Max Sinton, 11, a sixth-grader at Longfellow Junior High School attentively fills out his ballot in the school courtyard. In a mock presidential election at Longfellow Junior High on Monday, John Kerry won by a landslide with 245 votes. President George Bush came away with only 8 votes, and 22 ballots were thrown out. Of the 433 students at the school, 297 registered to vote, a requirement in order to participate. At right, a voter enjoys a post-decision lollipop while showing off his “I Voted” souvenir sticker. 

According to teachers, the election was part of a curriculum developed to teach students about the election process. For the past several weeks students have learned about the history of voting, written comparative essays about the presidential debates and conducted interviews with registered voters in the community. Students ran the registration drive and the polls, and several math classes will be analyzing the vote count based on grade and gender.

Over the protests of neighboring business and property owners, Zoning Adjustments Board members Thursday issued a mitigated negative declaration and a use permit for a major University Avenue project. 

Barring an appeal to the City Council, Pacific Bay Investment has the city’s green light to build a five-story condominium and ground floor retail complex at the site of the former Tune-Up Masters facility at 1698 University Ave. 

Only members Dean Metzger and Carrie Sprague voted against issuing the documents. 

The board also took its first formal look at plans for the new Ed Roberts Campus at the site of the Ashby Avenue BART station, and heard concerns of neighbors who compared the architecture to a typical airline terminal. 

The center will provide training for the disabled and office space for disability rights, job training and related programs. 

Meredith Sabini, one of the most vocal opponents of the University Avenue project to testify before the board, has vowed to file a legal challenge. 

A clinical psychologist, Sabini owns the landmarked Fox Commons cottages, which will be thrown into three hours of morning shadow when the new building is completed. 

The board rejected pleas from project critics—including the Rev. George E. Crespin, pastor of the landmarked St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, and Ifshin Violins owner Jay Ifshin—to require an environmental impact report (EIR) for the project. 

“I am very concerned about the traffic and parking impact in a neighborhood that is already congested,” wrote Crespin, addressing similar concerns raised by Ifshin. 

Eric Cress, project manager for Pacific Bay, said the developers had made significant changes in the project following a series of eight meetings with area residents, five design charettes and seven meetings with the city Design Review Commission. 

“We have reduced the number of dwelling unites from 38 to 25, reduced the height from 64 feet to 50 feet and increased the parking spaces from 16 to 33,” Cress said. 

The developers gained additional height for the building under the state density bonus law by including four so-called inclusionary condos, priced to be affordable to those earning 120 percent of the area median income. 

Rental figures for inclusionary apartments are based on much lower income figures. 

Many of the critics who appeared Thursday are members of PlanBerkeley.org, a group of University Avenue area residents and merchants which has been critical of the large residential/commercial structures rising along the main thoroughfare into the city. 

While neighbors were concerned with the immediate impacts of traffic, parking and noise impacts of construction, criticism also focused on the way the density bonus has been used to create structures taller than those fixed by the city plan and zoning requirements. 

One critic, architect John Alff, said that because the city doesn’t mandate densities for specific neighborhoods, “an averaging is taking place which is inflating the bulk of buildings to the point where they are becoming artificially large.” 

Alff said the city “needs to calculate densities in a way the average human can understand. I’m an architect, and I find it confusing. We need to nip this in the bud and decide what an appropriate density is. I wish you could say ‘We don’t want a five-story building here.’” 

Robin Kibby, who lives near the project and is an active member of PlanBerkeley.Org, agreed. “I’m concerned about how the density bonus is calculated. The general plan calls for a three-story building here.” 

“They are allowed a 25 percent bonus under the existing state law,” said city Principal Planner Debbie Sanderson. 

The developer did reduce the structure’s bulk, scaling back the fifth floor, but that wasn’t enough for Sabini. 

“I really resent the impact on our buildings,” she said. She also charged that the city shouldn’t build atop a site where hazardous chemicals had been used without requiring an EIR. 

The one unqualified neighborhood proponent was Dorrit Geshuri, a community organizer who lives at 1630 University Ave. “This is the kind of infill, development that should exist,” she said. “The density creates a population that will shop and use public transportation locally.” 

Most of the critics acknowledged that the developer had significantly improved the structure’s design, reducing the grossest impacts the building might have made. But they said they remained unconvinced the compromise was appropriate for the neighborhood. 

ZAB member Sprague agreed. 

“Compared to where we started, the building has really improved,” said ZAB Chair Andy Katz, while acknowledging that “the density bonus law results in enormous confusion.” With further changes allowing for increased density mandated by a new state law that comes into effect in January, “I’m glad we’re going to start putting our procedures in writing to really clarify things and allow people to all be on the same page.” 

Acknowledging that the density law poses serious problems, “if we step back from neighborhood concerns we can see that there are really profound reasons the Legislature provided” for them, said member Cheryl Tiedemann. 

“I don’t think we have a choice in terms of denying the variances” requested by the developer, said ZAB member and City Council candidate Laurie Capitelli. “The law compels us to grant the variances.” 

Board member Robert Allen told the critics they were preaching to the choir. “I dislike five-story buildings, and the city’s parking requirements are ridiculously low,” but he said he had no choice but to vote for the project. 

The proposal carried on a five-to-two vote. 

The Ed Roberts campus wasn’t up for a vote, although supporters turned out en masse in a carefully staged appearance managed by the center’s public relations firm. 

Every speaker who urged approval was greeted with applause, and critics—who largely found fault with the architecture—were met with silence. The proposal returns to ZAB for a second hearing next week. 

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If John Kerry emerges triumphant Tuesday, he will have thousands of volunteers to thank, including quite a few from Berkeley. 

In the past several days and weeks northern California residents have flocked to swing states across the nation doing whatever they can to get Kerry supporters to the polls and mesh with the locals. 

“Being from Berkeley I don’t think I’ve ever met an undecided voter before,” said Wendy Hallinan, a medical worker, who arrived in Las Vegas Monday. “It’s kind of shocking. I don’t know what to say to them.” 

On Election Day, Hallinan will participate in the Democratic Party’s sophisticated get-out-the vote campaign aimed at moving traditionally Republican Nevada into the Kerry column. 

Volunteers will track voters via palm pilots and swarm Los Vegas neighborhoods where turnout has traditionally been low, said Chris Krohn, the former mayor of Santa Cruz, who has been working for the Democratic Party in Nevada for the last 25 days. 

With voters waiting for as long as two hours at early polling stations, Krohn said party volunteers have served food, drinks and even offered acrobats to entertain voters and keep them waiting in line to vote. 

Internal Democratic Party polls show Kerry with a slight advantage in Nevada, Krohn said, but he added that party officials were concerned that the Republican Party would use state election laws to challenge voters on Tuesday. Nevada allows for election officials to review the eligibility of voters, a practice outlawed in Ohio by two federal judges on Monday. In prior elections, Krohn said Republicans had challenged first-time voters to disqualify them and slow lines at heavily Democratic precincts. 

Krohn said he has already seen some dirty tricks. On Monday, he said, a man entered party headquarters claiming to be an electrician sent by the landlord to fix the lighting. A call to the landlord from party officials determined that the landlord hadn’t sent the electrician. 

“I think they were trying to obstruct our computer system,” Krohn said. 

Bob Burnett, a Berkeley resident volunteering for the Democratic Party in Boulder, Colo., said he has also witnessed shenanigans. He blamed Republicans for bombarding the Democratic Party’s e-mail system so messages couldn’t get through and said Republicans at the University of Colorado had told likely Democratic voters to go to the wrong precinct on Election Day. 

Still, Burnett, who is working 15 hour days organizing volunteers and phone banks, is optimistic that despite most polls showing Colorado swinging towards Bush, Kerry will take the state. 

“I’ve worked campaigns since 1968 and this is the best reception I’ve ever had,” he said. 

In West Palm Beach, Florida, Muriel Waller, a retired environmental consultant, has encountered a more skeptical electorate. 

“The real concern among voters I’ve talked to is that the election will be stolen again and that no matter how many more votes Kerry gets than Bush it won’t be enough,” the Berkeley resident said. 

Waller said she was troubled to hear about a woman whose granddaughter spent money she earned working at a fast food restaurant to make 25 pro-Kerry t-shirts but couldn’t get any recognition from the Kerry-Edwards campaign. 

“She told me that the campaign had been elitist in reaching out to college students but ignoring other college-age kids who joined the work force.” 

About 70 miles to the south, Conchita Lonzano, a local attorney, spent Monday monitoring lines at early polling stations in Miami. The biggest challenge, she wrote in an e-mail, came from local Cuban-Americans who told voters in line that monitors like Lonzano were there to commit voter fraud and taking Cuban voters into booths and voting for them. 

Lonzano met one woman who felt so harassed that she took a Bush button and pinned it “straight onto her ass” as a sign of protest. 

All of the campaign workers are either paying for their own accommodation or staying with friends or a local family, yet they said they have no regrets at sacrificing money or comfort to make an impact on the election. 

“After 2000 I promised myself I would do everything I could to make sure the election wasn’t stolen again,” Hallinan said. “Staying in Berkeley wouldn’t have done a whole lot.” 

Richmond city officials abused their discretion three years ago in approving a plan by ChevronTexaco to create two 30,000-barrel liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks, a state appellate court ruled Friday. 

The 500-pound gorilla on the Richmond political scene, the oil giant is also one of two bidders for Point Molate, an abandoned U.S. Navy fueling base, offering enough up-front cash to wipe out the city’s sizable debt. 

A rival plan by Berkeley developer James Levine and gambling industry giant Harrah’s calls for even bigger potential payouts to the city, provided the developers and the Guidiville Rancheria Band of Pomos can win federal and state approvals for a massive gaming, hotel, entertainment and shopping resort at the site. 

The City Council could reach a decision on the two offers as early as next Tuesday. 

Oil refinery officials say they want Point Molate to serve as a security buffer for their refinery, and contend that the high traffic that would be generated by Levine’s plan is incompatible with protecting the site against possible terrorist attacks. 

ChevronTexaco has also generated a flurry of controversy by flooding the city with expensive endorsement mailers in the closing days of the city elections. 

Incumbent Tom Butt, the only City Councilmember who called for an environmental impact report when the refinery filed papers with the city to build the LPG tanks in 2001, is not one of the ChevronTexaco’s election day picks. 

“Chevron’s involvement is drawing more interest than usual this year because of Point Molate. When they come back to the council with their latest offer later this month, it’s likely that some of their endorsees will be sitting on the council,” Butt said. 

Newly elected City Councilmembers won’t take office until the council’s first January meeting. 

Butt estimated the cost of the Chevron mailers at more than $100,000. “It’s the local equivalent of soft money,” he said. 

All sides agree that as the largest employer and property owner in the city, ChevronTexaco wields considerable influence in the city.  

Everett Jenkins, interim Richmond city attorney, was unavailable for comment either on the Point Molate offer or on the court ruling. “It being election time, he decided to take off until Wednesday,” said a spokesperson for his office. “’Til then, the media talks to nobody.” 

Calls to Mayor Irma Anderson and acting City Manager Rich McCoy were not returned. 

ChevronTexaco External Affairs Manager Dean O’Hair said the ruling should have little impact on the refinery’s plans. 

The case against the city and Chevron was filed by Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), an Oakland-based environmental group on July 3, 2002. The suit followed unsuccessful appeals of its challenges of city planning commission and council votes approving the refinery’s request for a conditional use permit to add the two tanks to the complex of 14 at the Chevron “sphere farm.” 

A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge ruled for Chevron and the city, and CBE appealed. 

CBE charged that the approval was part of an illegal attempt by Chevron to “piecemeal” a portion of the refinery out of the production of banned fuel additive MTBE and into an LPG tank farm. 

“Piecemealing,” the implementation of a strategic planning effort through incremental stages submitted without revealing the larger plan, is banned under the California Environmental Quality Act, and CBE was demanding a full-scale environmental impact report addressing what it claimed was a broader plan. 

CBE wanted the EIR to address the possible hazards and impacts that might be produced by leaks or an explosion of the highly combustible compressed gas, and to address the issue of how the spheres might fit into a larger reformulated gasoline project at the refinery. 

Chevron contended that the spheres were needed to make the refinery more efficient at handling LPG and to allow them to take existing spheres out of service for inspection. 

While the appellate court denied the piecemealing claim, the three justices ruled that the city’s failure to address the cumulative impacts of several refinery project, including the spheres, constituted an abuse of discretion. 

Citing existing precedents, the justices held that the initial study wrongly denied that the tanks would add to the impacts of earlier changes at the plant. 

Presiding Justice William R. McGuiness wrote, “CBE submitted evidence showing Chevron had applied for permits for over a dozen projects at the refinery during the twelve months before the city issued its notice of negative declaration on November 30, 2001... under the CEQA Guidelines, the city had an obligation to consider not only current projects ‘in the immediate vicinity’ of the proposed project, but rather the effects of all past, current and reasonably foreseeable future projects that could produce a combined environmental impact.” 

The appellate court last week ordered the trial court to direct the city to set aside the resolutions adopting the negative impact declaration. The decision also forces the city to conduct a study to determine if an EIR should be required “after examining the cumulative impacts of the project in connection with past, present and probable future projects at the refinery.” 

Each side was ordered to pay their own costs. 

Adrienne Bloch, attorney for CBE, called the decision “a significant victory for environmental justice, and an excellent decision for the City of Richmond.” 

Bloch said CBE entered the legal fray following complaints by people living near and around the refinery. “As soon as we started to look into it, we realized it was part of something much larger. We engaged an expert and started out on what became a very long fight. 

“The decision is the first case in the district based on cumulative impacts, and now the city will have to start all over with a new Environmental Impact Statement and new scoping sessions offering the opportunities for more public participation,” she said. “It’s significant also in that it serves as notice to the City of Richmond that they’re not exempt from real environmental review of projects—that they have it do it just like everyone else.” 

But ChevronTexaco’s O’Hair downplayed the claim. “They did not tell the City of Richmond that they had to do an Environmental Impact Report,” he said. “They just have to check off the box saying they’ve examined the cumulative impacts of the project and found that a negative declaration is all that’s necessary.” 

Councilmember Butt, a longtime Chevron critic, hailed the decision. “Chevron has owned our City Council for years,” he said, “and the council does whatever the city staff says.” 

Meanwhile, Chevron presented the city with the latest draft of its offer for Point Molate on Friday, offering a $50 million payment as early as Dec. 23, another $5 million within 10 days of signing to fund new jobs in the city, plus a special tax assessment of $1 million per year for 25 years, 

The refinery is also offering a $1 million account to fund a comprehensive land use plan and a $2 million fund payable over five years to develop and maintain a shoreline park and trail system, which will include land already owned by the refinery. 

Chevron also agrees to take the land on an “as is” basis. 

The offer also includes long-term use of a valuable 25-acre tract commercial/industry tract near the Richmond marina. 

O’Hair described the $1 million a year offer as payments in lieu of property taxes, “though I expect there will also be some type of regular property taxes, too.”

With the supply scarce, Berkeley health officials are struggling to decide how to dole out potentially life-saving flu vaccines this winter—a challenge made more complicated by the fact that most of the doses are in private hands. 

The nation-wide flu shortage is hitting the Bay Area and Berkeley especially hard, and it’s an impossible game of numbers to match the scant supply with the demand, said Berkeley Director of Public Health Poki Namkung Monday. 

Although health officials say an estimated 26,000 Berkeley residents fall into the highest risk categories determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should get a flu shot, the City of Berkeley only has control over 1,200 doses, 300 of which it had purchased from Aventis and the rest from the state’s portion given by the CDCP. 

That’s about half the number of shots it has had in normal years. 

The City of Berkeley will hand over its flu shots to doctors and community clinics to issue to their most high-risk patients. The department is still in the process of deciding who gets what. 

An additional 4,000 vaccinations exist in the private sector, at hospitals, clinics, the University of California, and non-profit organizations. 

“It’s a heartbreaking situation. It’s going to leave a huge number of people out,” Namkung said. “We are literally counting dose by dose, person by person.” 

Namkung estimates that about 80 percent of the city’s health care providers appear to have ordered their supply of flu shots from Emeryville-based Chiron Corporation, which announced last month that none of its influenza vaccine would be available for the 2004-05 flu season. 

Sutter VNA and Hospice, an affiliate of Sutter Health, is making 1,000 doses available at four Berkeley flu clinics. The non-profit group recently received 15,000 additional doses to be sold to high risk patients for $20 each in 11 California counties including Alameda, said spokeswoman Gerri Ginsburg. 

The doses came from Aventis, although it was the Visiting Nurses Association of America, a national organization that works closely with the CDC, that advocated for the local group, Ginsburg said. 

The group hasn’t advertised the new shipment aside from communicating with senior centers and posting the clinic schedule on its website. 

“We’ve been keeping the word local and toward our target groups,” Ginsburg said. 

Because of the shortage, California’s Public Health Officer Richard Jackson issued an order Oct. 8 with guidelines on who should receive the available vaccines. 

Among them are adults over 65, children six to 23 months, and residents of nursing homes and long term care facilities. Namkung Oct. 13 reinforced the order with one of her own to include a declaration that must be signed by anyone receiving the vaccine stating they fall into one of the high-risk categories. 

While all medical providers must follow the orders—to violate them is a misdemeanor—the state hasn’t issued additional guidelines to determine whether a pregnant woman, for example, should receive a flu shot before a person with asthma, said California Department of Health spokesman Robert Miller. 

For its own 1,200 public-owned shots, the Berkeley City Health Department has itemized some of the criteria they use. 

Its first priority, Namkung said, is to maintain the city’s health infrastructure. That means making sure emergency room doctors and critical care nurses—health care workers who come in close contact with patients and would be difficult to replace—have the opportunity to be vaccinated. 

“We know, given the shortages, there will be many more flu cases than normal and there have to be health care providers to take care of sick patients,” Namkung said. 

Next are the elderly who live in nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and senior housing. The city’s vaccine supply won’t stretch beyond those two groups, Namkung said, although she does plan to hold onto about 100 doses to be used for small children, if necessary. 

Those guidelines won’t extend into the private sector, where doctors will be left to determine which high-risk patient needs to be vaccinated the most. 

Nurses at the VNA clinics will require flu shot recipients to sign the VNA’s own itemized sheet declaring that they are indeed high risk. 

That could leave uninsured patients without access to the vaccine, Namkung acknowledged, especially since Berkeley canceled its senior flu vaccine clinics this year. About 3,000 of the 26,000 high-risk group are uninsured, she estimated. 

While the health department will attend scheduled vaccination clinics, like the Sutter VNA clinic to be held at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center on Nov. 3, they won’t observe what goes on inside private medical centers to make sure they are following the CDC’s guidelines. 

“I trust health care providers to do the right thing,” she said. “I haven’t seen any evidence that there is mishandling or misuse.” 

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center has an additional 3,100 vaccinations, but will use them for their workers, Namkung said. 

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has a policy similar to Berkeley’s—first vaccinating health care workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, according to Director Mitchell Catz. 

Sonoma County Deputy Health Officer Leigh Hall said his health department’s plan for vaccine distribution is “evolving.” 

In a normal year the county health department isn’t allowed to share its vaccines with the private sector, but this year they’ll be allowed to use their 3,300 doses to fill holes. 

“We’ll need a whole lot more than what we got,” Hall said. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler contributed to this report.à

One of the largest homeless service providers in the Bay Area is slated to take over a jobs training program in Berkeley after the current provider ran afoul of federal regulators. 

Rubicon Programs Inc., a nonprofit based in Richmond, is scheduled to take over an office at 2801 Telegraph Ave., where the Jobs Consortium for the Homeless has conducted business since 1988. 

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development froze funding to the Jobs Consortium after a department review determined that the nonprofit owned HUD $1.2 million for already expended grant funds which were supposed to have been matched with local cash contributions equaling 25 percent of the total. A HUD review last July determined that the organization had instead accounted for nearly 70 percent of the required match with in-kind services provided by a local union. HUD has disqualified grants for prior years and is now demanding reimbursement from the Jobs Consortium. 

With the HUD sanction driving the Jobs Consortium to the brink of collapse, the city has been negotiating with HUD to bring Rubicon to Berkeley. The goal is to retain HUD funding of approximately $1 million per year which has paid 75 percent of the costs for the job training program.  

Earlier this month the City Council voted unanimously to transfer the city’s $19,000 share of the cash match for the grant from the Jobs Consortium to Rubicon. 

Rubicon Deputy Director Jane Fischberg said the move to Berkeley “seemed like a sensible expansion” since the nonprofit already served homeless people in Alameda County. She refused to speculate on the services Rubicon planned to offer until the deal to bring them to Berkeley was final. In addition to providing services for the homeless, Rubicon is also an affordable housing developer. 

In order to pave the way for Rubicon, the city must keep the Jobs Consortium afloat until it can repay the $1.2 million. As a condition of transferring the grant to Rubicon, HUD is demanding to be paid back in full by the Jobs Consortium, said Berkeley Community Services Specialist Jane Micallef. 

Already, Berkeley and Alameda County have spent a combined $150,000 to sustain the Jobs Consortium through next June, when it is scheduled to receive the second and final installment of a $1.5 million payout from the Port of Oakland Army Base Reuse Authority. 

The money is part of a multi-million dollar relocation compensation package for social service providers on the base, which is slated for retail and residential development. 

If the Jobs Consortium can survive until it receives payment for removal of its job training center on the army base, Micallef said it could repay its debts, and then likely disband. 

“The organization has really toppled under the pressure,” she said.  

Representatives of the Jobs Consortium did not respond to telephone calls for this story. Many of the Jobs Consortium’s top officers, including its longtime executive director Michael Daniels, have departed, Micallef said.  

The organization is currently being run by a consultant, Paul Leonard, a former HUD official. 

Without money from HUD, the Jobs Consortium has ceased its jobs training programs, but still manages the Haste Street House, a Berkeley affordable housing development owned by the Northern California Land Trust. 

Before HUD cut off funding, the Jobs Consortium, which had served between 700 and 800 Oakland and Berkeley residents a year, ran job training programs in construction work, asbestos abatement, janitorial work and food service. 

Rubicon’s job training services have traditionally specialized in assisting people with mental disabilities and has sent graduates to work jobs in health care, biotechnology, construction and transportation fields, Fischberg said. The group also runs a landscaping business and a bakery that employees graduates of its training program. 

Started in 1973, Rubicon has an extensive list of corporate and foundation partners that Micallef said would enable it to meet HUD’s grant requirements. 

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Political junkies who don’t want to spend election night alone staring at television news anchors have plenty of social opportunities Tuesday night. 

Many local candidates and campaigns are hosting parties where the featured display will be a computer with an Internet hook-up providing updated local returns from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. 

For those with their eyes on the biggest electoral prize, La Peña and UC Berkeley are holding events to watch the race for president. 

Starting at 4 p.m., UC Berkeley will host election night spectators at 102 Moses Hall, home to the Institute for Governmental Studies. Department faculty will stop by to offer commentary as events unfold. 

For a more partisan flavor, La Peña, starting at 5:30 p.m., is inviting progressives to watch election returns on its big screen television at 3105 Shattuck Ave. While election results are broadcast in the background, Aya de Leon, a political satirist, will perform and attendees will discuss future activism work, regardless of who wins. 

On the opposite end of the political spectrum, the UC Berkeley College Republicans will abandon their usual election night clubhouse, Kip’s Restaurant, and watch news coverage at the home of their chapter president in an undisclosed location. 

In Oakland, the Wellstone Democratic Club will watch election returns at Everett and Jones Barbecue on 126 Broadway in Jack London Square.  

Cafe de la Paz is hosting a “Re-defeat Bush” party at 1600 Shattuck Ave. and starting at 6 p.m. the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts is hosting a gathering at 2640 College Ave.  

Berkeley Greens will gather at “Grassroots House” at 2022 Blake St. to watch the race for president and stay tuned to local results via the Internet. 

The lone Green candidate for City Council this year, Jesse Townley, will host an election night gathering from 8 p.m. until midnight at his home at 1354 Carlotta Ave. Other campaigns hosting house parties include District 2 Candidate Darryl Moore at 1411 Channing Way, District 6 Candidate Norine Smith at 2350 Eunice Ave., Measure H, a campaign to publicly finance local elections, at 1305 Henry St., and Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes, who will gather from 7-11 p.m. at 262 Hilcrest Road.  

City Council candidates Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli will hold a joint gathering starting at 9 p.m. at the brand new La Farine French Bakery at 1820 Solano Ave. Max Anderson, a candidate in District 3, will hold an election night party at The Vault Cafe at 3250 Adeline St. Just one block away, his opponent, Laura Menard, will host a potluck at the soon to be opened Spuds Pizza at 3290 Adeline St. 

Supporters of Measure Q, an initiative to push for decriminalizing prostitution, will host a party starting at 7:30 at the Missouri Lounge on 2600 San Pablo Ave. 

The committee to pass tax measures J, K and L will host supporters at its headquarters at 2026 Shattuck Ave. Just two blocks away, the Committee for Measure B, a tax for the Berkeley Unified School District, will keep abreast of local returns via Internet at their headquarters in the former Radio Shack at 1944 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Unless otherwise noted, all gatherings are scheduled to begin when polls close at 8 p.m. Since the registrar’s office began downloading returns on-line, results have not come quickly. In 2002 it was nearly midnight before returns showed that Tom Bates had been elected Berkeley’s next mayor. 

Anyone who would rather remain at home but not rely on the local news for local results can access city and county returns from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters at www.acgov.org/rov.›

Albany City Council candidates Brian Parker and Robert Lieber have filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, charging two of his opponents with attempting to subvert Albany’s campaign finance ordinance by illegally coordinating with an independent campaign committee. 

Parker and Lieber said that the Concerned Albany Citizens group was essentially a front for the campaigns of candidates Jewel Okawachi and Alan Riffer. 

Documents filed with the Albany City Clerk’s office indicate that the amount spent by the Concerned Albany Citizens group would not put Okawachi and Riffer over Albany’s $6,000 voluntary campaign spending limit. The Concerned Albany Citizens have filed an expenditure report with the Albany City Clerk’s office listing $380 in expenses producing the campaign handout, and both Okawachi and Riffer are several thousand dollars short of the expenditure limit. 

In addition, Albany City Councilmember Peggy Thomsen, who is listed as a member of the independent group, denied there was any coordination between the citizens group and any candidate’s campaign. 

“That’s a totally ridiculous, baseless charge,” she said. “Can you imagine anyone trying to coordinate me? Just ask around town.” 

Parker, Lieber, Okawachi, and Riffer are among six candidates running for three seats on the Albany City Council. Okawachi is the only incumbent in the field. Thomsen is not up for re-election this year. 

Also running in the race, but not mentioned as part of the controversy, are candidates Richard Cross and Farid Javandel. Many of the campaign issues have centered around development of Albany’s waterfront, including a possible casino at Golden Gate Fields race track. 

Parker and Lieber filed their complaint with the CFPPC last week, charging that “the campaigns of Alan Riffer and Jewel Okawachi have violated the California Fair Political Practices Act by having a supposedly independent committee coordinate its last-minute, personal Swift Boat style attack on rival candidates Brian Parker and Robert Lieber. The supposedly independent committee is comprised entirely of the campaign workers of the Riffer and Okawachi Campaigns.” 

