Day of Remembrance for victims of domestic violence at 11:30 a.m. at the Alameda County Administration Building Plaza, 1221 Oak St. 272-6693. 

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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, OCT. 23 

Gill Tract Harvest Festival Food, music, games, speakers, demonstrations. Tour one of last urban farmlands and research areas. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the SW corner of Marin and San Pablo Aves, in Albany. Wheelchair accessible. Free. Sponsored by Urban Roots. 235-5519. www.gilltract.com  

Mini Farmers A farm exploration program for children accompanied by an adult. Wear boots and prepare to get dirty. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $3-$5, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Tail Tales Explore the hind ends of animals to see what tales they tell. From 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The New and Old Berkeley High School Campus, at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. For information call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

Fall Fruit Tasting Discover the many varieties of apples and pears at the Farmers’ Market, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org  

Plants for Small Spaces at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Día de los Muertos Celebration at 12:30 to 2 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$23. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Registration required. Fees include Garden admission. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Project Censored Book Release Celebration, highlighting this year’s censored news and to honor the investigative reporters who brought it forward, at 6:30 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Catherine Austin Fitts, whistleblowing former Assistant Secretary of HUD, will keynote the event. Cost is $15 sliding scale. 707-664-2500. 

Nature Drawing with John Muir Laws using techniques from his book “Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide” at 10 a.m. at the Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Road. For admission prices and information, call 632-9525. 

Branched Drain Greywater System Demonstration Learn how to recycle household waste water at 10 a.m. at Oakland Permaculture Institute, 2135 E. 28th St. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

Transgender Health Workshop from noon to 5 p.m. at the Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. Registration required. 420-7900, ext. 111. 

“Many Faiths, Many Forms, Dancing the Sacred Together” a workshop in dance and movement inspired by religious traditions, at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., through Sun. 849-0788. http://www.sacreddanceguild.org 

Sprited Woman Workshop A self-inspiration workshop for women from 1 to 4 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $85, partial scholarships available. 888-428-1234. thespiritedwoman@aol.com 

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

SUNDAY, OCT. 24 

Days of the Dead Community Celebration from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Los Días de los Muertos Family Day at 1:30 p.m. at the Richmond Art Studio, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6770. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Feast of St. Demetrios Celebration at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, 2311 Hearst Ave. 649-3450. 

Botanic Garden Gambol Tour California’s great variety of native plants at the Botanic Garden at the center of Tilden Park, from 10 a.m. to noon. 525-2233. 

“Botanizing California” A Workshop/Field Trip to Montara Mountain to see maritime chaparral, north coastal scrub, riparian woodland, and more with Dr. Glenn Keator, Field Botanist Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $80-$95. To register call 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Sneaky Snakes and Timid Turtles Learn about these creatures on the front lawn of the Nature Center at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Poison Oak and Others You’ll learn about bad plants and their good relatives, and get tips on how to avoid “the itch” at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Soap Making Explore the science of soap and learn to make olive oil soap in this hands-on workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $10-$12, registration required. 525-2233. 

The Austrian Bank Project with Gerald Feldman, head of the commission to examine the role of the Austrian banks in expropriation of Jewish property, at 2 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext.110. 

East Bay School for Girls Raffle and Auction at 2 p.m. at 2727 College Ave. 849-9444. www.ebsg.org 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Artists for Change Fundraiser for John Kerry and MoveOn Pac Food, refreshments, entertainment and affordable art for sale, from 2 to 5 p.m. at 449 49th St. in the Temescal District of Oakland. Cost is $25. 524-5923. 

Improvisational Play Techniques with Masankho Banda of Interplay in a workshop for teens in 7th through 12th grades, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church in Kensington. Free but registration required. 526-9146. 

“Religions and Politics: A Discussion with George Lakoff” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10, no one turned away. www.spiritedaction.org 

“Theology in the Making: Our Responsibility for Action” with Bill Hamilton Holway at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Healing through Mantra” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Oct. 19, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

City Council meets Tues., Oct. 19 at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed.,Oct. 20, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation

For three straight weeks in June a group of mental health patients pleaded with the City Council to save the beleaguered center where they spend their days. 

After dozens of heartfelt stories the council obliged, rejecting a staff recommendation to cut funding and effectively kill the program. 

But a group of South Berkeley neighbors and merchants charge that councilmembers were thinking with their hearts and not their heads. 

They have declared war on the Berkeley Drop-In Center at 3234-3238 Adeline Street, which they insist has turned Adeline into a drug den, Fairview and Harmon streets into public urinals and the neighborhood into a summer shooting gallery. 

The drive to close the center has emerged as the most contentious issue in this year’s District 3 City Council race. At the heart of the campaign to oust the center from Adeline Street is community organizer Laura Menard, while one of her top rivals for the council seat, Max Anderson, whose wife recently sat on the center’s board of directors, has rushed to its defense. 

“Laura’s using the center as a political football to draw a wedge in the community,” he said. “Crime is not caused by the community’s most vulnerable people.” 

Menard replied that she started organizing against the center in April, and discussed the issue with Anderson long before she considered running for the council. 

“He knows I’ve been working on this for a while,” she said. 

Several residents and merchants, some who are supporting Anderson, insist the neighborhood concerns are genuine. 

Mike Gabel, who for 22 years has run an architectural firm on Harmon Street one block away from the center, wrote to the city council this week that he plans to move his business by the end of the year if the city doesn’t remove the center or make it clean up his act. 

“The current situation is unacceptable,” said Gabel, describing a constant scene of drug dealing, loitering and public drunkenness he said has grown worse in the past year. 

Anne Healy, who lives a block from the center, said when she tried to sell her house this year, her real estate agent told her to disclose the center as a nuisance to potential buyers. 

“It’s a pall on the neighborhood,” she said, adding that one prospective buyer saw two men smoking crack in a neighbor’s backyard. 

The drop-in center was founded over 20 years ago as an innovator in mental health. Instead of taking the traditional top-down approach, the center acts as an informal living room run by former clients. Clients with mental illnesses, many of whom are homeless and have drug addictions, come voluntarily for services and receive peer-to-peer counseling. 

Pioneered in the Bay Area, the peer-support model came into vogue nationally in the early ‘90s, said UC Berkeley Professor of Social Welfare Steven Segal.  

Seven similar programs now operate in Alameda County. 

Fred Madrano, the city’s health director attributed the recent woes at Berkeley’s center to the departure seven years ago of its founder and longtime executive director Sally Zinman. 

“They’ve tried hard, but I don’t know if they have the management capacity to run it,” Madrano said. “Certainly they haven’t achieved the results that we were looking for.” 

A report last June from the city’s housing department faulted the center for providing “little in the way of intensive services, maintaining no individual client files...and having no capacity to report on outcomes achieved.” 

To keep its $88,560 contract with the city, the council demanded that the center change its management, improve its services and repair relations with the community. A progress report to the city is due by Nov. 1. 

The center is in the process of merging with the Alameda County Network of Mental Health Clients, another conusmer-run organization that has an office upstairs from the drop-in center and operates six other client-run drop-in centers in Alameda County. 

The group’s executive director, Nancy Thomas, said the Berkeley Center has been providing adequate services, including providing housing vouchers and counseling, and that her focus would be to improve record keeping and document its successes. 

Center outgoing executive director Emmitt Hutson counts himself among one of the center’s many success stories. He said the center was “about to have its problems ironed out” and that neighbors were too quick to attribute every problem on Adeline to the center and unwilling to work with center management. 

“Everything they’ve done has been behind our backs,” he said. “They don’t want us here. That’s what it boils down to.” 

Robin Wright, the president of the Lorin Avenue Neighborhood Association and along with Menard a leader in the fight to expel the center agreed. “People don’t want any more promises, they want them out.” 

Sam Dykes, an Adeline Street merchant, said the center has exacerbated crime by making Adeline a lucrative territory for drug dealers.  

“When you concentrate a couple of dozen people with the same problem in the same place, dealers know that there’s good business to be had,” he said.  

A police crime map identifies the immediate vicinity of the center as one of the highest crime areas in the city. However, police spokesperson Shira Warren said that despite frequent reports from neighbors that crime is linked to clients of the center, the police had “no reason to believe there was a direct correlation.” 

Neighbors and merchants didn’t welcome the center when it moved 10 years ago from its original home at the former Edison School at Oregon and Grant streets.  

In 1994 council voted 5-4 to deny an appeal filed by local merchants challenging the center’s use permit at Adeline. To address neighborhood concerns, however, the council required additional conditions be added to the permit that neighbors say the center has disregarded. 

The conditions call for the center to prevent clients from congregating outside, post contact information so neighbors can call in complaints, post a schedule of events and establish an advisory board of center directors and neighbors to work out problems.  

Thomas said a report she will deliver to the city will address its compliance issues, but she questioned if she could reach common ground with the neighbors and merchants asking for the center to be closed. 

“South Berkeley has gentrified,” she said. “People want to see arts, they don’t want to see us.” 

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One of the most closely-contested local election races next month is expected to be in the Berkeley Unified School District, where three challengers are opposing incumbent board members Joaquín Rivera and John Selawsky. 

Rivera is seeking his third four-year term on the five-member board of directors while Selawsky, the current board president, is seeking re-election to his second term. Board members are elected at large. 

While both Rivera and Selawsky concede that BUSD has been plagued with problems in the past, they say that the situation has been turned around under their direction. In his filed candidate statement, Selawsky says that “during my term...we have restored fiscal integrity and rebuilt budget, payroll, and personnel systems, successfully preventing a state takeover.” And in a late September debate in the school board chambers, Rivera said flatly, “This district is better off than when I got on the board eight years ago.” 

But the two are facing a stiff fight from Emeryville Assistant City Manager Karen Hemphill and social policy analyst Kalima Rose, both of whom have already beaten the incumbents in the area of fund-raising in addition to garnering several powerful endorsements. Community volunteer Merrilie Mitchell is also running, but with no listed endorsements and no reported money raised, Mitchell is not expected to be a serious factor in the election. 

Hemphill and Rose have each raised 25 percent more than Rivera and close to 50 percent more than Selawsky. Rivera has $3,000 more in his campaign war chest than either Hemphill or Rose, but only because he gave himself a $4,000 loan. And while Rivera and Selawsky have the endorsement of State Senator Don Perata, among others, Hemphill and Rose have won the support of both Congressmember Barbara Lee and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, which represents some 700 teachers. 

Hemphill and Rose, while maintaining separate campaign organizations, are running what their campaigns call a “joint effort,” distributing a portion of their yard signs with the names of both challengers, as well as leaflets for the two candidates printed back to back. In her filed candidate statement, Rose includes a note urging citizens “to vote for Karen Hemphill to serve with me.” 

In community debates, the joint effort tactic has allowed the two challengers to double-team the two incumbents, who do not always offer the same defense. 

In a League of Women Voters debate at Rosa Parks Elementary this week, for example, Rose charged that “while the two incumbents tout the fiscal recovery that has been taking place in the school system, they neglect to say that the financial problems from which we are recovering began on their watch.” 

But Selawsky countered “it wasn’t under my watch,” noting that the district’s budget deficit was “already there when I was elected to the board in November of 2000.” Rivera, who was already on the board when Selawsky was elected, stared straight ahead and did not respond to the charge. 

And the candidates often clash over just how bad a shape the Berkeley schools are actually in. 

Rose and Selawsky differed at last week’s BFT endorsement meeting over the issue of how Berkeley’s teacher pay ranks with other comparable districts in the state. 

In 1999, BUSD and the BFT negotiated a four-year contract that sought to raise teacher pay to a competitive level. The two sides developed a complicated formula called the Composite Compensation Index (CCI), which compared beginning, median, and highest teachers salaries—as well as health benefits—in 33 school districts similar in size to Berkeley Unified. The BUSD and BFT agreed that over the course of the four year contract, Berkeley teachers would move from near the bottom of that list to just a little over the midway point (the 55th percentile). 

That contract ended in 2002-03, and Berkeley teachers have been operating without a contract—or a pay raise—since then. 

In her presentation to the teachers, Rose charged that Berkeley teacher pay has dropped below that 55th percentile mark since the contract ended. But saying that he wanted “to correct Kalima,” Selawsky countered that, in fact, Berkeley teachers ranked five points above that mark. 

Determining who was right depends on whether verified or unverified figures are used. 

According to BFT President Barry Fike, Berkeley teachers did reach the 60th percentile of the CCI in 2002-03, the last year of the four-year contract. In 2003-04, Fike believes that Berkeley teachers maintained that position, based on his understanding that teacher pay raises across the state were almost universally frozen during that year. But Fike now believes that because several school districts in the 33 district list have received pay raises this year, Berkeley’s position on the CCI “could be dropping now. We’re not keeping pace.” 

Another issue of contention is the academic achievement of Berkeley’s minority students. 

Hemphill, who is African-American, says that it is important to elect a minority board member “who looks out for all students, of course, but looks out specifically for the interests of minority students.” It is a pointed jab at Rivera, who is Latino. 

At the Rosa Parks debate, when both Hemphill and Rose charged that African-American test scores are “lagging” in the district, Rivera disputed that allegation, saying that “African-American and Latino students have made humongous progress” in recent test scores. 

Although African-American and Latino students have made some test score gains over the past year, the use of the term “humongous” is something of an exaggeration, if you take a comparison between last year’s and this year’s API rankings for elementary and middle schools in the Berkeley Unified School District. 

API scores rose an average of 19 points between 2002-03 and 2003-04 among African-American students in Berkeley’s 11 elementary schools. They rose an average of 16 points among Latino students in the four elementary schools (Thousand Oaks, Emerson, Cragmont, and Rosa Parks) in which Latino scores were tracked. However, that compares to an average 18 point increase in the scores of white students during the same period, so that the total average elementary school gap between African-American students and white students (237 points) and between Latino students and white students (208 points) remains virtually the same over the last two testing years. 

In the city’s three middle schools, African-American and Latino gains were somewhat better. African-American middle school students gained an average 26 points in API scores between 2002-03 and 2003-04, while Latino students gained an average 39 points in the two middle schools (Willard and King) in which they were tracked. That compared to an average 15 point increase in the same period among white middle school students. But minority middle school students still trail their white counterparts by significant margins (270 points for African-Americans, 189 points for Latinos). 

And in four of the city’s middle and elementary schools, minority API scores saw significant drops in the last year, with Latino students dropping 53 points at Cragmont Elementary and African-American students dropping 60 points at Rosa Parks. White student scores dropped in only two of the city’s schools, neither of them more than eight points. 

The League of Women Voters has scheduled at least one other candidates’ forum in the Berkeley school board race, Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Schwimley Little Theater at Berkeley High School. Telecasts of previous debates are also being broadcast on Berkeley Cable Channel 33.›

Berkeley residents who don’t want to wait for a flu shot will have to leave city limits to find an available vaccine. 

The city has zero adult doses of the flu vaccine and only 90 doses for children, said City Health Officer Poki Namkung. 

“We’re in a terrible situation,” she said.  

Without an adequate supply, Namkung said, the city has canceled its immunization program for city workers and has not supplied local health clinics and nursing homes as in years past. Local employers, including UC, Bayer, and Barra have also canceled their employee vaccination programs due to the shortage. 

Flu vaccines earmarked for Berkeley and all of California were destroyed last week after British regulators closed a Chiron Corp. plant in Liverpool citing manufacturing problems. 

The Emeryville-based company was contracted to supply the United States with 48 million doses of the flu vaccine, including those earmarked for Berkeley, Alameda County and California.  

Berkeley must now wait as the federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) rations the country’s remaining 22.4 million doses that were manufactured by the other supplier, Aventis Pasteur. 

Namkung said that officials at the CDC told her to expect about half of the city’s original order to arrive in six to eight weeks. Typically, she said, the city provides 2,200 vaccines. 

Other traditional sources of the flu vaccine are also in short supply. Maxim Health Systems, which runs vaccination centers at Walgreen’s, Long’s and Costco, have canceled scheduled vaccinations in Berkeley and will stop offering the shot altogether on Saturday. 

