Three days after the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved construction of the Ed Roberts Campus in South Berkeley, the project has been challenged by a state agency, questioning its fit in a historic area. 

Overriding the pleas of residents worried about parking problems and the intrusion of “airport terminal” architecture in their South Berkeley neighborhood, Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board Monday approved construction of the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC). 

The new facility, named for a noted Berkeley disability rights activist, will house a consortium of organizations serving the needs of the disabled in a modernist two-story building at 3075 Adeline St. 

But California state Historic Preservation Officer Milford Wayne Donaldson sent a pointed letter to Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks, criticizing the city for failing to respond to a letter he sent 13 months ago challenging the project. 

While the city determined that the project would have no impact on historical resources in the area, the state Office of Historic Preservation “did not concur with the city’s determination, and raised a number of issues and questions,” Donaldson wrote in a Nov. 17 letter. 

“We are concerned about the length of time that has passed since we provided the city with our comments. We are also concerned by the questions raised by the public regarding the city’s planning and environmental review efforts,” he wrote. 

“What is the status of the project? When may we receive a response from the city to our letter of Oct. 21, 2003?” 

Approval by the state agency is critical for the project if they are to receive federal funds, which center officials have said are integral to their plans. 

Jan Garrett, president of the ERC board of directors and executive director of the Center for Independent Living, an affiliated organization, said late Thursday that she was not aware of the letter. 

“I’ll probably be finding out more about it tomorrow,” she said after a reporter read her the document. 

Garrett said ERC had commissioned a study by architectural experts which concluded that the new building wouldn’t conflict with the neighborhood. 

“”We are willing to meet with anyone to resolve the issue,” she said. 

Provided the building wins state approval, she anticipates groundbreaking would take place in late 2006 and completion would follow within two years.  

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

The new structure would replace the Ashby BART Station facility on the eastern side of Adeline with an 80,000-square-foot building a lot bounded by Tremont and Adeline streets on the east and west and Essex and Woolsey streets on the north and south. 

Unlike earlier ZAB meetings, where Ed Roberts supporters packed the meeting rooms, wearing badges dispensed by the organization’s hired PR specialist, the presence at Monday’s ZAB meeting was much more subdued.  

The larger turnout came from neighbors who objected not to the presence of the center in their community, but to its appearance and anticipated parking problems. 

Neighbors said the design failed to fit in with a community dominated by turn of the century and early 20th century homes and commercial buildings—a concern the state agency had also raised. 

“No one’s saying the building shouldn’t be welcoming and open, but there are better designs,” said Erica Cleary, a Prince Street resident who lives less than a block from the site. As Cleary spoke, other neighbors held aloft photos of other buildings in the neighborhood as a contrast. 

“We have a wonderful diversity of designs in our neighborhood. The one thing we don’t have is anything that resembles this design. It doesn’t fit in,” said Adam Cash. 

“My biggest objection is the airline terminal look of the front of the building,” said Toby Holt. “We need a compromise to make it look less modern. Take a look down Adeline and see if there are any other airline terminals.” 

Victoria Ortiz, who lives nearby on Shattuck Avenue, begged ZAB members not to adopt the mitigated negative declaration that would exempt the project from a full-scale Environmental Impact Report. 

“It has too many problems, especially parking,” she said. “The Planning Department has to take into account how many cars are going to be coming into our neighborhood and taking our parking spots.” 

The handicapped plates and placards used by many of the center’s clients and employees are exempt from the two-hour limits in the residential preferred parking zones in the area. 

When it came time for a vote, only ZAB members Dean Metzger and Andy Katz vote against the mitigated negative declaration, with David Blake abstaining, with the other five votes deciding for approval. The vote was 6-2-1. 

Blake also abstained on the vote to approve a use permit for the project, while the rest of the board voted for approval. 

Construction is sometime in the indefinite future, but center officials have said they need the approvals to qualify for additional funds to build the project. 

The project has been strongly endorsed by Mayor Tom Bates, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and others. 

The board also voted to approve an on-site beer and wine license for the planned Adagia Restaurant in Westminster House, a residential hall sponsored by the Presbyterian Church at the corner of College Avenue and Bancroft Way. 

Police and Berkeley Planning Commissioners had approved the sale of low-proof drinks with the stipulation that sales must cease at 10 p.m. and no alcohol may be taken off the premises. 

The restaurant is scheduled to open something next year.

A nationally renowned expert on statistical research and a team of graduate students at UC Berkeley yesterday sounded another alarm bell about the Nov. 2 elections, releasing a study suggesting that irregularities in electronic voting machines in Florida may have awarded hundreds of thousands of “excess” votes to George W. Bush. 

The report, published by the Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team, said Bush picked up 130,000 to 260,000 votes the group’s statistical analysis can’t explain from three heavily Democratic south Florida counties that used touchscreen voting equipment this year.  

The probability of such a discrepancy arising by chance is less than one in a thousand, according to Michael Hout, professor of sociology at the campus, member of the National Academy of Science, and leader of the research team. 

Bush carried Florida by a margin of 380,978 votes over the Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Had the state’s 27 electoral votes gone to Kerry, he would have an Electoral College edge of 279 to 259 for Bush. 

“Our aim is not to attack the 2004 election results per se,” Hout said at a press conference announcing the study. “We’re not a political action committee, not a lobby—we’re just a bunch of researchers who happen to have something we think is important.” 

“Our approach is like a smoke alarm—we’re calling on Florida officials to determine if there’s a fire,” he added. “For the sake of all future elections involving electronic voting, someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomalies in Florida.” 

Ever since the polls closed, the Internet has been abuzz with reports casting doubt on the integrity of the reported vote totals, largely by pointing out what the critics say are discrepancies in some areas between those results and exit polls or party-registration data. The Berkeley team took a different approach, focusing on the increase in support for Bush in each county between 2000 and 2004. 

In addition to results from the last three presidential elections, they collected data for each of Florida’s 67 counties on other variables that might have influenced the results, such as changes in turnout, median income, and Hispanic/Latino population—as well as the voting technology used. Then they performed a multiple-regression analysis, a statistical technique widely used in the social and physical sciences to measure the effects of different variables on quantitative outcomes. 

Following statistical patterns in the counties that didn’t use e-voting, support for President Bush should have decreased by 28,000 in Broward County, for example, but the machines tallied an increase of 51,000 votes—a net gain of 81,000 for Bush, in the study’s terms. 

“No matter how many factors and variables we took into consideration, the significant correlation in the votes for President Bush and electronic voting cannot be explained,” Hout said. 

The group performed a similar analysis on Ohio’s results, but found no anomalies there. 

The 130,000 figure, according to the study (available at http://ucdata.berkeley.edu, under the “Voting” heading), is the total of unexplained votes for Bush in the 15 Florida counties with e-voting. If it’s assumed that these votes should have been counted for Kerry, the net effect doubles to 260,000. 

The discrepancy was most pronounced in three large and heavily Democratic counties—Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade. In fact, Hout said at yesterday’s press conference, “the size of the discrepancy was proportional to the level of support for Al Gore” in 2000. 

Explaining how the apparent anomalies occurred is “beyond our powers,” Hout said, but in answer to questions at the press conference he mentioned several possibilities: “embedded software glitches,” “passive electro-mechanical problems,” or even “an accumulation of smudges on one area of the touchscreens causing misreads.” 

In addition to Hout, the study was written by three first-year graduate students in sociology at UC Berkeley: Laura Mangels, Jennifer Carlson, and Rachel Best. 

“Jennifer and I were hanging out in a café after the election, feeling really frustrated because all these rumors were flying and no one was presenting any really hard evidence,” said Mangels, 24. “We said, ‘Wouldn’t it be good for someone to test the results using solid statistical methods.’ So on the Saturday night after the election we went over to the computer lab and began entering data.” 

When the results began to emerge, the student took them to Hout—not only because he’s “one of the leading statistical sociologists in the U.S.,” Mangels said, but also because “he’s known as one of the most skeptical people in the department.” Later the findings were reviewed by half a dozen other Berkeley professors, as well as others at Harvard and other universities, according to Mangels. 

“We’ve been back to the lab dozens of times” as the professors suggested additional variables and tests, she said, but “at this point no one can come up with anything else to poke any holes” in their analysis. 

But one elections expert, who asked not to be named because she hadn’t had a chance to read the Berkeley report, said she can think of one factor that’s been left out of most discussion of the Florida vote: the effect of the three major hurricanes that hit Florida this fall, the presidential visits that followed, and voters’ calculations about possible benefits to the state from having the brother of its governor leading the federal government. 

Ted Selker, a former IBM Fellow who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MIT director of the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project, said he was unimpressed with the Berkeley paper. Noting that it includes no references and that the authors had not observed the Florida balloting first-hand, he said “I just find this paper neither interesting nor believably accurate.” 

Kim Alexander, founder and president of the California Voter Foundation, said “It’s unfortunate that we can’t verify the results in those three counties, because they used equipment that produces no paper trail that can be checked. As long as we have a significant proportion of votes that can’t be verified, we’re just left to speculate.” 

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As negotiations continue between two state agencies over the cleanup and supervision of Richmond’s heavily polluted Campus Bay, new questions have arisen about an adjoining UC Berkeley-owned site. 

The Daily Planet has learned UC Berkeley officials rejected a 1995 proposal from the state’s strictest toxics regulator to join in a voluntary cleanup of the Richmond Field Station, then turned for a deal to the weaker regulator—the same one now in the process of surrendering its lead role at Campus Bay. 

In doing so, UC officials rejected the oversight of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), an agency staffed with scientific experts and an agenda that includes heavy public involvement in cleanup formulation plans, and signed on with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB), an agency that offers little chance for public participation and minimal expertise. 

Meanwhile, the planned transfer of the adjacent Campus Bay property from the water board to the stronger and stricter DTSC is taking longer than expected while lawyers from both agencies negotiate a handover agreement. 

While UC’s Richmond Field Station and Campus Bay are separately owned, both sites were part of the former Stouffer Metals complex, and the Richmond Field Station also housed a blasting cap factory, which produced mercury contamination. 

According to DTSC records, Hazardous Substances Scientist Remedios V. Sunga sent a letter to Kevin J. Hufferd, senior planner for UC Berkeley’s Physical and Environmental Planning office, on Oct. 20, 1995, inviting the school to sign on with the agency’s Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP). 

“[B]ased on my evaluation of the DTSC files, removal actions should be conducted to eliminate possible exposure pathways at this site for the protection of public health and the environment,” Sunga wrote. “DTSC provides guidance and oversight of the site investigations and cleanup activities through our (VCP) which is a cooperative effort between DTSC and interested parties.” 

Three days later, DTSC testing disclosed high levels of mercury, arsenic and lead in Field Station soil samples and very high levels of arsenic in sediments from the portion of Stege Marsh adjoining the site. 

The university did not respond to the cleanup offer, said Angela Blanchette, DTSC spokesperson. 

Hufferd said he forward the letter to UC Environmental Health and Safety specialist Karl Hans, who was unavailable for comment Thursday. 

Under current California law, anyone who owns a polluted site chooses the regulator which will set remediation standards and oversee the site cleanup. 

Developers can opt either for the water board, which has minimal scientific staffing—not even a toxicologist for the last two years—and little opportunity to public input, or the much stricter DTSC, which has several toxicologists on staff as well as a broad array of other scientific expertise and mandatory requirements to involve the public in all stages of cleanup operations, from planning on through completion. 

In subsequent water board-supervised cleanup operations, contaminated soil from the field station was trucked next door to Campus Bay, a privately owned site then earmarked for the building of a biotech research park. 

At least 350,000 cubic yards of polluted soil and industrial waste, most iron pyrite cinders, was buried beneath a crushed paper and concrete cap at Campus Bay. 

Two biotech buildings were erected at the site, but after the biotech market tanked in the post-9/11 recession, the developer announced new plans calling for the construction of a 1,330-unit housing project. 

The Campus Bay site had been under the regulatory control of the water board until a Nov. 6 legislative hearing exposed serious flaws in the system. 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-East Bay) and Select Committee on Environmental Justice Chair Cindy Montanez (D-San Fernando Valley) heard testimony that the RWQCB had no toxicologist on its staff and was not required to take public input in creating toxic waste cleanup plans. 

Initially, California Environmental Protection Agency officials said they anticipated the handover of the upland portion of the Campus Bay site would occur by the end of last week, but legal negotiations were still underway this week. 

Meanwhile, the water board allowed excavation of the marsh to resume Wednesday, after they had been halted Nov. 8, the day EPA External Affairs Rick Brausch met with officials of both agencies to force an agreement on the handover. 

“I’m in shock,” said Sherry Padgett, a leading member of Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development, the citizen’s group which led the public and legal fight for a change in administration at the site. 

The cleanup, conducted by LFR Levine Fricke, an Emeryville firm once headed by James D. Levine, the would-be developer further north in Richmond at Point Molate, includes monitoring for eight metals and two volatile organic compounds. 

Marsh samples tested in 1997-98 revealed the presence of 125 separate potentially hazardous compounds, including 19 metals and 40 or more volatile organic compounds, Padgett said. 

In addition, the records of hazardous wastes underneath the cap include only those from the Campus Bay site, and not those from UC material later buried at the same location, she said. 

“It’s a new nightmare under that cap, and at no point have they tested for everything that’s there,” she said. 

To make a temporary home for the 25,000 yards of marsh muck now being excavated, the cleanup firm uncapped a portion of the buried waste and built a barrier out of the waste to contain the new muck. 

“We have no idea what’s coming our way,” Padgett said. “The exposure standards for each toxin are based on exposure to that substance alone, and not in combination with other materials. There’s no information that tells us about the possible effects of combined exposures.” 

Health risks are more than an abstract concern to Padgett who has worked long hours at the offices of Kray Cabling just to the south of Campus Bay. She has developed two rare forms of cancer and undergone multiple surgeries. Her physicians have told her she had no genetic predispositions to the ailments and said they were probably caused by environmental exposures. 

She’s also worried that under present testing standards, dust samples are only tested for the windiest day of each week. “That’s based on the assumption that all the dust is the same. It doesn’t account for pockets of concentration, which were clearly evident from the earlier tests,” she said. 

The results aren’t available until two-and-half weeks after the samples were collected. 

DTSC officials are meeting with Padgett and other concerned citizens at 10 a.m. Friday (Nov. 19) in the Kray Cabling offices at 1344 S. 49th St., which can be reached by turning west at the Interstate 580 Bayview Avenue exit, then turning west at the first stop sign (Seaport Avenue) followed by a right turn at 49th Street. 

The meeting is open to the public. 

Hancock and Montanez are working on new legislation, which they plan to introduce in January, which would clarify the role of the regional water boards and DTSC in toxic cleanup operations, said Michael Mendez, a consultant to the Select Committee on Environmental Justice. 

“We’re researching for the legislature and we will be working with stakeholders” in formulating proposed laws, he said.?

Foes of the nine-story high-rise apartment—or is it condo?—and theater complex planned for Center Street filed a last-minute appeal to the City Council Wednesday afternoon seeking to block the project. 

Berkeley Senior Planner Greg Powell, who has handled the project for the city, declined to comment on the appeal Thursday. “We just got it at 4 p.m. yesterday and we haven’t had time to review it.” 

He said planning staff would prepare a response for the City Council, which would take up the hearing in January. 

“There are a number of points raised and we’ll have to see how they relate to the actions taken by the Zoning Adjustments Board,” Powell said. ZAB issued the final approvals for the project on Oct. 14.  

The Seagate Building will be the tallest new downtown structure in decades, though it’s three stories shorter than the hotel UC Berkeley wants to build just one block to the east.  

Former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein submitted the document to Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmembers on behalf of herself and the other members of Citizens for Downtown Berkeley, a new citizens’ action group. 

Bronstein said eight members worked on the appeal. 

City officials allowed the project developer to add four floors above the maximum five allowed in the Downtown Plan because they ruled that the developer, Seagate Properties of Marin County, qualified under two sets of bonuses, one statewide and the other unique to Berkeley. 

The inclusionary bonus awards extra size for residential buildings that include units reserved for low-income tenants, and the city awards additional size for structures that include space dedicated for cultural uses. 

The Seagate project qualified for both, with the cultural space dedicated to the Berkeley Repertory Theater and a hallway art gallery. 

Bronstein’s appeal challenges the Zoning Adjustments Board’s issuance of a demolition permit for the four existing buildings on the site—2041-2067 Center St.—as well as its mitigated negative declaration and use permit for a project the group contends requires a full Environmental Impact Report. 

The ZAB approvals authorized the leveling of four existing buildings, construction of a 181,151-square-foot tower opposite the new Vista College site with 149 apartments; 5,765-square-feet of ground floor retail; 12,067 feet of cultural space, and 160 underground parking spaces in two levels. 

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

The opponents also laid out 12 objections, each of which they contend would be grounds for a reversal: 

• That city calculations which permitted the construction of the additional four floors were wrong, because they included ground floor space. 

• That the project violates the Downtown Plan and city zoning ordinances by counting the cultural bonus space as part of the building’s basic height before the inclusionary bonus was added on. The appeal cites a table in the zoning ordinance (23E.68.070) which establishes the base height without the inclusion of either bonus. 

• That the approval citation that the project was “consistent with the Downtown Plan” is erroneous and that the findings included no basis for violating the downtown limit of five stories. 

• That the project violates no fewer than 21 city General Plan policies. 

• That the project misuses the General Plan, especially by ignoring Downtown Development Standards and height limits. 

• That the project was approved without the requisite permits for cultural and arts uses. 

• That the interpretation and application of density bonus are flawed. 

• That included parking spaces are far higher than required by the zoning ordinance and would result in increased automobile traffic in the downtown. 

• That the location and attributes of the inclusionary housing units violate city standard. 

• That the city failed to include in their requirements provisions for maintaining affordability should the developer turn the units into condos. 

• That the project violates the aesthetic and historic context of the area, and 

• That the project disregards the city’s creek and watershed policies.

Faced with the possible loss of their all-important accreditation, the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley is confronting the possibility of a one-day walkout early next month by virtually all of its employees. 

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) presented the hospital with a stinging critique of the hospital after a team of investigators examined the hospital earlier this month. 

The JCAHO findings come at a bad time for the hospital, which faces an impending strike by members of Local 250 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents most hospital and medical center employees except registered nurses (RNs) and physicians. 

SEIU employees in Sutter’s other 11 Northern California hospitals have either voted or are scheduled to hold votes for a one-day walkout early next month. 

Members of the California Nurses Association, which represents registered nurses, voted Wednesday and Thursday on a walkout in support of SEIU’s job action at five Sutter hospitals including Alta Bates in Berkeley and Summit Medical Center in Oakland. Results are expected today (Friday.) 

“We’re very concerned about Sutter’s continual foot-dragging on safety standards and their lack of compliance with the minimum staffing levels set by the state,” said CNA spokesperson Charles Idelson. 

Alta Bates spokesperson Carolyn Kemp denied the allegations. “How could we possibly not be in compliance with state staffing standards? We’ve met or exceeded whatever staffing ratios the state requires.” 

The walkout would involve 2,700 RNs at Sutter hospitals in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro and Vallejo in addition to the 4000 SEIU members. 

SEIU members are seeking two key concessions from Sutter. First is a voice in setting staffing levels, and second is the establishment of a training fund so workers can upgrade their skills and advance in their jobs.  

“Every other hospital chain in Northern California has accepted these standards, including Kaiser and Catholic Healthcare West,” said a union spokesperson. 

“The employees do have a voice in staffing,” said Kemp. “They participate in the committee that sets staffing levels, and there’s a provision for arbitration by a third party in case of disputes.” 

Kemp said the only dispute about training funds involved who would control them. 

“Maintaining a pool of people with the skills to work in the modern healthcare environment is very important to us,” she said. “We currently have in place a tuition reimbursement fund of up to $1,200 per employee, but the SEIU wants us to put our money in their pot, which could go anywhere they choose. We want out money to go to our own people in our own community.” 

In response to a strike, Alta Bates “would take whatever steps are necessary to maintain continuity of quality care for our patients,” Kemp said. 

“We may have to bring in replacement staff for as many as five days, though any staff member who works the first day can work as many days as they like,” she said. 

The initial accreditation report won’t be ready for another 10 to 14 days, and when it’s issued the hospital will have 10 to 14 days to reply. 

“We’ll be able to provide additional information we know will be very helpful,” Kemp said. “Everyone should hang their hat on the final report. We’re not going to lose our accreditation.”  

JCAHO is a private, industry-funded organization whose seal of approval is a prerequisite for receiving Medicare and MediCal funding, a major source of capital for most of the nations hospitals and HMOs. 

Kemp said none of the issues involve patient care. 

However, a Nov. 8 memorandum to hospital staff from Alta Bates President and CEO Warren Kirk warned that “The surveyors indicated that, unless we can successfully clarify and refute some recommendations, we could be at risk to receive a preliminary denial of accreditation.” 

The memo acknowledged failures in the patient care documentation process.  

The public has no access to JCAHO reports other than the final document, which offers no specifics other than numerical scores. Final reports are issued after organizations have reviewed the initial reports and implemented or challenged the findings and remedies in the initial report. 

Earlier drafts, which cite in detail the specific problems encountered by the inspection team, are never made public and—because the agency is private—they are immune from either the federal Freedom of Information Act or the California Public Records Act. 

The final report notes only the broad areas where failures were found and contains revised scores based on the institution’s ability to correct problems found. 

“It’s virtually impossible to flunk,” said CNA spokesperson Charles Idelson. 

The union official said Alta Bates had kicked four of their members out of the meeting to review the preliminary report. All four were quality care liaison RNs, he said. 

“What are Alta Bates and Summit hiding?” Idelson asked. “Though the hospital says there weren’t any patient care violations, we believe there were, and the public deserves to know what was in that report.” 

Problems with patient documentation were discovered three years ago when an Oct. 26, 2001 JCAHO review issued the lowest possible passing score, a “5,” for availability of patient-specific information. The rating were raised to the highest “1” score on May 8, 2002, following a compliance review. 

A July 22, 2003, survey of the Alta Bates laboratory resulted in an The hospital received another “5” for accreditation participation requirements, which was raised to a “1” on Dec. 16 of the same year. The same survey resulted in a “3” rating (”acceptable compliance, least deficient”) for general quality control systems, raised to a “1” on March 8 of this year. 

The full JCAHO commission will take up the initial report and the hospital’s responses after the hospital responds, which Kemp says will be in time for the scheduled Jan. 27 session.

Residents who live just south of the UC Berkeley campus said Monday that a plan which incorporates new land use guidelines for their neighborhoods included too many concessions to UC Berkeley, and that the initial study of the planned environmental revie w ignored earthquake risks and failed to identify historic buildings. 

Their comments came at a public meeting on the Southside Plan, which the Planning Commission unanimously approved last July after six years of debate. The meeting, referred to as a scoping session, is required under California law before the plan undergoes a lengthy and expensive environmental review process that is estimated to cost the city $329,000. 

City planning staff and LSA Associates, the city’s consultant on the environmental study, conducted the meeting. 