A spokesperson for the Fair Political Practices Commission said that the commission could not comment on an ongoing investigation, even to confirm whether or not a complaint has been received. 

The target of the Parker-Lieber complaint was an Oct. 26 leaflet entitled “An Open Letter From Concerned Albany Citizens” and hand-delivered to homes in the city. The letter, which criticized several political positions taken by Parker and Lieber, was signed by 18 citizens, including Mayor Jon Ely and Councilmembers Peggy Thomsen and Allan Maris. 

Of the 18 individuals listed on the handout, four of them are among the seven persons listed on an Alan Riffer For Albany City Council brochure as members of Riffer’s campaign committee. Ten more Concerned Albany Citzens members are among the 105 Riffer supporters listed on that brochure. Seventeen of the 18 Concerned Albany Citizens members are among the 218 individuals who were listed in an Okawachi campaign flyer as being “citizens of Albany [who] are voting for Jewel Okawachi.”  

“They’ve all gone and sat aside and said, ‘Oh, we’re a new committee,’” Parker said in a telephone interview. “But if you’ve got people in decision-making roles in your campaign, they cannot be involved in the independent expenditures. That would be coordination. It would be impossible not to be coordinating between the two campaigns, because these people are these candidate’s campaigns. You can’t play ball on two teams, under California law.” 

Parker added that the Concerned Albany Citizens’ expenditure “should be reported as an expenditure of the individual candidates’ campaigns.” 

Parker called the independent expenditure “pretty slimy” and even mocked the organization’s name, saying that “concerned citizens sounds like something out of the 50s burning down black churches or something.” 

Councilmember Thomsen said that the Concerned Albany Citizens group was formed “because we just felt that we had to put the record straight. These guys [Parker and Lieber] have run a campaign where they’ve distorted issues, where they’ve engaged in name-calling, where they’ve spent the most money. They’ve taken the civility out of elections in Albany. It’s very disappointing, quite frankly. Some of us didn’t appreciate that, and we certainly didn’t need to consult with any candidate.” 

Thomsen noted that the Concerned Albany Citizens listed their names on the leaflet and filed a financial report with the city clerk; “we wouldn’t have done that if we were trying to be deceptive.” She also noted that the leaflet did not endorse any candidate in the race, but only called upon voters to “join us in supporting candidates who have not debased Albany’s values.” 

Thomsen said that referred to any of the four candidates running besides Lieber and Parker. 

Okawachi and Riffer have agreed to operate under Albany’s voluntary campaign finance limit ordinance; Parker and Lieber have opted not to. 

Candidates who operate under the ordinance are limited to contributions of $6,000 total and $250 per individual, with no more than 10 percent of their contributions coming from individuals or organizations outside of Albany. Candidates who choose not to operate under the city’s campaign finance limit ordinance may raise campaign funds in excess of $6,000 with no limit on the percentage coming from outside Albany, but individual contributions are limited to $100. 

As of their latest filings with the Albany city clerk, the Lieber campaign has raised and spent close to $6,000, while the Parker campaign has raised and spent approximately $10,350. Okawachi has raised $4,600 and spent $2,300, while Riffer has raised $2,500 and spent $1,800. 

Two other independent campaign committees have filed expenditure reports in the Albany City Council race with the Albany clerk’s office. The Albany Peace Officers Association listed an expenditure of $980 for a newspaper ad in support of Okawachi, Riffer, and candidate Farid Javandel. A group called the Californians Against Waste reported spending approximately $1,800 in support of the candidacies of Lieber and Parker. 

›

Many of the campaign posters plastered on Berkeley telephone poles and staked into lawns this political season, no matter the political slant, have a common thread: They’re made in Emeryville. 

While local politicians battle for supremacy Tuesday, Bel Aire Displays appears likely to remain king of the political printing business for years to come. 

The political sign dominance of the company, which moved to Emeryville from Berkeley 28 years ago, is emblematic of the decline of Berkeley’s union print shops, and the city’s inability to profit from its political energy. 

This year, five candidates for City Council and five ballot measure campaigns will spend over $12,000 at the Emeryville shop, according to campaign filing statements. 

What is the secret of Bel Aire’s success? It is the only unionized print shop in the East Bay and San Francisco that makes waterproof signs. 

“We don’t have much competition,” said Chris Shadix, owner of Bel Aire, a silk screen printer that specializes in large signs that can withstand rain. Shadix said his biggest rival for political silk screen prints is more than 100 miles away in Oakdale. 

Since July, the shop on Hollis Street has stayed open seven days a week making signs for candidates from San Francisco, San Mateo and across the East Bay. 

There are other silk screen printers in the East Bay, but none of them are union, and in Berkeley politics, few things are more important than a union bug on campaign signs. 

“We’re old-timers, we know better than to go anywhere that wasn’t union,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. Both she and her opponent, Norine Smith, had their lawn signs made at Bel Aire. 

While Bel Aire has cornered its share of the political printing market, Berkeley’s major union printer has seen its market share decline. 

Inkworks, which specializes in smaller pieces like campaign mailings and environmentally friendly inks and dyes, used to be the printer of choice for Berkeley progressives, said Bernard Marszalek, Inkworks’ manager of marketing. But this year, according to candidate campaign filings, only Max Anderson used the shop that once did work for former progressive mayoral candidates Don Jelinek and Loni Hancock, but now usually only does work for the Green Party. 

A chief contributor to the company’s loss of political business has been the rise of political consultants that bundle services and sometimes outsource print jobs to preferred shops, often outside of the Bay Area. 

“A lot of jobs are going to Los Angeles or Nevada,” Marszalek said. “Mailers are a major part of political printing and they can be sent from anywhere.” 

Although Berkeley was never a center for the Bay Area printing industry, the city has lost several union shops over the past two decades, said David Blake, owner of Turnaround, a local graphic design and book production company. 

In the last couple of years, two Berkeley union print shops, Thunderbird and New Earth Press (represented by the International Workers of the World) both closed down. 

“In the ‘70s and ‘80s unions gave up on printing,” Blake said. “Employees settled for lifetime job security in return for stopping union recruiting.” 

Also, he said, the Graphic Communications International Union doesn’t certify one-person shops because they offer little union dues. 

Dan Watanabe, owner and printer at Berkeley’s Salmon Graphics, said that about 10 years ago he was denied union certification for his one-person shop.  

“They said you have to have enough employees for dues,” said Watanabe, who was looking to break into the business of political printing. 

With few local options and higher prices at union shops, a few local candidates have forsaken the prized union tag. 

Laura Menard, a candidate for City Council District 3, opted for Gilman Street Press, a family-owned non-union Berkeley printer. “Inkworks was about three times more expensive and I’m running a low-budget campaign,” she said. “I know I broke the rule, but there’s something to be said for using a Berkeley business.” 

Others to choose non-union printers this year included City Council candidates Barbara Gilbert and the Committee For Measure R, whose signs promoting an initiative to loosen Berkeley’s medical cannabis laws were made in Dublin. 

Norine Smith, who did have her campaign mailings printed at Copyworld, a non-union shop in Berkeley, said she struggled with the decision. “I’ve never been inside a Wal-Mart or Kmart because they’re not union, but the union shops were just too expensive.” 

›

Civic Arts Commission members Wednesday voted 7-2 to accept “Spaceship Earth,” a massive quartzite and bronze sculpture honoring the late Berkeley-born environmentalist David Brower. 

The vote followed lobbying by members of the Brower family and Mayor Tom Bates, a friend both of Brower and of the Maxwell family, which commissioned the giant work. 

Still to be decided is the statue’s location, which will be selected by a panel formed from commission and community members. 

Voting against the proposal were Bonnie Hughes and Sherry Smith. 

Hughes, who opposed the controversial piece on esthetic grounds, expressed her frustration in one pithy sentence: “How would you like to have a 350,000-pound political football tossed in your lap?” 

Richard Duane, the attorney for the sculpture’s patrons, the late Brian Maxwell and his widow, Jennifer, said a plan to revise the sculpture will address concerns voiced by several critics, who saw the life-size bronze representation of the environmentalist atop the globe as an icon of imperialism ill-suited to the environmentalist’s message. 

Eino, the Finno-American sculpture who created the piece, offered an alternative to the commission. He will recast the figure seated on a bench contemplating the twelve-foot Brazilian quartzite sphere with the landforms cast in bronze. 

The reconfigured piece was also endorsed by the Brower family, represented by David’s son Ken, and Dave Phillips, program executive director of the Earth Island Institute, an environmental group created by David Brower. 

The next step will be determining a location for the new sculpture, a task assigned to a soon-to-be-formed site selection committee consisting of Civic Arts Commission staff and citizens. 

The city also needs additional engineering and other data to ensure the safety of the statue, Duane said.  

—Richard Brenneman›

The Berkeley elections claimed at least one victim last week when Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Michele Lawrence accidentally fell and broke her ankle in two places during a block party where she had planned to give a talk promoting Measure B. 

The measure seeks supplemental financial support for Berkeley’s public schools. 

The superintendent was working in her office from a wheelchair on Monday, a week after surgery to repair the break and torn ligaments. Her doctors estimate that she will be in a cast for eight weeks, but will be able to navigate on crutches in about a month. 

BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan said that Lawrence is “feeling okay, full of energy,” and that “the outpouring of support from the community has been phenomenal.” 

He said the district has received more than 100 calls from citizens offering assistance to Lawrence, from bringing her dinner to picking her up from home and driving her to work at the district office. 

Coplan said, “It’s nice to have people calling and asking about the well-being of the superintendent.” 

—J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

The recent announcement that scientists had found the bones of a “human dwarf” species on the remote island of Flores in Eastern Indonesia shocked anthropologists across the globe. Could these human dwarf people, dubbed Homo floresiensis, have lived alongside our taller human ancestors just 13,000 years ago? Before the discovery, scientists would have said “impossible!” But if you asked people I know on the island of Flores, they would say, “Yes, we know they lived here—until very recently, in fact.”  

As both historian and anthropologist, I have spent many years researching Flores. It was during my initial trip to the island in 1992 that I first heard about “small people who looked like monkeys” who used to live alongside the current villagers’ ancestors. These creatures were referred to as the Ebu Gogo.  

I first heard the term when one of my local informants—the term we anthropologists use to describe local elders and other residents who share community knowledge—was teasing a group of small children. He told them they’d better go to bed or Ebu Gogo would get them. Off they scampered, squawking and laughing into the adjacent room where they quickly fell asleep.  

Curious, I asked my informant what Ebu Gogo meant. He smiled and told me it is what they tell children to scare them. I explained what the “boogie monster” was in English, and he agreed that it was similar. However, there was one difference—he claimed that Ebu Gogo had actually once lived just outside that very village. He insisted the story was true, and he sent me to one of the elders so I could hear more.  

Again I was told that Ebu Gogo (”Ebu” meaning grandparent; “Gogo” has no literal translation, I was told) had indeed lived outside the village, as recently as several hundred years ago. They were not monkey, nor were they human. Their arms were longer than humans and their bodies were covered with hair. At one time, the Ebu Gogo had lived in close proximity to the local people. Over time, however, these Ebu Gogo became more and more trouble to the villagers. They would steal crops from the village and take villagers’ animals. Conflict and tension built between the two groups.  

The villagers decided to have a party and invite the Ebu Gogo to see if this might help ease tensions. They built a big fire to cook meat for the festivities, but the Ebu Gogo would not come near it—they were afraid of it. So the villagers brought the Ebu Gogo food, with plates and utensils, but the Ebu Gogo threw the plates and utensils in the dirt and gobbled up all of the food. The villagers were insulted by this and a fight ensued, which ended in the killing of several Ebu Gogo. The rest fled to a cave in a cliff outside the village. The villagers could not pursue them because the cliff was too steep. The Ebu Gogo could climb there because of their monkey-like bodies.  

After this incident, the raids on the villagers’ crops and animals became more frequent, and the villagers became more and more angry. The Ebu Gogo got so bold they stole a baby from the village—and the villagers could take it no more. Pretending to want to befriend the Ebu Gogo again, men from the village went to the bottom of the cliff and offered clothes to the Ebu Gogo, something the Ebu Gogo did not have. They used long poles of bamboo to pass the clothes up to the cave, and the Ebu Gogo received them gratefully. What the Ebu Gogo did not know, however, was that the villagers had soaked the clothes in cooking fuel and lit a small fire in the last packet of clothes before handing it up. The Ebu Gogo were burned alive in the cave, and that was the end of their existence outside the village.  

I found the story—and my informants’ adamant insistence that it was all true—fascinating at the time. What was more intriguing, however, was that no one had ever entered the cave. A young man once tried, but plummeted to his death. The villagers believe the place is cursed and no one has dared try to enter again.  

In light of this recent scientific discovery of Homo floresiens, this story becomes far more exciting. If, as the scientists have hypothesized, these creatures died out at least 13,000 years ago, the story of the Ebu Gobo illustrates the power of oral history and collective memory. But if the scientists are wrong and my insistent informants are correct, these creatures lived alongside the human population much more recently. Perhaps now is the time to return to the village and enter that mysterious cave.  

Caty Husbands is a historian of Southeast Asia, and has spent several years conducting research on the island of Flores. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in modern Flores history.›

Click here for his lastest work. 

UNREPRESENTATIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Matthew Artz’s recent article on some of the Berkeley tax measures was well written, but the example he chose to highlight was unrepresentative and unfair (“Tax Measures Spur Opposition From Property Owners,” Daily Planet, Oct. 29-Nov. 1). The writer has done similar heavily slanted pieces in articles about Rosa Parks Elementary School. This kind of writing does a disservice to productive dialogue in our community. Please try to be more balanced in the future. 

David Stark 

• 

INACCURATE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Was it a hidden agenda or just plain lazy journalism that was the cause of Matthew Artz’s factually inaccurate and intellectually dishonest hit piece against Berkeley measures J K and L? 

Friday’s Daily Planet article by Mr. Artz featured the story of Mr. McMurray, a North Berkeley property owner who described his primary source of income as being a monthly disability check totaling $8,000 annually. Mr. McMurray is understandably worried over any potential increase to his property taxes. Let me assure Mr. McMurray that he need not fear these measures. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Artz’s article played to the scare tactics orchestrated by J K and L’s opponents. Had Mr. Artz actually read the measures, he would have known that Mr. McMurray is unlikely to be impacted by J K or L. 

As a low-income homeowner earning less than $29,800 a year, Mr. McMurray is exempt from the library tax. 

As someone on a fixed income, Mr. McMurray is likely eligible for discounted billing programs offered by most utility companies. As such, he would be only marginally impacted by Measure J. 

As someone who is not planning on selling his Berkeley home, Mr. McMurray would not be subject to the transfer tax. 

Mr. McMurray and other fixed income residents of Berkeley will not be devastated by these ballot measures. In fact, they will benefit from the 

continuation of valuable and needed services. 

Like Mr. McMurray, I am not planning on selling my Berkeley home. I am fortunate to live in a community like Berkeley—a community that not only values its neighborhood-engaged police department and its quick-responding and effective fire department, but one that recognizes the importance of its senior centers, community pools, health services, world-class library system, and nationally recognized youth programs. 

Obviously, maintaining these innovative and effective services requires the commitment of a caring community. We must demonstrate a commitment that the state and federal governments clearly will not. In response to state and federal takeaways, the city has cut $14.5 million from the General Fund. We’re cutting closer and closer to the lifeline of Berkeley. 

Measures J, K and L represent an honest effort to maintain Berkeley’s renowned community services for all our residents. 

Eric Riley 

• 

HEALING WAVE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s column (“Applying Theory of Relativity to Oakland’s Murder Rate,” Daily Planet, Oct. 15-18), insightful as ever, pointed out once again the danger of treating the symptoms but not the causes. It is a practice we see too often, globally, nationally, and everywhere in between. It applies to the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism, among other international conflicts. It applies to California, where the “three strikes” law increases the number and length of costly jail sentences, often for non-violent crimes, and decreases both rehabilitation services and opportunities that may deter potential (especially young) criminals. It applies in Oakland and in Berkeley, where continuing high rates of homelessness, substance abuse, and crime reflect the chasing of perpetrators from one neighborhood to another (a policy sometimes assisted by well-meaning neighborhood watch groups who perhaps unwittingly demonstrate NIMBY attitudes). In my experience, Berkeley police can be commended for responding to citizens’ concerns to the best of their ability. But the causes remain, and another youthful generation is maturing with drug dealers and other unethical capitalists as role models, broken homes as backgrounds, and a paucity of wholesome and constructive activities available from schools and social services to counteract the negative influences on their lives. 

There are certainly admirable institutions attempting to address this situation by providing guidance and opportunity for the future to youth beyond just keeping them off the street, and supporting these represents investment in the future rather than a constant outflow of money to simply control immediate problems. One such is Berkeley Youth Alternatives (BYA), in southwest Berkeley, which brings in youngsters from the age of five to very inexpensive after-school programs that provide homework help, sports, music, and gardening programs, good nutrition (both food and education), individual counseling and mentoring, and career help that includes both advice and training. 

Most importantly, BYA has decades of experience, an admirable track record, efficient operation, and visionary direction. Of course its success rate is hardly in the 90th percentile, but its alumni attest to enough lives turned around to really make a difference, one that increases with time. Yet BYA is constantly struggling for funding from the various sources it taps, including the City of Berkeley. In my opinion, the failure to address causes keeps us in a slough of despondency. The elimination of social blight is not achieved overnight, or even over a decade, but nurturing our youth is surely a logical and effective way to start the process. 

During the few years I spent in Washington DC it became obvious to me that trends considered crazy when started in California are often later adopted by Easterners, and even continue worldwide. That gives us a heady power and a heavy responsibility. Let’s start sending a healing wave across the ocean of a society at risk. 

Jeanne Pimentel 

n

San Francisco State  

MFA Fiction Workshop 803 

Fall, 2004 

Requirements of this course include the submission of two works of fiction no longer than 20 pages, double spaced, plus one rewrite. Also required is a critique of fellow workshop participant’s creative works using the following format: What this story is about; What I liked; For the next draft. Use thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and attention to detail when critiquing. 

Hi Brad! 

What this story is about: Two surfer “dudes” (their gender is unclear) who go to Ocean Beach for a day of surfing and wind up on an island somewhere (Pacific? Atlantic? unclear). They have traveled in a time warp of some sort (forward? backward?) and are searching for something (gold? life’s answers? the perfect soy burger?). Along the way they meet many odd people and creatures and the story ends when they run into a surfer chick (small child? mermaid?) who shows them where to get a soy burger (could be the symbol of life?). 

What I liked about this story: It’s really creative! 

For the next draft: I think it would be helpful to the reader if you were more specific about the gender of the characters, where they are physically in time and place, and what they are searching for. Other than that, I think it’s great and that you should keep going with it! Good luck! 

Dear Marcy, 

What this story is about: This is the poignant tale of a young, attractive nanny who can’t do anything right in the eyes of her wicked, (and I mean wicked), employers. Although the nanny loves the two beautiful, needy children she takes care of, she is having a difficult time getting along with their parents. The mother of the children is skinny, self-centered and spends most of her time doing yoga and getting her nails done. The father is rich, successful, cold and may have the hots for the nanny. When the nanny breaks an expensive, ostentatious vase in the solarium, all hell breaks lose.  

What I liked: Very realistic! 

For the next draft: I think you need to develop the relationship between the nanny and the father of the children. Maybe there could be a scene where he forces her against her will to have sex with him, (think in terms of Kobe Bryant!). Or if you want to go for the Stephen King/Rosemary’s Baby thing, you could have the nanny become possessed by some kind of evil, demonic being, kidnap the kids, and join a satanic cult. Also, although you did a great job with physical descriptions, (I really know what’s inside that house in Beverly Hills!), I think the nanny should look more like Jennifer Lopez or Halle Berry, and less like Jennifer Aniston. It’s people of color who often do this kind of work! Great start! Keep at it! 

Tyler: 

What this is about: This is a stream of consciousness tale about a kid who takes a lot of drugs and questions his identity, gender, and reason for being. It chronicles his involvement in Goth clubs, his first year in community college, his sex life, (or lack thereof), and his suicidal tendencies. He is very unhappy, and yet there is a spark of positive, vulnerable optimism beneath his weird haircut and black trench coat! 

What I liked: I really liked the scene where he tries to get into his parent’s Saturn with a Mohawk and so has to drive with his head sideways. Hilarious!!!! 

For the next draft: I’m probably not the best person to give you advice on this piece because I don’t know much about Goth clubs, and to be honest, I like stories that have a definitive, happier ending, but if you are going for the post Columbine or Generation X genre, I think you’ve nailed it! Does Josh get laid (and if so, by whom?), get another tattoo, tell his parents he wrecked the Saturn, drop out of school, change his haircut, or commit suicide? It may be that you want to leave readers wondering and, if so, you have definitely achieved that state with this reader! Thanks for the interesting, thought-provoking story! Yeah for purple Mohawks!›

A Trio of Robberies 

Berkeley Police arrested two teenagers in a series of three armed robberies between 9:32 and 11:44 Friday evening. 

In the first heist, a 19-year-old gunman and his juvenile companion confronted a 32-year-old Berkeley woman as she was walking near the corner of Acton and Virginia streets. 

They fled with the woman’s cash. 

The pair struck next outside 1799 University Ave., taking cash and a cell phone from a 20-year-old Berkeley woman. 

The final incident took place just 18 minutes later, near the corner of Hearst Avenue and California Street, when the robbers confronted a 46-year-old woman but fled before completing the robbery. 

Police initially arrested the pair in connection with one of the heists, then linked them to the other two, said Officer Shira Warren. 

The two were not connected with another robbery at 9:17 p.m. that same evening, in which a lone gunman confronted a woman at 2626 Bancroft Way and relieved her of cash and an ATM card. 

No Details in Shooting 

Police declined to reveal any information about another incident Saturday night involving the shooting into an inhabited dwelling or vehicle near the intersection of Harmon and Sacramento streets. 

That location is not far from the scene of a Wednesday evening shooting involving a victim who was shot on the street outside a home in the 1600 block of Harmon. 

Police have refused to identify the victim, his condition or other details about the case. 

Feuding Pair Gets Nasty  

Berkeley Police were responding to the corner of 65th and Idaho streets shortly after 3:30 p.m. Thursday after callers reported a fight between two women. 

The two combatants, both women, wound up taking out their aggressions not only on each other but on their vehicles as well, smashing out each other’s windshields in the course of the fracas. 

One woman had already fled the scene when officers arrived, and the other had developed a sudden case of temporary amnesia. 

No arrests were made, said Officer Warren.

Berkeley recently—and rightfully—celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement. But news coverage of the events barely mentioned the heavy-handed role the university played, in first causing the movement by curtailing speech, and later in ratcheting up the violence that accompanied subsequent protest activities. Today UCB basks in the glow of the FSM, but don’t forget: UC was the oppressor that made Berkeley radical. And still does. 

The FSM—along with the anti-war, civil rights, women’s, and environmental movements—attacked a damaging status quo, changing power relations and moving us closer to our ideal of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” UCB is the de facto “government” of much of Berkeley, much more powerful than City Hall. But unfortunately it’s a feudal government, an unwarranted anachronism in the 21st century.  

Unlike municipal government, UC is not answerable to those it impacts most. We the people have no constitution to defend our rights or powers in relation to this institution; quite the contrary, our state constitution and legal structure make California’s universities unconstrained overlords over their host cities and their residents. This is a corrosive flaw in our democracy that must now be corrected. 

Berkeley’s grievances against its overlord are little changed in 50 years. In the 1950s UCB initiated its takeover of Southside. After ousting homeowners by threat of seizure through eminent domain, UC demolished block after block and replaced vibrant neighborhoods with gruesome, Soviet-style dorms. UCB shamelessly attempted to demolish the Maybeck Church on Dwight Way, a building of national architectural significance; although the elegant church managed to avoid UC’s bulldozers, much more of our history has fallen before the expanding university population. In the 1960s UCB brutally destroyed the community located on what is now People’s Park. In the 1970s UCB illegally installed a high-intensity satellite campus on a small seminary property in Willard neighborhood. And today, UC construction projects, like the designer prisons being stuffed into Units I and II, are conducted in a way designed to drive long-term residents from the campus area. Can Berkeley really take 2.2 million more square feet of this?  

No. UC’s relentless expansion is as destructive as ever. UCB maintains its park-like “core campus” by tossing its problems over the castle wall. Neighborhoods near UC suffer from overcrowding, parking and traffic intensity, excess noise, and nuisance crimes and quality-of-life problems created—but neither acknowledged nor repaired—by UC. The entire city is damaged by the skewing of Berkeley’s demographic toward young, short-term residents, the erosion of the property tax base, and uncompensated use of city services. UC spews out detriments like an angry volcano—but where is the moral voice of the University assuming responsibility for the damage it causes? Maybe I just can’t hear it over the sound the jackhammers.  

UCB is not just randomly gobbling up a little property here, a little livability there. It is engaged in a systematic, uncompensable taking of the commons (roads, parking, views, open space, history, demographic balance, business diversity)—in other words, the taking of an entire city. And for what? Apparently to attract ever more corporate sponsorship for prestigious research facilities at this, UC’s flagship campus. But UC’s educational mission would not be compromised if UC expanded elsewhere; in fact, Berkeley is an expensive place to build, live, and work, and California would benefit if both research and reputation were more evenly distributed among campuses. Nor would UCB compromise its ability to educate by conforming to local land use visions and procedures, and it should do so. 

People might argue that UC is no different than governments or other public agencies with eminent domain or sovereign immunity. But the usual system of checks and balances is missing from UC—the Regents and their local appointees are so far removed from the affected citizens that there is no effective electoral check on UC’s power. In fact, it was this very distance that fueled the street wars of the later 1960s, as decisions were removed from local control and imposed from the state level through the Regents.  

The FSM expanded public speech. But UCB has no more use for speech now than it did in 1964. Speech enables us to communicate, solve problems, build community, and collectively shape our destiny. But UCB steadfastly refuses to engage in meaningful communication with Berkeley residents, or even City Hall. Flimsy pretenses of interaction, through pro forma exercises like LRDP scoping sessions, are staged not to solve problems but to deflect anger and meaningful action. UC decision makers, including former chancellor Berdahl, Vice Chancellors Mitchell and Denton, and Dean Sherwood of UC Extension, have all refused to speak with neighborhood leaders to resolve problems created by UC, but we cannot vote them out of office. Likewise Berkeleyans had no voice in selecting the new chancellor; we can only hope, like eager subjects awaiting a glimpse of our new sovereign, that the new regime will be kinder than the last. “The king is dead; long live the king!”  

Berkeleyans more than most are willing to sacrifice for the public good, but enough is enough. So to whom shall we petition for redress of grievances? Even when the people have defined rights, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” But neither vigilance nor any legal action can protect us from the university until we have meaningful rights in relation to it. Berkeleyans must assert our right to maintain and protect a livable community and healthy urban and natural environment around the university. 

Berkeleyans fight to bring human rights, democracy, equity, and self-government to others. But what should they mean for us in the 21st century? No less than this: 

1. The right to a healthy urban environment, free from expansion and activities by the university and associated institutions that damage the quality of life in the City of Berkeley and its neighborhoods. 

2. The right to a healthy natural environment in the Berkeley area. 

3. The right to guide, through necessary and appropriate municipal powers, decisions and actions by the university and associated institutions that affect us, our environment, and our quality of life. 