UC Berkeley’s Tang Health Center, which received 1,400 vaccines from Aventis, held its second and last public vaccination session Tuesday, said Dr. Peter Dietrich, medical director of University Health Services. The center still has some vaccinations, but is administering them on a case-by-case basis, he said. 

Alta Bates Hospital also received vaccines from Aventis, but as is standard procedure for the hospital, it only ordered enough to inoculate staff, said hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp. 

Berkeley Physician John Jones said his private medical group has been out of flu vaccines since they administered their first shipment of shots before the Chiron plant was shut down. 

He said most local physicians had ordered from Chiron because it is a local company and charged less for the vaccines than Aventis. 

In brighter news, he added that since the onset of flu season in the Bay Area doesn’t arrive until late January, the optimal time to get a shot is November. A shot administered in September or October can lose effectiveness towards the end of winter, he said, and is only recommended for people suffering severe medical conditions or traveling to colder climates. 

For those who need a vaccination immediately, there are several local options. Kaiser, which ordered from Aventis, has a stockpile of 45,000 doses for its patients who qualify. The insurance giant will hold flu shot clinics at 3801 Howe St. in Oakland from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday. 

The Safeway Pharmacy on Solano Avenue is scheduled to offer vaccinations to qualified patients on Oct. 25. However a store representative said the chain might cancel the clinic depending on availability. 

Further from home shots will be available at Alameda Hospital in Alameda from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 and at the Safeway at 2020 Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 

At all clinics, only eligible patients will be entitled to a vaccination. To qualify a patient must be either be between six months and two years old, older than 65, pregnant, a resident in a nursing home or long-term care facility, a health care worker involved directly with patients, or have a chronic medical condition. 

The City Council voted Tuesday to shrink the size of new buildings along University Avenue, ending an eight-year fight for clearer zoning guidelines on the city’s major east-west traffic corridor. 

But a group of residents along the avenue who back the new zoning rules still question whether the reform will be enough to stop developers from supersizing buildings. 

The council narrowly voted to pass the entire recommendation submitted by the Planning Commission. 

At first the council deadlocked 4-4-1, but immediately after the vote was recorded, with no motion to reconsider, Councilmember Maudelle Shirek reversed herself and voted to back the plan in its entirety. She joined Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Gordon Wozniak, Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley in voting to adopt the plan. Councilmembers Linda Maio, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington favored sending the residential-only option in the plan to the Planning Commission for further study, and Margaret Breland, who has a substantial part of the plan area in her district, abstained. 

In other matters, the council approved a cost-savings plan to shut down City Hall on five days over the next three months, signed off on the purchase of “vandal proof” parking meters, set a quota on medical marijuana distributors, and held off on what to do with the city’s Creek Ordinance. 

The new zoning rules for University Avenue are aligned to a strategic plan approved in 1996 that called for concentrating larger retail spaces at designated intersections and implementing strict setbacks to keep buildings from towering over adjacent homes.  

The new rules allow buildings on University Avenue to rise up to three stories along the avenue and four stories at the retail nodes. However, developments often end up taller and bulkier, neighbors say, because of a state law that allows developers to exceed the height limit by including a certain percentage of low-income tenants, or designating space for cultural use. 

Members of Plan Berkeley, a group organized around building on University Avenue, urged the council to pass the commission’s recommendation, but also requested that a clause allowing some residential-only buildings on the avenue be returned to the Planning Commission for further discussion.  

They feared that without ground-floor retail space, the buildings could more easily qualify for additional space under the city’s interpretation of the state law. Adding to their concerns, earlier this month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill increasing the bonus density, from 25 percent to 35 percent, allotted to developers who satisfy certain requirements. 

The new state allowance could swell residential-only buildings to five-stories or swallow the stricter building setbacks called for under the new rules, said Plan Berkeley’s Stephen Wollmer, who charged that the diagram shown to the council didn’t accurately display the size of the projects under the new law. 

“At this point, I’m just glad it got passed the way it is,” said Richard Graham of Plan Berkeley. 

The new zoning rules include a recommendation that the council commission a parking feasibility study on University Avenue to address concerns that a shortage of spaces has hampered retail growth. 

Planning Director Dan Marks said that development on University Avenue, independent of the new zoning regulations, would likely slow and migrate to San Pablo Avenue since University Avenue had become saturated with new buildings. 

Creeks 

Critics of Berkeley’s controversial creek law claimed a small victory Tuesday when city staff recommended that the Planning Commission serve as the venue for considering revisions to the law. 

However, the staff report didn’t reach councilmembers until late Tuesday afternoon, prompting the council to delay a vote on the staff recommendations until next week. 

Advocates of strengthening the city’s creek ordinance had called for the council to create a special taskforce to revise the law. A homeowner’s group, Neighbors on Urban Creeks, backed by several of the more moderate members of the council, countered that creek advocates could dominate a task force agenda. 

The creek law, which prevents most development within 30 feet of the center line of a creek, has become controversial in the past year when creek advocates began pushing for more protection for watersheds and their opponents demanded looser restrictions for property owners. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz said he recommended taking the issues to the Planning Commission because a taskforce would take longer to form and get up to speed on the issues. 

The staff report called for dividing work on the creeks ordinance into three phases:  

Phase one, which the report estimated could be completed in three to six months, would take up a proposal for removing the 30-foot setback requirement from the ordinance and instead requiring all new developments to submit studies showing that they would not damage a creek. Phase one would also consider removing the 30-foot requirement entirely for areas where a creek has been culverted underground and rethinking the definition of a creek.  

Phases two and three, costing an estimated $500,000 over several years, would include an assessment of key creeks and the establishment of new creek protection policies followed by a feasibility study of daylighting culverted creeks on public property. 

Parking Meters 

The council voted unanimously to bank on another new type of parking meter. The manufacturer insists that this one is vandal-proof. Parking meter failures cost the city an estimated $1 million in lost meter revenue every year. 

The city will spend $332,460, not in its budget, for 32 pay stations that will replace 284 single space meters on the southside of the UC Berkeley campus. They are scheduled to be installed by the end of January. 

The meters, manufactured by Cale Parking Systems, rejects foreign coins, plastics, wood, and all other slugs preferred by meter vandals, according to a report from Peter Hillier, the assistant city manager for transportation. 

Hillier told the council that if the meters prove successful, the city would expand the pilot area. 

Other Items 

In other votes, the council approved a voluntary time off program designed to encourage city employees to use their accrued vacation days. Last year the city spent nearly $1.5 million buying back vacation days from employees who had accumulated more than the usable limit of 320 hours of vacation time. 

The council also passed the first reading of an ordinance to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries to no more than three and prohibit them from within 1,000 feet of a school or each other. 

After deadlocking last week the council voted 7-1-1 to increase the compensation given to tenants when their landlord chooses to leave the rental business from $4,500 to $7,000. 

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Berkeley Planning Commissioners got their first look Wednesday at new state legislation that increases density bonuses on affordable units in apartment and condominium projects from 20 to 35 percent starting Jan. 1. 

“The consensus was that we figure most developers will pull back their pending projects until the law becomes effective on Jan. 1,” said commissioner Gene Poschman, who predicted the law will have “horrendous impacts” on the size of future Berkeley developments. 

The so-called inclusionary bonus has been used to increase the height of new downtown developments from the five-floor limit mandated in the Downtown Plan to seven floors in the case of the Gaia Building and nine for the planned Seagate Building on Center Street. 

Zoning Adjustments Board member David Blake said an additional complication is the city attorney’s office interpretation of the existing state density bonus law. 

“The law says you can increase the density, but only in Berkeley has the law been interpreted to mean you can increase the size of the project,” said Blake. 

Planning Commissioners also rejected the pleas of Landmarks Preservation Commissioners and decided to hold a workshop on proposed changes to the city’s landmarks ordinance, which had been revised by landmarks commissioners in a lengthy four-year process in cooperation with the City Attorney’s office. 

Planning Commission members will submit their recommendations for topics to be considered at the workshop to city staff members, who will report back to the panel at their first November meeting. 

Harry Pollack, commission chair, said the workshop itself will be conducted during one of the commission’s two December meetings. 

While the first December meeting will be held as scheduled on the 8th, the second session has been rescheduled from the 22nd to the 15th to accommodate the holidays, Pollack said. 

Commissioners also discussed city staff suggestions for the upcoming Oct. 27 hearing on commercial parking requirements as raised by Mayor Tom Bates’ Task Force on Permitting and Development. 

The hearing will look at two issues, a recommendation that would allow reductions in parking requirements through a use permit or an administrative use permit and another that would allow grandfathered nonconforming parking for a transition from office to retail use. 

“It would apply when an office had either had no parking or a reduced allocation and there was no way for the new user to add parking,” Poschman said. ›

University of California service workers from all nine campuses plan to converge at UC Berkeley today (Friday) to protest stalled union contract negotiations with the university. 

According to workers, the 4 p.m. protest will start at Sproul Plaza, then move towards Telegraph Avenue. Several workers said they plan to get arrested for civil disobedience. 

Workers said they want to highlight UC’s mistreatment of its low-wage employees and hope to garner both public and student support for their new contract demands, which include higher pay and more opportunities for job promotion.  

About 7,000 UC service workers system-wide, who do everything from clean dorm rooms to cook the meals at dining halls, have been without a contract since their old one expired on June 30. They are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME) local 3299. 

“We know that the union has gone to the table and bargained for us,” said Gilbert Nicholas, a senior cook at the UC Berkeley dining halls. “We also know that there has been no new offer [from the university]. The only thing for us to do is to demonstrate that there is a united front.” 

The university did not return calls concerning the protest. 

The protest comes a month after the release of a report called “Berkeley’s Betrayal,” authored by several UC Berkeley sociology graduate students and Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the best-seller, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.  

In the report, the authors detail how the university “betrays” its low wage workers by paying substandard wages, overworking them, and failing to train them properly. It also says there is a general lack of respect from students, administration and faculty for the work they do. 

According to Jose Martinez, an organizer with Local 3299, workers hope the protest is a way to unite with the Berkeley community, which has placed its own demands on the university. Residents and the city of Berkeley are currently struggling over how much the university should pay for the city services it uses. 

If contract negotiations continue to stall, Martinez said the union will use whatever means they have at their disposal to fight for the workers’ proposals. 

“The idea of a strike is not out of the question,” said Martinez. “It’s not that we’ve decided, but we consider that an option that all workers have when their backs are against the wall.” 

Workers said they are also ready to do whatever it takes to get better jobs.  

“I think the bulk of us believe that if the union comes to us and says we have done all we can do, that we would have no trouble passing a strike vote at all,” said Nicholas.  

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Knock Leads to Knocks 

A knock on the door last Friday evening brought an unpleasant surprise to one Russell Street resident. 

Opening the door, he was assaulted by four angry juveniles who fled after administering a beating. They were last seen fleeing down Ashby Avenue in a brown station wagon, police said. 

Their victim wasn’t seriously harmed in the attack. 

No suspect have been identified. 

Strongarm Pair Sought 

Last Saturday noon, two men so admired the belongings carried by a gentleman outside the Longs Drugs at San Pablo and University avenues that they decided to take them. 

After strong-arming the hapless pedestrian, they gathered up his goodies, tossed them into their yellow car and headed off for parts unknown. 

Rat Pack Robbery Report 

A caller told Berkeley Police that he was attacked on the Berkeley Pier just after midnight Sunday by a gang of 10 to 15 males and females who relieved him of his wallet, cell phone and watch. 

The case is currently under investigation, police said. 

Caller Sees Club, Calls Cops 

Police rushed to the corner of McGee and Hearst avenues shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday when a caller reported seeing a man with a club threatening another fellow. 

Both threatener and threatened had vanished by the time officers arrived. 

Worried Mother Calls 

An anguished mom called Berkeley Police from Vallejo at 8:43 p.m. Sunday after her daughter called to report she been confronted by a knife-wielding man on Indian Rock Path near Indian Rock Avenue. 

When officers arrived, the furtive felon had fled. 

Battery by Bladder 

When an employee of the Touchless Car Wash at 2176 Kittredge St. tried to evict a fellow spending way too much time in the bathroom Monday morning, the disgruntled fellow committed a touchless battery—via urine. 

Police arrested the 38-year-old man on charges of battery and probation violation. 

Same Weapon, Different Crime 

The same instrument used to commit battery at the carwash led to another arrest 90 minutes later when officers were summoned to the corner of Colusa and Portland avenues. 

Arriving on scene, police found a 36-year-old fellow seeking manual relief for his sexual tensions. 

They booked him for indecent exposure and escorted him to new and more confining quarters. 

Simulates Gun, Grabs Pack 

A man claiming to have a gun approached a woman with a backpack near the corner of Fulton and Prince streets just before 6 p.m. Tuesday and demanded the pack. 

The woman complied and robber departed.

A page 10 article in the Oct. 12 issue mistakenly reported where Neal Blumenfeld earned his M.D. It was from UCSF, not San Francisco State.  

An article on Oct. 8 gave the wrong name for the actor playing Sheila in the production of Joe Egg at Mills College. She is Cynthia Bassham, not Cynthia Chadwick.

Colombia makes few headlines in the United States these days. But Washington’s involvement in the Western Hemisphere’s longest, bloodiest war is rapidly escalating, as the world’s attention is elsewhere. The latest signal of increased U.S. embroilment comes just as a vocal civil movement is emerging in Colombia to demand an end to the war.  

The U.S. Congress approved last weekend a doubling of the Pentagon’s troop presence in Colombia, where a wave of protest has erupted as some 1.4 million public-sector workers walked off their jobs and took to the streets for a one-day strike. Organized by major trade unions as well as civil organizations, the Oct. 12 strike demanded an end both to President Alvaro Uribe’s push to join Bush’s Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and to the rights abuses and atrocities associated with the government’s counter-guerrilla war—which the United States has funded to the tune of $3.3 billion since Plan Colombia was passed in 2000.  

The vote in Washington two days earlier doubled the cap on U.S. military advisors in Colombia to 800, and raised the cap on the number of U.S. civilian contract agents—pilots, intelligence analysts, security personnel—from 400 to 600. The measure came as a little-noticed part of the 2005 Defense Department authorization act, and was a defeat for human rights groups that were pushing for a lower cap. The new 800/600 cap is exactly what the White House asked for. An earlier House version would have set a 500 cap for military personnel and kept the cap for civilian contractors at 400, but this was rejected in joint committee. A proposal establishing these caps in the Senate—known as the Byrd amendment for Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.)—was defeated in June by a vote of 58 to 40. Among the two senators who abstained was John Kerry.  

The authorization measure is ostensibly aimed at helping the Colombian government fight “against narcotics trafficking and against activities by organizations designated as terrorists,” naming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). But rights groups point to a long record of close collaboration between Colombia’s armed forces and the AUC, a rightist paramilitary group. And while U.S. troops are officially barred from actual combat missions in Colombia, many fear that Washington is on a slippery slope.  

“This amounts to authorization of increased involvement by U.S. troops in an internal armed conflict in Colombia,” says Kimberly Stanton, deputy director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). “And it was passed without significant public debate. We are sliding into a protracted civil war in Colombia.”  

In the general strike, hundreds of thousands of workers, joined by peasants and students, shut down cities throughout the country. Bogota’s central square, Bolivar Plaza, was filled with some 300,000 people—Colombia’s largest protest in recent memory. Business was also paralyzed in Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Cartagena, and traffic was blocked on the Pan-American Highway. In addition to protesting the war and FTAA plans, the strikers also opposed Uribe’s scheme to alter the constitution to allow himself to seek another term in office. The hardline Uribe, Bush’s closest ally in South America, has refused to negotiate with the FARC, Colombia’s biggest guerilla army. A negotiated settlement to the conflict was among the strikers’ demands.  

An Oct. 11 New York Times story on the troop cap authorization claimed that “Under Mr. Uribe’s administration, violence has ebbed in Colombia.” But Colombia human rights groups say that atrocities have more than doubled since Uribe took office in 2002.  