The plan, which must be approved by the City Council, will set guidelines for development, traffic and transportation in a roughly 30-block area south of campus. The area is currently home to about 12,500 residents, more tha n half of whom are UC Berkeley students. The planning district runs from Bancroft Way on the north and Dwight Way on the south between Fulton and Prospect streets. 

After the Planning Commission agreed to changes sought by UC officials last year, the city had hoped that the university would adhere to the plan and chip in for the draft environmental impact report (DEIR), but the university has declined on both counts.  

UC Berkeley, as a state entity, is not required to follow the plan, but has pledged to use it as a guide. 

In response, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district includes the affected area, proposed that the city study a prior version of the Southside Plan that didn’t include concessions made to the university.  

“That was the people’s Southside Plan,” Worthington said. “The public deserves that to be a legal option for the city.” 

After studying that previous proposal, the city could legally then chose to adopt it instead of the plan approved by the Planning Commission. 

At the unive rsity’s urging, the Planning Commission last July agreed to redesignate three residential lots owned by the university for a mix of housing or administrative uses. 

UC Berkeley has chipped in for the costs of developing the plan as required under a “memor andum of understanding,” which both sides agreed to when residents opposed the university’s expansion of the Haas Pavilion, where the UC Berkeley basketball teams play. The agreement, signed in 1997, does not require the university to abide by the plan or pay for the DEIR. 

The DEIR must study the proposed Southside Plan, as well as three alternatives chosen by the city and an alternative that would preserve the current land use rules. Currently, LSA, which will draft the DEIR, has not outlined the altern ative proposals to be studied. That was one of several concerns presented at the scoping session by John English, a retired planner and South Berkeley resident. 

“For people like me who want to influence the process, it is really important to have an idea of what they plan to study,” he said. 

The Draft Southside Plan calls for more intensive office and housing development along Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way and reducing the size of new development on nearby residential streets. It also supports the i dea of a bus rapid transit system serving Telegraph Avenue. 

English called on the consultants to “fine-tune” the proposed zoning requirements so a new state law that takes effect next year granting developers additional density if they include affordable housing units in their projects doesn’t increase the intended size of new buildings. Additionally, he asked that the consultants study the historic significance of buildings in the area that have not yet been landmarked. 

Many of the residents in attenda nce said the plan, as proposed, would be a disaster in an earthquake. 

“An earthquake is a major life and death issue,” said Jurgen Aust, a certified planner. “This is the densest area in the city, not to plan for earthquakes would be negligence.” 

Reside nts also raised concerns that the city wouldn’t enforce new development codes and that the parts of the plan, like its call for attracting more families to the area but not providing additional parking spaces, were contradictory.  

The DEIR must address t he concerns raised at the meeting. Residents will get a second opportunity to comment on the issue at a Planning Commission meeting scheduled for Nov. 29. The deadline for the city to receive written comments is Dec. 6. City Planner Janet Homrighausen anticipated that a DEIR could be completed by the spring. 

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Student Brutally Beaten, Reward Offered 

Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the two men who beat and kicked a 23-year-old student unconscious early Saturday morning. 

Thomas Osseck III, a senior in UC Berkeley’s American Studies program was attacked as he was walking near the Euclid Avenue and Virginia Street at about 3:30 a.m., reports Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Osseck’s family in Orange County and fellow students are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the assailants, said David Friedberg, who is acting as the family’s spokesperson. 

The young man was beaten so badly he didn’t recover consciousness until Wednesday. “He’s awake and seems to recognize people, but he’s still unable to communicate,” Friedberg said. 

Because the robbers emptied his pockets, police were unable to identify the beating victim until he mumbled his name Monday morning. 

“He’s an incredibly nice guy,” said his friend. “He was beaten so badly that the police said they might’ve killed him except for the presence of a witness.” 

Police said the two attackers were African American males, one heavyset and approximately six feet tall who was wearing dark pants and a white jacket with a hood, the other with a medium build approximately 5’9” tall and wearing a dark hooded jacket and dark pants. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742 or e-mail police@berkeley.ci.us. Callers can remain anonymous if they chose.  

Terrified Woman Flags Down Help 

Berkeley police arrested a 36-year-old man after a woman passenger in his car flagged down officers on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue near Allston Way. 

When the woman told police she’d been threatened and held in the car following a dispute that began in the Berkeley Marina, officers arrested her partner on charges of domestic violence, false imprisonment and making terrorist threats.  

Pair Popped for Heist 

Berkeley police arrested two 22-year-old men Sunday for the strongarm cash robbery of a 22-year-old woman near the corner of Allston Way and 9th Street just before 8 p.m. Sunday. 

Backpack Boosters Busted 

An alert Berkeley resident spotted a pair of teenagers strong-arming a backpack away from a young woman in the 1900 block of Grant Street at 7:47 p.m. Wednesday. 

Officers arrived in time to nab the two youths, recover the backpack and escort the robbers to new quarters in Juvenile Hall. 

Elderly Woman Returned Home  

A Korean-speaking woman police found lost and confused in Berkeley Monday was returned home Tuesday after callers responding to press reports alerted her family in San Francisco. 

Identifying the woman was complicated by the fact she carried no identification and spoke only her native language, said Officer Okies.

Flames Damage Home 

Responding to a 9:40 a.m. call reporting smoke pouring out the rear window of a home at 1310 Ordway St. Thursday, Berkeley firefighters arrived to find the dwelling ablaze. 

After knocking down flames that heavily damaged two rooms of the structure, investigators determined that the fire was accidental, caused by a space heater. 

No one was home at the time of the fire, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

Damage was estimated at $70,000, he said.

An item originally placed on the non-controversial consent calendar became the biggest topic of discussion at this week’s Berkeley Unified School District board meeting, as board members sharply questioned student achievement improvement plans for several of the district’s schools. 

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to bring these plans up to what I think they should be doing,” said Board Director Joaquin Rivera, who pulled the item out from the consent calendar for discussion. “Some of these sites are staying in their comfort zones. We need to push them if we are going to close the student achievement gap.” 

Among other things, the site improvement plans track pupil achievement and progress toward meeting academic goals, progress in reducing dropout rates, expenditures per pupil and types of services funded, and progress toward reducing class sizes and teaching loads. 

BUSD’s student achievement gap was a key issue in the recent school board elections, with challengers Karen Hemphill and Kalima Rose charging that the district had not done enough to close achievement levels between the district’s white students and its African-American and Latino students. At Longfellow Middle School in 2003, African-American student average state test scores lagged more than 250 points behind white student scores (611 to 871). At Rosa Parks Elementary, white student scores averaged almost 250 points more than Latino students and 300 points more than African-American students. In the same year at Berkeley High, white student scores averaged around 300 points higher than both Latino and African-American students. 

While the board eventually unanimously agreed to accept the school site plans, they did so only after receiving assurances from Superintendent Michelle Lawrence that changes will be made in the future in the way the site plans are developed. 

Lawrence called the board’s concerns “reasonable requests that should be happening,” but cautioned that because the plans in the past have not been used to “drive change in the schools” but have merely been documents designed to assure compliance with state and federal regulations, “this is not something we need to tweak a bit. This involves some large conceptual changes, and that doesn’t happen overnight.” 

The superintendent said she would meet with the district’s principals and bring a report back to the board in late January or early February. 

Annual student achievement site plans for each of Berkeley’s 15 public schools are required by the California Department of Education, which the department defines as a “plan of actions to be taken to raise the academic performance of students and improve the school's educational program.” 

District Director of Curriculum and Instruction Neil Smith said that while the plans were originally designed merely to fill state and federal mandates, “we’re trying to get away from that. We want to stop the practice of merely writing a plan and then putting it on a shelf. We don’t want these things to be shelf-fillers.” 

This year’s school site improvement plans, written by the school principals and site councils, were originally submitted to the board in late June, but were returned to the schools for reworking. Berkeley High School and Willard Middle School are still working on their revised plans.  

But board members still expressed displeasure with the revised plans, with Rivera complaining that “some of the school sites seem to have set the same goals, even though they’re coming from different situations; there seems to be a little bit of boilerplate language.”  

Director Shirley Issell added that the plans did not include “goals for all students at all schools,” and that there was no district-wide standard to judge whether or not individual schools had reached their goals. 

Both Issell and Director Nancy Riddle and asked why there had been no evaluation of how the school sites’ achievements this year had actually stacked up to the goals set in last year’s plans. Lawrence agreed that “they should have gone through an evaluation of last year’s results before they worked on a new plan. But that didn’t happen.” 

Smith explained that the student state-mandated test data necessary for such evaluation is not available until August, long after the June due-date for the plans. 

Only Director Terry Doran expressed qualified satisfaction with the site plans, saying he was “very impressed; I think they are realistic. I don’t think the staff is taking this lightly.” Doran added that he was “comfortable with the plans as they are now, with the understanding that we need to incorporate some of these suggestions in future plans. We need to be realistic as a Board as to what is possible at this time.” 

In other action, the school board: 

• Appointed Berkeley resident Roy Doolan to fill the position of retiring Commissioner Carolyn Weinberger on the District Personnel Commission. 

• Approved BUSD’s food policy “to provide guidance to school personnel in the areas of nutrition, health, physical activity, and food service.” Included was a specific item, recommended by the Berkeley PTA Council, banning the sale of candy and sodas at elementary or middle school sponsored events or fundraising activities, and limiting the distribution of cookies and sweets at such events to be sold by adults only, and then only with the permission of school principals. 

• Approved a resolution declaring that the district’s students have sufficient and adequate textbooks and instructional materials. No one from the public offered testimony at a public hearing held on this matter at the meeting. 

• Passed, on first reading, a board policy on conflict of interest recommended by Superintendent Lawrence. Lawrence said that while the board had been operating under existing state conflict of interest laws, and no complaints were pending against any board members, such a policy was necessary to put the district in compliance with Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) recommendations. 

The policy will come back to the next board meeting for final consideration. The board indicated that while accepting the superintendent’s language as necessary to meet the FCMAT requirements, after final passage, it would refer the policy to a board subcommittee for possible tweaking and additions.?

Right up until Christmas Eve, Berkeley fire stations and the Public Safety Center at Center and Milvia streets will be accepting new, unwrapped toys for distribution to children in need. 

The drive is jointly sponsored by the department, the Berkeley Fire Fighters Association and the Marine Corps’ Toy for Tots program. 

The Firefighters Association and the Berkeley Lions Club are sponsoring another drive, this one to provide food for low-income seniors in Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville. 

Canned meats, beans, peanut butter, hearty soups, pasta, fruit juices, rice and vegetables are especially welcomed and may be dropped off at the same locations as the toys through Christmas Day. 

Baskets for seniors will be prepared for delivery on the 18th, and food received in the following week will be distributed to Berkeley homeless shelters. 

For more information on the food drive, call John Tarascio at 981-5520. 

—Richard Brenneman›

Among the hundreds of cable television stations available to Berkeley subscribers, only one has a prime time lineup that includes Jesus Loves His People followed by The Dr. Susan Block Show: Masturbation With The Pope. 

It’s BETV and today (Friday) its parent network Berkeley Community Media (BCM) is celebrating 10 years on the air. 

Begun in 1994 in a makeshift studio below the Shattuck Cinemas programming about 12 hours a day on one station, BCM now operates two stations that carry programming nearly 24 hours a day from its studio at Berkeley High School. One station BETV, channel 28, serves as Berkeley’s community public access station. The other, CTV, channel 33, is the government access station with a steady diet of public meetings, including the City Council, Zoning Adjustment Board, Rent Board and School Board. 

“We’re one of the few places around where people can come in and have a voice,” said BCM Executive Director Brian Scott.  

Just how many people are tuning in is unknown. Neilson, the company that tracks television viewership, doesn’t compile ratings for public access channels. BCM’s potential viewership is hindered by its hometown’s lukewarm reception to cable television. Scott said Berkeley has about 19,000 cable subscribers. That amounts to slightly more than one-in-three households, about half of the national average. For anyone without cable, BCM shows are simulcast on the network’s webpage www.betv.org. 

Getting a regular show requires joining BCM for a $40 annual membership and then enrolling in production classes that cost between $20 and $40.  

“I just love it,” said Piccola Evans, a Berkeley native who, with two weeks of training, debuted her interview program The Coco Mo Show in September. “My goal is to be a fraction of what Oprah Winfrey is. She’s my role model.” 

Berkeley resident and licensed physician assistant George Pearson said his long-running interview show Education Is The Best Medicine is designed to better inform fellow African Americans about current trends in health care. “Many black people are fearful of medical breakthroughs; they don’t want to be the guinea pig,” he said. “My show lets them make informed decisions.” 

Two shows are well established as the most controversial: Frank Moore’s Unlimited Possibilities, a variety show with explicit themes, and the Dr. Susan Block Show,” featuring a lingerie-clad sex therapist. 

In 2002, the City Council voted to move shows with adult content that had been aired after 10 p.m. until after midnight, but then backed off after the ACLU threatened a lawsuit.  

LA Wood, a local videographer who dropped his BCM membership last year, said the Block show, which is based out of Los Angeles, symbolized a more pervasive problem at BCM than sexually explicit content. 

“There has never been enough Berkeley-based programing,” he said, noting that a Berkeley resident merely has to sponsor a show from out of town to get it on the air.  

Wood blamed what he saw as BCM’s failings on a lack of financial support from the City Council, which he said has never adequately funded the network and promoted government access programing at the expense of public access. 

As part of an agreement reached with the Comcast Cable, the local cable provider, Berkeley gets 4 percent of cable revenues and then transfers about 40 percent of the proceeds to run BCM with the rest going to the city’s general fund. The deal, which expires in 2007, provides BCM with an average operating budget of about $300,000 in addition to a $900,000 equipment grant from the cable company. 

The contract is not as lucrative as deals reached by other California cities, and has left BCM with outdated equipment for much of its existence and a minuscule budget for training local producers, Scott said. 

However, he contended that under his four-year stewardship of BCM, Berkeley-based programming roughly doubled and now comprises between 60 to 70 percent of all shows on BETV. 

Scott said he would like to bring in younger producers, but that has proved to be a challenge. He said the UC Berkeley Film department has been inactive and that groups of university students who inquired about producing shows never followed through. Also, he said, BCM is not able to broadcast feature length local productions that are aimed at film festivals, because festivals prohibit prior screenings of submissions. 

BCM’s future will hinge on the dealings between the city and Comcast, Scott said. Even though the cable giant has sought to exclude public access franchises from recent deals with other cities, Scott said he remained confident that Berkeley would retain the stations and that BCM would continue to make strides. 

“We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go,” he said. 



With the help of tens of thousands of people like me, the Democrats and 527 Democrat-leaning organizations achieved their goals on Nov. 2: high voter turnout, millions of doorbells rung, a huge and enthusiastic army mobilized to defeat the president. Yet, as an old adage goes, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.”  

What, if anything, did our highly publicized efforts accomplish? I’ve been reflecting on my experience since the results came in.  

I volunteered in two states.  

Nevada, a highly-contested swing state, was not far from my California home, so I signed up with a Sierra Club group for a mid-October weekend of campaigning there. In Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall in Reno, we joined some 200 lawyers, retirees, union members and students.  

The guru of getting out the vote, longtime organizer Steve Rosenthal, gave the crowd an impassioned stem-winder: “The Republicans put up barriers to voting and it’s your job to take them down!” he cried. “The future of the free world is in your hands!”  

Out we went, armed with clipboards, precinct maps, lists of names and our memorized spiel. Up and down the streets of Reno we knocked on the targeted doors, urging people to vote. As the day went on, I found that many people on my list were annoyed, having already been bombarded with phone calls, literature, and personal visits from other like-minded groups such as MoveOn.org. Other people were encouraging. Driving home, I hoped my efforts had done some good.  

Two weeks later, because Pennsylvania was an important state where I have relatives, I flew to Philadelphia to volunteer for Election Protection, a coalition of more than 50 organizations ranging from the NAACP and the League of Women Voters to Rock the Vote. On election day, the multi-million dollar coalition effort sent out an army of 25,000 volunteers divided into teams of two or three to selected “high risk” polling places in 17 states—targeting minority communities where, in past elections, voter intimidation had taken place or was suspected.  

Along with about 2,500 others, I attended a final training session in Philadelphia the evening before election day. Our mission: to make sure that every voter cast a ballot. If a person was turned away, we had cell phones with which to contact attorneys. We had an 800 number to locate people’s polling places. We were to watch for anything that could intimidate voters, like dark-suited men with earpieces hanging around and looking like law enforcement.  

A spirited young organizer took the stage. He asked us to remember the old Westerns where a beleaguered outpost is about to surrender when—tarant tara—a trumpet sounds and the cavalry rides to the rescue. We volunteers, he said, were the cavalry, riding to the rescue of democracy. Except he pronounced it “calvary.” He had us repeat, as he ginned up the crowd’s energy, “The calvary is coming! The calvary is coming!”  

At 7:30 a.m. on election day, I arrived at my assigned polling place in a quiet housing project in a predominantly black area, teamed with two young black men—one a lawyer from D.C. and the other a fellow who lived nearby.  

We were not alone. Three older black ladies stationed there by the local Democratic Party handed out fliers urging votes for the Democratic ticket. They knew pretty much every one in the neighborhood, greeting voters with hugs and jokes, talking about their families, answering questions. They had been working elections for decades.  

The ladies were heavily outnumbered by outsiders: besides we three from Election Protection, there was an observer from a labor union, and two young black women lawyers who had traveled from New York for the Kerry campaign. From time to time during the day, four other nonpartisan watchdogs, a few more Kerry people and a pair of Republican attorneys stopped by.  

Despite the Democrat and nonpartisan superiority in numbers, the Republicans had the organizing edge. They had arranged for two certified poll watchers to be stationed inside the polling place, equipped with clickers so they could keep a running count of voters and lists of first-time voters, who could be challenged if they failed to present proper identification. Democrats had neither certified poll watchers nor lists of first-time voters, nor a running vote count.  

For the most part, voting proceeded uneventfully. Rarely did anyone have to wait more than a few minutes. On the few occasions when a prospective voter had a problem—name not on the list, no ID, etc.—the person was instantly surrounded by six or eight volunteers desperately eager to set things right. I thought to myself, “We may be the most intimidating bunch here, swamping the very people we are trying to help.”  

The day passed slowly. In mid-afternoon a garbage truck lumbered by, a large worker hanging on at the back. As it passed, he shouted, “Bush goin’ kill us all!”  

At the end of the day, we said our goodbyes and went home.  

Despite my efforts, Nevada went for Bush. Pennsylvania went for Kerry. Perhaps our presence in that Philadelphia precinct helped to prevent skullduggery and fraud. In our polling place, we did assist four or five voters to cast ballots and we directed a few others to their proper voting sites. But I ended up feeling that a vast amount of money and volunteer time had been expended, for minimal results. Those three black ladies at our polling place had the situation well in hand; they knew their community, and they were far more effective than the dozen or so outsiders who, for a day, stood around on the sidewalk with clipboards and cell phones and very, very little to do.  

Participating in Campaign 2004 gave me the satisfaction of working with others on an important mission. But that glow was short-lived, as the reality of the election results soon smacked me in the face. Looking back, I feel that I was part of a venture that was well-intentioned and somehow off the mark—a foot soldier following leaders whose battle plans turned out to be defective. 

Eve Pell is a writer in Mill Valley. 

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The City Council chambers could have been mistaken for a flower shop Tuesday as a line of well-wishers—at one point extending nearly the length of the hall—heaped praise and bouquets on retiring councilmembers Maudelle Shirek, Miriam Hawley and Margaret Breland. 

While all three women received an equal share of floral arrangements, the loudest and longest ovation followed farewell remarks from Shirek, who marked the end a 20-year run on the council. 

“I want you to continue the struggle to make this a better world,” the 93-year-old councilmember implored the packed house. 

Shirek, an icon of the civil rights movement, once battled housing discrimination in Berkeley, introduced a recently freed Nelson Mandela to a crowd of over 60,000 at the Oakland Coliseum, and continues to prepare and serve food at a senior center she helped found. 

While Hawley and Breland can’t match Shirek’s length of service, all three councilmembers leave a legacy on a council where alliances have grown more fluid and relations more cordial than the one Shirek first joined in 1984. 

Don Jelinek, who was elected the same year as Shirek, said she came into her own as a councilmember two years later when the progressives saw their majority reduced from seven votes to one. 

Although Shirek hasn’t been as vocal during council debates in recent years, Jelinek recalled one instance in 1987 when Shirek wouldn’t stop talking until she carried the day. With only four votes in favor of a proposal to accept state money to help bring homeless services into the Veteran’s Building, Jelinek said he and Shirek staged a rare filibuster. They prolonged the debate for hours until Councilmember Fred Weeks changed his vote and secured passage of the bill. 

“It never would have happened without Maudelle’s moral force,” Jelinek said in a Wednesday interview. 

In 1988 Shirek joined a Berkeley delegation on a visit to Palestine, right at the onset of the first Intifada. 

“I remember everyone being half asleep and Maudelle leading us down dark alleyways in Gaza telling us not to be afraid,” said Barbara Lubin, executive director of The Middle East Children Alliance. 

Shirek’s passion for global justice didn’t always sit well with residents of her council district, several of whom have complained that her office neglected their local concerns. On Tuesday, however, representatives of the LeConte Neighborhood Association, which previously had included several critics, offered Shirek a bouquet. 

“We feel so lucky to have had such a treasure right around the corner from us,” said LNA member Pam Speich. 

Elected to a stridently divided council in 2000, Councilmember Hawley foreshadowed the blurring of the progressive versus moderate divide that had been the hallmark of Berkeley politics since the 1970s. Hawley, a former PTA president and AC Transit director, remains the only candidate ever endorsed both by the Berkeley Democratic Club, the organization representing political moderates, and the progressive Berkeley Citizens’ Action. 

Since voters elected Tom Bates as mayor in 2002, Hawley helped the mayor form a potent centrist coalition on the council, at times angering stalwarts on both sides of the political divide, but pleasing those who sought a more cordial political discourse in the city. 

“She has been a calming influence on the City Council,” said Public Arts Commissioner David Snippen. Hawley has also overseen the transformation of her Council District 5 from being aligned with the moderate camp to one which produces deal makers. Her successor Laurie Capitelli, endorsed by the BDC, came several votes shy of also being endorsed by BCA. 

Councilmember Spring praised Hawley for taking a softer line on affordable housing and rent control than other councilmembers who represent large portions of the Berkeley hills. 

Margaret Breland’s legacy from her eight years on the council can be measured in dollars and cents. “She brought home the bacon,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “South and West Berkeley had been getting screwed for years and she said ‘you guys are going to give us our fair share or I’m not cooperating.’” 

“That was just a threat,” Breland said with a smile after Tuesday’s council meeting.  

Marty Lynch, executive director of Berkeley-based Lifelong Medical Care, said Breland fought to secure his group an emergency $400,000 allocation to finance the construction of the Over 60 Health Clinic in her district. Lynch said that Breland, a nurse, was also the force behind the South and West Berkeley Health Forums that met and later became the community health action teams after a city report showed wide disparities in health and longevity between minorities in South and West Berkeley and the rest of the city. 