4. The right to participate in the selection of Regents and chancellor. 

5. The right to be informed about all decisions and actions by the university and associated institutions that affect our environment and quality of life, who enacts them, when, and through what mechanisms. 

6. The right to receive compensation, both monetary and non-monetary, for costs and damages to the city and its neighborhoods created by the University and associated institutions. 

How do we get these rights? Perhaps by lobbying our representatives and winning them from the State Legislature, which has the power to limit UC’s sovereignty. Or perhaps by lobbying the people and winning them in the street, as happened in the 1960s. But history proves that Berkeleyans will never save their city from UC by “negotiating” within such a power imbalance. We will have to change the rules, or change the game. And eventually these rights will become the status quo, as natural and self-evident as free speech on campus. The only question is: “When?” 

Sharon Hudson is a 23-year Berkeley resident who lives ever closer to the expanding southern front of the UC campus. 

El Cerrito aspires to be Contra Costa County’s progressive bastion, providing supermajority support for school, library and transit taxes. But emulating Berkeley cuts both ways, and the city, seemingly inspired by Berkeley’s “Budget Watch,” now has a like tax revolt battling “Measure K”—an attempt to legitimize a hitherto illegal 8 percent utility user’s tax. The City Council ignored a 2001 court decision forcing it to get voter approval. All it did was cut its statute of limitations exposure to a year, to minimize tax rebate requests in case of a lawsuit. Now it plays catch-up in a very heavy-handed manner. Political satellites tend towards theatrics, achieving a nuttiness of their very own. 

City Manager Scott Hanin prepared for battle by getting a 20 percent raise, just prior to declaring fiscal doom should the tax fail. He now matches the governor’s or San Francisco mayor’s take-home. He’s mobilizing all city resources, possibly illegally—pro-tax mailers paid from city funds, “Save our Services” rallies by city workers at City Hall venues. Scott has mastered the eternal victim role, and his chutzpah is perfect for a Borscht Belt skit, with a whiny shlemazl style, matching his nebbich complaints against “staff-bashing malcontents.” As my grandma used to kvetch, “Mit Geld weint es sich besser”—“Early retirement at 90 percent salary helps dry the tears.” Scott will make sure his money’s there. 

El Cerrito’s Measure K extends the tax to water and to solar power—even if the meter runs backwards! Anything to up the city’s take. No sunset clause. No cap to reflect soaring energy costs. All calls for discussing financial needs before settling details were ignored. By waiting to coincide with a council election the tax can pass by simple majority vote, but the city is taking no chances. It mobilized employees’ unions and council supporters by threatening layoffs, cuts in police and fire services, eliminating the Senior Center, curtailing swimming pool hours The city’s service providers (i.e. garbage) were strong-armed to contribute. Controversial developers, such as would be builders of an absurd proposed BART parking garage, were forced to give campaign donations. City operations have come to a halt, so managers and employees can distribute door hangers and staff phone banks. 

Measure K opponents agree that the city could use more money, but are incensed by the steamrolling. Should Measure K be defeated, they suggest immediately sitting down with council and staff to craft a modified new measure, to minimize using up reserve funds. Residents would be asked to not request refunds in the interim. 

While tax supporters proudly contribute large donations, opposing residents carefully reduce contributions so they don’t have to be reported—few will risk coming to the attention of “City Hall.” But the tax supporters are running scared in spite of their 10 to 1 financial war-chest. To manage the campaign they hired “hit-piece master” Kevin Reikes, who helped oust popular Councilwoman Kathy Perka two years ago. Her crime? Asking too many questions about where the money goes. 

There’s some chance Measure K will be defeated. It’s sure to stay below a super-majority, making it easy to challenge as the extent of the city’s half-truth arguments and strong-arm tactics sinks in. A new compromise utility tax could follow. There remains a greater problem. After the Perka experience, there’s no serious opposition contender for City Council office. There may not be a council capable of common sense. It would take three months of precinct walking and perhaps $20,000 in startup campaign funds to stand a chance against El Cerrito’s dominant political establishment. Who’d want to sacrifice what it takes? With the last independent voice leaving the council in November, El Cerrito can expect total hegemony, a homogeneous council serving the same political machine as Scott Hanin. But there’s hope. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, they’re bound to mess up royally. El Cerrito voters are not dumb, they just pay more attention to global issues than to local ones. President Bush will be lucky to get 10 percent of El Cerrito’s vote. So maybe, after we’ve cleaned up Washington, D.C.... 

Peter S. Loubal is an El Cerrito resident.›

Everyone who’s been anxiously awaiting the national election might learn a thing or two from Samba Ngo, an African musician who lives by the motto “Let’s dance now, because tomorrow who knows.” 

It might also be a good time to unwind from all the hard work when Ngo brings his eclectic blend of African, jazz and funk to the Ashkenaz on Saturday night. 

It’s hard to imagine that Ngo’s positive outlook is actually derived from a host of difficult experiences growing up. Originally born in the Congo, Ngo lived through his country’s civil war and anti-colonial struggle. In an environment full of chaos, he said that he needed to find an outlet or risk being consumed by it. He eventually found music and ever since has produced a unique blend that mixes his political past with his spirituality and love for life. 

“I admire humankind because I recognize that humankind will keep going,” said Ngo, who constantly smiles and ends every other sentence with “C’est bon,” French for “that’s great.”  

Ngo, who currently lives in Santa Cruz and works out of his studio in El Cerrito, is known world-wide and has played a major part in promoting and popularizing Congolese music. He originally learned to play from his father, the only doctor in their village of Dibulu, which is now part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

Besides his father, Ngo said he is heavily influenced by the well-known South African musician Miriam Makeba. After leaving the Congo, he said his exposure to American music, including gospel and artists like Ray Charles and James Brown, all helped him develop his own style. To date he’s released 18 albums, including his newest, called Ndoto. 

Ngo describes his music as a mix of “the country and the city,” with its roots back in his African village and its flavor in the American music he’s come to love. 

Ngo performs this Saturday at the Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. There will also be a screening of Heart of the Congo, a documentary by Tom Weidlinger about aid workers trying to rebuild the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the civil war. Ngo composed and performed music for the documentary. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the film begins at 8 p.m. The concert will begin at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and the show is open to all ages. 525-5054. www. ashkenaz.com. 

TUESDAY, NOV. 2 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Scenes from the East Bay Regional Parks” paintings by George Ferrell, opens at the Environmental Educational Center, Tilden Park, and runs through Dec. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zabava! Izvorno and Orkestra Sali at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Lise Leipman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Peter Barshay and Andre Bush at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Mindi Abair, contemporary jazz, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Wed. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Painting in Everyday Life in Traditional Japan” opens at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life: “Half-Lies and Other Works” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Ecumenical Religious Art: The Reign of Akbar in Mughal India” with Joanna Williams, UCB Professor, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom at the GTU, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2440. 

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

Tad Williams introduces his new fantasy novel, “Shadowmarch” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, chamber music, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Improvisations in the French Baroque Style on the harpsichord at 12:15 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Karashay featuring Chirgilchin, Stepehn Kent & Sarymai, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bunny, Hazy, Swirl, and Tim Reynolds at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 4 

CHILDREN 

Tales for Dia de los Muertos with storyteller Olga Loya at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley West Branch Library. 981-6270. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

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

FILM 

Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life: “Beyond the Poseidon Adventure” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems Reading Series with Frank Paino at 12:10 p.m. at the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. 642-0137. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Truong Tran reads his poetry at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Pratep Chatterjee investigates the role of corporations in “Iraq, Inc.” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com  

Eric Hansen tells stories of his travels in “The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer: Close Encounters with Strangers” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Khaled Hosseini reads from “The Kite Runner” set in contemporary Afghanistan at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Prose and Poetry by St. Mary’s College students at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with Lynn Ruth Miller and Vince Sorti, followed by an open mic at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Vukani Mawethu Choir and Friends, including E.W. Wainwright’s African Roots of Jazz at Kimball’s East, 6005 Shellmound, Emeryville. Tickets are $10. 444-5009. 

Matrix 213: Some Forgotten Place Sound performance by Loren Chasse at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Neglected Voices: Music of a Lost Generation” with Fern Glass-Boyd, cello and Lorraine Glass-Harris, violin, at 1:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 126.  

Faun Fables, 2 Foot Yard, Big City Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Terri Hendrix, Texas original, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Billy Brouchard, Mandrake, Paul Panamarenko at 9 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5.  

Gary Rowe, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bud Shank Quartet with Phil Woods at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, NOV. 5 

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., and selected Sun., through Nov. 20. Tickets are $10-$15. 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Impact Theatre, “Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair” by Greg Kalleres, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. through Dec. 11, at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid. No show Nov. 25. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Paris and Other Obsessions” Photographs, drawings, sculpture by Leonard Pitt, at Giorgi Art Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Reception at 6 p.m. Exhibition runs to Nov. 21. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

FILM 

Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life Salon with Ximena Cuevas at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Bollywood/Tollywood: “I Have Found It” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Carlson reads from “After the Deluge” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

By the Light of the Moon, open mic for women at 7:30 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph. Cost is $3-5. 482-1315. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Raymonda” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

En Pointe Youth Dance Company’s “Autumn Excerpts” by Berkeley’s youth founded and directed dance company, at 7:30 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Tickets are $5. enpointedance@yahoo.com 

Quijerema at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ray Cepeda with Los Pinguos at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bob Sheppard Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Stompy Jones at 9 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club. 848-7800. www.berkeleycityclub.com  

Bill Kirchen, rockabilly, dieselbilly and truck-stop rock, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kuma, Zonk, The Volumes at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Tiptons, Beth Custer Ensemble at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Rhonda Bennin Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Roger Riedbauer at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

The Plus Ones, Sabrina Steward, The Fictions, Safeway at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 6 

CHILDREN 

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

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

THEATER 

Rebel Comedy Night An evening of progressive and provocative stand-up comedy with Louis Katz, W. Kamau Bell, Brent Weinbach, Jasper Redd and Sherry Sirof, at 9 p.m. at Fellini Restaurant, 1401 University Ave. Cost is $5. 841-5200. 

FILM 

Bollywood/Tollywood: “Anything Can Happen” at 6:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Paris Transforming: The Beauty and Horror of Urban Reconstruction” with photographer and sculptor Leonard Pitt, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Art Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

Derrick Jensen speaks on the “Dismantling of Civilization” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Two Redheads and 88 Solenoids New work for disklavier Piano at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8-$12. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Trinity Chamber Concert with the Berkeley Chamber Group, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.TrinityChamberConcerts.com 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Raymonda” at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Choreographers’ Performance Alliance with host Aileen Kim and performances by local dancers at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10. 644-1788, ext. 2. 

Philharmonia Baroque “An Evening in Old Vienna” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Baroque Etcetera “German Idol” music of J.S. Bach at 8 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donations suggested. 540-8222. www.baroquetc.org 

Taj Mahal Benefit concert for the Native American Health Center, at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$100. 625-8497. www.ticketmaster.com 

Four Seasons Concerts, Leon Bates and Jeanne StarkIochmans, pianists, at 7:30 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theater, 10 Tenth St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 601-7919. www.fourseasonsconcerts.com 

Transcendence Gospel Choir, the first all-transgendered choir, in a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Donation $10-$20, reservations suggested. 704-7729. 

Nguyen Dance Company presents “Close to the Trai Tim (Close to the Heart)” at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$15. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Samba Ngo at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Premiere screening of Tom Weidlinger’s new documentary at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Ray Cepeda at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$18. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lisa Sangita Moskow and Unity Nguyen at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $15. 883-0600 www.belladonna.ws 

Kurt Ribak Jazz Group at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Insolence, Everything Taken, Aphasia at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Grey de Lisle, Crooked Jades at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

David Jacobs-Strain, traditional and future blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Eric Swinderman Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Signal Lost, Look Back and Laugh, Desolation at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 7 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Eye Talk Art” visions from three NIAD artists, reception at 1 p.m. at Britt-Marie’s Gallery, 1369 Solano Ave. 527-1314. 

Urban Photography by Lauren Murphy. Reception at 4 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“Threshold: Byron Kim” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

The World of Astrid Lindgren: “The Brothers Lionheart” at 3 p.m. and Bollywood/Tollywood “I Have Found It” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Pursuing the Irish Healer: Valnetine Greatrakes” with Leonard Pitt, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Art Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

Abe Ignacio and Jorge Emmanuel on “The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons” at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Poetry Flash with Stephen Kessler and Marcia Falk at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Raymonda” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Philharmonia Baroque “An Evening in Old Vienna” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Baroque Etcetera “German Idol” music of J.S. Bach at 4 p.m. at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepard, 1823 Hearst St. at Ninth. Donation $10 suggested. 540-8222. www.baroquetc.org 

Choreographers’ Performance Alliance with host Andrea Mok and performances by local dancers at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10. 644-1788. 

Candido Camero and “Patato” Valdez at 7 p.m. at the Calvin Simmons Theater, Oakland. Tickets are $22-$42. www.sfjazz.org 

“Share the Music” Celebration of First Congregational Church’s Birthday with Babá Ken Okulolo and the Nigerian Brothers, Oakland Interfaith Youth Gospel Choir and others at 4 p.m., at 2501 Harrison St. at 27th, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 444-8511, ext. 15. 

French Cabaret, presented by the Alliance Française at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Volti, “New American Directions” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$20. 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

Broceliande, Celtic music, at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Parish Hall, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Donation $10-$12. 569-0437. www.broceliande.org 

ChoZen at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Bobs, a cappella quartet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Steve Erquiaga and “Trio Paradiso” at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

›

There’s a pretty row of ginkgo trees along the curve where Shattuck Avenue meets Henry Street in North Berkeley, and shorter rows and isolated specimens elsewhere around town. 

New ones are being planted in auspicious places like the walk next to Berkeley High’s big new building, and along Shattuck near the Berkeley Bowl. I’m all for it, myself; this is one exotic that I can get behind.  

Its species, Ginkgo biloba, is pretty much extinct in the wild, and its relatives are even longer gone; it’s the only living member of its genus and family and order. Its brethren’s distinctive leaves show up in the fossil record in several variations, though, as far back as the Permian. 

These trees saw the dinosaurs come and go. Assuming the dinosaurs have indeed gone. The school of thought that sees latter-day birds as dinosaurs keeps coming up with new evidence for that. It’s an interesting debate, and still more interesting when you watch the winter immigrants, the warblers and white-crowns, sheltering in the young representatives of so old a life form.  

That we still have ginkgoes with us is one of a few hopeful stories of our interactions with other species. Like North America’s Franklinia alatamaha, ginkgo lives on because people love it and have planted it in their gardens; in this case, around monasteries in China and Japan.  

I like the tree’s attitude. It’s dignified and graceful at the same time. Its pale bark is pretty; its winter profile is distinctive (and it’s easy to identify in winter, with those peglike leaf attachments); its leaves turn a gorgeous, cheerful gold in fall, even in our mild climate. Isn’t it a treat to see a gilded ginkgo spotlighted by a late-afternoon sun against a backdrop of lead-gray fogbank?  

Ginkgoes can get big, but it seems generally to take them a long time to do it, so they’re a civilized city tree. They habitually shed their leaves in a very short time, almost all at once, which is handy for raking and it’s neat to see one standing in a golden circle that it’s spread around itself overnight. They seem to be tough as regards smog, too; maybe they’re just renewing old acquaintances with the fossils in those fossil fuels. They don’t have a lot of pest problems, either—maybe because they’ve outlived those species too. 

It’s not just an old soul; it’s a weird one in many ways. It’s two-sexed, which is fortunate for civic virtue, I guess. Most of the trees you’ll meet are males, selected because the females bear fruit that looks and feels disconcertingly like a bit of human earlobe and smells like dog droppings. The seed’s edible, and you can buy them at specialty groceries and “roast lightly,” whatever that means. I’m keeping an eye on the menus at Japanese restaurants, where they turn up in chawan-mushi or grilled or boiled to accompany sake, Beer Nuts-fashion.  

But the male’s half of the equation is strange, too, though harder to observe. Unlike nearly all plants, ginkgoes have motile sperm—it swims, like an animal’s. It also hangs out on the surface of the ovule from fall till spring, and then it does its fertilizing thing. Vegetable love indeed—a quarter of a year’s foreplay? 

Maybe that’s a subconscious reason for thinking that ginkgo makes you smart. It seems to be in fashion recently—is it for memory enhancement? I forget. I think the jury’s still out about whether it’s the scholar’s tree because it has brain-enhancing qualities, or there’s a placebo effect of the sort that makes incense a meditation aid. I’m not sure I care, myself, because the tree’s aesthetic qualities are so good. It’s somehow almost crass to think it needs to have some utilitarian medicinal role, too. 

That it’s a symbol of longevity does seem to have absolutely practical roots, though. Not only does it age slowly; it survives serious insults. Several ginkgoes survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, including one just over a thousand meters from Ground Zero, by a temple that was destroyed. That tree budded out the following spring, and is alive today. Maybe the species will survive even us. ›

TUESDAY, NOV. 2 

REMEMBER TO VOTE TODAY 

To Find Your Polling Place see www.mypollingplace.com 

To Report Voting Problems or Irregularities call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (The Electronic Frontier Foundation). 

Election Night Watch at La Peña Cultural Center, starting at 5:30 p.m. until ? at 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Children Cast Your Vote from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with miniature voting booths, play ballots, and red, white, and blue art projects at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org  

Mid-Day Meander in Tilden Park from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. With luck we may find migratory newts. Meet at the Little Train parking lot at Lomas Cantadas and Grizzly Peak Blvd. 525-2233. 

Tilden 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. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss the election from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690. 

“Involving Local Communities in Marine Conservation in Tanzania” at 4 p.m. in 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa 

Hallway Sale Popular garage-type sale benefiting the Coffee Bar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

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

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 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. This is a project of Spiral Gardens. 843-1307. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. at Milvia. For information call Robert Flammia 524-3765. 

40th Anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act Celebration at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Sponsored by the Wilderness Committee of the Sierra Club. 415-561-3474. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, for ages 4-6 years accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Anti-War March and Rally Meet at 5 p.m. at Powell and Market, San Francisco for an evening march to 24th and Mission. Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Sponsored by Not in Our Name. 601-8000 bayarea.notinourname.net  

“Exodus, Black Colonization, and Promised Lands” with David Brion Davis, Pulitzer Prize winner, at 4:10 p.m. in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 

“Last of the Dogmen” and “Smoke Signals” Two films presented by the Intertribal Friendship House at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. 452-1235. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday, rain or shine, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

Fun with Acting Class every Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome, no experience necessary. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 4. 

Morning Bird Walk “Some Gulls I Know” Meet at the Berkeley Municipal Pier at 7:30 a.m. 525-2233. 

Tilden Explorers An after school nature adventure for 5-7 year olds who may be accompanied by an adult. No younger siblings please. We’ll learn about birds, bird brains and bird migration. From 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Seniors in the Peace Corps Volunteers discuss their experiences in Fiji, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Post-Election Benefit for the Center for Popular Education at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. 

“Education and Political Transformation in Brazil” with Cristovam Buarque, member, Brazilian Senate, at 4 p.m. in the Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Farmer’s Market with all organic produce at Shattuck at Rose, from 3 to 7 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

FRIDAY, NOV. 5 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our fine feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

November is We Give Thanks Month! Join participating restaurants in supporting the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. For a list of participating restaurants please visit www.bfhp.org  

Literacy & Beyond Celebrates Dia do los Muertos Family Literacy Night with altar making, and storyteller Olga Loya, at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. 665-3271. 

“News from Native California” with Frank LaPena, Laura Cunningham, L. Frank, Julian Lang/ 

Xatimniim, and Malcolm Margolin, of Heyday Books, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 549-3564, ext. 307. 

First Fridays Film Series “Hidden in Plain Sight” on the School of the Americas, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 482-1062. 

Womansong Circle Community singing with Betsy Rose. Potluck snacks at 6:45 p.m., singing at 7:15 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 525-7082. 

Asian Business Association Charity Fashion Show at 7 p.m. a the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $10-$12. Proceeds benefit A Safe Place domestic violence shelter in Oakland.  

Literary Friends meets at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. We will discuss Ayn Randh. 232-1351. 

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. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” meets to sing 16th century harmony for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863, 843-7610. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 6 

Potential Water Transit in Berkeley A Joint Workshop of the City of Berkeley Transportation and Waterfront Commissions and the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority from 9 a.m. to noon at Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive. 981-7010. 

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

“Fire in Your Backyard - Friend or Foe?” A program on fire history in the East Bay, fire ecology nd hoemowner safety, with demonstrations of a fire engine, firefighters’ personal protective equipment and wildland firefighting techniques. At 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Free. Youth age 14 and up are welcome. 525-2233. 

Kids Garden Club For children 7-12 years old to explore the world of gardening. We plant, harvest, build, make crafts, cook and get dirty! From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$6, registration required. 525-2233. 

Junior Rangers of Tilden meets Sat. mornings at Tilden Nature Center. For more information call 525-2233. 

“Plant Selection and Installation” A hands-on class in Berkeley from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. We will visit a local nursery and botanic garden to view and discuss why, and how, to select appropriate plants for a variety of situations. Students will participate in designing and planting a residential garden. Emphasis on Native Californian plants. Sign up by calling the Building Education Center at 525-7610.  

Help Clean up San Pablo Creek and its tributaries. Learn about the Dumping Abatement and Pollution Reduction Program and the trash assessment monitoring tool as we remove harmful trash. Refreshments, tools, and gloves provided. Call for meeting place. Sponsored by The Watershed Project. 231-9566. Elizabeth@thewatershedproject.org 

An Afternoon with Ram Dass from 2 to 5 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $20 at the door. 302-3302. 

Benefit for the Bay Area Search and Rescue Council with music by Built to Spill and Citizen Cope at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Pyramid Alehouse, 901 Gilman St. Cost is $16. www.pyramidbrew.com 

Moment’s Notice a monthly salon for improvised music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. 415-831-5592. 

Noche Tropical Silent Auction Party to benefit Albany Schools. With food, music and wine at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. Tickets are $35-$40. 528-0848. a_saint@pacbell.net 

Artisan Marketplace with jewelry, art, readings and more from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws  

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

SUNDAY, NOV. 7 

Search for Salamanders Watch carefully for the slippery amphibians, they love the wet weather so hope for rain. Learn the difference between a newt and a salamander on this easy hike. Meet at 9 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Military Families Speak Out with Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in Sadr City in April, at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. 

“Tribute to Veterans” Retired military personnel are offered a complementary lunch or dinner entree at Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto, 1919 Fourth St. Present a VA card, a VFW card, discharge papers or a DD214 to your server when you are seated. Reservations are suggested but not required. 845-7771. 

“The Sound of Success: Fine Tune Your Music Business Skills” A day-long seminar for musicians sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center in Oakland. To register call 415-775-7200, ext. 111. www.californialawyersfor- 

thearts.org 

“The Civil Rights Movement and Activism Across Communities” with Ron Dellums at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $7-$10. In conjunction with the exhibition “What’s Going On? California and the Vietnam Era” 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Dharma and Democracy: A Global Perspective, Beyond the Elections” a conversation with Joanna Macy and Sulak Sivaraksa at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 655-6169. 

“End of Life Decisions” with Susan Rubin from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Home, 2361 East 29th St., Oakland. 534-3637. 

Healing Friction a free facilitated open council and speak out for hearing all voices to improve the political process at 2 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 866-236-0346. 

Autumn in Asia, a walk through the Asian area with Asian plant expert Elaine Sedlak at 10 a.m. at UC Botanical Garden. Cost is $8-$12, registration required. 643-2755. 

Celebrating Native Californian Cultures with music, crafts and storytelling from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Phoebe Hearst Museum, Bancroft at College. 643-7648. 

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring warm waterproof clothes. www.cal-sailing.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with with Elizabeth Cook on “The Stupa: Sacred Symbol of Enlightenment” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 8 

Safe Driving Class for Seniors from 1 to 5 p.m., and on Nov. 10. Seniors who complete both sessions will get insurance discount. To register send a check for $10, made out to AARP, to Helen, at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2717 Garber St., Berkeley, 95705. For more information call 869-6737. 

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 

Peace Corps General Information Meeting at 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 415-977-8798. www.peacecorps.gov 

The National Organization of Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets to discuss the election at 6 p.m. at The Oakland YWCA at 1515 Webster St. 287-8948.  

“Women in Latin American Politics” with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Senator and first lady of Argentina, at 4 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“The Medicare Prescription Drug Card” with Susan Haley, Legal Assistance for Seniors at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

East Bay Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Albany YMCA, 921 Kains Ave. 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.  

“Cafe Society in Japan, or Why Starbucks May Not Prevail” with Marry White, Prof. Boston Univ., at 5 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2233 Fulton St., 6th Flr. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Financial Planning Workshop: College Planning 101 with Jarrett Topel, Certified Financial Planner at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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

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. 

“Ulysses” Discussion Book Group at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. We will meet every Monday night and hopefully finish by Bloomsday 2005. 

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. 

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5347. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/women 

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

us/commissions/housing 

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

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

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Nov. 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

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

commissions/publichousing 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 9 at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil?

While most of the Tuesday night crowd at Brennan’s were cheering the Red Sox, a half-dozen others huddled at a back table, brainstorming ways to save the venerable West Berkeley tavern. 

Two buildings—Brennan’s, at 720 University Ave., and Celia’s, a Mexican restaurant at 2040 Fourth St.—are slated for the wrecking ball if developers win approval of their plans to fill a West Berkeley block with a major new housing and retail complex. 

The preservationists gathered at Brennan’s Tuesday were ironing out the details of their weapon of last resort, applications to landmark both buildings. 

Drafted by preservation activist Gale Garcia, the proposals will be presented to the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission for their consideration at the upcoming meeting Monday evening. 

While one member of the Brennan’s family is solidly within the landmarking camp, the current owners—including the daughter and two grandchildren of builder John Brennan—have asked the commission not to landmark the property. 

Elizabeth Wade, son Barney and daughter Margaret have asked the commission not to save the structure, and the developer Urban Housing Group had earlier promised to find new quarters for the pub in his development. 

Two locations have been floated, either a new building within the site or a move into the old railroad station at the western edge of the project. 

But the history of the tavern and its site reaches deep into Berkeley’s past, said Richard Schwartz, a local contractor and historian, calling into question the appropriateness of building a massive new structure on the block between University Avenue and Addison Street and between Fourth Street and the railroad. 

Urban Housing Group of San Mateo plans to build a four-story complex with either apartments or condominiums atop a group floor of parking and commercial rentals. 

Urban Housing specializes in developing mixed-use projects at transit hubs, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marcus and Millichap Co., a leading national real estate investment brokerage headquartered in Palo Alto with ties to UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. 

For Richard Schwartz, the site has possible links to the center of the West Berkeley shellmound, the earliest known human habitat in the Bay Area, which is located not faraway. As evidence, he points to the 19th century discovery of 12 Native American skeletons which were recovered beneath shell just a block away. 

“The site needs a thorough survey,” which the developer promised but then failed to deliver, Schwartz said. 

At Schwartz’s request, UC Berkeley archaeologist Kent G. Lightfoot—a leading expert in Bay Area shellmound archeology—examined the site and submitted plans for a detailed survey. 

“Though developer Dan Deibel promised to follow through, he didn’t,” Schwartz said, leaving unanswered questions about what might lie buried beneath the site. 