The Congressional vote also coincided with the release of a new Amnesty International report, “Colombia: Violence Against Women,” which finds that rape and other sexual crimes—including genital mutilation—are frequently used by both the paramilitaries and the official security forces against communities accused of collaborating with the guerrillas. The report says the guerrillas, in turn, have used similar brutal tactics against those thought to be collaborating with the army or paramilitaries.  

“Women and girls are raped, sexually abused and even killed because they behave in ways deemed as unacceptable to the combatants, or because women may have challenged the authority of armed groups, or simply because women are viewed as a useful target on which to inflict humiliation on the enemy,” said Susan Lee, director of Amnesty’s Americas program.  

The vote also came days after yet another peasant leader was assassinated. On Oct. 6, the body of Pedro Jaime Mosquera Cosme, an Afro-Colombian leader of the Campesino Association of Arauca, was found near the Venezuelan border, with what the group called “clear signs of torture.” Arauca is one of the most violent of Colombia’s departments, where numerous campesino leaders have been killed by paramilitaries and the army in recent years.  

Rights advocates fear that in next year’s Defense Dept. authorization act, Congressional hardliners will again push to get the cap on U.S. troop levels raised—or done away with altogether, as proposed by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA). WOLA’s Stanton says the lack of media coverage of the vote—and Colombia generally—is a bad sign. “The American people are not aware that we are increasingly involved,” she says, “with all attention focused on Iraq.”  

Bill Weinberg, author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Verso, 2000) and editor of the online World War 3 Report (www.WW3 

Report.com), is working on a book on Plan Colombia.  

A veteran candidate for city council made a rookie mistake last month that has been brought to the attention of the city’s election monitors. 

Norine Smith, the challenger to Councilmember Betty Olds in District 6, must appear before the city’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission next Thursday to answer charges that she violated Berkeley election law. 

The complaint filed by Mark Berger, the husband of Olds’ legislative aide Susan Wengraf, alleges that Smith illegally used her personal credit card to pay for over $1,600 in photocopying services.  

City election rules prohibit candidates from mixing personal funds with campaign funds. For the purchase to have been legal, Smith would have had to make a check out to her campaign fund and waited for it to clear, or opened a separate credit card account. 

If she is found to have violated the law, Smith could face “a legal remedy” according to the notice sent to her from the city attorney’s office. 

Deputy City Attorney Prasanna Rasiah refused to comment on the charges or possible sanctions. 

Smith, who reported the error in her campaign filing, admitted making a mistake, but questioned why the Olds campaign would bother filing charges against her. 

“It’s harassment,” Smith said. “They know I walk the district and if I’m distracted by this I won’t be ringing doorbells.” 

Smith, who lost to Olds by nearly a 3-1 margin in District 6 four years ago, is also considered the underdog this year. 

Olds insisted she was unaware that Berger had filed a complaint, but didn’t understand why Smith would be surprised by the challenge. 

“It was a pretty dumb thing to do,” she said. “The first thing the instructions say is don’t use your own credit cards.” 

Smith, who has raised $1,115 compared to Olds’ $14,000, said she would consider lending her campaign additional funds if contributions didn’t pick up. 

Editor’s Note: A portion of this article ran in the Oct. 8 issue. It is rerun here in its entirety: 

When Michael Shaub moved into his home in North Berkeley last year, he didn’t know his pricey new address would cost him the chance to vote in Berkeley on Election Day. 

Shaub, much to his chagrin, is one of 485 Berkeley voters to receive notice from the Registrar of Voters this week that if they wanted to vote in the upcoming election they have little choice other than filling out an absentee ballot and mailing it in. 

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “There’s a certain comfort in going to the polling station and knowing your vote is going to be counted.” 

Shaub and other affected voters all live in three enclaves criss-crossed by a half-dozen regional and municipal electoral districts. 

The problem, said Alameda County Registrar of Voters Bradley Clark, is that “when all these jurisdictions like AC Transit and BART draw their boundary lines they don’t talk to each other and we end up with these weird little precincts.” 

State law requires that a precinct have 250 registered voters to qualify for a polling station, Clark said. The three Berkeley precincts in question, he added, could not be consolidated into neighboring ones because the neighboring precincts were in different electoral districts and had different candidates on the ballot. To avoid confusion polling stations must all provide identical ballots, he said. 

“This is so common for us, we don’t give it a second thought,” said Clark. Previously most of the absentee voting precincts were in sparsely populated regions of the county, primarily the eastern hills, but as more jurisdictions have sprouted up, nearly every city has affected areas. 

But the policy was disturbing news to Carrie Olson, Shaub’s mother-in-law, and the Chief Operating Officer of MoveOn.org. 

“To have a further impediment to voting come up right in our own backyard is troubling,” said Olson. She feared that like her son-in-law, many voters’ first impulse would be to disregard the envelope marked “Absentee Ballot” because they believed they had an assigned polling station. 

“I think there will be a lot of people who won’t know they can’t vote until Election Day when it might be too late,” she said. 

Shaub who lives on Ada Street, just west of Sacramento Street, finds himself in a several block electoral pocket carved out by district boundaries for the City Council and the Peralta Community College District.  

Since redistricting in 1990, City Council District 5 extends west of Sacramento Street to include Shaub’s home and several blocks from Ada Street to the Albany border and from Sacramento Street west to Acton Street. But Peralta sets its district border on Sacramento Street, leaving Shaub and the other residents of District 5 just west of Sacramento in an electoral no man’s land every four years when both seats are contested. 

“That’s terrible,” said District 5 Councilmember Miriam Hawley, who said none of her constituents had complained to her about not having a polling station. She said her office would remind residents that they needed to vote via absentee ballot. 

Another precinct without a polling station is bounded by Sacramento to the east, Acton to the west, University Avenue to the north and Allston Way to the south. Again in that case, the conflict is between boundaries drawn by Peralta and the City Council.  

Peralta changed its district boundaries in 2000, but neither Susan Duncan, the Peralta trustee, who represents residents north of Sacramento, nor District spokesperson Jeff Hyman knew if Peralta had previously used a boundary other than Sacramento Street. Darryl Moore, the other Peralta trustee representing Berkeley, was unavailable for comment. 

The third affected precinct is two square blocks bounded by Shattuck to the east, Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the west, Dwight Way to the north and Blake Street to the south. Those two blocks were moved in 2001 from City Council District 3 to District 4. The City Council border now conflicts with districts drawn for the BART Board of Directors, which divides two districts at Dwight. 

Although some Berkeley voters won’t have a polling station, the city will have 85 stations in November—five more than for the election last March, Clark said. But as the ranks of absentee voters continues to rise—190,000 voters have registered to vote by mail this year, compared to 9,000 just four years ago—the county might reduce the number of stations in future elections, he added. 

On Election Day, voters deprived of a polling station can vote in person at the registrar of voters office in Oakland or vote in any neighboring polling station by filling out a ballot. Every race the voter is eligible to vote on would be counted, Clark said. 

In recent years voters like Shaub could have voted in person before Election Day at City Hall, but that option isn’t available this year. Clark said Secretary of State Kevin Shelley didn’t certify the county’s system in time to set up early voting booths. 

Last week, U.S. representatives parted company with Canada and Mexico and announced plans to allow continued use of the pesticide lindane that persists in air and water and has been found at high levels in the Arctic. 

Canada plans to eliminate agricultural uses of lindane by the end of 2004 and Mexico plans a full phase out of agricultural, veterinary and pharmaceutical uses of the pesticide. 

Representatives from the three countries met in Montreal, Canada Sept. 28-30, 2004 to draft a North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) for lindane through the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America established by the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA).  

Public health, indigenous and environmental groups have called for elimination of the pesticide lindane, a neurotoxin banned in 52 countries and restricted in 33 more. Pam Miller, of Alaska Community Action on Toxics and the official Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representative on the task force, called the U.S. position allowing continued use of lindane “downright shameful” urging the U.S. to join the growing movement to eliminate lindane worldwide. 

Fifty-eight public health, indigenous and environmental organizations recently sent a joint letter to U.S. agency officials and Task Force members urging elimination of lindane. More than 400 health care professionals in the U.S. sent a similar letter, and more than 800 individuals signed a petition to ban lindane. (See PANUPS Action Alert: Ban Lindane Now! on the PANNA website.) 

Environmental groups have also submitted a request to Bayer CropScience to voluntarily withdraw lindane products from the North American market. Bayer recently acquired Gustafson LLC, the primary distributor in the U.S. of lindane seed treatment products. 

International treaties on toxic chemicals have also targeted lindane. Included on the Prior Informed Consent list of hazardous chemicals in the Rotterdam Convention, lindane will also likely be one of the top candidates considered for addition to the list of chemicals slated for global elimination under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. 

Lindane is a known neurotoxin that causes seizures, damages the nervous system, and weakens the immune system. Exposure may also cause cancer and disrupt the human and animal hormone systems. Because lindane is highly persistent and travels globally via air and water, its continued use in agriculture poses an exposure risk to people far from the source. Lindane is now one of the most abundant pesticides in Arctic air, water, and wildlife; northern indigenous peoples consuming traditional diets risk lindane exposures above levels considered safe. Lindane residues have also been reported in a variety of common foods in the U.S. 

Pharmaceutical use of lindane also contaminates drinking water sources. The Los Angeles County Sanitation District estimates that one dose of a lindane treatment for head lice can pollute six million gallons of water to levels exceeding drinking water standards. This threat to clean drinking water, and the enormous costs of clean up, prompted California to ban lindane shampoos and lotions in 2002. 

Mark Miller, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, an academic representative to the task force meeting in Montreal said that more effective and less toxic treatments exist for headlice. Children are particularly vulnerable to this chemical that presents a danger to the young nervous system, he added. 

The 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Re-registration Eligibility Decision allows lindane to be used as seed treatment for six grain crops: corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, and sorghum. These seed treatments account for 99 percent of lindane use in the U.S. Up to 233,000 pounds of lindane active ingredient are used annually in the U.S. on seeds. 

The draft North American Regional Action Plan for lindane is scheduled to be open for public comment in January 2005. 

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) 

San Francisco 

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24. To Release Political Prisoners; To Stop Capital Punishment 

The deaths of innocent civilians on Sept. 11 set in motion greater concern for the deaths of innocent defendants on death rows across the U.S.  

One of the most successful efforts to free political prisoners, and to avenge their wrongful incarceration, was the movement of Japanese-Americans herded into internment camps from Pearl Harbor in 1941 until 1945, while their sons were fighting courageously in the U.S. military. In 1988, Congress finally agreed to compensate the surviving detainees. (Civil Liberties Act of 1988.)  

Efforts to deal with basic violations of the rights of Native Americans from many tribes continued, unsuccessfully, in the Bush Administration. The major losses they suffered due to U.S. seizures of their lands and destruction of their cultures were not redressed. 

Reparations for African-Americans for their torture, deaths, and mistreatment as slaves in the U.S. remains unresolved. One of the strongest and most effective proponents of reparations is Mumia-Abu Jamal.  

After progressive reforms in the Finnish prison system, today the Finnish percentage of people in prison is 52 per 100,000. The rate in the U.S. is 702 per 100,000. (Warren Hoge, “Finnish Prisons: No Gates or Armed Guards,” New York Times, Jan. 2, 2003.) 

Report 24.1 

Leonard Peltier, Native American Political Prisoner (“Leonard Peltier Nominated For President,” Democracy Now!, August 5, 2004.) 

Report 24.2 

Mumia Abu-Jamal, African American Political Prisoner on Death Row (“Death penalty again looms over Mumia's head,” SouthEndpress.org, July 12, 2004.) 

Report 24.3 

Almost One Hundred Political Prisoners On U.S. List (“Can’t Jail the Spirit: Political Prisoners and POW’s in the U.S.,” Prison Activist Resource Center, April 3, 2004.) 

Report 24.4  

Failure to Abolish Capital Punishment (“List of Defendants Executed by Year,” Death Penalty Information Center, Updated Aug. 5, 2004.) 

E. The Government’s Duty to Properly Fund the General Welfare 

In the Spring of 2004, the San Francisco Bay Area Progressive Challenge prepared the “Sensible Federal Budget Resolution” for adoption by the California state assembly. The Resolution calls on Congress and the President “to enact a budget that redirects sufficient amounts of money from the military budget to the states,” to allow for increased funding of social programs that provide “a decent level of healthcare and safety for all our citizens.” Many organizations have prepared similar resolutions in cities and states all across the country. 

Bush’s budget proposal for 2005 provided $401.7 billion for the Department of Defense’s base budget, an annual increase of seven percent, for a total increase in defense spending of 35 percent since 2001. 

2005 Discretionary Budget Authority sought by Bush for Departments: 

Defense $401.7 billion  

Health/Hum.Svc. 66.8 billion 

Transportation 57.4 billion  

Education 57.3 billion 

Homeland Sec. 33.8 billion 

Social. Security 9.1 billion 

EPA 7.8 billion  

(“Budget for the Executive Office of the President,” Office of Management and Budget, Aug. 16, 2004.) 

President Bush’s Department of Defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2005 is $25.3 billion more than all of the other 16 departments of the Government combined.  

25. Health and Human Services 

In November 2001, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, concluded an agreement among all 144 member states, except only the U.S., to help poor nations buy medicines to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., by relaxing patent laws that kept drug prices out of reach. In December 2002, the U.S. single-handedly destroyed the agreement by insisting that strong international patent protection be left in place, following intense lobbying from U.S. pharmaceutical companies. (Richard Du Boff, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Biggest Rogue of All?” Z Magazine, September 2003.) 

In July, 2002, the U.S. cut off its $34 million annual contribution to the UN family-planning program and in November 2002, withdrew its support of the Cairo Action Plan of 1994. The Plan promotes “reproductive health services and health care” to help cut population growth in developing countries, including abortion. 

Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) said the Administration was draining the Governments ability to pay for Social Security and Medicare when 77 million baby boomers are approaching retirement, and it is saddling future generations with repayment of a national debt that could rise to $7 trillion by 2013. (AP, “CBO: Government Faces Years of More Deficits,” Kansas City Star, Aug. 26, 2003.) 

Report 25.1  

Administration Budget Cuts Sent More Single Mothers Into Poverty (Bernadette D. Proctor and Joseph Dalakar, “Poverty in the United States: 2002,” U.S. Census Bureau, September 2003.)  

Report 25.2 

Administration Urged Budget Cuts for Cancer Care (”Most Americans Unaware of Cancer Cuts in Pending Medicare Bills, National Poll Shows,” U.S. Newswire, Sept. 25, 2003.) 

Report 25.3 

Administration Proposed Shrinking Veterans’ Benefits (James Boyne, “Bush Honors Veterans By Slashing Veterans Affairs Budget by $1 Billion,” Irregular Times, June 1, 2004.) 

Report 25.4 

Administration Budgeted for Expanding War Powers, Not U.S. Needs (Peronet Despeignes, “Bush’s Priorities Under Scrutiny,” USA Today, Sept. 18, 2003.) 

Report 25.5 

National Budget Crisis Cut City Services (Richmond Resident, “Richmond Budget Bodes Ill for Future,” IndyMedia.org, April 6, 2004.) 

To be continued... 

Berkeley resident Ann Fagan Ginger is a lawyer, teacher, activist and the author of 24 books. She won a civil liberties case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1959. She is the founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, a Berkeley-based center for human rights and peace law. 

Contents excerpted from Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11, edited by Ann Fagan Ginger (© 2004 Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute; Prometheus Books 2005) Readers can go to www.mcli.org for a complete listing of reports and sources, with web links. 

›

It was Albert Einstein who advanced the thought that all comparisons—among other things—are meaningless unless taken in context. Standing on the earth, you look up at the moon across a vast tract of space. Standing on the moon, you look up at the earth, along that same vast tract. Which one is up, which one is down...earth or moon? Depends on your point of view. 

Understanding this simple fact is the only way to explain the continuing coverage of Oakland’s continuing murder rate. In a Tribune story earlier this month about the West Oakland shooting death of 17-year-old Charleston Roberts, we find the obligatory line near the end: “Roberts’ death was the city’s 70th homicide of the year. Last year at this time there were 99 homicides.” How you view these numbers is entirely dependent on your point of view. For friends and relatives of Mr. Roberts, the only important number here is “one”—the one young man killed in Oakland on Oct. 5. For them, that number is ghastly, and it would not matter if Mr. Roberts were the first person murdered in Oakland this year, or the 701st. It would always be one murder too many. 