Homeless advocate Michael Diehl said that Breland, a devout Christian, proved to be a reliable vote for the rights of Berkeley’s homeless. Recalling a proposal to prohibit the homeless from squatting on city sidewalks, on which Breland cast the deciding vote, Diehl told her Tuesday, “You said you heard from God to vote no and I’m so glad you did.” 

During her farewell speech, Breland gave special thanks to Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio and Maio’s former aide Calvin Fong for helping her first get elected in 1996. While Breland was often seen as a reliable vote for Maio on key matters, Councilmember Dona Spring said she believed Breland’s frequent support for Maio’s positions stemmed more from her own political convictions rather than any sense of gratitude towards Maio. 

Breland, who has battled cancer and heart disease that kept her away from council meetings for several months, gave special thanks to Shirek, who visited her house often to deliver freshly prepared meals. Speaking to Shirek Tuesday, Breland joked that it took her three years but she had finally learned to decipher what the councilmember meant when she, instead of giving a clear answer to a question, often offered her trademark response, “It’s interesting”. 

Moments later Shirek addressed the audience and lamented that since she was first elected by a the entire voting public, the city had “fractured” itself politically into homogeneous political districts. “As I say, it’s interesting.” 

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The City Council Tuesday voted (7-1, Olds, no) to grant one of the city’s biggest nonprofit developers half of an emergency funding request as it struggles to survive a federal investigation. 

Jubilee Restoration Inc. will receive $13,000 of a $26,000 annual grant that the city had previously earmarked for an outreach coordinator at Jubilee’s homeless youth drop-in center. The money will now go to help the organization sustain itself while it answers a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report that cited Jubilee for nepotism and misallocating federal funds that should have gone to its homeless youth program.  

Berkeley had withheld this year’s grant because Jubilee failed to file reports on time showing how it spent last year’s allocation.  

The city will hold on to the remaining half of the grant to spend on services for homeless youth in 2005. HUD froze payment on a $121,633 annual grant to Jubilee, pending completion of the investigation. The HUD grant had required that the city fund $26,000 towards the program as a local cash match to secure the federal funding.  

Citing the experience of the Berkeley-based Jobs Consortium, which is on the brink of collapse after HUD also froze its funding earlier this year, Housing Director Steve Barton had recommended the council give Jubilee the full $26,000. 

“We’re asking you not to allow HUD’s finding to result in the immediate death of the organization,” said Barton, who added that Jubilee officials told him that the nonprofit was nearly out of cash and would have to lay off staff it needs to deal with the HUD investigation.  

If HUD is ultimately not satisfied with the organization’s response, it could withdraw funding both for Jubilee’s community projects, which also include a home for recent parolees, and its development arm, which is planning to build 110-unit affordable housing complex at 2612 San Pablo Avenue. 

Barton said Jubilee, which has delivered an initial response to HUD’s charges, was already in the process of shelving the homeless youth drop-in center, whose effectiveness has long been questioned.  

Pressed by Councilmember Linda Maio on Jubilee’s performance, Barton replied, “I am aware from reports from our staff that there have been turnover issues and problems with gaps in services.” 

Councilmember Betty Olds, who favored denying Jubilee any city funding, said, “There as been a lot of talk for a long time that their operations have been inefficient.” 

Racing to Jubilee’s defense was Councilmember Margaret Breland, who maintained that the group “deserved a chance to clear its name.” 

In its report released last month, HUD alleged Jubilee of numerous violations including transferring money from HUD accounts to pay for an office luncheon and hiring relatives of board members for paid positions in the organization. The grant was intended to pay for three full-time counselors beginning in 2002, but as of October, 2003, Jubilee records showed only one position had been filled. 

If Jubilee is not exonerated, city officials are hoping they can use the remainder of its grant to leverage HUD money for a different local program that serves homeless youth. 

Also at Tuesday’s session, which was nearly entirely devoted to farewell ceremonies for departing councilmembers Maudelle Shirek, Miriam Hawley and Margaret Breland, the council voted 7-1 (Wozniak, no) to charge Sunday fees at the Oxford Parking Lot starting Dec. 12. Additionally, city firefighters and members of several community groups that opposed new taxes urged the council to restore the ladder truck it closed during evening hours to help balance the budget. 

As I worked getting out the vote in Boulder, Colo. on Nov. 2, I received early exit poll data showing Kerry ahead in key states. Indeed, when the Colorado polls closed, all indications favored the Democrats. What troubles me about the final results is that they greatly varied from the exit polls. 

It’s not like exit polling is an unproven technology. Historically American exit polls have been very accurate; so reliable that international institutions use exit polling to validate election results in emerging democracies such as Georgia and Afghanistan. 

In the 2004 presidential election, two organizations conducted exit polls: the National Election Pool, which merged the facilities of Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, and Brigham Young University, which conducts surveys in Utah. 

The 2004 BYU exit polls accurately predicted the final Utah outcome; they had Bush at 70.8 percent and Kerry at 26.4 percent where the actual result was Bush 71.1 percent and Kerry 26.4 percent. 

In non-swing states the exit polls conducted by the National Election Poll group closely tracked the final tallies; for example, in Missouri, the exit polls predicted the result as 46 percent Kerry and 54 percent Bush where the final result was 46 percent Kerry and 53 percent Bush. 

The problems with exit polls occurred only in swing states. There were eleven “battleground” states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Only in Wisconsin did the exit polls come close to the final result. In the other 10 swing states the polls were dramatically off. 

What caught my attention was that the variance was not random, some for Kerry and others for Bush; all the final tallies were significantly better for Bush than the exit polls predicted. The average net differential—predicted difference between Bush and Kerry less the actual difference—was 4.8 percent. (For example, in New Hampshire Kerry was predicted to beat Bush 54.9 percent to 44.1 percent, a difference of 10.8 percent; the actual results were Kerry 50.3 percent, Bush 49 percent, a difference if 1.3 percent; therefore the net differential favored Bush by 9.5 percent.) 

Thus, there were two problems with the swing-state exit polls: they were wildly off the mark—4.8 percent is a huge error for these polls—and they all erred in Bush’s favor. 

When asked to explain these abnormalities, Warren Mitofsky, head of one of the groups conducting exit polling for the National Election Polls, gave two excuses. The first was that the “early numbers” shouldn’t have been released to the media, because they were, in fact, early; i.e., the sample size wasn’t adequate. But, the early polls in many swing states were virtually the same as the late polls. For example, in New Mexico the results of the first poll showed Kerry ahead 50 percent to 48 percent and the results of the last poll showed Kerry still ahead 50 percent to 49 percent. 

On the PBS News Hour Mitofsky stated, “we suspect that the reason [Kerry was ahead in the exit polls] was that Kerry voters were more anxious to participate in our exit polls than the Bush voters.” Of course, this excuse doesn’t explain why the exit polls were inaccurate only in swing states. 

And it ignores the fact that the exit polls are carefully constructed samples weighted by factors such as party affiliation and gender. In other words, it is not the case that pollsters grab the 20th voter coming out of the polls and mark down their vote preferences regardless of what party they belong to; polling protocol dictates that if they have too many Democrats, or women, they don’t take anymore in that particular category until the sample is balanced. 

Steven Freeman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a thorough review of the exit poll results in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. 

These polls predicted a narrow Bush win in Florida, and a substantial Kerry win in the other two states. But, the actual difference between the predictions and actual results favored Bush in all three states; the average being 6 percent. Using careful statistical methods, Freeman calculated that given the exit polls the likelihood of the final result in each state is outside the 99 percent confidence interval. Taking the results together, Professor Freeman estimated that, “the odds against all three occurring together are 250 million to one.”  

Freeman’s thorough analysis left me between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” with regards to the final election result. I could choose to believe that Bush’s performance in the battleground states was a statistical anomaly, believe that the exit polls failed and these failures systematically benefited the incumbent. 

My other choice was to acknowledge that the Nov. 2 presidential election may have been stolen, the results manipulated to favor Bush. While I don’t want to believe this, I have read enough about Karl Rove to think he is capable of such a coup. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and computer scientist best known as one of the executive founders of Cisco Systems 

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ROLLBACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The re-election of President Bush means four more years of rollback of American Indian sovereignty and environmental destruction that President Bush supports. Plus, the majority of religious conservatives can use their faith in an abusive way and have allies in both President Bush and a conservative Congress. I hope some people will fight back against these reactionaries in Washington. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

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JENSEN COTTAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Designed by no less an architect than William Wurster, the Jensen Cottage at 1650 La Vereda Road does indeed appear to be historically significant. But it seems that when a zoning application was filed proposing a major addition to the house, nobody in city government even noticed that likely significance. The long subsequent dispute over the zoning proposal teaches some important lessons. 

An effective screening system in needed to identify—early on—projects that could impact historic resources. And as the La Vereda case itself illustrates, this needs to involve residential properties, not just commercial ones. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has worked very hard to craft such a system. It is an integral part of the potential ordinance amendments which they recommended this summer, and which are now being discussed by the Planning Commission. 

If the LPC’s recommended system had been operative at the time, the Jensen Cottage’s significance would have been grasped right from the start. 

John English 

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BROWER MEMORIAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

David Brower should be honored. 

Perhaps the giant ball could be placed on top of the UC Campanile like a giant golf ball. 

If it were half buried, it wouldn’t be so imposing. Fran Segal’s ideas are good. 

If it were designated as a “Memorial” rather than “Art” it wouldn’t be subject to stringent state laws. 

I have read in a science magazine that the human brain acts as an advocate or lawyer rather than as a truth seeker. Therefore, if we have an idea or position we will defend it, in spite of information or evidence to the contrary. It is important to keep this in mind. 

Richard List 

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INVESTIGATE E-VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There have been widespread reports of voting irregularities in the recent election. In particular, I am concerned that prevalent use of electronic voting is subject to hacking and implanted tallies. When I requested a paper ballot at my polling place, because I had read about the ease of altering e-votes, the worker at my precinct didn’t know about my right to demand a paper (provisional?) ballot, and had to get confirmation. But why was my vote “provisional”? I was not reassured that my vote and others would be counted correctly. I support the demand that voting irregularities and the reliability of e-voting be investigated by Congress. 

Dr. Mina D. Caulfield 

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RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his Nov. 16 letter assailing Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance program (rent control), rental property owner Sig Cohn remarks that he would be “happy to pay” into a program that is “beneficial to the community,” rather than support the city’s rent ordinance program. 

In actuality, the rental unit fee that Mr. Cohn tenders contributes directly to the single largest—and most beneficial—affordable housing public policy program in the entire City of Berkeley: the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance program. 

Under the city’s rent program, nearly 19,000 units are regulated. This provides rent level stability, affordability and housing security for tens of thousands of Berkeley citizens—the overwhelming majority of whom are low income—including seniors and disabled on fixed incomes, single mothers, working families and students among others. 

Mr. Cohn declares that the “necessity for Berkeley rent control certainly now is a thing of the past.” Given that the Bay Area region has some of the highest rent levels in the entire nation, comparable to New York City and Honolulu, I would suggest that the city’s rent stabilization program is more critical than ever.  

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

NUCLEAR WEAPONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I gave a year of my life to the Nuclear Weapons Freeze 20 years ago, and it was one of my best years because of that work. This week the Senate will consider funding President Bush’s research into new nuclear weapons, so-called bunker busters and “mini-nukes.” Despite his claims to the contrary, he has no “mandate” from the American people to build new nuclear weapons. According to a recent poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, the vast majority of our citizens believe we should not develop new nukes. Even Republicans in the House of Representatives have rejected funding for these weapons. The Senate must do the same. New nuclear weapons put America at risk. We don’t need them. They could not have prevented 9/11 and only increase a sense of insecurity in nations that don’t have them, thus fueling a renewed arms race. This endangers us all. Stop the madness, a thinly veiled gift to corporate interests that helped re-(s)elect Bush. 

Phoebe Anne (Sorgen) 

• 

SCHOOL BOARD COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really enjoyed running for the Berkeley School Board, although due to a death in the family, it was a very short campaign for me. 

I believe it was unfair for Daily Planet reporter J. Douglas Allen-Taylor to trash my candidacy (“Incumbents Face Stiff Challenge in School Board Race,” Daily Planet, Oct. 15-18) and to give readers no clue about my reasons for running. 

My issues were important: kids first, politics last; school sites as a public trust—not development opportunity; safe schools, neighborhoods, and routes to schools; excellent schools for all our kids—not just for political favorites; and much more. 

My issues were different from those of the other four contenders, who were “progressives.” My understanding is that “progressive” strategists wanted to re-elect the incumbents, while giving the other two candidates (both associated with Terry Doran’s “small schools plan”) name recognition and a head start for the 2006 election. 

This kind of strategic planning succeeded in electing long time BCA Executive Director Terry Doran to the School Board in 1998, and then electing Green Party/BCA member John Selawsky the following term. Quid pro quo, Doran got the Green endorsement to win in 1998, and Selawsky was given the BCA endorsement to win in 2000. Selawsky also became executive director of the BCA. He remained Green enough to get the Green Party “bullet vote” endorsement this year: Vote for John Selawsky and don’t vote for Joaquin Rivera or Merrilie Mitchell.  

I had to run against Berkeley’s political machine, a process so ugly that few will participate. They use cold-blooded strategies and tactics like the “Exclusionary Principle” which tries to close out everyone else. I was not invited to some candidates forums, including for example, “Candidates Night and Berkeley School Board Forum,” organized by Zelda Bronstein for Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association. Only incumbents were invited! Zelda is a special reporter for the Planet, and was a longtime Planning Commission appointee of Linda Maio. 

Although most independent candidates were marginalized in the press, I felt particularly wronged by Daily Planet reporter J. Douglas Allen-Taylor. He disposed of me cleverly on page one, and my response and correction was buried on page 20. Editor Becky O’Malley did give a fair and equal chance for each candidate to provide a statement, but that could not make up for being trashed on page one.  

Reporter J. Douglas Allen-Taylor deserves credit for being a talented writer on local politics, but not on Berkeley politics! In his “Undercurrents” column he goes after FCMAT, Oakland Schools’ issues, and Mayor Jerry Brown. See “That Old Brown Magic….” (Daily Planet, Aug. 1-4, 2003) a terrific expose of Jerry Brown bragging about the Oakland School takeover. Taylor sums up: “The trick for the astute politician is not to actually solve problems, but to keep up the nice slogans while continuing to spend all the money.” Hey Jessie, that sounds just like Berkeley! But Taylor doesn’t criticize Berkeley’s “progressives.” 

Berkeley is run by a machine, which makes a mockery of democracy. Mayor Tom Bates has made it worse by implementing Sacramento-style politics: Agenda Committee, special City Council meetings before the regular meetings, “moving–target” meetings of the Housing Authority and Redevelopment Agency, where millions of dollars vanish into massive political-base housing projects, and school properties are eyed for sites. As Mr. Taylor excluded my independent campaign from his school board coverage, he also excluded Housing Authority and Redevelopment Agency when he covered City Council meetings. I feel he is protecting the “progressive” agenda and showing his active disrespect for the majority of people in Berkeley who deserve to know what is really going on in their hometown. 

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

ON RICHMOND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read your Nov. 16 editorial (“Richmond Takes a Piece of Pie”) on describing your recent interest in Richmond. Your rationale is that you “see the whole bayside corridor, at least from Richmond all the way don to the southern reaches of Oakland as part of a web of interlocking issues which concern all of us.” You go on to suggest baysiders are alike and “those on the other side of the hill” are different, but your rationale on why you take politically correct but simple minded positions on very difficult issues strikes me as thinking from “the other side of the hill.” 

You see the environment as good, development as bad. You see open space as good, but fail to consider how the public might be allowed to enjoy the open space. I lived in Berkeley for 30 years and always saw issues in black and white. I now live in Richmond and now see issues a bit grayer.  

Your “seasoned reporter plus the part time efforts of another one and a good effort from a diligent student” have failed to provide a balanced picture of the open space component of Upstream’s offer for Point Molate development, Chevron’s history with regard to open space on the western half of the Point San Pablo Peninsula, the history of the Reuse Plan for Point Molate and the efforts of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Advisory committee for Point Molate which recommended a residential component, Chevron’s strong opposition to any residential at Point Molate and the coincidental odd conclusions of the Environmental Impact Statement that found Chevron was far to dangerous a place to have residential on the other side of a 500 foot hill and 1.5 miles from their ammonia plant (little comfort to the residents of Point Richmond or the newly built housing on the Richmond Parkway), the efforts of the San Pablo Peninsula Open Space Committee’s feasibility study to develop a comprehensive open space plan for the San Pablo Peninsula, the need of the city of Richmond to be able to generate revenue from this property, the relationship of the city property at Point Molate to the city property at Terminal Four at the tip of the peninsula or the private property at the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor, or a plethora of other salient and dicey questions.  

I too hope that Gayle McLaughlin will bring a fresh perspective to the city council, but not I sincerely hope, the perspective of outsiders that don’t want make the effort to do their homework and would like to see Richmond’s issues either through the simple lens of political correctness or through the more calculated lens of a “regional (read egocentric) perspective.” 

David Dolberg 

• 

BREUNER MARSH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Tomio Geron’s “Parchester Village Residents Fight to Preserve Breuner Marsh, Open Space,” (Daily Planet, Nov. 12-15), Breuner Marsh and Point Molate present opportunities for open space and public access to the bay shoreline. 

Breuner Marsh is one of the last bay wetlands still connected to undeveloped upland that provides habitat for the endangered California clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse. Without upland connected to the marsh, these animals would drown during high tides. This weekend at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, twelve clapper rails found refuge on the park’s lawn due to high tides. During high tides, these reclusive creatures are forced onto upland—a housing development or road at the marsh’s edge spells their doom.  

At Point Molate, public recreation and Bay access are “endangered.” The Base Reuse Plan allows development on the existing developed “footprint” and open space including a 40-acre shoreline park, 156 acres of public parkland, and a Bay Trail easement. Astonishingly, the developer’s current plan would have the Bay Trail go through a hotel lobby! The city should ensure that public access and open space are central to planning at Point Molate.  

With more than 90 percent of the bay’s wetlands diked, drained or filled, isn’t it time the bay’s shoreline and wetland habitat are top priorities for shoreline communities? Other cities around the Bay are seizing the opportunity to reconnect their residents with the nay shoreline through shoreline parks and open space. Richmond’s City Council should do the same.  

Jen Jackson 

Community Organizer, Save The Bay 

• 

HOUSING GLUT? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Planning Director Dan Marks thinks there’s a housing glut (“Housing Boom Ending, Says Berkeley Planner,” Daily Planet, Nov. 12-15). Perhaps for studios and one-bedroom apartments. But there’s a shortage of housing for families. Berkeley is certainly capable of designing solutions for multi-family housing. But is Berkeley willing? 

Ignacio Dayrit 

• 

FATHER BILL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last December there was a memorial in Berkeley attended by a thousand people honoring the life and death of Father Bill O’Donnell of St. Joseph The Worker Church, Berkeley. Father Bill was an activist who protested the School of Americas many times. The last time he was arrested and spent six months at the Atwater Federal Prison.  

Thousands of people of conscience will stand in solidarity this weekend, Nov. 20-21 at the annual vigil in Fort Benning, Georgia to close SOA.  

In Father Bill’s honor it is time to contact your congressperson and urge them to the support HR 1258, a bill to close, investigate, and prevent another cosmetic remake of the SOA.  

Helen and Frank Sommers  

Richmond 

• 

ED ROBERTS CAMPUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As president of the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC), I want to correct the inaccurate statements in Rosemary Hyde’s recent letter (Daily Planet, Nov. 12-15). 

Contrary to Ms. Hyde’s assertions, the ERC will improve pedestrian access from Tremont Street to the BART Station. ERC will provide a new ramp and staircase from Tremont as well as a safe, well-lit and landscaped pathway across the parking lot to Adeline Street, where a new staircase and elevator will provide disabled access to the BART concourse below. 

Ms. Hyde is also incorrect about ERC and BART parking. Visitors and staff who drive to the ERC will park onsite in an underground parking lot under the Campus. The ERC garage will have the capacity to provide 21 more spaces that the estimated peak parking demand because we are committed to discouraging parking in the surrounding neighborhood. While it is true that the BART parking lot will see a net loss of 16 parking spaces, this is the necessary trade-off to save mature redwoods on the north edge of the property, which was very important to most neighbors and the Design Review Committee (the DRC approved the project’s design on a 6-0 vote). 

The ERC has responded to the desires of the residents in the Ashby BART neighborhood by reducing the overall size of the project from 130,000 to 80,000 square feet, providing more than enough parking onsite, and creating a new vehicular entrance to the BART lot from Adeline Street, thus reducing BART patron traffic on residential Woolsey Street. 

On Nov. 15, the Zoning Adjustments Board recognized the ERC’s commitment to the community by approving the ERC’s use permit application. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our neighbors in the years ahead, and I encourage anyone with questions about the ERC to contact me at info@edrobertscampus.org or call 841-4776. 

Jan Garrett 

President, Ed Roberts Campus 

• 

COUNT EVERY VOTE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am saddened by John Kerry’s concession of the 2004 presidential election prior to a full count of the votes. The Democratic (and the Republican) Party should—in victory or in defeat—work with unwavering commitment to a scrupulous and methodical count of every vote.  

Letting hurry guide the process fosters a disheartened electorate and facilitates voter fraud. Kerry’s early concession helps birth a brave new world of probabilistic voting—where races are decided by exit polls and media analysis, rather than by certified vote counts informed by citizen dialogue. Voting the United States of America has become a statistical process, rather like craps, and the odds of effecting meaningful social change through the ballot box have suffered accordingly.  

The Democratic Party must protect the integrity of the voting process. The Democratic Party should safeguard voters’ rights by refusing to concede defeat or accept victory until all votes are counted. I urge the Democratic Party to set a democratic precedent: to ensure that all votes are counted and that any grievances regarding voting irregularity are heard and addressed.  

Susan Lynn Fischer 

• 

MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To make a positive impact on developments in the Middle East and encourage the development of a serious Palestinian post-Arafat leadership the press should stop treating the Palestinians as if they were savages leading an uncontrollable mob and instead show them respect by actually expecting proper behavior. 

It is not acceptable for Palestinian leaders to call for a continuation of the Intifada against Israel, nor can Palestinian violence be tolerated. It is not acceptable that illegal militias continue to operate. And the list goes on. 

Each time so-called friends of the Palestinians engage in apologetics instead of expecting and demanding Palestinian progress they make it just that much more unlikely that the Palestinians will ever get their act together. After all, why should the Palestinian leadership take the heat for complying with agreements when compliance is not actually required—just verbiage and photo ops. 

Ted Cohen 

• 

SOMEBODY STOLE MY JESUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I arrived home from work on the Wednesday after the election to find a cartoon on my refrigerator door. It had North America divided in half. The top part was labeled “The United States of Canada,” the bottom “Jesusland.” Every time I approached the fridge it jumped out at me, mocking me. I pondered it as I made my salad, why did it bother me so much? In a way, I could see how it was true. Since the election, the talk has been about how the Republicans won the election based on Christian values and morals. I don’t doubt that the appeal to conservative Christians in Florida and Ohio did influence the way those states swung, but I keep hearing that the election results are “the Christians fault.” Well then, where does that put me?  