For John Brennan, who’s been dining at Brennan’s for decades, the cause is even more basic: “I want to keep the homey atmosphere and the comfort food.” 

While the Wades say preserving the building isn’t important, their cousin disagrees. 

“He was a builder, and he devoted much of his life to fighting to give California worker’s compensation legislation,” Brennan said. 

The Brennan brothers, James, John and Edward, moved to Berkeley in the 1870s, establishing one of the city’s first saloons at the corner of University and Second, and the adjacent livery stable, which was managed by Edward, the teetotaling brother. 

The original saloon burned in 1883, and was followed by a new saloon at University and San Pablo. 

The current building owes its origins to Southern Pacific Railroad which approached John Pierce Brennan, a builder and son of Edward, to build a new restaurant at the Fourth and University site to replace a run-down boarding house then used by a restaurant.  

The builder decided to run the place himself, and opened on Jan. 16, 1959, his 69th birthday, Garcia said. 

Control passed to his daughter on his death in 1976, who in turn handed it on to her son and daughter when she retired. 

The building figures prominently in Berkeley history as a popular watering hole and gathering spot for students, Cal fans, community groups and a large contingent of regulars—among them Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio and many of his colleagues. 

“John Brennan spent his life working for workers comp,” said his cousin and namesake. “He started out working at Hogan Lumber Company, and he saw that when a worker lost his hand in a planing accident, he was given his last day’s pay and sent home.” 

John eventually quit and launched his own construction business, working closely with Gov. James “Sunny Jim” Rolfe to bring worker’s compensation to California workers. He remained an outspoken union advocate throughout his life, said his namesake. 

He built for some of Berkeley’s most distinguished architects—including James W. Plachek—and built numerous structures, including Saint Mary Magdalen Church on Berryman Street and Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. 

“This is his last building, and it deserves to be preserved,” said the younger John. 

“It’s a great place,” said Neal Blumenfeld, a Free Speech Movement veteran himself and a preservation activist. 

Garcia’s application goes to the Landmarks Preservation Commission when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Also on Monday’s meeting is the final hearing on another project Blumenfeld has been actively challenging, the proposal to expanded two Victorian cottages into duplexes next door to his restored office/cottage building in the newly landmarked Sisterna Tract Historic District.?

Long simmering anger burst into the open Wednesday night as anxious Richmond residents threw heated questions and charges at state officials and representatives of the firm planning a major residential development atop a Richmond toxic waste site. 

When Jeff Hohenstein, an instructor from a nearby martial arts academy, voiced repeated questions about possible dangers to his young students during ongoing excavations and remedial work at the site, a San Francisco lawyer representing Marin County developer Russ Pitto snapped back, “I’m worried about a meteor coming out of the sky, too.” 

Audible gasps followed. 

While the immediate concern of neighbors and environmental activists was the potential escape of toxic materials during the current excavation of polluted soil from marshland on the bayside edge of the Campus Bay site in South Richmond, other worries had a longer focus. 

Contra Costa County Public Health Director Wendel Brunner’s greatest concern was the risk of exposure next summer, when plans call for further processing of the dried marshland muck, and several in the audience said they were angry at being subjected to repeated instances of high tech manipulation. 

“Every meeting we go to, you are PowerPoint-paving people over,” declared Claudia Carr, a resident of nearby Marina Bay and a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science.  

Called as an informational meeting by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), Wednesday’s gathering drew as many bureaucrats and developer representatives as it did ordinary citizens, which Carr and attorney Peter Weiner, representing Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development (BARRD), blamed on the lack of opportunity for real interaction. 

On hand for the meeting in the Booker T. Anderson Community Center were concerned neighbors, representatives of the RWQCB and Air Quality Management District (AQMD), representatives of developer Cherokee Simeon Ventures (CSV), a representative of toxic cleanup firm LFR Levine Fricke and the project manager for the private firm hired to monitor the cleanup. 

After a brief introduction by Terry Steward of the Water Quality Board, Neil Ziemba, project manager of International Risk Group (IRG), the Colorado-based private site monitoring firm hired by CSV, launched into a bullet-point and graphic-laden computer projection presentation on the site, its history, and on to the still controversial cleanup of the upland portion of the site two years ago and the marshland dig now in progress. 

Another division of IRG invests in similar properties.  

The ongoing controversy over the Campus Bay site, for a century the home of a chemical manufacturing complex that polluted the soil with a noxious brew of chemicals and metals, has prompted Assemblymember Loni Hancock to call a special legislative hearing for Nov. 6. 

“I’ve had enormous interest expressed by citizens, neighborhood groups and environmental activists,” Hancock said Thursday. “Wendel Brunner called me up and asked for help. He said, ‘They’re going to start digging up this stuff and we need your help.’” 

The joint hearing of the Assembly Environmental and Toxic Materials Committee and the Select Committee on Environmental Justice will be held in Building 454 of UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station, 1301 S. 46th St. 

“We’re going to look at how the State of California does or doesn’t protect people during cleanups,” Hancock said. “We’re looking at which agency conducts the cleanups, and if a developer can pick the regulatory agency by the way he files his application.” 

Hancock has invited legislators, regulators, developers, neighborhood groups and activists to the three-hour session which begins at 10 a.m. 

CSV plans to build a 1330-unit complex of residential towers, mid-rises and townhouses atop a concrete-capped dump containing the toxic wastes generated by a Stauffer Metals sulfuric acid plant and the pesticide and other chemical productions of British-based Zeneca Corp., the firm which retains responsibility for the cleanup. 

Brunner has been an outspoken critic of the state’s handling of the Campus Bay project, particularly when CSV killed an earlier plan for a biotech research complex on the site and replaced it with the housing project. 

The RWQCB, named the lead regulatory agency in the earlier scheme, retained jurisdiction as plans shifted to housing—and neither Brunner nor the other project critics are happy with the idea. 

On July 16, Brunner wrote to California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Terry Tamminen, declaring that “RWQCBs have neither the expertise nor experience to properly oversee characterization of a site this complex, appropriately evaluate comprehensive remediation, assess health hazards and risks from the site and clean-up process, develop appropriate enforcement orders for clean-ups that protect public health, implement strategies to enforce those orders in a timely manner to protect the community, or evaluate developer proposals for the final residential use of the site.” 

Nonetheless, the RWQCB retains jurisdiction. 

The excavation work now in progress is designed to remove contaminated soil from Stege Marsh, replace it with clean fill and restore the wetlands as nesting habitat for the clapper rail, an endangered shore bird. 

Russ Pitto, a Marin county developer, teamed his Simeon Properties with Cherokee Investment Partners—a North Carolina-based firm that uses public and private pension funds and other moneys to invest in restored brownfields (contaminated) properties—to form CSV. 

Cherokee has investments in several major Bay Area projects, including 22 acres near Oakland International Airport, the former O’Brien Paint Co. properties in South San Francisco and a 3.2 acre former industrial site in Mission Bay. 

While Margaret Rosegay, Pitto’s lawyer, was very much in evidence Wednesday, Cherokee’s lawyer was notably missing from the scene. 

Cherokee hired former California Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to negotiate with Weiner, project critics and legislators, and the formerly high-profile poltico has maintained a distinctly low profile, preferring to meet behind closed doors rather than in public. 

Many of Wednesday’s questions focused on monitoring equipment installed by IRG at the site which is equipped to gather dust and chemical samples for later laboratory analysis. Monitors also track wind speed and direction and the ongoing concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (“swamp gas”) generated by the marsh dredging. 

Neighbors complained that the monitors didn’t keep regular track of the air blowing toward residential neighborhoods near the project. 

Curtis T. Scott, chief of the RWQCB’s Groundwater Protection and Waste Containment Division, found himself particularly irked with attorney Weiner, who had laid out reasons why activists weren’t happy with claims that monitoring was adequate. 

“You are not really presenting a true picture, Peter,” Scott declared. “There are things you don’t recognize.” 

Sherry Padgett, a leading BARRD activist, has long worked at Kray Cabling, an industrial firm near the site, and is being treated for two extremely rare forms of cancer. 

“People need some assurance,” she told Scott.  

Brunner also asked for assurances that monitors would be moved to follow the wind when airflow headed from the site toward Marina Bay and other residential areas near the site. 

Finally, Rosegay offered a compromise. 

“We have heard your concerns about desires for more monitors. I’ll talk to Russ Pitto. We have to be guided by the best science. We can’t be governed just by whim. It’s not the cost of the monitors that is the problem. It’s stepping away from the best science.” 

When Hohenstein again raised concerns about the toxins his students might be breathing, Rosegay snapped back, “Forget it! I retract my offer!” 

“Every time there’s a meeting, someone new shows up so the questions are asked over and over again. These are concerns normal people have on a common sense basis.” 

“I am a scientist, and putting a monitor in Marina Bay would be totally rational,” declared another audience member, Jean Rabovsky, a retired toxicologist. 

“I suggest you work with the Air Quality Management District to see if it could add more monitors to relieve the anxieties of some of the people,” Brunner said. “That’s reasonable.” 

Hancock’s hearing on Nov. 6 will be the next major forum on the project.  

Meanwhile, residents and others who want to monitor conditions at the site can call a 24-hour number, 231-1000 ext. 55, for a daily update on conditions. 

Site monitoring data is also posted at the Campus Bay website, www.campusbay.info.?

A near life-long Berkeley resident has gotten the nod to become the city’s next fire chief. 

Debra Pryor, 43, the deputy fire chief of Palo Alto, has been selected by City Manager Phil Kamlarz to run the Berkeley Fire Department. 

If the City Council approves the hire as expected at its Nov. 9 meeting, Pryor would begin duties in mid December, Kamlarz said. 

The hire would be a homecoming for Pryor, who grew up in Berkeley and spent 17 years with the Berkeley Fire Department, working her way up to deputy fire chief before taking the same job in Palo Alto two years ago. 

Pryor was a runner-up for the chief position in 1997, when the job went to Reginald Garcia, who retired earlier this year. She would be the first African American and the first woman to serve as Berkeley fire chief. Before joining the Fire Department, Pryor worked as a clerk for Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board. 

“Debra has the advantage of knowing Berkeley, knowing the Fire Department, and also having experience outside the city,” Kamlarz said. 

He added that Acting Fire Chief David Orth will resume his duties as deputy chief. Orth was one of six candidates interviewed for the position out of a pool of about 25 applicants. 

Pryor will inherit a department beset by strains between the union and top brass over recent budget cuts.  

In two weeks the department is scheduled to close a ladder truck company after the firefighters’ union and city leaders failed to agree on a plan for firefighters to defer a portion of their scheduled salary increases. 

“The challenge is to provide leadership and bring everyone together,” said Kamlarz. 

Asked about the hire, Union President Mark Mestrovich said, “It’s good to see the city has selected a fire chief and we’re looking forward to having positive relations.” He added that union members served on interview panels but didn’t recommend a candidate. 

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Spanning 96,000 acres in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the East Bay Regional Park District is the largest local park system in the country. But when its residents go to the polls on Tuesday, only those who live along the bay shore from San Pablo to Alameda will see a new park tax before them. 

After watching previous tax measures in 1998 and 2000 fall shy of the two-thirds threshold because of light support in Eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the park district decided this year to create a separate tax district that appeals to their surest base of support. 

Before voters in Berkeley and neighboring shoreline towns, including Oakland and Richmond, is a 15-year tax that would raise $42 million for maintenance and landscape upgrades in parks within the newly created zone. Homeowners would pay $12 a year and landlords would pay $8.28 a year for each unit in a multi-family unit building. 

The tax proposal has divided pro-environment groups and re-energized Friends of Parks, a small group of former district officials and environmentalists who claim the district wouldn’t need the funds if it cut down on bureaucratic red tape. 

“The tax is bad government,” said Harlan Kessel, who served on the park district’s board of directors for seventeen years before retiring in 1994 and now is a member of Friends of Parks. 

“It isn’t right to balkanize the district and make the poorest section pay for improvements that will serve the entire district,” he said. 

The Green Parties of Alameda and Contra Costa counties both oppose the measure on grounds that it is a regressive tax against the shoreline communities.  

Steve Bloom of the Alameda County Green Party said he feared that if the tax passed, the district would divert money in its general fund slated to go to parks in the new tax zone to parks east of the Berkeley hills. 

Norman La Force, chair of the East Bay Public Lands Committee for the Sierra Club, compared the Green Party’s stance to “a right wing Republican argument against proper stewardship of public resources.” 

“If you followed their argument no one in Berkeley should be able to use Golden Gate Park, because they don’t pay for it,” he said. 

The measure, co-authored by La Force and Arthur Feinstein, executive director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, provides funding for 80 projects, including $400,000 a year for maintenance at Eastshore State Park. The creation of the park, which runs from Emeryville to Richmond, was part of a decades-long effort by the Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, of which La Force and Feinstein are members. 

La Force said the state parks department has no money to pay for operations and maintenance at the park and without the tax measure the park “will continue to limp along.” 

The regional park district pays for maintenance of two other state parks, Crown Beach and Lake Del Valle, La Force said, although the money for both parks comes from the district’s general fund, not a special tax district. 

In addition to Eastshore State Park, the tax revenue would be slated to go to environmental maintenance projects and habitat protection at parks in the tax zone including Tilden, Sibley, Alvarado, Redwood, and Anthony Chabot. Specific projects have not yet been prioritized. 

Opponents of the tax argue that the district is flush with money and doesn’t need to seek additional funds from voters. Eighty percent of the district’s funding is tied to local property assessments. Last year, rising assessments netted the district an extra $4 million, according to park officials. 

“I know they have a lot of money and I know they waste it,” said Karen Weber, the district’s former personnel director and a member of Friends of Parks.  

La Force and other environmental advocates previously belonged to Friends of Parks in the 1998 campaign against the district’s tax, but several have since reconciled with the park district over its policies and left the group. 

Weber, who was on bad terms with the district when she left in 1996, said it suffered from a bloated bureaucracy that consumed resources that could go to park maintenance. She claimed the district spent $2 million annually on a 14-person public relations department and according to the opponents’ ballot arguments the district pays six assistant general managers between $138,466 and $167,568 each per year. 

District General Manager Pat O’Brien, who said his salary is $180,000 a year, countered that the district will lose $12 million in state funding over the next two years and that it has initiated a hiring freeze and cut departments five percent across the board. 

“The park district isn’t a static agency,” he said. “Costs have gone up the same as revenue.” 

He insisted that the district would not re-direct general fund dollars away from the tax zone and defended the limited geographic scope of the tax. 

“Are we to say that because two-thirds of the people in Brentwood don’t want this that people who live on this side [of the hills] shouldn’t have the chance to have parks maintained at a higher level?” 

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Bruce McMurray’s home in the Berkeley hills is a testament to frugality.  

On Tuesday evening every light in the house was turned off except for the kitchen, where the television set was equipped with rabbit ear antennae, the floor was lined with several bottles of Charles Shaw (aka Two Buck Chuck) wine, the produce on the counter came from the Berkeley Bowl and the cat food was purchased at Costco. 

But as hard as McMurray tries to pinch pennies, he said that once again he will have to dip into his depleting savings to pay his $5,421 property tax bill that came in the mail last week. 

“It’s tough to make it when you get bills like this,” he said. 

In an election that could turn over one-third of the City Council, the most contentious local battle has been over five proposed tax increases. Supporters insist city and school district programs would suffer without the inflow of cash and opponents insist another round of tax hikes could break their bank.  

On the November ballot are a 1.5 percent increase to the Utility Users Tax that would raise $2.7 million for the general fund and expire in four years, a one-half percent increase in the tax on properties that sell for over $600,000 to raise $2.2 million for youth programs and expire in six years, a $1.2 million increase in the Emergency Medical Services Tax and a $1.7 million increase in the library tax.  

McMurray, who lives alone and whose only source of income is a $631 monthly disability check which adds up to about $8,000 a year, is an opponent. At age 63, McMurray, a former roller skate vendor in Golden Gate Park who is HIV positive, gives himself five years before his savings run out and he defaults on his property taxes for a home he acknowledges has quadrupled in value since he bought it in 1979. 

“Yes, I can sell my house and I’ll be rich, and yes, I can move to Oklahoma or South Dakota where taxes are low, but these are my roots,” he said. 

For McMurray, there are a few options that could keep him in high-tax Berkeley long term. The state controller’s office allows qualified homeowners age 62 and older to postpone taxes in return for the state recording a lien against the property. A more common financing plan is a reverse mortgage, which offers a homeowner monthly income payments that are paid back with interest when the homeowner no longer owns the property. 

McMurray said he looked into a reverse mortgage, but because he is relatively young at 63, he wouldn’t be eligible for enough of a loan to make the mortgage viable, though it might be enough to pay his taxes. “If I can stick it out here a few more years, a reverse mortgage might make sense for me,” he said. He has already sent in his absentee ballot voting no on all the new tax measures.  

He will not be alone. 

After years of passing new taxes with relative ease, Berkeley voters have done an about-face. In 2002, without a formal anti-tax campaign, voters turned back three out of four proposed measures for new taxes or bonds. Last year vocal public opposition kept a proposed $7 million parcel tax off the ballot and this year anti-tax forces have mobilized to mount a campaign that has raised over $6,000 to fight most of the measures. 

“They shouldn’t ask us to pay more when they haven’t done enough to cut back,” said Bob Migdal, a member of Budget Watch, one of several anti-tax increase groups to spring up this year. 

Data released by the city this spring showed that last year the average Berkeley homeowner paid $4,128 in local taxes and assessments compared to $4,008 in Albany and $3,703 in Oakland. 

All of the taxes excluding the library tax would help close a $7.5 budget deficit in the city’s general fund for next year and projected deficits in future years. The deficits are caused in large part by increasing costs for the state employees’ retirement program, cuts in state aid and sagging commercial sales tax revenues. 

Additionally, the Berkeley Unified School District has placed an $8 million measure on the November ballot (set to expire in two years) which is supposed to lower class sizes and bolster funding for music and library programs that have been cut in recent years as the district struggled to close its budget deficit. 

In all the five new taxes would cost the average homeowner in Berkeley $302 dollars next year and when other proposed tax increases and outstanding bonds are factored in, property taxes for the average new home buyer will rise by $688, according to figures compiled by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. 

City voters haven’t passed a tax increase since 2000, but that doesn’t mean local tax bills have remained stable. McMurray’s bill for city assessments rose $96 dollars from last year and over $800 from 1997. 

He is actually a beneficiary of a state tax system that is anything but equitable. Since he bought his home the year after California voters passed Proposition 13, which limits increases in property valuation to no more than two percent a year, McMurray’s property is valued for tax purposes at $286,444—roughly one-third of its market value. 

If he were to sell his home for $800,000, the new homeowner would pay taxes well in excess of $10,000 on the same property. 

Homeowners in Berkeley are taxed a fixed percentage of the assessed value of their property and then pay city and local taxes based on the square footage of their homes. 

“It’s an uneven, unfair taxing system, but it’s the only the one the government has,” said Mayor Tom Bates, who is supporting all five tax measures and said he is among the 65 percent of Berkeley homeowners who receive benefits from Proposition 13. 

A search on the Alameda County Assessor’s website shows that Bates’ property is valued at $54,840 for a total tax this year of $1,993. Most other members of the City Council are also big beneficiaries of the law. Betty Olds’ property is valued at $71,715 for a total tax of $1,989 and Maudelle Shirek’s property is valued at $40,525 for a total tax of $1,471. Councilmember Wozniak, whose property is valued at $587,975, pays the highest property tax among councilmembers at $9,856. 

Trina Ostrander, director of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, defended the tax proposals on grounds that California taxes are generally lower than those of other states with high personal incomes. 

“There should be room for local taxes because we’re undertaxed at the state level,” she said. 

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group that advocates a simple tax code, ranked California 24th in the nation with a per capita tax burden at 10 percent of personal income. New York ranked first with a tax burden of 12.4 percent. 

Like other California cities, Berkeley lost precious state dollars—$1.6 million—this year from Governor Schwarzenegger’s repeal of the vehicle license fee.  

Frances Medema, a management analyst with the League of California Cities, said state cutbacks had caused more cities than usual to put new taxes on the November ballot. An incomplete list compiled by the league shows that 58 cities have proposed tax measures, the majority of which are increases to the sales tax or utilities tax.  

Among them are a parcel tax and public parking tax in Oakland to pay for more police officers and public safety programs, a sales tax increase in San Francisco, a utility users tax in Fremont and a hotel tax increase in Santa Monica. 

In Berkeley, the four city taxes would raise $8 million, which supporters say would go to reopen the libraries on Sunday, guarantee that every fire engine is equipped with a trained paramedic, preserve programs for youth, including crossing guards and replenish the city’s general fund. 

Tax opponents, like Migdal argue that many of the programs could already be paid for from the city’s coffers, and that the special taxes are part of a bait and switch tactic whereby the city takes popular programs to the voters to fund separately so regular city revenue can pay for less popular programs. 

Migdal also charged the city hasn’t done enough to rein in the cost of the city bureaucracy, whose skyrocketing pension benefits are blamed for $6 million of the city’s $10 million general fund deficit this year.  

Berkeley required its unions to forego roughly $1.2 million in scheduled raises this year, but the city still pays contributions for employees to the state retirement fund in full. Richmond, which is facing a $20 million deficit, signed a better deal with one of its largest unions. Service Employees International Union Local 790 Richmond members will pay the full eight percent contribution beginning next July in return for a 2.5 percent raise in 2007. 

Maureen Katz, a Berkeley resident and public school parent, insisted the programs at risk were too vital not to vote for the taxes. Without the tax on home sales, she said Rosa Parks Elementary School would lose its family resource center and students would lose after-school programs. 

“Berkeley is a great place to live because of the services we provide,” said Katz. “The people who are complaining have all seen their houses double in price. It’s all greed.” 

Berkeley election monitors effectively dismissed Wednesday a complaint filed against the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA), but failed to address the question of whether the group had violated Berkeley election law by mailing to non-members its newsletter urging the defeat of city tax measures. 

Malcolm Burnstein, who authored the complaint on behalf of the campaign to pass a library tax increase, said he would re-file it in December after the Fair Campaign Elections Commission, with only six members present, deadlocked on every vote. 

A separate complaint from Burnstein charging that Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes (BASTA) twice failed to file its contributions before a city deadline was dismissed when the commission could not muster the requisite five votes to pass a motion. Burnstein said he would not seek to reopen that complaint. 

Burnstein charged that CNA, by publishing a newsletter that took positions on local ballot measures, effectively functioned as a campaign committee and was required to register as such under the Berkeley Election Reform Act. 

The law, designed to shed light on the financial backers of campaign committees, requires the organizations to disclose their contributions and expenses and list the names of contributors who donated more than $50.  

CNA, which is registered as a nonprofit and has published a newsletter for nearly 30 years, is permitted under state law to take positions on ballot measures. The most recent newsletter published this month devoted much of its space to editorials opposing all of the proposed tax increases on the November ballot. 

In the past year, relations between neighborhood associations and city leaders have grown steadily worse over the groups’ opposition to tax increases. 

Charging that Burnstein’s complaint was a thinly veiled threat from the city’s political establishment, CNA President Laurie Bright cautioned that if Burnstein ultimately got his way neighborhood groups could be hindered from distributing newsletters, posting positions on Internet sites and canvassing for support. 

“This would have a chilling effect on free speech,” he said. 

CNA is an umbrella group of local neighborhood associations whose primary function is to produce the newsletter paid for by subscription fees of $30.  

Since state election law does not apply to regularly published newsletters whose circulation is limited to members and others who request it, Deputy City Attorney Prasanna Rasiah had recommended that the commission dismiss the case. 

However, Jenny Lipow, a Berkeley resident and supporter of the tax measures, testified before the commission that she received a copy of the recent newsletter addressed to her even though she had not been a member of CNA for at least five years and had not received a newsletter for the past three years. 

“Why am I only solicited on this issue, which was clearly an election piece?” she asked. 

Burnstein said he had also received calls from residents that opponents of the tax measures were distributing the newsletters door-to-door. 

Bright responded that CNA produces enough newsletters to mail to paid subscribers and then sends out any extras to former subscribers in hopes of getting them to re-subscribe. 

“As a general rule we send out more copies than to only the people who subscribe just like newspapers and magazines who want to add to their subscription list,” Bright said.  

Although he didn’t have exact figures, Bright estimated that CNA didn’t sent out more than 200 newsletters beyond its subscription base. 

Commissioner Eric Weaver called for staff to investigate the issue to determine how state law defined “a member of an organization” and whether CNA had then mailed the newsletter to non-members. However the commission split on the vote 3-2-1, failing to reach the five votes needed to pass.  

Weaver (appointed by Mayor Tom Bates) Gorden Gaines (appointed by Councilmember Maudelle Shirek) and Patrick O’Donnell (appointed by Councilmember Miriam Hawley) voted to investigate the charges, while Dennis White (appointed by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak) and Michael Issel (appointed by Councilmember Betty Olds) were in opposition. John Denvir, who was appointed to the commission Wednesday by Councilmember Dona Spring, abstained on all votes because he has supported Measure H, for public financing of city elections, which both BASTA and CNA oppose. 

A second motion, to dismiss the charges against CNA but direct city staff to research the issue, failed 4-1-1. Although he favored looking into the matter, Weaver cast the lone no vote because he opposed dismissing the complaint.  

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Architect Kava Massih unveiled the latest version of the new Berkeley Bowl planned for the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue in West Berkeley, at a meeting Tuesday night for project neighbors. 

The newest additions to the design include a level of underground parking beneath the two-story store and warehouse building and a set of alternative plans for routing vehicles into the project. 

Plans call for a 91,000-square-foot complex including a 51,000-square-foot, 40-foot-tall building and a total of 211 parking spaces. 

Because the store is planned for a site currently zoned for light industrial use and the West Berkeley Plan mandates preservation of existing industrial uses, approval of the new store requires both a zoning change and an amendment to the West Berkeley Plan. 

The Design Review Committee will be the first city body to see the new plans, which will be presented for scrutiny at their Nov. 18 meeting, said Principal Planner Alan Gatzke, who also attended the meeting in the architect’s Ninth Street offices. 

The proposal will have to negotiate parallel tracks through the Planning Commission, which must approve the plan amendment, and the Zoning Adjustments Board, he said. 

Neighbors attending the session examined six different traffic flow alternatives directing vehicles into and out of the store and asked Massih and Gatzke to record their pick as the one that blocked all access from both Heinz Avenue and Ninth Street. 

—Richard Brenneman 

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Last summer members of the City Council seemed ready to fight three citizen-initiated measures on the November ballot that would promote decriminalizing prostitution, liberalize medical pot laws and set up a board to protect trees. 

But as election time has rolled around the only initiative that city leaders have opted to contest is one whose author insists is purely symbolic. 

“This won’t change anything,” said Robyn Few, author of The Angel Initiative (Measure Q), which would make prostitution the city’s lowest police priority, require police to make semi-annual reports of its programs to curb prostitution and require the City Council to lobby the state to decriminalize the world’s oldest profession. 

When the measure was placed on the ballot three months ago, police agreed with Few. Police spokesman Joe Okies said the force would continue to perform sting operations on San Pablo Avenue, the city’s main drag for street walkers. So far this year sting operations have resulted in about 70 arrests, he said. 