For local politicians seeking statewide office based largely on their law enforcement record (Mayor Brown, you think?), or police officials seeking to convince us as to how good a job they’re doing, the number to focus on is probably neither 70 nor 99, but the difference between the two. That allows them to say that murders in Oakland may be high, but they’re going down. And so we have Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson—who doesn’t always push the official Oakland City Hall line but is always in a good position to hear it—writes recently that “fewer people are being killed in [Oakland] this year than in the past two years, when homicides spiked to their highest totals since 1995. At the current rate, the city will finish 2004 with nearly 20 percent fewer slayings than the 114 killings last year.” And after praising Oakland’s homicide investigators for apprehending two particularly bad bad-boys, Mr. Johnson continues, “And maybe [these types of investigations and arrests] will ensure that the city’s homicide rate continues to head in the right direction—down.” 

That takes us back to Mr. Einstein’s theory, that what a thing “is” changes according to the point of view of the person observing that thing. Oakland’s homicides are going “down” only if you compare the number of homicides to the number that occurred by the same date one year ago. That’s a common way of comparing. However, you could just as easily argue that there never should be a single homicide, that we started out the year with no homicides, and that every killing since midnight on the first of January signifies that the number of murders in Oakland is going “up.” Same number of murders. Just a different point of view. 

And anyway, if we are going to use past years to judge how things are going this year, it would probably be better to look at long-term trends rather than year-to-year comparisons. If the murder rate drops 20 percent next year and again in 2006, then we could look back at 2004 and say that this was the beginning of a positive trend. On the other hand, if the numbers of murders jumps again in the next two years, then 2004 will probably be considered nothing but an aberration, a temporary lull in a horrific storm. 

Of course, looking at long-term trends is the territory of historians and sociologists and planners, all of whom get paid to take their time. Anxious Oakland residents—or visitors who might happen to just be passing through—can’t wait five years to see if they need to keep ducking. 

In that case, the best way to look at whether Oakland murders are going to continue to go “down” is to get some sort of idea as to why they went “down” this year. 

Some of the supporters of Measure Y—the Oakland ballot initiative that would raise taxes to increase the number of police officers—point to Operation Impact as the reason for the reduction in the murder rate. I’ve discussed this operation at length in other columns—basically, it involved flooding East Oakland’s high-crime areas with roving patrols of Oakland police officers supplemented by the California Highway Patrol and Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputies. These officers were not so much involved in investigating crimes as they were doing glorified traffic patrol, the theory being, I suppose, that if you stop enough cars in an area that has got a lot of murders, you’re bound to stop one or two actual or potential murderers along the way. At the time Operation Impact was initiated at the end of the summer of 2003, the murder rate was soaring. In February of this year, the Tribune reported that “during the first four months [of Operation Impact from September through December 2003], serious crime like homicide, robbery and assault were down 6 percent from the same period in 2002.” 

True. But while disrupting the flow of nighttime weekend traffic along International and Bancroft and MacArthur may have also disrupted the flow of criminal activity, it did nothing to attack the reasons for that criminal activity. One would have easily guessed that drug dealers and burglars and robbers would not stop drug dealing and burgling and robbing because they see squads of police officers riding around their neighborhood—they would simply move into other areas, where there weren’t so many police patrols. And so, apparently, they have. The Tribune recently reports that residents of the middle class Mills College-area neighborhood of Maxwell Park (just up from the crime hot-spot crossroad of Seminary and Bancroft) are considering suing the city because—as residents put it—the police have not been responding to a recently-rising crime rate in their area, including frequent gunshots in a community that rarely had them before. “[Police Chief] Richard Word has said we are getting more crime because the cops are chasing the criminals from East Oakland and they are coming here,” the Trib quoted Maxwell Park resident Gary Busboom. 

Is the flooding of crime areas with more cops causing a long-term reduction in the rate of Oakland’s murders? At this point, nobody can say. But one thing ought to be clear...there’s a danger in tossing buckets of water on this fire without first seeing what’s making it burn. If it turns out to be grease, you’ll only make it spread. 

Ã

CREEK CONTROVERSY 

The following is an open letter to Councilmember Gordon Wozniak: 

I read a message you sent widely on Oct. 8 about a recent communication from Neighbors on Urban Creeks. You wrote: “The existing flawed Creek Ordinance ...has the grand vision of daylighting every creek in Berkeley, irregardless of the cost.” 

As you well know, if you read the creek ordinance carefully, allusion to daylighting of creeks is by way of “encouragement” only: 

“Section 17.08.020 Findings, H. It is in the interest of the City of Berkeley to encourage the removal of culverts and channels...and to restore natural watercourses whenever safely possible.” The full text of the Creek Ordinance is in easy-to-access form on the LOCCNA website: loccna.katz.com/creek/ 

berkeleycreekordinance 

Your statement leads the reader to think that costs of culvert removals would have to be borne by the city. Cost does not necessarily have to be incurred by the city. Financing for culvert removals that are deemed desirable could be through significant state and federal funding sources now available. 

You also wrote to your friends and Neighbors on Urban Creeks: 

“...If you do not make yourself heard now, the same people, who put in the original ban of rebuilding ‘by right’ in a disaster, could  

end up rewriting this ordinance.” 

The ordinance, especially with the added condition allowing rebuilding passed by City Council recently, does not ban rebuilding  

after a disaster. Nor do I know of any supporters of healthy creeks who are in opposition to responsible rebuilding of homes destroyed in disasters. Your statement has a distinct “us” vs “them” tone that is largely unwarranted. 

It is only prudent to rebuild in a safe fashion, which does not necessarily mean rebuilding a home exactly as it was, if it was previously situated directly on top of a creek. Building on creeks is inherently unsafe, since it’s highly likely that a creek, as an inexorable force of nature, will ultimately have its way, house or no house, culvert or no culvert. Moreover, it would behoove the City of Berkeley to avoid lawsuits by requiring that rebuilding of homes after disasters avoid future problems as much as possible. This could include requiring rebuilding as far from the creek as possible and, yes, encouraging removal of culverts. I imagine this would be viewed favorably not only by supporters of healthy creeks, but by prudent city planners, city attorney, and City Council as well. 

Do you disagree? 

Regarding property value, which home do you think would have more value: a. a home built over a failing culvert (disclosure required) or b. a home built near (but not hazardously near) a lovely open creek? 

Alan Gould 

• 

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s been comforting to see so many letters in the local press chastising the 20 misguided African-American ministers in the East Bay who plan to vote for George W. Bush solely on the “same-sex marriage” issue (”Black religious leaders back Bush,” Oakland Tribune, Aug. 25). Ironic, too, since both Kerry and Edwards have stated their opposition to gay marriage, and Cheney supports state’s rights on the matter. 

With all due respect, I find the pastors’ position to be Old Testament and decidedly un-Christian. I can’t imagine that either God or Jesus would approve of their stance. And what has happened to separation of church and state, pray? This is a prime example of people voting against their own self-interests. (Recommended reading: What’s the Matter with Kansas?, a new book by Thomas Frank on this very subject.) 

Of all Americans, surely black people have the most to lose under a Bush administration: black kids dying in Iraq, air and water pollution, diminishing health care, vanishing jobs, AIDS and the “down low,” civil rights, urban violence, disenfranchisement of the black vote in Florida, Supreme Court apointments...the list goes on. 

Though it’s not much talked about, bad old racism was a key factor in putting Dubya in office. My native South used to be solid Democratic; today it’s solid Republican. President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, reportedly remarked, “You can kiss the Southern vote good-bye for at least the next generation.” And, lo, it has come to pass. I’m betting, too, that Mississippi Senator Trent Lott spoke for many of his colleagues and constituents in his embarrassing defense of segregation at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party back in 2002. 

I want my country back. 

Eric Mills 

• 

BANSNER RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It seems that my letter (Daily Planet, Oct. 1-4) comparing the positions of Norine Smith to the actions of Councilmember Betty Olds unhinged Old’s aide. Susan Wengraf alleged in her letter printed Oct. 8 that I couldn’t know what I was talking about because I wasn’t here.  

For her information, I lived at 1311 Spruce, almost opposite the 1301 Oxford-Spruce site in question, since 1975. My two sons grew up playing in Codornices Creek on that site. I moved around the corner seven years ago.  

Perhaps I did not figure for her as being here because I did not participate in her attacks on her neighbor, the Chinese Christian Church. I was fully engaged as a planner for Hayward; the Church proposed no changes to the Creek so there was no need. Susan saw the need to insist that the only way the Church could build a Sunday school was to rebuild the original Byrne house which they could not afford. They sold their 2.2 acre property to Susan’s congregation for one million, convinced that the landmarking of the site and the presence of the Creek precluded much more development than the small church they had. Susan’s congregation got 35,000 square feet approved along with moving the creek to make room for off-street summer school bus loading. 

As Betty Old’s appointee to the Planning Commission, Susan Wengraf goes on to “unequivocally state” that Betty Olds has never gone along with development proposals that violate our adopted policies. Why didn’t she respond to the very specific example I offered on the lack of sidewalk setback called for in the adopted Downtown Plan? How are we to accommodate higher densities with narrow sidewalk spaces encroached upon by cantilevering buildings?  

Finally Susan Wengraf suggests that I move to a rural setting. For fighting to save a creek, I am to be banned by the current regime? I love my neighborhood. It embodies many of precepts of Jane Jacobs and of Ian McHarg’s Design with Nature that drew me to planning in the first place. When I moved here, I did the Berkeley Architectural survey for my block. My block includes many brown shingles that blend with the toe of the hills and the trees. Many contain apartment s created during World War II and in-laws built since. There is always at least one group house (ours). Susan Wengraf is the one who moved uphill, away from buses, stores and the huge development her congregation is putting on Codornices Creek.  

More than ever, I do think it is time for a change and hope Norine Smith will be elected. 

Eva Bansner 

• 

REACTION TO WENGRAF 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I find it humorous that Susan Wengraf feels obliged to defend her actions so vehemently (Daily Planet, Oct. 8-11) in response to Eva Bansners letter (Daily Planet, Oct. 1-4). 

Methinks she doth protest too much! If I were Susan I would not be suggesting that a single taxpaying household move to the countryside! With ever expanding city housing, university property and theological schools paying no property taxes into the city coffers, she should not be belittling the remaining taxpayers. The financial base for this city’s excesses, property owners, cannot afford to continue to play ATM for a city council that has not and will not learn what the rest of us have had to learn, how to live on a budget! With twice the employees and half the efficiency of any comparably sized city and each with unbelievable pensions and health care plans, even YMCA memberships, our children and grandchildren will be paying for the excesses this city council has already committed, let alone those atrocities that the overactive imaginations of legislative aides like Susan (at several thousand a month and benefits each) can come up with for us taxpayers to foot the bill for. 

Lets replace the old guard and their legislative aides and vote in a new crew of council members who are in touch with reality and can think for themselves without having to poll the community to see how many votes or contributions it will provide next election. Maybe the mayor could do with less than four legislative aides that cost us taxpayers over $12,000 per month just to tell Mayor Bates how to “handle” a particular problem! The City of Berkeley’s 1,680 employees make it the second largest employer only outdone by the University. 

Norine Smith is a retired taxpayer like me and while I am not quite the tree-hugger she is, I believe that she understands the basic premise that you don’t spend money that you don’t have; how to live on a budget and that you don’t give very valuable free land and city money earmarked for affordable housing to large developers to build huge, ugly, high density housing that would make my cat claustrophobic and then remove them from rent control. Yes, I understand that all the usual organizations have endorsed Betty Olds, after all these years it has got to be force of habit. What does she promise to do in return for those endorsements? Norine is endorsed by residents who ask only that she reduce the glut in this city’s government offices to a reasonable level that will not put the 45 percent of the residents of the city paying 100 percent of the taxes in the poorhouse. After all, when you are taking blood from donors you don’t suck them dry. It kills them! Susan, if you kill us off (financially, of course) who will pay your salary? 

Alison K. Sale 

• 

MODERN CRUSADE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The first time, months ago, I heard President Bush declare that his foreign policy aim is to spread liberty and democracy throughout the world, I thought he was merely employing exaggerated rhetoric to make a point. His point being that we must become and remain engaged overseas, must not remain isolationist, we could no longer be insulated because terrorists by fiat on Sept. 11, 2001, had blown away any vestige of insularity we might have thought of maintaining.  

But Bush has repeated this rhetoric so much that I think he must mean it. Just yesterday he said: “Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorist networks and spreading freedom and liberty around the world.” These are the words of a crusader, a medieval knight intent on invading sovereign nations across the globe. Nations whose governments, infrastructure, constitutions, ideas, and dreams differ from ours. This frightens me. And I think it should frighten the apparently complacent 49 percent of our country currently willingly to vote for the President.  

At a minimum, someone should be demanding an explanation: Just when did “spreading freedom and liberty around the world” become a United States policy objective? Who said so? Is this the Bush doctrine? What are its costs - military, lives, dollars? How does Bush define “freedom and liberty”? These words may sound nice. But, really, they can be twisted to justify whatever military war game our President has next in mind.  

Drew Steckler 

Oakland 

• 

RESISTING DEVELOPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just a note to tell you that I appreciate your newspaper’s coverage of City Council candidates. 

We residents in Berkeley need to realize how much is at stake locally in the upcoming election. Development in Berkeley is being rushed through without adequate planning. Almost 500 (495) new housing units were built during the past two years and 900 more housing units are now approved and ready to be built. I hope voters will consider new candidates for City Council—Norine Smith and Jesse Townley—who show integrity and intelligence. They are not supported by development and real estate interests. 

Jane Harada 

• 

PRO-BUSH VANDALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Today when I pulled a Daily Planet out of the vending box, I noticed that there was writing all over the top of the paper. I looked in the box and discovered that every single paper had pro Bush propaganda written all over the top ending with “Vote for Bush,” perhaps a campaigning effort by young Republicans.  

In my mind it is easy to characterize Bush as a vandal because he has vandalized the American people’s future by building a huge deficit, but I really thought that most of Bush’s supporters were just duped by all the fear mongering. Now I’m wondering just how many of them are vandals.  

Connie Tyler 

• 

UNFAIR CITATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For months the City of Berkeley has been educating motorists on “Pedestrian Right of Way.” Local press have reported on the police sting operations throughout Berkeley in which large numbers of drivers have been pulled over and issued citations for $104 for failing to stop for pedestrians. The City has also put up signs warning drivers of pedestrian crossing areas and of the $104 fine.  

Two weeks ago as I was driving down Oxford Street with the green light. I was about to cross Center Street when I was forced to stop for a pedestrian crossing against the light. Seconds later I was pulled over by the UC Police. When I asked what I was pulled over for I was informed it was for “anti-gridlock.” Even though the officer acknowledged that no other vehicles were behind me and that I had no choice but to stop, I was still issued the citation and informed that I would receive a copy of the ticket in the mail from the City of Berkeley in a few days. 

I just received my ticket in the mail—motorists beware: The cost of stopping for a pedestrian in Berkeley is a whopping $180 It’s actually cheaper not to stop for someone walking in front of your car and possibly hitting/killing them then it is to stop for them.  

It’s time for the City of Berkeley and the police to start educating and ticketing pedestrians and bicyclists for a change before more people get hurt. The added benefit is the staggering amount of revenue this could bring in to the city. 

Brett Brooks 

• 

NEW SMEAR AD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sinclair Broadcast Group is planning to force the local television stations it owns to preempt network broadcasts and air a “documentary” called Stolen Honor. This is a one hour attack ad against John Kerry. By classifying it as “news”, the company can get around certain federal regulations.  

This is NOT news. It is a right wing attack, arriving just before Election Day. This is the same company that ordered its stations not to air Ted Koppel’s “Nightline” roll call of military casualties in Iraq; it deemed the program to be a political statement disguised as news content.  

Let’s be fair! Please help to stop this smear campaign.  