I struggled with my faith, growing up in the conservative Bible belt with a concern for the poor, a distaste for hatred and violence, a hope for equality and justice, and a belief in the value of human life (for those already born, as well as those unborn). Luckily I grew up in a church and a family where those things were valued as Christian. I have struggled with the Christian Right and the common mis-belief that it defines Christianity. From my perspective and the perspective of many other progressive Christians out there, these values are not incompatible with Christianity. In fact, they are the very essence of who my Jesus is. As I grew up I was lucky to discover a whole group of progressive Christians that feel the same way and hold similar beliefs.  

Then George W. Bush became president. He began to openly talk about his faith in the public arena and claimed to act almost with a power instilled by God. Churches told their parishioners that the only way they could vote in good conscience would be for GW. When did God become a registered member of the Republican Party? Now Bush has been re-elected, by the Christians, based on the values of preserving life for the unborn, but not innocent Arabs, and pushing marriage for moms on welfare but preventing marriage for people of the same sex who are in love. What about loving thy neighbor, about serving the least among you, about fighting against social injustice being the fasting that God asks for? Aren’t these Christian values too? What made gay marriage and abortion into the definition of Christian values?  

If Christianity is about loving those who love me back and do what I want, and about condemning those different from me, then what am I? If the United States is Jesusland and the foreign policy decisions it makes are Christian decisions, then do I have to give up my faith because I have a different political opinion? Do the identities of progressive and Christian have to be self-exclusive? I guess now George Bush and the religious right have helped me to define what I am not. Now who is going to help me define who I am? 

Deanna Eberle 

Oakland 

• 

GILL TRACT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kim Linden, organic gardener and member of Friends of the Gill Tract, asks us to use this year’s funding hiatus of UC plans to uproot the 100 years of continuous cultivation of community gardens at the historic Gill Tract as an opportunity to mobilize to avoid having the currently situated Albany Village Little League fields moved to the garden site (Letters, Daily Planet, Nov. 12-15). 

While the City of Albany Parks Master Plan is close to incorporating Gardens on Wheels Association’s request that community gardens be included in every Albany park, including the Gill Tract owned by UC Berkeley via the UC Regents in stewardship for the taxpaying citizens of California, there is another, more subtle, but also important reason for maintaining the Little League fields current location: 

Right now, they sit as far as possible away from car and truck pollution caused by the heavy traffic on San Pablo Avenue and Buchanan Street. My son is going into his third year of Little League and I have had a chance to attend many games. The current site has good air, so the kids are not harming themselves playing there, as they might if they are as close to San Pablo and Buchanan as they would be should Gill Tract community gardens be destroyed. The current fields are contiguous to the creek and a restored native plants and fruit tree garden on the creek lovingly tended by residents. The fields and open space between the fields, the foot traffic ingress and egress, all contribute to a homey, intimate and yes, organically historical feel that once destroyed, can never be duplicated. 

Is there even one Albany Little League parent who does not like the current fields? Think about all the good times we have had there. Think about trekking in from the North side on the crunchy gravel, passing the Snack Shack where we have all put in so many fun volunteer hours getting to know each other and living the small town good life. Think about walking up the creek path and plucking a ripe plum or apricot on the way to hearing the loudspeakers announce each team. If the Little Leagues replace the Gill Tract, you won’t be able to hear anything but traffic and your kids will be breathing noxious fumes as they exert themselves running the bases. 

Why bother? 

Wendy Schlesinger Stephens 

Albany 

• 

MOVIE REVIEW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Polar Express is now playing at Renaissance Oaks Theater on Solano Avenue. It has unique animation and a cute story line, but some really creepy characters and wild swings of emotions. Not recommended for people with bi-polar disorder. 

Bob Gable 

• 

NEW LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Any illegal immigrant elected to a governorship or to the presidency should be afforded automatic immunity from deportation. 

Al Durrette 

• 

IN DEFENSE OF YUBA CITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Come on now, there are worse places to live than Yuba City. 

I have lived there all of my life. I have been to many places around the country, Washington D.C. and those areas for example, and in other places in the world. The point is that I have been out of this little area and have seen a few places. I would like to know what is the reason behind the rating of “the worst place to live.” Is it crime statistics? Unemployment? Things to do? What the hell is it? This place is so rich in history, culture and people who want to run their own lives without their government telling them what to do, taking their money, giving it to the people on welfare sitting on their ass. We here in Yuba City are 30 minutes away from night life in cities like Chico and Sacramento, and hour away from the mountains and two hours away from the ocean. I think it is a grand place to live because we are so close to fun things, without being in the middle of it. And those who don’t think it is great, for whatever reason can kiss our Republican asses.  

Bruce Smith 

Yuba City 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Smith is apparently referring to a Daily Planet article called “Don’t Blame City for State’s Woes,” which cited a Rand McNally survey naming Yuba City the worst place to live in the United States. The article ran in our Jan. 2, 2004 edition. Apparently, even the news is reluctant to travel to Yuba City. ?

My good Christian friends used to tell the story about a young colored man from the little community of Pineville, South Carolina, who was drafted into the Army just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (“colored” was a progressive term in those days, a giant step up from “nigger”). When he got his notice papers, this colored fellow—a good Baptist—got down on his knees and told God he would not fear going to war so long as Jesus would walk with him, wherever he went. So Jesus agreed to go. 

And so the young colored soldier went through some of the fiercest battles of the war—first in North Africa, then the invasion of France, Italy, and finally the storming of the heartland of Germany. He came out with nary a scratch, because Jesus was always at his side. Jesus was with him when he got his discharge papers, and with him, as well, on the long ocean trip by troop ship back to America. Disembarking at Charleston, the soldier was so happy to be home and unharmed, he jumped up, shouting, as soon as his feet hit Carolina soil, saying, “Come on, Jesus, I ain’t catching no bus; I’m fixing to walk myself back home.” And so he did, Jesus still by his side. Going through the little town of Goose Creek on Sunday morning, the soldier came upon a little church by the side of the road, where a congregation of white folks were inside, shouting and singing and praising the Lord. 

It was the first church the colored soldier had seen since he got back home, and flushed and full, he decided to go inside and join the good white folks, so he could properly thank God for saving him in the war. But looking back as he walked up the steps, the soldier saw that Jesus was still standing in the middle of the road, hanging back. “What’s wrong, Jesus?” the soldier asked. “This is where we part our ways, my son,” Jesus answered. The soldier could not believe it. “You come with me through hell’s firestorm of war like you promised, every step of the way,” he said. “You come with me through the streets of Berlin, with bombs falling all over like hailstones on a cabbage patch. Why are you abandoning me now, Jesus?” “I’m sorry, son,” Jesus answered, shaking his head and turning back down the road. “They don’t even let me go in there.” 

That’s the story my good Christian South Carolina friends used to tell, anyway, and if you got a problem with it, you’ve got to check with them. 

I thought about that story just after I read a congratulatory letter allegedly written shortly after the Nov. 2 elections to President George W. Bush by Mr. Bob Jones III, who is the president of Bob Jones University over in Greenville, South Carolina. I say “allegedly” only because the widely-publicized letter was supposed to have been posted on the university’s website. If so, it has since been pulled, and there’s always the possibility that this whole thing was a hoax. But we’ll treat it seriously, at least for now. 

Some brief background. I lived in South Carolina for many, many years, and now and then got up to Greenville, which is in the foothills in the northwestern corner of the state. It’s a lovely, lovely place with lots and lots of nice people, and I’d rather be stranded beside the road out there than in some places outside of Benicia or Antioch, or even San Leandro or Hayward. But it does have its downsides. 

One of these downsides is that Greenville is one of the centers of what you might call—what’s the best way to put it?—OER (“Or Else Religion,” that is, the kind of religion that says you better believe in what we believe in, or else God gonna do something awful bad to you.) If the Old South is the Bible Belt of America and Mississippi is the buckle, then right around Greenville, you come across the end of the strap that the old folks used to whip you with. 

The other downside of Greenville is that it is in that part of the world that used to not take too kindly to niggers who got out of our place—it is, after all, only a state away from Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was formed. Bob Jones University was very much in backward step with the worst sentiments of that region, finally accepting Negroes in its classrooms so long as we stayed in our place, but most famously banning—until March of 2000—interracial dating among its students. James Landrith Jr., editor of The Multiracial Activist journal of Alexandria, Virginia, says that he was denied admission to Bob Jones University in 1998 because he married outside of his race. The Activist has a letter from the Bob Jones community relations coordinator from that time, stating that “Bob Jones University [has] a rule prohibiting interracial dating among its students. God has separated people for His own purpose. ... God has made people different one from another and intends those differences to remain.” 

BJU’s website still proclaims that the university “stands without apology for the old-time religion,” which sort of gives me the willies, friends, since I was around when some of that old-time religion was still in place, and I ain’t so anxious for some of it to come back. 

Anyhow, on the day after the election, BJU President Bob Jones III is supposed to have written a public letter to President Bush, telling the president, among other things that “In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn’t deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. … You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you. … Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. ... If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them.” 

Mr. Jones’ beliefs are not necessarily Mr. Bush’s beliefs, and the President is not bound by them or answerable to them. Still, I feel as the 18th century Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture did when he saw, from afar, warships gather in French waters in preparation for sail to Port au Prince. After expressing his concerns, L’Ouverture received a reply from Bonaparte that “we are sailing to Haiti on a mission of peace and goodwill, and you have all of my assurances that we mean you no harm.” To which L’Ouverture answered, “if this is, indeed, a mission of peace, then why are so many of my enemies in its midst?” 

There are about as many interpretations of the Bible as there are people who read it. And so, one wonders, what is this “biblical norm” to which Mr. Jones refers, what are its precepts and tenets, and what part will it actually play in the new national government to be established by Mr. Bush? 

I suppose we will have a bit more to say on this subject, in coming weeks. 

™

P. Levitt’s Nov. 16 letter lists gripes aplenty. Mr. Levitt “want[s] to own property in Berkeley,” but complains that “new buildings may have filled the need for the rental market but not for the ownership market.” P. blames the city’s Planning Director and “NIMBYs” (presumably, people Not Intimidated By Mad Yelling). 

This reads like the standard form letter we keep getting from underemployed Berkeley architects. They’re unable to build their qualifications or overall client lists, and can’t get any more of their immediate family members onto the city’s Planning Department staff. So they seek a little juice by cheerleading for local developers’ self-proclaimed right to Build Absolutely Anything Anywhere (BAAA). 

Am I the only one who’s tired of this? Berkeley real estate is an inherently finite resource. There’s no entitlement to own a piece—just like there’s no entitlement to a (212) area code or a particular “.com” domain name. Also, there is no Tooth Fairy. 

Would-be buyers have no open-ended “right” to plop and own another condo tower wherever they wish, whatever the neighbors’ desires. Especially not at the cost of degrading the very things that make Berkeley attractive to current and potential residents alike: livable neighborhoods, breathing room, daylight access, views, and (most importantly) a reasonable population size that preserves our face-to-face public sphere and our responsive city government. 

As a university town, our blessing and curse is to attract lots of intellectuals. Some are free-floating fanatics of Development in Berkeley, who can no longer even see beyond the city limits. If they could, they’d notice that one neighboring city—Emeryville—is building plenty of the high-density housing that these folks advocate. (Along with the forbidden big-box retail and parking.) 

Other neighboring cities are doing much less than Berkeley does to meet their fair share of regional housing production: El Cerrito! Richmond! Piedmont! 

These cities deserve a lot more attention from the local fanatics who insist on exclusively nagging Berkeley. They’re also perfectly reasonable places to invest in property.  

To quote the famous marquee on the venerable Harvard Square travel agency: Please go away. 

Marcia Lau is a Berkeley resident.f

“According to exit polls, Bush supporters tend to be culturally and religiously conservative married rural voters, a large majority with an annual salary of over $150,000.” 

—Rebecca Paris, “Divided We Stand”, Berkeley Daily Planet, Nov. 5-8. 

Last summer, I spent three months with family in rural Northern Michigan (a red zone in a blue state) where almost everybody owns a gun, drives a pick-up and is a member of a faith based community. Except for some tourists, I met only three people who made over $150,000 a year—a real estate broker who sold properties to Wal-Mart, a retired developer from the city who built a mansion in the woods and a drug dealer. Not even the president of the local university makes over $150,000 a year. 

Almost all of rural America voted Republican and the vast majority of rural counties have average income well below $60,000 a year. According to the 2004 Census, the Average Household Income in my brothers’ county was less than $50,000. In comparison, in Detroit’s Wayne County, the annual income was $58,000. Alameda County is $81,000. 

If the polls were correct, it was not the working class guys in pick-up trucks or the members of faith based communities who reelected Bush. They don’t have the money. Nor was it the single mother living in a trailer on her folks’ land, the retired worker in a double wide out in the woods or the small farmers, teachers, loggers or local merchants. Most make well under $50,000 a year. 

Many rural poor did not vote. In my brothers’ township there are over 2,000 potential voters. Of these, less than half are registered and only 528 voted—almost 50 percent more than in previous elections. 

Only 11 percent are registered Democrats. The area has a virtual one-party system that has been dominated for generations by a few influential families. All elected offices are partisan and usually Republicans run unopposed. The media is tightly controlled. The war in Iraq is barely mentioned. Homeland Security, Palestine and the Patriot Act simply do not exist. When Fahrenheit 9/11 came out, it never made the news. And for most, the Internet has yet to arrive. 

Democrats have ceded control of the area to the Republicans. There is almost no Democratic presence there. No one from the state party, Kerry’s campaign, the DNC or MoveOn was visible during the campaign. Nor is there ever any support from the state apparatus for those few candidates who do run locally as Democrats. As a result, the perception that Democrats are the party of city folds, think-they-know-it-all intellectuals, minorities and gays goes largely unopposed. 

Despite this bias, only 47 percent are registered Republicans. The remaining 42 percent are Independents or third-party folk. These Independents didn’t flock to the polls to vote for Bush. In my brothers’ township, Bush got only 54 percent of the vote. Kerry pulled 40 percent, much better than Gore while 6 percent voted for third party candidates. In the poorest township in the county, the Democrats won. 

People talk to each other freely in Northern Michigan. Conversations spring up spontaneously in restaurants, bars and stores. While people certainly had strong opinions on abortion and gun control, these issues were, for most, of peripheral concern. The big issues were the economy and the war. 

Despite the constant propaganda, the war in Iraq is not popular. I only heard one person, a retired Special Forces officer, wholeheartedly support it. While some tried to justify it, most were opposed and much of this opposition ran deep as it is their kin being called to fight. Even veterans spoke of our present military with scorn. 

The most pervasive issues were economic. The center of the towns in virtually every part of this country are dying. Good buildings, houses, factories and stores, stand empty. Strip malls are in disrepair. Full time, permanent jobs are hard to find. Since NAFTA, local factories have either closed or been forced to move. Big boxes have destroyed local businesses. The multinationals that have moved in, often over local opposition, are either dangerous or destructive to the environment - chemical plants, strip mining, toxic waste dumps and factory farms. Wages are low, benefits negligible, job security non-existent. Many men take temporary jobs hundreds of miles away. One WWII vet and “loyal American” told me the new corporations were destroying the community with their greed. 

Even with the media blackout, because of the war, the escalating debt and his ties to greedy corporations (Enron, Halliburton, the S&Ls) Bush is not well liked. Even die hard Republicans said they would have to hold their nose to vote. 

Unfortunately, Kerry did not present an attractive alternative. From the backwoods, it looks like the Democrats care more about the right of gays to marry or gun control than they do about the rural economy or the war. Even when Kerry said something meaningful, he was not trusted, partly because of his rich-boy demeanor, but also because he had no record of taking principled stands on the economy or the war. Then, too, there were those who felt betrayed when Clinton signed NAFTA. Others consider Reno’s massacre at Waco an attack upon the religious right. Because of this, distrust of Democrats runs deep. 

What got the most enthusiasm was a television interview with Ralph Nader. While no one thought he could win, they saw him as talking about something real and liked what he had to say. 

Two people ran for local office as Democrats. One lost by 20 votes. The other tied. No local Democrat has ever come that close before. They have asked for a recount. 

Joanne Kowalski is a longtime Berkeley resident. She is currently working on an economic development project with her brothers in Northern Michigan.?

Women from a Chiapas weavers cooperative are visiting Berkeley this week, sharing stories about their craft and their struggle to preserve their traditions, and to do so independently. 

Celerina Ruiz Nuñez, president of the Jolom Mayaetik weavers cooperative, will speak Sunday at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park from 2-5 p.m., 1275 Walnut St. The event is free and open to the public. 

What strikes one first about Chiapas is the beauty of the landscape, its dramatic mountains, the rich green of both wild and domesticated plants—hillsides as well as flatlands covered with fields and gardens of corn, coffee, bananas, orange trees, and flowers. 

The intensity of the natural colors is picked up in the brilliantly colored traditional clothing, still worn by most indigenous women and girls, but less so now by men and boys. And the vibrancy of the Mayan languages is the next revelation. The hundreds of Indian languages once spoken in California are lost. But in Chiapas, the aim of the Zapatista communities is to ensure that their children are educated bilingually. 

They value their Mayan languages. They want their children to be able to add Spanish to their native language, not be forced to abandon their own language if they are to be educated. 

A 1996 video showing Mayan women in their beautiful traditional huipiles marching through their village with banners celebrating International Women’s Day was, for me, a revelation and a catalyst. These women, for generations subjugated not only by their government but by fathers and husbands, had somehow connected to the international women’s rights movement, far from the modern world though they are. 

The images sparked my determination to find out what was happening in Chiapas, what the Zapatista uprising was all about, whether it had helped to embolden these women from a deeply traditional and patriarchal culture to express their solidarity with women around the world. 

The novels of B. Traven and conversations with an ethnobotanist friend who’d worked in Chiapas had aroused my curiosity about this beautiful country, whose natural riches had caused it to be plundered and many of its native people virtually enslaved during the colonial period and after Mexican independence as well. 

A trip arranged in 2000 by the Oakland-based Chiapas Support Committee (www.chiapas-support.org) brought me to San Cristóbal de las Casas, where I came to know members of Jolom Mayaetik, a cooperative of some 250 Mayan women weavers who in 1996 withdrew from the government-sponsored weavers cooperative to take the marketing, accounting, and sales of their work into their own hands. 

At the time, many of their members lived in communities that the Mexican military was harassing daily with roadblocks, overflights of noisy, frightening helicopters, and other forms of intimidation—all because these communities were sympathetic to the Zapatista movement. 

They had decided that, poor as they were, self-government offered the possibility of improving education and health care in their communities and would allow them a measure of dignity lacking in their relations with the Mexican government. 

The Jolom Mayaetik cooperative’s members create beautiful traditional work and they are also developing new designs with appeal to markets in the U.S. and Europe. Members are given the opportunity to learn accounting and business management. They elect officers who represent the cooperative on trips to cities in Mexico as well as to the U.S and Europe. 

The president of the cooperative during my initial visit in 2000 is now completing her B.A. at the University of Southern Mexico in San Cristóbal de las Casas and preparing to attend medical school. 

Charlene M. Woodcock, a retired UC Press editor and Berkeley resident of 37 years, is working to help establish interest in the U.S. for the work of Jolom Mayaetik. 

›

Impact Theatre has pulled out most of the stops with its current production, Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair… Granted, a theater company determined to make every Thursday night a “Pay what you can” performance, as well as to keep its most expensive ticket at a pleasant $15 ($10 for students), may not offer an awful lot of dazzling stage effects. But there wouldn’t be much room for such high-falutin’ carryings on in their lair in the black basement at La Val’s Pizza Parlor anyway.  

What the company has served up is yet another bubble of pure nonsense with absolutely no earnest message to be found. It’s all just for fun. (You could argue that the ending wanders into an unnecessary reality, and it’s not awfully clear why the first scene of the second act is necessary, but they’re both easy enough to ignore). 

Super Lair concerns itself with four fake “Superheroes” whose images appear to have been blithely co-opted from the nearest comic book store. The set-up is that 10 years ago the then-recent college grads were accidentally responsible for solving a crime and the city has been crime-free ever since. 

With the sweeping logic common to entertainments like this one, the mayor immediately hired the quartet to handle the city’s (non-existent) crime problem. They promptly donned Super-Hero costumes and have spent the last 10 years with absolutely nothing to do except to hang around the Super-Lair (a sub-let apartment), wearing spandex and playing cards.  

They are, in short, not at all prepared when two really scary challenges show up. First (and maybe the scariest) is in the quiet form of “Darrell” (DJ Lapite). He’s a relatively sane civil servant, sent by the mayor to observe the Lair and evaluate whether or not they’re doing anything worth the money they cost the city. 

“The Human Fly” (Pete Caslavka) has his own agenda, which leads to the quartet’s second challenge, as well as the most effective part of the production: the fast-paced and really funny “Superheroes Against the Villains” fights. (Christopher Morrison has created truly terrific fight choreography).  

The Fly’s struggles with the meaning of it all (including his not totally solid relationship with Leopard Woman) has him putting in some supposedly therapeutic time with “Dr. Reynolds” (Jennifer Lucas, who rather remarkably also spends time being “Eddie One Arm” and just plain “Thug”). 

“Silver Streak,” the fourth member of the heroic quartet, is played by Jon Nagel, who also designed the set—never a small problem for the tiny stage space available in what must be the most truly “intimate” stage setting in the area. Nagel’s a good-sized guy himself, who theoretically would be a serious contender in the play’s battle against the Forces of Evil. However, bless his heart, Silver Streak isn’t conceived as the brightest light on the block; but he’d still be a pretty good guy to have on your side in a pinch. 

A sub-theme here is the occasionally rocky relationship between The Human Fly and Leopard Woman—an issue which leads to some rather impressive off-stage sound effects that most parents would probably not relish explaining to children in the middle of a crowd. 

Impact’s target audience is, after all, the 18 to 35-year-old demographic, and this production seems a good fit for exactly that. 

But let’s don’t underestimate the spandex. Amy Nielson’s comic-book-super-hero costumes are one of the great delights of the evening. Possibly the two most memorable are Rhino Man’s (Steven Epperson) horned, baby-blue, quasi “Sleeper Jammies” and Leopard Woman’s (Alexandra Creighton) skin-tight leopard skin—both of which make the most of the actors’ hand-in-glove fit for their roles. 

Impact has loaded the cast with a group of their most talented actors, who are obviously enjoying themselves in this romp through never-never land. 

›

FRIDAY, NOV. 19 

THEATER 

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 

Aurora Theatre “Emma” at 8 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through Dec. 19. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Polk County” A musical about aspring blues musician, Leafy Lee, at the Roda Theatre to Jan. 2. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Black Repertory Theater, “Who’s Who in the Tough Love Game” a new play by Ishmael Reed. Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. through Nov. 27. Tickets are $5-$20. 3201 Adeline St. 652-2120. 