But City Manager Phil Kamlarz said Thursday the city hasn’t determined if police would be able to conduct the stings if prostitution is the force’s lowest priority. Even if the measure passes, Kamlarz said the city will be required under state law to enforce prostitution laws. 

While the city now says it is unclear on the ramifications of the measure, Councilmember Linda Maio has been rounding up dollars and support from San Pablo Avenue merchants to defeat it. As of Oct. 16, the Campaign Against Measure Q had raised $7,864. 

“If they don’t enforce the laws, we’ll be inundated with prostitutes,” said Jack Fox, the owner of a San Pablo Avenue transmission shop, who contributed $100 to Maio’s effort. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has remained neutral on the measure, said he didn’t think Fox’s contribution was money well spent. 

“It’s all political rah-rah,” he said. “All the measure says is that it would be a low priority, which it already is.”  

But Brad Smith, the treasurer of the No on Q campaign and Maio’s legislative aide,” insisted that the measure wasn’t symbolic and that law enforcement could help prostitutes seek help. 

“Without the hammer of the criminal justice system there is no opportunity to get people into recovery programs,” he said. 

Although Measure Q doesn’t initiate programs to assist prostitutes, Few said the measure’s passage would symbolize to prostitutes what they can accomplish politically. 

If voters pass Measure R, medical cannabis users and collectives could also claim a mighty political achievement.  

The measure would give the city’s three cannabis dispensaries by-right zoning privileges to move their operations to any avenue zoned for commercial uses, allow licensed patients to grow as much marijuana as they deem is medically necessary, transfer oversight of the clubs to a panel of club officers and authorize the city to provide medical cannabis if federal authorities raid the dispensaries. 

The measure is the culmination of a contentious year between medical cannabis advocates and the city. In February South Berkeley neighbors pressured the city to prevent a club from moving to the intersection of Sacramento and Russell streets and then in April the City Council voted against a compromise measure to increase the city’s marijuana plant limit for individual patients from 10 to 72. 

“This is all a reaction to what the city has done to us this year,” said Charlie Pappas, a medical cannabis user who was featured on the Measure Q campaign’s mailing sent to Berkeley residents. 

The promotion was funded in part from large contributions from the cannabis dispensaries, but city leaders have opted not to raise money to fight the measure. 

“There’s just so much we can do,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. “We have our own campaigns to run.” 

Mayor Tom Bates said a lot of the sting was taken out of the cannabis measure earlier this month when the council passed a quota limiting the number of cannabis clubs in Berkeley to three. 

Asked about Berkeley’s proclivity to support medical marijuana—the city voted 86 percent in favor of the Compassionate Use Act which decriminalized it—Bates said he thought Berkeley voters “will see through this as an effort to get past local zoning rules.” 

When it comes to caring for the city’s 40,200 public trees, Bates thinks the city’s forestry department can do a better job than a proposed Berkeley Tree Board. 

“It spends up to $350,000 on stuff the city is doing just fine,” he said. 

But local environmentalist Elliot Cohen said the city’s failure to save trees near the public library and its acquiescence to removing more trees in the Berkeley Marina necessitates the ordinance. 

Cohen’s proposal creates a new board to encourage the planting of healthy trees and regulate changes to trees on public land. Anyone seeking to work on a public tree would have to get a license from the tree board, and any development that might affect a public tree would require a “tree impact report.” 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque wrote that the ordinance would interfere with the council’s authority over city property, forcing it to get tree board permission to remove public trees. She said the ordinance would interfere with the city manager’s charter authority to administer city departments and personnel by specifying that the Tree Board would use two staff members and would mandate a specified number of trees to be planted annually. 

City staff estimated the cost of the proposed new Tree Board would run to $250,000 once it was operational and that to provide staffing the city would have to transfer two Parks and Recreation Department employees.  

Cohen countered that city staff had misread his initiative and were inflating the cost as part of a campaign of scare tactics.  

He said his proposal capped staffing at two full-time employees ($200,000), but under normal circumstances the Tree Board would require only about one quarter to one-half of the time of only one staff member.  

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A Richmond City Council candidate has condemned two last-minute campaign flyers in that race as “eleventh-hour mudslinging” and “hit pieces” that have become “far too typical of Richmond politics” and “have nothing to do with issues that matter to Richmond residents.” 

The campaign manager for Andrés Soto, the target of the mailings, said their campaign was “bracing for more mailings which are rumored to be coming out before election day.” 

Fifteen candidates, including four incumbents, are running for five at-large seats on Richmond City Council in next Tuesday’s election. 

Last week, Richmond voters received two mailed fliers aimed at Soto, one entitled “Cinco De Mayo, May 5, 2002,” the other entitled “Confessions Of A Radical.” The first leaflet contained excerpts of a police report of Soto’s highly-publicized arrest during a Richmond Cinco de Mayo celebration two years ago. Soto and 11 other plaintiffs received a $150,000 settlement this year from the city of Richmond stemming from the incidents at that celebration. The second contains a passage from an undated article by a UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism student noting Soto’s delight at the 1981 assassination attempt against then-President Ronald Reagan.  

Under the headline “Andrés Soto is too radical to be on the City Council,” the Cinco de Mayo mailer quotes Richmond Fire Captain John Wade as saying that “Richmond Police Officers are committed to our safety… Andrés Soto is a radical that [sic] uses confrontational politics to challenge the rule of law… Richmond deserves better!” 

Soto campaign manager Holly Potter says that the mailers were “engineered” by controversial Contra Costa County campaign consultant Darrell Reese, a retired Richmond fire captain who was once investigated by the FBI for allegations of vote-buying in Richmond elections. Reese was never charged with that offense, but the results of that investigation led to a four-month house arrest and a conviction in federal court for not reporting earnings from his lobbying and consulting business. 

The “Confessions of A Radical” mailer reprints a single line from an article by UC Journalism School student Christina Dryness, saying that Soto “had celebrated President Reagan’s assassination attempt in 1981 by going down to the local bar for drinks.” “While I think celebration is probably too strong a term, he doesn’t deny that he wasn’t broken up by Reagan being shot,” Holly said. “I think Andrés was relating the story of his anger with Reagan in the 80’s.” She added that “the entire story is actually a flattering portrait of Andrés” that showed his conversion from an anti-government activist at the time of Reagan’s shooting to a community organizer who led a decades-long campaign against violence in Richmond. Soto, in fact, has been targeted by the National Rifle Association for his gun control advocacy. 

The two mailers were sent out under the names of the Richmond Firefighters’ Association and an organization called the Keep Richmond Safe Committee. The Firefighters’ Association did not return calls related to this article. The telephone number of the Keep Richmond Safe Committee, provided by the Richmond city clerk’s office, had an answering machine with a message identifying the owner merely as “Cindy,” without any reference to the committee. 

The Keep Richmond Safe Committee has filed reports with the Richmond City Clerk’s office listing campaign activities in support of Richmond City Council candidates Tom Butt, Arnie Kasendorf, Nat Bates, Kathy Scharff, and John Marquez. 

Asked why Soto was a target of the mailings, Holly said “they obviously saw Andrés as a threat.” In his campaign, Soto has called upon police and fire unions to renegotiate city labor contracts which he says have “contributed to the city’s fiscal crisis.” 

Richmond City Councilmember Tom Butt, who was listed in the Cinco de Mayo mailer as one of three councilmembers who voted against the Cinco De Mayo settlement, condemned the mailers in an e-mail sent out to supporters. “I had no involvement in their production,” Butt wrote. “I don’t even know who the Keep Richmond Safe Committee is. … I want to make it clear that I do not appreciate being included in hit pieces. … I have been the victim of dozens of the worst possible negative campaign pieces and hit pieces in the past, and wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” Butt explained in his e-mail that he voted against the Cinco de Mayo settlement because “the city attorney refused, as part of the settlement authorization, to take legal action against the individual actually responsible for the specific negligent behavior. 

Plans for a major UC Berkeley-sponsored hotel and convention center at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street are moving forward, says Kevin Hufferd, UC Capital Projects senior planner. 

“I feel very good about the progress we’re making,” Hufferd said. “We have a real shot at something quite exciting.” 

The university is negotiating with Carpenter & Co., a leading hotelier based in Massachusetts. 

“We struggled at the beginning back in the spring to make sure we and the developer were on the same page,” Hufferd said, “but we’ve been moving along very well.” 

UC and Carpenter & Co. are currently attempting to hammer out details that will make for an economically feasible project, said Hufferd. 

“We’re trying to determine issues like height, bulk, scale and the number of rooms. After that we’ll need to embark on additional discussions with the community about design issues,” Hufferd said. 

The UC official said negotiations will include concerns raised by the Berkeley Planning Commission’s UC Hotel Task Force, which developed a list of recommendations for the project during a series of meetings that ended last April 27. 

“There’s a lot to be worked out,” Hufferd acknowledged. 

The university plans to develop a complex of facilities on the two blocks bounded by Shattuck Avenue on the west and Oxford Street on the east between University Avenue and Center Street. 

The site is supposed to include a complex of museums and parking facilities as well as the hotel and conference center.›

“I believe there ought to be a temporary worker card that allows a willing worker and a willing employer to mate up, so long as there’s not an American willing to do that job, to join up in order to be able to fulfill the employers’ needs.” —George Bush, presidential debate, Oct. 14, 2004 

“We need a guest-worker program, but if it’s all we have, it’s not going to solve the problem.” —John Kerry, presidential debate, Oct. 14, 2004  

The mutual call by both George Bush and John Kerry for new guest worker programs during the last presidential debate brings the institution of a new bracero program closer than it has been for the last 40 years.  

In 1964, Ernesto Galarza, Cesar Chavez and other Latino progressives won the abolition of a program under which U.S. growers, beginning in World War II, brought Mexican workers to U.S. fields. These activists accused growers of maintaining military-style, exploitative conditions for those workers, and deporting them when they protested. Further, Galarza and Chavez said that growers created an oversupply of workers in order to drive wages down, and used braceros to break farm worker strikes.  

By no coincidence, the great grape strike in which the United Farm Workers was born started the year after the bracero program ended.  

The importation of workers by U.S. employers didn’t completely end, however. Four new visa categories were eventually created, allowing companies to bring limited numbers of workers into the United States for jobs in agriculture, high tech, health care, and other industries. These programs have been condemned by labor and immigrant community activists for years, for abusing workers much as the bracero program did. Just this spring, the North Carolina Growers Association was sued by the state’s Legal Aid office for extensive violations of health and safety laws, and for maintaining a blacklist of workers who protested.  

The key weakness of the programs, critics charge, is that they give employers power, not just over jobs, but also over visas—the ability of workers to stay in the United States. Further, contract temporary workers can never become a permanent part of a community in the United States, since they must eventually return to their countries of origin. They are truly strangers in a strange land.  

Nevertheless, starting in 1999, major U.S. employer associations banded together in a shadowy organization to promote the vast expansion of those temporary worker programs. The Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC) quickly grew to include 36 of the country’s most powerful employer associations, headed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores belongs (think Wal-Mart), as does the American Health Care Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, the National Restaurant Association, and the National Retail Federation, the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Associated General Contractors and the American Meat Institute. All represent industries with a work force in which immigrants are well represented.  

There’s no question that many U.S. industries have become dependent on immigrant labor. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that, in 2001, undocumented workers, mostly from Mexico, comprised 58 percent of the work force in agriculture, 23.8 percent in private household services, 16.6 percent in business services, 9.1 percent in restaurants, and 6.4 percent in construction. The Migrant Policy Institute reports that in 1990, 11.6 million immigrants, documented and undocumented, made up 9 percent of the U.S. workforce. By 2002, their numbers had grown to 20.3 million workers, or 14 percent.  

As Bush began negotiating over immigration reform with Mexican President Vicente Fox in 2001, EWIC called for “a temporary worker program...markedly different from the existing and past models.” The association was joined in 2002 by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank close to the administration. A Cato Institute report authored by Daniel T. Griswold called for a guest worker program “that would allow Mexican nationals to remain in the United States to work for a limited period.” It suggested issuing about 300,000 such temporary visas, good for three years and renewable for another limited period.  

When Bush proposed his immigration reform plan in January of this year, it was taken almost word for word from the Cato Institute report, and recommendations by EWIC.  

Bush’s proposal was not warmly embraced by immigrants themselves. In a poll conducted by Bendixen and Associates for New California Media (a project of Pacific News Service) and the James Irvine Foundation, 50 percent of the undocumented workers surveyed opposed it once its provisions were explained, while only 42 percent supported it. Veterans of the old bracero program were even more critical. One former bracero, Manuel Herrera, told the AP’s Juliana Barbassa, “they rented us, got our work, then sent us back when they had no more use for us.” Ventura Gutierrez, head of an organization of former braceros, said, “people who lived through the old program know the abuse it will cause.”  

Nevertheless, one mark of EWIC’s lobbying success is that guest worker programs are now being proposed from both sides of the aisle. Both a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Tom Daschle and Chuck Hegel, and a Democratic bill introduced by Congressman Luis Gutierrez and Sen. Edward Kennedy, call for expanded guest worker programs. It was no surprise, then, to hear both presidential candidates agree on the corporate-backed measure in the last debate.  

There are alternative proposals for immigration reform that would help undocumented immigrants achieve legal status, but which don’t contain guest worker provisions. One is sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Lee calls Bush’s approach an unrealistic, “flat-earth program.” Nevertheless, whichever candidate becomes president will be one already committed to bringing back the braceros.  

David Bacon is a freelance writer and photographer who writes regularly on labor and immigration issues. His latest book is The Children of NAFTA (University of California Press, 2004).  

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The physician charged with safeguarding the health of Contra Costa County residents issued a stinging rebuke Thursday of the bureaucratic turf battles he believes are compromising the Campus Bay toxic waste cleanup. 

County Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner said site neighbors have “legitimate anxieties based on their previous experience with inappropriate remediation carried out without appropriate oversight,” referring to previous cleanup efforts at the site conducted two years ago. 

“The citizens of California and Contra Costa County deserve the best efforts and skills of all the California Environmental Protection Agency departments working together, and it doesn’t seem we’re getting that,” Brunner said, the day after he attended a public meeting sponsored by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). 

The public health expert said he was particularly disturbed by the lack of representatives of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) Wednesday. 

“They were conspicuous by their absence,” he said.  

Brunner had asked the top EPA official in July to hand jurisdiction of the site to the DTSC, but he said Thursday he was less concerned with which branch of the EPA heads the oversight than by the apparent lack of cooperation between the water board and the toxics department. 

“I don’t care who leads, as long as they are working together appropriately to give the expertise we need for this problem,” Brunner said. “If not, it becomes one of my problems.” 

Brunner became actively involved in monitoring conditions at the site in July, when concerned neighbors sought his participation as the result of experiences with a larger cleanup effort at the 40-acre site two years earlier. 

“At that time there had been large numbers of truckloads moved around and mixed with limestone to neutralize the iron pyrite cinders in the soil. The neighbors told me they were concerned by the large amounts of dust blown around then,” he said. 

Brunner said he was hoping to see a cooperative effort by all the California EPA agencies, the project developer and citizens and community groups during the fall excavations at Stege Marsh in preparation for the more troublesome remediation efforts scheduled for the spring. 

“This one is easy. They’re excavating the mud, not mixing it. I was hoping that this stage could be a practice run, so everyone could learn to work together to develop more confidence for the more dusty proceedings coming in the spring,” he said. 

The marshland muck now being excavated is being stored atop previously treated polluted soil from the upland portion of the site and soil from the adjacent and equally polluted UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station. 

“The next stage promises to be even more difficult,” Brunner said, when the dried muck is mixed with limestone to neutralize the pyrite ash, raising the specter of more dust blowing around the neighborhood.  

“I still think there’s a way to go about it.” 

Brunner’s concerns led to calls to Assemblymember Loni Hancock, who is conducting a Nov. 6 legislative hearing on the project. 

The current phase of the cleanup will be followed by another and even more problematic process, Brunner said, when Cherokee Simeon Ventures submits its plans to build 1330 houses on the inland site.

Dreading the notion of sitting around Berkeley, filling the anxious hours until Nov. 3 by reading contradictory polls and phoning undecided voters in swing states, we decided to travel to Colorado and immerse ourselves in get-out-the-vote activities. 

What we find here is a very close race for president and for an open Senate seat. 

While recent public polls of the Colorado race show George Bush ahead of John Kerry from 2 to 5 percentage points, internal Democratic polls show Kerry with a lead. Both parties believe that the outcome will depend upon which side gets out their vote. 

There are roughly 3 million registered voters in Colorado: 1.1 million Republicans, 940,000 Democrats, and an amazing 1 million unaffiliated voters. 

The most recent Denver Post poll showed that 88 percent of Republicans favored Bush and 80 percent of Democrats preferred Kerry; the Democratic challenger was the choice of unaffiliated voters by a margin of nine percentage points. There remain a substantial number of undecided voters: seven percent of Democrats and 10 percent of the unaffiliated. 

Although the large number of unaffiliated voters is unusual, the overall situation in Colorado mirrors that in all the swing states: Kerry is either ahead or within striking distance. 

Polls indicate that Republican voters have made up their minds and strongly favor Bush. Kerry had not done as good a job holding the Democratic base. In all the swing states, independent or unaffiliated voters favor Kerry, but there are a large number of undecided voters. 

In this sense Colorado appears to be a very typical swing state and the Democratic strategy here mirrors that in the others. The plan has been to register new voters, get as many Democrats as possible to vote by absentee ballot, convince undecided voters that Kerry is “the man,” and to get out the vote on Nov. 2. 

Colorado Democrats have won the first contest in that they have recruited many more new voters than have the Republicans. Many of these are young folks. The Democratic candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by the ailing Republican, Ben Knighthorse Campbell, is Attorney General Ken Salazar. If elected, Salazar would become the first Hispanic Senator; this has encouraged the registration of many Hispanic voters. 

The Democratic field offices are heavily involved in the processing of requests for absentee ballots. Statistics show that voters are much more likely to vote if they have an absentee ballot—remember that in Colorado it is quite likely that on election day there will be a blizzard or some other problem that could depress voter turnout. 

Every day thousands of requests for absentee ballots are received, which must then be aggregated by county and mailed to the respective county clerk for processing. What this suggests is that if the race in Colorado ends up being to close to call, on the evening of Nov. 2, it will all come down to the counting of these absentee ballots, which could take several days. 

Democratic volunteers have flocked to Colorado from states such as California and Texas, where there is no question which presidential candidate will prevail. They found lots of work to do. Those who are not processing absentee requests are calling Democrats and unaffiliated voters, making the case for John Kerry and Ken Salazar. Some volunteers have begun walking precincts.  

There are few signs of support for George W. Bush in the greater Denver area, where we are working. The Democratic mobilization has succeeded in making this a city where Democrats now outnumber Republicans. 

Nonetheless the race remains too close to call. A hopeful sign is that Senate candidate Salazar, who initially distanced himself from Kerry, has had a change of heart. Saturday, they appeared together at a massive rally in Pueblo, a largely Hispanic city a couple of hours south of Denver. 

The Salazar campaign initially enjoyed a double-digit lead over the Republican challenger, brewer Pete Coors. Now that lead has evaporated and some polls show Coors ahead. This has had the effect of forcing Salazar to run as part of the national ticket. Interestingly, this has resulted in better coordination of the effort to get out the Hispanic vote—a vote that Salazar imprudently took for granted. 

We’ll stay in Colorado until the election is decided. At the moment it looks like this may be a few days after Nov. 3. 

Bob Burnett is working on a book about the Christian Right. 

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Libya’s decision to junk its WMD program confirms that sanctions, not pre-emptive war in Iraq as George Bush claims, worked. Diplomatic pressures punctuated by stiff commercial and military sanctions convinced Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to take stock of Libya’s international isolation and brought him to the negotiating table.  

Europeans are astonished and more than a bit amused at the Bush administration’s claim that Libya’s renunciation of its nuclear arms program was fear of an Iraq-style pre-emptive invasion. The widespread belief in Europe is that Libya was never in a position to build any serious nuclear program because it lacked the know-how, scientists and facilities to proceed.  

“Libya played a very skillful hand of poker with the U.S. administration and the West,” affirms Dina Nascetti, foreign correspondent for Italy’s leading newsweekly L’Espresso. “Qaddafi needed to see an end to commercial sanctions against his country.”  

International sanctions were eating at Libya’s economic growth and stalling its efforts to play a decisive role in redesigning Africa’s political map. As a sign of rising economic woes, scores of Libyan vessels filled with refugees have landed daily on Italy’s southern shores. Although many of the refugees are Africans, the number of Libyan youths (they make up 60 percent of the population) taking to sea to find a better life in Europe has grown.  

Faced with rising instability, Qaddafi announced the abandonment of his nuclear and chemical weapons goals, shrewdly grasping that the current U.S. administration more than ever needed a rogue state that would “capitulate” to American pressure.  

Libya’s international isolation began in January 1986 with the imposition of American sanctions following the bombing of the La Belle Disco Dance Club in Berlin, where two U.S. soldiers and one Turkish were killed and an additional 229 people were injured. President Ronald Reagan ordered U.S. air assaults on Tripoli, lightly wounding Qaddafi but killing his 2-year-old adopted daughter. The U.S. sanctions were followed in 1992 by economic, military and diplomatic sanctions by the United Nations in response to the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. Since then, except for a tenuous relationship with the Arab League and the Organization for Africa Unity, Libya has been practically a pariah.  

Sanctions are believed to have caused in excess of $35 billion in damage to the Libyan economy, stalling the development of its oil industry and causing the collapse of its service industry, which was run by European nationals.  

The sanctions also created conditions for Islamic radicalism to infiltrate Libya. Libya increasingly relied on workers from Arabic countries, whose populations are mostly Islamic, to do work that Libyans refused. For example, Islamic Brotherhood literature arrived with the wave of Egyptian immigrants; the Brotherhood’s influence has grown among Libyan youths.  

Now that Qaddafi has abandoned his unrealizable dream of pan-Arabism, discontented Libyan youths are finding a viable rallying point in Islamic internationalism. The notion of an Islamic renaissance throughout the Middle East and Africa is attracting adherents away from Qaddafi’s Arabic secularism and quest for equality between men and women as written in his Green Book, the Colonel’s guide to Libya’s revolution. Qaddafi needed a respite from economic problems fast.  

“With the abolition of sanctions, Qaddafi gets a chance to deal with various problems affecting his country,” says Remo Lenci coordinator for UIL Croce Rossa, an affiliate of the Italian Red Cross. “One is breaking Libya’s economic isolation and flinging open the doors to Africa; another is being able to repress political opposition with the help of the West.” Jumping on the bandwagon of the American war on terrorism, “Libya doesn’t need to account anymore for its political and religious prisoners to the international community,” explains Lenci.  

In fact, while opening the country for the first time to an Amnesty International inspection, Libya must still account for hundreds of political prisoners whose fates are unknown. Recently, Saif al-Qaddafi, the son of Muammar and the real architect of the opening to the West, has confirmed that no clemency will be given to the 600 prisoners at the Abu Salim jail. “As everywhere else in the world, also in Libya, terrorists must serve their time,” Said told visiting Amnesty officials and journalists.  

Europeans are quietly miffed that in his eagerness to strike a deal with Qaddafi, Bush may have given him a sweeter deal than he could have managed in negotiations with the European Union, headed by Romano Prodi.  

“The EU had to hurry to offset the potentially negative outcome of the U.S.’s untimely relinquishing of its sanctions,” admits a European diplomatic source who requested anonymity. “The U.S. opening of its wallet and its contacts with Qaddafi weakened the European community’s leverage on the issue of political prisoners and the compensation for years of terrorist activity in Europe.”  

Coming out of a deep freeze, Libya, rewarded handsomely by a divided West, has launched its own plan for Africa. Conceived in collaboration with Fahmy Hudome, a Washington-based consulting firm, the plan encompasses a series of U.S.-Libyan joint ventures in Angola, South Africa, Senegal, Capo Verde, Sudan and Eritrea.  

Paolo Pontoniere is a San Francisco-based correspondent of Focus, Italy’s leading monthly magazine.

MEASURE Q  

Editors, Daily Planet:  

It always disturbs and amazes me when voters are asked to make decisions that put burdens on others in their community while they bear none of the problems imposed on those others. 

Approving Measure Q says to those alr eady struggling with the problems of prostitutes taking over their streets, that they must not only continue to deal with this, but they will need to contend with more of it. The weakening of enforcement of street prostitution laws will bring more and mor e prostitutes to the area. 

You must ask yourself; is this something I would welcome in my neighborhood? Should I be approving it for others, even if they are struggling against it? 

Vote No on Measure Q and if you believe prostitution should be decrimina lized, invest time, work and money to have safe, private, zoning approved locations for consensual sex acts to take place so that children and neighborhoods do not have others’ decision imposed on them. 

Helen Springer 

• 

NO GUARANTEES 

Editors, Daily Plane t:  

Dan Lindheim was referring to me in his letter to the editor last Tuesday. I am not mistaken at all about Measure B. Measure B is definitely an end run around democracy. 

At my dinner table, we understand American history. No taxation without represe ntation. We wasted a lot of good tea in Boston Harbor because we believed in citizen input. 

So, if I am to be taxed, there should be community, parent and teacher input at every level. These are the conditions that we placed on BSEP, and BSEP works becau se of this. Some administrator shouldn’t decide how the money is spent. Teachers and parents are much more familiar with what is going on at a school. They know the needs of their kids, not some district administrator who, at best, goes to that school onc e a year, for a few short minutes.  

Measure B has no democratic safeguards. Measure B has no elected school committees, no elected district committees, no elected oversight committee, no guarantees that this very large tax increase will be efficiently or effectively used, no guarantee that we will in fact get small class sizes, better libraries and more music. In fact, the district pays itself first by taking a big cut for overhead before students receive any benefit. 

School district representatives say they support democracy, but the words they inserted in Measure B tells us that the school district wants our money without the democracy. I urge everyone to read the measure itself. I know if you read the actual text, you will vote No on Measure B. 

Steph anie Corcos 

• 

NO ON MEASURE B 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Tuesday night, before the high school PTSA, School Board member Nancy Riddle told the audience that Measure B was written to give the school district a big cut for overhead to keep Measure B from “encroaching” onto the general fund. 

I was floored. Nancy Riddle doesn’t express commitment about small class sizes, or libraries or music. What she said on behalf of the School Board is that the school board wants as much money as possible to spend anyway it wants, and we tax payers should pay another $250 a year, so the board gets its way.  

In the past three years, the School Board raised class sizes by transferring general fund monies elsewhere. Measure B has no guarantees that class size will actually go down, or that there will be more music or better library programs. Measure B is about funding the general fund. Heck no! 

The school board should be guaranteeing that the general fund will be used to match our generosity for small class size, better li braries and more music, not the other way around.  

These school board members have it completely backwards. What is it about government these days? Vote No on the school board incumbents, Selawsky and Rivera, and Vote No on Measure B. 

David Spinker 

• 

CA RING FOR NEIGHBORS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Ms. Levya-Cutler comments that she is advocating a YES vote on Measure J because her neighbor needs assistance from the local fire department to provide oxygen and that young children and youth need health servi ces (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25). 