Amy McGonagle 

Oakland 



When you take the time to interview Republican voters, as I did over the past two weeks, you quickly come to the realization that there is more than an ideological divide between the two parties; there are two wildly divergent views of reality. 

In the Republican reality, George W. Bush is trustworthy and competent. “Sure,” conservatives say, “Bush may have difficulties communicating his thoughts, but he is doing a good job. He kept the country safe after 9/11. He is an honest man and a strong president.” 

There is no arguing with Republicans on this point. Bush’s character is taken as a matter of faith. GOP partisans may acknowledge that Bush Administration policies have failed with regards to Iraq or the economy, but they have no doubt that he is a sincere, competent leader. 

For many Republicans one phrase explains their attraction to Bush—“He’s a Christian.” Several folks I interviewed gave this as the crux of why they trusted him. When I countered that John Kerry is also a Christian, these voters responded in one of two ways: Some expressed surprise that Kerry is a person of faith. Many Republicans actually don’t know much about Kerry and, therefore, don’t know anything about his Christianity. All their information comes from the Republican Party, and from conservative media such as Fox news and the Rush Limbaugh show. These sources don’t say much about Kerry; what they do say is negative. 

The second response was to discount Kerry’s Christianity—to imply that he is not the “right kind” of Christian. Some Republicans snapped that they don’t trust Kerry and therefore don’t believe his profession of Christianity. When I looked further into these comments, I found that most of these interviewees had been negatively influenced by the scurrilous “swift boat” ads. 

There is also a big difference between Republicans and Democrats on the status of the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Those I interviewed felt that we are winning the war on terror and that our efforts have been helped by the invasion of Iraq. “Better that we fight them there, than here,” was a standard refrain. Once again, there is a fundamental difference of opinion. Republicans feel that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein—some maintain that Hussein helped with the 9/11 attacks; Democrats dispute this. Republicans feel that the invasion of Iraq was an integral part of the war on terror; Democrats see it as a diversion. Republicans believe that we are winning the struggle in Afghanistan and Iraq; Democrats disagree, saying, for example, that our occupation of Iraq has actually helped Al Qaeda win new recruits.  

Finally, there is a huge difference between Republicans and Democrats on the economy. The Republicans I interviewed felt that the economy is “getting better” and that a rising tide has, in fact, lifted all boats; Democrats believe that there are fundamental problems with this economy and that Bush administration policies have damaged the middle class. Republicans argued that the Bush administration is doing what needs to be done to deal with the health care crisis; Democrats feel that the response has been woefully inadequate. On a variety of related subjects from the future of social security to the provision of low-income housing, Republicans and Democrats have dramatically different perspectives. 

What explains the gulf between the Republican reality and that of the Democrats? One explanation is that Republicans and Democrats “frame” reality differently. As UC professor George Lakoff and others explain, voters in each party have a fundamentally different sense of the world we live in. Republicans see the world as a jungle, where everyone is out to get us, and conclude that Americans need an autocratic leader—George W. Bush. Democrats have a more positive perspective; one that sees problems solved through cooperation among nations. In the Democratic worldview, Americans need a smart leader who is capable of forming alliances. Each view is reinforced by information “silos;” that is, Republicans and Democrats get their information from radically different sources. Republicans watch Fox news, read the Wall Street Journal, and listen to Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson; Democrats watch the News Hour on PBS, read the New York Times, and listen to NPR and Al Franken. 

Does this mean that there is an irreparable split between the two parties? I don’t think so, but we do need to find ways to keep talking to each other. We do need a president who actually is, “a uniter, not a divider.” 

A couple of Republicans I interviewed were not completely sold on George Bush, but didn’t know much about John Kerry. I gave them some information during the interview; for example, referred them to the Kerry web site. After the conclusion of the first presidential debate, I called to get their reaction; they were less committed to Bush and said that they wouldn’t decide how to vote until after the last debate. That’s a hopeful sign. 

Bob Burnett 

›

It is obviously long past time to think constructively about what the City should be doing to restore creeks and remove crumbling culverts. But it is obviously wrong to stampede into quick changes to the 15 year old creek ordinance under the cover of the most important national election in our lifetimes. 

We need to clearly identify the creeks we are going to establish as natural watercourses such as Codornices and Strawberry. Working for Hayward, I established open space designations on Ward Creek and San Lorenzo Creek in the 1986 General Plan. Berkeley is 20 years behind Hayward. 

If we had an open creek on Center Street, we could have regenerated our downtown as San Luis Obispo did theirs. We could have a market hall at BART concourse level on the B of A site looking down into Strawberry Creek. The sun would stream into casual dining areas and Berkeley institutions like the Cheese Board could be featured. Above we could have several levels of Berkeley’s best shopping: the Berkeley Hat Company, the Gardener… 

Instead we have invested in very expensive economic development staff who tell us the downtown won’t sustain commercial development. We have filled our little downtown with student housing and University support services that eat our tax base. Why are we so different from every other college town where commercial thrives, especially at a BART station second only to SF in ridership?  

If we started charting our culverts and storm drains and integrating and replacing the most hazardous sections, we would be on our way to averting earthquake deaths and destruction. Perhaps Contra Costa County is the best example in the Bay Area of the Public Works Department doing the long term planning to restore natural waterways and removing all culverts older than 50 years. They have demonstrated that this saves money long term from collapsing culverts and liability. We have a lot to learn from other jurisdictions who moved on the best practices in drainage as instructed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Why hasn’t our Public Works Department been given the direction and resources to start this work? 

Any kind of ad hoc task force is premature. Sending the Creek Ordinance to the Planning Commission is even worse. The Planning Commission failed to incorporate urban design and public safety implementable policies on culverts and natural watercourses in the last General Plan despite public testimony.  



In my years as Berkeley’s City Manager, it was my job to carefully manage the City’s budget. I am proud that our city was able to continue in its history of innovation and excellent service while maintaining a sterling bond rating on Wall Street.  

But the services we have all come to count on are being threatened by a fiscal crisis affecting cities throughout the state. While Berkeley is unique in many ways, we are not exempt from these fiscal problems. 

Prior to my retirement from the city a year ago, we worked hard to address this deficit. I helped cut millions from the city budget, implemented a hiring freeze, and took other actions to protect our budget and our services from serious reductions. Earlier this year, city employees agreed to open their contracts and take reductions that saved the city $1.2 million. But despite having cut over $14 million in the past three years, the city faces another $7.5 million deficit next year. 

To address this temporary crisis, Berkeley has placed several tax measures on the ballot. This year the stakes are too high for me to sit on the sidelines. I am asking my friends and neighbors to vote Yes on Measures J and K. 

Measures J and K make sense for Berkeley taxpayers. These temporary taxes will provide approximately $4.9 million to replace funding Berkeley lost due to state and federal cuts. Most importantly, they will protect the services that make Berkeley the kind of community we all want to live in. 

Measure J would increase the city’s existing utility tax by 1.5 percent to provide emergency funding for front-line city services until the state returns local funding and the economy improves. This would work out to about $4.50 per month for the typical Berkeley household. Without the new revenue Measure J would provide, the City is planning to reduce health and social services, eliminate seven police officers, and cut senior programs and community agencies. At the end of 2008, when the fiscal crisis should be ending, Measure J will automatically expire.  

Measure K is a temporary increase in the existing real estate transfer tax that will generate enough funds to keep essential youth services in place until the fiscal crisis is over. Measure K will save some of Berkeley’s most effective youth programs, including city-funded after school and summer programs, school crossing guards, school-based health and mental health programs, tutoring and mentoring, and emergency services for homeless youth. 

To pay for these programs, Measure K requires people buying expensive new private or commercial property to pay an increased transfer tax. For properties over $600,000, the transfer tax would be increased by 0.5 percent. For those over $1 million, the tax would increase by 1 percent. According to the City’s analysis, this will affect only about 250-300 corporate and private property sales a year. Measure K will automatically sunset in 2010.  

The City Council was careful not to try and balance the budget with tax increases alone. In fact, most of the deficit has and will be closed with spending cuts. But without some new revenue, serious cuts are inevitable. 

In the end, your vote in November is about choices. The city will continue to balance its budget every year even without this new revenue. The choice is whether we can afford to maintain the same level of services we provide today. 

I am choosing to protect what makes Berkeley special by joining with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the Berkeley Police Officers Association, Mayor Tom Bates, and many other community leaders in voting Yes on Measures J and K. 

Weldon Rucker retired as Berkeley’s City Manager in 2003. 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just as it has in every election for years, East Bay Regional Park District once again asks for additional funding with Measure CC. They claim, as before, they will use it for resource protection and restoration and they list a bunch of worthwhile sounding projects. In reality, this is a bit of a hoodwink. These projects could certainly have been done years ago, using the $100 million-plus of their ongoing revenues, if this were their priority. Perhaps its better to save these projects for campaign issues than actually do them?  

If that sounds harsh, consider this: The park district, almost alone under local government, has an ever increasing tax base. Each year their property tax revenue goes up—approximately $5 million per year every year—and this will continue to be the case so long as there is either new building in our two counties or increasing real estate valuation. While other agencies are facing actual layoffs, the park district continues to grow.  

And how does the park district choose to spend this automatic taxpayer largess they enjoy?: They have some of the highest comparable salaries in California and some of the best benefits. The general manager, for example, makes more than the governor. They also have an incredible ratio of managers to workers. For instance, while the California average ratio for police officers to sergeants is eight to one, at the district, there are less than four actual officers for each member of the brass.  

They have a $2 million-plus per-year, 14 person public relations department—far bigger than cities and counties ten times their size. And the irony is that this P/R expenditure is money spent to convince you how worthy the district is so that they can ask for even more money at election time.  

The district will dispute that they have all the money they need, of course. (Just like you and me, they certainly could easily spend more.) Their best argument is that they, like all of California, is being asked to tighten their belt by a loss of $6 million per year for the next two years, so the state can balance its budget. However, that amount of loss will be counterbalanced by the natural increase in property tax revenue explained earlier. And the cut is only for two years. The CC tax lasts for 15 years!  

The most significant objection to Measure CC, however, has less to do with its cost than with the source of the funding: The park district is proposing to tax some of its poorest residents—the urban corridor along the water, which includes Richmond, San Pablo and Oakland—while letting its richest off totally free. That’s right: Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Alamo and Blackhawk all are exempt from this new tax. The improvements proposed are intended for the urban corridor, it is true, but this is a regional park system and all of the residents will benefit. Shouldn’t all residents pay?  

How did it happen, do you suppose, that the Park District is proposing such a regressive tax measure, where the poor support the rich? This is the work of the district’s expensive team of consultants, who have been polling for years. It was no surprise, then, for the consultants to find that these were the very people who would support more taxes. That’s how the “urban corridor” concept came about: Let’s tax ‘em where we’ll win, social injustice be damned. Certainly the district should not be rewarded for such cynicism.  

Opposition to Measure CC is not a vote against parks. That’s why both the Alameda and the Contra Costa Green Party have taken positions against the tax scheme. Even the Regional Parks Association has refused to support it. What your vote against Measure CC really does is this: It tells a wasteful public agency that it needs to learn to live within its means—just like the rest of us—and that it should not try to use trickery to extract more from its poorest and its most supportive residents. Even the most ardent parks supporter, knowing the facts, should vote “NO-NO on CC.”  

Karen Weber, Former EBRPD Personnel Director, Oakland  

Alan La Pointe, Chair, Friends of Wildcat Canyon; Co-Chair, Friends of Parks, Richmond 

Harlan Kessel, Former EBRPD Director, Oakland  

Paul Merrick, Chairman, Dunsmuir Ridge Alliance; Co-Chair, Friends of Parks, Oakland  

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On Nov. 2nd, Californians will have an opportunity to dramatically change the communities in which they live, for better or for worse, by casting a vote on Prop 63. Voting No on Prop 63 will increase the likelihood that some of the most vulnerable and troubled members of our communities continue to flounder in local jails, overcrowded shelters, and in doorways and on park benches, while much of the resources and wealth in our communities remain in the hands of the privileged few. Voting Yes on 63, on the other hand, will help ensure that those who have plenty reach out to those in the greatest need, so that they might be able to access the support and resources they need to get back on their feet. To be specific, Prop 63, also known as the Mental Health Initiative, will guarantee that care is available to the hundreds of thousands of people in California who are disabled by mental illness by initiating a 1 percent tax increase on incomes over $1 million (the first million dollars is not subject to the increase), thereby addressing the problem of economic inequality in our communities while lending a helping hand to those whose most basic needs have been severely neglected by our federal and state governments during the past several decades. 

More than forty years ago, California emptied its psychiatric hospitals with a promise to fully fund mental health services in the community. Unfortunately, that promise was never kept. The federal dollars that were promised never materialized, few community mental health centers were created, and the performance of the few that were created was dubious. Under President Reagan, the problem worsened as deeper cuts were made and those with psychiatric disabilities were consequently neglected by the communities that were mandated to serve them. As Walter Tratner writes: “As a result, many, if not most, of [those suffering from mental illness] were reinstitutionalized, not in mental hospitals under the care of physicians, but in substandard and poorly run nursing and old-age homes or in wretched boarding-houses, skid-row tenements, local jails, municipal shelters, and especially on the nation’s streets, which have become the nation’s new mental wards.” Today, conservative estimates suggest that 25 percent of the homeless people in California are mentally ill. 

While the plight of the mentally ill in California has steadily worsened since deinstitutinalization began in the 1960s, there are others in California whose experience has been quite the opposite. During the last thirty years, the wealthiest in California have been asked to give back less and less to their communities to the point where, today, those who make over $1 million a year pay only 7.2 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while for those making under $18,000, that number is nearly 12 percent. With Prop 63, we have an opportunity to address this grave inequality. The tax increase associated with Prop 63 would fund mental health services in California to the tune of $600 - $700 million each year. 

But money alone will not guarantee that the mentally ill in California will get the care they need to improve their lives. And this is why the money that is generated by Prop 63 will go to those programs that have demonstrated results. One such program is the City of Berkeley’s Mental Health Department. Several years ago, the city was awarded state funding to address the problems of homelessness, hospitalization, and incarceration associated with mental illness in Berkeley. Berkeley’s Mental Health Department launched an effort to tackle these community problems and the results have been remarkable. The City enrolled one hundred people in the program, all of whom suffered from mental illness, and the majority of whom were homeless and cycling in and out of local hospitals and jails. Among all program participants, there was a 61 percent reduction in the number of days spent homeless, a 73 percent reduction in the number of days hospitalized, and a 71 percent reduction in the number of days incarcerated. 

As a social worker at Berkeley’s Mental Health Department, I can assure readers that the city is committed and able to meet the needs of Berkeley residents with psychiatric disabilities, as are other mental health programs throughout California. But in order to accomplish our goals, more resources are needed. I urge you to vote Yes on 63. Together we can strengthen our communities by finally fulfilling the promise that was made to those suffering from mental illness and to their loved ones forty years ago. 

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Measure H on this November’s ballot provides for publicly funded elections for mayor and other city offices. Everyone seems to favor it in principle, but opponents say that they fear it is just too expensive in these days of fiscal stringency.  

Other Measure H supporters have rightly pointed out that cost of publicly funded elections will really be very small—only about five dollars a resident. I would like to present another reply to the “too costly” argument. Privately funded elections also “cost” the voter; it’s just the costs come in the form of unequal voice and insider-driven policies rather than government expenditures.  

The first cost of privately funded elections is a hit to democratic participation—most citizens can’t afford to be candidates. Campaigns in Berkeley are expensive; it can cost over 200,000 dollars to finance a city wide campaign. Often much of that money comes from the candidate himself or herself. But as the necessary candidate personal investment in the campaign goes up—sometimes reaching close to 50,000, dollars—the pool of potential candidates goes down. Do we want to hang an “Only the Well-To-Do Need Apply” sign on public office?.  

The second cost is unequal access. Most of the funding of the campaigns come, not from the candidate, but from private contributions. These might total over 150,000 dollars for a city-wide race. Many of the people who contribute to political campaigns have business with the government. They assure us they don’t want influence, only access to have their voices heard. Unfortunately, they get disproportionate access. The leader of a civil rights group once told me that she once tried to get a meeting with the then governor to discuss a pending civil rights issue only to be told the governor’s office was only granting meetings to contributors.  