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 

Dane Cook, from Comedy Central at 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater. Tickets are $15-$30. www.ticketweb.com 

“Post-Election Detox” with lesbian comic Marga Gomez. Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $17-$19. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Gift of Art: Small Works” by various artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. Exhibition runs to Jan. 9. 549-1018. www.cecilemoochnek.com  

‘Eclectic Electric” culturally diverse lighting by Sue Johnson. Reception at 7 p.m. at 1745 Solano Ave. 527-2623. suejohnsonlamps.com 

FILM 

Cine Mexico: “Aventurera” at 7:30 p.m. and “Victims of Sin” at 9:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Women are Burning: A Brief History of the European Witch Hunts” 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 

Mark States, performance poet, at 7:30 p.m. at the Fellowship Café & Open Mic, at Fellowship Hall, Cedar at Bonita St. Donation $5-$10. 841-4824. 

Stephen Mitchell introduces the new translation of “Gilgamesh” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. 

ntozake shange poetry and conversation at 7 p.m. at 1056 60th St., Emeryville. Donations benefit New Dharma Meditation Center for Urban Peace. 

Chris Carlson analyzes emerging political energies in “The Political Edge” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and combos perform at 7:30 p.m. at the Little Theater, BHS Campus. Tickets are $10, free for students, faculty and staff.  

Vox Populi, chamber vocal ensemble, at 8 p.m. at St. Mary Magdelene Church, 2005 Berryman. www.vox-pop.org 

Mark Levine Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Maria de Barros at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lecture on the music of Cape Verde at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. 525-5054.  

Duck Baker & Ken Emerson, guitar, uke, Hawaiian steel guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761.  

The Firebird Band, One Step Shift, Whitey on the Moon at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886.  

Research and Development at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

David Berkeley at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Donation $10. 

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

Lisa Baney Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Over My Dead Body, Allegiance, Life Long Tragedy, Our Turn at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Arturo Sandoval, Cuban trumpeter, at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$22. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, NOV. 20 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Gary Laplow at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Flying Teapots Puppet Show” at 3 p.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

FILM 

Cine Mexico: “Nazarín” at 5 p.m. and “Macario” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Face: A Mask, a Body, a Movement” with photographer and sculptor Leonard Pitt, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Art Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228.  

Tom Wolfe talks about his new novel “I Am Charlotte Simmons” at 10 a.m. in the Historic Reading Room of the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by Friends of the Library and Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Anne Lamott will read from her recent works at 7:30 p.m. at PSR Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Donation $20-$25. Limited seating. 704-7729.  

Rhythm & Muse featuring Clara Hsu. Open mic sign-up 6:30 p.m., reading/performance 7 p.m. Admission free. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 527-9753. 

Bruce Aidell guides us through “The Complete Book of Pork” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concert with Amy Likar, flute, and Miles Graber, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

International Taiko Festival “A Celebration of Japanese Drumming” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$36. 642-9988.  

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

Liber UnUsualis with the vocal trio Cinonia at 8 p.m. at St. Johns Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 528-1725. 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 866-233-9892. www.berkeleybach.org 

Asunder, Laudanum, Damnweevil at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886.  

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

Sarah Manning Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Steve Seskin with Nina Gerber at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Rio Thing with Phil Thompson at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Victims of the Groove at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

Guerrilla Hi Fi, The Unravellers, George Pederson & the Reincarnatives at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Dick Conte Trio, with vocalist Vernelle Anders, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 21 

CHILDREN  

Baba Ken and the Nigerian Brothers at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

FILM 

The World of Astrid Lingren: “The Children of Bullerby Village” at 3 p.m. and Cine Mexico: “One Family Among Many” at the Pacific Film Archive. 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 

Artists from the Day of the Dead Exhibition Gallery talk at at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“A Conversation About Painting” with John Zurier and Todd Olson at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

Mayan Weaving from Chiapas with a weaver from the Jolom Mayaetik Cooperative at 2:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. 

Poetry Flash with Kathleen Fraser and Jean Valentine at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

Ellen Weis and Kiran Singh introduce “Berkeley: The Life and Spirit of a Remarkable Town” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco City Chorus, “Songs and Spirituals of America” with Wendell Brooks, soloist, at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $13-$20. 415-765-SONG.  

San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 763-3851.  

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Sacro Sciento, with Jessica Gould, soprano, Jonathan Davis, harpsichord at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. 

Choreographers’ Performance Alliance with host Randee Paufve at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studios, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10. 644-1788, ext. 2. 

“Tellabration” a storytelling concert presented by Stagebridge senior theater, at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison at 27th St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org  

International Taiko Festival “A Celebration of Japanese Drumming” at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$36. 642-9988.  

San Francisco Saxophone Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazz- 

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

Abhinaya Dance Company “Timeless Traditions” at 4 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-8542. www.juliamorgan.org  

Berkeley Broadway Singers “Let Yourself Go” at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Church, 400 Alcatraz Avenue, Oakland. Free admission. 604-5732.  

Oakland Youth Orchestra, at 3 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. 832-7710. 

Razorblade, The Caribbean Groovers, reggae, at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. 

Ace of Spades at 1 p.m. at Mama Buzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph, Oakland. 289-2272. 

Alter-Ego, Cal Jazz Combo, The Rubber Duckies at 6 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886.  

Holly Near at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

MONDAY, NOV. 22 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Play Cafe, “A Night of Thieves” a staged reading at 7 p.m. at LaVal’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid Ave. 415-921-6595. www.playcafe.org  

Victoria Nelson and Vivienne Plumb read from their short stories at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Co-sponsored by New Pacific Radio. Cost is $2. 845-7852.  

Alan Richman talks about “Fork it Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express Mark States Birthday Bash from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Contemporary Chamber Music at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-4864.  

Song Writers Symposium at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886.  

Head-Royce School Jazz Band Showcase at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, NOV. 23 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Polk County” opens at the Roda Theater, 2015 AddisonSt. and runs through Jan. 9. Tickets are $15-$60. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Recent Arab Documentary and Experimental Media at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Finney describes “Consumer Confidential: The Money-Saving Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

ACME Observatory Contemporary Performance Series presents Parisian bassist Joelle Leandre and trombonist Dave Dove at 8 p.m. at CNMAT, 1750 Arch St. Admission is $6 to $10, sliding scale. 649-8744.  

Peter Barshay and Deborah Poyres at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Albany High School Jazz Band and Rhythm Band in a benefit for the Albany Music Fund at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz- 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with students from CSU Hayward performing works of Bach and Mendelssohn at 12:15 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555.  

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

Mas Cabeza at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Slammin’ with Keith Terry, a cappella, beat boxing and body music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Tuck & Patti at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, NOV. 25 

Happy Thanksgiving 

FRIDAY, NOV. 26 

CHILDREN 

Splash Circus Theatre “Circus Rhymes” at 2 p.m. through Nov. 28 at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets $8-$15. 925-798-1300.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Paintings by Keith Wilson” opens at The Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. and runs through Dec. 24. Gallery hours are Wed.-Fri. 1 to 6 p.m., Sat.- Sun. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 848-1228.  

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Emma” at 8 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through Dec. 19. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Polk County” A musical about aspring blues musician, Leafy Lee, at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. to Jan. 9. Tickets are $15-$60. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Black Repertory Theater, “Who’s Who in the Tough Love Game” a new play by Ishmael Reed. Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m., through Nov. 27. Tickets are $5-$20. 3201 Adeline St. 652-2120. 

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. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

FILM 

Marcel Pagnol’s Fanny Trilogy: “Marius” at 6:30 p.m. and “Fanny” at 8:55 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Matthew Bourne’s “Nutcracker!” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus, through Dec. 5. Tickets are $30-$74. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Moh Alileche, North African and Berber music at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, bluegrass and traditional folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightand- 

salvage.com 

Smoov-E, First Degree the D.E., Equipto at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10-$15. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Eric Crystal Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

David Gans at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Jinx Jones Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Gather, Jealous Again, The Starting Point at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Tuck & Patti at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

This is the first in a series profiling Berkeley elementary schools. The reports are written by students of the UC Berkeley Journalism School. 

For parents in Berkeley, choosing an elementary school is about as easy as finding a parking spot on Fourth Street. Within Berkeley’s 10 square miles are 11 elementary schools, each with its own personality. 

Whether they prefer bilingual education or are looking for a focus on arts and crafts, all parents will benefit from doing as much research as possible.  

Marissa Saunders, parent outreach officer for the Berkeley PTSA Council, says many families don’t bother to understand the school assignment system and are sometimes unsatisfied with their children’s assignments. But Saunders, a mother of two students, says Berkeley schools are worth navigating the complicated assignment process. 

“The different choices make it different. And they have a lot of different enrichment classes, a lot of exposure to different things both culturally and socially. We have a pretty diverse school district—the kids learn from each other,” says Saunders.  

Since 1994, the district has used a system called Controlled Choice to assign pupils to schools. Controlled Choice splits the city into three school zones: Central, Northwest and Southeast. Central includes Berkeley Arts Magnet at Whittier, Cragmont, Oxford and Washington Communication and Technology. Northwest includes Rosa Parks Environmental Science Magnet, Jefferson and Thousand Oaks. Southeast includes Emerson, John Muir, Le Conte and Malcolm X Arts and Academic Magnet. 

Controlled Choice also allows parents to rank their top three school preferences. A pupil who lives in a zone has a good chance of being assigned to a school within that zone, but there is no guarantee. 

It is common for children from the same neighborhood to attend schools throughout the city. A student who attends a school within his zone will have access to Berkeley Unified’s buses. However, if parents seek a school outside the zone, they are responsible for providing transportation. 

In February, the district adjusted Controlled Choice so that school diversity would be achieved based on racial, educational and economic diversity in each planning area. The city was broken down into 445 planning areas, with each encompassing several blocks. 

A number called “Percent Students of Color” is used to measure the racial diversity within each planning area. Each school strives to enroll a balanced number of students from planning areas where PSC is as low as 10 percent or as high as 90 percent. 

In August 2003, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a frequent challenger of affirmative action programs, sued the school district on behalf of Lorenzo Avila. Avila, who had two children in Berkeley schools at the time, said that the district violated voter-approved Proposition 209, which prohibits racial preferences in public education. 

In April, two months after adjustments to Controlled Choice had been implemented, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the district, allowing it to continue to use race in its school assignment process. The Pacific Legal Foundation has announced that it will not appeal. 

The new Controlled Choice system also incorporates parent income level and parent education level into the diversity equation. 2000 census information is used to derive average household income and average parent education level in each planning area.  

“Before it was plainly black, white and other. Now one factor is class and that’s changing the picture,” said Berkeley PTSA Council President Roia Ferrazares. By including such socioeconomic factors, BUSD extended its definition of diversity to incorporate more than just race.  

Based on race, parent income level and parent education level, each student will be assigned to one of three Composite Diversity Categories. When assigning students to schools, the district will take proportionate numbers of students from each of the three categories to create a diversity balance at every school.  

Bilingual Education 

Bilingual education can be found at four schools: Cragmont, LeConte, Rosa Parks Environmental Science Magnet and Thousand Oaks. At Cragmont, LeConte and Rosa Parks, students learn both English and Spanish through a Dual Immersion bilingual program. From kindergarten through 6th grade, teachers emphasize both languages. 

Thousand Oaks offers the only transitional bilingual education program in the district. Under this system, kindergarten through 3rd grade classes are taught entirely in Spanish and 4th to 6th grade classes are taught in English. The Transitional Bilingual program is based on the idea that a strong foundation in a child’s first language makes it easier to learn a second language. The district also offers a Chinese bilingual program at Jefferson. 

Magnet Schools 

Specialized programs can be found at four schools: Berkeley Arts Magnet at Whittier, Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet, Rosa Parks Environmental Science Magnet, and Washington Communication and Technology Magnet. 

In February of this year, magnet schools were incorporated into the new Controlled Choice system, so they no longer use a separate student assignment system.  

Although Berkeley’s magnet schools no longer enjoy state funding, they have retained their magnet status. PTSA fund raising and the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project tax, recently renewed, have picked up the slack to ensure that magnet schools maintain the unique classes and activities that define them.  

Test Scores 

2003-2004 test scores and rankings for each school are available online at http://api.cde.ca.gov/. The annual Academic Performance Index measures schools on a scale between 200 and 1000. California schools strive to meet a minimum performance ranking of 800. 

2004 School-Wide API Growth Test Scores: 

Berkeley Arts Magnet at Whittier: 765 

Cragmont: 785; Emerson: 816; Jefferson: 838; John Muir: 819; LeConte: 697; Malcolm X Arts and Academics Magnet: 752 

Oxford: 785; Rosa Parks Environmental Science Magnet: 662; Thousand Oaks: 770; Washington Communication and Technology: 721. 

Deadlines  

Parents who want their children to be considered for the first round of school assignments should submit their Parent Preference Forms between January and February. After receiving assignment letters in the mail, students should register in June. The Parent Access office can be reached at 644-6504. 

Elementary school profiles will follow in coming issues.e

FRIDAY, NOV. 19 

Junior Rangers of Tilden Camping trip. For more information call 525-2233. 

Berkeley Community Media Ten Year Anniversary with a Media Martini celebration from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Lucre Lounge in downtown Berkeley. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-2 288, ext. 11. www.betv.org 

BOSS Graduation A celebration honoring homeless men and women who have completed the Clean City Program and are working to turn their lives around. At 6 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $60 s liding scale. To RSVP, or for more information, call 649-1930. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Robert Schoen on “What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew About Judaism” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Cl ub, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

“Migrants’ Tales: Life in China’s Boomtowns” with Peter Hessler, China Correspondent, The New Yorker, at noon in the Journalism Library, North Gate Hall, UC Campus. http://ie as.berkeley.edu 

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

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  

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

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

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near U niversity 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 i s handicapped accessible. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 20 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com  

Junior Rangers of Tilden meets Sat. mornings at Tilden Nature Center. For more information call 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! Fr om 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$6, registration required. 525-2233. 

Worm Composting Workshop Learn about a good way to compost kitchen scraps, even in apartments. From 10 a.m. to noon at 2530 San Pablo Ave. Free workshop s ponsored by The Ecology Center. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Discover a Wildlife in Your Own Backyard with LeAnn Downing of Wild Birds Unlimited at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Help Restore a Rare Tidal Marsh on the UC Richmond Field Station, near the Bay Trail in Richmond, from 9 a.m. to noon. We will provide tools, gloves, rain gear and refreshments. Heavy rain will cancel the event. For more information call Elizabeth at 231-9566. 

Rummage Sale to Benefit United Nations Association are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Books, jewelry, clothing and china, pictures, small antiques, toys, baked goods. New UNICEF Holiday Cards and Calendars. To donate items please call Ingeborg at 849-1752. 

Bay Area Socialist Conference with workshops during the day beginning at 9:30 a.m. at North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $10-$50, sliding scale. Evening panel with Peter Camejo, Alexander Cockburn and Ah med Shawki at 6:30 p.m. at the Valley Life Science Building, room 2050, UC Campus. 415-861-3103. iso_berkeley@yahoo.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 Univer sity Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 21 

Turkey Trudge and Tramp Bring the family and your guest to hike in preparation for the upcoming holiday. Learn the big, fat difference between farm fowl and their wild relatives. We’ll see our tame turkeys, and maybe ca tch a glimpse of wild gobblers running free in the park. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Seeds and Seed Treatment” A workshop on seed propogation and related plant biology. Learn how to collect, store, treat and sow a wi de range of seeds and care for seedlings. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Visitors Center, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $40-$45. 845-4166. www.nativeplants.org 

Sweet History: Chocolate! Delve into the delicious natural history of choc olate, from trees to your table as you sample many varieties of the “food of the gods.” Learn an easy way to make truffles and take some home just in time for the holidays. From 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $10-$12, registration required. 525-2233. 

Southside Cleanup After the Big Game Join neighbors and city staff to clean up our neighborhood. For information call 981-2493. 

“Tellabration” a storytelling concert presented by Stagebridge senior theater, featuring Diane Ferlatte, Steven Heneger, Patricia Bulitt at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison, downtown Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org  

Going Bat Crazy! A family exploration day to learn about bats at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum o f California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Artsy Afternoon for Families with storytime, family painting projects and advent art projects from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Arlington Community Church. For reservations call 526-9146. acc.youth@sbcglobal.net  

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “The Six Perfections as a Transformative Practice” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 22 

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 

“Saving the Sun: How Wall St. Mavaricks Shook up Japan’s Financial World and Made Billions” with Gillian Tett, Former Tokyo Bureau Chief, Financial Times, at noon 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. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

TOPS Take Off Pounds Sensibly meets every Mon. at 9 a.m. in Albany. For information contact Mary at 526-3711. 

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. 23 

Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. at Tilden’s Inspiration Point for a hike on EBMUD trails. It could be muddy. 525-2233. 

Berkeley High School Site Council meets at 4:30 p.m. in Room C106, BHS. Agenda includes appointment of a BHS administrator to the SSC, a proposed timeline for SSC for 2004-2005, athletic eligibility requirements, and requests for authorization by two new small schools. bhssitecouncil@berkeley.k12.ca.us 

“Update from Israel and Palestine” A panel discussion has been cancelled because two speakers have been unable to get exit permits. The event was sponsored by Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Campus. 

“Anthropology and Architecture: The Making of Public Space in Kinshasa, RD Congo” with Filip De Boeck, Univ. of Leuven, Belgium, at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa 

Berkeley PC Users Group Problem sol ving and beginners meeting to answer, in simple English, users questions about Windows computers. At 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near corner of Eunice St. All welcome, no charge. 527-2177.  

El Cerrrito Library Book Club meets to discuss “The Kite Runner” b y Khaled Hosseini at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. www.ccclib.org 

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

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. 

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

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

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors offered by Stagebridge, at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Classes are held at 10 a.m. Tues.-Fri. For more information call 44 4-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24 

“The Native Americans” a PBS documentary on the tribes of the northern and southern Great Plains at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, donations accepted. 452-1235. 

“We Voted: Now What?” with Larry Bensky, host of KPFA Sunday Salon, at 1:30 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes” by Mark H. Gaffney at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Coffee Shop, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

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. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Prose Writers’ Workshop An ongoing group focused on issues of craft. Novices welcome. Community sponsored, no fee. Meets Wed. at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

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

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

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, NOV. 25 

Reduced City Services Today Call ahe ad to ensure programs or services you desire will be available. 981-CITY. www.cityofberkeley.info 

Vegetarian Give Thanks Potluck Feast at 6 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Please bring a vegetarian dish and a game or a song to share. Sponsored by E ast Bay Food Not Bombs. 

HOW TO HELP 

Alameda County Community Food Bank’s Annual Food Drive accepts donations of non-perishable food in the red barrel at any Safeway or Albertson’s. 834-3663. www.accfb.org 

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

Firefighters Toy Drive Donate new, unwrapped toys and canned food to any Berkeley fire station. For information call 981-5506. 

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center, 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

CITY MEETINGS 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Nov. 24, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

›n

Jakob Schiller:  

Edward Lin, an alumnus of UC Berkeley’s Acacia fraternity, carries a 130-pound pig onto the deck of the fraternity where the members were preparing to brine it. The pig, which cost $200, will be cooked for 24 hours in an outside pit and be ready just in time for kick-off in Saturday’s big game against Stanford.¸

It’s Big Game week in Berkeley and Bear backers have never had so much reason to revel in their football team’s success or fear for its future. 

As the California Golden Bears head into Saturday’s home game against Stanford, with their first Rose Bowl ap pearance since 1959 potentially in the balance, every pre-game ritual is tempered by concern that if major stadium renovations aren’t hastened the man responsible for revitalizing the program could be pacing another school’s sideline next year. 

Since tak ing the reigns of the UC Berkeley squad in 2002, Jeff Tedford, 42, has turned a 1-10 laughing stock into the fourth ranked team in the nation and has become perhaps the most highly sought after coach in college football. 

And next month Tedford will essentially become a free agent. His contract includes a trigger: If the university fails to begin a stadium renovation project by Dec. 15, any school in the country can buy out the remainder of his deal for $500,000—a trifling sum in the high stakes world of college football. 

UC Berkeley has yet to finalize plans for renovating 81-year old Memorial Stadium. In January, the university announced a $140 million fundraising drive to renovate the dilapidated and seismically unfit facility that sits directly above the Hayward Fault. But fundraising stalled with the resignation announcements of former chancellor Robert Berdahl and former Athletic Director Stephen Gladstone. 

So far the university has $15 million on hand for the project, said Dexter Bailey, the exec utive athletic director of external affairs, who is overseeing the effort. He said the final project could well cost more than the projected $140 million because of surging prices for steel. The university, which isn’t counting on public money for the project, won’t reveal the final concept, which could include luxury boxes, new offices and weight room, as well as seismic repairs, until about half of the funding has been dedicated, Bailey said. 

That leaves Tedford free to jump ship to a school with deep pockets and first class facilities, a prospect the coach shied away from at a Monday press conference to promote the Big Game. “I’m uncomfortable talking about this,” he said. “This week shouldn’t be about me.” 

But at the University of Washington, a traditional football power in the market for a new coach, the Tedford rumor mill keeps swirling. “It would be my guess that Washington would have Tedford on its short list of candidates,” said Dan Riley, who covers the team for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. “The new UW administration has promised to aim high, and there’s no one any better, any closer, than Jeff Tedford.” 

While fans at Sunday’s battle of the Cal and Stanford marching bands, a pre-Big Game tradition, were hoping that Tedford would stay, many feared his days in Berkeley are numbered. 

“Cal football has two traditions,” said Gerald Vellegas, a Cal alumnus. “Losing football games and losing coaches who win football games.” 

Leading up to Saturday’s Big Game, Tedford is 26-12 at Cal. 

Since the departure of legendary head coach Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf after the 1956 season, only two coaches other than Tedford have managed to post winning records at Cal: Mike White, who left in 1978 after six seasons to become an NFL assistant coach with the 49ers, and Bruce Snyder, who bolted for Arizona State after five seasons at Cal, which culminated in a 1991 Citrus Bowl victory. 

Before that triumph, Cal’s previous New Year’s Day bowl game victory came in 1938, its last Rose Bowl win. The Rose Bowl traditionally pits the champions of the PAC 10 conference and the Big 10 conference, which includes traditional powers from the Midwest, against each other. At 46 years, Cal has the longest Rose Bowl drought of any team in either conference. 

Winning football games doesn’t just boost morale around campus, it contributes to the university’s bottom line. Average attendance this season has soared above 64,000, nearly double what the team averaged in 2001, the year before Tedford took charge. When increased merchandising sales, corporate sponsorships and revenue from appearances on national television are included, the football team has generated several million for the athletic department, which still runs a $3 million to $5 million deficit, according to Cal Athletics spokesperson Bob Rose. 

“This is why you invest in a coach like Tedford,” Rose said. “Football is the engine that drives the revenue to fund a 27-sport program.” The added revenue generated by the football team this year has protected several of the unive rsity’s lesser grossing teams from possible cuts, Rose said. 