I believe she is advocating a Yes Vote on Measure M, because Measure M will put a paramedic on every engine at every station and keep all fire companies fully staffed and funded. Ms. Levya-Cutler’s neighbor gets oxygen fro m the fire department. The Oakland Tribune editorial board endorsed Measure M because of the services the fire department provides like to Ms. Levya-Cutler’s neighbor. 

Vote YES on Measure M and provide the tools and equipment to your firefighters so they can respond quickly to medical emergencies and fires. 

Gil Dong 

• 

EXCELLENT WORK 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

John Selawsky is a very conscientious and effective School Board member. He has dealt in very creative and courageous ways with a deficit situation that was not of his making to re-establish the fiscal integrity of the Berkeley School District. In addition, he has been instrumental in establishing the Edible Schoolyard program, the Dual Immersion Program as well as improvements in instruction, integration and participation of the community. He should be given the opportunity to continue his excellent work. 

Diana Bohn 

• 

HAZARDOUS CARGO 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

If you need to know what’s waiting for you in your backyard, here it is: 23,320 gallons of hazardous waste, stored and waiting to be shipped out through our city streets! Yep, that’s right. Last Oct. 20, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) organized a public hearing to share information and to accept public comments when they applied for an operating permit approval for the next 10 years, for their hazardous waste handling facility, storage and removal. 

The facility is not exactly in the middle of the desert. It’s in the Strawberry Canyon facility, located just above UC Botanical Garden and only a few hundred meters from the Lawrence Hall of Science, a children’s museum and school, and the residential neighborhoods of Panoramic Hill, Summit Rd., and Grizzly Peak Blvd. 

In fact, the storage facility sits literally on top of the Hayward fault, in a high fire risk and sliding zone. And what about a potential terrorist attack? Their plan is to transport hazardous waste in drums on trucks, through the Strawberry Creek watershed, down Hearst Avenue, through the Northside Neighborhood of the Campus and on to University Avenue to 1-80 and then on to different parts of the US.  

What is waiting for you is a variety of chemicals as well as used batteries, metal sludge, PCB-contaminated equipment, oily rags, paint and other mixed waste containing low levels of radioactivity. Do you think that LBNL needs an Environmental Impact Report and an Environmental Impact Statement, or an approval and permit from our city to drive around with their toxic waste? No, UC Berkeley and their regents exempt them from this already! 

So, what can we, as concerned citizens, do about this? Very little—but it is good to know that UC Berkeley really cares about us. They will be so candid as to make a phone call to the city, notifying them when the trucks with toxic waste, will be on the way through our city streets and residential neighborhoods. Concerned citizens can still send written comments to LBNL until Nov. 19 by writing to: Dr. Wagar Admad, Project Manager, Department of Toxic Substance Control, 700 Heinz Ave., Suite 200, Berkeley, Ca., 94710. Let him know what you think about this, and lets hope that our city government will act! 

Roger Van Ouytsel 

• 

ECOCITY BUILDERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two letters published on Oct. 19 complained about the misbehavior of Ecocity Builders, which the writers called a “group.” But Ecocity Builders is not a group, nor does it build anything. 

Ecocity Builders is basically two people. While both are tenacious in hectoring the city with their extreme philosophy (creeks good, people bad), they don’t seem very busy or well-endowed. 

Their most recent nonprofit tax filing, available online at www.documents.guidestar.org, listed only one full-time employee (the “President”), and annual revenue of just $30,349 against expenses of $40,786. It also showed net debts of $37,524. 

No Berkeley resident need be intimidated by this hollow “letterhead” organization. It’s a paper tiger with no real staff, assets, active membership, or constituency. 

Marcia Lau 

• 

DEMS TO THE RESCUE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In 1968, anti-war protesters disrupted the Democratic National Convention. The protesters were mostly young Democrats who effectively held the Johnson Administration accountable for a misguided and deadly war.  

Here we are in 2004 with Democrats again protesting a misguided and deadly war. Why does it have to be the Democrats that always come to this country’s rescue? Why can’t Republicans hold their own party accountable for even one mistake? Can they not face the disappointments that accompany a systematic series of lies and deception?  

Perhaps Republicans should change their mascot from an elephant to a lemming.  

Sheryl Phipps  

• 

TREE MEASURE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Measure S proposes giving broad regulatory power to a quasi-judicial tree board that will regulate virtually all activities around the care, maintenance, trimming, topping, removing, or planting of trees on public property. The board also would have power to conduct inspections, hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and take sworn testimony. One section of the 18-page ordinance even empowers the board to impound vehicles of tree workers who do not comply to its standards! Yet nothing in the ordinance requires members of the board to have any special knowledge about trees or the activities it seeks to regulate. No to more city bureaucracy, no to duplication of existing services. 

Gail Keleman 

• 

NADER RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In his letter entitled (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25), respected author Gray Brechin shows off the typical insane zeal of Democrats who are desperate to elect “Anybody But Bush.” Brechin is a former anti-war activist. It is a fact that John Kerry supported Bush’s war, has criticized Bush’s “inept” pursuance of it, and has called for 40,000 more troops to bring about “success.” Kerry also believes in the phony “war on terror” that has been a shuck from day one. Kerry is not now and never was a “progressive.”  

Ralph Nader did not “cost Al Gore the election.” Millions of registered Democrats voted for Bush and millions of Republican dollars funded Gore’s campaign. Republicans are funding Kerry’s campaign in 2004. The big boys always hedge their bets. They don’t get hysterical like Brechin and his friends.  

As Michael Moore shows in “Fahrenheit 911,” the Demos threw the election by refusing to challenge Republican vote manipulation. And with good reason; they do the same goddamn thing themselves in their own districts. There’s been an impeachment resolution on the House floor since November 2001. The Demos have refused to move impeachment forward and have backed Bush all the way. Brechin and his limousine liberals are dreaming.  

So Nader is Melville’s “mad Captain Ahab,” huh? Brechin has become Richard Henry Dana in his book, “Two Years Before the Mast.” Brechin and his “progressive” buddies will put up with anything, including four years of flogging “before the mast,” to serve their masters in the Democrat Party. This slavish behavior may yet pay off. You read it here first: Brechin and his boys are stumping for Kerry so they can get positions in the new Kerry Administration. Then they can get paid to apologize for the bastard every time he stabs those who voted for him in the back, just as they did for those other “progressives,” Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.  

The real Ahab on the Kerry caper is George Soros, the stock swindler and currency manipulator. His “means and methods” are quite sane. It’s easy to buy off a shill like Brechin with $16 million.  

Steve Tabor  

• 

CHOICE ISSUES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Regarding Ms. O’Malley’s editorial of last Friday (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25), I was surprised to find that she thinks that Senator Kerry supports school vouchers when she referred to his “support of choice.” 

Ah, but perhaps it is not that choice which she is referring to. Perhaps she was referring to the senator’s unequivocal support for abortion rights. That phraseology would have been clearer, although perhaps a bit ickier and unsettling as well. 

In any case, I would hope that all Catholic bishops would support the dignity and rights of all members of our species (which, human embryos are, as any standard embryology text indicates), in the face of the Senator’s wanton disregard toward the youngest of us. 

Chris Burgwald 

• 

TAXES ALREADY TOO HIGH 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Karl Rove and the Bush Administration are not the only politicians playing on the politics of fear. The Berkeley City Council and Mayor Tom Bates, in their own little way, are spreading the fear too. 

Hyperbole? Stay with me a minute: The city council is preparing to ground one of the city’s two fire truck companies from evening until morning starting Nov. 8, with the stated purpose of saving the city $300,000 a year. 

Meantime, voters are being asked to approve Ballot Measure H in November that, if passed, would use taxpayer money to pay for Berkeley political campaigns. The estimated annual cost is $498,000. 

In effect, elected city officials are asking voters, during a serious budget crisis, to significantly cut community fire protection. Instead, they take that $300,000 in fire protection money and add another $200,000, to pay for their own political campaigns. Quite literally, the city council would rather put lives at risk rather than forgo public financing of their political campaigns. 

The mayor and the council also are employing two other Bush-like tactics: bait-and-switch and obfuscation.  

Here’s the bait and switch: The mayor and the council are considering a reinstatement of any fire cutbacks in 2006 if voters approve Measure M, a tax hike intended to fund paramedic services. (The measure does not ask for fire-fighting funds.) 

Here’s the obfuscation: The city is asking voters to approve tax hikes not just for ambulances, but also for libraries and youth services. These services may be worthy. But by stroking voters’ heartstrings by putting these programs before the voters, the city council is asking its residents to save them from tough decision-making necessary for budget discipline. 

Until voters make clear to the mayor and the city council that we want honest, strong, straightforward leaders willing to lay out real choices without resorting to scare tactics, they will continue to take the easy route—appealing to our emotions to keep raising taxes, which already are way too high. 

A way out of the mess is for voters to vote against all the tax hikes on the ballot. There are a bunch: Measure H, Measure J, Measure K, Measure L and Measure M. 

If voters force the mayor and the council to assume honest responsibility for fixing our budget problems, perhaps then we can consider whether tax hikes are necessary based on rational analysis, and not on the politics of fear. 

Russ Mitchell  

• 

NO CITIZEN INPUT ON B 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Dan Lindheim’s statements last Tuesday on Measure B are worthless. Not because Dan is not a nice guy. I’m sure he is. But he is only a private citizen. His claims about the School Board’s inner thoughts and intentions mean nothing. As we saw, no board member came forward to explain. Dan Lindheim’s comments are only spin. Campaign promises don’t count. The only thing that counts are the words of the Measure. In fact, in a lawsuit against the School district to enforce a promise Superintendent McLaughlin made about Measure BB, which we passed in 2000, the attorney for the school district specifically argued that only the words of the measure count. Even board policy is not reliable, because the board can, at any time, change that policy. So, it’s just the words of Measure B that count. And those words clearly say there will be no requirement of equal division of Measure B funds among the schools, there will be no elected school committees to decide how to spend each school’s money. There will be no elected district planning committee. In fact, there is no mention of citizen input of any kind. And the oversight committee is bogus. One appointed person satisfies the requirement. They could appoint the Superintendent’s cousin, and it would be legal. 

What Dan Lindheim and the Measure B folks have not explained, is why we should raise taxes so that the school district can take the more money for overhead than Measure B allocates for music, teacher training and parent outreach put together. 

Vote no on Measure B. 

Sally Reyes 

• 

CONTROVERSIAL AD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Several weeks ago I ran a full-page ad in the Planet reporting that 67,000 had already died in Iraq and used the word genocide (Daily Planet, Oct. 12-14). People have questioned me on both accounts. Here is my reply. 

The figure is derived from various web sites. The number 30,000 as of Oct. 1, 2004 came from www.english.aljazeera.net. Iraqi military deaths reported by Tommy Franks, the American General in charge, as of April 9, 2003 (when the Saddam statue was toppled) were 30,000. I added the two figures together. Soldiers are people. The number does not include dead Americans and foreigners who rightfully should be included.  

I have my own definition of genocide, of which I am very proud. Genocide is the taking of human life to attain some economic or political goal. 

Bennett Markel 

• 

MARIN AVENUE CONCERNS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

As a resident of Berkeley’s Northside and a Berkeley Council candidate, I am concerned about the reconfiguration of Marin Avenue as is currently being proposed by the cities of Albany and Berkeley. While the proposed reconfiguration may or may not be a good idea, I do not feel that there has been adequate time for interested Berkeley parties to consider this matter with the care it deserves. Therefore, the discussion period on this matter should be extended, a negative declaration as to project impacts should not be issued at this time, and any additional Berkeley and Albany commitment to this project should be suspended. 

As far as I can see from examining the Berkeley public records, this matter was referred to the Berkeley City Manager on July 23, 2002 for a status report on the supposed Albany plan. The City Manager reported back to Council on Sept. 24, 2002 stating that there would be no major impacts from this plan and that the matter not be forwarded to the normally appropriate review body, the City of Berkeley Transportation Commission. Further, parties of interest in Berkeley were stated very narrowly as Marin Avenue area residents, not the much larger north Berkeley populace that relies on Marin Avenue as a major arterial. The fact that the Berkeley Bicycle Plan includes reference to bike lanes on Marin Avenue is not especially relevant, since many portions of Berkeley’s general and specific plans were enacted with insufficient broad-based awareness of the implications. This item was submitted to the Berkeley City Council as an information report whereby no particular Council action was required except to simply accept it. 

Since the Sept. 24, 2002 report, there appears to have been no further communication to Berkeley residents or councilmembers about the Marin Avenue plan. Now, all of a sudden, we appear to be presented with an almost done deal. According to the City of Albany website description of the project, Albany has been working all along with the City of Berkeley’s Transportation Department to move this plan along, and the City of Berkeley is described as an active partner. I myself cannot see from the available record that the City of Berkeley has ever received appropriate authority to proceed in this manner nor has the Berkeley public ever been appropriately informed about this plan. 

I did discover, upon my own request for information, that an “off-agenda” report was sent to Berkeley City councilmembers on April 27, 2004. I asked for and received a copy of this previously unknown document. This document claims that the City of Berkeley formally endorsed the Albany plan on Sept. 24, 2002, a claim that really stretches the limits of credibility if one actually reads the Sept. 24, 2002 report. Further, “off-agenda” reports to Council are contrary to the spirit of sunshining public information and have been occurring with dismaying frequency over the last two years.  

I urge all concerned Berkeley and Albany residents, the Transportation Commission, the Berkeley City Council, the Solano Avenue Association, the Berkeley and Albany Chambers of Commerce, and all other stakeholders to reconsider the flawed process and properly place the Marin Avenue Reconfiguration before the public. Good decisions arise from a good process. We need to take several steps back, slow this process down significantly, and engage in the public discourse that we have come to expect and require in Berkeley on matters of substantial import.  

Barbara Gilbert,  

Berkeley Council Candidate, District 5 

• 

BUSD UNION 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

On behalf of Local 39 Members who work for the Berkeley Unified School District, I want to thank J. Douglas Allen-Taylor for his story on a difficult and complicated subject—the union’s contract impasse with the district (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25). We want to address a factual misstatement that the district keeps repeating regarding their “authority” to unilaterally deduct $50 a month from our members’ paychecks for healthcare cost increases that the district incurred in violation of our contract. Director Doran repeats this misstatement in Mr. Allen-Taylor’s article, although neither he nor any other board member have made any effort to find out what’s going on in negotiations. They simply accept whatever the superintendent has to say. The union’s contract does not agree to the $50 deduction and, in fact, requires the district to participate in a joint cost containment committee to purchase healthcare at affordable rates. This language was agreed to in July 2003 and approved finally by the board on Sept. 17, 2003. The district stonewalled and refused to participate in the joint cost-containment committee, which involves all BUSD unions, not just Local 39, until April 2004, long after the district had already unilaterally signed a contract for its 2004-05 health care coverage. Then, having refused to abide by its obligation to participate in the cost containment committee, the district announced that all employees would now have to pay $50 a month for its incompetence in purchasing affordable healthcare. School board members have not exercised their authority to oversee the actions of this administration and relations with district employees. Rather they are being spoon-fed what the superintendent wants them to know. Otherwise, they would realize there’s a lot of anger, unrest and dissatisfaction in the district. They would know that this superintendent refuses to work with the unions, in fact blames unions for the administration’s failure to address the academic achievement gap. The board would know that since Michele Lawrence came to town no union representing BUSD employees, teachers or classified workers, has been able to negotiate a contract without the intervention of a state mediator.  

Director Rivera may think he’s sitting on a “pro-union” board, but it hasn’t done anything to enforce that on an anti-union superintendent. No BUSD administration in the last several years has had as many unfair labor practice charges filed against it or put employees in the position of having to take a strike vote to (unsuccessfully) try to get this administration to bargain in good faith. But we think that’s the problem. This is a board that isn’t paying attention and has simply let a superintendent do what she wants, even when it’s contrary to the values and principles of this community. And, just a minor correction, there were some 60-65 Local 39 members in attendance at the board meeting.  

Stephanie Allan,  

Business Representative,  

Stationary Engineers, Local 39 

• 

PERALTA COLLEGE BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Peralta Community College District Board is made up of seven trustees, each representing different sections of our East Bay community and the colleges of Vista, Alameda, Merritt and Laney. Over the past few years many members of our board have proven themselves to be unworthy of our trust—extravagant foreign trips, sweetheart no-bid contracts, controversial hirings of chancellors and the repeated threat of selling off Laney College’s athletic fields. 

Now a majority of the PCCD board members are stepping down and we have the opportunity to elect their replacements. Our number one concern should be integrity, closely followed by honesty and commitment to the students, the staff and faculty who serve them, and to the rich vitality of our community colleges. 

The three candidates who are worthy of our trust and our votes are: Cy Gulassa (Area 6), Johnny Lorigo (Area 2), and Nicky Gonzalez (Area 4). These are people with lifetime commitments to education in our community. They have a combined 75 years of educational experience and service. 

This upcoming election will be historic. Together we can make a positive difference, both nationally and locally! Vote! 

Miriam Zamora-Kantor,  

former Vista and Laney student, 

current Laney instructor 

Oakland 

• 

VITAL LIBRARY FUNDING 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Like many folks, I just got around to reading my sample ballot and find myself astonished by the short-sightedness of some of those who automatically oppose any tax increase. I’m thinking particularly of Measure L to continue funding our libraries. It seems that some people want to not only put others at an economic disadvantage but promote ignorance as well. Can this be anything but self-centered and mean-spirited? 

Over 40 years ago I arrived in Berkeley as a graduate student. After finishing school, I became a Minister and have made Berkeley my home. One of the reasons I have lived here is the Berkeley Public Library. As a student in the late 1960s, I used the lovely North Branch as a quiet place to focus on my studies. Of course, I also checked out books to read in the spare time I had. Raising my sons in Berkeley in the 1970s, I took advantage of the wonderful children’s books and records and, of course, the storytimes at the Library. I also saw what Prop 13 did to libraries in Berkeley, and I feel that we are headed down a similar path today. The State of California is in an enormous budget crisis, one that may rival those crises of the Great Depression. Although we need to hold the State responsible for helping to fund our public libraries and other local services, we must also step up to the plate and keep our libraries from slipping into what they became right after Prop 13. I recommend that Berkeley voters go to the polls and be certain to seriously consider the plight of the libraries in Berkeley: please vote yes on Measures L and N on your ballots this election. 

Dr. Ron Parker 

• 

SUPPORT FOR MENARD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

We have lived in District 3 of south Berkeley for 17 years and have many wonderful neighbors. However, there have also been a few troublesome crack houses with their attendant problems of noise, prostitution, reckless driving and occasional gunfire. We have other public nuisances such as a high density of liquor stores, long-vacant properties, and excessive trash. 

When the open drug dealing on our streets increased a few years ago we began forming neighborhood groups where they hadn’t existed before. We invited our councilperson, but she never came or even acknowledged us. Over the years, we have never been able to interest her in our concerns; at least, there was never any response to letters, photographs of problems, or phone calls. When elections came around we looked for good candidates to oppose her, but the Democrat machinery loudly endorsed the status quo and intimidated thoughtful, grassroots opposition. 

Over the last few years of trying to address safety and nuisance issues on our streets we have become acquainted with several other neighborhood organizations in south Berkeley. Many serious, dedicated and energetic people here have been working with the city and the schools to improve conditions. We found Laura Menard to be in the forefront of much of the best work, so we were thrilled when she decided to run for our District 3 city council seat. We didn’t realize then that the fix was already in, that major endorsements were already locked into Laura’s opponent without having met Laura. It was revealing that some party endorsements even went to the incumbent, who is not on the ballot. Not one of these endorsers showed up at our neighborhood meetings, to ask us about our issues of concern, let alone who we might support to represent our neighborhood on city council. 

Laura’s campaign statements and literature list some of her past successes and current ideas for our youth, the city, and the neighborhood, but it seems that some minds are already closed. It’s interesting to see how many dominos fell into place before hearing our voice. Laura was not even invited to some of the endorsement forums. We didn’t know that this is how our city elections are working at the most basic level of our democratic representation. We wonder to what extent have we become voters by label or endorsement, looking to see what so-and-so says, instead of learning and thinking for ourselves. We didn’t expect that such a well-qualified, grassroots-supported candidate as ours would be shut out of parts of the process. 

Laura Menard is our excellent candidate, and if you’ve heard her you know how well-informed and straightforward she is. She has experience and enthusiasm, and is full of positive and realistic ideas to solve our real problems. Laura can be reached at 849-4319. 

Karen Klitz 

Ralph Adams 

• 

WHATEVER IT TAKES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I am a math teacher with many years of experience, having taught in six different states in very different communities. I am currently on leave in order to take care of our three small children. Our oldest child just started kindergarten this year at Malcolm X Elementary school. We are new to Berkeley, having the good fortune and generous family support to buy a house right near this school this past summer. The Berkeley schools have amazed me by the quality of the schooling they provide. The teachers are confident and professional, in part because they have the support and resources they need to do their job well. My son’s teacher is new to the profession, yet exhibits an understanding of children and relevant pedagogy that is beyond that of an average experienced teacher. The resources available have already had a profound impact on my son’s understanding of the world. 

Two months ago he could not write his name, and now he can spell out simple words. He draws patterns, uses simple numbers, can do simple tasks in the kitchen, and recognize plants in the garden. He loves to go to school because he says he learns so many interesting things there. In all my teaching experience I have seen only one school with a fully funded gardening class, no school with a comprehensive cooking class, only one old building that was completely modernized and safe, very few classrooms that had enough supplies, and almost no classroom that was racially integrated. My son’s classroom at Malcolm X has all of these. 

Our family is willing to pay whatever it takes to keep this quality of education. We urge you to vote for Measure B. We are proud to live in a community that recognizes the right of all children to learn. 

Masha Albrech 

• 

BOARD MEMBER’S PICKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a six year member of the Berkeley School Board I enthusiastically endorse Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose for the Berkeley School Board and urge the community to do so as well. 

We are entering a decisive period in the history of our school system. The next 18 months will see the school district orchestrate a comprehensive, community-wide planning process designed to shape the next half century of Berkeley public education.  

I believe Karen and Kalima will aggressively pursue policies and programs that will bring about the most rapid improvements in our schools for all our children. 

This endorsement was not a very easy decision on my part. A seated board member should always consider their interaction with other board members when looking to the future, and I have worked collaboratively with each of my colleagues on the board, at times.  

But more importantly, I have tried to also consider what is now necessary to move our district forward, what are the key inadequacies of our district, what students are most in need of help and who can I work best with to address these issues. And, I have always stressed that more of the same will just not do. 

Karen and Kalima, I have come to believe, will bring new, enthusiastic, visionary approaches to the real needs of our district. New eyes and new approaches are absolutely necessary right now to help all children be successful in our schools. Both women have a lifetime of community and professional experience that make them uniquely qualified to address our school district’s problems at this point in history. They are the right people at the right time for our city’s educational challenges. 

Karen and Kalima are supported by the very people who have had an inadequate voice in the decisions of this district for years, folks who I have tried to represent on the board and who are screaming for quality and equity in the policies and decisions this district makes.  

With Karen Hamphill and Kalima Rose sitting at the table our district will be in great hands and our children will be the beneficiaries. 

Please join with me and many others to make this happen by voting for Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose for School Board on Nov. 2. 

Terry Doran 

Berkeley School Board  

• 

TOWNLEY’S EXPERIENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

There is one important correction that needs to be made in regard to Matthew Artz’s otherwise fair and balanced report about the District 5 race (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25). Artz states, “Capitelli . . . if elected would be the only councilmember to have experience running a business.” Of course this is equally true of Jesse Townley. Jesse Townley was Executive Director of Easy Does It, a nonprofit service provider, and has been secretary of the board of 924 Gilman for 14 years. He also was a member of Uprising Bakery Collective, a for-profit cooperative. 

It is truly sad that only people who run personally-owned, for-profit organizations are given the credit for having balanced a budget, managed staff, marketed the organization, ensured a steady financial inflow—in short, for having experience running a business. 

Kenneth Mostern 

• 

GREEN PARTY ENDORSEMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Green Party of Alameda County endorses: John Selawsky for Berkeley School Board; Berkeley City Council—Darryl Moore in District 2, Max Anderson in District 3, and Jesse Townley in District 5; Berkeley Rent Board: Jesse Arrequin, Jack Harrison, Jason Overman, and Eleanor Walden. 

We endorse a ‘Yes’ vote for all Berkeley measures (B, and H through S); As for the State propositions, we endorse a ‘Yes’ vote for 1A, 59, 60, 63, 65, 66, and 72, and a ‘NO’ vote for 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, and 71. (We take no position on 60A and 70). 

For special districts, we endorse Harry Hartman, Johnny Lorigo, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, and Cy Gulassa for Peralta College Board; Chris Peeples and Christine Zook for AC Transit; and for BART, District 3, we endorse both Bob Franklin and Roy Nakadegawa. 

The Green Party endorses ‘Yes’ on measures AA and BB, and ‘NO’ on CC. 

For Albany City Council we endorse Brian Parker, Robert Lieber, and Farid Javandel, and for School Board, David Forbes and Bill Schaff. 

In Emeryville, we endorse ‘No’ on measures T and U. 

In Oakland we endorse ‘No’ on Y and ‘Yes’ on Z. 

The Green Party has published a 16-page voter guide with information and analysis for each endorsement. Our voter guide is available at Berkeley and downtown Oakland libraries, the Temescal Library in Oakland, in many cafes around town, on the porch of our office 24 hours/day at 2022 Blake St. in Berkeley, and on the Internet at: www.cagreens.org. 

Patricia Marsh 

Green Party of Alameda County 

County Councilor 

• 

GULASSA FOR PERALTA BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Cy Gulassa’s full-time career has been as a teacher at a community college. Cy’s experience and expertise is needed for the Peralta colleges—Laney, Alameda, Merritt and Vista. Cy’s knowledge is especially needed to oversee the building of the new Berkeley downtown campus of Vista Community College. The Peralta colleges serve 30,000 students every semester and the district budget is over $100,000,000 annually. Cy, through his service on faculty and statewide community college committees, knows about long-term planning and financial planning for community colleges.  

Cy is a long time resident of Oakland’s Rockridge District that has close ties to Berkeley. We hope that you will vote for Cy so we can see improvement in the administration of the community colleges and so that the students in our community can get an excellent education. For more information, go to www.cyforperalta.org 

Sally and George Williams 

• 

HEMPHILL AND ROSE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Today, many of us in Berkeley feel frustrated about our inability to affect the national election in November. We can, however, do something significant on election day to improve the community we live in. We can change the leadership of the school district and begin to close the gap between the educational experience we aspire to for our community and the current reality in our schools.  

School Board Director Terry Doran tells us that “we are entering a decisive period in the history of our school system. The next eighteen months will see the school district undertake a comprehensive, community-wide planning process designed to shape the next half century of Berkeley public education.”  

With so much at stake, we are witnessing a very challenging race for School Board. All the normal alliances in the city are split within their own ranks over who can best lead our school board. The one clear message, however, is from Congressperson Barbara Lee and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers who strongly support Hemphill and Rose. Two important community groups with influence in the African-American and Latino communities, Latinos Unidos and United In Action, also endorse Hemphill and Rose. 

One key issue of the campaign is the disparity in achievement, i.e., the urgent need to fully address educational failure among too many of our youth. And it is Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose who have raised the issue and forced the incumbents to address it during the campaign. 