Of course, Berkeley (thank God!) is not Sacramento, and nothing so unseemly would happen here. But the rules of human psychology apply in the Bay Area as much as the Sacramento Valley; one sound principle is “Be Nice to People Who Help You.” One way politicians apply this maxim is to give special “access” to contributors. That’s not necessarily corrupt, but it is undemocratic. One of the most hopeful consequences of the publicly-financed elections in Maine and Arizona has been that ordinary voters now feel they—not the contributors—own public officials.  

But unequal access is not the major problem. There is also the problem of unequal influence. Access is not worth much unless it results in influence. Contributors quite properly want to influence policy. There are myriad low visibility ways in which influence can be granted. For instance, Berkeley elected officials have power to appoint citizens to important bodies like the Planning Commission and Zoning Adjustment Board. These boards in turn make policy decisions that impact financially on some contributors to Berkeley campaigns. It would be only human for a politician to be influenced in appointments to these boards by the views of the groups who provide large amounts of much needed campaign funds. But to the extent that the contributors’ views don’t mirror those of the voters it results in unequal influence on public policy. Human—yes, democratic—no. 

That’s why those who know the “pay to play” system best at the national, state, and local level—people like Bill Moyers—call for publicly-funded elections. In elections like the rest of life, there’s no free lunch. You get what you pay for. Five dollars is cheap when you consider the costs of the alternative.  

John Denvir teaches Constitutional Law at the University of San Francisco School of Law. He is author of Democracy’s Constitution: Claiming the Privileges of American Citizenship (Univ. of Illinois Press 2001)  

John Gordon is downtown Berkeley’s biggest booster. 

“I’m a proponent of the downtown,” said the founder of Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services. “I live and work and buy buildings in Berkeley. It’s one of the few places in the East Bay that has a lively downtown at night.” 

A major Berkeley property owner in his own right—he owns “more than ten” buildings in the city, six of them designated as city landmarks—Gordon is also the man to see about renting space along the downtown corridors. 

“I see a lot of great things here. There’s been tremendous improvement over the last 10 years,” he said. 

With nearly three decades in the East Bay commercial real estate market, Gordon says that claims about inadequate parking and abundant vacancies in downtown Berkeley are overblown.  

Gordon moved to Berkeley in 1976, and after a brief residency in Oakland, he moved to the Elmwood neighborhood in 1988, where he’s lived ever since. 

After 15 years as a commercial real estate broker for Grubb & Ellis, he started his own firm in Berkeley in June 1995, which has since become the major player in the downtown area. 

“We’re transitioning out of an era when you used to see businesses that needed 100,000 square feet” in urban centers, he said. “Now downtown urban areas like San Francisco attract businesses that concentrate to service the commercial tenants” in offices “or retailers where you can order items”—a catalog store, or, in modern retailing parlance, a “clicks and bricks” merchandiser. 

As an example of the former, he cites Cartridge World at 2161 Allston Way, a business that refills printer and copier cartridges, and as an example of the latter variety he points to Design Within Reach at 1770 Fourth St., a home furnishings display showroom. 

“The challenge is to find space with access for delivery and parking where customers can load their purchases,” Gordon said. 

One possible solution, he said, might be to reserve some meters for particular retailers. 

Even so, he said, “there can’t be more than 10 vacancies downtown.” 

There are three major retail spaces now for rent along the downtown Shattuck corridor: the 8,000-square-foot ground floor retail space in the Kress Building, which Gordon owns, at 2036 Shattuck Ave. and the adjoining vacant storefronts at 2201-2209 Shattuck that earlier this year housed Eddie Bauer and Gateway Computers. 

The Gateway store, a consistent earner, closed as result of the computer maker’s decision to shutter all its retail outlets and rely on sales through the Internet and established retailers, mostly discounters. 

The local Eddie Bauer, however, was a consistent money-loser and was closed as part of a general downsizing by the parent firm, Spiegel & Co. 

Filling the bigger spaces has proven a challenge because of competition from major shopping centers in Emeryville and El Cerrito, he acknowledges. 

“Many retailers like to cluster,” he said. “That’s why there are so many clothing stores on Telegraph.” 

Gordon says he’s confident he’ll find tenants. 

Downtown Berkeley offers unique opportunities for retailers, Gordon said. “We have 75,000 people a day coming through downtown Berkeley, and there are 88,000 people within the marketing area,” defined as from North Berkeley to Highway 24 and from Sacramento Street to the Berkeley Hills. 

“Education is the most important thing in attracting retail, and within the marketing area you have a population where 64 percent have bachelor’s degrees and 32 percent have advanced degrees,” he said. “That makes us look very attractive to retailers.” 

While many argue that difficulty in finding parking poses a major challenge to downtown Berkeley, Gordon acknowledges that “we’re not Walnut Creek. You may have to walk three blocks to the store, but people forget that you’ll walk just as far from your parking space in a mall to the store you want.” 

Lots offer parking during the day, and at night even more lots are available, including the UC lots and the Great Western parking lot. 

“This is not like North Beach in San Francisco,” he said. “Talk about parking problems on Saturday night!” 

Another solution he offers is parking at the BART stations on Ashby and North Berkeley and riding the train one stop to the downtown BART station. 

Gordon said the rapidly increasing number of apartments and condominiums in the downtown area will also draw more retailers. 

“The more people there are who are out at night, the safer the streets,” he said. 

And what about the downtown area’s lack of a grocery store? 

“It will follow when the density is here. It might be smaller, like the stores in New York City that offer delivery,” he said. 

The 12-story hotel UC Berkeley plans for the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street would offer another plus for the downtown, he said, as would the associated museums and meeting facilities.  

The projected hotel site, now the location of a single-story Bank of America branch and accompanying parking lot, once housed its own 12-story building, which was torn down decades ago. 

“Having a parking lot there isn’t a good use of the land,” he added.  

Gordon says he is a leading proponent of the Downtown Arts District, especially the Addison Street corridor west of Shattuck with the Berkeley Repertory and Aurora theaters, the Jazzschool and the future site of Freight and Salvage Music House. 

When completed, the one-block stretch will offer a capacity of 1,700 seats for nighttime performances. 

He is also a member of the Downtown Berkeley Association and the Business Improvement District—which, he points out, differs from the Telegraph Avenue B.I.D. in that not only property owners are included but the tenants and users as well.  

While some might accuse Gordon of looking at the downtown through rose-colored glasses, he’s been investing heavily in his vision. 

“People are coming, and it’s a good place to be,” he said.

“I would’ve thought a pack of British boys would’ve put on a better show than this—you are all British boys, aren’t you?” 

The officer—resplendent in his dress whites, spit and polish, braid and brass—addresses a motley castaway crew before us: stageblood painted on smudged faces, school ties as headbands, sticks for spears. All are Bay Area women who have put on a rather good show as the schoolboys-gone-native of Lord of the Flies, breathing hard from the exhaustion of a deadly chase, eyes averted with shame or disingenuousness as the uniformed figure continues, “Is it a game you’re playing? Just a game?” 

Schoolboys’ games prove deadly on a desert island; William Golding’s parable—originally a novel half a century ago, part and parcel of the Doomsday literature of the ‘50s—early ‘60s—is undoubtedly the best-known piece by this Nobel laureate, in turn used by many schools in the way Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm used to be. What Woman’s Will, the all-women Shakespeare company, hopes to accomplish with these free performances at Eighth Street Studios during this late—and hot—campaign season is indicated by the panels and audience discussions that follow the shows. 

“The theater is one of the last great community gathering places,” Woman’s Will founder-artisic director Erin Merritt writes in the program. “Let the performance be only the beginning of the conversation, not the end.” And guest panelists range from campaign managers to academics, peace workers to political journalists—and include students from Berkeley High and youth activists. 

The story of boys on their own after a plane crash, their attempts to imitate parliamentary rule gone savage to chants of “Kill the pig! Spill his blood!” has been translated lucidly enough to the stage, thanks to Nigel Williams’ adaptation. It emphasizes a repetitive “public school” vernacular (”stupid” perhaps the principal buzz) that anticipates its own parody and mock ritualistic disintegration. 

Erin Merritt’s direction keeps the through-line clear, without too much sacrifice of nuance and dynamics amid the cacophony of boys on the loose. The ensemble of young women (and an 8th grader, Sarah Smithton, a familiar face on North Bay community stages) carry out the childish games and hazing that become so deadly. 

Outstanding are Jennifer Dean as Ralph, the liberal humanist of the island, prey to Jack (Jenny Debevec)—choir leader, rabble-rouser (”We can do what we like!”), leader of the pack in the hunt and spontaneous myth maker—who’s also tormentor of Piggy (Lizzie Calogero), bespectacled designated victim, shrill but usually right, attributing the common sense of his colloquial exhortations to his auntie. 

These and the other six women (and Wendell H. Wilson in the brilliant uniform) have to carry this stark tale of what should be a Peter Pan utopia become one apocalypse—primitive, adolescent—on an island, in the midst of another, adult and technological, that threatens to engulf the world. 

Woman’s Will Lord of the Flies plays Fri-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., through Oct. 24. Free, with suggested donation. Eighth Street Studios, 2525 Eighth St., 420-0813, www.womanswill.org. 

ReOrient, in its sixth year of “exploring Middle Eastern culture and identity as represented throughout the globe,” is a festival of short plays staged by Golden Thread Productions that’s opening this weekend at the Ashby Stage after a run at SF’s Noh Space. 

ReOrient is becoming a Bay Area institution without losing that sense of being a well-kept (maybe too well-kept) secret that delights whoever discovers it, bringing them back every year. The excellent second series of three plays is playing in alternation with the first series, of five plays. 

The first play, “Don’t Eat the Tomatoes” is by Fatma Durmush, a Turkish woman poet and playwright, born in Cyprus, who writes in English. This is a strangely humorous tale of a young couple setting up housekeeping by a graveyard thronged with mothers whose sons were killed in the terroristic war with the Kurds. Durmush’s play takes stylized dreamlike turns that could be called Absurdist, for want of a better term to describe an original poetic logic. 

The mourning mothers become tomato plants, bear tomatoes (”In truth, the more sorrow, the better they taste”) and find peace; the young wife, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, markets this cemetery crop and becomes a consumer; her errant husband, newly educated (”To live without reason is worse than being a tomato!”) and weary of cities, returns. 

The situation of the Kurds in Turkey and the controversy around Kurdish militant Abdullah Ocalan’s condemnation to death isn’t so well known here. Torange Yeghiazarian (Golden Thread’s founder-artistic director) has directed this play with the sense of a parable or fable, underlining what’s in common with our own interminable War On Terror, and its almost familial social and cultural resentments. 

The second, “Compression of a Casualty,” by Brooklyn playwright Kevin Doyle, plays the fatuous smiles and mannerisms of TV news anchors announcing a death in Fallujah, then “moving on,” against the young fallen GI trying to recapitulate his own life and death amid the repetitions of teleprompter copy. Such a brief description misses the true compression and offbeat pace of banal, brutal meta-language with Laura Hope’s taut direction of three fine actors (Tiffany Harrison, Patrick MacKellan, Zak Kilberg) that drive this piece. 

“Dinner/Khnamakhos” by Lilly Thomassian—again with fine direction, by Meredith Weiss Friedman—is the barely-controlled madness of a dinner party in an Armenian home in Glendale to celebrate an arranged marriage. No one can see or hear the bride-to-be (Sara Luna), commenting on the crazy comic melodrama her family and the groom’s are playing out around the table. The groom-to-be looks oddly familiar—and he finally remembers where he’s seen her eyes before (as he stares at her picture with the bride-to-be looking over his shoulder). A chamber play out of one of Bunuel’s surreal movies, Sheri Bass, Maximilienne Ewalt, Ann Marie Donahue and Lisa Tateosian (all from “Don’t Eat the Tomatoes”) and David Fierro make a savage portrait of two families. 

The first series features “Chocolate in Heat, Growing Up Arab in America,” written and performed by Betty Shamieh; “Disheartened,” by Melgis Bilgin, “Between the Eyes,” by MacArthur Award winner Naomi Wallace; “Falling,” by William Borden (about the World Trade Center); and “Taziyeh” (the name of the Shi’ite passion play of Hussain’s martyrdom at Karbala) by Novid Parsi. 

Golden Thread Productions’ ReOrient 2004 Sixth Annual Festival of Short Plays Exploring the Middle East runs Oct. 15-24, Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Series 2 will run Oct. 15, 17, 22, and 24 matinee. Series 1 will run Oct. 16, 17 matinee, 21 and 23. There will be no show the evening of Oct. 24. The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., 986.9194, www.goldenthread.org. 

It’s amazing what you can talk yourself into doing based on an email. It was as if MoveOn knew just what sort of a Springsteen fanatic they were dealing with. A concert benefiting America Coming Together (ACT), a 527 that sends volunteers to swing states to get out the vote? Sure! (Well, they had me from “MoveOn members get first crack at Springsteen tickets.”) 

My country needed me. So here I was, arriving a few days early to stay with friends in St. Paul, Minn., then east 20 miles to the Wisconsin border and across the wide state (the signs going Bush/Cheney, Bush/Cheney, Bush/Cheney like a locomotive engine all along 94, till the pipsqueaky Kerry/Edwards signs started popping up on the outskirts of Madison, rising to a chorus as we reached our Madison friends’ home.) Old friends, but all we could talk about was, ‘Can Madison save the whole state? It doesn’t look like it—Bush is up seven points here.’ 

Tuesday, Oct. 5: Outside the sold-out Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, a small group of protesters with Bush/Cheney T-shirts, “Shut up and sing!” and “Don’t tell US who to vote for!” signs. They might as well have been selling Dead paraphernalia at a Pat Boone concert.  

Shortly after seven Springsteen appeared out of the dark alongside Michael Stipe, front man for REM, announcing opening act Bright Eyes and imploring his fans to hold off on the “BRUUUUUCE” chant until his turn. Stipe introduced the register-to-vote theme of the Vote for Change tour. Twenty-four-year-old Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes took advantage of his chance at the big time, playing a solid set of seven numbers in the angry-young-man/folk-rock/protest-song genre as his dark hair fell fetchingly into his eyes. He ended saying, “I’m looking for a landslide, but I’ll settle for a win!” 

REM’s Stipe kicked off their hour-plus set with a heartfelt “The One I Love.” “Losing My Religion” followed, along with a few songs off their just-released album “Around the Sun,” including the poignant new hit “Leaving New York.” Stipe, dressed in an elegant white suit, which he’d later remove to reveal a white T-shirt emblazoned with a Kerry logo, danced sinuously around the stage, leading up to the defining moment of the concert, when Neil Young appeared as an unexpected guest to join in on “Country Feedback” with a glorious, soaring guitar solo. It became clear during these moments that this was a concert of a lifetime. 

The speechifying was kept to a minimum. Stipe told us that even his 70-year-old military father was supporting Kerry. As an intro to “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” he described the huge thunderstorm that had struck the last time REM played the Twin Cities and they’d performed that song—in 1999, which he said felt like “six centuries ago.” Now, “we’re back in the midst of the most terrific thunderstorm in our lives.” Springsteen joined REM to play harmonica on “Bad Day,” followed by alternating vocals with a delighted Stipe on “Man on the Moon.”  

After a break Springsteen returned, leading off his set with a twelve-string acoustic solo of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which metamorphosed seamlessly into an uninterrupted sequence of “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Badlands,” and the now emblematic if still unofficial theme song of the Kerry campaign, “No Surrender.” A soulful “Lonesome Day” and “The River” followed, with the E Street Band in fine form and playing as if the future of our country depended on it. 

Suddenly Springsteen asked, “Are there any Canadians in the house for Kerry?” Out popped Neil Young again to join in on “Souls of the Departed.” Like many of the evening’s lyrics, lines stood out afresh in light of the current situation in Iraq and the Bush administration’s disastrous policies (“Tonight as I tuck my own son in bed . . .”). 