Aware that boosters are sure to shell out more money to support a winner than a loser, UC Berkeley is planning to pull out all the stops to keep Tedford in town. New Athletic Director Sandy Bar bour indicated the university would be open to granting Tedford a contract extension that would likely include a hefty raise.  

Still, she acknowledged that the university’s facilities would likely be the factor that determines Tedford’s future in Berkele y. “He needs to see progress,” she said. 

Built in 1923, Memorial Stadium is among the most outdated facilities in Division 1 college football and a major liability in consistently recruiting top flight talent. Unlike the homes of PAC 10 rivals, the stadi um has no luxury suites or club seating which generate additional revenue. The weight room, built 21 years ago, is too small to accommodate even half of the squad. 

Barbour added that the university had not determined if the final renovation plan would to add super-bright television quality lights, which residents who live near the stadium on Panoramic Hill have long opposed.  

The city’s power to regulate any future project is unclear, said Planning Director Dan Marks. Generally Berkeley doesn’t have aut hority over university building projects. However the city could argue that a football stadium is not part of the academic mission of UC Berkeley and therefore the project should be subject to city approval, he said. 

No matter what the future of Cal foot ball or Memorial Stadium is, for Bear fans, this season will go down as one of the most exciting. If the Bears defeat Stanford, as they are favored to do, and the University of Southern California (USC) defeats UCLA in two weeks, USC would likely go on to play for the National Championship in the Orange Bowl in Miami. That would leave Cal as the second place team in the PAC 10 to play in the Rose Bowl. 

Although a trip to the Rose Bowl isn’t assured, Sherie Allen, a season ticket holder who was a freshman when Cal last played on New Year’s Day 1959 in Pasadena already has her ticket and hotel reservation. 

“My mother wouldn’t let me go last time,” she said at Sunday’s battle of the bands event. “This year no one is going stop me.” 

Berkeley’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center faces the potential loss of the accreditation status needed to offer service to Medicare and Medicaid patients, following a scathing report from the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). 

The bad news came at a time when the hospital’s largest union has already voted to strike in December.  

Word of the preliminary survey results was confirmed by a Nov. 8 memo to staff from the hospital’s President and CEO Warren Kirk, who warned that “The surveyors indicated that, unless we can successfully clarify and refute some recommendations, we could be at risk to receive a preliminary denial of accreditation.” 

While participation in JCAHO is voluntarily, the overwhelming majority of American hospitals—some 4,500—participate to win federal authorization to treat seniors and patients receiving other aid programs. 

The JCAHO report is only preliminary, and the hospital will have time to rebut allegations before the final report is approved, most likely during JCAHO’s January meeting, Alta Bates spokesperson Carolyn Kemp said Monday. 

While Kemp said the report highlighted issues the hospital has already targeted for improvement—most notably documentation and the hospital’s emergency room—she said there was nothing unusual in the preliminary notes, which were given to the hospital after commission staffers surveyed the facility during the first week of November. 

“There are probably hundreds of hospitals in the same position,” she said. 

JCAHO spokesperson Charlene Hill said the final report won’t be issued for another four months. 

“The organization will receive a report in about two weeks, and they’ll have another two weeks to appeal and demonstrate they were in compliance when the inspectors were on site,” she said. “When the appeal period closes, JCAHO will determine which of the critiques still stand.” 

The hospital will have four months to demonstrate it is in compliance with the commission’s recommendations for improvement. “Generally speaking, hospitals are able to make the necessary changes” and retain accreditation, Hill said.  

Kirk’s memo to staff used italics to emphasize one point: “We must document 100 percent of what we do 100 percent of the time. We each must be accountable for our own responsibilities and adhere to the policies we have in place.” 

The executive’s memo also said that while the JCAHO document makes it clear “we have significant work to do in identified processes and systems, the patient care, clinical outcomes and compassion that we provide to patients are of the highest standards.” 

JCAHO spokesperson Hill declined to comment on the report. 

Kemp acknowledged that the hospital’s emergency room is inadequate for the number of patients it serves, but said major changes are on the way. 

“It wasn’t designed for the present workload, and we’ve been trying to upgrade for 12 years,” Kemp said. “But we’ve finally received federal and state approval for the upgrade, and we hope to have it finished next year.” 

John Borso, vice president of Local 250 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents most Alta Bates workers except for physicians and registered nurses, says he’s skeptical of the hospital’s claims. 

“We’ve been saying for years that Sutter Health Care,” which owns the hospital, “is primarily motivated by profit. While they’ve made a remarkable financial turnaround in the last couple of years, there are major management problems.” 

Local 250 members have voted to strike in December, he said. SEIU employees in Sutter’s other 11 Northern California hospitals have either voted to strike or are scheduled to hold strike votes. By the end of the week, said Borso, “we expect a strike vote in all 12.” 

Borso said Sutter is the only hospital chain in Northern California that has denied the union’s plans to set aside funding for training employees in new technologies so they can advance in their jobs. 

“The fact is, there are management problems because management is so focused on profit,” Borso said.›

Land use, and the development of a long range strategic plan to guide it, will likely be one of the major issues facing the new Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees when it convenes in January. 

Four newcomers—Bill Withrow in Area 1, Marc ie Hodge in Area 2, Nicky González Yuen in Area 3, and Cy Gulassa in Area 4—were elected earlier this month to the seven-member board. None of the incumbents in those areas chose to run for re-election. 

“I think land use is going to be very important and a priority issue for the new trustees,” said outgoing Area 3 Trustee Darryl Moore, who was elected to the Berkeley City Council. “As long as we have cuts at the state level to funding at the community colleges, I just think it would behoove the trustees to consider how they can best develop district property to bring in revenue that can help finance the district during these difficult budget processes.” 

But how Peralta’s land should be developed—and even how much land is available for possible developme nt—is a subject of controversy. 

Yuen, a Berkeley resident and a professor at De Anza College, said he’s been told that the Peralta District has in the neighborhood of “70 acres of underutilized land,” mostly at Merritt and Laney colleges. 

“You’ve got ab out 30 acres of overflow parking lot up at Merritt College [in the Oakland hills],” he said. “It’s a completely unused parking lot that’s been asphalted, but it’s old asphalt and there’s weeds growing through it.” 

But Sadiq B. Ikaharo, director For gener al services for the Peralta Community College District, puts that Merritt available land total considerably lower—no more than 10 acres.  

“In Merritt, they have a piece of land with redwood trees that is being utilized by the horticulture department in i ts curriculum program,” Ikaharo said. 

At Laney College, near downtown Oakland, the major controversy surrounds the athletic fields and a student/faculty parking lot that sit at the south end of the campus. The area is divided from the campus by a city-ow ned creek that drains from Lake Merritt to the estuary, ending at the Jack London Aquatic Center. Two years ago, Oakland voters passed bond Measure DD which, in part, allocated money to open up the creek, making the area a potentially lucrative developmen t spot. 

“By virtue of the proximity of Laney to transportation,”—it is within short walking distance of the Lake Merritt BART station as well as near an I-880 offramp—”and very close to the inner city, a lot of interests are there on land that doesn’t ha ve any structure, any building,” said Ikaharo. “We have about four or five proposals, wanting this piece of land. But,” he added, “I don’t think the students and the Board of Trustees would go for that.” 

It is an understatement. In recent years, proposal s—first by Kaiser Permanente and then Children’s Hospital of Oakland—to develop hospital facilities on Laney’s athletic fields have been met with a storm of protest, causing the proposals to be withdrawn. Similarly, an idea to build a new Oakland A’s base ball stadium on the Laney fields went nowhere because of community disapproval. 

“Every time the issue of the development of the athletic fields at Laney gets raised,” said Yuen, “it’s like throwing oil on a fire. You have a history of people within the d istrict not trusting the board to have a fair process, an open process, and one that works for the educational needs of the district. So there’s already a lot of suspicion that goes up.” 

Yuen thinks that rather than looking at the athletic fields, land d evelopment plans on the Laney campus should concentrate on the adjacent parking lots. 

“Those things are ugly, they’re eyesores,” he said. “Now I’m not saying ‘let’s sell off the parking lots.’ What I’m saying is that there isn’t as much emotional attachm ent to that land. And moreover, if you take athletic fields and you develop them, then there won’t be any athletic fields. But if you take a parking lot and put buildings on top of them, you can have a parking lot under it, or over it. You’re not necessar ily taking away the utility of the land for its present purposes.” 

During his campaign, Yuen, in fact, called for a three-year moratorium on consideration of development of the athletic fields at Laney. He said that continues to be his position. 

“If you were going to even consider developing that land, you would want a process that is inclusive,” he said. “You would want a process that took into consideration the long-term land use and financial needs of the district. You’d want it to fit in with the br oader educational plan, coordination among the four campuses, consideration of the student load, and so forth.” 

One of the problems, according to both Yuen, Moore, and district union leaders, is that if the Peralta College District has a district-wide master plan to cover land usage and development, it’s not readily available to the public. 

“I’m told that there is [a master land use plan], but I haven’t seen it,” said Yuen. “And when I talk to people and when I have asked people—and I’ve asked a lot of people what are the specifics of this plan—I never hear anything. If there is one, it’s probably not a very developed plan. I’ve seen a number of other district policies that don’t have enough specificity to them to actually call them a ‘plan.’ So I’ll wi thhold judgment on whether the current land use plan is adequate, because I haven’t seen it.” 

“There may well be [a master land use plan], but I’m not aware of it,” said Michael Mills, president of the Peralta Federation of Teachers, which represents fac ulty members employed by the Peralta Community College District. “If there is one, then it’s been poorly publicized. If there isn’t, then it needs to be done post-haste.” 

Asked if the district had a land use plan, Moore said “That’s a good question.” Moo re said that the district hired a consultant to develop a master land use plan before Ronald Temple retired as Peralta chancellor last year. “But the process was never finished when Temple left.” 

Rather than a full-blown plan, Moore said that the distric t has a land use policy. “I think the gist of it that whatever is developed has to fit within the mission of the Peralta Community Colleges. But there needs to be more strategic long-term planning done with regard to land use.” 

Actually, the district has taken steps to develop a districtwide land-use plan. Last month, with Moore in attendance, the trustees approved a three-year $90,000 contract with IPA Planning Solutions of Oakland “to work in collaboration with district’s staff to provide a complete and comprehensive strategic master plan ... to build its capital land and facilities improvement.” 

And in the end, that may be one of Peralta’s biggest problems: that even when the district responds to criticisms, it doesn’t fully publicize its efforts. 

“There is not a great system of communication within the district,” Yuen said. “Right now, a lot of the ways that ideas are communicated is through rumor and we don’t have a clear-cut process of inclusive decision-making.”?0

There will likely be more cake than debate at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. 

With three newly elected councilmembers set to begin their duties at the next meeting on Dec. 7, the council will begin Tuesday evening with festivities for outgoing members Miriam Hawley, Margaret Breland and Maudelle Shirek. 

Hawley and Breland chose to retire and Shirek lost a write-in bid for a ninth term. The council will also say goodbye to City Clerk Sherry Kelly, who is retiring in two weeks. 

When the ceremonies end, the council will consider a proposal from Housing Director Steve Barton to allow troubled affordable housing developer Jubilee Restoration Inc. access to, and greater control over than in past years, an annual $26,000 city grant. 

Last month the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) froze payment on a $121,633-a-year grant for Jubilee’s homeless youth program. An investigation conducted by the federal agency found evidence that Jubilee had engaged in nepotism and misallocated funds, prompting some councilmembers to question Barton’s recommendation to grant the nonprofit city money this year.  

“This doesn’t sound like a good deal,” said Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who said he would rather reallocate the funding to a different organization. 

The city grant, required by HUD to secure the federal grant money, has previously helped pay for a youth outreach coordinator for Jubilee’s homeless youth drop-in center. Since the youth program director resigned this fall, the outreach worker essentially runs the drop-in center. 

Barton is proposing that Jubilee use the city funds so that it can retain its staff to address the allegations in the HUD report. As a condition to receive the city funding, Jubilee will allow HUD to provide the city with all of its findings, comply with city reporting requirements and use the money only to respond to HUD and maintain its housing development activities. 

Berkeley has not released yet the grant for this year because Jubilee has failed to complete reports documenting its spending of the grant for the prior year. 

In its report, released last month, HUD found that Jubilee had transferred money from HUD accounts to pay for ineligible costs including an office luncheon. Jubilee was supposed to use the HUD grant, which was first issued in 2002, to pay for three full-time homeless youth counselors, but HUD found no evidence that any of the positions were filled until October 2003. 

Also, HUD objected to Jubilee Executive Director Gordon Choyce and his son, Deputy Director Gordon Choyce II, maintaining seats on the board of directors. They have since resigned from the board. Jubilee also employs Charleton Lightfoot, the son of board treasurer Charles Lightfoot, as its adult program coordinator, raising questions of nepotism. 

Jubilee has until Nov. 20 to respond to the charges. 

Already the investigation has jeopardized Jubilee Village, a proposed 110-unit affordable housing development. The council voted last week to delay guaranteeing up to $3 million in HUD sponsored loans for Jubilee to purchase the property at 2612 San Pablo Ave. until Jubilee cleared itself of HUD’s charges. 

Also on the agenda for Tuesday is a proposal for the council to conduct a public hearing on whether to charge for Sunday parking at the Oxford Parking Lot. Last year, the lot averaged $481,633 a week for six days of operation. If Berkeley charged for parking on Sundays, it could generate an additional $62,400 a year, Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier wrote in a report.

Teachers, parents, students, and other citizens who think Berkeley classrooms don’t have sufficient textbooks or instructional materials get the chance to put their concerns on the record when the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) Board of Education holds a public hearing on the matter this week. 

The hearing—which is required by the state Education Code—will be held during the board’s regular public meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m., on the second floor of the school administration building at Old City Hall. 

This will be the first meeting of the school board since a hotly-contested election earlier this month returned incumbents Joaquin Rivera and John Selawsky to the board. 

On the agenda is first reading of a proposed board member/employee conflict of interest policy. Among other things, the four page document is intended to cover gifts, honoraria, and the awarding of contracts, as well as criteria for when potential conflicts must be disclosed, and when board members are to be disqualified from voting. 

Scheduled for final reading is adoption of the district’s Integrated Policy for Nutrition, Education, Physical Activity and Food, which is intended to promote healthy eating by students while attending Berkeley public schools. 

The board is also scheduled to vote on a replacement for Carolyn Weinberger on the district’s Personnel Commission. The commission has three members, one each appointed by the board, the superintendent, and the Classified Unions. Weinberger was appointed to her position by the superintendent, but her seat on the commission—scheduled to run from December 2004 through December 2007—will be filled by the board. A third commission seat, which runs from December 2003 through December 2006, remains vacant. 

—J. Douglas Allen-Taylorƒ

A major share in one of Berkeley’s most notable buildings, the Hink’s Building at 2200 Shattuck Ave., has been sold, said John DeClerq, senior vice president of TransAction Financial, which had owned the building until early last week. 

DeClerq also presented the city Monday with a check for $1,028,000 to pay building permit fees for Library Gardens, Transaction’s 176-unit apartment complex with five street-level shops, which is replacing the current 362-space Kittredge Street Garage, just west of the central library. 

Excavation for Library Gardens’ single level of underground parking is halfway completed, DeClerq said Monday, with completion scheduled for July 2006. 

Roy Nee, a Berkeley resident for the last five years, purchased two of the three legal entities in the Hinks/Shattuck Hotel complex, bounded by Shattuck and Harold Street to the east and west between Allston Way and Kittredge Street. 

The sale includes the Berkeley Center, the Shattuck Cinema and an adjoining office building at Allston and Harold. The sale does not include the Shattuck Hotel, which is under separate ownership. 

The theater occupies the site that once housed Hink’s Department Store, a fixture of downtown Berkeley for six decades before it closed in the 1980s. Under Transaction’s ownership, the space was turned into a theater complex. 

The purchase also includes the extensive basement space. 

“I was interested in making an investment in downtown Berkeley,” said Nee. “From my perspective, a lot of good things are going on downtown. 

“I’m very interested in the process of how communities transform themselves, and after decades of downtown decline, there has been considerable improvement over the last half-dozen years,” he said. 

Among his immediate plans, Nee plans changes in management and operation and improvement of the theater entrance and other access points. 

In addition to his newest acquisition, Nee has another project in Marin County and he owns the Tea Garden Springs day spa in Mill Valley. 

Legally, his newest acquisition is held by a Delaware corporation which, in turn, is held by a limited partnership. 

The Library Gardens project had been in limbo since the approval of a building permit in February. 

The project generated controversy because of the drastic losses in downtown parking spaces that stemmed from demolition of the Kittredge Street Garage, once the facility for Hink’s customers. 

The final plan as approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board provides 130 spaces, fewer than TransAction had initially promised. DeClerq promised ZAB that significantly more than half the spaces would be reserved for short-term parkers.y

Two Drivers Robbed, One Shot  

A driver was shot and wounded at 4 a.m. last Wednesday as he was making a delivery in the 2200 block of Sacramento Street, said Officer Okies. 

The driver was approached by a male and female robbery team who demanded cash. The driver was shot in the ensuing confrontation, and was rushed to a local hospital where he is recovering, said Officer Okies. 

In the second incident three hours later, another delivery driver was approached by a male/female robbery team as he was stopped at Tenth Street and University Avenue. 

After collecting the money, the two robbers jumped into a dark-colored import driven by a second woman. 

Officer Okies said police are investigating to see if there is a connection between the two crimes. “We’re also working with other agencies to see if these robberies are connected to others in the area,” he said. 

Police Seek Help for Lost Woman 

Berkeley Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a woman in her 70s officers found after they were summoned to help a disoriented woman at a bus stop near the corner of Shattuck and University avenues. 

The woman, who stands five feet tall and weighs 110 pounds, had no identification papers and speaks only Korean, said BPD spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

A translator brought in by police said the woman’s name may be Oh, Byungae. 

She was unable to offer her address or the names of any friends, but indicated that she may have been born in April, 1925, and may have a son in San Francisco named Sunsoon Im or Lim. 

Anyone with any information on the woman is requested to call Berkeley Police at 981-5900. 

Road Rage Report 

An incident of road rage took a nasty turn on Berkeley Nov. 4, when the driver of an SUV pulled alongside another motorist on Ashby Avenue near the intersection with San Pablo Avenue, said Officer Joe Okies. 

A male occupant of the SUV brandished the firearm. He was accompanied by a woman in the car, said the driver of the other car. No suspects have been identified. 

Strong-Armed Stereo 

Two men entered the Food Town market at 3049 Sacramento St. shortly before 6 p.m. on Nov. 5. They strong-armed a portable radio away from a customer. 

Robbery Trio Busted 

Police arrested a 19-year-old man and two juveniles Nov. 5 for the strongarm robbery of a Berkeley man. The heist occurred about 9:30 p.m., and the victim followed the three suspects and called police, who handcuffed all three and escorted them to cells. 

Another Strongarm 

Police are looking for a man in his mid-20s who strong-armed the cash away from a pedestrian in the 1500 block of Eighth Street shortly before 6 p.m. on Nov. 6. 

Mother Busted 

Police arrested a Berkeley mother after a shopper saw her shoving her three-year-old in the Telegraph Avenue Andronico’s Park & Shop shortly after 6 p.m. on the 6th. The mom was booked on charges of child endangerment and drug intoxication, and the youngster was taken to Child Protective Services, said Officer Okies. 

Fowl Deeds 

A short, heavyset woman, her face hidden behind a mask, claimed to have a gun in her pocket after she entered the Church’s Fried Chicken at 1200 San Pablo Ave. on Nov. 7. When she demanded the contents of the till, the clerk wisely didn’t choose to contest her claim. No arrests have been made. 

BART Robber Busted  

Police arrested an 18-year-old suspect on suspicion of armed robbery after a man was robbed and stabbed at the downtown BART station, said Officer Okies. 

Both the victim and the suspect were standing at the platform when officers arrived shortly after the call. The victim had been robbed of his personal belongings and sustained minor injuries. 

Blockbuster Bust  

Berkeley Police arrested a 26-year-old man in the 2352 Shattuck Ave. Blockbuster Video Friday after a clerk saw him attempting to open DVDs protected by locking devices. 

The suspect was charged with burglary, possession of burglary tools and vandalism.o

Three fires caused significant damage to Berkeley residences over last week, reports David Orth, Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief. 

The first fire was reported at 2:16 p.m. Wednesday in the rear storage room of an apartment building at 1600 Hearst Ave. The fire, which took crews an hour-and-a-half to extinguish, caused damage estimated at $25,000. 

The first of Friday’s two blazes was reported at 3:10 a.m. at 2315 Hearst Ave., Orth said. 

When firefighters arrived, they found flames burning in the garage level beneath the structure. Flames penetrated through the garage roof into the floors of apartment units above, causing minor damage there. 

Flames were extinguished by 4:10 a.m., and while the fire was initially listed as an arson, investigators trace the source to a motorcycle parked in the garage, Orth said. 

Damage from the fire was estimated at $25,000. 

The largest of the blazes was reported at 5:37 p.m. Friday in a home at 1434 66th St.  

Oil in an unattended French fryer ignited, causing a blaze that spread from the kitchen to the rear utility room of the single family residence, Orth said. 

By the time the blaze was finally controlled it had caused at estimated $90,000 in damage to the structure, another $45,000 in damage to the contents and forced the two adults and six children living in the home to seek other quarters.

One of California’s best-known Democrats has surfaced in leading roles as an advocate in three high-profile Richmond projects. 

Willie L. Brown Jr., most recently San Francisco mayor and before that the powerful California Assembly speaker, has been calling city councilmembers on behalf of ChevronTexaco, the recently spurned suitor for Point Molate. 

That worries Councilmember Tom Butt, the author of Richmond’s municipal lobbying ordinance, which requires anyone lobbying city government to register with the city. 

“There’s a thin loophole for people who are lawyers. If they’re legally representing someone they could conceivably make contact with city staff. But not when they’re contacting councilmembers,” Butt said. 

ChevronTexaco lost its bid to buy Point Molate last Tuesday, when the council awarded the property to Upstream Point Molate, Inc., a firm headed by Berkeley developer James Levine, who previously headed the company conducting the cleanup operations at Campus Bay. 

Brown entered the Campus Bay picture as the representative of Cherokee Investment Partners, a multinational venture capital firm specializing in so-called “brownfields” investments, projects built on restored contaminated land. The firm is bankrolling a plan to build a 1,330-unit housing complex directly above 350,000 cubic yards of buried hazardous waste and contaminated soil. 

Cherokee’s partner in the project is Simeon Properties, a Marin County development company with extensive holdings in Western states. Their lobbyist/lawyer for the project is Margaret Rosegay, a partner in Pillsbury, Winthrop of San Francisco. Rosegay also represents ChevronTexaco, according to lobbyist records on file with the California Secretary of State’s office. Brown is not registered as a lobbyist with that office, either. 

As the battle over Campus Bay heated up in recent weeks, Brown entered the fray on behalf of Cherokee Investment Partners in their negotiations with Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development, a group which has been fighting the conduct of ongoing restoration efforts at the site. 