All sides, of course, think they are addressing the achievement issue. George Bush thinks he is addressing it with his “no child left behind” initiative. We know different. The test is who among the candidates is in closest touch with the daily damage caused by incremental failure year by year, who can most honestly gage the rate of progress, and who is best equipped to lead a social justice oriented community like ours away from a contradiction which haunts us? 

We are happy to see that Karen Hemphill has garnered across the board support from almost every sector of the city. She is smart, analytical, compassionate and seasoned, making her a compelling choice. Further, the community recognizes a great need for African American representation on the board. 

Kalima Rose has made an astounding entry after a late start, a tribute to her history of community involvement and the need for failure relief. She is schooled in national policy, community engagement and budgetary issues. She has been a midwife for the small schools movement, long before it became popular to champion the initiative. 

Kalima Rose and Karen Hemphill represent the beginning of a new tide of change. They will reach out and engage parts of the community that have lost hope and confidence in the Berkeley schools. Hemphill and Rose have a track record for finding and bringing external resources to support innovative initiatives.  

Kalima and Karen will champion the success of all students through a well-planned, comprehensive strategy and program. They are committed to educational excellence with a perspective that is grounded in social justice, coalition building, consensus building, planning and action.  

Berkeley cannot continue to have a second rate reputation or a two tiered system—one for advantaged kids and one for under-served kids. That’s not who we are as a community. 

You can help make Berkeley first rate for all our children by voting for Hemphill and Rose. 

Santiago Casal 

On behalf of Latinos Unidos & United In Action 

• 

DISTRICT 3 RACE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Thanks sincerely for playing along with the negative campaign in South Berkeley. Careful readers will recognize as Karl Rove-ian the character attacks (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25) directed not so much at any weaknesses of newcomer candidate Laura Menard, but directed squarely at her strengths. Clearly Menard is unsettling the opposition despite being out-funded four-to-one (Daily Planet, Oct. 8-11).  

As a supporter, I have seen Menard received extremely well throughout District 3, particularly when she visits with residents and when she appears at multi-candidate forums. In person, she shows an in-depth appreciation of diverse and competing local interests. Her unabashed willingness to make difficult and necessary political decisions is a welcome offer to those of us who see District 3 as our community—we who vote, pay taxes, build friendships, families and compromises here. With the civic budget in straits, there is no time for newcomers to do their requisite listening to our elders, and there is no room for council candidates who cannot promise swift and targeted action upon taking office.  

Tragically, candidates Anderson, Benefiel, Menard and Shirek are being judged by their disposition toward a particular tangle of quality-of-life and quality-of-service issues left unaddressed by the current city leadership (Daily Planet, Oct. 15-18). It is a topic far too complex to be treated as a litmus test. In fact, a simplistic view promotes at least three illegitimate agendas: discrediting the current candidates, leaving entrenched the economic interests of outsiders and passing-through careerists, and assuaging the hesitations of some mostly white arrivistes.  

Letter-writers Sally Hindman and MarcGreenhut attribute to Menard’s efforts the fact that activities at the Drop-In Center have become an election year issue, and then dismiss these alleged efforts as political opportunism. The letters are also strikingly similar in their critique of Menard’s lack of political polish. What’s frightening is that Hindman takes up the dumbed-down litmus test view of homeless services, despite being uniquely prepared to contribute to an informed examination: her career in the homeless services industry includes accomplishments as a zealous advocate for a Southside service provider. Hindman further misleads by referring to her early, firm, and public support of candidate Anderson as having “not given a lot of thought to whom to support for District 3’s council seat.” Good grief!  

J.M. Tharp  

• 

WORKING WITH SELAWSKY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Selawsky is the school board candidate to vote for on Nov. 2. Here are a few reasons why: 

John initiated, among other things, the School Traffic Safety Committee. This committee has been working to improve traffic safety around Berkeley Schools since early 2002, when John asked members of Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation to work with him to implement a transportation policy. John has dedicated himself to making traveling around the schools safer, and this year, the goal is to decrease the number of cars driving students to school, by encouraging walking and bicycling to school. 

When you work with someone in this capacity, as I have, you get to know their style, their personality and their motivation. John has been accessible, easy to work with and integritous. When working with him, it is clear he works for the children. With John’s efforts, a joint city-school-district committee, now officially a Superintendent’s Committee, has made improvements through traffic engineering, education and enforcement.  

John has also supported the Child Nutrition Advisory Committee’s efforts to improve the food served to students in BUSD. Progress has also been noted in this arena as well. 

When John came to the school board, the district was in serious financial trouble due to utter mismanagement and lack of accountability of past district administrators and staff, stemming back at least 10 years. Under John’s watch as Board member, which started 4 years ago, the district hired a new Superintendent, new staff, and a new accountability has been established. And now, the district is out of debt. Quite a turn-around. 

John isn’t one to pat himself on the back, and he hasn’t launched an expensive campaign, so he needs those of us who know him to mount a mini-campaign for him.  

If you vote for school board, vote for John Selawsky. He’s a hard working, intelligent guy who deserves another term. 

Marcy Greenhut 

• 

DROP-IN NOT THE PROBLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I am a resident of District 3 in South Berkeley. I was also the co-founder and past Director of the Berkeley Drop-In Center. 

The smear campaign against the Berkeley Drop-in Center for political purposes is the epitome of “negative” campaigning. Laura Menard, a candidate for District 3 City Council, is whipping up fear and bigotry to booster a political campaign. It is easy to do, because the target are people who are generally stigmatized: poor people of color, with mental disabilities, many of whom are homeless and have substance abuse problems.  

The Berkeley Drop-In Center is based on the self-help/peer support model of services. The California Mental Health Planning Council Master Plan states that “the mental health system must promote the development and use of self-help, peer support and peer education for all target populations and their families. Self-help and peer support must be available in all areas of the State.”  

The center has existed since 1985, and, in fact, pioneered the self-help program model that has grown throughout the State and country (another instance of Berkeley at the forefront). 

Recently the center has merged with a larger non-profit agency, so as to build its management and administrative infrastructure. With this merger, the center’s services will also be able to expand, resulting in better services for the people of south Berkeley and more effective outreach to the center’s neighbors. 

The Berkeley Drop-In Center serves the people of South Berkeley. It does not bring trouble into the neighborhood; it provides assistance to the troubled people who live in our community. As reported by the Daily Planet, the police report no correlation between the crime in the area in which the center is located and clients of the center.  

The Berkeley Drop-In Center is a solution to our problems, not a cause.  

Throughout the spring/early summer when Berkeley was making hard decisions about its budget, there were many public hearings about Berkeley’s services, including discussions about funding for the Berkeley Drop-In Center. I was at several of them at the City Council. Laura Menard was at none of them, to my knowledge. Her lack of interest in the Berkeley Drop-In Center when its funding was being publicly debated underscores her current concern about the center as opportunistic and for political gain. 

We need a South Berkeley council person who will assist in improving services in the area, not shut them down. We need a South Berkeley council person who will bring us together to solve South Berkeley’s problems, to dialogue with each other, not divide the community by scapegoating one group of people for the community’s problems. Hate and fear can win elections but they don’t solve problems; they generate more problems. 

Sally Zinman 

Co-founder and former director of the Berkeley Drop-In Center 

• 

CAMPAIGN FINANCE FLAWS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Big business interests are trying to limit our voting choices with Prop. 62. They want to restrict our options to just two candidates for the November general election, even if those two candidates are both from the same political party. And that party doesn’t even have to be the party that receives the most votes in the primary election. 

Here’s an example of the madness they’re proposing. Suppose two Republicans run in the primary, and they receive 20 percent and 19 percent of the vote. Suppose four Democrats run, and they receive 18 percent, 17 percent, 15 percent, and 11 percent. Incredibly, under 62, only the two Republicans would advance to the general election, even though their combined total is just 39 percent, while the Democrats, who received 61 percent, would be completely shut out. 

Individual billionaires associated with the following companies paid at least $50,000 each for the qualifying signatures for Prop. 62: Broad & Kaufman, the Gap, Wesco Financial, Paramount Farms, and Berkshire Hathaway; Countrywide Home Loans paid $350,000. 

No other state, other than Louisiana, uses this voting scheme. Don’t let the billionaires fool you on this one. They’re trying to confine our November election choices to just two well-financed candidates who will serve their narrow pro big business interests. Vote No on Proposition 62. 

Joan Strasser 

• 

DEFENDING MENARD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I have to reply to Sally Hindman’s disingenuous letter attacking District 3 candidate Laura Menard (Daily Planet, Oct. 22-25). Hindman is afraid because Menard spent half an hour talking to her? We should all have such scary candidates! (There’s been no sign of Max Anderson on our block, and he never has so much as poked his head into our Russell-Oregon-California Street Neighborhood Association meetings.) Hindman also says she’s frightened about Menard’s opposition to the Berkeley Drop-In Center. The Daily Planet’s own reporting on the issue (Oct. 15-18) detailed numerous management woes at the facility, along with many complaints from merchants and neighbors. The only ones speaking in its favor were its clients and staff. Oh, by the way, Hindman forgot to mention that she’s in the business hereself—she runs her own homeless drop-in center up on Telegraph Avenue.  

I’ve lived in Berkeley for thirty years. During that time, I’ve always supported “progressive” candidates. Eight years ago, however, I moved to District 3. We might as well not have had a councilmember for all the support we got from the “progressive” Maudelle Shirek. This time, I’m supporting Laura Menard because she’s hard-working, thoughtful, and solution-oriented. We need someone fighting for our district for a change—someone who’s willing to abandon programs that aren’t working, and willing to try new approaches. I invite my neighbors to join me in voting for Laura Menard.  

Paul Rauber 

• 

WRITE-IN SHIREK 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I see that Rep. Barbara Lee has asked District 3 voters to write in the incumbent for City Council. I agree that we should honor Ms. Shirek’s legacy in Berkeley and national politics. However, since South Berkeley desperately needs more responsive representation in City Hall, I invite all Berkeley voters to join me in writing in Maudelle Shirek as your choice for 9th Congressional District representative. 

Robert Lauriston 

District 3 

• 

OLDS’ RECORD ON TREES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I have lived in Berkeley since 1969. I am a retired teacher. I donated three, three-feet tall Christmas trees to the Berkeley Marina Gardeners 20 years ago. They planted them—now they are 35 feet tall and beautiful.  

Do we value trees?  

Betty Olds may have once led Sierra Club hikes. But she voted to axe 100 mature trees at the Marina. She did not value those trees, hearing that the city got a grant for the wider trail and tree removal. 

Great! We got scarce regional Bay Trail funds before the trail even gets completed around the bay. We delay needed pedestrian and bike freeway crossings to ferry landings and regional parks and other Bay Trail projects while we spend the money on a ispuri trail widening that displaces a hundred trees. Berkeley only had to pay the grant writing staff. Is this what we want city staff for? 

Do we value a green backdrop on the south and west shore of our waterfront to provide a windbreak? Do we value the park quality trees lend to the Adventure Playground, the kiddy beach and picnic tables on the south shore so that the sailing area is not dominated by the asphalt of University Ave. and parking lots? The trees represent the community and ecological consciousness of Berkeley residents who donated living Christmas trees. Some are memorials for lost family or friends. Do we value these trees? 

Betty Olds had her picture in the paper by the creek in her yard. An environmentalist? The creek was choked in Algerian Ivy. 

Worst, Olds voted to allow Beth El to obliterate Cordonices Creek across the street from Live Oak Park. The tree canopy and the favorite local adventure playground at 1301 Oxford is now a graded channel. Olds didn’t even look at the grading and landscape plan before approval. She couldn’t because this applicant was not even required to complete them for the creek area. Neighborhood pleas were ignored because the project suited Betty Olds aid and appointee to the Planning Commission: Susan Wengraf owns adjoining property and is a member of Beth El. How many conflicts of interest is that? 

The Sierra Club fought this outrage to the most natural creek in Berkeley but their endorsement committee must have only heard of Betty’s old environmental activities.  

Enough Betty Olds. Elect Norine Smith. 

Suzanne Schneider 

• 

REFUGE AND ARTIFICE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Berkeley Marina is a refuge from city pressures and needs constant protection. Not everyone can afford to go to National Parks. We fortunately can come to the Marina to escape the usual visual bombardment of traffic, structures, signs, signals, controlled walkways, etc. The Marina’s natural environment, it’s trees, plantings, meandering paths, boating activities and stunning views provide restorative qualities. The Marina should not be degraded by installing urban distractions and visual pollution. 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Periodically, a well-intended group will propose placing some new man made artifact within the Marina as an enhancement. Whether these additions are well designed or not, they should not be allowed. Two such “gift” proposals described below are currently on the agenda. 

The Brower Memorial: 

Even the Berkeley Public Arts Commission has reservations about this sculpture. The supporters of “gifting” this to the city talk of Brower’s wish that this be set in Berkeley. They gloss over the fact that this was first offered to San Francisco, which wisely refused to accept it because it lacked sufficient merit. In other words, it had less aesthetic quality than the ridiculous Bow & Arrow sculpture San Francisco installed on the Embarcadero. We don’t need an even worse embarrassment we have to live with forever. 

This egomaniacal 20 foot high, 175-ton monstrosity with its infantile design is something its sponsors find they’re stuck with. They now want to give it to Berkeley as a “gift.” I doubt that our officials asked for it or had any input on its design and they should not accept it. The Marina is not a dumping ground. You want to memorialize Brower or any noteworthy individual? Name a street after him, name a school, fund a scholarship. Use your imagination, but please don’t clutter up our environment. 

The Labyrinth: 

Unlike the Brower Memorial, the proposed labyrinth with concentric circle patterns for meditative walking is aesthetically pleasing. But this too should be denied a site in the Marina for the same reason. Find another location in the city. People have adequate choices to meditate or simply enjoy escape from a structured environment, on paths of their own choosing in a natural setting without geometric layouts or guidelines. 

To Summarize: 

An administration that would allow the creeping urbanization of the Marina compromises the legacy we leave for our children. Make sure you remember the name of any politician who’d be involved in that. We must be responsible stewards of this waterfront oasis and keep it unencumbered by statues, memorials, labyrinths, mazes or other distractions. 

Don’t turn the Marina into Disneyland! 

Paul Canin 

The Berkeley Daily Planet accepts letters to the editor and commentary page submissions at opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com and at 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Please include name, address and phone number for contact purposes. Letters may be edited for space. S

Berkeley Police are investigating two shootings and a stabbing attack that took place this week, and are celebrating a raid on a South Berkeley drug house that netted cocaine, heroin, a 9 mm. semiautomatic pistol and three arrests. 

The first shooting, which took place Sunday night, resulted in wounds to a resident of the 1700 block of Carleton St. The seriously injured 56-year-old Berkeley man was rushed to the hospital in serious condition. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said investigating detectives are still declining to reveal the victim’s name. 

The stabbing took place about 7:35 p.m. Monday in the 2700 block of Sojourner Truth Way, said Officer Okies, who alleged that 28-year-old Berkeley resident LaPreda Thomas pulled a knife during an argument with a 24-year old woman. 

The assailant had fled before officers arrived but was discovered in a subsequent neighborhood search. 

Thomas was taken to City Jail and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The victim’s injuries were not life-threatening, Okies said. 

Two hours earlier, officers had been summoned to the intersection of Adeline and Fairview streets after another knife had been flashed during another altercation, this one between two women, one 24 and the other 47. No one was injured. 

Police arrested the younger woman on one count of brandishing a deadly weapon. 

Okies said police are receiving little cooperation from the victim of the week’s second shooting, who was struck by gunfire outside a residence at 1611 Harmon St. shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday. 

Responding to reports of gunshots, officers found the man inside the residence. 

“The victim didn’t offer any details to the investigating officer,” Okies said. 

The man’s injuries were not life-threatening, Okies said. 

That same day, members of the Berkeley Police Special Enforcement Unit raided a house at 1610 Oregon St., following a two-week investigation. 

The probe was launched after police conducting surveillance in the area arrested two suspects on the 14th for drugs sales and probation violations. 

During the search Wednesday, police confiscated the pistol, and an assortment of cocaine, heroin and packaging materials, along with three additional suspects. 

Berkeley Girls’ Coach Faces Sex Charge  

San Jose Police Thursday arrested Sean Christopher Dulan, an assistant women’s basketball coach at Berkeley’s St. Mary’s College High School, on charges of suspected sexual misconduct with a minor. 

An Oakland resident, Dulan has been also been coaching the East Bay Xplosion, a traveling team for girls 15 and younger, and the arrest stems from an incident involving a member of that team. 

Officer Okies said Berkeley police had learned of the arrest, and will extend full cooperation to San Jose police if requested. 

Nasty Pair Strongarms Pedestrian 

Two men in their late twenties accosted a woman in the 1200 block of Eighth Street shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday and grabbed her wallet and keys. 

No arrests have been made.›

A reader from a local newsgroup takes issue with the assertion in last week’s column that Chief Richard Word’s tenure as Oakland Police Chief was a failure. Chief Word recently announced that he is resigning from that position. 

“I feel you are being terribly unfair to Chief Word and this column is a really cheap shot!,” she writes. “Oakland would be a difficult place for any police chief. Chief Word has been pulled in a thousand directions by a thousand contending forces. He’s had to do battle with the [Oakland Police Officers Association] in order to get the Riders’ reforms in place…Please stop painting Rich Word the villain. You have the wrong enemy in your gunsights… 

“I think some of the blunders you lay at Chief Word’s doorstep might not necessarily be his. I think he had successes, and I think he had some failures. After the Port ‘blunder,’ Chief Word went directly to work trying to correct the situation by setting up a new crowd control policy. He admitted his department’s mistakes. And, we worked closely with community members including demonstrators and members of the community to institute new policies. As for the Riders fiasco, weren’t the officers involved fired by Chief Word?…[In addition] he brought down the murder rate this year. 

“…A lot of departmental corruption that existed when I first moved here is no more. There is far more accountability by officers in a community. We don’t hear complaints about officers on the take at our [Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council] meetings anymore. I think you have to judge the totality of his record and how far [the Oakland Police Department] has moved overall towards accountability. … 

“This does not mean that there are still not problems or work to be done. This is a recognition of what has been accomplished.”  

Respectfully, I disagree. I don’t think Mr. Word is a villain. I just don’t think he accomplished what he was supposed to do. 

Oakland can be an incredibly violent and frightening city. There are people in this town who are among the most vicious and cold-hearted on the planet, who will bust you in the head with a pipe or a bottle in order to get a few dollars cash out of your purse or wallet, or spray a street corner in midday with a 9-millimeter automatic—heedless of the children playing—in order to attempt to enact some revenge from some fellow gangster. There are people who will break out the window of your car with a brick to swipe the pocketbook or package carelessly left on the back seat, or hop your back fence to steal the tools out of your yard, or heist the window of your house when you are gone and rifle through your personal belongings. What they take from us is far more valuable than whatever material possessions they can gather up in their arms. They steal our freedom, our sense of security, our peace, and that is something no insurance claim can recover. Once taken, it is gone forever. On that, almost all of us can agree. 

Where we disagree is on who it is we should fear, and how we should attack that fear. 

Some people look at the rolling neighborhoods of the deep parts of East Oakland where I was born, and raised, and still live, and carry suspicion with them at every corner and down every broad boulevard. In the dark nights, down the narrow backstreets, they don’t even think about going. Unable to distinguish between the dark bodies they pass or see on nightly newscasts, unable to sift between the treacherous and the innocent, they hold some vague, indefinable fear of an unknown and unknowable “them,” and lock their minds and their doors against it all. 

But to many others, the violence and the fear has both a face and an identity. 

For years in my neighborhood, we were virtually terrorized by a single thief. We all knew who he was. During the long periods he was in jail you would grow careless about what you left in your car, or left unsecured in your yard. And then one morning would come and you’d walk out of the house and a neighbor would walk over and say, “They got me last night,” and you could almost make book on it that Charles (not his real name) was back on the street. And you’d have to be ultra-careful until you knew he was gone again. We did not fear each other. We feared Charles. 

The young people who party in the hip hop clubs, or the street-smart folks who hang on the corners, will tell you it’s the same thing about the violent ones. There are only a handful of them, actually, psychopaths who come out not for the fellowship but for the rush of trouble, people who rage inside, who think that the night has not been complete unless they’ve put somebody on their back, or seen the great gouts of blood pour out of a body and into the gutter of the street. 

The original sideshowers, after all, were young people who gathered with their friends in the city’s east side parking lots in order to avoid the violence in the clubs, the concerts, and the streets. 

Almost everybody in my neighborhood hates Oakland’s crime and violence and the awful sense of fear and insecurity that it drags in its wake. We know they individual perpetrators, even if we can’t always articulate the societal causes. And we would cooperate with the police, if the police would cooperate with us. 

But the police don’t view us as partners. 

Chief Word recognized the challenges, even if he could not meet them. In an interview with the Oakland Tribune on the criteria for how a new police chief-his successor-could be successful in Oakland, he says, “[They would] have to be creative and willing to work with other organizations, both public and private. [They would have to] win the support, trust and respect of the community and the officers and others in the department.” With respect to the trust of the community, certainly, that was not done. 

An undated report posted earlier this year by the Oakland Police Department on the website of the National Crime Prevention Council gives a clue as to why. In it, OPD announced that it was bringing down crime in Oakland in part by what it called “strategic community policing.” … “The city hired civilians,” the report explained, “to organize residents in crime prevention councils and neighborhood alert groups to help break down the walls that sometimes separate neighbors from each other and the police.” 

And that, perhaps, best states the problem. In my neighborhood, anyway, we don’t need to be organized. We just need to be recognized. Regardless of how much he may have accomplished and how decent a man he may be, Chief Word’s failure to bring his police officers to that simple understanding is why he failed.

For nearly a hundred years, Berkeley has struggled to maintain its storm system of inlets, culverts and pipes that carry rain and other surface waters to our creeks and into the San Francisco Bay. Historically, our city has always placed a very low priority on the general maintenance and the annual repairs of the storm system. However, in 1992, there was a serious legislative move to fix Berkeley’s beleaguered storm system when voters authorized a new stormwater property assessment.  

Now, more than a dozen years later, Berkeley’s half-inflated stormwater program has finally hit bottom. This crisis has raised questions of fund misrepresentation and program mismanagement.Voters deserve to be told the truth about Berkeley’s Clean Water tax dollars and why this mandated program has been allowed to go down the drain.  

Some voters may remember the stormwater initiative back in the early 1990s. The idea of a storm tax was sold to residents with the rhetoric of environmental protection, and moreover, with the provision that this tax would be a placed into a designated fund. In the beginning, the stormwater fund was never intended to fully support all our municipal stormwater activities or to completely pay for the system’s under-funded capital improvements. This fund was adopted to help support the city’s stormwater permit process with its newly mandated state and federal requirements.  

The stormwater property tax also funded Berkeley’s participation in the Alameda County stormwater support group, a consortium of East Bay cities that share consultants and work together to meet the legislative requirements of the Clean Water Act. They identified several existing municipal activities that are required by our federal stormwater permit, including street sweeping and storm drain cleaning. Although these costs had traditionally been paid out of the general fund, the City of Berkeley began to transfer all the costs for these pre-existing maintenance tasks to the stormwater fund.  

The stormwater property tax initiative was not meant to simply be financial relief for general fund activities. The long-term impact of this funding shift has struck a fatal blow to the development of the city’s stormwater program. Predictably, this fund is broke, which in turn is being used to justify no improvement in performance.  

The annual assessment of 1.9 million dollars for the storm fund has been used for some maintenance costs, but with almost no money allocated to capital improvements. Today, this practice continues to have undeniable consequences. Recent emergency repairs of the collapsed culvert downtown and past flooding problems have all been exacerbated by the lack of an active replacement program of the system’s aging components. The contamination of Blackberry Creek several months ago is a perfect example. Though the city was quick to claim victory in fixing the pipe break near the creek, the fact is that this “fix” represented nearly all of this year’s capital allotment for stormwater improvements.  

Much like the tale of the little Dutch boy plugging up the hole in the seawall, we are trying to shore up a rapidly deteriorating storm system with a convenience-store approach that has forced taxpayers into paying top dollar for these unscheduled repairs. Even more troubling, there now seems to be no escape from the growing number of emergency repairs or to head off the serious flooding likely to occur during the rainy seasons ahead.  

In the last dozen years, our local legislators have missed numerous opportunities to raise the stormwater tax through another ballot measure. Granted, culverts and storm drains are not very sexy issues, but in terms of budget outlay, the storm system’s infrastructure has always been a costly and critical expenditure. However, the last decade of city budgets shows inadequate funding in this area which has led to a backlog of necessary repairs that adds up to tens of millions of dollars.  

Lack of capital improvements is not the only problem to plaguing this program. Even street sweeping and storm basin cleaning are currently at the same level, or lower, than they were 12 years ago. When some stormwater consortium members began to increase permit activities, like Oakland did with its street sweeping, Berkeley chose to opt out.  

Public Works, which manages the city’s stormwater program, has had difficulty keeping up with our permit’s requirements. In fact, Berkeley’s permit should now be called into default over Public Works’ failure to implement inspection programs for both commercial businesses and restaurants.  

Unquestionably, city staff has provided disastrously poor direction for our stormwater program at the expense of both taxpayers and environmental protection. In private industry, the magnitude of this budgetary bungling would have caused heads to roll. Furthermore, this failure is shared with the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Control Board which, in each round of program review, has continued to exempt consortium members from Clean Water compliance. The board’s message to do what is “practical” has stifled the development of our county’s stormwater program and continues to prop up Berkeley’s Clean Water scam.  

L.A. Wood is a Berkeley resident. ›

Why is Measure B so important? 

Schools are not receiving adequate funding. Despite No Child Left Behind rhetoric, both Washington and Sacramento are leaving our children behind. 

The state budget crisis, coupled with rapidly escalating costs, forced the Berkeley school district (BUSD), and other districts throughout the state, to make devastating cuts to their school budgets.  

The BUSD has responded in a fiscally prudent way. Substantial cuts have been made and the budget is balanced. However, fiscal prudence came at substantial cost: class sizes increased dramatically, school libraries are grossly understaffed, and the music program is barely hanging on. 

To help reverse the worst budget cuts, the School Board put Measure B on the November ballot. Measure B would raise $8.3 million for each of the next two years. Funds can only be used for: reducing class sizes (68 percent); staffing school libraries (16 percent) and school music programs (7 percent); and for supplementing teacher training, program evaluation, and parent outreach (9 percent).  

Why a two-year measure?  

Measure B is a short-term, stop-gap to minimize the damage to Berkeley school kids until Berkeley’s BSEP is up for reauthorization in 2006. Measure B provides supplemental funding to many key BSEP programs, while leaving BSEP completely intact. Allegations in letters to the Daily Planet that Measure B would eliminate the elected school site committees and the Planning and Oversight Committee are erroneous and misinformed. Like BSEP, Measure B funds would be subject to citizen-based oversight by the BSEP Planning and Oversight Committee.  

Why a property-based tax?  

The short answer is that virtually every sensible and equitable way to raise revenues is prohibited by the state. Essentially, the only tools available to school districts are parcel taxes either as in Oakland (where every parcel, regardless of size, pays the same fixed amount) or the per square footage taxes (where larger houses are taxed more than smaller ones) as in Berkeley. Proposition 13 prohibits additional taxes based on the value of the property. 

Why should Berkeley residents pay? 