As the chords faded away, Stipe returned to the stage to join Springsteen and Young on Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” with Young doing an awe-inspiring Jimi Hendrix–style electric solo, Clarence Clemons offering one of his famed saxophone riffs, and Stipe and Springsteen repeating the line “two riders were approaching” again and again, evoking the image of Kerry and Edwards riding to the rescue.  

A couple more numbers, then Springsteen brought out Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, introducing him as “our generation’s Hank Williams.” After reporting the score of the Twins-Yankees game, Fogerty launched into “Centerfield,” followed by his new single “It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again.” Springsteen did backup and traded vocals with him on “Fortunate Son,” teasing Fogerty for singing the verses in the wrong order. 

As the concert raged into Springsteen’s generous overtime “encore” list (which in typical Bruce fashion lasted as long as the original set), “Born to Run,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Promised Land,” and “The Rising” gave way to everyone back on stage for a transcendent “Because the Night” and a roaring rendition of Fogerty’s “Proud Mary.” The energy built as the artists played off one another, for the thrill of the music and the thrill of the cause. 

During “Mary’s Place,” Springsteen did his signature preacher talk, urging members of the audience, “If you’re swingin’, can’t make up your mind, come forward now and say ‘I need help.’ Say ‘Halliburton’ five times real fast, and let the healing begin. . . . The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.” 

Everyone wrapped up with the Elvis Costello cover “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” and Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” which I’m not sure is over yet. Stipe, if possible more energetic than Springsteen, was running nonstop along the proscenium and up against the seats raised 10 feet above him at the rear of the stage, gesturing emphatically at the Kerry logo on his T, then throwing his arms out to everyone as he danced to get them to stand up and sing. 

The $1.5 million the 19,000 concertgoers contributed will be doing its work in the coming weeks. And in next-door Wisconsin? Swung over magically in the tracking polls to Kerry! Some cavalierly attributed it to Kerry’s performance in the first debate, but I feel sure the aura of our vibes wafting eastward was decisive. On Wednesday I helped staff a Democratic Party office on the St. Croix River in Hudson, Wisconsin, which it turned out had been featured in that week’s Newsweek as emblematic of how the Democrats were determined not to yield the traditionally Republican small towns this election. 

People were swarming into the hole-in-the-wall headquarters, buzzing with excitement. Some women who’d driven from Milwaukee to see the concert took a break on their drive home to pick up buttons, thoroughly stoked. Another woman told me that although she was the only one of her six friends who went to the concert for the politics as well as the music, all five of her companions, infrequent voters at best, were now totally up for Kerry. And that’s what it’s all about.  

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FRIDAY, OCT. 15 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Betty Olds, Berkeley City Council on “Berkeley.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now” at 6:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by the ACLU Berkeley Chapter. rsaclu@earthlink.net 

Hills Emergy Forum Annual Meeting with representatives from Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, EBMUD, UC Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley Lab at 10 a.m. in the California Room, 4th floor, Double Tree Hotel, Berkeley Marina. www.lbl.gov/ehs/hef/ 

“Making Sustainable Forestry Work: Trees, Land, People and Business” with Paul Harlan, Vice President of The Collins Companies, a leader in sustainable forestry, at 4 p.m. at Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall. UC Campus. www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ 

forestry/lecture.html 

“Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision” at 7 p.m. at 2060 Valley Life Science Building, UC Campus. Sponsored by Partners for Peace, Cal Muslim Students Assoc., Students for Justice in Palestine-UCB. 644-3650. 

SWOP’s Sexy Circus to celebrate the rebirth of the prostitutes rights movement at 7 p.m. at Third and Jones warehouse on the RR tracks. 877-776-2004. www.swop-usa.org 

Bad Subjects Book Release Celebration at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Transforming Stress with Tsokni Rinpoche III at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Shambhala Meditation Center, 2288 Fulton St. http://norcal.shambhala.org  

SATURDAY, OCT. 16 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Dharma Publishing and Scharffenberger Chocolate Makers at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Prebyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com 

Dance for the Swing States with Country Joe McDonald and Kevin Griffin’s Rough Draft from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Thousand Oaks School, 840 Colusa. All proceeds go to A.C.T. Suggested donation $25. 

Albany YMCA Garage Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proceeds will be used to help support Albany YMCA Youth and Adult Financial Assistance programs. 921 Kains Ave. 525-1130. 

“Side By Side: A Journey With Depression” with Brian Wetzel at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 707-829-1872. www.frontporchspirit.com  

Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1045 Leneve Place, El Cerrito. Sponsored by the Berkeley Garden Club. 843-9457. 

Creating Your Own Garden Paradise at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Constructing the School Garden A workshop for teachers to learn how to build school garden beds using recycled or low cost products, and how to incorporate students into the process. Cost is $25. Pre-registration required. Held in Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 231-9430. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Toddler Nature Walk for 2-3 year olds and their grown-up friends from 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Foods of the Andes: Potato Festival” Learn how potatoes are traditionally prepared, with children’s activities and Bolivian music from noon to 1:30 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$23. Registration required. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Light Search and Rescue from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Los Días de los Muertos Workshop Shrine and Altar Making at the Richmond Art Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. Cost is $30-$35. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Gadabout Film Festival of independent filmmakers at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

“Healing Through Buddhist Art” with Arnaud Maitland at 3 p.m. at Dharma Publishing, 2910 San Pablo Ave. donation $10. 548-5407. 

Dharma Publishing Open House and demonstration of sacred art craft from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2901 San Pablo Ave. 548-5407. 

“What’s Going On? California and the Vietnam Era” a symposium with representatives from the arts, media, academia, politics and veteran services, Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $25, $45 for both days. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Build Green, a free seminar covering building materials and practices that promote sustainability, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Truitt and White, 1817 Second St. Registration required. 649-2674. 

Benefit Yard Sale for Shotgun Players from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2139 Curtis St. off of University. 841-6500. 

Mahea Uchiyama Center Auction Fundraiser and Tahitian dance performance to raise funds to bring master teachers and performers from Tahiti for the upcoming concert season. At 8 p.m. at 729 Heinz Ave. Cost is $15. www.mahea.com 

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

SUNDAY, OCT. 17 

Bike Tour of Historic Oakland A leisurely paced 5.5 mile bike tour sponsored by the Oakland Museum of California. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance of the museum. For reservations call 238-3514. www.museumca.org 

Early Morning Bird Walk We’ll look for birds making their way south and learn why and how they migrate at 8 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Dinosaur Day We’ll learn about them through puzzles, bingo and making tracks from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Mayan and Aztec Medicinal Plants Tour with Horticulturalist Eric Schulz from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical garen, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$12. Registration required. 643-2755. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Kensington Library Book Sale from noon to 4 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave., in the parking lot behind the library. 

Benefit for MoveOn.org with silent art auction, speakers, and Film screening of “Unprecedented: the 2000 Election” at 5 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $25. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Berkeley Cybersalon “There’s Something About W” at 6 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $10. 

Train to End Stroke Movie Marathon Videos and films about people and animals overcoming various challenges at 3 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd. Tickets are $7 at the door. All profits will benefit the American Stroke Association. 301-6822. 

Los Días de los Muertos Art, traditions, and procession masks at the Richmond Art Center from 1 to 4:30 p.m., 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. Cost is $30-$35. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“Spiritual Citizenship and the Healing of America” with Barbara Hamilton Holway at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302.  

Healing Friction Community Circle A free workshop for political engagement from 3 to 6 p.m. at 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Come share your voice, some food, and a way through and out of hopelessness. 866-236-0346. www.healingfriction.org  

Tibetan Buddhism with Abbe Blum on “Buddhist Tools for Well-being” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 18 

Tea at Four Taste some of the finest teas from the Pacific Rim and South Asia and learn their natural and cultural history, followed by a short nature walk. At 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Livable Berkeley Candidates Forum to discuss development and environmental issues in Berkeley, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 587-3390. 

“Potent Presidential Politics: Inequality, Race and Welfare Reform” a roundtable discussion with NYT reporter, Jason DeParle, KQED host Michael Krassney, Christopher Edley, Dean, Boalt Hall, at 7:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. 642-4143. 

“Campus Life: Is It Good for the Jews?” with Adam Weisberg, Berkeley Hillel’s Executive Director, on the reality of Jewish life on the UC Berkeley campus, as well as a perspective on how and when the media get it right when reporting on campus anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and other issues of concern to the local Jewish community. At 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

Soli Deo Gloria Auditions for experienced singers at 6:30 pm at Trinity Lutheran Church in Alameda, 1323 Central & Morton. All voice parts are encouraged to audition. 650-424-1242. www.sdgloria.org 

East Bay Private School Fair from 7 to 9 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Cost is $5-$10. 877-648-KIDS ext. 86. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. 524-9122. 

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

Copwatch Class from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 2022 Blake St., near Shattuck. Free and open to the public. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, OCT. 19 

School Board Candidates Forum at 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School, Florence Schwimley Little Theater on Allston Way. Co-sponsored by Berkeley High School PTSA and League of Women Voters. Questions for candidates will be collected during the forum or may be emailed in advance to colemanbarbara@comcast.net  

Morning Bird Walk: Inspiration Point Meet at 7 a.m. at Inspiration Point to see the resident birds of the grassland and chaparral. Call for directions or to reserve binoculars. 525-2233.  

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Mini-Rangers Join us for an active afternoon of nature study, conservation and rambling through woods and waters. Dress to get dirty, bring a healthy snack to share, for 8-12 year old girls and boys, unaccompanied by their parents. Fee is $6-$8. 525-2233. 

Fall Fruit Tasting Discover the many varieties of apples and pears at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market, from 2 to 7 p.m. at Derby at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org  

Berkeley Garden Club “The Gardens at Filoli,” a talk by Grover Cleveland, Filoli docent. Meeting at 1 p.m., program at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Guests $2. 524-4374. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek with Kirstin Miller on “Daylighting Strawberry Creek as a Centerpiece for the University’s Plan” at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Community Room. 419-0850. 

Get Ready for Winter Cycling with bike specialist James Lanham at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream” a film at 6:30 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

“Slavery in Early Modern West Africa” with Ugo Nwokeji of the Dept. of African Studies at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa  

“Time to Learn About Children: Parenting Through the Ages” with Dr. Mike Riera, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Day School, 3245 Sheffield Ave., Oakland. For reservations call 534-0804. 

Financial Planning Workshop: Investing 101 with Jarrett Topel, Certified Financial Planner at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. Free. 526-7512.  

“Introduction to Judaism” Explore Jewish spirituality and ethics with David Cooper at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Family Story Time at the Kensington Branch Library, at 7 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors offered by Stagebridge, at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Classes are held at 10 a.m. Tues.-Fri. For more information call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. 524-3765. 

Lawrence Berkeley Lab Public Hearing on the renewal of the Lab’s Hazardous Waste Handling Facility Permit for storage of hazardous and mixed waste in their Strawberry Canyon facility, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 1-866-495-5651. 

Tilden Tots A Holloween treasure hunt for 3 and 4 year olds each accompanied by an adult. From 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Jimmy Rutledge Award for Service to the Community The Berkeley Police Assoc. will honor Bay Area Outreach Recreational Program with the annual Award at 2:30 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Way. 981-5900, ext. 4084. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“A World Without the United Nations?” Discussion and Q/A with UCB Professors Nezar Al Sayyad, Richard Buxbaum and Urs Cipolat at 7 p.m. at 22 Warren Hall, Oxford and Berkeley Way. Sponsored by UCB Model UN, United Nations Association-USA East Bay and others. 540-8017. 

“Matías” a documentary about people trying to cross the US-Mexican border at 4 p.m. at Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“The Framing of Mumia” a documentary at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $3-$5. Sponsored by the International Council for Humanity. 419-1405.  

“The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future” with Dr. Elizabeth Economy at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Will Durst will speak on why so many young people look to television comedians for their political news at 3 p.m. at 109 Moses Hall, UC Campus. http://politics.berkeley.edu 

Gray Panthers Wednesday Night Gathering A teach-in on Leo Strauss, philosopher behind the neo-conservative movement at 7 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Tradition and Change: Conservative Judaism 101 at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 110.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Writing Project with special guest Jane Juska at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Prose Writers’ Workshop An ongoing group focused on issues of craft at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Fun with Acting Class every Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome, no experience necessary.  

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche. 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon., Oct. 18, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Housing Authority, 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Oct. 19, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

City Council meets Tues., Oct. 19 at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed.,Oct. 20, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportationw

FRIDAY, OCT. 15 

CHILDREN 

Mo Willems introduces “Knuffle Bunny” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Objects and Representations of Balinese Religion and Culture” opens at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. through Jan. 15. 649-2541. www.gtu.edu/library 

FILM 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $6-$8. 843-3699. www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Archangel” at 7:30 p.m. and “The Road to Glory” at 9:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Acme Players Ensemble, “Ghost in the Machine” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., call for Sun. times., through Nov. 7, at APE Space, 2525 Eighth St. Suggested donation $5-$20. 332-1931. 

Aurora Theatre Company, “The Persians” runs through Oct. 17. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

“Aya de León is Running for President” at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $8-$10. 273-2473. www.ayadeleon.com 

Berkeley Rep, “The Secret in the Wings” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. until Oct. 17. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Magical Acts Ritual Theater, “Heretics, Harlots and Heroes,” at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun at 2 p.m. through Oct. 23. Tickets are $16-$26. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Shakespeare in the Yard, “Notes From William, III” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at Sister Thea Memorial Theater, 920 Peralta St. West Oakland, through Oct. 17. Tickets are $5-$20. 208-5651 

TheatreFirst “Joe Egg” at 8 p.m. at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Through Oct. 17. Tickets are $22. 436-5085. 

Un-Scripted Theater Company, “Fear,” a full-length improvised horror story, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. through Oct. 30. Tickets are $7-$12. 869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

Woman’s Will, “Lord of the Flies” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., at 2525 Eighth St., through Oct. 24. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

M. Steven Shackley, editor, “The Early Ethnography of the Kumeyaay” at 4 p.m. at at Phoebe Hearst Museum, UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 643-7648.  

Justin Frank, looks at “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Maxina Ventura at 7:30 p.m. at the Fellowship Café, Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Soli Deo Gloria “Spiritual Journeys” a concert of American music featuring spiritual, gospel and classical sacred works at 7:30 p.m. at Zion Lutheran, 5201 Park Blvd., Piedmont. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-982-7341.  

“Disaster Series–The Continuation” by Joe Goode, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

Wayne Wallace Quintet, a concert of Afro-Cuban music at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100.  

Marvin Sanders and John Davis, flute and piano, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Donation $10. 

Dick Hindman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Cosmosamatics at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Palenque at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

David Mallet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Jello Biafra, Daphne Gottleib, Meliza Banales, benefit for Jesse Townley, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Plan 9, The Deep Eynde, S.M.D. at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

Stiletta, Top Brown, Chow Nasty, Secret Synthi at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 16 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Princess Moxie Puppet Show at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Mary Spivey, “Watercolors” Reception at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. at Ashby. Exhibition runs through Oct. 31. 604-1473. 

Worth Ryder Art Gallery First Year Graduate Exhibition Reception at noon at Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 642-2582. 

“Landscape” local landscape painters. Reception at 7 p.m. at Fourth Street Studio. 527-0600. 

FILM 

Berkeley Video & Film Festival Sat. and Sun. from 1 p.m. to midnight at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$8. 843-3699. www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Twilight of the Ice Nymphs” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Central Works, “A Step Away” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Through Nov. 21. Tickets are $8-$20. 558-1381. 

“Aya de León is Running for President” at 8 p.m. at Jahva House, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $7. 273-2473.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Thea Bellos talks about the photographs in “¡Cuba Viva!” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100.  