Brown’s appearance as an anti-casino advocate in opposing Levine’s Point Molate plan is a significant career departure. He tells the story often of his first job in San Francisco as a spotter for an illegal casino, sitting in an alley with a button within reach he would push if he saw police headed his way, tipping the gamblers inside to the impending raid. 

Soon after he was named Assembly speaker in 1980, Brown was hired by gambling interests pushing for gambling in Atlantic City. Brown talked to New Jersey city’s African American population, promising new housing and high paying jobs should the casino measure pass. 

When the measure carried, much of Atlantic City’s housing was leveled, and most of the African American workers hired by the casinos were bused in from Philadelphia, a story documented in the late Ovid Demaris’s The Boardwalk Jungle. Brown’s role was documented by Sacramento Bee political columnist Dan Walters, both contemporaneously and later for the 1998 Frontline gambling documentary “Easy Money.” 

Not that the man who once proclaimed himself “the Ayatollah of the Assembly” and later “Da Mayor” has become an ardent gambling foe. 

Earlier this year, Brown has surfaced as a lobbyist for BarWest LLC, which is developing plans for a casino in the Barstow area with the Los Coyotes Band of the Cahuilla and Cupeo peoples. 

The casino plan is being floated by Marina Ilitch, who with her spouse owns the Little Caesars Enterprises (Little Caesars Pizza), the Detroit Redwings hockey team and a quarter-interest in the Motor City Casino in Detroit.  

Other lobbyists hired by Ilitch to boost the Southern California casino proposal include Michael Rossetti, former senior legal counsel and chief tribal gaming expert to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (whose agency has the final say on authorizing the tribe to claim the site as a reservation), and former Missouri Congressional Rep. Alan Wheat. 

Rossetti left his federal job in February to join a law firm representing, among other clients, the Seneca Nation, whose casino plans he had steered through the Department of the Interior. Two months later he was representing the Los Coyotes Band in their Barstow effort along with Brown. 

One explanation for Brown’s role concerns another Richmond casino project he’s been hired to represent. The deal with Levine and Upstream that the Richmond City Council approved includes an exclusivity clause, barring the city from allowing another casino within its jurisdiction. 

Brown has also been retained by the Virginia-based Mills Corporation, which is floating plans for a casino at Richmond’s Hilltop Mall, a property in which they hold a half-interest. 

According to published accounts, Mills executives donated to Brown’s San Francisco mayoral campaign and, as mayor, Brown helped the firm move toward approval with their plans to develop 23 acres of choice waterfront property in San Francisco, including Piers 27-31. The plan has drawn considerable criticism and has yet to win final approval. 

Butt said Brown has a political relationship with Mayor Irma Anderson and was the guest of honor at a fundraiser for Councilmember Nathaniel Bates. 

“We know he had contacts with two or three councilmembers, and he says he was just asking about the statues of Point Molate, which wouldn’t count as lobbying,” Butt said of Brown’s calls to councilmembers prior to the vote last week.

AD HOMINEM CRAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I learned so much about myself that I did not know from reading Steve Tabor’s Oct. 29 letter in response to mine criticizing Ralph Nader. Mr. Tabor must have gotten his information via telepathy since he doesn’t know me. His frequency seems a little off, however. 

I learned, for instance, that I am a “former” anti-war activist, and that (although I did not mention John Kerry), that “Brechin and his boys are stumping for Kerry so they can get positions in the new Kerry administration.” Furthermore, I discovered that George Soros has paid me $16 million to shill for the senator. I confess that John and Theresa promised my boys and me top positions in the Pentagon if I would just destroy Nader’s reputation in the Daily Planet; George has assured me that even though our man lost, the check’s still in the mail. I need it to continue my chemtrail experiments. 

Please print prominently the legal definition and penalties for libel; it might just curb such ad hominem crap and marginally improve the quality of discourse around here. 

Gray Brechin 

• 

MEASURE B 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We would like to thank the Berkeley voters for their support of Measure B, which is a generous and necessary community solution to the state’s poor funding of schools. These local revenues will reduce class sizes, staff school libraries, support music education, and provide professional development, program evaluation and parent/community outreach. 

Wonderful things happen in our Berkeley schools. But each year the funding is tighter and doesn’t go as far, resulting in cutbacks or unfilled needs that are disheartening to us as educators. Next year we can look forward to some positive improvements because of Measure B, such as smaller class sizes, which make teaching and learning better—thank you! 

Compelling and long-term research results show a direct correlation between student achievement and good library programs, but California ranks dead last in the nation in library funding, behind the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. The state’s failure to recognize this pressing need, and fund it, is part of the achievement gap that will not go away unless we tackle it locally. Measure B will help do this—thank you!  

Music education, professional development and community outreach are essential components of an effective education system. Again, these are real needs that are barely considered in State funding decisions. Berkeley has affirmed public education by approving Measure B—and we are grateful to you! 

King Middle School Faculty  

• 

MEASURE H 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one of the diverse supporters of Measure H (to provide full public funding of campaigns) I too was surprised by its rejection by Berkeley voters who in doing so, apparently allowed fear of public expense block the path to more efficient, voter responsive government. While, as your Nov. 12 editorial pointed out, it is possible to reach voters through the Internet without great expenditure, candidates with money will still beat those without, and public financing eliminates money wars by creating an even playing field at nominal cost which in states where it has been adopted has largely eliminated the corrupting influence of special interest money from politics. I say better our money, contributing small amounts together, than theirs. Hopefully more will agree the next time around. 

Tom Miller 

• 

POINT MOLATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Nov. 12 Daily Planet article “Developer Wins Pact to Build Point Molate Casino” states: 

“However, the City Council’s approval of the Point Molate casino indicate that development on Richmond open land such as Breuner Marsh is definitely possible—especially if it brings jobs. Activists against development do have two points going for them that Point Molate did not—first, the Breuner property, is close to residential areas such as Parchester, and secondly, the Breuner site has a history of development deals being shot down by community pressure.” 

The areas slated for development at Point Molate are not open space, they consist of an existing historic district with dozens of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and “brownfield” areas previously occupied by Navy facilities. 

This is an important distinction. Breuner Marsh has never been occupied by structures, and it is not a brownfield site. 

Tom Butt 

• 

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rent control in Berkeley was not a major issue in the election. However as a residential landlord I am distressed by the cost of maintaining the program as well by the city’s allowing to continue a pathetic waste of money, over $2 million a year. 

To clear my position my opposition is not based on the cost to me as an individual. The cost has two elements, the rents received and the yearly registration fees. Current rents are market rents and for new tenants rent control is no factor. For existing tenants there would be increases or decreases depending on when the tenancy began and certain factors such as age, income, and their relationship with the owner. The registration fees are strictly out of pocket and in my case amounted to $2,448 for 2003. I would be happy to pay or donate this amount to a project or program that would be beneficial to the community. 

The necessity for Berkeley Rent Control certainly now is a thing of the past even assuming it was valid to start with. Not only is there no shortage of units in Berkeley but there probably is a surplus. There is a free market with tenants able to choose the best value. The combination of new apartments both by the university and the private sector along with decreased demand due to the economic downturn account for the availability. 

I wonder if the proponents of Berkeley Rent Control will ever concede that the time has come for the death and burial of the ordinance. Liberal economist Paul Krugman in an article June 7, 2000 for the New York Times writes in part: The analysis of rent control is among the best-understood issue in all of economics, and—among economists, anyway—one of the least controversial. In 1992 a poll of the American Economic Association found 93 percent of its members agreeing that “a ceiling on rents reduces the quality and quantity of housing.” 

The funds spent on maintaining the Rent Board should be used for necessary purposes and not to continue a useless bureaucracy. 

Sig Cohn 

• 

HOMELESS BELONGINGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was stunned to read in the Planet recently the amount of money ($50,000) our city (with a huge deficit) spends on lockers to “protect” the belongings of the homeless. Furthermore that our city manager has decided that we are legally obligated to do so. Why? Because it is lost property. It is not “lost,” it is abandoned. Homeless camps abound in our west Berkeley neighborhood. Along the railroad tracks, Fourth Street and Camelia, abandoned carts and trash are everywhere. Homeless who are lucky enough to live in dilapidated RVs and cars park bumper to bumper in our neighborhood along Camelia Street. When it storms, their trash fills the storm drains resulting in our homes and businesses flooding. We clean it up again and again.  

The city continues to ignore our pleas for help in this endless clean up campaign. And now we must have lockers to store their belongings? In the spirit of Berkeley’s continued support system for the homeless, I suggest the lockers be placed along the RR tracks so that the homeless may find them more convenient to where they live and if they actually use them, it may help with our existing, never ending trash problem. How about latrines too?  

Sandy Simon  

• 

EL CERRITO MEASURE C 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This spring the El Cerrito City Council announced a plan to give Measure C money to a private developer to build a 500-car garage, 100 condos and a day care center. The project was to occupy the three-acre area in the southeast corner of the El Cerrito Plaza. We citizens waited for an environmental impact report (EIR) to be published so that we could respond to the proposal cogently. Initially the EIR was supposed to be available in August; in early November it finally was published. Within a few days, the developer at a public meeting announced that the project had changed and no longer was the one described in the EIR. Good golly, Miss Mollie, who’s on first? 

Mary Milton  

El Cerrito  

• 

FIRE TRUCK CUTBACKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

During the first week of closing the fire truck at Berkeley and Shattuck from 1800 to 0800 hours, Berkeley’s only truck responded on 12 calls that included two working fires, one big rig accident on the freeway, and seven fire alarms. All of these calls were north of University Avenue. 

Last year, fire administrators proposed closing down a fire truck during the day, because there was more of a potential for rescues at night. This year, several civic leaders supported closing a fire truck at night, because it was during the “winter time.” The night time closure was supported by fire administrators so they could accrue savings faster.  

Berkeley Fire Fighters 1227 have been in negotiations over the truck closures, but the city administrators will not put in writing that the truck will be restored when $300,000 in salary savings is met.  

Fortunately, no one was injured in the structure fires last week, but the decision makers are gambling with this city’s safety. It’s a matter of the roll of dice until a resident or firefighter gets injured or killed from extended response times because someone approved to reduce the fire department’s rescue capability by fifty percent and reduce the on-duty firefighting force by 10 percent. 

Some accused the firefighters union of not being team players, which is why the city is shutting down the truck at night. It needs to be pointed out that the firefighters took zero percent raises in 2001 and 2002. The firefighters (as well as the police officers) pay nine percent towards their retirement costs and have been doing so since 1993. Public safety employees remain the only employee groups who pay the employee contribution. The firefighters offered to defer three percent of the current salary in exchange for a modest increase in 2006. The proposal would have cost the city two percent less than all the other bargaining groups raises for 2006.  

Berkeley Firefighters supported Measure M, because we believe that the fire department cannot endure further reductions without affecting life safety. The voters have spoken, but we believe the same voters do not want fire department reductions that affect emergency response. We are dialing 9-1-1 for the citizens groups to speak against shutting down fire department companies, because your safety matters. 

Call or e-mail Mayor Bates and your city councilmember today and tell them to restore the truck before someone gets injured or killed.  

Marc Mestrovich 

President, BFFA Local 1227 

• 

HOUSING 

Editors, Daily Planet 

We are many, young and middle-aged, middle-income, who want to own property in Berkeley. New buildings, may have filled the need for the rental market but not for the ownership market. Planning Director Dan Marks’ comments leave me despondent at the lack of leadership in this town. He should lead the way calling for infill development that would provide this type of housing. Economics and supply and demand should dictate the height, scope and nature of these projects not neighborhood NIMBYs.. 

City planners should be one step ahead of the developers, not dragging them back from behind. It is so easy to criticize those who build and design. If we stopped fighting our developers and started leading and inspiring them they might have more money left over to build inspired buildings with wonderful amenities. Imagine a building owned by middle class residents (who could otherwise not afford to own), with communal amenities such as lap pool, roof garden, roof top entertainment lounge/reading room, and communal vehicular /parking facilities. Such a building, say on University Avenue, would benefit 20 or 30 middle class residents, at an inconvenience to two neighboring home owners. Owning a property so close to our major thoroughfares is exactly what one should expect when buying those properties. Our major thoroughfares, Shattuck and University avenues, are littered with, poorly designed and placed eyesore structures. 

Those like Dan Marks, who can’t see a need for housing, ought to get up early one morning and drive to Tracy, Sacramento or Santa Rosa and see what people are doing for housing and how long they spend commuting everyday to Bay area jobs, many of which are right here in Berkeley! 

P. Levitt 

• 

ELECTION DAY DEBACLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In your Nov. 5 story about the election day “debacle” at the YWCA polling station, I wish you had delved more deeply into why the Registrar of Voters continues to use poll workers whose behavior shows they shouldn’t be serving in that capacity. 

When I called the Registrar of Voters earlier this fall, a county official told me each worker is expected to show up for work at 6 a.m. on election day, and not to leave until 9:30 p.m. that evening. As Edith Hallberg pointed out in that same issue of the Planet, that is one long work day, especially for those of us who have daily parenting responsibilities. If Alameda County provided shorter election-day shifts, they would probably have little trouble filling those posts and could weed out badly-behaving poll workers. 

Scott Mace 

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In Anne Galjour’s Character Building Workshop at San Francisco State University, we were assigned to read Fences by August Wilson. In preparation for class discussion we researched pop culture, circa 1957, the year in which the play is set. For most of my fellow students, this was like studying ancient history. Even Ms. Gajour, a lively, talented playwright and instructor, doesn’t remember 1957. But I do. I was born in 1952 so I didn’t have to look the decade up on the Internet. I thought I deserved extra credit. 

In 1957 my father had a full head of hair and he drove a Cadillac Eldorado, which had only modest-sized fins. I was in my second year at Mrs. Turner’s pre-school. Mrs. Fox picked me up for school every morning in her yellow Chevrolet. The back of her car was soft and velvety. Squeezed between Patty Willis, Diane Eberley, Donna Hambrecht, Ralph Leeds, Timmy Sellen, and Cheryl Fury, we all hung onto a strap that ran across the backseat. There were no seatbelts. As I recall, Mrs. Fox turned around in our dirt driveway fast, and headed, like a bat out of hell, up the hill for Mrs. Turner’s.  

I used to sing along with Dinah Shore, “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet”, and think of Mrs. Fox.  

I wore little red leather oxfords and plaid dresses. It would be another 13 years before I would be allowed to wear pants to school. I was a happy, optimistic child. I didn’t develop a bad attitude until sometime later.  

In 1957 decent men like my daddy wore t-shirts under a button-down, collared shirt or sweater. Back then they were called undershirts and they were supposed to be hidden. My mother had her hair rolled, teased, sprayed and lacquered every week at the beauty parlor, my grandmother smoked cigarettes using a long, thin holder, my grandfather could still beat everyone he knew in tennis, and then drink them under the table afterwards. 

I remember getting polio vaccines and tuberculosis inoculations, going to the dentist and receiving nova cane, memorizing The Cat in the Hat, and watching The Mickey Mouse Club on our black and white TV with its rabbit ear antenna. Annette Funicello was my hero.  

My brother Danny was three and my brother Billy was one. They wore cloth diapers and they were often trapped inside a wooden playpen in the middle of the braided rug in the living room. Ten years later that rug would be replaced by a beautiful orange, (flecked with green), shag carpet. Eisenhower was president, the Cold War hadn’t yet started; a few more years would pass before I began worrying about Khrushchev and the Russians coming to get me. Nobody took anti-depressants, but all the adults I knew drank martinis and it made them very happy. My dad used to give me the olive out of his drink.  

In 1957 I went to a movie theater for the first time. I saw Old Yeller and it made me cry. On Saturdays I wore Gene Autry cowboy boots and watched Sally Starr and Chief Halftown on TV, local Philadelphia celebrities. I also watched Captain Kangaroo and Wagon Train. I ate cheese steaks and tuna casseroles, Jell-O and canned fruit cocktail. I had a special fondness for butterscotch TastyCakes.  

On January 1, 1957, my grandfather took Danny and me to see the Mummers Day Parade in downtown Philadelphia. A native of south Philly, Grandpop dragged us to the after- pageant celebration, a rowdy, drunken version of the earlier, more sedate procession. Grandpop ducked into a corner bar and left my brother and me outside in the cold, among the revelers. Men in blackface carried signs of protest against Arlen Specter who, as Philadelphia’s young, brash District Attorney, had banned the practice. I remember being scared. Even now I have to wonder what kind of grandpa would leave two little kids on a city corner in the midst of a semi-riot, while he drank beer with his buddies. It’s a wonder I turned out to be as normal as I am. For actually surviving the Fifties, as opposed to just researching them, I think Ms. Gajour should give me an A. 

Anne Galjour’s Okra will appear this spring at the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans. She is working on a new play, Stars at Night, with David Dower of Z Space Studio and David Cale. k

The Daily Planet’s Nov. 5 story on the problem of uncounted ballots (“Thousands of Ballots Still to Be Counted”) didn’t tell the half of it—or probably even a quarter of it. 

The reality is that not “several” but many thousands of Berkeley ballots—possibly a third or more of all ballots cast in the city—weren’t included in the results released on election night and reported in the media. 

In fact, two weeks after the election, an unknown but clearly substantial percentage of Berkeley voters still haven’t had their votes counted. And that group includes many more than the 5,000 students and others who had to cast provisional ballots because they registered at the last minute and therefore weren’t included on the voter rolls. 

Take the south Berkeley precinct where I was inspector (poll worker in charge) on election day. By the end of the day, the six electronic voting machines there had recorded, if I remember correctly, 377 votes in all. But we also collected an astonishing 301 provisional ballots, plus about 80 absentee ballots. 

In other words, just about half of those who voted in that precinct that day cast their votes on paper, and none of those votes were included in the results announced election night. By now the Registrar of Voters’ office should have posted updated county totals that include virtually all the absentee ballots, but as of the end of last week, provisional ballots still hadn’t been counted, according to Assistant Registrar Elaine Ginnold. 

The 301 provisional ballots cast at my precinct represented several categories of voters. Some came from the group the Planet story focused on: those who registered close to the deadline. Others were from voters who said they had registered early but whose names were still missing from the rolls. (Many of these people said they had registered at the DMV—evidently there are major glitches in the “Motor Voter” system.) Still others were voters who were required to cast provisional ballots because they were voting outside their home precinct. (Within Alameda County, registered voters can vote in any precinct, but if you choose to vote at a polling place other than the one where you’re registered, you have to use a provisional ballot; if you vote in a different city, you don’t get to vote for measures and officials specific to your hometown.) 

Paper or plastic? 

By far the largest group of provisional ballots, however, came from voters who were on the precinct rolls and could have used the touchscreen machines, but chose instead to request a paper ballot. They were taking advantage of an option mandated last spring by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley after computer scientists and others raised serious questions about the security of paperless voting machines—and after the manufacturer of Alameda County’s machines, Diebold, was found to have flagrantly violated state procedures. 

It’s water under the bridge now, but I think it’s an outrage that Registrar of Voters Brad Clark turned to provisional ballots to comply with Shelley’s order—and that Shelley’s office accepted this solution. Provisional ballots are for voters whose status is in question. Duly registered voters opting for paper should have been given a non-provisional ballot to mark and deposit in a ballot box. 

That approach would have had at least two advantages: First, voters choosing paper wouldn’t have had to give up their right to a secret ballot. (Provisional and absentee ballots are not really secret, since you have to sign the envelope.) Second, such ballots could have been counted immediately with optical scanners, the way a majority of jurisdictions around the state and nation did it, and we could have had much more complete results on election night. 

Looking Ahead 

If all goes according to plan, voters who insist on verifiable paper ballots won’t have to settle for second-class citizenship next time. Before the 2006 primaries, according to regulations issued by Secretary of State Shelley and a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, Alameda and other counties that use touchscreens will have to retrofit their machines so they generate a voter-verifiable paper ballot. At that point, it seems, we’ll no longer have the option of requesting a simple paper ballot—everyone (except absentee voters and those required to cast provisional ballots because their status is unclear) will have to use the machines. 

If that’s the case, I hope the county is budgeting to buy a lot more machines, or planning to do a lot more than it did this year to encourage absentee and early voting. In the precinct where I worked, all six machines were in use almost constantly from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 2, even though about half our voters didn’t use them If we’d had to accommodate all those voters on six machines, the lines would have stretched for blocks and we’d have had to keep the polls open until 3 or 4 in the morning. 

Henry Norr is is the San Francisco Chronicle’s loss and Berkeley’s gain.?

In 1982, the Oakland Symphony seemed to be going in a promising direction. Under the baton of Calvin Simmons, the orchestra began to look like a world class aggregation, or at the least, a top regional orchestra, especially after it made the newly restored Paramount Theater its home base. 

The art deco classic had been reduced to a shell of its former glory when the Oakland Symphony Orchestra purchased it in 1972. After restoration was completed in 1973, the theater was entered in the National Register of Historic Places and two years later, the City of Oakland took over ownership from the symphony. But 1982 was the year tragedy struck. Simmons, that rara avis, a promising African-American conductor in the world of classical music, drowned in a canoeing accident and the orchestra went into a tail spin. 

Six years later it was reborn, phoenix-like, out of the ashes of the former organization, as the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Two years after that, 25-year-old conductor Michael Morgan took over at the helm and the orchestra started moving in the right direction, not only as an important performer of classical music from all eras, but also as a major cultural force in the East Bay. At first, the new organization performed at the Calvin Simmons Theater, but they finally returned to the larger Paramount for the 1995-96 season. Much of the success of the group is the result of Morgan’s clear sense of how he and the symphony are linked to the community. 

The 2004-2005 season marks Morgan’s 15th year with OEBS. During his tenure he has conducted exemplary performances of both old war horses and contemporary works, some commissioned especially for the orchestra. Non-classical listeners often wonder if the conductors of classical orchestras do any more than keep the time. Indeed, they do. The conductor is not a human metronome, but the auteur of a musical performance, rehearsing, guiding, shaping and inspiring the final result. If you were lucky enough to see Morgan’s 1999 live televised performance of Mozart’s Tenth Piano Concerto for two pianos, you know how magnificent, energizing, fresh and entertaining his conducting can be. 

His greatness is not restricted to the podium though. Morgan, who had been an assistant to Leonard Slatkin at the St. Louis Symphony and Georg Solti at the Chicago Symphony, avoids an easy national reputation as the first choice guest conductor for Black History Month-type concerts. Instead, and more authentically, he and members of the orchestra visit local schools to talk, instruct and perform for thousands of children of all ages each year. 

He wants to make classical music available to young people of whatever background, both as fans and performers. Besides their regular season performances at the Paramount, the OEBS performs at churches, senior centers and community events, as well as a regular concert series in Richmond. The orchestra collaborates with local museum, opera, choral, ballet, and theater organizations on mutually interesting projects, as well. Morgan himself also conducts the San Francisco Symphony’s family concerts, is music director of Walnut Creek’s Festival Opera and substitutes for Denis de Coteau with the San Francisco Ballet. 

This seasons six concerts promise some great performances:  

The season kicks off on Friday, Nov. 19 with the West Coast Premiere of Nathaniel Stookey’s 2001 piece Big Bang; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Shanghai-born pianist Tian Ying; and Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. 