Under the current system for financing public education, almost all dollars available to a school district come from the state. When the state doesn’t provide adequate funding, only two options are available: (1) accept inadequate education for our kids; or (2) raise funds locally. Option 1 is unacceptable. For that reason Measure B is necessary and why our community must act to support Berkeley’s schools.  

Rare unanimity of support by all Berkeley factions 

Rarely has a local ballot measure received such broad-based support. Measure B is endorsed by all sides in Berkeley: Mayor Bates and former Mayor Dean; the Berkeley Democratic Club (BDC) and Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA); the entire City Council, the entire School Board, and all serious candidates for both Council and School Board.  

In addition, Measure B is supported by Barbara Lee, Don Perata, Loni Hancock, Keith Carson, all Democratic Party clubs and organizations, the League of Women Voters, the Chamber of Commerce, the Green Party, organized labor, and hundreds of individuals and groups throughout the Berkeley community. 

Despite this unanimity of strong support, Measure B needs two-thirds of the vote to pass. It is crucial that Berkeley voters support Berkeley’s kids. 

For further information, please check our website at www.YesOnB.net. Vote Yes on Measure B. 

Nancy Riddle and Dan Lindheimare are co-chairs of Berkeley Citizens for Quality Schools, a committee for Measure B. 

f

Against a blue-green expanse of tiled stage and backdrop, a young couple, swimming goggles pushed back, dallies at the beach. He’s always thinking about—or hearing—music. She’s talking about the books she’s read, and can’t get the rhythm right when he asks her, “Will you remember my melody underwater?” 

She asks when he’ll play her the whole song; when he gets his orchestra, he says: “I’m going to make every strand of your hair an instrument. Your hair will be my orchestra.” He slips a string around her finger. “That’s a very particular finger,” she says, knowing he’s omitted the proposal, “Maybe you could get me another ring.” 

They go down to sport in the water. Mannerisms, language, fashion are all young and contemporary. This is Orpheus—and Eurydice. 

Sarah Ruhl’s retelling of perhaps the most retold tale of classical mythology is onstage at Berkeley Rep. The play recounts the tale of Orpheus the poet, whose singing moves trees and stones, as he follows his dead wife to the underworld and frees her, only to lose her again by looking back at her before regaining the light of day. 

The program notes run through a litany of the better-known retellings: Ovid (and there’s David Slavitt’s translation of Book X of The Metamorphoses excerpted, also mentionin g Arthur Golding’s Tudorian version that Shakespeare read), Rilke (and not just the Sonnets to Orpheus)—and in theater, Anouilh, Cocteau’s play (and two films), Tennessee Williams, the movie (and wonderful sambas) of Black Orpheus, operas and orchestral m usic by Monteverdi, Gluck, Haydn, Berlioz, Offenbach, Stravinski, Kurt Weill, and countless paintings. 

(Funny, with all the footnotes, there’s barely a hint of Virgil’s IV Georgic, the most fantastic—almost stagy—literary version. Ruhl—who meditated on the famous backward glance—says there are “a few mentions in Virgil.” Poet George Stanley’s version: “Forgetful he,/turns to his Eurydice,/and she sees him and the Day./Crash! crash! crash! the words/break. The words of Hell break./‘Who has doomed me, and you, Orpheus?/Who hates so much?’”)  

Does Eurydice answer questions such as, “Who hates so much?” Ruhl expressed her desire to go into the lovers’ relationship (a theme of Cocteau’s versions—how do you live day-to-day with an artist?), Eurydice’s point of view, her relationship with her father (dead, he writes her letters that paper the tile wall—and are used as bait to snare the unwary young woman), the denizens of the underworld (vaguely symbolic of the living), the role of poetry, of music. 

(Some of Ruhl’s on-the-side research is intriguing, especially her re-reading of Alice in Wonderland—a little girl lost underground, in a dream—which, only touched on in her play, could’ve proven to be a key to open a new perspective.) 

Peopled with strange appar itions in both upper and underworlds—a somewhat bumbling stalker who finds Eurydice “interesting” (when she’s being ignored by Orpheus, oblivious to all but his music), a puerile King of the Underworld on his tricycle, a waxen-faced chorus of “stones” (pa rtly inspired by Beckett, “his understanding of silence, stillness and vaudeville all at once”), Eurydice’s dead father (who she doesn’t recognize, taking him to be a porter in Hell)—there should be ample ground for characterization to flesh out a fable o f Eurydice’s situation in life and death. 

And the cast—Maria Dizzia, Daniell Talbott, Charles Shaw Robinson, Mark Zeisler, T. Edward Webster, Ramiz Monsef and Aimee Guillot—all put out a lot to bring it alive. But the text is stretched too thin, its poet ry becomes cloying. 

Director Les Waters has done his job, too: the most impressive moment comes when, beneath crystal chandeliers, Eurydice arrives in the Underworld; elevator doors open and rain pours down on her standing inside with suitcase and transp arent umbrella, the water eddying out onto the tile stage. 

(It’s apparently a chronic problem with the bigger repertory theaters. Although much care and budget went into Scott Bradley’s beautifully elaborate set, well-lit by Russell H. Champa, the text i s still in need of development. It’s true of work billed as “avant-garde” too—the very high production values of Black Rider, the recent hit touring show at ACT dressed up a text that barely sampled William Burroughs’ verbal brilliance, much less explori ng the story.) 

The Orpheus myth that Eurydice promises to illuminate has been remounted, revised—rehashed—many times, quite a few with genius. Ruhl’s play touches on some interesting sidelights, but doesn’t take them very far. And as for its heroine’s po int of view, the couple’s relationship put into contemporary terms, other versions of the past (notably Cocteau’s film, with its social overtones of the Occupation) have dealt better with these themes (and others she leaves mostly untouched, already found in Ovid and Virgil: a kind of triangle between the artist, love and society). 

Few have seemed as immediate as Robert Browning’s poem “Orpheus and Eurydice,” which focuses on that moment of the glance: “Hold me but safe again within the bond/Of one immor tal look! Oh woe that was, /Forgotten, and all terror that may be,/Defied,—no past is mine, no future: look at me!” 

FRIDAY, OCT. 29 

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 

Albany High School Theater Ensemble, “Pirandello’s Absolutely! (Perhaps)” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Nov. 7 at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd. Tickets are $5-$10 at the door. 558-2500, ext. 2579. 

“Aya de León is Running for President” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St. at 27th St., Oakland. Tickets are $10. 273-2473. www.ayadeleon.com 

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., and selected Sun., through Nov. 20. Tickets are $10-$15. 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

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 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Native American Jewelers, Marian Denipah (Tewa) and Steve LaRance (Hopi) Reception at 6:30 p.m. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs through Dec. 31. 528-9038. 

FILM 

Behind the Seen: Walter Murch on Feature Film Editing at 9:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Da Shout at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Voices: Lesbian Choral Ensemble & East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Sponsored by the Berkeley Arts Festival. Cost is $10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

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

UC Choral Ensembles at 6 and 8 p.m. in 155 Dwinelle, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$8. 642-3880. http://tickets.berkeley.edu  

Distant Oaks, traditional Gaelic and Celtic music at 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Tickets are $12-$15.  

Mandrake, Paul Panamarenko at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Cost is $5. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Evander Music October Festival The Lost Trio plays Monk, John Schott’s Typical Orchestra, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Proceeds benefit the relocation of The Jazz House. www.thejazz 

house.com 

The People, Orixa at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Baguette Quartette at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Psychokenetics, Baby Jaymes at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Lemon Lime Lights, Demented Big Band, Militant Children’s Hour at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

“13 Dreams of a Dying Clairvoyant” dance, music and video presentation by Double Vision at 9 p.m. at The Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $6-$10 at the door. www.oaklandmetro.org  

Mandrake Three with Paul Panamarenko at 8 p.m. at the 1923 Teahouse. Donation of $5-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

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

Danny Caron, Ruth Davies and Pamela Rose at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Matt Bauer & Sonya Greta at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

school.com 

Vinyl at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

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

Halloween Show with The Tad Poles, Unit Breed, The Abi Yo Yos 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. 30 

CHILDREN  

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

FILM 

Fiercely Primitive; Guy Maddin “The Naked Jungle” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dan Plonse’s Daniel Popsicle big band with John Schott, Randy Porter, John Shiurba, Tom Yoder, Sarah Willner, Scott Rosenberg, and Mark Culbertson among others at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2324 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Musica Pacifica performs rarely heard baroque concertos and chamber works, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

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

Traditional and Medieval Music of Scandinavia, performed by Erik Ask-Upmark and Anna Rynemors with Tim Rayborn and Shira Kammen at 7:30 p.m. at Parish Hall, St. Alban’s Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $12-$15.  

“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. 

Harvest of Song with music by Bay Area composers at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. 

Halloween Cajun Dance with Aux Cajunals and guest Keith Terry at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Danny Santos & The Savoys at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

O-Maya at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

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

Kenny White at 8 p.m. at the 1923 Teahouse. Tickets are $5-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Wake the Dead at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Flametal, a mixture of flamenco and metal, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$17. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Fred, Thriving Ivory, Falling Stars at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Plays Monk at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Evander Music October Festival Alex Candelaria Trio and Wind Trio of Alphaville at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Proceeds benefit the relocation of The Jazz House. www.thejazz- 

house.com 

The Squirrelly String Band, The Stairwell Sisters at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Mundell Lowe & Friends at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Research and Development at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 31 

FILM 

Fiercely Primitive: Guy Maddin “Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Grouping” paintings by Collective 9. Reception from 4 to 7 p.m. at Nexus Gallery, 2707 Eighth St. Exhibition runs to Nov. 6. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. 415-454-2823. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

California Revels Autumn Showcase featuring storyteller and musician Kevin Carr, at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $5-$10. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Harvest of Song with music by Bay Area composers at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. 

Meeting House Strings performs Beethoven, Taneiev at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine Street. Fundraiser for Friends Committee on Legislation. Tickets $5. 

Americana Unplugged: the Saddle Cats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Susan Muscarella Trio at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Farewell Party Fundraiser for the Jazz House with a selection of short solo piano sets by Matthew Goodheart at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Proceeds benefit the relocation of the Jazz House. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Phil Ochs Night, celebrating an American songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Blakes Unplugged at 6 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 1 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Series with Debra Grace Khattab and Vince Storti at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Poetry Express, featuring Nina Corwin from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

MUSIC 

St. Mark’s Choir “Requiem” by Gabriel Faure at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Donations accepted. 854-0888. www.stmarksberkeley.org 

Dave Eshleman’s Jazz Garden Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, NOV. 2 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Scenes from the East Bay Regional Parks” paintings by George Ferrell, opens at the Environmental Educational Center, Tilden Park, and runs through Dec. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zabava! Izvorno and Orkestra Sali at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Lise Leipman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Peter Barshay and Andre Bush at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Mindi Abair, contemporary jazz, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Wed. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Painting in Everyday Life in Traditional Japan” opens at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life: “Half-Lies and Other Works” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Ecumenical Religious Art: The Reign of Akbar in Mughal India” with Joanna Williams, UCB Professor, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom at the GTU, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2440. 

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

Tad Williams introduces his new fantasy novel, “Shadowmarch” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, chamber music, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Improvisations in the French Baroque Style on the harpsichord at 12:15 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Karashay featuring Chirgilchin, Stepehn Kent & Sarymai, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bunny, Hazy, Swirl, and Tim Reynolds at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 4 

CHILDREN 

Tales for Dia de los Muertos with storyteller Olga Loya at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley West Branch Library. 981-6270. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

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

FILM 

Ximena Cuevas and the Laboratory of Life: “Beyond the Poseidon Adventure” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems Reading Series with Frank Paino at 12:10 p.m. at the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. 642-0137. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Truong Tran reads his poetry at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

Pratep Chatterjee investigates the role of corporations in “Iraq, Inc.” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com  

Eric Hansen tells stories of his travels in “The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer: Close Encounters with Strangers” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Khaled Hosseini reads from “The Kite Runner” set in contemporary Afghanistan at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Prose and Poetry by St. Mary’s College students at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with Lynn Ruth Miller and Vince Sorti, followed by an open mic at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bolshoi Ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Vukani Mawethu Choir and Friends, including E.W. Wainwright’s African Roots of Jazz at Kimball’s East, 6005 Shellmound, Emeryville. Tickets are $10. 444-5009. 

Matrix 213: Some Forgotten Place Sound performance by Loren Chasse at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Neglected Voices: Music of a Lost Generation” with Fern Glass-Boyd, cello and Lorraine Glass-Harris, violin, at 1:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 126.  

Faun Fables, 2 Foot Yard, Big City Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Terri Hendrix, Texas original, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Billy Brouchard, Mandrake, Paul Panamarenko at 9 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5.  

Gary Rowe, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bud Shank Quartet with Phil Woods at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

After 22 years of weathering the elements at the Berkeley Marina Mall, Calliope, a sculpture by Berkeley artist Joseph Slusky has received a facelift. The 11-foot steel sculpture recently got a new paint job and had its dent repaired thanks to the money from the city’s Public Arts Program.  

With salt air continuously blowing over the sculpture, much of the paint had begun to chip away at the piece’s bright pastel colors. Made from recycled steel, the sculpture is a combination of geometric shapes mean to represent a “fossilization of the imagination,” according to the artist. 

The piece was originally commissioned by the city’s Parks Department. It took two years to build and was unveiled in May of 1982.  

Slusky, a Berkeley resident, is a well-known artist whose work has been displayed throughout California. He also designed and built Helios, a steel piece that sits in a plaza on the Bayer Corporation compound in Berkeley. 

Slusky has taught art in the Bay Area for years and is currently a lecturer in the Architecture Department at UC Berkeley.ô

FRIDAY, OCT. 29 

Free Compost for Berkeley Residents from 8:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave., next to Adventure Playground. 644-6566.  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Jane Micallef, City of Berkeley Housing Dept. on “The Homeless.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Haiti After the Coup: Repression and Resistance” with Kevin Pina, Port-au-Prince journalist, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar. Donation $5-$15 for the Haiti Information Project. 

Bats Eat Bugs Just in time for Halloween, join us to dispel myths and hear the truth about the wonderful world of bats, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Fright Night A haunted house, Halloween parade, costume and scream contest and goodies bags for youth age 4 to 12, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the MLK Jr. Youth Services Center, 1730 Oregon St. Cost for the haunted house is $3. 981-6670. 

Halloween Haunt from 5 to 9 p.m. at The Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. Haunted House, Kindergym, swim in the bat cave and win prizes at the carnival. Tickets are $3-$6.  

Chamber of Horrors Costume Party from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Royal Cafe, 811 San Pablo Ave., Albany. Cost is $7-$10. Sponsored by the Albany Chamber of Commerce. 525-1771. www.albanychamber.org  

Montclair Village Halloween Parade for children to 12 years old and their parents. Meet at 3:30 p.m. in front of the steps of Montclair Park. 

“The Yoga of Sound” a weekend mantra chanting conference with Russill Paul at Naropa University, 2141 Broadway. To register call 925-935-1022. 

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. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” meets weekly to sing for fun and practice, mostly 16th century harmony. At 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center 655-8863, 843-7610. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 30 

Kids Garden Club Carve a pumpkin harvested from our garden from noon to 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 7-12. Cost is $3-$5, registration required. 525-2233. 

Explore Haunted Caves from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Crafts and refreshments at the end of the darkness. For ages 3 and up. Cost is $3-$5. 525-2233. 

Costume Making Crowns and Wands at the East By Depot for Creative Re-use at the Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK Jr. Way from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

A Harvest for Peace Songs and activities for the whole family, celebrating peace, the gifts of the earth and our ancestors. At 10:30 a.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Please bring a fruit or vegetable of the season to place on a special harvest alter. Food will be donated to a local soup kitchen. Also, pictures or rememberances of your grandparents, favorite animals, or those you consider ancestors. 525-7082. 

Halloween Bazaar with face painting, children’s games, rummage sale, food, crafts and more from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The New School of Berkeley, 1606 Bonita St. 548-9165. 

Women Shoot for Cancer Pool playing clinics, mini-tournaments and skill building games from noon to 4 p.m. at The Broken Rack in the Emeryville Pubic Market. Cost is $15 and all proceeds benefit the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic. 652-9808. 

Festival of the Bones with Luisah Teish from 7 to 9 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Donations accepted in multiples of nine. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster First Aid from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

fire/oes.html 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. and the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Green Design for Everyday People Covering cleaners, paints, furninshings and energy efficient systems and products at 10 a.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

Backpack Safety Evaluations for school-age children at 9:30 a.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, 828 San Pablo Ave., Albany. 526-1559. 

“Enabling Technology for the Aging Population: From the Lab to the Home” A day-long conference sponsored by the Center for Research and Education on the Aging at Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. Free, but registration requested. 643-5049. http://crea.berkeley.edu 

Plants with Prominant Fall Blooms at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.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. 31 

Colors of the Day We’ll look for black and orange in nature and learn about the role of warning colors in the lives of animals. From 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

It’s Halloween We’ll talk about the cultural history and significance of All-Hallow’s Eve as we walk on the Jewel Lake Trail. Meet at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Halloween Costume Parade on College Ave. Rockridge. Meet at the Rockridge BART at 11 a.m. Pre-teens, pets, parents & guardians come show off your costumes. Costume contests at 1 p.m. 428-2100. 

“Celebrating Ram Dass” A session on his teachings at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302.  

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

MONDAY, NOV.1 

“Bums’ Paradise,” award-winning documentary on the former encampment on the Albany Bulb, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. All are welcome to this meeting of Friends of Five Creeks. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

“New Directions for the United Nations” with Carlos Magariños, director-general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization at 4 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Room, Haas School of Business, UC Campus. 642-0342. 

Dia de los Muertos Make banners and listen to bilingual stories from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

“South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China” with Seth Faison, former Shanghai Bureau Chief of the New York Times, at 5 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2233 Fulton St., 6th Flr. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

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. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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

TUESDAY, NOV. 2 

REMEMBER TO VOTE TODAY 

To Find Your Polling Place see www.mypollingplace.com 

To Report Voting Problems or Irregularities call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (The Electronic Frontier Foundation). 

Election Night Watch at La Peña Cultural Center, starting at 5:30 p.m. until ? at 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Children Cast Your Vote from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with miniature voting booths, play ballots, and red, white, and blue art projects at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org  

Mid-Day Meander in Tilden Park from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. With luck we may find migratory newts. Meet at the Little Train parking lot at Lomas Cantadas and Grizzly Peak Blvd. 525-2233. 

Tilden 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. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss the election from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690. 

“Involving Local Communities in Marine Conservation in Tanzania” at 4 p.m. in 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa 

Hallway Sale Popular garage-type sale benefiting the Coffee Bar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

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

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 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. This is a project of Spiral Gardens. 843-1307. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. at Milvia. For information call Robert Flammia 524-3765. 

40th Anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act Celebration at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Sponsored by the Wilderness Committee of the Sierra Club. 415-561-3474. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, for ages 4-6 years accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Anti-War March and Rally Meet at 5 p.m. at Powell and Market, San Francisco for an evening march to 24th and Mission. Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Sponsored by Not in Our Name. 601-8000 bayarea.notinourname.net  

“Exodus, Black Colonization, and Promised Lands” with David Brion Davis, Pulitzer prize winner, at 4:10 p.m. in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 

“Last of the Dogmen” and “Smoke Signals” Two films presented by the Intertribal Friendship House at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. 452-1235. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday, rain or shine, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

Fun with Acting Class every Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome, no experience necessary. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 4. 

Morning Bird Walk “Some Gulls I Know” Meet at the Berkeley Municipal Pier at 7:30 a.m. 525-2233. 

Tilden Explorers An after school nature adventure for 5-7 year olds who may be accompanied by an adult. No younger siblings please. We’ll learn about birds, bird brains and bird migration. From 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Seniors in the Peace Corps Volunteers discuss their experiences in Fiji, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Post-Election Benefit for the Center for Popular Education at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. 

Berkeley Farmer’s Market with all organic produce at Shattuck at Rose, from 3 to 7 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

FRIDAY, NOV. 5 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our fine feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

November is We Give Thanks Month! Join participating restaurants in supporting the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. For a list of participating restaurants please visit www.bfhp.org  

Literacy & Beyond Celebrates Dia do los Muertos Family Literacy Night with altar making, and storyteller Olga Loya, at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. 665-3271. 

“News from Native California” with Frank LaPena, Laura Cunningham, L. Frank, Julian Lang/Xatimniim, and Malcolm Margolin, founder and publisher of Heyday Books at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 549-3564, ext. 307. 

First Fridays Film Series “Hidden in Plain Sight” on the School of the Americas, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 482-1062. 

Womansong Circle Community singing with Betsy Rose. Potluck snacks at 6:45 p.m., singing at 7:15 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 525-7082. 

Asian Business Association Charity Fashion Show at 7 p.m. a the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $10-$12. Proceeds benefit A Safe Place domestic violence shelter in Oakland.  

Literary Friends meets at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. We will discuss Ayn Randh. 232-1351. 

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. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” meets to sing 16th century harmony for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863, 843-7610. 

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

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

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

CITY MEETINGS 

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

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

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

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5347. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

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

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

That uncanny silence you hear all over Berkeley is the sound of more than a hundred thousand people simultaneously holding their breath until the election is over. This paper will be on the stand for three days, and it’s a pretty fair bet that most Berkeleyans won’t be able to exhale until the next issue comes out, if then. The good thing about this election is that it’s got people talking to one another who have managed to disagree about a lot of the important issues for the last 30 years, give or take a few. Whoever wins the presidency, there’s sure to be a post-election honeymoon during which born-again Democrats will continue to talk to one another about what’s best for the country—it’s just that different tactical responses will be required depending on who wins the presidency. Not even very different, really, because the Republicans are likely to retain control of Congress in any event. 

Here are three issues which won’t go away no matter who wins: 

(1) Health care. The current crisis over flu vaccine points up exactly how dangerous our chaotic market-driven health care system is. There’s a fantasy in the air that the U.S. health care system is the best in the world, and that consumers are free to choose their own personal physician and their excellent private insurance policies will take care of the bills. Ha! Not here in northern California, for sure, and probably not in, say, North Dakota, either. If you need flu vaccine, your “private physician” most likely has a voice mail message these days saying, in effect, “tough.” If you get sick any time except Monday-Friday from 9-5 you have to take your chances with the rapidly eroding emergency room system, run by the “non-profit” regional hospital monopoly for maximum profit. If you do go into a hospital, your “private physician” probably won’t bother to stop by to visit you. Your in-hospital care will be supervised by a changing cast of characters which might or might not include a “hospitalist” (a physician who only works hospitals, whom you’ve never met before and will never see again) or a “traveling nurse” (a non-union floater who may or may not speak your language, know your name or read your case file.) And don’t think that just because you have the “best” insurance you can get the “best” medical care. Even the university hospitals these days are nightmares—a friend had relatively straightforward brain surgery at one of them recently, and the surgeon operated on the wrong area by mistake, causing crippling injuries. The hospital pretended, for as long as it could get away with it, that there was no problem. Thanks to a member of the world’s most unfairly maligned profession, trial lawyers, at least she’s gotten enough compensation from the hospital to pay for her future care, but the Republicans promise to change that.  

(2) Education. Both Democrats and Republicans bought into the dubious premise of “No Child Left Behind” that testing on basic skills was closely connected to ensuring equal education for all. Education means a lot more than learning to pass reading and arithmetic drills on cue. If schools which serve poor students are penalized for their students’ failure to catch up on a fixed time schedule which has no basis in scientifically observed reality, the injustice is compounded. Neither presidential candidate has demonstrated any particular understanding of what real education is, or how to extend the benefits of the American system to kids whose families are, for whatever reason, unable to do enough to help them succeed.  

(3) War and peace. Both candidates were fools enough to think that there was some good reason to invade Iraq. Kerry still doesn’t seem to know how he got suckered. Why didn’t either of them figure out what just about everyone in Berkeley, including the DLC-symps in our midst, knew from the beginning, that the invasion was a stupid idea doomed to fail? How will either one of them manage to get out? How will they avoid doing it again? 

You might just as well start breathing normally right away, under the circumstances. You’re going to need to be in training for the continued struggle, no matter who wins. 

—Becky O’Malley 

In the long ago distant days before the war on Vietnam, older people referred to what they called “the standard liberal position.” This included support for civil rights and a general belief that it was the responsibility of the government, especially the federal government, to make sure that all citizens had a job with a decent wage and a respectable retirement, and were protected by regulations from some of the standard abuses of corporate capitalists like drug companies. The “standard liberal position” concept was mightily fractured by support for the war, by Democrats, labor unions and others, which lasted much too long. “Liberal” became a pejorative term for some on the left, who favored, variously and from time to time, “radical” or “progressive” to describe their own politics. The Old Left used the term “politically correct” to describe positions they espoused, but this term was translated by their irreverent offspring into a form of mockery of their parents’ doctrinaire beliefs. Meanwhile, Rightists, sarcasm-challenged, started attacking the concept of political correctness without realizing that it had already turned into a put-down in Left circles. Are you still with me? 

The point here is that many people, herd animals that they are, are always looking for someone or something to follow. They want branding for their political opinions. The San Francisco Bay Guardian for 30 years has supplied a reasonably reliable brand—my 90-year-old mother, not their target demographic, has often used their endorsements. I do remember being in the Guardian news room when someone shouted over the noise “anyone here know anyone in Marin?” as a way of finding someone for the paper to support, but on the average they’ve gotten a lot right. Still, that’s why the Daily Planet is not officially endorsing in this election. 

A reader, Michael Katz, has just informed us that there’s another place to look for advice. He writes: 

“If you’re still as baffled by ballot propositions as the Planet’s editorial page was on Oct. 26, check out the local/regional recommendations posted by the new ‘League of Pissed Off Voters’ (kid you not) at: www.indyvoter.org/voterguide.php?area=5.  

“This is a Michael Moore-inspired, democratic experiment in which anyone is free to create and post their own grassroots ‘slate card.’ Some of what you’ll find here reflects particular candidates’ supporters, or small-party or personal preferences. But it’s certainly richer, and more honest, information than you’ll get on the fake slate cards invading your mailbox from fake ‘COPS’ in L.A. 

“And if you don’t like what you see, you can post your own slate card. Or click the ‘About Us: Who Are We?’ links to read background information and a blog and stuff.” 

I took a quick look, and I must say the first Berkeley slate I clicked on didn’t quite make it for me. For example, the writer called far-out District 6 candidate Norine Smith (endorsed by the Bay Guardian) a “reactionary,” which certainly doesn’t capture her particular style of in-your-face independent thinking. Nevertheless, the page is good reading. But is it really a great idea to let some unknown stranger tell you how to vote? Probably not, but it might be a good second choice for those who haven’t done their homework and don’t have a copy of the Guardian handy. And of course, if you seriously want to catch up, you can read the letters and news articles in back issues of the Planet at berkeleydailyplanet.com, or at the library. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve at least provided the opportunity for intelligent proponents of candidates and measures to do their best to convince you. The last batch of election correspondence is in this issue, so you have one more shot at getting informed. And by the way, Peace and Freedom Senate candidate Marsha Feinland, a Berkeley resident, dropped by the Planet office to tell us she’s the anti-capital-punishment candidate some have been looking for as an alternative to Barbara Boxer. Check her out. 

—Becky O’Malley