Gish Jen introduces her new novel “The Love Wife” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Exploring Inner and Outer Landscapes,” with nature photographer Stephen Altschuler, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, 2018 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concert with Amy Brodo, Paul Rhodes, baroque cello and gamba, Katherine Heater, harpsichord, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Chava Albertstein at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$38.642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Barry and Alice Oliver, folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Tour at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $16-$18. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

SoVoSó at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

West African HighLife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Michael Zilber Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

J-Soul at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

86 The Band, Bermuda Triangle Service, Wensler Willgain at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Poor Bailey, Three Hours Old, Fine by Me at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Animosity, Reflux, Botox Aftermath, The Clones, The Vice at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 17 

FILM 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Seventh Heaven” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Yossi and Jaeger” about two male soldiers in the Israeli army who fall in love, at 2 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $5. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Threshold: Byron Kim” Guided tour at 2 p.m., discussion at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Julia B. Levine and Sarah Maclay at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

International Women’s Writing Guild readings at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Gary Paul Nabhan explains “Why Some Like it Hot: Foods, Genes and Cultural Diversity” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“My Sister, My Sister” readings by The Sisters Project at 7 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Donation $10. 528-8198. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Spice of Life Festival with the Berkeley High School Jazz Combo at 11 a.m., Maria Marquez at noon, Wil Blades Organ Trio at 1:30 p.m. Misturada at 3 p.m. and Jazzschool Big Band at 4:30 p.m. at Cedar and Shattuck.  

Organ Recital with David R. Hunsberger playing ten chorale preludes by J.S. Bach at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Donations accepted.  

Live Oak Concert John Lutterman performs and discusses J. S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Arts Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Ancient European Folk Songs performed by Lily Storm, Tim Rayborn, Shira Kammen at 7:30 p.m. at Parish Hall, St. Alban’s Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $12-$15.  

Brentano String Quartet at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Music, Dance and Ritual of Kerala, India at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Imagining a Map of the World” solo dance performance by Evangel King at 11 a.m. at 1374 Francisco St. Donation $7-$15. 841-9441. 

“Disaster Series–The Continuation” by Joe Goode at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

Archiglas Acapella Choral Ensemble from St. Petersberg Russia at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan. Tickets are $12-$20 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

California Friends of French Lousiana Music at 2 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Acoustic Ace of Spades at 1 p.m. at MamaBuzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph Ave. 289-2272. 

Americana Unplugged: The Squirrelly String Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Blame it on the Sex, Music Box Serial Killer at 8 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 18 

FILM 

“Mùa Oi, The Season of Guavas” A film by Dang Nhat Minh at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Followed by discussion with the director. 642-3609. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dave Eggers, aka Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey, introduces “Giraffes? Giraffes!” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express, featuring storyteller Orunamamu, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Okkyung Lee at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $7-$10. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Madeleine Peyroux at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, OCT. 19 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Somewhere Else” An exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern artists. Reception from 4 to 7 p.m. Worth Ryder Art Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 642-2582.  

FILM 

JPEX: “Expanded Visions” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Writers Harvest Readings by Tobias Wolff, Gail Tsukiyama, and Jervey Tervalon at 7 p.m. in the Student Union at Mills College. Donation $5-$20. Benefits the Alameda County Community Food Bank. 430-3250. 

Glenn W. Smith introduces “The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy From Extinction” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Ernesto Quióonez talks about the gentrification of Spanish Harlem in “Chango’s Fire” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Wayne Bernhardson introduces “Moon Handbook: Argentina” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Songs of Donald Rumsfeld” with Bryant Kong, composer and pianist, and Ellender Wall, soprano at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazz House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Madeleine Peyroux at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Peter Barshay & Murray Low at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 

FILM 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Nightmare Alley” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Café Poetry at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jennifer Traig describes “Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

As’ad AbuKhalil discusses “The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

Lit Glass Presentation by artist Eliot K. Daughtry at 6:30 p.m. at 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Billy Dunn & Bluesway at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Erik Jekabson Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bluegrass Concert Benefit for Allison Fisher at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Whiskey Brothers at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473.  

Josh Workman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 21 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Bella Feldman and Katherine Westerhout, sculpture and photography. Presentation by the artists at 7 p.m. at the State Office Building Atrium, 1515 Clay St. 622-8190. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Threshold: Byron Kim” Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Casting Pebble, Flying Kite” Reception for artists Joyce Hsu and Chen-Ju Pan at 5 p.m. at 555 12th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Jan. 5. 238-6836. 

“l'Art de Vivre” Sculptures, bronzes and ceramics by Khalil Bendib. Reception at 5 p.m. at 340 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 642-8208. 

FILM 

Documentary Voices: “In the Name of God” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Power of Giving” with artists W. A. Ehren Tool, Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

“Mexico at the Hearst Museum” with Ira Jacknis at noon at Phoebe Hearst Museum, UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 643-7648.  

Gerard Jones introduces “Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat at 7 p.m. with Stan Millard and Alice Templeton, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Bruce Molesky, Appalachian fiddling, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Megan Skalard Band at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Pladdohg at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Eric Schrifrin, solo piano at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Rick Braun at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.comª

In politically disturbed times such as ours, museums can provide welcome distraction. Berkeley Art Museum is located on Bancroft Way across the street from the university campus, a short walk from the city center, making it easy for town as well as gown to refresh themselves therein. 

The current exhibit of Byron Kim’s paintings, “Threshold,” can advantageously be approached by starting at the top level of the museum, in Gallery 6. This takes one past a side gallery of ancient Asian bronzes and ceramics. In this small area two tiny vessels of prehistoric origin make the detour worth the trip. Their dark-patina’d eggshell-thin forms, each with tiny handles and faint engravings, speak of delicate fingers, female surely, working in harmony with the agrarian cycle of seasons that so conveniently lends itself to creativity in both clay and field. 

One flight of stairs above, Gallery 6 has a few large canvases that represent adequately enough the painting world of the mid-20th century, starting with Clyfford Still’s large Untitled of 1955. Also an abstract color field, Mark Rothko’s 1961 Number 207 is however more mesmerizing, as he achieved a saturation of hue that has not been exceeded since. The works of Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler and Willem de Kooning echo some aspects of these expanses of color and little to no form, yet at the same time with much less spiritual resonance than Rothko’s. 

Leaving Gallery 6 one is brought up short by a Jay DeFeo painting hung where one can not fail to see it, on the right side of the way out. Resembling in style her masterpiece The Rose, which hung here a few years ago, this huge canvas, Origin, painted in 1956, is equally masterly. As in The Rose, mystery pulses from the canvas surface, as though a god of painting had dipped fat fingers into lush pigments of subtly varied grays and creams, with touches of black and ochre and hints of green, and trailed them in a cosmic, compelling, utterly sublime fashion across celestial space. 

After this knockout blow to the psyche, one expects Byron Kim to be an anticlimax. Instead, as one makes one’s way down through the lower galleries, his cool blues and pale terracottas spring gently from the walls to refresh and comfort the eye. With help in interpretation from curatorial text, this feast completes a comprehensible progression of 20th century style and ushers in the 21st. Gone are the hyperactivity of Abstract Expressionism, the dryness of Minimalism, the dizzyness of Op and Pop, and post Modern inclusion. Something is here that is as yet unnamed, that derives its essence direct from the fount of all art, nature, that makes it look as though the future does after all contain hope, and clear-sightedness, and surprisingly, given the turmoil of the times, serenity. 

If it is now time to feed body as well as soul, for looking at art can whip up an appetite, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the museum’s Café Muse on the ground floor produces fresh, savory dishes at moderate prices. The stairway down is flanked by Ragamala paintings selected from Jean and Francis Marshall’s extensive donated collection. These tiny jewels, exquisitely rendered and imaginatively conceived—from horses that have stood in fields for so long that their legs are stained with scarlet and their flanks etched with minuscule meadow flowers, to many-headed deities or blue faced ones—were painted in the second half of the last millennium to give visual form to music, a genre said to have been particularly popular with Hindu royalty. 

These miniatures bring us back to the beginning of our tour, for they were painted by the same person who made the tiny Asian vessels, surely the most beguiling artist of all time: Unknown.  

›

A friend of ours has been planning to go to Florida in the next couple of weeks to help with the get-out-the-vote effort. As the date approaches, she’s begun to wonder if it would be more effective to donate the cost of the trip to an organization already working in the field. Trying to help her make up her mind, I offered to poll my several politically astute cousins who live in Florida to see if they thought she should go. Their return emails were a good window on what’s going on in their part of the country.  

Cousin Pete in Tallahassee seems to have inherited the family sharp tongue: 

“I think that Bush may lose in Florida, but Kerry’s and the Democratic campaign are so wishy-washy and ineffectively run that there is little that can be done at this point in time except by Bush…I think that the Democratic party has been poorly organized here for a long time, has not spent its money well, and that Missouri or Colorado might be more sensitive to additional funding.” His follow-up email today reports that things are looking up a bit—Edwards played to an enthusiastic full house over the weekend. 

Cousin Elsa in Fort Lauderdale delegated the reply to her husband Dick, who reports that they’re optimistic about a Kerry win in their area. He expressed considerable annoyance with an attempt to get “the Catholic vote” which he ran into: 

“I encountered a politician standing in front of our church Sunday morning with a ‘pro-life’ sign. He was holding a gigantic American flag, waving it around. I approached him to make sure he was not on church property, and giving the impression that he was endorsed by our parish. I casually mentioned that persons who support pro-life also must support taxation to provide the social programs needed to support life throughout its continuum. When I said the word ‘taxation’, he went ballistic. Nice guy!” 

Dick and Elsa know whereof they speak, since they’re raising an autistic boy they first took as a foster child and then adopted after their own children were grown. “Pro-life” sloganeering rings especially hollow when mouthed by people who shirk their responsibilities to the already-born while crying over the unborn.  

Certain Catholic bishops are among the worst offenders in this department, along with some, though not all, of their clergy. The attempts to cast aspersions on Kerry because of his support of choice have outraged many. One of our correspondents in Missouri deplores the fact that her parish priest is “a big fat Republican”. Those bishops may look back at the flock they think they’re leading and find out that a sizable majority of the sheep are going astray in this election. Many Catholics, especially those who had good church history classes in school, are well aware that the Church over the centuries has made lots of big mistakes, and they think they’re seeing yet another example in this election.  

How do I know this? Well, I’ve got to believe my own mother. Today (Tuesday) is her 90th birthday, and she’s busy revving up her engines to send a stinging letter to the bishops letting them know what a big error they’ve made this time. She says that this time she really will threaten to quit, and she might, but I’m betting she won’t go through with it. The Church has always been home to as many sinners as saints, clergy and hierarchy definitely not excepted, and she knows that. She won’t let a few sanctimonious bishops with bad politics define her religion for her. 

John Kerry said approximately the same thing in the last debate. He alluded, in code which many probably missed, to the central paradox which has pre-occupied Christians since the reformation and before: is faith alone enough, as many born-again Protestant evangelicals now claim, or does the committed Christian also have to ACT in accordance with belief? 

This is what Kerry said: “My faith affects everything that I do, in truth. There’s a great passage of the Bible that says, “What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead.’ And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people. That’s why I fight against poverty. That’s why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That’s why I fight for equality and justice. All of those things come out of that fundamental teaching and belief of faith.”  

Now that’s old-fashioned plain vanilla Catholic doctrine as my mother, my cousins and I learned it in school, along with millions of other Americans. The estimable St. Petersburg (Florida) Times took a look at “the Catholic vote” last Saturday in a news story by Sharon Tubbs, and spotlighted a whole bunch of new organizations in Florida and elsewhere started by liberal Catholics who don’t intend to let a few misguided bishops push them around. Bad-apple bishops to the contrary notwithstanding, and whether they still go to church or not, most people who were raised as Catholics will probably look at the presidential candidates and make up their own minds about which candidate supports policies which are consistent with whatever faith they still espouse, thank you very much.  

—Becky O’Malley 

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The email this week brought a letter from a 17-year-old young man in Alabama listing all the reasons he’s supporting Kerry, and unselfconsciously confessing that he sent the letter via a form on the Kerry website. We’ve gotten a bunch of these letters lately, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Zack Exley, formerly a strategist with MoveOn.org, is now the Kerry campaign's director of online communications and organizing, and he’s clearly transferred what he learned in the slick MoveOn operation to his new job. As a result, Kerry supporters seem to be easily able to write, at one fell swoop, to hundreds of media outlets around the country to support their man. Some letters, like the one from our Alabama correspondent, are personal and heartfelt, while others have more of a canned flavor. In the interest of saving our printed pages for controversial local issues that don’t get aired anywhere else, we’ve relegated most of these letters to the web version of the paper, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate them. Any undecided Planet readers (there must be a few of you out there) should check the website for some excellent arguments. We haven’t gotten many for Bush, though. 

Canned arguments have something of a bad name, though that’s not completely fair. Wednesday’s debate reminded me of nothing so much as the high school debate circuit of my youth, which roughly coincided with John Kerry’s youth. I don’t know if he was on his high school debating team, but it seemed like he might have been. In those days we went to the debates, which were held in grungy cafeterias after school, armed with cheap file boxes stuffed with three by five cards on which “facts” were written, mostly statistics taken out of context, suitable for insertion into any argument at the appropriate moment. Every year there was an official debate question, and teams were expected to be able to argue “both sides”—an early instillation of the cherished American myth that there are just two sides to any question. Enterprising publishers offered books of outlines of arguments pro and con the official topic: In my year it was whether to abolish farm price supports. (That one still hasn’t been settled after more than 40 years.) 

The champs on my L.A. circuit were the boys from the Jesuit high school, one of whom, a short, fat, intense kid named David Roberti, went on to become President of the California State Senate. They had the most professional looking file boxes containing the biggest stacks of index cards, and they knew how to deploy them.  

The newsies on CNN on Wednesday night complained about the way the candidates inserted statistics into their presentations, a la high school debaters. Candy Crowley, a bright woman despite her name who should know better, whined that the debate was excessively “wonkish”. She said that she particularly liked the part where Kerry talked about his late mother. But you know that if the obligatory statistics had been left out, there would have been another chorus carping about that.  

It’s tricky. Journalists (not the best ones of course) are notorious for picking numbers out of the air to decorate their stories regardless of appropriateness, so they can’t get away with knocking candidates for doing the same thing on occasion. What they could and should do is keep track of whether the proffered numbers pertain to the question asked or support the argument made, but they don’t do that very well.  

For example, post-game commentators were all over the question of whether Kerry’s statistics about net job loss in the Bush regime were accurate. It’s true, Kerry didn’t qualify his number by saying it referred only to private sector jobs and was somewhat balanced by an increase in public sector jobs. But this lapse has little effect on the truth behind Kerry’s argument, which is that the economy has suffered under Bush. Saying that public sector jobs have increased would only boost Kerry’s popularity among Republican sympathizers who are scared of “big government.” 

Most commentators, and Kerry too, seem to have missed the major logical flaws in Bush’s answer to the question of how the flu vaccine shortage happened, since it contained no checkable statistics. Bush said that “we relied upon a company out of England.” Actually, that would be an American company, Emeryville’s own Chiron, offshoring the manufacturing to be sure. Then he admitted he’s turning to Canada to help find some more vaccine, in spite of his previous statements that he rejected government purchase of Canadian drugs for safety reasons. Finally, he blamed fear of lawsuits for manufacturers’ short supplies. But Congress passed a liability-limiting bill into law in 1986 which should give drug makers all the protection they need. 

Kerry missed all of this. Instead, he went into his canned statistical routine, most of it true but not relevant, about the deficiencies in America’s health insurance system. Flu vaccine is one of the few kinds of preventative medicine that has been widely available at a reasonable price, even for the uninsured. The administration’s dropping the ball on vaccine is a giant step backward, but Kerry didn’t nail them on it during the debate. 

The pressure of the debate format causes candidates to miss opportunities like this occasionally. All in all, this debate series has been pretty coherent despite its cumbersome rules. But as long as the major media believe that Americans can only handle structured soundbites, even ones salted with “facts,” that’s all we’ll be offered in prime time.  

The Internet is starting to change some of this. Candidates can, if they chose, offer solid in-depth proposals on web sites, even if the debate format limits what they can say. When Kerry’s charged with not have a health insurance plan, he can say that he does indeed, and it’s on his web site. Perhaps future campaigns will be conducted on a more intelligent level as more voters learn how to go beyond the mass media for their information. 

—Becky O’Malley