On Jan. 21 the OEBS presents a mostly Mozart evening with three masterpieces from the summer of 1788: the powerful, modernistic Adagio and Fugue for Strings; and two of his last three symphonies, No. 39 in E Flat Major and No. 40 in G Minor. With a nod to the present, the concert will also feature the West Coast premiere of Chen Yi’s accessible Romance and Dance for Two Violins and String Orchestra featuring OEBS co-concertmasters Terrie Baune and Dawn Harms.  

The Feb. 25 concert will present bluegrass violinist Kenji Bunch’s just completed Lichtenstein Triptych, especially commissioned for the OEBS; Beet-hoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major; and Mahler’s Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn featuring Layna Chianakas, mezzo-soprano, and Brian Leerhuber, baritone. Mahler insinuated these songs from the Young Boy’s Magic Horn into much of his later work.  

The accent is on youth at the March 18 concert. Along with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings conducted by assistant conductor Bryan Nies; Verdi’s Overture to I Vespri Siciliani; and Emmanuel Chabrier’s España with students from the Oakland Youth Orchestra sitting in with the OEBS; there will be a world premiere of Hector Armienta’s When Waters Meet featuring young poets selected by California Poets in the Schools. 

The April 22 concert’s focus is on film with performances of Bernard Herrmann’s 1960 Suite from Psycho; Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra used in 2001: A Space Odyssey; Brian Nies conducting Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite featured in Fantasia 2000; and the world premiere of Laurence Rosenthal’s Suite from Becket based on his score for the 1964 film of the same name. 

The final concert of the season, on May 20, will be given over to Leonard Bernstein’s ambitious Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers and will utilize the talents of the Oakland Symphony Chorus under the direction of Magen Solomon; the Piedmont Choirs under the direction of Robert Geary; acclaimed performer and Bernstein favorite Douglas Webster as celebrant; and many local jazz and rock musicians, singers and dancers. It was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to inaugurate the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in 1971 and it has been a dream of Morgan’s, who first worked with Bernstein at Tanglewood, to conduct this piece here since he arrived in Oakland 15 years ago. 

All six of this season’s Oakland East Bay Symphony concerts are on Fridays at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. For information call 444-0801. 

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We’re getting some domestic fall color lately from a couple of tree species on the streets of Berkeley. One of the brightest is a relative newcomer here, Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis. 

You can tell it’s a recent arrival because none of the street specimens here is mature. As with a lot of street trees, of course, there’s a chance they never will get old enough to show us their full potential; a street tree’s life is typically nasty, brutish, and short and so, alas, are entirely too many street tr ees. That’s a particular pity with this species because it’s sometimes called “the ugly duckling”: It’s gangly and awkward in its youth, all elbows and weird angles and often quite asymmetrical. It reaches its best form only after it reaches its modest full size, when it turns into a graceful vase-shaped or round-topped tree. 

Even in its kinky youth, though, it shows us why people plant it in cities when autumn gives it a nudge toward color. In mild climates like ours, without a color-defining cold snap in October, Chinese pistache still glows with an unpredictable variety of deep crimsons, blazing scarlets, and clarion yellows from amber to canary—sometimes on the same tree. Since there’s a lot of unpredictable color variation among individuals as well as differences in how early each one decides to blaze up, we get a long, multi-note salute from a modest row of trees. 

There are plantings a couple of blocks long scattered around the Berkeley flatlands, for example on Gilman Street northwest of Hopkins (next to a set of jacarandas—someone up there likes color) and on Sacramento near University, in the median strip. They’re certainly easy to find right now, when few trees other than sweetgum rival their gaudiness. From a distance, you can sort them out by their skinny, often flat-topped form; up close, by their finely compound, feathery leaves. 

Some of them bear fruit, too, though it doesn’t look like much. Only some, because this is a dioecious tree, with female and male organs on separate plants. The fruits aren’t big and I don’t see that they make a huge “litter” problem on sidewalks, so I hope we don’t get too much pressure to breed male-only clones as we have with some city tree species like mulberry. Some of us have all the airborne tree pollen we need, thanks. The rest of you, don’t be too smug; people get surprised by new allergies well into old age. 

Chinese pistache is a recent darling in urban landscapes for several reasons. It’s drought-tolerant, certainly a good thing here. It’s heat-tolerant, which is useful even in a relatively cool climate because streets and sidewalks and concrete structures reflect and radiate lots of heat. Cities are typically a few degrees hotter than their rural surroundings, and streets are hotter than the cities’ averages. The “asphalt jungle” is more a desert in many ways. 

I’ve seen conflicting opinions about whether the species needs good drainage; I suppose Berkeley, with our clay soils, is a test lab for that. It’s supposed to tolerate smog well. It grows fairly fast, but is usually described as only a moderate-sized tree, to maybe 30 feet. (I’ve seen it called a 60-foot tree too, which might depend on where it’s growing.) I read that it’s “naturalized” in Texas and the Southeast, which means it’s gone feral there, so we do have to think about whether it might become invasive if we plant it near wildland margins here. 

Yes, it’s related to the pistachio tree, Pistacia vera, that gives us those nice thin-hulled nuts. Pistachio growers sometimes use it for root stock, grafting the nut-bearing species onto it. P. chinensis’ native range is farther east than its cousin, in east Asia and by some accounts the Philippines. Both are related to the various Rhus species, the sumacs, and all are in the family Anacardiaceae along with cashews and mangoes—and poison oak. 

Chinese pistache’s little clustered nuts, which start out green or red and turn red or dark blue about now, are supposed to be good wildlife chow; I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has seen birds or squirrels eating them. 

H

TUESDAY, NOV. 16 

Morning Bird Walk at the Albany Bulb Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the end of Buchanan St. 525-2233. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. in Redwood Park at the Canyon Meadow staging area to visit this historic grove of second-growth redwoods. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Don’t Plant a Pest,” a talk by Doug Johnson, Executive Director California Invasive Plant Council. Meeting at 1 p.m., program at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Cost is $2 for guests. 524-4374. 

“Until When...” screening of film of four Palestinian refugee families set in the current Intifada, at 7 p.m., followed by discussion, at Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave. Suggested donation $1. Sponsored by East Bay Community against the War. www.ebcaw.org 

“The American Jewish Quest for Peace” with Susannah Heschel, Chair, Jewish Studies Program, Dartmouth, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom at the GTU, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2482. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “How you can be poor and live with style” 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. 

Life Line Screening for Stroke at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-697-9721. 

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17 

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. 

“Getting Our Message Heard or Not Just Preaching to the Choir” with Pam Morgan of George Lakoff’s Rockridge Institute at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Remembering the Vietman Era” with Country Joe McDonald, Aurora Levins-Morales, Rafael Jesús González at 7:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Auditorium, Rose and Grant Sts. 981-2582. 

“Global Warming: The Effects and Preventative Measures” A panel discussion on the scientific, economic and societal aspects of this important environmental issue at 6 p.m. at the Free Speech Movement Café, 212 Doe Memorial Library, UC Campus. 

Bay Trail History Markers in Richmond The City of Richmond will dedicate eight new sculptural markers tracing WWII history along the path of the Richmond Bay Trail at 11 a.m. at Lucretia Edwards Park, at the foot of Marina Way South. In case of rain, ceremony will be in the Marina Harbormaster’s Bldg, 1340 Marina Way South. 307-8150. 

Venture Crew for Teens Outdoor adventure program including scuba diving, backpacking, orienteering, hiking. Open House at 7 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. For more information call 525-6058.  

“Naturally Native” a documentary on Native American women at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, donations accepted. 452-1235. 

“Off the Bench and Into the Game: Democracy Isn’t a Spectator Sport” lecture by Rebecca W. Rimel, President & CEO of The Pew Charitable Trusts, at 2 p.m. in the Seaborg Room, Faculty Club, UC Campus. 642-1474. www.igs.berkeley.edu 

Ohlone Dog Park Association meets at 7 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St.  

Prose Writers’ Workshop An ongoing group focused on issues of craft. Meets Wed. at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 524-3034. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, NOV. 18 

“Paths and Public Safety” Bill Greulich, Emergency Service Manager for the City of Berkeley, will speak on the importance of paths in emergencies such as fire or earthquake at Berkeley Path Wanderers’ meeting at 7 p.m. at Live Oak Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. All are welcome. 524-4715. www.berkeleypaths.org 

“Harmony, Diversity, and Enclosedness: Small Scale Biodynamic Gardening” with John Ryan of the East Bay Waldorf School at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Garden meeting, at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Potluck dinner. 883-9096. 

“What is going on in Darfur, West Sudan?” Film screening and talk on the current crisis in Darfur, at 6:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. at 27th. 527-3917. 

Rigoberta Menchú, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her work on indigenous people’s rights will speak on “The Legacy of War in Guatemala: Continuous Human Rights Abuses” at 2 p.m. in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“Migration and the Politics of Identity: Asian American Art” at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$15. In conjunction with the exhibition “What’s Going On? California and the Vietnam Era” 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Images of Devotion in Colonial Mexico” with Prof. William Taylor, UCB, at noon at the Phoebe Hearst Museum, Bancroft at College. 643-7648. 

Simplicity Forum Cecile Andrews, author of “Circle of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life,” will speak at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 526-6596. www.simpleliving.net 

Embracing Diversity Films presents “You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men” a documentary, at 7 p.m. at Albany High School, 603 Key Route Blvd. Admission is free, donations welcome. 527-1328. 

“Up Front Talk: Arrangements for Death & Dying” with Betty Goren at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at LeConte School, 2243 Russell St. Agenda includes a progress report on landscaping of traffic circles, detrimental impact of illegal lawn parking and annual Board election. 843-2602. KarlReeh@aol.com 

FRIDAY, NOV. 19 

Junior Rangers of Tilden Camping trip. For more information call 525-2233. 

Berkeley Community Media Ten Year Anniversary with a Media Martini celebration from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Lucre Lounge in downtown Berkeley. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-2288, ext. 11. www.betv.org 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Robert Schoen on “What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew About Judaism” 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 or 665-9020.  

“Migrants’ Tales: Life in China’s Boomtowns” with Peter Hessler, China Correspondent, The New Yorker, at noon in the Journalism Library, North Gate Hall, UC Campus. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

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

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  

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

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

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

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 20 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com  

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

Worm Composting Workshop Learn about a good way to compost kitchen scraps, even in apartments. From 10 a.m. to noon at 2530 San Pablo Ave. Free workshop sponsored by The Ecology Center. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Discover a Wildlife in Your Own Backyard with LeAnn Downing of Wild Birds Unlimited at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Help Restore a Rare Tidal Marsh on the UC Richmond Field Station, near the Bay Trail in Richmond, from 9 a.m. to noon. We will provide tools, gloves, rain gear and refreshments. Heavy rain will cancel the event. For more information call Elizabeth at 231-9566. 

Bay Area Socialist Conference with workshops during the day beginning at 9:30 a.m. at North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $10-$50, sliding scale. Evening panel with Peter Camejo, Alexander Cockburn and Ahmed Shawki at 6:30 p.m. at the Valley Life Science Building, room 2050, UC Campus. 415-861-3103. iso_berkeley@yahoo.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, NOV. 21 

Turkey Trudge and Tramp Bring the family and your guest to hike in preparation for the upcoming holiday. Learn the big, fat difference between farm fowl and their wild relatives. We’ll see our tame turkeys, and maybe catch a glimpse of wild gobblers running free in the park. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Seeds and Seed Treatment” A workshop on seed propogation and related plant biology. Learn how to collect, store, treat and sow a wide range of seeds and care for seedlings. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Visitors Center, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $40-$45. 845-4166. www.nativeplants.org 

Sweet History: Chocolate! Delve into the delicious natural history of chocolate, from trees to your table as you sample many varieties of the “food of the gods.” Learn an easy way to make truffles and take some home just in time for the holidays. From 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $10-$12, registration required. 525-2233. 

Southside Cleanup After the Big Game Join neighbors and city staff to clean up our neighborhood. For information call 981-2493. 

“Tellabration” a storytelling concert presented by Stagebridge senior theater, featuring Diane Ferlatte, Steven Heneger, Patricia Bulitt at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison, downtown Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org  

Going Bat Crazy! A family exploration day to learn about bats at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Artsy Afternoon for Families with storytime, family painting projects and advent art projects from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Arlington Community Church. For reservations call 526-9146. acc.youth@sbcglobal.net  

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “The Six Perfections as a Transformative Practice” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 22 

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 

“Saving the Sun: How Wall St. Mavaricks Shook up Japan’s Financial World and Made Billions” with Gillian Tett, Former Tokyo Bureau Chief, Financial Times, at noon 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. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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

TUESDAY, NOV. 23 

Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. at Tilden’s Inspiration Point for a hike on EBMUD trails. It could be muddy. 525-2233. 

“Update from Israel and Palestine” A panel discussion with Salim Tamari, Director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies, Birzeit University; Dr. Eyad Sarraj, chairman of the Gaza Community Mental Health program; Neve Gordon, professor at Ben Gurion University, former director of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel; Walid Deeb, founding President, Arab- American University, Jenin, at 5:30 p.m. in 159 Mulford Hall, near Westgate, UC Campus. Sponsored by Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.  

“Anthropology and Architecture: The Making of Public Space in Kinshasa, RD Congo” with Filip De Boeck, Univ. of Leuven, Belgium, at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. www.ias.berkeley.edu/africa 

Berkeley PC Users Group Problem solving and beginners meeting to answer, in simple English, users questions about Windows computers. At 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near corner of Eunice St. All welcome, no charge. 527-2177.  

El Cerrrito Library Book Club meets to discuss “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. www.ccclib.org 

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

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. 

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

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

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

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 16 at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Nov. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/humane 

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

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

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Nov. 17, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

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

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/mentalhealth  

Community Health Commission meets Thurs, Nov. 18, at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/health 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/designreview  

Library Board of Trustees meets Thurs. Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at 1901 Russell St., Jackie Y. Griffin, 981-6195. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/library 

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

ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/ 

transportation 

?

Even though the election’s been over for two weeks, we continue to get many letters, commentaries and news analyses about what happened. A famous sociolinguist, Dr. William Labov, used to do his research by asking people to tell stories about times their lives were in danger, which produced a torrent of language which he could then study. The last five years, culminating in the election, are perceived by left-of-center political people as one of those experiences: a time when values they hold as dear as life itself have been endangered. Yes, the word is values. Believe it or not, Democrats have values too, just like evangelical conservatives. A touching report in Thursday’s papers reported that the Democrats are starting a task force on faith and values in politics. A congressman from New Jersey was quoted as saying that the task force would seek to promote such traditional Democratic values as “caring for the poor, the elderly and children and standing for the fiscal discipline embodied in the budget surpluses of the Clinton administration.” He hoped this would spark a Democratic victory in 2006 congressional elections. 

Now, fiscal discipline per se has not always been a traditional Democratic value. One of the clever tricks of the Clinton regime, with Senator Kerry a willing participant, was to prioritize a balanced budget to an extent which many economists thought was unnecessary. All too frequently, the budget was balanced on the backs of, yes, the poor, the elderly and children. “Welfare reform” a la Clinton and Kerry is the notorious example.  

Sooner or later, and sooner would be better, the Democrats must stand up again for the old traditional Democratic value of taxing the rich to take care of the poor. Kerry’s definition of the middle class, whose standard he was bearing, as people making less than $200,000 a year, did not, for good reason, resonate with the masses who are not part of that kind of expanded middle. The people who might listen to the Democratic message are more likely to be trying to support a family on less than $50,000 a year, but many of them have been working too hard to think much about elections. 

Americans strongly resist thinking of themselves as “the poor,” even if they’re working three jobs to put food on the table and don’t have health care. But if Democrats all over the country, and not just in the states which went Democratic in the last election, concentrated on educating voters about why their lives feel like such a struggle, it would make a great difference in the results of the 2006 election.  

Putting out a paper which is distributed for free, with bus stops a prime place it’s picked up, has taught us a lot about how to convey information to busy, harried people. You don’t have to talk down, but short and sweet is important. Web-based organizing is a great help, but racking up votes still depends on door-to-door personal contact with the citizens who might not have computers. Perhaps the most important job the web groups (MoveOn is pre-eminent) can do now is to put together a simple set of materials which can be printed out cheaply on home computers all over the country, even in the red states, and used as talking pieces by volunteers reaching out to the voter equivalent of what missionaries used to call “the unchurched.” A little newspaper which could be printed at home and handed out in working class neighborhoods and poor rural areas would be great.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a lot of the energy of bright people is being devoted to chewing over the election numbers. It’s quite possible that fishy things happened in some places, notably Ohio and Florida, and they shouldn’t pass un-noticed. But the most important fact is that approximately half of the voters, give or take a few, actually did vote for Bush, most of them against their own self-interest. The next two years should be dedicated to helping them to understand what’s going on in their lives, and how voting differently in 2006 can change things for the better. 

—Becky O’Malley 

Even though the election’s been over for two weeks, we continue to get many letters, commentaries and news analyses about what happened. A famous sociolinguist, Dr. William Labov, used to do his research by asking people to tell stories about times their lives were in danger, which produced a torrent of language which he could then study. The last five years, culminating in the election, are perceived by left-of-center political people as one of those experiences: a time when values they hold as dear as life itself have been endangered. Yes, the word is values. Believe it or not, Democrats have values too, just like evangelical conservatives. A touching report in Thursday’s papers reported that the Democrats are starting a task force on faith and values in politics. A congressman from New Jersey was quoted as saying that the task force would seek to promote such traditional Democratic values as “caring for the poor, the elderly and children and standing for the fiscal discipline embodied in the budget surpluses of the Clinton administration.” He hoped this would spark a Democratic victory in 2006 congressional elections. 

Now, fiscal discipline per se has not always been a traditional Democratic value. One of the clever tricks of the Clinton regime, with Senator Kerry a willing participant, was to prioritize a balanced budget to an extent which many economists thought was unnecessary. All too frequently, the budget was balanced on the backs of, yes, the poor, the elderly and children. “Welfare reform” a la Clinton and Kerry is the notorious example.  

Sooner or later, and sooner would be better, the Democrats must stand up again for the old traditional Democratic value of taxing the rich to take care of the poor. Kerry’s definition of the middle class, whose standard he was bearing, as people making less than $200,000 a year, did not, for good reason, resonate with the masses who are not part of that kind of expanded middle. The people who might listen to the Democratic message are more likely to be trying to support a family on less than $50,000 a year, but many of them have been working too hard to think much about elections. 

Americans strongly resist thinking of themselves as “the poor,” even if they’re working three jobs to put food on the table and don’t have health care. But if Democrats all over the country, and not just in the states which went Democratic in the last election, concentrated on educating voters about why their lives feel like such a struggle, it would make a great difference in the results of the 2006 election.  

Putting out a paper which is distributed for free, with bus stops a prime place it’s picked up, has taught us a lot about how to convey information to busy, harried people. You don’t have to talk down, but short and sweet is important. Web-based organizing is a great help, but racking up votes still depends on door-to-door personal contact with the citizens who might not have computers. Perhaps the most important job the web groups (MoveOn is pre-eminent) can do now is to put together a simple set of materials which can be printed out cheaply on home computers all over the country, even in the red states, and used as talking pieces by volunteers reaching out to the voter equivalent of what missionaries used to call “the unchurched.” A little newspaper which could be printed at home and handed out in working class neighborhoods and poor rural areas would be great.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a lot of the energy of bright people is being devoted to chewing over the election numbers. It’s quite possible that fishy things happened in some places, notably Ohio and Florida, and they shouldn’t pass un-noticed. But the most important fact is that approximately half of the voters, give or take a few, actually did vote for Bush, most of them against their own self-interest. The next two years should be dedicated to helping them to understand what’s going on in their lives, and how voting differently in 2006 can change things for the better. 

—Becky O’Malley 

Richmond City Councilmember Tom Butt is an avid e-mailer. Every day, often twice a day, he fires off bulletins to his long list of correspondents with his opinions on topics of the day, links to stories in the press about Richmond, and sometimes even major documents like Chevron’s contract proposal for Point Molate. Last week he wondered in print why the Berkeley Daily Planet has taken such an interest in Richmond lately. “I would like to think it’s because there is a lot of news here,” he said. 

That’s true. There’s been so much going on in Richmond recently that it has from time to time consumed almost the full-time efforts of one seasoned reporter plus the part-time efforts of another one and a good effort from a diligent student at UC’s journalism school. And we could do more, if we had the resources. But for the Planet it’s more than just trying to fill our little news hole.  

We see the whole bayside corridor, at least from Richmond all the way down to the southern reaches of Oakland, as part of a web of interlocking issues which concern all of us. It’s not a seamless web: The many jurisdictions which line this stretch of shoreline have differing views of what the proper role of government should be on given controversial topics. But we’re more like each other than we’re like the folks on “the other side of the hill,” who tend to be less ethnically, economically and culturally diverse than us bay-siders. Our open space, what there is of it, boasts gorgeous views of the bay, but has been compromised in great part by irresponsible industrial users, and now needs to be reclaimed for citizens. The citizens themselves, in many areas, have been left behind when employers moved on, so the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of people who came here 60 years ago to support World War II in good factory jobs are now struggling to find any kind of work. 

All of us, no matter where we live, whether in Oakland or Berkeley or El Cerrito or Richmond, have a stake in what becomes of the bay shore. It’s our birthright, and all of us need to work together to make sure that some of us don’t just sell it off to meet current financial obligations, like Esau in the Bible, a poor brother who sold his birthright to his clever brother Jacob for “a mess of pottage”—a bowl of stew which fed him for only one day. In this economy, when the state and national governments seem to have abdicated their responsibility to provide for the common good, the pressure on local governments to cash out right now to put some stew on the table is fierce.  

But Richmond’s Point Molate deal, while understandable, looks like it could easily amount to even less than a mess of pottage in the long run. What it looks like, to many of us observers who are lucky enough not to have make such decisions, is the “pie in the sky by and by” in Wobbly Joe Hill’s song about the blandishments of capitalism. New Richmond City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, a Green, has the shrewdest take on the competing offers from Harrah’s and Chevron: they’re both suspect. The Levine-Upstream-Harrah’s crowd might never find a complicit group of Native Americans to back their casino, and if so Richmond would get a lot of upscale condos which would eventually demand more in services than they paid in property taxes, and provide no good jobs for residents. Chevron—but why would anyone trust an oil company? Chevron’s vague offer to keep Point Molate as open space could end up with parking lots surrounded by chain link fences under pressure from the anti-terrorism hysteria. 

The two offers look a lot like two different flavors of pie in the sky, and five years hence, when Richmond again looks to put dinner on the table, the down payments will be eaten up and the cupboard will be bare once again. The magnificent bay front sites which are jurisdictionally in Richmond could be around to sustain our children and our grandchildren and their children if we conserve them prudently. All of us, wherever we live, need to support McLaughlin and her colleagues in the Richmond Progressive Alliance in their goal of cleaning up the finances of the city of Richmond so that short-term sell-offs of precious resources like this aren’t a temptation.  

—Becky O’Malley 

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